Ingenious Inkling

Ribbon Tag

We're Tying a Christmas Ribbon around the Holiday Tree at Jingle Belles ... and creating cards featuring ribbon.  I love buying holiday ribbon on clearance after Chrismtas (especially if it's generic enough that I can use it for non-holiday cards).  I pulled out two of those clearance finds for this card.

I stamped this wonderful Crafter's Companion Love Joy Peace sentiment in India Ink on a tag from this great Tag Value pack (100 tags in two colors & two sizes) and clear embossed.

Next I used strong double-sided tape on the back of the tag and wrapped around pieces of my two ribbons to frame the sentiment.  I finished by tying a piece of the silver ribbon through the top.  I attached my tag using foam tape to a card covered with paper from Echo Park's Seasons Greetings Collection.

I am also joining the Christmas in May Challenge at My Time to Craft.

Vibrant Holiday

We're still celebrating Merry & Bright at Jingle Belles this week.  When I saw this dazzling Gelato Background by the talented Roxie, I knew it would be the perfect technique for this week's card.

I used Red, Orange and Yellow Gelatos on Watercolor Paper and blended with a baby wipe.  Once the Gelatos were dry, I stamped Fresh Squeezed Holiday Subway Art in India Ink and clear embossed.  All that was left to do was attach my panel to a white card base using foam tape.

Merry & Bright

We are celebrating all things merry & bright at Jingle Belles by creating projects featuring BRIGHT colors.  I broke out my Neon inks and Hero Arts Winter Trees to create my bright card.

I added a black frame to help ground the image and then mounted it on Raspberry Fizz cardstock.  The sentiment is vintage Stampin' Up.  

I hope you'll break out the brights and join us.

Christmas Cardinal

This week at Jingle Belles we're still celebrating things that fly ... and if you've been following me for any time, you know one of my favorite things that flies is a Cardinal.

My Inkadinkado Christmas Cardinal was stamped in Vermillion Archival Ink.  I added tiny dots of glitter pen and an SRM Fancy Christmas Sticker Sentiment.  The background is Studio Calico White Wood Grain Paper.

Layout is a sketch from the Less is More blog.

Peace Dove

This week at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating things that fly.  Since peace stamps are some of my favorite for the holidays, I featured my Peace Dove from Stampendous.  I stamped it once on the kraft journaling card ... and a second time on ivory design paper to do some paper piecing.

Papers are Simple Stories Homespun Holiday ... and layout is from Sketch Saturday.

And one lucky participant will receive the Reindeer Flight Die Cut from Tim Holtz Alterations.

Polar Bear Warm Wishes

We're still celebrating Earth Day at Jingle Belles, so I made a card from my favorite recycling stash.  One year I saw a large box of paper sample books sitting by the recycling bin.  I asked the marketing team if they minded if I took them home ... and every year since then, when the new books arrive from all of the paper manufacturers, the retired books go home with me.

The pieces of paper are small, but they are perfect for card making ... and since each book has the entire range of each paper line, there are usually at least several pages of heavy, linen-like cardstock that is so elegant.

This card is made entirely of papers from my sample book stash ... including the polar bear which was in one of the books showing samples of how cool it looked to print colored photos on a shimmery cardstock.

It's hard to see, but the background is a gorgeous linen paper with thin stripe embossed texture ... and the thick silver metallic cardstock was perfect for punched snowflake embellishments.  All I had to add from my crafting stash was an EAD Designs Vinyl Rub-on sentiment and black adhesive pearls for the centers of the snowflakes.

The layout is this week's Retro Sketch flipped on it's side.

Recycled Joy

This week at Jingle Belles we're celebrating Earth Day by creating a card with a recycled element.  I am lucky that my co-workers save all of the corporate cards we receive each year for me ... just for such an occasion.

Often corporate holiday cards are of particularly high quality like this piece of heavy letterpress with fabulous subtle texty texture.  In keeping with the neutral clean design of the base,

I only added punched kraft snowflakes from recycled cardstock (attached with small glue dots in the center for some dimension) and some chocolate pearls before mounting on a kraft card base.  Here's a close-up of the wonderful background.

Hope you'll join us as we celebrate Earth Day.

Bling-Tastic Holidays

We're still Bringing on the Bling at the Jingle Belles Blog this week.

I started with a gorgeous glittery Papaya Arts Holiday Glitter Sticker.  I added an SRM Sticker sentiment.  Next I used some Basic Grey Lucille papers which coordinated perfectly ... and then added lots of black flourish bling.  Where the two flourishes overlapped at the bottom left looked a bit odd, so I added a flower as a final embellishment.

With my cute little holiday birdie, I'm joining the Things with Wings Challenge at CCEE Stampers.

Peace on Earth

We're still celebrating neutral colors at Jingle Belles this week ... last week I created with black and silver ... this week my card is composed of various shades of browns and tans.

The Memory Box Flowering Christmas Tree is cut from Wood Grain paper from Basic Grey's Life of the Party Collection ... which is perfect for the Woodgrain Challenge at the City Crafter Challenge.  Next I layered papers from DCWV's new White Fern Stack.  I finished with an A Muse sentiment and tan pearls to decorate my tree.

Layout is this week's Cardabilities Sketch.

Elegant Neutral Holiday

This week at Jingle Belles we're celebrating a Neutral Noel with our Lovely Guest Star Noelle McAdams ... we're creating holiday cards which embrace ONLY the neutral colors: white, cream, ivory, ecru, black, grey, charcoal, obsidian, brown, tan, kraft, camel, oatmeal, sienna; use them all together, or choose one and rock the monochrome, whatever you desire; if it's NEUTRAL, it's *IN*!!! And yes, for the record, we consider gold, copper and silver to be the "bling" equivalent of neutrals, so you may use them as much (or as little) as you'd like!

I love how a challenge like this makes me think differently about my supplies.  I think this gorgeous Hero Arts Aspen Frost Poinsettia stamp looks so elegant in charcoal ink on soft stone cardstock, but without thinking *neutral* I probably never would have tried this combination.  

I added several spritzes of pearl glimmer mist for all-over sparkle as well as highlights from a silver glitter pen to the centers of the bloom.  I used an SRM Sticker sentiment (loved the *bright* pun with my neutral palette) on top of a scrap of the pearly sprayed cardstock & an elegant black bow tie to finish the design.