Ingenious Inkling

Christmas Sprig Tree

From Day 15 of the 25 Days of Christmas Tags, I fell in love with Tracey McNeely's Christmas Tree Tag.

 

I loved the unexpected colors and how they contrasted perfectly with the dark sentiment.

I used one of the sets of leaves from Penny Black's Christmas Sprigs and stamped it in various sherbet colors on white cardstock.

 

I die cut my tree and then added three Holiday Word Sentiment Stickers and some ribbon.  I photographed my tag before I attached it to the card base ... then somehow I managed to lose my photo card (still can't find it).  How I lose things on a 5 foot walk, I have no idea ... so I took another picture with my phone and called it good.  Thanks Tracey for the inspiration.

I'm also linking-up at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the optional theme is Tags.  It's also perfect for the Penny Black and More Challenge where the theme is Christmas.

Hanukkah Song

Something that's pretty important to us ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ is to make sure our card-making festivities include EVERYONE who is special to us, whatever occasion or holiday in which they partake!

So this week we're making cards for our friends who don't necessarily celebrate Christmas. Hanukkah is the most famous of the other winter holidays, and it (plus our favorite Adam Sandler song!) inspired our title, but you could choose Kwanzaa, New Year, Hogmanay or Solstice; or you could go totally non-denominational with a general winter-themed card.

I started with this peaceful Penny Black Starry Night Stickeroo and built my Hanukkah card around it with a few more sticker sentiments and sticker letters too.  

 

Those Stickeroos have been in my stash for a very long time (and have been a titch neglected), so I'm linking-up at the Penny Black Anything Goes Challenge with an option of Old or Neglected.

I die cut some metallic silver into an oblong octagon and then die cut some Swirling Stars.  I finished with a wrap of ribbon and a few sprinkled gems."

Timeless Birthdays

I am still trying to return my studio to some semblance of order after the disastrous packing experience. 

While organizing, I found my stash of Penny Black Stickeroos, which are just as lovely today as when I first discovered them ... and at the same time I discovered a Penny Black Saturday Challenge with a theme of CAS ... that seemed like a message from the crafting gods that I needed to take an organizational break and make a few cards.

These cards feature Penny Black Timeless Stickeroos (from 2014) and sticker sentiments for quick birthday cards to restock my stash.

 

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch for my CAS layout.

 

I adore that color combination.

 

Mr. & Mrs.

When I saw the theme at CASology this week, I immediately thought of a Wedding Dress.

For some reason, most of my wedding stamps in my stash are vintage wood block stamps.  Every time I pull them out to create a card, it makes me love my MISTI that much more ... especially with this East of India Sentiment stamp that is mounted crooked on the block.  I need to find some CAS Classic Wedding dress/couple stamps that aren't wood mounted ... suggestions?

 

My dress is 2011 Penny Black Bride & Groom stamped in grey Watering Can Ink for this week's Just Us Girls Color Challenge.  I used Coral for my sentiment & added a third color of light pink to color the flowers in the bouquet and boutonniere.  

 

I'm also joining the Penny Black September Anything Goes Challenge.

Tie a Holiday RIBBON Around the Christmas Tree

This week at Jingle Belles we're "tying one on"!  That means we'd like to see ribbon, lace, seam binding, fibers, ric rac, twine or any other trimmings you can think of-- and attach-- to your holiday cards!

I pulled a vintage roll of burlap ribbon from my ribbon drawer (yes, I have an entire dresser drawer filled with spools of ribbon).

I attached it to my kraft card base (which I had sprayed with Dylusions Post Box Red Spray) using 2 1/2" wide Sookwang double-sided tape (love that stuff).

The layout is the Paper Craft Crew Square Sketch Challenge using a Penny Black Sticker, a gold sticker sentiment and some punched leaves.

 

Let it Snow

The Challenge Theme for the 5th Tag of Christmas with a Feminine Twist is ... SNOW.

I knew I wanted to use my favorite Penny Black Snowman Joy Die Cut ... and I took a lot of my inspiration (the double tags, stitching down the side and twine) from Carissa's tag.

When I picked my sentiment color(Catherine Pooler Tutti Frutti) for my stamp from Essentials by Ellen 'Tis the Season (which has apparently been discontinued), I took my inspiration from my snowman's orange nose ... and used the same color to create my second tag (using my first one as a pattern). 

I watered down white pigment ink and flicked a paint brush to splatter it for my snowy sky.  I finished by die cutting Essentials by Ellen Stitching Lines down the sides of my tags.

And since my sentiment is a song lyric (you know you're humming it now ... toys in every store ...) I'm joining the Christmas Carol Challenge at Dies R Us.

The Fragrant Peace of the Season

For the Peace on Earth Jingle Belles prompt, my issue is always choosing which of the many peace-themed items from my stash that I want to use.

This week I decided on some gorgeous Penny Black Stickeroos from 2005 (yes, they are timeless).

I added some Eyelet Outlet Silver Pearl Gem Swirls to finish my simple design.   I cut a 5" x 7" card base down to a square, but it's still mailable for standard postage when you put it in the 5" x 7" envelope.

I'm also joining the Anything Goes Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Challenge.

Sticker Snowfall

This week at Jingle Belles we're getting all STICK-y & Sweet, which means we're creating cards that feature at least one sticker.

Stickers were the first crafting supply I fell in love with almost twenty years ago ... there were tons of them back then and they seemed much *safer* to me than all of the potential mistakes I could make with ink and stamps (oh how far I've come).  However, there are still a few stickers you can always find in my stash today ... including Penny Black Stickeroos.  

I pulled out my pile and organized them a bit (most are Christmas, but there are lots of others in the pile).  I decided to go with the oldest ones ... Snowflakes Falling from 2007.

This week's Sketch Saturday was perfect for a rectangle sticker, so the card came together quickly with cardstock scraps and a silver glitter punched snowflake added as an accent.

And since the stickers were 10 years old, and because this card came together quickly, I decided to make three more and use-up this part of my sticker stash.

I used the paper stripes to pull out the bit of light blue in the watercolory background (and the same silver punched snowflake).

For this card they pull out the green in Santa's pack.  I added an extra layer and mounted the sticker on cardstock before trimming and attaching with foam tape for dimension.  I finished with a bit of leftover gem flourish.

I took a bit more liberty with the sketch on my final card to use up the additional two stickers that were on the sheet ... all four, easy peasy.

I'm also joining the Penny Black Saturday Challenge for January, where the theme is Anything Goes.

Wrapping Paper Wreath

Lauren is seriously the best gift wrapper ever ... so I knew that I'd be able to use something from my gift for this week's Jingle Belles Gift Wrap-themed design (and she didn't let me down ... although I'll likely be finding glitter in my craft room for weeks).

The background is the gorgeous silver metallic paper from my gift.  I added a silver doily and a Penny Black Die Cut Whirl Wreath (perfect for the Anything Goes Challenge at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge) before topping with a red glitter bow sticker.  To pull in a big more red, I added heart gems from Eyelet Outlet to frame my Ellen Hutson sentiment.

I'm also Going Green with The Paper Players with my recycled wrapping paper.

Snowman Joy

Today's them at the 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist is Felt, featuring lovely designs by Jennifer McGuire.

I picked-up the Snowman Joy die from Penny Black on my recent travels.  The stamp of this same design was one of my favorites, so I went on a search for the die.  I die cut the snowman from white felt and attached him to a We R Memory Keepers 3-D Embossed tag (inspired by Jennifer).

I added lots of sequin snow and a sticker sentiment together with cotton ribbon.

I attached my tag to a card, so he can make his way through the mail.

I'm also joining The Paper Players with their Snowflake Challenge.