Ingenious Inkling

Forvevergreen Holiday

My Sweet EMBOSS-able You is our newest theme at Jingle Belles.  We're creating using texture embossing or heat embossing (or both if you're an over-achiever).

I embossed white cardstock with the Spellbinders Forevergreen Holiday embossing folder.  Next I applied ink using Catherine Pooler Deck the Halls Green ink.  Finally, I sprayed the panel with Crafter's Companion Bella Luna Gold Shimmer Spray.

 

 

 

Next, I matted the panel with gold and then dark green cardstock before adding the Simon Says Stamp STAMPtemper CZ Designs Merry & Bright die cut (layering the same gold & green cardstock).  I finished with a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Abstract Holiday from at least 2020.

 

With my Retro stamps and other products, I'm linking-up at the Retro Rubber Challenge Christmas in July. 

 

 

We're also giving one lucky random participant the gorgeous gina k. designs Holiday Flora Embossing Folder.

 

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button

The newest challenge at Shopping our Stash is Button, Button, Who's Got the Button - creating a card with at least one button.

 

 

I die cut a rectangle of cardstock, and then covered it with white buttons attached with glue dots.  I added a Spellbinders butterfly sticker on top of the buttons.

 

I used a piece of designer paper from Dovecraft Bohemian collection for the card base and finished with an Impress birthday sentiment.

Spellbinders Advent Calendar - Day 2

My friend Beverly & I have been enjoying our Spellbinders Advent Calendars.  These were the two little stamps that were included behind door #2.  

I stamped them in Black Amalgam ink and colored with Alcohol Markers.  I looked and there aren't many grey flowers in real gardens, but the white seemed a bit stark, so I thought the grey provided a nice tone with the purples.  Only learning from this card, is that I should have conditioned my stamps first with a sand eraser, since I got a lot of ink blubbling when I stamped making it less crisp than I had hoped.

 

 

I'm linking-up at the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge as well as Darnell's NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) Challenge.

Banner-Inspired Holiday

Hard to believe we're already at our final prompt of 2023 at Jingle Belles.  This week we're asking you to create cards inspired by our fabulous Lauren-designed blog banner for 2023.

 

 

I went with a pink color palette, white snowflakes, pink glittery letters and swapped the texty background for a musical one.

 

 

I started with texty Santa paper from Prima Santa Baby paper.  I added some glittery Spellbinders Shapeabilities Die D-Lites-Jolly Ho Ho Ho letters (that have literally been on my studio table since I made this card in December of last year), silver glittery Love from Lizi Peel-offs and white snowflake stickers. 

I'm also joining the Christmas Kickstart / Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge - It’s Christmas Jim but not as we know it  

 

Christmas Trees

The Can You Handle the Pressure? Challenge optional theme is Trees.  I took a wander through my embossing folder collection and found Forevergreen pine tree branches embossing folder by Spellbinders.

I embossed Ranger Core'dinations Cardstock and sanded the raised texture for contrast.

 

 

I die cut some silver vellum with stitched circles die cuts using this week's Paper Craft Crew Challenges Sketch together with strip sentiments from Spellbinders Mini Christmas Greetings.

 

 

The Vellum circles seemed a bit naked, so I added a couple of piece of vintage flair from my stash to finish the card.

Welcome to the Jungle

Our newest challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Welcome to the Jungle - create a card featuring any wild animal - can be anything from polar bear, koala, tiger, elephant all the way to iguanas and parrots.

 

 

I chose to feature a wonderful wild Rhinoceros from Carta Bella Zoo Adventure Journaling Cards.

 

 

 

The Rhino Grey card base is embossed with a Spellbinders Maze Embossing Folder.  Next I layered on a Gelliprint that pulled out the blue from the journaling card using this week's Sketch from Sunday Stamps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finished with a sticker sentiment and some gray Tim Holtz Ideaology Halloween Droplets.

Heart Love

It's the time of year for Heart Cards, and that's the Challenge theme at Just Us Girls.

I started by playing with some new Japanese Sakura Shimmery Pastels that I found at my local Create/Exchange yesterday to create a scribbled and blended background ... absolutely gorgeous color and shimmer.

 

As the packaging noted, they are harder than any Pastel I've ever used with less dust ... I had to use much less to get the color saturation I was wanting and they blended effortlessly.

 

 

Next I attached gorgeous wide Pink Peony Washi Tape from The Ton to white cardstock and die cut a Spellbinders heart.   The washi has gorgeous copper metallic elements, so I die cut Simon Says Stamp Etched Berry Branch from Copper Metallic Cardstock to adorn my heart.  I used the same copper metallic cardstock to frame my card.

 

I finished with some enamel dots on the berries to bring out another color in the washi tape and a tiny love sentiment from Catslife Press stamped inside another Spellbinders Die Cut Heart.  With my little Wood Block Stamp, I'm linking-up again at Amy T's #woodblockwednesday challenge.

 

I'm also linking-up at the Anything Goes Cut It Up! Challenge.

Five Favorite Holiday Cards - 2022

Since Lauren & I started Jingle Belles in 2010, I've been recapping my five favorite Christmas cards of the year (you can find 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 here) ... I always enjoy revisiting my creations for the year.

Here are this year's favorites in no particular order:

1.  This card was for our We Wish you a Plaid Christmas Prompt at Jingle Belles.  Paper Piecing and Yetis have been two of my favorite things for years, so it was fun to combine them with some of my favorite bright and happy colors for the holidays.

2.  This card was for the 12 Days of Christmas prompt at Jingle Belles to make a card for your true love that featured hearts.  I love the cool effect of the embossed metallic gel printed paper for the background combined with old-school detail cutting of my wintry scene.

 

 

3.  The Naughty Tag was my favorite from the 12 Tags of Christmas at Ellen Hutson inspired by Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.  And when my boss asked me if everyone got Naughty Cards for Christmas, I got to tell him it was a design specially reserved for him (he's a prankster who often exhibits what I would define as naughty behavior).

 

 

4.  Every year at least one Taylored Expressions Grumpling has to make an appearance in my year of card making, and I really loved how this one turned out ... the colors, dotty background, curled edge of the papers, and embellishments all worked together so well.  This one was for C is for Christmas (in July) at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.

 

 

5.  My final card was a winner of the November Anything Goes Challenge at Jaded Blossom.  I was pretty proud of how I was able to turn my Coffee Gnome into a Grinch for the Caffeinated Christmas Holly Challenge, since I had the perfect sentiment.

 

 

As always, hard to pick favorites, but also fun re-visiting all the holiday cards I made (and gave) this year. 

Remember, if you'd like to have lots of holiday cards ready when December rolls around, you can join us for our 13th year of Jingle Belles Mayhem beginning January 1st

(It Must Have Been Ol') Santa Claus

Day 7 of Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas is - (It Must Have Been Ol') Santa Claus with Heather Meeson)

 

 

I loved Heather's Ho Ho Ho Shaker Tag, which is also perfect for the Shake It Up Challenge at Stay Crafty with a Blog Named Hero.

 

 

I used Spellbinders Die-Lites Jolly Ho Ho Ho with Concord & 9th Tutu Glitter paper.

 

 

True with the song lyrics, I added the Santa from Hero Arts Merry Christmas Santa & Reindeer.  I filled my shaker with sequins and finished with a bright blue ribbon to coordinate.

I'm also linking-up at the Simon Says: Add Sparkle Challenge.

 

 

I also made a tic tac toe across the center for the Papercraft Crew Tic Tac Toe Challenge with Circles (from my O's), Die Cuts & Ribbon.

A Million Thanks

I had some left-over Leaves from my Gel Press Prints using the Spellbinders Autumn Leaves Etched Die Cuts on my table, so I built a card around this with inspiration & a sketch from the Inspired by Challenge.

 

 

The leaf paper and golden map paper are both from Carta Bella Autumn papers by Steven Duncan.

 

 

The sentiment is from My Favorite Things Essential Sentiments for Autumn theme from the Inspiration photo.  The Stamps were released in August 2016, so I'm also linking-up at the Anything Goes Retro Rubber Challenge.