Wednesday Wonderland - Jingle Belles {Look What Santa Brought Me!}

This time around on the Jingle Belles blog, we are challenged to use our crafty Christmas presents to make a card - a great excuse to get them to work straight away.

I received a voucher for my favourite local scrapbook store, Scrapabilly, and treated myself to some papers, pretty alphas, a sprinkle of Prima dots and a couple of stamps. I never buy stamps as I'm really not that good at it, but I'm determined to practice and get better. Seemed like a perfect time to start.

My stamping is still not perfect (as you can see here) but these Cats on Apple Trees stamps are so good that I'm sure I can master it before long.

I've kept them super simple as always, going for a standard design and restricting myself to my Christmas paper scraps box. I also made sure to use my stitched effect circle dies which I got just before Christmas and am determined to really make the most of them. I'm usually too stingy to buy these types of products so they really need to earn their keep for me!

Thanks for dropping by and I hope I can continue this effort, even if it's only once or twice a month!

Jingle Belles Rock! - No time like the presents

I'm not sure how many I'll manage this year after last year's failure but I want to try to play along again with the fabulous girls over at Jingle Belles this year. I created a few cards in the last 12 months but only managed to get a small handful out of the door so I'm determined to try better this time around.

http://jinglebellesrock.blogspot.com/

And Lauren and Stephanie are just the most inspirational Christmas card makers so I know that I'm in very good hands!

Their first challenge of 20120 was "No time like the presents" which is all about recycling wrapping paper, cards or tags from last Christmas onto new cards.

It just so happens that I sorted out my Christmas supply drawers and found three greetings cards from 2018 or even 2017 and decided to just go for it in a very simple way. I ended up creating four cards in total as I also cut out the image from the back of one of the cards! I can't really take any of the credit for these because the original cards were so gorgeous that I knew I just had to use the fronts and voila!

JB:20:01_1&2

JB:20:01_3&4

I really just cut off the front of the cards, matted them with cardstock, glitter or paper and then loaded them up onto a blank base. Done. And off to a good start.

Wish me luck on my Jingle Belles adventures for this year. I'll let you know how I'm doing!

Another year with Jingle Belles

It's January and that means another set of creative goals for the year! And again, I'm going to try to join in on the Jingle Belles challenge as much as I can. 

Last Christmas I failed to send a single Christmas card. Not to mention any hand-made cards. And it just made me sad. This year I want to do better. Let's see. I can't promise to manage every week but honestly, a card or two each week can't be that difficult, can it? 

The inspiration over at the Jingle Belles blog- where they offer prompts every second week to take Christmas back over the year - is fabulous and whenever I join in, I love it. Lauren and Stephanie make the most beautiful cards that motivate me to try harder rather than always going for he easy option of a very quick and easy card. If you'Ve never joined in and would like to have a pile of cards at the end of the year, without the stress, check out their website here.

The first challenge of the year JB:19:01 - for which I'm posting too late, but hey ho, it's a start - is "No Time Like the Presents" which all about recycling wrapping, tags or just using your leftover wrapping supplies on a card before putting them back into the cellar for the rest of the year.

Each year I make tags for our German Secret Santa and last Christmas I really went to town with a die-cut layered extravaganza. They took me hours to make and were rather over the top but I loved them all the same. I needed 5 plus one for my niece and ended up making 8 (although I ran out of a few of the die cuts for the last one) and had the last two hanging around on my desk.

This prompt seemed an ideal place to showcase those last two leftover tags. 

The next prompt will be up on the Jingle Belles blog tomorrow so I'm interested to see if I can keep up. The couple of years I managed were so successful. Wish me luck.

Wednesday Wonderland

I managed another couple of Christmas cards last week with inspiration courtesy of the Jingle Belles!

Their challenge "All Bundled Up" calls for a minimum of three layers and knowing what I do with layers, I figured I could manage that!

Keeping it simple and easy with some scraps, some chipboard that is unlikely to be used on layout and some messy twine.

I make that four layers plus the thread!

And here I see five layers...

I don't seem to be managing every week but making two when I can is expanding the pile nicely!

Why not join in over at Jingle Belles?

Wednesday Wonderland!

Over at Jingle Belles this week, we were prompted to "Bling on the Holidays" which sounds like exactly my kind of prompt.

I decided to make it quick and easy with two almost identical cards using some off-cuts, a little gold foil/glitter cardstock, two cute Simple Stories bingo cards and a few star sequins from my rather large supply!

I also made two more cards last week for the previous prompt "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" ...

... and managed to finally get a photo of the first four I made for the prompt "Something Old, Something New" which means that my total so far is already 10 cards. I'm just trying to make as many as I can before life takes over!

Why not play along over at Jingle Belles where you are sure to be find inspirational prompts and fabulous examples provided by the Belles. Getting ahead of the chaos is the name of the game. The more the merrier!

Wednesday Wonderland - the return!

I missed the Jingle Belles girls so much last year! I allowed myself to get caught up with other things and stopped having my weekly Christmas card fix which meant less inspiration for me :-( and a far too small pile of holiday cards come December :-( :-(

So, I'm going to try harder. Let's see how that works.

Last week, I got into the swing of things by running up some easy cards and then on Thursday, moved onto the first (for me) Jingle Belles prompt of the year:

"Oh Christmas Tree" 

I picked up a sweet pack of reduced die cuts from Pinkfresh Studio (from Scrapabilly here) and quickly made these two quick and simple cards

A little white on white embossing using one of my favourite embossing folders ever with a 3D geometric pattern (might have to get my own), a little silver twine, a frame, a tree and a word strip. Edge the whole think with some silver pen lines and finished. Ah, that feels good. 6 cards ready to go when Christmas comes around all too soon again :-)

I'm delighted to be back - hoping I'm not speaking too soon - playing along with Jingle Belles. That mad dash panic to get cards finished off at the end of the year was too much for this girl.

Why not join me for a little Christmas card making fun without all the pressure!

Wednesday Wonderland

It's been a long time.

I don't really know why but I just haven't found the time to make cards over the last month or so. But I decided to sit down and get Jingling along with the girls over at Jingle Belles. I did actually make a few more back in January that I didn't get around to sharing so the pile is not too bad but at this rate, I definitely won't have enough by the end of the year so I better keep playing!

This week's challenge is all about being kind to our planet with "Let There Be Peace on Earth (Day)" and make our cards using re-cycled, up-cycled or re-used items.

I can do that.

I managed 5 cards which has boosted my rather small pile of holiday cards and proved to me that these do not have to be works of art. Simple is good.

My first card is über-simple, die cutting the central motif from a lovely card that I'd kept from last year. All I did was mount it on red cardstock with a length of ribbon saved (probably) from a Tiffany gift. I also included three small fussy-cut sleighs inside the card just to make sure I used them all up.

Card number two also features a fussy-cut element - the mittens - from a saved card. Then I die-cut the white stars and the sentiment from the same card and added some silver sequins. The white tag was part of an advent exchange gift. All simply mounted on red card. Both these cards were done in about 20 mins. Simple!

This card features items from two different cards. The gold wreath in the background, which I've mounted on gold glitter cardstock, was cut from one card and then the tag, snowflake and sentiment was salvaged from a gorgeous hand-made card I received. Mounted onto white card with some gold mist splats. Simple, simple!

And the last two feature central elements cut from a few tags that I've had hanging (pun intended) around in my Christmas drawer for about 5 years. Double mounted with a small sentiment and a bunch of messy thread. Again, it's all about the simple.

Nothing majorly complicated or time consuming but enough to get me back into the feeling that I really should be making my cards on a regular basis. Jingle Belles is fun and at the end of the year, it feels so good to have that pile ready to go.

Won't you play along too? New prompts up every second Friday. Looking forward to the next one now. Let's see if I can keep it up.

Wednesday Wonderland

And we're off!

The wondrous girls over at Jingle Belles are back for another year of inspiration and merriment complete with a new logo. I think the header alone is enough inspiration to get me going on making those Christmas cards for the end of the year.

I didn't manage to make as many as I would have liked last year and ended up cutting some out with my Cameo - which was great but not the same as making them myself - so I'm determined to keep going with my weekly card creating as much as I can.

Anyway, this first prompt of the year is "No Time Like the Presents" or rather to use recycled gift wrap on our cards.

I came up with these two as a warm up to - hopefully - better cards to come!

I didn't have any wrapping paper itself to use so made good on the bits and pieces I had kept from the Scrapabilly Advent swap gifts.  I repurposed a small sentiment banner and the shiny, gold ribbon for card one and the deer's head was cut from a gold gift tag I just hadn't been able to throw away.

On this card, the tag and die-cut were originally on day 6 of my Advent swap and obviously inspired the tag on card one! The small sentiment was cut out of another of the Advent tags.

Both of these cards are simple and used up elements that were lying around - both from the Advent swap pressies, but also from the mini-card kit I made for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge post back in December.

I'm excited to see what ideas Lauren and Stephanie come up with for us over the next months and hope to play along more often than last year. I need to see that pile of completed cards growing!

Fröhliche Freitag

Back again (if a few hours late) to share my second touch of gold for the Jingle Belles prompt this week. It's so wonderful to be guesting over at the Belles' blog. These girls are beyond inspirational so I'm honoured to be a part of it in a very small way.

I couldn't resist using my Cameo for this CAS card. Some Studio Calico vellum, a little gold foil card and a twist of Martha Stewart twine was all this needed.

I thought the vellum would add a little interest to the simple design. Love this paper and think I need some more!

The cuts from the Cameo are totally amazing. The detail of this wreath came out so well.

Of course, while I was making one, it made sense to make another one at the same time. I'm way behind on my card making and am hoping that this will help me out.

Thanks so much to Stephanie and Lauren over at Jingle Belles for inviting me to join in. I feel back in the spirit now and hope to get the card making up and running again as soon as my boxes get unpacked.

Fröhliche Friday!

I know I've away for a long time but I'm back to my Jingling self this week.

I'm over the moon and delighted to be Guest Designer over at Jingle Belles because those girls are the best pre-Christmas, Christmas card-making fun you can have.

As those of you who know my scrapbooking, you'll know that I am on a total gold rush (pun intended) at the moment so it seemed obvious that gold would be my prompt. 

I'm thrilled to be able to share my first design with you here. 

I wanted to find as many different golds and textures as I could to bring together onto one card. The sequins were a new purchase (in love) as well as a new supply of gold doilies. The reindeer and garland were cut from foil card using the Cameo (more in love) and then I matched them up with a gold glitter paper band, some Studio Calico gold letters (very much in love and needing more in my stash). Everything was backed by a simple striped paper and some cream cardstock. I make that five different gold materials. Love!

While I was at it, I ran up a second one. After all, I've not made any cards for ages and need to catch up!

We'd love to see you joining in on my challenge over at Jingle Belles! The more the merrier. 

And I can promise you that getting ahead of that Christmas crafting now will give you SUCH a warm fuzzy feel-good feeling!  :-) 

There's only 17 more Fridays till Christmas after all. Ha ha!