Trash to Treasure... Holiday Style

It's the second week of our Earth Day Special at Jingle Belles; for which we are making new holiday cards that include at least one re-used, re-cycled or up-cycled element. Here's what I made this week:

And now for a shocking true confession that will be no surprise to most of my fellow crafties: If someone hands me a present wrapped in beautiful paper which has a smooth, un-wrinkled, un-taped area that's card-sized or larger, I will be saving that giftwrap! I like to immediately back it with lightweight cardstock (I use my Xyron or a good gluestick for all-over coverage) trim it to size and then store it with my regular patterned paper. This card has two such saves from this past Xmas: the white snowflake background piece and the torn tan snowflake piece. The snowglobe is a dimensional sticker which was part of a gift tag; I *think* it was on the package wrapped in the white snowflake paper. In addition to these recycled items, I've got a scrap of lace, a bit of washi tape, part of an embossed snowflake panel and a couple of diecut snowflakes. The "joy" sentiment was cut from a larger (and frankly kind of ugly, imo) dimensional embellishment, because it was the perfect size, color and vibe for this card.

JB2508: Peace on EARTH DAY will run at Jingle Belles until the evening of Wednesday, April 23rd. Why not find some trash YOU could treasure and join the fun!

Happy (Hoppy) Easter

Eyelet Outlet makes Easter cards EASY! We've got Colored Egg Brads, Bright Stitched Flowers, adorable Chicks and Pastel Rabbits (or brown Rabbits if you prefer) add them to a background of patterned paper strips, choose a sentiment and a focal point et voila!

Hippity Hoppity Shopping List:

Colored Egg Brads

Bright Stitched Flower Brads

Chick Brads

Pastel Rabbit Brads

Brown Rabbit Brads

The Eyelet Outlet Store has all of the embellishments you need for ALL of the holidays and occasions you celebrate!

Hippity Hop (week 2!)

At Shopping Our Stash we're still making cards that have bunnies or chicks or both. They don't have to be Easter Cards... but... they can be, if you like!

I'm not always in the mood to color (and it hardly ever happens two weeks in a row!) but when I am, I love to color tiny, cute critters doing human-style activities. And it's difficult to find a company who captures that vein as well as Lawn Fawn does, imo. (Their "Carrot 'Bout You" set has a tiny bunny driving a carrot car... I rest my case!) This card is a combination of several different Easter/Spring themed LF stamp sets, and also incorporates their Picket Fence and Henry's ABC's die sets as well. Once again, I've made a bunch of random items into a scene by adding two appropriately colored patterned papers to serve as sky and ground. The critters are colored with my Tombow Dual Brush Pens and shaded with Prismacolor Pencils. 

SOS545: Hippity Hop runs until next Monday evening, April 21st. Why not join us!

Mondrian Mandala Monday (part 2)

It's another Mondrian Mandala Monday, inspired by Becca Sadler's very clever Mondrian Monday journal pages. Those, in turn, are inspired by the Utopian abstraction and primary colors of the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. This time I decided to embrace the straight lines and the colors of Mondrian; but to try to vaguely draw the sequential "rings" and "petals". The latter turns out to be just sliiiightly tricky without any curves but... I quite like how it turned out! 

Collages: Art for a Cause

If you've ever visited my blog before, you'll already be aware that I LOVE making collages, so when I saw this call for original collage art on Jennifer Wilkin Penick's Instagram account, of course I wanted to participate! If you'd like to take part, keep reading for details OR visit the first pinned post in the @jenniferwilkinpenick feed on Instagram!

This call, from the Arts and Humanities Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, invites artists to make a maximum of four collages, each measuring 4" square, created on sturdy backing paper and with all of the elements firmly attached. I chose to make my collages be "a set" of four, though of course you can make all of them different, or for that matter, you only need to make one!

My collages feature crocuses (appropriately for Spring!), vintage cars, green stamps, bits of road map, solitaire diagrams, deeply patina-ed text paper, and some absolutely ancient white text rub-on transfers.

This is the second call from the Arts and Humanities Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (AHP). Works submitted to by the deadline of April 20, 2025 will be included in an online “gallery” that will open on World Collage Day (May 10th) and will later be featured in a book that will be made available for purchase. Each original collage will be attached to a blank greeting card and made available to patients, caregivers, their families, and hospital staff. Works will not be sold nor returned to the artists. Please consult the appropriate post on Jennifer's account for details as to how to label your artwork and the address in Washington, DC to which it should be mailed. 

Peace on EARTH DAY

It's time for one of the Jingle Belles' favorite holidays (apart from Christmas, obviously!) which is: Earth Day!

Each year, our EARTH DAY prompt each year is all about RECYCLING, so we'd like you to create a holiday card that features re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled elements. We know you've got that stash of things that you saved because they were just too pretty to throw away: pretty packaging, old holiday cards and tags, etc etc; it's time to break them out and create with them! In the past we've used everything from Kleenex Boxes & Soda Cans to Gift Wrap and we *always* have a lot of fun making our own cards and admiring yours!

Here's how I recycled this time:

In December, we received an advertising mailer from a local bank that was about 5x9", made of sturdy cardstock, and bright teal with beautifully dimensional-looking snowflakes on it; so OF COURSE I saved it. Later that month, a second and third mailer arrived and I put those aside too. And here they are, trimmed down and paired with a plaid from Dare 2B Artzy's Snow Much Fun collection. I added strips of foil washi tape, the last two sentiment stickers in a pack bought circa 1998 (ok they may not be that old; but they're OLD!) plus some red metallic poinsettias and TA-DA! A pair of mini slimline greetings that I don't think anyone will know are partially composed of recycled advertising postcards.

JB2508: Peace on EARTH DAY will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 23rd. Link your newly made holiday card(s) featuring at least one re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled element at Jingle Belles!

Happy Spring

The grass is getting greener, the flowers are starting to bloom... it must be Spring! Celebrate with a bright and beautiful card featuring Eyelet Outlet Chick Brads, brand new Tulip Brads, Bright Stitched Flowers, Heart Brads and a big, bold sentiment cut from Pink Dot Washi Tape!

Spring-Centric Shopping List:

Chick Brads

Tulip Brads

Bright Stitched Flowers

Heart Brads

Pink Dot Washi Tape

The Eyelet Outlet Online Store has fabulous embellishments for EVERY season!