JB2502: Candy Christmas

It's a fabulous photo inspiration this fortnight at Jingle Belles, so we're asking you to create a holiday card (or cards!) inspired by this fun Candy Cane Christmas image from Turtlecreek Lane. You can use as many or as few aspects of the photo as you'd like: maybe you love the the white tree smothered in ornaments; or the red and blue stockings could be your fave; perhaps you'd just like to create a mantel with stockings and decor; or you might adore that handsome Nutcracker. Anything and everything in the pic is fair game, just make sure you let us know what part(s) of the photo inspired you.

Here's my card and then I'll tell you my inspo:

I was immediately drawn to the photo's gorgeous white tree, smothered in candy-themed, candy-colored ornaments, so luckily I remembered that I still had stickers left from Doodlebug's Candy Cane Lane collection of a few years ago. I employed one of my oldest dies (Sizzix's Christmas Tree #2) to cut a tree shape from white cardstock, then spent an enjoyable half hour adding pastel candy canes, gum drops and hearts, plus some tiny pearls, before adding lots of colorful presents under the tree. I made my background a soft blue similar to the wall in the inspo photo and added another mat of red and blue as a little salute to those bold stockings.

Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and link up your own photo inspiration greeting. JB2502: Candy Christmas will run until 6pm (Eastern) on January 29th.

My Gnomie Valentine

Eyelet Outlet Gnome Brads and Girl Gnome Brads are celebrating Valentine's Day in their Sunny Studio Home Sweet Gnome. EO's extra-wide Sky Washi and Grass Tape are perfect for making a little scene that also features Heart Brad, a Mini Ladybug, Mini Leaves, a Sunflower Brad and a Mini Bee.

Love is in the air, so the Eyelet Outlet Store has all the brads, tape, bling and sequins you need for Valentine's Day and the rest of the year, as well; and adorable Sunny Studio Stamps are the perfect size and scale to use with your brads! 

SOS539: Glitter Me Happy

All that glitters... is welcome on a card for our new challenge at Shopping Our Stash! You can use loose glitter, Stickles or Stickles Glitter Gels, glitter glue, wink of Stella pens, shimmer pens, glitter paper... the choice is yours! I've used two of the above, can you guess which ones?

I made a background using one of my all-time favorite combinations: Stickles Glitter Gel in Galaxy with Simon Hurley's Grand Greenery Stencil on deep (DEEP) Matte Black Alcohol Ink Cardstock from Ranger. You can see how very very sparkly it is, even in the photo, which has probably only captured about 60% of its glitteriness. Those thin chipboard butterfly stickers are from the big box store and super-duper stashy: the last two in the pack and I bet they are ten years old? I used a sheet of DCWV black glitter paper as a lower layer; I originally had just a black cardbase, but I realized pretty quickly that since the butterflies had a thin outline of white I had better add a bit more white; which I did in the form of the cardbase and the layer directly under the design panel. The cardstock sentiment strip is from an older pack by Paper Rose Studio, and was the perfect finishing touch to my 5x6" card. 

Check out the SOS Crew's fabulously sparkly inspiration, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. SOS539: Glitter Me Happy runs until the evening of Monday, January 27th.

MM02: Snow Far, Snow Good

It's the second Mandala Monday of 2025 so here's not one, but TWO, snowy watercolor mandalas to start off a week that I hope will be equally bright and colorful but not feature any actual snow...

...Unless you're longing for actual snow, and then, I hope you will see some this week; unless you live in Central New Jersey where I will be voting for its absence. 

Something Old, Something New (Week 2)

It's the second week of our first Jingle Belles challenge of 2025, so we are still making cards that feature Something OLD from our craft stash as well as Something NEW from Santa or the post-xmas sales, etc. Here's what I made and then I'll tell you which is which:

At the end of November, I was lucky enough to win a $30 gift card from Sunny Studio Stamps in the Coffee Loving Papercrafters' Fall/Winter Blog Hop, and the very first thing I chose was their adorable Holiday Hugs set, because I just LOVE that bear! I was already planning my card when I saw that January's Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge was "Snowflake" so I went sifting through my many (many!) snowy patterned papers and found this scrap of ancient green and white that I think was from My Mind's Eye's Bohemian collection (that's going back a bit, eh?!) and which just happened to have the perfect spot to place a coffee- or cocoa drinking bear.

I paper-pieced his knitted scarf and adorned the cup with an Eyelet Outlet Polar Bear Brad; then built in a few extra layers of soft green, tan and brown... all from older collections... before adding a sentiment from the stamp set and a few extra glittery snowflakes using a tiny die that was included as an "extra" with my Sunny Studio prize!

Our Jingle Belles Something Old, Something New challenge (JB2501) runs until next Wednesday evening, January 15th. Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge's Snowflake theme (CCCC37) wraps up the day before. Check out Stephanie's fab card and the Readers' Gallery at Jingle Belles; then start planning what you'll link up with us this time!

Good Advice!

Kicking off the New Year with a fun and colorful card featuring Eyelet Outlet Unicorn and Rainbow Brads with a background of diagonal stripes of Chevron Washi and a mat of super-shiny Pink Foil Tape. BTW, all off these items are currently ON SALE!

Magical Unicorn Shopping List:

Unicorn and Rainbow Brads

Chevron Washi 

Pink Foil Tape

The Eyelet Outlet Store has all the vibrant and beautiful tapes, brads, and bling to brighten up your January!

Ranger New Year Card

A New Year's toast to all the makers: May 2025 be our most creative year yet! Follow along as I kick off January with a super-sparkly card tutorial thanks to Stickles Glitter Glue, Stickles Glitter Gel and Tinsel Embossing Powder. It's on the Ranger Project Page, where there is literally always something new and wonderful to inspire YOU! ♥