PINK Christmas (week 2)

It's the second week of Pink Christmas at Jingle Belles; the annual event where we ask YOU to make and link up as many predominantly PINK holiday cards as you possibly can, because WE (Stephanie and Lauren) are each going to donate $2 per card to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation! So how can you participate? Just make as many new cards as you'd like, each with a winter holiday theme, which feature PINK prominently. Then link them on the Pink Christmas post at Jingle Belles. Easy peasy!

Here's this week's card:

This week I unintentionally did something that I'm secretly a bit proud of: if you look at this card carefully, you'll see that I haven't actually used ANY official Christmas/holiday product! In fact, all of the papers (except the background) were from my scrap box. The adorable narwhal is an older Doodlebug 3D Sticker* and the little fishes plus the hearts were part of the set. I made the sentiment using some older Lawn Fawn alphabet dies and my trusty Dymo Labelmaker. 

We'd love for you to join us in celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS and of course it's for a very good cause, so start making and linking those PINK holiday cards today! JB2521: I'm Dreaming of a PINK Christmas runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October22nd.

*I tend to display beloved craft supplies for a bit before using them, so this Doodle-pops set is a few years old and seemingly now out of print. There are LOTS MORE varieties, though, from Doodlebug. 

I'm Dreaming of a PINK Christmas

It's early October and thus time for PINK CHRISTMAS at Jingle Belles; the annual event where we ask YOU to make and link up as many predominantly PINK holiday cards as you possibly can, because Stephanie and I are each going to donate $2 per card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! 

So what qualifies as a PINK CHRISTMAS card? It's pretty simple: the cards should be newly made, with a winter holiday theme, and they should feature PINK prominently. Does your whole card have to be pink? Certainly not. Can you combine other colors with the pink? Of course! 

Should you have more pink than say two or three baubles on your green tree set against a snowy white background? Well, yes... that would be good, lol. But other than that, we'll leave it to you to decide how much pink, what shade, and how to employ it! Can you link up more than one PINK CHRISTMAS card? Yes, indeed, please do!

Here's what I made this week. (Spoiler Alert: it's PINK!)

On a recent family art day, we made watercolor backgrounds and I remembered how much I love the technique in which you add salt to a wet panel of watercolor, and it makes a pattern/texture similar to Jack Frost painting our windows in the winter. This particular panel looked so pretty that I didn't want to cover it up very much, and thus I only added some Wendy Vecchi holly leaves (from last year's Christmas Add-On to her Not Your Ordinary Card Collection) cut from two luscious shades of self-adhesive felt paper; plus a few Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and tiny Pearl Bling. A dark pink mat and a bit of machine stitching complete my A6 card design.

We'd love for you to join us in celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS at Jingle Belles; and of course it's for a very good cause, so start making and linking those PINK holiday cards today! JB2521: I'm Dreaming of a PINK Christmas runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October22nd.

PINK Christmas: Week 2

It's the second week of our gala PINK CHRISTMAS celebration at Jingle Belles, in which we are asking YOU to make holiday cards that are predominantly pink and WE will donate to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each card that gets linked up! Visit the original PINK CHRISTMAS post at Jingle Belles for all the details as well as the Linky Tool to add your cards. Meanwhile, here's what I made this week:

I raided my happy little stash of Doodlebug Design papers, journal tags and stickers to make this sweet (in every sense, lol) little card that's mostly pink... with touches of tan gingerbread and reindeer; as well as some fun green Christmas tree cookies. I used an ancient pink background paper with a strong horizontal element to it, which made lining up the decorative strips super-easy!

Link your gorgeous PINK CHRISTMAS creations (because YES, you definitely can make as many as you'd like!) on the original post at Jingle Belles. This challenge (#JB2421) runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 23rd. 

Pink Christmas!

It's that time again at Jingle Belles, our favorite prompt of the year: PINK CHRISTMAS! In which you make and link new holiday cards that are predominantly PINK and we (Stephanie and Lauren) donate $2 (apiece!) per card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! Yes, you can link as many cards as you'd like to and no, your cards don't need to be entirely PINK but we'd like the pink to be the main color. Options regarding size, shape, themes and additional colors added in with the PINK are up to you! 

Sound good? Then without further ado, here's my card:

You know how it is when you have NEW crafty goodies: you just cannot wait to use them, then you can't stop, right? I am currently obsessed with Wendy Vecchi's NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders, so for this card I broke out the Christmas Add-On Stamp and Die Set and used the triple holly leaf die to very quickly cut lots of layers from textured pink cardstock; which I then inked and stacked, in two five-petal layers for each flower, into poinsettias, finishing off with the three berry cluster at the center, and finally a few tiny stick-on pearls plus a few cuts of the beautiful, delicate greenery die. I used the sentiment stamps from the set and a Build-a-Plaid background made with the second smallest stencil and Pink Peony Archival. A little bit of lace, some darker pink mats and a bit of machine stitching and I was good to go! There's a little more detail about the making of the poinsettias and the use of the Build-a-Plaid Stencils on my blog.!

The poinsettia-making process is made much easier by starting out with a 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock, upon which you stack your first layer of five poinsettia petals; then you add five more petals... (staggered between each pair on the first round) ...and make them immobile with a second 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock on the back.

Speaking of EASY: of course you can use the Build-a-Plaid Layering Stencils without any special equipment but... IF you happen to have the MAKE ART Stay-tion, not only do you never have to worry about securing the stencil edges with any sort of adhesive, you can also do things like an evenly spaced diagonal plaid background with NO measuring or worrying about keeping the stripes parallel. I do like to place a small tape loop behind my paper before I begin, so that it doesn't shift as I change stencil directions, but other than that the four super-strong, never-pinchy magnets that come with the Stay-tion are more than adequate to the task of holding the stencils no matter how many times you re-arrange them.

I do hope you'll head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's gorgeous PINK CHRISTMAS creation and then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. This challenge (#JB2421) runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 23rd.

My Sweet EMBOSS-able You

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're asking you to create holiday cards that feature EMBOSSING... either pressure embossing OR heat embossing... or BOTH if you're an over-achiever! 

I am currently somewhat re-obsessed with the emboss/resist technique, so I chose to go with heat embossing. I stamped the gorgeous oversized Snowflake Spin background from Stampendous in Ranger's Clear Emboss It Ink, sprinkled with White e/p and once it was cool I applied a combination of Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo and Spun Sugar Oxide Inks, which I splattered lightly with a waterbrush for even more variation of shades. The "Merry" die is so old I'm actually not sure who made it, but I love how it looks cut from magenta glitter paper and mounted on some coordinating May Arts ribbon. 

This challenge runs until Wednesday evening, July 17th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start thinking about how you'll approach this Emboss-able Mission!

Pink Christmas, Week 2

It's the second week of PINK CHRISTMAS festivities at Jingle Belles, so Stephanie and I are still making predominantly pink holiday cards and donating $2 a piece to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each pink card that you link up with us!

Here's my card:

This week I raided my stash of supercute Doodlebug Candy Cane Lane stickers and used them to make a fun little snowglobe scene. I re-used that pretty pink snowflake wrapping paper for a sky and cut into some well-hoarded Lawn Fawn Knit Picky paper to make the background. I think the sentiment sticker might be ancient Prima, but it was in the "orphaned" sticker envelope, so I'm not entirely sure.

Come on over to Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has made this week, check out the glorious PINK CHRISTMAS Readers' Gallery and then start planning what YOU will make!

What's Pink & Vintage & Sweet All Over?

It's Prima Marketing's new holiday line, Candy Cane Lane by Frank Garcia, which is coming soon to Paper Anthology. Luckily, I was allowed to sneak a few of the gorgeous papers a teeny bit early, so I could use them for week two of PINK CHRISTMAS at Jingle Belles!

This Santa's face miiiiiight be my favorite image in the line, though the whole collection is so adorable, it's hard to just pick one. I did some tearing, some fussycutting, some distressing and layered on flowers, ribbon and White Lace Tape for extra interest. Would it be wrong to send this one to myself in December??! (Ok, yeah, it would... but luckily I get to enjoy it for the next six weeks or so!)

I hope you'll visit Jingle Belles to see the already awesome PINK CHRISTMAS gallery, and we'd love for you to link up a card or two to help us raise a little money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation!

Pink Christmas!

It's time for one of our all-time favorite annual Jingle Belles events, PINK CHRISTMAS!!! We've done this every year since we started Jingle Belles, so if you've spent October with us in the past you already know the drill. If not, it's pretty simple: at the beginning of October we make holiday cards whose color is predominantly PINK, and for each card that gets linked up at Jingle Belles, Stephanie and I each donate $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Fund. If that sounds good to you, I hope you'll hop over there and link pink with us!

It's no secret that I love pink at any time of year, and if anything, I love it even more for Christmas cards, so this wasn't difficult for me. I used a bunch of readymade items: an ancient pink My Mind's Eye chipboard tree, diecut poinsettia layers from leftover patterned papers, am Eyelet Outlet Pink Pearl Brad and Enamel Dots, a KI Memories (that's going back a bit, eh?!) border sticker and a kraft paper with pink polka dots that is so old I don't know whence it came! Definitely a hodge podge style of card, but that was the sort of mood I was in, lol; and it's no use fighting that sort of thing!

I hope you'll visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start thinking up what you'll make to take part in our PINK CHRISTMAS event!

Pink Christmas (YAY!)

Anyone who's played along with us at Jingle Belles probably already knows this, but it's worth mentioning again anyway. As always, the first prompt of October is PINK CHRISTMAS and it starts NOW!

When I saw Lawn Fawn's 'Window Scene, Winter' stamp set at Paper Anthology I let out a little squeak of joy, because as a matter of fact, I own a couch a bit like that one and it sits directly in front of a large and dramatic window. I cannot claim that we've ever had a plaid tree, but the blue spruce that I cover with my vintage ornament collection each year actually does sit exactly where the tree from LF's 'Joy to All' is in the card. There are Eyelet Outlet Pink Pearls on this tree, and (white) snowflake sequins in the shaker that's behind the window frame, which is diecut using the add-on 'Window Frame' die set.

Here's the actual couch and window, for comparison purposes. Note that the room is much less pink than the card, due to undue influence from a certain husband.

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beeeeautiful pink card and start making plans to link up one (or more!) of your own, for a very good cause.

Thinking Pink

We're still celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun and help us raise some money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! Here's what I made this week:

I've paired a copy of an all-pink illustration from an old Ideals magazine with some well-hoarded stripey pink paper from Basic Grey; added some Eyelet Outlet Sequins, an oversized floral and a sticker sentiment and called it a day. Kind of a funky mix, but I like how it turned out.

Be sure to hop over and see Stephanie's card at Jingle Belles, then link up one (or more!) of your own! ♥

Pink Christmas

It's time for my all-time favorite prompt of the Jingle Belles year: it's October, so once again we are celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS! And just like all the other years that we've done this, Stephanie and I are each pledging $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, for each PINK HOLIDAY CARD card that gets linked up with us this fortnight. So we hope you'll join the fun and make lots of cards; plus we have a nice PINK graphic you can share if you'd like to!

A fast review of the rules: your card need not be entirely pink, but we'd like to see more than just the blush on Mrs. Claus' cheeks, or the scarf on a snowwoman; you can link as many new cards as you'd like to within the two week timeframe; and yes, we'll count however many pink cards you put into one post! Meanwhile, here's what I made:

I went almost entirely Prima, because they've done some really awesome PINK holiday collections in the last few years. I do have a big poinsettia that I liberated from a bit of holiday garland, and it wouldn't be the holidays without some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling! I used this week's Sketch Saturday #630 to arrange my layout; though I have rotated it ninety degrees counterclockwise.

Be sure to hop over to Jingle Belles and see Stephanie's beautiful PINK CHRISTMAS creation, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time! ♥

in the pink

We're still celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and you're still invited to play along! Remember, Stephanie and I each donate $2 for every newly made PINK CHRISTMAS card that gets linked up with us this fortnight, so if you're only going to join us once this year, this would be an awesome time to do so! Here's what I made this week:

patterned paper, journal card, edge distressing tool and chipboard stickers: prima marketing; additional patterned paper: creative imaginations; doily die: cheery lynn design; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, sookwang scor-tape, sewing machine

I raided my collection of Prima holiday papers, using lots of Santa Baby and a little bit of the Sweet Peppermint collection. But my favorite part of this card is the panel I made which is nothing but pink diecut doilies, overlapping each other. I kind of wish I had not covered it up as much I did, but I know it's there and it makes me happy. I did lots of edge-distressing and loads of machine stitching and called it a day.

Hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see Stephanie's second PINK CHRISTMAS card and start planning one (or more!) of your own! ♥♥♥

PINK XMAS!

If you've played along at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ in other years, you probably already know we devote the first theme of each October to making pink holiday cards as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we each (Stephanie and myself) donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There are no other rules for this challenge other than the fact that each card has to be newly made, it has to have a winter holiday theme and it has to feature PINK prominently. 

I made an official (PINK!) challenge graphic, so feel free to share it and our link on your blog or social media or wherever else you enjoy sharing challenge graphics! 

Meanwhile, here's my PINK CARD:

journal card, house stickers and heart paper: doodlebug design; polka dot paper: dcwv; dotted self-adhesive ribbon: heidi swapp; pink seam binding: paper anthology; plain white cardstock: staples; adhesives: elmers brand glue tape, 3m foam tape, sookwang scor-tape

I'm not sure I've ever made a pink + white + kraft card before, but I kinda think it might be new very favorite color combo! I also really love the fonts on that cute Doodlebug journal card. I added a few stickers from the same collection, then went slightly crazy with skinny white mats to tie all my patterned papers together. Speaking of "ties" i added a double layer of ribbons... one of them is a PINK RIBBON which I especially love in the context of this challenge!

I'm jumping in with The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog's Christmas/Holiday Challenge.

Be sure to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see Stephanie's luscious pink card and get started planning your own!

in the pink!

Stephanie and I are still making PINK CHRISTMAS cards at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and donating $2 each to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each card that's linked up with us this fortnight, so we'd love for you to not only make some cards, but also spread the word! Thanks very much for your help!

Here's what I made this week:

I've used a few more bits and bobs from the Sugar Plum collection by My Mind's Eye, including the stripey pink paper and that beautiful badge. I've mixed in some other items-- and some darker pink-- in the form of patterned paper strips, some oversized pink fabric poinsettias, and a small (ancient!) sentiment sticker that was serendipitously exactly right!

Hope over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see Stephanie's card and link up your own!

♥PINK♥ xmas!

If you've played along with us in other years, you may already know that at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we devote the first theme of each October to making pink holiday cards as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There are really no rules for this challenge other than the fact that each card has to be newly made, it has to have a winter holiday theme and it has to feature PINK prominently. Does your whole card have to be pink? Certainly not. Can you combine other colors with the pink? Of course! Should you have more pink than say two or three baubles on your green tree set against a snowy white background? Well, yeah... that'd be good. :) But other than that, we'll leave it to you to decide how much pink, what shade, and how to employ it!

We're not generally huge on self-promotion at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ but this cause is near and dear to our hearts and we'd love to get GREAT participation, so be sure to tell all your cardmaking friends, and feel free to share the graphic and our link on your blog or social media. But now let's get right to the cardmaking! Here's what we've made this week:

Somewhat unusually for me, I not only used products which are nearly all from the same collection, I actually chose and purchased the collection specifically with Pink Xmas in mind. So you can see that my card has a lot of elements from "Sugar Plum" by My Mind's Eye, including patterned paper, a sentiment sticker and some cardstock diecuts. All of these are living happily together in a sort of landscape, completely with white glitter paper snow, obviously!

Be sure to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see Stephanie's luscious pink card and get started planning your own!

thinkin' pink

we are still rockin' the entire rainbow of pink at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ for a very good cause! so whether you like rose or fuchsia, salmon or flamingo, magenta or bubblegum... or heck, maybe you love ALL of those, in which case grab your cardmaking supplies and come play!!!

in honor of such an awesome occasion, i broke out one of my last little scraps of papaya art glitter giftwrap, not to mention some washi, a little ribbon, a big poinsettia, a snowflake glitter sticker and a big honkin' eyelet outlet pearl brad:

sparkly floral gift wrap: papaya art (tho alas they no longer make gift wrap); metallic kraft core paper: tim holtz/idea-ology; washi tape: october afternoon + little b; glitter snowflake: mme; pearl brad: eyelet outlet; ribbon and flowers from my stash; pink cardstock: core'dinations; silver chalk ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i also got to have a bit of a play with a brand new tim holtz product that i scored at paper anthology, it is cardstock that is metallic on one side and and kraft on the other... so as you can imagine the possibilities are quite mindblowing:

i employed a fairly busy floral pattern embossing folder, then sanded a bit sporadically. i love that in addition to the shiny unsanded metal and the totally sanded kraft there is a sort of dull silver scuffed metal where the sanding block has been. (apologies bc of course metallic things never photograph all that well, but trust me this stuff is COOL!)

i can imagine adding yet another step --in the form of a little black ink-- which i think could be really cool as well... (and don't get me started on the subject of alcohol inks!) ...but since i wanted the PINK to be the main attraction on this card, i left those experiments for a future occasion.

i was inspired by this week's layout from sketch saturday, though i fear i messed around just a little too much with the proportions to actually do it justice. (sorry guys!) it's a great sketch though:

stephanie has another glorious ♥PINK CHRISTMAS♥ card to show you, why not hop over to jingle belles right now and see that, then come on back to link up your own masterpieces! 

it's the most wonderful time of the year...

...because today is the day we start the 2017 version of PINK CHRISTMAS at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! if you've played along with us in other years, you may already know that stephanie and i always devote the first theme of each october to making pink holiday cards as part of breast cancer awareness month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we each donate two dollars to the breast cancer research foundation. and all of that's true again this time, so let's get right to the cardmaking, k?!

there are no rules for this challenge other than the fact that each card has to be newly made, it has to have a winter holiday theme (christmas, hanukkah, solstice, etc) and it has to feature PINK prominently. does your whole card have to be pink? certainly not. can you combine other colors with the pink? o'course! should you have more pink than say two or three baubles on your green tree set against a snowy white background? yeah... that'd be good... but other than that, we'll leave it to you to decide how much pink, what shade, and how to employ it! i've gone with a bunch of shades, from cerise to salmon to the soft pastel shade my sister calls, "sky blue pink", but i've added in white and cream in lots of lovely torn layers. see?

chipboard letters: prima; patterned paper: basic grey, glitz design, fancy pants, crate paper; label die and snowflake embossing folder: tim holtz/sizzix; washi: october afternoon, doily: from my stash; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i've had the flowery chipboard letters i think since my niece madeline was 2 or 3 years old. because i'm pretty sure i bought them to use in one of her birthday gifts. for those of you keeping track of these sorts of things, maddie turned *13* in may, lol, so these are definitely "older stash" at this point. but i still really like them and i was pretty psyched that although i didn't still have enough left to spell "merry" i was able to pull off "noel"! the rest of the card is older bits of paper, including some of my favorite basic grey grungy solids, a bit of washi, a bit of doily and a little machine stitching. in other words: all my favorite things in honor of my favorite challenge!

stephanie has also made an utterly amazing PINK CHRISTMAS card and you really need to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see it right now. then off you go to link up your own PINK masterpiece! ♥