The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #115 - Gothic Christmas Reminder

 

This month at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge we're very lucky to have the wonderful Carol from Just Me:c making a return visit as our elf this month.

 

Challenge #115 - Gothic Christmas

This is proving to be quite a tricky theme for you lovely people of Cardland. I've shared lots of tips and hints to try and help; you can go creepy and spooky, kinda silly, or you can grab your inspiration from our beautiful picture. I wish I could create a tree like this for my lounge.

For Carol, going gothic is all about the colour palette and she has created a gorgeously elegant second card for our challenge, which can can see by dropping by here. 

This was card #1 from Carol, and therefore the card from which I drew inspiration for this card. 

In homage to all the sparkle on Carol's card I decided to go completely OTT with as much glitter card as I could muster from my stash. Hiding in my goody box of off-cuts I found a ready-cut glitter card bauble in the same shape as those Carol used. Let me tell you, the excitment was palpable!

The sentiment stamp is from a very old Simply Besotted set I found on a sales site.

Edited to add: I've finally had the opportunity to finish my second card, and again I've dipped into my sparkly stash.

I've cut the trees using a Clearly Besotted die. The frame is a oldie from Paper Smooches and after I cut it out I embossed it using Honey Bee Stamps 3-D folder Snowflakes. The photograph doesn't do this little card justice as it is both sparkly and sweet. 

Rudolph once again puts in an appearance with a Random Raffle Prize and has dressed for the occasion. I do love a handsome reindeer in a cravat, don't you?

 

Carol and I both hope you'll get your gothic on to play along... our challenge runs until the witching hour on Halloween!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #80 - Reminder

 

It's Reminder time over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge, where I'm delighted to be hosting my pals The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.

This month we're having heaps of fun playing...

And I'm thrilled to see just how many of you are enjoying this crazy, play-it-how-you-want-to theme! There are some great cards in the gallery.

For my Reminder cards I've got these to share:

I had enormous fun creating this card using a stamp set from an older Clearly Besotted set (apparently, no longer available) and a VLVS Flying Saucer. The speech bubble was printed out on my PC. It's not often that my cards entertain or amuse my hubby, but this one did raise a chuckle!

Card #2 is a very different style of card for me.

I had some Gelli prints from a while ago in my stash and decided it was time they saw the light of day. The big snowflake is from Colorado Craft Company Big and Bold - Warm wishes Snowflake. The lovely edging is from Poppystamps and is called Frozen Border. This is an older die and doesn't appear to be currently available, however, this one is similar. 

I was amazed to see this beautiful card over on Michele's blog. Great minds think alike!

I hope you'll come and join the fun!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #239 - L is for Lindsay

On July 21st, 2022 we lost our dear sister, Lindsey. 

To say that our wise, witty, warm and superbly-snarky sistah is much missed is an understatement. On the anniversary of her passing we send our love to her family, friends and crafty friends around the world.

In honour of Lindsey, Edna and the Sisterhood are once again paying tribute with L is for Lindsey. Whether you knew her or not, we want to see something on your project (and be sure to tell us what it is) that was inspired by Lindsey.

Here's what I made. Lindsey was a lover of cats and books, and was a former teacher and school librarian. She loved a bit of stencilling too!

I think this image from Clearly Besotted a real cutie, and I don't doubt that Lindsay would have had to add it to her considerable collection of kitty stamps. I coloured the cats to look like Lindsay's cat Duncan.  The wording is from Simon Says Stamp, and the stencil is from I have no idea as I've lost the packaging!

The Sisterhood would love it if you'd come and join us for this very special challenge. 

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #76 - Gingerbread Treats

 

It's time for a brand new challenge over at Christmas Kickstart and I'm delighted to welcome a brand new elf for this month: Carol from Just Me:c.

 

Carol has come up with a fun theme for our new challenge...

Challenge #76 - Gingerbread Treats

You should must on over to Christmas Kickstart and take a look at what Carol has created for our challenge - you'll love her work!

Here's what I made using a very old block stamp from hero Arts, plus some adorable images from Clearly Besotted. This is an older set and one that is no longer available, but if you take a peek at the website there are plenty of other fun Christmas sets still on sale.

My second card for the challenge is this one made using some of the images from a sweet  digital set by Angie Blom gifted to me by my blogging bud Crafty Nomad, Gail. 

Rudolph is here with a fun Random Raffle Prize for this challenge:

   

Carol and I both hope you'll have as much fun with this challenge as we have and that you'll come and play along. 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #66 - Home for the Holidays

Hi there, over at Christmas Kickstart Challenge today I'm delighted to be welcoming Tina from Treebug as our elf for this September! 

Tina has chosen a lovely theme for us to play with in September 

Challenge #66 - Home for the Holidays

We'd love to see cards with houses, homes, fireside scenes, cityscapes - whatever the phrase conjures up for you!

You can take a look at Tina's beautiful card by clicking here. This is a theme with plenty of scope for you to work with - just go your own way with it and have fun!

Here's what I made...

Looks okay in this colour combo too, but not as festive.

I combined a Stampin' Up! image from Sit, Stay, Relax with a sentiment from Corner Sentiments Holiday by Avery Elle.

I also made this little card - don't you just love kraft and white together? I know I do.

The lovely Rudolph has chosen a lovely prize for his Random Raffle. 

 

Nice one, Rudolph! I love that spaghetti beard, and who doesn't need a Santa Hat, cute glasses and some Ho, ho, ho! in their craft stash??!! All entrants who've followed the rules will go into Rudolph's Random Raffle with a chance to win this prize.

Tina and I hope you'll come and play along with our challenge and we hope you have as much fun interpreting the theme as we did.

Christmas Kickstart #52 - Woolly or Fluffy or Furry.

Welcome craft fans, it's time for  Christmas Kickstart Challenge #52! It's hard to believe that we've passed the mid-point of the year - it's all downhill to Christmas now!

Today, I'm welcoming back my dear crafting buddy Gail from Crafty Nomad as our elf. Thanks for being our elfin inspiration again, Gail, it's always good to have you leading the fun!

Our theme is a fun one:

Challenge #52 - Woolly or Fluffy or Furry!

We'd like to see anything fluffy, furry or woolly on your Christmas cards and can't wait to see how YOU interpret this challenge!

I went with 'woolly' for my card using a very sweet stamp set from Lawn Fawn called Baaah Humbug!

I had waaaay too much fun making this card. I used something called Liquid Applique to make my sheep look woolly. It's a strange product, but gave a great effect. It comes in a tube and looks rather gloopy and unpromising when you first put it on, but add heat and the magic starts to happen!

For my second card I stayed with the flock and produced this cheeky sheep using a Clearly Besotted set which is also called Baa Humbug!

All that grass has clearly being playing havoc with this little one's digestive system!

As always, Rudolph has done us proud with his Random Raffle prize!

Gail and I very much hope you'll come and join the fun. If you've not yet started making your Christmas cards, what are you waiting for? Christmas is coming...

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #171 - H is for Pink Halloween

Don't you just love our spooky Edna? Another fabooooless graphic heralds a new challenge from The Sisterhood. 

It's October, and on our calendars that's always a month circled in pink by the sistahs as we put out our annual reminder about Breast Cancer Awareness.

Remember, girls, YOU are very precious and special and should look after yourselves with as much care as you look after the people you love.

Here's what I made for the challenge:

Don't you just love this little crew of trolls? Clearly Besotted outdid themselves with this stamp set! (Psssst, it's currently on sale here in the UK.)

I'm also linking this to The Lost Coast where they are celebrating a whole 31 Days of Halloween. The inspiration over there is amazing and well worth a look! 

Back at The Sisterhood all our cards are 'in the pink' for our challenge and we'd like yours to be too, so please head on over and join the fun as you'll love what the spooky sistahs have created.

Card Chain Challenge - May Reveal and a BLOG HOP!

We've hit something of a milestone over at The Card Chain Challenge!

3,000 cards exchanged  

How awesome is that?!!  3,000 times spreading love around the world one card at a time.  

We think this calls for a celebration and we want YOU to come and join the fun!!!!   

We'll be having a series of games on the blog during June and you'll need to follow us and keep checking back to make sure you don't miss anything.  Psssst, don't tell anyone but there will be prizes...   Oh, OK, tell everyone!!  Let's have fun and party like it's 2021...  

Anyhoo, onward to the May Reveal and we have decided to turn it into a blog hop!!  So enjoy the cards, hop over to the sender's post and please leave a little love. Gail and I will be randomly selecting 3 comments left between today and the 28th June to win some prizes.  

There were 24 participants who exchanged cards across the globe during May and I'm amazed that so many cards have made it through despite the current problems across the world. Let's hear it for the world postal service!

Our options were:

Colour Palette Option

or

Sketch Option

Orient as required

or 

Theme Options: Repeat (more than one of something)/Fruit/ friendship

or 

Product / Technique Options: Stickers/Brushos

Here's the card I sent to Karen in Virginia - she's the next link in our hop, so please drop by her blog and say 'Hi'!

I sort of followed the sketch and the colours however, I was bang on the money with the theme of repetition! I stamped some Clearly Besotted apple blossom images and the masked them so I could colour and stencil the background. 

At the time of writing this post my card from Lucille in Colorado is still in transit; I'm looking forward to seeing it and keeping my fingers crossed it arrives safely!

There are still a few days left to sign up for the June exchange and you can always play along in our blog hop (did I mention there are prizes???).

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #30 - Reminder

It's reminder time for Challenge #30 - Winter Wonderland (Create a Scene) over at Christmas Kickstart.

During April we've been inspired by fabulous guest elf, Jane from Purplejet Loves Crafts.

From reading your comments at CKC I know just how many of you were as 'wowed' by Jane's card as I was.  For my reminder card I decided to make an 'inspired by' version of Jane's sweet original.

I didn't add a sentiment to the front of the card, but may produce an inny with wording something like 'The first snowflake of Winter'. The dies I used are from Clearly Besotted, and Sizzix and the very cute bunnies are from a free 18 piece set given away in Making Cards magazine a little while ago.

Both myself and Jane hope you'll come and play along in this fun challenge!