Christmas Kickstart Challenge - Reminder

Over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge Guest Elf Leslie from Love to Scrap 2 and I are asking you to

Fold it Fancy!

Here's Leslie and her lovely smile:

and here's a quick reminder of the stunning card she created for our challenge launch post. 

You can find all the details about how Leslie made her card by clicking here.

Just look at all the crisp mountain and valley folds Leslie created. Her creasing and measuring is just spot on and gives a great result.

For my inspired by... card I knew I wanted to grab Leslie's colour palette (so cozy) and use dimension and folds to create a little scene as I love an opportunity to tell a story with a card. Here's what I came up with:

I had to add some blue Stampin' Up! paper to create the sky.

When my hubby and I go for a walk we love to see a dog with a stick, so I thought I'd include one here. The pups are from Sunny Studio Dashing Dachshund which might just be one of my favourite dog stamps ever! The signpost and sentiments are from a now retired SSS set called Christmas Cheer and the snowflakes are also from SSS, and I think that background stamp is also retired. 

Thanks for the inspiration, Leslie, I would never have made this card without seeing your card first! If you want to see how to create this style of folded card take a look at Stamping Jill's fab tutorial. 

Rudolph has such a fun prize for his Random Raffle this month...

So why not come and join the fun!

Dani Doodles meets AAA Birthday

There's a fun challenge over at AAA Birthday: Game #70 is Ink Smooshing and I knew I wanted to play along. I do love a bit of smooshing and the DT inspiration is gorgeous!

My 'go to' background of the moment is this beauty from Dani Doodles and I had loads of fun heat embossing in white and then getting smooshy with some dye inks. The sentiment is from another of Dani's sets: More Narky Birthday Sentiments. 

BTW, Dani now has a Challenge running on Facebook which you can find here... And she's offering a fun stamp set prize for each challenge!

Happy crafting everyone!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #95 - Fold it Fancy!

It's the second of the month and time to launch a new challenge over at Christmas Kickstart...

We're in very good company for February as our elf is Leslie from Love to Scrap 2.

Thanks so much for agreeing to wear the elf hat this month, Leslie. You will love the theme Leslie's chosen as we're playing...

Challenge #95 - Fold it Fancy!

We'd want to see your choice of fancy/fun fold on a Christmas/Holiday card. 

Leslie really has created some folding magic with her card, so please go and take a look and prepare to be amazed!

If someone says 'Fancy Fold' to me I immediately see it as an opportunity to create an easel card. I do love an easel card and if, like me, you are a little fold-a-phobic, an easel card can be a great place to start. Just do a quick Google search and pick a style you like. I used Ardyth's instructions here, and you can see how she makes four different types of fun fold cards in her easy to follow video.

My card features this fun tired Santa from Whimsy Stamps and a Simon Says Stamp snowflakes background. I think the snowflakes may be out of stock right now, but there's plenty of similar stamps over at SSS. 

My second card is this one:

There's Wink of Stella on the tree on his jumper, the bobble on his hat and the mistletoe berries.

It's not a million miles from an easel card, but gives a very different 'look'. I know that I used a tutorial for this card too, but it's currently gone AWOL. I'll do a more thorough search and add the details later. Edited to add: Nope, still can't find it! 😟

If you like the little bear you can find him here. He's a cute digital stamp from the same set as the image on this card made by my CCC buddy, Imke.

 

Rudolph has such a fun prize for his Random Raffle this month:

Anyone entering the challenge (and following the guidelines) will go into the random draw to win this sweet stamp set.

Leslie and I can't wait to see your fabulous fancy folds and look forward to you playing along in our challenge.

The Card Chain Challenge Reveal - January 2025

We had 26 lovely participants who exchanged cards across the globe for our January Challenge.

 

The total number of cards exchanged thus far by Card Chain Challenge participants is a truly spectacular 4,595 which means we're closing in on our next big milestone of 5,000 cards sent.

 

All the cards exchanged this month used at least one of the following options:

Sketch Option

(Orient as desired)

Colour Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

Theme Options: Moustaches / Cats / Friendship

Product / Technique Options: Scraps / Spinner Card

The possibility of making a card combining the options of 'Moustaches' and 'Cats' was way too tempting to pass up, and so this is what I sent Barbara in Switzerland:

Don't you just love Hero Arts Cinco de Meow? It's currently reduced here in the UK. 😉

I paired this cute kitty with a Simon Says Stamp sentiment from the Happy Every Day set, which seems to be discontinued. 

The lovely Imke in Germany sent me this gorgeous card. Thanks you, Imke, I love it!

Hey, if you want to join in the fun you can sign up for the Card Chain Challenge.  All sign ups run in advance, from the 7th of the preceding month to the 6th of the exchange month.  All reveals happen on the 2nd of the month after the exchange is complete.

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #259 - L is for Love

 

The Sisters have been hard at work creating some wonderfully 'romantic' cards to celebrate Valentine's Day on 14th February. As you can see from our graphic, Edna is in two minds about celebrating this annual show of affection! Great work, Sister Lee.

My card is all cute and girly - gold on pink and created using Dani Doodles gorgeous Winter Vine and one of her fun More Narky Sentiments. 

Reads: Nope, Not Today.

Who said ROMANCE is dead?

Please come play along with the Sisterhood and share your romantic/mildly indifferent/anti-romantic creations with us!

Dani Doodles

 

Earlier in the week I was finally able to announce my new creative adventure as one of the DT over at Dani Doodles. 

The DT comprises the lovely Dani...

Plus Stacie, Angela, Vicki, and (top right) Squinty McSquinty Trousers. In my defense the light inside the glasshouse at Kew was dazzling that day. 

Dani Doodles is known for the Narky sentiment stamps which offers a range of fun, cheeky and tongue-in-cheek alternatives to those currently on the market, designed to get a fun reaction from the recipient!

Today, I'm showcasing Dani's new release of fun and narky sentiments, 

plus her very first drawn design.

Dani Doodles - More Narky Sentiments

Dani Doodles - Winter Vine

I love this pattern soooooooooo much. 

Because everyone appreciates a little praise from time-to-time!

Dani's sentiments are great because they work on their own and also pair well with a variety of images from my stash... especially this little sweetie.

 

Dani Doodles - More Narky Sentiments

Pop on over to the website now and get yourself 10% off your order using code: ddjo10.

You can shop Dani's Stamps here and visit her fun blog here.