The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #114 - Reindeer Games!

 

Over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge I'm so happy to be playing again with the lovely Loll from Stamping With Loll and I know you'll LOVE the card she's made to get our crafting party started.

Loll has picked such a fun theme for our September challenge...

Challenge #114 - Reindeer Games

We would like to see reindeer this month, please, and LOTS of them! 

Here's what I made:

I'm so glad I bought these little reindeer dudes from Mama Elephant as they are so, so cute. And here's my second card using the same 'sentiment' - just proves that context is everything! No points for spotting a fun Art Impressions gal against that lovely Simon Says Stamp Christmas Tree background. Sadly, both sets appear to be discontinued.

Rudolph is especially pleased with the theme this month, and is offering a fun prize for his Random Raffle!

Loll and I can't wait to see what you guys get up to when you play those Reindeer Games!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #113 - Reminder

I'm so happy to have Lauren and Stephanie as our guests over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge! Together, this dynamic duo are The Jingle Belles and run one of my most fave Christmas challenges. 

Our Theme this month is FRIENDSHIP!

We'd love to see your cards for a friend and/or celebrating friendship, please.

As regular visitors to my blog will know, I like to create an 'Inspired by' piece for my Reminder card. I like to do this as a little homage to my guest's work, but also to stretch and challenge myself a little. With two cards for inspiration I wondered how I could do this, but actually everything came together really well for my card.

I love how Stephanie's card has a photographic motif, and so thought of using photos of friends 'goofing around' in the snow. I picked girl and boy images to mirror the friends in Lauren's card, and used her colour palette for their clothing. The images of the children are from Concord & 9th set Bundled Up. Sadly, this set appears to be retired now, which is a pity. 

Rudolph is playing with penguins for this month's Random Raffle Draw.

Stephanie, Lauren and I hope you'll come and join the fun!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #113 - A Friend is for Life and not just Christmas

 

Over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge this month I'm joined by Lauren and Stephanie AKA The Jingle Belles! 

With two 'Craft Besties' as our elves for August there was only ONE possible theme for us to play:

Our Theme this month is FRIENDSHIP!

We'd love to see your cards for a friend or celebrating friendship, please.

My first card for our challenge together is this one:

I was feeling in the mood for some solid colour and tone-on-tone stamping. I always enjoy working with this MFT stamp set. I do miss MFT, don't you? 

My second card is this one. Another 'oldie' of a stamp, this time from Stampin' Up! Again, good fun to work with. 

Rudolph has chosen a sweet penguin set for his August Random Raffle Draw... Nice choice, Mr R. 

Stephanie, Lauren and I hope you'll head on over and join the fun!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #112 - Reminder

 

Over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge I'm so happy to welcome back our July elfin: Lynn AKA Linby from Crafty Linby.

Challenge #112 - Grace Us with Your Presents!

Lynn picked a fab theme and so we'd like to see gifts and presents galore this month on your cards. 

In the previous post I mentioned that Lynn had kindly made a second card to inspire us, and I'd love it if you headed over to take a look.

Here's a reminder of Lynn's first card...

For my 'Inspired by...' card I really wanted to 'steal' Lynn's use of DP to frame the image, but just couldn't find the right mix of papers to even come close to achieving a similar look.

The gifts on the sledge immediately reminded me of LOTV stamp Sledging Party. This stamp doesn't seem to be available any longer, but there are some gorgeous digi stamps to be found here on the LOTV Etsy shop.

I've not added a sentiment, but may do later when I decide who I'm sending this to. This is such a sweet image, but believe me it takes ages to figure out which leg belongs to which child! 😆😆😆

Rudolph has chosen a gorgeous prize for his July Randon Raffle. 

You can see Lynn's cards and enter the challenge by heading here. 

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #112 - Grace Us with Your Presents

 

It's time for a new challenge and a brand new guest over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge. Our July calendar girl is Lynn AKA Linby from Crafty Linby. I've been following Lynn's creative journey for quite a while (huge understatement) and I know you'll enjoy her cardmaking style as much as I do...

Lynn has picked such a fun theme for our challenge together...

Challenge #112 - Grace Us with Your Presents!

We'd like to see gifts and presents galore this month on your cards and I know you will love the card Lynn's made to kickstart our creative month together.

Here's what I made:

I had so much fun stamping and colouring North Pole Mischief from Stampin' Up! I was planning to emboss the red card, but had assembled everything before I remembered. 😐

Rudolph has chosen a gorgeous prize for his Randon Raffle.

Just look at that wreath - so pretty. Please head on over and take a look at our guidelines before signing-up to play so you can be included in his Random Raffle Draw. 

Lynn and I are both so excited to see what you create for this challenge and hope that you'll come and join the fun!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #110 - SNOW DAY!

 

Its the first Tuesday in the month and so we have a brand new challenge over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge, where I'm delighted to welcome Caroline from KISS as our elfin guest this month! If you head on over you can read all about our guest.

Caroline has chosen the perfect theme for us:

Challenge #111 - SNOW DAY!

We'd love to see your take on this. Play it however you want, but there HAS to be snow! 

You can visit see Caroline's stunning card over on the main blog. Here's what I made...

I had so much fun creating this little scene. It's a SNOW DAY and the school is closed. Mom has just asked the kids to stand still, hold hands and pose with snowballs in their hands, but this is the moment when they start to pull apart and take aim! 

My second card was also fun to put together. I only wish I'd thought to put wobblers under the robins for added fun. 

The birdies are from Honey Bee Stamps. The set is now out of stock. 

Here's Rudolph with another lovely Random Raffle Prize:

Rudolph thought it would be fun to offer the same Concord and 9th set I used for my card! There are so many different ways to use this sweet stamp set.

Caroline and I are both very excited to see what you guys come up with for our June Challenge. 

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #110 - Season's Tweetings - Reminder

 
We're in great company over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge as we welcome back Joanne from Ambrosia and Iron as our guest elf for May. 

Challenge #110 - Season's Tweetings

We're all about our feathered friends this month and Joanne has very kindly created a second card for our challenge. Don't you just LOVE her penguin card, I know I do!

Here's Joanne's first card for our challenge. I had both of her cards saved on my PC by the time I came to make my 'Inspired by' creation, so they merged in my head a bit!

I made this card using Joanne's idea of a snowy, coloured background, but went with the darker colouring of her second card. I was going to use her big sentiment style, but after I'd made the card I decided I liked it as it is. I might add something top left as now I'm looking at the card again it looks a little empty. I always enjoy colouring the AALL and Create Owls.

For my second card I did go with a Joanne-esque big sentiment:

I think the Penny Black Twelve Days of Christmas set is so comical. It's quite an oldie now, but I was thrilled to snag it on eBay a couple of months ago - and at a good price too. I asked my hubby if he got the 'joke' of this card and he asked if they were burglar hens. I'm taking that as a no.

As always, Rudolph has a lovely Random Raffle Prize on offer. 

Isn't this a gorgeous set! Please remember to read the Challenge Guidelines before signing-up to play if you're new to Christmas Kickstart.

Joanne and I can't wait to see what you create for this fun theme!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #109 - Brimming with Style

 

Hi there, I hope you all had a good Easter. Hey, turns out it's time for a brand new challenge over at The Christmas Kickstart where I'm tickled pink to welcome back my dear friend Gail from Crafty Nomad.

This month our challenge is:

Challenge #109 - Brimming with Style

We'd love to see hats, or people and/or critters in hats, please. You can ink-up your favourite behatted stamp images OR why not add a hat to a none-hat-wearing image or die cut to make things extra festive!

Gail has created the cutest card to get the party started, so why not head on over to the CKC blog and take a look!

Here's what I made. I've had this cute stamp set for a while and decided now was this little guy's moment to shine! Isn't he fun!

This little snow dude is from the Snow Good set by AALL and Create and the lovely big die cut is Jolly Dies by Concord and 9th.

My second card was so much fun to make. I die cut Grand Whittle Pig and then modified another die-cut to make him a hat. I then added a pom pom and placed him in the 'O' of Penny Black's Immense Noel.

Rudolph has a lovely prize on offer again this month. 

Gail and I can't wait to see your creations for this challenge, so please come and join the fun!