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

 

It's time for another Christmas Kickstart Challenge and this month I'm thrilled to welcome back Joanne from Ambrosia and Iron as our guest elf.

We're all about our feathered friends this month as we play:

Challenge #110 - Season's Tweetings

You'll love Joanne's card for our challenge, so please hop on over to the main blog and take a peek. 

My offering this month is a very grown-up card for me. I tried so many different combinations of card stock, glitter card and patterned paper before I found something I was happy with. It does look nice IRL, so was worth the effort.

The die cut was created using Christmas Doves Aperture from Clarity. The cardstock is Rose Gold and when I came to stamp the sentiment (Avery Elle - Dasher) I was thrilled to find matching embossing powder from WOW in my stash. 

My second card for this challenge is this one:

I do love this little guy from Colorado Craft Company called Happy Feet. I felt he needed something to dance to, so gave him this lovely Hero Arts background. Poppystamps Frozen Border finished things off nicely. 

Rudolph has an especially lovely Random Raffle Prize for this month. 

Joanne and I both hope you'll come and join the fun this month!

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #58 - Anything Goes Christmas

It's time for another Anything Goes Christmas Challenge over at MLCC!

There are some gorgeous cards from the DT to inspire and delight, so why not drop over and take a peek?

I was in the mood for some Colorado Craft Company fun, so inked up and coloured this sweet image. I'm a long term fan of Anita Jeram's critters and always loved her book illustrations; imagine my delight when her stamps became available.  

Happy September to you all!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #89 - Reminder

 

We're in excellent company this month over at Christmas Kickstart as my sweet friend Gundi is performing the elfin duties for us. Thanks, Gundi!

Gundi picked a great theme for our August Challenge

Challenge #89 - Animal Antics

We'd love to see your take on animals playing in the snow. 

Gundi has created an adorable second card for our challenge, so please head over and take a peek.

Here's a little reminder of Gundi's first card for this challenge...

Inspired by her naughty mice, I made this card, and added a little story...

"Sybil the Shrew was sad; the mice had been so naughty towards her friend the snowman. She found a special present for him, wrapped it carefully in pretty paper, and went to wish him a Merry Christmas." 

Wondering what Sybil Shrew gave to the snowman? Your answers in the comments below, please! 😊😊😊😊😊

I combined two Colorado Craft Company stamps to make this card: Best Gift Shrew and Sweet Snowman. I love how you can mix and match so many of Anita Jeram's CCC stamps. 

My final card for this challenge is a sweet penguin waddling a little happy dance as the snow begins to fall. Again, this is a stamp from Colorado Craft Company, but a different designer: Kris Lauren. 

Rudolph has a fun prize to match our theme for his Random Raffle:

Gundi and I both hope you'll come and join the fun!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #83 - Reminder

 

It's the 15th of February and that means Reminder time over at Christmas Kickstart.

We're in great company this month with Gail from Crafty Nomad as our elf as we go 

Out on a Limb

to create cards featuring things you'll find on trees at Christmas.

Here's a reminder of the gorgeous, fun card Gail made for our challenge:

And here's my creation as inspired by Gail's card...

I really wasn't concentrating when I made this card, and before I noticed I'd given the owl a green and red candy cane, and used a red layer instead of pink. At least I did echo Gail's bold black sentiment and cute hearts. I liked how Gail created a cut out centre with the big candy canes and hung her owl over the top layer, so tried to get a similar look with my card.

The owl comes from AALL Create and Craft set Owl you need is love. The candy cane and sentiment are from Holiday Sweets by Jane's Doodles. This is now discontinued, but this set has a similar candy cane by Jane. Sizzix Holiday Greens created the owl's perch. 

My second card was great fun to colour. I'm a big fan of Anita Jerman's images for CCC and am especially found of this set. 

Rudolph has two rather nice stencils on offer as his Random Raffle prize for this month. 

 

Both Gail and I hope you'll come and play along!

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 Cat Lovers Christmas Challenge - Day #5

Hi, I hope you're playing along at The Cat Lovers Christmas Challenge where we remember and share our memories of our dear friend Janis Woolbright. It's Day #5 today, and we have more sponsors to share!

I'm over on the Challenge sharing a card by Viva Las Vegas Stamps.

Here's what I made:

Unsurprisingly, this stamp is called Fat Cat on a Scale. I quite like the slightly retro look this card has, some of which is due to the colour combo and paper patterns.

This cute guy is called Black and White Cat. I added a Santa hat to make him a little more festive and created the sentiment on my PC.

Another card company I love is Colorado Craft Company. I'm so grateful that they are also one of the sponsors for The Cat Lovers Hop.  I have a real weakness for their Anita Jeram stamps and already have this little beauty on My Wishlist!

This card was such fun to make using a combination of images from CCC. The cat in the hat is from this set, the suave kitty in the bowtie is from this set and the sentiment is from this set.

I hope very much that you'll head over to The Cat Lovers Christmas Challenge and come play along! We have some great cards in the gallery AND some heartwarming comments to read about our dear friend Janis. 

If cats sent cards...

Card Chain Challenge August 2023 - Reveal

Can you believe it's time for the August 2023 Card Chain Challenge Reveal??? We're racing through the year!

We had 32 participants who exchanged cards across the globe this month.

 

Total number of cards exchanged thus far by Card Chain Challenge participants is 4,105. 

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

Colour Palette Option

or

Sketch Option

or 

Theme Options: CAS/Fruit or Veg/Friendship

or 

Product / Technique Options: Vellum/Stencils

This is the card I sent to Marianne in Greece.

I had so much fun stencilling the grass after I masked this adorable Colorado Crafts Company bunny. 

My sender this month was Gundi in Germany and look look what she sent! 

Thanks, Gundi, I love your card.

If you're new to the Card Chain Challenge this is an event where everybody wins. You make a card for the person above you on the chain and you receive a card from the person below you on the chain. It's a personalized swap, sort of, and it's a ton of fun! Go here for past Chains.

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #238 - U is for Upcycle

Edna has 'upcycled' her bicycle.... Geddit? Honestly, Sister Lee (our resident Graphics Goddess) has done it again!

Yes, we're all about UPCYCLING over at The Sisterhood for the next two weeks and would love you to come play along.

I made this card for my Dad for Father's Day. I upcycled an old envelope for the waistcoat as I loved the herringbone pattern. The stamp is a Big and Bold one from Colorado Craft Company. Turns out they also have this set available as a digi - which could be useful as this one is a whopper!

Here's how it looked before I stamped and fussy cut! I had to stamp on an angle to get the pattern going in the direction I wanted.

You'll love what our special guest and the sistahs have created for this challenge, so please come on over and take a look!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #236 - C is for Critters

It's time for another fabulous, fun challenge over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers!

For the next two weeks we are playing C is for Critters and I know you're going to love what Queen Deanne and the team have created for this theme.

Here's my card:

I just adore this little guys dancing a birthday conga! When I was a child each and every family party featured a conga at some point. The 'Do I smell Cake?' was printed on my PC.

The sisters hope you'll conga over to the blog and play along with all the fun! 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #75 - Festive Fancy Folds

 

I'm so happy to welcome back my dear crafting buddy Arlene as our elf for Christmas Kickstart Challenge #75.

Arlene is a fount of ideas and inspiration, and for our theme this month over at Christmas Kickstart she's chosen...

  

Challenge #75 - Festive Fancy Folds 

Yes, we're challenging you to create a card using a fancy fold!

For my fancy fold make I amazed myself by making this My Favorite Things themed box card, using die cuts Arlene sent me for our January Challenge at CCC.

The die cuts accompanied this amazingly cute card, which I drew on for my Christmas version.

Isn't Arlene just sooooooooo talented! I spent ages studying how she's put together her card so I could make mine.

For my second card I made this Joy Fold Card:

I found the details on how to make it here. 

 I used this sweet set from Colorado Crafts for the images. I think the paper is from a Tim Holtz pad, but I'm not sure as it was in my off-cuts/Snippets box. 

As always, over at Christmas Kickstart, we've got the one and only Rudolph with his Random Raffle Prize for our challenge...

This month he's offering an adorable A6 pad of festive papers - it's just so pretty, and the perfect size for standard cards. 

Arlene and I really hope you'll get fancy-folding and come play along!