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 Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #276 - X is for Xmas in July

It's July... And that can only mean one thing: Christmas cards! The year has tipped balance and we are in the downhill sleigh ride towards the Festive Season. Edna has wrapped the gifts and decorated the tree, whilst also taking time to inflate a flamingo and head to the beach! She's got it all covered.

Yes, the Sistahs, and our fabulous Queen, are all about putting the X in Xmas, and we'd love you to come and join the fun. 

I was in the mood for a pink creation so I grabbed a Newton's Nook stencil set,  a Reverse Confeffi stamp AND a little MFT snark. This is so pretty IRL, but the camera has done something odd with the colours so they appear less harmonious. 

We look forward to seeing what YOU create for our challenge, so please come and play along!

And it's not just The Sisterhood who are celebrating Christmas in July as our friends over at The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity are getting their Christmas on too! 

The Card Chain Challenge Reveal - June 2026

It's Reveal time over at The Card Chain Challenge 

and do we have BIG news for you!

 

We had 25 participants who exchanged cards across the globe this month, meaning that the total number of cards exchanged thus far by Card Chain Challenge participants is 5,002.

 

Yes, folks we've reached and passed a new milestone over at CCC because a rather amazing 5,000 cards have flown around the planet since the challenge began. Thank you so much to everyone who has made this possible! Huge thanks to Gail for everything she does to keep this challenge fun, fun, fun! If you drop by at The Card Chain Challenge you'll see we have a little surprise for one of our lovely participants!

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

 

Colour Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

Sketch Option

(Orient as desired.)

Theme Options: Tea or Coffee / Safari / Friendship

Product / Technique Options: Embossing / Shaped Card

 

Here's what I sent to Alice in Austria:

The sketch put me in the mood for butterflies and while I tried really hard to go with the colour palette, my plain yellow butterflies needed a 'glow-up' so I added some orange too! 

Kathy in the UK sent me this beautiful make - isn't it gorgeous. Thanks so much, Kathy.

Want to join the fun????

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 #274 - G is for Gnome

 

Edna has some new little friends she'd love us all to meet as we play G is for Gnome over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers!

My 'take' on the theme is a little on the dark side as it's more than a wee bit sick and twisted...

Thankfully, Good Queen Jenn and the Sisters have created cards that are a little less distasteful, so please head on over and join the fun!

Jane's birthday card...

Isn't it soooo helpful when you go looking for inspiration and find a challenge that provides a perfect light bulb moment! A big thank you to the gals at AAA Birthday Card Challenge Game #83 for the creative nudge.

Here's what I made to play along...

I do love working with this big die cut from MFT - it just makes everything so easy! I thought it would be fun to add some die-cut kitties from Mini Cats by Impression Obsession and bingo, my card was made. 

I'm also going to link to SUYP Challenge #121 as I love this sweet little furry challenge.

Have a happy day, folks!

The Card Chain Challenge February 2026 - Reveal

 

We are all about spreading love around the world, one handmade card at a time!!

We had 24 participants who exchanged cards during February and our Reveal post is a thing of beauty! 

The total number of cards exchanged thus far by Card Chain Challenge participants is a rather wonderful 4,825. And despite the current craziness of the world, plus the best attempts of international postal services to throw their proverbial spanners into the works, we are holding firm and waiting for card 500 to be sent. A huge thank you to Gail for everything she does to keep this chain of love and friendship intact and marching along. 

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

 

Colour Palette Option

or

Sketch Option

or 

Theme Options: Clouds / On The Farm / Friendship

or 

Product / Technique Options: Dies / Fussy Cutting

Here's what I sent to Jeanne in Minnesota

I love this MFT set... And Jeanne does too!

Michaela in Austria was my sender this month and just look at this adorably sweet little PB hedgie she sent.

Isn't this just so much fun! Thanks Michaela, I love it. 

Want to play along ????

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 Christmas Kickstart Challenge #107 - A Christmas Sing-Along

 

It's time for the February Challenge over at The Christmas Kickstart!! I'm so happy to welcome back a returning elf - it's Carol from Just Me: c. Carol is as talented as she is lovely, and I urge you to go take a look at her wonderful blog. Prepare to be 'wowed'. Thanks so much for leading the fun, Carol, it's great to be crafting with you once again!

Carol has chosen a brilliant theme for our February Challenge, and we're inviting you to play...

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #107 

- A Christmas Sing-Along!

We'd love to see your cards on the theme of singing, and the songs, hymns and carols we might sing during the festive season. Head on over to The Christmas Kickstart to see Carol's first card for our challenge together - you'll love it! 

Here's one of the cards I've made to play this theme. I had so much fun putting this one together!

This is a total CASE of a card I saw featuring these Whimsy Reindeer. I really loved the idea of recycling a Christmas card as a background. Isn't that clever, and so quick to make too! 

My second card is also a stolen idea, and one that was a lot of fun to create!

The cute cows are from the much missed My Favorite Things and the words were printed on my PC. The background paper was hiding in my stash and features sheet music for a variety of carols. Perfect! 

Here's our favourite reindeer with his rather cute February Random Raffle Prize. 

 

Carol and I can't wait to see what you guys come up with for this fun challenge!

The Card Chain Challenge Reveal - December 2025

Happy New Year to you all! It's a cold one here in the UK as we've woken up to a fall of snow. However, the sun is shining so I expect it'll melt pretty quickly but it does look very pretty right now.

For our December Challenge Gail and I decided to make things nice and simple for our players...

 

Challenge Directions  

 

NBUS

(new, unused stuff) 
something from your stash that is unused
It doesn't have to be new, old unused stuff is OK too

 

AND

 

your favourite 3 colours

 

AND

 

an animal OR a flower OR a fruit 

 

I used a new-to-me Paper Smooches frame and a cute kitty from a MFT set I recently purchased on eBay. 

I picked one of my favourite colour combos as I love white and pastel shades against kraft. The little envelopes are supposed to link to CCC. I think the white swirly background is a Hero Arts stamp, but it's lost it's packaging.

I sent my card winging across the miles to Michaela in Austria, and I'm looking forward to receiving this beauty from Julia in Massachusetts:

As always, our Reveal is a thing of beauty, so why not head on over and take a look! 

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #263 - P is for Pride

For our June Challenge we are celebrating Pride Month over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, and we'd like to see RAINBOW colours on your projects!

Here's what I created:

I love this kitty from Catitude by Yuzu for MFT. I've lost the packaging for the rainbow die - it wasn't easy to use, so I may look for another one as the cut-out was so fiddly. 

I'm delighted to be linking to lovely Fiki's Show Us Your Pussycats Challenge #112. Such a fun challenge! The kitty in my card today is based on my friend's cat Rupert - he's a proper character and would definitely strut his stuff just like this!

Finally, here's another picture of Bruce from the Rescue. Isn't he gorgeous? I'm sure his forever home can't be far away with a face like that.

You're going to love the creations on offer from the SoSS team and our Queen of Snark, so please head on over and take a look! 

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #98 - Reminder

Hi Kickstarters... we've reached the midpoint of our challenge with the lovely Becca! 

Becca has chosen a lovely theme for us to play with this month and we're loving how many different ways you guys are finding to interpret our challenge.

Challenge #98 - Winter Warmers

Here's a reminder of Becca's cute card...

You can find all the details over on Becca Flickr site here. 

I really love this little cutie and for my inspired by... card I picked-up on the different colours of the circles behind the bird, but turned them into presents instead.

The pup is from a BB set Happy Pawlidays - from My Favorite Things and the gifts come from the Sizzix die set Festive Gifts.

I was really inspired by the circles on Becca's cute card, so also made this...

The little 'icons' were made from snippets of paper and card using Sizzix set Festive Things.

I'm delighted to be able to link this card to Snippets Playground Challenge #506.

My final card for this Reminder is this one:

Very quick and easy to make, and looks quite cute IRL as there's plenty of sparkle. 

Rudolph has a cute stamp set on offer for his May Random Raffle.

Becca and I very much hope you'll come and play along with us! We look forward to seeing how YOU interpret our challenge theme!

Merry Little Christmas Challenge

It's May 1st and time for another fun anything goes challenge over at The Merry Little Christmas Challenge blog.

I wanted to make something fun and playful, and once I'd spotted this sweet bear from the MFT sELFies set I knew I'd got the start of my card. I don't think MFT make this set anymore, which is a great pity. I liberated him from his frame and tucked him behind a die cut sentiment. 

Once I'd started work on this card it was quite a quick and easy make, although I wish I'd stamped a background rather than having a flat red behind him. 

As always, the gals at MLCC have created some adorable cards, so please come on over and take a look!