The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #103 - Snow Alert!

Anyone got SNOW yet, or are we still shoveling leaves from our driveways? 

I'm delighted to have the very lovely Loll as my guest/Elf over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge this month. Loll is one talented lady and you are going to love her work... I know I do!

Loll has chosen a fun theme for October:

Challenge #103 - Snow Alert!

Nice choice, Loll, and there's plenty of scope for everyone to play this challenge their own way!

Here's my first snow-themed creation:

I was in the mood for a little monochrome with which to wish someone a very beary Christmas. This little chap is from the retired Pinkfresh set Christmas Wishes. The snow is glitter card and the moon is silver metallic card - neither are showing up that well in the picture. 

Card number #2 is a little different and was soooo quick and easy to make. The beautiful snowflakes are from Simply Graphic and the embossing folder is Kaisercraft Snowflakes. 

I really hope you'll come and play along with Loll and me over at The Christmas Kickstart as we're both really excited to see what you create!

Card Chain Challenge Reveal - July 2022

 

It's Reveal time again over at The Card Chain Challenge.

For this month we had 26 lovely participants who traded cards across the globe.

 

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

Colour Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

(We thought we'd capitalise on the end of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee and July 4th Celebrations in the USA.)

Sketch Option

 

 

(Orient as desired.)

Theme Options: Birds / Wheels / Friendship

Product / Technique Options: Something a friend sent you / Stitches

Joanne in Connecticut was my sender and just look at what I received! What a great way to use the colour combo.

 

I sent this card to Tina in Slovenia.  

I can't give you too many details about this make as the bird stamp was bought second hand and in unnamed packaging, and the friend die-cut came from another crafter. I'm pretty sure the bird is from Simply Graphic, but I can't get the site to open up properly today to share a product link. I loved creating the background with a single stack of birds just repeated across the card. 

If you'd like to join in the fun why not 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. You make and send a card and receive a beautiful card from the person ahead of you in the chain. Be warned, it's addictive! 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #36 - Take #2

I just wanted to drop by with a card I made for Christmas Kickstart #36 but didn't have time to photograph before the challenge went live.

The frame is from Simon Says Stamp and the little bird and the branch are from a fabulous French company called Simply Graphic. The pale blue paper is the last of a much treasured sheet - feel my pain, people!

The current challenge has another week to run and our lovely elf, Marcia, has created a beautiful card as inspiration, so why not come on over and play along?

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #36 - Christmas Birds

Hi there, welcome to another Christmas Kickstart Challenge post. 

It's new challenge time and we have a new elf: meet Marcia from Marcia's Stampin' Pad! 

Marcia is one of my newer stamping friends, who I met through Christmas Kickstart. I'm a big fan of her cards and knew I wanted to invite her to don the elf hat and inspire us with her work.

Marcia's card is as lovely as her smile, so please head on over to Christmas Kickstart and take a look!

Here's my first card - rather a different style for me, but I enjoyed playing with this sweet Doves die from Claritystamp. 

Card #2 features the same die, plus a sweet sentiment from Simply Graphic.

Rudolph has chosen a gorgeous die and sentiment combo as his Random Raffle prize for this challenge, so why not head on over and take a look at Marica's beautiful card and join the fun!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #32 - Care to Tag Along?

Hello, I hope that you are all hanging in there during these weird times. Just to add a little extra touch of surreal to the proceedings let's make Christmas cards on the hottest days of the year so far!
I'm still enjoying escaping to my craft room, losing myself in 'cardland' and building my stash of Christmas cards.

There's a fab new challenge for you this month and an equally fab new elf! Our theme is all about tags, so who better to have on board then Tracey M from My Creative Opinion AKA the Queen of Tags!

This month we're playing...

Challenge #32 - Care to Tag Along?

And you are going to love Tracey's adorable tag card, so why not head on over and take a look!

Here's my card:

Oddly, this card is taller and slimmer than it appears in this picture. It features some lovely MFT die cut numerals and a beautiful die cut wreath from Simply Graphic. I decided that I wanted to use some of my Christmas DP and found the perfect pad: Keepin' Cozy from Echo Park. The silver twine is from packaging and in fact all the elements of this card (except for the base) came from my box of leftovers!

Rudolph had done us proud and found a pair of lovely tag dies for his Random Raffle Prize!

Please come and join the fun!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #101 - T is for Technique

It's hard to believe that we're about to launch into our first challenge of 2018 over at The Sisterhood, but it's totally true!

This challenge is called 'T is for Technique' and required more than a little head scratching from Yours truly as I wasn't sure which technique to showcase. After some though, and a little chat with my mom (who, luckily, is a fellow crafter) I decided to go with gilding.

I used an 'oldie but goodie' Cuttlebug embossing folder to create a pattern on some black card and then used some gilding wax (thanks, Mom) to create a metallic effect. I also did a little heat embossing to create the sentiment and to cover the die-cut bird in gold. I've never used gilding wax before, but enjoyed learning a new technique. If you ever use gilding wax, you'll quickly discover that a little goes a long way. I found this Crafter's Companion video very helpful in getting me started, but there are heaps of really good videos available out there to choose from.

As always, The Snarkettes have created some fabulous cards which you won't want to miss. We've had a blast with this challenge and can't wait to see your creations too!