The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #101 - Reminder

 

I'm delighted that we have the very lovely and talented Greta as our Elfin Muse for August. I love that Greta headed her launch post: 'On Elf Duty'. So cute.

Greta has made an adorable card for our Reminder, so why not head over to Kickstart HQ and take a look? 

 

Here's what Greta made to kickstart her Elfin Mission with us:

As always, I tried to create an Inspired By card for our mid-month Reminder post. 

Isn't Greta's card a dream? I was going to talk through the things I love about her card, but where do I start as everything is simply stunning, STUNNING! I love the big cream bow, the different shades of green AND the sparkly red accents, the placement and style of the gorgeous sentiment, the thin red border. It's all just lovely and totally harmonious.

OK, I'll stop the whole Fan Girl stuff! Here's what I made... I wanted to place my sentiment and bow at 5 to 5 just like Greta, but it just wouldn't work. Thankfully, everything else seemed to fit together nicely.

I had so much fun CASE-ing/being-inspired-by Greta's card 😉.  I know I made a much more visually interesting card because I drew on Greta's superior design abilities and her adorable signature style! Thanks, Greta!

I used Wonderous Wreath from Stampin' Up!, plus the matching Sizzix dies for this card. I used the same set for my second card, but swapped the colour palette. 

And finally, here's Cool Dude Rudy with his Random Raffle Prize for August...

Greta and I both hope you'll come Wreath it Up with us! 

The Christmas Kickstart #101 - Let's Wreath it Up!

 

Over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge I'm delighted to welcome back my dear friend Greta, as our Elf for August. If you've not visited Greta's blog before I urge you to head there this very second as her cards are a total delight and so inspiring.

 

Greta has chosen a lovely theme for our new challenge...

Challenge #101 - Let's Wreath it Up!

Yes, we'd like to see a wreath or multiple wreaths on your cards, please. You will LOVE Greta's card for our challenge - it's a total beauty and you can find it here. 

Here's what I made for our challenge. 

I grabbed my pencils and coloured Petunia Loves Christmas from Stampingbella. I don't use my pencil crayons very often these days and I felt rather rusty as I coloured this little sweetie. I loved the contrast of the purple and the green as shown on the stamp packaging so CASEd the look for my card. 

His Rudolphness has a fun new prize for his August Random Raffle Draw. 

 

*Sigh* I wish Heffy Doodle was still in business, but I'm so glad Rudolph bagged a few stamp sets before they closed. This one is a real cutie. 

Hope to see you playing along this month!

The Card Chain Challenge Reveal July 2025

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

We had 20 participants who exchanged cards across the globe this month, bringing our total number of cards exchanged to a rather amazing 4,727. A big thank you to Gail for all she does to keep this challenge going.

 

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

 

Colour Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

 

 Sketch Option

(Orient as desired.)

Theme Options:  Doors or Windows / Reading / Friendship

Product / Technique Options: Mirror Card / More Than 3 Folds

Just look what Gail sent me...

Isn't this just a work of art! Thank you so much, Gail. 

I sent this little card to Daja in Germany. The girl and her cat are from a magazine set. I'd love to know who the artist is, but have never managed to track them down.

If you'd like to play at Card Chain Challenge here's a little info to help: our 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.

Hope to see you there!

I'm linking my card to the following challenges:

Lost Coast Challenge #200 - Cats and Dogs

Big congratulations to the team for reaching Challenge #200!

Show Us Your Pussycats Challenge #114

Get well soon, Fiki. 

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #265 - A is for Alien

 

Greetings, Earthlings! For August the Sisterhood are playing A is for Alien... And having a truly out of this world experience with our fun theme.

I inked-up this fun little alien from VLVS and added a couple of space ships for extra fun. There are so many fabulous alien images at VLVS and I'd love a few more for my stash, but I'm not sure if I can import them to the UK anymore. Sadly, world trade complications appear to have thwarted my stamp buying.

You'll love the cards created by our reigning queen and the sistahs, so please beam yourself over and take a look!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #100 - Reminder

 

It's REMINDER time over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge! 

We're celebrating a milestone challenge in the very good company of my dear friend, Gail from CraftyNomad.

We're playing...

Challenge #100 - Merry go round

Here's Gail's card from the launch post...

I have to say that the more I look at this card the more I love it! The pup is Taco John from LCD, and I love that Gail added a Santa hat at a jaunty angle for extra festive fun. Just look  how Gail created a stripey background and nestled John in amongst a bevvy of baubles. Nice!

Gail's attention to detail is top notch as she has then stamped Ho, Ho, Ho into each bauble. I love the tone-on-tone look of the baubles and so grabbed that look as the inspiration for my card!

I used Wow! Confetti Circle stencil set for my circle and spots, and then added a tone-on-tone snowflake and greeting using (now retired) Snowflake Season from Reverse Confetti. 

My second card involved playing around with the same products to create a different look. 

Rudolph has done us proud for this celebration challenge and he's offering a prize for not one but two lucky randomly drawn winners.

Lovely!

 

Gail and I hope you'll come and join the fun!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #264 - H is for Hot, Hot, Hot!

Here in the UK it's been kinda cosy of late, and so it feels just right for the Sisterhood to play Hot, Hot, Hot!

I wanted to make a card with HAPPINESS as the theme and went searching Google for a suitable quote. OK, so this is what I came up with. I know llamas have nothing to do with the heat, but this made me laugh and I just couldn't get past the idea so the card got made!

The colour palette for my painty, inky gel print background is a mix of HOT colours, and the llama is a digi from the fabulous Vera Lane shop.

I hope you'll come and join The Sisterhood and our reigning Good Queen Wendy for this fun challenge!