The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #108 - Out of the Woods

Happy March, everyone!

Our guest Elf this month over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge is the rather wonderful Wendy from Cartai. 

Wendy has chosen a super-fun theme for us...

Challenge #108 - Out of the Woods

And she's created the sweetest card for our challenge together, and you can see it here. 

Here's what I made. I think my woodland creatures might just be 'forest' creatures! 

The majestic stag comes from Sizzix Thinlets set by Josh Griffiths called Forest Animals. His friend the bear is from the same set.

I added a Memory Box window to frame that nosey bear. 

The gorgeous Rudolph is with us over on the Kickstart blog to share his March Random Raffle Prize.

Anyone else miss Sugar Pead Designs? Such cute stamps.

Wendy and I both hope you'll come and play along with our challenge!

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 - Reminder

 

We're in the very talented company of  Carol Mayne for the whole of February over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge.

 

Carol picked a fun theme and and I'm delighted to say that thus far plenty of you have joined our festive sing-along challenge.

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #107

 - A Christmas Sing-Along!

Being a kindly elf, Carol has made a second card for our challenge, and you can see it over at Kickstart Central. 

As part of the fun I like to make an 'Inspired by' card for each challenge where I try not to shamelessly CaSE my guest's creation. I always hop my guests don't mind my doing this and I have to say I've learned so much about cardmaking styles and techniques as a result. 

Here's a reminder of Carol's first card for our challenge together. 

I just fell in card-love when I saw this 'pop up' as I opened Carol's email. The colours and that design - just perfect! I loved the bold background too, and hunted through my background stamps for something with a similar feel. 

Rather than sit my partridge in a bauble, I opted for this gorgeous wreath die. I wasn't sure how to colour the wreath and then remembered some embossing powder from The English Stamp Company. The colour is verdigris and it's completely stunning... And impossible to photograph! The very cute partridge is from Jane's Doodles and the Layered Wreath is an oldie by Pinkfresh.

You can find all the details about Carol's cards on her blog here, so please head over and leave her some love.

Let's say 'Hi' to once again our favourite reindeer with his cute February Random Raffle Prize. 

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

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #271 - B is for Black, Black Heart

We're having far, far too much fun over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers with Challenge #271 as we play B is for Black, Black Heart. Doesn't Edna look the bizz? 

We'd like to see anti-valentines or black on your cards, or even a combination of the two - whatever floats your crazy little love boat. 

Here's what I made using one of my most favourite stamps from Rubber Moon designed by Mary Engelbreit. I don't know why this lil gal makes me laugh so much, but she does! 

BTW, you may be relieved to know I'm not sending the card above to my hubby. He's getting this one instead!

The XOXOXOXO background is from Simon Says Stamp and I cannot stop playing with it. Seriously, I. Just. Can't. 

I'm linking this little chameleon card over at Inkspirational because their word prompt of XOXO just seems to fit perfectly! 

The current AAA Colourful Challenge also seems like a good place for my cards to go and play. 

And I'm also linking to Lost Coast Design as rightly, or wrongly, I think my chameleon card fits in here too... sort of!

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 - February 2026

Anyone else happily waving goodbye to January AKA the longest month of the year? 

Hi there, Cardfans, we've made it into February and as it's already the second day of the new month we have a Card Chain Challenge Reveal to enjoy!

We had 26 participants who exchanged cards across the globe in January, bringing the total number of cards exchanged thus far by Card Chain Challenge participants to 4,881.

 

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

Colour Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

Sketch Option

(Orient as desired.)

 

Theme Options: Feet / Doily / Friendship

Product / Technique Options: All I Got For Christmas Was..... / Layers

My recipient for this month was the lovely Gundi in Germany. I decided to go for a little 'Dorothy-inspired' fun and used a very old Waffle Flower die to create those famous ruby slippers. 

My sender this month is Gail in Norway. Isn't this just so much fun? Thanks, Gail, it's perfect! 

As always, it's lovely Reveal for a lovely challenge. 

Want to join the fun????

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.