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!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #103 - Reminder

 

Hi everyone, it's time for our Reminder post over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge.  

We're so lucky to have the lovely Loll as our Elf this month, she is one talented lady!

Our theme is:

Challenge #103 - Snow Alert!

Loll has kindly created a second card for our challenge, and you can see it here in all it's glory. 

Here's a quick reminder of Loll's first card for our challenge.

I really love this card, and had so much fun spending time looking at all the gorgeous details. Loll's colouring is awesome and the scene is just perfectly balanced and put together, but I decided to steal her fabulous signature paint splashes and that great torn paper effect. here's the result:

I discovered just how hard it is to get splatters that look as good as Loll's do! I decided I needed a splatter brush and bought a TH one, but I have to say that I just made a mess with it. I'd certainly welcome some tips and hints on getting a good splatter effect from any of you guys who are in the know. The little deer is from Avery Elle and the set is called Dasher, so I shouldn't really have given him a red nose! 

Rudolph has another fun prize for this challenge, so why not drop by and take a look. Loll and I hope you'll come and play along! 

The Merry Little Christmas Challenge

 

It's time for a brand new Anything Goes Christmas Challenge over at MLCC.

I was in the mood to play with this sweet little pup from Avery Elle. Unfortunately, I don't think this set is still available anywhere, which is a pity as it's so cute. 

The sentiment is also from Avery Elle and is from the Wreath Tag Sentiments set. I opted for a non-traditional colour combo. The gang over at MLCC have created some great cards and we'd love you to drop on over and play along!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge # 94 - Reminder

 

Welcome back, card friends! We have the very talented Julia Aston as our first elf of the New Year over at The Christmas Kickstart and she's created another gorgeous bauble-themed card for our Reminder post... Please head over and take a look. 

Here's a reminder of the gorgeous card Julia made to get the party started!

As regular visitors will be aware I like to make an Inspired by card for the Reminder post and attempt not to shamelessly CASE my guest's original creation. I love Julia's cute Christmas pudding bauble, but really struggled to get my head around which elements to include for my card. I love the sweet, playful nature of Julia's beautiful card and so here's what I came up: 

A single bauble, patterned paper and a little gentle humour! This card was made in these colours as a reminder of my sweet girl cat, Cleo. Once the tree was up and decorated she would quietly eye up a bauble, check whether we were watching and then extend a paw, bat the bauble from the tree and expertly dribble it across the floor!

I combined a few different dies and images for this card: Paws Up Die from Waffle Flower, Wreath Tag Sentiments from Avery Elle, and Funky Baubles from Sizzix.

My second card for this challenge is inspired by my boy cat Custard. He just used to look blankly at the tree and take no notice of all the sparkly, dangly stuff. He always wore a look of 'Oh, that thing again.' whenever the tree appeared. 

The cat is from Globeland Stamps and the Sentiment is from a fun Whimsy Stamps set I've just opened called Merry Stressmas. 

I'm linking-up over at The Jingle Belles as they are looking for Something Old, Something New for their first challenge of the year. The cat and the sentiment are new, but I've had the bauble stamps for years and have lost the backing sheet and everything! Still stamps well though. 

Rudolph has a beautiful bauble as the prize for our first challenge of 2025!

 

There's still plenty of time to play along, so please come and join Julia and me... and don't forget to Bring the Baubles!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #93 - Reminder

 

We're all about an Anything Goes Christmas for the whole of December

over at Christmas Kickstart, so why not head over and join the fun!

My first card is this little cutie from Avery Elle set Ho Ho Holidays. The gorgeous embossed background is Origami Folds by Spellbinder. Isn't it lush!

My second card features a sweet little stamp from VLVS. 

Here's what Rudolph has on offer for one randomly selected winner of his Random Raffle:

 

Hope to see you there!

Merry Little Christmas Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes for November

 

November? How did that happen? Goodness, it's not long until 'Ho, Ho, Ho Season'!

Thankfully, I have quite a good stash of Christmas cards, but you can never have too many and so I grabbed one of my fave stamp sets and got crafting to create a card for the brand new Anything Christmas Goes at MLCC.

To make my card I combined Altenew Chrystal Wall 3D and Dear Santa from Avery Elle. Unfortunately, neither of these lovely products seem to be available these days. I wasn't going to colour this cat as a Siamese, but I couldn't resist doing so. 

You can hop on over and see what my talented MLCC teamies have created for this challenge by clicking here. 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #66 - Home for the Holidays

Hi there, over at Christmas Kickstart Challenge today I'm delighted to be welcoming Tina from Treebug as our elf for this September! 

Tina has chosen a lovely theme for us to play with in September 

Challenge #66 - Home for the Holidays

We'd love to see cards with houses, homes, fireside scenes, cityscapes - whatever the phrase conjures up for you!

You can take a look at Tina's beautiful card by clicking here. This is a theme with plenty of scope for you to work with - just go your own way with it and have fun!

Here's what I made...

Looks okay in this colour combo too, but not as festive.

I combined a Stampin' Up! image from Sit, Stay, Relax with a sentiment from Corner Sentiments Holiday by Avery Elle.

I also made this little card - don't you just love kraft and white together? I know I do.

The lovely Rudolph has chosen a lovely prize for his Random Raffle. 

 

Nice one, Rudolph! I love that spaghetti beard, and who doesn't need a Santa Hat, cute glasses and some Ho, ho, ho! in their craft stash??!! All entrants who've followed the rules will go into Rudolph's Random Raffle with a chance to win this prize.

Tina and I hope you'll come and play along with our challenge and we hope you have as much fun interpreting the theme as we did.

My Dad!

Just dropping by to share the card I made for my dad!

Thought I'd also share a picture of the man himself.

To make this card I used a super-fun Stampotique stamp (I masked out the other birds) and Avery Elle set Mom and Dad.

Card Chain Challenge - January Reveal

Hi card fans, I'm a day late with my January CCC Reveal post due to real life getting in the way a bit!

So, let's jump right in and get this party started.
This is the card I sent to Nat in Quebec...

And here is the beauty that arrived yesterday from Sara in Missouri!

As you can see, we both went with the theme of Unicorns, the colour combo and the product option of glitter!

Theme Options: Snowflake / Unicorn / Friendship

or 

Product / Technique Options: Glitter /Embossing

As always, we have a beautiful 'Reveal' on offer at CCC central - plus the sign-up post for February, which is open until Tuesday 6th February. This challenge is such fun because it is an international card exchange: you make a card, send a card, get a card.  Everyone gets a card.  Everyone is a winner.  How brilliant is that!

Naughty or Nice Challenge #48 - All Loved Up!

We're feeling 'All Loved Up' this month at Naughty or Nice Challenges! We've got a great theme for this most romantic of months, plus a gorgeous graphic (inspired by a beautiful photograph).

This gorgeous colour palette is optional, but I'm sure you'll find it hard to resist such lovely, soft pinks and that gorgeous grey and beautiful blue.

(Design Seeds source and image via @CAROLINE_SOUTH)

So, Darren and Jon are getting engaged on February 14th... Great news, but how hard was it to find a suitable image for their card??? Thank goodness this adorable Avery Elle Viking came to my rescue and supplied the perfect 'guy' image!

I coloured each viking appropriately, and then broke out my favourite Valentine's paper pad. Such a fun card to make! I think the boys will like it. Still not quite decided on the sentiment/greeting for the inside, but 'All good wishes for the voyage ahead' seems like a possible idea.

The Troublemakers have had a blast with this challenge, please join us here - we'd love you to play along!

Seize the... Balloon!

I spotted this fun fish card over at Lynne's blog a little while ago. We've cyber-known one another for quite a while and, probably as a result, have many of the same stamps and stamp sets. I couldn't resist this Avery Elle set called that BITES! so once again, thanks for being my crafting enabler, Lynne!

I've not managed to play along at Seize the Birthday for way too long so decided to take a look at the current Challenge. After finding that the additional toppings were Tags: Little or Big I played around with a few different ideas. However, I kept coming back to the idea of being as happy as a fish with a big balloon on your birthday and so made this slightly crazy card!

I created a smooshy watercolour background and then added the fussy- cut fish and his fussy-cut balloon. The die-cut was coloured with Distress Inks and then clear embossed to make it good and shiny. The fish has glittered spots, Glossy Accent eyes and a gold tooth! His balloon is held on a piece of cotton which flows from the card.

 I think I've stretched the 'tag' theme a little but I hope you like the card!

I'm back to work/school tomorrow and have covered my diary to make it look less daunting.

Happy crafting, everyone!