The Card Chain Challenge Reveal - August 2026

We are all about spreading love around the world, 

one handmade card at a time!!

Hi there, card fans it's time for another Reveal over at The Card Chain Challenge. This month we had 26 lovely participants who exchanged cards across the globe and they've made some truly wonderful creations!

 

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: Elephants and/or Mice / Baking / Friendship

Product / Technique Options: Lace / Collage

Here's what I sent to Joanne in Connecticut.

I decided it would be fun to play with this gorgeous Katzelkraft elephant and to give him a little mouse pal! The lovely lacey background was a gift from a crafting buddy, and is just perfect for this challenge. 

My sender this month was Hilary in the UK and just look at the beautiful card she made. What a surprise to see we used the same background! Thanks so much, Hilary, it's been a treat to be your recipient once again.

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 #114 - Reindeer Games!

 

Over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge I'm so happy to be playing again with the lovely Loll from Stamping With Loll and I know you'll LOVE the card she's made to get our crafting party started.

Loll has picked such a fun theme for our September challenge...

Challenge #114 - Reindeer Games

We would like to see reindeer this month, please, and LOTS of them! 

Here's what I made:

I'm so glad I bought these little reindeer dudes from Mama Elephant as they are so, so cute. And here's my second card using the same 'sentiment' - just proves that context is everything! No points for spotting a fun Art Impressions gal against that lovely Simon Says Stamp Christmas Tree background. Sadly, both sets appear to be discontinued.

Rudolph is especially pleased with the theme this month, and is offering a fun prize for his Random Raffle!

Loll and I can't wait to see what you guys get up to when you play those Reindeer Games!

Stuck on You - Jingle Belles

I'm so happy to have Lauren and Stephanie from Jingle Belles as my guests at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge this month, where we've been playing Friendship. By way as a thank you to the girls I set myself a little mini-challenge to try and take part in all their August Challenges and 'get me', that's just what I've managed to do!

The Belles are playing with stickers for their newest challenge and I knew I had a sweet little cat sticker in my stash that could be perfect.

I have a top tip for anyone new to using stickers and that is to back them with card or leave on the backing paper. This tip was given to me by Carol from Just Me: c and it works like a charm. 

I'm having a little romance with tone-on-tone stamping right now and created a background using a gorgeous oldie Hero Arts stamp - Antique Brocade. It's a smaller background stamp and just the right size for this little square creation. I added some Glossy Accents to the baubles on the wreath to give a little added interest. 

Have a great weekend, guys, and happy crafting!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #113 - Reminder

I'm so happy to have Lauren and Stephanie as our guests over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge! Together, this dynamic duo are The Jingle Belles and run one of my most fave Christmas challenges. 

Our Theme this month is FRIENDSHIP!

We'd love to see your cards for a friend and/or celebrating friendship, please.

As regular visitors to my blog will know, I like to create an 'Inspired by' piece for my Reminder card. I like to do this as a little homage to my guest's work, but also to stretch and challenge myself a little. With two cards for inspiration I wondered how I could do this, but actually everything came together really well for my card.

I love how Stephanie's card has a photographic motif, and so thought of using photos of friends 'goofing around' in the snow. I picked girl and boy images to mirror the friends in Lauren's card, and used her colour palette for their clothing. The images of the children are from Concord & 9th set Bundled Up. Sadly, this set appears to be retired now, which is a pity. 

Rudolph is playing with penguins for this month's Random Raffle Draw.

Stephanie, Lauren and I hope you'll come and join the fun!

Masculine Merriment with the Jingle Belles

The lovely Jingle Belles AKA Lauren and Stepanie are my current elves over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge. Back at their own site they have a brand new challenge 'Masuline Merriment' on offer and I wanted to play along as I so rarely make masculine cards and welcome the push in that direction. (I may have had a wee heads up about the theme! 😉)

I've made a very simple card using Layered Boxes Die from Waffle Flower. I'm quite pleased with the colour combo - the green really makes it work for me.

I'd love to tell you which dies I've used for the lettering, but they've vanished! I'm hoping they've not fallen over the front of my desk as it'll mean climbing under or over said desk to find them. It's happened before, people, and it was tricky! Wish me luck.

You'll love Stephanie and Lauren's cards for their challenge, so why not head on over and play along with them!

Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe with the Jingle Belles

Over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge for the whole of August, I'm delighted to have Lauren and Stephanie aka the lovely Jingle Belles as Elves. I'm a big fan of their Challenge, but don't often manage to play along. However, somehow the planets have aligned perfectly and so I'm joining the fun for their Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge!

I do love a Tic-Tac-Toe and decided to go diagonally across the grid from left to right, picking red as my colour option. I created the background with a Tim Holtz Layering Stencil (Merry Christmas) and coloured-up one of my favourite snowmen from a golden oldie set Paper Smooches Snow Dudes. 

The sentiment looked a bit unbalanced so I added 'Friend' and felt that made the card work on quite a few different levels!