The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #27 - Penguin Parade

Hi there, did you all have a good Christmas? Feeling up to partying the night away as 2020 approaches? And are you ready to make a Christmas card??? Yes, it's time to begin making our Christmas cards for 2020! 

The theme for this challenge is:

Challenge #27 - Penguin Parade

and I'm delighted to be joined by Gail from Crafty Nomad to undertake the elfin duties.

I spotted Mama Elephant's Little Penguin Agenda just before Christmas and fell head-over-heels in stamp love!

Aren't they adorable? You get twenty little penguins in this set; some with Winter accessories and some that could be used for birthdays. I can see me using this set again and again.

Card #2 is all about random stamping and a central panel from a very old Technique Tuesday set that doesn't appear to be available any more. This was very quick and simple to make.

Rudolph's back after a busy time guiding Santa's sleigh and he's offering a gorgeous (and very appropriate) prize for this his Random Raffle draw:

Woodware Clear Stamp set - Penguin Parade.

So, as Santa heads off for a well earned rest, Gail and I very hope you'll come and join us for the first pre-Christmas 2020 Challenge. 

Happy Christmas!

Hi, just dropping by to wish all my lovely blogging buddies a very Happy Christmas.

Hope Santa brings you lot's of new crafting goodies.

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #26 - If it's Christmassy, link it up!

Hi guys, it's the final Christmas Kickstart Challenge before Christmas 2019 and the theme is Anything Goes, or as we're calling it:

Challenge #26 - Last Minute Madness: 

If it's Christmassy, link it up!

Any last minute makes, cards you forgot to blog or Christmas 2020 early-bird creations, just add them to the linky over on the CKC blog!

Having been poorly for a while it felt good to do a little crafting today - nothing too technical, just a sweet Mama Elephant Santa from the Santa's Sleigh set I first used a few weeks ago. There are 10 image stamps and 5 sentiment stamps in this set, so it's a great one to have on hand for last minute makes. I think this cute guy may just be my most favourite Santa of 2019!

Rudolph has a sweet prize for his final Random Raffle of the year....

             

so why not come and play along at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge one more time in 2019!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #150 - X is for X-rated Christmas

Now, here's graphic you won't be able to unsee for a long, long time! Nice one, Sister Lee.

Yep, If there's one thing that Edna and the sisterhood like it's the opportunity to get naughty with the cardmaking and we very much hope you'll come and get X-rated with us too!

My card is really rather tame, but hopefully would raise a smile. The sentiment is computer made and inspired by a Google search. The lady in the chair is from Art Impressions. I've not inked-up one of these lovely stamps for ages and couldn't resist paper-piecing her for a little added fun. It's such a great way to use up scraps of DP.

As always, the sisters have created some super funny cards for our final challenge of the year, so please come and join the fun and naughty frolics!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #25 - The Christmas Story

Amazingly it's Challenge #25 over at The Christmas Kickstart! Not long now until the big day is finally here - thank goodness we've all been making Christmas cards for so long! Just need the time to write them now...

This is a very special challenge; first of all I'm delighted to welcome back the lovely Janis from Her Peaceful Garden who was my very first elf all the way back in January.

 

The second reason this feels special is because of the theme:

Challenge #25 - The Christmas Story

What better challenge as we count down to that most special of days and remember the reason for the season and celebrate the birth of that very special baby.

Janis has created a showstopper of a card for this challenge, so please head over to Christmas Kickstart and take a look.

My first card is a deceptively simple, layered creation using beautiful dies from MFT. The set includes everything you'll need to make your own little town of Bethlehem. The layering took a little 'jiggling' to get it to look right. I had fun creating the night sky and splattering some stars with white paint and a toothbrush.

My second card is a little fancier. Can you spot where the sentiment for card #1 came from? Sooo much masking was required, but it was worth the effort. I used a gorgeous Woodware stamp that just begged to be embossed on cream with gold. I added gold braid and some extra background embossing to finish things.

There's a sponsor for this challenge, and Rudolph is beside himself with joy!

Yes, the lovely Jane from Jane's Doodles is offering a $25.00 voucher for Rudolph's Random Raffle. Jane has a gorgeous range of stamps, including some beautiful Christmas images and I'm very grateful that she's agreed to sponsor Challenge #25. BTW, she has a Christmas stamp sale taking place right now!

Hope you will join us, and play along! We'd love to see your Stars, Wise Men, donkeys, shepherds, angels, cribs and anything that links to the Christmas story. 

Card Chain Challenge - November 2019 Reveal

It's time for the November 2019 Card Chain Challenge Reveal! 

We had 18 participants who exchanged cards across the globe this month (making our total number of exchanged cards 2,889 thus far!) using at least one of the following options:

Color Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

or

Sketch Option

(Orient as desired.)

or

Theme Options: Trees / Baubles / Friendship

or

Product / Technique Options: Glitter

The colours looked perfect for a chilly, snowy scene so I broke out a gorgeous set from Jane's Doodles and did a little stamping. I don't think Jane necessarily intended for this to be a Winter set, but the bears work well as polar bears! I had fun creating the cloudy sky using Distress inks.

I sent my card to Denise in California.

Suze in New Zealand sent me this adorable card. My first Christmas card of 2019!

If you want to join the fun for our next challenge you won't have to wait too long as you can sign up for the January 2020 Challenge from 7th December to 6th January. All cards exchanged will be revealed on 2nd February, 2020. You can see the whole Reveal in full here.

I'm also linking this card over at Creative With Stamps. 

It's far too long since I've played along with my former DT friends over there. 

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #149 -

The Sisterhood have a brand new challenge on offer for the next fortnight and it's connected with all things 'yummy' - including heart throbs!

My card uses a great quote which really speaks to me, plus a lovely image from Altenew which belongs to the Celebrations set. I decided to colour with pencil crayons for a simple, slightly naive look, but I'm not entirely loving it. I might add some chocolatey brown into the colour palette and see how I feel then.

Edited to add: Yep, better with the addition of brown!

The sisters have had a ball with this theme and our reigning queen has produced a tea/coffee/beer - spittingly funny creation which is also a little x-rated!

Hope you'll come and play along.

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #24 - Show us Your Santas!

Well, we certainly had a bumper number of entries in the linky gallery for Challenge #23 - SNOW, so let's see if we can smash that total for Challenge #24!

Once again I'm delighted to be joined by the lovely Gail from Crafty Nomad. 

This challenge was Gail's suggestion and we've been waiting to share it for ages! 

Challenge #24 we'd like you to...

Show us Your Santas!

Well, it just wouldn't be a Christmas card making challenge blog without a visit from the man in red!

I really like this set from Mama Elephant called Santa's Sleigh. I knew I wanted Santa crossing the moon and was lucky enough to find quite a few beautiful inspiration cards on Pinterest to help me out. I wanted to give Santa four reindeer, but once I'd put in the first two I decided three was plenty as the card could have looked like a tangle of hooves and antlers.

The amount of masking I had to do on this card was HUGE, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I'm still not exactly sure what the little animal is that's hitching a ride behind Santa - I'm thinking it's a dog, but I'm really not sure! Does Santa have a dog? I see him more as a cat person.

I'm sorry I've only one card to show for this challenge but I'm struggling with back pain and tonsillitis. It's a combination that just sucks the energy right outta you!

Rudolph's been shopping over at Clearly Besotted again and look what he's chosen as the prize for his Random Raffle - so cute!

Hope you'll come and play along and Show us Your Santas!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #148 - Q is for Quip

Edna and the sistahs are playing with the letter Q and getting all Quippy! 

Just to make sure we're all on the same page for this challenge a quip (according to a well-known online dictionary website) is a short, witty comment which can be pleasant, wise, or sarcastic, but usually carries an element of humor. Wit, wisdom, sarcasm and humor? Sounds like a perfect recipe for snarky card making fun! 

Our reigning Queen of Snark is the wonderful Lauren, and I know you will LOVE her little piece of quiptastic wonderfulness when you see it!

My creation is just good, old fashioned silly. I can't resist dressing this little MFT kitty in as many different hats/outfits as possible. Today, le petite chat est Francais...

Seriously, what would I do without this little cutie - thanks so much MFT for bringing him/her into my life. BTW, I've chosen French Script MT for the printing as it seemed appropriate. This must be a Sisterhood thing because if you drop by at Sister Jane's blog you'll see that her mind works in a very similar way!

Q is for Quip is open until 11:55 PM EST on Friday, 29th November and I really hope you can come join in the fun!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #23 - SNOW!

We have a new challenge, and another fabulous elf on board over at The Christmas Kickstart - it's the lovely Rebecca from Mellymoo Papercrafting!

Rebecca is my go-to Stampin' Up! person as well as a long term blogging buddy and I'm delighted that she agreed to wear the elf hat for this challenge.

So, what challenge do we have on offer for the next two weeks? It's...

Challenge #23 - SNOW!

Whether it's snowflakes, snow balls, snowmen, a light sprinkling or a raging blizzard we'd love to see your cards featuring the stuff we either love or hate!

My first card features for this challenge a gorgeous image from Impression Obsession I stumbled across earlier in the year. She's called 'Oh Dearie Girl' and is the work of Lindsay Ostrom. I love her illustrations and have to admit that there is a Nordic Wreath stamp calling my name very, very loudly right now! I created the background with twinkly embossing powder and Distress Inks. The stencil is from Newton's Nook and is 'sans packaging'.

Card #2 took ages to come together. I tried a several different ways of using that gorgeous Stamplorations die, but none of them seemed right. Then I thought 'white on white' with a 'pop' of red and everything fell nicely into place!

Rudolph is here again and this time he's got a beary big stamp on offer as his Random Raffle Prize.

This gorgeous guy is from Woodware and is a whopping, card-front-filling 9cm tall. He's just lovely.

I really hope that you'll come and play along with Rebecca and I for this fun challenge... Christmas is coming and those cards won't make themselves...

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #147 - T is for Tea

This time the sistahs have really pulled it outta the bag with this challenge as it's all about TEA! (See what I did there? Tea... tea bag!). While I do enjoy an occasional coffee I am powered by tea on a daily basis so this challenge had my name on it big time!

I love this cute stamp called Cup of Java from Penny Black and couldn't resist pairing this sweet girl with a funny saying (Thanks, Pinterest!). Kinda quirky, 'cos that's how I roll!

Hope you'll come and play along with us!

The Card Chain Challenge - October Reveal

It's time for another gorgeous Reveal over at The Card Chain Challenge!

During October we had 21 participants who exchanged cards across the globe this month. Our total number of exchanged cards is a totally fabulous 2,871 thus far. 

For this challenge most players were inspired by the rather lovely colour combo and the beautiful season that is Autumn.

Color Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

or

Sketch Option

(Orient as desired.)

or

Theme Options: Unicorns / Leaves / Friendship

or

Product / Technique Options: Die Cuts

I received this little beauty from Marga in Spain...

  

and sent this little piece of unicorn craziness all the way to Dee in Kenya.

I was gifted the cute unicorn (from Gummiapan stamps) by my crafting buddy and partner in crime Gail. I couldn't wait for an opportunity to have him/her snoozing on a soft cloud.

If you want to join in the fun, the November sign up has a few more days to run and after that you can sign up for the January 2020 Challenge from 7th December to 6th January. We have a little break in December to accommodate the Festive Season. All cards exchanged for the January Challenge will be revealed on the CCC blog on 2nd February 2020. 

The Card Chain Challenge is an event where everybody wins. Basically, you make a card for the person above you on the chain and you receive a card from the person below you on the chain. It's a personalized swap, sort of, and it's a ton of fun! 

Hope you come and join the chain!