Season's Greetings...

 

The Sistahs are Back in Town!

Edna and the sisterhood are back from an extended break and are getting ready to be super snarky in 2024 to celebrate our 10th anniversary!

Our final challenge for 2023 is a special one, as we remember 

our much loved sistah JESSI.  

Jessi was a founding member of the sisterhood, and it was a joy to get to know her, along with the other sistahs when I joined the gang in 2016. Sadly, the world lost this creative and beautiful soul in December 2018. 

We'd love you to help us celebrate Jessi by creating a project inspired by her art. You can find some crafty inspiration on her blog HERE.

I've always liked this card Jessi made; you can find it by visiting Jessi's blog here. 

And here's my Inspired by Jessi creation. 

I haven't used Art Impressions Giant Cake Set for a while, so it was fun to get this one inked up once again. 

The Sisterhood very much hope you'll come play along and help us remember our sweet, funny and much-missed buddy, Jessi. Also, the sistahs have a new teamie... I wonder who it can be??!!

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

In the Deep Midwinter...

 

Happy Winter Solstice to you all.

Thankfully, it's fairly mild where I am today as we have no central heating at the moment! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I am currently wearing four layers.

I'm delighted to be joining the fun at LCD today with a fun card featuring a fabulous Jane's Doodles image which I've stamped, coloured and paper pieced. 

This was very fiddly to make, but great fun. I'm sure this is how modern reindeer cope with a deep midwinter.

I used up quite a few little bits of pretty patterned paper for this card just so I could play along in The Snippets Playground Challenge! 

Hope you're having a happy Christmas eve - eve - eve! 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #81 - Reminder

The Holiday Season is in full swing and in 10 days time it'll be Christmas Day!

It's the traditional December Challenge over at Christmas Kickstart as we're playing:

Challenge #81 - If it's Christmassy, Link it Up!

Just link up any Christmas cards you've just created. Yes, it really is as simple as that. If you're stuck for a theme why not look back through the past year of inspiration and fun at Christmas Kickstart where our elfin muses have once again done us proud!

That cute 'n' chunky VLVS kitty is making another appearance on a Christmas card. A friend bought this card from me a week or so ago, but has since told me she's too worried to send it for fear of offending someone! I did offer her the chance to swap it for a different card, but she said she likes it and may keep it just for herself! 

And still on the theme of cats, here's a Katzelkraft mini stamp that always makes me smile...

Time for one more?

Another feline favourite is this lil' dude from Carabelle, who I believe have announced that they are closing down. What a pity this is. Stampers Grove have some great Carabelle bargains on offer at the moment. 

I think one of my New Year resolutions better be to make less cat cards. However, I doubt if this will be a resolution that will last! 😸😸😸

Rudolph final Random Raffle Prize for 2023 is a cutie.

   

I hope you'll come and join the fun at Christmas Kickstart for one last time this year!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge - If It's Christmassy, Link It Up!

 

This is the final challenge for 2023 and it's our traditional nice and easy, anything goes style December challenge...

Challenge #81 - If it's Christmassy, Link it Up!

Just link up any Christmas cards that you want to. Yes, it really is as simple as that. If you're stuck for a theme why not look back through the past year of inspiration and fun here at Christmas Kickstart - our elfin muses have once again done us proud!

I'm completely in love with this cute cat from Jane's Doodles. 

I printed out a few of these, and made the cards with a variety of different cats. Great fun!

As you can see, I'm very much still in Kitty Card mode after our tribute challenge for Janis in October. 

I do like this Oddball kitty with his ornament, and these cranky-looking Stamping Bella cats make me smile. 

Rudolph is over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge with a fun Random Raffle Prize...

   

I hope you'll come and play in the final Christmas Kickstart Challenge of 2023!

November 2023 - Card Chain Challenge Reveal

Time flies! Unbelievably, it's the November 2023 Card Chain Challenge Reveal!

We had 34 participants who exchanged cards across the globe this month, meaning that the total number of cards exchanged thus far by Card Chain Challenge participants is 4,200. 

Before we go any further, look what happened in Mid-November...

Two people, who quite clearly hate having their photograph taken, met in an English country pub for a lovely evening. It was great to meet you, Gail. Hope to see you again soon!

 

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

Colour Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required)

or

Sketch Option

(Orient as required)

or 

Theme Options:

Winter/ Indian/ Friendship

or 

Product / Technique Options:

Scraps/Quilling

I sent my card to Gail in Canada. I had fun with this card as it required some tricky stamping to create the second elephant. 

And my sender was Marianne in Greece. Isn't this just the most beautiful card! I love it.

We've got another lovely Reveal, so please come over and take a look. And there's still time to sign-up for our uber challenging Tic-Tac-Tic-Tac-Toe. Hope to see you there...

Round and Round...

 

I'm sneaking in again at the last minute over at Lost Coast Design! The challenge ends this evening, but I couldn't share this card until today!

I do love these old Silent Movie images from Viva Las Vegas Stamps. Rather than colour her, I decided to stamp and mask, and have her 'pop' against a circle of Distress Inks to match the painty, stenciled background layer. 

The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity is such a fab challenge blog AND they offer prizes from their AMAZING online store. This really is a great little site and deserves more support, so why not head over and take a look!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #80 - Reminder

 

It's Reminder time over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge, where I'm delighted to be hosting my pals The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.

This month we're having heaps of fun playing...

And I'm thrilled to see just how many of you are enjoying this crazy, play-it-how-you-want-to theme! There are some great cards in the gallery.

For my Reminder cards I've got these to share:

I had enormous fun creating this card using a stamp set from an older Clearly Besotted set (apparently, no longer available) and a VLVS Flying Saucer. The speech bubble was printed out on my PC. It's not often that my cards entertain or amuse my hubby, but this one did raise a chuckle!

Card #2 is a very different style of card for me.

I had some Gelli prints from a while ago in my stash and decided it was time they saw the light of day. The big snowflake is from Colorado Craft Company Big and Bold - Warm wishes Snowflake. The lovely edging is from Poppystamps and is called Frozen Border. This is an older die and doesn't appear to be currently available, however, this one is similar. 

I was amazed to see this beautiful card over on Michele's blog. Great minds think alike!

I hope you'll come and join the fun!

Last Minute dot Com

 

I'm just coming in under the wire for the current challenge at The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity.

I've had plenty of time to come up with something for this fun challenge, but after trying a few different ideas this was the only thing I liked! 

Doesn't this good boy from Jane's Doodles look fabulous in his Christmas jumper? 

I used a tiny piece of leftover paper for the jumper, so am linking up for Challenge #467 in The Snippets Playground.

I'm also linking to another new-to-me challenge called Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge. They are currently on Challenge #51... So I'm obviously a little slow on the uptake!

Hope you all have a happy and creative day! 

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #80 - It's Christmas Jim, but not as we know it!

Challenge #80, is kicking-off today and I'm delighted to be joined by the adorable Edna and some of my very best crafting buddies... The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.

This month we're playing

It's Christmas, Jim, but not as we know it!

Now, this is one of those challenges where you can play the theme in a few different ways. I'm not sure where I found this phrase, but I thought it would make for a fun theme for our challenge. Rumour has it that it's a festive corruption of a Star Trek quote...

and there are quite a few different ways in which you can play this challenge - as demonstrated by The Sisterhood over on the Challenge post.

My first card for the challenge is this one!

I decided that the Reveal for this little Santa was quite unexpected and fun. He's a little Clipart character I found while looking for something completely different!

My second card is a very different colour combo for a Christmas card. Its copper and black, and I'm not 100% sure if I'd go with these colours again, but it was fun to do something very different and I'm grateful to Gail for suggesting this dramatic colour palette. 

I'm entering this card at the current Double D Challenge, which is Oh Deer! This is a new challenge to me and I'm delighted to see some familiar names playing there. I like their mood board, and so does Rudolph!

Meanwhile, back at Christmas Kickstart, there's a lovely prize for one lucky RANDOM WINNER curtesy of the lovely Rudolph and his RANDOM RAFFLE.

For this month's prize he's chosen this cute set from Woodware. 

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

The Card Chain Challenge Reveal - October 2023

Hello and welcome it's time for the October 2023 Card Chain Challenge Reveal!

We had 34 participants who exchanged cards across the globe this month. Our total number of cards exchanged thus far by Card Chain Challenge participants is 4,168.

And a new player joined our chain this month, so it's 'Hello' to Barbara in Switzerland.  

 

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: Bears / Balloons / Friendship

Product / Technique Options: Something Fluffy / Spotlight Stamping

Here's what I sent to  Viv in UK.

I've had this little bear for ages, but have never inked him up before. He's from a Tracey Hey set called 'No Words'. Cute, isn't he! 

My sender for this month is the lovely Jeanne in Minnesota. 

Isn't her card just a masterclass in CAS perfection!

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.

Playing at Color Hues

 

I was feeling at a bit of a loose end this morning, but all that changed when I found that Light Blue and Purple were the colours over at Color Hues - The Color Challenge. 

I was in the mood for a little bit of SNARK. 

The gel print was already in my fodder stash, the VLVS ladies were already stamped and so this card came together very quickly.  

There are some lovely cards for this challenge that have been created by their very talented DT, so why not head over and take a look!

Pinch, punch and first of the month to you all!