Challenge #92 - Reminder

 

We're all about Wise Men Three for this month here at Christmas Kickstart where we're joined by my partner in crafting shenanigans Gail from CraftyNomad.   

Gail created this showstopper of a card for our challenge launch. 

I was immediately reminded of stained glass windows when I first saw Gail's card. The colours and shapes made me think particularly of the glass of Coventry Cathedral. This set me thinking about stained glass and how, when I worked in a primary school, we used to decorate the windows to look like church windows using paint mixed with washing-up liquid to make it glossy and easier to use on glass... The smell was horrible. Anyhoo, that's how I arrived at this card:

The Three Kings image is one I removed from a wood block. The block wasn't balanced very well and I couldn't get a good print with the image in situ. Sadly, I'm not sure of the brand as the block has gone AWOL. I went bold and bright for the colours just like Gail did on her card.

My second card continues the theme of Christmas in a primary school as I used these delightful images by AI called Jingle Tots Nativity Set. I think I snaffled the last set of these cuties (and at a lower price too!), but you can still buy them as individual wood blocks here. 

Working with these images again took me back to my days in Education, and The Nativity play which was put on each year with the youngest children in the school taking the parts. The 'scenery' is a die cut from MFT Little Town of Bethlehem. 

Rudolph is itching to give away this fun stamp set this month, so please read our Challenge Guidelines to be in with a chance to win!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #92 - Wise Men Three

The three wise men came to the manger with gifts for baby Jesus. They brought gold and frankincense...

But wait, there's myrrh!

Welcome to The Christmas Kickstart Challenge for November 2024, where we're joined by Gail AKA, Iona B Unny, Crafty Nomad, AKA Wonder Bunny, AKA My Very Dear Friend!

Thanks so much for bringing the fun again, Gail, it's always a joy to have you wear the elf hat!

Our Theme for this month is:

Wise Men Three

We'd love to see what you come up with for our theme. We think it's one you could play in a few different ways and hope it's a challenge that gets your creative juices flowing. Thinking outside the box is definitely welcome.

Here's the card Gail made for our challenge:

Isn't this just a stunner! You can find all the details at Gail's blog here. Please head on over and leave her some love.

I decided to go super-traditional for my first card:

You can find all the details about this card and also see my second card, which gives an additional idea for playing our theme by visiting my blog.

Rudolph's Random Raffle Prize for this challenge is this sweet little penguin set: 

 

Please, remember to read our challenge guidelines to be eligible to win this lovely prize.

Challenge Rules and Guidelines: 

This is a Christmas Card Making Challenge

• Like and/or follow this blog either via Blogger or Bloglovin, or Email. 
• Add the URL link from your project after it has been uploaded to your online craft gallery or blog to 
• Please mention and link back to this post/blog to let people know about this fun challenge!
• I'd appreciate cards made especially for this challenge, but I understand that we all love challenges and the additional traffic they bring, so please link a card that fits NO MORE THAN 8 CHALLENGES including this. 
• New Challenges will commence on the first Tuesday of each new month. 
• Please enter a max of 3 cards per challenge.
• Preferably no back linking to older projects, please.
• Please remember to reference a fellow crafter's creations if your card has been inspired by their work.

Thanks for reading our guidelines.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let's trim the Tree for Challenge #91

There's a brand new challenge starting here tomorrow at Christmas Kickstart, so I thought I'd just drop by and Trim the Tree for Challenge #91.

I'll start the proceedings by saying a very big THANK YOU to our guest elf for this challenge - the lovely Faith from Daffodil cards! 

Thanks for creating two brilliant cards for our challenge, Faith, and for keeping me company throughout the month. It's been a joy getting to know you! BTW, guys, if you love a gorgeous Santa card please head on over and take a look at Faith's latest make... I totally guarantee it'll rock your festive socks!

Whilst we did have a few cardmakers link up for this challenge who may not have read all the rules, we did have some fabulous cards for our colour palette theme. 

Our Top Picks for this challenge are:

#35 - Gundi

Such a pretty way to use our colour combo.

#21 - Becca Y

Isn't this just the sweetest card! We love the bird and the repetition of the sentiment. 

#24 - Vanessa

I couldn't copy Vanessa's card from Instagram, 

so please go and take a look... It's a beauty.

Our Winners and Stars on the Tree for this week are:

#3 - Linda

Linda just blew us both away with this card. What an amazing way to use our colour palette.

And

#19 - Michele

Isn't this just stunning! 

We both swooned over Michele's attention to detail and her sweet design.

Congratulations to you all, I hope you'll enjoy flaunting your blog badges for all the world to see!

 

 

#33 Becca Y...  It's you!

Congratulations, Becca, please email me a dottypudding (at) aol.com with your snail mail address so I can connect you with your prize. 

Thanks again to Faith, and to all our lovely players! Our new challenge begins tomorrow, so please hurry back and join the fun!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #91 - Reminder

Welcome back, Kickstarters, are you ready for more Christmas card creativity and inspiration?

This month we are in the company of the lovely Faith from Daffodil Cards. She's a total sweetheart and I'm loving getting to know her as the month progresses. 

 

Faith chose a colour theme for us to play with and I'm sure you'll all agree the colours are gorgeous. We'd really like to see our theme colours reflected in your cards, please. Exact matching of the shades and tones is not essential - I couldn't quite manage it myself, and faith and I are both happy to see black, white and neutrals come to the party. However, we've had a few entries that are beautifully made, but a little wide of the mark colour-wise, so please double-check our palette before entering.

Faith has made a second card for our challenge, and here it is:

I bet you'll all be singing that Chris Rea song in your heads for the rest of the day! Thanks, Faith, I love your cute card.

Here's the card Faith made for our challenge launch:

I really love how she played with our colour palette and decided that I'd break-out the same gnome set (a magazine freebie?) for my 'Inspired by' card. This is what I made:

I had so much fun creating this, and you can find all the details over on my blog. Don't forget to drop by over at Faith's blog too and leave her some love!

Rudolph's Random Raffle Prize for October is adorable:

 

Anyone correctly following the Challenge Guidelines will go into the draw for this sweet stamp set. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let's trim the Tree for Challenge #90

Let's see if we can brighten up Monday for a few folks as we Trim the Tree for Challenge #90!

We were joined by the lovely and very talented, Jenny Martin from My Paper Epiphany as our elf and she did us proud with a fabulous creation as we played:

Embossing Folder Fun!

Thanks so much for sharing your creativity with us, Jenny, and thanks also for all the chat behind the scenes - it's been fun getting to know you! 

Both Jenny and I loved seeing your beautiful creations for this challenge, and we loved how many different techniques you guys used to demonstrate the versatility of the not so humble embossing folder!

Our Top Picks for this challenge are:

#3 - Dawn

Just look at the way Dawn used Colour Burst Powders with her Embossing folder.

The white wording really 'pops' against that luscious background. 

#28 - Denise B

We love how Denise enhanced the embossing with white ink.

#31 - Helen

A cute pup, and a gorgeous background with beautiful blending and 

sanding of the embossing.

This Challenge was just so difficult to call for a single Star, so sharing Top Spot for this month we have two fabulous cards from two very talented makers.

Our Winners and Stars on the Tree for this week are:

#11 - Leslie M

and

#12 - Arlene Rose

Congratulations to you all, I hope you'll enjoy flaunting your blog badges 

for all the world to see!

Finally, here's Rudolph to announce the WINNER of his September Random Raffle:  

 

#17 - Julia A... It's you!

Congratulations, Julia, please email me a dottypudding (at) aol.com with your snail mail address so I can connect you with your prize. 

Once again, a very big thank you to Jenny, and a big thank you to everyone who played along with this challenge - you guys always bring the fun and totally make Christmas Kickstart what it is! 

There's a new challenge underway and a lovely, shiny new elf in the form of Faith from Daffodil Cards! We'd love it if you'd come and play along! 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #91 - Colourful Christmas!

 

Welcome to The Christmas Kickstart Challenge! I'm delighted to welcome Faith from Daffodil Cards as our elf for the new month.

"Hello, I'm Faith here from Daffodil Cards, why Daffodil? Because I'm Welsh and it's our National flower. I started making cards many, many years ago. I started with digital cards for family and friends, then tried stamping, which I was awful at, then stamping platforms came in, and I got to grips, sort of, with stamping, I'm still learning, but love it. It got me into colouring which is a much harder learning curve, but, I'm mostly satisfied with the result. I'm also love my Silhouette, that's another story. I hope you will join me in either starting or continuing making your Christmas cards with the lovely colours chosen this month."

This month we're inviting you to join us for a COLOUR Challenge as we play:

Challenge #91 - Colourful Christmas

Exact matching isn't necessary, but we'd like to see our palette reflected in your card, please. If you'd like to you can also take inspiration from the picture; I love the reindeer with it's gingham bow against the frosty blues of the background. 

Here's what Faith created using these colours:  

Just look at the sweet little scene she's made. I love the positioning of her gnome in the landscape so everything looks perfectly to scale. And don't get me started on the gnome guy with his super-cute hat: totally adorable. Thanks so much, Faith.

Here's my card. Unfortunately, the photo-editing process has taken all the beige/pinky tones out of the picture, but trust me they are there on the reindeer's belly!

Rudolph was delighted I used one of his kin for my card, and so has provided an extra lovely prize for our October Random Raffle:

Faith and I both hope you'll come and play along!

Don't forget to read the Challenge Guidelines before linking-up. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter