Christmas Kickstart Challenge

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #115 - Gothic Christmas

Hi there Christmas Kickstarters, and welcome to a brand new challenge!

We have the rather wonderful Carol from Just Me:c making a return visit as our elf.

You'll recall that Carol was last here in February when we played Christmas Sing-Along. While chatting and passing ideas back-and-forth for Sing-Along cards, we began to wonder if it might be interesting to play a Christmas Challenge with some kind of Halloweeny twist.

Good people of cardland, I bring you...

Challenge #115 - Gothic Christmas

Following a spree of Halowwen cardmaking, my workspace is covered in black glitter card and witches, bats and ghosties - all the perfect potential ingrediants for a Gothic Christmas! But how to pull these things together to make a Gothic Christmas card? Pinterest to the rescue! Honestly, take a look... So much inspiration and fun.

Here's what Carol said in a recent email about our theme...

"Yes, [it's] a challenging theme but fun to do some thinking/crafting out-of-the-box, so to speak. Because Gothic Christmas doesn’t ‘have to’ equate to being sort of ‘creepy’ or gaudy or whatever people may ‘typically’ associate gothic as being."

Carol focused her creative thoughts on "darker colours, ornate images, a degree of ‘elegance’" and once we found this gorgeous image things really began to fall into place for both of us.

To join this challenge Carol and I suggest you either go full-on The Nightmare Before Christmas or draw your inspiration from this fabulous tree image... The choice is yours and we can't wait to see what you create!

Here's Carol's first card for our challenge taking her cue from the inspiration picture, but leaning into a traditional colour combo for the baubles and fabulous plaid trim. I'm sure you'll agree she nailed the brief!

Here's what I made. Again, I pulled inspiration from the picture, but added a side-order of crazy with a sweet bat in a Santa hat. You can find all the details about my card over on my blog.

Two very different creations, but we think they fit the bill.

Rudolph is here once again with his Random Raffle Prize and, as you can see, he's entered into the spirit of this challenge perfectly.

Carol and I both hope you'll get your gothic on to play along... Rather fittingly, you have until the witching hour on Halloween to join the fun.

Friday, September 18, 2026

Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #113

There really was only one theme to play when Jingle Belles Stephanie and Lauren dropped-by as guests for Challenge #113 and that was...

A Friend is for Life and not just Christmas

A huge thank you to these lovely ladies for bringing the inspiration and fun. It was a blast to hang out with you both.

We had thirty-two fabulous entires in the linky gallery and this theme obviously sparked everyone's creativity! Thank you so much to all of you wonderful people for playing along.

Choosing cards to showcase was especially tough this month, but here come the 'RESULTS'...

Our Top Picks for this challenge are:

#29 - Becca

Just so sweet and cute, and perfect for the theme.

#24 - Helen

What a gorgeous card, and so beautifully pencil coloured too.

#14 - Michele

A knock-out colour palette and a sweet scene inside the letter 'O'.

Our Winner and Star on the Tree for this week is:

#26 Julia

A stunning piece of design work and a fabulous use of colour.

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

Rudolph had an adorable penguin set on offer for his August Random Raffle. I wonder who is our lucky winner?

#4 - Arlene Rose... It's you!

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

Thanks again to everyone who played this challenge, and to our dynamic duo The Jingle Belles aka Stephanie and Lauren for their elfin undertakings. BTW, the gals have a super fun challenge on-the-go right now as they invite us to CASE(Copy and Selectively Edit) past cards they've made for Jingle Belles since 2011. I may have to play that one as I am a huge fan of their creations.

Over here at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge we're playing Reindeer Games with your friend and mine the lovely Loll. I've just checked and it appears that we have about 3.5 months or about 15 weeks or 106 days until Christmas. So, however you slice it, it's time to get crafting those Christmas cards! Join us, please do!

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

The Christmas Kickstart Chalenge #114 - Reminder

Hi folks, I'm so happy to be joined again this month by the very lovely Loll from Stamping With Loll. We are playing:

Challenge #114 - Reindeer Games

And just look at what Loll has created for our Reminder post!

Isn't this just so much fun! Please head on over and take a peek at how Loll put this together! Thanks so much, Loll.

Loll created this fabby little number for our launch post...

I was inspired to make this little piece of fun.

I just had to use Loll's gorgeous sketch, but decided to place my reindeer topper at a jaunty angle! I also added some torn white card as snow - I picked this up from when Loll was our elf last time and was tickled to see she'd use the same technique on her second card. Thanks for the inspiration, Loll.

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!

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #114 - Reindeer Games

Look who's back as our Elf this month! Yes, it's the lovely Loll from Stamping With Loll. Thanks for guesting again, Loll, it's great to have you here!

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! It's as sweet and simple as that.

Here's what Loll made to get us in the mood...

Isn't her card just brilliant! I really love this little guy. You can find all the info about Loll's fun creation by heading to her blog here. Please leave her some love when you visit.

Here's what I made:

I'm so glad I bought these little reindeer dudes as they are so, so cute. You can find out about my card here.

Understandably, 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!

Saturday, August 15, 2026

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #113 - Reminder

I'm so happy to have Lauren and Stephanie as our guests for August! 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.

I am a huge fan of the work of both these gals create and I love how completely different their cardmaking styles are. Here's a little reminder of what they made to launch our challenge and inspire us across the month:

You can see how Stephanie created her fabulous card by heading here.

And you can read all the details about Lauren's beautiful card by heading here.

As regular visitors to this 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.

If you've enjoyed Stephanie and Lauren's cards why not head on over to their blogs and leave 'em some love. Also, don't forget they have a fab challenge just over at Jingle Belles where they are playing Tic-Tac-Toe!

Here's Rudolph with this month's Random Raffle Draw... Nice choice, Mr R.

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

Thursday, August 6, 2026

Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #112

It's Tree Trimming time again here at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge. I had the sweetest elf for company in July as I welcommed Lynn from Crafty Linby. Lynn was so lovely during our month together and even sent me an e-card when she discovered I'd gone down with Covid mid-month. Thanks so much, Lynn, it's been great getting to know you!

Our chosen theme was Challenge #112 - Grace Us with Your Presents! and we had some fabulous entries for this challenge. You guys really rocked this challenge and no mistake. Thank goodness Lynn was on hand to help with the Top Picks and Winner choices. My Covid-addled brain would have coped alone!

Our Top Picks for this challenge are:

#7 - Chrissy