Christmas Kickstart Challenge

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #107 - A Christmas Sing-Along

Welcome to the February Challenge! I'm delighted to welcome back a returning elf - Carol Mayne from Just Me: c. Carol is as talented as she is lovely and I urge you to go take a look at her wonderful blog. Prepare to be 'wowed'. Thanks so much for leading the fun, Carol, it's great to be crafting with you once again!

Carol has chosen a brilliant theme for our February Challenge, and so we invite you to play...

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #107

- A Christmas Sing-Along!

We'd love to see your cards on the theme of singing and the songs, hymns

and carols we might sing during the festive season.

Here's Carol's first card to inspire us.

You can find all the details about Carol's fabulous card by heading over to her blog here.

Here's one of the cards I've made to play our theme. I had so much fun putting this one together!

And please say 'Hi' to our favourite reindeer with his cute February Random Raffle Prize.

Rudolph respectfully requests that you please take a peek at the Challenge Guidelines before linking-up.

Carol and I can't wait to see what you guys come up with for this fun challenge!

Thursday, January 15, 2026

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #106 - Reminder

Welcome back, and a big thank you to everyone who has joined our challenge thus far. We're playing with Guest elf Chris Lawlor, and she's picked a perfect theme to start a new year of Christmas cardmaking for us.

Challenge #106 - Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

Chris made this gorgeous gate-fold card for our challenge.

Isn't this just lovely!

There was so much to be inspired by with Chris's card and it took me a while to decide where to head with my card, but this is how things ended-up.

I like how Chris paired the pink inked patterns with the white card. I did try it for my card, but it looked a little stark so I stamped on pink cardstock and liked the warmer look. I noticed Chris had used gold thread for her baubles (such a nice detail) so decided to add some gold to my card too. A few darker pink gems finished the clean, simple look I was trying to achieve.

You can see my second card over on my blog.

Now, let's say hello to Rudolph...

He's picked a fabby prize for his first Random Raffle of the new year.

Please read the challenge guidelines before you enter.

Chris and I both hope you'll come and play along as it's never too early to get working on your cards for Christmas 2026.

Tuesday, January 6, 2026

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #106 - Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

Welcome back, I hope everyone had a very Happy Christmas and a great New Year and that we're all safe and ready to make cards again!

We have a very talented Elf to Kickstart 2026; please welcome the lovely Chris Lawlor.

"Hi everyone! I am delighted to be a guest elf this month!

A little about me:

I work full-time in marketing, I am married and we have a 19- year old son. I have enjoyed paper crafting since I was in high school! I purchased a stamp set from Paragon Catalog and collected many wood mounted stamps from there. I took a long break while my son was young and then got back into card making 10 years ago. I was very excited to see the changes with clear polymer stamps and die cutting.

My favorite techniques are alcohol marker coloring, ink blending, stencils and die cutting. I enjoy creating cards to bring happiness to others.

For the January theme I have chosen Pink Christmas! I hope this inspires you to get a jumpstart on creating for Christmas 2026!"

Thanks so much for agreeing to be our Elfin Muse for January, Chris. You really have picked a great theme.

Join us as we play...

Challenge #106 - Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

Chris made this gorgeous gate-fold card for our challenge.

Such beautiful details, and so much work involved.

Isn't this just stunning!

Here's what I made to play our theme:

You can find all the details over on my blog.

Rudolph had a little photo-shoot during the festive period, and here he is in all his gorgeous glory. He tells me he's been working-out!

Rudolph picked a fabby prize for his first Random Raffle of the new year.

Please read the challenge guidelines before you enter.

Chris and I both hope you'll come and play along as it's never too early to get working on your cards for Christmas 2026.

Sunday, January 4, 2026

Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #105

Hi there, Kickstarters, we've got a brand new challenge ready to launch on Tuesday, but I thought I'd just sneak in here and tidy up our final challenge of 2025.

As is now an established December tradition we played If It's Christmassy, Link it Up! and an amazing #151 of you did just that! A huge thank you to everyone who played; what a brilliant turn out. Thanks also to the lovely Vicki for helping out with this gorgeous card for the Challenge #105 Reminder post.

You'll be delighted to hear that Vicki's newly adopted kitties (Reggie and Alan) are getting on wonderfully well with their older siblings and that everyone had a very happy first Christmas together.

I have to say such an amazing gallery of gorgeous festiveness made choosing Top Picks and a winner all on my own rather daunting, but the following cards really spoke to me.

My Top Picks for this challenge are:

#27 - Donna

Wonderful colouring, and I love how Donna let Santa take the starring role on this card.

#77 - Jenny M

Ho, ho, ho! So sweet!

#113 - Julia

Just love this card so much!

#145 - Greta

Sweet, simple, and completely adorable.

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

#21 Stephanie

A fabulous colour combo and the use of gold embossing

clinched top spot for Stephanie's beautiful card.

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

Here's Rudolph to announce the WINNER of his final Random Raffle Draw of 2025.

# 81 Fabiola - It's you!

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

Thanks again to all of you who played this challenge, and who play so many of these challenges throughout the year! You bring the fun, and I'm so very grateful.

See you on Tuesday for a new challenge.