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!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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

Chrissy's card made us both chuckle. 

Love the colour combo and the embellishments too.

#29 - Linda

Fairly swooning over Linda's card! The gifts in the side car, the blending, the colours...

#32 - Gail

Isn't this just an amazing make? 

The colours, that background, the shadow on Santa.

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

#38 - Leslie

Breathtakingly beautiful and full of fun!

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

Before I wrap up this post (see what I did there?), there's just time for Rudolph to announce the WINNER of his Random Raffle.

 

#28 - Becca... 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. 

Huge thanks to everyone who played along with this challenge, and to Lynn for being a dream date and a brilliant elf. 

There's a shiny, new Challenge on offer so why not drop by and join the fun!

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #113 - A Friend is for Life and not just Christmas

 

What could be better then a brand new elf? How about TWO brand new elves!!!

Gotta admit it, I'm beside myself with festive glee as I welcome Lauren and Stephanie who are our guests for August! Together, this dynamic duo are The Jingle Belles and run one of my most fave Christmas challenges. 

"Lauren Bergold (left) and Stephanie Severin (right) are Craft Besties who live in New Jersey and Iowa, respectively. They started Jingle Belles in 2010 so they would HAVE TO make one holiday card per week in the "off-season". They've met loads of amazing, inspiring crafters over the years, including your hostess, Jo. Lauren and Stephanie plan to keep making cards at Jingle Belles until they run out of holiday embellishments or stop having fun. (Neither of these seems remotely likely in the near future!)"

One of the loveliest surprises about card making and blogging, for me, has been the friendships I've made over the years. You guys out there rock! The same has proven true for Lauren and Stephanie, and with two 'Craft Besties' as our elves for August there was only ONE possible theme to play:

Our Theme this month is FRIENDSHIP!

We'd love to see your cards for a friend and/or celebrating friendship, please.

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. 

Please head on over to Stephanie and Lauren's blogs and leave 'em some love! Also, don't forget that they have a brand new challenge just opened over at Jingle Belles where they have a fabulous game of Tic-Tac-Toe on offer! 

Here's my offering for our challenge together:

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!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #112 Reminder - Grace Us with Your Presents

 

Let's welcome back our July elfin muse: it's Lynn AKA Linby from Crafty Linby.

Challenge #112 - Grace Us with Your Presents!

Lynn picked a fab theme and so we'd like to see gifts and presents galore this month on your cards. 

In the previous post I mentioned that Lynn had kindly made a second card to inspire us, and here it is:

Isn't this just a beauty! I love the colours, the DP, the star border and the sweet Holly Hobby friends. What a lovely idea to have them exchanging Christmas gifts. Seeing Holly Hobby images really took me back to my seventies childhood. I was nuts about anything Holly Hobby and had pictures, badges, notelets etc etc with the girl in her blue bonnet. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Lynn. I had no idea these stamps were available. 

Here's a reminder of Lynn's first card...

For my 'Inspired by...' card I really wanted to 'steal' Lynn's use of DP to frame the image, but just couldn't find the right mix of papers to even come close to achieving a similar look.

The gifts on the sledge immediately reminded me of LOTV stamp Sledging Party. This stamp doesn't seem to be available any longer, but there are some gorgeous digi stamps to be found here on the LOTV Etsy shop.

I've not added a sentiment, but may do later when I decide who I'm sending this to. 

Rudolph has chosen a gorgeous prize for his Randon Raffle.

Please take a look at The Challenge Guidelines before you link up.

Lynn and I are loving your cards for this challenge, but it would be nice to see a few more in the linky gallery. I guess not everyone is making Christmas cards in this mad July heat! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #111

 

Hi guys, I'm back with the 'results' from our June challenge where we were joined by the very lovely Caroline from KISS. Thanks so much for brininging the inspiration and the fun for June, Caroline, it was great partnering with you for this challenge. 

If you remember, we played SNOW DAY as our theme and all our participants really pulled out all the stops to create some amazing cards. Thanks to all our players!

Our Top Picks for this challenge are:

#7 - Lia

We both love Lia's happy mouse - is he full of festive feeling 

or has he been at the mulled wine?

#23 - Helen

We think you'll agree that Helen's framing of the image is just perfect.

#39 - Joanne

A masterclass in smooshing and embossing

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

#60 - Cindi

Just look at all the details Cindi has included to make 

this sweet snow globe card. Just wonderful!

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

And now, here's Mr. R. Reindeer with the results of this Random Raffle Draw for June.

 

# 52 - Debbie Smith... It's you!

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

Thanks again to Caroline, and to everyone who played our challenge for this month. I think 63 players in June is none too shabby! Well done, everyone.

If YOU'D like to join the fun here at The Christmas Kickstart there is a fab new challenge currently in progress with a new theme and a shiny new elf...