Christmas Kickstart Challenge #5 - Have a Very Bear-y Christmas!

Once again, we have a Guest Elf in da house and for this challenge I'm delighted to be joined by long term blogging buddy, Lynne from Ruby-Dooby-Doo Crafts.

Lynne lives in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK, with Greg, and their sweet little West Highland Terrier, Ruby. Lynne has been crafting since 2005 and was one of the first people to follow my blog (Just a Dotty Pudding) when I started it back in 2009. We have a similar taste in stamps, and I think we've cost each-other a small fortune over the years!

For this challenge you'll have to break out your bears as our theme for the fortnight is:

Have a Very Bear-y Christmas!

Here's Lynne's card. I'm loving her gorgeous LOTV bear and. as always, am in awe of her pencil colouring skills. Love the shades of green too - so pretty!

My card for this challenge is a very CAS offering. I decided to go with non-traditional colouring and an adorable polar bear by MFT. I think this stamp set is one of my most favourite Birdie Brown designs. I gave him a present from the BB Birthday Bears set. The circle die is also from MFT.

Rudolph's back in town for another Random Raffle. 

Rudolph is a generous guy, and for this challenge he's offering this lovely stamp set from Simply Made Crafts. There are some sweet elements in this cling set and I'd rather like it myself. However, Rudolph is quite strict and tells me to keep my mitts off it as he'll be picking a prize winner at random at the end of this fortnight!

Lynne and I very much hope you will join us for this challenge.

An InLinkz Link-up

Challenge Rules and Guidelines: 

• 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 the Linky tool. 
• 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 fortnightly on a Tuesday. 
• Please enter a max of 3 cards per challenge.
• Preferably no back linking to older projects, please.

Let's Trim the Tree - Challenge #3

Hi everyone, I'm so sorry to be a little late trimming the tree this week, but I've been laid low with a heavy cold.

Before we get to our top picks and winner, I'd like to say a very big thank you to the lovely Janis for being my Guest Elf for this challenge. Her support, advice and general hand-holding (in addition to creating a gorgeous card) has really meant a lot to me. Thanks again, sweet lady.

The entries for this challenge were amazing!

Our Tops Picks (in no particular order) are:

Monika

We loved the lovely layers, embossed background and vertical sentiment strip.

Shirley Bee

Such a sweet CAS design, a gorgeous PB image and delightful colouring.

Jane

Janis loved the bright colours and caroling cat, and I loved the sweet scene that 

Jane created using a variety of stamp sets

Our winner this week is Jenny! 

Jenny blew us both away by creating this adorable festive portrait of her own cats! 

Congratulations to you all, please grab your blog badges.

Finally, it's time to announce the results of Rudolph's Random Raffle to discover who will be joining me as a Guest Elf for Challenge #6. 

It's Brenda!

Congratulations, Brenda, please could you email me using the form in the sidebar so we can make the arrangements.

Thanks again to everyone who entered this challenge. Challenge #4 is currently underway with a new theme and another fabulous, inspirational Guest Elf.

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #4 - Have a Heart!

Welcome to Challenge #4 at Christmas Kickstart Challenge!

Once again we have a gorgeous Guest Elf to delight and inspire. During this fortnight we are in the company of the lovely Julie from Always with a Heart.

Julie lives in Staffordshire, England and has what sounds like every card maker's dream job as a designer of bespoke wedding stationery and a designer for Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine. She puts her heart and soul into everything she creates and each beautiful card has a heart hidden somewhere in the design.

     

I'm sure you won't be surprised that

Challenge #4 is Have a Heart

For this challenge we'd like to see a heart somewhere on your card - well it is Valentines week! The heart can be stamped, die cut, embossed or stenciled - it's all good! In addition, Julie has very kindly agreed to share a sketch for you to use as an optional extra.

Here's the beautiful card that Julie has created. She is one talented lady.

I bravely attempted the sketch, which is very unusual for me as I am ever-so slightly sketch-a-phobic. However, I'm so glad I did and while my card looks nowhere as professional as Julie's card, I enjoyed the process and will feel less daunted in trying sketches in the future. 

If you'd like to see Julie's sketch 'in action' on her blog, then you can find it by clicking here.

Here's the link up, can't wait to see what you create for Challenge #4.

An InLinkz Link-up

Challenge Rules and Guidelines: 

• 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 the Linky tool. 
• 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 fortnightly on a Tuesday. 
• Please enter a max of 3 cards per challenge.
• Preferably no back linking to older projects, please.

I'll be back later in the week to announce the results of Challenge #3 and the Guest Elf draw, so see you then!

Let's Trim the Tree - Challenge #2

Hi Card friends, it's time to 'Trim the Tree' and give the 'results' for Challenge #2 - Bundle Up.

Once again, you guys didn't make it easy for me!

My Top Picks (in no particular order) are:

Donna

I love Donna's choice of papers and the fact that she summoned
real snow for the photo shoot!

Michele

Great colour combo and the cutest penguin ever.

Jane

A bunny... with ear warmers!

I'm going to cheat for my 'winner' this week and choose two winners:

Eliz Stewart

Fabulous 'skewed' stamping.

and 

Coni

Gorgeous colouring, a sweet image and a cute, punny sentiment.

Well done guys, please grab your badges and let your blogs wear them with pride!

Challenge #3 - Festive Felines still has eleven days to run, so why not take the plunge and join myself and Guest Elf Janis - you'll love yourself come December if you do!