Christmas Kickstart Challenge #39 - Festive Sweet Treats.

Welcome to a brand new challenge at Christmas Kickstart! It's wonderful to have you all here.

We have a new theme and a new elf, and it's the fabulous Chrissie Stokes, AKA The Queen of CAS!

"For the whole of my working career, I taught infants, with Reception always being my favourite age group. Following my retirement, I began cardmaking in 2007 when my daughter asked me to make her wedding stationery and once started, I was hooked. 

The friends which I have made through this wonderful hobby, stretch the world over, many of whom I have had the good fortune to meet in person... some even from as far as the USA and Australia!

Having developed a Clean and Simple style and not seeing many challenges for this genre, I created a Challenge Blog called Less is More in 2011 and despite stepping back some years ago I’m happy to report that it is still going strongly.

I have served on numerous design teams for Blog Challenges and been Guest Designer for many more. Several of my submissions to Craft magazines have been published and I was asked to join the Design Team for Craft Stamper Magazine in 2014, having cards published most months during a three year period. I even designed one of the ‘give away’ cover stamps.

I am delighted to have been asked to be a Guest Elf for this month’s challenge at Christmas Kickstart and look forward to seeing all your creations!"

Thanks, Chrissie, it's great to have you here!

So, our Challenge theme is:

Challenge #39 - Festive Sweet Treats

We'd like to see something sweet and yummy on your card, please! Any form of sweets, cakes or confectionery that give us that festive sugar rush - all are welcome!

I'm loving Chrissie's card! That bear looks so happy with his mistletoe and candy cane, and reminds me of a much-loved uncle of mine with those fabulous eyebrows!

My card is all about one of my most favourite Winter treats: hot chocolate! You can find all the details here.

Rudolph is here again with a lovely Random Raffle prize:

 

He's gone for something a little different this time, and I'm sure the lucky winner will love the gorgeous pearls and Lucy's gorgeous sprinkles and sequins. 

Chrissie and I very much hope you'll come and play along! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #37

It's Tree Trimming time for Challenge #37 - Festive Fur Babies!

I'll start by saying a big thank you to regular elf, and my partner in crime craft, Gail from Crafty Nomad. Thanks for doing a great job once again, Gail.

Your cards for this challenge were a delight and every bit as cute as Gail and I hoped they would be. Picking just a few to celebrate was very tricky!

We loved the following Top Picks:

Toni

Great work with those adorable POD images.

Trina

Just look at this glorious snowdome card.

Sally

Gorgeous snowbunnies!

Topping the Tree for this challenge is:

Susan 

We both love Susan's colouring and design for this beautiful card.

Congratulations to you all, please grab your blog badges and flaunt them joyfully!

Now, who is this handsome dude? I do believe it's Rudolph with the results of his Random Raffle...

It's you #4 Helen N!

Congratulations, Helen, please could you contact me at dottypudding@aol.com with your address and I can connect you with your prize!

Thanks again to Gail, and to all of you wonderful, talented people who played along. Turns out it's 100 days until Christmas, so why not come and join Challenge #38 - there's a brand new theme and a brand new elf!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #38 - White on White.

How are we mid-way through September? Time flies when you're having fun making Christmas cards!

Welcome to another Christmas Kickstart Challenge. We have a fun new theme and a lovely elf to meet and greet. Say 'hi' to Linda from Scrappin', Stampin' & Singin'. We've got to know each other through our love of Christmas cards, Hero Arts and The Card Chain Challenge, and I'm delighted that this lovely lady has become a regular player here at Kickstart!

"Hey everyone – I’m Linda W. (aka ScrappinBari) who blogs at Scrappin’, Stampin’ & Singin’. I started out scrapbooking but found my way into serious card making in about 2007 after taking some classes at a local craft store. Now my friends think my home looks like a craft store, given the volume of my stash!! I’ve lived in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA for nearly 24 years. Hero Arts continues to be my favorite stamp company and I was honored to be a Hero Hostess in 2011. I love making Christmas cards all year round and thank Jo for hosting this challenge plus inviting me to be an elf!!"

So, our challenge for the night fortnight is:

Challenge #38 - White on White!

We'd love to see your white cards, please! Linda and I had a little discussion about this and decided that we're up for totally white cards, cards with a neutral addition, a 'pop' of colour and/or a little silver or gold.

If you take a look at Linda's gorgeous creation you can see what we mean...

There are further photographs and all the details about this lovely card over on Linda's blog, so please go take a look and leave her some love!

Here's what I made:

It's hard to see but all of the stencilled snow is very, very sparkly! You can find all the details here.

As always, Rudolph has done us proud with a lovely Random Raffle Prize of this gorgeous die from MFT!

Linda and I very much hope you'll come and play along in this fun challenge!

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.
• Please remember to reference a fellow crafter's creations if your card has been inspired by their work.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #36

 

I'm a little late with the Tree Trimming for this challenge, but it's better late than never as they say!

Our Challenge theme was

and it was a real pleasure to have the lovely Marcia from Marcia Stampin' Pad as our elf for this one.

Thank you so much, Marcia, it was great partnering with you for this challenge - you've been lovely company!

After a slowish start the gallery filled up quickly and the cards that you guys made for this challenge were all beautiful! It hardly seems fair to pick just a few cards to celebrate as the gallery contains so many really special makes.

Here are our Top Picks in no particular order:

Kim #17

A stunning retro design.

Jules #21

Such a pretty card with lovely embellishments.

Chris #27

Stunning use of die cuts and papers.

Topping the Tree for this challenge is this gorgeous creation from

Linda #3

We both loved the fabulous attention to detail on this easel card.

Congratulations to you all, please grab your blog badges and thanks for sharing your adorable creations with us here at Christmas Kickstart. 

Here's Rudolph with his Random Raffle winner:

It's you, Suze #28

Congratulations, Suze. Please could you email me your snail mail address so that I can get your prize on it's way across the world to you!

A big thank you to everyone who played along in this challenge and to our fabulous elf, Marcia.

A new challenge is already under way and it's one that I hope you will all enjoy: Festive Fur Babies, so please come and join the fun!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #37 - Festive Furbabies

Welcome, welcome! It's time for a new challenge and to welcome back regular elf Gail from Crafty Nomad!

We have an uber cute challenge for you as we'd like to see Festive Furbabies on your cards! Puppies, kittens, guinea pigs, mice, reindeer - whatever you choose!

Gail went with some very cute reindeer...

And here's my offering for the theme - gotta love those puppy kisses!

Rudolph has another random raffle prize on offer and it's a rather gorgeous stamp set from WPlus9:

Gail and I hope you'll come and play along with this challenge. Don't forget all Christmas Kickstart Challenges are now fortnightly so that we can grow our card stash in plenty of time for the festive season! Take care everyone and keep safe.

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.
• Please remember to reference a fellow crafter's creations if your card has been inspired by their work.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter