Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #74

Hi everyone it's time to Trim the Tree here at Christmas Kickstart for Challenge #74 - where we played Colour Palette Fun in the company of the lovely, Gundi from Papierelle.

Thanks so much for being our elf for this challenge, Gundi, your inspiration cards were just stunning, and we had a 'blast' behind the scenes and I really enjoyed getting to know you a little bit more!

We had some fabulous cards for this challenge (thank you to you all) and Gundi said she wanted to run and hide rather than pick just a few to showcase! I know the feeling, but together we came up with these beautiful makes as our Top Picks and Tree Topper.

Our Top Picks for this challenge are:

#14 - Meghan

We both love that Meghan made a shaker card for our challenge.

#26 - Izzy

What a great way to use the colour combo and a fabulous way to build a Christmas Tree.

#3 - Arlene Rose

We just love the snow effect on Arlene's card.

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

#9 - Linda W

Just look at how Linda wove her magic with our colour palette and 

used poinsettia dies to create and amazing card - Wow!

Congratulations to you all, I hope you enjoy flaunting your blog badges 

for all the world to see!

Finally, here he is... It's Rudolph to announce his Random Raffle Prize Winner:

 

#12 - Julia Aston... It's you!

Congratulations, Julia, 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 in this challenge, and a very big thank you to Gundi for all the inspiration, friendship and fun! As always, there's another challenge already in progress, but I have to say that we could do with a few more players as we're only at #4 as I write this post. It's a fun theme and we have a very talented returning elf, so please come take a look!

And before I go, I'm going to drop the first hint about something very exciting that will be happening right here at Christmas Kickstart in October! At the moment my lips are sealed, but watch this space! 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #75 - Reminder

For the whole of June we are in the very capable hands of elf Arlene as we play 

Festive Fun Folds at Christmas Kickstart.

Arlene has made a second card for our challenge - isn't it lovely? What a great way to play our theme to create a snowglobe card. Thanks so much, Arlene. 

As her first make for our challenge Arlene created this brilliant easel card to inspire us. 

I love that Arlene used a Cardinal on her card - which just shouts Christmas in Northern America to me. Did you know that the Cardinal is the official state bird of no fewer than seven eastern states? Amazing. 

I live in the UK and we're not blessed with Cardinals in this country, so I've chosen a small songbird that graces my garden. I love robins and am always delighted whenever they visit our garden during the year, but especially so at Christmas time. 

I used MFT Winter Songbird and Winter Wreath, paired with some lovely Dovecraft paper and a 'Hello' die cut from my crafting buddy, Linda W. 

I took inspiration from Arlene's circular centre-piece and partial wreath for my card shape.

Using this paper dragged me away from my usual Christmas colour combos, and I've quite surprised myself by liking the end result!

Here's a little reminder of Rudolph's Random Raffle Prize for this challenge - it's a sweet little A6 paper pad, which makes it perfect for standard sized greetings cards.

 

Arlene and I hope you'll come over to Christmas Kickstart and play along with this fun challenge. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #75 - Festive Fancy Folds

 

I'm so happy to welcome back my dear crafting buddy Arlene from A Bit of This and That as our elf for this challenge!

  

We're challenging you to play...

Challenge #75 - Festive Fancy Folds 

Arlene says: "I've been thinking about fancy fold fun, and what a fancy fold might look like. What kinds of folds make you happy? Pop-up, Pocket, Easel, Waterfall, Accordion, Gate, Z-fold and the list goes on!"

And here's what Arlene has created for our challenge - isn't she clever! You can find out all the details about her lovely card by visiting her blog.

Perhaps you have a favourite fancy fold you'd like to share, or maybe you'd like to try a new folding style that you've never used before? Arlene and I can't wait to see what you create!

For my fancy fold make I amazed myself by making this box card, using die cuts that Arlene sent me for our January Challenge at CCC.

The die cuts accompanied this amazing card, which I drew on for my Christmas version.

I just love this card and spent ages studying it so I could make mine.

Here's Rudolph with his Random Raffle Prize for our challenge...

This month he's offering an adorable A6 pad of festive papers - the pages are all so pretty, and the perfect size for standard cards.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter