Day #1 Christmas Kickstart Challenge #79 - Cat Lovers Christmas Challenge: Remembering Janis Woolbright

Welcome, welcome, welcome! 

I'm so happy that this day has finally arrived and we're ready to play The Cat Lovers Christmas Challenge and remember our dear friend Janis Woolbright.

For many crafters October meant Janis's Cat Lovers Blog Hop, and all the excitement and furry fun that this would bring. Sadly, Janis passed away in January of this year. At this time I was planning my year ahead for Christmas Kickstart and thinking about how I could do a tie-in with Janis's Hop for October 2023. I was going to ask her to be my October guest designer/elf and offer to assist with her hop; however the news of her passing overtook everything.

Like so many, I was deeply saddened by Janis's loss. I wanted to do something to pay tribute to her and the lovely person that she was. Back in January I wrote a brief tribute post about Janis. However, this just didn't seem like enough and I couldn't put the idea out of my head of wanting to do something more. I emailed her son, James, to run an idea past him and together we discussed what has become this challenge. James was so kind and so encouraging, and I'm honoured to have his and the family's blessing to remember Janis in this way. Thanks James; I hope we do your mom proud over the next few weeks. I am so grateful you agreed to let me do this.

I also ran the idea past my partner-in-crafting-crime, Gail AKA Iona B Unny and, as always, she's been full of ideas and great support. Thanks so much, Gail!

 

To get things started I put out the call to some of the gals who assisted Janis in previous years and they quickly agreed to pay tribute to her by becoming involved.  Collectively, they are Janis' Helpful Hoppers, but you'll also know them as... 

Becca

   

Carole

Fiki

Kitty

Suzanne

Angela

Chris

Mandy

And please send some love to Karen who helped with the preparation for the challenge, but has ongoing care commitments which mean she won't be able to take part. Thanks for all your help.

I contacted past sponsors to see if they'd be prepared to sponsor this Challenge. I'm so grateful so many have said yes. To say I've been blown away by their response is an understatement. Janis was truly loved and valued by the cardmaking community, and I've been humbled to walk in her steps while pulling things together for this tribute challenge.

I've unapologetically used Janis's Cat Lovers Hop as the template for The Cat Lovers Christmas Challenge. Janis had everything down to a fine art, and I always loved how the pages looked and how she helped participants navigate around the posts. Any mistakes, broken links etc etc are mine, and I'd appreciate a heads-up if you notice anything amiss! You can email me (Jo) at dottypudding (at) aol.com.

So, what's happening for the 

Cat Lovers Christmas Challenge?

Yes, this is badged as a 'Challenge' rather than a 'Hop', but I'd love it if we all did HOP and visit one another just like we did for The Cat Lovers Hop. The sense of friendship and community is one of the things I will always treasure about Janis's Hops.

We'll have some games and some prizes. Regular participants here at Christmas Kickstart will be familiar with Rudolph's Random Raffle, and the rather dashing reindeer who runs the whole thing and randomly picks the prize winners. Here he is:

Rudolph will be helping to select our PRIZE WINNERS at the end of the month, and don't forget it'll all be done randomly. Some of the games will have a standalone prize, while winning other games will add your name into the overall Random Prize Draw for a second, third, fourth or whatever time! I hope that makes some sense... That whole sentence sounded waaaay better in my head then it just did reading it back!

😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸

Sponsors Roll Call

He's a list of the Sponsors who've kindly agreed to provide prizes for this challenge.

Art Impressions

Altenew

Blank Page Muse and I Brake for Stamps

Brutus Monroe

Colorado Crafts Company

The Crafters Workshop

DoodlebugsWA

Gerda Steiner Designs

Heffy Doodle

Honey Bee Stamps

Inkylicious

Jane’s Doodles

Kat Scrappiness

Lawn Fawn

Leigh SB Designs

Lost Coast Design

Newton’s Nook

Old Island Stamps

Pink and Main

Poppy Stamps

Pretty Pink Posh

Riley and Company (Added 7.10.23)

Rubber Dance Stamps

Seven Hills Crafts

Taylored Expressions

Time 4 Tea

Unity Stamps

Viva Las Vegastamps

Waffle Flower

Whimsy Stamps

Your Next Stamp

 and last, but not least

Fiki - Pear Blossom Press – $25 Gift Voucher. 

Many of them are returning sponsors who supported Janis throughout the 8 years of The Cat Lovers Hop. Thank you to them all, I am beyond grateful to everyone on this list and I've been so touched by the responses I've received from you all. I couldn't manage to make contact with all of Janis' Sponsor Family so if you notice a company is missing it is probably for this reason. During these difficult times when finances are tight I cannot believe the generosity of the sponsors - many of whom are small companies working hard to make a living. Thank you to you all. 

Christmas Kickstart is a challenge blog, but just for this month we'll be having Random Winners only. To be honest, this is to make my life a little easier as I'll only be awarding Random Prizes. I'll announce all the WINNERS in the first week of November to fall in line with our usual pattern of announcements here at Christmas Kickstart. For each game we'll have a Random Winner and I'll be drawing Random Winners from everyone who links up in the gallery too. There are so many sponsors and plenty of prizes, and you'll get to find out the range of Random Prizes as our Challenge unfolds!

I won't be posting every day during October, but I do plan to spread the fun throughout the month, so please keep checking back to see what's happening and to link up in the gallery and for the games.

Should I post your badge with my project?

Yes, please put this badge on your posts so your readers will know which projects you've created for this challenge! I understand that participants with Flickr accounts and the like won't be able to post the badge. That's fine, just grab it and add it if you can!

This is Day #1, and this is the page with the LINKY to enter your challenge creations, please don't forget this is a Christmas Challenge, so try and make your cards both CAT and Christmas themed.

SIGNING IN

In the comments box following this post please sign up in the same way you did for Janis's Cat Lovers Hop and answer the following questions in your comment:

TO SIGN IN Please leave a comment below with the following information:

1. What country you live in.

2. Your email address (in code is fine).

3. "Digis okay" or "No digis, please".

4. Tell me how many times you participated in The Cat Lovers Hop. (Commenting and/or linking up a project counts as participating! So even if you were not able to make a project, but did hop around and leave some comments that counts!)

5. Alternate usernames on different platforms so I know who you are if you are a random winner there.

Welcome to the Party!

Here are the RULES for The Cat Lovers Challenge

• Please enter a max of 6 cards for this challenge.

• 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 10 CHALLENGES including this. 
• 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