Rounding up the Year - 2024

A big thank you to everyone who has guested here at 
Christmas Kickstart Challenge.

January 2024

Challenge #82 - The Midas Touch

Linda from Scrappin’, Stampin’ & Singin’

February 2024

Challenge #83 - Out on a Limb

Gail from Crafty Nomad

March 2024

Challenge #84 - Get Your Grinch On!

Meghan from Made by Meghan K.

April 2024

Challenge #85 - Santa and his Sidekicks

Helen from Made by Helen

May 2024

Challenge #86 - Playing with Plaid

Gail from Crafty Nomad

June 2024

Challenge #87 - It's a Gift

Denise from The Crafty Den

July 2024

Challenge #88 - Festive Frames

Leslie from Running with Scissors

August 2024

Challenge #89 - Animal Antics

Gundi from Papierelle

September 2024

Challenge #90 - Embossing Folder Fun!

Jenny from My Paper Epiphany

October 2024

Challenge #91 - Colourful Christmas

Faith from Daffodil Cards

November 2024

Challenge #92 - Wise Men Three

Gail from Crafty Nomad

You guys are the best!

See you all again very soon for the first challenge of 2025!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

Wishing you all a 

Very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Challenge #93 - Reminder

 

Only ten days to go to the BIG DAY! Are you ready? Tree up, tinsel twinkling, cards mailed, gifts wrapped, pudding made, cake iced, turkey ordered etc etc... or none of the above? 

We're all about an Anything Goes Christmas for the rest of this month 

here at Christmas Kickstart!

However, if you're still looking for a little card making inspiration why not take a look back through the past twelve months here at Christmas Kickstart: we've had some lovely themes and a whole gaggle of very talented elves! I've just Googled the collective noun for elves and it gives me the AI generated answer of Troupe or Drum. I was expecting something more festive, but then I guess an elf is for life and not just Christmas. 😁😁😁

Anyhooo, I thought I'd just jump in and share my last two Christmas cards for 2024.

You can find all the details for these cards over on my blog. Here's my first card:

And my second card features a sweet little ginger cat in a festive tangle. 

Here's what Rudolph has on offer for one randomly selected winner of his Random Raffle:

 

Please don't forget to read our guidelines before signing up! 

This is a Christmas Card Making Challenge

• 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 
• 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 on the first Tuesday of each new month. 
• 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 #92

In between doing all the festive stuff, I thought I'd just drop by and Trim the Tree for Challenge #92. 

Our Elfin muse for this month was the ever-wonderful Gail, who made a fabulous card to kick things off for us. 

We didn't have the biggest number of entries for this challenge, but the cards were of a very high standard and it was fascinating to see how you guys used the icon Christmas imagery. Thanks to Gail for picking this theme back in March! Yes, we had it up our sleeves since the Spring.

Our Top Picks for this challenge are:

#19 - Di

A simple layout that looks so good. 

#22 - Bonnie

A fabulous background that works so well with the silhouette stamp.

#7 - Linda

Isn't this just stunning. Linda's use of papers, images, colours and 

that beautiful die-cut bauble are just perfect.

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

#2 - Kath

Kath's fabulous stitching just called to us. Isn't this a beauty!

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

Rudolph's Random Raffle for Challenge #92 has to be one of my favourite prizes of the year.  

 

Our lucky Random Winner is:

#17 Gloria Lee... It's you!

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

Once again a very big thank you to Gail, and also to all our participants. The final CKC challenge of the year is already open and the gallery is filling up fast. It's an Anything Goes theme, so why not link-up and play along!

Challenge #93 - If It's Christmassy, Link it Up!

 

Well, here we are: December! This is what we've been preparing for during the past eleven months here at Christmas Kickstart, and if you've managed to play along you should have a lovely pile of festive cards to drop into the mail!

For December I have the traditional Christmas Kickstart Month 12 offering of Anything Goes. It's time to play:

If It's Christmassy, Link it Up!

Here's my first card for this challenge.

I do love a fun Santa image and fell head-over-heels with this cutie from the 2018 Simon Says Stamp set Christmas Cheer. Sadly, this little guy is no longer available, but there are some gorgeous images in this set with the same name.

Rudolph is here and looking good. Please make sure you read our guidelines before linking up in the gallery as Rudolph gets very grumpy when players don't adhere to the challenge rules and regs and are not eligible for his Random Raffle. 

Here's what Rudolph has on offer for one randomly selected winner:

 

This is a Christmas Card Making Challenge

• 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 
• 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 on the first Tuesday of each new month. 
• 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

Challenge #92 - Reminder

 

We're all about Wise Men Three for this month here at Christmas Kickstart where we're joined by my partner in crafting shenanigans Gail from CraftyNomad.   

Gail created this showstopper of a card for our challenge launch. 

I was immediately reminded of stained glass windows when I first saw Gail's card. The colours and shapes made me think particularly of the glass of Coventry Cathedral. This set me thinking about stained glass and how, when I worked in a primary school, we used to decorate the windows to look like church windows using paint mixed with washing-up liquid to make it glossy and easier to use on glass... The smell was horrible. Anyhoo, that's how I arrived at this card:

The Three Kings image is one I removed from a wood block. The block wasn't balanced very well and I couldn't get a good print with the image in situ. Sadly, I'm not sure of the brand as the block has gone AWOL. I went bold and bright for the colours just like Gail did on her card.

My second card continues the theme of Christmas in a primary school as I used these delightful images by AI called Jingle Tots Nativity Set. I think I snaffled the last set of these cuties (and at a lower price too!), but you can still buy them as individual wood blocks here. 

Working with these images again took me back to my days in Education, and The Nativity play which was put on each year with the youngest children in the school taking the parts. The 'scenery' is a die cut from MFT Little Town of Bethlehem. 

Rudolph is itching to give away this fun stamp set this month, so please read our Challenge Guidelines to be in with a chance to win!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #92 - Wise Men Three

The three wise men came to the manger with gifts for baby Jesus. They brought gold and frankincense...

But wait, there's myrrh!

Welcome to The Christmas Kickstart Challenge for November 2024, where we're joined by Gail AKA, Iona B Unny, Crafty Nomad, AKA Wonder Bunny, AKA My Very Dear Friend!

Thanks so much for bringing the fun again, Gail, it's always a joy to have you wear the elf hat!

Our Theme for this month is:

Wise Men Three

We'd love to see what you come up with for our theme. We think it's one you could play in a few different ways and hope it's a challenge that gets your creative juices flowing. Thinking outside the box is definitely welcome.

Here's the card Gail made for our challenge:

Isn't this just a stunner! You can find all the details at Gail's blog here. Please head on over and leave her some love.

I decided to go super-traditional for my first card:

You can find all the details about this card and also see my second card, which gives an additional idea for playing our theme by visiting my blog.

Rudolph's Random Raffle Prize for this challenge is this sweet little penguin set: 

 

Please, remember to read our challenge guidelines to be eligible to win this lovely prize.

Challenge Rules and Guidelines: 

This is a Christmas Card Making Challenge

• 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 
• 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 on the first Tuesday of each new month. 
• 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.

Thanks for reading our guidelines.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let's trim the Tree for Challenge #91

There's a brand new challenge starting here tomorrow at Christmas Kickstart, so I thought I'd just drop by and Trim the Tree for Challenge #91.

I'll start the proceedings by saying a very big THANK YOU to our guest elf for this challenge - the lovely Faith from Daffodil cards! 

Thanks for creating two brilliant cards for our challenge, Faith, and for keeping me company throughout the month. It's been a joy getting to know you! BTW, guys, if you love a gorgeous Santa card please head on over and take a look at Faith's latest make... I totally guarantee it'll rock your festive socks!

Whilst we did have a few cardmakers link up for this challenge who may not have read all the rules, we did have some fabulous cards for our colour palette theme. 

Our Top Picks for this challenge are:

#35 - Gundi

Such a pretty way to use our colour combo.

#21 - Becca Y

Isn't this just the sweetest card! We love the bird and the repetition of the sentiment. 

#24 - Vanessa

I couldn't copy Vanessa's card from Instagram, 

so please go and take a look... It's a beauty.

Our Winners and Stars on the Tree for this week are:

#3 - Linda

Linda just blew us both away with this card. What an amazing way to use our colour palette.

And

#19 - Michele

Isn't this just stunning! 

We both swooned over Michele's attention to detail and her sweet design.

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

 

 

#33 Becca Y...  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. 

Thanks again to Faith, and to all our lovely players! Our new challenge begins tomorrow, so please hurry back and join the fun!