Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #105

Hi there, Kickstarters, we've got a brand new challenge ready to launch on Tuesday, but I thought I'd just sneak in here and tidy up our final challenge of 2025.

As is now an established December tradition we played If It's Christmassy, Link it Up! and an amazing #151 of you did just that! A huge thank you to everyone who played; what a brilliant turn out. Thanks also to the lovely Vicki for helping out with this gorgeous card for the Challenge #105 Reminder post. 

You'll be delighted to hear that Vicki's newly adopted kitties (Reggie and Alan) are getting on wonderfully well with their older siblings and that everyone had a very happy first Christmas together. 

I have to say such an amazing gallery of gorgeous festiveness made choosing Top Picks and a winner all on my own rather daunting, but the following cards really spoke to me.
 

My Top Picks for this challenge are:

#27 - Donna

Wonderful colouring, and I love how Donna let Santa take the starring role on this card.

#77 - Jenny M

Ho, ho, ho! So sweet!

#113 - Julia

Just love this card so much!

#145 - Greta

Sweet, simple, and completely adorable.

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

#21 Stephanie

A fabulous colour combo and the use of gold embossing 

clinched top spot for Stephanie's beautiful card.

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

Here's Rudolph to announce the WINNER of his final Random Raffle Draw of 2025. 

 

# 81 Fabiola -  It's you!

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

Thanks again to all of you who played this challenge, and who play so many of these challenges throughout the year! You bring the fun, and I'm so very grateful.

See you on Tuesday for a new challenge. 

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #105 - If It's Christmasy, Link It Up!

 

Hi guys, welcome back! 

I usually have a few cards to share for the Reminder, but unfortunately I'm struggling with back pain again and it seems to have scared away my mojo! Never fear though, as we have a stunning card made especially for this post by our very good friend Vicki Ruta, who was elf for Challenge #104. 

Isn't this card just sooooo much fun! And you'll love the happy little story behind this card because Vicki made it to celebrate the fact that she's adopting two tuxedo boy cats in time for Christmas. Isn't that great! Thanks so much, Vicki, and I hope you all have a wonderful first furry Christmas together.

If you remember I mentioned that the Cat Rescue where I volunteer had booked a stall at a local craft fayre. The weather was truly awful that day, but between the Tombola and the craft sale the team still managed to raise £150. 

Here's another of the cards I made for the sale.

I've been trying to work on a few ideas over the last few days, but nothing seems to be turning out quite how I'd like it to. I'm currently playing with some gorgeous Darla Horse dies from this lovely store, but my concentration is poor and I think I'll just create a few simple tags and tidy my craft room until I begin to feel better. 

I'm loving all the cards in the gallery right now. You guys are totally in the Christmas groove and we have #84 cards linked-up thus far. Will we make #100? Let's keep our fingers crossed and see what happens!

Hugs to you all and happy Christmas!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #105 - If It's Christmassy, Link It Up!

 

Welcome back! It's December and nearly time for the Festivities to commence. As always in December, it's just me here at Kickstart HQ as we play...

Challenge #105 - If It's Christmassy, Link It Up!

Just make a Christmas card and link it up in the gallery. And if you're looking for inspiration why not look back across our gorgeous posts for all our Challenges in 2025. Our elves have truly done us proud this past year and no mistake.

Here's what I made to get our December party started:

If you've been following me here, or over at my blog, you may know I volunteer at a pet rescue near where I live. It's mainly cats that we work with, but dogs, rabbits, mice, ferrets, snakes, spiders, a polecat... We never turn anything away. The Rescue is always short of funds and so we've booked a stall at a local Christmas Fayre to try and raise some much needed cash. I've been making cards to sell on the stall, and other volunteers have made cat toys and other pet related loveliness. I thought I'd share some of my creations for you here...

I began to run short of Neenah Solar cardstock, so had to hatch a plan to make as many cards from the small amount of Neenah that I have left. The backgrounds are from another cardstock I had lurking in my stash. I just can't find any Neenah Solar anywhere here in the UK. Anyhooo, I'm hoping to get a few more cards made and packaged before the sale next week, so wish me luck!

We may not have an elf to keep us company this month, but we do have a rather lovely reindeer called Rudolph. Being the super-cool dude that he is, he has chosen Cooper from POD as our Random Raffle Prize this month. 

 

Here's hoping you'll come and join the fun!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter