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

Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #35

Hi there everybody, it's Tree Trimming time again here at Christmas Kickstart! I'd like to say a VERY big thank you to Gay for being such a brilliant elf for this challenge. Her inspiration card was a stunner and it was great to see so many of you 'chatting' with Gay in the comments - we do miss you here in Blogland, Gay!

Our challenge theme of Snow was a popular one and we had soooo many gorgeous cards to choose from as you all did a brilliant job, but here are our Top Picks:

Conil

Love that joyful snowman and the way the sentiments are arranged!

Kim S

An unusual colour palette that works beautifully with the design.

Emma T

Love how the pups overhang the card at either end!

Topping the Tree for this challenge is:

Jane

We both love Jane's adorable little bear in his beautifully coloured snowglobe.

A certain reindeer is in dah house and he'd like me to announce that...

Rudolph's Random Raffle winner for this challenge is

#28 - Lorraine B

Congratulations, Lorraine. Please contact me with your address at dottypudding@aol.com so that I can connect you with your prize! 

Challenge #36 is currently in progress, so why not drop by, meet our lovely elf and join the fun!

 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #36 - Christmas Birds

Hi there, welcome to another Christmas Kickstart Challenge. Thanks to all of you who played along  with Challenge #35 - your entries are all just stunning!

It's new challenge time and we have a new elf: meet Marcia from Marcia's Stampin' Pad! 

Marcia is one of my newer stamping friends, who I've met through Christmas Kickstart. I'm a big fan of her cards and knew I wanted to invite her to don the elf hat and inspire us with her work.

"Hi there, my name is Marcia and I've been stamping for over 20 years now.  I am a total Christmas girl, so when Jo asked me to be a guest elf, I was delighted to say "YES"!  My style is mostly CAS, but I honestly don't think there's a style or stamp that I don't love!   Hope you'll join Jo and I and get those Christmas cards started...it will be here before we know it!"

It's great to have you here, Marcia, love your gorgeous card for our theme and your beautiful smile!

Challenge #36 - Christmas Birds

Yes, we're all about our feathered friends for the next fortnight. Cardinal birds, robins, owls, penguins, doves and even the odd flamingo or two - they're good for this challenge!

You can find all the details for Marcia's beautiful card right here at her blog.

Here's my card - rather a different style for me, but I enjoyed stretching myself a little.

Rudolph is here again with another Random Raffle prize. This time he's chosen a die and sentiment combo - great choice Rudolph!

Please take a moment to read through the challenge guidelines as we're having a few entries that exceed the rules on the number of additional challenges that can be entered alongside Christmas Kickstart.

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.

Good luck with the challenge, Marcia and I can't wait to see what you guys create!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #34 - Starry, Starry Night.

Hi there, I hope everyone is doing ok and keeping safe in their part of the world.

It's Tree Trimming time for Challenge #34. Our lovely elf for this challenge was Pia, and she certainly did us proud with her gorgeous inspiration for this theme. Thank you, Pia, it was great fun partnering with you for this challenge!

Our Top Picks for this challenge are as follows:

A. Rose

We both love Arlene's miniature scene set in a star.

Kim S.

That swirls of stars and the stylish design!

Susan

Stunning colouring of the fur and just look at that sentiment.

Topping out Tree this week is:

Conil

Such an original design and a fabulous 'take' on the theme!

Big congratulations to you all, I hope you enjoy your blog badges.

Rudolph is here to award his Random Raffle Prize:

      

It's you,  #18 - Chris Dring!

Please drop me an email at dottypudding@aol.com so that I can make arrangements to connect you with your prize!

Once again, a very big thank you to Pia for undertaking all her elfin duties and to everyone who played along in this challenge. A new challenge is now underway (don't forget we're fortnightly again, guys) and a new elf is providing the inspiration, so please head on over and join the fun!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #35 - Snow is Falling

Welcome to another Christmas Kickstart Challenge and I hope that you are all keeping well.

There's a new elf and a new theme, so let's jump right in and see who is providing the inspiration for the next two weeks.

Say a big hello to Gay Peplow! Gay is a long term blogging buddy of mine and I'm delighted that she's our elf for this challenge. Our theme is:

Challenge #35 - Snow is Falling!

"Hi there my name’s Gay, I’ve been crafting for many years, starting my blog in 2009! It’s a pleasure to be here, my two loves, Christmas and card making combined, heaven! My favourite  style is CAS but I have been branching out lately and producing more complex projects. Thanks to Jo for inviting me, great fun! Join in and show us your art!" 

And here's Gay's wonderful card:

My take on the theme is here:

As always, Rudolph has a lovely Random Raffle prize for one randomly drawn winner.

Snow, snowflakes, snowy scenes - it's all good, and we'd love to see what you can create over the next fortnight.

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

Belated Tree Trimming for Challenge #31 - Wreathed in Smiles

The challenge was called 'Wreathed in Smiles', but you find me 'Wreathed in Embarrassment' as my fabulous elf, Robyn, has just emailed to tell me I'd missed announcing the winners!

The entries for this challenge were stunning and we both enjoyed seeing and commenting on your beautiful creations.

Thanks you so much, Robyn, I've no idea how I managed to miss this post and am so grateful that you got in touch to let me know about the omission. You really have gone above and beyond in your elfin duties and I can't thank you enough for all your hard work and support!

So, let's see who we picked as our Top Picks...

Rosina

Just look at all the different elements in Rosina's wreath.

Sally

Great combination of metallic snowflakes for her wreath 

and finished with that adorable gnome.

Lindsey

We both loved how she used the wreath to create JOY on a CAS card.

Topping the Tree for this Challenge is:

Jules

We both adore the beautiful mix of traditional and modern that 

Jules has achieved with this card.

Please grab your blog badges ladies and wear them with pride!

Now, we have a little dilema with Rudolph's Random Raffle as the original prize has since been awarded to another winner (I really was confused, wasn't I!). Rudolph has kindly found a substitute prize (bless him) and the lucky winner is:

#42 - Janis in ID

Big congrats, Janis! Please could you email me your snail mail address to me at dottypudding@aol.com so I can get your prize on it's way across the miles.

I'll now take my flurry of embarrassment and go lie in a heap in the corner for a while! I'm so sorry I dropped the ball on this one and can't thank Robyn enough for giving me a prod and getting things back on an even keel again.