Christmas Kickstart Challenge #76 - Reminder Post

We're in delightful company this month as we play Gingerbread Treats along with Carol from Just Me:c. 

Carol has very kindly made not one, but two beautiful cards for our reminder post! Thank you so very much, Carol, you're a star!

You can find out all the details about how Carol created her stunning cards by visiting her blog here. 

Here's a little reminder of the card, and the gorgeous tag, Carol made for the Challenge launch post.

By way of a little thank you gesture, I base my Reminder Post card on the card made by our elfin inspiration. Doing this is fun and helps me create something I wouldn't usually make. I was so blown away by Carol's beautiful work that I had no idea how to make my 'Inspired by...' piece until I focused on the list of delicious list of Christmas treats on Bakery menu board. After much rummaging in my stash I came up with this!

Completely different to Carol's card, yet very much inspired by it! I had so much fun putting this together. You can find the ingredients for how I baked this card over on my blog. 

Rudolph has a lovely themed prize for his Random Raffle for this challenge...

  

At time of writing we only have 4 participants in this fun challenge. Carol and I very much hope that a few more of you will join us, especially as it's only 163 days until Christmas! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let's Trim the Tree for Challenge #75

It's Tree Trimming Time again! I'm back to wrap-up Challenge #75 where we played Festive Fancy Folds with returning elf Arlene! Thanks so much for inspiring us once again, Arlene, we always have so much fun when we partner up for a challenge and the cards you made were just fabulous. 

 

We had some truly beautiful makes for this challenge and together Arlene and I came up with the following:

Our Top Picks for this challenge are:

#3 - Linda

Linda's pop-up bridge card had us both swooning!

#17 - Cindy C.

Simply stunning - what a great design to make the most of that fancy fold.

#13 - Valerija

Don't you just love that circle accent? Such a pretty card.

#12 - Dawn

What a stunner! A great colour combo and a lovely Flip-It centre. 

Our Winner and Tree Topper for this week is:

#14 - Silke

Wonderful colouring and composition, and we both loved that simple, yet so effective, fancy fold. 

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

Thanks so much to everyone who played along in this challenge - your cards were amazing and so inspirational.

Rudolph is here to award his Random Raffle Prize...

  

Ok, so I've just discovered that I mailed the wrong prize for the last challenge! Rudolph is ever so slightly mad with me and says he'll not be trusting a hooman to do such an important task ever again. We've decided to switch the prizes, so the lucky winner of this Challenge will now win this lovely Die and Stamp set from Creative Expressions. I better go email the winner of the June Challenge to make my apologies. 

Our Winner is:

#8 Paperpapier - It's you!

Congratulations, to our lucky Random Raffle Winner, please email me a dottypudding (at) aol.com with your snail mail address so I can connect you with your prize. 

Challenge #76 is currently in progress and thus far we're a little light on numbers in the gallery, so why not come and play along!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #76 - Gingerbread Treats

 

Welcome, welcome, welcome - it's time for a brand new challenge here at Christmas Kickstart and I'm delighted to introduce our brand new elf for this month: Carol from Just Me:c.

"I’m Carol (aka ~c), waving from my home situated in a town close to the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada, which I share with my husband and sweet miniature schnauzer, Lily. My card-making journey began about 12 years ago, when I was searching the web for a new hobby to pair with my then – and recently renewed – passion for cross-stitch. The discoveries revealed sparked a passion, and here I am, thoroughly immersed in playing with paper, stamps, dies and ink. Cross-stitch and sewing with felt are also part of my crafting repertoire. The friendships made through the warm, encouraging crafting communities are treasured immensely. I’m truly honoured and delighted to be joining Jo as an Elf at Christmas Kickstart."

 

Carol has come up with a fun theme for our new challenge...

Challenge #76 - Gingerbread Treats

Just look what she made! Yes, I know! Carol, you are one very talented lady.

You can find all the details for Carol's gorgeous creation by visiting her blog. She's also made a tag to accompany her card and I know you'll love it too!

I'll just park my offering here!

Rudolph is here with a fun Random Raffle Prize for this challenge:

   

Nice tie-in with the theme, Rudolph!

Carol and I both hope you'll have as much fun with this challenge as we have and that you'll come and play along.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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