#179 Christmas with a Twist

Before we launch into the final challenge of the year I am sad to say that we will be losing two team members from January. Ina, who is playing with us today, and Bec who has already left. Thank you ladies for such inspirational pieces and for being such fabulous members of the team. Myself and the rest of the team would like to wish you the very best for the future.

I will be introducing 5 lovely new team members in the New Year. I may post between this final post and the start of next year's posts which will be on 16th January, if I remember! Head like a sieve, brain turned to mush. If not, I shall introduce them in the first post for 2017.

Kim is hosting our final challenge of 2016. We would love to see your Christmas creations, but there is a twist which we would love you to play; we want to see your non traditional Christmas projects. Anything quirky and unusual and not typically thought of as Christmas would be fabulous please. You can play along with a normal Christmas creation if you prefer, but we hope that many of you will play the twist and inspire us with different ideas! It would be nice if you could tell us your twist.

As usual You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

We are sponsored for our final challenge of the year by

Kimx

As it is the last challenge of the year I decided that I would provide a prize, so an extra Christmas prezzie for one lucky person

 

and an extra winner with a prize from

WOODWARE CRAFT COLLECTION

With a prize of £12.00 to spend at your favourite Woodware Stockist, either in store or on line.


Woodware are a Yorkshire based family owned business, as well as distributing Dreamweaver Stencils and Stampendous Stamps we have a wonderful range of stamps designed for us by Francoise Read and Jane Gill. We also scour the world for new and innovative products for the crafty card maker, and have a great range of punches and tools of the trade, to find stockists in your area or to see the range visit the websitewww.woodware.co.uk.

Our design team are playing along with the challenge so check out our blog, which is there for inspiration at www.woodware.co.uk/blog.

 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Woodware Craft Collection for being such amazing supporters of the Crafty Cardmakers Blog over the last several years, and in particular Dorothy who has kept things running so smoothly. Thank you.

Some inspiration from our fabulous team

Kim

I have gone for a very non traditional colour combo for my 'twist'.

Josephine

Father Christmas in blue? Seems like a twist to me! The image is from Stitchy Bear Stamps, and it's called Bah Humbug. I added the sentiment, coloured the image with Promarkers, shaded the background with Distress Ink.

Marlene

I have used a Heartfelt Creations Stamp, lots of Glitter and A Spellbinders Die

Ina

I didn't have anything quirky so went for non traditional Christmas colours with colourful trees and touches of glitter.

Pam


This little Baby Fairy Bee image by Mo Manning is all decked out for Christmas. Now, I don't know about you, but I have never seen a Christmas bee! This was a fun and interesting challenge. I can't wait to see your designs. Merry Christmas!

Judy

"There is snow place like home for the holidays" is the sentiment on my card this week. The digital image is by Heart Digital stamps and the trees are part of a set of rubber stamps by Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz collection. I had fun layering the stamps and images and creating the snow scene.

Lin

My card is made with a Stampotique stamp called Tangled Enthusiasm by Daniel Torrente, and a sentiment from a Dylusions set of stamps. The twist is the colour scheme and also I went for a play on words as he is all 'twisted' up in the lights.

Mary

I decided to use the non traditional colour combination of blue and grey-brown using papers printed from the CD ROM once upon a Christmas.

Glenda

I used an image I thought was a bit unusual for Christmas , yet festive and fun. My brown colour scheme, again a bit unusual. Merry Christmas to all!

Angela

You may think this looks familiar to another card I made earlier but I just couldn't resist making one using the Crazy Dog stamps by Tim Holtz especially as we have two mini Schnauzers so this is just perfect. Merry Christmas to you all, Angela x

Maike

I thought that a Yeti with Christmas lights would be the perfect image for a non traditional Christmas card. Merry Christmas to you, Maike ;o)

Jackie

I chose a cheeky sheep for my twist on christmas card. The background was coloured with distress inks and the colouring was done with promarkers. The stamps were old ones from my stash - and due to my poor organisation I don't know the makers unfortunately.

 

This challenge will close on Christmas Day, but we won't be back with the Winners post or a new challenge until January 16th. So the team and I would like to take the opportunity of wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year.

An InLinkz Link-up

#178 Anything But a Card, Winner and Top 5

Angela hosted our Anything But a Card challenge and her winner and Top 5 are:-
 
Hi everyone.

Before I start can I just say this was so hard to choose the winner and Top 5 and I would like to give a big thank you to all of you for entering this challenge with such gorgeous projects.

25 Louise

and her Top 5 are

20 Cec

 

 24 kristyn

  

 

31 Plony

 

 

44 Bev

 

53 Kari

 

Congratulations to you all. Don't forget to collect your badges from the sidebar, and we look forward to seeing you back here at 12 Noon for our new challenge. 

#178 Anything But a Card

Angela is hosting today. Our challenge is Anything But a Card. With Christmas rapidly approaching we feel sure that you will have created something as a decoration or a gift and would love you to share it with us.

Some inspiration from our fabulous DT

 

Angela

And Lin is quite right, Christmas will be here before we know it. After much thought I decided to make gift bags and I'm here today to show you a sample of what I've made. The papers are my own Masterboards and the dies are Tim Holtz. Hope this will give you ideas too.

Josephine

For my birthday last year, a friend gave me an Ikea box frame. I think it was a challenge of sorts - to see what I would do with it! Well, this is the result. I've prepared a background sheet using Distress Inks and a range of stamps, and added an array of hand-made flowers.

Judy

I made this stationery set as a gift for a friend.  The set consists of a folder to hold the stationery which consisted of stationery sheets, cards and envelopes.   I used several stamps from Stampin UP and Hero Arts

Marlene

I have used a A Stamp from Dovecraft, also usedGo Kreate Dies and made it into Next Year Calender

 

Glenda

 

I made a little gift box with a gift card or money holder to place inside it. The papers are from my stash but I think they were Stampin's Up's from a few years ago. 

Ina
 

I decided to make something for myself as I am always jotting things down on a note book so made a cover for a store bought one. Used lots of inks pastes & stencils. Adding My Notes to finish it off.

Mary

I made some Christmas crackers using a die from Tonic Studios and decorated them with poinsettias made using dies from Tattered Lace.

Sally

I have used a selection of dies, stamps, embossing folders and patterned papers to create some Christmas Ornaments.

Pam

I made a candle for this challenge using Ornamental Pine by Stampin Up.  These are so quick and easy to make.  I promise you will have fun - give it a try!

Jackie

My canvas was made using inks and a stencil and some bubble butterfly stamps.

Maike

This is a gift bag made from an envelope! If you'd like to know how it is done come and visit my blog ;o) I have also made a card to go along with the bag.

An InLinkz Link-up

#177 Embossing Heat or Dry, winner and Top 5

Jackie hosted our Embossing challenge and her winner and Top 5 are:-

23 Sheryl Hare

and her Top 5 are:


3. Crealientje


24 chanya13 DT

 

31 Dawn Frost

33 Sarah T

50 Simone

Congratulations to you all. Don't forget to collect your badges from the sidebar, and we look forward to seeing you back here at 12 Noon for our new challenge. 

#177 Embossing Heat or Dry and a Design Team Call

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR THE CHALLENGE DETAILS

DESIGN TEAM CALL 
Sadly a couple of our team will be leaving us at the end of this year and so we are holding a Design Team call with this challenge. The term is flexible, if you like us and we like you there will be no definite length of term. We publish every two weeks, with a long break at Christmas and a similar break in the Summer. 


The requirements would be for you to create for as many challenges as you can manage, although I might frown at once every 3 months or something like that. But we are not hard and fast and don't complain if you are not able to produce work for every single challenge. After all we all have actual lives as well as being on teams. 


You will, however, be assigned two numbers to comment on which we do like you to do, unless you let us know that you are unable to do so so that we may cover your numbers. 


We don't have sponsors so you will not be asked to work with any digital images and it does mean that your creativity is not stifled by having to work with a set image!


Every so often you will be asked to host the challenge, which basically means it's your responsibility to choose the Winner and the Top 5 from that challenge. Everything else, such as the actual post etc. I will do, all you have to do is pick your favourites from the entries. 


If you think you fancy having a go please add your name below with the letters DT following it so I know you are not just entering the challenge. You do not need to enter this particular challenge in order to leave an entry to apply to be on the team, but it would be nice to see what you can come up with for this challenge if you have time!


Now onto the challenge     


Jackie is hosting today and our challenge is Embossing which can be either dry or heat. If it's not obvious please tell us where you embossing is!

As usual You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!


Some inspiration from our fabulous DT

 Jackie

My card is a mostly white on white CAS card with a hint of blue and silver (not the easiest to photograph, sadly).  I've used both dry and heat embossing on this one.


Josephine

A variety of embossing techniques here: dry embossing, dry debossing with ink, heat embossing and triple embossing! Once I get a word into my head, it seems to stick!

Glenda Atkins

I  dry embossed the  background upon which I layered a heat embossed floral layer, added a circle,  a burlap flower, some twine and inserted a tag . Fun and easy!

Judy McKay

I thought I would get started in my Christmas cards with this challenge.  I used both dry and heat embossing on my card.  The snowflake shimmery background was embossed with an embossing folder by Cuttlebug..  The sentiment and the snowflake were embossed with Platinum embossing powder. 

Ina

Needing to get Christmas card going.I went for a CAS card using bothdry and heat embossing. Snowflakes and sentiment are SU, embossing folder is an old Cuttlebug one.

Mary

I used an embossing folder from Sheena Douglas, cut out a central aperture following the embossing lines and used it to frame a sheet from one of Hunkydory's Little Books.


Kimx

For my card I chose to use a lovely Dreamweaver Metal stencil which I dry embossed using my Cuttlebug. I then heat embossed the leaves to highlight them. See my blog for more details.

Maike

I used one of my favourite embossing folders on this card: Snowflakes #2 by Echo Park. Santa and all his surroundings are part of the adorable "On the Housetop" by Gerda Steiner Designs. You'll find more pictures and a full list of supplies on my blog ;o)

Marlene

I have used an Embossing Folder and Embossing Powder, Wild Rose Studio Image and a Spellbinders Die

Angela

I used an embossing folder for the snowflakes on this card and heat embossed the crazy bird before colouring with alcohol pens. Full details of how I made this are on my blog.

Pam

I used a Darice snowflake embossing folder on white cardstock, then added color with Distress Ink Pads.  The image is from Stampin Up, Lovely As A Tree. Wink of Stella was added to the tree for sparkle.