January Stash

Morning, it's Deborah here with my last challenge of the month at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. This week is either a Stash or Technique challenge.  I think this is a stash challenge, as I'm sure we all have foils and/or gilding flakes somewhere in our stash.  However, it could equally well be a technique!  I want to see foils or gilding on your cards.

There are a several ways to use foils and gilding flakes, and I've added some videos at the end of this post showing how to apply gilding flakes using glue and double sided adhesives.  Here's some inspiration from the team:

Deborah

Kaja

Julie T

Fabiola

                                         

April

Jacqueline

Patricia



********************

An InLinkz Link-up

Winners - January Colours

Sorry this is a bit late!  I think the shades of orange was a challenge - but the thumbnail display did look so pretty.  Here are the winners:

WINNERS

#9 - Andreja

Such a lovely jolly group of snowmen.

Love the embossed orange snowflake background.

#10 - Lucinda

Such pretty shades of orange - super tutorial on how to make the background too.

Such an elegant card.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

(in order of submission)

#4 - Kath

This is a really fun Christmas tree!

#8 - Sharon

A really beautiful image and looks wonderful in orange.

Congratulations to you all - thanks for playing with my very non-traditional colours.  Please pick up your badges from the tab above and display them on your blogs.

Before I go, just time for a quick reminder about this week's theme challenge where I'd like to see your cards with Christmas Candles/Lanterns.

January Theme

Morning All, it's Deborah here with you today.  The third Saturday of each month at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is either a theme or recipe challenge.  I decided to go for a theme this month - I want to see Christmas Candles/Lanterns on your cards:

This really is open to all sorts of interpretations - clean, simple, modern, vintage, traditional - the choice is yours.  Here's some inspiration from the Design Team:

Deborah

April



Kaja

Fabiola

Jacqueline

Julie T

Patricia

*********************************************

An InLinkz Link-up

Winners - January Sketch

Last week's sketch was something of a challenge but then, that's what this is for, to challenge ourselves.  It was great to see all the lovely interpretations of the sketch from CAS one-layer right through to many layers - they were all just fab!  However, we do have to have some winners and they are as follows.

WINNER

#9 - Nancy

This lovely die cut tree echoes the sketch beautifully!

Love the red, black and white colours too.   Great work!

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

(in order of submission)

#2 - Jasann

Lots of texture here, love the mixed media look.

Love the cool winter colours.  So festive too!

#12 - Lucinda

No stamping involved - it's all beautiful design papers.

Love the pretty wreath and that little bird is adorable.  Nicely done!

Congratulations to you all.  Please pick up your badges from the tab at the top of the page and display them on your blogs!

Now, there's still plenty of time to join in with this week's colour challenge.  It's totally non-traditional - but the possibilities are just endless.  

Have fun!

January Colours

Hi, it's Deborah here with you again today.  It's time for our monthly colour challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.  I had lots of fun picking this week's colours.  I decided to go for something very different - I've picked shades of orange.  You can go light, you can go dark - but I want to see your Christmas/winter themed cards in orange!!

Here's some inspiration from the Design Team:

Deborah

Kaja

Fabiola

Julie T

Jacqueline

April

Patricia

*************************************************

An InLinkz Link-up

January Sketch Challenge

Hello and Good Morning.  It's Deborah here, and it's my pleasure to host this month's challenges at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.  Each month we have a set pattern of challenges to inspire you to create your Christmas cards well ahead of the season, the schedule is:

• Sketch
• Colours
• Theme/Recipe
• Stash/Technique
• Pick a Previous - if there's a fifth Saturday in the month

We introduced our new Design Team members last week and now that we are all getting back into our normal everyday routine, it's time to build the Christmas Card stash.  So, without further ado, here's our sketch:

I think this is quite versatile - you can make a one-layer card, keep it clean & simple, or make it shabby and distressed or have lots of layers, but we must be able to see the basic sketch in your creation.  Here's some inspiration from the team:

Kaja

Fabiola

Jacqueline

April


Julie T



Deborah

Patricia

Just a quick reminder of the rules:

• This is a CARD challenge - so no 3D projects, tags or ATCs
• Only new projects - no backlinking
• Please link directly to your POST, not to the whole of your blog
• Please show the graphic on your challenge post
• You must link up by midnight Friday (7.00pm EDT) to be considered for Winner or Honourable Mentions
• A maximum of 10 challenges please
• And please turn off word verification in order to make commenting easier - thank you

Have fun!!!

***********************************************

An InLinkz Link-up

Winners & New DT Members

Happy New Year to you all.  We hope that you all had a very happy Christmas and a great New Year. This year we have five Saturdays in January, but as many of us are still recovering from the holiday, we thought we stretch the break just a little.  We would like to thank everyone who applied to join the team, we really were impressed with everyone.  So now it's time to welcome our new Design Team Members.

We are delighted to welcome Kaja to the team.  And we are especially pleased to welcome Jacqueline back to the team.  Let the ladies introduce themselves:

Kaja

Hi there! My name is Kaja and I'm from small European county called Slovenia. I enjoyed crafting since I remember but until about two years ago I didn't find that much time to do what I love. Now I'm studying maths in a local university and finally I have found enough time to craft. I have a very supportive boyfriend and family, I can’t imagine my life without all of them. I hope you will enjoy my cards as much as I enjoyed making them. For see more of my creations are welcome to visit my blog: kajcyika-crafts.blogspot.com 

Jacqueline Nicola

I live in Bridgnorth, Shropshire (UK) with my mum and our cat and I try to spend as much time crafting as I can! My crafts include felting, bead weaving and scrapbooking but my first love is card making - especially Christmas cards. Being a member of the DT here means I get to use my fabulous Christmas stamp sets all year round!

Now, it's time to let you know the winners from our last challenge of 2015.  It was really tough with over 60 entries.  Sadly some people used challenges from 2014 and even earlier, and there were also a number of entries that weren't cards.  But we did enjoy seeing them all.  Without further ado.  The winners are:

WINNER

#5 - Toni

This is a beautiful poinsettia with so much texture.

Toni picked our June 2015 Technique challenge - Mixed Media.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

(in order of submission)

#14 - Maura

Beautiful cardinal card - Maura used our Wild Woods theme from October 2015.

#36 - Zora

Such an adorable snowman - Zora used our Snowman theme from July 2015.

#64 - Lilian

This is a really cute card - Lilian also used the Wild Woods theme from October 2015.

Congratulations to you all - don't forget to pick up your badge from the tab at the top of the page and display it on your blogs.

******************

Finally, I thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone of the challenge rules and they are:

• We are a Christmas CARD challenge - please post only Christmas or winter-related cards.  No tags, scrapbook layouts or 3D projects.

Please mention 52 Christmas Card Throwdown in your post and provide a link so that others can join our challenge too.

Please link to your blog post and NOT your entire blog.

Your project must be new - no back links please.

The challenge will close at midnight GMT/7:00 pm Eastern time on Friday.

You may combine this challenge with up to 10 other challenges.

Please turn off word verification so that we may comment on your card more easily.  We realize a lot of you use it for safety reasons. We do our best to leave comments for each of our challenge participants, however, trying to figure out those letters and numbers can be very frustrating! We strongly suggest using comment moderation as a friendlier alternative.

**********************

Wishing all our players a very

Happy New Year