CHNC challenge 109: nativity

It was wonderful to see so many ways to use free materials and inventive ways of recycling to make wonderful Christmas cards - thank you for all the entries for the previous challenge.

Before I get on to today's challenge, I need to let you know the winners of challenge 108. There were, of course, three opportunities to win a prize.

The first prize winner:

Number 29: Seafield Jo who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Jo. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your £15.00 worth of stamps from The Artistic Stamper.

The second prize winner:

Number 10: Gail K who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Gail. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive 3 digital stamps from the Crafts 4 eternity collection

The third prize winner:

Number 18: Miss C who shared this lovely creation:

Congratulations, Miss C. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $10.00 Gift Certificate from Cedar Chest Designs.

Now on to:

Challenge 109

For today's challenge I'm asking you to include something
that depicts the Christmas nativity

Our first sponsor today is Ooh la la Creations - a randomly-chosen winner will be able to choose a CD-rom of their choice - and there are so many wonderful ones to choose from.

The second sponsor is a new one for CHNC and is offering 4 individual images (winner's choice) from the Pink Gem Designs collection.

Pink Gem Designs is based in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcester in the UK and began trading in November 2008 to design and sell cute and whimsical craft stamps manufactured in clear polymer, digi download products and other crafting goodies.

All the polymer stamps and digi products shown on the site have been created from original images by Janet
Roberts who is the sole proprietor of Pink Gem Designs. You can also visit their inspiration blog here.

And the third sponsor is yet another new one, offering 6 digital images of the winner's choice:

Paper Pretties where YOUR creativity comes to life!

Paper Pretties is an online stamp boutique, and home to Zac, Lily, Sophia and Cooper - the cutest kid stamps around! (At least we think so). We have many exclusive stamp lines, from elegant to whimsical, sweet to slever; there is something for every stamper in our Prettie Boutique! In addition to our high quality clear stamps we also have a wide variety of digital images. In case you haven't heard yet, Paper Pretties has a NEW owner, Heather Lee-Reppen. Now located in Madison, WI, we are pleased to offer you amazing customer service and faster/cheaper shipping. All orders are shipped within 24 hours. 

Please visit the websites of these generous sponsors and support them - 
you will be spoiled for choice!

This is my first card using the 'nativity Philip' image kindly supplied by Pink Gem Designs - you can read more about it on My Crafty Outlook here:

For my second card I've used two digital images kindly supplied by Paper Pretties - I digitally combined 'nativity scene' and 'wisemen' - you can read more about it here on My Crafty Outlook:

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques, as long as the end result is a Christmas card - and this week please show any Christmas card that depicts the nativity - this doesn't have to be Mary and Joseph or the manger scene - it could be the wise men, shepherds, a scripture verse, a Christmas carol that relates to the nativity ... I'm sure you can think of ways to show this theme.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge - please add a link to your blog post (not your blog, but the actual post where your card can be found) by 22:00 UK time Friday 1 February. Please mention my blog and create a link within the post for your creation.

You can enter as many times as you wish (a good way to build up your stock of Christmas cards) and also link to any other challenges that allow you to do so, but new work only, please.

A new challenge will be set on Saturday 2 February when there will once again be three chances to win a prize, thanks to generous sponsors.

Please add your link to inlinkz. If by any chance it disappears, please leave a comment with the link to your blog post and I will make sure it is added. 

If you haven't done so already, please become a follower and grab my bright pink button to post on your sidebar and help continue to spread the word about this challenge blog - thank you.

Don't forget that 'anything goes' monthly challenges have started on my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra blog - you can share any Christmas card you make throughout the whole month, including those that you link here - there is no restriction on the number of entries you can make throughout the month - the link for CHNC challenge extra for January is here. This will close on 31 January and a new 'anything goes' challenge will begin on 1 February.

CHNC challenge 108: recycle or use something free

What a wonderful selection of Christmas cards you entered for last week's challenge - it's a pleasure for me to visit your blogs and see what you have been up to - the only trouble is that the more beautiful cards I see, the more I see stamps, digital images, papers etc that need to go on my wishlist! Thank you for your willingness to join in - it is because of the success of this challenge blog that even more sponsors have come on board to support it - I am very grateful to all the sponsors - please take a moment or two to look down the sidebar and go to their websites and support them by purchasing from them. I still have one or two more sponsors' buttons to add to the sidebar, so 'watch this space'.

Before I get on to today's challenge, I need to let you know the winners of challenge 107. There were, of course, three opportunities to win a prize.

The first prize winner:

Number 15: Katie Tate who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Katie. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $21 certificate from Bugaboo Stamps.

The second prize winner:

Number 32: Suze who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Suze. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $20 gift voucher from Flonz craft.

The third prize winner:

Number 48: Nicola who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Nicola. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com with your full name and address so I can post your prize from Crafty Individuals.

Now on to:

Challenge 108

For today's challenge I'm asking you to recycle something
or use something that was free

Our first sponsor today is The Artistic Stamper who will be giving £15.00 worth of stamps (the winner's choice) to the randomly selected winner.

The second sponsor is a new one for CHNC and is offering 3 digital stamps (winner's choice) from the Crafts 4 eternity collection.

And the third sponsor is yet another new one:

Cedar Chest Designs

Digital Supplies for the Craft World

Cedar Chest Designs offers quality products, bulk discounts, instant downloads and teacher benefits on digital stamps, digital scrpabooking images and a variety of other digital craft supplies from over a dozen unique artists.Winners will receive a free $10.00 Gift Certificate to purchase anything they would like from the online store.

This is my first card using a recycled gift card and some leaves from a Christmas cracker  - you can read more about it here on My Crafty Outlook:

For my second card I've used a digital image kindly supplied by one of this week's sponsors, Crafts 4 eternity,   - you can read more about it here on My Crafty Outlook:

And for my third card I've used a digital image kindly supplied by one of our other sponsors, Cedar Chest Designs, which you can read about here:

Adding three more that you can read about here:

I've been using up lots of old cards and bits and pieces so there are lots more examples of creating with recycled elements on My Crafty Outlook.

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques, as long as the end result is a Christmas card - and this week please show any Christmas card on which you've used something recycled or something that was free to you. This is a good opportunity to make a start on cards for next Christmas - I know that some of you have already started to do this. If you didn't do this last year and were in a panic towards Christmas, why not make a New Year's resolution to make Christmas cards throughout the year?

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge - please add a link to your blog post (not your blog, but the actual post where your card can be found) by 22:00 UK time Friday 25 January. Please mention my blog and create a link within the post for your creation.

You can enter as many times as you wish (a good way to build up your stock of Christmas cards) and also link to any other challenges that allow you to do so, but new work only, please.

A new challenge will be set on 26 January when there will be a prize from a familiar sponsor and one from a new one.

Please add your link to inlinkz. If by any chance it disappears, please leave a comment with the link to your blog post and I will make sure it is added. 

If you haven't done so already, please become a follower and grab my bright pink button to post on your sidebar and help continue to spread the word about this challenge blog - thank you.

Don't forget that 'anything goes' monthly challenges have started on my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra blog - you can share any Christmas card you make throughout the whole month, including those that you link here - there is no restriction on the number of entries you can make throughout the month - the link for CHNC challenge extra for January is here. This will close on 31 January and a new 'anything goes' challenge will begin on 1 February.

CHNC challenge 107: Rudolph is resting

I was blown away by the number of entries there were for last week's CHNC challenge 106 - so good to see so many crafters making such an excellent start with Christmas card making for this year. If you didn't join in last week, then please consider doing so this week - it really makes sense to spread the load throughout the year instead of panic setting in towards the end of the year.

Before I get on to today's challenge, I need to let you know the winners of challenge 106. There were, of course, three opportunities to win a prize.

The first prize winner:

Number 37: Sharon who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Sharon. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your £10 voucher from Crafty emblies.

The second prize winner:

Number 18: Jilli who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Jilli. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $9 gift voucher from Shelly's images.

The third prize winner:

Number 14: Rachel Fisher who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Rachel. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com with your full name and address so I can arrange for you to receive your Wine Buffs Christmas Spirit CD  from Katy Sue Designs.

Now on to:

Challenge 107

For today's challenge I'm asking you to show any Christmas card that doesn't feature Rudolph (or any other reindeer) because he worked so hard leading up to Christmas 2012 that he is resting now!

Since last week there have been some more generous sponsors willing to support and encourage us with their prizes, so I can now tell you that there will be three prizes every week. You will find links to all the sponsors in the sidebar on the right - please support them if you can by giving them your custom.

Our first sponsor this week is one that has sponsored CHNC many times in the past and has generously agreed to keep doing so throughout 2013:

Bugaboo Stamps are proud to sponsor this challenge - they are offering $21 of digital stamps to the randomly selected winner.

Everything That You Ever Wanted to Know About Bugaboo Stamps: A Short Essay

As if raising five children in the frozen land of the North was not enough of a challenge, Jodie Mackrell decided to dip her cold little Canadian toes into the world of papercrafting by opening an online store full of her illustrations. That was two years ago. Today Bugaboo Stamps is one of the leading companies in digital images, and we're still growing!  From seriously snarky to sugary sweet to sublimely soulful all the way over to the other side of the super sexy spectrum, you're bound to find all that you need and more to create your paper projects.  Jodie works very hard to provide New Releases and Freebies every week! 

 If your taste runs to rubber (and you know who you are), you can find Bugaboo Stamps   at Totally Stampalicious. And finally, join the Bugaboo Stamps DT   for weekly challenges at Catch the Bug. 

The second sponsor is Flonz craft, a New Zealand based company who are offering a $20 voucher to spend in their online store - if you are not in NZ then you will have to pay p & p, but this is a very low fixed-rate cost, as shown on their website. They have an amazing range of stamps - the winner certainly will have fun choosing, including some lovely Christmas ones that you could then use for a future challenge.

The third sponsor for this challenge is Crafty Individuals, a UK based company, who sent me a fantastic package of goodies, some of which are being offered now - this is what the winner will receive - Background papers book 3 Springtime 6" x 6" and CI 365 ferns and butterflies silhouette rubber stamp:

For my card I've used 'snow friends window' image kindly supplied by Bugaboo Stamps - you can read more about it here on My Crafty Outlook:

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques, as long as the end result is a Christmas card - and this week please show any Christmas card that doesn't feature Rudolph (or any other reindeer) because he is resting! This is a good opportunity to make a start on cards for next Christmas - I know that some of you have already started to do this. If you didn't do this last year and were in a panic towards Christmas, why not make a New Year's resolution to make Christmas cards throughout the year?

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge - please add a link to your blog post (not your blog, but the actual post where your card can be found) by 22:00 UK time Friday 18 January. Please mention my blog and create a link within the post for your creation.

You can enter as many times as you wish (a good way to build up your stock of Christmas cards) and also link to any other challenges that allow you to do so, but new work only, please.

A new challenge will be set on 19 January when there will be a prize from a familiar sponsor and one from a new one.

Please add your link to inlinkz. If by any chance it disappears, please leave a comment with the link to your blog post and I will make sure it is added. 

If you haven't done so already, please become a follower and grab my bright pink button to post on your sidebar and help continue to spread the word about this challenge blog - thank you.

Don't forget that 'anything goes' monthly challenges have started on my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra blog - you can share any Christmas card you make throughout the whole month, including those that you link here - there is no restriction on the number of entries you can make throughout the month - the link for CHNC challenge extra for January is here.

An entry from Pat Pilkington

Poor Pat is having trouble with blogger and can't upload her entry so I'm hosting it here and will enter it on linky so that she still gets the opportunity to win a prize when I use random.org.

Thanks, Paddy, this is lovely - loving all the glitter.

CHNC challenge 106: Santa has gone into hiding

I apologise that this is a long post today, but I have so much to tell you. I suggest you make a coffee and sit back and enjoy finding out about the fabulous prizes to be won this week.

But, firstly, what a wonderful response to last week's challenge 105 - I really wondered whether there would be many entries, but you certainly all came up trumps showing more cards that you had made but not blogged and there were an impressive number of cards that have been made ready for next Christmas - it's good to see you getting on board and making an early start. I hope many will join in with this week's challenge.

Before I get on to today's challenge, I need to let you know the winner of challenge 105. Unfortunately, there could only be one winner and this is the result of using random.org:

Number 19: Kerry Louise

who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Kerry Louise. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com with your full name and address so I can arrange for you to receive your prize kit from Creative Craft World.

Challenge 106

For today's challenge I'm asking you to show any Christmas card that doesn't feature Santa because he worked so hard leading up to Christmas 2012 that he's gone into hiding for a while!

You may have noticed that there are a lot of new sponsors shown in the sidebar! I'm overwhelmed at the number of sponsors who have agreed to support this blog during 2013. Thanks to their generosity, I'm going to be able to offer at least two prizes every week and sometimes three. As before, the winners will be randomly drawn.

Our first sponsor this week is Crafty Emblies who are giving £10 worth of goodies - a new sponsor to CHNC:

'We are a new company, started in 2012 and we are family owned and run. All our wooden, metal and plastic items are made to order here at our site. So we always have our items in stock. All our wooden items are made from 3mm/2mm ply or 3mm/2mm MDF or 1mm card. Please note grain and colour will vary to pictures as wood is a natural product.

We have our own CNC machines and all our designs and artwork are designed and owned by Crafty-emblies. Most of our wooden cut outs can be applied to a black and used to stamp with.'

The second sponsor is Shelly's images who are once again generously giving a $9 gift certificate to the randomly-chosen winner from the lovely range you will find here.

'Our images are hand drawn by Shelly. We have a super talented family, so every now and then they jump in with an image. Any image that is not drawn by Shelly will have the artists name in the product description.

Digital stamps are perfect for card making, scrap booking, and crafting. The images are easy to re-size and perfect because they don't require any storage space and there is no messy ink and clean up.  If you have any questions about using digital stamps please be sure to send us an email.

Shelly's images are designed with the crafter in mind. She has been a paper crafter for more than 15 years.'

The third sponsor is Katy Sue Designs, another new sponsor to CHNC:

'About - We design and manufacture many papercraft products including the Flower Soft® embellishment range used by crafters Worldwide.

Mission - To use our teams creativity to make craft products that are loved by crafters around the World.

Company Overview - We design and manufacture papercraft products such as stamps, decoupage, card making kits and papercraft CD Rom’s as well as the Flower Soft® craft embellishment range. We have our own graphic design team and also work with leading artists and illustrators under license. Our products are used by crafters around the world and regularly appear on craft shopping channels such as Create and Craft, HSN and HSE.'

For this competition we would like to giveaway a free Wine Buffs Christmas Spirit CD

For my card I've used a new stamp - Stampendous snowy postcard simply stamped with memento rich cocoa - you can read more about it here on My Crafty Outlook:

And there's no sign of Santa on this one either - more info here:

And another here:

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques, as long as the end result is a Christmas card - and this week please show any Christmas card that doesn't feature Santa because he's gone into hiding! This is a good opportunity to make a start on cards for next Christmas - I know that some of you have already started to do this. If you didn't do this last year and were in a panic towards Christmas, why not make a New Year's resolution to make Christmas cards throughout the year?

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge - please add a link to your blog post (not your blog, but the actual post where your card can be found) by 22:00 UK time Friday 11 January. Please mention my blog and create a link within the post for your creation.

You can enter as many times as you wish (a good way to build up your stock of Christmas cards) and also link to any other challenges that allow you to do so, but new work only, please.

A new challenge will be set on 12 January when there will be a chance to win one of three prizes generously given by sponsors. 

Please add your link to inlinkz. If by any chance it disappears, please leave a comment with the link to your blog post and I will make sure it is added. 

If you haven't done so already, please become a follower and grab my bright pink button to post on your sidebar and help continue to spread the word about this challenge blog - thank you.

Don't forget that 'anything goes' monthly challenges have started on my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra blog - you can share any Christmas card you make throughout the whole month - there is no restriction on the number of entries you can make throughout the month.

Of course, weekly challenges will continue here - and anything you enter here can also be entered on the new monthly blog as well - so you will always have another chance of winning a prize. In fact you can enter any other Christmas cards you make for other challenges if their rules allow and at the end of the month there will be a prize for the randomly chosen winner - the link for CHNC challenge extra for January is here.