CHNC challenge 178: Christmas in your country

I loved seeing your festive flowers and foliage for last week's challenge - what a beautiful variety there was - thank you for once again supporting this challenge with your entries.

Please note that I publish the prize winners here and on our facebook page, but don't notify winners individually - it is up to you all to check to see if you have won and email me as requested. There are one or two unclaimed prizes, so it's worth having a look back to see if you were a winner.

Before I get on to today's challenge, I need to let you know the winners of challenge 177. There were, of course, three opportunities to win a prize last week.

The first winner: 

Number 12: Asha, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Asha. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com with your full name and address so I can arrange for you to receive your two sets of Cupids clear stamps.

The second winner:

Number 8: Margaret M, who shared this lovely card:

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

The third winner:

Number 5: fabiola, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations,Fabiola . Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your five digital images from Eureka Stamps.

Now on to:

Challenge 178

For today's challenge I'd like you to show what Christmas in your country makes you think of - it might be something seasonal or a particular national celebration or tradition ... I'm sure you will have ideas

The first sponsor is Crafter's Companion:

Crafter's Companion is a well known haven of crafting goodies of all descriptions. They are giving a £10 voucher to the randomly chosen winner.

The second sponsor is Delicious Doodles:

'Delicious Doodles is a young company with myself, Teri, as the Sole Trader/Designer. 

I have doodled and sketched all of my life. I started making greetings cards when my last child was born, and used my doodles on them as I couldn't find what I wanted in the usual craft places. 

I only started selling my images in the Autumn of 2009. I design and hand/mouse-draw all of the images that are sold in the Delicious Doodles Shop. Some are cutsie animals, some are sketched flowers, there are a few men's images, fairies and also some 'darker' images featuring vampires, skulls and Gothic stuff, something for everyone! '

The randomly chosen winner will be able to choose 4 digital images.

The third sponsor is yet another new one for us, PDA Card and Craft:

'PDA Card and Craft is the name of the mail order section of the established printing and design agency, Woodward PDA Ltd.

The mail order side of our business was started late in the year 2001. We operated from our site in the centre of Nottingham, but it soon became apparent that we were outgrowing our working premises there.

So in November 2002 we formed a new company called Woodward PDA Ltd. and bought an established printing company Woodward Printers at Langley Mill just outside Nottingham. This is where we now do all our printing and cardmaking operations.

If you are ever in the Nottingham area you will be very welcome to visit us and browse our extensive range of cards and materials in our large factory shop.'

I have been a regular customer of PDA for many years now - I buy most of my cardstock, envelopes, cello bags etc from them, not to mention lots of other goodies that I'm always tempted with ... and give in to the temptation. In fact, I received an order from them yesterday - everything is always packed so well.

The randomly chosen winner will be able to have £40  from PDA Card and Craft - to be spent in their shop or online, depending on the location of the winner.

Please visit the websites of these generous sponsors and support them -

you will be spoiled for choice!

I am so pleased that Margaret from PDA Card and Craft is joining me today as a guest designer. For her first card Margaret used the Dreamweaver Tree Die. The embossing folder is a Nellie Snellen one:

For Margaret's second card she has used Joy Crafts - Snow Crystal Border Die and Edge Die:

Thank you, Margaret, for your gorgeous cards.

For my card I've used 'snowy postbox' a digital image by Delicious Doodles (one of today's sponsors) - more details about the card here on My Crafty Outlook:

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques - and this week I'd like to see something on your card that makes you think of Christmas in your country - it might be something seasonal or a particular national celebration or tradition ... I'm sure you will have ideas. For instance, I have used a picture with a typically British pillar box, as well as a snowy scene that is traditionally thought of at Christmas. Also, lace is quite widely used in the UK.

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 30 May. Please include a link to this blogpost within the post for your creation.

You can enter as many times as you wish  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 31 May 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. Also it would be great if you would consider becoming a follower - lovely to welcome recent new followers and 'likers' on facebook.

Please also consider going to CHNC Facebook page and clicking 'like' if you haven't done so already and encourage your friends to do the same. I always show at least one of my cards for the next challenge in advance and it's a good place to catch up with any news, winners etc.

Don't forget

Don't forget that 'anything goes' monthly challenges are 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 May is here.

At the beginning of the year I started up a new challenge called Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - anything goes as long as you cover your card with patterned paper - a randomly chosen prize winner every month. Please click on the link to find out more. If you have used patterned paper to cover your card blank for your Christmas card, why not enter it there too. And please be aware that the new Patterned Paper Challenge is not restricted to Christmas - it is for any occasions.

Thank you for your support

I look forward to seeing your entries

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