CHNC challenge 200: if you want to get ahead get a hat!

Can you believe that we have reached challenge 200 - by the end of this year this challenge blog will have been running for four years ... and it's thanks to all of you wonderful crafters who take the time to share your festive creativity here. I am truly blessed to have so many people who regularly contribute their entries and it's always so encouraging to welcome new people too. And, of course, I am so grateful to the sponsors who so generously give prizes.

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 199:

The first winner: 

Number 36: Marie Bingaman, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Marie. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your free seat at any of the Craft Classes Online workshops with a regular price of $25 or less.

The second winner:

Number 46: Lalkygirl (Tracey), who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Tracey. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive the  CD-rom of your choice from Ooh la la Creations.

The third winner:

Number 50: Billie A,who shared this lovely tag:

Congratulations, Billie. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your 5 digital images from Eureka Stamps.

Now on to:

Challenge 200

For today's challenge the theme is 'if you want to get ahead get a hat!' - your Christmas creation must feature a head (person, animal, fairy, angel, snowman) ... with or without a hat!

The first sponsor is Flonz craft:

Flonz craft is a New Zealand based company who are offering a $20 voucher to spend in their online store - and they will generously send to anywhere in the world with free p & p.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 second sponsor is Whoopsi Daisy:

'Whoopsi Daisy Digi Stamps features all hand drawn images by the amazing Linnie and specialises in cute images of children. Whoopsi Daisy offers a great deal for your money. Take a look at the Whoopsi Daisy shop where you are certain to find awesome images which will fit all your creative needs.'

The randomly chosen winner will receive their choice of two sheets from Linnie's Whoopsi Daisy shop.

The third sponsor  is Crafty Sentiments:

'We are a small family fun online company that offers crafters fun and whimsical unmounted rubber stamps, digital stamps as well as cutting dies all from our very own exclusive range. Perfect for your cards and scrapbooks! Our stamps are made from deep etched grey rubber and our cutting dies are made from good quality metal from the USA and UK. We also stock essential craft products for your scrapbooking and card making needs.'

The prize for the randomly chosen winner will receive three digis of their choice.

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

you will be spoiled for choice!

For my card I used Whoopsi Daisy's sheet 380 snowman (Whoopsi Daisy is one of this week's sponsors)  - you can read more about it here on My Crafty Outlook:

And I made this card for the Glory of Christmas challenge 45 and just had to show it here as this naughty hedggie is running away with Santa's hat, using the lovely Penny Black 'chill day' stamp - more info on My Crafty Outlook here (and we would also love you to join in our Glory of Christmas challenge 45 with your Christmas creations featuring St Nicholas/Santa/Father Christmas.

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques - and this week the theme is 'if you want to get ahead get a hat!' - your Christmas creation must feature a head (person, animal, fairy, angel, snowman) ... with or without a hat!

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 31 October Friday . 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 1 November when there will 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. We now have 302 'likes' , but there's plenty of room for more! 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 October 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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