CHNC challenge 234: merry and bright

Thank you for so many delightful entries once again last week. A lot of you must be piling up quite a number of Christmas cards so far. If you haven't started making them ... it's not too early. Why not join in this week's 'merry and bright' challenge?

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 233:

The first winner: 

Number 7: Hunnybunny, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Hunnybunny. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com with your full name and address so I can arrange for you to receive your lucky dip pack of Kanban goodies from Foil Play.

The second winner:

Number 22: 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 three images from The stamping boutique.

The third winner:

Number 2: Julie T,  who shared this lovely card:

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

The fourth winner:

Number 28: Suze #3,  who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Suze. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so you can receive your four digital images from Sweet Pea Stamps.

Now on to:

Challenge 234

For today's challenge I'd like you to make your Christmas creations merry and bright (however you wish to interpret that)

Once again this week there are four opportunities to win a prize - as usual, winners will be chosen randomly.

The first sponsor is Stamping all day who are offering three free downloads from bestcardmaking-downloads.com to the randomly chosen winner.

The second sponsor is new to CHNC:  Lacy Sunshine:

Meet The Artist

Heather Valentin is creative , award winning, modern-day fantasy and whimsical artist who has displayed a dynamic and vibrant energy while painting professionally for over 18 years.

She began to express herself creatively through movement at a very young age.
For many years she studied dance, being drawn to forms that allowed creative self expression, all the while feeling this constant urge to create with her hands. The canvas is now her dance floor where color, beauty and drama are expressed through her every pencil sketch and brush stroke. Her subjects vary from fairies, fantasy, mermaids, vampires, dragons, wildlife, abstract and more. She is one who is inspired in a single moment. Her dreams, moods and the the unfolding beauty of the world around her is what charts her dance for the day. She is most alive when sketching and painting, creating timeless pieces that reflect her heart and soul. Drawing breathes life into her soul- it enables her to reach out and touch lives. This gives her a place in the world one character and painting at a time.

Heather's artist portfolio has expanded to include such clients as Pepsi, Outback Steakhouse, Nabisco, Zephryhils and can now be found at Laguna Art, Third Stone Art Gallery and Sausalito Art Galleries, along with commercial and private collections across
the globe.

Her latest foray is to immortalize her popular drawn characters Eleanor and Pickles in a children's book of their own.

The prize for the randomly chosen winner will be 3 digis of choice from the Lacy Sunshine Shoppe.

The third sponsor is The ribbon girl:

'We are Mother and Daughter, Mary and Andrea, and have always crafted (card making, scrapbooking, cake decorating, sewing, embroidery, soft toy making etc) but it became more and more difficult to buy very small quantities of good quality ribbon, lace, and embellishments. In 2010 we decided to open our own online store The Ribbon Girl so we could make very small (or large) quantities of top quality products available to all crafters at reasonable prices - so you can mix and match and make your craft budget go further.

We only sell what we would use ourselves - Mary owns and runs the store while Andrea looks after the social side including the Ribbon Girl challenges and our mega talented Design Team. Based in the UK, we ship world wide and try to send all orders the same day whenever possible.

So whether you like crafting in classic, vintage, rustic, shabby chic or modern style you'll be spoiled for choice! Ribbon Girl stocks an impressive selection of gorgeous ribbons and trims from silk to hessian, a 100 different designs of vintage style, cotton, guipure and flat lace (all ribbon and lace is sold by the metre in continuous lengths whenever possible) hundreds of charms and pendants, all available as single units.

Our Flower Shop is full pretty flowers and beaded berries and we are stockists of Wild Orchid Crafts, Kort & Godt and many others, in mulberry, cotton paper, satin, organza; we have gorgeous diamante and pearl embellishments; a vast array of buttons, twine, hemp, vintage style brooches, special occasion, bridal and seasonal embellishments. Our Christmas Shop is open all year round and we also offer craft essentials such as top-stitch thread, sticky tape, Glossy Accents, Liquid Pearls and Stickles, brooch backs, hair slides, hat pins etc

Small orders are always welcome at The Ribbon Girl and we hope you enjoy looking around the store - please contact us if you need advice or a sample - especially if you are planning a wedding and want to use lace or ribbons on your invitations, wedding stationery, favours or celebration cakes.'

The ribbon girl will be giving a randomly chosen winner a £10 voucher to spend in their store. Please note that their prize does not include post/handling - they have standard flat rate fees depending on location - see their website for details.

The fourth sponsor is Deedee's Digis:

'Deedee's Digis offers wholesome digital "stamps" and printable digital papers that are the original creations of Deedee Anderson. All of our sets include both outline and pre-colored images, in both JPG and PNG formats. Our products are offered in high 300dpi resolution so that they are fully resizable to meet your crafting needs. We are a Christ-centered company, and you will find that many of our sets include KJV Scripture verses, in addition to encouraging sentiments of all sorts. We feel very blessed to be part of such a talented community of paper crafters, and thank you for allowing us to sponsor this challenge!'

The prize will be a $15.00 gift code to Deedee's Digis.

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

you will be spoiled for choice!

Please look down the sidebar on the right to see all of the sponsors that I have waiting in the wings to give out prizes during this year. I am so thankful for everyone that is so generously coming on board to support me. When buying your crafting goodies, please click on the links to see what's on offer in their online stores and support them as much as you can with your orders.

I am so pleased that Kathy from Deedee's Digis is joining me as a guest with her lovely card featuring penguins all tied up from Deedee's 'merry & bright':

And Marji from Deedee's Digis is also joining in as a guest with this lovely card featuring Deedee's Digis Ugly Sweaters:

Thank you, ladies, for joining me with your lovely crafting.

For my card I've used images from Deedee's Beary merry Christmas, kindly supplied by them as one of the sponsors.  You can read more 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 you to make your Christmas creations merry and bright (however you wish to interpret that).

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 26 June 2015. 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 27 June 2015 when there will be four 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 over 360 'likes'  - it was lovely to welcome some new 'likers' recently, 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 June is here.

Last 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  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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