Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge: July 2015

Saturday, 25 July 2015

CHNC challenge 239: Ho! Ho! Ho!

A lovely selection of spots and stripes for last week's challenge. Do you realise that there are only five months to Christmas from today! If you haven't started on your cards etc yet, why not make a start with this week's 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 238. There were five opportunities to win a prize:

The first winner:

Number 17: The Messy Barn (Michelle), who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Michelle. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your three digital items from Mari's Etsy shop.

The second winner:

Number 26: Mijn creatie, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Mijn. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $20 gift certificate from CAS-ual Fridays.

The third winner:

Number 25: Sandy J, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Sandy. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your three digis from the Lacy Sunshine Shoppe.

The fourth winner:

Number 6: Meg, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Meg. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com with your full name and address so I can post your Crafty Bob CD-rom kindly donated by Craftsuprint.

Now on to:

Challenge 239

For today's challenge I'd like you to depict Ho! Ho! Ho! in whatever way you like for your Christmas designs

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

The first sponsor is Bugaboo Stamps:

Bugaboo Stamps are proud to sponsor this challenge:

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.

Bugaboo Stamps are offering $21 of digital stamps to the randomly chosen winner.

The second sponsor is Crafts 4 eternity:

who is offering 3 digital stamps (winner's choice) from the Crafts 4 eternity collection.

The third sponsor is QKR Stampede:

'Do you have a sense of humor? Are you looking for a cute stamp? Then, we are the company for you! QKR Stampede is the somewhat cute somewhat quirky rubber and digital stamp company. We showcase the artwork of Ken Herrod, who had a unique, somewhat quirky style with lots of humor and character. You are sure to get a chuckle out of our stamps! We have been offering our unique stamps and supplies to the craft industry for over 15 years. At QKR Stampede our images are available as un-mounted, natural red rubber stamps OR as digital stamps! If QKR Stampede Stamps aren't exactly what you are looking for, don’t miss out on the sister companies: Eureka Stamps, Biblical Impressions Rubber Stamps, or the newest addition; Alluring Impressions.'

The randomly chosen winner will receive five digital images of their choice from QKR Stampede.

The fourth sponsor is My mum's craftshop:

'Bringing you the best in stamping products for Cardmaking & Papercrafting projects

We aim to bring you the best stamping products we can find. Along with stamps we also offer essential stamping products like inks, copics, papers, embellishments & more. We are always receiving lots of new deliveries every week so make sure you check back often so see what yummy new stash we have available! If there are any particular designs that you can't see on our website, please contact us & we will be happy to order them in for you.

Don't forget to visit our Shop Blog which has all the latest releases, info, inspiration & more!'

The randomly chosen winner will receive a £10 voucher to spend online at My mum's craftshop.

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 giving out prizes during this year. I am so thankful for everyone 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.

For my one layer CAS card I've used one of my favourite Santa stamps bt Hero Arts inked with memento tuxedo black and filled in with a poppy red embossing pen for Santa's hat, heat embossed with WOW! detail clear gloss powder, then using a clear embossing pen to 'colour' in the fur on Santa's hat and his beard and embossed with WOW! metallic medley powder. The Ho Ho Ho stamp was from Hobbycraft. I dotted in places with quickie glue and then sprinkled with Chloe's sparkelicious glitter. You can read more about the card here on My Crafty Outlook. However much I tried I couldn't get a photo that showed the card as it actually is - this is the best I could do and below you can see a close up showing the embossing and glitter a bit better:

And I made this next card for the Glory of Christmas challenge 64 and thought it fits in with my 'Ho! Ho! Ho!' theme - more details 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 depict Ho! Ho! Ho! in whatever way you wish (you don't have to include Santa, but you can, of course, if you want to!).

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 31 July 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 1 August 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 380 'likes' - it was lovely to welcome some new 'likers' yet again this week, 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 July 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

An InLinkz Link-up

Saturday, 18 July 2015

CHNC challenge 238: spots and/or stripes

So many lovely entries for last week's 'deck the halls' - I loved seeing the various creativity and styles - thank you so much for your support here - this challenge blog would be nothing without all of you, both regulars and newcomers.

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 237. There were five opportunities to win a prize:

The first winner:

Number 33: Di, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Di. 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 products from Foil Play.

The second winner:

Number 35: Melissa SunshineHoneyBee, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Melissa. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your images or digi papers to the value of $10 from StitchyBear's DIgi Outlet.

The third winner:

Number 20: Crafty girl, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Crafty girl. 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 34: Asha, who shared this lovely card:

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

The fifh winner:

Number 8: Margaret A (Granmargaret), who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Margaret. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so you can receive your $15.00 gift code to Deedee's Digis.

Now on to:

Challenge 238

For today's challenge I'd like you to see spots and/or stripes on your Christmas creations

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

The first sponsor is Stamp your life:

Mari (the owner) writes:

'I am a wife and mother, as well as full-time college student. I have had a love for creating since I was a young child. I started scrapbooking about 13 years ago and have since started making cards, quilling, and making many other paper crafts.'

The randomly chosen winner will receive their choice of three digital items of their choice from Mari's Etsy shop.

The second sponsor is CAS-ual Fridays:

'CAS-ual Fridays Stamps is a small company with big ideas located in beautiful Colorado. All the stamps are proudly made in the USA from the finest clear photopolymer. They love ink and stamp like a dream! While the stamps are created with Clean And Simple design in mind (hence the CAS in our name) they will absolutely delight any stamper's style. Whether you are a CAS enthusiast, or lover of all things layer-licious, you will have a blast getting inky with them. New stamps are released nearly every month, and the Girl Fridays provide continuous inspiration, and tips, for your oohing and aahing pleasure. Be sure to follow along on our store blog so you don't miss a thing!'

The randomly chosen winner will receive a $20 gift certificate.

The third sponsor is Lacy Sunshine:

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 fourth sponsor is Craftsuprint:

Crafty Bob

Welcome to the World's largest Craft Megastore and the home of Crafty Bob. Over 550,000 Craft Downloads including Card Making, Knitting, Needlework, Scrapbooking, Designer Resources, Craft Supplies, Hobbies and Handmade Finished Cards. Plus Craft Projects, Videos, Ideas, Crafting Competitions and Fun Crafty Bob Craft Games. If you are creative and love crafting then you are going to love craftsuprint.com!'

There are so many freebies on their website that you don't have to wait to see if you are a winner ... you can all take advantage of the generosity of Craftsuprint.

The randomly chosen winner will receive a Crafty Bob CD-rom kindly donated by Craftsuprint.

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.

For my card I've used some lovely digital bokeh paper kindly supplied by one of our sponsors this week, Stamp your life. The lovely reindeer is 'snowflake reindeer silhouette' by Bugaboo Stamps (a regular sponsor here). 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 include some spots and/or stripes on your Christmas creations

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 24 July 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 25 July 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.

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 380 'likes' - it was lovely to welcome some new 'likers' again this week, 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.