Saturday 31 January 2015

CHNC challenge 214: something beginning with B


Not so many entries for last week's challenge - perhaps the theme was a bit obscure - but the quality of crafting was definitely still there. Thank you, everyone, for your support - and I hope you like this week's challenge and will be able to join in.

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 213 - there were four opportunities to win a prize.

The first winner: 

Number 7: Kathyk, who shared this lovely card:


Congratulations, Kathy. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com with your full name and address so I can arrange for you to receive your prize package from Mari Kocjancic.

The second winner:

Number 4: Nancy Parker, who shared this lovely card:


Congratulations, Nancy. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $25 gift certificate from CAS-ual Fridays.

The third winner:

Number 23: Margaret A, who shared this lovely card:


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

The fourth winner:

Number 1: Marieke, who shared this lovely card:


Congratulations, Marieke. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your four digital images from Sweet Pea Stamps.

Now on to:
Challenge 214

Today's challenge is to make a Christmas design featuring something beginning with B (I'm sure you can come up with lots of ideas)

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 new to CHNC: Fresh Brewed Designs:



The fourth 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 two sheets from Linnie.

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 had little time to make anything for this challenge (with John in hospital since Sunday) - I know, I should have made cards earlier - I actually prepared the blogposts, but didn't make the cards. So I resorted to digging out some cards that I'd kept from those received, thinking I'd make a quick card with one of those. In the end I made three quick cards.

For the first one I mounted the cut off from an old card on to a piece of snowflake paper left over from a previous make and added the tartan bow so I have used bear, bows, box, bobble:


For the next card I used a piece of Anna Griffin card with lovely sparkling glittery snowflakes, using the lovely robin image recycled - this, as well, is very glittered - and I added the silver bow and sentiment. So this card has brown, bird, bow, berries, boughs, branches:


And then I used an offcut of checked paper for the background and simply mounted the lovely recycled picture, adding the ribbon and bow down the side. So this card has bicycle (not very common on Christmas cards) and bow.


You can see these cards here on My Crafty Outlook.

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques - and this week please feature something beginning with B ... perhaps a bear, a bird, a bow, a button, something blue, brown ... I'm sure you will have loads of ideas.

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 6 February 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 7 February 2015 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 over 300 '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 February 2015 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

Saturday 24 January 2015

CHNC challenge 213: Joy to the world


It was lovely seeing what you did with your freebies or upcycled items for your wonderful designs shared for last 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 212 - there were four opportunities to win a prize.

The first winner: 

Number 12: Stamp Queen Tera, who shared this lovely card:


Congratulations, Tera. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your free seat to any of the Craft Classes Online online workshops.

The second winner:

Number 2: Meg, who shared this lovely card:


Congratulations, Meg. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your lucky dip pack of Kanban products from Foil Play.

The third winner:


Number 8: Granne, who shared this lovely card:


Congratulations, Granne. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $10 voucher to spend online at Di's Digi Downloads.

The fourth winner:

Number 3: Rosebuds, who shared this lovely card:


Congratulations, Rosie. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your £10 voucher to spend online at My mum's craftshop.

Now on to:
Challenge 213

Today's challenge is to make a Christmas design that depicts 'joy to the world' - please interpret this in any way that you wish.

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

The first sponsor is Mari Kocjancic who will be sending a prize package to the randomly chosen winner.

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 $25 gift certificate:


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 new to CHNC: Sweet Pea Stamps:


'Sweet Pea Stamps (SPS) is a small home-based business in Michigan. SPS does not work from a brick and mortar shop. You will find SPS only on line at Sweet Pea Stamps. We pride ourselves in quality and value. Lynette McAnsh, Owner, is a perfectionist. If the product is not top quality, she will not offer it.

Lynette stated her small business selling D.O.T.S. in the 90s. In 1999 she started “Designs, Ink’d” and sold that business in 2004 due to health and family issues. Missing the love of running a small business, and with her children older, she started Sweet Pea Stamps in April 2009. Now, 5 years later, we are representing over 30 artists with digital images and rubber stamps. She does work alone, sometimes with the help of family; her turn-around time may be longer than the big companies. You will always be met with friendly and professional demeanor and her merchandise will always be the highest quality.


Other online places to visit SPS are the Facebook page Sweet Pea Stamps, and our Facebook group, Sweet Pea Stamps Friends and Fans. SPS has a monthly blog challenge at One Sweet Challenge and daily inspiration from SPS’s designers at Sweet Pea Rubber Stamps blog. We hope you join us.'

The randomly chosen winner will receive four digital images from Sweet Pea Stamps.

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 delighted that I am joined today by two guest designs representing Sweet Pea Stamps.

Firstly, Tera Fujan made these lovely cards using Mitzi Sato Wiuff's little shepherd stamp. Please visit Tera's blog here to see her post about the cards.




And Jane Bradshaw has joined me with this gorgeous card using the image 'Sally and Little Squirrel' by Conie Fong. Please visit Jane's blog here to see her post about her card:


Thank you so much, Tera and Jane, for being my guests for this challenge and to Sweet Pea Stamps for being one of our sponsors.

For my card I used the lovely Conie Fong's snowy - joy to the world digi image by Sweet Pea Stamps, one of our sponsors, lining this up into the O of the Joy to the world Clarity stamp that I inked with versamark and heat embossed with detail copper powder. You can read more about this here on My Crafty Outlook:



Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques - and this week please show a Christmas design that depicts 'joy to the world' - please interpret this in any way that you wish.

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 January 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 31 January 2015 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 over 300 '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 January 2015 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

Saturday 17 January 2015

CHNC challenge 212: upcycle, recycle, re-purpose or use something free


I really enjoyed seeing all your entries for last week's challenge and it was good to see a few new people joining in and starting their Christmas cards. Thank you, everyone, for supporting this challenge blog. I hope you will be able to join me this week.

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 211 - there were four opportunities to win a prize.

The first winner: 

Number 11: 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 three digital images from Crafty Sentiments.

The second winner:

Number 6: Julianne, who shared this lovely card:


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

The third winner:


Number 25: Gail Scott, who shared this lovely card:


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

The fourth winner:

Number 32: Brenda B, who shared this lovely card:


Congratulations, Brenda. Please email me at hazelharris@ntlworld.com so I can arrange for you to receive your 3 paper sets from Buckwell Craft Supplies.

Now on to:
Challenge 212

Today's challenge is to upcycle, recycle, re-purpose something or use something that you got free

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

The first sponsor is Craft Classes Online (replacing My Creative Classroom):


'Craft Classes Online (CCO) brings multiple Creative Arts Instructors together on one site to provide students with the best choice in online craft workshops. Classes are advertised on the CCO website, but are paid for and held on individual instructor's blog/website. This enable instructors to have more freedom and flexibility in their independent businesses. 

Our instructors offer online workshops that are engaging, affordable, and time-saving. Students from across the globe can learn any number of techniques andcreative projects from the comfort of their own home and on their schedule.

In September we will relaunch our blog, My Creative Life 2014, where we issue challenges to help us use all of our craft supplies during the year.'

Craft Classes Online will offer the randomly chosen winner a free seat to any of their online workshops that are on the CCO website with a regular price of $25 or less. The winner will have until the end of this year to claim their prize.

The second sponsor is new to CHNC: Foil Play:


'Foil Play has an enormous selection of crafting staples from classic tried and tested brands for all occasions at great prices. Speedy despatch is always a priority, UK p&p is free on all orders over £10 and you'll get free Kanban die cut toppers if you spend over £20.'

The randomly chosen winner will receive a lucky dip pack of Kanban products.

The third sponsor is Di's Digi Downloads:


This is a little bit about Di who produces such gorgeous digital images:

'I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people.
I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself.
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!'

The randomly-chosen winner will be able given a $10 voucher to spend - just click on the link and feast your eyes on the super images - you will not be disappointed!

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 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 used pieces that were rescued from two separate Christmas crackers and the ribbon with bow across the top part was taken off a card that we received. You can read more about the cards here on My Crafty Outlook. I had to take a photo sideways on because of the reflection of the foiling - in real life the foiling is bright and shining - the lettering is golden and bright red.



Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques - and this week please upcycle, recycle, re-purpose something or use something that you got free.

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 23 January 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 24 January 2015 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 over 300 '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 January 2015 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