Challenge #199 - Friends

Happy holidays to all!  I hope you are all enjoying this festive season and will get the opportunity to spend time with family and friends.  I think that this is so important for us all.  In that light, this will be the final challenge of this year.  Our designers will have next week off and be back in the new year.  So this week, our challenge is a two-week one.  Maybe then, you will find a little bit of time to craft and relax during this busy season and I know our team will enjoy the rest.

First things first, here is our photo for the week:

It is a wee bit different and a wee bit strange but it is my favourite snow photo so far this winter.

Now to business.  Once again, there is no top 3.  Only two crafters entered our challenge for sketch #197.  I sure hope it is the busy holiday season.  

Our sketch this week is another holiday influenced one:

It reminds me of a chimney.  Our theme(use it or not) is Friends.
Here are the samples from the team.

Lynda

Barb

Hillary

Beautiful, ladies!   I love the different interpretations of our sketch.  Now, followers, it is up to you.

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season and a joyous New Year!

Challenge #198- Family

Hi!  I am glad, at this hectic time of year, that you are making time to visit us and maybe even participate in our challenge this week.
First for our photo of the week:

The interesting thing about this photo - although it looks wintery, it really was taken in the fall and an infrared technique applied in post processing.

On to our top 3 for challenge #196:

Diane

LeAnne

Myrna

Great takes on our sketch and our theme, ladies!  Thanks to all who participated.

Now, this week's sketch:

Another simple one....with our theme of family (use it or not)

Here are the gorgeous samples from the team:

Nicole

Sara H.

Shell

Crystal

Kathy

Kaylin

Awesome, team!  I love all of your cards and I am sure you will inspire our followers to make some time to create.  I know that our schedules are very busy this time of year, but it is so important to take some time for ourselves.  Thanks for stopping by!

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Challenge #197 - Joy

Good morning!

As has become our tradition recently, here is our photo of the week:

It is of a puddle of ice which has frozen and thawed repeatedly to create an awesome pattern.

Now on to why we are here.  Our top three for sketch #195 are a gorgeous trio of cards.  Here they are (in no particular order):

Laura

Charlene

BK

Well done, ladies!  Beautiful cards.  And a huge Thank You to the other participants as well.  It was difficult to choose a top 3.

This week's challenge has a theme of "joy" (should you choose to use it).  But really, making - and viewing - cards should bring us all joy so everyone this week has used the theme in my eyes.

Our sketch:

And the cards from the team:

Barb

Hillary

Lynda

I am sure you will agree that all three of these cards are examples of joy and I hope you have been inspired to create a card of your own. Please post it below.

And have a great week, everyone!

Challenge #196 - Peace

Good day!  Oops, I am running a few minutes behind this morning.  I have had one of those mornings where everything I do has problems.  But, here we go....
Our photo today is one of Elli, snow on her nose (very keeping with the season)

Our very wintery dog!

Now down to business - Once again we only had three entries so there is not a top 3, or should I say, everyone made the top three.  Thanks to the ladies who took the time to create some beautiful cards.

Our challenge this week is yet another basic sketch and our theme (should you choose to use it) is Peace.
Our sketch:

(a very traditional design)
And the inspirations from our team:

Crystal

Kathy

Kaylin

Nicole

Sara H.

Shell

Claire

Simply stunning cards, ladies!  You have so outdone yourselves and I thank you for that.  I know our followers will be spurred on to create beautiful cards of their own.

I am so excited to see them all.

Have a great week, everyone!

Challenge #195 - Snow Is Coming

Happy Tuesday, all.  After our big snow storm last week, we have had three days of rain - can you believe it?  Three quarters of our snow is gone - oops, just looked out and it is snowing again.  Our weather is confused.
This week, I have a photo of ice on our pine tree - very representative of our weather.

To me, this looks like a whale swimming in the ocean.  What do you see?

Now on to business....There is no top 3 from challenge #193.  There were only three entries so they are all winners in my book.  This is a busy time of year and I often find that our followers are too busy to craft.  Thanks to the three ladies who took the time to enter - your cards are beautiful.

This week, our sketch is yet another basic one.

Our theme (use it or not) is Snow is Coming.

And here are the cards from the team:

Lynda

Mary Jo

Sarah C.

Barb

Claire

Hillary

Beautiful cards, ladies.  Once again you have out done yourselves  and I am sure you have inspired our followers.  I am anxious to see what everyone creates.

Have a great week, all!

Challenge #194- Twice Is Nice

Good snowy morning to just about everyone in North America and good day to the rest of the world as well.  We are experiencing an amazing amount of early snow here with no end in site.  Just to give you an idea, here is what it looked like a week ago.

And we have lots more snow than that now!

Enough of that, let's get to our top 3 from Challenge #192:

Cindy

Jan

Tricia

Congrats!  Please feel free to post our badge on your blogs.  Great cards by all our entrants and the decisions were hard.

Now for this week's sketch:

Our theme: Twice Is Nice (use it or not)

And the beautiful cards from our team:

Claire

Crystal

Kathy

Kaylin

Nicole

Sara H.

Shell

Wow! ladies, your cards are nothing short of spectacular this week.  Each and every challenge, I thank my lucky stars that I have the best design team on the web.  I know you will inspire our followers to create some beautiful cards of their own and I cannot wait to see them.

Everyone, have a great week!