Welcome to the Chooks Christmas Card Challenge – my version. These are proving great to do and, like many of the rest of you, I am delighting in knowing my Christmas card supply is already starting to grow! If you haven’t started yet, just jump in now; it’s still early days and you’ll get plenty done before the end of the year.

Here is the card we are making for this week.

I started with:

* an image, approx 3″x2″. Mine is printed out but you may like to stamp.
* cardstock cut to make a 6″x4″ card in landscape format
* 4 pp pieces, 3 being 6″ long and about 2″ wide. The 4th is to mat your image.
* ribbon
* border punch
* corner rounder
* greeting stamp and card to stamp onto, or alphas
* inks for stamping and edges

Step 1

Cut the matting to size.

Step 2

Round outer corners of card and all corners of image and matting.

Step 3

Cut the central pp strip to go across the card and behind the image. I made mine just wider than the image and later adjusted it to be about about 1/4″ shorter than the card.

Step 4

Use the border punch on the long sides of this strip. I find it easier to ‘synchronize’ the top and bottom by starting my punching in the middle of the strip.

Step 5

Cut the other two pp strips to go at the top and bottom of the card. Match their lengths to the centre strip. Round the relevant corners.

Step 6

If you plan to ink edges, go for it now!

Step 7

Add ribbon to the central strip, securing it behind. Use a knot or bow placed to the right if desired.

Step 8

Place 3D tape behind the image.

Step 9

Stick everything down.

Step 10

(Sorry, I got carried away and forgot to photograph further.) Stamp your sentiment, or use alphas and place in the top left corner.

Add any other trimmings as desired.

Happy scrapping!

Here is this week’s card. I hope that it provides you with some inspiration to add to your own stash of chrissy cards.

You will need:-

- Cardstock for a card base (or a pre-made card)

- 2 pieces of pp (one slightly smaller than the card base, the other slightly smaller again.

- A small piece of cardstock, to match the card base

- 3 small images (mine are 3 stamped images and are 3.5cmx3.5cm)

- ribbon, lace, ink, alpha’s

Step 1 – Ink all the edges.

Step 2 – Attach the lace to the reverse side of the largest piece of pp, and then stick them down onto the base.

Step 3 – Stick down the smaller piece of pp, orientating it towards the top of the card.

Step 4 – Stick down the small piece of cardstock, again orientating it towards the top of the card. This will be the matting for your images.

Step 5 – I mounted my images on dimensional tape.

Step 6 – Stick down the 3 images, side by side on top of the matting.

Step 7 – Place a piece of ribbon across the width of the card, sitting just under the matting cardstock.

Step 8 – Tie a bow in the same ribbon and stick down on top of the other ribbon, sitting it towards the left of the card.

Step 9 – All you have left now is to add your sentiment. I have used glittery Thickers, and placed the word Joy under the ribbon, on the right hand side of the card. You’re done!

Have fun!

Australia Day has shown itself to be a bright and hot day over here in the West. Our Australia Day march and breakfast kicked off at 7 this morning to try to beat the heat. Although the hometown of Chooks HQ isn’t quite big enough for a flyby we did have a train do a drive by, complete with loud whistle, just as the national anthem was about to begin.

I popped the word Australia into the search bar in the gallery and these are just a few of the gorgeous images that popped up:
This beautiful photo by Flea

And some iconic photos on these LO’s
by Shara

Ceci

and Monk

I hope that wherever you are you have a wonderful Australia Day. Don’t forget you have until tomorrow afternoon to get your cybercrop entries uploaded. There are also a few more days for the monthly challenges and, of course, 3 more days until the next Christmas Card Challenge is posted so if you haven’t had the chance to give Anna’s gorgeous card a go hopefully you will have a little spare time to hit the scrapping table.

Hi Everyone!

Well it’s been a while since we have released one of our Scrap Packs. Previously they have been monthly but it has been difficult to keep up with producing one a month so the packs will now come out bimonthly and you will have two months from the release date to have your entry up in our gallery to be in the running for a $10 voucher to spend in store. *Please note that if there are less than five entries then those entries will be combined with the entries for the following pack. We will also only be producing 20 of each pack so if you want one you will need to get your order in ASAP.

Our first pack for 2012 features papers from the gorgeous October Afternoon Farmhouse range along with some co-ordinating flowers, buttons, leaves and a journaling block.

Chook Scraps Scrap Pack 1 2012

Competition entries using this pack will need to be up in our gallery by 31st March, 2012. The pack is available for purchase in our [url=http://www.chookscrapsscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=132_133&products_id=5303]online store[/url] or you can pick one up when you call in to visit us at 93 Throssell Stree, Collie. We are straight across from Maccas.

I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone creates using this pack.

Lorraine

surely we can’t be up to week four already? well, here’s a new card, anyway. this one is ultra simple, easy to mass produce (particularly if you changed the sentiment to a stamp), and quick, quick, quick!

first, i picked out a few papers from my scraps that i liked the look of – i knew i wanted to make some presents in non-traditional colours, and i chose to use tone-on-tone patterns. you can see the sentiment i’d chosen, too.

i cut out some small rectangles (and decided not to use one of the papers i’d picked), and found some baker’s twine to coordinate with each present. you could also use embroidery thread, fine ribbon or plain twine or string.

if you’d like to ink the edges of your presents, now would be a good time to do that – i didn’t decide to until after i’d taken these next few photos.

to tie your present, wrap the twine around the back of the paper, and cross the twine at the front.

then take one end around the back and over to the front again and tie in a bow. (i didn’t show where my ends were, but the side i kept at the front was the short end, and the one i wrapped was still attached to the rest of the roll, so i didn’t have to trim down the final bow too much.) repeat for all presents

one all the presents are wrapped, it’s time to pile them up! for the largest present, i put a double layer of foam adhesive.

the middle-size present has a single layer of foam.

the smallest present is just stuck on with DST.

once the presents are stuck down, add your sentiment, and you’re done! (click to see bigger)

don’t forget to upload the cards you make to the gallery – we’d love to see what you’re creating!

Ahh… I love a CC weekend. Don’t you? As some of you deciphered earlier we are taking our inspiration for the cybercrops this year from famous (in some way) singers or musical personalities, just so we don’t limit ourselves there. For January we couldn’t go past Elvis Presley who was born January 8th 1935. So here are our challenges to you this weekend:

Challenge one:
Presley was one of the originators of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. To reflect this please include on your LO:
- for the backbeat I would like to see stamping covered by something. This could be more stamps (so a collage type), ink, glimmermist, paint (providing you can still see the stamping), distress stains, tissue paper etc.
- for country and influenced by Elvis’ year of birth (1935) , include at least 1 tree &/or 9 flowers & / or 3 animals & / or 5 fence pickets. You are not limited in number… but you must use at least one of the above categories.
- for rhythm you may choose to use a song title or lyrics on your page &/OR use music notes somewhere.
- for the blues you need to include at least two “bits” of blue on your LO.

Here are some beautiful samples for you to enjoy:

Challenge two is based on the Elvis song Jailhouse Rock:
Create a layout using -

- One or more birds to represent the jail birds
- Only black and white to represent the costumes worn in the video clip (the photo can have colour)
- At least four numerals to represent the inmates number
- A house or part of a house to represent the Jailhouse. (This could be an embellishment, photo, stamp etc)

And some more samples:

We have added a twist to our challenge three this year too. In addition to scketches / scraplifts / member’s challenges and criteria from DT challenges this year we are also going to have the occasional Tic Tac Toe game. You need to choose three criteria from any one line, either horizontal, vertical or diagonal. Here is the game board:

And two more samples for this one

The card challenge requires you to choose ONE criteria from each of the following songs:
memories: pages (book print) or leaves
moody blue: number or twine
if i can dream: cloud or candle
help me make it through: ribbon or shadow.
And samples that Shara & I put together:

For our photographic challenge we would like you to put up a photo of some part of your house… either inside or out (just be aware of privacy issues.. you may not want to have your letterbox number or other identifying features in the photo).

You have until next Friday, 27th January to upload your creations. If you would like to see these in a larger format they will be on the forum and probably in the gallery too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Over in the forum there was a recent pre-order for some of the Darkroom Door stamp sets. The order arrived last week and of course I just had to order a few extra sets for the shop.I have uploaded the new sets  and I am just loving the new packaging. It is so easy to store them on a shelf and with the labelling on the spine, you can find the set you need with just a glance. The sets also come with the EZ mount attached so you just need to cut out the stamps and they are ready to use. I still have a few sets remaining that come in the old packaging and you will need EZ mount for these but I have discounted them by 10%. Remember you can mount 2 sets of stamps with one sheet of EZ mount.

Look how pretty the stamps are on display in the shop:

And here are a couple of cards made with some of the Darkroom Door stamps.

The first one uses stamps from the Hello Baby set:

And this one uses a flower and a greeting from the Garden Greetings set.

I also found a great little step x step on the Darkroom Door blog for an accordion album to store a CD with all your holiday snaps on it.

Don’t forget to share any projects made with Darkroom Door stamps with us – just post a link to the project on your blog in your comment or upload it into our gallery.

Lorraine is putting in an order for Glimmermist next week so pop over to the forum if you are needing to replenish your supplies. After a quick count I realise I am the owner of 22 glimmer bottles… and it lasts forever. In all the time I have been scrapping I have only just emptied my second bottle… and that may have been due to the heavy use that the gold (which was already quite empty) was given in our latest venture.

Here are my two cherubs playing with my supplies whilst making their own book covers for school this year. We are half way through covering the books and they are looking fantastic so far. Once they are all done I will share them with you too.

My all time favourite colour (and another that is getting a little low) is Patina but I am curious to know what are your “must have” colours? Leave a comment to let us know…

Just before chrissy I received a package filled with gorgeous pp’s from the Kaisercraft Silly Season collection, as my latest DT pack. I couldn’t wait to get some lovely piccies of my family, to be able to scrap with all the yumminess. As well as pp’s, including a sheet of foil highlighted paper, there were rubons, some ric rac and ribbon and a sheet of chippy diecuts.

I had heaps of fun with all of this , and with my sewing machine thrown in for good measure, a touch of glimmermist here and there - ta da, these two pages just came together.

This one of my mum…

And this one with Mum, my brother Marcus, and Sammy…

And watch this space, as I am also working on an OTP chrissy tree, which Lorraine sent in the same pack. I will take some piccies as I go and upload as soon as i’m finished. I think it will be perfect as a table centrepiece for christmas next year.

This week I have this card to add to your stash:

You will need:
- some cardstock or a blank card,
- two contrasting papers (scraps are fine),
- some matching inks,
- a background stamp and a feature stamp (or you could use an image or chipboard shape)
- three small embellishments
- some bling

Step 1: Stamp your image in the bottom left corner of your stamp.
Step 2: Use your background stamp down the right hand side of the card. (I masked this image but didn’t for some of the other cards I made using this page design).

Step 3: Cut a thin piece of paper to run down the left hand side of the card.
Step 4: Ink around the card.
Step 5: Cut two rectangular pieces of contrasting papers, one slightly narrower than the other. Cut a notch into one end of each and place them one on top of each other. You can stamp your sentiment onto the top one if you wish. attach the wider strip somewhere on the right hand side (the position will depend on your image – place it where it looks best – I had one in the middle, one higher and the others down towards the bottom).
Step 6: Place the second, thinner piece on top and then move it slightly to the left to create an overlap. I give this one a little fold to create more of a banner effect but you don’t need to do this.

Step 7: place your three small embellishments and bling randomly across the card and you are done.

Thanks