Can you believe that 2016 is almost over?!
It's already December, the most festive month of the year for many,
and we are thrilled to celebrate it with you with a brand new challenge!
Our Main Challenge is based on a word inspiration and a creative challenge.
The challenge is open to layouts, canvases and art journal pages only.
Make sure to read our instructions below carefully!
Word Inspiration - TRADITIONS
Creative Challenge - HANDMADE
What does the word TRADITIONS inspire you to create?
You can choose to add the word somewhere on your project or simply be inspired to create from it. Please explain in your blog post how the word inspired you,
if not already obvious.
For our creative challenge this month, we would like you to go HANDMADE!
In this day and age, the stores are full of ready-made embellishments for all your crafting needs. But remember the good old times when you started scrapbooking and everything was Do-It-Yourself? Take out your scissors, punches, stamps, scraps of papers, ribbons, etc and create your very own handmade embellishment. You can either create your own flower, a layered sticker or a special tag to add on your project. Anything goes... as long as it was handmade by you!
VERY IMPORTANT!
You have to incorporate both requirements of the challenge, the word inspiration AND the creative challenge, on your project to be eligible to win. Just look at our designers' creations and descriptions as example. Also, remember that you must include our board image and a link to our blog in your entry post.
Please check out our challenge rules in our RULES tab above!
Valia: "Every year at Christmas, we have this TRADITION that all three kids prepare a treat for Santa and his deer which we place under the tree... cookies, milk and a couple carrots. They can't wait until the morning to see if Santa ate it! For my HANDMADE embellishment, I punched three stars out of birch paper and used the negative part for my paper layering."
Rachael: "One of the few TRADITIONS we have going on around Christmas time is jumping in the car on Christmas eve and driving around our local town to check out all the Christmas decorations and lights. What a fun family time! For the creative challenge, I have added a HANDMADE tag to my layout."
Valerie: "I used a picture of my son with a cookie he made because that's a TRADITION we have in our family for Christmas. I added my very own HANDMADE touch to the chipboard deer that I altered with some embossing powders.
Arantzazu: "On December 21st, we celebrate at a Christmas market, the market of Santo Tomas. It is the TRADITION to buy the mistletoe there and meet in the company of friends and family. Some of the flowers on my layout
were HANDMADE by me."
Caroline: "One of my boys' favorite Christmas TRADITIONS is making gingerbread houses! They have fun decorating it year after year. I think that their favorite part of the process is eating the candies, but no matter, I love to see them working together on their houses. For the creative challenge, I added a HANDMADE paper clay
mold deer in the center of the flower."
Nupur: "It's that time of year again - Christmas is here! The bells are ringing, the carols are sung, the gifts are wrapped and the tree is decorated. Happiness is in the air and a blanket of love spreads across the globe. The magic wand has been waved and hearts are dancing, faces lit up with smiles. What a wonderful feeling it is to celebrate Christmas in all its TRADITIONS! I decorated my page with HANDMADE collage tags and enamel dots. Merry Christmas!"
Pamela: "A TRADITION in our house is baking special cookie tins. Each tin has six different kinds of cookies, truffles and fudge, all homemade. They are the most sought after Christmas gift! As for my HANDMADE embellishments, well, I needed a poinsettia so I made one myself and I also made the stencil for my snowflake background. Since I didn't have one, I diecut a few pieces out
and used the negative space as a stencil."
Di: "One of my family TRADITIONS every Christmas is to do a special Xmas photo shoot with my family, especially with the children. It is a wonderful way to track how much they have changed and grown from year to year. This was my granddaughter last Christmas! For the HANDMADE part of the challenge, I have made lots of my embellishments by die cutting, embossing some and colouring some!"
Ekaterina: "For this month's challenge, I created a canvas of our Christmas family TRADITION. Every year, we make with our child our very own tree ornament or decoration for the home. Last year, we did these little Christmas trees as on the picture. My son even won a school competition with these trees! For the HANDMADE part of the challenge, I created this canvas from scratch
and added some handmade red flowers."
Lilibleu: "It is a TRADITION in our family that children decorate the Christmas tree the first weekend of December. I love this moment when I can see in their eyes that which represents best for me the magic of Christmas. For the creative challenge, I chose to create a HANDMADE flower, which is the big purple flower
to the right of the top photo."
Nicole: "I thought long and hard about the word inspiration this month as I was inspired to create a Christmas layout, but then several holiday traditions came to mind. Looking through my pictures though, I found this old photo of mini me on Santa's lap and it made me reminisce about this famous TRADITION of visiting with Santa before Christmas. For the creative challenge, I HAND MADE all the flowers on my page as well as the bow with my very useful 'handmade' wooden bow maker."
ELENA: "I chose this amazing picture to share our wonderful TRADITION to spend Christmas with our friends and children, when we all come together to celebrate and make little gifts to each other. How I love this majestic time! For the creative challenge, I've added HANDMADE flowers and molding on my page."
Heather: "When our children were younger, it was a TRADITION in our family to watch Doctor Who together every Sunday night. It was a fun family time for us! I HANDMADE the wire 'planets' and painted the 'cracks
in the universe' with Liquid Pearls."
Helen: "Pomegranate for Greeks is a symbol of prosperity, fertility and good luck. Every New Year's Day, it's a TRADITION to break a pomegranate at the doorstep of our home as it is supposed to bring good fortune and good health! For the HANDMADE creative part of the challenge, I made those little
red paper flowers to decorate my canvas."
Joyce: "I did not realize how important the TRADITION of popping English Crackers was to my nephews and nieces until I saw the look of disappointment on their faces when they learned one year that I had forgotten to purchase them for the holiday. Who would have thought that popping English Crackers, reading jokes out loud, getting a silly prize and wearing a tissue paper hat would mean so much?! My HANDMADE feature is the English Cracker."
We hope that our DT has inspired some TRADITIONS
& HANDMADE ideas for your creations this month!
All our prizes include free international postage!!
MAIN CHALLENGE WINNER
Here is more information about our 1st place sponsor this month:
"For 20 years, Lindy's has been a trusted manufacturer of quality mixed media, arts and crafts products all made in the USA. Often imitated, but never duplicated, Lindy's is a leader in glorious shimmer sprays and products. You can find links to their website, blog and social media sits in the SPONSORS tab above."
Next, 4 runners up will each be awarded a prize, as follows:
RUNNER UP 1
(Image below is for illustration purposes only)
RUNNER UP 2
(Image below is for illustration purposes only)
RUNNER UP 3
RUNNER UP 4
a $25 USD prize package from
13ARTS
(Image below is for illustration purposes only)
In addition, we will draw one random winner from all eligible entries.
RANDOM WINNER
Each month, we hand pick an entry who has not made it into our Top 5, but who has captured our attention someway, somehow. We might pick a project due to its original use of a certain product, the cleverest title, the most beautiful photo, etc.
We call it our...
MYSTERY WINNER
And lastly, we will randomly award a prize to one lucky blog follower
who has commented on any of our December blog posts.
LUCKY COMMENTER
(exactly as shown below)
We are so very grateful to all our generous sponsors for these amazing prizes!
To learn more about all of them, click on the SPONSORS tab above.
We wish you a fabulous month of December full of celebration and creativity!
We are looking forward to see your take on our
December Main Challenge TRADITIONS & HANDMADE!
Link up your project using the LinkyTool in the right sidebar
by December 31st at 11:50 pm EST.
