Welcome to the ABC Christmas Challenge Blog






The aim of our challenge is to help us avoid the Christmas Stress and rush to have all your cards ready! Our monthly Challenges are themed, We hope you will join us and have at the very least have a few cards in time for Christmas Please Read the Rules, and remember that you can enter our challenges as many times as you like and combine your entries with as many challenges as you like too! Have fun!
Helen, Samantha and the Design team Xx

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Mid-way Reminder - Q is for Quilting

**Scroll down this post to see a Quilted Tutorial using a sewing machine**

It's Helen here with some more inspiration for our current challenge, where the theme is:

'Q is for Quilting'
Make a patchwork 'quilt' effect on your card/project.

Here's a reminder of our two fabulous sponsors:


Prize from Lili of the Valley:


and


Prize from Crop Stop: a $15 Gift Certificate!

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And now for some more fab samples from the DT:


and me (Helen)


And now over to Lacey for a fabulous tutorial for you on 
how she created the quilted background on this card...

Supplies:
1"x 5" stripes of paper
5 1/4" x 5 1/4" card stock (for the base)
Colored image and mat

1. Cut your strips of paper into 1" cubes...

2. Arrange your squares in the pattern you want. 
Turn them over and put a small amount of adhesive on the back. 

**Note - you want to only place a little adhesive in the middle. You do not want the adhesive near the edges of the paper or it will gum up your sewing needle**

3. Adhere the squares to the 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" piece of card stock as neatly as possible.
It's ok if there are a few jagged edges because the zig zag stitch will hide a small amount of imperfection...

4. Put the sewing machine foot in between the squares of paper as centered as possible.
**I "back stitch" for a turn or two at the beginning and end of the row to help tie the edges.**

5. Stitch along each line...

6. Once one side is done, rotate the paper and stitch along the other lines...

7. After the inside lines are done, stitch along the outside.
When you turn it over, it will look like this...
(Yes, I made a boo-boo, my machine jammed up. But it only shows up on the backside.)

So you see how ugly that is (even without the boo-boo)? You don't want that on the inside of your card, so I always sew onto a mat  and attach that to the card base...

8. Attach the sewed layers onto your card base...

9. Decorate as desired...

This is a great design to get rid of little leftover pieces of designer paper as well.
I used new strips of new paper, but you could easily use scraps!!

Can't wait to see you do it now!!

Wowee - that's awesome Lacey...thanks so much for sharing!

 You can find lots more examples, and the linky to add your entry on this post.

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Q is for Quilting

Hi everyone, it's Helen here with your new ABC Christmas Challenge, but before I tell you about that, I'd just like to thank you to all for joining us for our last challenge...don't forget to scroll down to see if you were one of the lucky winners, or in Samantha's Top 3!

Our challenge for you this time is:

'Q is for Quilting'
Make a patchwork 'quilt' effect on your card/project...don't panic, I have a 'step by step' guide on my blog of how I made my card, and the DT have created some amazing samples to inspire you!

We have two fabulous sponsors this time:


Prize from Lili of the Valley:


and


If you’re passionate about paper-crafting whether it be scrapbooking your memories, making cards or altered art, CropStop is your one-stop solution. We offer an extensive selection of dies, embossing folders, inks, stamps and punches by all the popular manufacturers and the CropStop die and embossing folder storage solutions Pocketz Pages™ to keep everything organized. Our selection of embellishments and adhesives is continually expanding and we are excited to be the home of the colorful Ribbon Candy™.
In need of inspiration? Visit the CropStop Gallery, Blog or Message Board and participate in a competition or class. If you have questions concerning your machine, we have a team of experts waiting to help you.
CropStop ships internationally as well as domestic. Our personalized customer service is only one of our strengths. Call or come visit us at www.CropStop.com and see what’s new in the world of paper-crafting.

Prize from Crop Stop: a $15 Gift Certificate!

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We have two awesome guest designers joining us today:

Our lovely ex-DT member Delphine:


And a special guest designer, Louise...who has been playing along with our challenges from the very start...this is our way of saying thank you!


And our wonderful DT:












And me (Helen)
There's a step by step of how I made the quilted background on my blog.

Ok...so it's over to you...once you have made your quilted Christmas project, add a direct link below so that we can come and visit you. Don't forget, our challenges last for two weeks....the linky will close on Tuesday 4th September, and you can enter our challenges as many time as you like - happy crafting!

Winners and Top 3 of P for Paper Piecing Challenge

Hi ya its Samantha here,
It is time to pick the winners of the P for Paper Piecing Challenge wow there a lot of great creations for us to comment on this week as well. I have had a really hard time I wanted to choose about 12 cards as my Top 3 thehehhee I always struggle to narrow it down.

Well first off the prizes:
1st Prize winner of the fabulous:
Simon Says Stamp $15 voucher to spend their store.

and the lucky winner is:
CLAIMED ~ 6. Olivia 

2nd Prize winner of the fabulous:
with an awesome £10 voucher

and the lucky winner is:

CLAIMED ~ 20 . heaney 




and after much deliberation my Top 3 are:




Congratulations Everyone!
Please email us abcchristmaschallenge@hotmail.co.uk by Tuesday 4th September 2012 to claim your prizes.

Please add Winner P for Paper Piecing Challenge  to the subject line.

Unclaimed prizes may be redrawn or worse still lost. You can find the page for grabbing your blinkie or banner at the top of our blog.

See you soon for our New Challenge!
hugs Samantha and the Team x

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Mid way Reminder, P for Paper Piecing

Good morning ABC Christmas challenge Friends,
We have reached another ½ way post. It's amazing how the weeks fly past! We have another 6 days left of the P for Paper Piecing Challenge and we would love to see more of your fabulous cards… If you have played the challenge already you know you can play again, if you have time, as we don’t have a limit on entries. Equally if you have not played yet, then we hope you join us in this 2nd week!


We have 2 awesome Sponsors:

The brilliant Simon Says Stamp are offering one lucky entrant A $15 voucher to spend in their store

Simon Says Stamp

and we have the awesome
with a lovely £10 voucher

Here's some more inspiration from our talented DT





Dorte 




 
We are looking forward to seeing fabulous creations
You can find the original post and Linky Here

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