Thanks for all of your kind and encouraging comments about the classmate gifts that I posted the other day, and especially for the tips on mass-producible gifts I can bust out in future years

As for the winner of the pack of 100 of the little bags, using my good old-fashioned pull a name from a bucket and have my big child hold it up for the camera while my small child squeezes her head in front so as not to miss out on the action, all while making sure she doesn’t miss a second of whatever is currently on TV system, that would be….

Congratulations Krysta!  If you could email me your postal address, I’ll pop the bags in the mail for you

Now for the “more classmate gifts” alluded to in the title of this post…

It was brought to my attention as I was writing the previous post, that I had never actually posted pictures of last year’s classmate gifts.  I had planned to provide a link to last year’s effort to remind you of an alternative possibility along the lines of cheap and cheerful, mass-producible Christmas delights, but in searching for the link, I discovered that there never actually was one, as I had not in fact got around to putting them up here…

So here they are now – my circa Christmas 2009 classmate chocolate pops!

The chocolate pops themselves were a fantastic find – packs of six (or maybe it was four….) for a couple of dollars in Target, the best thing about them being that they’re made by a company that is super allergy-aware and separates the part of their factory that deals with nuts and nut products – a very handy thing to know when making treats for little friends with severe nut allergies.  Kinnerton is the name of the company for those of you interested

So there you go.  Next up, teacher gifts, although now that I have my girls on school holidays and Christmas a mere handful of days away, I can’t promise when that will be, other than soon……ish

“2009 Classmate Chocolate Pops”
Stamps: Season of Joy
Paper: Real Red, Garden Green, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Garden Green, Summer sun (now retired)
Accessories: Wide Oval Punch

I have been meaning for the longest time to start taking part in more stamping challenges.   I love seeing what different looks can be achieved based on a single sketch, combination of colours, or whatever challenge guidelines are set.

This week I set my sights on Karen Giron’s Sweet Sunday Sketch #42 and what fun I had!

I thought it was high time I started getting into Christmas mode, so thought I would turn the challenge into an opportunity to make a Christmas card.

Here’s the sketch challenge…

And here’s what I did with it…

I am loving this colour combination of Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss for Christmas, which I was alerted to the other day by my sis-in-law Janny.  Just the right kind of cheery Christmas look, without being too traditional.

The process of creating this card is fairly self explanatory, but one quick thing I’ll point out is that I stamped off the flower image once on scrap paper before stamping it onto the Whisper White.  The full strength Riding Hood Red was a tad overpowering and the greeting got a bit lost in it.

I encourage you to play along with some challenges – they’re awesome fun, they give you a shove outside of your comfort zone and best of all they get you stamping.

Happy Friday!

“Sweet Sunday #42 Christmas Card”
Stamps: Season of Joy
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Washington Apple DSP, Holiday Treasures DSP
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Small Corner Rounder Punch, Chocolate chip wide double stitched grosgrain, Circle Ice Rhinestone brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals