The Flower Challenge December Use Christmas Florals

Before we get to this month's challenge, we are sad to announce that this will be our last challenge. After 9 years of The Flower Challenge the December challenge will be our last. We want to thank all our design team members, past and present, and especially all our participants over the years. Finally, we thank Aileen Ryan for coming up with the idea and running the challenge in conjunction with Viv Hodge for the first 7 years. We will post the winners as usual on the 4th of January 2026. The challenge blog will remain open for floral inspiration. We will be back with our reminder post on the 15th.

The Flower Challenge #109 - Use Christmas Florals

The challenge closes on the 25th of the month at 5pm. but we will be back on the 15th with some more inspiration. We will announce the challenge winners on 4 January 2026. Have fun crafting and we hope to see you in our final gallery!

The Flower Challenge Reminder: Use Thanks

 

Welcome back to the Flower Challenge Reminder: Use Thanks.

Use your favorite fall flower and some form of 'thanks' and create

a card. 

Reminder #108 - Thanks

The Flower Challenge #86 Color Black White & Yellow

 

Welcome to the Flower Challenge. For the month of November, we're challenging

you to use the colors: Black, White and Yellow. 

Not the most traditional Christmas colors, but decided to use Tim Holtz's

Poinsettia die set and create a Christmas card.

I set  my poinsettia on The Greetery's Herringbone Parque Die, and spritzed with

sparkle.

Merry Christmas is cut from  glitter paper, and backed with black

cardstock.

Can't wait to see what you do with this challenge. Definitely a 'challenging' challenge!

Play all month. Challenge closes on the 25th.

Happy Holidays!

The Flower Challenge #86 - Black, White and Yellow

 

It's a beautiful October morning in my valley.  Perfect for beginning Christmas cards!

I recently  ordered  some of Tim Holtz' Christmas '23, and  created a card

patterned after Barbara Schiassi's beautiful card during the release. Barbara  used

the Halloween moon and Forest  Shadows trees, and I was smitten!

The bright moon's glow on Santa's sleigh and reindeer is my favorite. 

Looks like he's just taking off on his yearly run...

Another of the Tim Holtz' new release is this Christmas tree, all decked out 

with ornaments. 

It's so hard capturing all the glittery goodness on the embossed background  and tree.

Fun to use my Stickles and glitter paper!

It's hard to see, but I first embossed my sentiment (The Greetery) onto heat resistant

acetate, cut around the image before adding it to my card. 

Both cards are 5"x 7"'s to  fit the larger die cuts.

I'm really loving the Sizzix cardstock with the retro images... lots of vintage 

colors too!

Reminder #83: Add Spots or Stripes

 

Welcome back to a reminder at The Flower Challenge, where the challenge this month

is Add Spots or Stripes.

The stripes are text, and run down the bottom of the card, in a sweet script.

This time I used Sizzix Thinlits Brushstroke Flowers 2 & 1,  by Tim Holtz.

Oxide Ink colors by Ranger, and Hello There, an old die from PTI.

Hope to  see you in the lineup!

Reminder #83 Add Spots or Stripes

Easter

 

The end of March brings the beginning of April, and all things Easter!

Sending out the last of my Easter greetings today, and sharing this one

made with The Greetery's Spring Meadow Background, Bountiful Wreath

and, some blooms from Spring Meadow.

The sweet Easter eggs are from a group of eggs from SSS.

Springs of spring are Tim Holtz Thinlits called Flower Field.

And of course a favorite from Tim Holtz, Mr. Bigz Bunny Die.

I love putting scenes like this together. So therapeutic!

Wishing all of you a blessed spring and Easter!

The Card Concept Happy Easter

 

It's a new season, and we're welcoming spring with a new challenge at 

The Card Concept Challenge!

Complete with color swatches, and with Happy Easter as the theme, 

you are challenged to create with your choice of style.

My card is a bunny silhouette, revealing The Greetery's Spring Meadow Background.

The die cut is Mr. Bigz, a Tim Holtz die. 

The daisy chain is another die from The Greetery's new March release, from the

Ribbon Maker series.

The beautiful Easter script is called Let's Have a Word: Easter, and is cut 3 times

and glued together. I would call my card 'Layered and Embossed'. 

Remember, you can use our styles or create one of your own.

Hoping you get a chance to play along! 

Have a great week!

Mistletoe

 

Nope, this isn't wallpaper, it's 8 Christmas tags lined up like little soldiers for a

photo. 

The last of the 25 for friends, boxed and given.

You could almost call this tag CAS, as it's rather clean, and definitely simple.

The circle for the embossed sentiment is the  center throwaway from another tag.

Mistletoe is cut from linen cardstock, and the berries are copper glitter.

Tag base from Tim Holtz' new release. Loving that embossed/debossed edge!

Merry Christmas!

Tag #4 Santa's Helper

Just had to add Santa's Helper from Tim Holtz to my tags for friends.

Mentioned in my previous posts, made a series of 25 tags for each of 8 friends 

who get together every year for a Favorite Friends dinner. One of my favorite

things is of course paper art!

Sweet Santa's Helper is mounted on the new Tim Holtz tag (middle. size), and don't

you just love how his bootie and cap are off the edges?

It was love at first sight when this guy was released. 

Hope you're enjoying the tag parade!

 

Tag-2 Harvey

 

Have you met Harvey? He's the tiny soldier new to the Tim Holtz Christmas 

release for 2022,  and he's won my heart!

The holidays bring together a group of friends that have met for years to

celebrate a tradition called 'Favorite Things'. There are 8 of us, and we eat, 

drink and are merry in December with gifts that are special to us that we 

share.

Because my 'Favorite Things' include anything paper, I created a set of 25 holiday

tags for each friend. Harvey was die cut and assembled 8 times in his holiday

best, and stands at attention on a white splattered MFT tag.

He's double tagged for names to and from.

The greenery is from an older Tim Holtz set, and dipped in paste before 

sprinkling with snow glitter.

and that's tag 2. If you come back tomorrow, you can see another tag

created for my gal pals. 

Happy Christmas time!

 

The Card Concept: Harvest Bounty or Christmas Joy

 

It's time for a new challenge at the Card Concept.  Our theme is: Harvest Bounty or

Christmas Joy. You choose, Autumn theme or Christmas card. With Christmas so near

we thought it would be fun have a dual choice.

I have some Christmas inspiration for you today, and I used the Joy sign on the

top shelf in the picture as the theme of my card.

My card is a shaker, Joy is from Poppystamps, and cut first from silver glitter card

stock and then from white 5 times. Lots of flora from Tim Holtz. 2 sets used here,

Play along with your choice: Harvest Bounty or Christmas Joy 

The Card Concept #182a {Harvest Bounty} or #182b {Christmas Joy}

 

The Card Concept: Spring Garden

Hi Card Concept players! It's time for a new challenge. Our inspiration photo is full of 

Spring! 

I chose to use the colors for my mixed media card.

 

I used an embossing folder, and inked it lightly so the images would pop. I then gave

it a light spray with gold.Have you ventured into the world of foiling yet? 

Love this foil effect, and how the red and fuchsia pop off of it.

Hope you're inspired to pick a style and play along. Lots of inspiration by our

team!

The Card Concept #171 {Spring Garden}

2 Challenges, one card

It's time to use our scraps on The Flower Challenge. The problem I had was choosing 

from the scrap pile! So many scraps!

This panel I did with an embossing folder, turned out badly, but I just couldn't toss it.

It was done with a brayer and Wilted Violet Distress Ink, and inked before running it

through the machine. Depending on which side you ink, you're left with a raised pattern.

The gold spray I added blobbed in too many areas, and the only way to save this piece was 

possibly to hide the blobs or cut them away.

I decided to do both, hide the blobs, and cut away a bit of edges.

I used a Poppystamps frame with an Altenew flower, and embossed a sentiment on some 

heat resistant acetate. 

The flower was both stamped and copic colored. 

The outline was stamped with Hero Arts Wet Cement, an ink I use often with copics.

I'm also entering in another favorite card challenge, Just Us Girls.

Just Us Girls Challenge #623 - Trend Week

The Flower Challenge #66 Use Scraps