Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I sincerely hope you have been enjoying this holiday season and that you have your New Year's celebration planned.  Our Christmas was peaceful and quiet and our New Year's should be the same.

Our photo this week is a rather fickle one.  I started out to capture the fresh snow but ended up with pine branches instead.  Off on a tangent, I guess.

But you can see a little snow!

Our top three from Challenge #249 were extremely difficult to choose.  We had a few more entries and they were all really good.  Here are the top three (in no particular order):

Jan

Steffi

(I apologize for the poor image quality but could not get it to  copy clearly from Flickr)

Maria

Thank you to everyone who entered and congratulations to our top 3!

Now for this week's sketch (courtesy of Crystal).  It is a fun one and our optional theme is Giving (use it or not).

Here are the cards from the ladies on our team....created to inspire you.

Vicki

Vicki #2

(She created 2 different cards, Woohoo!)

Barb

Crystal

Lynda

Sarah C.

Beautiful, ladies, and sooooo inspiring!  Maybe our followers can find some quiet time to create some amazing cards as well.  I hope so.

Remember that our challenge runs for two weeks and you can enter below or as a comment on our Facebook page.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!  And Happy Crafting to All!

MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

Challenge #250

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I know it is not quite Christmas but since not very many people will be searching our site on that special day, I decided to offer best wishes now.  From our entire team, I hope your season is happy!

Our photo this week is one of my niece singing in her Christmas concert.  It is not the best photo but she is the best niece I could have.

On to our top three for challenge #248  We were a little light on entries but the cards we did have were top notch.  Here are the top three (in random order):

Maria

Jessica (from Facebook)

Jackie

Beautiful cards, ladies!

Our sketch this week is courtesy of Crystal and the twist (if you decide to use it) is to include metal on your card.  I am a big fan of unusual materials and I think metal is my favourite.  Here is the sketch:

And here are the inspirations from our talented team:

Crystal

LeAnne

Lori

Nicole

Sara H.

Sharon

Gorgeous, ladies!  Thank you so much for taking the time out of your hectic schedules to give us such inspiration.  I hope our followers have the time over the holidays to create some cards of their own.  A little quiet and crafting is always good this time of year.

Remember, you have two weeks to complete your card and may enter it below or on our Facebook page.

Again, wishing you all the best of the season!