Hello and Happy New Year everyone!
Welcome to
The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up in its new home for 2015! We are so excited you are here. Since this is the first time that the link up is in its new home
AND it is the first time that we are introducing optional themes and sponsors' prizes, I thought it would be a good idea to explain the process. All of this information (which includes a deeper explanation, including examples) can always be found at the top on our
Challenge Details Page.
This link up is unique. First off, anyone can link any number of holiday themed cards throughout the month with an anything goes theme. Holiday themed means that we will accept any type of card as it relates to any recognized holiday taking place during the month of December, i.e. Chanukah, St. Lucia Day, St. Nicholaus Day, Festivus, Christmas. Kwanzaa, etc. This link up is not for other types of holidays like Easter, Valentine's Day, etc. It is strictly a means to help provide incentive to create Christmas and/or other December holiday cards.
EDIT: We will also accept Happy New Year's cards.
A Little Incentive...
At the end of each month, every person who has linked up a
MINIMUM of
two (2) Christmas or holiday themed cards will be eligible to
receive a specially designed Christmas themed digital paper created by
Lisa Décosse from Décosse's Dynamite Doodles. On a monthly basis, we
will go through and create a list of people's names and then post them
on the blog in a special winner's announcement. If your name appears on
the list, it will then be your responsibility to contact Lisa
(instructions for how to do so will be given in the post), in order to
claim your paper. That means that if you submit two cards each month,
by the time that the year is done, you will have received 12 free
digital papers, all for the low cost of linking up cards you need to
create anyway. You do not need to use the digital paper you receive
each month in your cards in order to get the next paper. They are
strictly meant as incentive to participate.
But wait there's more incentive...
Each month there will be an
OPTIONAL theme to follow. Anyone who submits a card adhering to the monthly theme,
will have the chance to win a prize from that month's guest sponsor.
If you decide to follow the optional theme for a month, please be sure
to add the letters "FT" after your name so that we know you followed the
theme. For example, Lisa FT. After checking to make sure that you
have indeed followed the theme, you will receive an entry into the draw
for the sponsor's prize. In order to make it fair for everyone,
we will
only be able to consider a maximum of three cards that have followed
the theme, for the draw.
You will still be allowed to link up as many Christmas and/or holiday
cards during the month that you would like, it is simply that for each
card following the monthly theme, there will be a limit of three that
will be considered for the draw.
...And even more...
Every holiday card you submit to the link up, earns you one chance to win a
special digital Christmas kit that will be offered up after the year is
complete. This kit will include digital papers and other possible
embellishments (for example: frames, buttons, brads, ribbons, flowers,
wordart creations, etc.). Each section of the kit will be offered up as
a prize
and then the whole kit will be offered up as a grand prize. So for
example, if you submit 40 cards across the whole year, you will have 40
chances to win these extra goodies. How is that for even more
incentive?!
In case you are a little confused, we have provided examples of a few different scenarios to help make this a bit clearer over on the
Challenge Details Page.
RULES
The rules are simple and similar to what you would find on most challenge blogs:
- You must enter a card. The goal of this challenge is to help you
keep ahead with your Christmas cards so other types of creations (tags,
scrapbook pages, altered items, etc.) will not be accepted.
- You can enter as many times as you would like to enter as long as each entry is with a new project. No backlinking.
Just remember the more you enter the better your chance will be of
winning the kit that will be handed out at the end of the year.
- If you decide to follow along for the optional theme during a month, once again you can make as many cards as you want following the theme but only a maximum of three entries will qualify for the draw for that month's prize from a guest sponsor. You must add 'FT' after you name so we know which cards to add to the random draw for the sponsor's prize.
- You can combine your entry with as many other challenges as you would like to combine it with.
- You can use any image from any company that you would like. You
don't need to use the digital paper that you may receive each month (if
you upload a minimum of two cards) in order to qualify to receive the
next month's paper. Of course, I would love to see a card created using
one of these papers and there just might be an extra bonus for those who
do. You just never know!
- Make sure when entering your project that you mention The 12 Months
of Christmas Link Up in your post with a link back to this blog.
- Please remember to link directly to your blog post where we can see
your creation, and not just the generic link to your blog. Generic blog
links will be disabled or deleted.
- To qualify to receive the free digital paper for the month, you must
link up two cards no later than 11:55 p.m. on the last day of the
month.
Challenge #1 Details and DT Projects
Now that the basics are out of the way, how about we get on with the details of our very first challenge for 2015!
Challenge #1 (January 1 to January 31, 2015) -- Optional Theme: Father Time
A new year means starting the clock over. A
TIME for new beginnings.
TIME to make all those Christmas Cards you will need in December. So don't put away your holiday stash quite yet, it is
TIME to start
The 12 months of Christmas Link Up.
In order to have a chance to win the prize from our wonderful guest
sponsor this month,
make sure that your card has something time related
on it. If you do follow the optional theme,
be sure to add FT after
your name so that we include you in the draw for the prize.
Remember, you don't need to follow the theme to link up your cards and
earn a free paper each month and have your name thrown into the year
end draw for some extra digital goodies.
You only need to follow the
theme if you want a chance to win this month's sponsored prize of a
$10.00 gift certificate from Limited Runs.
Talking about
Limited Runs, how about we get to know them a little bit better...
Limited Runs has a LARGE calorie free sweet shoppe filled with over 120
different cupcakes, something for almost every occasion. It's not all
cupcakes there are tons of Christmas, Halloween, Backgrounds, Fairies,
Critters and More to see. The store has gone through a re-vamp with new
digital stamps added in all the time so pop in an take a look around
things. Everyone knows you can't enjoy a cupcake without a coffee so
there is a place to even pick up a cuppa. There's always a little
something for everyone to enjoy and grab the monthly freebie so you can
sample before you buy and add to your collection.
Check out all the fabulous images that the
Sleigh Belles got to work with this month for the start of the challenge. You'll get to see the images that the
Merry Maidens worked with at the midway. Clicking on any of the image watermarks will take you to the page they are located on in the
Limited Runs store...
Father Time (section: Christmas 1-10)
Snow Globe Set (section: Christmas 71-80)
Santa's Head (section: Christmas 61-70)
Little Tree (section: Christmas 11-20)
Santa This Way Cupcake (section: PreColoured Digis PC4)
While team members had the option of working with any of my Décosse's Dynamite Doodles papers, I did create a special set called
A Matter of Time, based on the theme for this challenge. Check out the preview...
Everyone who links up a minimum of two cards during the month of
January will earn
ONE of the digital papers from this set. The specific paper up for grabs will be shown during the winner announcement post.
Have your say in determining which colour will be offered to those who link up a minimum of two cards this month by completing the poll in the sidebar on the top right hand side.
Now
check out what the
Sleigh Belles came up with to inspire you. I (Lisa) also had the chance to make a card for the start of the challenge. Clicking on
the names will take you to the individual blogs where you can check
out the details for all these wonderful cards...
So what are you waiting for? It is time to link up your Christmas and other holiday cards for January. Whether you choose to link up two Anything Goes themed cards simply to earn your free paper this month, or you choose to also follow the theme to have a chance at the sponsor's prize, it is completely up to you!
If you are new to this unique challenge, you can find out the impetus behind why I started it under the '
Introductions' tab and all the details you need to know in order to participate, in the '
Challenge Details' tab (both tabs located at the top of the blog).
We have a packed month so Monica and I hope to see you back with us soon!
- Join us on January 8th when we'll publish the names of the people who earned the free paper for December. As the link up for December cards are over on my personal blog which was the original home for The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up, I'll also post the names there. We'll also publish the winners of the candy during that same post.
- Next, be sure to join us on January 15th, for our midway post where you'll get to see cards created by the Merry Maidens!
- Then on January 23rd, Monica will be back to share another holiday tradition with you all.
- Other special posts may be published throughout the month. Be sure to sign up to have our posts delivered by email or follow us through Bloglovin' so you don't miss a thing!
CHALLENGE DETAILS SUMMARY
Each month we'll include a summary of details for the particular challenge taking place. If you are new, please be sure to familiarize yourself with all the details and rules in the
'
Challenge Details' tab at the top of the page. Please note that dates and times listed below are for
this particular challenge only:
- Cards for this challenge will be accepted from 6:00 p.m. (18:00 hrs), January 1st - 11:55 p.m. (23:55 hrs), January 31st, 2015.
- You need to link up a minimum of two (2) Christmas or holiday themed cards each month in order to qualify to receive that month's digital paper.
- You can link up as many holiday themed cards as you want; HOWEVER, if you decide to follow the optional theme of FATHER TIME (see specific details above), only a maximum of three (3) entries will qualify for the draw for this month's $10.00 gift certificate from Limited Runs. You must add 'FT' after you name so we know which cards to add to the random draw for the sponsor's prize.
- The winners and top picks for Challenge #1 will be announced on February 8th in a special post.
We look forward to seeing you participate!
Link Up Below:
