New Month, New Challenge.

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend. It's been a lot quieter in my crafty nook, I've not done any crafting apart from a few messing around sessions that resulted in very little apart from a strange chemical odour that's been hanging around for a while - I did have a bit of a play with some acrylic paint writers that I bought from The Works (the snow writer is lovely apart from it dries clear not white as I was expecting, the gold one's okay but the silver one had separated and isn't usable - one of the downsides of purchasing online) so I think the smell may be down to that.

It's been a while since Michele and I did a challenge, I think doing two a month on top of our usual crafting burnt us out a bit and I personally haven't got my crafty mojo at the highest level at the moment so for the next month we're going to just have one blog challenge and then we'll see about upping it to two at the beginning of October. Michele and I have decided on a theme for this month and it's a two card challenge so it'll run until the 30th September. As usual there isn't any prizes just the satisfaction of challenging ourselves and taking part but if you'd liked to follow along we'd be delighted to see what you come up with.

Issue 150 of Papercraft Essentials comes with a sweet Gnome themed stamp and die set called Enchanted Corner, there's a bit of controversy about this month's covermount gift because the Editor's letter states that there is a paper pack as part of the 'free gift' but if you subscribe it's not included however if you purchase the magazine from Tescos then they are included. If it says in the Editor's letter that the free gift includes a paper pack then it should include one for everyone, not just those people prepared to buy it from Tescos - it's caused a lot of upset on Facebook and it's been reported to ASA because it may be false advertising. PP have tried to smooth ruffled feathers by offering it as a 'free' download but that's useless to people like me who don't have a printer. As much as I like Papercraft Essentials magazine I'm seriously considering cancelling my subscription with them and potentially all the other Practical Publishing titles I subscribe to as well because I feel very let down by them. Anyway mini rant over.

To get back to the challenge, as already stated this month is a two card challenge. PE have actually made the free gift an all year rounder (love when you can use Christmas stash for other occasions!) so the challenge is to make a Christmas card and a non Christmas card using the stamps and dies. Obviously if you have the paper pack feel free to use it but if you don't then you can craft your stash (i.e. don't go out and buy anything specially - it's not what these challenges are about). The cards can be any size, any shape and any theme for the non Christmas card but must have the Enchanted Corner stamps and dies as the main focus. One of the things I really love about this stamp set (apart from it's total cuteness!) is it has a little wooden sign that's been left blank so you can add Santa's Workshop or North Pole on it - the latter is a real blast from the past because when I was a little girl we were told that Santa or rather Father Christmas lived at the North Pole not Lapland as kids are led to believe these days. Kudos to the Finnish for coming up with that particular money spinner but I'm rather fond of the idea of an inaccessible Father Christmas working away all year round with his elves rather than one that spends his time with tourists. *winks*.

Well I've probably sounded like a grumpy old lady for most of this post (ask if I'm bothered? lol) but I hope you'll join in the challenge if you're able. As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx