A Blogger Tutorial

 Hello, Wonderful New Team Members,

This is just a short tutorial on navigating the other blogs you will need to be part of the 52CCT design team.

HOW TO FIND THE POSTS -

This is what Blogger looks like when you are logged into it. 

On the Left of Screen

If you have your blog on blogger you will see your blogs name first. 

As you can see my blog name is showing ( I don't have my blog here permanently I blog over on Wordpress) 

So click on the arrow to the right of the name

Then choose the Christmas Card Throwdown (not the admin blog) then you will see a screen that looks like the first image.

In the middle is all of the posts that are currently written posts.

In this example you can see Andreja. She has started writing her challenges for January 2023. 

January Theme is what it looks like without your cursor over the name; January Technique is after. 

The 2 main buttons you need to worry about is the publish and preview buttons.

The publish button does what it says it will publish the blog. The red Draft will change to scheduled once you have set this in the post itself. And will only publish once that time is reached.

The preview button allows you to preview the post as it will look once it is published. I use this button if I just want to review what the challenge details are and to also get inspiration from what the other designers have made for the challenge. I also use this button after I have uploaded my card just to check that my updates got accepted.

POSTING YOUR WORK

Once you have finished making your card design here are the steps to upload to the corresponding post.

1. Copy the link to your card design - just like you do for challenges :)
2. Come into the Christmas Card Throwdown blog and scroll to find the challenge you made the card for
3. Click on the name of the challenge
4. The post will open
5. Scroll down to past the last person to upload their card
6. Type your name
7. Insert your image
8. Highlight your name and add the link - don't forget to click the open in new tab button. We don't want people navigating away from our challenge blog when they go to view our blogs.
9. Click on the cloud near preview (top right) and this will save your changes.
10. Either close the tab or use the arrow (top left) beside the B to get back to the challenge posts screen (Pic 1)
11. If you wish to check that your upload was a success use the preview button (pic 4)

Just a couple of other tips that you may like.

• I keep several tabs open in my internet browser that have the different blogs open - pic below
• If you think that you have done anything wrong don't hesitate to mention it either in the Admin blog or in our Facebook Group chat.

These are the tabs I have open for 52CCT.
I include a free World Time tab as I am in Australia;

 I have to check that I am posting at the same time as everyone else.

If you have any more questions just leave them in the comments below.

GOOD BYE BUT HELLO AGAIN

This is not really a cottage but it is where I do my card crafting.
This is my farewell post on this blog my crafting home has moved over to my other main blog

Cards and Craft Cottage

Please come and visit me over there and find out what I have been up to lately.

Whatever you do enjoy this life you have been given.

😊 Tracy B

52CCT September Sketch

Hello Everyone,
Can you believe that we are already in September!
It is the first week of the month which means 2 things

1. we have a new Hostess for the month and this time it is Myrna

and 2. it is sketch week.

If you have seen my other blog you will know how much I love sketches. They are one of my favourite things to play within my craft room. And this is the sketch that we have had fun playing with

and this is the card that I came up with using this sketch.

Oh I am so in love with these gnome stamps. This time around I decided to put him somewhere other than the snow. I am really happy with the little scene that I made.

Thanks for stopping in and looking at my Design Team card. I hope that you will come on over to the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown blog and play along with us.

Until Next Time,
Tracy B

52CCT August Technique Challenge

Hello Everyone,
This time around on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge it is the 4th week of the month so it is either a Stash or Technique Challenge. And this time around Netta has decided that we are going to explore a Technique. 

When I saw this as one of the things for us to play with I must admit that I had never heard of it before so of course, I went to YouTube for assistance. And I found this tutorial by Gina K that helped a lot. This is my interpretation of this technique.

I am really happy with how the card turned out. I think that if I do this technique again I am going to have to buy a wider brayer because you can see how wide the one I used was. I kept the rest of the card pretty simple with just layering a piece of washi tape because I wanted the focus to be on the technique, not something else.

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my Design Team work for this week. I hope that you will come on over to the 52CCT blog and play along with this fun technique. Look forward to seeing you there.

Until Next Time,
Tracy B

52CCT August Theme Challenge

Hello Everyone,
It is week 3 of August and we are up to a Theme Challenge over on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. And Netta has chosen this theme for all of us to play along with.

I was lucky when this theme was announced I knew exactly which image I would be using for my card. This is the card that I made with this theme.

This stamp is from Some Odd Girl and unfortunately, he has been discontinued. But I coloured him in with my Copic markers. The sentiment across the top actually came from one of the papers from the Christmas Paper Pack from Kasiercraft called "Twig and Berry". After I mounted all of the elements onto some Maroon lightweight card I used some of my peel off stickers on the sentiment strip and put the card together. When I got out the peel off stickers I spotted these Holographic spots and thought that they would add a nice touch.

Now I know that you have these cheeky characters hiding in your stamp stash somewhere. So why don't you dig them out and let them become the element on a new Christmas card and come and play along with our challenge over at 52CCT.

Until Next Time,
Tracy B

52CCT August Colour Challenge

Hello Everyone,

It is the 2nd week of the month and 

Netta has chosen this colour combo for us to play with.

I must admit that this colour combination was a bit difficult for me to get my head around. But this is the card that I came up with.

When I started making this card I looked through my stash; I found that I didn't have any craft products that suited so this meant a trip to my local big box craft store. I was lucky to find this bronze coloured tape but no papers in these colours. So I decided to make my own using a set of Layered Stencils to make a plaid background paper. I am not sure if I like this set of stencils but this is my first time using this particular set so I will have to play with different colour combos to make my final assessment.

Thanks for stopping in and looking at my Design Team creation. I hope that you will come on over to 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and participate in the challenge.

Until Next Time,

Tracy B

52CCT August Sketch

Hello Everyone,
I am here today with the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge blog for the beginning of our August set of Challenges. This month we have Netta as our host. And since it is the first week of the month we have a sketch to play with.

Netta has also turned this sketch into a Triptych Sketch.
Triptych means that your creation is split into 3.

I have created this card using the sketch

This is me diving into my scraps drawer because I couldn't find anything that I was happy with. Then I found this paper and these adorable images plus the sentiment that actually goes along with this paper. 

I hope that you will come on over to the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge blog and play along with our challenge this week.

Until Next Time,
Tracy B