We will be delaying the challenges another month.

Susie is still unwell, my step dad is much improved, but I now have a problem with the facet joints in my neck which has left me with permanant pins and needles in my right arm and hand, plus it permanantly feels as if I have hit my funny bone, as you can imagine it makes crafting a little difficult at present.

Missing seeing all your wonderful work and Susie and me can’t wait till we are well enough to start again.  Barbara is also missing our weekly fix of wonderful craftwork from you all .

Thank you for all your wishes and thoughts . We will be back with you as soon as possible

Tracey , Susie and Barbara

We unfortunatly are unable to run this thursday for a month. Susie has been taken quite seriously ill, and is unable to do much at all. She is waiting to find out what is wrong.

My(Tracey) Step father had a stroke on Monday night and, I temporarily have my daughter and 1 year old grandson living in my craftroom. Plus I am looking after my grandson most days.  All my spare time has evaporated overnight.

So Susie and I have decided that it would be impossible for us to run this thursday or for Barbara to run it on her own, so  until some of these issues have been resolved and at least one of us is able to carry our weight . We are suspending the challenges

We hope that you will bare with us, as we all really look forward to seeing your challenge entries and setting the challenges.  Please come back on the 22nd February and hopefully we will be back up and running

Yours

Tracey, Susie, and Barbara

and Welcome to the 1st challenge of 2009

Our challenge this week has been slightly messed up due to a commnication error *Caused by Tracey (thats me by the way) so although the challenge was supposed to be one for the boys , its had to be rethought and we have decided on

Challenge 26 SOMETHING WITH WHISKERS  as usual you can use this in whatever way it inspires you . Use it as a title or think outside the box , its totally up to you how you use the challenge .

Our sponsor this week is non other than Joanna Sheen

Joanna has been involved in the craft world since 1979. She has written over 30 books on cookery, herbs, stencilling, crafts and flowers during the past 20 years and is now best known for her work on TV with her craft CDs, cardmaking and pressed flowercraft programmes

Teaching comes naturally to Joanna, she began her craft school here in the UK some 17 years ago and there is also the Joanna Sheen Flower School based in Osaka and with teachers spread around Japan. Joanna’s craft courses are now very limited with other commitments taking so much of her time but, old and welcomed visitors return every year for Joanna’s new and innovative teaching.

Joanna has an amazing rage of Printable CDRoms, instructional videos and stamps

You can visit Joannas online shop HERE

THE PRIZE THIS WEEK

Two lovely stamp sets from Joannas lovely range of Messy Rabbit stamps and a sheet of EZ mount so you are ready to go if your the lucky winner

Really cute stamps.

The design team also got to play with some messy rabbit stamps the footballer and footballer extra sets. Though absoloutly great for mens cards you can see from our examples that you can use them for other cards as well . Very versatile stamps sets.

So here are the design team examples for this week

Now you may wonder where the whiskers are on my old bag card. Don’t all old bags have whiskers I know I do LOL

Our Guest designer this week is our great friend Rosie. Who has done a brilliant job as always

As usual deadline for entries is 5pm Wednesday Night

Good luck everyone

We have decided that as its the last challenge of the year that everyone who took part in the challenge will be in this weks slider. So here you all are

We would like to say an extra special thanks to Cosmo Cricket for letting us play with their amazing Christmas pack called Oh Joy. As it was beautiful . I can’t wait to give my Mum the Snowflake card.  We would aslo like to thank them for giving us such a brilliant prize for the lucky winner.

AND THE WINNER IS

no 14 Yvonne  Please email us so we can despatch your prize

We would like to thank  this weeks enthusiastic and very productive Guest Designer Linda van Vliet, whos work you can see here http://r2art.blogspot.com/

We would like to thank everyone who sponsored us, was a guest designer or who joined in this years Challenges.

Thank you all very much

We will be back on the 15th January with a great sponsor and a new challenge> See you then

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Have a wonderful time

We have decided that with Christmas fast approaching , and all of us designers and entrants needing to spend time preparing for it, and spending time with our families.  This will be the last challenge this year. So we want to say thank you very much for supporting us this year, and we look forward to seeing you here on the 15th of  January with another great sponsor.

Our challenge this week is called Naughty or Nice. You can use a naughty theme, or a nice theme or a bit of both . You can use it as a title, or just go with your mojo however the theme takes it.

So who is the sponsor that we were excited about , non other than Cosmo Cricket.

The prize on offer is excellent . The brilliant Chemistry paper pack ( great for valentines)  and a pack of Buck naked buttons and more. A brill prize I think you have to agree.

A few words from our excellent sponsor

Cosmo Cricket is the creation of married designers Eric and Julie Comstock. You might have heard of Comstock before. Eric and Julie are the original creators of the Comstock Collection. When they decided to go on their own, they needed a new name. They thought they could simply rearrange the letters of Comstock Collection into something new, but it wasn’t that simple. So they took Eric’s first and last name and came up with Cosmo Cricket!

            In July at CHA Cosmo Cricket launched the company and four new lines. Since then Cosmo Cricket has moved warehouses 3 times and continues to grow every year.

            The great thing about Cosmo Cricket products are that they are incredibly easy to work with. Our patterns and embellishments make layouts and cards come together in no time! We hope you love our prize.

 Cosmo Cricket Buck Naked Buttons and More

Contain 46 chipboard buttons and frames. Thread holes with ribbon or add eyelets and brads. These shapes can be painted, inked, stamped or covered with our Buttons and More Fashions.

 Cosmo Cricket “Chemistry” Paper Crafting Kit

Contain 12 double-sided cardstocks, one double-sided Strip Tease, 8 double-sided cut a part Journaling Cards, Die cut shapes, and a Cosmo Cricket Design Studio Sheet with project ideas.

                                                                                   ……………………………………………………………………

We the design team were very lucky to recieve the stunning christmas paper pack Oh Joy, and we can see why its called that as its a joy to work with. You can probably tell by the amount of examples we have done. LOL Anyway here are our examples for this week .

Our amazing guest designer is Linda van Vliet, Who has provided a lot of examples

a few words from Linda

Hello all                                                      

Being asked to be guest designer for This Thursday was a pleasantly unexpected surprise! Of course I said “yes!” and shortly thereafter I received a package from sponsor Cosmo Cricket containing their lovely Crafting Kit “Oh Joy”.

Of course I had already looked at their site and I was secretly hoping for some of these designer papers! Check out Cosmo Cricket for more lovely craft supplies!

Personally I have been scrapbooking and card/atc/tag making for about 10 years already. It is by far the longest time I have stayed with one hobby and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon!

Crafting with paper and stamps is an endless joy. Giving away home made gifts is a satisfying eperience. I have made a long journey to be where I am today and I still have many places to go and sights to see.

I wish all of you joy on your art-journey!

 Linda van Vliet, Holland.

 you can see more of Lindas work here http://r2art.blogspot.com

So thats it for this week we will announce the winner next week as usual , and our next challenge will start on the 15th of january.

A final word

               Wishing  you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays

                                                      hugs from

                                                                                                              Tracey Susie and Barbara

You may have noticed that our entries this week have been quite low. However the quality of the entries as always is excellent. So all the entries this week make it to our favorites slider.

This weeks winner picked by random number generator is no 9 Fiona Cervetto

Congratulations please e mail us so we can dispatch your prize.

we would like to thank Sara for her wonderful work as guest designer this week. To see more of Saras work you can visit her blog http://www.verylivelycards.blogspot.com/

This weeks challenge is called Mistletoe and Wine. You can use it as a title, You can use mistltoe and wine images, or you can use the colours. Or as usual you can use it any way it inspirs you.

The prize this week has kindly been donated by Susie

A selection of 5 clear stamps. Great stamps

So here are this weeks examples from the design team

Our guest designer this week is Sara Lively

a few words from sara

I have to admit to doing a just little dance when asked to be a guest designer for This Thursday… I was so pleased to be invited and of course I said yes! 

I have been card making for almost 2 years and particularly love playing with colours and layers.  I enjoy finding ways around problems in order to create exactly the finished design I envisaged.  Whenever my little boy has friends over to play, they all like to make cards with my stash of child-friendly bits and pieces – I save all the free cards and papers from magazines for them to use.  This hobby we all share is such a wonderful creative outlet for us and our children, and its fun too!

I did have a couple of minutes of mild panic over the ‘wine’ portion of this weeks challenge, but thankfully I found some lovely wine coloured papers and an appropriate image to match (which I coloured with watercolour pencils) adding some crystal seed beads for bubbles.  The idea for the mistletoe card and tag is nice and simple, but I just had to incorporate a little of my favourite colours!  I hope you enjoy my creations for this weeks challenge, and should you like to see more of my work, please do pop over to my blog. I look forward to seeing your take on this challenge too!

 Kind Regards  Sara x

So thats this weeks challenge we can#t wait to see your Mistletoe and wine confections.

Ps Make sure you drop in next week for a very special sponsor and a great prize

We would again like to say a big thank you to Funky Fairys Papercrafts  for the amazing design kit and the truly stunning prize package .

Well we have picked our favs this week , so here they are

The winner of the brilliant prize picked by random number generator is

No 8 Marianne. Please e mail us so we can arrange your prize. Congratulations

 We would also like to say a big thank you to our guest designer Nancy Torsen, who provided us with lovely samples this week. To see more of Nancys work you can visit Nancys Blog

So Use Lime , Pink and Chocolate. You can use it as a title if you want. Use Lime, pink and chocolate colours or if it inspires you in another way feel free to go with your mojo.

Our sponsor this week is Funky Fairys Papercrafts/ A ferw words from our sponsor

 A few years ago my love of cardmaking and scrapbooking became more or less an ‘addiction’Well all we at This Thursday can say is what an amazing prize, Funky Fairys have given us to give to the lucky winner. 5 Complete Christmas downloads

Prize pic

 The lucky winner will not only recieve the Chocolate Covered Christmas, and Christmas rounds downloads but will also get  The “Lets get traditional”, “Merry Christmas” and “Funky Christmas” Downloads. What an amazing prize and the lucky winner will have Christmas crafting all wrapped up . I wish we could enter LOL

Plus during the challenge week only Funky fairys have put the download shop into Sale mode. so take your chance to get some stunning paper downloads at a reduced price.

We were amazed at the variety and versatility of the Chocolate covered christmas from Funky Fairys papercrafts. With gift boxes, a quick brag book, Pillowboxes, word albums. decorative mats and alpha sheets and that is just the tip of the iceberg. The papers are not just for Christmas as you can see from our examples.  We loved working with them and the Christmas rounds download was also great.

We have a great guest designer this week Nancy Torsen. We love both her wonderful examples

a few words from Nancy

Here is a little bit about me. I was very happy to be asked to be a guest on “This Thursday”.I’ve worked with mixed media for years – without really knowing what I was doing. Then I got involved with theart community online and started learning new techniques and trying new things. I started by making atc’s only, back in April of this year; then gradually took on other challenges. I enjoy making and trading postcards – my latest craze! This challenge was very different for me. These colors, when used together give a more contemporary look than what I usually do. I’ve made a set of coasters – perhaps a good hostess gift for the holidays – and a shield-shaped Christmas hanger.If you would like to see more of nancys work you can visit her blog http://www.neatcs.wordpress.com

As per we can’t wait to see all your wonderful work.

Bye for now and good luck

I always NEEDED more…more papers…more everything.To this day i still have lots of papers that i bought when i first started out, as i just cannot bring myself to cut into them, as i would be ‘gutted’ when they ran out..or if they got discontinued.I use so much paper on cards,scrapbook pages,altered art..you name it. So this got me thinking and i decided to try and design my own papers ect for my own use.I was ‘amazed’ at the quality of the printed papers,the fact that i could print whatever i wanted and would never run out of ‘that’ favourite paper.This also meant that the money i saved on buying papers i could use to buy all the other ‘must have’s’ Eventually after a year or so Funky Fairys Papercrafts was born (www.funkyfairyspapercrafts.com)

Funky Fairys offer unique downloadable,printable papers and kits that can be used in your papercrafting. We also offer unique polymer and rubber stamps too.As our name suggests..most of our designs are ‘fresh,modern & funky’…however in the last few months ‘my own’ style has changed a bit in towards the ‘shabby chic’ look. So this crosses over into the papers i design, such as the cherish and the hope collections….amongst others.I design papers that i want to use in my own crafting,thats how my papers are ‘born’

If you have never tried printing out your own papers before and would like to give it a go, we do have the Blog of Inspiration (http://funkyfairyinspirations.blogspot.com/) which is full of free printable papers for you to download.

Iam really pleased to be sponsering such a great challenge blog

I shall even be joining in with this challenge myself

Happy crafting everyone