October Linky Party - Make It A Handmade Christmas Challenge

Christmas is now less than ten weeks away.  I'm sure we are all envious and yet inspired by  those that started making handmade items to decorate their home and/or give as gifts, earlier in the year.  But, there is still time to make handmade items for the holidays.  And SewCalGal wants to encourage you to do so, as do all of the generous sponsors of this challenge:

Around The Bobbin,  , Chatterbox Quilts, Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio, Classic Metal Company, Fairfield Road Designs, Fat Quarter Shop, Frivolous Necessity,Geta's Quilting Studio, Hoffman California Fabrics, Indygo Junction, Leah Day Designs,    Martingale, Patrick Lose Quilt & Create Studio,    Timeless Treasures, and Whistlepig Creek Productions.

This is the October  "Linky Party" for those that want to participate in the Handmade Christmas Challenge.  Quite simple.  You can make handmade Christmas gifts or decorations or your home for the holidays, anytime in 2014 and enter in any of the monthly challenges for a chance to win prizes.  There are over 70 prizes, of which the majority of these prizes will be randomly awarded to participants at the end of this challenge.  You get an entry for every monthly challenge you enter.

Some participants have been sharing tutorials that help to showcase their entry, via their blogs.  I will also be releasing tutorials on my blog, compliments of some creative non-bloggers that wanted to share their techniques for making handmade gifts for the holiday season.  Either way, I'm a firm believer that when you adopt the pay-it-forward approach to helping others it also brings you good kharma to winning prizes.  And that doesn't stop with providing tutorials, as those that are PR Angels and encourage others to make handmade for the holidays should also be blessed with good kharma for winning prizes. 

 Everyone is invited to join the monthly linky parties for the Make It A Handmade Challenge.  Share what you've made to decorate your home for the holidays, or to give as a gift.  You may want to share a tutorial, but that isn't required.  On the other hand, if you used a free or purchase pattern I hope you'll share that info as I'm sure your project may inspire others to create a similar project, using the same design.  Before you add your entry (a link to this Linky), please be sure you read the rules below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Rules to enter this challenge:

While there are many sponsors and many wonderful prizes for those that enter in one or more of the monthly Linky Parties in the Handmade Christmas Challenge, that are open to quilters worldwide, as SewCalGal will be shipping this particular prize to the lucky winner and currently has limited funds for shipping prizes, the winner of this bundle will need to be a US resident.

1) Projects need to be made in 2014 (they do not need to be made during the 10 day window of a a given monthly linky party.  But they need to be something you made for a Christmas gift or to decorate your home for the holidays.  Please do not enter projects that you giveaway throughout the year, or previous holidays as that doesn't bring you good quilting kharma!

2) You can enter one or more completed projects, but your linky needs to be in a current post (or non-bloggers can upload their photos and provide a link to a view able line tool like PhotoBucket, Flickr, etc.).   note:  Future challenges will require you to use only Flickr.  Click here to see a tutorial for using flickr.

3) Participants are asked to include comments in their post that share insights on the design(s) they use, any tips they wish to share, and if they made something with their own design they may wish to share a tutorial.  Your help to encourage others to make handmade gifts, throughout the year to give as gifts or to decorate their home, is appreciated.  And, of course, you can also inspire others by sharing your projects, providing tips and tutorials, as well as recognizing the source of the design for your project, should others be interested in making it too!

4) Bloggers are asked to include in their post information that that shows they have taken the "Pledge to make handmade Christmas Gifts in 2014" and are participating in this challenge.  It would be appreciated if you would encourage others to also participate, or at least come look at all of the entries each month, as hopefully we'll inspire other quilters and increase awareness of designs, tips, tutorials to help make beautiful Christmas gifts and decorations.  Your blog post also needs to be dated during the period of this linky party (do not link to old posts).

This linky party will be open thru the 25th of  this month, to give participants plenty of time to enter the challenge this month. If you are not familiar with how to use a linky click here for a tutorial.

Please be sure to read the rules before you add a link to enter the challenge this month.

For blogger participants that are interested in posting a badge, I need to work on the code. But you are welcome to take any images from this post and link to the main page for this event.

Let's not forget the spirit of this challenge is to make handmade gifts for Christmas or decorations for the holiday season, throughout the year vs waiting till the holiday rush.  We also hope to help increase awareness of designs, free patterns, tutorials and other products that help to make such products. And, your help in inspiring others to make handmade for Christmas is appreciated.  PR Angels are also appreciated.

Lastly, I want to increase awareness that the schedule has changed for the Handmade Christmas Challenge.  November will be the last Linky Party for monthly sharing.  Early December we'll have a linky party where you can share new handmade items as well as all of the items that you've made in 2014 for decorating your home for the holidays, as well as to give as gifts.  

If you have questions for this Challenge, please read the FAQ.