52 Week Mini Art Card / Tag Challenge 2026 - Week 1

The Crafting Niche 52 Week Mini Art Card/Tag Challenge 2026:

This is a weekly challenge. I provide you with a prompt/theme each Sunday morning through out the year.  The challenge is very relaxed.  You can do as much or as little as you like.  You can create cards, tags, Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) or index cards, the choice is yours. You just go with what ever is in your head at the time.  You can stamp, get inky, use patterned papers, texture, embellish it is all down to you.

There is a dedicated private Facebook Group, with a lovely bunch of people who are already sharing their makes from previous challenges.  You can find the group by clicking this link.  I'd love you to join in.

The prompt for Week 1 is "Highlight of 2025"

For me, 2025 was a mixed bag.  We lived for seven months in our touring caravan before moving into our new home, that was hard to do but we absolutely love our new home.  Our son got married in May.  We had a fantastic weekend in a chateau in the Dordogne, France for the wedding, so I have chosen that for my tag.

There was lots of lovely stationery for the wedding, the invites, information sheets, timetable of events, thank you notes and lots more.  They've been sitting on my desk, being moved from one area to another so I decided to make them into a tag.  I added extra colour using two shades of Distress Oxide inks:  Rustic Wilderness and Iced Spruce,  I smooshed some of the cards through the ink to give a more uniform colour.

I then added some Cosmic Shimmer gold gilding flakes to areas and used a gold coloured gel pen for extra detail too.

52 Week Mini Art Card / Tag Challenge 2025 Tag Book Cover and Round Up

As the last tag for the 2025 A Crafting Niche "52 Week Mini Art Card / Tag Challenge" has been completed.  I have now made a front and back cover for my tag book. I've used a three inch book ring to keep all my tags together.  This allows me to flip through the tags with relative ease. 

For the cover of my tag book, I have covered a tag in blue card.  My box of Christmas ribbons was out, so I used a length of glittery turquoise coloured metal edged ribbon through the length of the tag, securing with double sided tape.

I had some silver curling ribbon, so I glued a length of that over the top of the glittery ribbon.  I then mounted the tag on to a turquoise piece of card, trimming it to size.

Next on a piece of turquoise coloured card, I stamped the numbers using the Lavinia Stamps "Numbers" stamp set with Versafine Clair 'Twilight" dark blue ink.  I then used a Spellbinders circle die to cut the numbers to shape and glued into position.

Here is a photo of all of my 2025 tags together.

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The Crafting Niche "52 Week Mini Art Card / Tag Challenge will be continuing for 2026.  The first prompt will be on Sunday 4th January 2026 at 7:30 am on the Facebook Group.  Here's the link.

52 Week Mini Art Card / Tag Challenge 2025 - Week 52

The Crafting Niche 52 Week Mini Art Card/Tag Challenge 2025:

This is a weekly challenge. I provide you with a prompt/theme each Sunday morning through out the year.  The challenge is very relaxed.  You can do as much or as little as you like.  You can create cards, tags, Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) or index cards, the choice is yours. You just go with what ever is in your head at the time.  You can stamp, get inky, use patterned papers, texture, embellish it is all down to you.

There is a dedicated private Facebook Group, with a lovely bunch of people who are already sharing their makes from previous challenges.  You can find the group by clicking this link.  I'd love you to join in.

The prompt for Week 52 is "Celebrate"

For the base colour of this tag I used Blue Print Sketch and Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Inks.  I then used Versafine Clair Medieval Blue and Morning Mist to stamp the background text, using  Visible Image "Distressed Christmas" stamp set.

I used a Wow! Clear Slow Drying Embossing Pad to stamp the bursts, then coated them with Wow! Silver super fine embossing powder and heat set.  The bursts are part of the Visible Image "Rays of Light" stamp set.

In the middle of the fireworks I added Lavinia Stamps "Moon Dust" silver glitter.  I then added word stickers and finally dots of "Lightning: Liquid Pearls.

52 Week Mini Art Card / Tag Challenge 2025 - Week 51

The Crafting Niche 52 Week Mini Art Card/Tag Challenge 2025:

This is a weekly challenge. I provide you with a prompt/theme each Sunday morning through out the year.  The challenge is very relaxed.  You can do as much or as little as you like.  You can create cards, tags, Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) or index cards, the choice is yours. You just go with what ever is in your head at the time.  You can stamp, get inky, use patterned papers, texture, embellish it is all down to you.

There is a dedicated private Facebook Group, with a lovely bunch of people who are already sharing their makes from previous challenges.  You can find the group by clicking this link.  I'd love you to join in.

The prompt for Week 51 is "Anything Goes"

I started this with plaing white card, coating the top half with various shades of dark blue Distress Oxide Inks.  The colours that I used are:  Prize Ribbon, Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire.  In the top left had side I used Versafine Clair "Nocturne" black ink to stamp the owl, which is part of the Lavinia Stamps "Brodwin and Maylin" stamp set.

On a separate, white piece of card, using Versafine Clair "Blue Belle" ink, I multi stamped the Lavinia Stamps "Hill Border - thin lines" stamp.  Using Versafine Clair "Nocturne" black ink I stamped the two Lavinia Stamps "Woodland Cottages". I fussy cut the stamped images, coloured the houses with three shades of Distress Oxide Inks (Iced Spruce, Broken China and Festive Berries).  I coloured the "Hill Borders" with different shades of blue Distress Oxide Inks.  The colours I used are:  Unchartered Mariner, Prize Ribbon, Blue Print Sketch, Chipped Sapphire and Stormy Sky.

Returning to the tag, I stamped the Lavinia Stamps "Small Pixy Houses" on the top hill using Versafine Clair "Morning Mist" grey ink.  I added a touch of yellow Posca Pen, which I then blotted to the windows, this meant the colour was less vibrant and more the look I was after.

Using Cosmic Shimmer "Acrylic Glue", I arranged the hills and houses how I wanted them and stuck them down on to the tag.

Finally, I added some snowfall to the scene, by using a fan shaped paint brush with Dr Ph. Martin's white bleed proof paint.

Funky Fossil Designs "Stencils Unlocked" - Day 4 (binding)

This is the final day of "Stencils Unlocked" techniques by Funky Fossil Designs and it's about binding the pages that have been made on the previous days.

I have a mountain of washi tape in my stash, so decided to use that rather than making my own with stencils.  I really enjoyed the binding process, using three tabs on tape on one page and then two on the next, alternating to the end of the booklet.

Funky Fossil Designs "Stencils Unlocked - Day 3

I have been distracted so am playing catch up on this short challenge.  These are my Day 3 makes of the Funky Fossil Designs "Stencils Unlocked" techniques - transparecies.

For one of these, I should have used "Mirror Spray" over a stencil on to acetate, but as I didn't have any of that, I decided to do two of the acrylic paint techniques through a stencil on to acetate instead.

I used DecoArt Americana "Snow (Titanium) White" acrylic paint, applied with a make up sponge very lightly, through two Funky Fossil Designs stencils.  The stencils I used are "Snow Storm" and "Starry Round" stencils.

These can then be laid over the prepared backgrounds from the previous days to make a layered look to the pages.

Funky Fossil Designs "Stencils Unlocked" Techniques - Day 1, technique B

This is my second make of Funky Fossil Designs "Stencils Unlocked Techniques from Day 1. If you'd like to know more, take a look at their page on this link.

I used three shades of Distress Oxide Spray Inks for the background colour.  The colours I used are: Cracked Pistacchio, Mermaid Lagoon and Speckled Egg.  It took a really long time to by fully dry, so even after big blasts from the heat gun, I left it over night.

Over the each end of the coloured card, I lay the Funky Fossil Designs "Mechanical Stencil", applying "Heavy Glossy Body Gel" by Pentart through areas of the stencil.

I then pinched small amounts of embossing powders between my fingers and sprinkled over the surface. The three colours of Wow! Embossing Powders I used are:  Lavaburst, Angel Eyes and Blueberry.  I then heat set with the heat gun.  

Top Tip:  when using the heat gun, keep it moving over the surface of the embossed area.  If you hold in one place for too long, the medium and powders can bubble - great if you want more texture but not so good if you are wanting it relatively smooth!