February Rudolph Days Challenge

This has been a hectic and sad month. My Mum passed away on February 9, 2017. She would have been 92 in 10 more days.

I dedicate this months Rudolph Days Challenge to my Mum as she raised us to go out into the world and make a difference. I like to think this little challenge makes a difference to our peace of mind in the Christmas season. If we have our cards made throughout the year, it is one less task during the busy Christmas season, freeing us up to spend precious time with family and friends.

Here are the rules for your perusal:

 1. The Rudolph Days Challenge will start each month on the 25th, and will close at midnight PST, on the last day of that month.
2. The theme is always Anything Goes, as long as it is Christmas.
3. One entry per person and you just need to enter one Christmas card or Christmas project.
4. You may combine your entry with other challenges (maximum of 10 in total).
5. Your card (or Christmas project) should not have been previously posted to your blog. It should be posted to your blog during the current months Rudolph Days Challenge, (between the 25th and last day of the current month)
6. Please link back to or at least mention, the Rudolph Days Challenge.
7. Please leave a comment on the challenge post.
8.   The winner will be selected by random draw and announced on the first day of the following month. Prizes will be mailed anywhere in the world.

I am pleased to introduce our second two designers for The 2017 Rudolph Days Challenge.

Linda at Spails Space

Hello from Ontario, Canada. I've always had a creative outlet, but severe Rheumatoid Arthritis forced me to give up all of my hobbies so I was happy to discover that I could stamp and return to my childhood love of colouring.
 I usually paint images and create backgrounds with Twinkling H2O's, but I also use distress inks and watercolour pencils. I'm happy to be a designer for the Rudolph Days Challenge - Thank you , Maureen..

Linda has such a pretty Snowglobe card for us. I think the colours are so soft and lovely!

Dr Sonia SV @ Cards, Crafts, Kids Projects

Hi! I am an ENT surgeon and a Mom to a crafty little girl. I share crafty projects, tutorials and crafty tips on my blog, Cards, Crafts, Kids Projects.  I love making Christmas projects so thank you Maureen for having me as part of your Rudolph days Design Team.

Dr Sonia has made up these frilly and pretty, pink Christmas trees!

Our guest designer this month is Kath at Handmade by Kath
Kath was on last years team and each month we will feature a card from one of 2016's team.
This pretty card with the stocking images brought back fond memories for me as Mum always had stockings for us!

Our prize this month is a choice of this Magnificent Merry Memory Box die

 or this  Avery Elle  Elftacular Stamp set.

Relax & Enjoy

A dear friend recently moved to Kamloops, a three hour drive from here. I was so sad to hear she was leaving but luckily there is a silver lining. Kamloops is only 40 minutes from our RV at the lake...in fact we drive past Kamloops to get there.

It is a lovely city with the river running through the town and beautiful hills and flats for the residential neighbourhoods. There are gorgeous HooDoo's flanking the town!

It has all the major shops and great golf courses. The weather is hot, hot, hot, in the summer. It can climb into the 40's.

I think they will be very happy to retire there.

I have made them  a "New Home" card. As they will now both be retired, I chose the Sentiment "Relax & Enjoy".  I am sticking to my New Years goal of using at least one NBUS item on every card. The Memory Box Cottage In The Woods die is my NBUS item, It was fun to get it out to play.

You probably recognize the background sky. It is the last snippet of my alcohol ink - Yupo creations.

I used a couple of snippets of a pearlized green for the house, hills, and trees.  I had some very teensy snippets left and used them to recut the trees. Some of the snippets were so small I had to tape them to the tree as if the paper shifted slightly, they would have been ruined. I included the left over scraps in my card photo, so you could see for yourself how little is left!

I pop dotted the second set of trees and then shaded all the green including the trees with a darker green chalk, The card still looked bare so I used Stardust stickles on the trees and hills.

I used another teensy snippet of watercolour paper to cut the windows and door The paper was swirly with gold and brownish colours. I carefully arranged the die to have the yellows and the brown in the right places.

Since I used snippets, even some impossibly teensy snippets, I am taking this card over to Di at Pixies Crafty Workshop where the theme is must use snippets.

Christmas Card Club - Festive Foliage

This fortnight, Rachel of Fishers Cards and Crafts  chose the theme of Festive Foliage for our Christmas Card Club. What a fun theme!

I had a stamped card started and needed to sit down and colour the image but our furnace broke and I spent all of Saturday morning on the phone trying to get a repairman to come out. We are in the midst of heavy snow, with the roads in very poor shape. I then spend the rest of the afternoon huddled under a blanket near the fireplace! Of course furnaces and major appliances only break down on weekends...when labour rates are in overtime setting. Two hours work to fix it and $440 dollars for the labour alone. Oh my!

After all that, I decided to make a much easier card. I broke into my Never Before Used Stash (NBUS), and chose this Hunky Dory, Adorable Scorable Christmas Church card kit.
I decoupaged the layers for the scene but decided not to use the card provided with the kit. It seemed the wrong size for the image and I did not like the sheen on the paper finish.

I used one of  my scalloped square cards instead and used a First Edition, Christmas Wishes DP for the background. I always love the First Edition 6x6 stacks. I wish I owned every one!

You can check out the Festive Foliage cards from the other Christmas Card Club members too. Hyperlinks to their blogs can be found on my right sideboard. If you think you might be interested in joining, drop me an email or tell me in your comment.

Loll Inspird Me

I recently posted a card made by Jane that I had CASED.  Today I want to share a card I CASED from another blog friend Loll, of Stamping with Loll

I have been following Loll's journey with alcohol inks and she originally inspired me to break open my bottles. Loll's blog is Stamping with Loll. and it is well worth popping over to take a look. Her work is beautiful! Here is Loll's card...

I  took some of the left over snippets from my Yupo background creations and created a wee scene with my "Never Before Used Schtuff", my Horse Sleigh Landscape, Memory Box die. NBUS for short. I cut the sleigh from a snippet of white glitter paper.

To ensure a non lumpy focal point, I ran the die through the bottom of the Alcohol ink portion and then lined up the two die cut edges for a smooth edged scene. I saved the Yupo waste from behind the horse and sleigh and inlaid it back into the finished scene.

 I then used a Lawn Fawn stitched circle die to cut the scene and pop dotted it to my card. I finished the card off with a Cursive Script Merry, Memory Box die cut from a slim snippet of the inked Yupo paper
.

This was so much fun that I made a second card with the horse and sleigh cut from a gunmetal grey glitter paper and a cut another Cursive  Merry Die from the same grey glittered cardstock.

I am entering this card over at Darnells 10th NBUS challenge where the theme is for you to use a NBUS item of course. There is also an optional challenge for you to use bubble wrap. I decided to forgo this option as I do not have any at the moment.

You can check out the NBUS challenge at Darnell's blog djkardkreations

January Rudolph Days Challenge Winners

We have two prizes this month so let's get on with drawing the lucky winners!

I have used Random Org to draw our first winner and the winning card is entry number 7, Sandra H.
Sandra, you have a choice between the Memory Box Reindeer Scalloped Circle Frame,
or the Wild Rose Studio stamp Penguin with Present.

Could you drop me an email at maureenkane@telus.net to let me know your mailing address and which prize you would like.

Our second prize draw this month was also drawn by Random Org.
Sadly, I had to draw twice for the second prize. as the first winner did not show anywhere within their post that their card was entered at Rudolph Days Challenge, nor did they have any link back to Rudolph Day. I do not think it was an oversight as they had entered several challenges that were not mentioned and  did they have any hyperlinks back to those challenges either. They did have three of their challenge totals listed and linked, but Rudolph Days was not one of them.

Our next second prize draw used Random Org. The winning card is entry number 11, Sandy J,
Sandy, you have a choice between the Hampton Art 6 piece stamp and tag die or the Stampendous stamp,  Snowman with Tree.

Sandy, could you drop me an email at maureenkane@telus.net to let me know your mailing address and which prize you would like.

Congratulations to you both and I hope you each enjoy your prize!