Christmas Card Club - Cute

Sylvie at Gibmiss blog chose Cute as the theme for our Christmas Card Club. If you would like to see the other ladies creations, I have hyperlinks up on my right sideboard. If you would like to join our fortnightly Christmas Card Club, just drop me an email.

Several years ago, a girl friend let me stamp off this cute image.   I had never coloured it as my  stamping skills were very poor that day and parts of the image did not stamp clearly. But I am on a mission to use up my VOS items (Very Old Stash) and so  I carefully filled in the missing parts of the image with a micro fine black pen. The furry trim on the hats is not quite right as I made a boo boo and made the lines too thick.  I drew in a lot more lines in varying thickness to try to hide that mistake! I am not sure of the manufacturer. I think it is a Stampin' Up image but not positive. If you recognize it, please let me know the name.

I coloured this image up with copic pens and die cut with a Spellbinders label die. A snippet of silver mirri card gives it a a bit of shimmer and since I liked the look of that, I then added a very small snippet of silver ribbon as a border round the Echo Park Dots and Stripes DP.

I do not know the name of the kraft word background. It is a snippet of a 12x12 scrapbook page. Before I started making  cards, I was a scrapbooker. I did not mark manufacturer or name on my snippets as I had no need to at that time. Now that I make cards, too, I sure wish I had developed that habit years earlier!

The hessian ribbon is from Michael's. It is another snippet and has the luxury of being self adhesived. What a treat.

Hope you like my take on a cute Christmas Card. It was fun to make and I thank Sylvie for the inspiration.

November Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

Our  November Challenge had 64 outstanding entries. You all make me so proud! I am still getting around visiting you all and leaving comments. It may take me a few extra days as I have a Bakers Cyst in my left (my better) knee. It will be injected next week so will get some relief then.

My right knee replacement surgery is booked for Jan 21, 2019 and once I am healed and finished physio etc,  I will book the left knee just as soon as I can.

Once again I have used Random Org to chose our winner. Greta, #16  is our winner.

Greta, will you please email me at maureenkane@telus.net and let me know which die you would like.

Due to the Canadian Postal strike, please be aware that Canada Post has issued a notice that International Mail delivery may take into the month of March!!!

Extra Challenge for those who have entered the Rudolph Challenge each month in 2018

In every challenge, there are those who never miss a month. It was brought to my attention by a faithful follower that she has never missed a challenge, yet sadly never won.

So, once again I am hosting a special "extra" challenge this month for all those who have entered the Rudolph Days Challenge every month, Jan - Nov 2018 excluding the month of July.

I am allowing my designers to enter also, if they entered cards for the alternate months that they do not design for.

This challenge is a  special thank you for the Rudolph Days Faithful.  If you do not qualify for this year, you have ample notice for next year!

So check your blogs to see if you posted a card for those months. If so, then use Mr Linky below, to enter!

The prize will be a choice of this Hero Arts CL722 stamp

Or this Memory Box Desiree die

Due to the Canadian Postal strike, please be aware that Canada Post has issued a notice that International delivery may take into the month of March!!!

November Rudolph Days Challenge

Seems the year has raced by and here we are at the last Rudolph Days Challenge for 2018.

For the month of December, anyone who has entered every January to November 2018 challenge (with the exception of ) can submit their name for a special prize draw. This way, I can reward my faithful challenge participants! Watch this blog Dec 1st for the linky to appear for this special challenge.

Here is a quick reminder of the regular Rudolph Days Challenge rules.

1. The Rudolph Days Challenge will start each month (January to November) 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.

9. A special draw will be held at the end of the year, in December,  for all those who submitted a card or project every month that year, January to November.

First up is Dr Sonia at Cards Crafts and Kids Projects with these gorgeous snowflakes. I think these are gorgeous. I have some small square windows high up the wall in my living room. I think these snowflakes would look gorgeous there, so I will be popping over to Sonia's blog right away to read all about how to make them!

Next up is Linda at Snails Space. Linda has made us a beautiful card with such a sweet Penny Black image. As always, her colouring is so pretty and the colours themselves are so soft and lovely. 

Our prizes this month are a choice of this Memory Box Winsome Snowflake Collage

Or this Tim Holtz die 

October Rudolph Days Winner

66 entries entries makes me so happy! Christmas is getting closer and closer and each month we are all getting closer to our Christmas card goals...

I used Random Org to chose our winner. The chosen number is entry #64  Donna R.

Donna, could you please email me at maureenkane@telus.net and let me know which prize you prefer.

While on the topic of numbers, we had 300 trick or treaters at our door tonight. So many fabulous costumes!  Many were hand made by the parents are were so fabulous. So creative!

Everyone was polite and well mannered. We had a huge number of teenagers...around 15 or perhaps even 16 years old. I always give candy to them too and remark that it is nice to see them out having fun.  There was roughly an equal number of boys and girls but they tended to come in packs of 8 to 10 of the same sex. Almost all of them had costumes. We were so glad to see them out having good honest fun and being very polite and orderly.They were polite and caring to the wee ones too, moving aside to let them go by and slowing down for them when necessary...made me so happy to see.

Here are some photos of Halloween decorations at my daughters house. My grandson who is 10 set up the witch and her laboratory. He also decorated my front porch, steps and front garden but I forgot to take photos.

Here is the laboratory which her created by laying a piece of counter over an Adirondack chair which usually is situated on their porch where the witch is standing. He turned it around and made the lab. The witch is motion sensitive and makes spooky noises and turns her head from side to side very slowly when kids approach the porch! 

Hope you all had fun tonight and look forward to finishing up visiting all your entries. With all the work and excitement of Halloween, I am only 1/2 of the way round the entries. Promise to get round to everyone tomorrow.

Christmas Card Club - Winter Wonderland

Christine at Christine's Cards and Crafts blog chose Winter Wonderland as the Christmas Card Club theme this fortnight. I knew what I wanted to make right away!

My girlfriend gifted me a few old Christmas cards from the 1950's. Each one had a bit of a letter inside and were signed with the date. She knew I would love the vintage look of them and indeed I did.

My family raised horses, and we always had a huge old antique sleigh in the front garden over Christmas.This card reminded me of those past times and I do think the passengers in this horse drawn sleigh look as though they are riding through a Winter Wonderland.

I used snippets for this card. The Chatterbox blue snowflake background paper is leftover from a scrapbook page. The vintage card was shaped just like you see it,  so I fussy cut that same pattern out of the snippets of white glitter card, and then again green glitter card that you see here.

I then popped it onto an easel card base as it just seemed to call out for center stage! I like the look of it on the easel card, and I am actually quite pleased with the whole result.

The Dashing Through The Snow die is by Memory Box. I did cheat a bit and used a white pen to add back in the centers of the letters as the parts were so teensy I could not manage to glue them back in. Once I had gone over them a couple of times to get them white enough, I painted over them with Art Glitter Glue and sprinkled some white glitter over them. They then finally looked almost like I had glued the teensy bits back in!

If anyone is interested in joining our Christmas Card Club, drop me an email. You can view the other members cards by clicking on their hyperlinks on my right sideboard.

October Rudolph Days Challenge.

October seemed to race by at a thunder! We have had beautiful, sunny weather here on the West Coast of Canada. We have spent it in the garden, at the lake, boating and fishing.  A lovely Fall to treasure.

 Please have a quick peek at the rules before you play.

1. The Rudolph Days Challenge will start each month (January to November) 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.

9. A special draw will be held at the end of the year, in December,  for all those who submitted a card or project every month that year, January to November.

First up is Jenny from Cardsarus blog.

Jenny has made us this lovely vision in blues. The image of the children playing in the snow made my smile and think of my grankids!  The blue circular mat and stitched corner triangles look to have a lovely shimmer!

I feel honoured that Jenny had time to make a card as she has been so busy caring for her husband  who was recently in hospital. With her care, hopefully he will be on the mend.

Pop on over to jenny's blog to see full views of this pretty card.

Sam at Whispers Cards has two cards for us this month.  The first is this adorable snowman card. This little fellows are so sweet and their clothing is coloured so nicely.  Perfect with that gorgeous DP.

Sam's second card is a fabulous blue and white sweetie.Those penguins are so sweet and I am in love with that penny Black  Let It Snow diecut. If you pop on over to Sam's blog, you can read all about just how she made this stunning card.

My card is another snippets one. The card base is Hunky Dory and I am not sure what they call this fold. The SE gold star DP is left over from a scrapbook page and the red glitter card for the mat and the sentiment are from my scraps files.

The image is from a bag of used cards my friend gave me. They are all from the 1950's. I cut it down into a topper and it was  fun to plan a card around it.

The sentiment is a die cut from the Sue Wilson Festive collection.  I placed it right over that pretty DP. I plan to write a quick note on the right side flap, and sign there too.

When you make a card of this design, do you add a velcro button closure? or ...? It is hard to photograph without it! 

Our prizes this month are a choice of this Memory Box Winsome Snowflake Collage die

or this Newtons Nook, All Aboard for Christmas Stamp.

Christmas Card Club - Monochromatic Design

Kate at I Love Socks and Cards blog, chose a Monochromatic theme for this fortnights' Christmas Card Club.

While I still had my supplies out on my desk, I have created another Let it Snow card.   I usually forget to use my embossing folders, but I saw so many lovely embossed cards on my Blogger reader that I was inspired to use one of mine as well.

This is another 5 1/4 inch square card, but this time it was created completely from snippets.. The aqua embossed background was created with a snippet of Bazzill 110 pound card and a La Crea Embossing folder. The Memory Box Bianca Snowflake was cut from snippets of white glitter card that were left over from creating 12 card kits of this design for my Langley Stampers Club. I used my last snippet for the Sue Wilson  Let it Snow die, and the sentiment is my favourite, tried and true  Christmas stamp.

A group of 12 ladies get together once a month and we take turns creating and bringing card kits for the others. Although I have had my turn this year, one of our members is very poorly and so I took over her turn. Another lady helped out as well and we each brought 12 card kits.

Once I had finished making up all the kits, I had quite a few snippets, let me tell you. So I just kept cutting and making up more kits! They should be great fun to assemble during the coming weeks. One can never have too many finished Christmas cards!


The center aqua mirri card snowflake is Memory Box, Trio of Pointed Snowflakes. I used some snippets to cut the  two smaller snowflakes from this trio, and used the second snowflake on the back of this card.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

1.  Christmas Card Club - Monochromatic

September Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

We had a grand total of 62 entries. Now, that makes me very happy indeed. I visited every one of you and as always I was amazed by your talent! So many beautiful Christmas cards!


 I used Random Org and here is a photo of our winning number.  24

Jane, could you please drop me an email to maureenkane@telus.net and let me know which prize you prefer.

Christmas Card Club - Camels, Turkey or Sheep

Rachel at Fischer's Cards and Crafts blog chose this fortnights theme and I picked Camels for my card. A quick look through my stamps turned up these Three Kings on their way to Bethlehem. I am not sure if this is NBUS. I do not remember using this Inkadinkado stamp before, but it is marked 2004 so perhaps I am wrong as that is a long time ago! I stamped it in Momento Rich Cocoa.

The background DP is Chatterbox two sided Light Snowfall. It was the perfect shade of blue to go with the aqua mirri card mat. I stamped the image on ivory Bazzil 110 pound paper and used a Sizzix stitched die for the image and the mirri mat.

The hills are made with snippets of  kraft stripey textured paper, from an 8x8 DP pad I bought at the last paper craft garage sale. The cover was missing from this pad so I do not know the manufacturer. I wiped a generous amount of that Momento Rich Cocoa  all around the edges, and let the ink edge up onto the hills themselves.

I used a snippet of kraft  paper for the Spellbinders die I used  behind the top portion of the image., It reminded me of Moorish windows.  I decided to go with that Eastern feeling.

The Merry Christmas Sentiment is from Make An Impression 1994. Now that is old!

There is one imported item on my card. It was imported by me! It is the golden diamond bling on the North Star! I bought it in Inverness at The Works!

It is always nice to make a religious card, hope you enjoyed it too.

If you would like to join our fortnightly club, drop me an email. We each take a turn picking the themes and if you want to view the other members cards, just click on the list on my right sidebar.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets.

September Rudolph Days Challenge

It is finally time for the Rudolph Days Challenge. Please have a quick peek at the rules before you play.

1. The Rudolph Days Challenge will start each month (January to November) 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.

9. A special draw will be held at the end of the year, in December,  for all those who submitted a card or project every month that year, January to November.

First up is Dr Sonia at Cards, Crafts, and Kids Projects

Dr Sonia has made this gorgeous snowflake cascading card. It is so delicate and light looking. I love the combination of the pretty blue background for the scene, with the white and blue snowflakes.  Pop on over to her blog to read how to make one yourself!

Next up is Linda at Snails Space Blog.

Linda has made this Sweet snowman card. I think is is so fun and very, very sweet! That Merry Christmas frame die is fabulous. You can pop on over to Linda's blog to read about how she made it.

Finally, My card this month is a bit of a different one for me...no DP and lots of white space! I must admit I am still cringing a bit about all the white space. I may just make up another similar card but use a light grey, quite subtle patterned DP, over the card front...

It s so hard to photograph mirri card! The only shot I could get that shows even close to the right colour is this weird shot below, but it makes my card look as if it is rippled at the top! The colour of the mirri card on the flourish in the top left, is the correct aqua colour. It is very close to the colour of the jewel.

This is a 5 1/2 inch square card with an Aqua mirri Memory Box La Rue Flourish layered with  two  Memory Box snowflakes die cut from Heidi Swapp white glitter card. The first snowflake is completely  glued down and the second is only glued down in the white area around the large Aqua jewel.. That allows it to have a bit of movement.

The sentiment was cut from the same mirri card and is a Sue Wilson,  Let it Snow die.

I went around the outside edge of the card with ColorBok Prussian Blue chalk ink, then painted on some Art Glitter glue and finally sprinkled over that with some fine white glitter. 

Our prizes this month are a choice of this Memory Box Evelyn Snowflake 

or this Norland Cardigan Farmhouse stamp set.

Christmas Card Club - Bears or Anything Goes

ValeryAnne of ValleryAnne Designs  chose the theme of Bears or Anything Goes for our Christmas Card Club Challenge. I am a little late posting as I was away camping with my daughter, son-in-law, grandkids, and my eldest daughter. They rented a whole campsite...every spot!  We had our own private breach and  only shared it with some friends from our neighbourhood who also camp, and a cousin and her daughter who came up from Seattle, USA.  We also had some friends drop by for a day of boating and tubing and fun!  It was a great group of campers and we had such a lovely time.

All the children  had a blast. The village nearby has a huge roller Coaster and theme park as well as lovely ice cream stands. What more could a kid want!

I made this card while my husband was out on the boat. I am not much of a boating fan as I can not swim and it has left me leery of deep water.  I took the elements of this card in a card sleeve and just brought glue tape and scissors with me, . It was fun to sit in the sunshine and make cards listening to the birds sing and feel the very gentle breeze.

I chose the theme Anything Goes.  The card base was picked up somewhere on my recent travels...might have been Blade Stamps in London. The DP is NBUS ...Kaiser Craft Christmas Edition. It has a light sheen and the black poinsettia design is a bit shiny.  I usually do not like shiny papers, but this one is very subtle with the amount of shine.

This adorable image is Penny Black's  Tweet Christmas. i think it is so fun! I bought it at one of the local paper craft stores garage sales. I paid $5. Canadian for it , which is a great price for a  Penny Black stamp. It stamps like a dream.

I coloured it with Prismacolour pencil crayons from Michaels and used Gamsol to blend.  The little purple Merry Christmas sign was a leftover I  had tossed into my sentiments drawer. I did not write the manufacturer on the back. Sorry!

The image is matted with a snippet of purple card stock and rematted with a snippet of red glitter card.

Inside my card is a 2004 Stampin' Up sentiment stamped onto Marshmallow Bazzill card with a triangle of the DP in two corners.

Here are some photos from that camping trip to Cultus Lake.

These type of private campsites where you rent the whole site (various  number of trailer allowances depending which site you choose) don't have alocated spots for  each trailer. You can park as close or far away as you want, dependant on the terrain of the site. It was lovely and flat all around the trailer area and then this small hill down to the beach, the open walled roofed eating area structure, and also the showers and bathrooms.
 That is our boat and tube in the lake.

This is it in action...

My daughter and her husband always bring kayaks, paddle boards and extra life jackets for anyone that drops by to visit. I think this is my son-in-law on the paddle board.

Meals were assigned and this yummy salmon was a hit. There are two salads in the blue bowls under those long trays. This is inside the mostly open walled eating structures. They seat at least 50 people but we hung hammocks in the back half of the building.

So that is for now...wish I had taken a long shot of the whole field including the structures!

Christmas Card Club - Anything Goes Option

This fortnights theme  was chosen by Zoe for our Christmas Card Club   I chose to make the Anything Goes Option.

If you wish to peek at the other girls cards, hyperlinks are on my right sideboard. You will not be disappointed!

 I made up a decoupage kit card that I picked up on clearance after Christmas. I had great fun up at Cultus Lake putting the layers together and giggling as I weighted every little part down with pebbles so the wind did not blow away the wee pieces.

Once the main part of the scene was assembled, it was then popped behind the folded card base pocket and then addition layers were added that overhung the framed scene.

I did not like the sort of shiny surface of the paper in the kit so I went over the layered image with a Nuovo clear glimmer pen. I then applied a thin layer of Art Glitter glue glue randomly over the snow and ice on the scene and liberally over the framed bricks. While that was still wet, I sprinkled opalescent  holographic glitter over it and carefully lifted the page to shake off the excess. A big gust of wind carried away all my precious left over glitter and made the cement floor of the open walled eating house glimmer!

And here is the inside...

All in all, this was a fun card to make. It came in a set of 4 different designs with the layered images for the scenes presented in a punch out fashion.

 The folded frame style is lovely and the the tent style card stays upright.  But...

For the first time ever, I would not recommend purchasing this kit to use as is.  I did not like the flimsy paper that made up the scene layers and I also did not like the sheen of it.

I think if I make up the other three images into cards, I would photocopy them first onto a mat type card stock and then fussy cut them out. This would solve the sheen problem, and also solve the feeling that the layered paper is too thin and would crease easily just from pressing it in place. I would only purchase these kits it if you were prepared to photocopy and fussy cut all of the scene layers. This will not make me too popular with the manufacturer, but I think it is only fair to warn crafters, as this was what I consider an expensive kit. Thank goodness I bought it on clearance!

Like A Bat Out Of Hell

This is going to be a long post...Skip down to the card pictures if you do not want to be entertained with bits of my trip.

Still jet lagged but enjoying being home. It was 34 degrees outside when we arrived home and much hotter inside as the house had been closed up for a month! Today is supposed to be around 24 degrees and that break from the heat is much needed.

Our front garden hanging  baskets and front lawn are completely brown as the hose bib broke and so the watering system for the front garden failed. We have to get a plumber in as it requires cutting through the craft room walls and ceiling to reach the repair.  We have had to do this once before, so hopefully he can use the same access as was cut previously.

My card today is double meaning for me as not only is it my first Halloween card of 2018, but also celebrates the fact that we saw the musical Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre while in London. I think I may even scrapbook this card when I make up my London pages!

The singing and the acting in this performance was fantastic! The story was a little hokey for our tastes, but as DH said, it would be very hard to create a story that encompassed all the Meatloaf songs. I have been humming the various songs ever since we saw the production and can not get the songs out of my head! The performers got a thunderous applause at so many points in the production as well as a standing ovation at the end!

My card was made under the careful tutelage of Sue Tossell with whom I had the joy of visiting for a few days while we were in Britain. Sue has been to Canada three times previously, and spent a day with us each time, both at our house for lunch and then an afternoon of shopping and a nice supper out.

I learned so many things from Sue! We played with Tim Holtz dyes and  distress oxides and had great fun creating backgrounds which we then turned into card fronts. I shall be sharing these over the next few weeks. This background was created by wetting watercolour paper with with little powders called Brusho's. The effect is fabulous and varies according to the degree of wetness you work with, and the amount of powder you apply.

Sue has the largest selection of clear stamps I have ever seen! Beautiful Lavinia, Cardio, and much much more. She stores them by manufacturer on letter sized laminated sheets that store inside  clear/cloudy plastic cases. Each stamp has been stamped onto the card stock  it is to be stored on before it is laminated. Brilliant idea!

My background had a lovely moody, dark, foreboding feeling so I copied Sue and made a Halloween card. The stamps are by Lavinia and stamp like a dream. We used a stamping platform of course. Sue had one just for me to use, and so we were able to do the repeat stamping that watercolour paper sometimes requires.

So, here is my card. We each outlined our image in white gel pen...although if I remember correctly, I was too nervous to ruin this beauty so Sue outlined it for me!

I made it up into a card once I was home again. I used a snippet of  DP,  left overs of a 12x12 sheet. If you look closely, there is a snippet of a black and white DP sitting vertically behind the matted image.  This is truely a snippets card as the orange mats were also snippets.

I used a snippet of a Halloween damask looking paper on the inside. If you look closely you will see the top edge of the pattern has a skull worked into the damask design! The Studio G  sentiment was stamped on the last snippet of orange card that I matted the front image with.

I usually off center the inside sentiment mats so as to leave enough room for signatures below the mat, on the actual card base. In this case, I decided to center the mat and will sign on the inside flap of the card.

I will leave you with a few photos from our days in London. We used hop on hop off bus tours to get around and it was amazing how much we were able to hop off and see.

Here are some random shots taken from our bus tour....

We stayed in a lovely hotel in Kennsington Earl's Court,  and also used the underground to get around as there was a station just a half block from the hotel.. This is just a random station shot taken from the doubledecker bus top.

We did not go on the London Eye this time as we have had that pleasure on a previous trip, but I could not resist a photo. Sadly, London was the only time we had a break from the beautiful blue skies and hot, hot days. I rained several times during the day andthe skies were quite stormy looking. Not so great for photos, but good for the plants and lawns as there had not been any rain for over a month. .

Had to take a photo of the lovely red buses...

I could not resist a trip to the British Museum as Blade Stamps is only a half block away!

Here is a shot from inside the British Museum...

I am entering this card in the following challenges.

1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets