September Rudolph Days Challenge

Once again, it is time for the Rudolph Days Challenge. Here are the rules for your perusal...

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.

Our design team ladies have been busy creating lots of inspiration for you!

First up is Sue Tossell at Sue's Crafty Corner blog.

Sue has made a gorgeous Christmas Bauble themed card. Love the beautiful turquoise colour used here. I think I spy a little mirri card here too! When I was a kid my Mum always had this style of ornaments (baubles) on the tree. I used to love their "pushed in" beauty. Now, I go around the thrift shops looking for this style for myself. I have them displayed in a crystal bowl, to showcase their old fashioned charm. 

If you pop over to Sue's blog, you can read about how she made it and leave her some love!

Next up is Jenny at Cardsarus blog.

Jenny has made a fabulous Red Truck and Christmas Tree card. I love the look of these truck themed stamps. They have an old fashioned charm that many of us remember from having old trucks like these...or at least our parents did!
I think Jenny has done a fabulous jopb of creating the snow. If you pop over to her blog, you can read just how she made it, methinks! Be sure to leave her some love while you are there.

My card is Christmas tree themed as well. A bit more modern and not sure that I will do it again. I have been trying to use some of my unstamped stash and this card is one of those...

This card is a series of three Christmas tree images by My Minds Eye, the Winter Wonderland stamp.  As I stamped it off , I decided that it was not a keeper. I am going to donate this stamp to the thrift shop (with a small warning note inside the stamp)  as it was hard to align the center tree so that all the trees were straight.  The tallest tree in particular is sort of tilted at the top and no matter how many times I straightened it on the block, it still tilts so that the stamped star is off kilter. I hid this with the red star topper, but truly it is not worth the agro to use again. I was so wrapped up in correcting that issue, that I missed the fact that the other trees are not quite sitting level either,,,but that is due to operator error!  

The colours and choices of the DP and even the theme of this card, were made with the envelope in mind. A while back, I purchased some preprinted envelopes, mostly 5x7 but a few other sizes as well, at our local thrift shop. If my memory is correct, they were only a dollar for a fairly large bag!  Wherever possible this year, I plan to use up some of these envelopes.

The background DP is Here Comes Santa Claus, by Doodlebug. I used a strip of Carta Bella, Merry and Bright,  for the central border. The wee presents that run along the border strip have a bit of aqua  in their packaging, so I matted the image with Joanne's aqua blue glittered paper. A second mat of red glitter paper was added as well, for just a bit more sparkle.

I randomly scattered the smallest green diamonds on the images and also used pale gold teensier diamonds to accent the tree stars. These are Scottish diamonds as they were bought in Inverness on our last visit to Britain! They are a long narrow sheet of individual diamonds and I bought silver as well as gold. It is hard to get the really teensy ones like these over here, without paying a fortune.

The sentiment is Elizabeth Craft, cut from a Joanne's green glittered card snippet and glued on top of  second cut of a green mirri card snippet, for some added depth. A couple of green diamonds balanced out the design.

I used a snippet of blue card for the inside of the card and stamped my favourite generic Christmas  sentiment by Inkadinkado.

Our presents this month are a choice of this Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Christmas Blueprint 2 stamp, CMS168

or this Creative Expressions Festive - Industrial Chic Gear Flower Die

  

August Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

I am delighted to see we had 56 entries this month. It is getting closer and closer to Christmas Day, and I for one, am certainly glad to have a good supply of finished Christmas cards! By the looks of our entry numbers, many of you feel the same.


Once again , I have used Random Org to choose our winner, # 5, Kate P.
Luckily, Kate P left a comment as per the rules. Her comment is under Mamapez5., so I am glad to declare KateP our winner..

Kate, could you send me your mailing address and let me know which prize you would like.

And now, I have to bring up a topic that is hard to write about...
Although we had 56 entries, we only had 49 comments and some of those were from people who  did not submit an entry. As this happens every month, I just want to gently remind you all, that the rules state you must leave a comment. I fund the gifts myself, and they are purchased in brick and mortar stores in my community. I spend a lot of time finding them and feel that it is is a reasonable request of your time to leave a comment.

We all forget once in a while, but there are those who never leave a comment. I would not wish to draw a name for the prize and then have to redraw because there is no comment. It would make my heart very sad.

I like the fact that we have small numbers here. In my opinion, we are like a little family of Christmas crafters. I love reading your blog posts and enjoy your work and commitment to Christmas card making and any Christmas projects you do.  The love and support you all have given me over the past year when I struggled with my knee, was so touching. We get to know each other by visiting, and the reward is fantastic!

If you get in the habit of leaving a comment, you will get so many comments in return from this lovely family of ours! If you have a browser problem that prevents you from leaving a comment, just drop me a comment on a quick email and then you will qualify for the prize draw.