Annual Rudolph Days Extra Challenge

It seems so hard to believe that it is time for our yearly Extra Challenge! This challenge is for those posters who have entered every qualifying month all year. Just leave a comment on this post and mention that you have entered all year.

Our prize is this Sue Wilson, Creative Expressions, Festive Bauble background die.

Winner to be drawn on Jan 1, 2022.

November Ruolph Days Challenge

Hello again!

We had 54 fabulous entries in the November Challenge. As always, I used Random Org to draw our winner, # 2 Karin. Karin, could you please email me at maureenkane@telus.net and give me your mailing address?

Although November was our last regular challenge for 2021, I will once again be posting the extra challenge for those that have played along with every available challenge this year. Please check my next post for the details... Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

November Rudolph Days Challenge

Hi there! Once again it is time for the Rudolph Days Challenge. The challenge is open till midnight on the last day of the month. You can enter your Christmas card or Christmas project in up to 9 other challenges, for a total of 10, including ours. Don't forget to leave a comment on this post!

Linda at Snail's Space blog is our designer this month. This is her last month as she is stepping down from the design team. I hope you will join me in wishing her all the best! She has been such a lovely design team member for this challenge.

Linda has made the sweetest Christmas card showcasing driving to Christmas celebrations with the vehicle full of gifts. Linda's card brought back many happy memories as there were many years that we drove 13 hours each way, to spend Christmas with our families. Our vehicle would be very full with ourselves, the kids, presents and suitcases! Linda's card sure reminded me of those times. I love the diecut houses and the sweet reindeer on this card. As always, the colouring is spot on! I hope you will follow the hyperlink above and leave Linda some praise. .

Jenny at Cardsarus blog has been busy creating two wonderful cards for us. The first is this red and white wreath card featuring some beautiful reindeer. There is lots of depth and texture here! I also like the way the red pops off the card.

Jenny'a second card features another wreath, but this time it is very classic looking. Lovely snowflakes form the wreath...with beautiful DP...all silver and elegance! I hope you will pop pver to Jenny's blog and leave her some lovely comments. Just follow the hyerlink above...

No card from me this month. I am so pleased to share that Al had the quadruple bypass, is home now, and doing so much better. The infection is resolved and he is steadily doing a bit more each and every day! He does not use the walker anymore, and is pushing himself to do more each day. He still has a long road ahead, but is well on his way to a full recovery. I am still kept too busy to have time to be creative, but time will resolve that issue as well.

Our prize this month is this Studio Light die.

October Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

We had 54 entries! I think that is great. Lots of you took part in the "Honour our Kath" paper pieced extra prize draw.

I am keeping this post very short as my time is so precious right now. I must thank my design team for even letting me get this post published. Linda S, Jenny, and Sue went thru the entries and gave me a list of who paperpieced a card and were eligible for the special prize honouring Kath. I placed those names in a hat and the winner is Suzanne H. #7. Suzanne, please drop me an email to maureenkane@telus.net and let me know your mailing address.

The winner of the October Rudolph Days Challenge is Loll, #46. Loll, please drop me an email as well at the addy above, and let me know your mailing address. No photos of the random org as I forgot to take one.

I have not ben round to visit very many of you as I have been kept busy looking after Al. He is home now. He ended up having a quadruple bypass.

His white count is elevated, so he is battling an infection. He is exhausted and hopefully this will improve as the white count corrects. My daughters have been gems throughout all of this. Youngest helped me every day while he was in hospital, getting the house set up for his recovery, getting in groceries, shopping for clothing that fasten at the front, etc. She was here for hours each day when he first came home, spelling off her sister and helping with his care.

My eldest (who teaches nursing), came and stayed for the first 12 days he was home. She and I took turns resting in the recliner beside him while he tried to sleep. The Dr wanted someone with him 24 hours a day for the first two weeks After 4 or 5 days of that, she told me that she is a light sleeper so she would do all the night watch times so I could get my sleep! She is a very patient nurse and could coax him into doing things that probably hurt him at the time, but things that he needed to do. She set up a book for me to record his Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Blood sugars etc., as that determines whether he can take his heart med dosage. She even has a spot where I record what he ate each day!

It is quite the recovery, but he is getting stronger each day. Thanks to all who have sent such lovely good wishes for his recovery.

October Rudolph Day

Due to my husband being very poorly, I am delaying the winner draws till November 15. I just have not had enough time to visit and separate who paper pieced etc. This will givew me time to visit everyone and type the post etc.

My husband is having a tough fight back to healing. He is a 3o min drive away, but complicated as I don't drive. My daughteers alternate taking me but in between I have been kept busy as Al was in the midst of a garage remodel when he had the heart attack. So, I have been steadily working on organizing the mountain of items that were piled in the center of the garage floor as he worked. The goal is to have the truck stored safely in the garage before he gets home.

I have also set up our ground level bottom floor as a bedroom/sitting area for him to recover in. That way, he can do the two flights of stairs to the masterbedroom when he is feeling well enough. I am amazed at the mountain of items I have carried downstairs so far! Luckily, there is a second kitchen and also my craft room on that bottom floor, so I will cook down there as well. It is moving the food items and kitchen supplies that has been quite a bit of work...

October Rudolph Days Challenge

Hi there! It is time for the October Rudolph Days Challenge, and this month we are remembering our dear blogging friend Kath, of the former Plain and Simple Blog. Kath often made beautiful paper pieced cards. She was a regular poster here on our challenge for many years. She was on design teams for several other challenges, and was well loved.

Any entries this month that submit a paper pieced card, will be entered for a chance to win an addition prize consisting of this Woodware stamp.

Sorry, but I just can not seem to think tonight. My dear husband had a massive heart attack several days ago, and is having a triple bypass today. My brain is on overdrive and I can not get the photos of my two cards to load. Several months ago, when my email was switched to google (by my provider), I started to have trouble getting my photos off my phone and into my email, so I can load them into my computer. I will have my daughter help me tomorrow and will just add them to this post then. Sorry to bore you with the descriptions of the cards, but I typed this post previously, and did not have time till tonight to add the photos! Just too busy spending time with him in the heart critical care unit within our Langley Hospital ICU.

His surgery is in a larger city, and they have ambulanced him into there last night. It is one of two hositals where heart surgery is done in the Lower Mainland of BC, where we live. He will stay there untill he is released. They allow two visitors at the same time, as soon as he is stable, which is so lovely. My daughters take turns driving me to visit him and they will now be able to visit too. Previously, when he was in our town hospital, it was one visitor a day. Each of us went every third day. I do not drive so on my day to visit, the girls had to wait in the vehicle, as our smaller hospital was 1 person a day! It is all due to carefully COVID protections which change depending on the area each hospital is in. Tomorrow, new rules for proof of COVID double vaccination will be required to enter the hospital. Thank goodness I figured out how to load that proof of vaccination thingy into my phone! I am not the most adept at technical stuff...

So here are my descriptions, and I promise the photos will eventually appear. The only note of interest in these descriptions is the way I glue my fussy cut items.

Oct 26...Here they finally are!!!

I have made two paper pieced cards for your inspiration. My first card features Penny Black's Snowy stamp. I stamped my image on white card, and then restamped it twice on some snippets of a red and coral patterned design paper. I fussy cut out the hat with the pompom, and also the scarf. I also fussy cut the hanging tail of the scarf from the second stamped image.

Piecing it all together was very straight forward...just some glue painted onto the base card image, and then overlaying it with the fussy cut portions. I did not pop dot the scarf tail, but rather laid it slighty off to one edge, so that the depth showed.

I painted a little Star Dust stickles on the ground to suggest fallen snow, and on the touque front rolled edge and on the pompom. I liked the look of that, so kept going and touched the stickles over the snowman outline too! I found a lovely snippet of teal snowflake DP for my background, matted my image with teal card stock, and called it done.

My second card is made with the Stampendous Owl Tree stamp. I stamped my image twice on white card stock, and fussy cut the hat fur trim out of the second image. I then decided my owl was going to become a Penguin! My snippets file had a sweet teensy black and white print that I stamped on and then fussy cut up for the "black" on a penguin. I had a teensy snippet of red and pink polka dot DP that I stamped on, and fussy cut the hat from. Found another snippet of gold for the beak, and a lime green DP for the tree. Now, that tree was a tight fussy cut!

Glued all these items using my trusty paint brush on the stamped background image again...it is much easier than placing glue on the tiny snippets themselves, plus helps you not having to handle something covered in glue! Star Dust Stickles makes a showing on the fur edging of the hat. The tree was treated to red stickles on the tree baubles and silver stickles on the star.

Silver mirri forms the mat and a snippet of a grey snowflake DP forms the back. It was almost a full 6x6 piece but I guess I had a strip cut off previously for a border! So my card is a bit of a weird size, not quite 6x6 but does not look too bad in the original envelope.

Next up is Sue at Sues Crafty Corner. Sue has made us three gorgeous cards! I can not wait to read how she made them on her blog post. I hope you will pop over to read about them too. They are made with the most beautiful dies! Beautiful dies and beautiful scenes too. Here are Sue's cards,,,

Sadly, we are saying goodbye to a member of our Rudolph Days Challenge design team. Our lovely designer Linda, of Snails Space blog has stepped down for health reasons. She was a fabulous designer who worked so hard for our challenge and will be sadly missed. Thanks for all your hard work, Linda!

Also, you may have noticed that Sam has stepped back till the New Year. She has newly diagnosed health issues to be resolved. Thank goodness for advanced tests and attentive doctors who catch these things! Sam is sorely missed, and hopefully will be feeling better soon.

Our prize this month is this Amy designs Snowflake Frame.

September Rudolph Days Winner

We had 48 fabulous entries. Thanks to all of you for taking part and making Rudolph Days so special. We are a small group of posters but we are mighty! The beauty of staying smaller has given us the bonus of getting to know each other over time. If you stop by and visit the other posters here, they stop by and visit you! We create virtual friendships with crafters all over the world.

Sadly, we have lost one of our regular posters. Kath Schoefield at Plain & Simple blog took part in the Rudolph Days Challenge for many years. In late summer, Kath passed away and is sorely missed. Many of you may have seen her on the design teams for Chocolate Baroque, Allsorts, and the former Penny Black Challenge.

I did not know her well, but sometime we emailed back and forth as she was from Yorkshire and we still have family there. She was sometimes even right in their town, renting a place by the sea for her holidays. We would chat about our families and her beloved Yorkshire.

She often made huge lots of multiple cards for her grandsons to give out at school! Those were fun posts to read. She did beautiful paper piecing, and so in honour of Kath, I would like to give out a second prize at the October Rudolph Days Challenge. Anyone who makes a paper pieced Christmas card for their Rudolph Days entry, will be eligible for this second prize drawing.

We can honour Kath, and her love of paper piecing, as well as her creativity. I hope you will all join in.

I used Random Org to choose the winner. Our winner this month is # 6, Di, from Pixies Crafty Workshop. Di, please drop me an email to maureenkane@telus.net and let me know if the address I have for you is still current.

September Rudolph Days

Once again, it is time for the Rudolph Days Challenge. We welcome any one Christmas card, or Christmas project. Challenge runs until midnight on the last day of the month. One entry per blogger/poster. Please don't forget to leave a comment on this post.

Our design team has been busy creating beautiful cards to inspire you. First up is Jenny at Cardsarus blog. Jenny has two cards with lovely foiled/mirri backgrounds...or perhaps they are frames! I think they are so beautiful. Great traditional Christmas colours too. I am looking forward to popping over to her blog now, to see whether they are backgrounds or frames...Hope you will pop over to Jenny's blog too and leave some praise.

Next up is Linda at SnailsSpace blog. Linda has made this beautiful pointsettia card. I think she has used a stencil. I like the despth of shaded colour she has achieved. This is another card that I need to pop over to her blog to read the details on how it was created. I hope you will join me and leave some praise.

Sue at Sues Crafty Corner blog has been making some very lovely cards! They look beautifully shaded and coloured so nicely. I will be popping over to Sue's to read all about them and see them in more detail. Hope you join me and leave her some praise.

Our prize this month is this Nellie Snellden Forrest Deer and Squirrel die.

August Rudolph Days Challenge

Sadly, I need to cancel the Rudolph Challenge this month.

We are all quite ill here with cough, sniffles, headache and extreme tiredness. Everyone in my family has either had it or has it now. First my daughter, son-in-law, and the grandkids, then Al and now me. Sadly, I just have not had the energy to get the post typed.

It has not helped at all that I had a fall onto my elbow and I am not able to get to the doctor and get an xray untill 10 days after the symptoms have passed. Although I can bend it slightly, I can not straighten it fully nor rest it to get some sleep, without a nest of pillows around it. I suspect I have cracked it.

Sorry to disappoint you all. I am off back to bed!

Crafty hugs

Maureen

July Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

Well, we had 48 fabulous entries this month. I am about half way round with visiting and will continue to do so till I have visited with everyone.

As always, I have used Random Org to choose our winner, #3 Kate P.

Kate, please send an email to me at maureenkane@telus.net and let me know your mailing address.

July Rudolph Days Challenge

Once again, it is time for the Rudolph Days Challenge. With these lovely summer days now, it is hard to think of Christmas. But we must make time to create some Christmas cards or we will be swamped trying to make them at the last minute!

Many of you have asked me if we are safe from the forest fires. Yes, we are very safe, but there are 258 fires currently burning in my province. 5,000 proerties are under evacuation, and 16,500 properties are on evacuation alert. That alert means they must be packed and ready to go on very short notice. 3,320 very brave men and women are fighting the fires and we just had 100 firefighters arrive from Mexico. As always, many Native fire fighters have joined in to firefight as well.

The town of Lytton was burned completely at the beginning of the month. My sister built a new house on some land near Spences Bridge and retired there. The Lytton fire has grown so much it now endangers her town. My son-in-law has a Father and Step Mother who alwo live in the danger zone. Their house is in an alert area and they also have land with camping trailers near 100 Mile House, another area under alert. It is scary for them!

We go through this wild fire season every year, but that huge heat dome and 100 plus degree weather I mentioned in my June post, made everything so hot and dry. Fires can be started from lightening, sparks from passing trains, careless smokers, careless campers/hikers, etc. It is so scary and dangerous for so many people. There are not enough places for the homeless to go and hotels and motels are full everywhere nearby. The government is asking people to stay out of fire danger areas and cancel or change their vacation plans as they need every available room for the displaced evacuees.

Now, back to our challenge. I have made two cards. The first is a Hunky Dory Nativity scene. It only has three layers for the scene itself so as to keep the depth of the card down. The background papers are snippets from 12x12 scrapbook papers. I think I bought them for a wedding album. The banner is a metallic shimmer snippet and the Nativity border is of course from Hunky Dory. The North Star is a Memory Box die and the Merry Christmas was a gift from a scrappy friend who sent me a set of gold and of silver sentiments. I love them as they are small, but heavily glittered, so they stand out!

My second card has a scene that I made with a Find It Media frame die. Frame dies are starting to become my favourite type of die. I cut this with a snippet of plain white cardstock but now wish that I had used a white or even a silver sateen card. I was trying to use up snippets on my desk and so...

The teal/green glitter paper is from the dollar store and the red mirri card is from there as well. They had three huge sheets of red, green, blue, silver and gold for $1.25. The sheets were maybe 11x19. I am almost out of the red now and sadly they do not carry it any longer. The Merry and Bright sentiment is a Sue Wilson Festive Collections die. I really enjoy those Sue Wilson dies. I try to pick up every one that my local shop brings in!

Linda at Snails Space blog has made up the cutest tags.

They will be so perfect this holiday season for wine and cheese parties! I love the image too..so very, very cute. Those little Santa hats made me snile! I can just picture a beautiful table setting for a wine and cheese party with these lovely tags taking top billing. Please pop over to Linda's blog and leave her a lovely comment.

Jenny at Cardsarus blog has made us two lovely cards featuring some tags that she made. The first is a beautiful vintage looking card with lots of texture and shimmer! I love the vintage Old World looking Santa on the Christmas bauble. It has a sort of old looking shimmery frosted look. The snow on the leaves and the corrugated card work together to make this a lovely vintage card.

For her second card, Jenny has made this adorable snowman tag card. I think it is so darn cute. The use of the greenery behind the tag really sets it off and of course it calls out for that lovely hollographic shimmer background mat! With the same shimmer as a mat behind the card background, it really makes the tag stand out. I hope you will follow the hyperlink and drop by Jenny's blog and leave her a lovely comment.

Looking forward to your entries and remember to leave a comment ofn this post when you enter. Our prize this month is this Tutti Designs Forest Friends Nativity die.

June Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

We had 42 fabulous entries this month. Not bad for summer!

I know it is hard to work on Christmas cards when it is hot and dry out. It has been a sweltering 43 degrees here for the last few days. We do not have central air conditioning as it normally does not get that hot here. July and August can bring mid 30"s but never 42-43 degrees in June!!!

My daughter gave us a portable air conditioner unit and we kept to the one room in our basement where we had it set up. We have spent the last several nights sleeping on the recliners down there. We have a walk out basement that faces south so there would have been no relief from the heat without that generous gift. Of course all fans, air conditioners etc were sold out everywhere. We had a good chuckle about the fact that we gave two window style air conditioners away a couple of years ago! The one my daughter gave us was small for the size of the room so it could only keep the temperature around 80 to 85. But we were glad to have it be able to do that! Needless to mention, I have not been round to visit all of you yet... You do not have much energy when it is that hot. I plan to visit the rest of you now as the heat is finally moving on and is heading into Alberta, the province east of us. Those poor people...

I used random org to chose our winner and it is # 27, Lynne.

Lynne, could you drop me an email with your address so I can mail your prize to you. My email is maureenkane@telus.net

June Rudolph Days Challenge

Hi there. It is time for the June Rudolph Days Challenge.

We are in a heat wave here on the West Coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is supposed to reach 40 degrees Celcius this weekend. Whew!

We have some lovely inspiration for you this month. First up is Sue at Sue's Crafty Corner.

Sue has made up several lovely decoupaged cards. The first one is a great scene. We can see Santa outside a really cute house, greeting a sweet snowman. The layers give depth and truly make the scene so realistic. I like the contrast of the gold mirri card for the sentiment and also for the North Star!

Next up is a lovely collection of what looks to me to be Hunky Dory scenes, completed with layers of course! Sue has made so many cards and I think they all look great! I especially like the way she has designed the decoupaged scenes to sit inside the bauble die shape.

I hope you will follow the hyperlink above, and pop over to Sue's blog to leave her some comments!

My card is also a Hunky Dory decoupage card. I promise you, we did not plan it that way! But it is kind of fun to have a decoupage theme between us.

My girlfriend picked me up a whole bunch of Hunky Dory kits a couple of years ago while I was in hospital. My local papercrafts store was clearing them for 75% off, so she went over and bought everything she thought I might like. It was fun to open them up and see what she chose!

This scene reminded me of my Dad. He always had his boots outside the kitchen door. He would sit on the steps to put them on and then take them off whenever he came back into the house for a tea break. They even looked like these ones!

Dad was one of those people that animals loved. A goose followed him all around the farm for a few years. It stopped flying south and just stayed on the farm, waiting for him to come out and do his chores. It would follow him down to all the horse paddocks and even into the barn! All creatures would eventually approach him, so this robin perched on the boots seemed to look as if it was waiting just for him...

This is a 6 layered card, so I used very slim foam tape to layer it together.
It really helps to keep the postage costs down if you can reduce the depth of the card. The mat is a snippet of bronze mirri card. It seemed to emphasize the leather colour of the boots.

Our prize this month is this Cottage Cutz Christmas Flamingo. I think it is really cute!

May Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

Sorry that I am so late posting the winner this month. I usually stay up till midnight and do the draw at that time. But, sometimes I just can not stay awake that long! Yesyterday was my tests and appointment with a breast surgeon regarding the painfulo lumpy areas in my breeast. It has grown in the past couple of weeks so I was really nervous. My mamagram and ultrasound showed no cancer found! It was cysts as I had originally suspected. So, it is another round of antibiotics and no caffine or aspertame of any sort for 3-4 months. No coffee, tea, pop, or chocolate! A small price to pay for such good news. But after well over 3 hours at the hospital, I went to bed at 10 pm...midnight was too far away!!!

We had 44 fabulous entries. I have visited everyone and really enjoyed your cards. I think there was only one person where I could not see a way to leave a comment. I am sorry about that...not quite sure why it did not let me. As always, I have used random org to choose our winner. The lucky number is #4, Sandra.

Sandra, could you drop me an email to maureenkane@telus.net and let me know your mailing address.

May Rudolph Days Challenge

It is time for the Rudolph Days Challenge and I am looking forward to seeing all your lovely cards and Christmas projects! Don't forget to leave a comment on this post, as it comes in handy to use that to contact you if there is a problem with your Mr Linky entry. We do try to visit every entry, but sometimes we are not able to leave a comment. Some blogs seem to not allow comments for some reason.

Our designers and I have been busy creating some inspiration for you. First up is Jenny L at Cardsarus blog. Jenny has made us two beautiful snowflake cards! The first has a a white snowflake backed with a stunning blue colour. The blue is also used for the background mat and the stamped sentiment colour. The snowflake is a lovely large one and really catches the eye!

Her second card is another version of the first but this time the blue takes center stage as both the snowflakes main colour, as well as the main colour of the accent pieces. Jenny's cards are always pretty on the inside too...if you pop over to her blog you will sxee what I mean. I hope you will leave her a comment while you are there.

Next up is Linda at Snail's Space blog. Linda has also made us two cards. These are such adorable cards with the cutest wee critters. While her darling reindeer take center stage, Linda has chosen snowflakes for her secondary theme. She and Jenny must have had snowflakes on their minds! I love the design papers that Linda has chosen and think these cards are so adorable. The sentiment looks like an Elizabeth die that I own as well. I love these slim Elizabeth dies as they are handy to tuck in when I forget to plan a space for a sentiment! I can not wait to check on Linda's blog to read how she created these cute wee critters. I hope you will pop over there too and leave her some nice comments.

My card is an image that I stamped quite some time ago. Better to have it on a card rather than lying about in a container of sorts! The design papers were snippets from my Christmas snippets file. That was the last snippet of the greenish piece. It always feels so good to use the last snippet of anything! I think I have one other full sheet left though, so you may still see this design paper on another card some time.

Since the image was stamped onto kraft card, I was a bit stumped as to how I would create snow. I finally decided to use Stardust stickles painted on with a fine tipped artist brush. That brush allowed me to get the stickles right up to the edges of the image! I think the frame die is Tutti Designs, and I coated it with the same stickles to give that Christmas snowy, icy feeling.

Our prize this month is this Memory Box Snowman Circle Collage die.

April Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

We had 55 entries this month. I think that is a great number. As always, there are sure some wonderful cards entered here. I am constantly amazed by the talents we share here.

I used Random Org to choose our winner, #49 Cebilica.

Cebilica, could you send your address to maureenkane@telus.net Thank you everyone for another great month...I wish you all could win!

April Rudolph Days Challenge

It is time for the April Rudolph Days Challenge. The time seems to have flown by for me, since last months challenge!

Our designers have been busy creating lovely cards for your inspiration. First up is Sue at Sue's Crafty Corner. Sue's card features this delightful robin. I love the colouring on this pretty bird and also love that glittery background! I see I will have to pop over to Sue's and check out how she made this card. Best of all, Sue has made multiples of her card. She is always so good with that! I hope you will pop over to Sue's blog and leave her a comment. Just click the hyperlink above...

Sam at Whispers Cards blog has made us two lovely cards. The first one has a beautiful non traditional colour scheme. The sweet floral bouqet is highlighted by a lovely die that has the sentiment written around the circular shape. That die is so cool! I like the design Sam created here.

Sam's second card is lovely too. This one follows a similar design, but has a totally different look with soft, light colours this time. The snowman is a sweetie and she has used that lovely die again to frame the snowman. I hope you will pop over and visit Sam on her blog, just follow the hyperlink here.

Just a little update on Al and I. We both had our first jab. Mine was last week, and Al was two weeks ago as he is ever so slightly older than me! Both our daughters and our son-in-law have had theirs too! We feel blessed. Canada has a vaccine shortage at the moment as we do not make any vaccines here. Therefore, the government has decided to protect as many people as possible with the first jab and delay the second jab for 16 weeks. Not sure how I feel about being part of an experiment to see if the vaccine protects effectively for the 16 week delay, but such is life!

They have tightened our restrictions here and travel outside our public area is prohibited, and restaurants have closed to indoor dining again. We had self isolated the whole time so being able to meet the kids outside again (socially distanced) is wonderful. Just a few more days for me and we can do that again!

More good news for me too! I have a date for the breast clinic at the end of May. They do the mamagram, ultrasound and any scans there before they see you. So it is good that I will have the protection of the vaccine for that visit as I think the visit is 2 1/2 hours long. Although it has been a long wait for the appointment, part of that is due to covid and the rest of the wait is just part of the price of free medical care. Although our medical system is free, we have a shortage of specialists and doctors, so we have to put up with wait times...

Our prize this month is this Memory Box Circle Frame.

March Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

We had 59 fabulous entries for this month. I think that is great considering it is still the first quarter of the year!

As always, I have used Random Org to chose our winner and it is # 51, Pat.

Pat, can you email me at maureenkane@telus.net and let me know your mailing address.

Update April 6, 2021 Pat is now showing as number 50 even though she was 51 at the time of the draw. I have had to delete the person before her as the hyperlink for that entry was creating blogger problems for some reason. I have kept note of that deleted entry so that blogger can still be part of the end of the year draw for those that enter every month of the year.

Also, a wee update on my daughter

My daughter stopped by and picked up the mail, thank goodness. It was really starting to worry me. She has 4 days off for Easter, so she was feeling not quite so bogged down. Her father-in-law will be off as well, so will be home to look out for his wife. It will give my daughter time with her own family.

While it is lovely that her mother-in=law wants my daughter to go to appointments, specialists, etc., there is a bit of a sad reason why...it is because she does not want her son or husband to be upset with bad news from a stranger! They are both very kind and sensitive men...my daughter is kind as well but is pragmatic too. She can listen and question the doctor carefully, and then once back at the family meetings, she can word the medical news kindly, in words that are not quite so upsetting.

I am very proud of her!

March Rudolph Days Challenge

Once again, it is time for the Rudolph Days Challenge. You have until the last day of the month to enter your Christmas card or Christmas project. I do ask that if you enter the challenge, please leave a comment on this post. Sometimes, people have a problem linking up for whatever reason and link back to this blog, instead of their own blog. If you leave a comment, then I have another way to get hold of you and let you know you need to resubmit your entry. With the additional prize draw at the end of the year, it is nice to have everyone who entered every month, qualified to enter for their chance to win the yearly prize.

I am sending prizes when my daughter has the time to call by and pick them up from our front porch. We are not allowed to have anyone in our houses here, and have just been given back the ability to meet someone outside again. Socially distanced of course!

We are so close to getting called up for the first jab, that we are not even meeting outside with anyone. We do not leave the house except to go for a walk and Al drives down to pick up the groceries. We hope to get the call in the next 3-4 weeks.

My daughter, who is the mailer for my prizes, is still so busy helping with her mother-in-law. She goes there and stays with her so father-in-law can get outside to do tasks etc. She (mil) can not be on her own any longer so it is a big commitment. She is aware what has happened to her and chooses my daughter to be the one to take her to appointments etc. Since my daughter works full time, she is very busy with all of this. So, be patient with me, as the winners will eventually get prizes.

Our designers have been busy creating inspiration for you. First up is Linda at Snail's Space blog. Linda has made two fabulous cards. She has taken the same Penny Black die and changed it up by using different papers. What a change up it is to see the difference in mood that it has created. The first one is so light and feminine looking. I love the shimmer that appears rubbed over the raised areas of the embossing. The second one has a crisp, almost masculine feel...crisp and clean looking. I hope you will pop over to Linda's blog and leave her some kind comments.

Next up is Jenny at Cardsarus blog. Jenny has made us two cards as well. The first is a very detailed card, full of beautiful embellishments. Lots of greenery diecuts, a gorgeous leaping stag and a glimmer of mirri card for the sentiment.

Jenny's second card is lovely as well. In my opinion, the shimmery emblossed background steals the show! I love shimmer and glimmer at Christmas time. I hope you will pop over to Jenny's blog and leave her some kind comments as well.

My card is a recycled one. I saw these finished cards a couple of years ago in the precovid after Christmas clearance sales. I thought it would be a perfect image to recycle and got a whole box of 18 or so, for a couple of dollars. I kept it very simple, using only my scraps/snippets box for the design papers and ribbon. I fussy cut the lid and pop dotted it forward. The main image is also pop dotted. I used the micro pop dots as they will still fit through the mail! It was quick and fun to do and I plan to make up the whole box in a similar design. I want to be able to donate cards for this coming Christmas, so these will be great for that.

Our prize this month is this Tutti Designs die called Wonderland Window. I think it is so sweet!