Hello to all my fellow bloggers! It is time for the April Rudolph Days Challenge. You may submit one Christmas card or Christmas project of any kind from the 25th till midnight on the last day of the month. Don't forget to leave a comment on this post. I am looking forward to viewing all of your entries.
I must confess that I am little behind in posting out prizes. If you are awaiting a prize, they will be posted this week. As many of you know, I do not drive and Al has been at his limit for outings after his daily walking. Since I last posted, he actually had to cut back on the walking due to some exhaustion issues. Luckily, that now seems resolved since the heart specialist changed up his meds late last week. We have rarely been out this year, other than picking up neccessities. I used to get my daughter to mail the prizes for me, but she has so much on her plate with her mother-in-law's sad health issues, and father-in-law having his knee replaced. He is finally recovered enough that she can take me out again, so prizes will go out very soon...
I have managed to get a couple of card kits made up. They are Hunky Dory kits and are a few years old. I liked the vintage look of the images, but used them on my own hand cut card bases. The premade smaller mats have a sort of foiled distressed edge damask look, so I used my Hunky Dory, Essential Book of Festive Foiled card mats for the main backgrounds. They are very simple cards but are nice and sparkly with all that foiling! I used Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Creative Sheets for the rectangular mats and then doubled them on top of each other so the centre die cuts were popped up even further! I love those pop dots and pop sheets. They are so slim that two layers of foam will make it through the post office depth tester slot, even when combined with the thick cardstock used in the card design.
Sam from Wispers Cards Blog has made a lovely Christmas card for our inspiration. She has an adorable Penny Black image combined with some beautiful design papers. Loving those embossed gold paper accents! As always, the image is coloured up so nicely and those trailing lights have left me feeling very Christmassy! Hope you will follow the hyperlink above and visit Sam and leave her some praise...
Our prize this month is this Spellbinders Chill Bear die.
It is once again time for the Rudolph Days Challenge. You have until midnight of the last day of this month to submit a Christmas card or Christmas project, and don't forget to leave a comment on this post!
It seems as though time has sped by since I last posted. Al is still recovering quite well. He can now walk 40 min on the flat and that means he can now pop out to pick up the odd groceries at the small whole foods shop that is near us. They have an inhouse butcher and baker, so it is where we like to pick up fresh bread, buns, and meats etc. Al likes that he can get his walking in and can accomplish a task at the same time!
Our design team ladies have been very busy making creations for our enjoyment and inspiration. Sue from Sues Crafty Corner blog has these beautiful black and white Christmas cards made up. I love the look of this beautiful home with that ornate gate It so suits this old building. How wonderful it would be to have a decorated tree outside like this! I also love to see that she has made multiples of this card. Don't forget to pop over to Sue's blog and leave her some praise for these cards.
Next up is Jenny from Cardsarus blog. Jenny has been very busy creating several beautiful Christmas cards showcasing various sweet critters. It is hard to pick a favourite as they are all lovely. What I like best about these cards is the sort of hammered looking gilded paper she used for the mats behind these fabulous images. I always like a hammered or a swirled mirri better than the shiny mirri. I seem to scratch the shiny ones too easily as I work. The hammered look survives all that much better! Hope you will pop over to leave Jenny some praise for these beautiful cards.
Our prize this month is this Find It Media Precious Marieke, Star Swirls die.
Sue has made four wonderful cards featuring cute penguins and fab polar bears. I love the large fancy cardbase die cuts used here. They really are lovely, and showcase the images so well. I hope you will pop over to Sue's blog and leave her some praise.
Her first card is the polar bear and his little buddy. Love this sweet image!
Next up is the penguins, and I think they are so adorable!
Next up is Jenny from Cardsarus blog. Jenny has made us two beautiful cards featuring some lovely pinecone diecuts and lots of bling! Her first card features red and white. Loving the miri card for the diecuts, and the pretty white boughs. The sentiment part of the card looks great with this design. I hope you will pop over to Jenny's bog and leave her some praise too. Her posts always feature photos of the inside of her cards as well.
Her second card features blues...and this mirri looks holographic...so pretty!
Nothing from me this month. I am still kept busy with Al's recovery. I am not used to doing all the cooking, cleaning and laundry! Leaves me pressed for time in the craft room...
He is doing so well. Walking each day for up to 20 min on flat ground in the neighbourhood. He has a long way to go to get back to the fitness he had before, but he says he can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. He has had more tests and they have found he has a second problem with his heart that they will monitor with tests once a year. He will eventually need another surgery...
Our prize this month is this Memory Box, Cabin Snowglobe die.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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!
It is time for our January Rudolph Days Challenge. I still have not figured out how to cut and paste the rules from an old blog post. This new blogger drives me crazy! I also have the problem that I have to insert the HTML codes to create paragraph breaks, etc. I have a wee list of certain directions beside my computer for whenever I write a blog post now! Just certain blogs are affected, it seems it depends on the format, etc of your blog. I have tried changing things up as they suggested, but it did not solve the problem.
So, if you need a rules refresher, please look back to previous posts from this fall that show the rules!
Linda has made up some pretty cards and a tag for our inspiration. The card and the tag use the same bow die...I think I just might recognize the bow die she used on these, but will check her blog post for the details. Perhaps you would follow the hyperlink I attached to her blog name above, and leave her some praise!
The tag uses the same bow die and is so sweet. I love these non traditional colours!
And now the best part!!! I think Linda has taken the waste from inside the die cut and created this New Years card. The confetti pieces look very much like I would imagine the die waste to be. Clever lady, our Linda! I really like the idea of using up the waste instead of just sweeping it into the trash. How about you?
Jenny is having a wee break this month and so instead, I have done up three items for your perusal. I say items, as I did not make cards. Instead, I have made some tree ornaments which I used on the tree this year. I had so much fun making them, that I plan to make about a dozen in total!
The black circles are wooden discs already cut into the shape of a tree bauble. I simply stamped a few different Tim Holtz images onto the discs with Versamark ink, and then sprinkled them with ivory matte finish embossing powder. I had to hold onto the bauble shape with tweezers when I used the heat gun as my fingers were getting a little too toasty. I stamped and embossed both side of the disc so that the design shows if the bauble hangs sideways.
I used some red striped twine for the hanger. I cut a piece of the twine twice the length that I wanted the hanger portion to be, and folded it in half. and slid the looped twine edge through the hole in the bauble disc. I then pulled the remaining tails of twine through that loop, and then pulled it taunt. I now had the twine lying in a nice sort of flat manner so I could slide the bead onto the twine and have it sit exactly where I wanted it. I took the two tails and guesstimated the length I wanted and tied a knot upon itself, rather than tying the two ends to each other.
I love the way they look, but might make up six in total like this and then do six more with plaim jute twine and a red bead for a little colour. I plan to use Tim Holt ink to make it red.
Thank you for the get well wishes I have received. I have had a painful hot lump, deep in my breast and also deep in my upper thigh, since late fall. I have a history of cysts in those areas ever since I was hospitalized three years ago at Christmas time. I caught MRSA while in hospital then and was in quarantine at that time. We do not venture out due to covid so at first my doctor was away and the locum doctor was not keen to give a script for antibiotics. She wanted me to come in and then be sent for a scan and then to a specialist to have it excised or removed. She was wanting to cover herself and me for a possibility of a cancer finding. Having been though this before, I knew that chances were high it was a cyst as to have it in breast and thigh has been the scenario each time. Also, there was a very slim chance that it would still be visible by the time all that was arranged, as it is months to see a specialist here and the same for scans. My doctor finally returned and gave me the script as he knows my history. I did have to have a renewal of the script as that is normal for me, and things seemed under control. Sadly, it has returned and so I guess I have to bite the bullet and go into the office so he can take a look. I am hoping he will just write a stronger script as you do have to have the right one, or just send me for an ultrasound as I do still think it is just a cyst. This would be much faster than a specialist and a scan.
It has thrown me for a loop as I did not even get all my Christmas cards mailed...I just could not get all the writing done comfortably. So, wish me luck, and if you usually get a card from me and were missed this year, that is why! I addressed all my cards and did the writing in them as soon as I noticed the lump so that I could isolate (quarantine) the cards in a bag, before sending them. If you did get a card, they all had a good spray of Lysol too!
The prize this month is a choice of this Woodware stamp set, Sketchy Pine Cones
Hi there. In spite of COVID, lockdowns, and all the rest, it still seems the days have sped by this year. This is our last Rudolph Challenge of 2020 and I can hardly believe it!
I am still struggling with the new blogger. I have not yet figured out how to cut and paste things from a previous post...like the rules for this challenge! If you have any knowledge of how to get cut and paste to work, drop me a comment explaining it, please.
In the meantime, if you need to peruse the rules, they can be found on the August Rudolph Days Challenge post.
Our team has been busy creating for your inspiration. First up is Jenny at Cardsarus blog.
Jenny has made this beautiful angel card. I love the combination of kraft papers, shimmery pearlescent papers, and of course the gold. They look wonderful hilighting this pretty angel image.
Jenny has made a second card. This one features decoupage (I think) and lots and lots of glistening snow! You will have to follow the hyperlink above to pop over to her blog and read how she created these beautiful cards.
Next up is Linda at Snail's Space blog. Linda has created this reaaly adorable penguin easel type card. The blue colours here are perfect for this penguin scene. I love the snowy look here. Linda raised the heart to form the stopper that allows the easel card to stay open.
Linda has created a second really cute gnome card. Gnomes are so popular this year. I have not tried one yet, but sure love this one. I like the scene she has created for the gnome to be situated in. This card really tickles my fancy!
Methinks Linda has plans for a good many gnome cards in the days ahead as she is sharing one more thing she has made up on her desk!
Our prizes this month is a choice of this Impression Obsession small snowflake die
or this Cheery Lynn Designs, Merry Christmoose die
