April Rudolph Day

Well, I am really sliding in under the wire...for a while there I thought I might even not get my card submitted in time!

We have been busy in the garden this month...whenever the sun breaks through the gloom, we have been found in the garden, digging and dividing up our perennials...well...DH has been digging that is!
It hasn't been done for over 6 years so really was needing to be done. I will post some pictures when we are finally finished up with it.

This has put me quite a bit behind in the card creations department let me tell you! I have quite a bit of catching up to do with my visits as well...I try to catch up by paging back and commenting on any posts that I missed,  so hopefully I have not missed too much or missed anyone completely!

Here is my card for Rudolph Day. It is a Stampin' Up  image and the card has been kept simple to allow the simple beauty of the tree image to shine through. No patterned paper was used...just a bit of snowflake stamping with some  versamark ink and heat embossed on the brown card base...just to the right of the white scalloped border.
I played with the idea of putting stickles on the trees just to kid of sparkle up the filligree look but so far I have resisted...what do you think?

Recipe
Cardstock - brown, olive green, white, and red from stash
Ribbon - from stash; I think it is a Stampin' Up ribbon snippet
Punches - Stampin' Up scallop edge border punch  and scalled square  (tucked up under bottom right corner of the image) and the Word Window punch for the sentiement
Bling - from stash
Stamps - Stampin' Up Patterned Pines image  and sentiment

I am submitting this card to the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Stamping For Pleasure (Rudolph Day) - must be Christmas

Crafting with friends

I've written before about how my next door neighbour and I get together once a week, to make cards or scrapbook. We take turns going to each others houses...but she keeps me posted if her husband is away on business, and then I just  pop over to hers those nights too. That way she does not need to get a babysitter.

A couple of weeks back, I came up with the idea of taking turns to design and make a card kit to assemble together We decided to keep the cards fairly simple as we both have projects of our own to keep up with.
Then, I promptly forgot all about it. Thank goodness it was Lisa's turn first! She pulled everything out of her carefully packed envelope and within about 10 minutes, our cards were inked, assembled and waiting for pictures to be taken!!!

We decided to keep the cards we plan for our "mini workshop" not only to be  fairly simple abut also quick to make. We precut the pieces and have everything in a small packet...that reduces our assembly time to maybe 10 or 15 minutes...depending on which one of us you are!  

Here is a card from her design night ....... I am thinking that this card would be nice for my Mom as she used to have a picture in her living room of children playing and crossing a bridge in the countryside. It had a vintage charm like this card evokes!

I got really lucky here as we had invited a  third friend but she had a terrible migraine headache and had to cancel at the last minute. Her loss was my gain...I got to make two cards!
The other one was a tranquil gardening scene...think it will be just right for a special friend who loves to garden. I will show it on my next post as I have just ran out of camera card room! I will have to get DH to download my camera photos to a clip and then I can delete them and start over on my camera card.

I will start mentioning which ones of mine are the cards I have designed for our crafty evenings. So far they have been the quick and easy's I have posted lately...

Off to do a little of the dreaded housework...can't seem to get the house to clean itself!!!!

No challenges or card recipe for this one as I did not create the design or the kit..

Lizzie's choice - Vintage Christmas

Now I know that I already posted a vintage Christmas card this month...but I was practising! Practicing for Lizzie's Vintage Christmas card theme for this fortnight's Christmas Card Club.
We each take turns choosing a theme. By the end of the year I will have a good supply of cards finished...I plan to address them in July and then again in early November! I am looking forward to a Christmas without that frantic feeling of trying to get the cards finished in time to post.

Here is my vintage card...I had fun doing this one. The image is another canvas one from 2006! Best part is I still have 3 canvas images left.

I chose a 5x7 card base this time. The image was so tall that it really needed the larger base. It would have been lovely on a 8x8 square but I do not have any of those:(   Now that would have been a fun size to embellish!   I kept it fairly simple as I wanted the image to dominate the page. Just a Memory box die and an Impression Obsession snowflake die. I did not pop anything forward this time. I am trying to make a few cards that will fit through the slot at the post office...this one has a button (from one of my husbands old shirts) and some diamond bling so I did not want to risk raising it any further. Fingers crossed!

Card recipe as follows:
Card base and envelope - from my stash; Michaels white 5x7
Design paper - from my stash;  MME Lost and Found Christmas Boughs Paper (brocade paper) snippet
                      -  MME Lost and Found Christmas Holly Paper (red and cream glittered stripe) snippet
                      -  Doodlebug Designs Flowerbox, brown woodgrain paper
Card Stock - kraft from my stash (snippet)
Dies - Memory Box; Frosty Border
        - Impression Obsession snowflake
Button - from my stash (the brown, beige, ivory etc buttons in my "Neutral" button jar are from old clothes
Twine - from my stash (a really small snippet as I could not locate my larger piece)
Bling - from my stash; Dollarama red diamonds (snippet)
Ink - Colourbox Chestnut roan (on edges of kraft cardstock)
Image - from my stash...Crafty Secrets Canvas image 2006 (snippet)

 I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Sister Act - Anything goes
3. CHNC Extra - Anything Christmas
4. Marks Finest Papers Christmas Card Challenge - anything Christmas
5.  Christmas at Sweet Stamping  - Kraft
6. 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Father Christmas
7. Christmas Stamping all Year Long - Celebrating Snow
8. Joanna Sheen Challenge - Recycle (button from husbands old shirt)
9. Jingle Belles - Recycled