October Rudolph Days Challenge

It  is time for the October Rudolph Days Challenge. Take a quick peek at the rules if you please...

1. The Rudolph Days Challenge will start each month 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.  Prizes will be shipped anywhere in the world.

8. The winner will be selected by random draw and announced on the first day of the following month.

Our designers have been very busy making sure you have lots of creative inspiration. In no particular order we have....

Shaz @ Calligraphy Cards

Shaz has been busy batch baking!  This is such a lovely Bethlehem image.

Gloria Lee @ Gloria's Craft Room has made this bright and fun, nontraditional card.

Linda S@ Snail's Space has also made a non traditional coloured card. This wee angel card holds a tag sentiment.

Donna Rinkle @ Indiana Inking made this lovely Santa snow globe card. So festive and  fun!

Dr. Sonia @ Cards, Crafts, Kid's Projects has a made a pop-up Christmas card with a slider element.She has the instructions on her post.

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My card was made at my Langley Stampers Club.  I do really like this card but must confess that I have mixed feelings regarding its origins.  The tri-coloured red front panel started off as a paint chip from one of the large Box Stores in our area. The lady who hosted this months class, took enough chips from the store for all of our card kits. Perhaps I am a bit overly picky but I felt like I was using "hot" goods!

We punched out the trees and ran them through a manual Cuttlebug using  a Swiss Dots EF. We lightly sanded those embossed trees till the white core showed through, and then swapped the placement of the darkest and lightest tree. I had some teensy diamond stars from the $ store that I added to the tops once I was home. 

I stamped my sentiment and added another tree die cut to the front of the insert as I want to use the inside pages of the insert to add a bit of a Christmas letter.  Once I was home, I stamped a small Imaginesque Xmas tree stamp onto the flap of the envelope.

The prize this month is a surprise! It will be a Christmas theme Memory Box die of course. I am up at Mum's again and forgot to record the name of the die on this post. Watch this blog for an update once I am home again.

Batch Baking

As you may have guessed from my very sparse posts lately, life has been quite hectic for me. I am still running back and forth to the Okanagan to visit my Mum and do some work at our townhouse there. I do not have TV or internet there and it is a long walk out to access the one local cafe that has free WIFI.

I try to rescue my evenings there, by picking up a shopping bag of books at the local thrift shop in her village. While my crafting and my blogging are almost non existent,  I am managing to finish a lot of books! This is great therapy for me as many of you may not realize that it took me a couple of years to learn to read all over again, after my car accident. I still do not always  comprehend  written directions, so reading is a good therapy for me. Sadly, I have to stick with books that concentrate on two or three characters or I will have trouble keeping them sorted out...lol

Luckily, I have a lot of cards that I had not yet blogged. I have been posting those lately, and will continue to do so till the New Year. Today's cards are a couple from a series of ten that I made up from some pre-coloured images I had on hand. I cut them out with a Spellbinders Labels die and then cut a mat from my snippets folders. Although they are similar colours, they do not match as I am on a quest to use up some of my snippets. My background DP was cut from a 12x12 scrapbook paper. If you have prints that are of a smaller scale, this is such a great way to make multiple cards. You can get 4 6x6 cards from each sheet.

Whenever I have small snippets of green card leftover, I try to die cut or punch it up into greenery. These come in so handy for cardmaking...especially up at the lake. Today's cards feature a couple colours of that greenery.  In much the same manner, Martha Stewart hydrangea flowers were punched from all sorts of coloured snippets and filed for future us...such as today! I used a round stylus to
lightly shape each layer of petals before attaching them to the card.

The "Happy" and "Hello" were stamped letter by letter on a Memory Box banner die. "Birthday" was stamped and then punched out with a Stampin' Up word punch.

A few Dollar Store pearl bling finished this off quite nicely.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - must cover card with patterned paper

Shore Birds

I coloured and stickled a couple of these Stampin" Up Shore Birds image well over 5 years ago.  I kitted up a couple of them for my card making day with my neighbour up at the lake.

The kits were made up from bits and bobs of my snippet busting diecuts.  When bored or when my mojo is sleeping, I often sit and use up snippets with dies and punches.  These come in handy when I am packing kits for the lake or even for a crop. They simplify and quicken up the kit making task!

The look of sea is from a snippet of DP long since unknown to me. The "sand" is a snippet of torn and chalked kraft card. The image was chalked lightly as well...a beige shade for sand and a soft blue for the sea/sky.

I mucked up matting the image the first time. I set the image crookedly on the small dark brown snippet scalloped mat I chose, so I tried to correct that by rematting with a larger scalloped kraft card die cut from my trusty stash. I chalked the edges with a dark brown to give a bit of impact.

The wee sandcastle is from another set I stamped years ago. I dolled it up a bit with blue and green teensy rhinestones (my neighbours idea), and added a couple of K and Co 3D shells. A trio of larger blue rhinestones finished it off.

I quite like this card. Not sure what I will use it for so have left it blank inside.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets.
2. Mod Squad Challenge Blog - for the Birds

September Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

Congratulations to #44, Sandy J who is the September Rudolph Days Challenge winner. Once again, I used Randon Org and here is a photo of the results..

Could you drop me an email at [email protected] and give me your mailing address. Let me know whether you wish the Tim Holtz stamp or the Memory Box die.