COVID Blues (and whites)

So, since it is 2 am and I am still not asleep, I thought I would start a post sharing hints for things that we are each doing to help ourselves cope with the COVID pandemic. Hopefully,  you will consider leaving a comment sharing things you are trying, or practices you have employed during this crisis. They can he household tips, or suggestions on how to stay upbeat while trapped at home, or things that you have tried that are not part of your regular routines or hobbies...

I will leave you with my two ideas.

1.    I read that we are to wash our hands every time we come back into our homes, before we prepare food, before we eat, etc. AND that we are to dry our hands on a paper towel or a clean cloth that is immediately discarded into a container to be laundered later on. Considering that we are washing our hands countless times a day now, that is a lot of paper toweling (which btw is impossible to locate at the moment).  I do not own enough tea towels to dry my hands every time with a clean one, only to immediately discard them. Ditto for the bathroom hand towels.

So, before the actual stay home orders, we were already keeping to home as Al is in the at risk group due to having diabetes and a previous heart attack.  I asked my daughter who is still working (emergency service worker), to pick me up 60-80 cheap white facecloths oh her way home from work. I knew she was stopping for groceries and could get them there.  These are the really cheap face cloths  that sell for something like 20 for $10.

I placed them in a pretty aqua woven basket and placed baskets in my kitchen and bathroom. When ever I wash my hands, I use one of these face clothes to dry my hands. Then I toss them into a smallish white plastic wastebasket that I empty and launder each evening. I chose white for the colour of the face cloths so that I could add bleach when I launder them .

Here is a photo to show you what I mean. The basket is sitting on my island as the light was better there to take the photo, but it actually sits to the right of the kitchen sink. Ditto for the bathroom ones.

And here is a photo to demonstrate better the size of the facecloth and how cheap and thin they are.
If they are thin they dry out faster and don't get that stale musty smell that damp things can get.
I should mention that the basket in the bathroom has a lid, as I did not want the face cloths contaminated by any airborne germs....

2.     My second tip is I am now eating breakfast in the kitchen and then carrying my coffee outside to the back garden and sitting down at the patio table to relax while I drink it. I usually wait do this later in the year, when it is warmer out.  Our area is quite rainy and damp at this time of year,  but I just button up a sweater or jacket and sit and relax. It really helps start my day in a positive manner.

Looking forward to reading your tips.....

Christmas Card Club - Baubles / Ornaments

The theme this fortnight was chosen by Kate at the Christmas Card Club.
Kate's blog is I Love Socks and Cards, and she is well worth visiting!

We are a group of ladies who make up a Christmas card every fortnight  to take the pressure off making cards at Christmas time. We each take turns chosing the theme. If you wish to view the other members cards, I have hyperlinks on my right sidebar.

I have a fairly simple design for my card today. This is a card that is meant to showcase the image, so I added very little decoration.

This is an image from Wild Rose Studio called Mouse on a Bauble. I think it is so sweet.  I have a collection of Wild Rose Studio stamps and most have not yet met ink! I am going to try to use them at least once each by the end of this year!

The background design paper is Scrapberries Snowflakes Lustrous Lilac from their Elegantly Festive Collection, I have a couple of friends who love purple and lilac shades so decided to make yet another non traditional coloured card!

The image is coloured with copics and shaded around the edges with Tim Holtz distress inks.

I merely matted the image and the sentiment onto some snippets of purple mirri card. I gave the fur trim on the hat and the dots on the baubles a touch of Stickles, added a few rhinestones and called it a day. Hope you like it!

April Rudolph Days Challenge

Hi there. 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.

I must mention that I have agonized over whether to continue mailing out prizes during this pandemic. I worry about spreading any virus, etc. I have decided to continue offering the prize but whether it can actually be mailed right away will depend on where you live. Canada Post has a huge list of countries that they no longer offer mail service to. If you live in one of those countries, I will notify you and hold your prize until mail delivery opens up again. If you are on the approved list that Canada Post still ships to, then I will give you a choice of whether you wish me to mail it, or whether you wish to wait it out till safer times. Also. please keep in mind that we are over 66 so I am not leaving the house now and Al is not venturing out very often. For those that request mailing, your prize will be mailed with a couple of weeks time period. If I could just use my scale to determine the mailing costs and place the stamps on and drop it into the mail slot at the end of my street, it would be so easy.  Instead,  I have to do a customs declaration (which I have at home now) but they require a trip to the actual Post Office for their official postal stamp and signature.

 Our design team ladies have been busy creating lots of inspiration for you! Sue T of Sues Crafty Corner blog has made up this beautiful gold framed scene.  The gold fancy frame die cut is amazing! I love the glittery look of the stag in the forest scene, and I am looking forward to popping over to Sue's to see just how she accomplished that look. Hope you will pop over too...just follow the hyperlink around her blog name. I think that matching gold sentiment looks fabulous...

Next up is Sam at Whisper's Cards blog. Sam has made us this vintage Sunbonnet Sue image card.  Love the way she is trailing the gingerbread cookies and how Sam has repeated the cookie theme down the left side

Sam has made a second card for our inspiration. Sam's belly band style card features this pretty button wreath. I am loving that DP with all the Christmas phrases!

The card opens from each side to reveal a lovely sentiment...

Hope you will pop over to Sam's blog to leave her some love.

My card is made from an image I stamped a couple of years ago and coloured while on a cruise. I took about 20 images and my pencil crayons and set to work in the open area beside the pool.  It was amazing how many people stopped by my table to ask what I was working on!

As I have been cleaning and organizing my craft room during quarantine, I have disposed of this stamp as I decided that it was just not my look. Since I cannot waste an coloured image, I have made it up into a card...hope you like the non traditional colours!

The DP starry, snowy background paper is Fancy Pants Tradition and sadly I never thought to write down the stamp name before I got rid. The frame bright turquise teal scalloped frame is Lawn Fawn and the dark teal mat was a snippet. A few different sized mauve rhinestones added here and there finished up this card.

Our prizes this month are a choice of this Paper Roses Merry and Bright die

or this  Find It Media, Precious Marieke Poinsettia border die.

Once again,  I am using Mr Linky...so you know what to do...

Christmas Card Club - Christmas Critters

Two posts in one Day! That has been unheard of in the last couple of years.

I am late with my Christmas Card Club. For some reason I thought it was next week. I can not  plead too busy as we are both home every day!

So, I was the theme setter this fortnight and I chose Christmas Critters. I used a diecut that was mailed to me by a friend. I do not know who the manufacturer is. This is a very simple card with just the silver glitter card reindeer and sentiment popped forward on a rust glitter card mat.

I like to use very, very thin pop dots as it is great to be able to send them as regular mail, come Christmas time!

If you would like to view my team mates Christmas Critter designs, just click on the names hyperlinked to my right side bar.

NBUS Easter Cards

Happy Belated Easter! I can finally post these cards. They were for my grandchildren and as they read my blog, I could not show them any earlier.

My friend Darnell has a fabulous NBUS challenge running till the end of April.  Since we are all somewhat housebound, it is a good time to break out the Never Before USed Stuff and actually use it!

My NBUS item today are the Hunky Dory step card bases. I bought them at my local papercrafts store as I have always wanted to give stepper cards a try. I know I could cut them by hand, but these seemed like a huge timesaver.

The certer panel is Best Creations 12x12 paper that I cut down into 6x6. It is a very thick paper with lots of embossed and glittery accents. It was a bit too thick for the step pieces so I chalked them with aqua and teal chalk. Obviously not enough though, as you can barely see it in the photos. The lovely thing about chalk is that you can add extra coats so easily. If it gets on the stepper embellies, then you just run a white eraser over them. The fishtale flag is a snippet from my snippets box.

The images are precoloured Sylvia Zet Wee Bunnies from The Hobby House. I photocopied the sheet so that I could use the photo copy for the bottom layer and then fussy cut the actual images from the precoloured sheet for the top layer. I ran a quick coat of Wink of Stella over select areas for a bit of sparkle. The mat is a circular frame die, manufacturer unknown.

The Happy Easter sentiment is from Lawn Fawn and the grass diecuts are Memory Box, Grassland Border and Fresh Cut grass.
Flowers are from my VOS. They are various types of  paper fibre, material and felt.

The inside sentiment is by Cottage Cutz called Happy Easter Phrase. I cut it from glitter paper as it is a little heavier than 110 pound paper and did not distort the script when removing it from the die.

I am entering this card in the following challenges.
1. Darnell's NBUS challenge - Hunky Dory stepper card base
2. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets. I used snippets for the Lawn Fawn sentiment and the various bits of grass.

March Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

I want to start this post off to say that although Clare was my guest designer, she was not at my house, nor using my supplies for her card. That is why she used a kit she has had for a long time now. I would not want you to think that we are breaking the social distancing rules! We see her walk the dog past our house and we stand out on the front porch and chat for a couple of minutes. We miss her and her brother so much but we want everyone to stay safe. When this COVID 19 is resolved, we look forward to having them back for our weekly supper date, where we eat and play cards or games with them afterwards!

You may get tired of the kit cards though as she is making a few from that kit...

Now that that is sorted, it is time to get on with our winner.

We had 56 entries. I thought with everyone trapped at home that we might just have more. But 56 is still a great number. As always, I used Random Org to choose our winner and Bunny # 9 is our lucky lady!

Bunny, please drop me an email at  [email protected] and let me know which prize you prefer.