Rudolph Day

Hello and SHI-F-  we have another of our glorious South Carolina fall mornings outside. Sunny, but on the coolish side - was barely 70 when I got out of bed a few minutes ago. DH is painting the railing on our deck, and I expected him to be outside by the time I arose. Not so. He said the rails were too wet as yet. He doesn't like to be outside in the heat, and it still gets pretty warm mid-day, so he's been trying to get an early start on this chore. Three coats will take a long time to do, but the wood is very dry and rails are awkward to paint. Can't do it very well with a sprayer either. When he does the flooring, he will be able to use a roller (or perhaps spray it) and that will go faster. He's used a sealer product in the past, but it gets icky-sticky and he decided to try a deck paint.

I have an evening class at one of the few remaining stamp stores in our area. I suppose this would be called a kit card as the teacher has the supplies ready, papers all cut to size, and students construct the cards in class. I love taking her classes, and buy the products to make several cards later. I've been doing this for a few years, have yet to make one card at home. Occasionally, when I'm hunting for 'stuff', I'll come across the kit...feel a bit guilty for a few minutes. One day though....

As I was surfing blogs the last few days I've been seeing some fine cards submitted for the Rudolph Day Challenge over at Stamping for Pleasure.  Now you may ask yourself, what is that? Please do go take a look. Sarn starts this challenge at the beginning of the year - it opens each month on the 25th - and is an excellent way to get a head start on making your Christmas card. There will be lots of inspiration to enjoy, and if you enter now, you can at least get 3 cards made. I've been in the throes of Halloween, Fall and some birthday cards that hadda get done, so I was behind. Got busy last night and finished this one.

- Cheery Lynn angel die (from the recent stamp show) using Orgami paper sheet, because it has a shimmer & sheen that I thought would be pretty. It is! (I'm a poor photographer though. Took a closeup that may give you an idea of how it shimmers). You will remember that I've mentioned struggling with some CL dies that I have, and hesitated to buy this one. I really liked the angel though (love angels!) so I succumbed to temptation. The thin paper worked pretty well with this intricate die, but I did a lot of rolls back n forth through the Big Shot. Still  had to poke out some places, and had to use tiny scissors to coax out several. On the whole though, it was not too frustrating. I will avoid using this die on thicker papers because of the intricate cutting required..

- Added some blue rhinestones to her halo and bottom of the robe, on the corners.

- Elizabeth Craft sentiment from the same Origami paper,

- backed the angel with some dark blue glitter paper (a snippet from another card you saw earlier- this was the cut-out piece where I remove the central portion of a mat - so as to save layers). Actually black glitter paper looked the best with showing off this angel, but I didn't like black for a Christmas card.

- white textured pearlized paper to cover the white card base.

- EK Success small corner punch, added rhinestones on each corner.

Closeup - hope you can see the shimmer



 So I'm off to submit this card to September's Rudolph Day Challenge (look at a top tab for the rules to play by). Since this also has a snippet on the card, I'm also submitting at Pixie's Crafty Workshop Week #91. (otherwise affectionately known as Pixie's Playground, where we get up to all kinds of mischief. But we have fun! And love to have new playmates). Just found out I could enter this at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for the month of September.

So please do join us if you can, in all of these fun Challenges. And have a grand day. As always, leave here with a big Hug and come again.