Christmas Trees for Rudolph Day

Good afternoon & thanks for stopping to visit. Today is a Rudolph Day post. In case you don't know about this challenge, it's hosted by Sarn over at Stamping for Pleasure on the 25th of each month. The rules are very simple - just submit 2 Christmas cards. These rules are posted on a tab at the top of Sarn's blog.

First a little blah-blah. We've had to get our router replaced. Evidently someone had hacked into our home network. About 2 years ago we got a Smart tv, and spent a good deal of coins having the technician experts install the necessary electronics. In the course of adding the capabilities for Netflix, our router needed replacing as apparently there was a bad port. Eventually this new router was bypassed with a ?Ethernet connection? directly to the tv so as to get a stronger, faster streaming -  but we just discovered that there was a DNS port left enabled on the new router that should have been set to closed. We got a notification from our internet provider last week, which we couldn't really determine was for 'real'. That took a couple of days calling to finally get someone at the company to verify it was a REAL email - not a phish to get us to click on embedded links. (if you don't already know, be VERY wary of doing that).  Got our computer expert out to fix this - as I hadn't a clue. Decided we needed a newer, updated router - which is supposed to be the state of the art secure. Of course then all the wireless devices on the network had to be reconfigured. However, now I have to try to think everywhere that I've set up user ids and passwords, go reset them. Apparently keystrokes can be stolen with this type of breach. It's NOT a virus, but actually someone can take over your network. The way our provider found it (and apparently we were not the only victims)...they pinged the router when they saw lots of traffic being generated by it. So that's why I've had a low profile here lately.

OK..now let me welcome a new follower: Miss Sarah of Craft Nerd Creates.  Sarah has just recently added the Google Followers' Gadget to her blog, and would love to have you pop in to say hello and perhaps add some new faces to populate her following list. Plus she has a delicious pumpkin pie recipe on a project that you might enjoy trying. You'll enjoy scrolling through her card posts I promise!

Now onto the Rudolph cards:

 

- PB Slapstick Cling Tannenbaum image - stamped on black with Versamark, covered with gold Perfect pearls. This gold PP has a rather 'greenish' tinge to it, but it IS gold! Used red WoLuna to color the ornaments. Recolored using red Smooch. Die cut with a Grand Oval. Used a WOW embossing pen around the edges, then Ranger Queen's Gold EP was embossed. The sentiment is a Starform sticker.

 

- Background is soda can metal*, colored with alcohol inks - a rather largish snippet.  Then embossed with a Darice EF. Wasn't sure how the metal would take the embossing, but it worked well.  The downside is that since the metal was shaped into a can originally, it wants to curl. Have been sort of bending it back, but as you can see, that also affects the oval - you can see some 'cracking' on the black image. Oh well, we'll call it 'rustic'. Red bow, red rhinestone topper.

 

Edit: warning note about using the soda can metal.  Normally I don't sand the edges of the soda can die cuts but the edges can be sharp. On a small die cut that is adhered to the card base, I don't worry so much that the recipient will cut themselves. For the larger background on the gold/red Christmas tree,  all edges  & corners were sanded with a thick emory board just to insure safe handling by the recipient.

 

 

 

 

 

 - same image, dusted with Pearl perfect pearls, blue WoLuna, then covered with blue smooch. The Pearl color had a silver cast, but it's the Pearl color. Sentiment is a silver Starform sticker.

 

- background was created by using #98 Canson paper; wet slightly, spread water colors from a water color set in a pallete. After this dried, used some Daler Rowney Pearlescent blue (a new product purchased from Joggles - fast shipping too); diluted it with water on a craft mat, and spread over the first water color, let it dry. (this was a play session). Continued to add 2 more coats of the Daler Rowney Pearlescent blue to get this result. Embossed using a new 8x8 Embossalicious folders. Because of the size, the Grand Calibur had to be hauled out, videos viewed to see the sandwich requirements. This did emboss beautifully I'm happy to report.

 

- the silver ribbon has a velvety texture, and a blue rhinestone topper finished this one.

 

Ok, I'm off to link up at Rudolph Day for September 2014  and also at the Snippets Playground Week 143.  These are two of my favorite challenge places - with such lovely people to chat with, and marvelous inspiration to enjoy. I really miss these folks when I don't have the time to go visit! So please come along and have some fun with us.

 

Happy weekend, and God Bless. Hugs