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1/27/2018

Penny Black for Rudolph Day

Hi and welcome to the first Rudolph Day Challenge of 2018. I missed a lot of Rudy Days last year, so I'm going to make a concerted effort to join in if at all possible in 2018 (that wasn't a New Year's Resolution or anything, but hey, it would make a pretty good one, yes?) You DO know about Rudolph Day? It's a challenge hosted by Scrappymoi, opens on the 25th each month, closes at the last day. The only rule is 'anything Christmas'.

Was inspired by this card by my so talented friend, Bonnie K. Of course then I had to buy the Penny Black stamp. Decided I'd use it for Rudy Day, as I needed to make something that didn't take a long time to color. First thought about using gold to emboss it, but had gotten some NBUS Altenew Platinum that needed a try, -- was pleased with the effect. Did some DOX sponging..(trying for a glow right around the tree, not sure I've achieved that. Still pleased with the outcome. My first try at coloring the swirls inside the tree wasn't great, neither was my second. Tried with an alcohol marker - got it messy outside the embossed edges. Then tried another effort with gel pens, still not great. Went to Polychromos pencils, not dark enough in the tiny spaces to show well, so went over the pencils with the Kaiser glitter pens. Liked that better).


Embossed Penny Black Starry Tree withWOW watermark pad, then heat embossed with Altenew Platinum Crisp EP. Colored elements within the tree with pencils and Kaiser glitter pens. Using a snippet of my other failed efforts, sort of masked the edge of the tree while sponging DOX Twisted Citron, Bundled Sage & Iced Spruce at the bottom. Spritzed a pearlized mica spray, while shielding the tree image. That same snippet mask was used to ink WOW versamark over the edges, then heat embossed with Platinum. Two slivers of that same snippet were trimmed, inked with copic blue greens, then used WOS for a little glitter. Started coloring the strips with the Kaiser glitter pens, but the ink didn't flow well. I'm not particularly thrilled with these pens, as they don't seem to hold much ink. A couple of times use, then they appear to dry up, even though you can still see ink in the barrel. Pulled out the trusty copics, inked, WOS, done. The blue doesn't match the swirls color but I liked the contrast between the platinum and this color, so....

Penny Black Rejoice die, cut 4 layers from the last of the failure snippet, then embossed with the same platinum used elsewhere on the card. After seeing the picture, the sentiment didn't get centered as well as might be.

Is anyone else having a problem with Blogger slowness when leaving comments? At some blogs, I hit publish and then it 'goes'. Other times I publish, wait, hit the publish button again, and finally it appears to take the comment. I'm not always sure.

Please do check out this fun challenge, as Maureen (Scrappymoi) always has some lovely prizes. So see you at Rudolph Day January 2018. Be there, or be square!

Thanks for joining me today, come again when you can, and hugs & Blessings. Stay well, as there is so much sickness about.

45 comments:

  1. Beautiful card, love it.
    Hugs, Chantal S

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  2. Mary, I see you have changed your commenting format - that helps no end in speeding up the commenting, Brenda put a post up about it here: http://stamping-fantasies.blogspot.co.nz/2018/01/recent-problems-publishing-comments.html

    Love your card - I have just discovered platenum EP and love it! Your tree is gorgeous, and I love your background, despite all your problems along the way with this card it is beautiful

    Blessings
    Maxine

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  3. WOW!! This tree is marvelous and you have created a fabulous card with it! Great embossing and background and LOVE the choice of colors, they have a fab contrast, so impressive and beautiful!
    Hugs

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  4. Hi Mary, That's a lovely card.

    Hope you have a nice weekend. Sue

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  5. LOVE that stamp and the bright and cheerful colours you have used. Beautiful colouring too, and the sentiment is so very pretty Mary.

    Yes everyone is complaining about blogger, I saw that that it can be made better, but I have forgotten!!! I'm sure you will have someone who does remember LOL
    Have a great weekend
    Faith
    x

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  6. I love your pretty PB tree Mary and the platknum EP and the added colour and sparkle look great and with the beautiful background and layered large sentiment, this is a wonderful card. x

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  7. I think you did a great job on your card! It is beautiful!

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  8. SO glad you have resolved to participate each month!! What I find most striking and gorgeous about your lovely card is that "rejoice" ...ooh boy is it superb!!!
    Thank you so much for joining us at the Rudolph Days Challenge!
    Rudolph Days Challenge DT
    Dr Sonia

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  9. How pretty, Mary, and what a gorgeously RICH and elegant card you've created combined with some sparkle and fun! That tree image is gorgeous, isn't it? Like sparklers ignited from your little "fallen" star. But more, it reminds me of the star of David coming to Earth and sending Joy everywhere in the process! It's a beautiful card! hugs, de

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  10. Very pretty! Love how the background behind the tree is glowing - yes you did achieve that effect! The platinum ep is a lovely change of pace and the coloring within the tree is perfect. How did you attach the Rejoice? Always wonder what folks are using to attach their die cut sentiments. Awesome job Mary!

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  11. Gorgeous!! I love the shine on this too. You have a lot of patience to color in the little grooves - and it turned out so pretty. LOVE!
    I have the same thing going on with blogger and publishing a comment. Who even knows what's going on but it is a bit frustrating.
    Lynn

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  12. You did make the glow behind the tree look so bright. This is a lovely card and I should be doing the same thing, joining in this challenge. It would help at the end of the year. I love the soft look of the platinum EP and your coloring looks fantastic. Good for you to keep trying until you got the look you wanted.

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  13. Such a stunning card, great tree, background and like that rejoice! I have the same problem lately with commenting, glad you mentioned it.

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  14. such a gorgeous tree and love your blended background :)

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  15. I can see the glow around your tree just fine and a perfect tree it is too. I like that spectacular sentiment die cut. A super card Mary. Hugs Mrs A.

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  16. Hi mary. It is a while since I visited you. I a just getting over the cold virus that is sweeping the whole of Europe, and it is nearly six weeks since I did any paper-crafting down in my room. I really like this tree stamp. It is so pretty and the colouring looks good to me. Kate x

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  17. What a beautiful tree design and love that you embossed it. And, wonderful sentiment too. This is one gorgeous card you made. I don't think you can ever go wrong with a Penny Black design.

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  18. A fabulous Christmas card Mary, such a beautiful image and great background - lovely colours.
    Pauline - Crafting with Cotnob
    x

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  19. Wow, this is so stunning!! The tree looks amazing!! I love the colors and the shimmer!! Beautiful, Mary!! Have a great weekend!! Big hugs :)

    Lisa
    A Mermaid's Crafts

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  20. Wonderful card Mary, love the fabulous image with beautiful colored background.
    Hugs Pam x

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  21. So glad you persevered with the colouring Mary as your car looks fabulous. Loving the platinum embossing powder, such a wonderful colour and so elegant. Love the layout and that sentiment die is amazing x

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  22. Meant to say...The pop up comment posting is a lot quicker and I too have had problems with leaving comments, slow and frustrating but this has helped x

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  23. Mary I think your card is just lovely! I like how you did the rejoice. I think it looks fine. Love the tree shape!

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  24. HI Mary, just love this tree and your fabulous card, the stamp has so many ways it can be used as well which is a bonus. Super die sentiment too, really lovely card.

    No doubt many of your other commenters have told you about the problems commenting for just over the past week but I have noticed today that whatever format they use for you to comment on seems to have gone back to normal, well fingers crossed it has.

    Kath xx

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  25. Your card is lovely!
    Pam
    scrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com

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  26. Hello there Mary a very stylish design, gorgeous colours and the tree image is beautiful.
    Hope all's well with you, Kate x

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  27. To me this helps for commenting Mary. I have changed it at my blog too.
    Your tree is gorgeous as is your card. Hugs Veerle x

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  28. Love your pretty Christmas tree, Mary! You've put a wonderful soft glow around it that makes it look lit up! Thanks for the shoutout!

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  29. Meant to add that Blogger was really slow for a couple of weeks when the commenting was embedded. It seems to have improved that past few days though. I hope it has improved for you too.

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  30. Wow, this is a beautiful card Momma Mary! I love that tree image-it feels so magical. The glow you made around the tree is perfect and so is the sentiment-which I love that die too! Hugs, Brenda

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  31. What you've done with this pretty stamp is amazing! I love how you colored it, but that die-cut sentiment in gold took it up a notch! I love the gold accents which add a great elegant feel to this card! Beautiful!

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  32. Fabulous card Mary, love the glow around the tree, happy RD xxx

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  33. Love your card and it would be perfect for our "something new challenge" athttp://pennyblackatallsorts.blogspot.co.uk/

    I finally got a MBox Cardinal die myself - although we don't have them in the uk I just love the pop of red and with some clever cutting and sticking I made a robin too!

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  34. This turned out beautiful, Mary! Your sponging is so well blended, not always easy to do. Love that stamp and I too bought it because saw someone else use it. I got a chuckle out of that one. I do that too often. Love the color too.

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  35. Hi Mary,
    Happy Rudolf Days.
    Oh your card is gorgeous and so beautiful.
    Love that tree and your super design.
    You always do so much with your wonderful cards that I have never heard of.
    The outcome is always excellent.
    Love all the lustre and colours.
    Yes blogger has been playing up for ages.
    If the people don't have the drop down box for comments it takes ages to publish.
    Luckily I changed mine when you had probs commenting on mine, but not everybody knows about it.
    Brenda of Floral Fanties posted a bit about it.
    Love and big crafty hugs from my house to yours. Jenny L.

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  36. Fabulous card, Mary. I love the way you've coloured it and the 'glow' around the tree is very effective. xx

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  37. That is festive and beautiful!

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  38. This is a beautiful card, Mary. Full of inky wonder and set off by the most fabulous Rejoice die I LOVE that die!

    Thanks for taking part in the January Rudolph Days Challenge.

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  39. Your Christmas tree is so pretty and the glow is perfect! Lovely Christmas card!

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  40. such a pretty card, mary, with lovely colours and the elegant gold! you're off to a great start so maybe we'll see you again next month. thank you so much for playing along with the rudolph days challenge. thanks for the kind words!
    linda
    rudolph days challenge DT

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  41. Gorgeous card Mary! That tree is so beautiful. Great hit of colour ... glad you didn't give up because the colour is so pretty. Love the glow from behind the tree and the beautiful mix of colours of your side strips.

    Blogger has been really slow. It's getting better, but still has a way to go. xx

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  42. Lovely card Mary, love how you have done that tree.

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  43. Oh, you certainly succeeded with the glow! And your coloring of the tree itself looks neat too. I think this tree would look beautiful on one of your brusho backgrounds as well. It's a large size, but varying backgrounds and using only parts of the image actually give lots of possibilities with this super stamp!

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  44. This is so beautiful, Mary! You definitely achieved a glow around the tree and I love the matting! I don't know why Blogger is having trouble with publishing comments for those bloggers who have embedded comment formatting, rather than a popup like this, but it's beyond frustrating! It doesn't even do that swirly thing to let you know it's thinking! Nothing happens for about 50 seconds and then, bam, it's published. A lot of bloggers are changing to the popup format; maybe that is what blogger wants. No idea! We are so lucky to have these free blogs, but we sure seem to have to have something to frustrate us every few weeks! Hope your week is going well! Hugs, Darnell

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  45. This is such a pretty card Mary. I’m just having a problem with blogger - it took me ages to publish a post today - kept saying it couldn’t save it!

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