Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Up and running for the first Rudolph Day Challenge of 2018

For those who don't know, Rudolph day is the 25th of each month, when we are encouraged to make a card, or other Christmas related item, to help us build a stash and avoid a panic at the end of the year.

I have been out of action for best part of a month with the dreaded cold virus, but I am beginning to feel 'human' again, so I wanted to find my mojo and get some crafting done. So here is the first card I made.



Last year I fell woefully behind my target of 12 Christmas cards each month, and I want to do a bit better this year. I needed something fairly straight forward to get me started, so I browsed some fairly old craft CDs, really to see whether I need to keep them or pass them on to someone who would make better use of them, and I came across one called Romany Christmas, which I have never used. The images on it are sort of 'folk art', very simple and muted. There were some sheets of toppers, with six designs to a page so I printed off two each of two pages. The images ranged from robins to Christmas trees, from puddings to snowmen, and even old Rudolph himself. Here is another one made into a card. Very simple but quite effective.


Because of the type of images they were, I felt it would spoil them to add too much embellishment to them, so I found various pre-cut cards from my stash, and several dies for frames. Then I decided which shape worked best for each image and cut them out with a corresponding mat.
Then I used snippets of patterned paper from my Christmas offcuts box, digi scrapbook papers sized down to a fit a square card, and printed off some of the matching papers from the CD, and between all of those I made a backing paper for each card and added the relevant topper.
Then I used oddments of sticky ribbon, die cut lace borders, and elements salvaged from old Christmas cards (I found a bag of these from years ago in one of my scrap boxes!) to add some interest.
I used my misti to position a sentiment stamp on each design and stamped them.

So now I have a collection of 25 cards! WOW. That is a great start to my collection for this year. Just in case you don't believe me...

Sorry the photos are a bit dark. This may be January, but we have unseasonably bright sunshine in the mornings here this month. I am not complaining, but it makes photographing cards quite difficult.
So I will link these up to Scraps of Life by scrappymo, for the Rudolph day challenge.
I won't keep up the momentum of twenty-four cards every month, but I do hope to get some smaller runs done, so I can stay on target this year.

10 comments:

Linby said...

Great cards. wow - you are off to a good start with those 25!

Joan said...

Well done, you certainly are up and running with your 25 lovely cards!

Jean said...

A great set of cards to start off your collection this year Kate. I especially like the the little birdies.
Jean x

Faith A at Daffodil Cards said...

Such beautiful cards to get you going after being so poorly, you've come back with vengeance, they are Wonderful, then to read at the end you have made 20 cards already? WOW you're on a mission. LOL.
Faith
x

Kathleen said...

That is a really great start to the year and very well done. Looks to be some really fabulous cards here too.

Kath x

scrappymo! said...

These are all lovely...each and every one.
Sorry to hear you hae had this horrid cold/flu. It is all over the world I heard. I was ready that this is the worst flu here since 1925

I am amazed that you got so many done, and feeling very proud of you! That is a lot at any given time and even more so when just recovered from illness.

i can not pick a fave as they all look lovely, although I must say the reindeer caught my eye ore than once!

Thanks for taking part in the January Rudolph Days Challenge.

kiwimeskreations said...

Glad to hear you are starting to feel better Kate - what a great start to your stash!! These are beautiful
Blessings
Maxine

Dr Sonia S V said...

WOW 25 cards is a huge number and its only January. Way to go!!!
Thank you so much for joining us at the Rudolph Days Challenge!
Rudolph Days Challenge DT
Dr Sonia

MaryH said...

Sorry to hear you've been ill, and it was just great to see a wonderful comment from you. I was MIA a lot last year, so hope to do better in 2018. What an impressive collection you've shared here, and this must be a super versatile cd. Of course you'll know the sweet birds must be my favorite of all the pretty cards you did. Also good that you were able to use up a lot of the snippets (which I'd either forget I had, or else couldn't find them!) You're well on the way to having plenty of cards for Christmas 2018. I'm impressed with the goal of 12/each month. I'm doing well to make 3! (CCC and Rudy Day!) TFS & Have a good week. Hugs.

Sue - said...

Wow what a good start! The cards look great too!