Rudolph Days Challenge - May 2021

Whilst hunting all over the place here for a particular stamp, with matching die, in order to make my Rudolph Days Challenge card for May, I opened my box of saved 'shop bought' Christmas card fronts and immediately spotted possibilities for three cards to make. What was all that about then? All of a sudden Mr Mojo came rushing back into the craft room and in about a couple of hours I came up with these three cards:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" off-white square card blank, side opening

- gently removed the stocking topper from a lovely plum coloured Christmas card, then removed the thick sticky pads from the back of the topper and set it to one side

- hunted through my huge stock of Christmas papers and found a lovely beige paper with gold flittering from First Edition's 'Gilded Winter' paper pad

- trimmed it to 5.5" x 5.5" and glued it onto the card front

- then cut a plum coloured scalloped circle from some of the original card - using a very old Spellbinders scalloped circle die

- glued a round gold Christmas sentiment on top of the plum circle, made by Craftwork cards, and also pretty ancient

- then added bits of thin sticky pad to the backs of the stocking and sentiment and popped them onto the card front 

final touch - just three Lucy's Little Things 'Rose Gold' sequins, added using very narrow and tiny pieces of red line tape

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card blank, side opening

- a carefully trimmed piece of Kanban 'Christmas Wobbler' background card - glued to the card front - love this scenic pack for quick and easy backgrounds!

- the Christmas tree topper was removed from the original very simple white card, and the original sticky pads carefully removed. 

- then stuck the tree onto the card front using thin sticky pads

- nothing more needed, finished!

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening

- silver mirri card for the first layer, glued onto the card front

- topped that with a trimmed piece of red and white paper from a Fizzy Moon 'Festive Fun' paper pack

- then die cut the 'frame' for the image panel I wanted to use, because it makes me smile, using a snippet of silver mirri card and a die from The Works set of 'stitched squares'. Cheap as chips and great quality dies

- trimmed the image to fit 'inside' the silver frame and glued it in place

- 'meep' - glue oozed onto the silver 'frame' and then smudged when I tried to remove it so I just went over it with clear Wink of Stella so it all looks a bit 'distressed' - just like I was at the time

- adhered the image panel to the card front using thin sticky pads - job done!

That amazed me to be honest. I recently did a radical 'cull' of Christmas card fronts I'd been saving, some went back years and years, and that was a huge help.

Also, hunting through my Christmas papers was an eye opener. There are so many lovely and untouched papers to be played with. I like to strike a balance between 'over fussing' upcycling, but then at least showing that I made an effort as well. 

If you save Christmas cards to upcycle, I do recommend that you don't keep too huge a selection to choose from. Be a bit brutal and ask yourself if the image itself shouts 1990's - if so then ditch it. Otherwise it really is likely to end up looking just like an old Christmas card that's been played with. Look critically at the images and ask yourself if they would look up to date once you've played around with them - if not, be ruthless and pop the rest into the bin! Then, spread out the cards you have left and look through your neglected Christmas papers - holding cards and papers alongside one another. You could be really surprised - I certainly was! I easily found the makings of these three cards  - with the assistance of Dudley watching in curiosity. I spread everything out on our bed so I could actually pick out paper pads and wave them over the card fronts.

I'm certainly no expert so the above paragraph is very much how I see things. It isn't necessarily right! Back in the dark ages I started off by using an old pair of pinking shears to make Christmas tags - very probably as a child to be honest. Some would say I never moved on very much! Grin.

I went a bit over the top with sequins when 'staging' the cards - but it's a lesson learned. Less is more in future. Mind you - it does show the lovely variety of sparkly bits in three different 'Lucy's Little Things' packets of shaker stuff/sequins. 

And, so far, I still can't find that missing stamp and matching die either. Sob.