January Holiday Challenge #1

Didja notice how the day after Christmas - and I'm talkin' like 12:01 am on the 26th - people started to make Valentine's Day cards?! I know, I know, it's the next 'big' holiday after Christmas, and one to surely require cards to be made, but ... I started to think, which is always a dangerous state for me... so what about poor old January? It's like January does not even exist! So I started to research if there were any worthy holidays in January, and you know what?! There ARE!!! Yeppers, and quite a few. Okay, they are kindof obsure, but still - I think they demand our attention.

Also, I was totally out of ideas for cards for my January workshops, so I was on the hunt. But don't tell anyone.

Also also, I have a pretty-much nekked 2009 calendar just crying for decorating, and I flat-out refuse to make February pink, so I started thinking some more, and guess what? I came up with A NEW CHALLENGE! Yep, I surely did. Maybe if this takes hold, I will increase my readership from 3 (maybe 4) loyal readers up to, oh, I dunno, dare I hope for 6 by the end of the year? It is a lofty goal, I know, but a girl's gotta dream.

So here's the challenge: I'll find an obscure (or maybe just non-mainstream) holiday that I think needs to be loved (I'll try my darndest to find one for which I can make a card), and I'll challenge ALL OF YOU to do the same! I cannot promise a weekly challenge, but I think twice per month is a noble goal, don't you agree? Yeah, the first* and third Monday's of each month, I'll post a new Holiday and you will have 2 weeks to make a card for that holiday. Can you tell I am making this up as I go? No, really, I have thought about it, I just have not written it down until now. No prizes, unless I actually start cleaning The Other Room and find some stuff I'd like to be rid of. You just never know.

So let us begin! Holiday Challenge #1 is: Penguin Awareness Day (Jan 20th). I was looking for this one specifically since I think penguins are cute, and January is still cold in most Northern Hemisphere locales, and one of my customers loooooves everything penguin, and I needed a card for January's workshops, and I also found this VERY cool turorial on how to make penguins out of SU punches. What else could I do? So here's my entry to celebrate Penguin Awareness Day:

Aren't they cute little guys? Or maybe gals (how could you tell?) I used some Frosty Day papers for the punched hats and scarves, I followed the instructions for the rest of the penguins except I used the 5-petal punch for their noses instead of the punch used in the instructions I linked to above. The base card is Bashful Blue, and the snow is torn pieces of Whisper White, edged with the 2-way glue pen and some Dazzling Diamonds. To finish it off, I used the white gen pen to make not only their eyes, but also little dots for snowflakes on the blue background. VERY easy, and I think it will be a hit with The Ladies in January. And if I change it just a little (read: lose the buttons on their hats) it would be 100% SU, and therefore legal for my workshops. I still have 2 weeks to get it right.

So if you'd like to play along, just post your Penguin card somewhere and add a comment here with a link so we can see what you did! And if you can help me think up a clever name for this challenge of mine, I might just slip you a little something from The Other Room. ;-)

*Yeah, I know, it is not Jan 5th yet, but by then I will be panic-y trying to get ready for my workshops, so just this once, pretend it is the first Monday in January, K? Thanks!