Where have I been?

I took the week off for a nice relaxing vacation at home. My plans were to craft all day and night with lots of things to post on my blog, but that didn't work out. I ended up getting sick on Tuesday and have spent the last few days fighting a fever, sneezing, and going through more Kleenex than I thought was possible. I should be back to my old self in a day or two and promise to start posting some cards and scrapbooking layouts really soon.

Have a great weekend and I will blog with you soon!

Handmade Treasure by Creative Card Corner Blog Candy

Carolyn over at Handmade Treasure by Creative Card Corner is having a huge Back to School, Fall & Thanksgiving Blog Candy.

The blog candy includes:

1-Autumn/Thanksgiving Clear stamp kit that includes
10-stamps
1-stamp pad
1 acrylic block
1-Anna Griffin 10-pc. Clear Stamp Set
1-Anna Griffin 6-pc. Template Set includes
1-instruction sheet
1-cd cover and gift tag/label template
1-pillow box and gift tag/label template
1-gift bag and gift tag/label template
1-cone favor and gift tag/label template
1-small gift box and gift tag/label.....and 1-large gift box, envelope and gift card template
1-place card and tag, and....1-place card #2, and....table card and tag template
1-set of Designer Eyelets and Snaps
1-House Mouse Buzzy Friends Wood-Mounted Rubber Stamp
1-Glitter Foam Paint
1-Fiskars 4-in-1 Embossing Corner Punch
1-Icicle Stickles
1-20 pc. adhesive gems
1-6 pc. self-adhesive metal hardware
1-8 pc. self-adhesive chipboard punch outs
1-15 pc. get-well stickers
1-Chipboard Album Purse
This huge lot off goodies will be given to ONE lucky winner..................

All you need to do to be eligible is:
1. Become a follower of Carolyn's blog if you are not already
2. Post Carolyn's candy on your blog with a link back to her blog candy post.....don't worry if you don't have a blog, you can still be eligible if you post a comment letting her know how you will spread the word about her candy offer.
3. Leave her a comment and let her know that you are signed up, followed the steps to be eligible and how to reach you should you be the winner.

While you are on Carolyn's blog, don't forget to check out all of her wonderful papercrafting projects and to leave her some love.

Cards for Kate Card Drive

Jennifer at Jennifer McGuire Ink is sponsoring a card drive for Kate and her family.








Here is some info about Kate:

About 6 weeks ago the life of the McRae family changed forever when their precious 5 year old daughter, Kate, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Dad (Aaron) is a pastor in Arizona and he and his wife, Holly have two other children, Will and Olivia. Of course this is devastating for the whole family and many are praying for them. (Go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate to learn more about this family and their struggle). Kate has a rough road ahead of her for quite awhile. When you hear their story you will want to do anything you can to help.

And one thing we can do to help is to send cards to Kate and her family to encourage them, give them strength, and let them know how many people are thinking about and praying for them.

The details:
Cards can be for any member of Kate's family:
- Kate (age 5) - The sweet girl who is battling cancer.
- Little brother Will.
- Bigger sister Olivia.
- Mom and Dad, Aaron and Holly.
Cards can be anything cheery, encouraging, supportive, etc. (This family is a family of God, so for all you Christians out there, feel free to share messages of Faith.) Anyone can send a card - even your children!

Please write a message in the card and sign your name and where you are from. On the card envelope, please write the name of who the card is for (Kate, Will, Olivia, Aaron and/or Kate). Also, please don't seal the envelope, as Kate's parents might want to preview cards before the kids see them.

With your cards, please include a piece of paper with your name, address, email address and number of cards.

The cards should be sent to:
Jennifer McGuire
Card Drive for Kate
PO Box 428612
Cincinnati, Ohio 45242

Please send the cards to arrive by October 1.

Creating from the Heart Blog Candy

Melissa at Creating from the Heart is doing a phenomenal blog candy that runs through Aug 31st. All you have to do is 1) Leave a comment on this post 2) Leave a link on your blog to Melissa's giveaway. If you don't have a blog, no problem! Just tell her how you will spread the word! And if you want 2 chances, become a friend/follower of her blog. (You don't want to miss all her wonderful giveaways, do you?)

Look at all the candy that you could win!

While you are linking and becoming a follower check out all of the beautiful cards & papercrafting projects that Melissa has created and don't forget to leave her some love.

I WON!!

This is the absolutely adorable stamp set called Everyday Jar-gone that I just won from Clear Dollar Stamps. This past weekend they had a blog hop with some wonderful creations using this set that I joined in on. I can't wait for the set to arrive and start creating. Of course, I will post my creations here for everyone to see.

Priscilla Styles Blog Candy

Priscilla at Priscilla Styles is doing a "just because" blog candy until Aug 31st. She is starting this candy, by Giving Away 5 Stamps Sets. It will be a variety of stamps from “Stampin Up”, “Hero Arts”, “Inkadinkado”, “Gina K.”, “Rupa Shevde” to name a few. They are going to be hand picked by Priscilla from her BRAND NEW stash collection. They will be all types from Exclusive Hostess Sets, to Halloween, Christmas, and Everyday use Stamps!

All you have to do is become a follower of her blog, post about or create a link to her blog candy, and leave a comment telling her the most enjoyable thing you have done so far this summer.

While you are on her blog, check out the Midnight Madness Sketh Challenge. A new challenge is posted everything Tuesday.

True's Blog Candy

True from True's Gift's from the Heart blog is not offering one but two blog candies. To celebrate her becoming a DT for Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot she is offering blog candy 1 (see side bar) with a super nice variety of Cuttlebug embossing folders. If that is not exciting enough, she also just received word that she will be a Detail Sneak Peek Artist for the Clear Dollar Stamp's Design Team. Which means she put together another blog candy (see side bar for blog candy 2) to give away to one of her faithful blog followers.

Congratulations True on your wonderful news! Now blogging friends, take this time to not only check out True's blog candy and enter to win but to also check out all of her wonder papercrafts posted on her blog. Don't forget to leave a comment for her on her blog to show her some love and to send her some congrats.

Steph's Blog Candy

A few weeks ago I saw a link on another person's blog to check out Where'd All My Money Go?! With a blog by that name, I knew I had to check it out and glad that I did. Steph has some wonderful card designs and projects posted to her blog that you are gonna love. She also posts about things happening in life like purchasing a car. Something she has never done before!

Steph also is doing something special from now until August 28th, since she has reached over 25,000 blog hits. She is running a blog candy for a $150 gift card to the place of your choice. All you need to do is post about this blog candy on your blog and then link to her blog for a chance to win.

If you don't have a blog, still go and visit Steph's site as she has some great projects to share with everyone.

Fluttabyz - Blog Candy

I just wanted to let everyone know about Leanne's wonderful blog candy. To celebrate her move to Dubai and more than 5,000 visitors to her blog, she thought she would offer some very tasty candy!

You have two ways of winning. Make a post to your blog and link it to her blog and/or become a follower of Leanne's blog by Sept 1st. Check out Fluttabuyz for your chance to win and to also see some of Leanne's wonderful card creations.

TGF free stamp/set

Just leave a comment whenever you drop in to the TFG blog for a chance to win a free stamp/set of your choice. Winners will be announced the following day.

Leave a comment on the TGF blog for you chance to win!

Fruity Challenge

As part of the cards DT for Scrapbooking and Crafting Friends we were asked to create a fruity card using this cute watermelon & black bird digi stamp from MyGrafico. The digi stamp was inserted into Word, reduced in size, copied several times, and then cut apart. I then colored using Copix markers and enhanced the watermelon seeds with Plaid's Dimensional Magic.

Doesn't the watermelon look good enought to eat?

Misc Cards

Since I haven't posted in a while and I promised some new cards, I figured I would post a few cards that I have made but never got around to posting for previous challenges.

The first card was for a tag challenge. We had to use a tag somewhere on our card. I took a piece of pattern paper and attached it as a pocket to a white card stamped with "happy birthday". The tag was stamped using a Hero Arts "Happy Birthday" stamp and silver ink.

The next challenge was to make a card without using a stamp. This was hard for me, but I managed to use a few die cut flowers with stems & buttons and on pre-printed congrats card.

The last challenge was to use a digi stamp of your choice somewhere on a card. I don't know where I found the digi stamp, it was in my collection of saved downloads. The outside of the card is using the watermelon die cut from Sizzix.

Hope you enjoy!

Awesome Customer Service

You know, people love to share when they get horrible service but hardly ever talk about getting terrific service. So I wanted to share a great experience I had over the weekend.

Just recently I order from Shimmerz and wondered why my order was taking a little longer than normal. They are a family run business and I thought perhaps they went on vacation or someone was sick, but just wanted to double check. Not only did they respond to me within minutes of my inquiry, they discovered it was a problem with PayPal; they never received my order or payment. Well as quickly as that a new order was placed and I received a personal e-mail from the owner Stacey saying they were expiditing my order.

Not only do they have awesome products, but they also have awesome service for their customers. So the next time you receive excellent service from someone, let them know. Or even better, let their manager know how much you appreciate them.

Cute Little Lady Bug

Sorry for being MIA for a while. Work has been hectic and I haven't had time for any crafting fun. I made a number of purchases in the last few weeks, so hopefully this weekend I will have a few cards completed with images from TGF, Pink Cat Studio, DRS Designs, and Simply Sassy Design Studio.

I do have one card to show you today. I ordered the most adorable lady bug stamp from DRS Designs last week. When I opened the package, I just dropped everything and had to create a quick card. Her spots have been highlighted with Stickles - Star Dust.

Isn't she cute?

Lady Bugs

MyGraficO posted a great free lady bug digi-stamp and I could not resist putting together a few cards.

The dark black spots on the lady bug were made dimensional using Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up. It was the first time I used the product and loved the effect.