Blog Candy for a GREAT CAUSE!!!!!

This post will stay at the top of my blog until April 15th. Please scroll down to see current posts!

Updated 3/28/10 - Susana from SCACD has GENEROUSLY donated the entire Elisabeth Bell Sampler #3 sheet of rubber!!!!

Updated 3/18/10 - Lynda Benden has donated a FABULOUS October Afternoon package to the sweeten up the blog candy!

Updated 3/16/10 - the candy has gotten sweeter! Awesome donation from Carolyn Bounds! Check out the list below to see the new additions!



Hello friends and family! It is time for my 3rd annual BLOG CANDY FOR A GREAT CAUSE giveaway! Before I get into the details of the blog candy I wanted to give you a little bit of background information:

My good friend Chava (who I've known for over 30 years - YIKES, I can't believe how old I am getting) has a 2 1/2 year old son, Alex. Shortly after Alex was born he was diagnosed with having Cystic Fibrosis. For those of you unfamiliar with CF here is a brief description:

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that: clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections; and obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.

Here is where my blog candy challenge comes in... Chava is participating in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Great Strides walks in Des Moines, IA on May 15th. Her fundraising goal is $500. Nearly 90 cents of every dollar raised is available for investment in vital CF programs to support research, care and education. Research and care supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is making a huge difference in extending the quality of life for those with CF. To learn more about CF and the CF Foundation you can visit there site HERE.

I'd love to help Chava reach her fundraising goal. I have already donated to her walk but would like to try and help out a little more. I am offering a chance at some REALLY AWESOME blog candy to anyone who donates. You can donate $1 or more. (FOR THOSE LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES - YOUR DONATION IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE). All you need to do for a chance at the blog candy is go to Chava's CF donation site HERE and place a secure donation (don't worry if your name doesn't show up on her donation list instantly, I've noticed that in some cases it takes several hours). If you would prefer to send a check instead of donating online you can mail a check made out to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) to Chava. Her address is: Chava Pocernich 514 NW Cindy Ln Ankeny, IA 50023. After you donate (either online or by mail), leave a comment on this post. You DO NOT need to tell me how much you donated. I just appreciate any help you can give! I'm keeping this blog candy open until Thursday April 15th at midnight CST, in hopes of helping her raise as much money as possible...I will pick a blog candy winner on Friday April 16th. Please help spread the word!! I'd love for any of you to mention my post on your blogs, the more exposure the better.

Now for the fun part...This blog candy package is valued at over $230 (Blog candy is being donated by myself unless otherwise noted). The package includes:

Whimsy Stamps: Pajama Time Emma ($5 value)
Clear Dollar Stamps: Happy Camper ($14.99 value)
Little Paper Shop: {Swell News} ($8.00 value)
Little Paper Shop: {Just Bee-cause} ($8.00 value)
Queen Kat Designs: Monster Heads ($10.99 value)
Queen Kat Designs: Ride With Me ($12.99 value)
Firecracker Designs By Pamela: Bliss ($6.99 value)
Firecracker Designs By Pamela: Birthday Balloons - Up, Up and Away ($6.99 value)
Firecracker Designs By Pamela: Parisian Romance ($10.99 value)
Firecracker Designs By Pamela: Yoo Hooo ($8.99 value)
*Firecracker Designs By Pamela: It's About Possibility ($4.49 value) - GENEROUSLY DONATED BY PAMELA FROM FCD.
*Firecracker Designs By Pamela: Daisy Tops ($4.49 value) - GENEROUSLY DONATED BY PAMELA FROM FCD.
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps: Francesca ($8.00 value)
Susana's Custom Art and Card Design: Elisabeth Bell Sampler #3 complete set ($42.00 value) -GENEROUSLY DONATED BY SUSANA FROM SCACD!
Riley and Company: Baking Riley ($5.00 value)
*Belles 'n Whistles: Christmas Hearth ($8.95 value) - GENEROUSLY DONATED BY SUMMER FROM BELLES 'N WHISTLES
Our Craft Lounge: Irish Blessings ($19.95 value)
Paper Makeup Stamps: Swirlie Tree ($5.00 value)
$15 in free digi stamps from Busy Beauties Boutique - GENEROUSLY DONATED BY CAROLYN BOUNDS.
October Afternoon Farm Fresh prize package: stamp set, wild cards, 2 packages of rub-ons, 4 packs of stickers and the coordinating 8x8 Farm Fresh paper pack ($40 value) - GENEROUSLY DONATED BY LYNDA BENDEN
























Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all consider making a donation!

Happy Birthday Jana!

It's time for a birthday blog hop Pretties style! Today is Prettie girl Jana's birthday and the rest of the Prettie girls are celebrating with a fun birthday blog hop in Jana's honor.

Jana, I hope you have a wonderful day! It's your day...enjoy yourself!

If you are just starting at my blog, head on over to Christie's blog to start from the beginning. You definitely won't want to miss any of the stops! If you are following the hop, the next stop after my blog is the blog of Prettie Girl Wendy Bond! Make sure you follow the hop all the way to the end and wish Jana a big Happy Birthday!!!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

A Prettie Wednesday Challenge and Blog Hop!

It's Wednesday! That means it is time for another fun Wednesday Prettie Challenge and blog hop! This week our challenge comes from Prettie Jackie! Jackie challenged us to make a spring break inspired card.

This week the design team will be using either the set Holy Mackerel or Surf's Up. These are both adorable sets and both stamp sets featured this week will be on sale for 35% off all week. Also be sure to check out the new digi stamp section of the boutique, Christie is adding new digis all the time (there are several adorable Sophia and Cooper digi stamps)!

I made a card with each of the featured sets this week. Holy Mackerel was a little difficult to use for a spring break inspired card but I decided to give it a try. I decided that spring break for some people tends to get crazy so I used some crazy Lime Rickey Basic Grey designer paper.

Surf's Up was MUCH easier to use with a spring break theme. I paired this adorable image with some fun surf themed DCWV designer paper. I loved how this card turned out.
If you are just starting at my blog, head on over to Christie's blog to start from the beginning. You definitely won't want to miss any of the stops! If you are following the hop, the next stop after my blog is the blog of Prettie Girl Wendy!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

TIOT: Emboss It!

This is my 2nd blog post for today. Please scroll down to see my Jacksonbelle Tuesday challenge card.

Welcome to this week's Try It Out Tuesday challenge! Our challenge this week is EMBOSSING!
We'd love for you to play along with us!

I know Easter is over but I couldn't resist using this adorable Elisabeth Bell "Bunnie" image for this week's challenge. I love this sweet image! I stamped her with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored her with Copic markers. "Bunnie" is paired up with some gorgeous Prima flowers (purple and pink), Zva Creative flowers (white), Zva Creative rhinestone swirls and Basic Grey Kioshi designer paper, all of which can be found in the SCACD store. If you are wondering where my embossing is, I embossed the white cardstock panel with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

Be sure to check out the blogs of the rest of the incredibly talented SCACD design team members for more embossing inspiration!

Suzanne Dean
Anki Bargman
Danni Bindel
Aud Nordheim
Jennifer Greco
Marti Wills
Carolyn Bounds
Dianne Prewitt
Kim Gruetzmacher

Oh and one more thing....SCACD now carries TONS of super fun Kraftin Kimmie stamps!!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday Challenge!

Welcome to another fabulous Jacksonbelle Tuesday challenge! It's almost the most TAXING day of the year so in "celebration" of tax day our challenge this week is to make a card using taxes as your inspiration. For example ~ money, green, numbers...anything that represents your view of taxes. We'd love for you to play along. If you do be sure to leave us a link to your project in the the comments section of the challenge post on the JB blog or use keyword JBE101 when uploading to SCS or PCP.

Since I don't own a gigantic sad face stamp I had to go with my 2nd choice for what taxes represent to me, LOL. I decided to use green as my tax inspiration. For my card I paired up a Paper Makeup Stamps sentiment with some fabulous Basic Grey designer paper, Prima lace ribbon and some coordinating bling. I hate taxes but I do love how this card turned out.

For more taxing inspiration, check out the blogs of all of the Jacksonbelle Rockstars!

Dawn Lusk

Julie Lacey

Heather Pulvirenti

Windy Robinson

Stephanie Severin

Amy Tsuruta

Pam Varnell

Lynda Benden

Tobi Crawford

Jill Dunn

Shemaine Smith

Lindsey Botkin

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

LPS Monday Challenge!

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! It is Monday so that means it is time for another AWESOME Little Paper Shop challenge! This week our challenge for you is to make a 3D item! We'd love for you to play along. If you do, be sure to leave a link to your project on the LPS blog.
One lucky participant in this week's challenge will win the new digi stamp {Ice Cream Tyson}. You have until Sunday night to get your project linked on the LPS blog!

If you have been a follower of my blog for a while you know that I pretty much suck at anything non-card. I almost cry every time I see a design team challenge for something non-card. Instead of completely stressing about this I decided to do something sweet and simple. A while back I found a bunch of these fun customizable key chains in the clearance bin at Michael's. I decided I would finally put one to use for today's challenge. I used the sets {Moments} and {Everyday}. It was really hard to get a good picture of this. It is actually very pretty in real life. I'm including this in my blog candy for a great cause giveaway. You still have a few more days to donate for your chance to win! Check out my blog candy post for all the details.
For more inspiration be sure to check out the blogs of the rest of the fabulous Little Paper Shop design team!

Julia
Bonnie
Jen
Julie
Silvia
Allison
Ann
Pam

We also have 3 fabulous new guest designers joining us the next few months so be sure to stop by their blogs and give them some love:

Kelly
Julie
Tasha

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific Monday!

Party Time!

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! I don't usually blog much on the weekends but I have some Susana's Custom Art and Card Design store news and a fun card to share.

First off, some store news...Susana got in a shipment of the hard to find white Cameo roses from Prima as well as some gorgeous pink mini roses!! She also has some Spellbinders on sale at 25% off, once they're gone they're gone! There are also tons of fabulous new products in the store that you won't want to miss...Viva Decor, OCL, Copic and more!

Next...I have a card to share with you. For my card I used the adorable Victoria Case stamp "Game Night". I thought this image would work perfect for game night invitations! I stamped my image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with Copic markers. I paired it up with some Basic Grey origins designer paper and Basic Grey self adhesive pearls.


Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

$0.50 Fridays!

Along with the new Toonie Tuesdays specials at Paper Pretties, Christie is also starting $0.50 Fridays! Yep, that's right! Every Friday Paper Pretties with be hosting $0.50 cent Fridays where there will be items on sale at Paper Pretties for $0.50. This week the special is Watercolor Paper. Regularly .78 per sheet is now on sale for .50. It is 140 pound cold pressed 8.5 x 12 sheets.
While you are there, check out all of the fabulous new stamps! There are ton of fun new digi stamps in the boutique as well as some fabulous rubber sets!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a great day!

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge and Blog Hop!

It's Wednesday! That means it is time for another fun Wednesday Prettie Challenge and blog hop! This week our challenge comes from the incredibly talented Prettie Girl Frances! I always love Frances' sketches!

This week the design team will be using either the set Beary Best Friend or Pulling For You. I absolutely LOVE both of these stamp sets! Both stamp sets featured this week will be on sale for 35% off all week. Also be sure to check out the new digi stamp section of the boutique, Christie is adding new digis all the time (there are several adorable Sophia and Cooper digi stamps)!

Here is this week's sketch:

For my card, I used the set Pulling For You. This is one of my absolute favorite Cooper images.



If you are just starting at my blog, head on over to Christie's blog to start from the beginning. You definitely won't want to miss any of the stops! If you are following the hop, the next stop after my blog is the blog of Prettie Girl Wendy!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

Paper Pretties Toonie Tuesdays

This is my 3rd post today. Please scroll down to see my SCACD Try It Out Tuesday card and my Jacksonbelle Tuesday challenge card.


Paper Pretties is starting a super fun new promotion called Toonie Tuesdays or $2 Tuesdays for those of us in the US. In case you don't know, a 'toonie' is the Canadian $2 coin.
Every Tuesday Paper Pretties will have a special on in the Paper Pretties boutique - 1 or 2 (or maybe more items) on sale for $2.00. These items are deeply discounted and are all great additions to your paper crafting supplies.
Today's special is the Queen & Company Think Pink buttons:

They reguarly sell for 3.49. These are adorable little buttons that will make a great addition to any paper craft.

Try It Out Tuesday!

This is my 2nd post for today. Please scroll down to see my Jacksonbelle Tuesday challenge card.

Welcome to another SCACD Try It Out Tuesday! Our challenge this week is a fabulous spring color challenge: Tulips A-Bloom! With tulips as our inspiration, the color challenge for this week is Yellow, Red, Hot Pink and Violet.
For my card I used the adorable "Aud" stamp from the Victoria Case Hearts and Hugs Series 2 collection. She is one of my absolute favorite Victoria Case images. I stamped her in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored her with Copic markers. I used some gorgeous designer paper from the new Basic Grey Green At Heart 6x6 paper pad (the Red and Violet in the color challenge can be found in the designer paper, LOL). To finish off my card I added a bunch of fun Zva Creative pink rhinestones for the Zva rhinestone wheel. The SCACD store now has a wonderful selection of Zva Creative products!

The layout for my card comes from this week's Sketch Saturday sketch challenge.

Here is the sketch:

Susana has added TONS of fabulous new products to her store...including Our Craft Lounge Stamps, Zva Creative, Copic Multiliners and lots more! Also, if you been dying to try the new Viva Decor pens... Susana has tons in stock! She also has links to some fabulous tutorials for the Viva Decor pens right in the store listings!


Be sure to check out the blogs of the rest of the incredibly talented SCACD design team members for more inspiration!

Suzanne Dean
Anki Bargman
Danni Bindel
Aud Nordheim
Jennifer Greco
Marti Wills
Carolyn Bounds
Dianne Prewitt
Kim Gruetzmacher

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday Challenge!

Welcome to another fun Jacksonbelle Tuesday challenge! We have a super fab sketch from Lynda for today's challenge! We'd love for you to play along! If you do be sure to let us know. Leave a comment with a link to your creation on the challenge post on the JB blog or use keyword JBE100 when uploading to SCS or PCP.

Here is the sketch:

For my card I used one of the adorable new Stampavie Sarah Kay stamps, "Isabelle with Puppy Coco". I think she is just precious! I paired her up with some of the super fun new Green At Heart Basic Grey designer paper!

For more sketchy inspiration, check out the blogs of all of the Jacksonbelle Rockstars!

Dawn Lusk

Julie Lacey

Heather Pulvirenti

Windy Robinson

Stephanie Severin

Amy Tsuruta

Pam Varnell

Lynda Benden

Tobi Crawford

Jill Dunn

Shemaine Smith

Lindsey Botkin

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful day! If you haven't voted in the Greeting Farm team contest yet, our team could really use your vote! To vote you just need to leave a comment on my team's card in the TGF gallery. You can see our team's card HERE.

LPS Monday Challenge!

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! It is Monday so that means it is time for another AWESOME Little Paper Shop challenge! This week we have a super fun sketch challenge from for you! We'd love for you to play along. If you do, be sure to leave a link to your project on the LPS blog.
One lucky participant in this week's challenge will win the new digi stamp {Mermaid Jenna}. You have until Sunday night to get your project linked on the LPS blog!

Here is the sketch:

For my card I used the stamp set {Make A Wish}.

For more inspiration be sure to check out the blogs of the rest of the fabulous Little Paper Shop design team!

Julia
Bonnie
Jen
Julie
Silvia
Allison
Ann
Pam

We also have 3 fabulous new guest designers joining us the next few months so be sure to stop by their blogs and give them some love:

Kelly
Julie
Tasha

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific Monday!

We need your vote!!!!

There is a super fun contest going on over at The Greeting Farm. It is a team competition with the top teams moving on each week. The top teams are decided by number of comments each team's card get each week. My fellow teammate Amy made an AWESOME card this week and we could really use your votes to help get us to the next round. You can leave a comment for her card HERE.

Here is Amy's card, isn't it adorable! Check out the little drawers on her easel card! You can only leave comments for 3 cards in the contest each week and we would really appreciate your vote!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Paper Pretties Release!

All of the adorable new Paper Pretties releases are available in the Paper Pretties Boutique.
There are 4 wonderful new rubber sets as well as 3 adorable new digi stamps this month. All of the new releases are currently 25% off too! If you love digi stamps, be sure to take a look around the digi section. Christie has converted several older Sophia images to digi too!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

A Prettie Wednesday Challenge and Blog Hop!

Welcome to another fabulous Paper Pretties Wednesday challenge and blog hop! This week's challenge comes from Prettie Girl Wendy. Wendy challenged us to make a masculine birthday card. The design team will be using the sets Wade E Bug or Bugs and Fishes for their cards this week. Both of these sets are on sale this week! The April releases will also be available to purchase starting tomorrow! There are some SUPER cute rubber sets as well as digi stamps being released!

For today's card I used the fun set Bugs and Fishes. This guy is such a cutie.
If you are just starting at my blog, head on over to Christie's blog to start the hop from the beginning. You definitely won't want to miss any of the stops! If you are following the hop, the next stop after my blog is the blog of Prettie Girl Wendy Bond!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

Try It Out Tuesday!

This is my 2nd blog post today. Please scroll down and check out my Jacksonbelle Tuesday Challenge card!


Welcome to another Try It Out Tuesday! This week the TIOT challenge is an awesome sketch challenge! We would love for you to play along!

Here is the sketch:

For my card this week I decided to use one of the Victoria Case fall release stamps. I have been loving all of the new Victoria Case spring collection images , but I was in need of a Cowgirl themed card and Victoria's "Taylor" image worked just perfect! Isn't she just the cutest little cowgirl ever! I just love her. I paired her up with a sentiment from Pink Cat Studio. Did you know that not only does Susana have exclusive stamp sets but she also carries popular brands like Pink Cat Studio, Our Craft Lounge, Rubber Romance, Prima and lots more! You can get all of your favorite brands along with the awesome SCACD exclusive stamps all in one stop!
I stamped my image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored her with Copic markers. My sentiment is stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink. I paired her with with some fun DCWV designer paper and finished off my card with some American Crafts brads.

Be sure to stop by SCACD and check out all the fabulous new products! Have you been dying to try the new Viva Decor pens... Susana has tons in stock!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday Challenge!

Welcome to this week's Jacksonbelle Tuesday Challenge. This week we have a 1-2-3 challenge! This time around the challenge is to use 1 BLACK item, 2 PUNCHED items and 3 CIRCLE items. We'd love for you to play along with us. If you do, be sure to leave a link to your project in the comments section of the challenge post on the JB blog or use keyword JBE099 when uploading to SCS or PCP.

For my card I sort of stretched the definition of 1 black item...I used multiple pieces of black cardstock but I'm considering cardstock in general 1 item, LOL...(I ALWAYS suck at these 1-2-3 challenges)! For my 2 punched items I punched the border of each of the 2 pieces of Basic Grey designer paper (probably a stretch again). And the 3 Basic Grey pearls count as my 3 circle items.

For more 1-2-3 inspiration, check out the blogs of all of the Jacksonbelle Rockstars!

Dawn Lusk

Julie Lacey

Heather Pulvirenti

Windy Robinson

Stephanie Severin

Amy Tsuruta

Pam Varnell

Lynda Benden

Tobi Crawford

Jill Dunn

Shemaine Smith

Lindsey Botkin

Thanks for stopping by today! Don't forget that tomorrow is the last day of the huge spring sale going on at Jacksonbelle! It is a great time to stock up on all your favorites. Everything in the store is 25% off!

Little Paper Shop Monday Challenge!

Welcome back! I hope you all had a great weekend! It's Monday, so that means it time for another AWESOME Little Paper Shop challenge! This week we have a super fun color challenge from for you! We'd love for you to play along. If you do, be sure to leave a link to your project on the LPS blog.
One lucky participant in this week's challenge will win the LPS set {In Loving Memory}. You have until Sunday night to get your project linked on the LPS blog!

Here are the colors:

For my card I used the stamp set new stamp set {Apple Lily}.

For more inspiration be sure to check out the blogs of the rest of the fabulous Little Paper Shop design team!

Julia
Bonnie
Cindy
Jen
Julie
Silvia
Allison
Ann
Pam

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific Monday!

Try It Out Tuesday...On Sunday!

You may have noticed that there was no Try It Out Tuesday last week. Sweet Susana and her dear husband took some much needed time off, therefore the SCACD store was closed for the week. The good news is, it is back open and ready for business. To make the news even sweeter, Susana has added TONS of fabulous new products to her store...including Our Craft Lounge Stamps, Zva Creative, Copic Multiliners and lots more!

Our belated Try It Out Tuesday challenge is to create an Easter or Spring gift.
I am not typically a gifty item maker so this was definitely a challenge for me. Kisa had sent my kids some super duper cute hot chocolate boxes at Christmas and I decided to case them. For my gift box I used the ADORABLE new Victoria Case "Little Aud" stamp. She is just the sweetest thing. I stamped her with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored her with Copic markers. I added some Brown Sparkly Fluff to the bunny to give him a fun furry look. I also added some Kaiser gems to the flower centers and as a pretty little earring for Little Aud. I used the Bow Easy to make that perfect bow at the top of my gift. I have always struggled with bows and the Bow Easy lets me create a PERFECT bow every single time! I love it! To finish it off I added a gorgeous Basic Grey stitched brad.

Be sure to check out the blogs of the rest of the incredibly talented SCACD design team members for more inspiration!

Suzanne Dean
Anki Bargman
Danni Bindel
Aud Nordheim
Jennifer Greco
Marti Wills
Carolyn Bounds
Dianne Prewitt

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all all having a terrific weekend!