Deck The Halls

Hi peeps. Quick post. I am just popping in to share this card I made for SugarPea Designs Mix It Up Challenge # 48. My card was inspired by both sides, the colors on the candy and the sketch.

With Caring Hearts Card Drive in full swing, I chose to do Christmas theme and gave some love to older SugarPea sets. For the wreath I used Funky Wreath - All Seasons and tuck in the cute penguin from Tinsel In A Tangle set.

You still have about two weeks to join the challenge, so I hope you'll join us. To enter and to find the challenge details, please check out SugarPea Designs Blog.

Well peeps, that's all from me today. As this post goes up, I'll be on my way to seeing my dear niece. I am ready to give my tiny warrior a big hugs. She has faced cancer with bravery and smile and I am ready to hear her sweet voice again. May your day be filled with wonderful thing. Happy Wednesday!

The Ton 2018 Fall Release Blog Hop

Happy World Card Making Day. And, welcome to The Ton’s Fall 2018 Release blog hop! For this release, The Ton has debuted 11 new stamps and a new pop up floral die. There are free gifts with purchase promotions also! There’s also a little surprise for today since it is World Cardmaking Day. Head over to The Ton’s blog for more details.

If you've been following the hop, you should arrive from the talented Laura Jane blog. In case you missed a link, you can always find the full list on The Ton blog.

Let's get on with the cards, shall we? For my 1st card, I used Blizzard Hugs and mix it with a set from previous holiday release, called Holiday Ornaments.
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How fun are these snowflakes?? I stamped mine in Carribean Turquoise and add shadow with Copic RV00. Super light color, that probably don't show too much on the screen, but in person, it adds just the right touch in my opinion. ;) I like to add shade to stamped image, just because. Hah!!

Once I am done with the snowflakes, time to add the holiday ornament. I stamped it with Fresh Green, cover it with shimmer marker, trim and adhere to the card base with foam adhesive. I drew a line with silver pen and added a silver string. Finish by stamping the sentiment.

Too early for Christmas cards?? Well, don't forget, Caring Hearts Card Drive is in full swing. If you need reason to make tons of Christmas cards right now in October, this is a good reason. And, pst the sets I used today are great for mass producing. :) 

On to the 2nd card. For this one, I used Coming Up Poinsettias & Holiday Chic Tags. 

See the sprinkles background? Yep, I used the sprinkles rectangle from Holiday Chic Tags set and just stamped it repeatedly till it covered the whole card. I love, love this sprinkles background.

Next, I stamped the striped one on a piece of cardstock and trim it to tag shape. The bottom part of the tag was made using distress oxide ink. Now, the poinsettia, is from Coming Up Poinsettia. Doesn't look like it? Yep, instead of using the whole poinsettia branch, I fussy cut one of the flower and used it as centerpiece for the tag. Great way to expand your stamp set look here. You get totally different look just by trimming the image. 

Then, adhere tag to the card base, add a little golden enamel dots and stamp the sentiment with Noir ink pad. I know this is not the usual Christmas colors, but sometime I just like trying unusual color combo. :) 

GIVEAWAY:

For today’s hop, there are giveaways on each stop so be sure to leave a comment on each blog for a chance to win a stamp set of choice from our new release! The comment period for this giveaway will close on Monday, October 8 at 11:59pm EST and winners will be announced on The Ton Blog.

Now, there's quite a few blog to visit, but you're almost at the end. From here please hop on over to the amazing Janette Kausen. Thank you all so much for stopping by here and I hope you enjoy the hop.

Well peeps, that's all from me today and I am off to play with some goats. For real! I am pretty excited over this. Have a great weekend!!

2018 Caring Hearts Card Drive

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the 9th Annual Caring Hearts Card Drive. The purpose of our card drive is to collect holiday cards for the elderly that live in nursing homes. I started this card drive in 2010 and for our 9th year, I am honored to do this in memory of Sean Wilkerson, brother of Christy Wilkerson (our volunteer from last year) who passed away recently. Sean was well known for his kind heart and his family’s request is for people to do an act of kindness. I'd like to fulfill Sean's wish trough Caring Hearts.

The holidays are about family, kindness, and joy. During this time many of the elderly living in nursing homes may feel extra lonely or miss their families. We can bring a smile to their faces and brighten their holiday season simply by sharing our love of card making. A simple gesture to let them know that they are not forgotten. That someone is still thinking of them. We all love making cards and what’s better than knowing that our creations can bring a smile to others, right?

Our team of helpful volunteers are all ready to assist us in delivering the cards to selected nursing homes.

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

• This card drive will be run from October 1 to November 10, 2018. We need to receive your cards by November 10, 2018.
• Please make the cards for Christmas or Holiday Wishes only.
• Please limit 100 cards per person.
  (The reason for this is because my 5 year old niece was recently diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and I'll be making a trip abroad during the card drive to be with her. Being with her & my family at this time is very important to me and at the same time I want to continue doing the card drive. Limiting the number of cards will also help in keeping things manageable for our volunteers and me. Thank you for your understanding.)
• All cards need to have a message inside (can be stamped or hand written).
• Sign your name and where you are from inside the card.
• Include an envelope for each card and please don't seal the envelope.
• Please stick to standard size A2 or 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" card as this will help us in packing more efficiently. 
• Please don't use any pins or loose glitter (for safety reasons).
• This is totally optional, but if you'd like to include $2 or $3 to help with shipping, it'll be much appreciated. We cover the shipping cost ourselves & postage prices have increased, so any donation toward shipping would help tremendously.

For US, you can mail the cards to:

• Vera Yates, 1314 Roy St., Houston, TX 77007 
• Cindy Groh, 111 10 Mile Rd NW Sparta, MI 49345 
• Lynn Marasigan, Pine Tree Villa, 3353 Cimmarron Road, Cameron Park, CA 95682 

For Australia:

• Deb McCleary, CHCD, PO Box 54, Watsonia, VIC, 3087 Australia

For Canada:

• Caroline Bredeson, 11 Ave. des Oblats, Unit 112, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5V8, Canada
• Rita Andrews, 28 West Gissing Rd, Cochrane, Alberta T4C 1L6, Canada 

For United Kingdom:

• Tania Ahmed, 47a Melbourne Road, Bushey, WD23 3LT UK

In each package, PLEASE include THIS SUBMISSION FORM. This helps us in keeping track for prizes! For each card you send, you will get a chance. So the more cards you send, the better your chances.

To thank you for your generosity in supporting this drive, we have several PRIZES ready for several winners. There will be many winners. :)

The nursing homes that we supported are based on what people suggested to us. If you want your local nursing homes to receive cards from the card drive, please email me or Jennifer McGuire the name of the nursing homes and the number of residents, so we can make sure that we send enough cards. The number of nursing homes we support are totally based on how many cards we received. To keep things organized, we assigned the 7 collecting addresses above.

I'll update the prize list as more prizes coming in. And huge thank you to all the fabulous, generous companies who support this card drive by donating awesome prizes.

PLATINUM PRIZES (everyone sending 100 cards will be entered for these prizes)

                                                               

Gina K. Designs - Two $100 GC

Jennifer McGuire Ink - $100 for Simon Says Stamp

Organize More - $75 GC

Stamp-n-Storage - $100 GC

GOLD PRIZE (everyone who send cards will be entered for these prizes)

Altenew - Two $50 GC

A Jillian Vance Design - $25 GC

Avery Elle -  Two $50GC

Bossy Joscie - $50 GC

Catherine Pooler - Crafty Package

Clearly Besotted - approx $40 GC

Ellen Hutson - Two $25 GC

Hallmark Scrapbook & Crafts - Three $50 GC

Hero Arts - $50 GC

Honey Bee Stamps - Two $50 GC

Jane's Doodle - $50 GC

Kat Scrappiness - $25 GC

Lawn Fawn - Three $50 GC

Lil' Inker Designs - $50 GC

Little Things from Lucy's Cards - £30 GC

Mama Elephant - $25 GC

Newston's Nook Designs - Two $25 GC

Paper Smooches - Two $25 GC

Pink & Main - $25 GC

Reverse Confetti - $25 GC

Right At Home - $20 GC

Simon Says Stamp - $50 GC

Spellbinders - $25 GC

Studio Katia - Two Canada $35 CG

SugarPea Designs - $30 GC

Taylored Expressions - Four $25 GC

The Ton Stamps - $25 GC for The Ton stamps

Winnie & Walter - Two $50 GC

Wplus9 - $25 GC

I will update the prize list as I get more. :) Please feel free to share about this card drive. We really appreciate your support & generosity. Let's rock this card drive and bring Christmas joy to as many nursing homes as we can!! Thank you. 

The Ton Fall 2018 New Release

Hi peeps, welcome to The Ton fall 2018 release. After a little bit of break, The Ton is back with fantastic new releases. Effie is releasing 11 new stamps & coordinating dies & we are excited to reveal them.

I have made 2 cards for today and let's start with my favorite, shall we?

For this card, I used this beautiful Gardenia Wishes set. I love Gardenia. It's usually one of the scent I would buy for candle. I am really happy with the way this card turned out. I decided to color the leaves in gray instead of the standard green and I feel like it gives the card a modern feeling to it because of the color combo.

Once I finished coloring the image, I adhere to the card base with foam adhesive and then stamp the sentiment. The sentiment is from Peony Laurel. I use this set quite a bit because I sure love the font on this set's sentiments. And, yes, of course, I have to sprinkle some sequins. Here, I used Glass Slipper & Wedding Dress sequins.

Now, on to my 2nd card using the lovely Gardenia Border. When I start my project, sometime I have it all planned, sometime I just go with the flow. Like for this card, I totally didn't have any plan on what color combo I want to use. Pretty much, I just start with the mauve coloring for the flowers and then ended up with teal green leaves.

Once I finished with the coloring, I looked at it and I was like, hm... this is kind of remind me of old school look. So, to update the look a bit, I add shimmer to the flowers and the leaves and paired the image with the bold sentiment from Occasion Confetti set. To soften the look a bit, I added some white accent on each letter. And, instead of sequins, I used dew drops instead as I feel it showed up better here.

So, what do you think of these 2 sets? Lovey, right? By the way, the new releases are available in the store today!! Yay....

GIVEAWAY
We are giving away a stamp set of choice from our new release to four people. Please leave a comment on each participating blog to qualify. The comment period will close on September 27 at 7pm EST and winner will be announced on The Ton Blog.

Now, I only show you a couple of the sets. Want to see all the sets?? Make sure you swing by to

The Ton blog and check it out. Also, check out what my teammates has created by visiting their blog below:

Tae Yun

Anna Kutcenko

Well peeps, that's all for today. May your week starts off wonderfully!

I Care Blog Hop

Hi everyone. I am honored to be participating in the first I Care Blog Hope to benefit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on World Suicide Prevention Day 2018!!

Joanne Soukup of Perky Penny Paper Arts©, in collaboration with Simon Says Stamp©, organized this blog hop to raise money and awareness for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and World Suicide Prevention Day. When she contacted me, I knew right away that I wanted to join in!

Here are some sobering statistics:

• Every year suicide is responsible for over 800,000 deaths, which equates to one death every 40 seconds. 
• Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in the world, and 3rd in the United States for those aged 15-24 years old. 
• Every life lost represents someone's partner, child, parent, friend, or colleague. For each suicide approximately 135 people suffer intense grief or are otherwise affected. This amounts to 108 million people per year who are profoundly impacted by suicidal behavior.

I have known someone who has attempted to do suicide and luckily the person changed his mind and the paramedic was able to save his life. But, I also notice people's reaction. Some react as if it's an embarrassment, like no one should talk about it. I totally disagree with this as I feel the person will need people who'd listen to him even more after his attempt. Mental health is a serious thing and it shouldn't be an embarrassment. It's nothing to be be ashamed of to be needing help.

On positive note, this hop is to bring awareness. For information on the blog hop, the I Care Stamp set, and the wonderful ways you can help read her post here.

For my card, I decided to go with rainbow colors as I want to remind anyone who receive this card that each person is unique & amazing and their uniqueness is what make this world wonderful. Wouldn't the world be so boring if everyone is the same, if there's only 1 color?

In this era of social media, we tend to present this happy face and hid our sadness, our burden, our problems.There are lots of ugliness out there, but there are also many good things and beauties. I hope we can all strive to make this world a bit better, a bit kinder. Let's take the time to be kind to each other. We just never know how our simple act of kindness can make someone's day brighter and in some case save life. 

BLOG HOP:

Joanne has all of the links on her blog, so please visit her blog to see everyone’s amazing creations, read their personal stories, and donate by ordering the I Care Stamps set from Simon Says Stamp©. 

There' quite a few blogs for you to visit, so that's all from me. Keeping it short. Thank you for stopping by here and remember YOU ARE AMAZING JUST THE WAY YOU ARE. :)

BLOG HOP LIST

Joanne Soukup - You Are Here 
Erica Andersson - CaCaCraft By Erica

Katherine Cosimano - A Life Inspired

Ilina Crouse - Creativity Within

Dana Joy - Got Joy Creations

Jennifer McGuire Ink

Tracie Pond - Tracie Pond Designs

Marci Snee - My Crafty Contemplated Life

Vera Yates - Ling's Design Studio

SugarPea Designs STAMPtember Exclusive

Hi y'all!! SugarPea Designs are so pleased to be sharing in the excitement of STAMPtember with our friends at Simon Says Stamp! Today we’re thrilled to share with you a stamp set created exclusively for this event and only available while supplies last, called Cuddly Cati! There is also a coordinating die set and you can purchase them as a bundle or separately!

Without further delay here's a look at my card using this super cute set.

For my card, I started by stamping the smiley cactus randomly on my card base. Then, I die cut the flag using Stitched Flag dies. I consider this as one of my classic, must have dies that can be used for so many occassions. If you have followed me for a while, you'd notice that I have used this dies quite a bit.

Next, die cut the banners from Party Banner Duo and colored them with Copic. Once I am happy with the way the banner looks, I worked on the cactus arrangement. Aren't they so happy looking? Adhere the flag to the card base. Finished the card by stamping the sentiment and sprinkle some pretty sequins.

You will love this set. Here's  a look at the set.

Cuteness overload, right? Now, be sure to check out the SugarPea Designs blog to see what the rest of the design team has come up with! And, remember, this is an exclusive set that's available at limited amount. So, better get it if you want it. Can't blame me for enabling for something this cute!! ;) Happy STAMPtember!!

Simon Say Stamp STAMPtember Celebration

** For 2018 Caring Hearts Card Drive Update, please scroll down to previous post.**

Hi peeps. Today, I am joining many other cardmakers to celebrate STAMPtember.

STAMPtember® (stmp-tmbr) is defined by Simon Says Stamp… an event intended to inspire, educate, and celebrate our community of stampers. This is annual event that's highly anticipated by paper crafters everywhere. You can find the party going on strong on Simon Says Stamp Blog.

There'll be a lot of things going on. So, make sure you check their blogs and check out the party blog lists as well. There's hidden surprise throughout the blogs. 

Now, I got to play with a super sweet Donut dies that's simply too sweet to resist. I had so much fun playing with it, that I ended up with 2 cards for today.

For this first card, I mixed supplies from several companies. I made the background using MFT Brick stencil. Next, I die cut and piece together the donuts and adhere to the card with foam tapes. Then, I have this Candy Sprinkle mix from Honey Bee Stamps that's just the perfect embellishments for the donuts. I adhere the sprinkles one by one randomly on the donuts. 

And, of course, in my eyes those sprinkle add so much happy feeling to the donuts that I have to add eyes that are sparkling using black enamel accents. Sentiment is from Concord & 9th Enjoy It set.

Now, I went with bold colors with my 1st card. So, for my 2nd card, I went all pastel with watercolor.

For the background I used another MFT stencil. I think this stencil been discontinued, but I am a big fan of their stencils. Any way, I simply laid the stencil on top of the watercolor cardstock and loosely add the watercolor. Let dry.

Die cut the donuts, watercolor and adhere to the panel with foam tape. Since, I want to make a celebration theme, I think it's only appropriate for the donut to wear party hat (from Honey Bee Pinky the Pig set). Stamp sentiment and add some sequins.

There you go. 2 happy donuts cards. Perfect to celebrate this long weekend, right?

Well peeps, I am glad you get to join us on this STAMPtember celebration & I hope you enjoy today's visit to my blog. Thank you for stopping by & may your weekend be a wonderful one.