Seasons Giving Blog Hop

Hi'ya everyone! Happy 2018!! I would like to wish you all a very happy New Year and may this year be a blessed, fantastic year for all of us filled with good health, prosperity and great things that makes you happy.

Welcome to the 6th annual Seasons Givings Blog Hop. What's fun & unique about this hop is every single blog that participate has giveaways. So, grab your cup of coffee and browse around. Stick around and you'll see my giveaways on the bottom of  my post. :) And, big thank you to my dear friend, Latisha Yoast who organize this hop.

2017 had been quite an eventful year for me. Creativity wise, I continue designing for SugarPea Designs, The Ton Stamps & Purple Onion Designs. In July, I get to join Honey Bee Stamps team and also guest designing for Altenew and Concord & 9th. I am very blessed that I get to work with great companies. Caring Hearts Card Drive have another successful year as we collected about 44,000 cards and send hundreds of card packages to nursing homes throughout the US, Canada and Australia.

Personally, 2017 was also a big year. We started building our new home in January and moved in in August. My husband is a builder and he's built hundreds of houses for others and after all this year, he finally able to build for us. So very grateful for this blessing. Then came Harvey. Thankfully we were spared from any damage. It sure was nerve wrecking watching the water rise. I also get to meet up with my whole family in Japan!! Including my li'l niece who I am so happy to spend time with. It's been a few years since I get to see my whole family together and it's a blessing to be able to vacation together. On top of that, my mom get to come back with us and she stayed here for about 2 months. 

My motto for 2018? Same as last year. The best is yet to come and to live life to the fullest. It's pretty much my motto for life. I also want to learn new stuff. I think it's always good to learn something new.

Now, as we started the new  year, I look back and want to share my top 6 favorite project from 2017. Let's get on with it right away, shall we?

I guess you could see that I love working with flowers and cute image. :)

Now, on to the giveaway. Cause after all that's why Season's Giving all about. I have 3 prize!

To enter the giveaway simply follow my blog &  follow me on Instagram (you can find me under: WIRIANTA). If you already a follower, please comment and let me know how long you've been following my blog or my Instagram. Easy peasy, right. Oh, and if you have preference on which package you prefer, please say so on the comment. :) You have till Saturday, 1/6/2018, midnight CST to leave a comment. I will announce the winners on Sunday, 1/7/2016.

Pkg 1

Pkg 2

Pkg 3

Are you ready to hop? Here's a complete list of the participants. Enjoy and Happy New Year!!

Lawn Fawn

Technique Tuesday

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

Reverse Confetti

MFT Stamps

Neat & Tangled

Winnie & Walter

Hero Arts

CAS-ual Friday Stamps

My Sweet Petunia

Paper House Productions

Verve Stamps

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store

Catherine Pooler

Indigojade Art

A Jillian Vance Design

Kelly Creates

Latisha Yoast

Kimberly Crawford

you are here --> Vera Yates <--- you are here

Nichol Spohr

Chari Moss

Audrey Tokach

Zsoka Marko 

Teri Anderson

Wanda Guess

Amy Tsuruta

Lydia Fiedler

Laurie Willison

Jenn Shurkus

Debi Adams

Cindy Lawrence

Lori Craig

Lisa Henke

Dina Kowal

Laura Bassen

Jessica Frost-Ballas 

Kelly Lunceford

Dana Joy

Tracey McNeely

Margie Higuchi

Laurel Beard

Janine Tinklenberg

Sean Fetterman

Christine Meyer

Heidi Blankenship

Debbie Seyer

Libby Hickson

Gracie Chavez

Julee Tilman

Karen Baker

Lee Murphy

Yvonne Van De Grijp

Leigh Penner

Marcie Sharp

Patti Gilliam

Barbara Anders

Bunny Vance

Kyra Sanders

Giovana Smith

Jillian Vance

Ceal Pritchett

Neva Cole

Advent Calendar Extravaganza With Taheerah Atchia

Hi peeps. Today I am excited to join my friend Taheera’s annual event, the advent calendar extravaganza. I always look forward to being part of this fun event and designed a fun, adorable card, and I hope you will love it. :) 

Advent Calendar Extravaganza is the festive event of the season! This ‘hop with a twist’ was dreamed up by Taheerah Atchia and features surprise destinations each day! Joining in the fun with Taheerah are ONE HUNDRED special guests – each serving up some fantastic Christmas inspiration! Just like an Advent Calendar, you’ll never know where you’re going to be visiting next until you ‘open the door’!

With 25 *amazing* sponsors taking part as guests as well, your crafty wish list is bound to get a boost with a chance to win a prize EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

For my card today, I played with one of my favorite all time Christmas set from SugarPea Designs, the GingerSnaps set.

To start, I watercolor a piece of watercolor cardstock with Ranger distress ink. Once it dry, I used it with the Harlequin Cover Plate and adhere all the diamonds to the card base. To make sure they all stay lined up perfectly, I simply use the harlequin frame as my guide.

To create the tag, I used For You Tag. Again, I used watercolor cardstock for this to keep the same soft tone like the background. Adhere to card. Follow by stamping & die cutting the Gingerbread fellas. I couldn't resist this grumpy one. ;) Finish by adding the die cut bow (it comes with the For You Tag dies) and some sequins.

Now, it’s not a party without a prize - and with prizes every day there are several chances to win! Today’s prize is generously supplied by SugarPea Designs, who I have the privilege to design for for the past few years. SugarPea is well known for its cute stamps, so you’ll definitely want to win! Simply leave a comment on this post - then head back to taheerah-atchia.com and leave a comment there too! You must leave a comment on Taheerah’s blog as well as mine in order to be eligible to win! Don’t forget to grab the other surprise destinations from Taheerah’s blog and head over to them to leave comments there as well to improve your odds even more! You have until 23:59 EST on 31st December 2017 to enter.

Don’t forget Advent Calendar Extravaganza runs from 1st-25th December inclusive so make sure you visit taheerah-atchia.com every day for fabulous inspiration and amazing prizes every single time! Merry Christmas!

Caring Hearts Notes

Hi everyone. I just want to share a couple thank you note that our volunteers have received in the mail for Caring Hearts cards. Your cards truly brighten someone's day. <3

Another one also included this note that just made my day. From one of the girl that helped hand delivered these cards to the nursing home, Lisa Jelenic wrote this on my FB wall: 

"Hi Vera, just wanted to share a thank you card with you and all the ladies I received in the mail today. I gave your letter with your address to all three nursing homes. My son came along to carry the boxes for me. Before we left I explained the reason why we were doing this. After we were all finished he said mom this is a really nice thing you did. I said it’s a nice thing we did! I said we’re an extremely small piece of the puzzle, you have no idea how many people made this possible. I also showed him pictures of your dining room, the ladies packing all the boxes and explained that all those cards came from a few different countries. I can tell he was taking it all in, lol. He said mom we should do this every year, I said yes we will. "

I love that Lisa's little boy enjoy the activity of giving & want to do it again. How wonderful it is to have Caring Hearts as part of someone's family Christmas tradition. I know a few people who made this an annual event with their kids and that brings me joy.

Thank you all for caring & for sharing your craftiness. Much love to you all.

Vera

Large Peony

Hi peeps. How are you all doing? This past week was the first time in a while where I feel normal, where I get time to just unwind and do fun stuff. I get to babysit my nephews on Friday night and lucky for us, they're pretty easy to babysit. Quite a change for me to watch Batman cartoon. LOL.

Then on Saturday, I get to attend a watercolor class with some girlfriends and I get to draw a super cute pug! I was so excited! Then on Sunday I just do house cleaning and I actually did some baking! It's been years since I did any baking. The shape may not be the best, but taste wise, it was good. Gotta love Pinterest (that's where I got my recipe).

Well, I also get to so some stamping and I made a couple cards. Taking a break from Christmas card, I made a couple floral cards.

I used The Ton Large Peony 1 for the pink card and Large Peony 2 for the blue card. I stamped, heat embossed the flowers and the leaves, then die cut them using Large Peony 1 dies and Large Peony 2 dies. To finish the card, I used sentiment from Summer Blooms set. I just love the wording on this sentiment.

The Large Peony sets are still among my favorite flower sets from The Ton. I just love how pretty they are. What's your favorite flower set?

Well peeps, that's all from me today. Thanks for swinging by here. May your weeks starts off wonderfully. Cheers...

2017 Caring Hearts Results & Prize Winners

Hi everyone. Thank you for your patience. It's been a whirlwind, crazy few weeks for all of us at Caring Hearts. Most of us work full time, so it's been quite a struggle trying to balance everything out and get this done. But, we did it! This year, we have another AMAZING turn out for the card drive that truly humble me. 

Here's some of the facts from this year:

- Last year, for US, Canada, Australia and UK we received close to 64,000 cards!! This year, we didn't get to do UK (cross fingers we will for 2018) and we received close to 47,000 including cards from Hongkong, Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland and India. At my end alone, I received 22,889 cards. For Australia, we received about 3000 cards and Canada received about 4500 cards.

- We have 878 contributors and I, personally feel inspired by many of your cards. All I can say, THANK YOU! You all are amazing. 

- We mailed the card packages to about 300 nursing homes and some elderly that are home bound and lives by themselves.

- Fun tidbits, Caroline our volunteer in Canada got interviewed by their local channel and Caring Hearts Card Drive made the news in Ottawa, Canada. Woot, woot! You can see the news HERE.

I am so proud of the way this card drive has grown. In our first year in 2010, I received 750 cards and look at where we are now. And, it's all because of YOU! Your support and generosity are what make it so successful. And, I am so very grateful for your support & kindness.

NOTES: Also, many of you are working in advance for next year card drive and I just want to  let you know that we'll have to do some changes. Due to the work required to keep doing this card drive and to keep things manageable, we request that you send no more than 100 cards (this number could change as we're still working on the logistic, but for now this would be the maximum) per person. We're hoping this would help reduce the craziness behind the scenes and help all our volunteer in managing collection, packing, & shipping. I hope you can understand why we have to make this change.

Now, what many been waiting for. The winners for Caring Hearts prizes! For all the winners, I'll be emailing all of you this weekend. As you can see the list is pretty long, so please bear with me. :)

CARING HEARTS GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Hero Arts $100 GC - Reta McDavid

Gina K. Designs $100 GC - Matgorzata Batko

Jennifer McGuire Ink $100 in craft supplies - Judy Rogers

Organize More $75 GC - Gina Piazza

Waffle Flower Crafts $100 GC - Stela Kang

Altenew Two $30 GC - Cheryl Farnhill & Charlotte Williams

A Jillian Vance Design $20 GC - Kathy Denny

Avery Elle $30GC - Laura Williams

a2z Scrapbooking Supplies $25 GC to the store Karen Rice, $25 in Hero Arts Digital Stamp - Lisa Wright

Bossy Joscie Christian Greeting & Planner set - Angie Rigelwood

Butterfly Reflections Ink Two $25 GC - Mandy Walker & Tersesa Cherka

Catherine Pooler $50 GC - Mark & Tamara Payne

Clearly Besotted approx $50 GC - Melissa Hungria

Cutcardstock.com $50 GC - Linda Goron

Ellen Hutson $25 GC - Marsha Bennet

Hallmark Scrapbook & Crafts – Three $50 GC - Cassandra Jones, Fe Mejia & Kerry Yamamoto

Honey Bee Stamps – Two $50 GC - Barbara Haan & Kym Maxwell

Jane’s Doodle – $50 GC - Theresa Pollack

Kat Scrappiness $50 GC - Kathy Wong

Lawn Fawn Two $50 GC - Patricia Bui & Stefanka Asparutiova

Lil’ Inker Designs $35 GC - Brenda Zellner

Little Things from Lucy’s Cards £25 GC - Margaret Crawford

Mama Elephant $25 GC - Margaret S. Cashion-Hudson

My Favorite Things $50 GC - Carla MacLafferty

Neat & Tangled $50 GC - Robin Logue

Newston’s Nook Designs Two $25 GC - Linda Weatherall & Sharon Christian

Online Card Classes Three free class spots for 3 winner - Ellen Carlson, Vivien Connell & Janice Kullas

Paper Smooches $50 GC - Glenda Thornton

Pink & Main $30 GC - Susan Sisk

Pretty Pink Posh Two $25 GC - Victoria Chu & Charlanne Bittinger

Reverse Confetti $30 GC - Rachel Ines

Right At Home $20 GC - Janet Porter

Simon Says Stamp $50 GC - Veronica Leigh

Studio Katia  Canada $50 CG - Sandy vanBiesen

SugarPea Designs $50 GC - Daniella Burgess

Taylored Expressions Two $25 GC - Nancy Stott & Delia Rice

Technique Tuesday $30 GC - Ruth Meyer

The Ton Stamps $20 GC for The Ton stamps - Lisa Dixon

Winnie & Walter $50 GC - Nicole Primeau-Leduc

Wplus9 $25 GC - Ann Richardson

Update 12/7/2017: All winners have been notified of their winning.

Again, from all of us at Caring Hearts, thank you for your contribution & support. Bringing Christmas joy and sharing kindness are the heart of our card drive. And, whether you know it or not, your contribution made a difference. Like someone said to me, we don't know how many people's life we touch with our cards. No act of kindness is too little. No act of kindness ever wasted. Let being KIND be part of our daily life, not only at Christmas, but all through the year. God bless you all.

The Ton Mood Board Challenge

Hi peeps! How's it going? I am happy to report that last night I finally packed the last box for Caring Hearts Card Drive. I love doing the card drive, but there's quite a few times where it gets very overwhelming. With my full time job and just daily home stuff, I've been exhausted. So, I am sure very happy that now I can take a break. 

Please be patient with the prize announcement. Let me take a breather a day or two and I promise I will do the prize announcement by early next week.

Now with all the hectic schedule, I missed my deadline for The Ton Challenge post. Here's the current mood board. It' all about Christmas scene and winter theme.

Since I am all ready for Christmas decoration, I went with the Christmas theme using The Ton Christmas Sweater set.

This set is simply gorgeous and would be perfect for doing mass produce. I stamped and heat embossed the image on a piece of watercolor cardstock and then colored it with Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. The sentiment is from Christmas Wreath Builder set.

Come play along with us. You have plenty of time to join in. Check out the challenge & prize detail HERE. Well peeps, that's all from me today. What will you be working on this weekend? Me? Putting up our Christmas tree and go shopping for ornaments for our office Christmas tree. Fun assignment from the boss. Hah... Enjoy your weekend. Cheers....