Saturday, December 31, 2011

Thinking of our military on New Years

I hope everyone in the blogosphere is having a safe and happy day, counting down to the New Year. I got a letter from my marine yesterday that made my day. She is coming home to her two year old son in February, just in time for his birthday. She wrote me to thank me for the letters and care packages, and tell me how much they meant to her over the last 6 months or so. Now that Jessica is coming home, I'm going to adopt another soldier. In the mean time, I'll keep writing letters to a new soldier each week. This week, the soldier's story really touched my heart and made it hurt for him and his family. This is his second deployment. Five days after he was deployed, he found out that his daughter has cancer. His wife and daughter are currently at the hospital while his daughter undergoes treatment, and his son is several hundred miles away from them (and he is several thousand miles away!). I wanted to do a little extra something for him, rather than just writing a letter. Well, for several of them, I include a blank card that they can use to send a note to family. In his case, I'm going to include a donation towards a phone card or internet service (they have to pay $70/month for it, where he is stationed), as well as a card each for his wife, son, and daughter. Here are the cards I've made. I used some images that I had already colored.
This is the card for his wife. The "I'm Yours" is actually a pin that she can later remove and wear, if she so chooses. Image is Edwin from Magnolia. Papers are Prima.




And these are the cards for his kids. The little monkey card is for his son, and the House Mouse card is for his daughter. Many thanks to my awesome friend Tracy for making the sentiment for me!

In each card, I added a folding piece of paper so he can write a lengthy note to each one of them. This New Year's, stay safe, stay warm, be happy and please...remember those courageous men and women who sacrifice for us each and every day!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

I hope I don't have to draw a new winner

Ursula, please contact me by Tuesday to claim your prize from our Guylou's Inimitability blog hop. If not, I'm going to have to draw another winner and I don't want to do that to you!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Congratulations to Ursula!

First off, thanks to everyone who hopped along with us on Saturday. I hope you got lots of inspiration and had fun, too!

The winner of my secret RAK and Dorothy Makes a Snow Angel is:

Congratulations, Ursula! Please email me at RSL314 (at) verizon (dot) net with your home address, so I can mail you the RAK. I will also email you the certificate to use for your free Guylou's Inimitability image, Dorothy Makes a Snow Angel.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Are you ready to play a fun game with Guylou's Inimitability?

Hey, there, all the readers in blogland! I'm a bit punchy today; it's been a super busy week both personally and at work, so I'm rather tired and slap happy. I promise, I'm usually pretty sane. Most of the time. LOL.

Ok, ok, I'll get to the point. It's coming up on Christmas! I love Christmas and have such a great time making gifts for family and friends. I usually make Christmas cards, too, but I didn't do too much of that this year. Time just got away from me. Man, I can't seem to stop being tangential today. Sorry about that. Back to it: we're having a hop at Guylou's Inimitability. If you've made it here from our wonderful NEW DT member Chana's blog, then you're in the right spot. If you get lost at any point, head on back to Guylou's Inimitability for some direction.

First off, welcome, Chana! We're so happy to have you with us on our DT. You rock, girl!

This is our awesomest hop of the year. We've got so many prizes, freebies, and a fun game, too! All you have to do is visit each stop on the hop, leave a comment, and collect the secret word on each blog...it shouldn't be too hard, since our DT has made every effort to um...showcase and provide some form of highlight on their particular word. Once you've got all of the words, reorganize them to a Christmas phrase and go to Guylou's Inimitability and put it in the InLinkz on the GI blog. You should have nine words once you've collected them all. Two people with the correct phrase will win gift certificates to the Guylou's Inimitability store. We're not done there, though. I mean, after all, it's coming up on Christmas, people!

In addition to the chance to win a gift certificate, you could win free images. At the end of the hop, each DT member will draw a name from their commenters. One lucky commenter per blog will win the image used on that DT member's blog. In my case, you can win Dorothy Makes a Snow Angel. Isn't she darling? Check her out:
I made her into a tag for my aunt's Christmas present (the to and from are on the back). She's a shakerbox full of teeny, tiny blingy beads. The light reflects off of those beads like crazy! I added some silver ribbon, which I attached with KI Gloo to the back. Papers are Basic Grey. I used Liquid Applique to suggest the snow angel shape.

Oh, yeah, back to prizes and such. We're not done yet! Not only will I give away Dorothy Makes a Snow Angel to one lucky winner, but I'll also be giving away a secret Christmas RAK! Trust me, it's yummy. I'll give you a hint of some of the things you might find in it: a Tim Holtz mini bird with cage die, a 6x6 paper pad or two, maybe some ribbon and buttons....I tend to go a bit overboard with my shopping, so trust me, you will love it!

We're STILL not done. Just for participating in this hop, everyone is eligible to receive two free digis from Guylou's store. You can get the wreath with the bow as well as without it. Just add it to your cart at the GI digi store and apply the coupon code 2011-12-BH-WREATH.

Did you catch all of that? In short, we're having fun at Christmas time, offering prizes, a game, and two free images!!! Thank you so much for your support throughout this year. Have fun hopping! Your next stop is my awesome buddy, Sara. Just in case you need it, here's the blog order:

Chana
Gina (you are here!)
Sara
Tracy
Trina
Kim
Carmen
Guylou
Guylou's Inimitability

Thanks for coming by and Merry Christmas!!!!

(Did you get my secret word yet? I'm seeing red....)