Paper Pretties - Easter Digis for a Cause!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday!  I wanted to share with you tonight an announcement & special digi stamp release from Paper Pretties.  Tomorrow, Heather is releasing a new Easter/Spring themed digital stamp set, illustrated by Joni Stringfield, the artist behind Paper Pretties' Sophia and Cooper.  This is a phenomenal deal, the images are adorable, you get everything for only $7, and all proceeds will be donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  You can read more about it -->HERE<-- on the Paper Pretties blog.


I was fortunate enough to get to play with these images this week; I made a bright & fun Easter card:

Have a great night and a great weekend!  See you back here tomorrow with TWO blog posts!

Blog Candy Reminder!!

You have until tax day, this THURSDAY APRIL 15TH to enter Heather's fabulous blog candy!!

Click here for details and donate today!

HUGE Blog Candy for an AMAZING Cause!

I want to share a truly fabulous blog candy link with you today. My very good friend Heather is having a fund-raising blog candy to help a friend raise money for Cystic Fibrosis. Heather, together with some generous sponsors, has put together a candy package worth over $230. How do you win it ALL???? Just donate $1 or more to her friend's CF donation site and leave a comment. That's it! For those in the United States, the donation is tax deductible. For more info you can read all about it in Heater's blog post.

HERE IS THE LINK TO HEATHER'S CF CANDY

Go, read, and donate. I did! I know I am a very bad friend, I have been very behind in posting this and helping her spread the word. But the candy is open until APRIL 15TH so you still have a week! Heather, you are amazing!

CHD Awareness Week

Happy Sunday to you all! I have a very, very special post today, that is near and dear to one of our own {Little Paper Shop} design team members. Allison Fillo is known to MANY in the stamping world, she's a truly great person (and a blogging genius!), and she has taken up the mantle of a wonderful cause that Julia and the rest of the LPS team are helping her to promote, starting right now!

I will let you read the whole story directly from Allison's words - she's the one who knows it, and lived it, this is her baby (in more ways than one). I remember following her story on her blog and Facebook as it was unfolding, crying for her and thinking how unbelievably strong she and Avery both were. Here is what she said -

From Allison:

As I alluded to earlier this week, today is a special day for me and the {Little Paper Shop} team. Julia was so sweet to allow me to design a stamp set for charity in recognition of Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week which starts today!

Long-time followers of this blog know that my youngest, Avery, was born with Transposition of the Great Arteries the Christmas before last. She had two surgeries (one when she was eight hours old and the major open heart surgery [the arterial switch] at two weeks old). She spent an additional two weeks in the hospital and then was sent home with an excellent prognosis. Little did I know before I had Avery that 1 in 100 babies is born with a congenital heart defect. Much has been done in this last generation to diagnose and repair CHDs however much remains to be done.

This digital stamp set, titled "Broken Hearts for Broken Hearts", will be available at the {Little Paper Shop} for a donation of five dollars. All the proceeds (save any PayPal transactions fees) will be donated to the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton to aid in research and the purchase of specialized equipment.

This stamp set not only reflects the cause but I think also fills a niche for those bittersweet moments of love.

Give a card to your lovesick teen, make up from a fight with your partner or just celebrate Anti-Valentine's Day with your girlfriends!

I would love to see any creations made with this set (which will only be available for a limited time)!

I have included SVG and GSD files for those of you lucky enough to own a cutter! KUDOS: I only came up with the idea to create this stamp set just over a week ago.

I am so fortunate that I have an indulgent team to work with who came through with creations to promote this stamp set. Thanks so much ladies...you are a fun bunch to work with!"

You can find Allison's amazing set right HERE at the {Little Paper Shop} webstore. A mere $5 gets you all the images, the files for your cutter, and one HECK of a great feeling, I have to say! And here is my contribution to the cause, so to speak, using this week's sketch from the Mojo Monday blog {MOJO124} - I got some great inspiration from the Mojo Makers, one of them even used hearts on her card, thanks for the ideas ladies!

Here's the sketch:

Lastly, links to the rest of the LPS design team. Check out their blogs for more inspiration from these wonderful images.

• Little Paper Shop Blog
• Julia
• Pam
• Allison
• Bonnie
• Cindy
• Jennifer (me!)
• Julie
• Heather
• Ann
• Silvia

LPS Preview Day #2 - {Flower Frenzy}

Welcome to preview day #2 for May's {Little Paper Shop} releases!! Are you excited yet?? This second set is called {Flower Frenzy} and it has some really wonderful images for making floral cards for any occasion - from elegant to whimsical!

As always, Julia is offering up a chance to win this set!! Stop over to the LPS blog today and leave a comment on the blog post there to enter. You MUST leave a comment on the LPS blog by 11:59 PM CST to enter the prize drawing. Winner will be announced there tomorrow morning, and the whole release will be revealed!!!

Ok, it's a big day today! In addition to it being a preview day, it's LPS Monday, which means another challenge and another prize! This week it's a color challenge:

I DID use this color combo on my card, the pink is in the patterned paper -- subtle but it's there! Isn't it a fabulous one for spring? These are some of my favorite colors anyway so putting them together just adds to the fun! Check the LPS blog for more info and play along if you have time! There is another chance to win this set up for grabs for playing along, so it's worth your while!! Keyword for uploading to all of our favorite websites is LPSC17.

Ok, in addition to all this good stuff, today is the beginning of the week-long Stamping Out Alzheimer's challenges. Jen Tapler and Susanna Boyd have been hard at work organizing this amazing event -- you won't want to miss it!! For a mere $5 donation you will have access to exclusive challenges and fun prizes from numerous different companies. And the best part..... 100% of the proceeds go directly to the Alzheimer's Association! You can visit the widget on my right sidebar to be taken to the site to donate and start playing along!! Besides it being for a great cause, there are some serious prizes to be won!

Little Paper Shop is hosting a sketch challenge on the Stampin' out Alzheimer's forum and would love for you to join us. Here is the sketch {below}, I used it on my card for today's post too, woohoo!! Extra challenge day! As you can see though, I flipped it 90 degrees counterclockwise to make it work with my image. What a fun sketch!! At the end of the event LPS will be drawing one name from all the entries to win four 4x6 stamp sets. That's over $60 in value!
My last note, another of my favorite companies, Susana's Custom Art & Card Design is also hosting a challenge in the Stampin' out Alzheimer's forum. The prize for that one is an entire set of Victoria Case for SCACD stamps (9 images), a pack of Dovecraft paper & some fun embellies! Donate now and visit the Stampin' out Alzheimer's forum for more details! See you there, happy stampin' this week!

A Very Inspiring Blog Candy Link Up

You have to see what Wendi at Kaput Krafts has to give away - and why! Her teenage nephew is participating in a fundraiser for children's cancer research. It's not passive either, he's going to be shaving his head to help St. Baldrick's foundation raise money. What an amazing gift he is giving! Wendi has 8 prize packages to give away, donated from some of the best stamp vendors and artists around in support of this cause. All you have to do to be entered is make a donation.

Giveaway Link Up

I wanted to post a quick link to some great blog candy and a good cause.

Swing by Erika Martin's blog - she's got a huge giveaway going on in honor of her son's birthday & for autism awareness.

ETA - Also, in case you didn't know this already, Gina K has an autism benefit/fundraiser stamp set called Love You To Pieces. $8 from every set sold goes to Autism Speaks. It's a great cause AND a fab set - I bought mine awhile back. She has a store in McFarland or you can order online (just click on her name or the set name, above).

Card for Victoria

I could not get back to sleep this morning after DH went to work so I got up and decided to stamp. I saw some posts on various blogs regarding a girl in Texas named Victoria who is battling cancer. Her teacher is trying to get 5,000 cards/letters via US mail to her by the end of this month. I thought that was a GREAT reason to get stamping, so here is my contribution! It's heading her way in today's mail. Check out Courtney's blog for more info on Victoria's story and for a chance to win some blog candy. Angelosity also has some blog candy for participating, as does Beate. So get stamping!!

This card used the following supplies: Stampendous Tier of Treats, Starvingartistamps Mosaic Background (I LOVE THIS STAMP!!!), Stampin' Up! Mini Mates and By Definition (it's in white ink over the mosaic so it's hard to see in the pic). All cardstock by Stampin' Up!, plus *lots* of glitter and some self-adhesive rhinestones. I colored in the treats using Prisma alcohol markers.

This card also fits in with the Sketch Challenge for this week at SCS, SC142 (except that I added the extra little square at the top left b/c it NEEDED something extra there). Wow!! That's the first time I've ever done a sketch while it was still "fresh", LOL!