Blog 2nd Anniversary and Blog Candy!!

LOL! I'm posting this blog candy on all of my blogs. Only one entry will apply. . .you may choose any of my blog to comment but only one entry will apply for all blogs.

Hey Everyone!!! Friday, December 5th is my Blog 2nd Anniversary! I was going to wait until the 5th to announce the blog candy but I want to get the package out before the Christmas rush kicks in. The blog candy will run from from December 3rd (today) and will end on Wednesday, December 10th, 12:00 midnight PST. The blog candy is open to US and Canadian residents only. I'm sorry for the International readers, I hate doing customs at the post-office. It's painful!

It's been such a wonderful 2 years of crafting and blogging and especially meeting such wonderful people who I would never have met if it wasn't for this fabulous world of blogging. Thank you for inspiring me, entertaining me, and just being kind and encouraging. I, especially, appreciate my regular blog readers who always comment with such kind words. . .you brighten my day when ever I receive your comments or emails!!

Whenever I visit a blog, I ALWAYS read what the blogger writes. That is one reason why I take a long time to make my rounds as far as commenting your blogs. I actually read what you write and I like to comment on what your talk about. I not only enjoy the beautiful work that you post on your blogs, but I especially enjoy reading what you have to say.

• So here's the deal. . .one entry per person.
  Comment on this post by linking a blog that you regularly like to READ. . .not because of their beautiful art work but because you like what they write aside from the subject of card making, scrapbooking, or any art work. Tell me why you like to read this person's blog. The blog don't have to be stamping, cardmaking, scrapbooking related. . .any blog applies. I will, in time, follow those links and read them myself as well.
• Please leave a comment on this blog. . .do not email me because I cannot keep track of my emails! LOL!!
• Everyday until the blog candy ends next Wednesday. . .I'll add a new item in addition to what is pictured and listed below. This is just the start of the prizes!! Whoohoo!!
• Link this blog candy on your blog and you'll receive an extra entry. Please let me know on your comment that you'll be linking this blog candy on your blog. Thanks!!

One winner will be RANDOMLY chosen and announced on Thursday, December 11th. If the winner do not respond within 48 hours, I will choose a new winner because I want to get the package mailed out as soon as possible.

Here is the list of items so far:

1. Marcella by K&CO rubber stamp set (Happy Occasion)
2. High Hopes rubber stamp (Birdies Fried - Snowlady)
3. CD Tin Case for altering
4. Kaleidacolor Rainbow Dye Ink (Spectrum)
5. Making Memories Charmed Plaques (Mini Bugs)
6. Making Memories Tagged Squares
7. Lasting Impressions Buttons
8. Pressed Petals Monday Metal self-adhesive frames
9. Jolee's Boutique Sticker Collage
10. Heidi Grace Alpha Chipboard Stickers with Flocking (Snowflake Park)
11. Heidi Grace Rub-ons
12. Heidi Grace Shape decorations Plastic Embellishments (Vineyard)
13. My Moments Peel n' Stick
14. Jolee's by You Kid Gift Bag
15. Sticko Stuffed Ups Adhesive Envelopes
16. Making Memories Boho Chic Ephemera Stickers

17. Prima Flowers

18. K&Company Metal Art

19. Jolee by You Fumky Spiral embellishment

20. Holiday Clear Stamps

21. Favorite Finds Shell Buttons

22. Best Occasion Foil Chipboard Accents

Be sure to check back daily to see what else I've added to the prize. Good luck!!

December 4th - I added a container full of Prima Flowers!

Here are the additional items I promised to add to the blog candy!! Whoohoo!!

K&Company Metal Art

Jolee by You Fumky Spiral embellishment

Holiday Clear Stamps

Favorite Finds Shell Buttons

Best Occasion Foil Chipboard Accents

And the Winner is. . .

As you probably already know by now. . . .Sandy won the blog candy. Her creations are beautiful. Her work is posted on both of my blog sites, Card Inspired and Stampin Inspirations because she submitted two cards for my blog candy. Congratulations Sandy!


I had my daughter pull the name out of the bag this afternoon. She got up a little late because we all went to bed a little late last night. We love to stay up late on the weekends and watch movies together or view videos on YouTube on our TV (a computer is connected to our TV). We like to watch live concerts of our favorite bands. . .we each choose a band to watch and just chill out together. My kids are really good kids. . .they don't like to go out and just hang out with friends. . .they actually like to hang out with us (parents) which is unusual these days. We cook together, we eat all our meals at the table together, we hang out in our backyard, etc.






Anyway, I won't be posting anything for the next few days. It's my son's birthday tomorrow and I have a few personal obligations I need to take care of . . .one of which is cleaning out our garage and prepare for a garage sale this coming weekend. I am not looking forward to it but it has to be done.

Thank you all who participated in my blog candy. I really appreciate the interaction that I have with y'all. All of your creations are wonderful. . .very impressive! I feel bad for those who didn't win because y'all deserve to win. Unfortuantely, I don't have 35 prizes to give away. Lastly, thank you all for your nice comments about my blog sites. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate them.

Blog Candy Submission 10(a) - Guest Stamper - Cheryl

Wow check out Cheryl's Blog Candy submission! I must say it's really, really cute! I'm glad she decided to try out the "CD Envelope Shaker Card". I love the cute colors she used and the stamp image is so adorable.

Cheryl has a blog site. . .yes, she's a blogget too! Haha! Is blogget a word? Not sure. Anyway. . .Cheryl's blog site is called "Cheryl Stamps and Scraps" and she's been blogging since February. . .hey, almost an old timer. in the blogging world. Cheryl posts a lot of great card creations and projects! She has a lot of ideas to share so be sure to visit her blog site after you're finished with mine. Don't forget to say "hello"!

Anyway. . .if you want to try this tutorial. . .Click on my side bar under categories labeled "CD Envelope Shaker Card" and try out the tutorial. I promise it's really easy to create.

I have a few more submissions to post but I'll post the rest tomorrow. I've been blogging all day posting everyone's submission. . .I think it's time for me to take a break for today!

Thank you Cheryl for participating in my Blog Candy. Good luck!!

Blog Candy Prize - Check it Out

Okay, here is the prize. For those who decide to create a card using any of my sketches, you have a chance to win this Creative Keepsake 8x8 Album Storage Kit. Inside the kit are the following:

1 8x8 Album with a beautiful design

6 Pattern Papers

6 Solid Cardstock Sheets

3 Plastic Paper Holders (each holder can fit probably 50 sheets of 8x8 cardstock or pattern paper

1 Photo storage container





If you decide to create a card or project using any of my tutorials, you have a chance to win the 8x8 Album Storage Kit as well as a 12x12 K& Company Double Sided Designer Paper which contains 36 double sided paper. The designer paper is so beautiful and are thick similar to cardstock quality. If you scroll down, you'll see a sample of the designer papers. There's more but I just took a picture of few of them. They're beautiful.

Anyway, good luck! The drawing will be on June 2nd!

Blog Candy Submission #3(a) - Guest Stamper - Tejal

Hey take a look! Tejal decided to try one of my tutorials. She decided to try my "Fun Shaker Card" Tutorial posted on my Stampin Inspirations blog site.

Click Here for the Fun Shaker Card Tutorial

I automatically submitted Tejal's card (scroll to yesterday's post) she made a few days ago because she used one of my card sketches but she decided to do another card.

Her card is so cute. She really loves bears. If you check out her blog site "Creating New Expressions Everyday" you'll see she has bunch of bear cards! I love bears too and I actually have quite a few bear rubber stamps.

If you're wondering why I have the Blog Candy Submissions posted on either this blog site or my Stampin Inspirations blog site. . .well. . if you submit a card with a Stampin Up image, it will be posted on to my Stampin Inspirations blog site. . .any other stamp images or paper crafting will be posted on Card Inspired.

Again, if you are interested in participating in my blog candy. . .Click here for the details

Yay! It's Blog Candy Time to Celebrate My 500+ Subscribers

Click Here for the picture of the Prize

I know y'all love Blog Candies so I decided to do a blog candy to celebrate my 500 subscribers to both my blog sites! Can you believe it? 500! I never would have imagined that I would have even close to that amount but the other day, I checked Feedblitz and there it was! I had hit a milestone! The email reader counter shows 371 for my Stampin Inspirations blog site and 267 for Card Inspired. The numbers are funny that way because there are some readers who subscribe to only Stampin Inspirations, some to just Card Inspired, and there are those who subscribe to both but the total amount of unique subscribers are currently at 503.

I have a JoAnn and Michaels coupons so I'll go shopping tomorrow for the prize. Okay. . .how do you participate in this blog candy. . .ummmmm, well. . .this is where it will get a bit tricky. . .haha! There are two ways to participate. . .I've posted, I believe close to 30 tutorials on both or either blog sites (Card Inspired and Stampin Inspirations). . .to participate, create a card or project using one of my tutorials and send me a picture.

The second way to participate is to create using one of my sketches from either blog site and send me a picture. You shouldn't have any problems finding a sketch because to date, I've posted close to 200 sketches, therefore, you have a lot to choose from! Please let me know the date of the post and which blog site (Card Inspired or Stampin Inspirations). If you are using the compiled monthly Sketch Challenges, let me know which number and which month!

To determine the winner, I will randomly choose by pulling a name out of a hat. The prize will be based on whether the card was from one of my sketches or one of my tutorials. If the winner created a card or project from one of my tutorials, I will add an extra prize! I will post the prize tomorrow or Sunday! I'll be sure to make the prize worth your effort!

Deadline for the card or project submission will be Friday, June 1st and the drawing will be on Saturday, June 2nd! Email your submission as a picture attachment to lbmcd66@hotmail.com. I will post pictures of all submissions on to my blog site! If it's a Stampin Up image, it will be posted on my Stampin Inspirations Blog Site and if it's a non-Stampin Up image, it will be posted on Card Inspired. It don't have to be rubber stamped. . .it can be any type of paper crafting as long as you follow any of my sketch or tutorial!

Hope y'all participate! I really, really am dying to see your work!

Selina is the Winner of the Blog Candy - Congratulations!!

did the "Regis & Kelly" way of choosing a winner. I asked my daughter to pick out a number from 1 to 86 (the amount of participants) and she chose number 54.

On the list I compiled of all the participants of the blog candy. Selina was 54 on the list!! Selina, please email me at lbmcd66@hotmail.com with your address so I can mail your package.

I really had fun with this blog candy. Alot of you love country music and rock music! Some of you even saw Elvis and Donnie and Marie in concert! Wow!

Linzi actually saw my FAVORITE band 30 Seconds to Mars 8 times. 8 times. . .hmmmm. . .was it the music or was it Jared Leto that made her want to see them that many times? My daughter said "oh, if you could. . you would see them 8 times too". Well, that's true.

Here are the concerts Selina saw in concert:

Zoe Girl (the kids & I all loved this one)
Brooks & Dunn (very entertaining)Wynonna (loved her)Sawyer Brown (took my sister for her birthday, it was fun)

I am sure there are more, but those are the ones I can remember.I would love to see Casting Crowns and Mercy Me, Casting Crowns will be here this fall, I am hoping to take the kids to that one, they'd love it.

*************************
To answer the question "who was Rex Smith". . .well. . . Rex Smith had a hit song "You Take My Breath Away" and he starred in a TV movie of the week called "Sooner or Later", costarring with Denise Miller who played "Jessie".

Anyway, I didn't realize how active Rex Smith is in show business. I guess I just didn't recognize him in several movies that he was in. When I was 13 years old, he did a concert at one of our malls in Hawaii. I was sooooooooo in love with the movie and at that time Rex Smith. Haha! Hilarious!!!

Here is Rex Smith when he starred in the movie "Sooner or Later"! Remember him?

Again, Congratulations Selina!

Blog Candy - Concerts I've Seen Live in Person

***UPDATE***
Blog Candy Prize
I love mixing scrapbook embellishments and scrapbook paper with my rubber stamped cards so I thought this was a good mix of stuff for a blog candy. I especially love the alphabet chipboards right now so I decided to share some with you!!
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I have a blog candy going on my Stampin Inspirations Blog Site but I want readers to this blog site to participate as well! Tell me who you've seen in concert live in person and in parentheses, add a little note about the concert like I did with my list. Lastly, add one band or entertainer you wish you could see in concert.

I'll draw the name of the winner on Wednesday, May 2nd at 6:00 p.m. (PST). I'll post the picture tomorrow. I need to pick out some candy to give away. Just so you don't think I'm a head banging chick! (See my post on Stampin Inspirations). . .I've been to many concerts. I, actually, have a diverse taste in music. Below are concerts I've seen "Live" in person:

Def Leppard (Remember them in the 80s - drummer's one arm was amputated)

Boston ( I was in the 6th Grade)

Rex Smith (haha, don't laugh - do your remember him?) - If you can tell me who Rex Smith is, I'll add an extra goody.

Carole King (Beautiful concert - oldies but goodies)

Janet Jackson (By far the best concert I've been to)

Michael Jackson (Second best concert)

Ozzy Osborne (Not as crazy as people made him up to be - no bird's head was bitten off)

Black Sabbath (Serious rock n roll)

Bon Jovi (Big hair days)

Ted Nuggent (He was Wild)

Bobby Brown (Danced my butt off)

Run DMC (Major jammin')

Celine Dion (Great songs but a real sleeper)

Alanise Morisette

(She was strange, all she did was rock back and forth in one place like she was zoning out and did funny things with her hands)

Switchfoot ( I think the singer was drunk)

Los Lonely Boys (Great rockin' with a latin flavor)

Hootie and Blowfish (Really mellow)

B52s (Not my style)

Train (He did these weird ballet moves - not very rock n roll if you ask me)

Britney Spears (Great entertainer - fun concert)

Destiny's Child - Beyonce Knowles (Sexy that's for sure - great concert)

NSYNC (Fun concert - great choreography)

The Police (It was their "farewell" concert - the last concert before they disbanded - it was a touching concert)

I've seen more concerts but I can't remember all of them right now. They were mainly rock concerts in the 80s.

I'm going to see 30 Seconds to Mars, the Used, Plain White T's, the Bravery, Say Anything, Social Distortion, and more to be announced on X-Fest San Diego on May 20th. Whoohoo! Can't wait to see them!!

The band I wish I could see in concert is GreenDay.

Now it's your turn. . .

Faux Watercoloring and Blog Candy on Stampin Inspirations Blog Site

Check out my "Stampin Inspirations" blog site. I have a tutorial on "Faux Watercoloring". I'll make a card using a none Stampin Up stamp and post it on this blog site but in the meantime, stop by Stampin Inspirations for a sample using this technique that I made up.

I also have a Blog Candy going on on that site so check it out!

Winner of my Blog Candy

Congratulations to the winner of my blog candy. I sent an email to the winner who happen to subscribe to both of my blog sites so I'll be sending a few extra goodies. Please check you email to see if you are the winner.

Here is a partial email address of the winner - "coombdav".

Obviously, the whole address is not shown but just in the case the person didn't read their email but came to visit my site. . .

Thank you for your participation and for subscribing to my blog sites! I really do appreciate it. There was a total of 217 participants in this blog candy, either subscribing to one of my blog sites or both! Wow, this was really fun.

Here are pictures of my daughter pulling the email address of the winner.

I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend and again, thank you for being such wonderful readers!

Subscriber Only Blog Candy

I now have a 120 subscribers to my Stampin Inspirations and Card Inspired blog sites. Wow, I'm honored. When I started my blog sites, I didn't think that anyone would even read them. Really!! I created them mainly because I thought it would be fun to create a blog. I started initially with my "Reflections and Perspective" blog site just for fun. I wanted to post my thoughts on various subject areas.

I decided to create a blog for rubber stamping because well, I love rubber stamping so why not. It was just something to do but it has grown into something that I really enjoy doing. It motivates me to create things and I have so much fun doing it.

When I first created my blog sites, I was unaware of the amount of other rubber stamping blogs out there. I'm shocked that there are so many. I'm lucky to even have the amount of readers that I do have because there are so many talented stampers out there who have great blog sites. . .who am I? Just another stamper blogging my work.

I would like to thank everyone who visits and/or who subscribes to my blog sites. This blog candy are for those who are subscribers of either my Stampin' Inspirations and/or Card Inspired blog sites. If you want to participate in the blog candy and is not yet a subscriber, all you need to do is subscribe.

To subscribe all you need to do is sign up at the top right of my blog's sidebar, add your email address and feedbitz will email you to let you know that you need to confirm your subscription. Annoymous subcribers will not be included in the drawing because there is no way for me to know who you are and how to contact you so when subcribing don't subcribe as "annoymous".

I will add extra candies for those who subscribed to both blog sites. For those subcribed to only one of them, you will receive the Stampin Up "Happy Harmony" stamp set and the JoAnn essential metal embellishments.

I will announce the winner on Friday, March 16th. . .this is one week from today. If you have a blog site yourself, I would appreciate you let your readers know about my blog candy or if you know of someone who loves to rubber stamp, please forward my blog site address so that they may participate as well.

If you already have the "Happy Harmony" set and want to substitute it for another Stampin' Up sell-a-bration set, just let me know which one you want.

Again, I would like to thank you all for being very kind with your comments and making my blogging experience a very fulfilling one!

Feedbitz has your email address on file so I will be informing the winner via email! I will not be posting the winner's email address on my blog. Announcement of the winner on my blog sites will only be just to inform that I had sent an email to the winner.

Until later. . .

Blog Candy Prize for Sonya

Here are the pictures of the "Valentines Blog Candy Packet" that Sonya will be receiving. I chose these items for the prize because I feel embellishments are an important component of a beautifully well made card. Unfortunately, these little extras add up in cost and many times, when we shop for card items, it don't always fit into our budget.

I love designer papers, metal embellishments, brads, eyelets, ribbons and of course rubber stamps so I created a prize package that incorporated all of these elements

Here are the details of the prize package:

25 6x6 designer papers by DCWV
Metal Embellishments by Colorbox that includes 75 silver tag alphabets, 10 silver circle clips, 20 silver tag numbers, and 25 silver mini brads - a total of 112 pieces.
25 large multi-colored ribbon eyelets
50 small red square eyelets
1 spool of 4 yards of designer ribbon
1 bottle of Making Memories Trims
1 Friendship stamp
And. . .2 Handmade Valentine cards with envelope and 1 Valentines Cocoa Pocket Card

Hope you like your prize Sonya!

I think I'll be doing a Blog Candy once a month. I'll do one for Easter next month! Stay tuned and hope you participate again! By the way I had 49 responses and considering the length of the questionnaire, I feel my first blog candy was a success! The next one won't be as involved!

My husband was surprised that I received that many responses. It's funny because I had told him that I had done a survey/questionnaire and he had, without knowing how many questions there were, said. . ."industry analyst advise that you keep your survey to 5 questions" and I said "oops, I had 20 questions" and he said "well, you may have a problem getting people to participate" and I said "I received 49 responses" (at first I thought I had 51 but there were two that were duplicate emails).

Hmmmph, so much for the industry analyst advise, huh :~)

Again, thank you for your participation!

Until later. . .

And the Winner Is. . .

Wow, thank y'all for filling out the survey! This was so fun!! I really enjoyed reading them and felt I had a little bit of commonality with all of you!. I'll compile the information sometime later in the afternoon and post a compilation of the responses.

It's 1:16 in the morning and I was about to head to bed. My daughter has a fund raising to attend early in the morning with her Keyclub. It's a fund raising for a student at her school who has cancer. I'm going to ask about this boy that the fund raiser is for and see if I can arrange a RAK for him. I need to talk to his parents at the fund raiser tomorrow morning.

Anyhow, because I'll be busy in the morning attending this fund raiser, I wasn't sure what time I would be back so I asked my daughter to help me to pull a name out of the bag while I took pictures at 1:00 in the morning. It's funny because she really took her job seriously. She was like "mom, you mean I'll be choosing the winner". . .

Here is the winner's response to the questionnaire.

She's been stamping for 2 years and stamps daily. . .at least that's her goal.

She loves all kinds of stamp brands and it takes her about 20 to 30 minutes to make a card.

Her favorite technique is dry embossing and shape cards and would like to learn how to use different colors and designs on her cards. She says that she is a "total ADDICT!" when it comes to stamping.

She's employed as a cashier at Wal-mart and wish she could get together with stamping buddies.

She lurks SCS but is not registered and believe or not, unlike the rest of us she is pretty good about not going overboard with buying stamps.

Her favorite TV show is CSI, Court TV (both my favorites) and the Food network. She loves Romantic comedies such as Notting Hill, Sleepless in Seattle and Ever After and she loves all kinds of music.

She doesn't have a blog site, but her favorite website is I believe SCS. Her other hobbies are cooking, photography, reading, and the outdoors.

She's not a Stampin' Up deomonstrator and loves my blog site.

She lives in Lebanon, Oregon

Are you the winner?

Here are the pictures of my daughter drawing the name of the winner. Scroll down for the winner. I'll post picture of the blog candy once I get back from the fund raiser.

Congratulations Sonya!! You Lucky Girl!!

Last Day for the Blog Candy Survey

One more day and I'll announce the winner of the Blog Candy. You still have time to fill out the survey and be eligible to win a "Valentines Goodie Packet" filled with handmade items, card/scrapbook embellishments, rubber stamp, ribbon, and other fun items! Click Here for the "Tell Me About Yourself" questionnaire!

For those who responded, wow, it was great getting to know you folks. Many of you have a lot in common with me and other stampers who responded! Your kind words about my blog site really makes me feel good about the effort I put into making it enjoyable to read and look through. I really want what I post to be helpful and encourages you to try new techniques and projects.

Considering the length of the questionnaire, the amount of people responded was awesome. I received over 50 responses. Many of you emailed your responses which is helpful because I won't need to figure out how to inform you if you win the drawing tomorrow.

For those who used the comment button and don't have a blog site, please check back if you are the winner and if you won, please email me with your address. For the email responders, I will let you know via email. Check my post tomorrow to see if you won! I will also post the picture of the "blog candy"! I didn't post it because I wanted it to be a surprise! I think you'll like what you'll receive!

Until later. . .