Mega Thanks for Mega Box of Blog Candy!

Operation Write Home had a fabulous Be My Valentine Bloghop last weekend, and I was lucky enough to be one of the winners of some fabulous blog candy from this hop.  This particular win was from Jan Hunnicut at Jan's she's gone stampin blog.  I was expecting some cardstock, stickers and stamps, but I wasn't prepared for all of the goodies packed inside of this USPS Priority Flat Rate box!  There were sets of stamps from Stampin' Up!, Penny Black & In Style Stamps, a very gracious handful of cardstock, stickers, chipboard tags, chipboard letters, metal tags, Button-Ups, Fresh Cuts, Glitter, badge stickers, vellum phrases, cards & envelopes, clear overlays, woven words and more!  Talk about some awesome candy!!!!  I can't thank Jan enough for offering this awesome candy in support of Operation Write Home!

I know I've asked you all before, but it's so important to vote everyday for Operation Write Home at Joann's Craft for a Cause.  I vote every morning at 9:00, so I can get the maximum number of votes for this awesome organization.  Operation Write Home always needs your support of your hand-made cards for our soldiers, so why not send them some today?  Even if you can't fill up a USPS Priority Flate Rate Box full, maybe you can fill up a USPS Priority Flat Rate Envelope.   We're still working on Valentine's cards until the 10th of January, but if you can get them in by December 1st, Archway will be adding up to 4,000 of their tasty confections to go with these Valentines!  Please, remember not to use glitter on these or any other cards that you make for our troops.  Again, thanks for supporting our troops!

~~~  Lee  ~~~

OWH Bloghop Blog Candy Winner!

So, I hope that all of you have had a chance to make it through the Operation Write Home Be My Valentine Bloghop by now.  Wasn't it amazing?  If you haven't been already, and you want to start at the beginning of the hop, just go to the Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps blog.  I just love all of the eye candy and tutorials and of course the blog candy!  I guess that's why you stopped today, so maybe I should get to who won my blog candy.

I keep saying I'm going to use the Random Generator for my blog candies, but I forgot to look into it again!  I'm not sure if the Random Generator can check it against who is a follower or not, so if any of you know the answer would you please let me know?  If I still have to check all of the commenters against the followers, it defeats the purpose of using it.

Before I announce the winner ;o), I want to remind everyone to vote everyday for OWH at Joann's Craft for a Cause!  Can you imagine how many boxes of cards we could send to the troops with the $50,000 prize????  Wouldn't it be nice to give Sandy and the others a break from constantly looking for contributions?  Make sure you let all of your family and friends know that we need their votes, too!  Post the link for Joann's Craft for a Cause on your facebook page, tweet about it on twitter, or even use the old-fashioned word-of-mouth!

Well, I guess I made you wait long enough to find out who won the blog candy, so the winner is:

Beth from

Beth Horn's Stamp Pad 

Congrats to Beth on winning this bundle of goodies!  I'm on my way to email Beth about her win as well as list it on OWH.  If I don't get a response with an address of where to send these papercrafting goodies by Sat., November 20th, I'll draw another winner.

Thanks to all who commented, hopped and especially the bloggers who made this hop another success for OWH!  Most of all, I want to thank all of you who make cards for our soldiers!  You may not get a personal thank you, but I can tell you that it meant a world of good for my daughter and her unit while she was stationed in Iraq!  You're the greatest!!!!



~~~  Lee  ~~~



Horse Stamp Mystery SOLVED!

Many thanks to Robyn on Paper Craft Planet who found the manufacturer of the Patriotic Horse that I used on my OWH Be My Valentine Bloghop card.  It can be found at I LOVE RUBBER STAMPS.  If you go there, be forewarned!  Linda Schmidt has some super awesome stamps!!!!!  Tell her Operation Write Home sent you.  Maybe she will sponsor us on some challenges or future bloghops! 

~~~  Lee  ~~~

OWH Be My Valentine Bloghop

Welcome to my portion of the Operation Write Home Be My Valentine Bloghop!  I'm very honored to participate in another OWH bloghop.  My very first bloghop was with OWH a year ago for Veteran's Day.  I was afraid that I would do something wrong and upset people.  Instead, I've become friends with a very supportive and helpful group of people who will bend over backwards to help others, especially our soldiers serving overseas!  I started making cards for the soldiers while my daughter was stationed in Iraq with the Colorado Army National Guard 220th MP unit.  I know first-hand how important all of these special cards mean to our soldiers. 

If you came here from Jessica's blog, Certainly Stamping, you're at the right place! Isn't it fabulous that she is donating her commissions until Dec. 31st to OWH! Send a super THANKS to this fabulous women for being so gracious to our soldiers! We also need to send a special thanks to her hubby who is a sailor, and her soldier brother! That's a lot to be thankful for!!!!  If you get lost on the hop or a link isn't working, you can always go back to the OWH Stars and Stamps blog to get you in the right place. 

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You may know the history behind Veteran's Day, but do you know that there is an organization that makes it possible for us to find out personal information about wars from World War I to the present from the veterans and those involved in the war effort from correspondence, pictures and other types of media?  The Veteran's History Project was created in 2000 by the U.S. Congress with the following mission:
"The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war."

Are you a veteran or do you know someone who served and would like to contribute to this project?  Maybe you would like to know more about where a family member served or what types of obstacles they had to overcome because of the war.  Then you will want to check out this organization to see what is available, or maybe you can contribute to preserving this portion of history for others.  Take some time to check them out for yourself.
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***SUCCESS! Robyn on Paper Craft Planet found the manufacturer of the stamp.  It can be found at I LOVE RUBBER STAMPS.

My Valentine's card uses this fabulous horse stamp that I bought on ebay.  I would love to know who made it, so if you know the manufacturer please let me know.  I stamped and then heat embossed it with Stampendous embossing powder.  The star paper is a specialty paper from Hobby Lobby, and the textured silver paper is from a DCWV matstack.  The gorgeous ribbon is another ebay purchase.  To finish off the front, I matted this metal heart from All My Memories.

Here's the inside of the card that I stamped with this old PSX sentiment, and then heat embossed it with fine silver embossing powder.  There's plenty of room left for the soldier to write a personal note inside.

The Valentine's card deadline is January 7th.  Sorry if you wanted to send them Christmas cards, but that deadline has already passed.  Don't worry, you can tuck them away for now and send them to your OWH shipper next year. 

We need your vote today and everyday until December 4th at Joann's Craft for a Cause.  Just imagine how many boxes of cards could be shipped to our soldiers if OWH won the grand prize of $50,000???  Remember to vote everyday, so make sure to add this URL to your favorites.  Vote the same time everyday, so we can get the maximum number of votes allowed.  They only allow one vote per household per day, so make sure you tell your blogger, facebook, twitter and other friends to vote for OWH, too! 

What's a blog hop without BLOG CANDY????  I'll draw for this blog candy on Wednesday, November 17th!  It includes the Wedding Stamp set from the Rusty Pickle, a clear stamp set called Mix & Match Labels from Hampton Arts, an assortment of ribbons that's not all pictured here, some brights 5" x 7" papers from Making Memories, app. 50 sheets of 6" x 6" papers from Paper Symphony and some other assorted surprises!  Sorry, but the blog candy is only available for US shipping.  All you have to do to enter is:

1. Become a follower if you aren't already one.  WooHoo!!!!  Since I hit over 100 followers,  I'm adding in some more goodies!!!!
2. Leave a comment below, so I know you want to win this blog candy.
3. Go to the Joann's Craft for a Cause link today and everyday and vote for Operation Write Home
4. Leave your email in the comment section if you don't have a blog. 

Your next stop on the hop is to Doris's blog, Mom's Been Scrappin.  Not only does she make some fabulous cards for our heroes, but her family is really into helping our soldiers.  One of her daughter's even participated in the Tough Mudder event that raises money for the Wounded Warrior Project! 

****SPECIAL MISSION****

From now until Dec. 1st, you can make Valentines and send them to one of our shippers to be involved in an awesome partnership with Archway.  Gosh, OWH really love to keep our heroes happy, don't they?  Please help whenever you can, so our soldiers know how much we care about them and their families!

~~~  Lee  ~~~

I Got the Attitude! Blog Award

I was awarded the I Got Attitude! Blog Award blog award from Ileanna, one of my ultra-talented blogging friends from Spain.  Ileanna has always been an inspiration to me ever since I met her through the Michelle Perkett Studio group on Paper Craft Planet, but she's the one that gave me an award.  Take some time to check out her blog; All Things that Make Me Happy. 

In order to qualify for the $5.00 Digi’s With Attitude! Gift Certificate you must state 3 things that makes you different from everyone else and you must nominate 5 blogs. Lastly, you must display the Blog Award Badge (above) in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi’s With Attitude! Challenge Blog.

The three things that make me different from everyone else are:
1.  I have been living with Crohn's Disease for over two decades.
2.  I could stay by myself for weeks at a time creating cards.
3.  I was a graphic artist for numerous sign companies before I became disabled.

Now, the hard part!  Since I can only nominate five blogs for this award, it was harder to decide who not to nominate!  The ones I finally chose in no particular order are:
1.  Heather at Heather's Coffee Break
2.  Lelia at Green Goddess Creations 
3.  Sandy at It's a Colorful World
4.  Kim at Living in Paradise
5.  Tami at Team Gingerbread

~~~  Lee  ~~~

I'm Going to the Dogs for Christmas!

I know that many of you hate to be reminded, but Christmas is right around the corner.  How many of you have started your Christmas cards yet? I like to make some throughout the year, so I'm not overwhelmed at Christmas (please don't hate me for this!).  Here's a few that I thought I'd share that will probably end up going to my daughter for her dog training/boarding business.

I love this adorable dog image by Stamp Happen.  He was stamped and heat embossed with Ranger detail embossing powder.  I used a red marker to color the hat and parts of the candy cane, and then used some glitter to simulate snow.  The design paper is an oldie from Hot Off the Press that I cut to look like hills.  The snowflake is from my stash.

I have a ton of holiday stickers in my stash, and this sticker fit great with the card.  I added another sticker to bring a pop of red to the inside.

Since I was going through my stickers, I found these adorable dogs that I had got at the Current outlet store.  Even though they weren't a Christmas theme, who says you can't make them so with some clever additions?  The holly wreath sticker was also in my stash.  To tie it all together, I added a piece of this adorable bone snowflake DP by Daisy Hill and added a border with a Zig Milenium pen as well as added a bit of Distress ink around the edges.  The saying was another stash sticker.  Even though I don't usually make cards with just stickers, I think this one turned out pretty cute!

This last card was another quickie to make.  This doberman image is by the Stamp Gallery, and was stamped and heat embossed with Ranger detail embossing powder.  The corners of the cardstock and matting were rounded with a corner punch and placed on top of this The Paper Studio DP.  To dress things up a bit, a bling collar was added, and then I thought a rhinestone leash would be nice to go with the collar.  I added a few sprigs of sticker greenery from my stash and it was finished.

There you have it.  Three quick and easy cards that will be sure to please some of the people on your list.  Start trying not to overdo things this Christmas by simplifying things where ever you can.  A few stickers here and there, a little bling and some fun stamps come together to help make things easier for you.  Don't drive yourself nuts trying to make everything over the top...relax and have fun.  Isn't that the reason that we got into stamping anyway?

Don't forget to stop back here next weekend for the annual Veteran's Day blog hop for Operation Write Home.  Since this was the very first blog hop I participated in one year ago, I decided that I needed to celebrate this event with some blog candy!  I'll have the picture on my posting that day, so you'll want to come by to check it out as well as the tons of fabulous bloggers that always make this hop so much fun!

~~~  Lee  ~~~