Sites of the week

Just call me Judge Jen…LOL!! I am laughing at the sound of that, but I was graciously asked to be a judge for the Cards For The Troops contest. Debbi and Kyla have teamed up to create a contest for a wonderful cause!!

Here are all the details: {this has been taken from Kyla Maestas’ blog}.

1- Participants can send as many single entries as they like for the contest. Each entry should include a recipe (please do not include this on the card, as troops will be using these cards to send to friends and family). Your recipe should include information about all the supplies used to create your card as well as your contact information, contact information will be used for the sole purpose of contacting the winners.

2- Send cards with the following themes: Father’s Day, Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, Hello, Friend, Missing You, Sympathy, and Kids. Please refrain from placing greetings or sentiments in the inside of the cards, we want to leave plenty of room for the troops to send their personal messages to friends, family and loved ones. If the card is a darker color, please include a lighter card front in the center of the card for correspondence.

3- Cards should be full cards (no fronts) and should include a coordinating envelope. Envelopes must not be clear.

4- Vendor Restrictions- there are no vendor restrictions for this contest, anything goes.

5- Cards will be judged by a private panel of judges based upon quality and creativity… your best work is greatly appreciated.

6- All card submissions must be received no later than May 15th. Winners will be announced within 7 days and posted to the site. All card submissions will be packaged and mailed to Debbi Dresser to be included in her next shipment of cards to the troops. If you would like more information or more ways to get involved you can visit Debbie’s blog by clicking here.

7- Contest submissions and donations should be sent to Kyla Maestas 3714 Madison Dr. Rock Springs WY 82901.

The Goods:

3 winners will be selected. Winners will receive the following prizes 1st place- $20.00 SU gift certificate (redeemable through Kyla Maestas), 2nd place- $10.00 gift certificate from Eclectic Paperie and 3rd- $5.00 SU gift certificate (redeemable through Kyla Maestas). Kendra Giles has agreed to be on the judges panel and will be donating a $20.00 SU gift certificate as well (redeemable through her). Your cards will also be featured on my blog during the week following the contest close. If you would like a link to your blog or website included with this post, please include this information with your submission

I’m back…sorta. I’m back home, but have yet to make it to my stamping room. Hopefully that will happen in the next day or two. I brought back lots of goodies (not stamping related) from AZ, including a whopping head cold! When I heard Ellie through the monitor this morning, I rolled over and asked Tony, “Can I pleeeeease stay in bed for another hour.” That turned out to be almost 2 {very much needed} hours. Right now I don’t have any pics to share, but promise to get those up this week. Thanks for everyone that “tolerated” Tony as my replacement. Can you believe he even got a RAK this week?!? How sweet is that?!?
While I was away, I was checking in on email from time to time and I got tagged…a few times. Thanks girlies! I cannot tell you how hard it is to list my five favorite blogs, because the truth is I have way more than 5 that are right in line with each other. So, I am going to 5 that I enjoy reading on a regular basis. {{I hate doing this bc I feel like I am leaving so many people out!!}}

1. Anna Wight is not only an extremely talented stamper/paper crafter, but also immensely talented in the art of photography. I love viewing her photos of life on her farm.

2. Julie Ebersole is not only a dandy leader for the Dirty Dozen Design Team, but I love her honest reviews of products and her laid back, non-controversial, straight forward take on everything stamping. Her family stories often make me smile as well!

3. Susan Liles lets us take a peek at her amazing stamping talent! I love her style…and not to mention, she is an awesome person in real life, too!!!!

4. Lindsey Botkin is so cute about her love for Willie Nelson! I also love her style and her talent is so incredible!

I really only have one more spot left? Not fair, Not fair!!! eeeeeeeeeeek!!! I don’t like limits {that’s way I have a stamp room, not a stamp space}. This is so hard!! There are different reasons I go to different blogs. Some for their stamping talent, some for their insights on life in general, plus their thoughts on stamping.

5. Kirsten DuBosque is so so so talented. I love her combinations of products and her overall design talent.

Now I feel like I left about 100 people off this list. **sniff**…more like **sniffle, pass a tissue** right now…lol!!

Yesterday Tony got home from work around 4 and we were on the road to the airport at about 4:15 to drop him off for his Vegas trip. The skies were cloudy, but there was sunshine trying to peek through. I laughed at the weather man that said that we were supposed to have severe weather on Friday.
Then…
I was on my way home and I was basically riding the edge of the storm. I could see these huge clouds bubbling in the sky. They looked mean…really! The clouds were moving quick and seemed to be expanding. Up ahead I thought that a truck was losing his load of whiffle balls. Oh no…whiffle balls don’t fall from the sky! It was hail…huge hail. The hail was pounding down on my {semi} new car as if to laugh at it’s finish with no dings. Horrifying is the only way to describe the sound of the hail crashing on the roof. Poor Ellie was scared and there was nothing I could do. Folks up ahead stopped under the overpasses, trapping everyone else behind them, because forbid that they pulled to the side of the road to get under the overpass.
Fortunately it was over quickly and I was home within about 10 minutes. There was huge chunks of hail littering my neighborhood and both my cell phone and home phone were ringing. Thank goodness for good friends. Everyone was checking in on me! {how sweet} Except for a few dings, a crying baby and raised blood pressure, I was golden.

It turns out that there was a tornado about 2 minutes behind me when the wrath of mother nature broke out on me. The tornado sirens had gone off in our neighborhood and people were just emerging from hiding in their bathtubs. Last time I went through this, I was a kid…which adds up because the weather station reported this to be one of the worst storms in 20 years…YIKES.
I hope all you North Texans that are reading this were/are safe. All I can say is, “That was scary!”

Before I get started on the cute stuff…
When we set up this website, we did not select the option for anti-spam comments. It has come to our realization that Viagra pill pushers and dirty movie pushers are posting to the comments section of this site. To each is own, but not on this site! So, just to let you know, we will be implementing a anti-spam “feature”. The way it works is anyone who has posted a comment before can continue posting (using same email address I believe). Anyone who hasn’t posted before may do so, but it will go to a queue which I then approve. The instructions aren’t very clear so if this doesn’t work we will try something else. I appreciate your continued support and am sorry that a few bad guys had to ruin for the rest of us.

Stamps: Bunny hugs
Paper: Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Pretty In Pink, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Orchid Opulence
Other: Spring Colored M&Ms, Small Cello Bag, Dimensionals, Bunny Tail/Poof from Savvy Stamps, Grosgrain Ribbon

This is one of the projects that we did last night at my Stamp Night. Everyone seemed to love it and it was certainly my favorite project of the night! I just love that little bunny! I thought everyone was going to hate me with all the cutting they had to do…each blade of grass and the bunny, but I think they still like me. These would make great teacher, class party or neighbor gifts. A little tip…to make sure that your flower are neither floating or sinking, before you glue your grass down, lay it on top of the white panel and mark the top of the blades. Stamp the bottom of your flowers just a touch below that mark to make it look like they are blooming from the grass.

I swear I haven’t forgotten to post…LOL! I have been a little busy with working on publication submissions and such. Don’t miss Tony’s rant tomorrow and I am think that next week I am going to have to post a Blog Tart…especially since I am nearing the 20,000 mark on this site! Thanks so much!