My Biggest Blog Candy Evah!!

Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm happy to be back & hopefully you're happy I'm back too, lol! And I'm back with a huge contest for ya too! Well, over the weekend I exceeded my 50,000 hits by alot, hee hee--you crazy readers!! And thanks to all of you who stop by and visit, perhaps gleaming some inspiration from me and enjoying what I do--Cuz' now I got BLOG CANDY to GIVEAWAY--YAHOO!!!
***WARNING--This is a SUPER LONG POST--so read to the end, okay!***

So here is the big kahuna of all my BLOG CANDY giveaways evah--& I told ya it was Christmas themed! And the most exciting part of this giveaway is that apron stamp by the fabulously talented Karen Lockhart. She colored the front of the stamp and signed it--how FABULOUS is that cuz' she never does this, evah (except on a very few limited edition stamps)! This is a one-of-a-kind stamp that will be a keepsake for sure (and she made me one to boot, am I a lucky girl or what). She also designed the butterfly button for the lucky winner too! Susana of Susana's Custom Art & Card Design was able to get these for giveaways from Karen Lockhart so make sure & visit her because she has one up for grabs too--you can have a SECOND CHANCE by joining her store email list so get over there & sign up already!!

So here is what you get if you win:

-1 Karen Lockhart Apron stamp, signed & colored by Karen

-1 Karen Lockhart button

-1 tin of Prima poinsettia flowers/holly

-1 roll of ribbon

-1 Copic Atyou Spica Gold pen

-1 bottle of Christmas Red Stickles

-1 6x6 Basic Grey "Wassail" paper pad (LOVE IT)

-2 packages of Christmas buttons/charms

So how do you enter? Leave me an answer to my "random question" & link this blog candy to your blog (if you don't have a blog, just spread the word okay :)) & let me know you linked!

My random question (which I love to ask) is "What is your favorite Holiday song of all time & why?" You have until this Sunday, 11/9 at midnite (EST--my time) to leave me a comment on THIS POST ONLY! Then on Monday the 10th I will pick a winner by random.org & announce it on my blog (please leave me an email address if you don't have a blog & don't answer anonymously or I can't get a hold of ya, 'kay).

Remember to take advantage of a second chance to win a signed and colored Karen Lockhart stamp & some Copic Spica pens--please visit my friend Susana's webstore, Susana's Custom Art & Card Design--she has another signed apron stamp by Karen Lockhart up for grabs for a lucky someone. You can also purchase Karen Lockhart stamps from her store and lots of other fabby things too!

In honor of this fabby blog candy, I created this fun holiday project using my Karen Lockhart stamps! I stamped my apron first and then paper pieced almost all of it with this delish, yummo dp by Stampin Up called "Holiday Treasures" that might be my most favoritest holiday paper evah'!! I also used Karen's "Itty Bitty Christmas Border" to stamp around the corners and then went over theberries & boughs with my Copic Atyou Spica pens in clear & red (btw Susana carries these fab pens by the set or by themselves if you're interested). The yummy cider recipe (I love cider & Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider is the BEST evah', but I also make my own too) came from my Gooseberry Patch Christmas book that I printed onto my PTI vintage cream cs with my computer. And this is actually a card that you can give or just use as a recipe card--the reciever gets to decide! I'm making some of these for my kid's teachers along with a glass bottle of cider--such a fun gift!

The box is called a blessings box and you can see the tutorial (by Angie Juda) here--very easy to make & fun too. This box holds my cider mix that I made & then put in a cellophane bag. I used my "Holiday Treasures" dp by SU again too. The "homemade" stamp is from PTI's "Holiday Treats" set. The only change I made to the box was to use my SU "word punch" to make handles at the top so I could tie it shut with ribbon. And the exciting part of this project is that you can WIN IT!! I will choose a second winner on Monday and they will recieve this gift set and a few stamped images (surprise images)!!! So make sure and enter, cuz' ya never know!!

And today is also Whatchadoin' Wednesday over at Storage Units, Ink and More! Make sure and check out their blog for all my DT sistah's fabby projects. We were challenged to use our newly released stamps to make a scene. I used my new "Deer Ole Santa" set for my scene. I also used my brayer for the very first time (GASP)--I love to see everyone make these gorgeous backgrounds but have never attempted it thinking I wouldn't be able to do it. Whaddya think--I think it turned out pretty well for my first time & it wasn't hard at all :) I used SU's glossy white cs and 3 blue inks in various shades--the stars were made with my Ranger Inkssentials pen. I cut my house and Santa out after coloring them with Copics and attached them to the bg. I stamped my trees and the sentiment in Night of Navy ink right onto the bg. I used my DecoArt SnowWriter for the snow and then added some stickles to the snow, sled & trees. That beautiful shimmery, navy paper is from PTI and I used my new Martha Stewart snowflake border punch on the edges. This card reminds me of my favorite holiday story "Twas the Night Before Christmas"--whatcha' think? Check out all of SUINK's new sets if you haven't already--they're super cute!

Ok, final newsies of the day--The Stampin Place is having a huge sale right now thru November 9th (25% off all stamps, 15% off stampin' supplies) so check it out! And check out my Whiff of Joy DT sistah Bev's Blog Candy--she has a "Santa Charlie" to giveaway along w/ some other fabby goodies! Also I had to say that my Hot Cocoa Box was given an Honorable Mention on Paper Trey Ink's blog by Nichole Heady--this is my second honorable mention so maybe the third time's the charm to win, hee hee!

And that is the end of my longest post 'evah, lol!! I will see ya back here tomorrow with some more projects to share! Hope ya voted yesterday if you're in the US--I'm happy for the chance to vote and I hope our country will soon be on the upswing again & I'm glad Barack Obama will hopefully be leading us towards that (and that's it for my political musings I promise)!

hugz,

Suzanne