Caring Hearts Card Drive Blog Hop & my 1st candy!

Good morning everyone! Thank you so much for joining us on this blog hop for a wonderful cause! This hop is to help encourage everyone to make a holiday (Thanksgiving/Christmas) themed card to be sent to the elderly living in a nursing home or care center. It really is a great thing to do, especially if we're all on here making cards anyway. Whats the harm in sending someone a smile? =) As if it weren't enough that sending a card is just a good thing to do, there are also many prizes to be won! All of the prizes can be viewed at the Caring Hearts Card Drive on Vera's blog (Ling's Design Studio). Vera is the amazing person behind this whole hop and card drive (well, it was her moms idea but it was Vera that set it all in motion)!

If you've come here from Heather Pulvirenti's blog than you're in the right spot! If not and you want join us on this hop please hop back to the beginning at Vera's blog!

I have made numerous cards for this card drive and plan on making many more to send too. It's such a great card drive that even my husband has joined me in making a few cards to send!

Today I will be showcasing my favorite card I've made so far. To make this cute easel card I used Create A Critter with my Cricut Expression. I cut the reindeer out at 2in and 1.5 inches. I skipped cutting out layer 2 on both of these reindeer. I started out with a white 6.5 inch x 5 inch card. I cut down the blue paper with white snowflakes down to 2.5 inches x 6.5 inches (2.5 is the card front when folded in half for the easel card). I then cut some white paper down to 6.5 inches and as tall as I wanted, I then ripped the white paper long ways (6.5 inches) numerous times and layered the white pieces on top of one another on the bottom half of the front (making sure to have it go over the 2.5 inch mark so that the snow would pop up when the card is standing). I put google eyes over the eye cuts on the reindeer and some brown scribbles 3D paint on their back to make spots. I used my ATG gun to adhere the blue paper and the layered (snow) white paper, then I adhered the reindeer to the snow (making sure that they too would be popping off of the top when folded to stand). For the inside of the card I used a 5.5 x 3.5 inch piece of light blue paper and ran it though my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder, then I adhered the blue paper to the middle of the inside of the card. The light cream colored paper is approx. 5in x 3in and I distressed the outter edge of the paper with red ink. I tied the red ribbon into a bow around the light colored paper, and used two tan brads and stuck them through the lighter paper only (so that the card can be held up). I then adhered the tan paper to the blue paper and ... TADA! It's finished! The stamp on the front of the card is a clear stamp from the Recollections set "Say It With Spirit" and I hand wrote the message on the inside with a red Zig marker. Turned out super cute!

Now... onto the candy! The part you've all been waiting for. Over $40 worth of candy. This candy includes (everything pictured above):

3 (three) sets of 3" clear alpha stamps by the Paper Studio (1 Q, 1 X & 1 Z)

2 (two) sets of unmounted rubber stamps by the Paper Studio (1 beach theme & 1 animal print)

2 cards & 2 envelopes by Colorbok

1 (one) set of 54 pieces of chipboard (shapes & alphabet)

1 (one) set of 15 chipboard tags by Colorbok

1 (one) set of felt bling pieces (3 felt flowers w/ bling and 1 felt frame w/ bling)

10 (ten) paper flowers in 5 different colors (dark pink, dark purple, mint green, white & turquoise)

How do you enter for a chance to win this candy? Simple...

1. become a follower of my blog

2. leave a comment on this post telling me "what your favorite part about the holiday season is" (PLEASE ONLY COMMENT ONCE!) & a way to contact you.

and 3. (this is not a requirement) since this whole entire hop is about the Caring Hearts Card Drive I would LOVE it if you would sent at least one card to this wonderful cause! But, obviously I cannot check to see if you've done so and Im not going to force you to.. this should be something you want to do!

(candy is only available to US residents due to shipping.)

You have until Sunday at 11:59pm pst to enter for a chance to win this candy! I will choose the winner using Random.org and post the winner on my blog on Monday. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me with your mailing address. If I have not received a mailing address within 48 hours I will sadly have to choose another winner.

Your next stop on the hop is Jennifer Mcguire's Blog so hop on over and take a look at her beautiful cards!!

Remember if you get lost along the way just jump right to Vera's Blog

Thanks for stoppin' by and have a great day!