Spread The Love For Jaimie Blog Hop

This is a very special Blog Hop post today. I hardly know where to begin... Here is the story of an eleven year old girl who needs us to reach out to her right now. This may make you weep (as it does to me whenever I think about it):

"On October 4th, 4 teenagers armed with knives broke into a home in a small town in New Hampshire. Alone and sleeping inside were a mother and her 11 year old daughter. These 4 boys broke into this home with the intent to rob and kill anyone inside. They stabbed the mom, Kimberly Cates, to death and left her daughter, Jaimie, for dead in their driveway. It was a completely random act, their home was chosen only due to its secluded surroundings."

Our hope is that everyone hopping around today will stop for a moment and think about Jaimie and her father and what life must be like for them now. One moment in time has changed their lives forever. We are asking that everyone reading this message please take a moment to make a card and send it off to Jaimie. You can make something very simple or much more involved, but please share some words of hope and love and let her know that people do care and want the best for her. Please send your card to the address below:

Jaimie Cates
c/o Mont Vernon Fire Station
Main Street
Mont Vernon, NH 03057

You can read more about Jaimie HERE and find out more details about this card drive. That link takes you to a blog that was created just for this cause. Some companies have donated products as prizes for randomly chosen participants in the blog hop who send a card to Jaimie. Their way of encouraging participation. Personally, I don't need the motivation. The story was enough to seize my heart.
The Blog hop will end on Monday, November 9th at 10am EST. That is when the draws take place for the random winners of all the blog candy that has been donated by our generous sponsors.
There is a link on the blog for Jaimie (right side bar) for you to donate money to Jaimie's family via Paypal if you wish to help that way. I am sure Jaimie's medical expenses will not come cheap.
This LINK takes you to a news article that tells how how she is doing. It also has a picture of Jaimie. Here is another link to a news article with a public statement from Jaimie's father David .

If you have landed on my blog randomly and want to start at the beginning, go to KATHARINA'S blog.
If you have arrived from CINDY'S blog, you're right on track.
Your next hop is at SIMONNE'S blog.

This card is going to Jaimie.




Thanks for coming by for a visit today. Sorry about sharing such a sad story, but I thought you might like to know so you could help bring some cheer to Jaimie.
Bless you, dear readers. Let's count our blessings today.

EDITED TO ADD:
Also wanted to announce the winner for yesterdays blog hop for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps:
The sixteenth commenter was chosen by Random Integer Generator and that is
Angela. Here's her posed comment:
This is so cute!! Love the way you have coloured him and those snowflakes are gorgeous,
hugs Angela x

Congratulations Angela! Please contact Kim of Kraftin Kimmie Stamps to give your your mailing address!

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps New Release BLOG HOP!!

Hello All! Today is the day Kimmie's Krafty Girls are showcasing the new release and the blog hop is on! If you have arrived here randomly, you might want to check out the hop from the beginning, so start at Kraftin Kimmie Stamps blog and make your way through all the Krafty Girls' wonderful galleries! There are prizes to be won on each of the Krafty Girls's blogs of course! So get commenting on all the DT's creations and get your name entered multiple times for the random draws! Winners to be announced on the KKblog Monday!
If you are following the hop, you will have arrived here from Vicki's wonderful blog. When you're done on my blog, your next stop is Michelle. Hope you're having fun!
All the November release stamps are now available including four new Crissy’s Cuties (drawn by Yours Truly) four new Moonlight Whispers images (drawn by Annie Rodrigue) and a fantabulous new set called Kimmie’s Holiday Sentiments created by the incredible Jeanne Streiff with 44 fun phrases!
This penguin stamp named "Oliver" comes with a saying, "Just chillin' " so when you order it from Kraftin' Kimmie, she throws in the sentiment too at no extra charge.
And btw, today you have a chance to win a surprise pack of Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps if you leave a comment on this post! I'm picking a winner on Monday morning!

And now for some deets on my card:
This is a CASE of a card I saw on Bev Rochester's blog here. Isn't her card amazing? I don't think I did it justice; however, I am so grateful for her inspiration. She is one of my absolute favorite card artists! I just love the aqua and white combination.
I colored Oliver with the following Copics:
C0, 3, 5, 7, 9
BG32, 34, 75
E50, 55 (on his tummy, which I covered up later with white acrylic paint because it was too brown) :-p
YR65, 68, E97, 99 on his beak and feet
BV20, 23, 29 for the ground
BV000, 20, W3 on his hat fur trim which I also covered up with white acrylic paint, but mostly because I love how it gave his tummy some texture and I wanted to do the same for his hat!



The background panel is a sheet of DP that I stamped on randomly with a swirl from the Jeanne Strieff collection at Rubbernecker, and a little snowflake and poinsettia from Imaginisce. They were a gift thrown in one time when I bought some stash from Scrappin' Great Deals. (LOVE that place!) I used some Spellbinders dies in combination with some Martha Stewart punches for the snowflakes. After I put them together, I added "Twinklets Diamond Dust" which is crushed glass (got it off E-bay).
I colored the pearls with BG34 to match everything. That's what is great about Copics; the color sticks to any surface!
Well, good luck on the hop!
God bless you!

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps New Release Sneakie Peekie!

I'm excited to show you a sneak peek of one of my new images for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps! She is called "Bernadette" and she's all bundled up for the coming winter. I used Copics to color her, and lots and lots of Twinklets Diamond Dust on my punched snowflakes! Man, I love that stuff! I also used some Flower Soft Polar White for the snowy ground. Embossed backgrounds made with Cuttlebug folder "Swirls". This card has lots of texture for sure!
Here is a list of the Copics I used:
W00, 1, 3, 5
R83,85
BG10, 11, 15
E70
RV95
I do believe that is a record for fewest Copic colors used by me on one image! LOL
If you want to see the lovely sneak peeks from the other Krafty Girls, go to the KK blog for the links to their wonderful creations. Bernadette and all the new images will be available to order on November 1st!



Thanks for visiting! God bless you!

Santa's Magic Ladder

Santa really is magical in this whimsical scene which I created for Squigglefly. I call it "Santa's Magic Ladder". Santa defies gravity in this one, and all rules of logic too! ;-)
It's just a fun little image and colors up fast too!

I colored him with the following Copics:
E0000, 000, 01, 04,
R22, 24, 27, 29, 39, 59
BV20, 23
W3, 5, 7, 8
100 black
E50, 53

Candy cane ladder:
R24 with BV0000 for shadows

and for the gifts:
R59,08,
G02, 05, 07,
YG17, 67
RV19, 23
Y26

Background was done with YR000 and then I sponged around the edges with a similar colored dye ink.



I used my R46 to create the striped frame on a white mat. I just used the chiseled end of the Sketch marker to doodle those lines.
This card jingles because of the little bells I added, and when I showed my daughter she started singing, "Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling too; come on it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you..." Really put me in the mood for Christmas!
Thanks for stopping by my blog today!
Bless you!

Forgiven?

I wanted to make a card for one of my daughters who loves everything purple! I chose this image I did for Squigglefly called, Forgiven? I think it looks like this pup got caught chewing a shoe and he's trying to look cute and sorry at the same time. That's what I was going for, anyway. Who couldn't forgive a face like that! :-D
I printed it on Gina K's Pure Luxury paper and colored it with the following Copics:
YR21, 23, 24
E50, 53, 55, 57, 17, 19
V91, 93, 95
Don't forget that with digital images such as Squigglefly sells, you get the image right after you purchase it, and you can resize it or flip it if you wish! Plus they are very inexpensive compared to rubber. Which means you can have MORE for your buck! ;-) Just sayin'!
I made the bone out of Sculpey. Thanks to my friend Janette who bought me a whole box of it! She knows how much I love the stuff! Sometimes this craft makes me feel like I'm a kid again, with all the coloring I do. And then the Sculpey too; it's like I've gone back to the days of play dough! But oh, how fun to play!!
Hope you likey!



God bless you! Thanks for stopping by today!

PEEK at the NEW RELEASE for Squigglefly! Plus a new contest!

I have six new images which I did for Squigglefly this month, and this is one of them. I am a kid when it comes to Christmas... no, wait, I am a kid. Period. :-) And I LOVE Santa Claus. I enjoyed coloring this one in! I used my Copic markers and added a bit of sponging with Faded Jeans Distress Ink around the outside edges.
I also tried out my Polar White Flower Soft on the snow in the foreground, and added Diamond Dust (crushed glass) on the single Martha Stewart punched blue snowflake.
This image, which I call "Santa's Mailbox" will be available to purchase and download on Squigglefly tomorrow, Sat. the 18th! There will be lots of other new images released tomorrow too! And two more artists have joined the team, so it should be fun to check it out!



Squigglefly is holding a fun contest today, and they will choose FIVE random winners who will get to choose TWO Squigglefly images - any two from the whole catalogue - not just from today's new release! All you have to do is go to Squigglefly, and find the page where they hid their blinkie! Take a look at what the blinkie looks like so you know what you are searching for. It is on my right side bar. Once you find it, go tell Holly where it is! If you are right, your name will be entered into the draw!
Here's a hint for you: Hey, PEOPLE, it won't be hard to find it!!!
The contest closes tonight, so get going to Squigglefly! Winners will be chosen sometime tomorrow.
Feel free to grab the SF blinkie from me if you wish to spread the word about this digital company on your blog!

Tutorial for Crisper, Bigger Photos on Blogger!

Today I am not just showing off a card. I would like to show you how to get sharper, larger photos on your Blogger blog! Just look at the difference in the photos above; I uploaded the top photo into Flickr first, and then copied the html code and pasted it in my blog post here. The second photo was uploaded in Blogger as usual, the way I have done it for a year now. I am amazed, not only at how much larger the Flickr photo is, but also how much more in focus it is. I just found out today how to do it, and I'd like to share what I found out so you can do it too!

Here are your step by step instructions:
1. Go to Flickr and click on "Create Your Account" button on the top right of the page. Follow the instructions to create your account with them.
2. Upload the photos into your new Flickr account, following their upload instructions. I clicked on "Upload Your First Photos", then "basic Uploader near the bottom of the page. You'll see options come up that look just like the options in Blogger when you are uploading photos, so you'll know what to do from there. ;-)
3. Once you have uploaded a photo into Flickr, it will show as a thumbnail in your gallery. Click on it, and then it will show up quite large on the screen. Near the top right of this page, just under the search box, you'll see "Share this" in grey print. Click on that.
4. You will then see three options in blue, in a little drop down screen. Click on "Grab the html". When the html shows up, use the cursor to copy the code. You will paste it into your blog post, but not just yet! We'll get to that in a few minutes. First, you must prepare your blog to receive the larger photos from Flickr!
5. Now go to your blog in another screen. Go to "Customize. Then go to "Edit HTML" (top left, second row of options).
6. Don't skip this next step: Go to "Download Full Template" . This will save the current template as is, so that if things go wonky, you can always go back to the way it was before! ;-)
7. Scroll down until you see the codes for the "wrappers". There were only four numbers that I had to change in order for my blog to use the larger photos from Flickr. You may have to do the same. Wrappers are the alloted spaces for your posts, sidebar, and for the whole blog. The "outer wrapper" is for the blog as a whole. The "main wrapper" is for your blog posts. My sidebar was listed simply as "sidebar".

IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you're wise, you'll do one change at a time, click on the orange "save template" button, and then "view blog" to see what your changes look like. That way you know how to go back and change it right away if you don't like it and you won't be confused as to which number made what change.

8. Let's start with the outer wrapper, which includes both your posts and sidebar together. You should see something similar to this:

/* -- layout -- */
#outer-wrapper {
width: 930px;
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: $startSide;
font: $bodyfont;
background: #fff url(http://www.blogblog.com/snapshot/bg-body_$startSide.gif) $startSide top repeat-y;
}

I am using the template called, "Snapshot: Madder". So your codes will be slightly different, but similar looking. See the third line down, which says, width: 930px; The number that was there originally was 700. I erased that and typed in 930. You can choose a different number if you like, but try mine first just so see what that does. It will widen the entire blog.

9. Now scroll down until you see something similar to this:

#main-wrapper {
line-height: 1.4;
float: $startSide;
padding: 10px 12px;
border-top: solid 1px #fff;
width: 650px;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
/* Tantek hack - http://www.tantek.com/CSS/Examples/boxmodelhack.html */
voice-family: "\"}\"";
voice-family: inherit;
width: 520px;

The sixth line down, says, "width: 650px;" I changed it from 436px, which is what it had been before. I also changed the width on the last line to 520px. I cannot remember what it had been before. I only remember it was less, probably 400 or so.

10. You may want to change the width of your sidebar. It will look something like this:

#sidebar {
float:$endSide;
border-top: solid 1px #fff;
padding-top: 4px;
padding-$endSide: 0;
padding-bottom: 0;
padding-$startSide: 7px;
background: #fff;
width: 280px;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

The ninth line down on mine has the width number. (different templates will likely have slightly different orders for these numbers, so look for the word "width"). You can choose a higher number than what is currently there and that will widen the space that your sidebar takes up.

11. Now, when you have changed the numbers to widen the spaces on your blog, and SAVED your changes, you will be able to upload your larger Flickr pictures! This editing is a one time thing so there is no need to repeat the process (unless you wish to change it again). Now, just go make a new post as usual, and... remember when we copied the html code for your first Flickr upload? Well if you did that, now all you have to do is hit "paste" in the new blog post box, and voila, your larger, sharper photo will appear!

I wish to thank Mel of "Mel Stampz" because she had a tutorial on her blog about this that showed me what to do. She is an incredible card artist too, so you really should check out her blog! You're missing out if you don't!
I'll leave you with a close-up of the Angel Whispers image and if you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them for you!
Blessings!

Sweet Danni and Bella

This is Sweet Danni and Bella from Wags 'N Whiskers, one of the nine new rubber stamp images I drew for their debut release. As soon as I saw this lovely card on Christine Dark's blog, I knew just what to do with the Danni image! She used the cracked glass technique. I love the look of it, and so I wanted to use it on this Christmas card. I am such a huge fan of Chris's and she inspires me so much. She is an illustrator too, so if you haven't been to her blog and store, you are truly missing out. You must pay her a visit!
Anyway, the cracked glass technique really isn't hard to do, and it just adds so much to an image, I think.
My daughter Valerie made the little candy canes out of Sculpey clay, for which I am really grateful. I just love using them too!




Now if you scroll down my blog posts to two days ago, you will see some beautiful fall foliage that I took on a walk not far from my house. When I got up this morning, the whole scene had changed, because about two inches of snow had fallen while we were sleeping! A lot of it had melted by the time I got out with my camera, but I took a few pictures to show you anyway. It isn't very often that the leaves are still on the tree when the snow falls! The contrast between the bright leaf colors and the white snow was striking. Take a look:






God bless and stay warm!

The Winner!

Congratulations to Mary! She won the "Zoe and Gemma's Snow Fun" stamp that I had displayed on my post of Oc 9 during the Wags 'N Whiskers grand opening blog hop!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

37
Timestamp: 2009-10-10 21:42:39 UTC

For a complete list of the winners, go to the Wags 'N Whiskers blog.
Have fun stamping!

Fall Beauty

I went out with my camera yesterday, hoping to capture some of the fall beauty around me. All of these pictures were taken within a twenty minute walk of my house. I am so blessed to see these scenes right in my own neighborhood! I wanted to share them with you. I hope you enjoy!
PS I did not photoshop any of them, except for cropping the bird. These are the actual colors!

The next three were taken of a puddle in the bush:








This is the lake at the top of the hill near my house:



This is the hill I walk up daily to get exercise. My daughter JOGs up... one day, maybe!!



Thanks for visiting today! Bless you!

WAGS 'N WHISKERS BLOG HOP IS ON! (second last stop!)

Today is the day that Wags 'n Whiskers launches their brand new line of unmounted rubber stamps! The blog hop is officially on and I am the second last stop! If you have landed on my blog randomly and wish to start at the beginning of the hop, you can start at the Wags 'n Whiskers blog, and you will be guided through from there.
This image of Zoe making a snowman with Gemma her cat, and all the new unmounted rubber stamps are available for pre-order starting today, Oc 9 at 7AM EST (noon GMT). Stamps that are pre-ordered will ship Nov 2.
I am giving this image away to one randomly chosen person who leaves a comment on this post! In fact, all the Wags 'n Whiskers Divas are giving away the stamp that they are featuring on their W'nW creations today ... that means fourteen winners will get a new stamp from Wags 'n Whiskers debut release! And that is not all... If you go back to the blog and tell Nikki and Lacey which image is your personal favorite, your name will be entered into the draw for the grand prize of the ENTIRE FIRST RELEASE !!!!! In fact, that's where I'm sending you now.
Blog Hop is on until midnight tonight, and winners will be announced on Monday Oc 12.
Wags 'n Whiskers blog is your last stop on the hop!
I colored this image using my Twinkling H20 water color paints. Spellbinders snowflakes Poseabilities Collection, and Spellbinders labels die also used. Papers by Basic Grey.
I just wanted to say a special thank you... to YOU!
You make sharing my art all the more fun, with your supportive comments and letters. I draw because I love to, but your hugs and cheers through the things you say really do touch my heart and give me that added boost to keep creating. Thanks, Precious One. Don't ever forget how much you are loved and appreciated...
Hugs!
Blessings!
God loves you!!

Wags N' Whiskers 2nd SNEAK PEEK!!

This is one of my personal fav's that I've done for Wags n' Whiskers so far. This is Ansley Angel with her furry friend Princess! I colored this image with Twinkling H20 water color paints.
This and all the new rubber unmounted stamps will be available for pre-order 7AM EST tomorrow, Oc 9th (noon GMT). Stamps that are pre-ordered tomorrow will ship Nov 2.
AND!
Tomorrow is blog hop day, and you know what that means!! Yes, there will be prizes to be won! And lots of chances to win too! I and all the Wags 'n Whiskers Divas will be giving away the stamp that we will use on our creations tomorrow... counting Yours Truly, that means fourteen winners will get a new stamp from Wags 'n Whiskers debut release! And that is not all... Nikki and Lacey will give away a grand prize of the ENTIRE FIRST RELEASE TO ONE LUCKY WINNER!!!!! The hop starts tonight at the stroke of midnight (5:00 AM GMT) at the Wags 'n Whiskers blog. They will direct you to the next Diva on the hop who will direct you to the next, and so on. Be sure to leave a comment on each blog so that you are entered in to each Diva's draw! Anytime you leave a comment you are also entered into the Grand Prize draw too!
Be sure to check out the other Diva's sneak peeks today (linked on my sidebar).
I hope you play along in the hop. Good luck! God bless you!
Thanks for stopping by today!