29 Gifts in 29 Days & Blog Candy

So my friend Cheryl directed me to this website called 29 Gifts

It's a great idea and fantastic challenge. I've decided this will be my Cause of the Month for February. But, since there are more than 29 days in February... i'm started TODAY!

What do you do? Everyday you give away 1 thing. And your gifts can vary. You should really watch the video clip on the website. It will inspire you!

You can also sign up for the challenge which then has you join a NING group (same type of group as Paper Craft Planet as well as many others. I love NING groups!)

My very last day of the challenge (DAY 29) I will be doing a BLOG CANDY giveaway. It will be a $15 gift certificate to Paper Makeup Stamps. How do you enter to win? JOIN THE CHALLENGE! But you have to really join it. Go to the site posted above, click to join and then you'll be prompted to join the NING 29 Gifts group. So long that you've joined before my 29th day, you're eligible. How do i know you joined? You can leave a comment here, or you can leave a comment on my page in the NING group. :)
Here's a link to MY PAGE.

I'll also keep updates here on my blog of my gift for today.

And for my day 1 gift - i'll be taking 6 pairs of new socks over to the Funkie Munkie Scraps store. They are doing a Sock it to Poverty giveaway. For every pair of socks you give, you are entered to win a Rock Paper Trimmer. Very cool. I dont even know if i'm eligible since i work at the store, but I'm not really giving the socks to win the trimmer, i'm giving the socks as my first gift. :)


Remember - giving is the best way to bring abundance back into your own life!

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Give some extra love this holiday season to 2 precious little girls

You know i'm all about causes... rak's.... give aways and blog candy.

I love passing forward! I just learned of 2 fantastic reasons to give away your love and talent!!! Please read these 2 worthy families of your care this holiday season...

FROM CRAFTY ENGINEERING
A little baby girl named Francesca is fighting for her life! Andrea does a great job keeping everyone informed and i highly suggest you just go directly to her site to stay updated. You can send cards directly to Andrea and she will get them to the family. Not that you should need any arm twisting, but there is some seriously fantastic blog candy for someone as well.

From Lauren Meader's blog
5 year old Hannah has been diagnosed with a rare brain tumor. Her wish for christmas to to see how many christmas cards she can get!!! How easy is that! just send a card to
Hannah Garman

704 Orchard Rd

Lititz, PA 17543

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Cause of the Month giveaway!

I cant believe i forgot to post this! I guess thats what happens with the holiday rush - my brain goes to mush! (and apparently all the christmas carols make me speak in rhyme!)

Anyhoo - as you may remember, My cause of the month last month was to send cards to Let There Be Mom. Let me tell you, she was tickled pink to receive all these cards and thought it was such a wonderful thing.

Angela of Unity Stamp Company was gracious enough to donate my free shipping offer to Unity! (by the way, today is also hip hop hangover from Unity so read down to my post below this to find my unity creations from Hip Hop!)

I entered all the names into a drawing for random.jack He had so fun picking out a name and wanted to play the game all day!





CONGRATS TO KATHY BARNY! You have won free shipping from unity!!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated and used your talents for charity!

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Seeing Double

Are you seeing double? I am! So much to do this week it's making me go cross eyed! Of course there are tons of contests and giveaways going on and i want to do them all! But here's the next 3 days for me...Thursday: school for jack, dr appt for me, practice song with choir director, pick jack up from school, bake muffins til there is no flour in my house, clean out makeup kit, run any errands that need run before sunday afternoon. Friday: Do makeup for engagement photo, go to wedding location and do hair and makeup there, come home and finish up any muffin making, go out to the Coffee House at my church, help set up (including the million muffins), sing a pretty song, come home, clean out makeup kit to start over. Saturday: drop kiddos off at sitter, go to do the wedding that is going to me MASSIVE, come home and fall over. I think thats is. I'm sure i missed something. Oh, there are things i need to post on my blog as well, but luckily those are all done so i can prepost. :)

Wow - i got off on a tangeant. The title of my blog is Seeing Double. That has a purpose. Haha. Everything i have to do with crafting i'm doubling up. Doubling on challenges... making 2 of every card... double double double.

Here my card for today...


I made him for my NEW Cause of the Month! I thought long and hard about what i wanted the Cause of the Month to be this month. It's such a BIG MONTH! All about giving. There are so many worthy organizations. So then i decided to look to my own life to see if anything sparked a must for this month. And when i thought about what's going on in my own life, i immediately thought of my 2 grandmothers. Now in my life i have had 6 grandparents (my mom's parents remarried long before i was even born, so it's always seemed to me like i had 6). A year ago this October my Grandpa passed away. It was incredibly hard. This was my mom's dad and i felt very close to him. This past september, his wife (so technically my step-grandma) passed away. And this past week both of my surviving grandmothers were in the hospital. Both are doing well now and were able to return to their homes. But still, the idea of them having to move to an assited living situation is a little heartbreaking. The idea of hospice care is unthinkable for me. But then i got to thinking... what about all of those who ARE in nursing homes, hospice care, etc. So i did a search on my computer to find where to send holiday cards to nursing homes and was coming up short until i found a wonderful website called Volunteer Match. I typed in my zip code and just started to look for any thing crafty in my area. Would you know what i found.... a place asking for crafty volunteers for a hospice care program right here in my city! So i emailed them and asked if greeting cards would be appreciated. They LOVED the idea. So this is something i'd like to be ongoing, but for December, i've decided every holiday card i make i will make DOUBLE and then mail one off to a hopsice patient in my area. I love the idea! I encourage others to look out and do the same.

So i knew this is what i wanted to do, but it still didnt give me a card for today other than a holiday card. So i went over to Paper Craft Planet to see what they had going on. If you dont know about their 12 days of giveaways you really need to check it out here. The challenge for today is to use birds. Any bird really. or even eggs! But i decided to go with the cutest little bird i know... QT Hooty from Pink Cat Studio. Isnt he Cah-UTE! Love him. I've been dying to inkie up the hooooliday guy for months but wasnt making holiday cards yet. Well, it's december and now i'm wishing i had been making holiday cards back in July when i wanted to use him. haha. isnt that the way it always goes! I used patterened paper from basic Grey and colored my little birdies with copic markers.

Now i'm going to triple whammy this card and submit it to Pink Cat Studio for their design team call! If you were thinking of entering yourself you should know that they needed to move up the deadline to December 10th. So what are you waiting for?!

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Beccabatgirl rocks my world! and IC154

Wow - i meant to post all of this yesterday and somehow i thought i did, but obviously i didnt! Woops!

First of all, i want to say that Becky Carafa or beccabatgirl on splitcoast ROCKS MY WORLD! We had been discussing a possible trade since she had a verve visual stamp set i really liked. I was having just a plain ROUGH day on monday. And i even commented that i needed some happy mail or something to brighten it up. Well, happy mail indeed! Becky mailed me the stamp set plus a super cute card, just for the heck of it! She wants nothing in return for it! So some fantastic karma needs to head her direction because she totally made my day, thats for sure. And it couldnt have come at a better time. So if you could do me a favor, visit her superb blog and leave her some love??

Ok - onto my card for the splitcoast inspiration challenge card for this week. This weeks challenge was to get some inspiration from the Felted Garden. I chose one of the throws as inspiration.

I used the embossing resist technique. I chose the lucid leaflet stamp from Unity's Gratitude=Joy set. I stamped in versamark on white daisy (ctmh) cardstock and then embossed with clear detail powder. I used the sponging technique i read the other day on Mel Stampz's blog. I'm getting into the idea of reinkers, so i'll need to be buying more! I used SU's soft sky and baja breeze. It's mostly soft sky, and then baja breeze mixed with soft sky for the outer edges and right around the leaves. I still think i have a lot ot learn when it comes to sponging techniques, but it's not stopping me from doing it. Eventually it wont take me forever to get 1 card done that way! My sentiment is from Unity's July Kit of the Month I chalked inked the edges of the cardstock with creamy brown cat's eye chalk ink and tied a satin brown ribbon for just something extra. It's all mounted on chocolate cardstock.

I actually did something to the inside of my card. I've decided i really like that and need to do it more often!

I used the same leaf that i did on the front onto i stamped it with soft sky ink. My sentiment is from the Simply Said
kit also by Unity.

This card will be put in my with Cause of the Month cards. Dont know about my cause of the month yet? Click on the button in my sidebar to learn about the organization.
If you want to donate some cards (they can be made previously) send any thank you cards plus envelopes to me and for each card you said, i will put you in my drawing. 1 lucky winner will get free shipping to Unity compliments of the wonderful angela!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

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Hip Hop Hangover Friday

Well, another week has flown by! Splitcoast was not very nice to us hip hoppers yesterday. Slow and wonky! I still hung out even thought it was worse for wear. And though there is always a hip hop hangover on fridays, today's hangover proves to be a little more fun. Angela has said she's going to give out even more prizes this am! So grab your coffee, go to angela's blog and hop along the hangover threads. And when you are done, come to unity's hip hop forum and play with us this morning. And while you're at it, go to the Unity Website and shop a little. Angela is continuing on the Hip Hop specials until noon today!

Ok, now that i've done my sales pitch (for a company i dont work for even... hehehe) here is my hip hop hangover card (yes singular, i havent crafted in days and this morning i just had to, so i just made my card this am!)



Yesterday, Jeanne put out a "cut it out" challenge. So i stamped one of my giggle grove trees onto patterned paper and cut it out. It was layered on some other patterned paper (all the patterned paper on this card is from Around the Block, i've hoarded it forever and it was time for it to come out and play!). I stitched around the outer edge and around my tree for just a little emphasis. I stamped my sentiment from Unity's Sentiments O' Simple kit.
ALl of my edges have been chalk inked of course. :)

Now... Let me put a little plug out there for my CAUSE OF THE MONTH. Do you know about my cause of the month? You can read about it in full detail here but for those of you being lazy this morning.. i'll do a brief recap. Every month i am choosing a different cause or organization to do a little mission project for. This is my first month doing this, and i've chosen a local organization called "Let There Be Mom". This organization is AMAZING! It supports mom's who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. They then work with these women and their families to preserve their legacy. What they do varies from family to family depending on the wishes of the mom. Very often they help put together a scrapbook for the families to cherish after the mom passes. Quilts are sometimes made. Beautiful family portraits taken. And then on top of that, they help the family out with the normal household things (cooking, cleaning, etc) so that the mom's are just able to be mom's to their families! Spending that very precious time they have left with their loved ones and not keeping house. This entire organization is run by volunteers and donations from companies to provide the materials that might be required. Really, it's phenomenal. But you've got to think that such an organization would need to send out a lot of thank yous! That is where my mission project comes in this month. I have been busy making thank you cards (some simple, some elaborate) to give to Let There Be Mom at the end of the month. I would love it if you helped me out with my mission.

And now for a little incentive... Since this is a hip hop post, and many of the readers will be unity fans... for every card i receive to give to this company, i will put the makers name into a drawing. Then i will award 1 person (at random) with FREE SHIPPING on their next unity order. Now i dont know how i'm going to work this out yet. I'll have to talk to angela. haha. But even if i'm mailing you a $5 bill for you to use on your shipping... you will get free shipping. Depending on the number of entires i may select numerous winners.

Wont you help me on my project this month? Email me at makeupbykatie@yahoo.com for my address to mail the cards!

Thanks so much!

HIP HOP!

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Verve Visuals Holiday Release Sketch 1

Julee of Verve Visuals has the best sketches! They are always so easy, but turn out so great! Love em!

Verve Visuals is getting ready to release some new sets! So in gearing up for this, There are sketches everyday this week over in their splitcoast forum! And each day she uses her sketch to provide a sneak peek of one of the new sets. What a fun way to do sneakie peeks, right? Bonus, they will give a set away to 1 person for each sketch! AND if you do all 5 (which is my goal) you get put in another entry to win ALL the new releases!

Ok, so here's day one... you can read about it here and here's my card...



I decided i wanted to use this card to add to the collection for my CAUSE OF THE MONTH. If you dont know about my cause of the month, please read this post! I could really use your help in getting thank you cards ready for this fabulous organization! When thinking of what verve set to use for this sketch, this sentiment really stood out to me! What better way to say thank you but to tell someone what a huge difference they've made! I can really see this as becoming one of my new fav sentiments! It came from Verve Visuals Fairy Tales set. First let me say i adore the font that Verve uses on the majority of their sets. It's so beautiful! Top that with the superb quality of their stamps and get you such a fantastic detailed image. Love it! The sentiment and underlying flourish are separate and since their stamps are clear, you can get a perfect placement. And ya gotta love that!

Other deets for the card...
The patterened paper is from Basic Grey's Ambrosia line. Man i love this paper. I've been so afraid to use it! But this sketch of Julee's was perfect because it really showcases the paper. She designed this sketch to make quick holiday cards. It's an easy one to mass produce. but i think it's a great way to show some pretty paper! For my sentiment i wanted it to match the slightly distressed color in the patterened paper so i pulled out some inks that i thought were similar to those found in the paper (CTMH's baby pink, créme brulee and a wee bit of juniper) and sponged them in. I think it made it match pretty nicely! All of my edges from the card base to the mats to the patterened paper is inked with cat's eye chalk ink in charcoal. I can rarely get away from not using cat's eye chalks on anything! Love them! And it always gives the perfect edge in my book.
Since i deviated from the sketch a bit and did not put a sentiment in the lower left hand corner, i decided to add a punched butterfly (from my fav martha stewart punch). I also used stampin up's photo corner punch to adorn the top of my card and some black grosgrain ribbon. And thats my card!

Thanks for looking! Keep checking back - i've got lots going on today! I still want to do the Unity Pre Hip Hop challenge and i need to do my own sketch still!!!! Dont forget to enter my blog candy!!!! :)

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I've been INSPIRED!

That's right... i've been inspired! After doing my morning coffee drinkin' blog hop... i read a couple of the Papertrey Ink design team's blogs. Nichole Heady (the owner of papertrey ink) has challenged her design team members this month to do a "pass it on" challenge. You can read about her challenge here. Each DT member is called to find a cause that means something to them, and then use their stamping gift to contribute to this cause. I think it's a fantastic idea. She has urged her readers to do the same. Well, i've decided to take it one step further! I want to do this every month (and hopefully get some of my own readers in on it as well!)

You'll see over in my side bar a little button that looks like this...


Feel free to take the button and display it on your blog as well if you'd like. :) Each month there will be a new cause (and some can repeat from time to time). Clicking on that button will take you to my blog entry about that cause.

What is done that month will probably change with what might need to be done for the cause. In most causes, if you feel like participating i can give yout he info of where to send things, or you can send them to me and i'll make sure they get there!

The first Cause of the Month is an organization called "Let There Be Mom". It is a local organization here in Greenville, South Carolina. LTBM is an organization that helps mom's battling terminal illness. They help support the mom and her family in the preparation of her passing. Often times they hire a photographer to take beautiful family portraits. A local store, The Scrapbook Supply Store provides materials and local scrappers and stampers help create a scrapbook for the family, coordinate family events or plan special family outtings and also the little things that go unnoticed of helping with family meals, cleaning, etc. It really is a fabulous organization.

I'm going to start by collecting Thank You cards this month. I'm certain that a lot of thank you's need to be said by both the organization and the mom's. This team is comprised all from volunteers! If you are interested in making thank you's please contact me! I havent started making my thank you's yet, but once i get crackin' on those, i will make a post for sure!!!

I hope you all feel inspired as i did this morning. You can find your own cause, of choose mine, or any of the papertrey design team's causes. Just remember November is all about being GRATEFUL for what we have! And i believe the best way to show our gratitude is by giving back!

ADDED NOTE!
Angela from UNITY has offered to give free shipping to 1 lucky winner of a drawing i'm going to do. For every card you send to me, i will put your name in the drawing. and 1 lucky winner will get free shipping to Unity! So what are you waiting for? It's a chance to help out a wonderful cause and you can win something too!

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