Cards For Heroes Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Cards For Heroes Holiday Card Inspiration Mini Blog Hop. If you stumbled onto my blog without doing the hop & want to start from the beginning head on over to CFH Blog HERE. Along the way you will see many different styles of cards to inspire you.

Cards for Heroes is an amazing organization that gets blank homemade greeting cards into the hands of our soldiers on active duty all over the world. This really blesses the soldiers with something a little special to send back home to their loved ones. The blog is filled with many stories & thank yous from the soldiers who have recieved the cards. I love being involved in this organization because it is something I can do with my love of paper crafts & a way I can send a little thank you to those serving whom I so admire. I have a package ready to send next week with my 25+1 cards for the summer card making drive.

I love vintage things & that translates into my cardmaking & scrapbooking. Graphics 45 has some great vintage theme papers. This card was really easy to make but doesn't lack the little details that make it special. By adding simple machine stitching to the layers it adds texture & interest. Inking the edges of the papers with a little brown chalk ink ages the new paper instantly. A bit of ribbon tied in a knot brings the whole card together & adds more texture. I wanted the greeting to pop so I punched out a tag using inexpensive kraft paper & added my favorite sentiment from Unity Stamp Company.


Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill, Paper Resources & The Paper Company); Paper (Graphics 45); Ribbon (Joann's Craft Essentials); Brad (The Paper Studio); Punch (McGill); Stamps (Unity Stamp Company & Inkadinkado); Ink (Ranger & Colorbox); Thread (Coats & Clarks)

When you are finished getting inspired on the blog hop I encourage you to make some holiday cards to send to Cards for Heroes. The deadline is November 1st so that there will be plenty of time for the soldiers to receive & send them on to their family & friends. They have some tips on the blog here. The only main rule that can't be broken is NO GLITTER. Because that will make the soldiers visible to the enemy at night with night vision goggles.

I am offering a RAK for all of my visitors today. Leave a comment & you will be entered to win a set of wooden stamps by Anna Griffin & some Me & My Big Ideas rub ons. Contest closes Sunday, August 16th at 11:59 pm.


The store I design for is also having a RAK drawing for some brand new prizes picked up at CHA (I bet there will be new Rock Candy Stickles in the box, along with some great other new products) a couple weeks ago head on over to the Everything Scrapp'n Online Scrapbook Store Blog & leave a comment for a chance to win.


Thanks so much for visiting & the next stop is the very talented Tammy. Her cards are so cute & filled with whimsy.

We Have a Winner....

The winner of the Making Memories Slice Apron is.....

Pamela said...

Love your projects! Great work!

August 7, 2009 5:08 PM

Congratulations Pamela. Send me your address at sgray110@gmail.com & I'll get it right out to you!

I also wanted to let you know of an upcoming Cards For Heroes Holiday Blog Hop this weekend.

Make plans to join in the hopping or create a card & be a stop on the hop. Check their blog for more details. It's an awesome way to support our troops

Have a wonderful day

Ah Finally Relaxation

Thanks so much for all the great comments over the weekend. You all really bless my socks off & encourage me.

It was really great to get away for a day. Our first trip we didn't go very far since it was a "test the waters" & get a feel for the motor home (my hubby keeps fussing at me that I call it a camper). I'm not much for tent camping anymore so this is the next best thing. It was so much fun sitting out under the awning & grilling dinner. I just felt the stress melt away.

Whenever I have a free moment I'm making cards for Cards For Heroes. I love being able to help our troops in this little way making cards for them to send home to their loved one. Here are a couple more made with scraps to add to the stack....

Hero Arts had a challenge to use background stamps so that was the inspiration for my cards this weekend. I don't have that many Hero Arts stamps & only a few that could be considered background stamps so this is what I came up with.

I really like the look of stamping on canvas fabric that I bought at Joann's in the home decorating dept. I've used Tim Holtz Broken China Distress ink for all the stamping on the first 2 cards.

The spiral thank you stamp was fun but in a circle seemed not right.... so I cut out the spiral to add interest. The ribbon is hiding my "seam" from the acrylic background stamps when I didn't use the Stamp a jig to make sure I was in the right spot -- lazy eye balling doesn't always work even with acrylic.

Checking the boards at the Nook yesterday I didn't make the final round for the guest design team prize. It sure was an intense challenge. I wish the best to each of the final 10 gals & can't wait to see what hoops you have to jump thru this week til a winner is named....

Hope you have a wonderful day.

Wow What a Great Turn Out...

I'm so glad that the first Memorial Day Cards For Heroes Blog Hop was a huge success! The participation from both the bloggers & visitors was amazing. We sure did a good job getting the word out about this wonderful organization.

I can't believe the "love" that y'all left me. Such sweet comments & they really mean a lot.

Well I wouldn't make you wait any longer.... (I still can't get the widget from Random Number Generator to work here on blogger.... so these are the 2 numbers that came up

The winners are:

Comment number 103 wins the $20 Everything Scrapp'n Gift Certificate
Congratulations JPScraps

Comment number 20 wins the My Priceless Memories Mini Book Kit from EMI Scrapbooking & their Etsy shop CreativeKits4U where they sell mini book kits worldwide.
Congratulations LETUMom

Winners please email me at sgray110 at gmail dot com your name & snail mail address to me & I will have these shipped out to you.

These winners will also be added to the Cards For Heroes Blog since there were so many prizes this weekend we wanted to put everything on one page to make it easy for you to claim your prizes.

I hope you keep CFH in mind when you are making cards for personal use. I challenge each of you to make just one card a week for the troops. It really does make a difference. I'm not going to let us forget about this... I'll be challenging you & I hope you challenge me too. I'm planning on sending my Unity Hip Hop Hangover cards for the summer to CFH.

Have a wonderful Tuesday & take some time to be creative.

Blog Hop For Heroes

I'm tickled to death to be a stop on the Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop For Heroes. This is such an awesome organization. Helping our nations armed forces stay in touch will loved ones at home. Since I love making cards it's a nice little way for me to say how much I appreciate their sacrifice for our country. Two of my cousin's children are serving in war zones at this time & I know that these kinds of things really do make a difference & brighten their day.

If you've just stumbled upon my post & would like to do the blog hop from the beginning or just want more details on what you can do to support Cards for Heroes visit their website. Trust me you will be overloaded with inspirational stories & beautiful cards.

I've made several cards that will quickly on their way to Heroes. (I know not all are in the red-white & blue color theme - leave it to me to be a renegade)

Stamps by Unity Stamp Company & Hero Arts

CFH is offering some great prizes this weekend. They will be picking the winners from all the comments posted on all the blogs. So I hope you've been commenting

I thought I'd do a couple giveaways in honor of CFH. Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing for:

A $20 gift certificate to Everything Scrapp'n an online scrapbooking store (they are having a 35% off entire order sale this weekend - coupon code MEMORIAL). They are also doing a giveaway for every $20 you order this weekend you get 1 entry to win a super chic scrapbook tool tote.

My local scrapbook store EMI Scrapbooking has generously donated one of their beautiful mini-book kits My Priceless Memories retail value $23. They sell worldwide in their Etsy store check out their other amazing kits -- they look great in photos but let me tell you when they are in your hands they sure have the WOW factor. These kits are designed for the store with the help of the super talented Michelle.

Thanks to Heather owner of Everything Scrapp'n for matching my gift certificate & to Susan owner of EMI Scrapbooking, Cumming GA for the mini. Be sure to comment to be entered to win. The two winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator on Tuesday, May 26 at noon eastern time.

Thanks so much for visiting I hope you will make some cards or make a donation to Cards For Heroes. If you are a card maker their summer challenge is 25 + 2 cards. Have a safe & happy Memorial Day holiday.

Your next stop is the fun & talented Liza Marie

Update: It's Sunday evening & I just finished the blog hop including and I just have so say wow! What heartfelt & inspirational stories, beautiful cards & loads of prizes. I really believe in this organization & it's just awesome the participation and response by others. I've been emailing my local tv stations to let them know about this great cause. Call me a crazy dreamer but I even sent some to CNN & Fox News. Look out Cards For Heroes -- you wanted to get the word out lets hope it gets picked up on the big guys!