IHP Birthday Bash and A Special Gift

Get ready for the i {heart} papers Birthday Bash! That’s right, IHP is turning 1 year old this month, and a whopper of a party is planned! There's also a special gift planned to help others celebrate more birthdays. You’ll read more about that at the end of this post.

First, let’s talk about the party! There will be prizes galore (free stuff – you like free stuff, don’t you?), and a Grand Prize winner will be chosen at the end to be the IHP Guest Designer for the month of November!

There will be 6 birthday party themed challenges, one posted each day starting on Monday, October 19th. Each challenge will be hosted (and posted) by one of the IHP Design Team members. It will also be posted on the IHP Blog and on the store site HERE. Some special invited guests will be posting throughout the week, too! Each challenge will have its own prize.

To qualify for the prize of the day, all you have to do is post your challenge card/project to Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) and/or Paper Craft Planet (PCP) with the appropriate tag so we can find it. The tag (and the prize) for that day’s challenge will be posted on that day. You will have the full week (until October 25^th) to post your work, and you can enter as many challenges as you like, but you can’t combine challenges in one project. The daily challenge winners will be selected at random at the end of the week.

To qualify for the Grand Prize of being IHP Guest Designer for the month of November, here’s how it will work: Every challenge card/project you enter will give you points (see the list below), and the one with the most points accumulated for the week will be the Grand Prize winner. So the more challenges you enter, the more points you earn — and the better your chances of winning the Grand Prize (and the bigger the value of your Guest Designer box will be)!

All winners, including the Grand Prize winner, will be announced at the Birthday Bash on October 26^th.

So get ready to PARTY!!!! You won’t want to miss the fun!

Birthday Bash Points

For each project:

5 points for each challenge card/project you make, upload and tag to SCS

5 points for each challenge card/project you make, upload and tag to PCP

2 points for uploading to your blog and linking at least one IHP item used to the IHP website

One time points:

2 points for signing up to receive our newsletter*

2 points for joining our PCP group*

2 points for becoming our fan on Facebook*

10 points if you participate in all 6 IHP Birthday Bash challenges

*When you sign up, or if you are already signed up, leave us a comment on the IHP blog during Birthday Bash week so your points can be credited.

A Special Gift

Because i {heart} papers loves birthdays so much, they’ve decided to contribute 10% of sales, beginning on October 19^th and through the end of October, to Hope Lodge New York City. Hope Lodge, run by the American Cancer Society, “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays,” offers free, temporary housing for cancer patients and their families who are undergoing treatment. The nurturing, comfortable environment at Hope Lodge allows patients to focus on what is most important - fighting cancer. What better way to celebrate a birthday than to help those who are helping more birthdays happen!

... card for a Marine ...

I got an e-mail from my hubby a week ago about a Marine who'd been wounded 3 years ago in Iraq and they are amazed he is alive today. They are hoping to send him 1000 cards to celebrate that he survived.
Here is the card I made.

If you would like to particpate, here is the address:

Colin Smith

PO Box 646

Amherst, OH 40001-0646

a few projects....

I got this cute letter N at Hobby Lobby in Houston back in August and got a chance to jazz it up recently. I covered it w/ paper and used mod podge to glue it down and covered the top so it's sealed all nice. I added some blue and brown buttons, too. I have a little collection of N's for the twins room.
Next, I have Mishie-style note pads to show off. I made these a couple weeks ago, and since PTI is coming out w/ a whole set dedicated to making these adorable little suckers, I thought I'd share my versions....

Not very chatty tonight - had a long-ish seeming day. Gotta tuck the kiddos in...

... just because cherries ...

Oh, I've been slacking! I meant to be a super good blogger, but well.... I forget. I ought to have a day that I schedule blog posts for the week, but then I wouldn't be able to ramble on about whatever is going on w/ me that day.

So, about the card: raspberry fizz and spring moss paper, sheer white ribbon, raspberry fizz buttons. Easy peasey! Oh - the scallop punch is from SU. Although, the more I see the other fancy scallop punches, it makes me want more than just this one.

Tomorrow I am venturing to a scrapbook store in Palm Desert - Wootens. Anybody ever heard of it? I found their website and it looks pretty cool. The hubby and kids are off school, so I am getting a day ALL TO MYSELF. How lucky for me.

Anyhoo - that's it for today. I've been working on Christmas gifts already for my sisters' kiddos... I'll show you them soon.

PUMPKIN EMMA

Morning blog friends! I seem to be stamping much more than usual lately! Shhh, don't tell my hubby. ;-)
Anyhoo - I think I am going to give this as a birthday card.... Pretty simple and to the point. I've really been digging digi images lately - this one is from CC Designs. Colored w/ tombow markers, avocado paper from PTI, polka dotted paper is from cosmo cricket. I think I love Cosmo Cricket more than Basic Grey now. I can use ALL the sheets in teh stack, and w/ BG, I tend to only use a third of them???
Okay - gotta take Kyle to school. Have a super day!

head start on the moving cards

Hello blog friends! In 22 days I will be moving into a new house (not brand new, just new to me). We've been in temporary housing since early August, so I am really ready to get cozy in a place that will be mine for three years! Hence, I used the sentiment "home sweet home" rather than we've moved....

On this card, I was playing around mixing up some colors to get a different look. I also made a few that are more halloween themed since we move right before then...

It's finally feeling like fall out here in southern California. I sent the boys to school in long sleeves yesterday. At night we need jackets. Love it!

WCMD Challenge #2: Mexico

I actually am pretty happy w/ how this card came out -- it definitely made me stretch my imagination. In case you can't tell, I was attempting to make the card resemble one of those famous Mexican blankets....
I used the stripes from retro background and colored some of them in for variety, cut strips and mounted them on black cardstock. Sentiment is printed.
BRB w/ my India challenge card....l

WCMD Challenge 1: Japan

I made a few cards to submit to Nichole's WCMD blog challenge. First up is a Japanese themed card. I *finally* got to use this little set from SU! - oh golly, I forget the name. I knew I wanted to use RED and then decided to add some gold (but really, the gold didn't look gold, so I used metallic copper color instead. That fancy button I dug out of my scarlet jewel collection. So cute.

... BFF cherries ...

Wow... isn't this a lovely card? I think it looks especially pretty because I didn't take the picture! My BFF, Amber, stamped me some of these cherry stems from everyday button bits and I just LOVE them, so I had to make her a little card out of them. ;-)
I used spring moss, avocado twill (to save on ribbon, I tied the knot, and just adhered it to the front of the card rather than all the way around. That paper is from basic grey -- lemonade, I think??? Sentiment is from TAC - it's a mix of tons of words that you put together to write whatever you want.

We are planning to take the kiddos to see the Toy Story movies today - wish us luck!!!

... i heart owls ...

Oh, it looks like this pic is a tad dark, but you still get the gist of it. I *had* to have this paper, and was stumped on what to make with it. I'd gotten the heart nesties a few months ago and never used them (gasp), so it just kinda flowed from there. I'm sending it to my mom because everytime I'm *in* to something, she bombards me with gift items and trinkets of whatever it happens to be.
Today is World Card Making Day - I've been playing around w/ my stamps. Nichole is having a neat blog contest w/ great prizes. Be sure to stop by.

...loving the Christmas cards...

I made these two adorable cards like a day after I got my PTI order. I don't know what took me so long! ;-) I just love them.... AND, I'm completely and totally gaga for the Signature Christmas set. I want PTI to release lots more stuff using Dawn's handwriting!

Sorry this is short - I'm just glad to be uploading again!

...goodies for mom...

Here I am trying to make up for lost time blogging, huh! My mom's birthday was in July, and I wanted to make her something unique that she couldn't BUY. I think that was the month that Lauren's picnic template was released, so that's the one I used.

Here is the basket- I used an old set I had from TAC. Not sure what it's called anymore. . . Can you tell I was going through a yellow phase??? =)

hi cute paper!

I love this Cosmo Cricket paper I've been seeing everywhere! I needed to make a card for my father in law to send a family picture, so I didn't want it to look to girlie.

The velvet rick rack I got from ebay, buttons are probably PTI, *HI* is done w/ stickers I've had forever...

Hope you like! I've got more... be back soon.

...four little elves...

I have had Christmas cards on the brain since JULY! Yes, really... I have been trying to think of the perfect card to make and send out (we send about 90 cards out). There are so many cute sets out there and images that I wanted, it was hard to decide. I don't know why this never occurred to me before, but I don't have to make all 90 cards the same! Duh - so, this year I'm going to play and make as many different cards as I want!
First up is this card w/ four little elves to represent my four little boys (I have 5 boys, but one is far from little at 19 years old).
Pink Cat Studio had this digi image (along with a ton of other cute ones) that I couldn't pass up. I've also printed it small and put "to/from" next to him and will be making tags for Christmas gifts! I feel like this card is still missing *something* but I'm not sure if I ought to add buttons, or ribbon, or both. . .

sweet cherries!

Hello dear friends! I've been on a stamping frenzy now that I actually have my STUFF again! Still waiting for a house, but at least I've got my goodies to play with.
My sweet friend, Amber, stamped me some of these PTI cherries from Everyday Button Bits, and I'm smitten with them!

The patterned paper is Basic Grey -- not sure which line, sorry! The sentiment is one I've had for ages that I got free from TAC. Spring moss cardstock and ribbon is from Michaels... Oh - the swirly thing my friend sent me and I threw out the packaging, so have no clue where it came from!

I added some stickles to the cherry leaves and I love the sparklyness!