Luau Party Invitations

Back on June 5/6th, 2010 tornadoes devastated our area, right down the road from where I grew up! Although it was several miles from where I now live I feel horrible knowing that people I grew up with, teachers I had, friends, and family were affected tremendously. Some lost their lives, some lost everything they owned, some lost family members, some lost all of the above and some were fortunate enough to escape by just having to replace roofs, windows, doors, contents, etc...IF YOU CALL THAT FORTUNATE!

Anyway, I held a huge fundraiser to raise money to help put a SMILE back in the hearts of some families that were affected by these horrible storms! My friend and I held a huge Garage and Bake Sale and raised about $6000.00. It was AMAZING!

Once the hard work was all over it was then time for me to start contacting the people who lost so much! What a joy and a true blessing this has all been for me!

Throughout many of my conversations I learned so much...and decided that replacing roofs, doors, windows, etc would be great but in most cases the insurance companies were taking care of things like that. So...here I sat with this money that was raised for the families...what would I do with it all? Well, I'll tell you! As I mentioned, I learned so much during all my conversations...I learned that one family was so busy that they actually schedule in a "Family Date Night" once a week just to go out to dinner and make sure that they are all staying in touch and up to date with what's going on. Unfortunately, they had not been able to do this since the storms because they really haven't been financially able to. I also learned that one families two children lost all their toys, another family was struggling to buy groceries. Oh, and one family was planning a Birthday Party for their daughters who were finally allowed to invite THEIR friends and not just family members. They were planning to have a luau at the pond in their back yard. So, after hearing all this information, anyone who knows me knows that my mind was working overtime to figure out what I should do!

Well...I'll tell you...

Bought tons of gift cards to various restaurants to send one family to dinner at least once a month for an entire year!

Took another family's two children on a shopping spree where they were allowed to fill up their carts with TOYS, TOYS and more TOYS!

Bought grocery gift cards for another family that should last them about six months.

...and...

Planned a Surprise Luau Birthday Party for the birthday girls! It's at a private beach and the family also gets two nights accommodations at the resort! Food is catered from Famous Daves BBQ and the invitations were handmade by ME! Talk about a FUN job! This was awesome!

Here are a couple of photos to show you
exactly what the invitations looked like...

OH, AND YES THEY WERE MAILED JUST AS THEY ARE! NO ENVELOPE NEEDED! The post office loved them! Hope the recipients are surprised and get a chuckle out of them too when they open the mailbox and find them inside...

What do you think?

So, some of the money has been spent but still not completely done! I will continue on my mission fulfilling small dreams of these families that have been through so much by putting "THE FUN STUFF" back in to their lives!

Hugs for now!

FABULOUS Blog Candy from Inked Inspirations

I just stumbled on to Jodi's blog at Inked Inspirations...it's her birthday and yet she's giving FIVE lucky winners the chance to win some fabulous goodies! I couldn't believe it and boy would I love the chance to win any one of those packages! Just take a look and see what I'm talking about!











Now do you understand why I'm jumpin' for joy?!!! Wish me luck! Deadline is July 31st, 2010.

Stamptacular's July 11th Challenge

Can you believe it! Two weeks in a row I've been able to play along with the Stamptacular Design Team! How fun this has been! I love being able to sit down and create cards but I just don't get to do it that often...

Anyway, this week at Stamtacular the challenge is to create a card of project that incorporates this sketch...



Here's what I came up with.

It looks different in real life but I'm still not that crazy about it! What I am crazy about is the fact that I finally got the opportunity to make my very first easel card! Not bad for a first try...Oh...and I will be making more of these! I just love them and it was so simple to make!

Stamptacular's July 4th Challenge!

WOW...it has been a super long time since I've been able to sit down and create! It feels absolutely fabulous to be able to add something new to my blog! Hopefully, I still have friends who are interested in visiting me...So sorry it's been so long but if you know me, you know exactly what's been going on and why.

Anyway, without further ado, I'd like to share the aperture card I created for our Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog. The challenge was to create an aperture card...Enjoy!

WINNER of the Stamptacular Birthday BONUS Fun!

I would like to say a special THANKS to everyone who participated in our BIRTHDAY HOP...we had a fabulous response and it seemed that everyone had a great time!

It's now time to announce the name of the winner of the NEW Sarah Kay stamp set...

The winner is...Canntinia Matherin of Eschwege, Germany. Your card was beautiful! Please e-mail me at misscill@yahoo.com by midnight, Eastern Time, Wednesday May 5th to claim your prize. If I don't hear from you by then you will forfeit your prize and I will be forced to draw another winner.

CONGRATULATIONS Canntinia! I know you'll love these stamps as much as I do!

Hugs,
Priscilla

You still have time!

To get your build-a-card completed and mail it to me via snailmail! Even if you weren't able to join us on March 28, 2010 for our Blog Hop fun, you're still more than welcome to create the card and mail it to me by APRIL 30th to be entered in the drawing to win all 10 of the new 2010 Sarah Kay stamps!

Once you've finished creating a card(s), please e-mail me at misscill@yahoo.com and ask me for my mailing address so you can send me your card(s). The more cards you send, the more chances your name will be entered.

Good Luck!

Hugs,
Priscilla

Happy Birthday STAMPTACULAR!

You made it! You're finally here! This is your final step before you're finished! What's left? Oh, I know! We can't have a card without a sentiment, now can we? Add a FRIENDSHIP themed sentiment somewhere on your card! It can be on the front or on the inside! Your choice!

Now that your card is finished...please be sure to go to our Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog and leave us a comment on the BLOG HOP post with a DIRECT LINK to your BUILD-A-CARD so we can see what you made! All submissions must be posted by midnight (EST) Sunday March 28^th to be included in the Grand Prize drawing! Hope you have enjoyed your day and our hop here at Stamptacular!

BONUS...BONUS...BONUS...BONUS...
Before you call it a day, I have one last chance for you to win a little something extra!
Physically MAIL me your completed BUILD-A-CARD (cards received will be used as a prize in our next BONUS FUN day) and be entered in the drawing to win this fabulous prize:

Cards MUST be in my possession by

APRIL 30th, 2010, that means you have a little over a month, to be included in the drawing! If you'd like to be entered in the drawing, leave me a comment on this post letting me know and then send me an e-mail to misscill@yahoo.com asking me to send you my mailing address. Please be sure to put Build-A-Card Hop in the subject heading of your e-mail to ensure it doesn't get overlooked! Winner of this awesome set of the new Sarah Kay stamps will be announced on May 2^nd, 2010 right here on my blog! Want to be entered twice? Create and send TWO cards following the build-a-card instructions. Three times, send three. Four times, send four…etc

Scallop Mania!

That's this week's challenge at the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog...Believe it or not but I actually had the chance to get a little creative this week and had this card completed ON TIME but...my daughter had my camera at school and kept forgetting to bring it back home. Teenagers!

Anyways, it's a pretty simple card but it follows the rules and it's something I think I could actually feel comfortable sending to someone just to say, "Hello."

Thanks for stopping by and checking out what I've been up to lately...hope to see you here again soon!

Hugs!

Design Team Call for Stamptacular!

This post will remain at the top of my blog through August 23, 2009.

The Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog will be celebrating our Six Month Anniversary soon...So, what does that mean? It means...it's time for a DT call!

I have been so fortunate to have the PERFECT Design Team to help me get our challenge blog up and running! It's been a FANTASTIC journey so far...and with the support my DT and all our participants...life just doesn't get any better than this!

So having said that, it's time to start thinking about our future and adding to our team! Below are some requirements that each DT MUST fulfill in order to be a member of our team. If these are things you feel you are able to commit to, please follow the submission instructions so you can apply for a position on our team!

As a DT member you will be required to:

* Submit a completed project weekly, via e-mail, following the challenge requirements, no later than the Friday before the challenge is posted to the blog! You will get ALL of the challenges in plenty of time to allow you to complete them before the due date!

* Take excellent quality photos of your completed projects.

* Post positive comments on ALL participants' blogs sometime during the week of the particular challenge they participate in. NO EXCEPTIONS! Comments MUST be specific to each entry! MUST be done before midnight (EST) Friday before a new challenge is revealed on our challenge blog!

* SCHEDULE/POST your weekly challenge creations on your blog each week at 6:00AM Eastern Standard Time!

* Be an active DT member of our Sunday Challenge Blog, share with me any and all challenge ideas you may have and want to see as one of our blog challenges, and HOST challenges, if needed.

* Help to find sponsors willing to donate prizes for our challenges (this can be friends, companies or yourself)

* Be open and honest with me when you feel there's a problem or something needs to be addressed or anytime you just want to chit chat.

* ENJOY participating and being part of the Stamptacular DT!

ALL ACCEPTED DESIGN TEAM MEMBERS MUST AGREE TO AND FULFILL A SIX (6) MONTH COMMITMENT! (October 2009 through March 2010)

If the above sounds like something you would like to be a part of and you're interested in becoming a Design Team member for our Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog, PLEASE e-mail me 3-5 samples of your BEST work...at least ONE of your submissions MUST be something other than a greeting card and ALL submissions MUST contain stamping! No scrapbook layouts, please!

Please e-mail your submissions to misscill@yahoo.com by midnight (EST) August 23rd, 2009 to qualify. Accepted Design Team members will be notified no later than Sunday August 30th, 2009.

NOTE: be sure to put STAMPTACULAR DT CALL in the subject heading of your e-mail to be sure it doesn't get overlooked!

Good Luck,
Priscilla

Shapetacular Card...

2That's the challenge for this week at Stamptacular! The rules are that you can create any shape card you like as long as it's out of the ordinary...NO SQUARE OR RECTANGULAR cards allowed this week!

I had a trillion and one ideas in my head but none that I could get to turn out they way I had imagined so...here's what I finally settled on. Nothing spectacular but nonetheless...not a square or rectangle.



This card was inspired by a card I saw on the Hero Arts Blog made by Steff. However, please check out her card...mine doesn't even come close to the elegance and beauty she was able to create!

Stamptacular's BONUS Fun: "BUILD-A-CARD"

You made it! You're finally here! This is your final step before you're finished! What's left? Oh, I know! We can't have a card without a sentiment, now can we? Add a FRIENDSHIP themed sentiment somewhere on your card! It can be on the front or on the inside! Your choice!

Now that your card is finished...please be sure to go to our Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog and leave us a comment on the BONUS FUN post with a DIRECT LINK to your BUILD-A-CARD so we can see what you made and enter your name in the drawing for the fabulous prize up for grabs! All submissions must be in by midnight (EST) Monday July 20th to be included in this drawing! One lucky winner will win the following fabulous prize package:In addition to winning the above prize package the winner will also receive the Design Team submissions for this week's challenge!

BONUS...BONUS...BONUS...BONUS...

Before you call it a day, I have one last chance for you to win a little something extra!
Physically MAIL me your completed BUILD-A-CARD (to be used as a prize in our next BONUS FUN day) and be entered in the drawing to win this fabulous prize:

EIGHT Brand NEW Sugar Nellie Stamps
AND
10 Copic Sketch Markers of the winners choice!

Cards MUST be in my possession by July 31st to be included in the drawing! If you'd like to be entered in the drawing, leave me a comment on this post, include your e-mail address and I will privately e-mail you my mailing address and give you any other details you may need to be entered in this drawing!

July 19th, 2009

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge will be hosting another day of BONUS Fun this coming Sunday, July 19, 2009!

I can't give away all the details but I can tell you that you definitely won't want to miss this and I PROMISE it's something different than ever before! It's a day guaranteed to be full of fun and prizes!

Please join us for all the fun!

See you on Sunday!

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #15

Well, another week of 2009 has come and gone and with last weeks challenge at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge we should all have a good start on our Christmas cards for this year, right?

Anyways, this week's challenge at Stamptacular is a card sketch! I LOVE sketches but this one was particularly challenging for me because our sponsor, Papirloftet, generously supplied each of the Design Team members with a kit full of goodies. The kit was fabulous and contained many different things such brads, flowers, charms, ribbon, prints and even cardstock but I was completely out of my element. I had never used the darling prints that they included and everything seemed to have a vintage feel to me. If you know anything about me...you KNOW I have no clue what to do with vintage! LOL

So...I would pick the package up almost every single day since I've received it wondering what in the world I could create with it...

Although, not my favorite card I've ever made I do like it. I really enjoyed using the flowers and think that placing them the way I did, instead of just using ribbon or cardstock for the band in the sketch, turned out to be a nice effect. You can't really tell but I handstamped all the cardstock myself for an added detail hoping that it would give it an even more "antique" look.

What do you think? I know, I know...stick to my own style! LOL

Thanks for looking!

Hugs,
Priscilla

Christmas in July

That's the theme for this week's challenge at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge...Can you believe Christmas is only six months away? I can't wait to start my shopping...I just love the holidays! Anyways, here's the card I created. I heat embossed the tree and the sentiment in silver embossing powder and then added crystals to the tree and the snowflakes I stamped in the background.

Red, White, Blue and a Star Too!

Have you checked out the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog yet this week? You really should because the challenge this week is soo much fun! It's called Red, White, Blue and a Star Too. To meet the challenge requirements you needed to use the colors red, white and blue BUT the twist was you needed to add at least one star to your project too! Although my card didn't turn out exactly as I had pictured it in my head before I started I still think it came out kind of cute. You can't really tell from the pictures but the stars are actually popped up off of the page, floating on wire. I think that before I send it off to anyone I will actually add a few more stars and maybe even a quote or something. Not sure yet...I just know it needs something before I write it off as being finished. Any ideas? I'd sure love to hear them!
Thanks for stopping by and visiting me! I appreciate it more than words can ever say...

Hugs,
Priscilla

FABULOUS FATHERS!

This week over at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge the challenge was to make a project for a father who is someone special in your life. My dad passed away a few years ago and boy do I miss him! I made cards similar to this for a SWAP that I was in with my Design Team. For this card I used a Versamark ink pad and stamped the old fashiond cars on it and if you notice the clock says it's 6:20. Why am I mentioning the time...well, because it's my dad's birthday. He was born on June 20th. I'm not very good at making masculine cards but actually enjoyed making this and I even think it turned out pretty well.

So, now it's your turn! Let's see what fabulous creation you can make for a father that has made a difference in your life!

"One for the Boys!"

This week's challenge at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog is called "One for the Boys!" AND...what a challenge it was! You'd think that since I am the one who creates all the challenges that I'd be a little easier on myself...good grief!

In order to play along participants must create a special project for a man or boy in their lives. I decided to make a birthday card for a little boy! Thank goodness we had an image SWAP amongst our Design Team members and I got some wonderful "boyish" stamps! Otherwise...I would have been out of luck or heading to a store to buy something. On second thought, maybe that wasn't so smart of me...I had the PERFECT excuse to go shopping and passed it up?!? What was I thinking?

Anyways, here's what I came up with. Hope you like it!

Hugs,
Priscilla

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog Hop!

Hi everyone! I'm so glad that you've been playing along with us in our very first Blog Hop! Hope you've been having a great time so far! Before visiting me, here at Skraptacular Designs, you should have already been to Paula, Nikki, and Line and seen all their fabulous creations, read about what they do during the summer AND left them some love by posting a comment on one of their blog entries. If you missed any of them...please go back and do so! You won't want to miss out on your chance at winning the Grand Prize once you've made it through our Hop!

During the summer, I absolutely love to spend every free chance I get hanging out with my family and friends! I enjoy inviting people over to our house for barbecues, WII tournaments, playing cards or just relaxing with a movie (even though I always end up falling asleep before it's over). When we aren't having loved ones over, you'll find me up in my office doing what I love to do...wasting time on the internet or stamping and creating projects to post on my blog. Included with this post are a couple of my summery creations that I've made. ENJOY!

BONUS CHALLENGE! Here is a little something extra...complete one of the challenges offered below and you'll be entered to win this fabulous prize: Create two of the challenges, you'll be entered twice. Create ALL three of the challenges and you'll be entered FOUR times to win this fabulous prize up for grabs...

FOUR Sugar Nellie stamps by Elisabeth Bell

1. Create a project using the following ingredients:

3 brads, eyelets or buttons

3 different pattern papers

glitter or some other sort of bling

2 stamped images

2. Create last week's Stamptacular Sunday Challenge: "Oh, for the Love of Chocolate!": You are free to create whatever you wish as long as you use some sort of stamping and include chocolate somewhere!

3. Create a card or project using this sketch:

You can NOT combine the above challenges! In order to be entered into the drawing more than once you MUST complete separate projects!

You will have until midnight May 31st, 2009 to complete your BONUS CHALLENGE project(s) in order to be entered into the drawing! Once you have completed your project(s) PLEASE leave a comment here AND send photos of your projects to me at misscill@yahoo.com. Be sure to put BONUS CHALLENGE in the subject heading of your post to ensure I don't miss your entry.

Now that we've had a bit of time to chat and bond, it's time for you to move on and visit DONNA

Enjoy the rest of the Hop!

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue...

You guessed it! This week's challenge at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge is a wedding theme! Let me just tell you that this was the hardest challenge for me yet! I had high hopes and ambition that reached the sky about what I truly wanted to create BUT...nothing ever panned out the way I expected it to! Originally, I wanted to make a wedding invitation complete with the matching RSVP card and Thank You notes. On top of that...I was going to make wedding favors and centerpieces. Well, as you can see here...it just didn't happen!

I'm disappointed that my original goal just never worked out but I guess that's how things go every now and then...

I apologize for such a poor photo...This entire card is shimmery and has lots of detail that you can't see in the photo. I tried the best I could to capture all the features of this card but no matter how I held the camera, what setting I put it on, or where I put the card to be photographed I just couldn't get a good shot.

Blog Hop on Stamptacular Sunday Challenge...

Just thought I'd let you all know that the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog is hosting a Blog Hop on Sunday, May 31st from 6:00 AM until midnight Eastern Standard Time.

Hope you'll all join in the fun!

"Oh, for the love of CHOCOLATE!"

What a super fun challenge it is this week at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge! Who doesn't love chocolate? I created the template for this jumbo candybar box-card myself and think it turned out pretty cute! The sentiment inside the card says, "Wishing you all the good things in life...friendship, happiness and chocolate!" PERFECT!

I definitely want to start making these as birthday cards for friends and family. Pretty simple, cheap and something different! What do you think?

Pink, Green and Brown...

that's the challenge this week over at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge. This week the sponsor is Bearly Mine Designs...a wonderful place to buy Craft CD's jam-packed with tons of wonderful digi-papers. Oh, and I can tell you first hand how wonderful the papers are because Donna, the creator of Bearly Mine, was generous enough to give all of the Stamptacular Design Team members several designs to use on this week's challenge. Both of the pattern papers used on my card for this challenge are from Bearly Mine...fabulous, aren't they? It was so much fun using digi-papers for the first time ever...Thanks Donna!

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Sketch

This week's challenge at the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge was so much fun! I just love when I have a cool sketch to work from.

Here's my take on the sketch. Thanks for taking the time to come and visit me!

"Mums, the word!"

This week at the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog the challenge is a tribute for all Mothers! The challenge was to create a project in honor of all the hard work, compassion and unconditional love that a MOM gives each day!

This week's sponsor of the challenge is Sketching Stamper and they were kind enough to allow each of the Design Team members use one of their floral digi-stamps for our project.

Anyways, here's what I came up with...

"Charmed, I'm sure!"

This week's Stamptacular Sunday Challenge is called, "Charmed, I'm sure!" The requirements were that you had to include at least one charm on your project. This was a tough one for me! I had NO clue what in the world to do with a charm or how to include it onto my card. I'm not completely satisfied with the final result and am really contemplating on tearing the card apart and starting over. Who knows what I'll end up doing but for now...here it is!

I just love Precious Moments!

These images are just that..."PRECIOUS"! When I was a teenager I started collecting the actual figurines but then, as I got older I discovered that I am not really a knick-knack fan! I am just not a collector of things that just sit around my house and collect dust... Now, don't get me wrong, I do still think they are absolutely adorable but have discovered that they use to make Precious Moments rubber stamps! I sure do wish I could find a ton of them to add to my collection without having to pay the unbelievably outrageous price that they sell for on e-bay! Good grief!

Anyways, I have a couple of them and decided to make a Get Well Card with one of them...

I created the image with a 3-D effect. I popped up several different areas of the image and really like how it turned out! I wanted to use ribbon this card but really didn't have any that matched so I thought and thought about what other embellishments I could use on this card and came up with absolutely nothing. Suddenly, I noticed an empty tape runner on the side of my desk and realized that the rolled up spool, that use to contain the sticky stuff for a tape runner, was actually crystal clear and not sticky at all! So, I decided to cut a section off and see if I could turn it into ribbon. Guess what? It works and I love how it looks! You can even stamp on it with Staz-On!

Black and White + ONE

The theme for this week's Stamptacular Sunday Challenge is "Black and White + ONE". The requirements are that you are only allowed to use black, white and one other color for the project that you create. Oh, and you also MUST use some form of stamping somewhere on your project! If you know me at all you KNOW that I absolutely love working with black and white so this challenge was right up my alley! However, I also tried to make it a bit challenging for me so I used the color RED. Anyone who knows me also knows that I absolutely HATE the color red! So...this was quite the challenge! I decided to make something decorative, other than just a card, that I could send a cocoa packet in. Here's what I came up with. It's a little box about 1/4" in depth that has a card inside with a hot cocoa packet adhered to the back...Sorry about the poor photos!