Heart to heart Card Drive and Happy October!

Happy October everyone! It's my birthday today! Lunch with all my guys, free mocha toffee frap, and lots of birthday messages and calls makes for a very nice day. I'm hoping to get a little crafting in tonight, too! We'll see, though. I kind of miss sleep. ;)

Speaking of crafting, you need to make a card for Carolyn King's Heart to Heart card drive. Carolyn lost her grandmother to Alzheimer's a few years ago and has a card drive to honor Alzheimer's caregivers. They need appreciation and recognition! It is exhausting caring for someone with Alzheimer's. There is a huge prize as well.

My grandmother passed away from Alzheimer's this year. Her care progressed from her just needing to be driven places, to having my brother live with her to be sure she took her medicine and didn't fall, to full time supervision. It took a lot of energy from a lot of people to take care of her. I miss her. A lot. Her birthday is coming up and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than by thanking the people who are helping patients and family members walk this road. I've made three cards so far and I'm hoping to make several more. I'll take them to the nursing home where Grandmommy was living, but Carolyn provides an address and even a sample note if you don't know where to send a card or what to say.

My card details are very simple. The first card uses the Clean and Simple challenge sketch from Splitcoaststampers this week. The fabulous pumpkin is from a set that Carolyn designed in honor of her grandmother and she donates her proceeds to the Alzheimer's Association. (She rocks. And she's super fun, too. I know, I got to meet her once.)
The second card I made from old mail. The flower is torn from the base of a card my kids destroyed and the the leaf is torn from the cover of a jewelry catalog. I inked the edges, glued the layers together, and added some stickles and dew drops. Dawn McVey has an awesome tutorial on making flowers like this (much better than this).

Go make a card for Carolyn's card drive and head to her blog. You might win an amazingly huge prize and you will definitely make someone happy. Complete win.

Pumpkin Card Supplies:
Stamps - GinaK Designs Whimsical Autumn, Thanks a Million
Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa, Tuxedo Black
Paper - Papertrey Ink kraft, Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Georgia-Pacific white
Other - Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impression Plate, Orange Zest button, twine, Nestabilities Scalloped Rectangle, Copics

Flower Card Supplies:
Stamps - GinaK Designs Inside and Out
Ink - Palette Burnt Umber, Stampin' Up! Tangerine Tango, Old Olive
Paper - Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue, Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, orange and green scraps
Other - Dew drops, Stickles, Papertrey Ink Large Scallop Border, green grosgrain

Happy with Candy

Oh my! I am so happy, excited, and grateful right now. First off, Holiday Cards and More Vol 5 from Paper Crafts officially goes on sale today and I have my first (and so far only) published card inside! Page 77 if you happen to have one! ;) I have yet to see it in an actual store. That is going to be really cool. :) I hope to show you my card soon, I just need to double check the rules and see if that's ok.

Second, and far more important, those sweet little feet in my profile picture are going to be 1 year old tomorrow! I can hardly believe it! He is a crazy little monkey, too! He sings and dances and screams like a happy little nazgul. ;) It seems like just yesterday we brought him home but I can hardly remember what life was like before him. Memory is so weird.

It's kind of full-circle that Holiday Cards and More goes on sale today. I took Vol 4 with me to the hospital to pass the time before my C-section. It still has the hospital tag on it so it could find its way back to my room. (Did you know they don't let you bring stuff into surgery?) So when everyone but me was sleeping I was flipping through the magazine instead of focusing on why the hospital would not bring me real food. (Next time I'm bringing my own cooler. For real.)

There are a million other things I'm grateful for and happy about ranging from the other two fabulous men in my life to scor-tape to all my online friends to Glee to toffee mocha lattes at Starbucks to a LOT of other things large and small. So to celebrate all this happiness, I'd like to have a little blog candy. :) I will give away a copy of Holiday Cards and More Vol 5 plus a $10 gift certificate to the winner's choice of Papertrey or GinaK. (Btw, this is not in anyway affiliated with any of the giveaways on Paper Craft Connections or Moxie Fab World, although you should totally check them out. I'll be going to Hobby Lobby or Barnes and Noble and buying a copy. The one in the pictures is mine and already much loved. Yours will be new and unfondled.) ;) To enter, just leave me a comment telling me something you're happy about! That's it! This will stay open until the 21st and I'll randomly pick a winner on the 22nd! Be sure to leave me a way to get in touch with you - email, scs or stamptv user name - or remember to check back.

Thanks so much!