Non-Raffle Prize Winners Now Posted!!!

It took a bit longer than expected, navigating through vacation schedules, getting information from Paypal, organizing the lists and drawing the winners, but we're finally there! You will find the winners list posted by me in this thread on SCS. Jenn Balcer is also entering the winners' names into the prize gallery postings themselves. Congratulations to all the winners, and especially to those who were lucky enough to win multiple prizes!

The winners will be contacted directly by the prize donors to arrange delivery of the prizes. If you are a winner and haven't heard from the prize donor within the next week, please email me and I'll do what I can to help.

Debbie and I want to thank each and every one of you, from the bottom of our hearts, for supporting this worthy cause. Together we raised $3715 USD for the victims of the Victorian Bushfires. That is, quite simply, awesome and humbling.

I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed Easter.

Blog Candy Winner!!!

Hi Everyone! So sorry it's taken me so long to get to my blog candy drawing today. I just wrote down everyone's name on a slip of paper, folded them up, and had my youngest son Avery draw the winning name. And the winner is: Stampowl (Frances Byrne)! Congratulations Frances!!! Please email me your address and I'll get your package of goodies mailed out to you right away!

My sincerest thanks to each and every one of you who promoted the fundraiser for the Victorian Bushfires Appeal. I'm quite sure that our fundraiser would not have been a success without each of your efforts. It's wonderful to see people reaching out to help one another, especially during these very difficult economic times. No effort is too small.

We're all waiting on pins and needles to see who wins the prizes. I believe we'll know soon... it's a matter of getting the final information from Paypal and then drawing for the winners, something the good folks at Splitcoaststampers are taking care of for us. We could not have done this without them, and our sincere thanks goes out to SCS, and Jenn Balcer in particular, for all their help and support.

I'll be back tomorrow with a card or two to share. Have a great evening!

Non-Raffle for Victorian Bushfires Appeal Extended thru April 3rd!

Hi everyone! This is a quick post, and I'll be back soon with another, but I wanted to make you all aware (if you don't know already) that the Non-Raffle for the Victorian Bushfires Appeal has been extended through April 3rd. So far, we've raised a little more than $2000, but we think we can do better! We've got approxiamtely 100 prizes in the gallery now. Please post on your blogs and encourage all your friends to donate money to earn chances to win... and help the victims of those devastating fires.

I will likewise extend the blog candy opportunity through April 3rd.

Thanks so much for your support, and I mean that most sincerely.

I actually have a card or two to share, so I'll be back soon!

My New Blog Look... and Two Cards!

Hey y'all! That's what my kinfolk say in the south. I love it! I'm actually a little bit southern since my mother was born and raised in Mississippi and I was born in Alabama. But I digress (as usual). If you are reading this in Google Reader or similar, please click on over and check out my new blog design. This wonderfulness is by none other than Veronica McCollum of VK Design Co. I mean it when I say she is the easiest, most wonderful person to work with... not to mention, incredibly talented. She's actually pretty good at reading minds, too! I guess you'd have to be when trying to bring to life something that is a notion in someone else's mind. Anyway, we hope that it doesn't look too much like a pet store (ha ha). I absolutely love it, and am deeply grateful to Veronica for bringing my blog to life.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to say that I'm not really a cat lady, so to speak. I mean, I do have two cats... litter mates from a rescued mama... and had one other cat about 25 years ago. But that's it. One of my cats, a gray shorthaired tabby named Jazzy, is MY cat, though. She chose me as her Alpha and follows me around and "protects" me from the other marauding animals around here (that's her opinion... ha!). When I started getting into Splitcoast a little more than a year ago, I was trying to think of a clever handle. I suppose Jazzy must have been around at the time when The Cat's Meow popped into my head. (If you know me at all, you know I'm the queen of cliches.) So, I changed Cat to Craft, and viola! Not very exciting, but there you have it.

Onto a card! With all the activity of late, I've barely had time to do any stamping... in fact, almost none. It felt strange to finally sit down to stamp because I felt literally overwhelmed... I didn't know where to start or what to do first... and my mojo had completely left the building. So I turned to the best basic inspiration one can get, and that is a sketch challenge. I looked at several, actually, and so far have played with two.

The first is Viva la VERVE! March Week 3. Since I needed a masculine birthday card, I used the black rhinestone swirl from Prima rather than a ribbon. I didn't have room for the three "brads" to the left of the image, so I put them on the image instead in the form of more black rhinestones. This was because of the way I had to line things up to match the stamped image strip at the very top.

All paper, ink and stamps are from Papertrey Ink. The stamp set is Beyond Basic Borders by Pinefeather Press for Papertrey Ink (Heather Nichols).

The next card is loosely based on the current CCEE Stampers Sketch Challenge.


I had colored this digi stamp from Little Paper Shop awhile back and hunted around for some DP to match when I fell upon this scrap from K&Company's Berry Sweet Collection. I couldn't bear to cover up the design, so just skipped one of the sketch layers to make it work. It's hard to tell, but I sparkled up the scalloped mat with some glitter and used my atyou Spica gel pen on her shoes, belt, flower and butterfly. Although it doesn't photograph well, the other bit of bling I added in the corner... I believe that's also by Prima... really added the right touch. Something was just plain missing in that corner!

Please don't forget to support the SCS Cares Non-Raffle for the Victorian Bushfires Appeal. If you haven't looked lately, more wonderful prizes have been added to the gallery. And we really need to spread the word so that people will donate to this very worthy cause... and get a chance to win some wonderful prizes. I'm still offering a blog candy opportunity for those who post the logo and link on their blog.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Splitcoast Cares - Non Raffle for Victorian Bushfire Appeal and Blog Candy Opportunity

I am so excited!!! The Non-Raffle for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal is finally live on Splitcoast! Debbie and I want to thank Jenn Balcer and Splitcoaststampers for helping us gather donations for the fire victims. It means sooo much! And, of course, we couldn't do this without all of the wonderfully talented and generous people who donated the prizes!!! You'll see what I mean when you check out the non-raffle prize gallery. The outpouring of support and generosity has been amazing.

Please feel free to put this logo on your blog with the link and spread the word. I'm going to put together some Blog Candy for all those who do, so please post a link to your blog as a comment to this post and your name will go into the drawing. I will post a picture of the Blog Candy later this evening.

Edited to Add: Here is the Blog Candy I'm offering! Included are: (1) Motivational Centers Stamp Set by Mona Lisa Moments for Cornish Heritage Farm, (2) Rain or Shine Stamp Set by My Favorite Things, (3) Lily & Milo Rainy Days Stamp by Rachelle Anne Miller for Stampavie, (4) Stampin Up Prints Sampler (you can barely see it, but it's underneath the ribbon), and (5) the ribbon bundle from the current Sell-A-Bration offer by Stampin Up!

All you have to do is put the Splitcoaststampers Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009 logo (above and on my side bar) on your blog with a link to the SCS Non-Raffle page, and then leave a comment on this post with your blog address and you're in! I'll draw the winner on March 25th, the same day that the non-raffle ends.

If you would like to donate a prize to the prize gallery, please email me. The more, the better! But we especially need to spread the word about the non-raffle so that we can collect monetary donations. After all, that's what it's all about... helping the victims of those terrible fires.

Here's a video I found on You Tube that is particularly touching and helps tell the story of the devastation these people have suffered. I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch.



Thank you again for your support!

Birthday Wishes and Update on SCS Victorian Bushfire Appeal Non-Raffle

I finally found a bit of time to make a card...thank goodness, as I'm in dire need of stamping therapy to balance the stresses of late (file those under the category of "Rat Race.") Unfortunately, it's taking my mojo a bit of time to rev up. These little trees (from the SU set Trendy Trees) didn't turn out quite as I had envisioned, but I finally left well enough alone. I think it's the paper... I used Naturals Ivory and it doesn't take ink very well for some solid images.

But I am loving this DSP -- Sweet Slumber Specialty. It has a wonderful texture to it, and such great patterns and colors.

Everything here is Stampin Up except for the greeting, which I took from a Gina K set because I needed a birthday card, and the little brad, which is from a set of the cutest brads called Forest Friends by Colorbok (I got mine at Michaels).

This card is for the current CPS Sketch 105. I really like this sketch and plan to use it again.









In other news, I believe the SCS Non-Raffle for the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Appeal will go live on SCS's front page this Saturday. Yay!!! In the meantime, if you or anyone you know is willing to donate a prize, please let me know ASAP.

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit!

We Need Your Help!!!

No doubt you have heard about the devastating Victorian Bushfires that have claimed many lives and homes, including entire towns. We in California have experienced similar devastation because of our extremely dry, hot weather and never-ending drought conditions. Like every natural disaster, our hearts and prayers go out to people affected, and many of us wish there were something we could do to help. Well, there is!

Through this wonderful world of blogging, I've made friends with Debbie Pamment. Debbie lives in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, and has donated food, money, and blood to help the fire victims. Yet she still laments not being able to do more, especially since she knows people who have been directly affected by the fires. This got me to thinking about the Splitcoast Non-Raffle for Midwest Flood Relief held last August. So I got in touch with Jenn Balcer (who, by the way, is every bit as sweet as I've heard she is on various blogs and postings) to find out how we could get something similar started for the Victorian Bushfire victims. She offered to help get it all set up on SCS for us once we pull it together, and suggested that I contact Peggysue, who spearheaded the Midwest Flood Relief non-raffle.

Peggysue got right back to me when I PM'd her, and gave me a wealth of advice and encouragement. I can't thank her enough! So, with the advice and encouragement we needed, Debbie and I are teaming up to get the ball rolling.

The first order of business is to solicit donations of prizes, which can be either products or handcrafted items. All of these will be displayed in a special gallery set up on the SCS website. The donors will mail the prizes directly to those who win (which could be anywhere in the world... the shipping cost will be part of your donation to this very worthy cause), and there will be a winner for EACH prize, so hopefully lots of chances to win! But, most importantly, we will be helping our Aussie friends. All money raised will go to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfires Appeal.

If you are interested in donating an item, be it a stamp set, crafting materials, a handcrafted item, or anything else, please contact me (lhjulberg@charter.net) or Debbie as soon as possible. If you know someone who might also be interested in contributing, please forward this blog post to them. Any way we can get the word out is most appreciated. We'd like to have commitments and photos of all the donations by next Saturday, February 28th, if possible so that we can kick off the non-raffle in March.

The most wonderful thing about stampers and scrappers... in fact, all crafters... is the amazing amount of generosity, the spirit of giving and sharing, and all the kindness and fun. These are the reasons I cannot let a single day go by without checking in, even if only for a few moments. It's always refreshing to my soul. Oh, and the eye candy is pretty darn wonderful too! *smile*

Thank you so very kindly for considering this request for donations. And remember, if you can't donate, then stay tuned for the non-raffle because we'll really need your help then!

God bless,

Lisa