I'm Giving Away a $25 Kiva Gift Card

Hi everyone,

To celebrate the holidays and the fact that today my family and I made our 100th loan on Kiva.org, I'd like to give away a $25 gift card to Kiva to any of my readers (US or international).

What is Kiva? It's my favorite micro-lending website. You can choose to loan $25 to entrepreneur(s) anywhere in the world.

I first heard about Kiva on Oprah's show back in June of 2007. I've been making micro-loans through Kiva ever since. Kiva has an extremely high success rate of people paying back their loans. When the money is paid back, you can reloan the money or withdraw the money from Kiva. In the 100 loans my family and I have made, only 2 entrepreneurs have only partially paid back the $25 each; that's an amazing number.

What do you have to do? Just enter a comment below before Saturday, December 31th at 11:59 PM PST.

I'll use my version of Random.org (my son, Kalino) to pick a winner on Sunday. The gift card will be emailed to the winner. Good luck!

The Twinery and PSA Essentials Blog Hop Continues

Good morning dearies! Today we start a week-long blog hop to showcase The Twinery and PSA Essentials products. 

If you following our blog hop, your hopping over from Monika Wright's blog (I Love it All). My goodness, that girl is super talented! If you didn't come from Monika's blog, start your blog hopping at The Twinery here. 

There are giveaways and several chances to win this week, so you don't want to miss a thing.

Those of you frequent visitors to my blog know that I LOVE baker's twine. I can't get enough of it.

On the first card I used Lemondrop twine from The Twinery and the Love stamp from the Love Birds set by PSA Essentials. I cut a design from the Silhouette Studio and added baker's twine to the rays.

On the second card, I used Pink Sorbet twine and the Love sentiment from the Love Birds set.

Buy The Twinery's twine and PSA Essentials Peel & Stick products at a discount this week during the blog hop. Here are the details:

• The Twinery: Purchase here and enter the coupon code  PSAHOP15 for 15% off any order from June 6 through June 10th.

• PSA Essentials: Purchase at The Letter Tree here and get 30% off all PSA Essentials products from June 6 through June 10th. No coupon code needed; products are already marked down 30%. 

The Big Giveaway:

• Dates of entry are 6/6 at 12:01 AM EST to SUNDAY 6/12 at 11:59 EST. 
• PSA Essentials is giving away:  1 stamper, 3 Peel & Stick packs of winner's choice 
• The Letter Tree is giving away 1 monogrammed tote bag - image is attached
• The Twinery is giving away Six spools of twine of winner's choice ($84 value)
• Conditions to enter the giveaway:Follow the PSA Stamp Camp Blog – 1 entry
  Follow The Twinery Blog – 1 entry
  Like PSA Essentials on Facebook – 1 entry
  Like The Twinery on Facebook – 1 entry
• Winner will be chosen on 6/13 and announced on Facebook on both Twinery & PSA Essentials pages

Today, my blog is the last stop on the blog hop. The blog hopping will start again tomorrow morning at 8AM EST at Jen Carter's blog. See you then!

And the Winner of the $25 Kiva Gift Card....

... is Sarah Martina Parker! I emailed you your $25 Kiva Gift Card.

This morning bright and early I drove to a new Target store near me. To show you how much I don't shop, the store has been open since mid-October and this was my first time visiting. Since I was sleep-deprived, I decided to get in line for a non-fat peppermint mocha caffeine boost at the Starbucks located in the store. Three people were ahead of me. The woman paying for her coffee announced that she was buying drinks for the 3 of us in line behind her; how incredibly sweet is that? This is the first time I've received a random act of kindness like this. It totally made my day and I actually enjoyed shopping. I was there for 2 hours. The store was very empty, which made it even nicer.

Go out and have a great day and be inspired to create your own random act of kindness!

Want a $25 Kiva Gift Card?

Hi everyone,

In the holiday spirit, I'd like to give away a $25 gift card to Kiva to any of my readers (US or international). What is Kiva? It's my favorite micro-lending website. You can choose to loan $25 to entrepreneur(s) anywhere in the world. Here's a video from Kiva to explain how Kiva works:

How Kiva Works from Kiva Microfunds on Vimeo.

Fellow paper crafter, Savitri Wilder, also makes loans through Kiva.

This year, Oprah chose Kiva as one of her "Favorite Things 2010". I first heard about Kiva on Oprah's show back in June of 2007. I've been making micro-loans through Kiva ever since. Kiva has an extremely high success rate of people paying back their loans. When the money is paid back, you can reloan the money or withdraw the money from Kiva. In the 66 loans my family and I have made, only 2 entrepreneurs have only partially paid back the $25 each; that's an amazing number.

What do you have to do? Just enter a comment below before Monday, December 20th at 11:59 PM PST. I'll use my version of Random.org (my son, Kalino) to pick a winner on Tuesday. The gift card will be emailed to the winner. Good luck!

The Winner of the Hambly Blog Candy Is...

And the winner of the Hambly blog candy is.....

Lisa, contact me with your mailing address. Thanks, everyone!

Did You Know? And a Little Reminder.

Here's a cool video that my husband sent to me. Makes you think.

Just a reminder, you only have a few hours left to sign up for the Hambly blog candy on my blog. Have a good one!

Some Hambly End-of-Year Blog Candy

When I went to Hambly Studios in early December, Allison had a cute tree decorated with all Hambly embellished decorations. All the presents were wrapped in Hambly papers and she had the greatest gift tags. She used her rub-ons on acetate tags. I loved the look so much, that I had to create my own. I bought some Clearly Heavy Overlays and got to work. I didn't read instructions and thought I could use Nestabilities to cut out some shapes, but the Clearly Heavy Overlays are too thick for them when using a Big Shot. You have to use a heavy die. In this case, I traced a design I liked from my Silhouette and cut the tags out with sharp scissors. The Crop-a-Dile is perfect for punching holes in this material.

What's Up for Grabs?

This is open up to all you (even international) paper crafters.

Here's the list:

• Clearly Heavy Overlay (half of a 12x12 sheet in order to fit into mailing envelope...not pictured here) 
• Kraft Cardstock Stickers - Vintage Journal Bits 
• Kraft Cardstock Stickers - On Edge Borders 
• Clear Stickers - Pattern Butterflies & Florals 
• Rub-Ons - Hearts 
• Rub-Ons - Lime Green Antique Frames 
• Overlay - 6x8" Black Doily
• Overlay - 6x8" lime green Sewing

To enter, leave one comment on this post from now until Monday, January 4th 11:59 PM PST. I'll use Random.org to choose a winner. Thanks for stopping by. Have a good one!

DoodleFactory Blog Candy

Hi Everyone,

I'm cleaning our bedroom at the moment. Not fun...so much dust. So many magazines, receipts, papers, ...oh, my goodness. I want to totally redo this room. I've had the same headboard for over 15 years. The mattresses are about 5 years old, but everything else needs to go.

To give myself a break, I'm checking out sites on my Google Reader. The Starving ArtiStamps blog is giving away some great blog candy. Go to the following link by January 6th.

Got an Award Last Week & Blog Candy Alert

I forgot to mention that Enjoli from Stamping Under the Sun gave me this Kreativ Blogger award last week. Mahalo, Enjoli! She lives on the Big Island in Hawaii. She's so creative and if you love Hello Kitty, you will love her blog even more.

Here are the rules:

1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.

2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.

3. Nominate 5 blogs.

4. Put links to their blogs

5. Leave a message for your nominees.

I can't choose just 5 bloggers. If you were to see my Google Reader list you would understand. I love the work of so many inspirational people around the world.

Enjoli has some blog candy available to celebrate the 200th post on her blog. She'll be announcing the winner on Wednesday, Nov 26th. She's giving away the Impression Obsession Cupcake Clear Stamp Set. Check it out!

Thanks, Charlene!

Last week, I won some awesome blog candy from Charlene at Willow & Paisley. She went on the Papertrey Ink, Gina K, and Stamping Bella cruise to the Caribbean a few weeks ago. She's a super talented stamper from Calgary (Alberta, Canada). She also sent me a card she made on the cruise. It has a Stamping Bella image. Very nice!

I received this box of goodies today. I can hardly wait to use these supplies. They include: felt Thickers. chipboard Thickers, Fiskars Treading Water punch, K&Co (fabric brads, Tag Pad, cardstock), Maya Roads chipboard, Prima Hydrangea flowers, pins, vintage velvet ribbon, and pink and cream lace. I love how she wraps her ribbon and lace on these vintage clothes pins.

A big Thank You, Charlene! Check out her blog.

Thanks for the Blog Candy!

Thanks, Theresa, for the previous blog candy of yummy ribbons and the paper I received today! So great. Love it.

Theresa Forseth has a blog Addicted to Stamps & Scraps. She's having a 12-week Designer Handbag Inspiration Challenge. This is already week 5 of that competition. It's not too late to participate.

Blog Candy from Jenn

Earlier this week, I got a nice surprise in the mail from Jenn (Kiyomi Krafts). Kalino was thrilled that he got a gift too (bubble machine). The card she sent is gorgeous. I love the way she gives punched flowers 3 dimensions. Mahalo, Jenn!