'Spread the Love' Blog Hop and Card Drive

Welcome to the 'Spread the Love' Blog Hop. This special blog hop starts today (2nd November) at 10am (EST) and ends on 9th November 2009 at 10am (EST). You should have hopped here from Crissy Armstrong's blog, so if you didn't, click here to return to the start of the hop.

This is a very special blog hop, organised by my stamping friends Denise Lynn and Erin Bailey in response to a tragedy that occurred at the beginning of October in a small New Hampshire town. On October 4th, 4 teenagers armed with knives broke into a home where Kimberly Cates and her 11-year-old daughter Jaimie were sleeping. They stabbed Kimberly to death and left Jaimie for dead in their driveway. It was a completely random act, their home was chosen only due to its secluded surroundings. Thankfully, Jaimie has now left hospital and is now back home recovering with her dad.

We are asking everyone who is hopping around today to please take a moment to make a card and send it off to Jaimie. You can make something very simple or much more involved, but please share some words of hope and love and let her know that people do care and want the best for her. Although the theme of the hop is 'Spread the Love,' anything goes as far as stamps, products, designs etc. There are no rules regarding what you create. Please send your card to this address:

Jaimie Cates

c/o Mont Vernon Fire Station

Main Street

Mont Vernon, NH 03057

USA

We have some fantastic sponsors on board for this blog hop, and if you would like to be in with a chance of winning the fabulous prizes you can see at the end of the hop at http://spreadthelove-forjaimie.blogspot.com/ , then we invite you to post the card you make for Jaimie on your blog, and then copy and paste the link to your blog post at the end of the hop.

Some of us who are involved in this blog hop are also offering our own mini candies for taking part in this card drive, and I am offering a brand new Popcorn the Bear 'Someone Special' unmounted stamp set as my mini blog hop candy.

So to be in with a chance of winning this stamp set, hop back here once you've made a card for Jaimie and pop the link to your blog post or online gallery page into Mr Linky below. My mini blog candy is open until 9th November 2009, 10am EST (which is 2pm UK time), and I will draw a winner later that day.

Here’s a bit about Jaimie from Erin’s friend to help you when you create….

Jaimie is not really a girlie girl, but she does like hot pink and black. She likes outdoor activities such as biking, skateboarding, razor rip stick, snowboarding, and karate. She is a black belt in karate.

So for my card for Jaimie, I decided to use my Sugar Nellie Manga Girl #2 stamp, as I felt she'd suit the slightly grungey black and hot pink theme I'd chosen to use. This meant that I could colour her with my limited supply of Copics, as Hot Pink is one of the colours included in set 36A!

For my layout, I followed Kathy's fab sketch over at The Sugar Bowl for challenge #22 and added this fab Black Raffia Lace (thanks Shelia, aka DippyDog!), as the additional challenge was to add lace.

I was quite pleased with myself for having one of those "a-ha" moments and coming up with the idea of stamping the sentiment stamp randomly onto a piece of white circular card. The sentiment stamp is from my Whimsy Stamps Circle Postmark Sentiments stamp set, which, in my opinion, is the BEST general sentiment stamp set out there at the moment:

I gave the card a bit of a grungey distressed look by sanding the core'dinations cardstock and inking up the edges of the DP with my black Versamagic Dew Drop chalk ink pad. I also sanded the flowers that I punched out using my Retro Flower Punch:

Just a couple of days ago, I received my very first Stampin' Up order (woo-hoo!) and in this was the Scallop Border Punch and the Paper Piercer and Mat Pack, which I have used on this card - you may start to see this a lot from now on, LOL!

Finally some pink gems were added to the strips of black card in the top RH corner.

I hope Jaimie likes my card...when she eventually receives it! For those of you who are not in the UK, you may or may not have heard about our national postal service strikes that have been going on for weeks now? Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say it's getting beyond a joke now! Royal Mail are striking EVERY week, for a couple (sometimes more) days each week. I've read that more strikes are planned for 6th November and 9th November, so I'm hoping that this card will get through the system this end before the strikes start again.

Okay, so now you need to continue the hop by hopping on over to Kathryn's blog. But don't forget to come back to me once you've made your card, so you can be entered in my mini blog hop candy draw!

Thanks for dropping by!

Hugs, Semx

Ingredients

STAMP: Sugar Nellie Manga Girl #2 and Whimsy Stamps Circle Postmark Sentiments

COLOURING MEDIA: Copic Ciaos (E00 E21 RV04 RV02 RV10 100 C-3) and ProMarkers (Warm Grey 1 & 3)

PAPER: Basic Grey 'Ambrosia' 6x6 paper pad (Entice) and We R Memory Keepers 'Tiffanys' 6x6 paper pad

CARD: Core'dinations 12x12 ColorCore 'Nightfall' and 'Fuschia Fizz'

EMBELLISHMENTS: Black Raffia Lace, 5mm pink gems, Craftwork Cards Card Candy (Jelly Tots), Versamagic DewDrop 'Midnight Black'

TOOLS: Paper Trimmer, Scissors, PVA glue, 3D foam pads, Sander, SU Scallop border punch, SU piercer tool, SU mat pack

** Entries to this draw are now closed. Click here to see entries for this draw**