LMNOP ~ my first sponsor

Hi blog friends!

Guess what?

I have a sweet giveaway for you today, compliments of LMNOP by Me, a new blog sponsor.

Cool, huh?

It's funny how these things happen. A former co-worker-turned-Facebook-friend has an aunt who makes these adorable cards and was looking for ways to promote them. I basically said, "OOOOhh!!! Pick me! Pick me!" and she did. Without further ado, I give you Kimberly of LMNOP by Me.

♥

A little bit about Kimberly

"For as long as I can remember, I've loved color - lots and lots of color! I was the kid who got in trouble for decorating the hall walls with crayons. I loved the color of the sky, the color of bugs and, if I thought there wasn't enough color, I would add more - like green food coloring to chocolate chip cookies. To use the colors that I loved, I stated drawing so that I could fill in the lines with all sorts of magical colors provided in paints, magic markers, and crayons.

The Watercolor Stem Series was born of my fascination with watercolors. There are so many different hues to choose from! Be still my foolish heart!

Alone on a wooden deck overlooking a bay in Port Townsend, Washington, I began playing with my watercolor sets. I had seen a painting of flowers in a field earlier that day in an art gallery and thought it was "nice" but if I were to paint it I would have the flower stems bloom with more than just flowers. Why would you want to limit anything's possibilities? It's just the way my head works. 

{photo from LMNOP by me}

These cards are a little different than the average card because they are designed both on the front and the back of the card. This is for two reasons: 1) I think you should be able to enjoy a card from all sides, and 2) why should you waste the back of a perfectly good canvas?"

* * * * * * * *

Thanks, Kimberly! It's so nice to meet you.

You can see more of Kimberly's adorable designs on her website.

♥

Now for the giveaway. :o)

Kimberly has given me a generous selection of her adorable cards to giveaway on my blog. For this first round, I'll be giving four of her cards to two lucky people. Just leave a comment on my blog (or on the Facebook's PaperTurtle status update) and I'll put you in the drawing. I'll announce the lucky winners next Thursday {June 14, 2012}. Good luck!

Handmade Cards and Pass the Book!

♥

In this post I'm sharing some very simple card designs,

offering up a pass-the-book giveaway,

and exposing my poor memory.

:o}

When we found out last year that my mom had cancer, I decided to send her a card every week just to remind her that I'm with her on this journey. I also vowed to do the same for my grandma {my mom's mother who will be 92 this year} as I know that this is a difficult time for her too. My grandma will send notes to me from time to time, and she always writes, "I don't know how you come up with so many different designs, but I hope you don't run out of them any time soon."

Well, Grandma, I get by with a little help from my friends.

And books like this:

And when creativity escapes me, I fall back on printing my own photos and slapping them to the front of a folded piece of paper. Since my grandma doesn't read my blog, these are always new photos for her.

Ok, so, this book originated from the original Pass-the-Book Queen, Sian - From High in the Sky. I know it's been around for a while, and I'm pretty sure that I am not the second one to borrow this book, but Sian is the only one who signed the inside cover and I cannot for the life of me remember who passed it to me! {I'm so sorry my memory fails me! If you are reading this and it was passed from you please let me know and I'll edit this post to link to your blog! I think it might have come from Karen...?}

Edit: It was Cheri! The book came from Cheri over at Scrap dreams!

Anyway! Who's up for borrowing this book next? It's a fun and simple 95-page book with photos of all kinds of card designs.

If you want a chance to borrow this book,

leave a comment and I'll put you in the draw.

I'll announce the winner next Saturday {April 14th}.

Good luck!

Card making and crafting and getting back in the swing of things.

I probably had no business signing up for an online class

{prior commitments and other things on my plate...}

but I did it anyway and I'm so glad I did!

Shimelle's classes are always good for me. They help to give me that little push I need to get crafting. This particular class gave me that push to create something in my new craft room as well. :o)!!!

I like to send weekly cards to my mom and my grandma, and they like the handmade kind the best. When I saw Shimelle's card sketch in prompt #1 I was on it!

One thing I have in my vast paper collection is Halloween paper. Tons of it. {Promise to self: Never, no matter how cute it is, buy anymore Halloween paper! Deb! Your collection is complete!!!} I've had this Heidi Grace paper for...well...forever. I can never bring myself to throw away any scraps, no matter how small. Here's what I came up with:

And, I have some birthdays coming up so while I was already loving this card sketch, I threw a few of these together too.

{cupcake photo I took myself...}

I'm not sure how many scrapbook pages I'll turn out during the course of this class, but I do plan to take advantage of some serious card making. Mom and Grandma will be so pleased.