500TH BLOG POST GIVEAWAY

Next month, my blog will be four years old. But today, before I reach that four-year anniversary, I have reached a different huge milestone: MY 500TH BLOG POST!

To commemorate this important day, I wanted to make an extra-special card incorporating many of my favorite things.

Since we Stampin' Up! demonstrators are lucky enough to be able to preorder product from an upcoming catalog a month prior to it going public, I, of course, took advantage of that privilege. My preorder arrived yesterday, and I was ever so eager to dive into it and get to work! No -- more like PLAY! 

A new bit of excitement the Stampin' Up! team gave to us demonstrators recently was a three-day video sneak peek at some of the upcoming product. 

On page 6 of the Holiday Catalog, which goes live September 1, there is an adorable bundle called Cookie Cutter Christmas. On the first day of the three-day video series, this set was featured. I immediately fell in love with it, and could see all the creative possibilities for it. While four of the characters are dedicated mainly to the winter holidays, the fifth little guy can be used for many many occasions! 

Anyway, since I was so crazy about that set, I decided that my 500th post would feature one of the characters from that set, along with one stamp from another upcoming set, Merriest Wishes, which will be found on page 21. This set also comes in a bundle.

This is the card I created for you:

As I said before, the card features several of my favorite techniques, namely fussy cutting, using DSP as part of one of the characters, embossing, masking, and popping up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Below is a close-up of the three little androgynous honeys on the front of my card. Aren't they simply adorable?

Do you notice that the "snowflakes" do not appear over the figures themselves? Yup. Masking. I stamped two of the Eskimos onto Post It Notes and cut them out carefully slightly inside the lines. By temporarily placing the sticky figures over their stamped counterparts, when I did my snowflake stamping, the flakes landed on the sticky notes instead of on my stamped images.

I realize that I said that I only cut out two of them from sticky notes. You heard me right. Why TWO when there are THREE figures? Well, you see, since I was popping up the fussy cut center character over its stamped image, I didn't care if that image got snow on it or not. Did I make that just clear as mud?

Coming next is an up close and personal view of our center character. The snowsuit was stamped onto a scrap of subtle red and white patterned Designer Series Paper. This way, the clothing has a distinct pattern to it, but it isn't so busy as to cover up the all-important details of the stamping on it.

And, to give this little person more dimension and, therefore, more importance, I popped it up with a few Stampin' Dimensionals.

In the following photo, you can see that I used three different Designer Series Papers, as well as the Softly Falling Embossing Folder (page 195 of the big catalog) for the white background layer. Please take note that I show the falling flakes from both the stamp behind the characters and the raised flakes on the embossed background in the same presentation: A lighter amount of flakes at the top and the heavier concentration of snow towards the bottom. 

Now, to the giveaway. A few weeks back, in THIS POST I asked you to keep an eye on my blog for details about a giveaway of your choice of one of the cards below. Well, the special occasion to be commemorated has arrived! MY 500TH BLOG POST! 

Here are the "rules" for the giveaway:

Add a comment to this post that includes any or all of the following: 

WHETHER I HAVE EVER INSPIRED/INFLUENCED YOU IN MY BLOG POSTINGS;

ANY ADVICE YOU MAY HAVE FOR ME AS A STAMPIN' UP! DEMONSTRATOR;

ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING MY BLOG;

ADVICE FOR GETTING MORE READERS/VIEWS OF MY BLOG;

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

I really really want to do my best for you all, my readers, and I thought that this way I could get your input as to how to achieve this goal.

From all the comments this post receives through midnight Central Standard Time on Tuesday, August 16, one will be randomly chosen. I will contact the winning commenter via email. The winner will then select his or her choice of the following three cards and I will get it out in the mail to you!

Thanks in advance for any thoughtful comments you will be offering. I look forward to reading all that you have to say.

Speaking of comments, I love and appreciate each and every comment you ever leave for me. They ALL make me smile and feel loved. 

I know I am horrible about responding to comments. But, I really am trying to make more of an effort lately. Especially if you give me a comment that does require an answer or further clarification, I will try extra hard on those. But, please, know that ALL comments are important to me! And I love you and thank you for your care and time to leave me a comment, no matter how brief.

One final look at my celebration card:

500

Smiles.