Christmas in July!!

  It is here!  The moment you have been waiting for - our Christmas in July blog hop for Send A Smile 4 Kids.  First of all thank you for coming by and participating.  I hope you will take a moment to look around and perhaps follow my blog.  I would love to have you as a regular visitor.  Shall we talk about rules?  And how to win some of the awesome prizes being offered at EACH stop?  I wish you the best of luck!
        I started with SAS4Kids a few months ago and I have really enjoyed being a volunteer.  I collect (and make) cards for "my" hospital in Tennessee to use.  They give cards to the children to use to send to their loved ones or staff.  The staff can also use the cards to give to the children.   This is SAS4Kids' 175th challenge!  There are 17 stops in the blog hop each sponsored by volunteers and members of SAS4Kids.  This hop begins on July 21st and runs through August 3rd at noon.
       

Here are the rules for this blog hop:

**You do not need to comment on every stop of the blog hop to have a chance to win a prize. One comment on any of the blogs or on the main SAS4Kids blogpost qualifies you to win one of the prizes on that blog. If you leave a comment on each stop, you will have earned 17 chances to win a prize, and if you enter a card in the Christmas in July 4 Kids challenge, you will also earn a chance to win one of 8 random prizes there.

**You MUST have an USA mailing address to qualify to win any of the prizes. We apologize to any of our readers outside of the USA, but this is a requirement to win any of the prizes in this blog hop and in the Christmas in July challenge.

**The blog hop will start July 21st at 8:00 a.m. CST and continue until July 31st at midnight CST. When the blog hop is done, all the winners will be drawn randomly from the commenters on each blog and on the main blog, and announced on the SAS4Kids blog on August 4th and on each individual blog. If your name is listed as a winner, you must contact Karen at khasheck@gmail.com BEFORE August 18th at midnight CST with your NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS AND MAILING ADDRESS. If you do not contact Karen before August 18th at midnight CST, your prize will be forfeited.

**The Christmas in July 4 Kids challenge at SAS4Kids will run from July 21st until August 3rd at Noon CST (as is typical of our two week challenges.) You can qualify for one of 8 prizes by entering a Christmas or holiday card appropriate for a child following the rules of all of our challenges found in the page above. The prizes will be awarded by random drawing and announced with the rest of the winners on August 4th on our blog.

    Make sure you comment on this blog to possibly win a package of Doodles Paper Playground - Fairy Dust Sparkle Blends.  Then hop to the other blogs and comment to win gift certificates, more paper, rubber stamps, digital images and more!

      I spent a few days playing with some of my Christmas goodies and making cards.  I went over to CARDZ TV and looked at some of the sketches for ideas use in planning my cards.  I chose a couple of favorites and from there it was off to the Cricut.  What would I do without my Cricut?!  I cut the backgrounds and assembled the cards - six cards in around an hour or two.  Then I used Paper Wishes dazzles and some Christmas stickers I had in my stash to finish them off.  I listed the packs of paper underneath each card set.

My Mind's Eye - Vintage Christmas paper pack

       

Say Freeze by Recollections

     For my next card set, I used some plain cardstock I had, a Cuttlebug embossing die, and a wonderful cutting template for the Cricut by Dreaming Tree.  Each card in this set has a matching envelope.  They were very easy to assemble and fun to do.

  Curious as to what great goodies you can get?  The list is huge and you get a chance to win at every stop - sometimes even more than one prize will be given at a stop!!  It truly is Christmas in July!

Here is a list of all our wonderful sponsors and the prizes that you could win:

Kitchen Sink Stamps $25 gift certificate
Sparkle N Sprinkle  $5 gift code
Fred She Said $10 gift certificate
Motion Crafts by Uchi's Designs 3 prize packages each with 1 die set and 1 stamp set $35 value each
Bugaboo $12 gift code
Tonic Studios USA Six Tonic Studios Paper Trimmers (159e)
Stampendous Five prizes: CRS5101/DCS5010 Rose Garden Cling Stamps and Dies, CRS5067/DCS5067 Hydrangea Garden Cling Stamps and Dies, DCP1009 Spring Borders Cutting Dies Set, DCP1007 Build a Wreath Cutting Dies Set, DCP1008 Pop Up Stages Cutting Dies Set
Paper Nest Dolls Two prizes of 3 digis each of the winner's choice plus one free digi for a commenter on each blog that uses a Paper Nest Dolls image
Doodles Paper Playground Four prizes of one package of Fairy Dust Sparkle Blends sequin mixes
White Rose Crafts  Gorjuss Tweed Craft Card Compendium (makes 24 cards - retails at $16.99)
Dies R Us $15 gift code
Cheapo Dies (owned by an American I know) $15 gift code
All Dressed Up Stamps - two digital stamps
Janet Bailey - three Stampin' up Stamp Sets

Thanks for coming by - your NEXT STOP is Jill Blasche!  If you would like to make sure you get all of your opportunities to win, head back to the very beginning and start at SAS4Kids.   Good luck on winning!

Perhaps with all the inspiration you are getting on this blog journey, you might like to join us at SAS4Kids and send some handmade cards to give to the children.  You can go over to the SAS4Kids blog and find the volunteer closest to you and send them some cards.  Our kids love it!