CardSwaps World Cardmaking Day Blog Hop

Hello! You are on the CardSwaps World Card Making Day Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from Jane's blog. If you arrived here not knowing about the Blog Hop, head back over to the beginning at Lora's blog. You'll want to follow along from the beginning...there are lots of goodies to be had today! (hop officially begins at 8am US Central Time)
So, back to the hop. You came here from Jane's blog and yes, I have the misfortune of following the fabulous Jane. She always creates the most gorgeous projects that we joke on the CardSwaps board that we never want to follow her in posting a project because we all pale in comparison to her greatness! :) Well, I'll do my best to WOW you with my project but if that doesn't work, I DO have a free digi image for you today courtesy of Alison Spelman of StretchNBubbles. Alison is also offering a buy one get one free special this weekend only for those of you who participate in this hop. (More details below) There is also a prize up for grabs here.
First things first..here is your free digi from SNB, it's part of a whole set of Christmas block images you can get at the store. This one is the Gingerbread Man:

IMAGE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT SNB SHOP


I'm thrilled to be part of this hop representing SNB. CardSwaps is the first online community I joined. I have met the nicest people there who also happen to be incredibly talented and fun to hang out with. I've learned a lot from the ladies on the board and would encourage you to check it out and join us over there for fun, challenges, crops and friendship. I got involved in cardmaking about two years ago when I participated in a craft fair for my son's highschool. Looking back, the cards we made were very basic and simple but something about that got me hooked and interested in learning more. Then I found CardSwaps and went from there. Since I didn't have any kind of stamping background, I had a very limited supply of rubber stamps. Then along came digi images which were perfect for me-they don't require storage space, they're relatively inexpensive and you can resize them. I invested in a few Copic markers and with Lora's encouragement, I started my blog almost a year and half ago and love to participate in challenges and just generally roam around and marvel at the talent out there in blogland. About a year ago, Alison asked me to be on her design team and I've been working with her at StretchNBubbles ever since.
On to my project:
First I used my Cricut to cut these tag shapes using the Tags Bags Boxes and More cartridge. This is the beveled top tag cut at 3.75". The image is printed at 1.5" and colored with Copics:

Here's a closeup:

That is one of the things I absolutely LOVE about digis, you can resize them to work for any kind of project you want to make. So here I made a full sized card with the Gingerbread Man:

Here's how the blog hop works: you have until 11:59pm US Central time on Sunday, October 3 to make your way through the hop, leaving a comment on each blog. Everyone who comments on each blog along the hop is entered into the prize drawing. If you want to participate in the mini crop at CardSwaps, join us over there after the hop. You can upload your projects over there for even more prizes.
Your next stop on the hop is Irina.
In case you get lost along the way, here is the full list of blogs on the hop:
Lora
Jeanette
Laura
Faith Skrdla (Designed 2 Delight)
Redonna
SusieQ
Jane
Lori
Irina
Meredith
Ana
Dustin Pike
Diana
Angelina
Ashley
I didn't forget about the buy one get one offer at SNB (okay, I almost did!) Here's the deal: for every image you purchase at the shop, you get one free. So if you go buy three images, put them in your cart and before you check out, in the comments section put CBH and list the three images you want for free. Alison will then email them to you along with your purchases.
And since you are STILL reading this (thank you!) you need to see the prize that you can win from me:

Prize includes:
SU! Botanical Blooms set
Making Memories Gameboard Tags
7 Gypsies Celebration pad
Melissa Frances mini album
Paper Bliss Star and Dove stickers
Colorbok mini album
Creating Keepsakes Fresh Fonts 2 software
Pulsar Paper Pieces
You're automatically included in my prize drawing, just for commenting here. If you become a follower(or if you already are!), you get an additional entry and if you purchase something from SNB today, you get a third entry. I'll draw names Monday morning. Don't forget to come back Monday to check and see if you won! And don't forget to check out StretchNBubbles every Wednesday morning to play along with the Creative Chicks challenge.
Thanks for hopping along!