Carson's Creations Blog Hop WINNER!!

Hello, everyone and happy Monday!! Thank you all for stopping by this weekend for Carson's Creations 8 Year Blogaversary!! We had so much fun with the hop and I hope you did, too :)

I have a winner to announce of the Lemoncraft Everyday Spring paper collection!! I used Random.org and it choose #42 and that is...

Congrats, Cindy!! Please send your address to me at indymermaid (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll get the paper in the mail to you!!

Thank you again for stopping by!! Have a great week!!

WINNER from Pause Dream Enjoy Blog Hop Giveway!!

Hello, everyone and happy Memorial Day to all of my friends in the USA!! I hope you have a wonderful celebration!!

Thank you all for stopping by my blog on Friday to help celebrate Pause Dream Enjoy's 10th birthday!! I have a winner to announce of the Lemoncraft Yesterday 6x6 Paper Stack.

 I used Random.org to select a winner (and confirmed she left comments on each blog) and it chose:

#17 Christi Steinbeck

Congratulations, Christi!! Please email your address to me (indymermaid(at)gmail(dot)com) by Friday or you'll forfeit your prize.

Thank you again, everyone, for hopping with us!!

Mark your calendars for another hop this Saturday, June 2!! We will be celebrating Carson's Creations 8th Blogoversary. Only 8 stops and lots of prizes to give away!!

Also, I've added a Data Protection and Privacy Policy to my blog. You can find it on my sidebar. Thank you to all of the crafters who drafted the document to use.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Have a great day :)

Lemoncraft Violet Silence Paper Collection Winner!!

Hello everyone and happy Sunday!! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!! I've been trying to get some Christmas shopping done online...the only way to shop in my opinion :) No crowds!!

I have a winner to announce for the Violet Silence Paper Collection!! I wish I could send a set to all of you, but since I only have one, I made Random.org do the hard part...picking a winner :)

And #15 is......

Congrats, M!! I will get the collection in the mail to you!! I can't wait to see what you create with it :)

If you would like to purchase the Violet Silence collection, as well as other Lemoncraft papers, they are available in my Etsy shop HERE. (If you purchase more than one paper pad, the calculated shipping is always off so I refund any amount over the actual shipping cost.)

Thanks so much for stopping by and thank you for entering my giveaway!! I'll have another soon!! Have a great day :)

Vacation Pictures and Candy Winners!!

Happy Sunday, everyone!! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!! I have winners to announce for my blog candy, but first I have a few vacation pictures to share with you :) Originally, we were headed to Key Largo, but the hurricanes altered our plans. So we decided on San Diego, but on the way there in the RV, we ran into bad weather, including flooding, so we detoured North and ended up in beautiful Colorado.

Unfortunately, this was the view we had of the Rocky Mountains much of the trip as it rained most of the time. This was taken from one of our campsites.

Then one day, the sun broke through the clouds, creating this gorgeous rainbow!!

You can almost see it touching the ground.

The clouds started to break up, revealing blue skies and snow-covered peaks.

And finally you could see the mountain tops :)

We saw lots of wildlife, like this adorable rabbit.

We also saw mule deer, but I couldn't get a clear snap before they bounded away.

There were lots of antelope, but I couldn't get a closer shot of them from the RV.

There were elk everywhere in Rocky Mountain National Park, and in the town we stayed in, Estes Park.

I don't think she liked me taking a picture of her ;)

It was incredible to see these guys walking through the campground and the streets of the town!!

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog while I was away!! I appreciate it so much!! I'm still having trouble getting back into the swing of things. I've fallen behind on Facebook and Instagram. I hope to be back up to speed soon.

And now to announce the winners of the two Lemoncraft giveaways!! The winner of the Fresh Summer set is...

And # 67 is...

And the winner of the Christmas Carols set is...

And #37 is...

Congratulations, Sonia and Pamellia!! If you both send me your addresses (indymermaid @ gmail . com), I will get these in the mail to you!! Thank you all again for entering!! I have another exciting giveaway coming up very soon so I hope you'll stop back by!!

Have a great day :)

6th Blogaversary Giveaway WINNER!!

Happy Easter weekend, everyone!! I hope you have a blessed and happy holiday!! I wanted to pop in and announce the winner of my 6th Blogaversary Giveaway. Thank you so much to everyone who entered, and for following me...I appreciate you all so much!! I am sad there can only be one winner :(

To keep it fair, I used Random.org to choose, and it selected..................,.........

and #30 is................................................

Congratulations, Pam!! Please email your address to me at indymermaid(at)gmail(dot)com and I will get the prize in the mail to you!!

Thank you again to everyone for entering!! I will leave you today with the words to my all-time favorite Easter song :) Happy Easter!!

DL.ART Thankful Thursday #178 - Water and WINNER!!

Happy Thursday!! I hope you are having a great week!! I have a winner to announce for my 5 Year Blogaversary Giveaway, but first it's time for a Thankful Thursday Challenge at DL.ART!! The theme is a fun one - water!! We want to see your projects that feature water in some way (you can always substitute a Thank You card for any Thankful Thursday Challenge). Use the code l01210 to get 10% off your order at DL.ART!!

For my mixed media cards, I created a hidden garden featuring a fountain filled with water. The papers are from Maja Designs. I used texture paste and a Tim Holtz Dot fade stencil, along with Shabby White Frantage and white paint splatters to cover the paper.

The bricks are an Elizabeth Crafts die and I layered them over craft foam for dimension. The big butterfly is a Memory Box Isabella die covered with Sugar Coating. The smaller butterflies are Impression Obsession Butterfly Set dies, also covered in Sugar Coating.

This shows some of the texture from the texture paste, Frantage and the Decoart Crackle Paste. The fountain is a Marianne Fountain die and sadly, this one has gone dry :(

This beautiful ribbon is Powder Blue from The Blues Bundle. The flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts. Tucked among the flowers are Memory Box Chloe Stems, Elizabeth Crafts Curly Leaves, Poppystamps Weeping Willow Branches and Tattered Lace Meadow Leaves. The "water" in this fountain is made up of Ocean Blue microbeads.

This gorgeous ribbon is Sweet Love from The Valentine Bundle (my favorite!!). Wish Big is from My Creative Time.

I am entering these in the following challenges:

1) Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes
2) Pause, Dream Enjoy Linky - Anything Goes
3) 2 Creative Chicks - Anything Goes
4) Jo's Scrap Shack - Anything Goes

5 YEAR BLOGAVERSARY WINNER!!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered my giveaway!! I wish I could send you all something but there can only be one winner so, without further ado..actually, if you'll indulge me, just a little more ado :) When I went to Random.org and plugged in the number of entrants and then hit generate, the little circle spun around and stopped on...

The birthday fairy must have been hard at work because I quickly checked the list of entrants to see who #26 was, and not only is Sherrie one of my oldest blogging friends, but Tuesday was her birthday!! So congrats, Sherrie and happy, happy birthday!! And I know I said there could only be one winner, but because I love giving things away, there are actually two!! I have this beautiful Die-Versions Frilly Dress die I wanted to send to one of you :)

So I skipped back to Random.org, plugged in the numbers again and this time, the winner is:

Congratulations, Niki!! I will get your prize and Sherrie's in the mail in the next few days!! Thank you all again for following me and for being such amazing blogging buddies!! I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week!! Big hugs :)

Vacation Pictures and WINNER!!

Happy Tuesday!! I've missed all of you!! I want to sincerely thank those of you who stopped by while I was away on vacation. I appreciate you all so much!! I am trying my best to catch up but it will probably be a couple of days before I can get around to visit. I have a winner to announce for the Fuse Tool but first, I'd like to share a few pictures of my trip. If you want, you can skip the pics and scroll down to the bottom for the winner :)

So...originally we planned on heading to the east coast (my mermaid self was looking forward to the ocean waves), but after seeing the weather reports, we decided (at the last minute) to head west instead (my thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by Hurricane Joaquin). We literally planned the trip one day at a time...deciding on where we would go next each evening.

Our first stop was through Saguaro National Park in Arizona...we've been there before but it's separated into two parts. We drove through the one we hadn't visited before.

Our next stop was Death Valley National Park. Okay...I try not to be superstitious, really, I do. But when a raven lands on a Death Valley sign while you are there...a little spooky.

It was a harbinger...

Death Valley is an incredible place of rocky mountains and sandy floors (and incredible heat!!)

How amazing to be that far below sea level!!

Next, we visited Kings Canyon National Park, and...

Sequoia National Park. The trees are so freaking huge, I couldn't get all of one in a shot :)

Then we visited Yosemite, which is one of my all-time favorite National Parks for the incredible scenery. Here's El Capitan...

and a beautiful mountain lake with snow on the distant peaks.

I always try to capture wildlife when we are traveling and I got this guy in Yosemite.

We saw a few roadrunners, and I was able to capture this adorable one. We were headed to another national park and then we were going to the coast to travel Highway 101 from LA to San Diego when we got a call that my Dad's younger brother passed away. (I try not to be superstitious, but apparently that raven in Death Valley was trying to tell us something). He'd been fighting Multiple Myeloma for a few years but he was fine when we left. He developed a cold which turned into pneumonia and he refused to go to a hospital. He said he was ready to go and a few hours later, he passed. We rushed to get back home, even blowing out a tire on the RV in New Mexico.

I snapped this over the Saltan Sea in California...I took it as a sign that God is watching over us in good times and bad. So, the first part of the trip was wonderful but the last was stressful. I'm dealing with family issues right now so it will be a few days before I can get around to visit all of you. Please bear with me.

And now for the winner of the Fuse Tool...Thank you all who entered!! I'm sorry there can only be one winner!! I used Random.org to select and it chose......

And #6 is................... Annie Rose !! Congrats, Annie Rose!! Please email me at indymermaid(at)yahoo(dot)com and I will get the Fuse Tool in the mail to you!!

Thank you again all who entered and to those of you who supported me while I was gone!! I'll be by soon!! I've missed you and can't wait to reconnect!! Have a great day :)