Wow, it's been almost a month since I have posted here ... just chalk it up to life - that's all I can say. I will try to do better ....

This is our first Blog Hop for our newly created yahoo group, SUStampingBlogHops. Our home page will be our first stop today -- if you did not start there, you can find it here: Hopping Just for the Fun of it -- you may have started here with me, or maybe you came here from my stamping friend Angela's blog at Life with a Wiener Dog ... and your next stop is Carmen at The Creative Stamptuary - she is a new stamper to me and has some great ideas! A complete listing is at the bottom of this post so come on back here or to our home page ( Hopping Just for the Fun of it ) if you get lost or if any links are not working.

This has been a hard week on us .... my husband had surgery on Tuesday, was supposed to come home Tuesday/maybe Wednesday and had another surgery on Friday and we are praying he does not need a third surgery today. Needless to say, this has been a very long week and I just did not get things done as I would have liked, but I hope you enjoy my projects .... I had fun making them and am soooo glad I made them early! Hope I remember this every month .... This first project came from a friend who sent them to me to possibly use for a Christmas cookie exchange party .... she said she got it from someone else who got the idea from someone else .... lol ... so I went investigating and found the template by Debbie Martin on her Dec 21, 2010 post at cleverandcute.blogspot.com . I hope everyone realized that few of us have the creativity to start from scratch, and it is perfectly o.k. to C.A.S.E. (Copy And Case Everything) .... and it is also good to give credit when we can.

I used a retired Christmas DSP along with Wild Wasabi c/s - because I have some retired Wasabi ribbon to use!! Some of you will remember that I love Wild Wasabi and use it often! The stamp set is Tags Till Christmas, which has some really good images for Christmastime! Each person attending our exchange will get one of these aprons with all the recipes in the pocket! Sounds like I might need to get some help making them, huh. My second project is the one that did not get completely finished to show - I need to buy some more York Peppermints to insert in the pockets formed by folding up the c/s - I went wild and gave one whole bag of candy away at the hospital this week with these. After receiving one in the mail from a friend, I again went searching and found it online by Laura Zaraza at laurastamps.com (on Dec. 19, 2010) and she named them Tip Treats -- the idea is to put your tip inside along with the candy when you leave a tip. I have been using them (without the tip, lol) to give to people as an Intentional Act of Kindness ... kinda like Random Acts of Kindness but with an intentional purpose! I have been paying for the vehicle behind me in drive-thru's, buying balloons for kids, etc and I am having so much fun with this, thanx to Family Life Radio (myflr.org) for the idea!!

I used several colors of cardstock, ribbons and a bunch of retired stamp set images ... I stamped them and have been coloring them while sitting around and waiting at the hospital - needless to say, a lot of people in the hospital have been enjoying a little treat! Please leave a comment and let me know how you will use one or both of these ideas - and one of you will win your own sample of each project! I hope you have enjoyed my post and I know you will have a wonderful time on the rest of your Blog Hop journey. See you next month for another hop, and back here soon, and encourage me to post more regularly!! ~~~ God Bless, Shirley Here is the complete listing of stops for your convenience ... hope my links work, if not, please copy and paste - you'll be glad you did!

00 start Hopping Just for the Fun of it

1 Bluegrass Stamper Studio

2 Life with a Wiener Dog

3 Stamper Shirley

4 The Creative Stamptuary

5 Stampin' and Scrappin' News

6 Stamin Ldyglfr62

7 RaissaStamps

8 Stampin' Fevre

9 My Little Patch of Dirt

10 InkPaperStamps

11 Scrappy Stamps and Ink

12 Stamping with Janice

13 Technostamper

14 My Creative Impressions

15 Pretty Inky

16 Artful Imagination

17 The Love of Stamping

plus one add on blog for your enjoyment .... Stamping Trails