Today is a big day! and it has finally arrived!

Wondering what I am talking about? Well, today marks the closing of the first year of my blog!

January 2012 I had decided to start a blog, and on the 23rd I posted my first entry, and my first card. I recall I was quite excited about this card, as it was  one of the first cards that I had designed, and thought it was pretty cool (worthy of blogging). I wish I had saved it properly, my daughter chewed it up (I am serious!). My husband gave it to her to play with (?!!!) and I found it in the morning in her crib, I was like…is that my card??

I have come a long way since then, from becoming a better designer (hopefully), winning a few challenges here and there, guest designing, and most importantly, joining the design team of my favorite challenge blog!! and so here I am celebrating with some fun prizes.

I have seen a lot of bloggers celebrate their blog anniversaries with a random draw for the prize. I considered it and felt that by itself,  it was not enough as I really wanted to show appreciation to those who supported me and made me want to design more cards.

Therefore I decided to give an appreciation gift to the top three people who made the most comments on my blog!

Are you ready for me to reveal them?!! Here they are….

Laura Bassen! — what is more amazing than one of your FAVORITE card makers leaving sweet encouraging comments on your cards? Thank you Laura for all the kind words! I appreciate them so much! your gift will be on your way shortly 🙂

Wida Miller!! — Fun energetic Wida! Back when I was blogging to myself (for about the first 5 months!) Wida made me realize that there was a world of awesome bloggers out there and I should be interacting with them! Thank you Wida for all your support and thoughtful comments!

Naeema Ibrahim!!! — I have gotten to know Naeema very recently and I am glad that I did! She lives in a part of the world where she doesn’t have much access to stamping goodies. I am glad she is one of the top three commenters because now I get to send her a fun package of stamping goodies! 🙂

I decided not to share a picture of the gifts as I wanted them to be a surprise for the recipients 🙂

And now for some more fun! Of course I can’t ignore all the other nice bloggers who have been leaving encouraging feedbacks on my cards, so here is a humble prize package for one lucky winner:

I have included some stamps from one of my favorite stamping companies — Hero Arts, and some inks from my favorite inks–Distress ink, among other things.

To increase your chances to win, you can each have two entries, here is how you can do it:

1. Leave a comment telling me what is your greatest accomplishment as a card maker/crafter, OR what do you like most about card making, OR what feature on my blog do you like most, OR what tips do you have for becoming a better blogger, OR just leave a comment with whatever is on your mind 🙂 (you may answer more than one question if you like)

2. If you are a follower, you may leave a second comment saying “I am a follower”. If you are not a follower, you can start following now (that is if you wish) by clicking the “Follow” button which you will find on the left side of the top bar or subscribing by email, then leave a comment saying “I am a new follower”.

You have until midnight EST on Friday February first to leave a comment. 🙂 I will announce the winner the following Monday.

Edited: I wanted to share a simple card that I made this morning. After all, this is a blog about cards 🙂

I used one of my two very first stamps (my husband had bought them for me—he probably had no idea what was to come! HA!), and one of my favorite color combinations:

Thanks for visiting! and If you have any questions please leave a note in my “Contact” page.