Prowling at the 1st Midnight Madness Blog Hop

Welcome

Welcome to Prowling at the 1st Midnight Madness Blog Hop. Here at Midnight Madness we are celebrating "you" our players and welcoming those of you who are new with a fun and exciting blog hop. We have TWENTY FIVE exciting prizes to give away. As a matter of fact, here is the list of how we are giving away these prizes:

One Grand prize random drawing valued at $100
350th BRAND NEW Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize valued at $50
11 "Cards from the Crypt" (picked by our DT members from MMSC archives)
12 random Package winners drawn

You have until Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12 p.m. Midnight EST to leave your name in Mr. Linky at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog to be eligible for the prizes. Prize winners will be notified at the end of the week.

If you would like to be entered for the prizes and you DO NOT have a blog, you still can participate. You will have to follow these directions below:

1. Leave a comment on the Midnight Madness Blog Hop comment section with your email address, first name and last name initial.
2. Link up to Mr. Linky with first name and last name initial and in the URL space enter this address http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/

In order to have a chance at winning any of the prizes, you must gather a secret phrase along the Blog Hop. Each Design Team Member will have a particular word or words listed on their blog and as long as you visit them in order, you will have the secret phrase at the end. If you are picked as a Prize winner you will be contacted by email and you must email back the secret phrase WITHIN 48 HOURS to claim your prize. If by any chance the 350th BRAND NEW player or any of the "Cards for the Crypt" winners are not claimed, then those prizes will be added to the random winners drawn. To start off, you must begin at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog! If you have not started there, I suggest you go back and begin again...you don't want to miss out on the Prizes! If you have arrived from Carolyn's Creative Card Corner, then you are on the correct course. If you want a chance to win you will have to follow the instructions listed above. Thank you and have fun on the Hop!

Meet the Midnight Madness Design Team

Let's get to know each other! I would love for you to leave me a comment and tell me about yourself.

I get my best ideas for crafting just right before I fall asleep. I usually always have a diet cream soda on my table in the summer or a pot of Mango Mandarin tea in the winter and some kind of chocolate.
I can definitely not live without my cuddlebug!
As an ultimate craft project, I once built a log home in Preston Connecticut
At a yard sale I would do back flips if I found old Stampin Up sets for $2 each!
My money saving secrets are to use those Michael and JoAnn coupon's faithfully!!! Never pay full price for anything!
My philosophy when I was younger was to find a man to marry who would make me laugh. With everyday stress of sick children, bills to pay, cars breaking down, losing jobs, and trying to make ends meet-if you marry someone who can make you laugh-then you can get through anything!
I would be able to survive in the wilderness because I am a hiker and a backpacker.
My Dad is my hero, he was the most patient, loving, patriotic, and hard-working person I ever knew!

Cards from the Crypt

I have chosen a card from MMSC #20 by Kym Weber at Nana's Keepsakes. I thought this card was a perfect interpretation of the sketch and is unique with the "Football" theme. The faces on the football embellishments really tickled me and the background embossing looks like a football. A really delightful masculine card! Thanks Kym for sharing your creative talents with us.

Welcome to My Birthday Party

Hello, come in. So nice you could come to my Birthday party. This is what greets you in my Foyer when you come through our door. I am so happy you could come to my Party and help me celebrate!

It looks like some of my friends have already arrived. They are so happy to meet you. Please sit down and take a seat right next to me.

This is a boxed cake-favor cake that holds chocolate cake bonbons for you to take home and enjoy once the party is over.
I will let you in on a secret. This is the first cake I have ever made. I was not sure it was going to turn out. So as not to waste all my precious card stock (I have been laid off you know), I decided to use discarded CD Label envelopes that are similar in weight and size of an Express Mail envelope from the post office. They are scraps my husband saved me when I was looking around for scrap cardboard to make templates for my paper piecing patterns. They were white on the inside and perfect for this!!!! So I cut my templates out of those and dry embossed them with the swirl folder through my cuddlebug.

I made a little pumpkin to place on everyone's plate. This was made with Scallop nestablities. I used the next size down from the largest one. I cut eleven of them, sponged with Rangers distress ink and assemble by folding and adhering. I had just enough of this orange card stock left over from last years Halloween cards that I sent to my family. The stem is just some scrap card stock rolled and glued in the middle accented by a couple punched leaves and some strips of card stock I curled on a tooth pick. The leaves on the napkins were made with scrap card stock with the leaf shapeabilities, sponged with Rangers distress ink and adhered to the raffia.

Aren't these flowers absolutely gorgeous? These are from Fred She Said from her Whirly Flower line. There are approximately 100 flowers and leaves in this elegant creation. I sponged all of these flowers and leaves and assembled them on the cake. The topiary have also been made from recycled items. I wanted to make sure I didn't go over my budget for this party. The flower pots are 4" and were 80 cents each at Lowe's. I have a whole box of foam balls from old Christmas Ornaments that I took the satin off years ago and just kept the Styrofoam. I know you know how expensive Styrofoam has gotten. So go comb those yard sales for ornaments that people are trying to get rid of. I just took two 3" balls for the top and used three 4" balls. The third one was cut in half to used in the pot. My husband had left over dowel rods in his garage that I just inked up. I used three flower punches for the flowers. There are yellow head quilt pins holding them in the foam.

Here is an aerial view of the table. The quilt was made by me several years ago. It matches the one you saw when you came in.

Here's a nice close up of the topiary!


Here is a nice close up of the pumpkin!
***Update: I checked with Priscilla, and we will feature a tutorial for this little pumpkin on November 4, just in time to make for your Thanksgiving Feast Activities!


I used a Fiskars pumpkin squeeze punch and Spellbinders classic lace border for the trim. Be sure to take home your Chocolate Bon Bon Cake. Thank you for coming to my Birthday party today, it was fun creating these things for you and I hope you enjoyed them!


The Secret Phrase

My word for the secret phrase is . You have reached the end of our Blog Hop and you should now have all the words in the phrase. Be sure to proceed to Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog and enter your name in Mr. Linky for your chance to win one of the fabulous prizes. If you name is pulled, we will contact you by email and ask you for the phrase. You must have the phrase to win!

Just a little something I would love to share with you. You can't imagine how much I enjoy visiting you each week. Sometimes I sit here and giggle, sometimes it's a huge loud laugh, sometimes it's a tear, and sometimes it's a warm fuzzy feeling. You fill my life with your stories about your life and you fill me with the love of your craft which is the common bond that brings us together. I get inspired by all the different blogs that I visit. You ladies are all special to me. Your creativity is a tremendous boost to my own aspiring creations. When I look back on what I did 9 months ago, I can't believe how far I have come. It has only been by what you have done for me. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!!! NOW GO WIN SOME PRIZES!!!!

Please proceed to PRISCILLA'S MIDNIGHT MADNESS BLOG to enter your name in Mr. Linky!