Finally, it’s Friday! Today, I’m be giving away a set of 10 5×7-inch Halloween photo cards with envelopes customized with your photos and special greeting message. They’re WAY cool.

The card above is the second of several designs I’ll be introducing in my Etsy shop.  My sisters and I love these holiday-themed photo cards and use them all the time–it’s a great way to send a little note to a friend or family member while observing Halloween (or, at other times, Valentine’s Day, 4th of July or Celebrate-Because-You-Can Day) and sharing those refrigerator-worthy photos of the kids.  I find that friends and family tend to hold on to these for a little while longer than normal photos and cards, often keeping them up on their refrigerators or boards even after switching out other items several times.

You’ll have your choice of several designs, so if you’d like to choose one of these designs or any of those that I’m going to be introducing over the next few weeks instead of this one, that’s fine–you’ll just need to come back here to check them out :) You will need to get your choice of design and photos to me at least two weeks before you’d like to send them out, so please keep that in mind if you’re the lucky winner!

Here are the rules:  

1. Comment on this post to win 10 photo cards by 11:59 p.m. CST Friday, August 1.
2. The draw will be done with a handy-dandy random number generator. 
3. Don’t comment more than once–only one entry per person, please!
4. If the winner doesn’t respond to my notification email within 7 days with contact information, I’ll be drawing another winner from the comments.

We’ll be having another giveaway to celebrate J’s birthday…which will be celebrated later this month.  And, of course, there are always the super secret sales and new products I’ll be introducing.  Don’t miss out on them! Sign up for the mailing list on the right before you leave today!

I’m a little late in posting this, but it’s Theme Thursday at The Land of K.A.  It’s all about summer fun, which we’re having, but I’m posting a picture of something that’s more about the potential of fun.  Meet the draft stage of J’s kick-ball pinatas.  See, his birthday is coming up in a little over a month, and we’re having a party. All the kids are under 4, so instead of having them hit each other with a stick while they try to figure out how to get the candy out of a pinata, I’m doing these.  They double as party decorations–I’ll be hanging them from a tree for the kids to marvel over before the actual kicking commences.  If it all works, I’ll be posting a tutorial in a month or so.  Really, I’m thinking they’re going to be damn beautiful.  Yay.

PS:  Bloggy Givaway week is next week, I believe.  I’m giving away stuff.  Stay tuned!

I almost forgot! The theme of the week at The Land of K.A., and I have aged, well, an aged door on a junky old shed behind the house. J likes looking in, but doesn’t exactly want to actually go inside, as you can see. Other than that, we haven’t been to his grandparent’s farm for a few weeks, so there weren’t any really great options for getting good aged shots. Well, there’s that reason and the fact that I’m just plain lazy :)

If you have Adobe Lightroom, here’s a special treat: I’m including a preset for the photo above. Right click on the link, select “Save Link As…”, download, install and enjoy!

Dark Aged

I’m SO excited for this week.  It always starts out great with Best Shot Monday, but not only did I get all my backed-up grading done this weekend, but I’ve there’s also all this great stuff going on in blogland.  Please, read on!

First, I want to remind you of my little contest going on this week.  If you want to take part, make sure you get your post up by this Friday at 8 p.m CST.  Oh, and remember to link back to me–it will get a few more people involved and help spread the sunshine even further!   And speaking of the contest–would you all try to help me test the poll to the left?  It’s a test run of the plugin so that I know that it’ll be working when the poll phase of the contest is up.

Second, I remember that a few of you were interested in participating in Karen’s postcard swap last August when I mentioned that I was getting mine ready.  Well, she’s doing it again.  Postcard Swap 2008:  The Love Edition is in the planning stages, so get your heinie over to Chookooloonks and sign up by Wednesday, January 16.

Finally, I’m taking part in a Pay It Forward exchange that Starfish turned me on to.  (Starfish, by the way, is the one of the nicest bloggers I know–J frequently sports the coolest hat she knitted to keep his then-bald little head covered.)   If you’d like to take part, be one of the first three to comment mentioning that you’re signing up for the PIF exchange.  You’ll have to agree to the this pledge:

I, [insert your name here] will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange, and who make the same pledge on their own blogs.

Did you say it aloud?  Come on, put your hand over your heart and say it like you mean it!

I’m not quite sure exactly what your gift will be, but right now I’m leaning toward a set of notecards (so, technically not handmade, but originals).  Oh, and you won’t get stuck with something with my son anywhere on it.  I swear!

And C, I’m getting to you later this week, I swear!  Note to self:  work on avoiding repetition.