Happy Birthday TPE!!!!!

Welcome to The Pink Elephant's first birthday blog hop!!

One year ago, Lori and I had the idea to start a fun, no pressure challenge blog. One that would bring fun, easy to follow challenges in a friendly, family atmosphere. We all held our breath with the first challenge. Hoping, praying....scared to death that nobody would play along with us. Imagine our surprise as week after week, more and more people came and played in our challenges. You all made it so worthwhile. Seeing your amazing interpretations of our challenges each week fills all of our creative hearts with joy! So, thank you from the bottom of my heart for making TPE what it is today!! We owe it all to you.

The dt is like one big happy family. We have sadly had to say goodbye to a few of the designers over the past year, but we have made such wonderful lasting friendships with everyone. We truly have a happy atmosphere behind the scenes as well and that's what makes us all work so well together. I personally want to thank all of the TPE designers for being such a wonderful group of girls!!! You make such awesome creations week after week and I thank you for being so inspiring to the participants!

A few weeks, ago, I made a very difficult decision to step down as co-owner of the blog. Not because there were any issues. Absolutely not. I just don't have the time to dedicate to the blog like an owner should. I went back to work last spring for the first time in 12 years. I have never had an outside job and juggled a family at the same time. I stopped working when my oldest was young (and I was much younger too! lol) and was always super mom. Now, I just don't have the extra time. I won't let my daughters suffer because I had to return to work. I want to make sure that they get the same mom they have always had. So, some things had to give. I am going to remain on the design team, though. You all can't get rid of me that easy!

Okay, enough of my rambling. You all came here for a blog hop, right???

If you didn't arrive here from Betty's blog, head back to TPE and start from the beginning. 

After you are done here, hop over to Kellie's blog to see one of our newest designer's creation!

I am not going to share a recreation of my favorite challenge....remember that time thing? lol Well, things have been worse than usual here, so I asked if I could share my all time favorite TPE challenge card:

 

This was for our 5th challenge. It was brown, pink and green. LOVE that color combo. This elephant still makes me smile everytime I look at it. I spent many an hour searching for this die because I fell in love with this elephant the second I saw it. It is a Sizzix die. 

While browsing through my challenges, I decided that I wanted to make a small collage of my 9 runner up choices. It showcases some of my favs and some of the sponsors from the past year:

If you have any questions about products used on any of these, please don't hesitate to ask away!

Now, I also want to offer a blog candy of some sort. I don't honestly know what goodies I am going to send the winner, but I promise they will be something nice. I wouldn't send anything out that I wouldn't want to receive. I have boxes and boxes of things that are brand new and need new homes. If you are interested in a surprise, secret blog candy, please leave a comment on this post. I will draw a winner on Thursday evening using random.org. Make sure I have a way to contact you if your number is chosen!!! Spread the word about The Pink Elephant, the blog hop and my blog candy!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Happy hopping!!