Swimming for Katie Renz ~ Blog Hop and Fundraiser

From October 10-12 some of the best stampers are joining together to support and encourage our friend and fellow stamper, Katie Renz, who is currently battling inoperable gastric cancer. If you're not familiar with her, Katie’s cancer story started just before Christmas last year. This young, beautiful, healthy, vibrant mother of 3 with her infectious smile was suddenly diagnosed with an inoperable cancer, virtually overnight. A few tummy aches and then stage 4 gastric cancer. Her first post about it is here. The idea of “Swimming for Katie” came from her recent post here.

This exclusive stamp used in my sample, designed by Becky Oehlers is available as a clear stamp, as well as a digi or a digi and SVG cut file (I used the svg cut file to trim around my digi image...if you haven't used digis with cut files before, Lauren Meader has an awesome tutorial HERE...the digi papers I used came from my MTME Blue Skies collection). 100% of the profits go to Katie's fund to help her and her young family. Her husband Kevin and her three young children need our help and support. 

In addition to the Keep Swimming Octopus, Marianne Walker and True =D Doodle Designs both also donated digis that are for sale. Direct donations are also being accepted. Information central is HERE. This is a permanent page that will stay active at i {heart} papers with current information and the full 3 day blog hop listing, as well as the donation button.

Here are all the items available for sale.

Keep Swimming Octopus Peachy Clear stamp $5.50 with free shipping

Keep Swimming Octopus DIGIstamp $3.00 with instant download

Keep Swimming Octopus DIGIstamp with SVG cut file $3.50 with instant download

Keep Swimming Mermaid DIGIstamp $3.50 with instant download

Keep Swimming Ribbon Fish DIGIstamp and DIGIpapers $5.00 with instant download

I hope you will join me in supporting Katie through a purchase or donation.  If you would like to send Katie a card, her mailing address is:

Katie Renz
PO Box 5913
Bellingham, WA 98227-5913

The following is a list of everyone who has projects posted today. I hope you will be inspired by them and moved to purchase or donate.  

Thank you!

Ashley Harris
Clare Buswell
Jessica Diedrich
Lisa Somerville
Charlene Merrick
Eva Dobilas
Judy Rozema
Sharon Doolittle
Tifany DeGough
Windy Robinson
Ashley Cannon Newell
Connie McCotter
Heidi Van Laar
Karen Maldonado
Lori Craig
Melissa Phillips
Tosha Leyendekker
Amy Kolling
Angela Thomas
Angelica Suarez
Angie Blom
Becky Oehlers
Betty Wright
Bev Gerard
Brenda Weaver
Carolyn King
Chari Moss
Charlene Driggs
Cindi Bisson
Claire Brennan
Corinna McGregor
Craft Critique
Karen Hunsaker (Rubbernecker Stamps Designer)
Keely Yowler
Kelly Schirmer
Keri Lee Sereika
Kim Hughes
Kimber McGray
Kittie Caracciolo
Kristin Eberline
Wendy Price

SURPRISE Birthday Blog Hop for Katie Cotton!!

Happy Sunday, my friends.  I'm here today to help surprise the very sweet, multi-talented, Katie Cotton as part of her birthday blog hop!  Tangii is the mastermind behind it all and I didn't hesitate for a second when I read her email inquiring about who wanted to take part.  Katie is AWESOME!  One of the nicest people in blog-land ;]  I typically refrain from shabby cards because I don't execute well...they usually just end up looking messy.  BUT, today I decided I'd give it a go...I was just feeling shabby I guess :]  I LOVE how it turned out!  I don't think it's perfect, but that's the point, right? Keep it kind of abstract and piled high with goodies?! 

Katie seems girly to me so I went with some pinks and some neutral browns.  My stamps came from four different sets:  Birthday = Sentimental Occasions; Wishes = So Sentimental; to you = Just For You; and the flourishes = Fanciful Flourishes.  I cut my sentiment panel and base from my Occasional Label cut file. 

The pink, pearl flourish is from Prima, the metal swirl is from SU Hodgepodge Hardware, lace ribbon is May Arts, satin ribbon is from Michaels, button is from my stash, multi-colored twine is from the jewelry section at Michaels, and the flowers are also primas.

I distressed my edges and use some Ranger Ink sponge daubers to add white acrylic paint.  The patterned paper is from my Wistful Wonder pack and my Wistful Musical Magic pack.  I stamped flourishes on my Soft Suede cs in the same color ink.  My layout was inspired by Mojo Monday's MOJO196 sketch.

So...that's all there was to it :]  Here's wishing you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MS. KATIE!!!  Big birthday cyber hugs to you, girly!  Hope it's awesome.

Now, for the rest of you, we would love for you to hop along to each designer's blog to leave some love ending with the birthday girl, then make a birthday card for Katie and add it to the hop!  Check out the master list:
Thanks for popping in!  Have a happy Sunday.

SURPRISE Birthday Blog Hop for Bar Anders!!

Hi friends!  Today I'm here to share a card I made for my CTD sister, Bar Anders.  It's her birthday and Tammy arranged an awesome blog hop in honor of Bar!  If you didn't arrive at my blog via Broni's, you may want to start at the beginning of the hop over at Tammy's blog.

♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BAR ♥

I made a pretty CAS, albeit semi-shabby card for her using Verve's "Believe" set.  I added several panels using sheets of dp from my MTME Wistful Wonder pack, and even stamped three graduated sizes of blooms from the Verve set, cut them out and layered them after curling the petals with my fingers to make them look a little fuller.  The leafy branch came from the MTME Branching Out cut file.  I distressed the edges of my panels and added some narrow, lace ribbon with a triple strand of craft thread along with a triple looped bow. 

Okay, so that's all I have to share with you today, BUT be sure to hop along to Laura's blog for her inspirational goodies and to continue your tour of a HUGE ARRAY of talented papercrafters!

Thanks for swinging by.  Have a great Friday!!

SURPRISE Birthday Blog Hop for Lauren Meader!!

Hi friends!  I'm popping in real quick because the MTME gals decided to host a surprise blog hop for our lovely, Lauren Meader!  Today is her birthday and we couldn't let it slip by without sending LOTS of big wishes her way :] 

♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAUREN ♥

I used the new Bee-Loved set designed by Catherine Doucette for my card.  I also incorporated the JUGS technique that Andrea selected for challenge #82 - emboss resist. 

Tulips are Lauren's favorite flower so this set was perfect for my project!  I sponged two tones of pink on my tulip petals (Pink Pirouette and Regal Rose) and I sponged Certainly Celery on my stem and leaves. 

It's a little hard to see beneath my vellum layer in the photo, so here's a better shot:

Not much more to it than some triple wrapped and looped ribbon tied off with a butterfly gem and my sentiment embossed in white on top of the vellum layer.  So, be sure to check out the main hop hosted on the MTME blog.  We would love for you to make a card for Lauren and join us on the hop!  You simply need to post your photo on the MTME blog so that everyone can hop along!  Once you're finished hopping, hop on over to Lauren's blog and leave her some birthday love! 

JUG-Head Birthday Blog Hop!

Hi friends!  I'm popping in real quick to send you hopping along to wish our sweet, JUG-Head, Elise a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  You are more than welcome to play along, make a card for Elise and link it up to the Linky widget below - I'm sure she would be delighted!  My card layout was inspired by the MTME Pretty Patterns sketch (MTMEPPS04).

I decided to make a pretty, burnt edge flower for our lovely Elise :]  I also added some heartfelt, hand stitching to Elise's card...hopefully is accentuates the paper (Cheerful Chirps) how I wanted it to!  I used one of my new cut files, Occasional Label for my top, yellow panel, adorned the bloom with a pearl brad and some prima leaves, added my sentiments (Birthday is embossed in white), and tied it off with some pretty, satin ribbon!  Girly card for my dear friend :]



♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET ELISE ♥

Hope it's half as amazing as you are, my friend!

Okay, now hop along to the next crafter in the lineup and don't forget to end at Elise's blog to pass along some fun birthday wishes! 

Surprise Birthday Blog Hop for Tammy Hershberger!!

Today is a very special day for a very dear friend, Ms. Tammy Hershberger!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TAMMY ♥  Another very dear friend, Bar Anders, orchestrated a very sneaky, very clever surprise birthday blog hop for Tammy.  She rounded up a fabulous group of designers to celebrate Tammy, so be sure to hop all the way to the end!!  **If you arrived at my blog by way of LeAnne Pugliese's blog, you're on the right track!  If not, swing by Bar's blog and start at the beginning :]

The card I made for Tammy uses some of the new, fun images from the MTME March release!  My images and sentiment are from the Singing Silhouette set that was available at midnight last night!!  She did such a great job with this set...I do believe it's one of my favorites.  The branch was the inspiration that started my pattern on the sheet showcased here.  It's from the Cheerful Chirps paper pack and I printed it on vellum.  I also used my go-to Sentiment Flags Die by Lil Inker (i.e. Laura Pryor).  Everything else is pretty self explanatory!

Okay, now you're off to visit Frances Byrne!!  Hope you're able to hop all the way to the end...and especially to Tammy's blog to wish her a very hearty Happy Birthday!!!  She could use an ounce of cheer this week ♥ 

Love you, Tamster!!

P.S.  Swing by our MTME DT blogs also to check out the new goodies that are available NOW :]  Today is our group post day, so you don't want to miss anyone!!  Links are in my left sidebar <--

PMS VIP Hop!!

I'm so excited to share today's post with you all!  A couple weeks ago, my sweet friend, Tangii, asked me to be her guest for the Paper Makeup Stamps (PMS) VIP blog hop today!  Woot woot!!  I'm certain that I don't qualify as a VIP to anyone out there, but it humbles me that Tangii thinks enough of me to ask me to join along in the fun!  Thank you, Tangii!  OF COURSE I jumped on board.  Not only do I adore Tangii, but I also adore Katie, the Energizer-bunny-owner of PMS!  That girl just keeps going, and going, and going...I don't know where she gets her energy!  Here's a little snippet about the blog hop from our PMS gals:

Paper Makeup Stamps is turning 2 years old! And to celebrate the occasion, they are having a super fun VIP blog hop with the theme "the things we love". The entire design team invited special crafters to play along in this hop. To see everyone involved, please go back to the Paper Makeup Stamps company blog for a master list as well as to enter your self to win a super fabulous prize!


Okay, even though the hop's theme is "the things we love", that doesn't mean we have to use hearts and Valentine stuff, just something we love.  I LOVE the water...especially the Great Lakes.  I grew up on Lake Huron and loved going to the beach in the summer, swimming out to the third sandbar that was well over our heads, and trying to sink down and touch the bottom.  We also spent time on the lake in the winter...which I actually dreaded because it meant FROZEN toes!  My dad loved to ice fish, and occasionally he would drag us along :]  LOL  I loved spending time with him, BUT, I hated sitting still and freezing my butt off!  Wait, this is about what I love...shoot, I'm going in the wrong direction.  Seriously, I DO love the water.  I love watching the sailboats coast by with seagulls soaring overhead.  I also love lighthouses.  They're all different, all special and unique in their own right...and if you've been to Michigan, you know we have a slew of lighthouses along the coastline.  Last but not least, I love a challenge...and I am challenged when it comes to making masculine cards! 

So, when I looked through all of the amazing goodies PMS has to offer, I chose to work with this amazing, Sailing By digital stamp set.  It has a ton of sentiments and not one, but two different sailboats, a lighthouse and the fill and outline of an anchor!  PERFECT masculine set...and versatile.  SOLD!  Check it out:

For my card, I paper pieced Sara's awesome Custom Construction Materials brick paper on my lighthouse.  I then colored the white areas and shaded with Copics.  I also paper pieced the sails on my boat...using my new MTME Romance paper (scaling both sheets to 3.5"x5").  My "land" is also some of my MTME paper, from the symbolic Seawater set. 

I cut my sentiment (scaled to 1.5" wide) using my friend, Laura's, Lil Inker Sentiment Flag die.  I LOVE this die for my sentiments...I swear I could use it on almost every card :]  I tied some random knots in my May Arts Jute Twine, adhered with hot glue and adhered my panel to my scalloped layer.  Overall a pretty simple card.  Most of my time making it was overthinking what I wanted to do with each element :]  I used last week's Mojo Sketch (MOJO176) for my layout (it was PERFECT):

Okay, that's all I have for you today, BUT, be sure to swing by every blog along the hop and leave some love!  One random commentor will receive a PMS PRIZE PACK!!

Hopefully you arrived at my blog by way of Tangii's...but if not, start at the beginning to make sure you are eligible for the prize pack!  If you're looking for the next blog along the hop, you're looking to swing by Lauren's site :] 

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a fantastic week!!

JustRite 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hop 9

Welcome to the 9th week of JustRite Stampers’ Wednesday feature, 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hops! Every Wednesday up until Thanksgiving some of your favorite designers will be joining some of the JustRite design team for a series of Christmas blog hops, showcasing JustRite’s entire Christmas Collection of stamps! Don’t forget that JustRite has some Christmas stamps in their newly released CLING line of stamp sets, too -- you can find them HERE. This week, the designers joining the JustRite design team is the Just Us Girls (JUGS) challenge blog design team!

For the month of November, we thought we would switch gears a little and throw in some holiday gift ideas using your JustRite stamps, so be watching for those, too, on November’s hops! And in celebration of JustRite’s 9th and 10th weeks of Christmas Blog Hops, they have a huge surprise for you -- take 25% off All JustRite Original Christmas Stamps now through November 15, with free shipping within the U.S. -- Don't forget to tell Santa!!

For my project, I used the ever so versatile Christmas Nested Frames.  The sentiment just spoke to me so I used it and worked around it. 

I framed the main sentiment using my MTME Trendy Tags Set 1 of 6  I created the frame on my Cricut by centering the rectangle that comes with the tag, both vertically and horizontally on my SCAL mat.  I cut another Trendy Tag #1 without the rectangle to stamp my sentiment on and layer behind my embossed frame.  I ran a glue stick along the outside and interior rectangle and added SU Dazzling Diamonds to make it pop.  My lower rectangle is stamped with one of the JustRite Nested Frames and embossed in white.  Isn't is pretty?!  I love how the details shined through perfectly. 

Every panel is popped up on dimensionals and I used some of the new MTME digi paper I created for the November release, Pretty Poinsettias - Collection 2 (Bashful) and Darling Dots - Collection 3 (also Bashful).  I love how fresh and crisp the blue looks...very holiday-ish to me ♥ 

Please visit these designers’ blogs to see what fabulous JustRite Christmas inspiration they have for you on the hop today!

JustRite Inspiration Blog

JustRite Design Team:
Debbie Olson
Sharon Harnist 
Heidi Blankenship
Kazan Clark
Stephanie Kraft
Barb Schram
Michele Kovack
Angela Barkhouse
Kathy Jones 

Just Us Girls Design Team:
Alicia Weiman
Andrea Matthews
Dana Gustafson
Kristin Bueter <--- You're Here!
Maria Levine
Kathryn Berthiaume
Lisa Kind
Pam Imholz

Thanks so much for joining us!

Birthday Blog Hop!!

Today the My Time Made Easy girls decided to surprise Lauren and Stephanie with a birthday blog hop!  I'm SOOOO late joining in, and I'll explain below, but I had to get this posted TODAY :]

Lauren's birthday is tomorrow and she loves purple, so I came up with this card for her:

The top and bottom panels were stamped with her new set, Puckered Up Patterns - doesn't that pattern look like a pickett fence?!  AND you can easily line up the stamp to repeat the pattern!  LOVE this one...you'll even see it in the background of one of my new Pretty Printables sheets from the Sugar and Spice collection.  The paper flower was literally made with the following:  12 heart shapes, 6 daisies (3 medium, 3 small), and 2 snowflakes (SCAL offers these for FREE).  The leaves are from the Cricut Storybook cartridge...I liked the open look of them so I gave them a try :]    Isn't it perty?!  The sentiment is from Lauren's new Just For You set!  My layout is from the JUGS31 sketch this weekend :]  ♥♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAUREN ♥♥

Stephanie's birthday is Wednesday.  She has such a clean, pretty style...and always incorporates BEAUTIFUL stitching on her projects.  I didn't add stitching to her card, but I did pull together some gorgeous colors and images for her :]  Here's my card for Stephanie:

I LOVE Lauren's new Sensational Stems GO-TO set!!  I can think of hundreds of ideas for this one :]  I also used a sentiment for the versatile, Just For You set.  Sweet, huh?  I used one of my new Pretty Printables sheets from the $1.50 Basic Blooms set!!  Talk about affordable! :o}  I used the Sweet Sunday (SSSC67) sketch for my layout on this card.  ♥♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEPHANIE ♥♥

So, yes, I'm almost an entire day late and definitely a dollar short, but hopefully we generate tons of love for our birthday girls!!  Please swing by both Lauren and Stephanie's blogs and wish them a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Don't forget to hop over to the rest of the team's blogs and check out their gorgeous cards as well :]

Katie Shawger Cotton

Tracey Cuccia

Geny Cassady

Dawn Easton

Pam Imholz

Silke Ledlow

Mona Pendleton

Thanks for stopping by (and not giving up on me :)  I'm definitely pulling things together at my new place and getting organized, so I hope to be more dedicated to my stamping and paper-making. 

Yesterday was my daughter's Sweet Sixteen birthday!!  It's so hard to believe she's 16!  My sweet little baby girl ♥  Her birthday wish was to invite all of her friends to TGI Fridays for dinner, followed by a sleepover at our new house. SO, back to why I'm almost a day late.  I spent all week finishing up the paper for the release (which I was WAY behind on this month) and then all day yesterday organizing my family room that had turned into my storage area downstairs.  This is where the girls were planning to sleep, so I HAD to get it done.  She invited twenty girls to dinner and the sleepover - UGH!  LOL  Seriously, though, it went well and we had fun!  Tia said it was perfect, so I did something right :]  In short, that's what put me behind this week...and how I missed the deadline to post the blog hop cards :[ 

Okay, I'm off to do some post-party clean up :]  Hope your weekend went well and was completely relaxing!  Have a great week ahead ♥

A Birthday Wish

Happy Monday everyone!  Today is a very special day for me...and my mother I suppose ;]  It's my birthday!  I'm officially 36 years old today...wow.  I am closer to 40 than to 30!  Weird to think considering I don't feel a day older than 25. 

Many of you already know that today is my birthday thanks to my wonderful friends and JUGS teammates who planned a surprise blog hop in honor of my special day!  They made me feel so good that they did that :]  Each team member was sweet enough to make a card just for me (and a magnet from Maria :)...so if you arrived here after hopping along each team member's blog, thank YOU also for taking the time to help me celebrate my special day!  If you didn't, you definitely want to pop on over to the Just Us Girls site so that you can see the BEAUTIFUL projects the girls made for me :O)  I'm so lucky to be a member of the fabulously creative team!  These ladies are the BEST in my book ;]

Okay, since we're on the subject of birthdays, let me share a birthday card I made for a dear friend of mine...before I go through the list of birthday goodies I received :O)

I used the Color Throwdown challenge (CTD66) for my palette:

...and I used the Limelight Sketch challenge for my layout, featuring Celebrity Guest Designer, Lauren Meader (part of the challenge is to incorporate butterflies in your project):

I stamped PTI's Background Basics, Text Style on the Bordering Blue cs and layered it under my main panel. I also punched my Martha Stewart butterfly from the stamped cs.  I used PTI's Wishing You set on my main panel.  I popped up two of the larger tulips using dimensionals, added a couple of pearls to the layered butterfly (can you see the razzleberry butterfly under the folded one?), and tied a bow using some satin white ribbon.  Easy stuff, but hopefully worthy of my good friend's special day! 

Onto my birthday goodies... :O)

My sweet husband bought me a new camera to replace the one that kicked the bucket a couple months ago.  I've been using his and was so surprised by how well his camera photographed my projects compared to my old camera, it was almost a blessing in disguise that mine quit working.  I used to STRUGGLE to capture a good shot before and would take like 20 pictures before I would settle on one I deemed good enough to post.  With his camera, I can take one picture and it's good!  He bought me the same brand and make so hopefully I will be equally successful with mine :)

My daughter, Tia, and her friend, Hazel, made a birthday poster for me and Tia bought two sets of stamps, some Rochelle candy and LOTS of peanut butter cups (my FAVORITE)!  Her stamp choices were sooo sweet...she decided on the "Family" set from Stampology (awwh...tear).  She also bought a cute sentiment set that I will be using repeatedly, I'm sure!  Oh, and the basket she picked up to display my goods is extra cute and I can definitely use it to store some craft supplies ;]

My mom sent me my Great Grandmother's Swedish Bible that I have been requesting for years.  It is by far one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received.  The Bible is leather bound and intricately engraved on the front, back and spine, and it's written entirely in Swedish.  There is a date written on the front page with her name and what I believe is the name of her Pastor, along with a raised seal.  I believe the date signifies my Great Grandmother's first communion.  It is dated September 17th, 1911, which means she was just entering her teen years when she owned it.  What I find REALLY neat about the Bible is that she tucked a few things inside the book that she treasured.  I found two pressed flowers, one unique blade of grass (or what almost looks like it could have been baby's breath), a tiny card with a heart shaped sticker and her mother's name written on it, a scrap of newspaper or phone book type paper that I assume was simply a bookmark for her, a small leaf, and a lock of her hair.  My daughter was creeped out by the lock of hair, but I find it fascinating!  It's almost as if a part of my Great Grandma is with me...still as thick and pretty as it was when she used to brush and curl it :]  Just warms my heart.  Oh, and don't let me forget that my mother also sent me a gorgeous pair of birthstone earrings!  LOVE them!!

My sis bought me a PTI stamp set that I've been wanting but putting off forever!  The Fancy Flourishes set :O)  I can't wait to get my hands on that one!!  -->UPDATE:  No sooner did I type what my sister ordered from PTI did the mailman arrive with yet another package from my sis!  She bought me a ton of stamps, embellishments, patterned paper and a scrapbook!!  She also sent money...she's in soooo much trouble when I get a hold of her!!  LOL

Last but not least, my friend, Dan (who is actually my husband's best friend) bought me a hand painted wine glass titles "Queen".  It has a bunch of tiaras and crowns on it, rhinestones and glitter!  It's so unique, I love it!  I even used it last night already ;]

I hope I didn't forget anyone...though if any of you made it this far, I'm sure you're bored out of your mind by now!  LOL  Thanks again for sharing my special day with me, and thank you for all the well wishes!  I'm having such a wonderful day :O)