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

Just Us Girls Charity Challenge

Today the Just Us Girls team is hosting a special, charitable challenge in memory of little Henry, Sara Anderson's son who passed away unexpectedly at the tender age of 3.  You can read more about Henry and Sara on the JUGS blog.  Lisa pulled this all together just to do a good deed and hopefully raise some money for the family by asking our participants to purchase the Henry snow angel over at Paper Makeup Stamps for $3 and to create a project with it.  Lisa is also offering a $15 gift certificate to Paper Makeup Stamps as blog candy!

My card is pretty basic...some cool patterned paper, a little Copic coloring, some CHUNKY glitter (thanks for the tip on that one, Lauren!!  BUY this in the children's section at your craft store...it's WAY cheaper), some buttons and a LOT of stitching...I'm talking a couple hours JUST to stitch this card...and some dimensionals.  I used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge (MTSC46)for my layout.

We sure hope you will purchase this cute little snow angel in honor of Henry and in support of his loving, grieving family.  Please post a link to your card using Mr. Linky over at JUGS if you play along so that you are in the running for the blog candy! Also, be sure to check out the DTs' creations (<-- links in my left sidebar) and our sweet guest designer and owner of Paper Makeup Stamps, Katie Cotton.

Hope you have a great Thursday and Friday!  I'll see you back here on Saturday for our normal JUGS challenge ;)  Thanks for stopping by!

Weiman Family Request & Future Blog Candy

Well, it's Friday and we're in Georgia safe and sound! If you follow my blog, you'll know I never got around to giving you the eye candy I was hoping to on my Sunday post :( Things just got busy at home preparing for our trip.

Oh, and if you don't live in the south, let me tell you, it is HOT here! Wow!! I wanted to go jogging this morning around 9 but took one step outside and quickly rethought that idea! It's soooo humid here. I would have passed out after a quarter of a mile, I'm sure :O) So, I'll try again in the morning at 6 instead. Wish me luck!

My original intent in writing this post was to advertise a request I received from Alicia Weiman. If you are not familiar with the very special Weiman family, please read about sweet Ethan on Alicia's Caringbridge site and these posts on my blog --> Weiman posts.

Recently, Pink Cat Studios created a very special digital stamp set called the Weiman Wranglers. Proceeds from this set will go to the Make A Wish Foundation, Illinois Chapter in honor of Ethan Weiman. This foundation was a blessing to Ethan and his family. From what I remember, they gave the Weiman's a horse, a "little ass", and a barn. Not only that, but when Ethan's beloved horse, Sonador, passed away last Christmas, they replaced his horse with a new one named Questions. What other organization comes through for people in such a HUGE way? I can think of many charitable organizations doing great things, but when it comes to granting the wishes of sick children this one surpasses any that I'm aware of.

Anyway, many compassionate paper crafters have already purchased and created some stunning projects using the Weiman Wranglers. I created a card and a digi card (while I was on vacation in PA) but I didn't really know what I would do with the tangible card. I made it specifically with little Ethan and his sister, Ava in mind. Meaning, I studied all of their photos to see how they dressed...down to the pattern and color. So, when the card was finally finished, I sat there looking at it thinking, what am I going to do with this? I could never give it to anyone, it's Ethan and Ava. I didn't know if I should send it to Alicia, or just hold onto it. BUT, Alicia emailed me the other night and gave me some food for thought. She told me that if I knew of anyone who created a project using the Weiman Wranglers and didn't plan on doing anything with it, she would love to have it as a keepsake. She's putting all of them in a book because she loves to look at everyone's creations from the set.

So, I haven't sent her mine yet, but I brought it with me and will post it tomorrow! I'm so happy that she asked for the creations because now I feel like mine really had a purpose :O) If you created something with the Weiman Wranglers set and would like to send it to Alicia, please email me and I'll forward her address to you! You can find my email address under the About Me page on my blog.

BLOG CANDY!!!

Okay, so apparently my blogoversary was yesterday! Mind you, I had no idea until I logged on today because we spent the day driving to Georgia :) Thank you to the few who wished me a happy blogoversary and let me know! LOL That being said, I think this is a fitting time to finally offer some blog candy!! I have quite a few duplicate stamping items at home that have never been used, and tons of paper and embellishments that I'm sure I could do without. I also have a Cricut and a Sizzix machine that I could easily make some die cut giveaways from! Soooo, when I get home, I'll put together some blog candy for you all :O) Keep an eye out...I have some cool things just sitting there waiting for a good home.

Last but not least. We are not doing a My Time to Create Challenge this Saturday due to the holiday weekend. Everyone is just so busy it seems...so we're taking a week off! You can view previous challenges on my left sidebar if you want to participate in one that you didn't have a chance to the first time! We would LOVE to see what you come up with if you do! Please leave a comment here to let me know if you played along with a previous challenge so I can check out your creations!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a SAFE, relaxing 4th of July holiday!!

My Time to Color Challenge...Digi Style :O)

Okay...so I had a dilemma this week. I left my home in VA for a trip to PA on Tuesday evening. We aren't headed back to VA until Saturday afternoon...and I didn't have my card for the color challenge started! Much less finished :) So I was thinking I would have to sit out this weekend. BUT, it occurred to me after I arrived in PA and destressed, that the images our team is using this weekend are DIGITAL! Who needs a paper cutter, cs and ink when you have a digital image to play with? Well, I do to make a good card, but I thought I would challenge myself with NOT using anything tangible. If anything, to give you something to check out for the challenge :O)

DISCLAIMER! I'm NOT a digital scrapbooker and have never touched this stuff until now. HUGE thanks to Jen Tapler for giving me some digital advice and tips :O) She is a digi queen! Some day I'll learn to add shadows and the cool, fancy stuff...but for now, this is it. I found the stars, metal brads and ribbon FREE on Free Digital Scrapbooking. Pretty cool, huh?

I created my patterned paper using the two sentiments in the PCS Weiman Wranglers set. I simply recolored the "Howdy" and used the horseshoe from the "You're Amazing" sentiment. I arbitrarily rotated the images randomly and ended up with some cool patterned paper. Neat, huh? The plaid paper is actually "try before you buy" PTI paper.

Okay, so I KNOW this card is ULTRA simple, but I truly had very little time to work on it in PA. Next week I promise something MUCH more detailed!

So, with all that, we would LOVE for you to play along with the color challenge today (MTCC03) and if you want to go that extra mile, you could join our team in using the Weiman Wranglers set! Pink Cat Studios is offering the set for only $6 and all proceeds are going to the Make A Wish Foundation, Illinois Chapter, in honor of Ethan Weiman. Such a worthy cause, and a fabulous organization that made a huge difference in Ethan Weiman's life. And don't forget the prize I'm offering! You can read about that in my previous post :O) Deadline is midnight Saturday night!!!

Can't wait to see what you create! Please be sure to post a link to your creation using Mr. Linky on Lauren's Blog! Also, be sure to stop by the design team members' blogs for some more inspiration! This talented group is sure to WOW you!

Lauren
Alicia
Dana
Dawn
Jennifer
Kendra
Lisa
MacKenzie
Maria
Odette
Pam
Tamara
Tracey

Weiman Wranglers...Part II

I finally finished my card LATE last night :O) I could not get a clear picture to save my life, so I went with this one in the end. Oh, and if you're new to my blog and you aren't familiar with the Weimans, please read --> these posts.

What does one of the last papercrafters on the planet who doesn't own a Copic marker do to color?! She prints her Wranglers on Watercolor paper and uses markers and an aqua painter to color them (after arranging the Wranglers in her image editing software). Yes, I watercolored...just like the cavemen used to do :O) LOL

For my first card using the Weiman Wranglers, I really wanted to capture little Ethan and Ava’s style (who the images were designed for). So, I went to Alicia Weiman’s Caringbridge site and studied all of the photos I’ve seen hundreds of times before.

For Ethan, I really liked the photo of him wearing his light blue and white plaid, button down shirt, blue jeans, leather belt/boots, and his black cowboy hat. I noticed he had what looks like two leather braided bands around his hat, so I added some black twine to my cowboy’s hat. Oh, and for those of you who aren’t familiar, Ethan LOVED his red bandana! I have some red bandana paper, so I paper pieced the bandana on my cowboy. I also paper pieced the shirts on both wranglers. The rest is watercolored.


For Ava, I didn’t find a lot of pictures where she kept to the same look other than being VERY girly and wearing a lot of pink :O) LOVE the bows she always wears in her hair (I think her grandma makes them for her), so I tied a tiny pink bow and added it to her pink cowgirl hat :O) I watercolored everything but her shirt.
Did you notice the “A” and “E” on their belt buckles? I thought those were so cool! I just added the letters in my image editing program before I printed. Neat, huh?

I didn’t want my main panel to take over the entire card because I had an image in my head of using my new Nestabilities die to make a faux “saddle”. That would be the kraft CS. I embossed using one of my Cuttlebug folders and sponged Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges to give it a weathered look. I added the ribbon and buckle to resemble the stirrup :O) Ha ha…it’s funny when you compare it to a real saddle because they’re nothing alike! But in my head, they’re totally the same :]

Okay, now that my post is a novel, I’ll spare you any more long-winded details!! If you made it this far, thanks for reading :O) Hope you are able to make something with these digital stamps! The money is going to SUCH a great cause! I know the Make A Wish Foundation came through in a BIG way for the Weimans on more than one occasion! I’m more than happy to contribute to the organization!!

With that, how about a prize? I’ll donate a $5 PCS gift certificate to a random winner to hopefully go toward the Weiman Wrangler fundraiser! All you have to do is publish a post on your blog announcing the Weiman Wrangler fundraiser (happening over at Pink Cat Studios) before midnight on Saturday this week. I’ll pick a winner using random.org and make the announcement on Sunday. Please use Mr. Linky to add the link directly to your post about the fundraiser to make it easy for me to check them out :O)

UPDATE: 6.28.09...LeAnne Pugliese won the PCS gift certificate! I removed Mr. Linky :]

Thanks so much!

Exciting Announcement - Weiman Wranglers

Good morning :O) I’m sooooo excited to announce that Pink Cat Studios JUST released a stamp set in honor of Ethan Weiman; the Weiman Wranglers! If you are new to my blog, please read this post for more information about this amazing little guy.

This is a digital stamp set and all proceeds will go to the Make A Wish Foundation. For only $6 you can purchase both Weiman Wranglers and the sentiments – and have INSTANT access to your images so you can start creating right away!!

I’m sad to say that my project with this set just isn’t finished yet despite staying up until 1:30 last night. I’m going to try and finish it today after work because I’m going out of town on Tuesday until Sunday. Soooo, keep an eye out :O)

Last but not least I just want to tell you how amazing this papercrafting community is. Lauren presented the idea for the stamp set to Melissa from PCS on the Friday that we found out Ethan was called home. Melissa who is moving this week, and undoubtedly has NUMEROUS preparations for that, managed to create these adorable images in less than a week! Not only did she get the images ready, she figured out the payment mechanism (to Make A Wish), created the landing page, and a collage of the creations our team made…among other things! I can’t forget Ethan’s mom, Alicia. She is one of the strongest ladies I know. She worked with Lauren and Melissa on the verbiage for the landing page and determined which charity to send the money to…again, among other things...all just a week after losing sweet Ethan. These ladies are just incredible to me.

I sooo hope you make something amazing with the digi images! We’re going to leave the fundraiser link for the family up for a few more days if you want to contribute directly to the Weimans (note the widget in my right side bar). Otherwise, you can contribute to the Make A Wish Foundation through Pink Cat Studio and gain an amazing stamp set to boot!

Be sure to check out Lauren's blog and her awesome challenge!

Please leave a comment with a link to your card if you are able to make something with one or more of the images! I would LOVE to see what you come up with :O) You guys are so inspiring to me!

Have a great Monday and an even better week.

Weiman Family Fundraiser

I'm writing this post with such a heavy heart. For those of you who don't know, my friend, and fellow DT member, Alicia Weiman, lost her precious 4-year old son, Ethan, on Friday. Ethan has been battling neuroblastoma cancer for 2 years now. If you follow their Caringbridge Journal, you know the trials they have been through and the extraordinary actions Alicia and Dave took to try and beat this horrible disease. Sadly, after a long, painful battle, the good Lord called Ethan home.

Alicia is the first to say that "Heaven gained the greatest little boy ever". Without a doubt. I'm sure Ethan is happily riding his beloved horse, Sonador (who passed away last year right around Christmas time), looking down on his family with loving eyes and a happy heart. Their forever guardian angel ♥

The family is holding a private service for Ethan tomorrow from 4-7 in Illinois. As a DT, we all want to contribute to the family in some way and have discussed several ideas. They requested that in lieu of flowers, plants or concrete statues, they would like to fill the place with balloons or a memorial in Ethan's name. Lauren is all over the balloons order, and we discussed sending a gift card for Schwann's also. After brainstorming the best way to collect donations from the DT who so lovingly wants to contribute, we thought it might be best to use PayPal. I set up a donation button in honor of the Weiman family and have loaded it in my right side bar --->

I'm not sure how to set up a widget like the one they used for the SOA event (to keep track of the total amount contributed to date) without creating the widget myself (html). I could do that, but it would take me a few days to figure out all of the details. Since the service is tomorrow, I would like to start accepting donations as soon as possible so as not to delay our contribution to the family. Therefore, I went with a simple "Donate" button.

The plan is to use the DT contributions to pay for the balloons and the Schwann's gift card, and give the remaining balance (from DT and any other followers who would like to donate) to the family. We figure they can use the money to help pay final expenses, any medical bills they are still paying on, or donate to a charity, etc.

So, if you would like to help in a small or big way, please use the PayPal Donation button in my right sidebar --> I will keep my blog updated with the total amount collected to date...and if I figure out how to create a widget that keeps track for me, I'll add it right away! We will send a list of everyone who donates as well as any comments you would like to pass along, with the money we collect. Please feel free to use the comment box below the PayPal button to share your well-wishes or email me (email address is listed in my "About" page).

Please pray for the Weimans. I can only imagine what they are going through and what they will face in the coming days and weeks. They are an amazing family who have done so much! I hope we can help ease their burden.

If I can steal Alicia's words one more time, I think this is an appropriate closing to this post, "Here's to you COWBOY ETHAN! Hope you're having fun riding your Sonador! GOD BLESS!"