Hey there friends!! Thanks SO much for stopping by and joining me in the HOP for Katie Renz!! It is an honor for me to be a part of this HOP!! She is such an inspiration to me!! She is such an AMAZING person!! Her story really hits home for me, as my family dynamic is VERY similar to hers!! AND.......it could be ME in her shoes!! I just could NOT even begin to imagine!! I mean, you never know? Do you? No ONE of us is exempt from this HORRIFIC disease!! CANCER!!! If NOT you? Then who else? A sister, a brother? A husband, a child? Your parent or BEST friend?? This REALLY makes you think! Please, be thankful for EVERYTHING!! Please be thankful EVERYDAY AND......as I ALWAYS say? ENJOY LIFE!! This is the ONLY one we get!! I have been thinking and praying for Katie, hope you will do so too!Here is what we have all come together to do!

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 digis or a dig and SVG cut file. 100% of the profits go to Katie's fund to help her and her young family. That is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!! You read correctly!! 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. 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. If you would like to send Katie a card, her mailing address is:

Katie Renz
PO Box 5913
Bellingham, WA 98227-5913

Amy Heller

Jackie Pedro


Julie Masse


Kecia Waters


Sandie Dunne


Susan Liles


Latisha Yoast


Laurie Schmidlin


Lisa Arana


Lisa Henke


Lisa Silver


Lydia Fiedler


Lyn Bernatovich


Lynette


Maria Gurnsey


Meg Craig


Melissa Bickford


Michelle Woerner


Mona Pendleton


Niki Estes


Robyn Weatherspoon


Sarah Jay


Sarah Martina Parker


Savannah O'Gwynn


Stephanie Washburn


Susanna Boyd


Tobi Crawford


Julie Lacey


Kim Kesti


Shemaine Smith


Danielle Lounds


Debbie Carriere


DoBea A.


Fran Gumprecht


Geny Cassady


Gina K.


Holly McMillen


Jak Heath


Javablustamper/Jacquie


Kimberly Crawford

Jeanne Streiff



Trudy Sjolander

**MY CREATION: Keep Swimming Octopus,added Verve sentiment, Echo Park Splash DSP,PTI Orange CS,Carribean Twinery Twine,Mike's Red Rhinestones,Copics, I heart 2Stamp sketch

A CAS-ual CHALLENGE!!

Hey all, how are you? Hope you had fun on OPERATION JULIE'S SMILE's HOP!!! I know I did!! Since I hopped, I ran into this challenge, over at CAS-ual Friday's!! Check it out!!

CFC23: Inspiration challenge. Create a Clean And Simple project using the quote as your inspiration OR use the quote as your sentiment.

So, you KNOW I had to TRY and play along!! I mean, after all, It is Julie's challenge blog!! Although......you do all know ME and Clean and Simple!!! Haha! Anyway, I got out my NEW, to me, PTI Chair-ished stamp set and got to work! Here is what I came up with!! After I teamed it up with my Kraft CS, Scarlet Jewel CS, and Misc brown ribbon!! Oh, let's not forget my Walnut Stain TH Distress and PTI Scarlet Jewel inks!! Hope you like and hope you will play along!! It was FUN!! Thanks Julie for the GREAT inspiration!! Have an AWESOME day everyone!! See you tomorrow with SWIMMING FOR KATIE!! ENJOY LIFE!!

MY CREATION: PTI Chair-shed, Misc ribbon, TH Walnut Stain distress ink, PTI Scarlet Jewel ink

OPERATION JULIE'S SMILE!!

WOHOO!! The day is FINALLY here!! I am SO excited!! I am sure you all have seen buzz about this for awhile now!! So, I am REALLY glad that you joined us on this amazing blog hop for Operation Julie’s Smile. If you came here from DEB FELT'S blog, then you are in the right spot. If not, you may want to start from the beginning at the Sweet Stamp Shop’s Blog and take your time. You have ALL WEEKEND to hop with us and win prizes! Thank you SO much for being here!! We ALL appreciate it and I KNOW that Julie does!! Julie you say? Are you NOT sure who this LOVELY lady is? Are you NOT familiar with her story? Really? Here, let me explain!

The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae. You can click on her name to visit her and see who she is! You may know her as the Design Team Coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine, die cuts, rubber stamps and more. What many people don’t know about Julie Ranae is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child. It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out. But then it happened…she chipped her front teeth on a weekend a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them & that it was his recommendation that she give in and have them all her teeth removed soon, but for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would 'work out payments with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appt for the first step of impressions, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the 'payments' applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. Her husband Paul was with her & that too, was his understanding as well. So this is how she has found herself in this situation…Needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000.

Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight!

Because she is an event organizer by trade, Julie has taken on the job of organizing all of the blogs in this hop as her way of ‘working overtime’ for what she needs, the same as if she were able to work overtime at an outside job to pay for the work to be done. AGAIN, You should have come here from DEB FELT'S blog!!

It is the goal of all of these generous friends & sponsors to help make this situation more do-able for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon.

If there is anything you can do to help with a financial donation, there is a donation button ready for you to click. You can find the DONATION BUTTON along my sidebar, to your RIGHT!! Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500. Yepper, you read that right!! It is worth repeating in BOLD print!!

**There are $2500 in prizes!!

**A complete list of sponsors is listed

on the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog.

Thank you SO much for joining us!! I hope you like my creation and I hope you enjoyed your stop here on the hop! The next stop is Sherri Thompson's blog. Make sure you leave a comment here before you go so t

hat you can have a chance at the amazing prizes up for grabs and if you can, please make a donation so we can help bring back a new smile for our friend! Have an AWESOME day and ENJOY LIFE!!

**GIVE A CLICK TO SEE THIS UP CLOSE!!

**I FOLLOWED THIS SKETCH from PAPER PRETTIES!!

**NOTE -The DONATION BUTTON
IS ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDEBAR!!
EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS!!

MY CREATION: Market Street Stamps Gone Camping image,PTI Brown CS, Basic Grey Infuse DSP,Spellbinders and PTI dies,Misc brown ribbon, Crystal Stickles, and Copics.

**PS. I chose this stamp set for Julie!! ONE she is a part of their design team and TWO it just goes to show that, even if life sucks sometimes? You can get through ANYTHING with a little help from your friends!! LOVE YA JULIE!!!

RUBBERNECKER FRIDAY FUN!!

Hey all! How are you? Stopping by to let you know that I am hanging out at RUBBERNECKER STAMPS this evening!! If you are NOT busy? head on over for a visit and to check out the rest of my creation!! I would LOVE to share it with you!! Be sure to stop back tomorrow to see what I have next!! I told you, I have been on a roll!! Haha!! Ok, back to the couch and my box of tissues!! Have an AWESOME night!!

PINK SORBET TWINE & A COUCH POTATO................

Hey how are you all? Just thought I would stop by and share ANOTHER creation!! Whatcha think? This was my FIRST attempt at using this set!! I LOVED it and had to have it? SO, I finally got enough UMPH up to try and use it! Haha!

**GIVE A CLICK**

This is the PTI On My Couch and On My Couch Additions sets!! LOVED this so much? I went ahead and got the Die too? SO, I knew what I wanted to try first!! Well? Any thoughts?? Of course I used my Pink Sorbet Twinery Twine!! LOVE that stuff too!! They just had a hop recently? Did you catch it? AWESOME inspiration, let me tell ya!! Anyway, I am starting to get on a roll here, SO......... I will have ANOTHER for you tomorrow!! Thanks SO much for visiting and have a WONDERFUL night!! Until next time? ENJOY LIFE!!

MY CREATION: PTI Stamps,PTI Raspberry Fizz CS, Twinery Pink Sorbet Twine, Copic R39 & Bic Marker Green

"RAIN BOOTS"

Hey all! How are you? SO sorry I have not visited regularly, for a while!! It has been the whole back to school thing and of course the football thing too!! Well, the cheerleading thing, that is!! That and guess who is taking care of the concession stand for the midget sports games?! Haha!! Did I mention it before? Yepper, you guessed it, MOI!! It will be slowing down here SOON and then I will be able to create MORE!! Haha! Although, I have had some time here lately? I will have some creations for you for a little bit anyway!!
OK, babble, babble......right?? Hey, you know me....you should have expected as much!! Anyway, I wanted to share a pic AND a creation today! My DD, Kyah wanted some "Rain Boots"? We all know that seems to be the BIG thing this year! Well, we just could NOT find any that were....."COOL" enough, according to Kyah. She is SO not a froo-froo kind of girl!! Imagine that!! We have been looking for some time now. Do you remember all the HYPE with Target and that Mussoni line? How they sold out with in hours or something crazy like that? As luck would have it, Kyah liked the one pattern of "Rain Boots" Mussoni had put out. Well, I told Kyah.....I am REALLY sorry; I don't think we stand a chance of getting those! I was NOT going to get her ALL excited when I KNEW people were being RIDICULOUS and buying everything up and re-selling it on ebay at HORRENDOUS prices!!

Ok, so........................guess what??? We ended up at Target this weekend? Long after all ths Mussoni business? Lo and behold? In the front of the store? As soon as you walk in? They had ALL the left overs from the Mussoni CRAZINESS!! Kyah saw the FEW items and said,"Wow mom look at the COOL patterns"! Guess what else? There were TWO bigger boxes on the display unit!! Wait for it..........................

**YOU JUST GOTTA GIVE A CLICK!**

Yepper!! Kyah was SO excited!! There was a size 2 and a size 3!! Kyah needed the size 2!! Woohoo!! Huge score!! You have never seen a girl SO happy!! I mean.....she usually does NOT get excited about a whole lot of wardrobe things, BUT, this??!! AWESOME!! Who knew?!

Well, she finally got to wear them today; it is SUPPOSED to rain. In honor of the "Rain Boots" and her actually being excited about something having to do with clothing? I made her THIS card and stuck it in her school folder!! Wish I could be there to see her face!! I LOVE how this turned out!! I followed the STAMPING BELLA CHALLENGE sketch, which never happens!! Thanks for the GREAT sketch BELLA sistahs!! You will find the sketch and MY take on it below!! Thanks for stopping by and letting me BABBLE on!! Have an AWESOME day!!

**YOU JUST GOTTA GIVE A CLICK!**

MY CREATION: Shower Bugg stamp from Stamping Bella & Christy Croll, Basic grey Sugar Rush DSP, PTI cardstock, Glazed BG Sugar Rush brad, yarn, Copics & Bic markers!

TAYLORED EXPRESSIONS HOP!!

Woohoo!! Good morning all!! I am SO excited to be a part of the Taylored Expressions BLAST FROM THE PAST, hop this month!! This month's theme was birthday OR birth!! Speaking of BIRTH, huge congrats, to Taylor and her family, on their NEW addition!! SO excited for you!! Blessings!! OK, so.................. I used the SWEET CELEBRATION set, of course!! I also, TRIED to follow the sketch Sankari had for us!! Thanks for the sketch Sankari!! Haha! TRIED being the KEY word, right? SO here is the sketch and MY take on it!! Happy HOPPING!! The HOP list is below for you to follow!! Thanks SO much for stopping by!! Hope you enjoyed my creation!! Have an AWESOME day!!

**GIVE A CLICK TO SEE ME CLOSER!!**

ETA: I had to share this NEW pic!! I looked HIGH and low for the twinw that I have added!! I did not own any that had yellow, which is really what I wanted? BUT, I knew I received some tied on a package wrapping I received!! Guess what?? I FOUND it!! SO excited!! NOW I am happy with my creation!! Haha!! Don't forget to CLICK the PIC!!!


CREATION: TE Sweet Celebration stamps, DCWV Kitchen DSP, PTI cardstock, Spellbinders labels and circles dies,Misc rhinestones, Copics.

JUST HAD TO SHARE!!

RUBBERNECKER STAMPS is having a sale!! Check it out!!

Spellbinder Die Set Sale

This sale will run from Tuesday 8/23 noon until Thursday 8/25 5 PM. The sale will be limited to stock on hand at our distributor. For best selection, place your orders early. No backorders or rainchecks will be offered. We will place the order for the material on Friday and will advise customers of unavailable merchandise and issue refunds on Friday 8/26 if necessary. Materials will be received by and shipped Saturday 9/3. This sale will not be combined with the stamp sale.

Rubbernecker Stamp Sale

This sale will run from Friday 8/26 noon through Sunday 8/28 5 PM. It will include all items in each of our stamp lines and our free stamp program (Shoppers Rewards) WILL be in effect, so remember to include your free choices with your order. If you have any questions about the program, rules are posted on the home page of the site. This sale will not be combined with the Spellbinders sale.

A GIFT FOR MY ...............

New, SOON to be here, NEPHEW!! Woohoo!! It is only a matter of minutes, I am tellin' ya!! I am SO excited!! I made a TAG for on his gift bag!! Complete with Cappuccino twine from the TWINERY!! YAY!! I LOVE their twine!! Hey, did you know it is their Anniversary? They are having an AMAZING celebration!! You HAVE to check out THE TWINERY!! Click on their name to visit and celebrate with them!!

Now, it is MY day to share over at RUBBERNECKER STAMPS? You will HAVE to hop on over there to check out the REST of my project and the DEETS on how I made it, just CLICK!! Hope you will visit!! Hope you have a FABULOUS day! I know I will, for I am going to be an AUNT.........again!!

ENJOY LIFE!