HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Hey all!! Happy Monday to you!! I am SO excited to share my creation today AND.......... I am not! Haha! Just like me, right? Excited because, I KNEW right away when I saw this set? That I could use it to make a card for my mom!! The set is called GONE CAMPIN and it is from MARKET STREET STAMPS!! My mom got a cute little camper, JUST like this one (ALMOST), not too long ago! She was SUPER excited about it! SO what more appropriate image would there be for her birthday card?! That AND I got the AWESOME sentiments set? That set is called SIMPLE JOYS!! PERFECT touch!! The FINAL reason I couldn't wait to share this with you? I LOVE how the coloring turned out!!! Now, I know I said that I also was NOT excited to share? I have ONE reason for this!! I am just NOT sold on the layout!! Haha!! Funny how that happens, huh?
Oh well, know what? SO...... doesn't matter!! Know why? Because ALL that matters is that my mom? REALLY liked it!! YAY!! I mean, with the economy the way it is and having THREE kids? You REALLY learn to appreciate the LITTLE things!! Know what I mean? Although I have ALWAYS been a HUGE fan of the LITTLE things? It is times like these, that seriously enforce that for me!! It was my mother's birthday and she was celebrating 60!! That and 60? Meant that I have know her ALMOST 20 years now!! WOW!! Cannot believe it!! I know, I know........you are confused, right? That's ok.......for that story is a long one and will have to wait for another time! Haha! Anyway, this "card" was MY present to her and I had planned it to a "T"!! The image was AWESOME and so was the sentiment!! I LOVE when that happens!! AND? SO explains my addiction to stamps!! Whoops! Did I say addiction? Why......YES.....yes I did!! Haha!! What can I say? Life is TOO short!! Enjoy the LITTLE things!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

OK, my sappy post is done!! Thanks SO much for stopping by and letting me share with you!! Hope you also ENJOY my creation!! You will DEF be seeing MORE of this set from me, FOR sure!! Have a WONDERFUL Halloween! Hope you get LOTS of TREATS!! Until next time..........ENJOY LIFE!!

**GIVE CLICK**

MY CREATION: MSS Gone Campin', MSS Simple Joys, PTI & GP Cardstock, Spellbinders, Misc ribbon & rhinestones, SU label punch, Copics & Silver Uniball pen.

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

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!!!

"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!

THANK YOU KELLIE WINNELL........

Hey all, how are you tonight? Well, almost morning, I must admit! I just wanted to stop by and share something with you! I was crusin' blogland and I found THIS!!! Check it out!!
Kellie Winnell, of TICKLED PINK STAMPS, had this on her blog!! Now, I have to say, I was floored!! How utterly selfless and COOL is she?!! HUH?? I ask you?!! This is ESPECIALLY special to me, as my son Kade has Alopecia!!! I am not too sure how many of you follow my blog regularly or may have just known this. BUT, he does and he is a HUGE trooper about it!! I think WE, his parents, are more worried about it then HE ,himself, is!! Of course, I would not expect anything less from a FOUR year old!!! I mean, would you?
When this all started,about a year ago, we took him to our family doc, then for blood work, and finally to a Dermatologist! They said he had Alopecia!! They have NO idea why it happened, if and when it will EVER grow back, or even if it will ALL fall out!! Can you believe it? Even though I had learned about Alopecia in Cosmetology school, I figured they would have come up with something by now for it!! You know? Well, we let his hair grow on the longer side for awhile and then had NO choice BUT to shave it off! It was just SO thin and sparse that having it longer? Started to look DUMB!! My little man is SO amazing and does NOT let it bother him SO much that you should have heard him the day we clippered it down to his scalp!! He turned around to look in the mirror and FLIPPED out!! He was literally SOBBING and screaming!! He looked at me and said.............

"Mommy where is my hair? You cut it off? Put it back on Mommy! Put my hair back on"!!!

How devastating for ME, as a parent, to have done that to him! He just kept repeating that last part, over and over!! Put it back on!! UGH!! Point is? He did NOT care that he had VERY little hair left! He did not care that he had to wear a hat most of the time, so people would not be rude and stare at him!!! He just wanted, what little hair he had, BACK!! Yuck!! That was tough!! AND? It just shows me too, what we have in store, once he goes to school!!

Anyway, I am going on, and on!! I just have to say, THANK YOU, to Kellie Winnell!! Thank you for what you are doing and bringing to light and issue that is near and dear to me and my family!! You are an AMAZING person for caring about others!!

I have some pics of my little man below! He is AWESOME no matter what!!

I hope you all will spread the word and help Kellie with her cause!! Help spread awareness of this disorder and if you are able, help with a donation!! No matter how small, it is a help!!! EVERY little bit matters!! Thanks to all of you for letting me ramble about something that is personal to me!! Have an AWESOME night!! Remember....................ENJOY LIFE!!

PWC142- A PAPER PRETTIES CHALLENGE

Good morning all!! How are you? Hope you all had a GREAT weekend and a GREAT start to your week!! Can you believe it is the MIDDLE of the week already? Whew!!! I am sitting here, waiting for my daughter's bus to come. I am thinking it is a BIT late this AM!!
SO, I wanted to stop by and share the PAPER PRETTIES CHALLENGE, for this week!!!!

This week's challenge is:

GLITTER

How fun, right? Although........................I am NOT too sure you my pic does my GLITTER justice, BUT, here it is!! Hope you can play along!! You know.....................you MIGHT just win a prize!! Be sure to visit the rest of the PRETTIES for some AWESOME inspiration!! I will leave you with my pic and a VACAY pic!! Had to share one with you, you know?! See you SOON!!! ENJOY LIFE!!!



MY CREATION
STAMPS: What The Cluck II
INK: Memento Tuxedo Black
PAPER: PTI, Basic Grey
OTHER: Prima flowers, Mike's ribbon,Spellbinders, Bella Dots, Stardust Stickles
COPICS: 0,R89,R39,YG05,G94,G99,RV19,RV9, RV06

THE PRETTIES

• Paper Pretties
• Paper Pretties Blog
• Amber Hillman
• Chris Veneruso
• Cindy Haffner
• Dominique Hornberger
• Heather Lee-Reppen
• Jacquie Peifer
• Jennifer Greco
• Jessica Fick
• Kristine Reynolds
• Pam Varnell