"Celebrate Katie Renz's Life" Blog Hop

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Hello everyone!

Today we celebrate a beautiful lady and a beautiful life.

Our friend Katie Renz's battle with cancer is over. She is now cancer free in the arms of our Lord!

Katie had the most gorgeous and infectious smile. 

Seeing her in pictures like this one still brightens my day. 

Her light has not faded. It lives on in our hearts.

Katie's Clear Dollar Stamps sisters wanted to celebrate her by CASEing one of her cards or by creating cards for her family and sharing them in this blog hop. I did both because I CASE'ed her and will be sending my card to Kevin and the boys for Christmas.

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If you are here from sweet Linda's blog, you are in the right place. If you just happened onto my blog, head on back to Lori's Clearly iStamp blog where it all starts. I am sure you will find many heartwarming stories and beautiful creations along your way.

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Katie had such a special way of creating clean and simple layouts that beautifully featured sentiments.

I created this card with the "Christmas Scriptures" set from Clear Dollar Stamps and some pretty Gold Satin Gold Edged ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

This is the card that Katie made from which I drew my inspiration. I love how she placed the ribbon around the sentiment.

If you have not read, and been touched by Katie's cancer journey, I invite you to go visit her blog. You will not leave dry eyed or inspired by her strength, love for her friends and family, tremendous courage and remarkable grace.

Thanks so much for dropping by to help us celebrate the life of our dear Katie.

Your next stop on the hop is Jan's adorable blog.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Please remember tell the people you love how you feel. You never know when it might be too late. :)

Day 3 of the "Swimming For Katie Renz" Blog Hop ~ BLOG CANDY and a Digi Stamp Set I Donated for the Fundraiser

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Hi Everyone!

I am so honored to be a part of the "Swimming For Katie Blog Hop". Katie is a design team sister and is such a sweet soul and an inspiration to so many people. I just had to do what I could to help out.


I will be giving away a $25.00 gift certificate that I bought from Simon Says Stamp to a lucky random person who leaves a comment below, telling me what you have done to help Katie. Whether it be purchasing a stamp, making a donation, creating a card for the hop, or even just spreading the word on your blog or Facebook page. Soooo....make sure and read all of the way to the bottom!

My card is a little different than the sweet octopus cards you have been looking at on most of the other blogs, because I made one for Katie with the "Swimming With Katie Ribbon Fish" digi set that I designed to help raise funds for her and her family.

This card is a bit of a hybrid because I stacked the digi papers in MS Word then added lots of "friend" ribbon fish and a personalized sentiment. I also printed a couple of extra "Katie" fish then fussy cut them out and stacked for a 3D effect which is visible in the lower picture.

About the hop...

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.  Her husband Kevin and her three young children need our help and support.  In addition to the Keep Swimming Octopus, Marianne Walker, Jak Heath, and Trudy Sjolander of True =D Doodle Designs, 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.

~~~This is the set I created for Katie's fund raiser. ~~~

Keep Swimming Katie Ribbon Fish Digi Stamp and Papers.

Designed by Trudy Sjolander - True :D Doodle Designs

$4.00 with instant download.

Keep Swimming Octopus in 3 formats

Peachy Clear Stamp - $5.50 with free shipping

Digi with SVG cut file - $3.50 with instant download

Digi only w/o SVG - $3.00 with instant download

Designed by Becky Oehlers

Keep Swimming Mermaid Digi Stamp

PNG and PDF files (one mermaid and one sentiment) included in a zip file for immediate download.
Designed by Marianne Walker
$3.50

Keep Swimming Bubble Digi Paper and Fish Digi

Set includes 3 bubble backgrounds (JPEG's), A5 in size and line art fish in a zip file for immediate

download.

Designed by Jak Heath

$4.00

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

If you would simply like to make a donation to Katie's fund, please click below.

Here are links to the rest of the day 3 hoppers:

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 -You Are Here! :)

Thanks so much for dropping by and a special thanks to those who are donating and/or spreading the word about our friend Katie! Please keep her and her family in your prayers!

Don't forget to leave a comment below to be eligible for the random drawing for the $25.00 Simon Says Stamp gift certificate. I will draw and announce the winner on Sunday, October 23rd.

Hugs,
True :D

~~~~~UPDATE~~~~

To help raise money for Katie, Creating for Causes (www.creatingforcauses.org) has generously donated a FREE ticket (value: $249.95) to one of their upcoming 3-day Scrap & Stamp Retreats.

The winner of the free ticket will enjoy 3 days of non-stop fun and creativity with fellow scrappers, stampers and paper crafters, and can choose between the Charlotte, NC Scrap & Stamp Ritzy Retreat at The Ritz-Carlton on October 21-23 or the Orlando, FL Scrap & Stamp Retreat at the Marriott World Center on November 4-6. Both retreats promise to spoil you and provide 48-straight hours of creating, camaraderie and fun!

To learn more about the events, please visit: http://www.creatingforcauses.org/our-events/scrapbook-events/.

Not only will you be raising money for Katie by making a donation, you get a chance to win a wonderful weekend getaway for yourself! And, because all of Creating for Causes' events are charity events that raise money for local charities, you'll be giving back twice!

Wow, a weekend retreat for you and two chances to help others. Does it get any better than that?

Here's how it works:

Simply make a $33 donation (or more) for Katie and indicate that you want to be entered in the Creating for Causes Retreat ticket drawing. Everyone who makes a qualifying donation will be entered into the drawing and one lucky person will be attending this 3-day retreat for FREE! That lucky person could just be you!  (If you have already donated and wish to be included, just email kate(at) iheartpapers (dot) com)

DEADLINE TO ENTER FOR THIS GIVEAWAY IS FRIDAY 9PM EST, although other donations will be accepted for weeks to come.