Spread the Love for Jaimie!

A few days ago I heard about a blog hop happening today, and immediately knew I wanted to participate. I was in tears after reading about Jaimie, here's her story if you haven't already read it:

On October 4th, four teenagers armed with knives broke into a home in a small town in New Hampshire. Alone and sleeping inside were a mother and her 11 year old daughter. These four boys broke into this home with the intent to rob and kill anyone inside. They stabbed the mom, Kimberly Cates, to death and left her daughter, Jaimie, for dead in their driveway. It was a completely random act, their home was chosen only due to its secluded surroundings.

For a child to have to endure something like that - it just breaks my heart. Our hope is that everyone hopping around today will stop for a moment and think about Jaimie and her father and what life must be like for them now. One moment in time has changed their lives forever. We are asking that everyone reading this message please make a card and send it off to Jaimie. You can make something very simple or much more involved, but please share some words of hope and love and let her know that people do care and want the best for her. Please send your card to the address below:

Jaimie Cates
c/o Mont Vernon Fire Station
Main Street
Mont Vernon, NH 03057

If you happened along the hop at my blog, please head back to the beginning by visiting Katharina. At the end of the hop you will find a new blog called Stamp Something...For Jaimie: Spreading Love and Hope. Please be sure to visit that blog - you can read more about Jaimie, and also participate in the Card Drive Challenge. Many generous sponsors have donated prizes to be given away randomly - you have until the end of the hop, Monday, November 9 at 10am EST to get in the drawing. And finally - continue along this hop by visiting Jenni!

Now some details about my card - I heard that Jaimie likes black and hot pink, so I went with that color combo. The fabulous sassy cat stamp is designed by my friend Lydia - her Maddie Stamp is part of a fundraiser for homeless kitties. (You know you want to go buy one!!) And I used Taylor's latest fabby sketch. Thanks for stopping by today!!

• Stamps: Lydia's Maddie Stamp for A Place to Bark, sentiment from Verve Stamps
• Paper: Pink Passion, Basic Black, white, A Muse DP, Making Memories DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic marker
• Accessories: stitching, brads, circle punches

From Courtney's Closet #55 - an inspiration challenge

Hello and welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet, where I make a card inspired by one of my baby girl's outfits. (Ok, ok, she's not a baby anymore! Waaaah! Can you believe she was this little when I started this??) So this is the inspiration photo I had INTENDED to post last week, but as you can see that never happened!! Last Thursday was Courtney's Daddy's birthday. So the idea was that I'd post a photo of Courtney wearing her new Detroit Tigers outfit that her Grandma gave her while we were in Michigan - since Joel is the big Tigers fan of the house. But, alas, I was too busy last Thursday trying to surprise him with a clean house and a birthday cake and decorations before he got home from work, so the post never happened. By the way, before Joel left for work Carter said to him "Daddy, today we're gonna go get a present for you and make a cake, and it's a SURPRISE!". Gotta love three year olds and their ability to keep secrets! :-) So, here's Courtney in her Tigers outfit for Daddy, a week later! I mostly just used the color combo for my inspiration. I considered using a tiger image on this week's card, but was shocked to discover I don't own any! (if you knew how many animal stamps I own you'd understand why this is so shocking!) Instead I pulled out a kitty stamp - I *love* this one, it's made by Hot Potatoes and I found it at my LSS Stamp Salado. I've had it for ages and this is the first time it's been inked!! One of these days I will probably be arrested for these crimes against stamping-humanity! Oh and I almost forgot to mention - Courtney is in pigtails!!! We just tried that for the first time - cuteness! And she didn't even pull them out. Happy days. Ok, so what do you think? Wanna play along? If you do, link back here so I know where to find you! Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Bandit from Hot Potatoes
• Paper: Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise, white
• Ink: Regal Rose
• Accessories: Martha glitter, SU 2-way glue pen, SU scallop edge punch, Martha heart punch, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, Janome Sew Mini & white thread, Hobby Lobby ribbon