Operation Julie's Smile!!! :)

The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae. 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 and that it was his recommendation that she give in and have 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 appointment 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 and that 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, she 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. 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. Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.

This past weekend was World Card Making Day and I had a good friend down visiting as mentioned in my previous post. On Sunday, my hubby was off so I made him keep an eye on the kids so her and I could play up in my scrap area for a while. Semi uninterrupted anyways!!! I had made a card using the same technique the day before, but had an idea for using the new mini pinwheel die I bought from Lil' Inker Designs thanks to my friend (and enabler), Julie Ranae!!! LOL What a cutie that thing is, let me tell you!!! I was giggling as I separated each little petal. ADORABLE!!! The stamp set that you can get along with the die has some really great sentiments as well. I chose to use the "I miss having you 'round" and "You mean the whirl to me" ones for my cards. I used papers from Fancy Pants' "It's the Little Things" line and made two cards because one of these simply wouldn't be enough... and it's also WAY easier to make two at once. hehe What CUTE paper this is, I really wish I had bought the full kit. I still might. ;)






I am so glad that you joined us on this amazing blog hop for Operation Julie’s Smile. If you came here from Avocado Arts 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!!!

I was super shocked to be asked to join in on this as this is my very FIRST blog hop I was actually a part of. So thank you to Julie Ranae and Nicole for thinking of me to be included. I am happy to be here and help in any way I can! I donated a few prizes and am also making a financial donation. I hope it helps Julie get to the place she needs to be. If everyone can make a donation in any denomination, it would be kindly appreciated. It could be $1, it could be $10, it could be $100... whatever you're comfortable with. The donation button is located just to the right. ;)

I hope you enjoyed your stop here on the hop! The next stop is Lynn Miller's blog. Make sure you leave a comment HERE on my blog before you go so that 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. REMEMBER, there are over $2500 in prizes donated by very generous companies and us crafters, too. Prize winners will be drawn from the following: blog comments left, PayPal donations and blog hop hosts. A complete list of sponsors is listed on the Sweet Stamp Shop blog as well as the FULL list of 120+ blogs participating this weekend so if you get lost along the way, head on back over there!!!

THANKS SO MUCH for being with us. Grab a cup of coffee, tea... or MANY! Enjoy the rest of the hop and the rest of your weekend!!! :)