Operation Julie's Smile, CR84FN39, & Textured to Perfection

Happy Friday, friends!  I'm thrilled today to be participating in a special blog hop for the sweet and talented Julie Ranae.  If you are following along on the hop, you should have arrived here from 

the blog of Vera Yates.  If not, make sure you stop by the Sweet Stamp Shop blog to start at the beginning and learn how you can win some fabulous prizes while helping a fellow stamper.  

There are over 120 blogs participating in this hop, so if you encounter a broken link at any time, just head back to the Sweet Stamp Shop blog for the full list of participants.  You have all weekend to visit and comment, so take your time and have fun!

Please keep reading to learn more about Julie's story and how you can help give her back her 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 & 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, 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.”

You can find the donation button on my blog's sidebar, and on all of the other blogs along the hop.

Now to share the card I've made for today, with Julie in mind. 

I combined the colors of the current CR84FN challenge with the Textured to Perfection challenge in the Moxie Fab World to create a fall-inspired card of encouragement.

I cut a piece of cream felt with pinking shears and embroidered vines in two shades of orange (although one looks red in the photos) and yellow.  This was adhered to an Early Espresso card base and embellished with buttons.

I stamped a sentiment from PTI's Think Big Favorites onto a strip of Vintage Cream cardstock, notched one end, and adhered it with foam dots.

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! (Early Espresso), Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Think Big Favorites #4)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Early Espresso)

Accessories:  Papertrey Ink (felt, buttons), DMC floss

I'm so glad you stopped by today for this special post!  Your next stop on the hop is Carisa Zglobicki.  Don't forget to leave a comment here before you go for a chance to win prizes, and please click on the donation button to help our friend, Julie.

Have a great weekend!