Operation Julie's Smile Blog Hop!

Thanks for joining us on this amazing blog hop for Operation Julie’s Smile.  If you came here from Michele Gross’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 go from there. You have ALL WEEKEND to hop with us and win prizes... and my oh my are there a LOT of amazing prizes!!!

First, a little about what we're up to...

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 member or 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 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 and that, too, was his understanding. 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 and 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.

Julie Ranae is a design team member here at The Craft's Meow, and so of course we want to help in any way we can! We have donated to the prize pool, and many of our design team ladies are participating in today's hop. Thank you so much for stopping by!

My card features images from Apple Pickin' Time, one of the five new stamp sets released by TCM on October 1st! I hope my card makes you smile, because that's just what it's meant to do! TCM is sponsoring the challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays, which is to make a card that makes someone smile. As far as I'm concerned, that's just about any handmade card... who doesn't love to receive a handmade card? :)

Your next stop on the hop is Sarah Anderson's blog. Please be sure to leave a comment here before you go for a chance to win a prize... and, if you're so moved, make a donation by clicking the button on the sidebar and help bring back Julie's smile! Thanks!

Enjoy the hop!