Five Minute Friday: Operation Julie’s Smile

Phew…what a birthday celebration week we’ve had! Thank you so much for making it so fun! Just a quick reminder that the storewide 20% off coupon expires tonight at midnight EST. Use code 3bday for 20% off everything in the store in celebration of our 3 year birthday. Plus all orders placed will be entered into the drawing for a $50 gift certificate. Winners from this week’s festivities will be announced here Sunday or Monday.

But, for today, we’re turning our attention to Operation Julie’s Smile: A benefit for Julie Ranae Murray. If you came here from Stephanie’s blog, then you are in the right spot. If not, you may want to start from the beginning at the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog and take your time. You have ALL WEEKEND to hop with us and win prizes!

Today’s blog hop is large and there could be a break somewhere in the chain, so please bear with us. A complete list of blogs on the hop is posted on the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog. You have a complete weekend to get around to all the blogs to be eligible for prizes by leaving comments. There are over $2500 in prizes donated by the very generous companies, including a $20 gift certificate to i {heart} papers. :) A complete list of sponsors is listed on the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog.

Prizes will be drawn for the following:
1. from Blog Comments left
2. from PayPal Donation list
3. for Blog Hop Hosts

A little history about Julie and her situation:

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, Julie 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 on the left (MAKE SURE YOU CLICK ON JULIE’S, as I have Swimming for Katie donation button also…more on that later). Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.”

For my card today, I used the smiling pear from Fruity Family Felties and then curved my sentiment from Thank You For Being My Friend, stamped in Memento ink. Then I laid a scrap of Sheer Pull Ribbon (without pulling it, obviously) as an added accent. A quick, CAS Five Minute Friday card! I hope it makes YOU smile!

The next stop is Andrea’s blog. Make sure you leave a comment here 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.

Thanks for stopping by today. I’ll be back on Monday with another charitable cause, Swimming for Katie – an event I’ve coordinated for my dear friend, Katie Renz, who is battling inoperable gastric cancer. Please, please stop back on Monday for this special event!

Have a great weekend!