Operation Julie's Smile

I have been eyeing the CAS-ual Fridays challenge for a while, and thinking about playing in it. When I checked the blog on Friday and saw that this week's challenge also helped a fellow cardmaker, I knew I had to do it.  The challenge is to make a card inspired by the sentiment "Everyday you spend without a smile is a lost day." It is in support of a fantastic cardmaker named Julie Ranae Murray.

I read Julie's story about a month ago and it touched my heart. Julie, who designs for many companies because she's so awesome, has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime as a result of medication she took as a child that left her teeth in an irreparable condition. She recently had to have emergency oral surgery to remove her front teeth. In addition, the dentist believed the best course of action was to have all of her teeth removed and replaced with dentures. Unfortunately her surgery is not covered by insurance and there is no payment plan. Until she has the money to cover the cost, she must remain without her two front teeth.You can read more about Julie's story and the blog hop to help cover the cost of surgery and replacement dentures here.

I have never interacted with Julie, though I've "seen" her around the online cardmaking world. She makes beautiful cards. My heart goes out to her. I can't imagine not being able to smile because everyday you spend without a smile really is a lost day. Therefore, I am sending her some smiles with this card:

I've had this Lawn Fawn stamp in my stash for a couple months. I have been brainstorming since I got this set on how to use this sentiment. I've used other stamps from the set, but not this one. Then I came across these cool happy face dingbats called Fazings One and an idea was born. I installed the dingbats and then used my Silhouette to print and cut them. I colored them with Copics. Because I didn't have any cloud paper on hand, I created my own. I used a Stampin' Up! cloud outline stamp from the Up, Up and Away set. I colored the clouds in with a white Prismacolor pencil because I wanted it to have a soft cloud look. I folded white card stock into the envelope and used a circle punch at the top for the opening. I'm really happy with the result. I hope it makes Julie smile, even if it's on the inside. 

I'm also entering it into the Just Add Ink challenge. This will be my second time playing with them. You should give it a try, too. It's a lot of fun. This week's challenge is to add a die cut. Since all the little smiley critters were cut with my die cutting machine, it qualifies for the challenge!!