Everyone smiles ....

.... and for Julie Ranae that's a bit tough at the moment as, following emergency surgery her front teeth have been removed - you can read all about it here.  Julie was was told that repair work and replacement dentures would be covered by insurance - but that's where it all fell apart.  No insurance coverage and no front teeth - so Julie is finding it hard to smile at the moment.  It's times like this that I'm so grateful for the British NHS - it might be a bit slow at times, a bit clunky and we might swear at it, but for something like this - it's brilliant. 

I first came across Julie when I played in The Play Date Cafe challenge, still one that I try to do each week.  So this week's CAS-ual Friday's - CFC23 is a special challenge inspired by Julie - we need to make a clean and simple card either using the quote "Everyday you spend without a smile, is a lost day" or simply taking it as the inspiration for your card.

I decided to take the quote as the inspiration for my card - and the free stamp with this month's Craft Stamper magazine is a super quirky smiley face!  Perfect for this challenge.  I stamped the image on to some plain white card, coloured it with Promarkers and cut it out with my square nestie - I added some definition to the edge of the image with a black Promarker.  I borrowed some nesties from my crafty friend yesterday and used one for this card - the mat is in red to coordinate with the bright red lipstick and I shaded the embossed dots with black ink.  Finally I stamped this sentiment - which works perfectly for the challenge - highlighting the word "smiles" in red.

Stamps:  Hero Arts - Words of Wisdom; Crafty Notions - Quirky Face (free with Craft Stamper)
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Stampin' Up! - Real Red
Spellbinders: Fair Isle Pendant (S40270), Standard Squares Lg (S4-126) #4
Promarkers: Blush, Satin, Ivory, Black, Berry Red, Tea Green, Ice Grey 1, Ice Grey 2
Accessories:  Card from stash

Nicole Rixon owner of Sweet Stamp shop has organised a blog hop for Operation Julie's Smile and there's a Paypal donation button on CAS-ual Friday's page if you would like to help Julie - she needs over $4,000 in total.  Have fun following the hop!

That's all for now - I'm off to do a bit more decluttering!!  See you later.