You're the Bomb Operation Smile Blog Hop

Welcome to our Australasian Operation Smile Blog Hop. Welcome to those that arrived from Anne's Blog - Mummy you made this? or those that came from another place, please continue to follow along to see all the blogs in the loop until you get back to where you started.

Close To My Heart is partnered with Operation Smile^®, a private, Not-for-profit organization that provides free, life-changing surgery that repairs smiles and reshapes lives, one child at a time.
 
Today we will be sharing some inspiration using the "You're the Bomb" C sized stamp set which is featured on the back page of our Seasonal Expressions Idea Book. By purchasing this set at full retail price of $21 you can help change the life of achild as CTMH will donate $US3 from your purchase to Operation smile from now until 31st March 2015.

I love this stamp set as it has such a positive vibe about it. You can create cards and pages that are so positive, uplifting and encouraging. I decided that I wanted to make some small Random Acts of Kindness Cards, to follow my blog's theme from last week. These 3x3 cards are designed to be in your handbag at all times to give to people you see in your travels, especially those that do wonderful things for you. For example to thank a waitstaff person who serves you at a cafe or restaurant; To thank a cleaner in a shopping centre or food hall; To thank an assistant at a shop who is very helpful with helping you try on clothes; to thank someone who looks after your kids during the holidays or to thank someone who does something really wonderful for you (there are no limits). You can grab them out of your bag and quickly write a note, you can include their name (if you know it or if they have a nametag) or just leave it as a quickly scribbled thanks for the great service you gave me today, you are wonderful/fabulous/awesome. This will make someone's entire day! Lots of people in the service industry don't get thanked often, so they will treasure these small cards. 

These are my cards.

INSTRUCTIONS:
To start my 4 cards I cut a sheet of 12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock in half 6 inches x 12 inches and then cut 3 inch stripes so I had my card bases 3x6 inches. I used the Score Board with the included Bone Folder to fold them into little 3x3 cards. I then took a peice of 12" X 12" Glacier Cardstock into strips 2.75 inches wide and then cut them into squares 2.75 x 2.75". I used offcuts of White Daisy Cardstock to create the titles and the accents using Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and fussy cut them out with my Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors. 

The glacier cardstock was embossed (see below for the individual folders I used for each one), then the edges were run along the Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, in a sweeping motion, to create that rustic edge. The Glacier cardstock was adhered to the card bases with 3L® E-Z Dots® Adhesive. The white title got the black ink edging (as above), most were dove-tailed with the Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors. Then the title and embellishments were stuck on using Thin 3-D Foam Tape to get a little bit of dimension. To finish it all off I grabbed some 3" X 3" White Daisy Envelopes and stamped them with the Glacier Exclusive Inks™ with the heart design, to create a lovely little set of 4 cards.
 

 I used the Floral Embossing Folder for the Awesome card (all other directions above).

  

I used the new Heart Embossing Folder for the Fabulous Card (all other directions above).

 

 I used the Quatrefoil Embossing Folder for the Incredible Card (all other directions above).

 

 I used the Dot Embossing Folder for the Wonderful Card (all other directions above).

 

 
The blog hop is a loop so follow along and you will end up right back here. To learn more about Operation Smile and the involvement Close to my Heart has with this important work keep reading below, otherwise, pop over and see what Doris - Creative Inspirations has created.
 
Close to my Heart have been supporting Operation Smile since 2008, and during that time have supported Operation Smile to change the lives of over 1,500 children and their families. 

As the Australian CTMH Business is only 18 months old we are new to Operation Smile and my first real experience learning about Operation Smile was at our Annual Convention 'Artistic Adventure' in Brisbane in October 2014. These photos are slides from that talk. Hearing that 1 in 10 children who is born with a cleft lip or palate dies before their first birthday was a massive wakeup call. In Australia these conditions can be repaired quickly and easily and are not usually fatal, in developing countries it is another matter.

During the presentation we were given an insight into what one of these medical missions entailed with the story of our Vice President Brian Holman sharing his experience and photos of a mission he went on.

Before the surgery, a little boy that touched Brian's heart. Notice the T-Shirt on Brian that says "Close to my Heart makes me SMILE!".

As Brian is not a medical person he went as a support person and a lot of his role was supporting the families and entertaining the children while they were waiting for their surgeries. It was a very moving talk hearing about the difference that this sort of surgery makes to these childrens lives. It only takes $275 (AUS dollars) to pay for 1 child to have their surgery. Go to the Operation Smile Australia website for further details http://australia.operationsmile.org.The difference in the lives of these children and their families was amazing. I was very moved to support this charity through my Close to My Heart Business.

After the surgery, Brian gave the mother his T-shirt after forming a bond with her and her little boy.

Thanks for joining me on this journey, I look forward to supporting this organisations and I am very happy that we can all give a small part by buying and using this adorable stamp set. 

The “You’re the Bomb” stamp set is available from your CTMH consultant and $3USD from every purchase will go directly to Operation Smile until the end of March. You can also choose to make a donation of any size directly to your consultant, donations over $2 are tax deductable. To continue your journey, hop over to see what Doris - Creative Inspirations has created.