From Our Hearts: My Last Donation of 40 Cards for Our Troops

And so, it's come to an end as From Our Hearts has decided it's time to close up shop due to both the draw down of our troops and the impending loss of their donated office space as of today, April 30, 2015.  It's been my absolute pleasure and honor to have been a part of this wonderful patriotic cause over the past 5 years!!

As I reflect and tally up all my past contributions which included hand stamped card donations from my friends Eva and Marina, I'm amazed that our cumulative impact totaled whopping 1726 cards!!

• 2015 Donations = 193 Cards 
• 2012 Donations = 150 Pens & 184 Cards
• 2011 Donations = 598 Card & Card Fronts
• 2010 Donations = 751 Card & Card Fronts + 4500 Envelopes

TOTAL = 1726 Card & Card Fronts; 150 Pens; 4500 Envelopes

And here is my last contribution of just 40 cards as I ran out of time to convert more swap returns into cards.  You can see my dozen patriotic contributions in my previous post and the bulk of 40 cards were from my friend Marina of which you can see below.  Her cards are absolutely adorable!!

When one door closes, another opens as I am grateful to have discovered other worthy causes to contribute handcrafted cards in the future.

Due to the wonderful ladies over at SCS, I'm joining in their monthly card drives as a hostess and contributor for the Ronald McDonald Houses located through out our nation to provide a community where children and their families embrace life and healing (from cancer) with a sense of hope, enthusiasm, courage and joy.

My friend Marina had given me quite a stack of her handmade cards, some of which weren't needed by From Our Hearts due to the themes, so I forwarded them on to other hostesses throughout the US since our group is spotlighting a different RMH throughout the US each month.  

Pasadena Ronald McDonald House 

763 South Pasadena Avenue

Pasadena, CA 91105

2015 Donations = 20 Cards from Marina

I have chosen to adopt the location in Pasadena to donate cards that I create and collect from friends throughout the rest of this 2015.

I've lost quite a few family members including my dad recently to cancer, so this along with my continued participation in training and fundraising ($6210 to date) for blood cancers by running half marathons through Team in Training (TNT) / The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) are both quite personal for me. If you'd like to check out my run training endeavors, check out my latest TNT fundraising link here.

Go USA!! Go Team!!

Re-Purposing Handmade Scrapbook Swap Returns into Patriotic Cards

With From Our Hearts closing, I'm hoping to send out as many more cards as I can for their last card call which is for Father's Day and Patriotic cards.  I created a bunch of Father's Day cards for my previous shipment, so this time, I've decided to tackle the Patriotic theme by making use of the large bounty of Patriotic swap returns that was intended for scrapbook pages.

I remember hosting several large groups, in addition to participating in post 9-11 themed swaps.  So that means I have tons of amazingly cutesy paper pieced firefighters, shaker box embellishments, photo mats, long borders, etc.

So, here's what I've created by just using cardstock, pp scraps and these themed stamps as these are the only patriotic stamps I own. Ink I used was SU Not Quite Navy.  In some of these, I wish I had my gold EP and heat gun with me.

1.  Starting off with one of my two favorites.  This started off using a long 12 x 2 inch matted border. The gal was pretty darn creative with using skinny border stickers, skinny cardstock strips and punchies for her own embellished page border.  I decided to cut off one end to use as a vertical left border on my stamped card, so got two cards out of this border.  I added the bling which was yet another swap goodie.  2 swapped items used.

• Embellished 12 inch border
• Bling (Baggie of decorative embellishments was a category in the 9-11 swap I hosted)

2. This next one is tied as my favorite!!! I wanna keep this one for awhile! I provided the mustard colored folding card that I thought made everything else pop, and stamped the Love, Peace, Freedom. 2 swapped items used.

• Paper Pieced Shaker embellishment set of the firecrackers.  I could kiss the gal that created this work of art.  It's so detailed and well designed! 
• Scallop Square Punch Art Journaling Mat (I'm still friends with the gal that made this. I'll show her this card; wonder if she'll remember making this back in 2004-2005?)

3. This one, I combined two handmade embellishments onto a triple matted journaling mat by placing it on a white folding card. Stamped sentiment words were split up since I didn't have room otherwise. 3 swapped items used.

If I could redo it, I would have place the phrases more towards the bottom right corner, but maybe the entire card's symmetry would have been off.  Wish I had my stamp ma jig with me (no I'm not gonna buy the MISTI, no more expensive tools for me lol).   

• Journaling mat - white cs on red cs on white star/blue pp. 
• Embellished die cut stars on red cs. 
• Embellished Shaker box using two die cut stars, wire and beads. 

4. These next two cards were made using a set of 6 serendipity squares from the same gal who incorporated the now retired SU Stars & Swirls set.  In one, I just added a piece of red card stock that was already torn and a piece of scrap metallic ribbon, and the other, I popped an embellished tag on top.  On both, I used same sentiment stamp in different placement as space allowed.  2 swapped items used.

• 6 Serendipity Squares
• Embellished Tag

5. These next two cards was inspired by set of US flag embellished tags.  I cut into full sheets of coordinating themed paper for the background before laying the tag down. Yup! Those skinny strips of scalloped solid red card stock were scraps.  Just cut it down the middle and I had two instant accents for this card. I also added larger star/heart punchies and stamped my sentiment on the flag stripes. 3 swapped items used.

• Embellished flag Manilla Office Tags
• Star and Heart Punchies
• Themed Patterned Paper 

6. I tried to emulate the design of my previous card using a different embellished border.  I love the way this gal "strung" her star punchies on a softly colored border.  I trimmed one side of her matted border with pinking sheers to add interest since the colors are a bit pale for my current needs.  Tried to jazz it up with the star brads and themed USA ribbon, both of which are also swap returns. 4 swapped items used.

• Embellished 12 inch border
• Silver Star brads Bling 
• Themed USA ribbon 
• Themed Patterned Paper

7. This next one uses a stamped embellished tag I made using just the script portion of the SU God Bless America Limited Edition stamp.  I paired it up with another embellished tag made by someone else and matted it on a scrap piece of SU Night of Navy cs. 2 swapped items used.

• Stamped themed tag (I made this!) 
• Embellished Die Cut Tag

8. All I did was provide the the Brilliant Blue folding cardstock on this next one and the stamped star shaped I Pledge of Allegiance image.  2 swapped items used.

• Stamped "God Bless America" with star eyelet embellished matted square
• Set of 3 embellished red die cut tags

This was fun to create out of this particular themed swap returns because it was designed so that the returns would be, in essence, a full kit with everything you would need for a few matching pages.  Instead, I created, in many instances, duplicates of the same card designs shared above.

Re-purposing swap returns is giving me such satisfaction since I'm wasting nothing and it's going to a great cause.

I'll be at this task for months due to the quantity and variety of themes that I have in swap returns. If you have any worthy causes that would welcome donated handmade cards, please leave your suggestions in the comment section.  Thank you!! 


  

All Cards 
Stamps: Stampendous "Love, Peace, Freedom"; PSX Script "United We Stand"; Printworks Handwritten "United We Stand"; My Sentiments Exactly Pledge of Allegiance Star; SU Limited Edition God Bless America 
Ink: SU Night of Navy

From Our Hearts: Another 153 Cards Donation using up LOTS of SCRAPS

To my dismay, as I'm purging my parent's house recently, I found yet another stack of about 50ish SU card fronts. Additionally, while I was helping a good friend pack between her moves, she also had a stack of about 50ish SU card fronts as well.

Yup, I then was compelled to convert them into full cards to donate to From Our Hearts since I don't have the heart to throw away perfectly gorgeous handiwork.  I guess this was all good timing because From Our Hearts is closing shop due to the (finally!) drawback of our US troops overseas in May.   This meant I could no longer just set the just found stashes aside indefinitely!

Well, the two stacks of 50ish cards turned into a total of 153 cards that was finally shipped to From Our Hearts earlier this week!

I was able to crank out extra cards using paper piecing's I've been hoarding forever from swaps I participated in the early 2000's.  Hello? It's 2015!! My style and preferences have certainly changed. So it was time to incorporate those paper piecings into adorable children's themed cards.

Additionally, I finally went through a few more boxes in my stash that I've been putting off forever and sorted through tons of cardstock and patterned paper scraps.  Tossed out a lot and kept the pieces I could and would reasonably use.  I organized my scraps into a very simple ROYGBV system and their housed in the thinner CH 12x12 paper holders.  I'll share pics of my Scraps System in another post to keep the focus on my donation cards to From Our Hearts.

But this surge of a mini organization was a game changer for sure!! I was able to make an additional 50+ cards using handmade embellishments, left over pre-fab embellishments, i.e. titles, ribbons, etc along with tons of left over patterned paper and SU cardstock scraps.  There was also a few packets of already pre cut SU cardstock that just begged for me to apply an appropriate sized stamp to finish up as I did here with these masculine, clean and simple Father's Day Cards.

Here are a few my coveted paper piecings that were also shakers I received in a swap back in the early 2000's that I finally let go of.  I think they're better delighting a child missing his/her parent than sitting in my closet somewhere, no?

Here's an example of stamping scraps coming into play with swap goodies.  I had this swirly background from a long ago trial at learning how to apply the shaving cream with SU reinkers to make a marbleized background.   So I used the entire left over sheet and paired it with this super cute fishy paper piecing I received in return ( I think I made lots of teddy bears to exchange) and then added this "I Miss You" sentiment.  I'm classifying this as a Child's card, since From Our Hearts is specifically calling for more Children's themed cards.  

Lastly, here's a hand embellished "DAD" I received in yet another long ago swap in the early 2000's.  Yep, since there's a call for Father's Day cards, it's high time this beauty gets put to use.  The creator was detailed enough to have prepared these on Xyron self adhesive backing, so it was so simple to adhere on an arrangement of patterned paper scraps after adding a stamped sentiment from Verve.

They're not too complicated design layout wise, so all the spotlight is on the handiwork of the paper piecings as they should be.  As you can see, I added appropriate stamped sentiments from Verve, Stampin Up and an embellished Happy Birthday sentiment from Making Memories.  Always feels good to use up every single item in a pack of pre fab embellishments and I can finally throw away the packaging.

Here's the variety of 153 full cards, box ready combination of converted SU Card fronts and other swap goodies with my "scraps" pile.

This was an incredibly constructive exercise for me!! Bye bye my precious shaker kitties and puppy!! Hello much needed clean open space for me in my scrap area! With no waste.  My conscious feels good.

Here's my tally of my personal donations to From Our Hearts as of this posting:

• 2015 Donations = 153 Cards
• 2012 Donations = 150 Pens & 184 Cards
• 2011 Donations = 598 Card & Card Fronts
• 2010 Donations = 751 Card & Card Fronts + 4500 Envelopes

TOTAL = 1686 Card & Card Fronts; 150 Pens; 4500 Envelopes

From Our Hearts is shipping to our troops through May, so I may try to whip up one last batch to contribute.  I'm sure I have tons more pre made swap goodies I can donate to the fine young men and women.

#Masculine #CAS #CleanAndSimple Stamped Card for Father's Day

I have always enjoyed knowing that I could always donate handmade cards and card fronts from my mad SU Demo swapping days to the non profit From Our Hearts organization.  I just didn't have the heart to throw away perfectly gorgeous card fronts lovingly and diligently hand crafted by my group of SU Demo friends.  When I look at the total count of cards donated to FOH, I'm dumbfounded that I swapped that much! Those were some amazing fun days!!

Our country is finally drawing down our troops overseas so our men and women are coming home!! Thus there just aren't that many locations for FOH to send boxes to anymore. With their last deadline for cards approaching, I've been working feverishly to convert the stash of SU card fronts my good friend Eva found when she was moving at the end of last year, AND yet another stash of SU card fronts I found while purging my parent's house.  (I still have about a dozen or so boxes of scrapping stuff of my own that I've stubbornly put off sorting that probably comprise of half completed class kits, etc.)

Part of the stash my friend Eva gave me were boxes of supplies she no longer wanted because the pre fab stuff no longer fits her style.  I asked her for them since I figured I could use them to make cards for the troops or forward the supplies for FOH's card making events.  But, alas, FOH is closing down.....

In her stash, I found a few ziplock bags of pre-cut coordinating cardstock that just needed to be stamped and embellished.  I found some appropriately sized stamp images and this is what I came up with. Considering all of my scrapping stuff is packed up and I only had my tool bag, this card is pretty much the most basic and flat design I've ever come up with, and I'm pretty happy with it.

I figured the color scheme was masculine so I chose the father son image from the SU Seaside Sketches set. Then I arranged various sentiments from my Verve Father Figure clear stamp set on the base in lieu of background stamps, patterned paper, embossing folders, etc.  I had no embellishments and didn't feel like opening up a few boxes to search for appropriate ones.  Y'all know what an ordeal that is! So I just used the one long dotted border the embellishment by using a coordinating ink color to tie in with the contrasting cardstock color.

My card apparently falls along the lines of this week's CAS316 No Patterned Paper Clean and Simple Weekly Challenge over at Splitcoast. 

Lol, I further challenged myself because I forgot to dig out my stack of clear acrylic blocks so I just improvised and used the back of a very small SU clamp shell case.  While I was working on this project, I was really surprised that most all of my SU dye ink pads are still juicy.  I did have to re-ink my black ink pad to add greetings on some other cards I was putting together using paper pieced embellishments obtained again from my mad swap days.  

Unfortunately, there was only enough to make 8 cards in this set because that's how many pieces were pre-cut.

Conversely, I'm grateful my good friend Eva FORTUNATELY did already pre-cut these 8 blank card sets so that all I had to do was stamp and adhere them together.

These 8 cards go out to the women in our US forces overseas via From Our Hearts.  Your sacrifice is so very much appreciated by those of us back home.  Thank you for all you do!

FYI: From Our Hearts will be mailing off boxes of hand made cards through May 2015, so click on their logo below if you want to find out more info on how to contribute before they close down. :)

I'll update my tally in a few days as I'm trying to finish up with as many cards as I can manage to send in this last shipment.

"I'm So Glad You're My ... Husband (Father's Day)" Card
Paper: SU Naturals CS, SU Mellow Moss, SU Night of Navy
Stamps: SU Seaside Sketches (father son image); Verve Father Figure (sentiments)
Ink: SU Mellow Moss, SU Night of Navy
Embellishments: None
Size: 4.25" x 5.25" rectangular 

Project Scrap Organization: Still Purging & another From Our Hearts Card Contribution

Someone has certainly lit a fire under my ass because I've been purging and organizing at a record rate these past two months.

I've watched enough Clean Sweep episodes that the following mantra is now my personal mantra:

If I haven't used it within the last 6 months, it's getting tossed.  I simply want minimalism and the peace and order it will bring into my life.  

 
So guess what? I started going through boxes in the garage.  Do I seriously need bank statements and receipts from 1997? Why am I storing boxes and boxes of empty photo albums, candles, xmas ornaments, linen, curtains, etc.   Yes, I just shed approximately 30 boxes of emotional and psychological weight out of my life!! 

I've come across another fabulous non-profit organization to donate to in addition to the ones I found last year. 

• Out of the Closet Thrift Stores is a nonprofit chain of thrift stores owned and operated by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), a Los Angeles-based global organization that provides medical, preventative, and educational resources for patients. AHF is the nation's largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare, research, prevention, and education provider. Out of the Closet thrift stores generate income to help fund the medical services AHF provides for those patients who are unable to pay. Proceeds from Out of the Closet Thrift Stores directly benefit AHF.

I've driven past this thrift store for literally the past year on my way to my Bikram studio when I finally had the time to pop in while waiting for car repairs a few blocks away the first week of June.

I loved the vibe of the store, the employees, and the very obvious bold positive signs promoting SAFE and HEALTHY LIFESTYLE PRACTICES.  The fact that they help the community, i.e. those people who cannot afford basic medical care or preventative medicine, with information, products and healthcare really pulled my heartstrings.  These are the kinds of charity organizations I've always supported my entire life.

Well, I have A LOT of great stuff, of which the proceeds, could help this organization do their thing.  So yah, I've filled my car to the brim - trunk and the entire interior - and have made 4 car trips so far.

• Disney Scrapbooking for Make a Wish Foundation 

Back Story: So many years ago, I, along with a few other Peas saw Sheri A's (zooreturns) amazing Disney Scrapbooks for the Make a Wish Foundation (MAW). We contributed all sorts of hand made embellishments, supplies, etc towards the making of albums for kids who's last wish was to visit Disney World.  Sadly, as is with life, life catches up with all of us and Sheri was no longer able to continue the effort.


I found another pizza box full of Disney page kits, shakers, etc that I had been saving.  My style has changed since then, so instead of it going to waste, this was the impetus for my search of yet another MAW type organization which could put these to good use.

Via a quick google search, I found a new contact, Make-A-Wish Missouri, Southern Missouri Region, that is willing to take Disney related supply/completed page/album donations:

Ashley Kennedy
Make a Wish – Regional Office So Missouri
1510 W Elfindale
Springfield, MO 65807
(417) 873-9474

Their Disney Scrapbook Wish Page


Their Organization Website


Their Facebook Page


All that purging was A LOT of work and it's been overwhelming I'll admit.  So much so that I decided I needed a break from it all and do something I enjoy.

I decided to make up as many cards as I possibly could over the long 4th of July Holiday (I took Thurs and Fri off, so it became a 5 day weekend! Whoohoo!) to donate to the effort of From Our Hearts.

Lo and behold, my final tally was 184 cards total!  I don't even know how much card stock I used up too as a result.  It just felt great!

Here's what the top filled to the brim of the large flat priority box looks like:

And underneath all of those cards were these along with 5 spools of Bazzil ribbon that are also being donated:

These were

• more found card fronts,
• personally received handmade cards from friends that I repurposed, 
• cards I made for Design Team assignments
• cards I made using  paper piecing swap embellishments, i.e. the shaker cards that I thought would be fun for kids, and 
• cards I made from finally cracking open one of my Club Scrap kits I still have (actually I won it back in 2005 at a Scrapbook Expo since I've long sold off most, if not, all of my Club Scrap kits on ebay for a killing - I still thank my lucky stars I sold those off when I did when I could garner close to $80 for each of those retired kits.)
• cards that were incomplete from various classes, i.e. most likely convention/expo, CKU, Heidi Swapp events. 

So I'm definitely sticking with the New Years' resolutions I made in 2011 that I'm still upholding.

Here's my tally of my personal donations to From Our Hearts as of this posting:

• 2012  Donations = 150 Pens & 184 Cards
• 2011 Donations = 598 Card & Card Fronts
• 2010 Donations = 751 Card & Card Fronts + 4500 Envelopes

I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops. It's a small but heartfelt way to thank our troops for their service to our country.

 

From Our Hearts: Pen Donation

Like many of us, I'd imagine, most of us save and recycle where we can. I know I've gotten even more zealous with my recycling as of late with actually redeeming my bottles/cans/glass now for money. It makes a nice chunk of change for either a free lunch or some good laundry money. :)

One of the best recycling for money deals out there is at Staples for turning in your used printer ink cartridges. They used to be worth $3 each but now they're only $2 each; that's ok, it's better than nothing, right? So I save em up til I have about 10 at a time to redeem since 10 qty per month is the maximum. That way I get $20 to spend towards batteries, more ink cartridges, scrapping adhesives, etc.

Lately, I seem to be ok on my supplies, so I haven't needed to buy anything with my earned rewards. Instead of letting it expire, I redeemed my rewards for writing pens to donate to our troops stationed overseas. I also picked up a few packets of pens at my local 99 cent store, whenever I have any spare change.

I haven't contributed to From Our Hearts since this same time last year, and I haven't really been crafting so I thought to contribute 150 writing pens and a few note pads to their effort. From Our Hearts will send donated handmade greeting cards to our troops, but our men and women don't have anything to write with.

Here's my tally of my personal donations to From Our Hearts over the past couple of years:

• 2012  Donations = 150 Pens
• 2011 Donations = 598 Card & Card Fronts
• 2010 Donations = 751 Card & Card Fronts + 4500 Envelopes

I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops. It's a small but heartfelt way to thank our troops for their service to our country.

I need to find my scrapping mojo soon and whip up some new cards to donate. 


 

From Our Hearts: Another 199 for Our Troops

Will my purging ever end? lol, it seems card fronts from my SU Demo Days are coming out of my ears. I'm tackling a new closet of boxes and I found another couple of ziplock bags worth of card fronts made back in the day when I was an Uber Hostess of SU Demo Only Swaps. That was many years ago and I no longer need my card fronts, so what a better way to make use of them than to donate them to a wonderful cause.

Will you believe I just counted 199 of these? Whoa!


I'm also sending along a good portion of non standard sized cards made and donated by my friend Marina F also for the FOH volunteers to salvage/alter into standard sized usable cards.

2011 Donations = 598

2010 Donations = 751

I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops. It's a small but heartfelt way to thank our troops for their service to our country.

From Our Hearts: 133 Cards for our Troops for a Win-Win-Win!!

I'm still alive folks, just spreading myself really thin physically with my pursuit of both power vinyasa and bikram hot yoga the past couple of months. I'm trying to regain some balance by not pushing myself so hard, but I do hate regressing when I take time off. At the same time, I don't think I can survive much more if I keep going 4-6 times per week like I have been doing, lol.

I'm thankful that I had scheduled a crafting day with my niece and her girl scout troop at the end of last year for the end of March because it literally served as a tether to pull me back into the paper crafting world. My niece and her friends earned the "Caring and Sharing" badge for assembling 133 cards for our troops stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq. I'll be forwarding these Father's Day themed cards over to Martie at From Our Hearts as soon as my order of clear cellophane bags comes in from clear bags.

One thing I've learned from scrapping with my now 8 year old niece is to keep it simple and sweet so that they still have fun without making them feel like they were in a labor camp. In the end, I made card kits using up TONS of my stash and a greeting stamp from Verve.


Here's my niece and her baby sister assembling the card kits with her girl scout troop. :)


These girls and my nephew who decided to join his sisters definitely got seriously to work!


Yah!!! All finished!! Time for the Sharing and Caring part of the meeting and on their way to earn their new badge!! Thanks Girls!! You did a GOOD DEED!!


And *FINALLY* these cards were mailed by Auntie Ching on May 6th, hopefully in time for Martie and her volunteers to process and forward to our overseas troops in time for Father's Day.



Nothing but a Win-Win-Win for all involved.

WIN #1 - Chino Hills Girl Scout Troop #5114 - had a fun time earning their Caring and Sharing Badge

WIN #2 - From Our Hearts - receives a contribution of 133 Father's Day Cards

WIN #3 - Me!!I used up

78 sheets of old old OLD 12 x 12 patterned paper from
- Marks Paper
- KI
- SEI Be Bop
- Upsy Daisy

70 sheets of cardstock

35 sheets of white cardstock to line the inside of dark colored cards for card writing purposes
-----------

183 TOTAL sheets of paper!! <-----def was one of my new years' resolution, to use up and not buy!

Now why is my expedit shelf STILL heaving though?

2011 Donations = 399

2010 Donations = 751

I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops. It's a small but heartfelt way to thank our troops for their service to our country.

From Our Hearts: 266 Cards for Our Troops

I love the power of Facebook especially when it comes to spreading the word about a good deed and organization that I'm passionate about supporting.

I 've offered to collect any handmade cards and mail them off to From Our Hearts on their behalf.

Apparently, my friends do pay attention to my FB status' and have offered to donate their handmade cards too to From Our Hearts, which is a fully certified 501(c)(3) non profit that collects full cards in addition to card fronts to ship to our servicemen/women serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I want to acknowledge and thank my local crop organizer, Julia, who so kindly passed on my pet project to all those on her evite list.

At the recentJanuary crop, I did get to talk/meet several ladies who thought this too was a great way to use up their supplies and do a great thing at the same time, so hopefully, at future crops, there will be more donations. A huge thank you to both Tammy and Michelle for donating their combined 7 handmade cards.

Next up is Marina, the sister of one of my good friends who introduced us due to our shared crafty hobby. Marina apparently is an avid card maker, saw my posts no FB, and wanted to donate a stash of completed cards. I recently got together with her and her friends for a card making day and look what she donated?


Silly girl, she thinks there's about 80 cards. Her final tally? 259 cards!!

To help out Martie and her volunteers with their processing time, I've tried to help by:

• Sending an itemized list of # of cards and theme types for their IRS reporting purposes

• Packaging each folding card with a matching envelope and FOH label in a cello bag so that they'll be ready to go directly into their sorting bins upon arrival.

What a great start for 2011 so far!!

2011 Donations = 266
2010 Donations = 751

I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops. It's a small but heartfelt way to thank our troops for their service to our country.

{Everyone, I'm catching up on blogging (today is May 10th) and crafting. This post was supposed to have gone up at the end of January 2011.}