From Our Hearts

News Clip of February 6 From Our Hearts Card Making Event

KMIZ FOX 22 covered the event and it aired on the news on February 21 & 22; the clip was copied from the newscast and created on U-Tube compliments of George Lauer, an avid troop and From Our Hearts supporter in the Mid Missouri area.  Our many thanks to George for taking the time to create and post this for From Our Hearts.

Address to Ship Boxes of Cards and Slip information

We get many, many requests for our address to ship boxes of cards:

From Our Hearts

1100 Dogwood Dr

Jefferson City, MO  65109

Card fronts, swap cards that have card making info on the back and cards that are in need of a little TLC are mailed to a different address.  Contact us at info@fromourhearts.info and we'll be happy to provide you with that address.

Our cards are mailed over with an A2 size envelope, sealed in a clear envelope.  We enclose a personalized "slip" with our contact information.

We appreciate receiving envelopes with the cards as this helps keep our costs to a minimum so that our funds may be used to ship the cards overseas and to purchase supplies for shipping.  When preparing boxes, if no slips are included, please leave the clear envelopes UNSEALED!

The slips are simply a piece of paper that contains our contact information that reads:  From Our Hearts, PO Box 105243, Jefferson City, MO 65110.  The last line says "Thank you for all you do."  We have this in a word document (available upon request), to print it off, cut up, and place between the envelope and clear envelope.  We encourage each contributor to customize the slip with their name, city/state to say something creative such as "made especially for you by (name) from (city/state)".  We request that From Our Hearts' contact information remain in tact.

We receive cards, letters, e-mails and even phone calls from the recipients of our cards, both in Iraq and Afghanistan and here in the states expressing their gratitude for the cards.  They love our cards and From Our Hearts wishes for our contributors to take credit for their creations!  We also find that the servicemen and women choose cards from their home state - it helps them to feel connected.

When shipping boxes, please pack the cards tightly so they do not shift in transit as they get damaged when shifting.  And send us a quick e-mail and let us know a box is on its way.

We appreciate the generosity of so many of you who create beautiful cards for our servicemen and women serving our country!

Patriot Way Stampers Come Through AGAIN!

All the WAY FROM MAINE (didn't we say we get cards from all 4 corners of the USA?)

Marilyn Mae and the Patriotic Way Stampers were stamping their hearts out again and a few hearts even spilled out on the box before it was shipped out !

Yes, these patriotic ladies were at it again, this time stamping and creating 204 Easter cards.  YES . . . ALL Easter cards!  Marilyn Mae tells us there are a core group of 5 ladies in the Patriotic Way Stampers who are actively participating and creating these cards.

All the same design, same stamp, different colors, different designer paper and ribbons, but all basically the same card.  And all HAND colored - what a tremendous amount of work went into creating this box of flowers.  Each card is a symbol of their love of God, Country, and the Troops.

Marilyn Mae now has special T-Shirts for her group of Patriot Way Stampers!

Enclosed in the box was a note from Marilyn Mae, and some dimensionals, which we will put to good use.

To our surprise and delight, a cash donation was included in the box for postage, compliments of Diane O.  This will help us ship out those boxes of Easter cards!  Many thanks to Diane - we receive cards but without the funds for supplies and postage, they wait until they are available.

Marilyn Mae is helping to spread the word about From Our Hearts by networking - as she believes in our cause and in supporting our troops!

We thank you, Marilyn Mae, for all you are doing to help us to get as many cards in as many hands of our servicemen and women serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Much of our card donations and financial support is received because of individuals like Marilyn Mae, who spread the word of what we are doing.

This time from the Great State of Washington

From Our Hearts receives cards from all over the USA and even from all corners. . . this box arrived from Payallup (we had to look this city up on the map!)

Sharon F sent us this box, and what it contained was a "batch" of 44 drop-dead gorgeous Easter cards - all alike - and VERY well crafted.  Each arrived as they were photographed, with an envelope and sealed in a clear envelope.

Just take a look and we think you'll agree:

Sometimes the most elegant cards are those that are simply made - and we mean that in a very positive way. . . the design, the colors, the placement of the sentiment.  These cards spoke to us.

Sharon is a first time contributor.  Her cards will be a hit - no doubt about it.

Michigan Strikes Again

Is it the cold, snowy weather?  We are so appreciative of all of our stampers who create cards and send them our way, and Michigan stampers seem to send us boxes and boxes . . . Sharon C from Allen Park is no exception.  She sends them to us on a regular basis.  And is she patriotic?  We think so!  "For Our Soldiers" with a heart - it all comes From Our Hearts!

And Sharon makes our job very easy.  A detailed inventory of the cards enclosed.  Listed by type and quantity, and bundled accordingly. . .

These beautiful cards were made by the ladies at her church (10 of them) and they accomplished quite a feat - 163 cards total, most were ready for the boxes all sealed in the clear envelopes.  Only a few were "just cards" and that is okay - a dozen cards is nothing for us to match with an envelope and clear envelope.  We are just grateful for all that these ladies thoughtfully prepared for us!

And, one young man (age 4) helped to seal the clear envelopes!  What a great way to get our younger generation involved!  He was one busy young man!

To Sharon and her church ladies (and one special young man), From Our Hearts is thankful that these Easter, thinking of you and other occasion cards arrived in such great shape - they will be enjoyed by 163 of our servicemen and women and of course, their loved ones back home.

Jefferson City Area Stampers Support Our Troops

A group of local Stampin' Up!® demonstrators busily planned a big card making event and fundraiser for From Our Hearts in Jefferson City - the date:  February 6, 2010 - the Marine Corps League graciously donated their hall and over 80 men, women and children converged to help create over 1,200 cards for the troops.

It took about 2 hours to set up, with the help of many.  A silent auction was headed up by Diana F with 38 items on the tables - a task that took many hours of work and coordination.  The auction, alone, raised $777.25!  Our many thanks to all who participated and bid on the items.

The donations for the auction came from many individuals and stampers across the nation who have sent From Our Hearts items over the past several months, local businesses and Stampin' Up!®.

Our special thanks to the following business who graciously heard our request and donated items for the silent auction:

Stampin' Up!®, Busch's Florist, American Shoe, Bandana's Bar-B-Q, Papa Murphy's and Bella Capelli.

Above is a group shot of just a few of us who took a break right before the doors opened.  As a side note, we didn't get everyone in the picture!  Second from the left is Mary Ellen C, who drove over 3 hours from Wood River, IL to help out with the event and to stamp.  Now that is true dedication to our cause!

The doors opened, the line was long as we asked everyone to sign in - for insurance purposes, to get e-mail addresses so we could update everyone on local events . . . lessons learned - have more than one sign in sheet!!!

11 different cards were created by Kavi, our designer located in Virginia.  Cardstock was cut with the assistance of Michelle, a local stamper who did a phenomenal job and who helped us out in a bind (thank you, Michelle!)

Individuals kept arriving.  We had no idea how many to expect.

Men came, too.

Experienced stampers as well as novices - we had at least one experienced stamper at each table.

The cards began to appear . . . and they were fabulous!

Below, you'll see that even the young came out to support our troops!

And we think they had fun, too.  This is a social event as well as "serious" work.

 

Instructions were given at the very beginning that this isn't a "rush" to see how many cards could be made, but rather "take your time" as we send quality cards - and this is exactly what they produced.  QUALITY!

Busy, busy, they kept busy.

A KMIZ TV reporter came and filmed - it will air on FOX 22 at 9 pm and ABC 17 at 10 pm. on Sunday, February 21.  The reporter served in the Marine Corps - and was very impressed at the work these ladies, men and children were doing to support our troops.

Below is a group shot of Stefanie N (in the middle in pink) and her group of stampers.  Stef brought a set of cards, cut and ready to stamp - and donated them to the cause!  And she pulled them out and they were made - this put us over the 1,200 mark.

One very special little lady helped out during the door prize give-a-ways.  Her name is Alysson.  She pulled the winning tickets, called off the winning numbers and delivered the prizes.  Thank you, Alysson!

Selah Massage Therapy set up a massage chair, gave back massages and donated the proceeds to From Our Hearts.  Many took advantage of this "perk" - and a bit of tension relief, too!

Our many thanks to those who brought supplies and donated them the day of the event.  Some were used that day (clear envelopes!!) And to those who handed us financial contributions as you walked in the door - we were very surprised!

And to all who contributed before and after the event, our list is long and our thank you is heartfelt:

KWOS 105.9

Mark and Susan F

Selah Massage Therapy

Samuel's Tuxedo and Gifts

Mike Kehoe Ford

Ken and Ann L

Dulle-Trimble Funeral Home

Rita P

Stefanie N

Naught-Naught Insurance Agency

Mary F

Walmart-Stadium Blvd, Jefferson City

Elliott Chiropractic Health Care

Mary Ellen C

News Tribune

Busch's Florist

Janice H

American Shoe

Hawthorn Bank

Diana F

Navy League of the US-Mid MO Council

Jan Lupke

Kathy M

MO Sports Shooting Association Members

Michelle H

Marine Corps League Samuel F Gearhart Detachment

Grace L

Auffenberg of Jefferson City

Midwest Mailing Service

Susan R

Sue S

Bandana's Bar-B-Q

Papa Murphy's

Bella Capelli Salon & Spa

Nancy's Trade-A-Book

Lisa M

Kavi C

And last, but not least, by far, a VERY special thank you to all of you who came out to STAMP and ASSEMBLE 1213 cards!  Without your support, none of this would have happened.

Over all, this day was a tremendous success!  Over $1,500 was raised and donated to From Our Hearts.  This will help to sustain the operations for a few months - to send over the many boxes of Easter and Mother's Day cards, to pay for the supplies used at this event and the monthly card making events held at the library.

32 Lbs of Cards from MI

Yes, you are reading this correctly. . . 32 pounds of JUST cards!  No envelopes, JUST CARDS!

Wow.  We were taken back - as we did the math.  Our boxes that we ship overseas usually hold 300 or so cards WITH envelopes and clear envelopes.  They normally weigh 11-12 pounds.

We estimated over 1,000 cards were contained in these 2 boxes.

They arrived taped together.  The name and address on the return label did not look familiar at all "Harmony Arbor #273 of Gleaner's".  We searched and searched our database, e-mails and just could NOT locate who sent them.  Obviously these were from someone connected with Stampin' Up!® - just look at the boxes used to ship them. 

So we opened the boxes and this is what we found.  No note inside.  DARN!

And so we had to count each and every card.

This took several evenings to just get the count completed (yes, we only have evenings and weekends to accomplish all of our work at From Our Hearts!)

And, to our surprise, we were pretty much on target with our estimation: 1,126 cards!

But it gets better.  As we have posted many, many times, we look at each and every card that is donated.  We open them, look inside and at the backs of each - and low and behold - there is the name, hand stamped on the back of one card that rings a bell.

Nancy G from Ithica, MI.

Nancy had been in contact with us, both by phone and e-mail, alerting us of a big event she was putting on and that about 1,000 cards would be on their way to us.

Not only were cards made by the "Gleaner's group" (they boxed and shipped the cards, too!), but by her local Red Hat group of ladies as well.

The cards are still in the boxes; we only pulled out the Easter & spring cards as they will ship out next week.  The rest will be readied for the "holding" boxes as we have time (and catch our breath).  It is never a slow moment at the home office at From Our Hearts!

32 Lbs of cards . . . we think this may be a record!

 

Supplies and MORE from Philadelphia, PA

Juliana sent us a box.  It rattled.  Hmmm....  Not our ordinary box of cards, obviously.

And we were right.  SUPPLIES!!!

Buttons, templates, rubons, envelopes, paper and just too many odds and ends to list out.

We think this will be a fun box to put on a table at one of our free card making events to let our more experienced stampers "just have fun"!

But it gets even better.  We were notified of a paypal donation from, yes, Juliana!!!  We can certainly use these funds to purchase much needed supplies to ship over the many, many boxes overseas.

Our gratitude to you, Juliana, for your box of supplies and for your financial support as well!

Kathy W Goes Above and Beyond

When our request went out to the stamping community to purchase a retired stamp set that we needed for our February 6 card making event, Kathy heard our plea.

This is what arrived in the mail:

Not only the stamp set, which she would not let us pay for - her most generous contribution to From Our Hearts (and we will use it to make our Father's Day cards, baby, birthday . . . such a versatile set!) but a box full of cards made by her:

And one more little surprise, made by some little ones!

These cute cards, made with the Loads of Love stamp set by Stampin' Up!® were made and donated by children who made them at their school:

Just adorable!

 

We suspect Kathy had a hand in helping these children put these cards together.  What a wonderful surprise to see them included in the box!

Our many thanks to Mrs. Murphy's class, and to Kathy for her multi-faceted contribution!

From California to North Carolina

From Our Hearts receives contributions from almost every state and of late, both coasts seem to be competing as to who can send us the most boxes.  This box of 242 cards arrived from the sunny state of California, and a name that is again familiar to us.  Her name is April, from Chino Hills.

April had the help of her friend Judy M. from Corona, CA.  We were VERY pleased to find the cards bundled and counted by type - of course, leave it to April to have them ready for the boxes - already with an envelope and in clear envelopes.  We only had to take off the bands and carefully place them in their holding boxes.

She enclosed a letter to us, detailing what is in the box.  Easter, thank you, birthday and some "general" cards, too.

 

Take a look at these adorable, Easter cards!  Our many thanks to you both!

This next box of cards came from the opposite side of the continent.  While it may be sunny at times, it certainly isn't warm as we understand there is LOTS of snow on the ground in Lansing, NC!  They sure have been hit with one storm after another.  Carolyn B managed to find her way to the post office and get these cards off to us.

All occasion cards, including Christmas, arrived in her package.  She is giving us a head start on next year - and we already have a box started!  In addition, Carolyn sent us card fronts that are in the box that will be sent on its way to our volunteers in Topeka - they will welcome those fronts!  As we posted previously, they are running short on fronts (with the exception of Christmas) - Carolyn, your package is very much appreciated!