From Our Hearts

Arriving In Time -

 

From Our Hearts is blessed with so many dedicated volunteers and contributors who help us every day to ship cards over to our service men and women.  We appreciate each and every one of you -

From Woolwich, ME, FOH volunteer Phyllis M and the Mainley Caring Cardmakers continue to support our cause - this shipment, we opened the box to find 261 cards, a check added to the box by Katharina K to help us with our supply and shipping costs, and some supplies, too.

125 of the cards were Valentines, and yes, they arrived in time to be shipped!  Beautiful cards!

Many, many cards of all types filled the rest of the box, including Christmas cards.  We will hold these until the next Christmas/Holiday Card shipment is mailed on Oct of next year.  From Our Hearts accepts cards for every occasion all year round and simply holds the cards (in "holding boxes") until it is time to ship.  So, the Mainely Caring Cardmakers have given us a head start on next Christmas!

Supplies for our use:

Our thanks to the ladies in the far Northeastern region of our country!

Ruth C (Norman, OK) is another one of our volunteers who holds events regularly for From Our Hearts.  She mailed 2 large boxes - 503 cards - and of those, 312 Valentines!  Wow!  That is more than an entire box!

 Here is a good sampling of her cards - she sends us lots of variety!

Easter, birthday, congratulations, friendship, love you, miss you, thank you, thinking of you...

All these and more . . . many, many Valentines !

Our thanks to Ruth and to all those ladies who pick up card kits to work on, and to those who help Ruth in so many ways.

Cindy B, Kendall Park, NJ shipped us a box of 186 Valentines, and half were made by girl scouts, ages 12 & 13.

 

 

Our thanks to Vittoria, Purva, Sammy, Dana, Aslasha, Mihika, Katie and Ally - they they made their own custom slips, too!

 

We thank Cindy for coordinating this girl scout project, and to these young ladies for helping to support our troops!

 

This next box was postmarked Lawrenceville, GA - and our contributor is Teresa M.  Teresa sent us some very beautiful cards - She writes: "thanks for letting me be part of such a wonderful ministry!" We welcome Teresa to From Our Hearts and appreciate her Valentines and Thinking of You cards!

 

Thank you for your support of our effort and for supporting our troops!

 

 

More Valentines For Our Troops

More Valentines (and other cards) arrived in time for the big shipment - and these cards were among them.  Created by Georgia R from Madison, WI - she mailed 48 in all.  Every single card was prepared with care and each one in a clear envelope - ready for the boxes - we appreciate the extra steps!

Georgia also sent us funds to ship over a couple of boxes - and we are appreciative of her financial support, too - it is with generous contributions such as hers that the boxes continue to be mailed.  Our many thanks!

Kavi C is our next contributor.  Martie and Tom recently met up with Kavi in her hometown of Hillsville, VA on their way home from North Carolina, picking up these beauties and saving Kavi postage - it was great to spend time with Kavi, to catch up and stretch our legs!

Kavi purchased stamp sets for FOH - as she is one of our card designers and wanted to be certain we had some of her favorite sets to use on card kits she makes for us to use at our local events.

The Valentines (155 of them) were made by the retired elementary teachers and staff of Carroll County, VA and a personalized slip was made and inserted into each card.  500 extra clear envelopes (sleeves, as we refer to them) were donated, too - and we appreciate the extras.  Our thanks to Kavi and to all the volunteers who helped stamp these Valentines!

Next up is a box sent to us from Carolyn W from North Wales, PA - and 111 cards - Valentines and Easter - is what we found inside.  She thought ahead and has given us a jump on our Easter shipment!

Lovely cards, each in a clear envelpe and with her personalized slip, too.   Our many thanks to Carolyn for her continued support and for getting these cards to us in time!

RuthAnn H is next up - she is from Chicago, IL and mails us cards on a regular basis - this time, 130 cards arrived.

RuthAnn mailed 35 Valentines and more -

. . . many more of all types - even kids birthday cards -

and such cute cards!  We thank RuthAnn for once again sending us another box!

Thank you to all of our contributors!!!

 

Valentines, Valentines!

They arrived, one box at a time, and our hearts filled with gratitude!  We sure hoped that we would be able to send over a box to each contact and with the help of so many of you, we did just that.

Becky S from Aurora, CO mailed 22 Valentines/Thinking of You and some pens, too.

Box ready, she included customized slips, too.

Her box arrived just in time for our shipment...

Lovely, lovely cards!  Our thanks to Becky for her contribution!

Lina W, from El Paso, TX sent us another box, and this time, 45 cards - Valentines, Hello, thinking of yous - and more - supplies we can use!!

 

 

Lovely cards, and all "box ready" -

 

And they are already sent overseas and from what we are hearing, received, too.

 

Creative Valentines, too!  Just take a look at this one that we found:

 We appreciate Lina's continual support of our effort!

 Candi G is from Riverside, IL, and she mailed us a box of 192 box ready Valentines.  She writes: "When I saw your post about needing Valentines, I put my Christmas cards on hold and made these."  Our many, many thanks to Candi; her box made a tremendous impact, as did all our contributors who responded to our posting - our Valentine shipment was a success because of so many of you!

 

 

We love seeing the variety and the different styles of cards that each of our contributors create and send to us and know that these cards will be well received! Thank you, Candi!

Carol C is from Woodstown, NJ and is our next contributor who also responded to our posting and sent us "box ready" Valentines - 54 of them, and pens, too.  We appreciate the beautiful cards and Carol's support!  Here is a sampling of her cards:

Bernadette C, from Escondido, CA sent us a decorated box:

 

 No guesses for us - Valentines inside!

We were right - 136 of them, plus extra envelopes and clear envelopes and a roll of packing tape - and postage money, too (we appreciate the extras that Bernadette always includes in her boxes!)

And as usual, each card, very well made!  Our thanks to Bernadette for all she has contributed over the years!

And our thanks to all of these Valentine Contributors!!!

 

 

We Appreciate Our Contributors!

It's been a while since cards received have been posted - and long overdue!  We want to share some pretty cards we recently received and have since mailed on - we did not delay as Valentine's Day will be here soon!

We mailed off not only Valentines, but supplemented the boxes with love you, miss you, thinking of you and more as we didn't have quite a full box of Valentines for each location.  The boxes have arrived and feedback being received - we appreciate all of our contributors who heard our request for more Valentines and responded so quickly!

Kathy S is first up - and Valentines are what she mailed - and they didn't have to travel far to reach us.  Kathy is from Independence, MO, just a short 2 hours from our home office!

 

Kathy sends boxes to us regularly - this time, 62 "box ready" cards - all made with love!  Thank you, Kathy!

Sandra W is from Clayton, WA and she writes: "Thanks again for the wonderful job you do of organizing and sending cards to the troops.  Our brave troops are so deserving of our support and your faitherfulness brings a measure of joy to those who serve us in so many, many ways."

What kind words!  We thank Sandy for all her support!  This time, 50 cards arrived in time for our shipment, and a check to help us with expenses, too.  WE appreciate your support!

Our next contributor is from Laingsburg, MI - her name is Jill B - and she mailed us 30 "box ready" cards (we sure appreciate the extra steps our contributors take!)

 

Not only Miss You and Thinking of You, but many other types of cards were found in her box, including Sympathy, Friendship, and yes, Valentines, too!  Thank you, Jill, your cards are helping to fill up our empty boxes on our shelves...!

From Duarte, CA, Roxie A contributes to our cause again - this time, 24 "box ready" Valentines, with envelopes, clear envelopes and ready to ship.

 

Lovely cards - we are amazed at the creativity and craftsmanship of our contributors - and cards such as these are typical of the GREAT cards we receive every day!!  Thank you, Roxie!!

Card fronts that have recently arrived have already been converted and mailed back to us by Mary M - Mary is from Peru, IN and is one of our newest volunteers, helping Regina out - and why?  Because the response to our request for card fronts has been tremendous - here are a few of the cards that Mary sent to us:

 

We like to keep our volunteers busy, so please keep the card fronts coming!  Note:  They do NOT have to be exclusively Stampin' Up!®   We appreciate cards made with other stamps and embellishments -and thank Mary for helping us out!  She does lovely work, donating card stock, adhesive and of course, her precious time to our effort!

 

Pre Christmas Rush

We did get a pre-Christmas Rush of boxes but we are not complaining!  We appreciate all the boxes and the effort everyone made to get boxes of Valentines and other cards mailed to us!

From the windy city of Chicago, IL, RuthAnn H sent 239 cards our way.

RuthAnn went the extra step and stamped each and every envelope - and this is like making 2 cards for every one as we know this takes time.

We found Easter cards and we appreciate receiving these as our Easter shipment is one of our next big shipments - we just posted the due dates for the cards a few days ago and they are on the right side bar of the blog.  Feb 12 is when we will need to have the Easter cards in.

RuthAnn made "For You", Thinking of you, Best Wishes, and Father's Day and Mother's Day cards, too.

Those cards have been placed in holdiing boxes until shipment time!  Our thanks to RuthAnn for her continual support as she mails boxes to us regularly!

The Classy Red Hatters from Riverside, CA have been stamping again!  They also sent us a big box of cards - 284, and included over 50 pens for our soldier's use!  They write:

"The Thank you soldier cards, designed by Georgia B are for our troops to send home.  Susan W hand colored the soldiers.  Our Red Hatters put them together."  Teamwork in action!  They are cute cards and are on their way overseas!

The Red Hatters made 177 Valentines, too.

Several designs -

And many Christmas cards, too, that will be placed in our holding boxes - we have a head start on next year!  Thank you, ladies!!! 

Our next box is one that we like showing as they are converted card fronts - those fronts we receive and are turned into cards by one of our volunteers, Mary M, from Peru, IN.

This shipment of 315 didn't take Mary very long to do - and she does remarkable work.

Once sitting in shoe boxes or drawers, these fronts are now beautiful cards!  We appreciate all who send us card fronts and to Mary, who donates her card stock, adhesive, time and talent to make them into usable cards!

Fran K, from Piedmont, AL stamps with 3 different groups of ladies from 3 different churches every month.  Making the same 3 cards at each church, collectively they turn out 90 cards every month and donate them to From Our Hearts.

This month, the ladies at St. Joachim, St. Charles and Sacred Heart Catholic Churches made thinking of you and all occasion cards.

Fran teaches these ladies new techniques and they pick it up quickly, evident by the lovely cards they make!

Our thanks to Fran for organizing these events every month and for supporting our cause!

Up next is another one of our From Our Hearts' volunteers, Regina A from Topeka, KS - not a stranger to FOH - Regina and her volunteers have been converting our donated card fronts since FOH has been a not for profit and have literally turned tens of thousands of fronts into cards!  This box, hand delivered to us via her son (so very much appreciated as this has saved us a great deal of money in postage!) contained 890 cards!

They focused on Valentines, as they sort throught he fronts as they arrive and pull out the special occasion cards (Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, etc) and get them ready to supplement our shipments.

As they have time, they work on other cards that we run short of, and this time, made up thank yous, general all occasions, and miss yous, too.

We thank all of these contributors for all of their time and effort.  We know that it is hard to find time, right before the holidays, to make, package up and mail out cards - on top of everything else!

X4 - More Pre Christmas Boxes Arrived

We received MANY boxes before Christmas!  Here are some more of our dedicated contributors:

First up, Wendy L from Lancaster, PA mailed us a box of 43 completed cards with envelopes - AND a cash contribution, too!

Lovely, lovely cards!  Her inventory sheet she provided had the left side just about filled in - that is, a variety of just about every type of all occasion cards was included in her box.

love you, baby, birthday,

cards for children, religious theme, thinking of you, wedding, a nice, nice variety!

We appreciate Wendy's contribution!!

Jayne S is our next contributor.  Jane is from our home state of Missouri - a couple of hours away in Hazelwood -

Jayne mailed us not only cards, but a box of card fronts, too:

And a nice monetary contribution, too to help with purchasing some envelopes and shipping costs.

Jayne writes:  "We met at Mary Ellen's Christmas CArds for Soldiers event back in October.  Yesterday I hosted a VAlentines for Soldiers Stamp-a-Thon in my home.  It was a great success and my group would like to do another one in March for Mother's Day & Father's Day cards.

We had such a great time doing this.  My brother who is retired military came to support us.  He is very proficient at cutting card stock.  He told everyone time and again how grateful the soldiers will be to receive these cards.  I really made an impact on our group."

Here is a sampling of the cards they made that day.

Beautiful!  The card above is made with a bird punch!

Same bird punch, different card!  142 Valentines, 120 all occasion, blank cards, and many, many other sentiments to include thinking of you, sympathy, thank you, and even some Easter and baby cards were among the many they created that day.

Our thanks to Jayne for organizing the Stamp-a-Thon and we look forward to her next one!  And our thanks to her brother for his help and for his service to our country!

Cynthia K from Norco, CA is a frequent contributor, and she mailed a BIG box of cards to us right before Christmas, arriving on 12/21 -

Her box of 238 cards were all VAlentines!

Pink, red, purple, and yummy - some for kids, too!

She included some pens for our soldiers, too - 5 packages - plenty of pens for a couple of boxes!

We appreciate Cynthia's box of ALL Valentines and for getting them to us before Christmas!

December X 3 (That is, More Arrivals Pre-Christmas!)

We are so pleased to be able to share more boxes of cards that arrived before Christmas, and thank all of our contributors who sent boxes our way!

Joyce D is one such lady - from Deming, NM, Joyce contributes to our cause regularly.

Joyce mailed us a small package of 14, and we found not only Valentines, but birthday, thinking of you and all occasion cards, too.

Cute!  It's not the size of the package that counts!  Each card, when added to the next, fills it up!

We appreciate all contributions, big, small, those with cards of all types and those with cards of one or a few types!

We love what we find and appreciate all of the time, talent and love that goes into each and every card.  It shows!  Our thanks to Joyce!  Her cards certainly fit the bill!

Out next contribution comes from Stittville, NY - headed up and mailed by Cindy C and Bonnie K, 3 boxes arrived made by the Ladies Auxilliary of the Upton VFW Post #8259.

WOW!  958 cards - and all "box ready" - by that we mean, no work for us to do, except to remove them from their boxes and place them in our "holding" boxes!  Each box contained an inventory sheet with a count/type of cards and the cards separated by type.

Cindy and Bonnie write:  "Members of the Ladies Axiliary of the Upton(Stittville) VFW Post #8259 held a card making event on December 10, 2011.  This was our third card making event and decided to extend our time from 3 hours to 7 hours.   We had 16 volunteers attend, which was from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.  Numerous cards were created and assembled and it was a successful event.  Several stampers from Central New York attended, along with ladies from the auxiliary.   Central New York Stampers donated the card fronts, along with several stampers donating completed cards, card stock, and their supplies.   We truly appreciate all that attended and donated their time and helped make this a success.  We totaled approximately 1,631 cards completed for all occasions.

Valentines are in box 1  More boxes to follow after Christmas holiday."

Today I sent From Our Hearts 3 boxes, one which includes Valentine Cards which we hope will be in time for your next shipment to our troops.  I will be sending the remainder of the cards after the Christmas holiday which I expect will be three more boxes. 
A special thanks goes out to Arlene D and Linda B who assisted us in making the day a success and in organizing boxes for shipment."

All 3 boxes arrived on the same day, and we found not only the Valentines (much appreciated!), but quite an assortment of others!  Thinking of you, anniversary, sympathy, thank you, Easter (this is holiday will be coming up very soon!).

And many birthday cards, too.

And from their e-mail, another 3 boxes will be on their way to us, shortly!

We appreciate all of the volunteers - Cindy, Bonnie, Linda, Arlene, the Central NY Stampers and of course, the Ladies of the Axilliary for putting on this big event and stamping for our troops!

Our next contribution comes from Theresa Z and Jennie F of Bremerton, WA - and we appreciate their box!!!

We know that they had help as each custom slip was signed by the card creator!

Lots of Valentines and some cute ones for kids, too!

Lovely cards, including thinking of you, get well, baby and many general all occasion cards, too.

Included in their box was a check to help us with postage from Diane W, also from Bremerton - our thanks to Diane, also, as our postage and all our costs are funded entirely by contributions such as hers! 

Thanks to these contributors for supporting our cause!

 

More December Contributions

Love Notes are at it again!  Mailed by Dacia S from Winston-Salem, NC, the ladies of the Barnabas Ministry (Calvary Baptist Church) AKA Love Notes, stamped another 180 cards for our troops.

They include their card, along with our slip with each card they make.

This month, they made 81 friendship, 45 love you cards . . .

23 thank you . . .

and 31 thinking of you - and we appreciate all of them!

And their continual support, month after month!  Their cards arrive "box ready" and are very well made, always!  Our thanks to Dacia for making this possible!

Our next box arrived without a return address or a note inside so we are calling this: Anonymous!

We can only assume that some of our contributors, like this one, wish to remain anonymous, contributing from the heart without wishing any recognition for their efforts!

This box contained 406 cards!  It arrived without envelopes/clear envelopes or slips - and this is perfectly fine with us.  The cards are very nice!

Our volunteers got busy and "stuffed" them, using envelopes/clears that we purchase with donated funds - we also receive envelope and clear envelope as donations with some boxes of cards, too, and we appreciate this!

The cards are just beautiful!

We pulled out all the Valentines and into the Valentine shipment boxes they went, ready to be mailed!  Thank you, "Anonymous"!!!  If you care to be recognized, please leave a comment on this post or email us!

Next up is a box from Riverside, CA - our contributor is Valerie B who mailed us a nice assortment of 141 cards.  The cards were made by Valerie and Georgia B.

Lots of Valentines (thank you!)

and many others including get well, miss you,

love you,

and several thank yous!

Our thanks to Valerie & Georgia for all the cards and for having them "box ready"!

December Contributions, We Are Thankful!

Finally, we are able to sit down and get some blog posts done.  It has been one busy holiday season!  And we are so grateful for all of the boxes that have been arriving of late!

These next several blog posts are of boxes that arrived before Christmas - and we'll be posting those "post" Christmas boxes very soon!

First up is one of our regular group of contributors - from Allen Park, MI, Sharon C writes:

"Only 3 of us were able to make cards this month, but our crew should be back together in January."  Her crew?  The Ladies of Guardian Lutheran Church in Dearborn, MI - and this month, 69 cards and mostly Valentines.  We realize how hectic December can be and we sure appreciate the effort!

Birthday, miss you and thinking of you, too were found in her box.

And as always... lovely cards!

Not just for the adults, but Valentines for children, too.  We thank the ladies and Sharon for taking the time and for sending us the much needed Valentines!

Next up is another frequent contributor from Livermore, CA.  Stephanie B shipped us mostly supplies in this box and we can use these.

Ribbon, designer paper and stamp sets-

Of course, what would a box be without cards, too?  Stephanie included a few of these, too-

and a few card fronts, too!

She left the clear envelopes unsealed so that we could check them - with a note "I think they are box ready, but I've left them unsealed so they can be double checked." - we appreciate Stephanie doing this - as it is easier for us to seal them than to have to unseal each and every one to check - as she wanted us to check them.  As it turns out, her cards were "perfect"!  Thanks, Stephanie!

Ann C is next on our list - Ann is from Clemmons, NC - she is also one to send us cards and supplies on a regular basis.  This time is no exception.  Ann mailed us lots of goodies!  Sizzlets, punches, stamps, pens to include in the boxes we ship, extra envelopes and a nice check to help us with postage - all so very much welcomed and a BIG thank you to Ann!

 And her cards?  184 of them - most of them "thinking of you" and we appreciate getting this sentiment - as we put many of these in every "all occasion" type of box we mail over.

Ann made thank you cards as well as lots of all occasion cards, too -

We mailed out all of the thank you cards on hand the beginning of December, so we appreciate receiving these!

Our thanks to Ann for her continued support!

From Our Hearts received a package from Betty H from Des Moines, IA - and unfortunately, no photographs of her cards were to be located when uploading them onto the computer - only a snapshot of her return address.  This happens from time to time - for some unknown reason the photos don't load or are lost...

We want to acknowledge her 78 cards that she made with embrodery and crotchet embellishments,  We sure do wish we had some photos of them as they are lovely and we know they will be most welcome!

Our thanks to Betty and our apologies for not being able to put a photo on the blog.

 

Boxes Received Earlier This Month

From Madison, WI, a box of 302 cards arrived from Marlene S -

And each one a birthday card!

Beautifully crafted, and this is just about as many cards as we place in each box we ship overseas.  Of course, we put a variety in each "all occasion" box that we mail over -

Marlene made many masculine birthday cards and we sure appreciate receiving these.

Our thanks to Marlene for her continued support!

Barb  T from Massillon, OH mailed a box of 58 cards and a note to us:

"I recently met with the Kiwanis Club of Belden Village (North Canton, OH) to help them with a lunch-time service project.  The men and women and their guests stamped and assembled the pick and red valentines that are in the box.  They were all first time stampers and they did a wonderful job!  They've also enclosed a donation for postage."

We agree!  The Valentines are beautiful!

And we appreciate the Kiwanis Club members choosing From Our Hearts as their service project ---it is our service men and women who are benefiting from their "hard" work!

Barb included pens in the box, too-

Our thanks to Barb and the men and women of the Kiwanis Club of Belden Village!

Our next contributor is one who sends us boxes on a regular basis. Karla R is from Benson, NC.  Karla sent us 109 and a cash contribution  - thank you!

58 of the cards were Valentines, and we appreciate Karla getting them to us in time for our shipment.  The rest?  A variety - birthday, friendship, sympathy - - -

Hi/hello, miss shoe (you!)

and love yous, too -

We appreciate Karla's support, again, and look forward to receiving more in the future.