Ruth has been busy creating cards for From Our Hearts -
Recently we received 8 boxes from her - can you imagine how many cards that is? At an average of 300 card per box, that is A LOT of cards that came our way.
All types of occasions -
Celebrate, thank you, miss you, halloween -
Ruth has the help of many volunteers who put together the card kits she designs.
We can't thank Ruth enough for all she does for our troops!
We mention from time to time our "volunteers" who help From Our Hearts in various capacities. Two of these ladies, Regina A and Kavi C have been helping our effort for many years.
From Topeka, KS, Regina has been receiving card fronts from us and she and her group of lady volunteers convert them into usable cards - hundreds of them at a time. This is where some of the funds and card stock, snail, dimensionals, etc are used - to make these cards out of donated card fronts. If you have any fronts that are stashed away in boxes or drawers, consider digging them out, no matter how old they are - and sending them our way. Our service men and women appreciate the cards that are made from these fronts!
Recently, Martie met with Regina in Kansas City and did a "swap" - she received card stock, envelopes, clear envelopes and other supplies, and Martie received 3 boxes of converted card fronts, ready to be mailed - over 1200 of them! This meet up with Regina saved From Our Hearts a tremendous amount of money in postage - we do stretch our donated dollars!!
These are a few of the many that our volunteers "converted" - lovely cards!
From Hillsville, VA, Kavi C has been creating cards, cutting paper and making "card kits" for From Our Hearts' local stamping events for the troops - and we so appreciate having "ready to make" cards available to us. In addition to all of this help that Kavi gives to us just about every month, Kavi stamps with 3 different groups and donates the cards to From Our Hearts. Where does she find the time?
This donation to From Our Hearts included a stamp set, dimensionals and some sticky strip, too.
The cards were made by the Papershakers - just one of the groups she stamps with -
Our thanks to our volunteers who make this effort of ours possible!
We appreciate all our contributors who send us their no longer needed card fronts - we like to keep our volunteers busy!
This box of 301 card fronts were converted into usable cards by our volunteer in Peru, IN - Mary M has been busy converting cards of all types, including Easter and Christmas; she works on what is donated and we hold those "off season" cards until the time is right to ship them.
Mary contributes the card stock, envelopes and clear envelopes to our effort, and we appreciate all she does for From Our Hearts.
And, we appreciate receiving boxes of card fronts - so when cleaning up, consider sending them to From Our Hearts - they all eventually end up in the hands of our troops serving our country in the war zone. And, they appreciate each and every card!
Where do those card fronts go that are donated to From Our Hearts? We have several volunteers who help us turn them into cards - one of those is Mary M from Peru, IN. Mary recently shipped us 2 boxes of her converted creations -147 in total:
Mary donates the card stock and also the envelopes and clear envelopes, sending them to us "box ready".
Of course, all that she adds to these fronts are tax deductible, as are all the contributions we receive.
We appreciate all the work of all of our volunteers, and the conversions that Mary does for us!
On August 16, Julie Wilson, our volunteer in Sugar Grove, IL, will be hosting an event for From Our Hearts at her public library. Julie posts on her facebook page (stamping from our hearts in Illinois):
"SAVE THE DATE! Thursday, August 16th....1:30-7:30 p.m. @ the Sugar Grove Public Library (125 S Municipal Dr, Sugar Grove, IL).....Holiday Greeting Card event. There will be all types of holiday cards to be assembled! Come for the entire time (some snacks will be available as well as drinks) or a portion of the day! Door prizes, raffles, and fun times. All you need to bring is your double stick tape or tape runners and scissors and cash for raffles to help the home office off set their postage expenses. We accept donations of white invitation sized envelopes (A2) and stick type ink pens to include when we mail out card shipments."
Martie and Susan T are planning to attend this event - and if you are from the Sugar Grove area and would like to help Julie with this event, please contact us and we will get you in touch with Julie. At the very least, plan to help us by showing up and making cards!
These are samples of the types of cards that Julie and her volunteers make (including Denise W, who made several of the cards in this shipment). Included, as usual, we found cash and checks of funds that Julie collected and helped raise to help with our costs.
Julie's support over the past several years has been tremendous - and we appreciate all that she does! We are looking forward to our trip "up north" and to be able to stamp with our volunteers in Sugar Grove!
From Our Hearts has several volunteers who go above and beyond and we wish to highlight a few:
From Topeka, KS, Regina A and her group of volunteers regularly convert card fronts into cards and get them to us in time for our special shipments. This recent shipment consisted of 463 cards - mostly Father's Day -
and graduation cards - and many all occasion cards, too - with their busy schedules, we wonder how they can get so many done, but we appreciate it!
From Woolwich, ME, Phyllis M heads up a group called the Mainely Caring Cardmakers. Phyllis always on the lookout for items that FOH can use, and found a bargain for us - double sided Duck brand tape - perfect for our use at our events. She and her group raised funds enough to purchase 120 rolls and funds to mail it to us, too! We so very much appreciate it!
This is the second "round" of tape that she has purchased for us - and what a cost saver for our effort! Phyllis is always looking for embellishments and supplies that FOH can use and typically includes something in her boxes for our use. Phyllis and the Mainely Caring Cardmakers also sends cards to us on a regular basis - and another box arrived at the same time - 355 box ready all occasion cards. Our deep appreciation to Phyllis and the Mainely Caring Cardmakers for all they do for our effort!
Mary M is from Peru, IN and she, too, is one of our "card front" converters. Mary sent us a box of 60 cards that she diligently worked on. These were all occasion cards. We receive boxes from Mary just about every week.
3 days later, another box of 49 cards arrived!
Nicely remade, we wonder where Mary finds the time to get all this done for us -
An then, another box arrived! These contained all Father's Day cards. Our thanks to Mary for helping us out! Mary provides the card stock, envelopes and clear envelopes. That is going above and beyond for our cause!
From Hillsville, VA, Kavi C has been helping FOH from its inception, making card kits for our use at our local events. Recently, Kavi shipped us 6 kit that we made at our last Library event - beautiful cards! In addition, Kavi stamps with the Wellness 55+ Papershakers (cards below) -
the retired elementary teachers and staff from Carroll County, VA, and
Stampin' Up!® demonstrators in SW VA.
She stays very busy and we appreciate all she does for FOH!
Recently, some of our local volunteers gathered at our office and took a break from the "normal" work of checking in boxes and filling boxes to ship out to stamp and create Christmas cards for our troops. A welcomed diversion - and they had fun!
Using donated card stock, paper and supplies, they created many cards that were included in the 70+ boxes that were mailed off last month.
Seated to the left is Anne H and to her right is Sue S, both who create "card kits" with our donated supplies for our local stamping events we hold at the library and the retirement center. On the right is Susan T, our VP of Operations. Below, the cards they made - and many of each type.
We thought we would share some of the cards made locally!
And we have our contributors to thank - as the supplies were all donated, including the double sided tape.
And this includes the ink - as many have donated ink pads and re-inkers, too.
Our thanks to everyone for the help given to us!
And our thanks to our local volunteers who help us on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. We could not operate without THEIR support!
From Sugar Grove, Illinois, Illinois, we received a box of 100 cards from Diana B. Inside, we found many birthday and sympathy cards...
and many patriotic cards, too.
Nicely made, we know that the will be well received... and we appreciate receiving the sympathy cards as we don't get many of these!
The next Sugar Grove contributor none other than our official volunteer, Julie Wilson - and as can be expected, she has been busy! 3 boxes, this time, arrived on our doorstep. 441 cards, plus lots of many "extras" that were donated to our effort.
Love the "Love our troops!" on the outside of the boxes, Julie!
And the cards? Mostly Christmas - and we NEED so many of them, as this is our biggest shipment of the year!
And Halloween was her next focus, 145 of them! These are to be mailed out early next week.
Fall cards are going to be mailed with the Halloween and Thanksgiving cards.
A close up of some of her creations...
And a photo some of what we pulled out of her boxes.
More cards - you can see the quality that Julie sends.
And this is a shot of what her box looked like when we opened it. Some stamp sets, embellishments, cardstock and more that she mailed to us.
We thank Julie for ALL that she does for From Our Hearts!!!
A few days ago, we mentioned that one of our local volunteers, Sue S, creates "card kits" for our use at our local stamping events for the troops. We are showing some of her recent contributions.
8, 10, 12, 15, 20 or 25 cards - or even 40, all of the same design are cut and prepared but NOT ASSEMBLED.
Some of the stamping is pre-done - if the card requires it as we don't always know the skill level of those who will show up to help support our troops!
The card designs do not have to be difficult. Many times, simplicity makes for an elegant card.
Sue prepared many designs and ultimately, over 100 cards. We typically prepare for 200 cards to be made at each regular monthly event. For our "big" annual fundraisers, we prep for 1200+ cards.
We appreciate Sue doing this for us as we find that many times we are preparing into the wee hours of the morning as there are just not enough hours in each day to get everything done.
And of course, Sue's contributions to FOH are tax deductible.
If you are interested in helping to contribute in this way, please contact us!
Below, we took a candid snapshot of Sue at our last library event. Sue does come and create cards with us, too! Sue is on the left.
