From Our Hearts

And Update from The Home Office

From Susan F:

"We've been getting shipments in at a pretty steady rate.  We might have a total of 8  full boxes of Easter cards when all is checked in.  I plan to get a shipment out on Friday the 24th.  I will focus on 34 of our 42 contacts. 

I just hope we get twice as many Mother's Day cards in tho since those need to go to 40 contacts.  We might need to put a plea on the blog.

Susan"

Our Easter shipment is going to be mailed out a little later than anticipated as FOH is waiting on some cards that we know are scheduled to arrive -and with 8 boxes of cards, this means only 1/4 of each box will be Easter cards.

With 42 contacts, and Mother's Day is our second largest shipment of cards, we are in need of many, many cards!!

The due date for the cards is posted on the right side of the blog - and we thank all who are sending the cards in, already.

Thank you, all of you, who are helping us to send cards to our 42 contacts.  We appreciate your support.

Wish List - Easter and Mother's Day Cards

Whew!  We sure are keeping busy at the home office - it seems that we jump from one holiday to another - and we are in bit of a "lull" at the moment as far as shipping out cards - waiting for the next big push of cards to go overseas.  In the meanwhile, we are prepping cards for our local events and making cards to "fill in" when we just don't have enough to send over.  The supplies that are donated to us are so very much appreciated!

Feb 12 is our next due date - this is when we will want those Easter cards in - while not a big card holiday, we like to have some available to ship over.

Mother's Day is the second biggest card mailing holiday of the year - next to the Christmas holidays - and we are running short of cards (gee, we are sounding like a broken record!)  They will be mailed in March and that will be here before we know it!

Our list of chaplains/contacts keeps growing!  Just last week we received this note:

Martie,

It's me Chaplain Peter H.  I'm back in theatre.  You sent me many wonderful cards when I was the chaplain of SOTF-SE.  Now I am the chaplain for SOTF-S.  I am hoping that you may be able to send me some cards in time for Valentines Day.  I have about 700 Soldiers under my care here.  I hope you are doing well and I look forward to you receiving your cards again.

What a surprise to hear from one of our chaplains who had done his tour, returned to the states and his family, and now, he has returned back to Afghanistan.  Fortunately, we had a couple dozen valentines on hand (card front conversions and others that we had made, locally) and shipped off a box of mixed cards - and he is now in our rotation to receive our cards, once more.  Our contact list is approaching 40 again, and that is a lot of cards that is needed every 6 weeks!

YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED!

A Much Needed Break - Why... And a Special Request

From Our Hearts took a much need break from posting on the blog - as those who follow us regularly have undoubtedly noticed...

Our reason?  A road trip... and a welcome home from Iraq celebration!  From Our Hearts' founder Martie and husband Tom traveled to North Carolina to welcome home their daughter from her tour in the war zone - and a much needed vacation for the two of them... much welcomed family time, to include many grandchildren!  We are so happy to have all of our children home and safe...

And an eyeopener of us - as our daughter was one of our recipients of our many boxes of cards while deployed.  Her words to us ... "if I can tell you what I noticed while observing the many who went through the boxes of cards that you sent to me ... You need to send us more MASCULINE cards.  So many of the cards are...well... frilly."

So from the mouth of "my babe" - and one in the know!

While we know that many of our cards are made and will be mailed to girlfriends, wives, mothers, and other females . . .  our daughter's observation is that we just don't sent many masculine cards.

So, this is our request, as a first hand observer of those who access our boxes - we need more MASCULINE cards!

Wish List

We made a quick trip over to the office this evening . . . all the Christmas and holiday cards are gone, and there is a noticeable lack of Valentines!

We have only 5 boxes on the shelves and our list of contacts needing our cards topples the 40 mark - 5 boxes is not nearly enough fulfill this need.

We need your help.  We know it is a busy time of the year for all of us with Christmas approaching.  We will be mailing the Valentines on or about January 2 - so there is still time to help.  10 or 20 cards will enable that many more service men and women to send a card to a loved one for this very special day.

And please continue to keep all the service men and women in mind who remain in the war zone this holiday season - they sacrifice so much for all of us.

We thank you, in advance, for your help.

Martie, Susan, Susan and Tom

Double Sided Tape

We appreciate all types of contributions to From Our Hearts - and recently, received a donation of double sided tape from Ann L, Jefferson City - one of our volunteers who assists us at our monthly stamping events at our local library.  Ann picks up tape for us from time to time as she knows just how much we use it - not only at our 2 monthly events, but when we add "inserts" to dark - based cards that need white on the inside (for example, Halloween cards made with a black card base - it's difficult to write on black paper!)

From Our Hearts uses donated white and vanilla card stock, cut it to 4 x 5 1/4, and keep a stock on hand.  We look at EACH AND EVERY card that is donated to us - and pull out those that have dark bases to check to see if they need a white insert.  If they don't, we take the time to add it.  Many of our contributors will let us know, on their inventory sheet, that their cards have "white" inserts - and this saves us time - we know, then, that we don't have to open each and every card!

But most of the tape we purchase is used on the many, many thousands of card fonts we receive.  The tape is perfect for adhering the fronts to card bases!  And we go through alot of it.

We use only Scotch brand double sided tape - we've tried them all and compared the cost - and this is the best and least costly that we have found - we stretch our donated dollars as far as we can!  We are adding this to our "wish list" of items that we need and use on a regular basis.

So, we wish to thank Ann for picking up several rolls from SAMS Club when she makes the trip!  She keeps From Our Hearts in mind - and supports our effort and OUR TROOPS!

 

New! Our "Wish List" Category

You'll see a new category on our blog - it is a "wish list" and this is where where our blog posts of our "we need" will be posted and filed.

We hope this will be helpful to all - so that you'll know what our current needs are - whether it be a specific card type or need for supplies - whatever it is, we willl do a blog post and it will be available at a click on the link.

We just received notice that our volunteers in Topeka are in need of the following colors of Stampin' Up!® 8 1/2 x 11 card stock to finish those donated card fronts and to turn them into beautiful cards (and they make beautiful cards - we are posting a couple of fall cards they just sent to us, following the list of their needs, below).

The colors are:

Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Choco Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Garden Green, Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, Bashful Blue, Bravo Burgundy, Confetti White, Riding Hood Red, Pacific Point, Black, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Wild Wasabi, Always Artichoke.

If you are able to send a CDO directly to Regina, please let us know and we'll get you in touch with her.  Otherwise, we can provide her address to you if you want to send the card stock directly to her.  Unfortunately, we do not have any current colors donated to us.

Here are some of the Fall cards, recently sent to us by Regina, made from donated card fronts:

As you can see, Regina and her volunteers use colored card stock as the base of each card.  This makes for a very sturdy and beautiful card.  They color coordinate each card base with the colors of each card front!  They work magic!

If you can help us with some current card stock, we would appreciate it!  Contact Martie at mpshea@mchsi.com.

Our many thanks to Carol C for her suggestion to add a "Wish List".  Be on the lookout for more posts with our "card needs".

We thank you for your support!