Operation Write Home

I was introduced to an orgainzation called Operation Write Home through my friends at SCS. OWH's mission is provide hand-made cards to soldiers to use to keep in touch with their loved ones at home. They do not have the luxury of running to Hallmark to send Mom a Birthday Card, or Dad a Father's Day card.

I am seriously trying to plan a Community cardmaking event, but am stuck at a place to hold it. While i am looking, I had the opportunity to do a Pal/Gal event at my MIL's church. Almost 50 pairs of Gals and their adult Pals. I prepped cards for them to assemble for OWH.

Here is a group shot of the cards they completed.

and then individual pics of the cards I designed.

A Return to Stamping!

Well bloggees, I have been busy... stamping whenever I can between work and family.

I was even able to spend a weekend with my stamping gals last weekend. The group is from Splitcoaststampers, and this the 3rd year I've attended an annual "Mingle".

I have lots of fun stuff to share about the weekend, it'll take several posts, but some highlights are:

* 50 women in Novi for the whole weekend, escaping all "mom" duties.
* Completing 10 stamp challenges (and I was even fortunate to be one of the first 10 done, which earned me a fun prize. I'll post pictures of my cards soon.
* Swapping 45 cards - to gain even more stamping ideas and inspiration... I'll post the swap cards I made, soon.
* Surprise guests... 2 guys popped into the conference room Saturday after dinner to see what we were doing (they had seen/heard us the night before too)... we introduced them to the world of stamping... and I was intorduced to the world of THE DEADLIEST CATCH... The 2 guys were Mike and Travis from the show "The Deadliest Catch". They were in town for the Boat Show. They were great sports about 40+ women asking them questions, takign their photos, etc.
* Was introduced to a program called OPERATION WRITE HOME. Our attendees were able to donate hundreds of cards to OWH. In fact... the rest of this post is going to talk about this group

OPERATION WRITE HOME sends HOMEMADE greeting cards to soldiers -
giving them somethign beautiful to write home on.
They collect ahead of holidays and occasions in order to have the "right" cards available to soldiers when they need them. For example, Graduation cards are due 4/15... Father's Day due 5/21. And of course, they collect Birthday, Love, Missing You, Thinking of You, Thank You's and Blank cards all year round.

My brother in law is currently stationed in Afghanistan, and my Mother In Law and her church actively support them with many of their physical needs. I'm excited to use my love and talent of creative cardmaking to do my part.

I'm working on setting up a COMMUNITY CARDMAKING EVENT
as soon as I am able to commit a PLACE to have this event, I'll let you know

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED in attending an event like this, I'd LOVE to have you come join the fun. Please drop me a line, or leave me a comment and as soon as I can get a place, I'll forward details.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE POSTS... where I'm excited to shar my challenge cards, swap cards, and other stamping I've been able to accomplish lately.