Song of My Heart Stampers

Stampin' Up and the Today Show Toy Drive

One of the things I appreciate most about Stampin' Up is that they believe in making a difference in the lives of others--whether they're demonstrators, employees, the people who use our products, or children in need of a way to express their creativity. And Stampin' Up puts their money where their mouth is! It's not just a pretty saying on the wall of the home office.

Since 2005, Stampin' Up! has been honored to participate in the TODAY Show's Holiday Toy Drive. This year, Stampin' Up! will be donating over $500,000 worth of stamping and paper crafting products. In conjunction with the donation, Stampin' Up!'s Shelli Gardner will make an appearance on NBC's TODAY Show on Tuesday, December 6. Be sure to tune in and watch Shelli with Hoda and Kathie Lee--it's always very short and she hardly gets a word in edgewise, but its fun to see!

Shelli will be blogging about this fun (and somewhat nerve-wracking) experience in New York City. If you haven't been to her blog yet, it's a MUST! www.soshelli.com There are even challenges you can enter and win free stamp sets from her personally, whether you are a demonstrator or not!

 

2011 JD Crop for a Cure

Today's Crop for a Cure was both well attended and fabulously fun! We had a wonderful time crafting our arms off, shopping, winning prizes, eating, and of course, lots and lots of chatting!

This is Carol R. making her first papercrafting project ever! She came to sit and do her yarn work, and wound up getting totally hooked on the Make N Take. I'll have pictures of that later--forgot to take any today, wouldn't you know.

Kathy N had a lovely visit with her grandbaby. I got to hold this little sweetie, too! We both agreed there's nothing like a chubby baby in an adorable froggie-footed sleeper for warming up your hands on a chilly day.

Other daddies and kids came to visit during the day, too, including Jenny M's little girl, who had a great place to keep all her stickers. Isn't that just too funny? I'll have to send this photo to her mom to scrapbook.

Here is a rare picture of Kim R--rare because she's the organizer of this wonderful annual event, and you don't catch her sitting down pretty much the whole day! The JDRF crop is especially important to her, because both of her kids have juvenile diabetes. Thanks for another awesome event, Kim! I hope we raised a LOT of money for this great cause!

And here's a photo of the little gal who started it all--Amanda!

What a great way to spend a rainy, COLD Saturday. I didn't get a whole lot done myself, but I did get all caught up with friends I haven't been able to spend much time with lately, and that was priceless. I hope you'll make it a priority to take a little time out for yourself to get together with friends--maybe not even craft necessarily, but just spend some time purposefully connecting. Friendship is precious, a piece of yourself, your time, your life. Give that gift to a friend today!

Strength and Hope--get your pink on

Prayed for friends and family affected by cancer as I made this card today with the new Strength and Hope set from Stampin' Up (click here for details on the fundraiser and my special offer). What a wonderful thing it is to be able to touch someone's heart and make their day with a simple "thinking of you" card.

We'll be making this Pink Pirouette textured long card (3x6) at my Fort Atkinson Create-A-Card Club tomorrow night, with Rose Red, Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink inks, the Paper Daisies, Basic Pearls, and the Top Note die for the Big Shot. You can't tell from the photo, but the butterfly is also gussied up with Illuminate Smooch Accent ink (page 195).

I've been purposefully using this set with colors other than pink, to check out its versatility. I have been loving it, especially with dark colors like Perfect Plum and Not Quite Navy. However, it's very fun to make a little girly pink-pink-pink extravaganza!

Strength and Hope--and a special offer in honor of a friend

Stampin' Up is partnering with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to donate $2 from each of the new Strength and Hope stamp sets and Digital Kits sold during the Summer Mini Catalog. Click on the link to view them online, or check out page 27 of your hard copy. Dedicated to cancer prevention and finding a cure for this disease which affects us all, the BCRF funds clinical and translational research worldwide. For more information on how you can help, visit www.bcrfcure.org.

Here's my first card with this set. I embossed the butterfly in Whisper White EP on Baja Breeze DSP, then sponged Not Quite Navy over it to bring it out. We made a version of this in Calendar Club last month, and I'll be using it for Incredible Cards Club, Create A Card Club, and Calendar Club again this month, too. It's a great set and a great cause!

Want another reason you should purchase Strength and Hope in May? The first five people to order Strength and Hope in either wood or clear, or the wonderful digital kit for My Digital Studio, will get a free Ribbon of Hope stamp from me (page 20 of the main catalog, value $7.95) when their order totals at least $20 before shipping and tax. I am offering this gift in honor of my Stampin' Up team member, Janis, who is currently keeping her chin up and sporting a great attitude as she undergoes treatment for breast cancer with grace and humor. God bless you with a speedy and complete recovery, my friend!

Charity of the Month: cards needed for our soliders!

The charity I have selected to concentrate on for November 2010 is the awesome organization From Our Hearts, which sends thousands of blank handmade cards to be used by our deployed armed services personnel to send to their loved ones back home.

Regina, Marti and Susan and the rest of the gang at From Our Hearts have processed more than 50,000 cards and card fronts this year alone, distributing them through chaplain friends into the hands of grateful soldiers. They currently have 29 contacts accepting boxes of cards all over the world.

I am honored to feature this worthy cause on my blog and help spread the word! Together we can provide comfort and encouragement to our military and their families. I actually cried when I was reading some of the grateful letters and notes that this organization has received from servicemembers.

These cards do not need to be patriotic, as they are not intended for the soliders themselves, but for the soldiers to use. From Our Hearts is currently collecting Valentines--yes, you heard me--so if you want to help in a specific way (they always need everyday cards) you could get out the pink and red and go to town.There is a little calendar of deadlines if you want to keep it in mind for other holidays, too. They need time to process what they received and re-pack them for shipment overseas, get them delivered, distributed, and still have time to be mailed back for the appropriate occasions!

I hope you will visit the From Our Hearts website and participate along with me--if not this November, then soon--and if you have cards to add to the stack I will be sending in at the end of the month, be sure to get them to me by Thanksgiving. If you are suffering from lack of craft time, you can donate via PayPal and help From Our Hearts offset the tremendous shipping costs involved with this project. They can also use envelopes, adhesives and plain cardstock for turning donated card fronts into full cards, and they accept pens and notepads as well.

So many ways we could easily help--please consider making From Our Hearts your group's cause for the month. This would be a wonderful Girl Scouts or Ladies' Group project. Thank you for taking the time to read about my Charity of the Month project--together, we can make a difference!

Charity of the Month: cards needed for Necessities Bag

We're making a pink card like this cute Birthday Bakery one at every workshop of mine this month--can you guess why?

It only seems right that my chosen charity organization for October is one that ministers to women who have just had a mastectomy because of breast cancer. I lost my paternal grandmother to cancer when I was only seven, and this past year my maternal grandmother underwent a lumpectomy (she is doing very well, thank you to all who remembered and have sweetly asked after her since that time!) So I greatly appreciate those who would strive to provide comfort and support in one of life's most difficult moments.

Necessities Bag is a great idea, formed by a former patient herself, of giving each woman a bag with essential supplies and practical guidance, as well as being an organization that doctors, nurses and caregivers can go to for information. Necessities Bag relies completely on donations. You can read more about this neat organization here.

One of the things in the bags is thank-you notes! Patients will have many people to thank for providing care and help while they are in the hospital and during recovery. Necessities Bag is always in need of more cards. Luckily, I know a whole slew of fantastic stampers who can help out!

If you would like to donate cards to this project, please send them to me by the end of November. I will be mailing a package after Thanksgiving and I hope to have 100 cards to send, like we did last time! Wouldn't that be awesome?! Email me for the address, and thank you in advance for helping the women--mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, aunts, friends of us all--who are journeying through that valley.

Charity of the Month: cards needed for Humane Society

For a long time now, I've been considering adding a new feature to my blog. Sometimes we all need a little prompting to look outside ourselves and do more for others. There are so many worthy causes out there, and they're all doing good things, and there's never enough funding. I believe that each of us needs to do something to make the world a better place, and I hope to make it easier for myself (and anyone who wants to join in) to give to a good cause.

So each month I will be featuring a charity organization, some local, some worldwide, that you can send your cards to. Obviously these places would also take money and some would take supplies, too, but cards are something we all have and everyone can make and send. At the end of each month, I will report back on how much we raised or how many cards were sent, so that we can all be encouraged to keep on doing what we can!

For September, I have chosen the Watertown Humane Society. As you know if you followed my blog last year at this time, the poor little kitties and doggies I met there just stole my heart. Their whole existence depends on the mercy of humans, and some of the stories of mistreatment and neglect just make you want to go smack their previous owners.

The Watertown Humane Society updates a weekly list with photos and info on adoptable animals. They also take in special needs animals and have a Guardian Angel Fund just for their medication and vet visits.

However, I can't do nearly as much as I would like for the little furry critters, because of my severe allergies. But I can stamp! Right? And that's enough to raise some money.

If you would like to send or drop off cards to be sold at my craft fairs this fall, I have a stamp for the back that says all proceeds from those specially designated cards goes to the Watertown Humane Society. 100% of the profit from those cards will be donated. They do not have to be all Stampin' Up materials, and they do not have to be animal-related images (though that would be fun!) but they do need to be nicely made, well-adhered, and must include the appropriate size envelope, please.

I will also be holding a silent auction for a basket during each fair, with the proceeds going to the Humane Society as well. Click on the link above to be taken to their Wish List of items they need to run the shelter. No donation is too small! If you'd prefer to donate directly to the shelter online, visit the Donations link on the website.

Shoot me an email at zwolaneks@att.net or leave a comment here and let me know if you will join me in raising some money for the shelter this month. Thanks for anything you can give!