Honor Flight Night cards and decor

As many of you know, my team has adopted Honor Flight as our official service project for the last four years. Under the leadership of Kathy Van Duser, we've created and sent thousands of cards to veterans involved in the Stars & Stripes Honor Flights to Washington D.C. Every vet gets one of our cards with a handwritten message inside thanking them for their service to our country.

This is a fantastic organization and I'm so thrilled that it meshes perfectly with our talents as cardmakers.

We work on Honor Flight cards instead of one of the Make N Takes at every monthly meeting, but last night we turned our whole gathering over to the effort.

Volunteers brought batches of prepped cards in quantities of 20-40, and we went around the tables working on them until the last ones were completed and written in. It was a huge event that netted us 190 cards in the end, with more coming in from non-local demonstrators who are participating by mail.

A BIG thank you to our seven volunteer designers! L-R Top row: Haley Wulf, Gail Vogel, Lyssa Zwolanek. Bottom: Lori Brausen, Mary Schultz, Cheryl Noble. Not pictured: Penni Litwiller.

You know me and parties... we went all-out with the decor! Between Stampin' Up and Dollar Tree we definitely had a Pinterest-worthy vibe goin' on. Bonus: you can use these ideas for your Fourth of July picnic this year! Look at how precious these wrapped water bottles are with a striped paper straw tied on with sparkly twine.

 Team members have also donated hundreds of dollars' worth of cardstock, ink refills, embellishments and adhesives over the past few years. Last night brought in over $100 worth of adhesives from a single donor. I'm so proud to be part of a team that generously shares their time and supplies like this!

I shared my card earlier but here it is again. It looks complicated, but it only took two presses in the Stamparatus, once it was set up. Feel free to copy any of the designs. Some were inspired by Pinterest and the Cheat Sheets Collections.

I hope you've enjoyed this peek into our Honor Flight Night--and I hope I've inspired some of you to check out Honor Flight in your area and see how you can help. From donating letters and cards towards Mail Call, to paying for a companion to attend with each veteran, to being a greeter at the welcome home at the airport, there are many ways to support this fantastic organization. For more information you can visit their website at http://www.starsandstripeshonorflight.org/ 

Don't wait to get involved--time is of the essence for many elderly veterans. Our team lead, Kathy, works on this project on behalf of her older brother, a Vietnam vet. I do this in memory of my grandfathers and step-grandpa, all World War II veterans, and the wives who worked in factories and waited for them to return. Many of my team have similar stories. It's time to hear those stories and honor the sacrifices.

Comments

[Renee Hughes]

Looks like a fun time. You Ladies did a great job!

[Beverly Wegner]

I salute you ladies in a job well done. I started last November a ministry to make Honor Cards for Veterans boarding from my home town of Wausau, WI. I only have five ladies who help with two not designers but builders. I gave demonstrations and workshops to a couple of groups at church, which resulted in some donations of personal cards and donations of paper. We also include a prayer card into each card entitled God Bless America. Our first 104 take off this coming Monday. I also have names of ten Veteran friends from church that have given me permission to use their name, branch, rank, years of service. Vets brotherhood continues. I really really enjoyed hearing of your success and seeing your beautiful cards. Keep going. We have three more flights and happy to say we have almost reached goal of 300+. Do you gals use envelopes? We only do on overly puffy cards. We also make some specific for the branches, Army, Coast Guard, WWII, etc. God bless you and God bless America. Beverly

[Lyssa for Song of My Heart Stampers]

Hi Beverly! Keep up the great work!!! we do not use envelopes and we make sure all the cards are pretty flat since you never know how many things will be stuffed in their mail call packet.