Caring Hearts Card Drive 2019

Hi to those people that follow and look at my blog. Many thanks.

I'm helping with 

Caring Hearts Card Drive 2019

What is this ^ ^ thing?

You make beautiful Christmas cards and send them in before Nov 8. They are distributed to people in nursing homes. This card drive makes a positive impact on our elderly. 

There are a ton of prizes you could win (see the bottom). We need more cardmakers to send in cards so

PLEASE SHARE 

**Please read what Vera wrote. 

She says it much better and there are specific instructions to follow.

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the 10th Annual Caring Hearts Card Drive. WOW!! I can't believe we're hitting our 10th-year mark.

When I started this card drive, I honestly thought it'd be for that year only as I wasn't sure whether I will even have people participating. I was super green and thankful to have Jennifer McGuire's guidance on running a card drive. Your support made this possible for me to keep continue and I am grateful. Many of the places that have been receiving our cards said that receiving the cards is something they're looking forward to every Christmas.

The purpose of our card drive is to collect handmade holiday cards for the elderly that live in nursing homes or live alone.

The holidays are about family, kindness, and joy. During this time many of the elderly living in nursing homes may feel extra lonely or miss their families. We can bring a smile to their faces and brighten their holiday season simply by sharing our love of card making. A simple gesture to let them know that they are not forgotten. That someone is still thinking of them. We all love making cards and what’s better than knowing that our creations can bring a smile to others, right?

Our team of helpful volunteers are all ready to assist us in delivering the cards to selected nursing homes.

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

• This card drive will be run from October 4 to November 8, 2019. We need to receive your cards by November 8, 2019.
• Please make the cards for Christmas or Holiday Wishes only.
• All cards need to have a message inside (can be stamped or handwritten).
• Sign your name and where you are from inside the card.
• Include an envelope for each card and please don't seal the envelope.
• Please stick to standard size A2 or 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" card as this will help us in packing more efficiently. 
• Please don't use any pins or loose glitter (for safety reasons).
• This is totally optional, but if you'd like to include $3 or $5 to help with shipping, it'll be much appreciated. We cover the shipping cost ourselves & postage prices have increased. Last year we struggle to cover the postage cost, so any donation toward shipping would help us tremendously.

For the US, you can mail the cards to:

• Vera Yates, 1314 Roy St., Houston, TX 77007 
• Cindy Groh, 111 10 Mile Rd NW Sparta, MI 49345 --Hey look that's me

For Australia:

• Deb McCleary, CHCD, PO Box 54, Watsonia, VIC, 3087 Australia

For Canada:

• Caroline Bredeson, 11 Ave. des Oblats, Unit 112, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5V8, Canada
• Rita Andrews, 28 West Gissing Rd, Cochrane, Alberta T4C 1L6, Canada 

In each package, PLEASE include THIS 2019 SUBMISSION FORM. 

This helps us in keeping track for the prizes! 

For each card you send, you will get a chance. So the more cards you send, the better your chances.

NURSING HOMES

The nursing homes that we supported are based on what people suggested to us. If you want your local nursing homes to receive cards from the card drive, please email me the name of the nursing homes and the number of residents, so we can make sure that we send enough cards. The number of nursing homes we support are totally based on how many cards we received. To keep things organized, we assigned the 5 collecting addresses above.

SPECIAL CARING HEARTS SET

SugarPea Designs has created a special Caring Hearts set called Christmas Cheers just for this card drive. It's super cute and I am so honored and humbled that they did this. I just love the bears and the owls on this set. Below you could see the set.

To thank you for your generosity in supporting this drive, we have several PRIZES ready for several winners. There will be many winners. :)

I'll update the prize list as more prizes coming in. And huge thank you to all the fabulous, generous companies who support this card drive by donating awesome prizes.

                                                           

Altenew - Two $50 GC

A Jillian Vance Design - $20 GC

Avery Elle -  Two $50 GC

Bossy Joscie - Free Return Address Stamp

Butterfly Reflections, Ink - Two $50 GC

Concord & 9th - Two $25 GC

Gina K. Designs - Three $50 GC

Hallmark Scrapbook & Crafts - $50 GC

Hero Arts - $25 GC

Honey Bee Stamps - Two $50 GC

Jane's Doodle - $50 GC

Jennifer McGuire Ink - $200 prize pkg

Kat Scrappiness - $25 GC

Lawn Fawn - Two $50 GC

Little Things from Lucy's Cards - £30 GC

Miss Ink Stamp - $25 GC

My Favorite Things - $50 GC

Neat & Tangled $25 GC

Newston's Nook Designs - Two $25 GC

Pink & Main - $25 GC

Organize More - $75 GC

Paper Smooches - $25 GC

Picket Fence Studios - Two 50 GC

Pink & Main - $25 GC

Pretty Pink Posh - Two $25 GC

Reverse Confetti - $25 GC

Right At Home - $20 GC

Simon Says Stamp - $50 GC

SugarPea Designs - $50 GC

Taylored Expressions - Four $25 GC

The Ton Stamps - Stamp set of choice

Waffle Flower $100 GC

Whimsy Stamps - Three $25 GC

I will update the prize list as I get more. :) Please feel free to share about this card drive. We really appreciate your support & generosity. Let's rock this card drive and bring Christmas joy to as many nursing homes as we can!! Thank you. 

Mimi's Button Day Sign

In honor of
Count your buttons day
I thought this sign is perfect.

Paul’s mom moved from an assisted living to a memory care based building. The facility likes to have the resident‘s name on their door and so my husband asked me to make something. I didn’t know what I was going to do and so I was playing around with what ended up being her sign.

I painted some cardboard off white with Making Memories paint.
I arranged these buttons to form her name. The buttons are woodsy looking.
I adhered some red yarn around her name. What a pain in the butt that was.
The background paper is by C Gull
I used rub-ons to create the word welcome.

The sign was rough looking the way it was with that cardboard showing and I wanted to give it a feminine touch. So to cover the cardboard on the top and bottom of her name, I adhered some pink ribbon and lace from her old stash on top of it.

I’m a little disappointed with the placement of the lace but i came up with a new slogan, 

It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be done.

Thanks for looking.

'Tis the Season Deep Red Stamps Card

The sentiment stamp is in the 

Jolly Christmas stamp set

I inked it with distress markers and sprayed it with water before stamping it.

The acorns are in the Seasons of Joy stamp set. I stamped them with Frayed Burlap distress ink.

The corners are from my stash

The die-cut is from eBay. 

Thanks for looking

Fall Arrangement Cards

Here are a few fall cards

Below is the first card and its details:

The background paper is by Cosmo Cricket.

The stitched rectangles are die-cuts I bought off of eBay.

The tag die-cut is by Sizzix

The leaf brads are by Creative Imaginations.

The second card,
The die-cuts are by Spellbinders
One of the papers is a wallpaper sample and the others are misc patterned paper.

There isn't a manufacturer on this stamp. I colored it in with Copic Markers.
The sentiment stamp and black ink by Hero Arts
The background paper is by Provo Craft inked with distress ink Tea Dye

Thanks for looking

Deep Red Stamps Sunflower Fall card

The sunflower stamp by Deep Red Stamps can be found:

Sunflower stamp

I colored it in with Copic markers
In the center is a large copper brad.
The patterned paper is by Best Creations
The felt sentiment sticker is by Little Yellow Bicycle.
The kraft card base is by Recollections.

Here's another card using the same stamp
Here's a card using the same background paper

Thanks for looking

Manly Monday Chevy Sign

I haven’t been able to make cards for men but I do have a few things to share for the next few weeks. This was a sign I made for a silent auction. The Chevy dealer generously donated the oil change gift certificates but I needed to jazz them up with a sign.
 I cut the truck with the Cricut and made my own hood to sit up like you’re having your truck worked on. All of the letters are stickers. I hoped the fun camouflage patterned paper in the background would appeal to men and the purple would appeal to the women. I’m not sure who won or how much it went for.
Thanks for looking.

Lucky Shamrock for my Mom

It is appropriate to post this today Saturday, October 12 for my Mom’s first heavenly birthday. We are burying her ashes today. There are so many emotions and memories that go through my mind.
I feel it necessary to tell you that I wrote this post months ago. I made the top part a short version and at the bottom I give you a more in depth description into the making of this decoration. I also include a memorable moment that I had with my mom. So, Here we go.

I made a decor piece for my mom’s room at the assisted living center for St. Patrick Day. It got many compliments especially  from her. 

I cut out a shamrock stencil and traced it onto cardboard. I used a glue gun to adhere pieces of green fabric inside the drawn template. I altered and then glued the stencil back on top of the cardboard over the fabric pieces. To finish up, I outlined the edges and wrote the word Lucky with Stickles.

Long version:
 It wasn’t supposed to be this way but once my original idea was not coming together I went with what was working. The amount of time it takes me to do such projects is embarrassing. I have to stop over thinking everything and just try it, just do it and just use that favorite stash item you’ve been saving. Quit looking through all your stuff, and take the first thing that you like. Note to self is now finished.

Anyway, I cut the shamrock stencil out of the green-ish cardstock using my Creative Memories heart from the cutting system.  I traced inside the stencil onto a thick cardboard.  Everything inside the Shamrock is fabric pieces. 
After I put a layer of adhesive from my glue gun inside the shamrock area, I would scrunch the fabric into that glue keeping it inside the stencil outline that I had to drawn. I wish I would have used different shades of greens in some areas. 

And so now what do I do with this thing that I pepped myself up to have the ‘Just do it’ mentality and It looks horrible. 

I placed the stencil on top, stood back to take a look and I was so pleased. Wow! The stencil on top of the fabric was just what it needed.

The fit of the stencil wasn’t great because I had gone outside the lines with fabric and glue. I had to cut the stencil to get it to fit but I did so in small increments. I was sweating. This cutting worked well for the shamrock but not in keeping the square shape of the cardboard and although the trimming the shamrock worked in most places there were gaps in other places.

 Enter the Stickles to the rescue! 

Oh Crap! 
 I had to improvise due to the shortage of one color of green Stickles.
 I had a green/red Christmas mix that I used by alternating each color every other couple of inches. I ended up having plenty of the first green but it was lighter so I mixed the two colors together around all of the edges. This type of project might look good with a darker outside line to define the edge but not with this edge’s imperfections. I didn’t want to draw attention to it. 

I wrote the word lucky on a piece of fabric with more green Stickles. This piece was a scrap piece to see how it would look because I was going to write; “We’re lucky to have you” or something like that but I thought that was difficult for a dementia patient. I pulled this prototype out of the trash and glued it on. 

I was running out or low on time because my life revolves around other people that are willing to give me rides and if someone will take me to visit mom, I need to go when they’re ready. 
I still needed a way to hang it up. So when we got there, my brother was kind enough to use the pink Crop o Dile to set some eyelets on each side and tied a ribbon to make it hang. 
She loved it. It was great to see her smile. 
I need to share something that I want to remember:
The last 4 months before she died she would constantly ask me, 
“Who is your mother.” 
I would reply, “You are my mother”.
She would always say in an ugly voice, “I am not your mother”.
Over and over again she asked me the same question. I tried to redirect her and she would ask me, almost drill me,
“Who is your mother?”
I tried, Elizabeth, Liz, Beth, Ms. Bush to which she knew those names were her and with a scowl on her face she would say to me,
“I am not your mother”.
Okay woman, then quit asking me. Lol.

At the end, I didn’t bother calling her mom because she wouldn’t respond to anything other than Liz.

So the thing I always want to remember was about a week before she died I came in and said,
“Hi Liz. My name is Cindy and I’m here to visit with you.”
she said, 
“My daughter’s name is Cindy.”

Yes, yes it is.

Thank you for stopping by.

Party Girl by Deep Red Stamps

Today is
It's My Party Day
It fits perfect with my
Springtime City Girls by Deep Red Stamps
party sentiment.

Patterned paper by My Mind's Eye

Green shaped patterned paper by K and Co.

Party sticker by Pebbles with surrounding die-cuts by K and Co.

Washi tape by Stampin Up.

Thanks for looking.

Peach and Yellow multi layered background die-cut cards

These die-cuts were sent to me by a Caring Hearts Card drive donator. They are layered with some bright colors but I paired them up with some simple sentiments.
The first one is by Hampton Arts.

And the second one is a Cuttlebug dry embossed square sentiment that I inked and sprayed with Ranger gold spray.

Thanks for looking.

Layered Friends card

Here comes a lot of layers.
The black frame is by Making Memories
The frame is on top of a silver scalloped square die-cut that is turned
Both are on top of a white Spellbinders die-cuts
Creative Memories vellum sentiment
Flower and brad from my stash.

Thanks for looking
Here's a similar card

Layered card

Deep Red Stamps Selfie Card

I stamped this chica and colored her in with Copic markers. She's a Deep Red Stamp

City Summer Girls
I added some Stickles in different places of her.

The Circles background stamp was stamped with Versa Mark ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder. Then I inked the entire background with distress inks.

The sentiment is by Me and My Big Ideas

Thanks for looking.

Christmas Gold embossed Upcycled Card

I love being able to upcycle cards. On this card, the only thing that is original is the gold sides. Those were too pretty to cover up.

Thanks for looking

It's Your Day Card Deep Red Stamps

Deep Red Stamps

City Girl Formal

and 

Lace Mesh Borders

Colored with Copics and cut it out. Sentiment cut from Cricut. The dry embossing is a The Paper Studio. Rectangle die-cut in unknown.
I stamped the border stamp from the Lace Mesh Borders with yellow ink (SU Daffodil Delight) onto the very pink card base and it didn't show up. So I inked up the same border with Hero Arts Pale Tomato and stamped it again. It's very faint but I like it.

Thanks for looking.

Thanks a bunch in Blue and Kraft

The kraft paper is by Oriental Trading Co. The blue background is by Paper Pizzazz and the patterned paper is unknown. 

I stamped the floral stamp with navy ink (SU) on the top and bottom of the kraft cardstock. It was an option for a table number for my neighbor's wedding. This and many others were ones that I didn't show her. I pulled out a bunch of stamps to see what I had to present to her. She ended up going with something else that I'll have to find the pictures to post. It's okay that I ended up so many already stamped images because then I'm able to pull one out and make a card.

Thanks for looking

Deep Red Stamps Corset Cards

My Deep Red Stamps card uses the
Corset Collage Stamp that I colored in with colored pencils and chalk.

Lace Mesh Border Stamp
I randomly stamped it onto the background and heat embossed in black.
The background is a random coloring with distress ink.
Dry embossed black cardstock is with Swiss Dot Cuttlebug embossing folder.
The lace tape on the left is from Dollar Tree.

Thanks for looking
Here's another card using the same stamp
Purple Corset Card

This next card uses the same corset stamp the was heat embossed with silver and colored in with colored pencils.
I matted it on Creative Memories journal box. The background of the card was made with the
Lace Mesh Border