I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas holiday!!

I've been purging again and found yet more items to donate to From Our Hearts which is a fully certified 501(c)(3) non profit that collects full cards in addition to card fronts to ship to our servicemen/women serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Did I mention what a swap queen I was back in the day?

Here's a few of the full cards with coordinating envelopes swap I remember hosting using stickers only. These were done when stickers fell out of vogue and this was a creative way for all of us to "use up" our existing sticker stashes.


In total? 57 full cards & matching envelopes decorated with stickers!

Also, I found even more SU card fronts in yet another cubby. This should hopefully be it except for the shoebox-full I've held on to for continued personal inspiration.

In total? 77 SU card fronts! I got a little ambitious and decided to do some leg work to alleviate the workload of FOH's volunteers and converted as many as I could into full folding cards. I got all but 29 done which I'll be sending directly to Regina to finish off.

Yep, I'm mailing these babies out to Martie and Regina in Missouri and Kansas respectively before the postage rates go up on Jan 1st. Of course, I've sent along an itemized list of everything I'm sending for their IRS reporting purposes to help save them processing time. I also packaged each folding card with a matching envelope and FOH label in a cello bag so that they'll be ready to go directly into their sorting bins upon arrival.

Yay for another clean cubby for me!! And that's a total of 134 cards for our troops. Here's my running total for the year 2010 which totally warms my heart :)




I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops. It's a small but heartfelt way to thank our troops for their service to our country.

I'm in a huge PURGING mode so that I can finally organize the way I need to be in order to be fully functional. Else, it's such a pain to have to find and dig for things in order to get any project going. No wonder I have major scrappers' block!!

Guess what I found recently?

Card Fronts!!

Yes, lots of priority envelopes, ziplock bags, shopping bags and boxes of card fronts back from my swapping days from when I was a SU Demo (2000-2005). I was a swapping FIEND!!! and unfortunately, lol, I'm also a hoarder as I never had the heart to toss them.

I loved them for exchanging ideas on how to use various stamp sets, card layout ideas, color combinations and most of all to learn techniques. Each and every month, I had a few stamp clubs, in-home hostess parties and a crop I held in a hotel conference room back in my heyday, so it was wonderful to always have a slew of fresh card samples to share with my customers to inspire (and to spur on orders).

I wanted to donate these for a good cause especially since many of them were beautifully made. It truly would be a shame to just toss 'em. I was so glad when a kind lady by the name of Martie Shea answered my query on Splitcoast Stampers and I thus became aware of her amazing non-profit group called From Our Hearts which collects full cards as well as card fronts to ship to our servicemen and women serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Take a look at her blog and you'll see that they're quite organized with designated (and dedicated) volunteers who spend hours of their personal time to give back to those who are sacrificing their lives for our freedom and way of life. I'm very thankful that such a group exists and it warms my heart that I'm able to help.

So, here's what I'm sending to Martie and her non-profit From Our Hearts.....


I thought to make it easier on their volunteers by sorting and categorizing the card themes for them before I ship out so that's what I did at a crop I attended yesterday.


That's a total of 587 card fronts I'll be shipping to Martie's From Our Hearts Monday Morning. Here's my inventory sheet to make it easier for them for IRS reporting purposes. (Yep, they're legit!)


I'm also sending along these boxes of blank envelopes I found. 9 boxes of 500 envies each = 4500 envies!! Whoohoo!! They're a bit old so I hope they can still use them.


Martie, from my heart to yours, THANK YOU for all that you and your volunteers do!! I've read EVERY single post on your blog and have shed many a tears because I am so touched.

I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal them money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops.