Blog Hoppin' with OWH!

Hello - welcome to my little stop along the way in the big Operation Write Home Spring Break Bloghop! If you are are participating in the OWH blog hop and you've found your way here from Vieve Garner's blog, Plaid Polka Dots, you are rolling along merrily! If you have found your way here from somewhere else, well - you are just as welcome, and encouraged to join in on OWH's blog hop - it's big and bold and full of wonderful inspiration, creation, and celebration! Head on over to the OWH Stars & Stripes blog to start at the beginning. Reminder - leave a comment on this post to show that you were here. At the end of the hop, I will be writing on an itty bitty little strip of paper the name of each person who commented, then I will throw everybody's name into a hat (a Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics toque, specifically!) and I will draw one name. This person will be announced somewhere here as the winner, I will make contact via email in order to get a mailing address, and I will be sending a humble yet heartfelt little gift/RAK of appreciation to them. YOU could be the lucky winner - yes, YOU, so don't forget to comment at the bottom of this post.

If you are not familiar with Operation Write Home, I strongly urge you to check them out! It's such a great organization - their mission statement reads, and I quote - "To support our nation’s armed forces by sending blank greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." Their site(s) feature so many heartwarming stories and comments that demonstrate how sending handmade greeting cards overseas, such a seemingly small and simple show of support for some of this world's true heroes, can make such a strong and appreciated impact. Truly, it's the least we can do and I personally find it so rewarding to know that the cards that I so enjoy making can be received by service people overseas who can in turn use them to send words of love back home across so many, many miles to their families who love them and miss them and pray for their safety every day...Like I said, SO rewarding! You can find out more here, here, here, and here!


OK, now on with the show! Participants in the OWH Spring Break Blog Hop were asked to create a 'Welcome Spring'/Thinking Of You spring-inspired card. I have made three cards that say 'Spring' to me - bright, cheerful, and floral. I left them without greetings so that they remain in the 'all occasion' category and can be used for birthday, thinking of you, love, etc. I often do this for cards that I keep in my stash so that they are versatile and can be modified to suit an occasion as needed. For the cards that I send in to OWH, I almost always add a greeting of some kind in order to give them a 'finished' feeling/appearance. Of note, you can go to Operation Write Home's home page to find out what their currents calls/requests and deadlines for cards are (look in the bottom left column). As of today, they are asking for packages to be sent postmarked by:

Mother's Day: April 1
Graduation: April 19
Father's Day: May 15
All other cards: anytime

Alright, now on to the next stop along the way - hop on over to Tami Bayer's blog, Dapple Designs, see what goodness she has to offer, and make sure to leave her some love too!

Thanks for stopping by and playing along! I hope you will be inspired to send OWH a package of your own handmade cards often - or even every once in a while - it's all good!

Happy Saturday!

My Current Obsession...

...is Cards For Heroes! I've seen the name around, on message boards, websites, etc. but I only recently just got curious enough to look into it further. All I can say is, WOW! What a great organization!! The website is very informative, very thorough - go take a look! To explain a bit about Cards For Heroes, I've borrowed their mission statement from their website:

OUR MISSION

To support our nation's armed forces by sending blank greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

Doesn't sound like to much to ask, especially in the face of the enormous commitment and sacrifice these individuals are making for the good of their country and many others!

I was so fired up after getting onto their website that I've put together about two dozen cards so far that I'm going to send off, and I'm going to continue to collect them and send them when I've accumulated a good amount again. This is an American based organization, and I have looked about for a Canadian equivalent, and I have not been able to find anything. If anybody has any information about being able to support our Canadian troops in this way, please let me know! Regardless, I am going to and will continue to support Cards for Heroes.

I have amassed a large amount of cards over the years, either through taking classes or just indulging my need to cut paper and wield glue. I could easily assemble more cards than I could ever use just through my love for crafting, so now I've found the perfect finish line for my never ending marathon of scrapbooking/cardmaking! I urge you to visit the Cards for Heroes website - as I said, it is very thorough, and very touching as well. A seemingly very small gesture of appreciation and fellowship on our part can have such a postive, rewarding impact on these strangers overseas who are putting their lives on the line for us every day - how wonderful that we have the ability to take this hobby, this passion, of ours to a whole other level of meaning in such a simple way!