The Cards are in the Mail!

Thanks to all my helpers I was able to send out Father's Day cards to 2 hospitals & MSgt Mike's replacement, MSgt Jason.....it is their first deployment & he emailed me when I sent a card for Armed Forces Day to let me know that our support is making it easier for them to do their job over there. Lets keep it up. I am so honored to have 'met' you all & hope to make a lot more friends along the way in coordinating this project. I want to say again how much this is helping me in dealing with my son's upcoming deployment. Please keep me busy!! I have pictures to post later of some of the cards I have been receiving.

CARDS ARE OFF TO IRAQ

Well all the cards are off to Iraq. These final 3 cards are ones I made for the LT to send to his wife & sons. I CASE'd the one with the flower but for the life of me I can not find it again to give credit where credit is due. If you are the designer of this card please let me know so I can tell the world (or the little part of it that comes here) who you are. I will be making more of these I am sure.
As soon as I got back from the run to the Post Office (plus a couple other errands we had to do) there was an email that the son of one of the members of Operation Mom, a Marine, was due to land to SFO at 8PM. She was planning a surprise party & wanted us all to be there. Steve & I quickly changed & headed back out the door to Round Table Pizza in Newark to wait. They arrived at about 9:15ish & boy was he surprised. Friends & Family shouted "Surprise!!" from the darkened party room as they came thru the front door. His mom had gotten him there under the guise of seeing family who worked there. It really was a great time had by all & Mom sure was grinning big time. Welcome Home Marine!!
Next month another son will be coming home to another happy family.....will keep you all posted after that event. Wish I knew when mine would be home.

Another way to help with Cards for the Troops

More exciting news. Another wonderful person by the name of Laura O'Shea has made another offer to help out with the Cards for the Troops project. This will allow non-cardmakers an opportunity to help out. She makes cards to sell & has set it up to donate a card to the troops for each card sold. If you do not want to buy a card for yourself she will give a 20% discount for cards purchased to donate. Check out her site, Whirlpool of Imagination, for more information. This will go thru the month of May......hope you can help out.

Card Contest in Progress

EXCITING NEWS TO SHARE!!!
I got an email from Kyla Maestas (a Stampin' Up Demo from WY) telling me she not only wanted to participate in the Cards for Troops project but she wanted to know if it was ok to promote a contest to get more cards to send. Well what do you think I said?? YaHOO! The contest is officially started today & all the information you will need is on her blog, Kyla Maestas~Sweetwater Designs. RUN, RUN, RUN to go check it out. Good luck to all.

NO HALLMARK STORES IN IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN!

I am a member of Operation Mom, a support group for families & friends of active duty servicemembers. My only son (our only child actually) is in the US ARMY. We send packages overseas to the troops (we get names from families & friends plus we have contact names over there who hand goodies out) & also put cards in the packages to them & for them to send home to their loved ones. Cards needed right now are All Occasion Cards (Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, Hello, Friend, Missing you & kids cards for them to send to their children at home) by end of June (next mailing will be end of September). These cards should be blank inside for the service member to write inside to their loved ones, must be with regular envelopes...back of card tucked into envie (no clear ones please) & if you do do dark paper please put light color insert so they can write on that. We always want Thank you cards from you TO the troops....with a personal note inside (thank you for your service, you are in my prayers, hope you come home to your loved ones soon, etc). Due to security issues these envelopes (envelopes are not required for the thank you cards to them if you don't want to put them in one) must be unsealed & if you would like a response (no guarantee on this as they are a bit busy over there but I did get 2 cards at Christmas & several emails this past mailing) you can put your return address on the envelope or include your email address inside (I have been getting emails). We can also always use Sympathy cards. This would be a great way to use the swap cards you accumulate. If you are interested in participating please email me with any questions you may have or to ask for the address to mail the cards to: pfcrensmom-cardsfortroops@yahoo.com (please don't disrespect the troops by using this email to send spam!). This will be a year round project. http://dddzstmpn.blogspot.com

Thanks Vanessa

Found a very kewl stamper who is gonna do some cards for the troops, Vanessa (check out her blog).....she's helping me get more donations. Her blog turned me on to Desert Flier, a trauma & critical care nurse who is currently deployed to Iraq. Check out his blog....he's a great writer & gives his personal story of his life in the sandbox. He's only been there a couple of weeks thus far. If you haven't watched the video I posted on February 28th please do so.....the song is really, really good.

If you didn't see the PBS Special, When Parents are Deployed, then you should read this & maybe that will motivate you to make some cards that these parents can send home to their children. Wouldn't it be nice for them to get a special hand made card just for them from the person they miss so much?? Even if you don't make cards I saw boxes of birthday/thank you cards, etc. at Walgreens last nite that could be sent.