Cards for Kids

I have to say that I truly love participating in the One World One Heart (OWOH) event each year. I meet lots of lovely, talented people and get to visit places that I would love to visit but find that life gets in the way.

If you are like me, you have probably visited so many sites and looked around and followed links and ended up someplace totally unexpected. I found one such place that had tears streaming down my face and I don't know how I ended up here, but I can only imagine that I was brought here by the loving hand of God.

I found Jennifer McGuire's Cards for Kids site and I think you might want to pop on over and take a look.  She is collecting cards for eight sick children and their families, as she writes:

"We are hoping to collect a ton of cards for EIGHT sick children and their families. Cards of encouragement, love, cheer and hope. We truly feel that cards can lift spirits. And, in these rough times, it is an inexpensive way to make a difference in someone's life."

When you go to her site you can find out about the eight children and their families and make a card(s) for anyone in the family that you would like. She has information about the families and you can pick who you want to make/send cards to.

The best part is that this is ongoing, she constantly updates the list and mails out all the cards herself.  If that weren't enough, what truly brought the tears was something that one of the parents of a child who has since passed away wrote to her (I took this directly from Jennifer's site):

"Hi Jennifer. My name is Leslie Osman and I lost my 8-year-old son to adrenoleukodystrophy on October 25, 2009. Kathy Racoosin, who is a friend, submitted our information to you as part of your card drive and I just wanted to tell you just how much it meant to our entire family. Our other two kids had so much fun opening the cards. They each carry them around in a little shopping bag. We also spent a lot of time looking at all the different states and countries that sent cards. It was just amazing



Kathy (Racoosin) came over last month and spent an evening with me and my daughter - showing us how to make cards. And now, we would like to pay it forward and participate in one of your other drives. So, that's what we're going to do.


I really just wanted to take a moment to let you know just how wonderful this effort is.


- Leslie Osman (Bob, Rachel, Jacob and our sweet angel Eric)"

I am hoping that by mentioning this during OWOH that she will receive cards from many of you who are so talented and I know have generous hearts.

Love and Hugs,
Antonella  :-)

Blog Candy - Giveaway

You have to check this out! This is a huge giveaway offer from My Stamping Heaven!

All you have to do is click this link and leave a message for a chance to win.

You have to enter by January 31st.

Good Luck!

Enjoy!

Disclosure Policy

Disclosure Policy

The Federal Trade Commission requires that I disclose any relationship I have between a business or manufacturer when I write about their goods, which is a good practice in today’s digital world.

*  I am never paid to feature a product or person. I write all of my own posts, but I never accept money or goods in exchange for any of the regular posts on my site.

*  If I create a link to a shop, I may sometimes get paid a commission if you make a purchase through the link on my site. I do not affiliate with any company whom I do not personally trust, and most of the shops that I affiliate with are places where I have previously made purchases myself. As of June22, 2010, I will place a note at the bottom of any post which contains affiliate links. If you do not see this note, then that means I am not getting paid a commission.

*   No advertiser will ever influence the content or posts on this site.

Note: I am posting this on June 22, 2010 but have backdated the post so that I can reference it in the future if necessary.

Snowman Card and Some Fun at Work

Aren't these snowmen cards cute? We did something called a "Service Auction" at work. All of the managers had to offer something for bid by the employees as a way to raise money for the employee association.

My service offering was a Quilling Class. I had very little time to come up with my project, but I knew it had to include quilling. So I quickly created a snowman card and offered the class that they dubbed "Artful with Antonella" (cute, I think I will need to remember this one).

There were 2 "winners" Jaya and Prathibha. Jaya later told me that there were people who had asked her about quilling and what it was and she said that she told them a little, but was careful not to let on too much lest they outbid her - lol.

We used the card I created as our inspiration and the cards they created are truly their own.

I precut the template for the easel card using the pattern you can find on the Craftiblog (great site, I just added a link to her blog on my blogroll too).

In preparation for the class I also pre-cut paper accents and hand punched snowflakes and such so that these steps would not take up too much time. As you can see, we had so much fun stamping we didn't end up using the punches.

We sat down in the breakroom and began our class. I had selected a snowman because of the winter weather and thought we could complete the card within an hour. We ended up about 1-1/2 hours to make the cards and lots of fun by all.

I don't buy that many stamp pads, but when I do I try to find interesting ones. I selected these Tsukineko Brilliance inkpads because they actually have a shimmer to them. If you click on the pictures you can see the shimmer in the photographs.

This is a basic 2 ball Snowman pattern:

Head: 2 strips of paper, to make a Tight Roll

Body: 3 strips of paper, to make a Tight Roll

Gently push out the center of the roll to make a rounded head and body. Add Glue to the inside (bottom) of the snowman and let the glue dry.

If you notice, Prathibha added a blue strip as her second strip in the body of her snowman. You too can add some color to your snowman by replacing the 2nd white strip with the color of your choice. You can also create a snowman that is not white at all, the choice is yours, have some fun with this.

We then added an Orange triangle for his nose (I like to add the nose first and cover the center of the roll so you don't see the hole)

Googly eyes were added, because they are just too much fun - even if they sometimes give your snowman a bit of a cross eyed look - lol

3 Black crystals were added for his buttons

A piece of ribbon was cut and artisitically tied to keep him warm.

Finally his tophat was added

One of the tophats was made by cutting a strip of black paper and rolling it around your pinky and gluing it to a circular base (note: I used a hole punch to punch a hole in the circle so that the hat would perch dashingly on his head).

The other tophat used a single strip of black paper, and Prathibha folded up the bottom. We cut some strategic slits so that it would go flat and there you have it.

To keep the easel cards standing, we added 3 snowballs. As you can see, they are multi colored... use your imagination. I find when placing something to keep the card standing, that I go slightly off-center and preferrably something with some height. That is why the snowballs are stacked.

I love the personality that the cards have and the beautiful colors that were used.

What do you think you will try? I know that I will be making more of these myself, can't wait to see what they look like. :-)

Enjoy!
Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

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