Cards for Family and Friends

The last couple of days, my scrapping purpose has been to make cards for family and friends -- celebrating a new job, congratulating a promotion, sending birthday greetings.

The card below was made for the daughter of a friend who just landed her first full-time teaching job! To go along with the school theme, I went with primary colors. To establish a strong focal point, I remembered the rule of 3s -- technically, the rule of odd-numbered items -- and positioned design elements near the stamped sentiment -- also in 3s. Paper edges were distressed and inked. Finally, the frugal side of me made the most of garage-sale paper and free Highlights for Children stickers.

The second card I will feature today is a birthday card for my nephew who is turning 10 next month. So, what kind of card do you make for a 10-year-old boy? The answer came in another garage-sale find. This 10 cent sticker was perfect -- yep, 10 cents! The sticker is actually 3 stickers in one. To add interest and dimension, I used pop up dots to raise the middle portion. This 3-D effect, combined with its edgy sentiment and boy-friendly color scheme, made for an amazingly simple and perfectly suited card for Josh. (And, naturally, the handwritten note inside says, "Hope you have a Gr 8 day!")

Scrapping while on Vacation

My husband and I recently took a trip to our favorite South Carolina spot. Naturally, OWH card-making supplies made the trip, too!

The following school-themed cards were made using some old Creative Memory stickers, garage sale papers, and a random die-cut sticker.

The following cards were made with Stella Rose My Mind's Eye paper. In addition, sentiments were stamped, edges were inked, and stickles were applied to flower centers.

The school cards were purposely made to be really colorful and quite simple in design. The Stella Rose cards were designed to appeal to a more sophisticated audience.  :)

During vacation season, OWH card submissions often slow during the summer months. And, while the end of July is the deadline for school-themed/First Day of School cards, cards with general sentiments are always appreciated.

So, scrap on!

Missing You OWH Card Idea

At Monday night's card-making class at Pizazz It! scrapbook store, we made cards using Stella Rose's My Mind's Eye 6x6 pads of paper. Love the paper. Especially love that it is two-sided!

The smaller flowers have two layers to add a little dimension. The larger flower has three layers, with the top layer edges inked in desert sand. I then added a garage-sale-find metallic embellishment that seemed like a perfect match for both the color palette and the punched flowers to add a little texture.

I'm thinking the design would make a nice Missing You card for Operation Write Home -- keeping with flowers for a feminine touch and changing to stars for more masculine cards.

Sounds like I have a project for this weekend!

On a bittersweet note, the Pizazz It! class was tons of fun. But, it was the last class at Pizazz It! due to the store's closing later this month. Thanks again to the Pizazz It! family. Best wishes to you all.

Support of Independently-Owned Stores

The Central Ohio Scrapbooking and Card-Making Community has been hard hit these last couple of months.

Three independently-owned stores, including Pickerington favorite Pizazz It!, are closing their doors. A local scrapbook retreat location is also closing.

Thankfully, a fourth store will not be closing. Scrapbook Art in Lewis Center announced new ownership and will be re-opening shortly after today's final liquidation!

It is even more important than ever that we support our independently-owned stores. I am just as guilty as the next person for going to a big chain to save a few dollars -- especially with those 40% - 50% off coupons. But, I am definitely going to make even more of an effort to buy as much as possible from businesses such as Scrapbook Art.

Finally, I send my deepest appreciation to the following. You have all touched so many lives. Thank you for all that you have done. Here's wishing you only the best.

• Sue and the Pizazz It! family, with a special call-out to my card instructor Tiffany
• Scrapbook Art Owners Emeriti Caron and Amy
• New Scrapbook Art Owner Terri

2012 OWH Card-Making Event

This year's cards have barely been shipped and planning is already underway for next year.

Many thanks to Jeri and Denise for meeting with me this afternoon at Scrapbook Art!

Details for next year's event will be posted in the spring. Hope to see you there!

The Keys to Our Success

Corporate Funding

McGraw-Hill encourages its employees to lead events for non-profit organizations as part of its Global Volunteer Day Community Partnership Event. My proposal for our Operation Write Home card-making event was accepted -- and we sprang into our action.

Location, Location, Location

Even before submitting the GVD proposal, I was considering where to hold the event. A colleague shared information about a local scrapbook store, Scrapbook Art, that was just 5 minutes from our office.

Further investigation revealed that Scrapbook Art already sponsored monthly events for Operation Write Home.

It sounded like we had found the perfect place!

Perfect Partnerships

Next, I contacted Caron and Amy, the owners of Scrapbook Art. Both Caron, who is a proud military mom of a son who has been deployed overseas, and Amy were eager to help. They put me in touch with Jeri, a longtime customer who sponsored the monthly OWH events.

As it turns out, Jeri had a few partners-in-crime who were more than willing to join in our efforts. Jeri, Denise, Stampin' Up Sue, and other volunteers spent countless hours designing and prepping kits for the big day.

Great Designs

Our volunteers designed cards that were both cute and duplicatable (for novice card-makers). We also designed cards that were generic in nature, as well as some cards that were gender-neutral.

Great Pre-Event Material Prep

As I mentioned, Jeri, Denise, Sue and other volunteers assembled materials that allowed for quick card-making. Embossing, inking, and stickling -- as well as xyronizing -- were all done in advance by this wonderful group of ladies to maximize our time on May 21.

Making the Most of our Budget

Again, Jeri, Denise, Caron, and Amy came to the rescue.

Jeri and Denise were our number crunchers and looked for the best deals for envelopes and cardstock for card bases. They also became experts at using leftover scraps to design new cards, such as the multi-colored 'Hello', 'You Make Me Smile', and 'Love You' cards.

In addition, Caron and Amy graciously offered us a discount on materials we purchased from them, such as patterened papers and adhesives.

Communication

Following introductory e-mails and phone calls, we all met at Scrapbook Art for a major planning session. Periodic mini sessions were routine. (The proximity of the store to our McGraw-Hill office was so helpful!) We also made regular use of e-mail and a wiki to keep everyone informed.

We promoted the event a number of ways:

• posting on the McGraw-Hill Intranet site
• listing the event on OWH's calendar
• e-mailing colleagues at McGraw-Hill
• manning a table at a McGraw-Hill lunch-time promotional event
• e-mailing participants of Scrapbook Art's monthly OWH events
• posting information at Scrapbook Art

The Next Step

We are meeting this week to plan for next year's event!

So, what do 1793 cards look like?

Answer:

On Tuesday, May 24, a few of us returned to Scrapbook Art to ensure our cards were healthy enough to stay out of the card hospital and perform any necessary triage. We then sorted, packed, and shipped two large flat rate boxes of cards to each of the three OWH shippers.

Stay tuned for more photos and details.

1793: My New Favorite Number

Question: Why 1793?

Answer: Because we shipped 1793 cards to OWH on Tuesday!

More pics from our McGraw-Hill Global Volunteer Day card-making event:

Stay tuned for more photos and details...

HUGE Card-Making Event for OWH

Question:  How do you celebrate OWH's one millionth card?

Answer:  Host a huge card-making event to kick off the next million!

On May 21, employees of McGraw-Hill joined forces with customers of Scrapbook Art to make nearly 1800 cards for Operation Write Home during a McGraw-Hill Global Volunteer Day Event!



The Morning Shift






The Afternoon Shift

 


Our Final Total: 1775+ Cards

 
Many, many, many thanks to:

• Scrapbook Art owners Caron and Amy and staff for hosting the event,
• Scrapbook Art customers Jeri and Denise for designing and prepping gorgeous cards -- for hours and hours on end,
• McGraw-Hill volunteers and Scrapbook Art customers for assembling cards (on a gorgeous Saturday in May, I must add),
• McGraw-Hill for its generous support of our event, one of many Global Volunteer Day events occurring in 47 cities, 17 countries.

  



                                

                                        Material Prep Guru Jeri



Design Gurus Sandy and Denise



                  

        

               Store Co-Owner (and Proud Military Mom) Caron with
                   Team Leader Sybrina



It was an AMAZING day -- a day in which a global corporation joined forces with an independently-owned small business to make a difference for our troops and their loved ones.

 







My sincerest and deepest heartfelt thanks to all. You are ROCK STARS and our troops will love sending your cards to their loved ones!