Operation Write Home CArds and why I make cards for them.

I think it was 2010 when I began sending Operation WRite HOme cards. I made lots of Christmas cards on my first load. That little red card peeking behind the other cards the deployed hero is holding on the OWH button was one of them. :)

But here is what keeps me making these cards. Most years I am able to send a couple of boxes full of them. But the time I spend in the "tower" (as I call my scraproom) is a time of meditation, prayer and recharging my energy. It's a ministry and service that only in Heaven will I know how fruitful they were.




Sandy from Operation WRite Home is now unboxing cards and sharing them with us the cards of many contributors from all around the country. I was so inspired I decided to share my cards the same way. So my box is full, my cards are packaged, my packing slip is filled out and I am taking this box to the post office to ship. Enjoy the video below where I share my latest shipment of cards to OWH!






Do you make cards too? Would you like to join us and show our heroes some love by sending them some of your handmade cards?

Blessings,
Tereza

Operation Write Home Blog Hop

Hi everyone,

Today I am blog hopping with the awesome card makers that send their handmade cards to Operation Write Home. If you haven't come from the blog hop you might want to start HERE.

I have lots to share so make sure you go all the way to the end of this post. BLOG CANDY is at the end of the post.

I want to share with you a bit how I create my cards. Yesterday, it went like this....

I was reading the Country Living magazine of this month and saw the  photo of a hallway with a staircase and a dresser that had flowers for knobs. (picture on the right) The wall color was a beautiful guava rose and there were white flowers and black and white and stripes... I had to put the magazine down and run to my craft table and make a card. The inspiration juice was dripping off me as I found the guava cardstock and cut it into 3 cards and then found my white flowers. Then I quickly searched for something to make the yellow centers... Ah-ha!! 3D yellow paint. The scraps of striped black and white papers were easy to use - they were just laying around on my messy table. So here is the result of such great inspiration...

Have we inspired you enough to make a few cards and send them on to our Heroes?? I hope so. :) The next deadlines are:
March 18th for Easter cards
March 31st for Mother's Day cards

If you need some more encouragement be sure to check out my videos and some tutorials on my YOuTube channel. :)  Also check out OperationWRiteHome Ustream videos...they are so much fun and you get to meet Sandy the lady who began all this!!!!

Make sure you hop over to Misty to see what Springy creation she has come up with. :)









And above the BLOG CANDY... Every comment will be entered to win, if you follow me you get an EXTRA chance to win, and if you sign up for my newsletter you get ANOTHER chance... so there is up to 3 chances to win this awesome vintage kit... Melissa Frances papers, handmade embellishments, Prima roses, a Sarah Kay stamp, ribbons, laces, wrinkled baby pink seam binding, manila tags, raw chipboards, doiliesand even some Papertreyink cardstock for you to get started making cards. The winner will be announced on March 12. So you have a whole week to come back here and enter for more than one chance to win.

I have used these gorgeous papers to create my last vintage chipboard album. Go check it out!!!

Have fun this weekend blog hopping and be blessed,
Tereza

OperationWriteHome Birthday Bash

Fall is here!

All September long it was Birthday Bash celebration at OperationWriteHome. I wrote in and set a goal of 500 cards to send in, BUT I didn't meet my goal. I was able to create 110 cards only.

I have been so busy with our children. They are taking music lessons once a week. DD7 is learning piano and DS5 is learning the drums. Well, that was the initial plan but they are actually learning more. DS5 is also learning the bangos and DD7 is also playing the drums. About a month ago, God led me to a music shop in town and I was able to purchase an used working keyboard for $5.00!!! And last week, we purchased an electronic drum set for $200.00!!! So I guess we are preparing to become a worship band!! hahahaha Who knows!!???

Anyway, busy with that. Also I found a homeschool co-op that meets every other week and our social life has picked up a bit. :) My craft life has become second in my priorities. I have a lot of inventory in stock and I am cleaning up my studio. I have come up with a little marketing strategy to increase my sales in my Etsy shop and clean up the many treasures I have in stock.

Here are some of the cards I sent to OperationWriteHome last week. And if you don't know about them yet and you like to make cards you should check them out. :)

I made many more that I will share later on. Have a blessed week and thanks for stopping by,

Tereza

Happy Father's Day!

Below a batch of cards I sent to Operation Write Home.

I hope they made a Father's Day!!






Kiss your Daddy today! Mine just arrived all the way from Brazil. :)

Tereza

I am on a roll!

Can you tell what I have been doing? :)

Here's a video to give you a clue.



Tereza

Thrifty Thursday and my new YouTube channel!

Hey everyone,

I have been so busy! I just got a new custom order for another Word Album and I am hoping to be able to share the how to of it here. :) Yes, isn't that exciting?! I got a YouTube account so you can go check it out HERE and see all the videos I have already uploaded there.

You can also check Thrifty Thursday every week to see a technique or a tip that will not bankrupt your wallet or bank account or credit card! ha! LOL

Today I am sharing how to make your own flowers with what you got!


I am also making a ton of cards for Operation Write Home! This is an awesome organization and you should join in and make some cards too. Here is a video showing off some of the cards I made.




There's still time to make some Father's Day Cards, so be sure to join in.

Would you leave a comment so I know you stopped by? Have a blessed week!

Tereza

Merry Christmas to our Heroes!!

Have you seen the movie above?? It will bring joy to your heart. :)

As some of you may know I have made and sent some cards to our fellow heroes abroad. You can see some of the cards I have made in the past HERE, HERE and HERE. I haven't sent any in since I became pregnant, but I have been collecting cards that I plan to send in after Christmas. They can use cards all year long. Any theme, any type, any holiday, just because cards. Take a look at their website and blog (links below) for more information on the cards you can make.

Operation Write Home is an awesome organization that sends the cards to our heroes and they get to send some love to their loved ones here back home for free.

If you would like to help you can make cards too or donate money that goes into paying for shipping costs. Just click HERE to find out more!

Merry Christmas everybody!!

tereza

Cards for Heroes Blog Hopping!

****Memorial Day Update - some people on the comments asked how did I know that the RED CARD in the soldier's hands was mine. Earlier on there was a bigger photo on CFH blog and I was really able to see it closely and it is mine. Below is a bigger picture of one of the cards I sent. And like I describe below on my original post I cut up pieces of a Christmas fabric and machine stitched to a red cardstock and hand stamped Merry Christmas on the inside. there were many different images on the fabric: Snow man, Christmas tree, bells, angels and with them the Christmas wishes for Joy, Peace, Love etc. I was so happy to see the fruits of my labor and it really motivated me to keep making more cards to send to them. It really takes very little to make someone's day.***********



If you follow my blog or have been here before you might have noticed my little banner of Cards for Heroes. Cards for Heroes is an organization that donates cards to our soldiers abroad so they can send hand written notes to their loved ones here back home. They also provide encouraging cards to our wounded heroes helping out another organization that provides quilts and other needed personal items to the soldiers that are wounded and have to be transported to a hospital.

I have become involved with this organization and have sent some cards to them a couple of times. My daughter and I got busy and made a bunch of them, as well as Christmas cards last year. If you would like to see some of them and the tips I shared please click HERE.



so I am participating on a Blog Hop to help promote this organization and get more people involved. Please check out their website for more information.

You don't need to be an expert card maker to join, or send dozens of cards. Just do a little or as much as you can. There are so many creative ways you can help. If you don't want to make cards, you can donate supplies, send a few dollars to help out with shipping, sign AnyHero cards...there is so much to do.

I have recently started collecting the cards that don't sell in my shop and I am sending them over.

Also do you see that red card in the hands of that hero on the first photo on this post? It's my card!! That is a Christmas card that I made using some donated red cardstock. I cut up some Christmas fabric that had cute pictures on them with sayings like Peace, Joy, etc and I machine stitched them to the cardstock. Them my daughter and I hand stamped MErry Christmas on the inside of them and they were ready. We sent over 50 cards. They were simple, cute and it was a great opportunity to do some bonding with my little one.

Have I convinced you yet? :)

Be sure to hop over to Pamela's website. Pamela is also participating on this blog hop. Pamela designs stamps and has some wonderful unique designs and scenery stamps, as well as beautiful cards and useful techniques and tips.

As you browse around the blogs make sure you leave traces that you were there. :) Would love to hear your comments.

Have a beautiful weekend and let's celebrate the heroes of this country! :)

Tereza

Serious Spring Cleaning

hi everyone,

I have re-opened my Etsy shop and listed EVERYTHING I have READY to ship and in stock at a very reduced price. I am seriously Spring Cleaning... the sale goes on until April 18th and when it is over whatever is left will be donated.

Somehow I just feel it's necessary to clean and purge. there are a lot of wonderful vintage cards, Parisian tags and even a scrapbook kit with some embellishments.

I have a load of scrapbook papers, embellishments, stamps and other things that I will list on Ebay after April 18th. I also have some Premade scrapbook pages that I will list.

So whatever it is that you fancy I think you will find something to treasure among my treasured creations. Be sure to check them out. :)

Also have you seen the new website for Cards for Heroes? It looks so great. They added so many features. That is another reason for my Spring Cleaning I want to have a clean slate to begin sending them some more cards by May.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I am so looking forward to church. :) I have been praying for little Stellan that Praise the Lord is seeing a turn around. Check out his Momma's blog.

God bless, :)

tereza

Fall Cards for CardsforHeroes

Hi everyone....

Please take a moment to vote on the right column so I can prepare some goodies for my next Give Away or Candy Blog. Also please sign up for my newsletter so you know when I post.

ok... you cardmakers and scrappers out there, what do you do with your scraps of paper and ribbons and other things you don't want anymore?

I decided to put them all to good use and made some cards for our heroes. Click HERE to find out who I am talking about.

Look at what I made last night:




These are very simple cards but will sure make an impression. My favorite color is YELLOW. So you know I love fall and all those warm tones of orange, reds and yellows.

I used some ribbon I did not want any more, some left over Prima papers and some Pebble Inc. die cut stickers. All I did was cut the strips of pattern paper and glue them to the bottom of card, then cut the ribbons and tied them to each of the cards. Then I matted each die cut sticker and placed them slightly on top of the ribbon. Next I stamped my Fall text either directly on the card or on a punched circle.

Now how difficult is that??? Click HERE to find out the great challenge they have put out there. There is still some time left, so go make some good use of those scraps. :)

More close ups:



Blessings,

Tereza

Cards for the Wounded Heroes.

Today we had a lunch at church to celebrate the retirement of our secretary. She has been working at the church for 18 years, now she is retired. Which actually means she won't be receiving a salary, but I bet she will still be working for us. :)

Anyway, I took all the cards that my daughter and I made for the heroes serving this country to the lunch and asked people to sign them. We had a great turn around.

Here are the photos.



I don't know how many there are. I haven't counted them yet.

The designs are pretty simple. I have bought some stamps at Agape Gifts and used them on the cards. Agape Gifts has beautiful stamps that are Patriotic, Religious, funny and Christian themes too. Sandy will also give you a discount if you are buying stamps to use on your cards that you are sending to Cards for Heroes.






These are going to the soldiers that are injured in the battlefield and the medical staff that takes care of them.

Here are my daughter's cards. She used her collage scrapbook pages. WE scanned them in and then printed them out and glued on the front of the cards. There is one she used one of her photos from her first fishing trip and made a collage card.



Here is my favorite card: YOU'RE THE BEST COUNTRY LOVIN' FREEDOM FIGHTER!!!



the cool thing about these cards are:

1) you don't need to send envelopes;
2) they can be simple. Use your scrap papers. You can see some of the techniques I used on these cards HERE. The cards are going inside the care packages sent to these wounded heroes and medic personnel by Operation Quiet Comfort.
3) It's a great way to show them that we know they are still out there, that we appreciate them, that their efforts are not in vain.

So I challenge you today to go make some cards with a purpose. :)

Check out the links on this post for more information and to read what heroes and their families are saying.

Have a beautiful blessed Sunday!!

Tereza

New Cards different styles!

I have found new inspiration through the many friends that have stopped by my blog recently.

Cecilia's cards is one of my new sources of inspiration. She has a blog where she showcases her cards. Like me she loves vintage and creates cards with vintage images and all these beautiful embellishments.

Unlike me, she loves to layer and adds lots of different patterned papers and stitches them together sometimes. So I tried layering my papers and added my own embellishments. I also added a patterned paper to the inside of my card. Here is the result.





Now check out Cecilia's cards HERE. She does beautiful artistic cards. :)

I also am working on some cards for CARDS FOR HEROES organization. I love to try new styles. So I went with whimsical, playful and upbeat. I also tried a completely different size: 6x6" cards. This is what I made:






I also layered and embellished the insides:




Lessons learned:
1) it's always good to try something new.
2) I will be listing cards in a new size soon, very soon.
3) Make sure to check on my cards, some will have pretty patterned paper on the inside too.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the view!! :)

Tereza