SSS Designer Spotlight & Caring Hearts Updates

Psst... warning long post ahead. Caring Hearts update below. :)

Wow, this month fly by so fast. This is my last post as SSS Designer Spotlight for November. To Simon Says Stamp, I want to thank you for this opportunity and also for your generous support to Caring Hearts Card Drive. I enjoy working with the team and it's been a blast. 

This week the challenge is easy peasy... ANYTHING GOES!!

From one of his trip, my boss got me this fold-able card that I thought is such a cool idea, so, I made one myself using SSS Birthday Farm Animals.

Here's a pic of it kind of flat. Once you insert it into an envelope it will lay totally flat. Like those priority mail box. Flat till you pop it. :)

And, here how it looks when you square up the box. It really is such a fun card to make. I want to make more of this kind of card, as soon as I find more time!! I hope you'll play along.

Supplies: SSS Birthday Farm Animals

And, as we're getting close to the end of the Caring Hearts Card Drive, I want to do some update. I love sharing the process & updates as I think you all like to know what happened to your cards and seeing behind the scene pics. 

As of yesterday we have received over 8000 cards. Quite possibly closer to 9000 maybe. That's almost triple what we received last year and we're supporting close to 50 nursing homes including Friends For Life program. Friends For Life is a volunteer base program that provide help and protection for the elderly and disabled. 

Every year, I am always humbled by the response for the card drive. When I started, I thought I'll be lucky if I can even get 100 cards. And, I was surprised that I actually received 750 cards. 5 years later, I cringe when a friend put out the challenge to collect 5000 cards. And, what do you know.... We received almost 9000 and counting.

Last weekend, we started packing some of the cards and Trinh Arrieta came down from San Antonio to help me out. Here's some pics for you:

Trinh was helping me stuff in all the envelope and making sure they're all signed. At this moment, there's slightly over 3000 cards on the table. After about 5 hours, we got the table clean with only a few cards left. My table is ready for the next batch!

This picture was from Monday's mail! Yep, tons of packages. The last week always bountiful!! I have about the same pile came in on Tuesday. And, below is picture of my dining table again covered in cards. This is from 2 days mail. Roughly about 2000 cards. :)

LOL, I have some non card making friends asking me what all my package picture on Facebook all about. What can I say, I love sharing the process and I hope people get a kick out of it like I do. Every year, I debated whether I should do it again or not. And, every year, I am glad I did. 

There's a lady that sent in note that she sent in the cards in memory of her husband who loved Christmas. There's another one who written such beautiful message inside each card, that totally made me all warm and fuzzy. Even hubby was touched and said  this is what Christmas is all about.

I mean, this card drive makes me feel so good inside. It's a priceless thing. I am filled with gratitude. Gratitude for the support, for the kindness, thoughtfulness and dedication people put in making these cards (I have 2 ladies who together sent 499 cards!!). 

For those that friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Instagram, I hope I didn't drive you crazy with all  the packages and pile of cards pictures. I promise we'll be back to normal post soon. :)

Thank you for reading this long post. Have a blessed Thanksgiving. Hugs, hugs, hugs.