Caring Hearts Card Drive 2016

Hi all. We are back for the 7th year for our annual Caring Hearts Card Drive. The purpose of our card drive is to collect holiday cards for the elderly that lives in nursing homes. I started this card drive 7 years ago, in 2010 in honor of my mom's request. That first year, we collected 750 cards. And each year it continue to grow bigger. Last year we received over 22,000 cards and distribute the cards to over 100 nursing homes throughout the US, Canada and Australia.

Jennifer McGuire and I are excited to continue bringing holiday cheers to many nursing homes. This year, we are branching out to the United Kingdom and this will allow us to start distributing in UK/Europe.

The holidays are about family, kindness, and joy. During this time many of the elderly who lives in nursing homes would really feel the loneliness or missing their family. Wouldn't it be so awesome if we can bring a smile to their face & brighten their holiday season simply by sharing our love of card making? A simple gesture to let them know that they are not forgotten. That someone still thinking of them.

We all love making cards and what’s better than knowing our creations can bring a smile to others, right? Some helpful people already agree to help us deliver the cards to selected nursing homes.


IMPORTANT DETAILS:

• This card drive will be going on from October 1 to November 25, 2016. We need to receive your card by November 25, 2015.
• Please make the cards for Christmas or Holiday Wishes. Anyone can send a card, your children, church group, scout troops, etc.
• All cards need to have a message inside (it can be stamped or hand written).  
• Please sign your name and where you are from (inside the card). 
• Please include an envelope for each card and please don't seal the envelope.
• Please stick to standard size A2 or 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" card as this will help us in packing more efficiently
• Please don't use any pins (safety reason).
• This is totally optional. But, if you'd like to include $1 or $2 to help with shipping, it'll be much appreciated. We cover the shipping cost ourselves, with no sponsor, so any donation toward shipping would help tremendously.

For US, you can mail the cards to:

• Vera Yates, 1314 Roy St., Houston, TX 77007                              
• Tina Schrof , 185 W. Pugh Drive, Springboro, OH 45066
• Lynn Reloza, 3353 Cimmarron Road, Cameron Park, CA 95682 

For Australia:

• Linda Langes, c/o Gilston State School, 588 Worongary Road, GILSTON QLD 4211, Australia
• Deb McCleary, PO Box 213, Heidelberg, VIC 3084, Australia

For Canada:

• Caroline Bredeson, 7 Brown Street, Ottawa, ON K1S 1L9, Canada    
• Rita Andrews, 28 West Gissing Rd, Cochrane, Alberta T4C 1L6, Canada    

For UK/Europe:

• Taheerah Atchia, 36 Pinewood Crescent,Orrell, Wigan, Lancashire, WN5 8NF, United Kingdom  

In each package, PLEASE include THIS SUBMISSION FORM.  This helps us in keeping track for prizes! For each card you send, you will get a chance.  So the more cards you send, the better your chances. 
To thank you for your generosity in supporting this drive, we have several PRIZES ready for several winners. There will be many winners. :)

Also, if you 'd like to help us promote the card drive, whenever you're sharing your projects for Caring Hearts on social media, please use the hashtag #caringheartscarddrive. Part of my life goal is to spread kindness and make kindness a trend. :)

The nursing homes that we supported are based on what people suggested to us. If you want your local nursing homes to receive cards from the card drive, please email me or Jennifer the name of the nursing homes and the number of residents, so we can make sure that we send enough cards. Each year, we never know how many nursing homes we can support as the number are totally based on how many cards we received. To keep things organized, we assigned the 7 collecting addresses above. This way we can keep track of the amount of cards as well as for prize purpose.

I'll update the prize list as more prizes coming in. And huge thank you to all the fabulous, generous companies who support this card drive by donating awesome prizes.

PLATINUM PRIZES (everyone sending 100+ cards will be entered for this prize)

Amy Lee - Package of stamp & dies from

My Favorite Thing, Ellen Hutson & Mama Elephant $500 value

Gina K. Designs - $200 GC

Jennifer McGuire Ink -  $100 in craft supplies

Maymay Made It - 100 GC

Mommy Lhey - $100 GC

Online Card Classes -  $100 GC

Simon Says Stamp - $150 GC

Stamp-n-Storage.com - $100 GC

Waffle Flower Crafts - $100 GC

GOLD PRIZES:

Altenew - $50 GC

A Jillian Vance Design - $20 GC

Avery Elle - $30GC

Birch Press - $25GC

Bossy Josie - $40 GC

Butterfly Reflections Ink - $25 GC

CardMaker Magazine - 1 year subscription

Concord and 9th - $25 GC

Crafter's Companion US - $25 GC

Crafter's Companion UK - £25 GC

CutCardStock.com - $50GC 

Ellen Hutson - $50 GC

Hallmark Scrapbook & Crafts - Two $50 GC

Hero Arts - Three $50 GC

Honey Bee Stamps - $50 GC

Jane's Doodle - $50 GC

Lawn Fawn - $50 GC

Litte Things from Lucy's Cards - £25 worth of products

Mama Elephant - $25 GC

My Favorite Things - $50 GC

Neat & Tangled - $50 GC


Newston's Nook Designs - $25 GC

Organize More - $75 GC

Paper Smooches - $25 GC

Paper Temptress - Two $25 GC

Pink & Main - $30 GC

Pretty Pink Posh - $30

Reverse Confetti - $50 GC

Right At Home - $20 GC

Scrapbook & Cards Today: one year subscription

Spectrum Noir  - 1 tin of Coloured Blend Color Pencil

SugarPea Designs - $25 GC

Studio Katia - Canada $35 CG

Sunny Studios - $25 GC

Sweet Escape Digis - $25 GC

Sweet Stamp Shop - Two $25 GC

Taylored Expressions - $50 GC

The Ton Stamps - $25 GC

Verve Stamps - $30 GC

WOW Embossing Powder - $30 GC

Your Next Stamp - $50 GC

I will update the prize list as I get more. :) Please feel free to share about this card drive. We really appreciate your support & generosity. Let's rock this card drive and bring Christmas joy to as many nursing homes as we can!! Thank you. 

PS: Thank you to Chaitali Narla for designing the badge. :)

SugarPea Designs Caring Hearts Special Release Hop

Hi everyone and welcome to SugarPea Designs Caring Hearts Special Release. We're hosting this special hop in celebration of the upcoming 7th annual Caring Hearts Card Drive (it starts tomorrow!!)

Jennifer McGuire, me, along with our team of volunteers are busy working behind the scene as we're getting ready to collect handmade holiday cards for the elderly that live in nursing homes from October 1 to November 25. I will have all of the card drive details up tomorrow, here, on my blog.

When I started this card drive, I did it to honor my mom's caring heart. She's the kind of people who do many kind things for others and when she asked me to send my handmade cards to those that lives in nursing home, of course I said yes. Never thought that one day, we'd make stamp sets to celebrate the card drive.

It's been one year in the making. When Chaitali Narla, one of the designer for SugarPea & Wendy, the owner told me that they want to design stamp set for me, I was so surprised & touch by their support. During our design process, we got so excited that from 1 set we ended up with 3 stamp sets and 3 dies!!

Most important: SugarPea Designs will be donating 20% of all proceeds from the sale of Caring Hearts stamp sets & dies to the Alzheimer Association.
I'm so proud to introduce Caring Hearts, Caring Critters and Kindness set. For my 1st card, I used the pug from Caring Critters and combined it with previously released SugarPea Designs sets. Since Caring  Hearts Card Drive is all about holiday cards, I have to make at least 1 card with holiday theme. :)

Now, for my next two cards, I want to focus on being kind. When we design the sets, we want to cover kindness in general. We want sets that can be used throughout the year. Growing up & basically to this day, I never really know what I want to be. All I know I want to be a kind person and I remember before going to college asking my mom, would you be proud of  me if I don't become a doctor or engineer. What if all I am good is for social work? And, my mom said, that she couldn't be prouder and that the person inside is more important than any title, degree or richness. And, I carry that with me.

If we can be anything, let's be kind!! Am also entering this card for the current Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

After all, in my opinion, when you believe in the magic of kindness, you will continue to believe in doing good to others.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

• SugarPea Designs is giving away the entire Caring Hearts release (3 stamp sets & 3 SugarCuts dies) to one lucky commenter.  Readers have until October 7th to comment.
• I am giving away a $25 GC to the SugarPea Designs Store. I will randomly select a winner from comment left on the hop participants blog. You have until October 7th to comment.
• SugarPea Designs will announce the release winner on their blog on Sunday, October 9th.

I hope you love the sets as much as we love designing them and thank you for all your support. Here's a complete list of the hop participants & check back here tomorrow for the card drive details. Cheers...

Jennifer McGuire

Debby Hughes

Kathy Racoosin

Laura Bassen

Lynn Reloza

Amy Kolling

Vera Yates  <--- you are HERE

Chaitali Narla

Lisa Lara

Amy Rohl

Brianna Loeffelbein

Taheerah Atchia

Dana Joy

Wendy Ramlakhan (SugarPea Designs)

The Ton Fall 2016 Release Blog Hop

Hi everyone and welcome to The Ton Fall 2016 Release Blog Hop. So happy to have you here. You should have arrived here from Chris Dalton blog. Just in case you're missing any link, you can find all the hop participants link at The Ton Blog.

As you might have seen on some of my cards for this release, I'v been doing quite a few non-traditional Christmas color. well, I am still into being different. This time, I am taking a different color approach. Instead of teal or blue, I went with purple.

I don't think I ever really create with this color combo before, but I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. For this card, I used Fresh Cut Poinsettias, Holiday Cones,  Outlines Holiday Cones, and sentiment from Holiday Confetti.

By the way, for most of the stamp sets that we released this week, there's also matching dies!! Now, how about some giveaway? That's the fun part, right?

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

We're giving away four $25 gift certificates to random commenters on all the hop participant blogs. The comment period will close on Thursday, September 29th at 11:59pm. Winners will be announced thereafter.

The Ton has 23 new stamps for their Fall 2016 Release (18 clear stamps, 5 rubber cling) which include the Christmas Poinsettia set - a mini 2x3 stamp set which will be included in all orders over $100 (before shipping and taxes). All new release products are available now!

From here, please hop on over to Lisa Harolle. Thank you so much for stopping by here and I hope you enjoy our hop. Cheers....

The Ton Fall Release Day 4

Hi peeps! Welcome to the final day of The Ton Fall Release sneak peek time. Tomorrow we'll celebrate with a fun hop, but for now, let's get on to the projects shall we.

I had so much fun the day before playing with non traditional Christmas colors that for today, I decided to continue playing with the blue green color scheme. Here's my 1st card using the Holiday Border Cling Background and Scripty Holiday Greetings.

I went to town with watercolor on this card. It's fun & the quickest way to decorate this pretty border in my book.

Next, I played with Brushed Merry set with Fresh Cuts Poinsettia. I stamped the sentiment with Delicate Gold ink pad and in person it shimmer oh so prettily.

ALL NEW PRODUCTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN THE STORE!!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Daily Release Giveaway: Leave a comment The Ton blog each day of Release Week (1-4) for a chance to win one of four $25 gift codes to the shop.

Design Team Daily Giveaways: There are additional $10 gift code giveaways that you can win by leaving comments on the Design Team member blogs on each day of Release Week - so there are and additional 7 gift codes up for grabs!!

Well peeps, that's all from me today and join us tomorrow for the hop! Party time!

The Ton Fall Release Day 3

Hi everyone. We are on day 3 of The Ton Fall 2016 Release. I hope you love what you've seen so far. 

Today, we are introducing several Christmas goodies. I have to say I really love the way my 2 cards turned out today.

For my 1st card, I used Fresh Cut Poinsettias, Holiday Cones,  Outlines Holiday Cones, Mistletoe Kisses. I went with unconventional color combo for Christmas, but I think it still looks very lovely, if I may say so myself.

For my 2nd card, I used the same set plus Outlines Fresh Cut Poinsettias. I went with same design concept as my 1st card, but color wise I went the opposite. I went with traditional Christmas color & let the colors shine against the white background.

The Ton is releasing 23 new stamps for their Fall 2016 Release (18 clear stamps & 5 rubber cling) which include the Christmas Poinsettia set - a mini 2x3 stamp set which will be included in all orderd over $100 (before shipping & taxes). ALL NEW PRODUCTS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON 9/26 AT 7AM (EST). 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Daily Release Giveaway: Leave a comment The Ton blog each day of Release Week (1-4) for a chance to win one of four $25 gift codes to the shop.

Design Team Daily Giveaways: There are additional $10 gift code giveaways that you can win by leaving comments on the Design Team member blogs on each day of Release Week - so there are and additional 7 gift codes up for grabs!!

Please come back tomorrow for the final sneak peek of the rest of the new sets. Have a blessed Sunday everyone.

The Ton Fall Release Day 2

Hi peeps. Happy Saturday. We're back for the 2nd day of The Ton Fall release sneak peek time. More fab sets coming your way. Let's get on with it, shall we.

My 1st card today is showcasing the fun set City Girls: Retail Therapy and Scenes: Dept Store. 

What a fun set, right? I want the girl with the shopping boxes to stand out, so I stamped the department store background in Blue Diamon ink pad and leave it just like that. And, of course, I have to add the little pug on this set as well. I just think he made the whole scene cuter. Hah.

Now, for my 2nd card I played with Folk Art Florals Background.  The stamp design has a traditional feeling to it & I like to make it a bit more modern by combining a label sentiment with the letters from Vogue Alphabet Lower to create the word hi.

With this fall release, The Ton is releasing 23 new stamps for their Fall 2016 Release (18 clear stamps & 5 rubber cling) which include the Christmas Poinsettia set - a mini 2x3 stamp set which will be included in all order over $100 (before shipping & taxes). ALL NEW PRODUCTS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON 9/26 AT 7AM (EST).

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Daily Release Giveaway: Leave a comment The Ton blog each day of Release Week (1-4) for a chance to win one of four $25 gift codes to the shop.

Design Team Daily Giveaways: There are additional $10 gift code giveaways that you can win by leaving comments on the Design Team member blogs on each day of Release Week - so there are and additional 7 gift codes up for grabs!!

Hope you enjoy today's sneak peek. Come back tomorrow for some Christmas goodies. See you then.