Stamps Ahead

Last week I made some Christmas cards for the Australian Troops Overseas with a group of ladies from a community group.  This is one of the clean and simple cards I designed for them to make. I have used Dove of Peace stamp set by Heartfelt Creations.  Now, I did not have the coordinating die so it was back to cutting bird by hand and the greeting with a punch.   After stamping and cutting the bird ink was sponged around the bird and greeting - a great way of disguising maybe an imperfect cut!!  The card base is white. Thanks for looking and no I do not think it is too early to start on Christmas cards.    Margaret :)

I have been busy designing cards for classes I have been leading at two community groups over the past two weeks.   Here are just a sample of some of the cards created. Several of the ladies in one of the groups are elderly and have trouble with their hands so I kept the cards quite simple - I pre-cut the shapes prior to the class. These cards are an adaptation of cards in previous post - I substituted the Impasto (as it would take too long to dry in a 2 hour time-frame) and went with random misting and misting using Stampin'Up! (SU)  stencils - stars and stripes.  The stars I die cut from Sizzix Framelits and the squares from Spellbinders Nestabilities.  This card was one of many made by participants in one of the classes for donation to Australian Troops overseas. This card design is an adaption of technique called 'pressed flower' that I found whilst blog surfing one wet afternoon.   It is great as it can use scraps of paper. ...

For the past few years I have been making Christmas cards for Australian Defense Forces overseas to send back to loved ones here in Australia.  I don't look for thanks however it is good to get a thank you in the mail and I received this one today. It reads: "To Margaret, My name is Elin and I'm the postal manager at one of the deployed post offices overseas.  I'd just like to thank you so much for the beautiful Christmas cards that were generously given to us to send to our loved ones back home.  They've had such a positive response from all the deployed personnel here, with many people commenting on the time and effort it must have taken to make such lovely cards. Thank you once again, Happy New Year! - Elin L." A great addition to my files.   Margaret

For several years now I have been making Christmas Cards for our Australian troops overseas.  Yesterday, I attended the yearly event organised by Karen Cumming to make more cards.  It was a great day once again.  Contact Karen if you would like to become involved next year and check out more photos taken yesterday. Me cutting cardstock for a card. Photo by Karen Cumming Some of the ladies who made cards on the day. Photo by Karen Cumming Here are some cards I made this year for this great cause. Some I have ready shown on my blog - check out the following link.  http://margaretlcrawford.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/what-have-i-been-doing-past-month.html Others, I have made from bits and pieces I had in my stash and some used donated product from friends - thank you if you recognise your donation. Santa Suit card which was designed by Karen.

Before I went on holidays I participated in a day of cardmaking for Christmas cards for Australian Armed Forces organised by Karen aka Paper Lady . It was our 3rd year and each year more cards are made.  Here are some photos, taken by Karen:  A surprise visit from the Army I invited our army representative to make a card and he did. Smiling through the day Together with the cards from this day and cards made throughout the year (I have previous posts of cards that ladies made with me that were donated) Karen was able to deliver 4,631 cards that will be distributed to our troops overseas to send home to loved ones. Thank you Karen for your continued support of this initiative.  For more information click on the link for Paper Lady above.

Firstly, this card design was popular with the ladies of the local craft group, who have been making Christmas cards for the troops for the past 4 weeks.  Together they completed 286 cards that I will deliver to Paper Lady, Karen ,who founded and co-ordinates this initiative, on Saturday.  Contact her if you would like to be involved. Closing date for 2012 is 2nd November. Secondly, here are some photos of the some of  ladies creating their cards this week. Thank you to all the ladies involved.  Margaret

Here are two more cards that I demonstrated to the ladies of the craft group yesterday.  Again there are many variations of this theme.   Both of these cards make good use of scraps that you may have around the place. Thanks for looking.  Margaret

No, not the classical piece of music! For the month of August I am helping out at a local craft group and we have been making Christmas Cards for our Overseas Troops to send back home to their loved ones. Here is one card I developed for last week. As you can see the basic design is the same, but variations in the use of silver card/corregated cardstock, ribbon/thread and background paper.  The ladies did a terrific job on their cards. Please accept the photograph it has been sunny in Sydney today and it reflects on the silver paper. Who am I to complain after the cold weather we have been having lately I will accept the sun on my cards.

I was very excited to get another thank you - this time from Royal Australia Navy - HMAS Parramatta. They received some of my christmas cards to send back home to loved ones. It took a while to get here, but it is great to know my cards were appreciated. I don't do it for thanks and I thank them for taking the time out of their busy days to write this letter. Thanks for looking

In the mail today I got a lovely letter and a picture of Australian troops in Timor that received some of my christmas cards to send back home. It was great to get this acknowledgement and to know that they were appreciated.

Yesterday, I had a great day making christmas cards for Aussie troops to send back home to family and friends. We were all excited to get a visit from some serving troops during the day. Here is just one photo from the day. A bit blurry but you can see we were having a good time/laugh. Also, in the photo is Julee who is our contact at Defence. Thank you to Karen for your continued organisation of this event and for the photos- for more photos go to Karen's blog here

I have been making christmas cards for Cards for the Troops - check out the details here if you would like to be involved in this, making cards for Australian troops to send back home at Christmas. And, I have been also making cards to sell as a fundraiser as my sister's church. They raise funds for ongoing mission work. Here is just one of the cards I am currently making. I have stamped the image with Stazon onto Very Vanilla cardstock, the photo comes out quite white and then coloured with my very limited collection of Copic pens. There is a message inside. I like it and I hope you do as well. Have a happy day.