Cards for a Cause - Ronald McDonald House Donation

I finally ordered and received another set of 1000 plastic sleeves and this time I added larger sized sleeves in order to prepare the large heap of non-A2 sized cards I've been holding on to.

So, without further ado, I'm going to let the pictures tell their own story of how another 229 cards made their way to the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House tonight after work.

Most of these cards were donated by my friend Wendy C from her DT days.  They're gorgeous!

And a large portion was donated by my blogging friend Lynn McAuley.  For those of you familiar with her work, you'll recognize many of these Lynn classics!

And here are the rock star notebooks with pen holder my friend Quynh made!

I met this lovely lady, Suzie, at the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House tonight after work.  She was so thrilled at all the cards and then she ohhed and ahhed when going through the cards.

The larger box is the general everyday themes such as Thank You's, Thinking of You, I Miss You, Get Better/You're Brave type of cards.  The smaller box is full of holiday themed cards such as Valentines, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas that they can put out later on in the year.

Susie told me that they've never received HANDMADE card donations before.  Whoohoo, we're the first ladies!

I'll have to admit, this location is the most gritty of all the RMH locations I've visited as it's to the East of Downtown LA.

This one is definitely the LARGEST of all the RMH locations I've visited with a very large children's area.  They are in two large buildings and can house up to 75 families.

Within that 3-4 block radius, it was thick with lots of hospitals, i.e. Kaiser, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, and acute care nursing facilities.  I've never seen so many located in clusters like this before! As I was walking around, I saw quite a few small children, no more than 7 years old, running around with various types of bandages.  Bless them and I hope they're getting better.

Thank you stampers of SplitCoast Stampers and my crafting friends for your generous donations to make a difference in those battling serious cardiac and cancer related illnesses.  

 ******************************************************

RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE MISSION: To provide a community where children and their families embrace life and healing (from cancer) with a sense of hope, enthusiasm, courage and joy. 

Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House 

4560 Fountain Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90029

2015 Donations to Other National RMH Locations = 118 Cards
2015 Cards Collected for Donation to Pasadena RMH = 175

2015 Cards Collected for Donation to Long Beach RMH = 160

2015 Cards Collected for Donation to Orange County RMH = 250

2015 Cards Collected for Donation to Children's Hospital Orange County (CHOC) = 50

2015 Cards Collected for Donation to (Hollywood) Los Angeles RMH = 229

2015 TOTAL = 982 Cards Donated 

I have chosen to adopt these various Southern California locations around the Greater Los Angeles areas to donate cards that I create and collect from friends.  

My next RMH location for donation will be back to Pasadena, CA. 

SEEKING THESE CARD THEMES:  Anything other than religious, make them uplifting, thinking of you, children themes, etc.  Cards with no sentiments are perfectly acceptable too. Examples of themes: Welcome Baby Card / Wedding / Sympathy Card / Birthday / Thinking of You/ Thank you / Missing you. 

WANT TO DONATE:  Please leave a comment here with your email, and I'll reply to you with my home address.  

By forwarding to me or any of our other monthly hostesses throughout the US, you'll allow our group of ladies over at the SCS community to tally the number of cards donated and lives impacted.  Check out our Call for Cards here. 

 DETAILS:
1. Cards need to use good quality cardstock- HEAVY WEIGHT--- (so the card can stand alone) and include a minimum of two layers and one embellishment.  

2. IF you use colorful / dark cardstock—please line the inside of the card with either white or vanilla paper so the guests can write in them using black/blue pen.

3. If you place a sentiment inside—repeat the sentiment and place on copy paper so that it can be added inside the back of the sleeve-so the individual can see if there is a “saying” on the inside or it is “blank” 

4. If you would like to include envelopes and sleeves it would be greatly appreciated - sleeve IS NOT necessary.  What's a sleeve?  Click here for example. 

Nevertheless, I'll be preparing each card by inserting them and a matching envelopes inside individual clear A2 sized sealable envelopes in to keep the card clean and in pristine shape to allow the RMH recipients to handle and make their selection. 

                        ******************************************************
   

I'd love it if you'd like to donate some of your cards to this cause.   Please contact me for my mailing address! 

Thank you for visiting!! 

SCS Card Kit Swap - High Hopes Bunny with Bouquet

I'm excited to be participating in yet another year round exchange with a few of the SCS ladies.  This swap involves putting together an entire kit of pre-stamped images along with coordinating patterned papers and embellishments to shower the recipient.

My month is April so I've begun receiving a few kits from the other ladies already.  This first one is from Pansy (C-mouse) and here's the lovely kit contents of what she sent me:

Lots of yummy stuff!!

Here's the first card that I was able to create at the all day crop I was at yesterday.

I had so much fun using my Pastel Chalk Pencils that I pulled out of my stash. I don't remember using this set much.  I don't even remember where I purchased them or why I even own them. They were definitely purchased in the 200-2005 era though.  Well, they saw the light of day yesterday.

I tried using grey and black first at the top of the ears, but didn't like the way they were blending when I laid down the white chalk so I quickly abandoned them for the blue.  Unorthodox coloring for a bunny using blue to highlight his depth, but it came out better than I hoped.  Interesting that chalk doesn't spread or dilute in color like other color mediums I've played with.

Out of the set of 12 pastel chalk pencils, the ones pictured above are the colors I used on this High Hopes Bunny with Bouquet.

I tried to do the cute little guy justice by making him as fuzzy cute as possible!!

I incorporated the lovely coffee stained MFT Decorative Doily diecut and the lovely olive green grosgrain ribbon Pansy included in the kit she sent me along with some scraps of Basic Grey Persimmon PP.  The rest of the embellishments came from the goodie bags I received from the hostess of the crop.

I used this SCS Card Sketch as inspiration for my card layout design.  Please excuse the fact that I forgot to retake a photo of my card AFTER I corner rounded the right top of the card. That's what lack of sleep from a whole week will do to you...don't see things clearly.

There's still plenty of materials from the kit Pansy sent so I'll be working from this stash for quite a while.

Thanks for visiting!





"Bunny with Bouquet" Card
Paper: BSU Kraft CS; Basic Grey Persimmon PP; Best Creations Gold Glitter CS
Stamps: High Hopes "Bunny with Bouquet" 
Ink: Cretacolor Chalk Pastel Pencils; Ink/EP Unknown 
Embellishments: Target $1 Bin Colored Twine & Paper Clip;  Prima flowers;  Kaiser Rhinestones; MFT Die-namics Decorative Doily Duo Dies
Size: 4.25" x 6.5" rectangular 

Cards for a Cause - Ronald McDonald House Donation

Life is still pretty crazy busy and all I can do is just keep knocking out items one by one to get as much done as possible.

I had an all day work conference this past week that would place me near Orange County, so I loaded up the car with all of the cards I've been collecting to drop off after my conference. It took spending some time in a booth at a local franchise restaurant to count and sort non seasonal cards that I had already made sure had matching envelopes and were encased in plastic sleeves.

Since I was preparing on the run, I had to resign myself to donating these without the cute little sign on the front of the box and the customized card theme dividers I usually make. Insert sad face.  But I've held off for too long, since I live far away, and who knows when I'd be in the area again.

Here's the first two boxes containing 250 cards for the Orange County RMH facility.

This last undecorated small box contains 50 cards for the RMH Room located inside the infamous Children's Hospital of Orange County, otherwise referred to as CHOC.  I feel bad about not decorating the box for a more cheerful presentation. :(

CHOC pictured below is located just a few blocks away from the Orange RMH.  I snapped this photo while stopped at a red light.

And here we are at the Orange County RMH location.

I was really impressed with the living quarters.  Below is the living room.

And here is the lady at the Orange County RMH location with the card donations in front of their Tree of Giving to commemorate all their donors.  (I apologize for not remembering her name.)

She told me that they only had ONE other group, a Stampin' Up! group, that was donating cards about twice a year so this drop off was a VERY welcome one especially since they were created with such artful skill.  Previous donations were created by Girl Scouts, so....yes, lol, SCS stamper created cards are MUCH nicer!!  (These are my words, not hers.)

The reason Orange County RMH received 250 vs the CHOC Room receiving only 50 cards was due to my phone conversation with one of their employees the previous week.  Bre mentioned that there was much more traffic in the Ronald McDonald House than the Room at CHOC.  In addition, CHOC is a bustling hospital and I didn't want to deal with parking issues/costs, so I took up OC RMH's offer to leave all boxes with them since a CHOC representative would be by once a week to pick up supplies.

I apologize I didn't take the time to photograph individual groupings of the cards that were received this time from the following SCS donors that went into this box:

- Janelle (jmeyers) she sent a 2nd huge box!!
- Wendy C (my personal friend)
- Renee C (my personal friend)
- Quynh T (my personal friend)
- Denise 
- Sally M (animallover) 
- Trish (mouseprints)
- Staci (misermom)
- Karen (simpleescrapper)
- Linda Durham 
- Lorraine (rainykay)
- Lori (mybugandi45)
- Barb (barbarlynn)
- Pat (Pat in Oh) 
- Jane (janiekay) 


Thank you Ladies for your generosity that makes my job as Hostess so easy and enjoyable! 

******************************************************

RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE MISSION: To provide a community where children and their families embrace life and healing (from cancer) with a sense of hope, enthusiasm, courage and joy. 

Orange County Ronald McDonald House 

383 South Batavia Street

Orange, CA 92868

Ronald McDonald Family Room  at  Children's Hospital Orange County  (CHOC)

455 S Main Street 
6th Floor

Orange, CA 92868

2015 Donations to Other National RMH Locations = 118 Cards
2015 Cards Collected for Donation to Pasadena RMH = 175

2015 Cards Collected for Donation to Long Beach RMH = 160

2015 Cards Collected for Donation to Orange County RMH = 250

2015 Cards Collected for Donation to Children's Hospital Orange County (CHOC) = 50

I have chosen to adopt these various Southern California locations around the Greater Los Angeles areas to donate cards that I create and collect from friends.  So far, that's a whopping 635 cards collected and dropped off, not to mention the 118 cards I've sent to other RMH Hostesses Nationwide.  My next RMH location for donation will be the one closest to me in Hollywood, CA. 

SEEKING THESE CARD THEMES:  Anything other than religious, make them uplifting, thinking of you, children themes, etc.  Cards with no sentiments are perfectly acceptable too. Examples of themes: Welcome Baby Card / Wedding / Sympathy Card / Birthday / Thinking of You/ Thank you / Missing you. 

WANT TO DONATE:  Please leave a comment here with your email, and I'll reply to you with my home address.  

By forwarding to me or any of our other monthly hostesses throughout the US, you'll allow our group of ladies over at the SCS community to tally the number of cards donated and lives impacted.  Check out our Call for Cards here. 

 DETAILS:
1. Cards need to use good quality cardstock- HEAVY WEIGHT--- (so the card can stand alone) and include a minimum of two layers and one embellishment.  

2. IF you use colorful / dark cardstock—please line the inside of the card with either white or vanilla paper so the guests can write in them using black/blue pen.

3. If you place a sentiment inside—repeat the sentiment and place on copy paper so that it can be added inside the back of the sleeve-so the individual can see if there is a “saying” on the inside or it is “blank” 

4. If you would like to include envelopes and sleeves it would be greatly appreciated - sleeve IS NOT necessary.  What's a sleeve?  Click here for example. 

Nevertheless, I'll be preparing each card by inserting them and a matching envelopes inside individual clear A2 sized sealable envelopes in to keep the card clean and in pristine shape to allow the RMH recipients to handle and make their selection. 

                        ******************************************************
   

I'd love it if you'd like to donate some of your cards to this cause.   Please contact me for my mailing address! 

Thank you for visiting!! 

SCS March 2016 Virtual Stamp Night Event "Brighten The Grey" Challenge MAR16VSNH #StampinUp #Upsydaisy

Plugging away at those challenges over at SCS's current "Here Comes the Sun" Virtual Stamp Night Event. Hostess Sabrina (cook22) is calling for cards to "Brighten The Grey." The rule for all the challenges is to complete the card in 1 hour or less - eek! 

Here's my entry for Sabrina's MAR16VSNH Challenge:

I've just recently received Upsy Daisy.  It's one of those classic SU sets in my mind which I didn't purchase at the time it was out, but glad I have my hands on it now.

Double stamped it for a quick clean silhouette of flowers in Going Grey and Yo Yo Yellow using my trusty ole' Stamp-a-ma-jig from SU - yep, I'm probably one of the last Misti holdouts!  The card is much brighter and cleaner in real life, my photo dulls it for some reason.

But this card came together quickly with simple matting and a few quick gems/ribbon for accents.

Challenge #3 out of 14 Done!

Thanks for visiting!


 


"You're On My Mind" Card
Paper: Bo Bunny; Misc Handmade Paper; Yellow CS
Stamps: SU Upsy Daisy
Ink: SU Yo Yo Yellow; SU Going Gray
Embellishments: SU Stamp-a-ma-jig; MFT Die-namics Fishtail Flags STAX ; Kaiser Rhinestones; May Arts Ribbon 
Size: 4.25" x 6.5" rectangular