Cards for Lutheran Family Services

Here's a clean and simple birthday card for a kid.  What's special about it?  Nothing...except....



We made 200 of them yesterday!!!
My church as an annual servant day with projects in-house and around the community.  As the card-making group, we have done such things as cards for soldiers to send back home, and this year, we did birthday cards for Lutheran Family Services to send to their clients.  
Other projects include 

• stuffing animals for Ronald McDonald House 
• decorating priority mailing boxes that a group called Colorado Supporting Our Troops fills and sends overseas.  We have pictures from past years of groups of soldiers holding their glittered, painted, stamped, and stickered boxes!!
• decorating brown paper bags that a group called Project Angel Heart uses to deliver meals to people with life-threatening illnesses
• sewing prayer quilts
• yard work at Girls Hope and Boys Hope
• general handyman work at Praying Hands Ranch and at Sky Ranch Lutheran Camp
• building handicap ramps for families in need
• and many more this year and in past years!!

The key to making a lot of cards is keeping it very simple and being prepared in advance - because many of the people that come have never made a card and we also get lots of kids that want to serve.    Plus, if there's a crowd, I'm not always able to help each person individually.  

So, once again, I thank my family.  For the third time this week, my boys spent an evening cutting (see the confirmation and graduation posts in the last week).  They don't ask for much either.  My husband left yesterday for two days alone in our mountain place - with a stack of library books.  My boys are even easier - we are going to Garbanzo's for lunch today and then to see The Avengers

200 sheets of 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 paper AND
200 sheets of 5 1/4 x 4

I included a variety of embossing folders with instructions

My oldest son used the Stampin' Up BIGZ peekaboo die to
cut 200 little windows.  My husband cut appropriately sized
white squares and circles for under the window.  (I actually
stamped each one - I'm not a complete lump!!)

Here's some of the ladies and their cards!!  Hi, Carol!!!

Isn't card-making a wonderful hobby!!??

I played two challenges for my sample card - CAS-ual Fridays and Pals Paper Arts...

• Stamps: none shown (I used a variety of stamps for insides the windows).  I also had the perfect stamp for inside each card...it says "Just thanking God for the day He made you." It's by MorningStar Stamps - a wonderful company with stamps to "encourage, cheer, thank, bless and celebrate.  But now that I have you all excited - I don't see this stamp there anymore...sorry...but there are lots of others!
• Paper: Stampin' Up Calypso, Baja, Saffron
• Ink: just black
• Accessories: the sample includes a candle from Jolee's Boutique, but I had a wide variety of dimensional and glittered stickers for the cards - I watched sales for a month to get interesting stickers!, Stampin' Up Peekaboo die, the sample includes an embossing folder from Lifestyle Crafts