the homefront blog

If you just love to write letters to our heroes, have we got an opportunity for you!

AnySoldier.com (where we get most of our hero addresses) has a great forum filled with all sorts of discussions - what/who/how to send care packages, etc. And they also have some organized cardswaps: these are for swapping signed cards, so all the participants can send messages of support from across the nation inside their care packages!

The goal for their Christmas swap is 50 participants…each member writing 50 cards or letters, mailing them to the coordinator, and receiving 50 different ones back! Fifty is a lot of cards to some, but to a few of you, it’s a lightweight request. (You know who you are!)

What to do:
1. Register on the AnySoldier Forum. (You can go view it without registering, just can’t post until you register.)
2. Sign up on the swap thread here.
3. Follow the instructions listed on that thread. Lots of great ideas there!
4. If you want to send out a package yourself this Christmas, you can, or you can ask the organizer to send it to one of our shippers instead (please provide their address obviously inside your package).

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas as we deck the halls of Cards for Heroes!

Quick details:
Challenge deadline: Oct 31
Send cards to: any shipper!
Type of cards: Holiday and winter - all kinds!
Special need: sponsors for shipments of cards! ($10)
Click here for a link to the full challenge post

And now, for the first reveal of some of the 10 prizes:

One upcoming prize will be for kids—so get the little ones involved!
And we’ll have a grand prize for those sending in 100+ cards!

These Thursday posts list items and blessings received during the last 7 days, so if you’re looking for confirmation that your package or monetary donation was received, check in on Thursdays.

Cards, supplies, and help received this week:

1. JODI L, Fort Lewis WA, what a great selection of cards, THANKS!
2. BETH F, Bothell, WA, thank you for all the wonderful cards, they’re just beautiful!
3. TRACY R, Austin TX…..thanks for the beautiful cards. They are stunning!
4. VIRGINIA H, Hamilton OH…..what a wonderful First package from you!!! These cards are wonderful!!! Thanks also for the cardstock….I have some cardfronts to turn into cards that this will come in handy for!
5. DEBBY B, Vienna VA - thank you Debby, your cards are just darling!
6. SUSAN M and employees at RAYTHEON Co - All of you did such beautiful work on your cards, the troops will be thrilled!
7. JOAN P, Marshall MN - Thank you Aunt Jo, it was so nice of you to donate such pretty cards.
8. ANDI S, Haines, OR - Three boxes sponsored, THANK you! Just think of all those heroes who will get a card to send home because of you!
9. JOAN R, Woodland WA - thanks so very much for the lovely box of cards, and your shipping donation - glad to see your ‘mojo’ has returned, Joan!
10. SANDYE C, Ft Wright KY - Thanks so much for the beautiful cards Sandye!

Vendor deals we are grateful for:

Custom Acrylic Stamps
Rebecca at Imagine Stamps has the artwork for these cardsforheroes.org stamps shown below! If you’d like to order any for yourself, go to her website and email her to ask for whichever one you’d like, what your name is if you’d like to have the ones with a name, and she’ll email you the cost. It is much more reasonable than you’d imagine!

Agape Gifts: 10% discount on stamps!
Sandy R at Agape Gifts on eBay will give a 10% discount to customers who tell her they’re for cardsforheroes! She carries those awesome military stamps from Paper Inspirations as well as a great selection of all sorts of stamps.

Moulding Frame Supply Liquidators: ATG tape deal
An ebay seller, Moulding Frame Supply Liquidators (also comes through on ebay as Ty Products) has ATG tape at a really reasonable price (six 36ft rolls of 1/2 inch tape for $9.99) — if you purchase more than one box of 6, they give you a great break on shipping, so email the seller from the ebay site to let him know it’s for the cardsforheroes project.

Patriotic fabric swatches
If you’d like some fabric for making patriotic cards, send an email (link at right), and we’ll hook you up with Cheryl who saves the leftover pieces from projects she regularly creates. Fabric is a challenge for cardmaking, but it adds nice texture!

Got thanks to share?
We’d love to pass on the gratitude for donations, discounts, & deals, cardmaking help, hosts of parties/classes—whatever makes it possible for you to do more for our heroes. Email us with your kudos!

Note: if you forget where this post is and want to return to these vendor discount links, you can always search this blog by clicking on the “Categories” at the right when you’re here; posts with these deals will be linked in there.

Many thanks to Dave Pierce at RIS Paper (Connecticut) who obtained ANOTHER fabulous donation on our behalf, and the folks at Wausau, for making the donation: big boxes of cardstock—the equivalent of about 8,000 sheets! (This is in addition to the thousands of sheets that were donated by Mohawk a few weeks ago.) We appreciate the partnership with great companies like these who make it possible to do even more for our heroes!

There is still some of the red and tan left from Mohawk, but the new stock is white with speckles in it. This photo shows some of each:

If any of our cardmakers would like some of this paper, Paula (the stamper in CT who solicited this donation!) is willing to pack up the paper and get it out to you if you paypal funds for the shipping costs. First come first served! (This post will be edited to indicate all paper is gone, once it’s all been divvied out!)

Flat Rate envelope: $4.80, about 50 sheets
Flat rate box: $9.80 box, about 250 sheets
Large flat rate box: $12.95, about 500 sheets

Email Paula at desmarsol@aol.com, and specify if you would like the speckled, the red, the tan, or a mix; again, first come first served. She’ll give you her paypal information once you email her.

Thanks again to the donors - and to Paula for her help securing the donation and doing all the packing up and shipping!

Jennifer McGuire is continuing with a daily CFH post on the Hero Club blog, so be certain to check in each day this week. She’s already got several hundred comments — which means that many more new folks know about what we’re doing over here. Thank you Jennifer, for all your help in getting the word out and helping our heroes! And welcome to all those coming to visit here because of Jennifer’s encouragement!

Today Jennifer featured Kimber McGray — whose husband is currently on a 12-month deployment to Iraq. Check out Kimber’s blog “Whirlwind” this morning and leave a message for a hero and you’ll have a chance at another Hero Arts stamp set as well!