Cards For Australian Troops

Hi one and all
Over the last couple of years i have read many American blogs (Jennifer Mcguire in particular) that talk about 'cards for troops' and thought what a great idea, but what would i write to a soldier that i had never met? Well.........++##DAH**##   Linda you don't actually write on them you send them blank. OK so it took me a couple of months to figure this out and i love this idea. Just imagine sending a blank card to a serving soldier and he can then write in it and send it back to say his little son, imagine how the little boy would feel-"I got this from daddy" or how about a Valentines card or I am so proud of you card. Oh its making me feel quite sad and happy at the same time thinking that we as crafters can do this to help support our Aussie Troops.

I am ashamed to say that i never thought to organise anything like this for our troops but a lovely lady from the Cricut Messageboard has. Her name is Mel and she can be contacted via email here all we have to do is send some cards-with envelopes to Mel and she will forward them on to the appropriate places.
So please all you Aussie crafters out there go through your stash (i know you have them) or make some new ones, any themes. Melissa is sending the first batch out on Jan14 so you still have time.

Here is my first contribution, these all came from my stash so i will make some new ones for my next lot.

Here is a piece from Mel's post over on the Cricut messageboard-

"Had a chat with the US organiser of the Cards for Troops and have a few tips.

If you would like to put a name on the back of the card please feel free to do so, but use only either your screen name or your first name, no surnames please. We will also be stamping the back of the cards with an email address so if anyone wants to make contact with the girls they can via that one. I will onforward all emails to the card maker and also share them on this thread. The email address is cardsforthetroops@hotmail.com
For those sending cards, a huge thank you. For those thinking of participating, please remember this will be an ongoing event until all our troops are home!! So whilst you might not be able to help out now, any and all help is welcome at any stage and any time, as well as any amount of cards be it 1 or 100!!
We have approximately 2,900 personnel overseas at present time from all three services. These areas include East Timor, Sudan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East."

Okay so this is my mission for this year and now i will have to go and replenish my card box and what a great excuse to buy some more supplies, surely Andrew cant begrudge me even more money to spend on craft to make cards for our troops!

Thanks for reading my very long post i had better go and make some more cards.
xx

Okay

..It's 3pm and i have just taken Joe to work, Caitlin is at work and Andrew much to his disgust returned to work today so GUESS WHAT? I am home alone for a couple of hours. The ironing is up to date for the first time in about 6 weeks so i have some extra time to share with all of you.

So how was every one's Christmas? Mine was OK i don't know if it was because we had been on holidays or what, but i wasn't very prepared and the excitement wasn't there for me this year or is it because my children have grown up and would rather sleep in on Christmas morning than get up at 5am (OK not Joe's fault as he was working until 1pm Christmas morning).

Anyway here is the start of some of my holiday snaps and aren't you lucky  not everyone gets to see me in bathers. (oh and before you look at these i have put on about 15 of my 40kgs but not to worry am back on track now)

me buy the pool RELAXING

Andrew and Caitlin at the pool bar for Happy Hour.

Well that's enough of that for now, some more to come later. Here are some lovely rosettes and flowers that i made after watching a video on the Hero Arts website by Jennifer Mcguire.

Cant you just see the big ones on some yummily wrapped prezzies, oooo, I can so i will be making a ton of them in different colours b/c after all 'its all in the packaging'.

Now you all know that i love to make mini albums and seeing as i was so inspired by Tracey's hybrid Christmas album i am going to do a little hybrid 5"x7" album of our holiday.



Here is the album cover with a lovely photo courtesy of Joe who had fun playing with the camera. Very simple but this is what this album will be.

"Lets start at the very beginning a very good place to start" do you remember that song? Doris Day i think. Anyway i digress as usual, yes the beginning.. us waiting for the taxi at home and us at KL airport in Malaysia waiting for our connecting flight. This was done on a 5x7 template that i purchased from Jessica Sprague. You will see a lot of these throughout the album in different formats. I also kept the envelopes that they give you in the room to add to my album.

So what do you all have planned for the next couple of weeks? Apart from doing some rearranging of rooms and cupboards i am enrolled to do two online classes, one starts tomorrow. So yay i am back in crafting mode.

Will be back later today or tomorrow to ask you Aussie crafty people for some help (its all about cards for troops a huge thing in America and hopefully one that we can start here)

Its good to be back

See ya later
xx





Merry Christmas

Hi everyone you probably thought i went on holidays and never came back. We have been back for a little over a week now and as you can imagine it is a very hectic time so i have no crafty projects to show you.

We had a fabulous time on our holiday, spent heaps and ate way to much, i will put you all through the agony of seeing some-not all, of my photos after the Christmas rush has died down.

I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a safe and happy new year. Thank you all , for your lovely comments and support over the last year.

xxx
Linda