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Location: East of the Rockys and West of the Rest Canada!
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Blank Christmas Cards for Canadian Troops to Use
There is a plan afoot to make Christmas cards to send to the Canadian Troops overseas for them to use to send greetings back to family and friends. (For the beginnings of all this, please see this thread Forums at Splitcoaststampers ) Please note that this is a separate project from sending postcards to the Troops to wish them a Merry Christmas.
The timelines are short. They have to be in Ottawa the beginning of September to go through their security screening, so if you are interested, it is time to dust off all of those snowmen, snowflakes, Christmas Trees and Santas, and get stamping. I would like to be politically correct and say "Holiday Greetings", but I will leave it up to you to decide what kind of greetings to create.
Someone asked me what the guidelines are. My contact didn't give me anything specific, but I am thinking that the following might do. Let us know if you come up with more ideas:
Must include an envelope
When adding embellishments, think of the bulk and weight, as these need to be flown 2 ways with limited resources. I am thinking of only using Brads and Eyelets, with bands of ribbon (no knots)
Another thought - maybe we should steer clear of glitter that might come off? Don't want them thinking 'anthrax' to find out it is Dazzling Diamonds.
I have asked for a volunteer from Eastern Canada to step up as a coordinator for the East. I am happy to do it for all of Canada, but as we all know, if you are from the East, it is cheaper to mail to the East. There can be more than one coordinator, so if anyone is interested, send me a pm and I will post a list of coordinators after the weekend.
I am still working with a Forces contact to work out the fine details, but thought I had better get the word out to Stampers so they can get a wiggle on.
Oh, and by the way, if you are looking for some Christmas stamps that are "Truly Canadian" check out the High Hopes Stamps at http://www.highhopesstamps.com/ (I just like their stamps - the moose with his tongue stuck to the pole is hilarious) We are kind of short on time, but maybe for next year.
Let me know what you think, as I am flying by the seat of my pants on this one. I will post updates when I get them.
Count me in Robyn. There's another older thread where a bunch of people are volunteering to do this. You might want to search for it and contact those people directly in case they don't see this one.
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3 Coordinators and counting...
We now have a coordinator in New Brunswick, and one who expressed interest from Ottawa, and of course little ol me here in Alberta.
Anyone else have any ideas on how we can get these done up quickly, or samples of what you are making? How about posting if you are interested in participating?
Let's keep the chatter up to keep this bumped for all to see.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MazG
Count me in Robyn. There's another older thread where a bunch of people are volunteering to do this. You might want to search for it and contact those people directly in case they don't see this one.
Marina
Thanks Marina, I will do just that. Welcome aboard!
This sounds like a great idea. I know the US SCSers do it for the American troops, and I'm glad we're following suit. Please PM me with a contact address for someone in Ontario (or East, whichever is closer).
Thanks for getting this started.
linda
__________________ Linda - SAHM to Owen, Zach, Noah and Logan Visit My Gallery
[QUOTE=laderme]Anyone else have any ideas on how we can get these done up quickly, or samples of what you are making? How about posting if you are interested in participating?QUOTE]
Maybe we could come up with a special keyword so we can find them easily in the gallery? Maybe 'mapleleaf'?
__________________ Linda - SAHM to Owen, Zach, Noah and Logan Visit My Gallery
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Quote:
Originally Posted by momtooandz
This sounds like a great idea. I know the US SCSers do it for the American troops, and I'm glad we're following suit. Please PM me with a contact address for someone in Ontario (or East, whichever is closer).
Thanks for getting this started.
linda
Linda - Thanks for joining this project. I will be posting the coordinators mailing addresses after the weekend so that we can get mailing....
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Are we ready?????
(Please note this is to donate cards to our Canadian Troops to send to family and friends during the holiday season. This is a separate project from sending postcards to wish our Troops a happy holiday season)
Ok ladies (and gentlemen) we are ready to rock and roll. There are 3 coordinators set up to receive your card donations. The deadline to have them to these ladies is August 7, 2006. This gives us 3 weeks to go through everything and have them shipped to Shirley in Ottawa by the 1st of September.
Nadine Russell
10-355 Coldbrook Cres.
Saint John, NB
E2J 3Z3
Shannon Thibault
24 Gray Crescent
Kanata, ON
K2K 3J6
Robin Laderoute
4919 - 48 Street
Innisfail, AB
T4G 1N1
Please keep in mind that they need to be shipped over 5 times before they get back to Canada for Christmas, so use your heavy duty glue.
The only thing I can think of that we shouldn't do is put glitter on them because it may flake off. Other than that, create away. If anyone comes up with any other ideas, please post.
Remember to include a envelope with each card so they can have them to mail them back to Canada.
All of our soldiers may not celebrate Christmas, so those of you with Hannakah (sp?) stamps etc, consider using those. As well, we are a bilingual country, so those of us with French greetings could include them. My DH's family is French so I have some that I will be using.
We also welcome of US sisters to participate in our first SCS greeting card donation.
I will send some card, have wanted to do this but didn't know where to send them so this is great.
Thanks for putting this together.
I'll send to Robin in Innisfail.
Oh this sounds like such a great idea! I am going to order plastic pouches this week and I will get some cards made while I am waiting for the pouches to arrive. Should I stamp a greeting inside? I have the Season's Greetings set.
I would like to help. My husband is a US soldier and we know what it is like to be seperated during the holidays all too well. I do not have any French stamps but I do have English.
I am not certain how your mail runs but US soldiers get free mail up to so many ounces. Do you know if they get that same deal? I was teasing my husband last year it would probably be cheaper to mail him the cards in bulk and have him mail back all the cards to out of state family and friends.
I do hope you get plenty and I think what your doing is such an effort.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shannon E
Oh this sounds like such a great idea! I am going to order plastic pouches this week and I will get some cards made while I am waiting for the pouches to arrive. Should I stamp a greeting inside? I have the Season's Greetings set.
Shannon - I plan on putting greetings inside of most of mine, and leave as much free space as possible for them to write a note. Some I will leave without a greeting, just to give options.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stamper4armyman
I would like to help. My husband is a US soldier and we know what it is like to be seperated during the holidays all too well. I do not have any French stamps but I do have English.
I am not certain how your mail runs but US soldiers get free mail up to so many ounces. Do you know if they get that same deal? I was teasing my husband last year it would probably be cheaper to mail him the cards in bulk and have him mail back all the cards to out of state family and friends.
I do hope you get plenty and I think what your doing is such an effort.
Thank You Thank You Thank You!
I don't know about the Canadian system. Thanks for bringing this up, I will have to ask.
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2 more joining - YAY!
I have heard from women across Canada. Some are making an event out of it, getting friends together to stamp and have fun. Some demos are putting on stamp camps for their customers where the customer brings the paper, evelopes and adhesive and the demo supplies everything else.
I am having a blast dusting off all of my older stamp sets and playing. I will post more samples this weekend. I have made over 100 which is quite a feat for me as I have been working this week. I don't usually make so many at a time, but I find it easier if I do up one style and make 20 of them, then move on to the next design.
Here is my 3rd project. I used the baby wipe technique (well not baby wipes, blue shop towels) to make an ink pad for the background. Last Christmas I did some of these for gift bags and used stampin spots to color the stamp. Using this technique made it much quicker.
I'm having Christmas card stamp camps on the 24th and 25th complete with Christmas music - they will be asked to donate one of the cards they make to the cause. Others will make more. Do you know by when we need to have our cards to our coordinators?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brendaruse
I'm having Christmas card stamp camps on the 24th and 25th complete with Christmas music - they will be asked to donate one of the cards they make to the cause. Others will make more. Do you know by when we need to have our cards to our coordinators?
The deadline to have them to coordinators is August 7th.
I am on vac the week of july 22nd...all alone at our trailer...oh the joy of it! Now I have another project to work on....thanks to the coordinators...Bless you!
__________________ "My Father is tougher than nails!" (heard on a Christian Radio station!)
I would like to help but am leaving in a week most of July. Hopefully I will be able to have time when I get back to get some done to meet the deadline. Do you know if we have to be careful of metal on the cards? If this goes well, perhaps we can continue the program with other cards that they can use all year round.
__________________ Darci "Awww, you guys made me Ink!"
"Creativity is a continual surprise" (Ray Bradbury)
I guess my real concern regarding metal was really if it would get past security and all that. Don't want my card to set everything off beeping! I try not to leave the backs of my brads exposed so that it looks neater anyhow, so I don't think my card would be in danger of hurting anyone ... they have enough dangers over there without my card adding to it!
__________________ Darci "Awww, you guys made me Ink!"
"Creativity is a continual surprise" (Ray Bradbury)
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MrsBee's concernes
Shirley at CForces told me that they would be going through them in Ottawa. I think that once they get past Ottawa, they should be ok.
I have put some brads on mine, but nothing bigger than brads, eyelets and I might use some staples. I am trying to think of ways to ensure they stay together, but I am probably fussing too much (I'm known to do that ;) )
I would be happy to send a few in - I have a bunch left over from last Christmas (I can't send the same ones out twice so this is a great way to use them up). I will round them up and they will be on their way to Innisfail!!
I've got 16 started - I'm trying to do them "assembly line" style. I'm digging around for simple "recipes" so I can crank them out. I'll upload (it will be my first upload on SCS) tomorrow once I've completed them.
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LOL - Kelly, I finally see the bee in your signature. Way too cute! Your first upload - cool.
Carmen - definately round up those extra cards, they will find a wonderful new home.
In case anyone is interested, there is a group getting together to stamp for a weekend in Innisfail the end of July. It is just a free bring all your goodies and get stamping stamp/scrap time. I'm going to work on more cards then. If you want to join in, pm me.
I'm just figuring out how to upload so stay tuned. (I might even start a gallery!) I had another question...are we allowed to "pop dot" anything or would that be considered too bulky? I've got some cute little cardboard presents that I bought at Staples at the end of the season last year and they would make it easy to mass produce another batch of cards. I could do it without popping them but I think they would look nicer. (I'm already sad that I can't bling my cards up more!)
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I think popping them up would be ok, as they may squish down a bit if need be, and they would still allow embellishment to stay flat.
When I was thinking 'bulky embellishments', I was thinking about bows tied with the wide ribbon (you know how puffy they can be, and expensive to mail as they go oversize).
Maybe we should go with any embellishment as long as it doesn't make the card oversized? Does that sound sensible?
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Oh, and Kelly, SCS usually doesn't accept uploads on Sunday, so if yours doesn't show up, not to worry. It may show up tomorrow. I don't know if they turn the feature off, or whether they just sit until Monday.
Christmas Cards to send to the Troops to send back
Hi Robin,
I'm definitely in! In fact had I responded sooner I would have been more than happy to be a coordinator for Southern Ontario-KW/London/Toronto area. So for next time count me in!
I will send mine to the Kanata address. It's a wonderful opportunity to get together to stamp away anyhow during the hot,muggy, weather.
Ruth
Blank Christmas Cards for Canadian Troops to Use
