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I've read how some of you have card ministries; what a great idea. Your stories got my mental wheels to turning. So, long story short, last night I committed myself to providing cards for our church's hospital visit ministry. I'm very excited to be able to serve this way, really. But, I asked the minister in charge of this appx how many hospital visit they make a week. His response? He personally makes 20-30 hospital visits a week!
Needless to say, it's a fairly large church, and I expected it to be a good sized #, but, gee, that's quite a committment, isn't it?
As of now, I won't be doing general encouragement, bereavement, or other compassion-oriented messages, just "get well and praying for you" types. But I'm really thinking about how I can best do this many cards per week.
I guess what I need is some advice on mass-producing these babies. No more one-card-per-design for awhile. Yet I want them to look nice and well-made, not rushed. Obviously simple will be best. Any other suggestions on how to tackle this?
Can't really help on the ideas as I'm somewhat new to card making. I'm sure that a lot of the wonderful ladies here at SCS will offer great suggestions.
I just couldn't "read on by" without telling you how wonderful I think that your committment to doing the get well cards is. I'm positive that there are going to be many folks whose day will be greatly brightened by your thoughtfulness. Thank you for making the world a little bit better place.
Could you ask some ladies from church to help you? Design a couple of cards and precut your materials and have a get-together to make them? You would need to keep them kinda simple but that could be one way to solve your problem plus others will feel good because they are helping, too!
you can do assembly-line style.
one day, stamp up 40 images, and let dry
day 2, add color and trim images,
day 3, print or stamp all the sentiments, and trim them
day 4, attach all stamped images/ sentiments to cards and dry
day 5, add any other 'doodads' to the cards
day6, bring the cards to the minister
day 7, rest (even God takes a day off LOL)
you can also dedicate a day to card making, invite your fellow parishoners to make cards, maybe 1 day or 2 days a month. you can even do all the stamping at home, and they can help color and assemble cards with you at church. you could even have a 'Teen Night'.
-laura s
I would begin with doing some simple ones.....to get yourself use to doing
that many weekly............
Try not to begin with alot of embellishments....just simple stamping and sayings.
I like Julie HRR..sorry if I'm not getting the intitials here.......but she does some wonderful simple cards that are so adoreable JulieHRR's Gallery at Splitcoaststampers
Later as you learn approx. what and how many you will need.....you can begin
building up a stock ahead of time and adding more "glitz" if you want to your
cards.
just my opinion...I've been in a card ministry at our church for approx 11 years.
I would probably go to the CAS gallery here and find some of the one layer/minimal embellishment designs. You probably have some church members who would love to help. Congratulations and good luck with your project. You will be so blessed for your efforts!
I do two card ministrys at church. I supply all the birthday and Anniversary cards that they send to members and I also supply the church bookstore with all the cards they can sell. All of these are donated. Whenever I make cards I make at least 24 of a design..this is a good way to produce a lot of cards all at once in a short time. I have so many things going on that rarely do I make one of a kind. Good luck..it is a very rewarding thing to do. Blessings.
i started a card ministry a couple of months ago and love it so much. the happineess it brings to the church members after receiving a hand made card is so amazing. I love it.!
I think if you are gonna do that many then yea like other have mentioned maybe as a couple of ladies if they can help you out.
I know my demo and the ladies at her church get together I think 1 time a month and make cards and I believe it is like 6 or 7 or even more and they each make around 10 or so cards (all the same) and that is a way. Also if u didnt want all the same have 3 or more make one kind and the other 3 make another kind. HTH
For mass production tips, check out this page on Michelle Wooderson's great blog. She is one of my absolute favorites for inspiration and help with anything you ever wanted to know about making wonderful cards:
You might consider asking a few of your SCS buddies here on line to make a few cards and send them your way. This group is so supportive, you might really get some great ones. I'd be glad to send you some cards if you tell me what you're looking for and PM me your addy.
Thank you all for your input; some good suggestions here. Thanks for the links; I've been checking them out.
I really like the idea of involving some high school kids; our church has a high school - what a good community service project for the right club. The idea to take it step-by-step day-by-day may work for me personally. My church network involves a couple of SU demos; I think their stamping plates are pretty full with that.
Again, thanks for the input - off to stamp!
binx/jennifer clark
Yippie! and Yikes!
