Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Happy Holidays to Our Heroes!

if you landed here in the middle of the bloghop, please be sure to start here to go full circle: CFH BlogHop


Yes, you are wondering what is going on here in Eastern Massachusetts, aren't you? Happy Holidays????

NOW is the time to start preparing holiday cards for Cards for Heroes!

According to the best estimate I could find, there are over 150,000 military personnel deployed currently in Iraq and Afghanistan (and other support posts nearby).

Last year, Cards for Heroes mailed over 37,000 holiday greeting cards to the military - this year, we'd like to do even more. As you can see if your math skills are good - this still isn't even one card for every three servicepersons currently deployed. Does this inspire you to make a few more cards this year? GOOD!

As for my card, I was inspired in a different way...earlier this year, Cards for Heroes worked with another fantastic organization called Project MOT, providing some Passover cards for this organization to put in care packages, which were sent to Jewish military personnel currently on deployment. They loved the cards so much, they have asked us to provide Chanukah cards this year.

Being Jewish, I was happy to help out with the project....but found my supply of Chanukah stamps rather, um, lackluster. I mentioned this to my friends Monica and Tim at Hambo Stamps, and asked if they might be interested in designing a cute Chanukah stamp for me to use. After a few e-mails back and forth, Tim drew a digital stamp for me....and the result was perfect!




There's no particular creative genius to this card....but I just loved the way it came out, and it was my first time using a digital stamp (and I am sure hooked!!!!). You can resize the image to whatever size you need, and I'm sure the digi folks could tell you that there are many other things you can do with these great stamps!

Like the stamp? Tim & Monica at Hambo Stamps have offered its use FREE OF CHARGE to anyone who is going to make Cards for Heroes! How generous is that??? If you are interested in the stamp, just e-mail me at fabre@cardsforheroes.org and I will e-mail you the image. It will be fun to see what others do with this stamp....

For your next stop on the hop, check out Brianne's blog. I was moved by her story - and glad to honor her as a hero at home! Check out her blog by clicking on her name in this paragraph!

Thanks for reading, and for your support of Cards for Heroes!