Thursday, July 22, 2010

Luau Party Invitations



Back on June 5/6th, 2010 tornadoes devastated our area, right down the road from where I grew up! Although it was several miles from where I now live I feel horrible knowing that people I grew up with, teachers I had, friends, and family were affected tremendously. Some lost their lives, some lost everything they owned, some lost family members, some lost all of the above and some were fortunate enough to escape by just having to replace roofs, windows, doors, contents, etc...IF YOU CALL THAT FORTUNATE!

Anyway, I held a huge fundraiser to raise money to help put a SMILE back in the hearts of some families that were affected by these horrible storms! My friend and I held a huge Garage and Bake Sale and raised about $6000.00. It was AMAZING!

Once the hard work was all over it was then time for me to start contacting the people who lost so much! What a joy and a true blessing this has all been for me!

Throughout many of my conversations I learned so much...and decided that replacing roofs, doors, windows, etc would be great but in most cases the insurance companies were taking care of things like that. So...here I sat with this money that was raised for the families...what would I do with it all? Well, I'll tell you! As I mentioned, I learned so much during all my conversations...I learned that one family was so busy that they actually schedule in a "Family Date Night" once a week just to go out to dinner and make sure that they are all staying in touch and up to date with what's going on. Unfortunately, they had not been able to do this since the storms because they really haven't been financially able to. I also learned that one families two children lost all their toys, another family was struggling to buy groceries. Oh, and one family was planning a Birthday Party for their daughters who were finally allowed to invite THEIR friends and not just family members. They were planning to have a luau at the pond in their back yard. So, after hearing all this information, anyone who knows me knows that my mind was working overtime to figure out what I should do!

Well...I'll tell you...

Bought tons of gift cards to various restaurants to send one family to dinner at least once a month for an entire year!

Took another family's two children on a shopping spree where they were allowed to fill up their carts with TOYS, TOYS and more TOYS!

Bought grocery gift cards for another family that should last them about six months.

...and...

Planned a Surprise Luau Birthday Party for the birthday girls! It's at a private beach and the family also gets two nights accommodations at the resort! Food is catered from Famous Daves BBQ and the invitations were handmade by ME! Talk about a FUN job! This was awesome!

Here are a couple of photos to show you
exactly what the invitations looked like...






OH, AND YES THEY WERE MAILED JUST AS THEY ARE! NO ENVELOPE NEEDED! The post office loved them! Hope the recipients are surprised and get a chuckle out of them too when they open the mailbox and find them inside...

What do you think?

So, some of the money has been spent but still not completely done! I will continue on my mission fulfilling small dreams of these families that have been through so much by putting "THE FUN STUFF" back in to their lives!

Hugs for now!

Monday, July 12, 2010

FABULOUS Blog Candy from Inked Inspirations

I just stumbled on to Jodi's blog at Inked Inspirations...it's her birthday and yet she's giving FIVE lucky winners the chance to win some fabulous goodies! I couldn't believe it and boy would I love the chance to win any one of those packages! Just take a look and see what I'm talking about!











Now do you understand why I'm jumpin' for joy?!!! Wish me luck! Deadline is July 31st, 2010.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Stamptacular's July 11th Challenge

Can you believe it! Two weeks in a row I've been able to play along with the Stamptacular Design Team! How fun this has been! I love being able to sit down and create cards but I just don't get to do it that often...

Anyway, this week at Stamtacular the challenge is to create a card of project that incorporates this sketch...



Here's what I came up with.

It looks different in real life but I'm still not that crazy about it! What I am crazy about is the fact that I finally got the opportunity to make my very first easel card! Not bad for a first try...Oh...and I will be making more of these! I just love them and it was so simple to make!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Stamptacular's July 4th Challenge!

WOW...it has been a super long time since I've been able to sit down and create! It feels absolutely fabulous to be able to add something new to my blog! Hopefully, I still have friends who are interested in visiting me...So sorry it's been so long but if you know me, you know exactly what's been going on and why.

Anyway, without further ado, I'd like to share the aperture card I created for our Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog. The challenge was to create an aperture card...Enjoy!