Thursday, January 21, 2010

Cards That Care


With less than a month until Valentine’s Day, I’m buried under a mountain of cards and card orders, and my finger tips have become permanently dyed pink! The response to Cards That Care has been overwhelming. You would think that with time I would get faster and faster at putting together these cards, but time has proved just the opposite. The more cards that I make, friends that I talk to, and craft stores that I visit the more intricate techniques I learn, and the more new tools I find that I need. What used to take 30 minutes now takes hours! I must say the cards have greatly improved but my stress level hasn’t! Check out some of the new stock:

It sounds strange but I get attached to my cards! Some of them I don’t even want to sell I like them so much. When you invest this much time working on something it’s hard to just let it go. People ask to see them and I’m almost hesitant to show my favorites in case they like the cards as much as I do and want to buy them before I’m ready to part with them. But this is a fundraiser and I sadly that is something I’m going to have to get over. I will have to part with them all if I hope to raise the rest of my money. Only around $700 to go thanks to all who have bought cards or donated money!
It has been an interesting experience doing all this fundraising. As if classes weren’t stressful enough, we also had to worry about meeting our fundraising deadlines. And I remember as the first deadline got closer I was scrambling, calling all my family to see if they could help me get together the funds. At that point I wondered how I was ever going to survive 8 months of that kind of stress. But from that point it’s been pretty much uphill. The cards are a tone of fun to make and I’ve had an overwhelming response from my community as well as people I’ve never even met. I love that often when people call about cards or donations they share their stories with me. They tell me about places they have travelled in India or missions trips they or people they know have been on and I really love hearing how excited they sound. Hearing from them makes this journey seem that much more real for me. Right now next September seems really far away! Although, if I keep living from one card holiday to the next, the time is just going to fly by!

3 comments:

  1. one day, talking to Tina about cookies, I looked at her teary eyed and said "you just don't get it... I develop a personal relationship with each and everyone of the cookies what I deliver. they aren't just cookies, they are like my children I am adopting out." she laughed pretty hard. then after 6 straight days of decorating gingerbread... she said "you know I have developed a personal relationship with each one of these gingerbread men..." if everyone else thinks your crazy, know that Tina and I share your sentiments!! (also, I love your cards just as much as you do... I want them all. wish I was that talented)

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  2. Hahaha, Denise! I thought of that same moment when I read Jenn's words! Jenn, I did think Denise was crazy, and if I hadn't had the same enlightening experience with my army of gingerbread men, I'd think you were crazy, too, lol. But I totally get it!
    And by the way, your cards are gorgeous! VERY appealing. You should really consider continuing this, fundraising or no fundraising :)

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  3. Oh good :) im glad you guys feel like this too! At least I know im not going insane! i sold a whole bunch of cards today and I had to take a second to breathe and be ok with letting them go. haha If this gets much worse its going to get in the way of selling cards! :P

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