July - ETM Cards and Such

A good friend of mine was just deployed overseas again, and being also the 4th of July and such this month, I have been reminded frequently of just how many lives our people of service touch - I do have lots of friends with family or loved ones overseas, and this has been going on for years. What have I done to support the troops? Not much, besides the occasional patriotic graphic or banner . . . or joining "causes" on Facebook.

This month's Express the Moment kit came just full of patriotism and ideas for cards that are perfect for our troops. I also found this awesome site. . . Cards for Heroes . . . what a ton of great ideas they have! You can send cards of encouragement and thanks to any random hero or. . . you can send blank home - made cards for the troops to send back home to their loved ones. I am definitely going to support this.

My good friend and his family will be getting a lot of the cards that I made with this months' kit, and I also hope that a few of them get to some random troops that I have never met. . . probably never will meet. . . but perhaps a few encouraging words from a stranger will brighten their day.

According to the Cards for Heroes website, any cards sent should not have glitter on them. I guess that it can get on their uniforms, which is bad for asthetics, but also glitter can be seen with night vision goggles - which can be a huge hazard to our troops! Who knew??? I abstained from using glitter on all of these cards. . . which was a huge deal for me. But all for a good cause, right?

. . . and June

AJ and I got to take an awesome trip to Albuquerque to see my grandfolks the first part of June! We had a great time . . . despite a minor breakdown with the Car of Doom which just seems to keep having problem after problem. . .

At any rate, I was able to pickup my Express the Moment kit this week and dive into the new goodies! The best part about making my ETM cards is that it is sort of like exercise. For my brain that is. And we all know I could use a little exercise :) The most fun part of making my cards from the Expressions kits each month is making it up as I go along. The kits always have so many fun things inside. . . and you should have heard me squeal when I saw the new font CD in this month's kit! Yes, a whole CD of fonts that I (*the font queen*) did not have! I am super excited. . . and to celebrate, I decided to use one of the cute new fonts called "Chrissy Lee" to make cards about friendship.

I used these quotes on the insides of the cards - and printed the insides onto cards on my printer. You know what I did today? I refilled the ink cartridges in my printer. ALL BY MYSELF! Rico has this refill kit that comes with syringes and needles and ink, and you have to *carefully* fill all of these little ports on the cartridges. I did it with minimal mess and discoloration of my fingertips! Woot! Sometimes, knowing how to handle a needle and syringe, really comes in handy.

Here are the cards, and the quotes.

How rare and wonderful is that flash of a moment when we discover we have fount a friend. -- William Rotsler (inside of butterfly card)

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words. - Unknown (inside of bird card)

A friend is someone who reaches for your hand but touches your heart. - Kathleen Grove (inside of tree card)

Many people will walk in and out of your life but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. - Eleanor Roosevelt (inside of round "friend" card)

A friend is someone who knows all about you and loves you just the same. - Elbert Hubbard (inside of stitched ribbon card)

Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts. - Maragret Lee Runbeck (inside of the "file folder" card)

. . . and how cute is that tiny file folder? Thanks ETM for the great month. See you at the Expo!