Good morning everyone!! Can you believe that Memorial Day weekend will soon be here, and that May will soon be over as well?? Seems like we just turned the calendar and with so many commitments between Mother’s Day, graduation, end of the year activities, as well as stamping events, May has gone by in a blur.
When I finally had a night of down time – which really doesn’t exist for me. Down time and I do not know each other! – I sat down and did some heavy prepping for a service project I’ll be doing in a couple of weeks.

I love to have service projects on my plate, and I discovered our Kit Collection is a wonderful way to show appreciation, support, and encouragement to others who are struggling. Many of my service projects are funded by Thrivent grants, such as the one in the picture above. I chose the “By Your Side” card kit to create get well wishes for the patients of the University Of Missouri Children’s Hospital. But with all of the activities on my plate, I need to work these into my “down time”. And that means LOTS of boxes sitting around, waiting to be opened and assembled, right???
So, when I DO have a bit of down time, I grab all of those kit boxes – this time there were 15 – and I open, punch out, organize and re-package in a much smaller, more manageable way. I throw out all of the packaging items not needed, then package in a way that I can easily gather and play with!

I went from 15 boxes to 3 boxes instead!!! There are two different cards in this kit, so I have each packaged with all of the components and ready to complete. As for the extra stamp sets, blocks, and ink spots – I bagged them up and will take to a class for others to take home for free. This group of cards will be going with me to Branson in mid June so I have something to play with!

And the best part —– all of the packing materials is leaving my house in a good way!! Of course, that means I have to wait on Pool Boy to tear down boxes, but the cardboard will head to our recycling center, then plastic cellophane packaging heads to Wal-Mart’s plastic recycling bins, and that simply leaves the paper from the punched out items to throw away. Kind of a double win – a great service project for little ones hospitalized, AND a great way to help reduce and reuse trash that is kept out of our landfills.
So, how can you use your Stampin’ Up products as a service project to help others???? Until next time, keep stamping, keep crafting, and God Bless!!!

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