Giving Back

I have been working as a member of the Congregational Care Team at my church since I arrived here in North Carolina.  I am more of a behind the scenes kind of person but I love what I do.  Today I wanted to share what I created for our shut-in church community (we currently have nine folks in this category but it goes up and down all the time).  For each of the holidays the team puts together these great gift bags that are loved by the recipient’s (I know because one of them is my Mother-In-Law).  For Thanksgiving I created the paper pumpkin projects that made the little paper pumpkins and filled them with candy.  I also created a box set of 5 Christmas cards for each of them (the church added stamps) so that they too could send out cards (especially to their caregivers). 

I want to give a huge shout out to my amazing hubby who spent hours up in the craft room and did all the die cutting for the Thanksgiving cards, Christmas cards and even a ton of die cutting for cards for an upcoming swap I am participating in.  Here he is hard at work…

So, for Christmas I went kind of crazy and here is what I came up with…

With hubbies help we made each person a card from the church.  We also made them a box set of cards that contained one each, Sympathy, Thinking of You, Get Well, Thank You and one each masculine, feminine and Childs Birthday Cards.  The little box in the center contains 5 Hershey Nuggets (I posted directions for this project here on my blog back on August 16^th).  The angel is from Laurie Furnell Designs (she is on Etsy) you download it and print it onto Basic White cardstock and fussy cut it.  You wrap the main piece around a Hershey Bar and add the other pieces like the winds, bow and heart to make it more 3D (simple project and she has tons of different wrappers, I loved the turkey I made them for Thanksgiving).  And finally the candy cane holder which I am going to explain below.

I started with Real Red Cardstock that I cut to 2 x 8 ½” and scored at 6 ¾ and 7 1/4".  Then used the Delightful Tag Topper punch to punch the top.  To this I add a layer of Old Olive cardstock that measured 1 ¾ x 5 ½” and on top of that I added a piece of the Heartwarming Hugs Designer Series Paper that measured 1 ½ x 5 ¼”.  See below.  

Now it is time to add the candy cane.  Before actually adhering, it I laid it in and decided where I wanted to punch my two little holes for the ribbon (I used a simple hole punch for that).  I turn the candy cane as shown below and add a piece of Tear & Tape to it to keep it firmly in place.

Then I added it to the base as shown below.

Once it is in place, I add another little piece of Tear & Tape to the bottom of the cane to hold the little flap where I put the sentiment in place.

Closed up…

Now all that was left was to add some ribbons and my sentiment.  The sentiment is from the For Unto Us stamp set (which I used for their Christmas cards as well).  I stamped the sentiment GLORY TO THE NEWBORN KING onto Basic White cardstock using Real Red Ink.  Then I die cut it using the Stitched So Sweetly Dies.

For my final addition I printed the following poem and put it on the back (I have no idea who the author is but I love it).

What’s in a Candy Cane?

The letter “J” for Jesus

The shape of a Shepherd’s Staff

Red, his blood he shed for us

White, he washed our sins away and made us white as snow

Stripes, by his stripes we are healed

Candy, His love grows sweeter each Day

 

I hope you enjoy these projects and I would certainly encourage everyone to find a way to reach out in your community and make a difference even if it is just a card.  I have found such joy in doing this.    

Happy Crafting!!!