A Season of Heartcrafted Giving Part 1: Christmas Cards for Seniors

 

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the first in a special series of posts sharing a project that has been very close to my heart over the last few months. This spring, I set myself a quiet goal to create a collection of handmade greeting cards for the Homemade Cards for Seniors Card Drive. This project holds a deeply personal meaning for me, as it honours the living memory of my late Mum, who passed away in June last year at age 94, and whose own nursing home was brightened by this exact volunteer organisation. Crafting these has been a beautiful, restorative journey—completed entirely at my own gentle pace, using some of my absolute favourite independent brands of cardmaking supplies. Over the next few weeks, I’m looking forward to sharing these designs with you, beginning today with a few favourite layouts that brought me so much peace and creative joy to assemble.

So far, I have made 40 Christmas Cards and hope to make some more.

The idea behind this volunteer organisation it is that you make cards that will be donated to senior members in our community:  Meals on Wheels programs, retirement villages, nursing homes, aged care facilities, hospitals and government hostels.

They have four themes a year:  Easter, Thinking of You, Birthday and Christmas.

You can make as many cards as you want - even just one is fine.  And there has already been over 150,000 cards donated over the last two years.  Isn't that incredible?!

You can find more information at the Homemade Cards for Seniors Facebook Page HERE.  There is an email address listed there so you can contact them to find out your nearest collection point.

So today I am sharing Part 1 of the cards I have made.

These Shaker Cards came in a kit by Queen & Co. (USA) called Happy Holly Days which I bought many years ago and it is a great kit because it comes with stamps, dies, designer paper, pre-cut foam, pre-cut acetate, glitter cardstock and the shaker elements.  It looks complicated but because it's a kit, the process is so much quicker.  I thought it would be fun for someone to have an interactive card that they can shake.

I did make multiples of each style of shaker and it was really fun.  

I used lots of Retired Designer Papers instead of what was in the kit and opted to use Glitter Paper/Cardstock from my stash so that it matched the papers.  

For these first two cards, the designer papers are by My Mind's Eye - Sugar Plum which was released 2016.  The Green Glitter Paper is by American Crafts.  I used shaker elements from the kit as well as some matching ones from my stash.

Both the sentiments are by Uniquely Creative from one of their cut-a-part sheets and were popped up on scraps of White Cardstock.  I added tiny Red Molossi Rhinestones to the 2nd card.  The cuff on the stocking was first diecut from White Cardstock then a second time from White Felt which I glued together.  This made it easier to glue onto the top of the stocking as I was afraid some glue would ooze onto the acetate if I just glued on the felt.

The cardstock is by Kaisercraft - Rose.

The shiny Red Star on the cuff is a from a roll of star ribbon that I have had for ages which I simply trimmed off and glued on using Tombow Mono Multi Glue.

Here is my 3rd card that I made using Kaisercraft Designer Papers called O'Christmas Tree which was released last year:

I thought the papers with the Gingerbread Man were such a perfect match to the main image.  The Dark Green Cardstock and Brown Cardstock is from my stash.

The sentiment is again from Uniquely Creative.

The white icing on the Gingerbread Man was done using dies that came with the Queen & Co. Kit and were glued on using Art Glitter Glue.

And now here is my 4th card:

This card also uses the O'Christmas Tree Designer Papers on the card base - and the papers underneath the tree are by Pebbles - Merry Little Christmas which was released in 2019.  I thought the tree paper was a great match to the main image.  I used some additional Green Shaker Elements from my stash.

The sentiment is from the Queen & Co. Kit and was stamped using Versafine Onyx Black Ink then diecut using a Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banners Die.  Even though I have had this die set for years, it is still readily available.  I added a tiny Red Molossi Rhinestone to each end, then popped the sentiment up on scraps of White Cardstock.

The star on the top of the tree was diecut from Gold Glitter Cardstock.

This card was the first one that I made before I realised how much quicker it would be to just use the Uniquely Creative Christmas Sentiment Sheets instead.  It sure made it faster because I was doing multiples of each assembly-line style.

Card Recipes

Cards #1 and #2:

Stamps and Ink:  None

Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye Sugarplum 6 x 6 inch Pad (2016)

Accessories:  Queen & Co. Happy Holly Days Kit, Big Shot, American Crafts Cricket (Green) Glitter Paper, Scraps of White Cardstock, Kaisercraft Rose Cardstock, Uniquely Creative White Card Base, White Felt, Red Star Ribbon, Tombow Mono Multi Glue, Art Glitter Glue, Red Molossi Rhinestones, Green Shaker Elements (stash), Uniquely Creative Sentiment Sheet & matching Die

Card #3:

Stamps and Ink:  None

Designer Paper:  Kaisercraft O'Christmas Tree (2025)

Accessories:  Queen & Co. Happy Holly Days Kit, Big Shot, Tombow Mono Multi Glue, Art Glitter Glue, Cardstock - Scraps of White + Brown + Dark Green, Uniquely Creative White Card Base, Uniquely Creative Sentiment Sheet & matching Die 

Card #4:

Stamps:  Sentiment from Queen & Co. Kit

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black

Designer Paper:  Kaisercraft O'Christmas Tree (2025)

Accessories:  Queen & Co. Happy Holly Days Kit, Big Shot, Tombow Mono Multi Glue, Art Glitter Glue, Green Shaker Elements (stash), Green + Gold Glitter Cardstock, Cardstock - Scraps of White + Forest, Uniquely Creative White Card Base

Dies:  Star, Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banners LF1139

Penny Black Purr-fectly Sweet Valentines card

Hi everyone

Just stopping in to share a card that I made for my daughter for Valentine's Day just to say how much I love her.  I used one of my new purchases - a Penny Black stamp called Purr-fectly Sweet - no surprise there I guess!

This is also my card for the following Challenges:

Incy Wincy Designs - Love 
Glitter 'N' Sparkle - Challenge #226 - Love is in the Air
Splitcoaststampers - Free for All Friday F4A363 of Make a Valentine  

I must find some new Challenge blogs as many of the ones that I have entered over the years have stopped.  If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment and let me know.

I stamped the image onto Bristol Smooth White cardstock with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink then coloured it with a mix of Faber-Castell Watercolour pencils and Tombow pens and my paintbrushes.

I started the card after dinner the day before Valentine's Day and had this bright idea late that night to paper-piece the I, HEART and U which I did - but then realised I would need to paper piece the cat paws as they were holding the sign and therefore should be on top of the I, HEART and U.  So I reinked just the paws and coloured them and then cut them out which was very, very fiddly but worth the result I think :-)  I went around all the cut pieces using a Copic black fineliner pen to hide the white parts where I trimmed.  I even found the stray paw that I had already cut which had adhered itself to the sleeve of my top without needing to redo it ha ha!   So, with all the extra fiddling around, I ended up not finishing the card in time for this morning (Valentine's Day) - oh well!  But I do like how the paper-piecing ties it all in with the rest of the designer papers.  I diecut the image with my Big Shot and a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die.

Here is a close-up of those sweet cats:

 
The gorgeous designer papers are by Queen and Co. and came with their Heart Throb Kit which I purchased directly from them in the USA as I couldn't find a stockist here in Australia.  It got here on the 13th so was just in time for making my card and I was very impressed with how quickly it arrived from when I ordered it.  I really, really love the colours in this pad and definitely would love to get another pad as I can honestly say that I love every single sheet in the pad which I don't often say about paper pads as there are always a couple that I am not as keen on.  Luckily, you can purchase the paper pad separately and you don't have to buy it with the kit.

The 3 different cardstocks I used were from my stash - no names of the colours or the brand(s) as I stocked up on cardstock when my local Scrapbooking store closed a few years ago (sniff!).

I used my EK Success Arrows border punch to punch tiny hearts from some of the designer papers (the leftover punches from using the punch look like tiny hearts) and glued them on using Tombow Mono Aqua glue.

And of course, I had to add plenty of glitter and glitterized the I, HEART and U and all the tiny hearts plus the cheeks on the cats using Stampin' Up Dazzling Details glitter glue.

The side panel was punched using a Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop edge punch and all the cardstock layers were trimmed to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools.  The organza ribbon was added in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made using my Bow Easy.

I added 3 pink rhinestone hearts to the bottom right-hand side which I bought from KMart.  It comes as a pack of self-adhesive gems that you are meant to add to your mobile phone or other devices but I find them very handy for cards as you get all different shapes and sizes and colours plus they weren't very dear.

I wondered about adding a sentiment to the card but thought that the banner was enough.

Lastly, I added my card front to a white cardstock base.

When I went to stamp the sentiment inside my card, I actually stamped it portrait instead of landscape like the card front as I wasn't thinking....ughh....so I had to cut off that half of the card base and attach it to a new card base and stamp the sentiment the correct way.  This made the card front very heavy so it doesn't stand up very well - oh well, what can you do......?!!

I think you could use this image for a Wedding Anniversary or just to tell someone that you love them.

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Jocelyn 


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black Purr-fectly Sweet clear stamp 30-398

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Designer Paper:  Queen and Co. Heart Throb 6" x 6" pad

Accessories:  Big Shot, Perfect Layers Tools, pink heart gemstones (KMart), Bow Easy, organza ribbon (stash), Stampin' Up Dazzling Details glitter glue, Faber-Castell watercolour pencils (Riot Art and Craft), Tombow pens, #2 round paintbrush, flat paintbrush, dimensionals, Copic black fineliner pen, Tombow Mono Multi and Aqua glue, doublesided tape, cardstock - pale pink, pale chocolate, pale aqua, white card base, Bristol smooth white

Punches:  Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop edge, EK Success Arrows border

Dies:  Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles