Monday, November 29, 2010

Cards for Church: Why?

Part 1 of a series on Church Card Ministries

The vast majority of my cards go to our church card ministry.  It's a wonderful ministry to be involved with - it's the perfect excuse to spend way too much time in my craft corner!  In all seriousness...I am doing something that I love, for a church that I love.

It's also an excuse to make cards that I would never otherwise get to make (and, of course, to buy stamps for those cards).  For example, I have two boys - a teen and a tween - but for church, I get to play with girlie cards.  Also...my friends are way beyond child-bearing years (sorry ladies!), but for church, I get to play with baby stuff!

And I LOVE the fellowship time we share when we all get together to make our cards.  It's such a fun time, we even have people attend who are not members of our church!  We all come to make cards and get new ideas and techniques - all without any sales pressure as so often happens in home parties and store classes.

So those are the selfish reasons for a card ministry, but why do we have a church cardmaking ministry?

For church use:
Upon request, our church card group makes cards in bulk.  There are so many reasons that a church may want to send cards, including:
  • Thank you for volunteers, e.g. Sunday School teachers
  • Outreach, e.g. Thanksgiving food baskets
  • Get well, thinking of you, etc. for church members and friends
  • Special occasions, e.g. Graduating seniors, newly confirmed youth
A hand crafted card just adds that special caring touch for each of these occasions.

For fund-raising:
Our cardmaking group meets monthly to create a variety of our cards for our "sale" racks.


These racks are always open - people can buy all week long.  Amazingly, we have people who are not even part of our church drop by to stock up!  We do ask for a "donation" of $3/card or 2 for $5.

It's the ultimate ministry! 
  • Cardmakers get to do something they love.
  • The people buying them get a personal handcrafted work of "art".
  • The people receiving the cards know they are loved and cared for. 
  • All of this - and the church gets a donation!
Stay tuned throughout this week for complete details on how to start and run a church card ministry so you can consider starting one on your own!

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Set 263 - Stipple Celebrations

I have one card to share today.  I deliberately stepped away from scallops, flourishes, flowers and glitter today (although I still used a little ribbon) to be sure that we have a masculine card on our church card racks.


The sketch comes from Stamping 411.

The colors come from the color throwdown.

  • Stamps: Stampin' Up Stipple Celebrations, Inkadinkado Expressions & Frames clear set
  • Ink: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, So Saffron
  • Paper: Stampin' Up black, white, Old Olive dsp
  • Accessories: Spellbinders label die, Stampin' Up Black Gingham, Marvy Uchida corner punch

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