Stamping Gone to the Dogs and Cats!

Hey Stamper Friends!
I have something a little out of the ordinary but fun to share today. It's always bothered me a little bit that I have all this ink, paper and stamps, more than I can possibly use personally. I've wanted to put my excess supplies to good use, for a noble cause, for some time now. One of my 2020 Stampin'Up! goals is to do more "charity stamping". That is, gather some stampers together, see how many cards we can make and then donate them to a local charity for their use. I'd done this once before, several years ago, but want to make it a monthly or quarterly habit this year.  Everyone can use some cheer from a handmade card and a charity is especially grateful!

Our first charity is our local humane society, called "Heart of the Valley Animal Shelter". I called them ahead of time to ask what type of cards they would most like to receive and the answer as "sympathy cards". So, this past Saturday, about 7 of us gathered at my house and one did her stamping at her house because she was fighting off a nasty cold, but still wanted to participate. We spent about 5 hours altogether with people coming and going. I set up a paper area, a stamp and punch area, a die cutting/embossing area and of course, a food area!  People were turned loose to come up with their own ideas but could also copy some of mine. It was so fun and of course, we chatted the whole time. By the time we were done, we had about 160 cards that I'll be delivering early next week and we all felt like our time was especially well spent! 

I thought you'd be curious about what we came up with. I took quick photos as I was gathering them up so they are unedited but genuine!  Have a look:

It was so fun to put our creative stamping and design abilities to work. We all agreed we need to do this more often and are excitedly brainstorming about other charities to donate cards to next. I couldn't have done it without my faithful friends (the human kind ;) ) and am grateful for their big hearts and love of animals too.

Happy Stampin'!
Sarah