Summer Time at Send a Smile 4 Kids

Now that summer is finally here, I wanted to pop in over here and let you know what our current needs are in case you were thinking of donating your cards for our kids in the seven Children's Hospitals we now serve.

We are always busy on the challenge side so stop in there any time to see great cards by our design team and the winners of our challenges.

It is never too early to start thinking of making fall and winter holiday cards for our kids. Remember nothing scary or sinister in your Halloween cards and Christmas cards should not be religion specific. We are always looking for thank you cards and birthday cards- especially for boys. But everyday cards that can be used for thank you and birthdays and any other reason are great as they can be used however the child or staff member wishes.

Remember our teenage boys and girls too when designing cards as they are sometimes sadly neglected in the cards we receive.  A2 sized cards (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") are the best, but if you want to send bigger ones, please be sure to include envelopes as we may not have the right sizes in our homes. We label the back of all the cards before organizing them according to category and getting them to the Children's Hospitals. So if you would like to save us a little work, you could request the back label we use and attach it before sending in your card. This is a big help but certainly not required.

We appreciate all our donors and thank everyone here and on our Gratitude and Activity Page.

Stamping smile 4 our kids, Karen

It's a New Year at SAS4Kids!

Happy New Year from Send a Smile 4 Kids! I wanted to update this side of the blog with current needs and to say Thank You to all who have sent in their cards for our kids in the past year. We are busy as ever over of the challenge side with new challenges every two weeks, new cards from our design team to inspire you and great prizes to be won from our generous sponsors.

I just organized, stamped the back of, and boxed a big box of Valentines, Easter and spring and everyday cards for our kids in the Neenah and Milwaukee Children's Hospital. I will be personally delivering them very soon when I go over to babysit my grandson. This box is the last of the many many spring cards we received last year as a result of the generosity of CardMaker readers. I had encouraged most cards to go to our Iowa or Canadian addresses because I had many boxes full of cards. But now I would appreciate cards again being sent to the Wisconsin address as well.

Current Wisconsin and Iowa needs: Mother's Day and Father's Day FROM the kids, Birthday and Thank You cards, BOYS, BOYS, BOYS! cards of all types, and cards also appropriate for teenage boys and girls. 

We are always happy to accept and hold if need be all other types of cards including holidays and everyday cards (which can be used for many of the above catagories.)

I am pretty sure our Canadian friends at SAS4Kids - Canada would have much the same needs.

Please review the tabs at the top for addresses and guidelines as well as information on our challenges.

Thanks again for all you do for our kids! We look forward to seeing your creative and fun cards for our kids!

Stamping smiles 4 our kids, Karen

Current Needs and More Kids to Help Smile!

Just wanted to update any readers on this side of the blog with some current needs and some fun news. First of all, we wanted to let you know that our Canadian branch of Send a Smile 4 Kids has expanded again, adding another address and hospital full of kids who could use some of your cards to help cheer them. Click on the link here to read about their great new partnership and expansion.

In the states, we are starting to think about fall and winter holidays. We would love it if we had so many hand made holiday cards, the kids in our Children's Hospitals could each receive one AND pick some to share with family and friends while they are inpatient as well. Giving the kids the chance to give a card to hospital staff to say thank you or send a note to someone they love will help cheer them and their families too.

When you are designing cards to donate, please also keep our older (teenage) girls and boys in mind. We receive the least number of this type of cards, and we get special requests for them from our hospital contacts. Especially boy cards...

We update the challenge side of the blog every week with fun challenges and winner announcements, so come over there to visit and join in the fun anytime. Click on the tabs at the top for the challenges and also all the information you need to donate your cards.

And thank you for visiting our blog and any hand made cards you might be able to send.

Stamping smiles 4 our kids, Karen

Paper Crafting Journey Card Drive for SAS4Kids!

We are so happy today to partner with Paper Crafting Journey in a card drive for Send a Smile 4 Kids! The challenge at Paper Crafting Journey from May 24-June 6th is Anything Goes for Kids and they are encouraging their participants to send in their cards to SAS4Kids to cheer a child who is inpatient in one of the seven  Children's Hospitals we now serve. We are really grateful to PCJ and their design team for helping us get the word out about our cause. Remember you can enter your card in our current challenge too which is also Anything Goes for Kids (from May 19-June 1st), so you would have even more chances at some great prizes.

Several members of the PCJ team shared cards with us to inspire you:

PCJ Card by Hilde (yup our Hilde:)

PCJ Card by Wendy

PCJ Card by Alethea

Thanks ladies for sharing your talents with us today! And a huge thank you to Paper Crafting Journey for hosting this Card Drive for Send a Smile 4 Kids! And another grateful thank you to YOU for visiting us and hopefully participating in both of these challenges and sending in your card(s) to SAS4Kids to put a smile on a child's face and cheering his/her family too!

Stamping smiles 4 our kids, Karen