A welcome message from our President:
Our site has a LOT of information....so this page has a real quick primer, along with links to lots of things you'll want to check out! We advise visiting us on Facebook for quick answers to your basic questions - we have hundreds of old hands ready to share their knowledge!
A note about the end of deployments to Iraq
New to Operation Write Home? It's easy to get involved!
For crafters of all levels:
Be sure to go order a free OWH stamp for the back of your cards right now - when you're ready to mail cards, your stamp will be there! And yes you can put your own info on the back of the card as well.
You can send just a few cards, or more than that - we encourage taking your time and doing your best work, since they'll be used by America's best! Set a small goal to start with; as we have fewer deployed heroes and more and more crafters, we can all take our time and send in much smaller packages. Do NOT make more than 25 multiples of one card - that includes just switching out the card base, patterned paper, or sentiment. With fewer heroes to divvy between, we can no longer be storing a hundred of one design.
Use your finest cardstock (NOT patterned paper as a card base), do your best stamping, your yummiest embellishing...just keep away from GLITTER that flakes off (a tiny bit of Stickles is fine), since that's a safety hazard...and don't overdo the dimension - think "shirt button" thickness instead of "vintage button" depth, so the cards to survive the postal system! Be sure to line dark cards with light paper; our heroes may only have a pencil to write with.
Having a party? Inviting non-crafty people? Please consider having new folks make their own AnyHero cards at your first event; that way you'll be able to tell who's got natural skills and can handle making great cards.
A2 size cards (4.25 x 5.5) are strongly preferred. Envelopes aren't absolutely required, BUT if you can provide envies and tuck the cards and sort them by categories as you pack your box, it helps our shippers so much! They're volunteers and put in crazy hours of labor preparing the shipments, and your assistance is crucial to letting them have a little family time.
You may include sentiments on the outside of your cards, on the inside, both, or neither. NONE can be HANDWRITTEN though, it scares our military wives who wonder who the woman is making cards for their husbands. Blank cards are very versatile, so if you have no sentiment stamps, just leave it with a pretty design!
Include a donation along with your cards if you wish - or PayPal it right now - to ensure our work continues! We also hope everyone puts AnyHero cards/letters in every package too.
Have children? Get them involved! However kids are ONLY to make cards with notes in them for our heroes to keep. Lots of info is here if you're interested!
Brand new to cardmaking? Welcome to the addiction!
We have lots of resources to help you learn...one of the best places to start is our Stars and Stamps blog, where we share sketches (card design ideas) on Sundays, tutorials on Tuesdays, challenges on Wednesdays, and feature one of our crafters on Fridays. There's also a great Glossary to help you out with terms that are new to you!
Our best advice for new crafters is to take your time and pour lots of love into your cards. We encourage quality over quantity - our heroes deserve the best! Our shippers have to repair cards that are falling apart due to poor quality (or not enough) adhesive, or add liners inside cards too dark to write on with a pencil - so staying out of the "card hospital" is a big help. See the video on the Mailroom page for a view of what cards go through.