Stampers Can Help

September 3, 2005

Dear Stamping Friends,
USArtQuest has found a small, yet significant way to help those who
will for some time, be living in makeshift housing of our devastated
south. We know that once the evacuees have reached a point where
essential life-needs are met,they will also need something to keep
their spirits up.

The employees of USArtQuest will begin assembling Card Art Kits on
October 1. These kits are to benefit those suffering from their
overwhelming sense of loss, by providing a bit of art therapy. Hands
can stay creatively busy, while helping hearts heal. Although the
process of evacuating and relocating may take several weeks or
months, our project will also take that long to assemble.

This is how you can participate:
Please gather your friends, your cardstock and pretty Christmas
stamps, new, old, juvenile, pretty, elegant, cute and in-between –
all just begging to be used. Stamp and emboss at least 6
Christmas/Holiday cards WITH ENVELOPES and send them to USArtQuest.

DO NOT color them or do anything to embellish them in any way, other
than to stamp and emboss. Pre-layering images is acceptable. We want
nicely stamped, but plain cards. PLEASE PUT POSTAGE ON THE ENVELOPES
and 6 cards into one zip-lock bag. If you use dark cardstock, please
enclose a piece of white paper, so that personal notes can be written
with regular ballpoint pens.

USArtQuest will supply the brushes, watercolors, stickers, additional
paper/card, markers and the oodles of donated creative materials, as
well as do the assembly, packing and shipping of the kits to the
affected areas. Those who receive the kits will have, for at least a
few hours, the opportunity to sit, paint, embellish and finish the
cards for their friends and family for the holidays. We all know that
something as small as sending or receiving a card can be very
important. But, more importantly, these handmade cards may be the
only gift they can give this year.

Our goal is to send 200 kits, each kit having enough materials for 12
people. (That means a staggering, 72 stamped cards per kit.) If we
receive more cards, then we will assemble as many kits as the cards
support. We would like to ship the first pallet of kits, by mid-
October. If my arrangements to personally distribute the kits does
not happen, (my sister lives in Houston), then we have asked that
Points of Light Foundation and the Salvation Army to begin
distributing the kits in late October.

If you would like to include ribbons, stickers or other creative
materials not commonly carried by USArtQuest, we will also include
them in the kit boxes. If you are able to participate, please begin
sending your cards, with postage attached and/or materials to:

USArtQuest, Inc.
7800 Ann Arbor Road
Grass Lake, MI 49240
ATTN: We Care

With heartfelt thanks and prayers for our neighbors,
Susan
president
Susan Pickering Rothamel
USArtQuest,