"Hey! Where's my mail?"

Many of you might be wondering where your C4F mail is? Well thanks to some volunteers it will be going out this weekend! One or both of the boys has had fever/snotty nose since the end of last week. We want to send crafts, not germs. :) So whenever someone is sick, our policy is to not touch crafts. Some of the families we send them to have low immune systems and can't even have visitors. So do I think a snotty nose could travel via envelope? My answer is: why even risk it? Totally not worth it. All that to say we have some lovely volunteers that will stuff, address, stamp, seal, and mail off close to 80 smiles this weekend! Thank you!!

In our house we are thankful for snotty noses for a few reasons. While I would rather not any of us catch a cold there are some positives:
1. Braddock is always a snuggler by nature, Beckham on the other hand is not. Most of this week though, he has been saying, "Momma a snuggle" and crawling into my arms. So I take all the snuggling I can get, snot and all!
2. It is a great lesson for the boys to learn that God loves them very much and cares about something as small as their snotty nose. So we are able to pray for their colds and other friends with "big boo boo's" in the same prayer.
3. Thinking about my first 2 reasons from a momma's heart is such a great illustration of how God loves it when we just snuggle up to Him. We can give Him our smallest to largest worries, troubles, fears, challenges, joys and happiest moments. So I am thankful for snotty noses that make me realize we might have delayed mail and forgotten a couple of chores but taking time to snuggle up is so important. Especially for someone who loves us so much!

There were many families that did experience difficulty over the last few weeks. Another mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor, now the second young mom in less than a month that we are praying for, a family lost their grandmother, several friends had very important doctors appointments surrounding the next steps in their treatment plans, several experience difficulty in their current diagnosis and families with pending adoptions that are changing by the hour. Please know friends that even on days when you don't receive mail from us, WE ARE STILL PRAYING! We love you all and we are praying for you often! Mail will be arriving soon and it will be snot free!! :)

xoxo,
Erica aka "Momma"
and 2 sleeping snotty boys (Braddock and Beckham)

Hey Friends!

An update, long over due! I have finally updated our current prayer list on the blog! Yay! We were using our mailing labels at the house because we were getting additional families a few times a week. Now that they are updated we can all pray for them specifically! We will be posting some craft ideas for this month by the end of the week. I'll have to admit with temperatures in the 80's its been hard not to skip "spring" crafts and go straight to summer! But we will be doing the month of May with the spring theme and then bounding into summer! We get so many request asking how people can help. So I wanted to share a couple of ways that are super easy:

1. Pray- we have so many families that are facing unbelievable circumstances and situations so the more people praying for them, the better! Here is a link to our updated Prayer List:
http://crafts4friends.blogspot.com/p/friends.html

2. Craft- Big or small, easy or complex, we would love your help with crafts. It can be as easy as printing off one of our crafts ideas, coloring it and sending it in. Or you can design your own craft, spending endless amounts of hours perfecting it and send it in. The only guideline is that these are made for encouragement and uplifting so we ask that you keep that in mind while creating the art. You can use paper, sand, glitter, plaster of paris, molding clay, fabric, paint, or whatever your favorite "medium" is! Once completed, whether it's 1 or 15, you can mail them in to our P.O. Box below and we will distribute them. Make sure you check our Facebook page for photos, you might see the family with your artwork!!

Crafts4Friends
11250 Old St. Augustine Road
Suite 15307
Jacksonville, FL 32257

3. Donate- That can come in the form of time, postage, supplies, monetary donations, or clothes. Yes, clothes! We have been selling clothes from our own closets to help with the expense of postage and supplies.  So any gently used clothing we are able to resell and put that money towards Crafts 4 Friends. Each month we spend at minimum $30 for shipping and last month, due to the size of some of the items we were at $50. We are also in the process of filing for our 501(c) status which will require us to raise more funds. We have set up a paypal email address: Crafts4Friends@gmail.com

4. Add- If you know someone who is experiencing difficult circumstances or would love to receive crafts in the mail let us know! We love praying for and making crafts for our friends!

Thanks for supporting us and following us in our journey to share joy with so many families!
God Bless!
Momma (Erica), Braddock & Beckham

Blessed

It feels like we haven't made crafts in weeks! This Momma was out of commission for a little over a week with a kidney stone, too large to pass. So our great family stepped in and helped cared for the boys, house, and made sure Daddy was well fed. The boys would often run to the Art Room gate and shout "craft, craft!" So my sweet family, operating in foreign territory, would embark on a craft mission! So blessed to have a family and friends who are such a great support group. We pray for all our of "friends" and especially for their families and their support groups.

Tonight on Facebook we hit over 107 fans!! And with our largest mail out coming on Tuesday we are preparing to:
1. Ship internationally!!!
2. Ship to over 62 families
3. Ship to over 15 states
4. Take a long nap on Wednesday!

We are blessed beyond measure to pray for and make crafts for all of these sweet families! I'll be updating the blog with some fun news later this week and pictures from this weeks activities.

Thanks & God Bless!
Erica aka "Momma"

New Updates

So I updated our prayer list and will keep it under its own page. You can check it out at this link:
http://crafts4friends.blogspot.com/p/friends.html

or above you will see a tab that says "Friends We Are Praying For"
I'll be updating the list frequently through that page.

I've also updated our Facebook page with some new photos for the month:
www.facebook.com/Crafts4Friends

We will be starting on our March theme and crafts soon!

Thanks!
Erica, "Momma"

Our Friends

Hey Friends!

I wanted to add our list of friends that we are praying and making crafts for. Our list started as our own personal family prayer list and has now grown to encompass many more friends, some we know personally and others we've never met. Below is a list of first names of those who we have added to our own prayer list. I ask that you join us in praying for these sweet people and their families. If you are interested in making crafts for any of our “friends” please let us know. We collect crafts and then mail them out, ensuring that we are reaching everyone. 

Christopher, age 7, battling cancer since age 2

Mary, age 11, fighting cancer

Allie, fighting cancer & just finishing chemo and radiation treatments!

Ms. Beth, fighting cancer

Ms. Darlene, rehabilitation

Ms. Margaret, rehabilitation

Ms. Rebecca, expectant mother

Mr. Jackie, fighting cancer

Mr. Mike, recent surgery

Baby Max, almost 1

Corey, age 17, rehabilitation

The Brown Family, you can read more about them on this link: 

www.facebook.com/BringingHomeTheBrowns

The Nevil Family, you can read more about their story at this link: http://www.facebook.com/PrayingForTheNevils

The Sommise Family

A coworker of Clayton has a father that is ill.

Please let us know if there are any additional friends or family that we can add! 

Gratefully His,

ET & The Boys

Mini Canvases

I've been taking pictures of the mini canvases to watch the progression of Art in the making. I will keep updating as the Artist keep creating.

 Braddock added paint and glitter paint on this particular day and wanted me to take his picture next to the canvases. He was proud. As was this Mamma!

New Art Room!

We were taking over the house with crafts so Daddy came up with a brilliant idea! We moved a few things around the house and created an Art Room for the boys and mommy :) His idea came after a night of finger painting went wild and we had a trail of paint throughout the house all the way to the bath tub! Thankfully we use washable paint and the clean up was super easy but containment of the "artist" were in order. Here are a few pictures of the new Art Room. There are still a couple of additions but this is the start: 

These are small blank canvases I used Scotch removable mounting tape on the back of each one so when they are covered with artwork we can send one to different friends or family. We will replace them with new mini canvases. As soon as I put them up the boys loved the idea and have added to it just about every time we do a craft.

This houses our smaller (choke-able) items up top and inside the dresser are cutting tools, paint, mailing tools, laminating machine, and other items. The fish was created by our dear friend Corie, who is super creative and supportive. The tiny drawers were from my husbands grandmother and used to house some of her sewing tools. I found the "Kraft" containers on etsy.com and used a wine bottle holder for organizing. The tulip was made by my husbands other grandparents. I love adding items from our families throughout the house and as a part of our decor.

The bins under the window have extra fabric, stickers, and coloring books.

The tree was drawn by Daddy and we added all of the fruits of the spirit (peace, patience, joy, kindness, love, goodness, self control, faithfulness & gentleness) to it (Galatians 5:22). We used a coffee table for the center of our Art Room. Its the perfect size for the boys and we have plastic chairs that fit perfectly with it. I've seen people paint the tops of them but the finish on the table makes it super easy for clean up. This mamma likes easy clean up. There's a small footstool the boys can use to sit on also. 

Obviously, I'm not a photographer and the lighting is not great but you get the idea. There are a couple of larger blank canvases for future projects and a couple of painting the boys did on cardboard above them. Braddock also enjoys sitting in the "big boy" school desk to work on some of his art. We will be adding a couple of rolls of art paper to the walls for the kids and their friends or "Artist" to use.

The houses most of the goods. We used two old Ikea dresses that we've had for almost 10 years and removed the drawers, that we starting to fall apart. I'm going to add fabric curtains to the front of them but it worked well to roll the plastic bins under and the counter space is a great height for Mommy! The white plastic container houses stamps, various glues, velcros, tape, and other items that need strict supervision while in use. 

Great idea Daddy!!! And not to mention this Art Room is gated! Containment at its best. Clean up is beyond easy and we are able to make art in a fun environment!