Help! Volunteers --- Here is the Crops of Luv "Greatest Needs" List

For our volunteers who already know this... thank you for supporting what we do!  For new Crops of Luv volunteers, here is a list of our "Crops of Luv Greatest Needs":

1. We desperately need support for our Album Sponsorship Drive (see details in separate blog entry). This will help ensure that we have the funds necessary to purchase the next 100 albums and then ship them all over the world without worrying about funds for shipping.

2. Our second greatest need is a new or nearly new SUV or van to transport COL supplies to events. We are currently using really old personal vehicles to transport items to events. A new vehicle would make it possible for us to travel to events all over the western US without worrying about getting where we need to go without breaking down. 

3. Our on-going greatest need is--WE NEED YOU!!!!! We can only continue to grow our Crops of Luv mission by adding new volunteers to the group of  great volunteers and sponsors we already have. We hope you will join us by: donating items for us to auction off; helping us scrapbook; sorting donations; or offering a large space for us to hold an event to make the albums. You can help Crops of Luv grow just by being there!

Share this with everyone... we can only continue to grow with support from people like you!

NEW-- COL "Design Team" -- Want to Be a Member?

As part of our "Watch Us Grow" Campaign, Crops of Luv is looking for new ways to get lots of pages done in a short amount of time.  We are thinking about starting a new "Crops of Luv Design Team."  Since we are so busy, we would be looking for experienced crafters to design layout templates that can be easily replicated, along with a set of 20 pre-made versions of the layouts.  We would look to the "COL Design Team" members to do these templates every other month for different themes we need.  

 

Let us know if you are interested and think you might want to be a member of the team.  We are taking votes on our Facebook page, or you can leave a comment here on the blog and we will contact you that way. 

 

Every volunteer is critical to the Crops of Luv mission.  If you want to be a part of something amazing, join the Crops of Luv Design Team today! 

Cindy S.-- Welcome to the Crops of Luv Board of Directors

Crops of Luv is ever-expanding so watch us GROW! We are so happy to "WELCOME CINDY S." to our COL Board of Directors!    Cindy has been instrumental in helping us grow our volunteers through the Arizona Community Church.  We are so lucky to have Cindy on our COL team! 

COL Receives Honor

Good things continue to happen for Crops of Luv!  COL has been  chosen as one of the "12 Who Care" Honorees for the Month of November.   For those of you who are not in Phoenix, our local NBC news station has a program to honor local non-profit organizations and charitable individuals. This will mean MANY amazing opportunities in the next couple of months for Crops of Luv.    We are so excited and thrilled with this recognition!  Stay tuned to find out more in the coming weeks.

Welcome PURPLE COWS!

Welcome to our newest COL sponsor, PURPLE COWS!  They have graciously sent supplies to the COL Studio and we are very grateful for their support.  Purple Cows has totally awesome products so be sure to check out their website at http://www.purplecows.net to see the latest and greatest from this wonderful company! 

NEW CELEBRATION CHALLENGE--Give Kids The World Items!

Okay everyone, here's our NEW CHALLENGE... We need Give Kids the World (GKTW)embellishments and pre-made layouts. You'll need to go to the www.gktw.org website to learn more about what they do; GKTW is an incredible place. Each album we make at Crops of Luv usually has two or three layouts from Give Kids the World...swimming, Meeting the Characters that visit from all of the local theme parks, Pirates & Princesses, Christmas Every Thursday, and much more... For each layout you submit and for each 10 embellishments you make you'll receive an entry in our Challenge Drawing for a suite of products valued at $100. Each 2-page layout will count as an entry in our Celebration Challenge and will be entered for a chance to win a $300 prize package with items from some of our INCREDIBLE sponsors. We're setting a goal of 200 layouts (that will help us make up to 20 albums!!!!! So help us reach our goal and you could win!).

 Here are some things to remember:
*Each layout should have a "journaling spot"
*Each layout should have room for AT LEAST 5 to 7 pictures
*Make your layouts kid-friendly (colorful, interactive, lumpy bumpy, and FUN FUN FUN!!!!)
*Include a title on your layout
Embellishments: Should be handmade and not something you can buy in the store. If you need some ideas, just let us know and we can give you some ideas.

Send pictures of layouts and embellishments to our email address ( cropsofluv@cox.net )... All entries must be posted no later than 10 PM (PST) September 30th... Have FUN Creating!

Sedona Retreat Awesome Success!

Go to our Crops of Luv Facebook page to see the AWESOME pictures from our Sedona Retreat!!! We had a FANTASTIC time at the Dome Home in Sedona! Give Kids the World Weekend was sure a hit with our volunteers. Look for some pictures of the AMAZING layouts they made during the weekend. We hope you all take some inspiration for your Give Kids the World Challenge contest! Special thanks to Ty Neugent and Regina Minor for blessing us with your healing touch and the AWESOME chair massages! Also, a special thanks to Wolves Eye Photography.  Thank you everyone for all your support!

Crops of Luv "Cricut Wish List"

Visit the Official Cricut page and read our post: Crops of Luv has MANY requests: We really really really want all of the Princess and Disney cartridges to be released on the Imagine! We want them to look their best and we would LUV to have them on the Imagine! We also would LUV a Lego, Sea World, Harry Potter, Dr. Seuss, Dora the Explorer and Diego, Spiderman/Superheros (for Imagine), Universal Studios, We also need a new princess cartridge for Tiana, Tangled and BRAVE! We luv your stuff and can't wait to see all of these!!!! see more on the page: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialCricut

Family Feedback

Crops of Luv receives many letters of appreciation and thanks from recipient families.  Their letters and emails are so touching, we would like to share a few:

 

I just wanted to let you know that our album arrived yesterday. It is beautiful! Brookelyn was so excited to look through it and has shown anyone and everyone that will look at it :) Thank you so much for the time and effort it took to put that together. We greatly appreciate it!   Brooke

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Hello, Tommy's mom here:  I just wanted to let you know that we received our incredible memory book this week. I was actually away with the kids when my husband told me that it had arrived. He was choking up on the phone describing it to me and I was crying on the other end without even having seen it! What an amazing job you did! It is something that I never would have had the time or talent to do myself.  Talk about using the talents God has given you for the good of others.... your group has accomplished such a wonderful and meaningful task. I was smiling from ear to ear while looking through it.  Photo's that were in an envelope with all the best intentions can now be beautifully and readily viewed thanks to your efforts. We are just blown away. We are heading back to Give Kids The World this September for a follow up visit. Seeing these pictures has our son Tommy even more excited at the prospect of going back to enjoy the day at such a magical place and to see where his "star" has been placed in the castle. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for your hard work and for pulling together the memories of such an amazing experience, albeit bittersweet. Our family is very blessed to have received such love and support and kindness from complete strangers. We are forever grateful. Tommy's most recent MRI has shown that his tumors are stable and that we can now go for biannual scans as opposed to quarterly! This is a big step in his recovery, yet another reason to be thankful. God bless you all!  Sincerely, Kim

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I just wanted to let you know we received the scrapbook on Friday and it is truly amazing. What a wonderful job capturing all our treasured memories from that week.  Jack's 4th birthday was on Saturday so the timing could not have been better. We passed it around during the family get-together for his birthday and everyone was amazed. I can't thank you and your team enough. We are all fortunate to have such a giving organization like Crops of Luv. We appreciate the time and resources dedicated to make our scrapbook. We will cherish it for a long, long time.  Regards, Greg
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We received our scrapbook and send a HUGE heartfelt Thank You to you and all of your staff that helped make our amazing Memories something we will cherish!!! It is so much more than I could have done myself! You have very talented people working for you on this project!!

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Mary is now 4 and very busy (as well we have another one on the way coming in September) so there is no way I would have had the time or money to attempt a project like this myself!! We are extremely grateful, and appreciate the amount of time, money, and thought that goes into such a wonderful book!!  We feel so blessed that such a wonderful organization was referred to us!!! Thank you again!!!  Take care,  Pete, Tanya and Mary

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Dear Crops of Luv,

I just wanted to say thank you soooo much for the beautiful scrapbook of Jenson’s Disney vacation! It was gorgeous and he looks at it all the time. He loves going through it over and over and remembering all of the fun times. It was such a blessing to receive this gift. I know a lot of time and love went into making his book special. God’s blessings upon all of you!!!  Love, Darla, Chad, and Jenson

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On Friday, we received our album and it was just wonderful. I was really touched at the fantastic job you did! I know we didn't provide much in the way of photos, and even so, you made such an awesome collection of memories of our trip to Disney and GKTW! Many thanks to you and your volunteers! We truly treasure your work! Regards, Nancy, Tom and Nicholas

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I just wanted to send a huge THANK YOU to all of you that put together the album for my son Alex. It is absolutely beautiful and my family can't thank you enough.   Alex can't stop looking at it! We have had it for several days now, and I am still ripping it out of his hands to get him to go to school in the morning. It is something we will all cherish, but especially Alex. The book is something he can hold onto forever, and relive the wonderful trip we had. I hope that someday he will be able to share it with his children. I couldn't have even imagined such a wonderful memory book, much less put it together. Your creativity is amazing and so very much appreciated!! What a truly wonderful thing you are doing for families like ours.  

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Thank you so much Roberta, Jody, and your team.   The scrapbook is absolutely fantastic. It is such a joy looking through the book; it is so fabulous.  I had to look through it three times before I could share it with anyone else. What a wonderful keepsake!  Thank you again, Rachel, Keith and Kristofer
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We received Elly's book from you guys.  You did a GREAT job putting it all together.  Thank you so much!!  We sat down as a family yesterday and looked at it for the first time together, and got many smiles and laughs out of reliving the wonderful memories from her trip.  The Crops of Luv group is such a wonderful thing...I can't thank you enough!!!  God Bless!  And, have a fantastic day!  Amber

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Dear Roberta and Crops of Luv Team, 
I have received my scrapbook. I have tears of joy streaming down my face, so it is very hard to see the pages. I wipe my eyes and start again. The love and service you have shown our family is tremendous. I am a scrabbooker myself, so I know the time it takes to do this. The amount of service provided is not lost on me. This scrapbook is very important to me, but would have been nearly impossible to do with all the emotion involved. It would have hung over my head and stressed me out. Thank you for doing this for our family. This is such a treasured gift. We look at it almost every day. Thank you for all you do and for what you have given my family in such a difficult phase of our lives.  Love.
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Welcome One and All to Our Crops of Luv Happenings Blogspot!

I am so happy that our Crops of Luv (COL) blogspot is gaining new followers!  When Jody asked me to start doing the blog for COL, we had 12 followers.  Now we are up to 23!  I hope that number keeps growing and growing because it means that more and more people are aware of the Crops of Luv organization, its incredibly selfless co-founders Jody and Roberta, and the wonderful mission they created and fulfill by making memory scrapbooks for families with critically-ill children because "a life documented is a life remembered." 
Thank you so much to all the caring, AWESOME volunteers who have become a part of COL by volunteering untold hours creating these memory books.  Thank you to all our wonderful, giving SPONSORS too!  Their help and support is truly amazing and invaluable.
Tell everyone you know about COL and what we do....the more the news gets out that COL exists, the more support, volunteers, and donations COL gains!  That's definitely a win-win situation!  Every time I mail a book I've completed I tell the postal clerk what Crops of Luv is all about (they always ask what it is when they see the addressee) .  The postal clerks always think it's amazing (which it is) and say they will tell their friends.  So, don't be afraid to spread the good word about Crops of Luv!  Also, remember to regularly check this blogspot and the Crops of Luv Facebook page for all the latest news about Crops of Luv, upcoming COL, events, contests, etc.

IGive Contest for Charities -- Crops of Luv!

The iGive organization is sponsoring a contest that could effectively earn Crops of Luv MUCHO DINERO (Lotsa Bucks! $50 Grand!)....Here's the details and links you need to help your favorite charities -- hopefully Crops of Luv is at the top of your list!!  You can also let your friends know by posting this info on your Facebook or Twitter page.  It's free, it's easy, and I've been an IGive member for awhile now and it's "painless" giving!  Head over to the iGive site and enter today!  Crops of Luv (or any charity you choose) will thank you! 

Enter the iGive Dog Days Charity Sweepstakes. Each entry grows the prize by $1 and gives your cause another chance to win. There's over 50,000 causes listed already and if you don't find yours you can add it on the fly. It's free and easy!

iGive.com

Change Shopping for Good^™

The iGive Button makes it simple to shop at any of 1103 stores like Amazon, Travelocity, Home Depot get a free donation to your favorite cause.

Layout Challenge Update

Jody and Roberta have not yet announced a winner...they're still photographing the entries to upload to the Facebook site.  However...having said that, they did just finish counting all of the layouts entered in our Celebration Challenge and this is a "drum roll" moment:  The goal was to collect 200 pages total and our COL followers SHATTERED that goal by 75 pages! The total number of layouts entered were 138 layouts and a total of 275 pages. WOW!!!!   YOU ALL ROCK!!!!  There is some of the most amazing work in the entries.   THANK YOU ALL so very much for caring about what we do! Love, caring, and heart are what our volunteers are made of that's for certain!  Please continue to keep those layouts coming even though the contest is over--they will find a home in one of our families' albums and be treasured forever by these families.  More news to come on who the big winner is.....

July Layout Challenge Has Ended

The July Layout Challenge has ended.  All entries must have been submitted by 5 pm today.  Thank you so much for helping the COL mission with your entries and Good Luck---hope you win!

Great Article Highlighting Crops of Luv

Click onto the following link to find a great article featuring Jody, Roberta, and the mission of Crops of Luv.  It's a super article (with photos) and really captures what Crops of Luv is all about.  The link is:  http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/20120717ahwatukee-women-crops-of-luv-scrapbooks-save-make-a-wish-memories.html  Enjoy and spread the word!

Cooking With Cricut Helps Crops of Luv in a BIG Way!

We want to thank our friends at http://www.cookingwithcricut.com/ /   for dedicating a 2-day Blog Hop for Crops of Luv this past weekend.  COL hopes all of our followers checked out all of the amazing layouts at Cooking With Cricut!  We encourage you to visit their website and use their layouts as inspiration to create your own layouts for the Celebration Challenge contest!  Thanx so much Cooking With Cricut...we really appreciate your support!

 

More Fun Events Coming Soon from Crops of Luv

Watch for some great things happening with Crops of Luv in the next few months:
First, there will be an upcoming article in the Arizona Republic about Crops of Luv. They came today to take pictures for the article. It's great to have the chance to get the word out about what we do.  Publicity and word of mouth are our best sources to reach new volunteers and sponsors. 

You should also be looking out for a couple of FUN--RAISERS... We'll be holding a ZUMBA-thon (location and date/time TBA).  We will also be hosting Cricut Craftroom 101 Classes at Scrapbook Barn (date/times TBA). It will be two great opportunities to have FUN and help Crops of Luv @ the same time. Stay tuned!  Check the Calendar of Events here on the blogspot for updates on the details for the FUN-tastic events.

First Entry Received for July Celebration Layout Challenge Contest

Here's the first entry received for the contest...that was fast work on the part of Sara Schumann!  Great layout, Sara!

New COL Blogspot Followers! --Take the Challenge!

Crops of Luv reached over 1,000 "likes" on Facebook.  So, I put out the challenge to all of our loyal Facebook followers to come over to the blogspot and "like" it too!  It changes all the time and the calendar of upcoming Crops of Luv events is a must-have!  We already have two new members on the blogspot and we'd love to see those numbers climb!  Check out the current posts, but also check out the archives for some scrapping technique how-to's, a fantastic instructional on helping to make pillowcases for Give Kids the World, and lots of other fun stuff.   Happy to have you on-board; feel free to post questions and we'll answer as quickly as we can.  Thanx everyone!  :D

California Pizza Kitchen Fundraiser for Crops of Luv

Crops of Luv is having a fundraiser sponsored by our friends at California Pizza Kitchens (at the Scotsdale, Mesa, and Tucson, Arizona locations only).  The COL event will be on 20 JUNE 2012 from ll am to 10 pm at these three locations.  California Pizza Kitchen will donate 20% of your bill to Crops of Luv (includes dine-in or take-out).  Please printout the above flyer and bring it with you to California Pizza Kitchen on 20 June.  California Pizza Kitchen needs the flyer in order to insure COL gets the donations.  You can print out the above flyer by clicking on the flyer with your left mouse clicker and then use the right mouse clicker to click on "print picture..."; this should bring up your regular printer screen and continue from there.  It should print out "full page" size if you follow these instructions.  Please join Crops of Luv for this tasty fundraiser!  Thank you for your continued support!

Congrats to Our COL/Spellbinders Contest Winner--Susie Bentz!

Congratulations to Susie Bentz, the winner of the Spellbinders Layout Contest.  Special thanks to Susie and all of the volunteers who contributed layouts on behalf of Crops of Luv.  We've received 97 layouts thus far and they're still coming in!  Thank you all so much.  These pre-made layouts will help us out so very much in completing the scrapbooks we have waiting.  You guys rock!

Thank You Spellbinders and COL Volunteers

Special thanks to Spellbinders and all of the people who created pages for us in the Spellbinders layout contest. Terre from Spellbinders called us to say there are 85 layouts and still counting that are coming our way from all of the entries! That is AWESOME! They will be put GREAT use in getting us caught up with all of the books we have in our studio. THANK YOU to all the participants and Spellbinders for sponsoring this for us!

COL Facebook Followers and Layout Challenge

We can't believe we're almost knocking on the door of 1000 followers on our facebook page!  Please join us on facebook so we can go over 1,000 followers. In the meantime, we're looking for sketches that will let us put at least 5 photos or more on one layout. If you have a sketch that supports 5 photos on a layout and want us to post it, we'd love to see it... and we challenge all of our followers to make pages based on those sketches.  Stay tuned....5 is the magic number!

Thank You COL Volunteers

We had a fantastic day at Arizona Community Church celebrating our first ever Volunteer Appreciation Crop. We completed over 100 layouts for albums we have to send out and we had tons of fun giving out prizes and thanking all of our volunteers. Special thanks to Cindy Sims for helping us get the space and to all of the volunteers that came! We had so much fun.

Crops of Luv on the Road

Hey COL fans in Southern California....The Crops of Luv founders are traveling to San Diego in a couple of weeks and wanna know the best scrapbooking stores, etc.  Drop Jody and Roberta a line on the COL homepage, facebook page, or here on the blog to give them some must-see places or just to say "hi!".  Let's give them a great "Welcome to Cali" welcome. 

What Scrapbook Store Do You Luv?

A special thanks and shout out to Charmaine, the owner of Craftfusion, for allowing Crops of Luv to hold an event at her new store. We encourage all of her crafty friends to shop local and support our local craft stores. To that end, we want to know what is your favorite local scrapbook store and where is it located? What is it about this store that you LUV?

Do You Write in Spanish and/or French? HELP!

Special thanks to Nikki Neuber.... YOU are our 900th follower! It's little milestones like this that help us get the word out about what we do.

So out of ALL 900 of our AWESOME followers:  Does someone write in Spanish and/or French FLUENTLY? We are getting requests from all over the world and need to have some of our paperwork translated into these two languages. If you or someone you know can help us out, please respond to this post. THANK YOU ALL for your support.

Check Out the Crops of Luv Facebook Page

Be sure to check out all of the fantastic album pages Jody has posted on the COL Facebook page.  Great work being done by all of our COL volunteers--you ROCK!

CHALLENGE #1: Help COL Create Killer Whale Items!

Many of our recipients go to Sea World for their wish trips.  Crops of Luv is in desperate need of Sea World motif papers, killer whale embellishments, etc.  You can help us immensely if you can donate some of these items.  Mail them to our studio at 11424 S. Pawnee Circle, Phoenix, AZ 85044.  We need enough Sea World paper and Killer Whale embellishments to make approximately 200 books through the end of the year.  Thank you in advance for your support! 

Crops of Luv CHA Visit

It looks as if the 5-day CHA trip was well worth it for Jody and Roberta.  Not only did they get the interview with When Creativity Knocks (who has a HUGE internet following), but they also picked up several, fabulous new sponsors:  Little Yellow Bicycle; Momenta; Blumenthal Buttons; Offray Ribbons; Spellbinders; Best Creations; Creative Imaginations; Paper Wizard; Die Cuts with a View; and Purple Cow.  All great companies with great products, so be sure to check them out when you get a chance.  In addition to these wonderful new supporters, COL received additional support from our founding sponsors:  ProvoCraft; Bazzill Paper Company; Quick Quotes; Xyron; We-R-Memory Keepers; and Epiphany Crafts.  Our deepest and most heartfelt thanks go out to each and every one of these sponsors and we hope our Crops of Luv supporters will also support these caring companies and their products.

Roberta and Jody also met with some other non-profit organizations that COL hopes to collaborate with in the future:  Operation Write Home; Kids in Need Foundation; Crafting for a Cure; and Portable Playhouse. 

CROPS OF LUV BREAKING NEWS!

COL ON WHEN CREATIVITY KNOCKS!  Jody and Roberta are at CHA and said they've completed the interview with When Creativity Knocks.  Their website gets over 2 million hits a month--now that's exposure!  Jody will post a link as soon as it's available.  In the meanwhile, please check out When Creativity Knocks and let them know that Crops of Luv sent you.  Their website is:  www.whencreativityknocks.com

ANOTHER FUN AND EASY WAY TO DONATE TO CROPS OF LUV!

Boy, it keeps getting easier and easier (not to mention more fun) to donate to your fave charities--hope Crops of Luv is at the top of your list.  Try the iGive Button!  It's free!  Start now by forwarding this email to your friends and have them click on this link:  http://www.iGive.com/welcome/warmwelcome.cfm?m=721524 .  Facebook, Twitter, and email make it easy to tell friends.  If only three friends join, that means $30 or more donated (example:  $5 x 3 to your charity; $5 to each of your friends' charities).  Something small makes BIG possible!  And, if you/your referred friends shop at any of the over 900 stores, the iGive Button makes certain a portikon of the purchase is also donated.  You can track your iGive activity on your very own dashboard at http://www.iGive.com/html/tellafriend.cfm .  Just remember, to count as a "referral" and get the donations logged to your charity (i.e. Crops of Luv!) people you refer need to sign up and you/they need to: (1) be new to iGive; use this special link ( http://www.iGive.com/warmwelcome.cfm?m=72154 ); (2) install the iGive Button before November 21, 2011; (3) keep the button active for at least 90 days; and (4) be among the first 1 Million new iGive Buttons.  Simple, fun, easy, and you're helping others with your generosity of time (the few minutes it takes to DO IT!) and donations.  Thanks so much to all of our loyal Crops of Luv supporters.  Hope you try iGive out!

COL in Dec-Jan Issue of Cricut Magazine

Crops of Luv is going to be featured in the upcoming December/January issue of Cricut Magazine.  If you're not a subscriber, be on the lookout for this issue at your local magazine stands or craft stores.  We're very excited to be getting this national attention for Crops of Luv.  It's a domino effect--the more exposure we get, the more supporters we'll get, and the more we will be able to accomplish.  Tell all your friends to buy an issue too!