Helping During the Holiday's

Operation Handmade Blessings Is Helping in Sponsoring The Holiday Outreach For Ybor City Rehabilitation and Health care Facility.  This year we are giving out items to these men and women who may not have a family to receive from this holiday season.  No one to come and say that they care or love them.  To get a gift from the heart.  So I am partnering with People of Hope Ministries to provide to a gift bag with items that they can use.   Of course all these items can be bought but the purpose of Handmade Blessings is to make items that you could buy out the store and use your gift to help someone.  This is a great opportunity to give back.  If you will look at the acceptable items tab you will see a list of things that we have made and given out before.  The last time I did this it was a huge success and the smiles are their faces were great.  Please e-mail me if you are interested I will give me more details if needed.  I would like to have these items in my hand by December 20th if possible so that we can distribute them out and be a blessing to these wonderful men and women.  I think it is important to take care of the elderly.  I consider it a blessing to live such a long time as these people have and I want to help take care of them for the remainder of the time that they are here. 

Thanks,

Toccara 

Pictures of Operation Handmade Blessings in June

I Finally got the pictures on here from the Operation Handmade Blessings Distribution day in June.  We had a blast and they all were sooo excited!  I have been so busy with my new job and getting settled there I had not had time to post these pictures from that day.  They all want pictures I took so that They can put them in the frames that Melody made for them.  Again thank you all for giving.  You have truly been a blessing and I hope you will be able to join the next one.  Here are some photo's of the event.  I took photo's of only those that were able to give their consent to take pictures.  When I asked who would like pictures they all said that they were.  The gift bags you see in their hand consist of One handmade card with writing letting them know we love them, one bookmark, and one gift item.  SO received word searches and some gift boxes I made by hand for my two special ladies, Mother taylor and Mother Mary.

 Here are most of the items that I gave out.  I had my three little ladies helpingl me do baggies and spereate everything. They were a big help.  Thanks to my children for getting those bags all set and ready to give out.

 My sister over here so happy and excited to receive her bag.

 She was also excited! She tried toget some for her kids and grand's.Lol.  I told her  this was for her and to enjoy the gift.

 SisterMaira, love her.  She is so sweet.  She wipes her seat before sitting down and she does not come to bible study unless she is in full makeup and hair is out.  She is such a perfectionist.  Her room is beautiful and nice and neat.  She only speaks spanish but understands english very well.  She also sings up a song in spanish every thursday.

 Mother Mary gives me a high five every week.  She get so excited to see us.  She knows the word and she will getup and teach if you let her.  She is 85!  She loves my little handmade items I make for her.  She used to be a missionary.

 My sister here came out and had a good time.  She tells me each week that she loves the way I teach bible study.  I thank God for the gift.

 She is always smiling and doing well.  She is a sweet heart and she loves to listen to the word.

She does not come every Thursday she is very sick.  SHe has diabetes and it has her down a lot and we always keep her in prayer about it.

Stay Turned for the next open time frame for Operation Handmade Blessings.  This was an exciting time for me and our Minisrty.



Almost Time

The time is almost here where I get to put smiles on a bunch of faces.  Thanks to those all around the world who helped me make this mission's first 3 months a success.  I am over joyed that so many thought this was a very nice mission and wanted to help.  I received so many donate handmade items that I have enough to go give to every person in that home.  June 23rd Is the day I will be distributing items out to the elderly.  Some of you know that I already attend the nursing home on Thursday's to teach bible study.  SO that day we will teach for a few but the rest of the time we will be giving out bags with items for people all over the world.  I am so happy.  I will be adding pictures so you all can see. 

Second Round.

There will be the second round which will start in July end in Septemeber.  If you did not get a chance to participate here is your chance.  I know so responded over on scrapbook.com and said I would love to be right now I don't have time but would love to for the second round.  It is almost here.  Please sign up!  If you have a gift to make things by hand this is a great opportunity to give back.  To bless someone else with a free gift made with your hands.

If you are a memeber over on scrabook.com just look for Operation Handmade Blessing round 2 in the swap forum in july and you can sign up there.  If not please see the tab on how to participate and it will give you the sign up guidelines. 

BIG, HUGE THANKS!!!!! To everyone who participated.  you are awesome and you put thought and care into the items you sent for them.  I am so happy and thankful to you.  May God Bless every effort you have made towards this mission and may he bless the works of your hands.  I pray that he answer a special prayer that you have just because you made a scafrice.

Thank You!

Toccara

Hello to all!  I hope everyone is doing well today.  I wanted to share some more photo's from the nursing home.  This is my newest friend.  She has been coming to bible study for the last 2-3 weeks and I have been speaking with her trying to get to know her and let her know we are all here for whatever needs she may have.  This Thursday she was the first one in bible study and I gotthe opportunity to do a one on one with her.  She is really sweet.  Amy from scrapbook.com signed up for operation Handmade Blessing and she sent some of her beautiful jewelry to me to give to those in operation handmade blessings.  I showed her all the ones I had and she picked this one.  I asked her if I could get a pricture of here with her item because I told her a friend of mine made this and she would be so happy to have a picture of her wearing it.  She said yes.  so these are some photo's of here with the bracelet on.  She did not put on the earring because she had diamonds studs in and she did not want to take them out so I told here that was okay.

Thanks Amy for your generosity and you helped make someone's day!  I appreciate you all!  Much love Toccara!  IF you would like to help see the tab how to participate to be a blessing!

My ladies

I wanted to share some photo's of those those who bring me such joy when I go to the Nursing home for Ministry.  I am always so excited to see all of them!  I have a few that are my little ladies that I love dearly!  They were in the mood for photo's today! i brought them some word seach puzzle today and some book marks for the puzzle books! They were so happy and thankful.  I got a lot of hugs and kisses! Let me intorduce them.  This is myself and Mother Taylor! She had a birthday two months ago and she is in her 90's.  That clip she has on is something I received in a swap and I thought she might like it.  She decided to wear it on her hat instead of on her shirt.  I gave it to her about 3 weeks ago.  She also got to pick two of her favorite book marks that Melody sent in to me.d

 This is me and mother Mary! below She sure loves the Lord.  When I am teaching bible study she always finishes my sentences and she get's so excited when we teach!  She is such a blessing because she knows the Word of God.  She also got to pick her two favorite book marks!  She is in her 80's I believe.

Now this is me and Sister Maria! I just love her.  She always has a smile on her face and she sings really well! She always sings us songs in spanish about God! I only know a few of the words she says but she has a beautiful voice.  She loves to look good.  She wears her makeup, wears all her bling bling and her hair is always fixed nice. She loves shirt pins, hari bows and combs, and liltle ornaments to dangle from her walker.  She just love Martica's binder clips that she sent me and she took her favorites.  She also loved the box Martica to put her items in! 

I also gave the men's today Crochett hats too! We don't want to leave them out and my Grandmother made 5 of them for me and I gave them to five men.  They were not in the picture taking mood today so maybe next time.

 This is what Handmade Blessings is all about! It is so great to give to someone who is in need and brighten someones day.  We are like family to them and they love to see us come.  Thanks to all of you who have given your time, efforts, and talent to make this happen.  I can't wait until we do a blig distribution and bless everyone!  If you would like to join us and help us please see all the details on the tabs of the site!  I Thank you all who have sent your packges and gave out of the abundance of your heart!

Hugs!

Toccara!

I am so excited with the items that are being received.  You all are really reaching out and giving your best!  With all the items I am receiving I am confident that I will be able to hlep another facility.  This is truly a blessing.  I like to pop in and say thanks as I continue to receive items. If you have passed by this site and want to participate please go to the contact info and we will be able to get you all set up. 

Thanks!

Update March23rd

I am so excited that I am getting items in the mail and people in the community are joining in.  I have reached out to those in my community and have found that people want to help.  Thank you Melody as I received your package.  Thank you grandma Maria for making the hat and thank you for more that you are in the process of making.  Those who are taking the time out to help and to think of something special you want to make Thank You! I actually gave out a card today for one of the residents birthday was last week on the 17th and I gave her a card today! She was very thankful.  Having these items ready on hand it such a huge help!  I will see you next time with the next update!

Starting Good!

We are coming along...I have invited people in my community to join along and some are very excited to join in on this operation.  I have got a good response from my friends at scrapbook.com.  They are such amazing girls and they were super excited to be apart of this!  I can't wait to work on my items and I hope that as you pass through this site you are just as excited as we are and join the mission!  If you have passed through and not a scrapper or crafty person but know someone who is let them know!  All the ladies who have joined me at scrapbook.com I hope you get a chance to join the blog and spread the news to other crafters who may be intrested. 

Welcome! The Start Of Something Great

Hello To everyone who has stopped by.  My name is Toccara Feliciano if you don't already know me and I am here to start an operation that has become an Epiphany to me.  please read the information in the tabs at the top of the blog to get all the information about this Operation.  I welcome you to this blog where I hope if you are able to you will get involved.  Operation Handmade Blessing is here to serve those in ALF and Nursing homes,  I never knew until now what a blessing an handmade item can be to these wonderful people.  Some are there for a short time due to getting hurt or a health condition that they are trying to recover from.  Some will be there for the remainder of their lives due to age and not being able to care for themselves anymore.  They need the extra care and attention being in a place that is not their home.  My local Ministry has created an outreach ministry and we go twice a week to them and bless them with songs, food for those who are able to eat outside food, encouragement, prayer, gifts, love, and attention and bible study for those who have their faith.  We have been committed to this ministry for years and as we are raising up people within our ministry we have 3-4 people who join us that can sing, 1 that is gifted with poetry, 4- that are gifted with teaching the bible to them and prayer warriors who pray for them concerning healing and strength.  We have only one for right now that is talented in Crafting and that is me.  I have been crafting since I was a little girl and never knew why I even had this gift.  I used it as an outlet to my childhood by I love it more now and I am not suffering from my past.  I now know that I was given this God given talent to help others in need.  I can't replace the family that may not come around to see them anymore or give them back their health, or get them back into the home they had known for years, but what I can do is craft and be creative with paper, and crafting. I can bless them with the fruits of my hands.  This is what I started to do and when I saw the smile and happiness on the faces of those I was able to give items to.  God began to speak to me about this operation and told me what I need to do.  Although I am the only one locally who is gifted in this areas so far, I know there are many here in cyber world that are able to help in this area.  You may feel like your gift is not to particular help this cause but you are able to donate some of your talent to someone who is trying to reach those who  are in need.  I also know that I have a lot of talented friends through scrapbooking sites who may be interested and want to join in on this!

I am going to reach all I can to help with this and I am actually really excited!  I pray that anyone who can help you help with this operation.  We will distribute every three months and starting June is the first month we will actually be able to give out a bunch of items.    We are starting to collect now so if you want to participate now is the time to start so we have them ready for June 2011.

I will be setting up a discussion in the forum at scrapbook.com and all my friends from there can sigh up in that group.  It is title Operation Handmade Blessings!  It will be a great way to chat there and post pictures of what you make and to get ideas and things like that.  It is more interactive than a blog.

You can simply sign up by shooting me a comment in the post here following the how to participate instructions located at the tabs on this blog.  Another great way is through scrapbook.com where I spend most of my scrappy time other than in my scraproom.  We will have our own space for this operation there.

Sponsors are a big Welcome.  We will display your shop site name linked back to your shop or store and shout you out each 3 month term you sponsor. This will give other crafts a chance to see your shop and maybe purchase items for their own personal creations.  Sponsorship requires you to send in atleast 5-10 dollars worth of craft items to suite the needs of this operation.  you will shop, or store name and link will be displayed for those three month of each operation.  the more you sponsor the longer your name stays on the top of the site.  (note: you will have a permenant spot on this blog once you sponsor)

Crafters:  You are the heart of this operation and It will bring me great joy seeing you give a piece of your passion to someone who needs it.  Your name will be forever on this site with a link to where we can find you online.  I believe that those of you who will participate will be greatly blessed.  One day we all will become of age where we will want someone to bless us.  Thank you for joining me in this mission to help the elderly!

Get the kids involved this will show how to give back to the comunity, get your students involved if you are a teacher, this can be a great mision for everyone.

Hope to see you on the Operation Field and Mission Field.

Thanks, Toccara