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Post by pepperwood on Jul 19, 2021 23:53:41 GMT
Ugh, the gallon bags are a pain to ship! I couldn't get them to fit neatly in to any size of flat rate box and the box I found for 4 of them is going to cost $25-36 to mail to TX. It's 7lbs. I just double checked and getting them into a smaller box won't make any difference. I really wish I could use a flat rate but there's no way to get them to fit. My bags are pretty thick and full. Oh well... TBH I was underwhelmed with the amount of promotion the "hosts" of this did. I could hardly find any examples on Instagram of what people were putting together and the ones I did find were much more organized into kits (like here are the pieces to glue this thing together into this, not just random stickers and scraps for kids to craft with. In some places they said to buy new supplies for the kits and in others they talked about sharing your stash. I took some things out of my kits because I was worried that they were too obviously *used* supplies (mostly colored pencils and pens) and might not be considered appropriate. I don't want to send stuff they can't use! I'm resdistributing the extra stuff though my local buy nothing group, which is where I got most of it, so it's all fine. Just feeling uncertain about whether my kits are OK. Thanks for the heads up on the flat rate box. I better check them out. All that paper is heavy! Could you divide them up so they aren't as thick? My bags are not as full at the top so I was hoping to alternate them to use the large flat rate box. I found that the zip lock bags with the zipper pull are a slightly different shape than the one with the old-fashioned seal.
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Post by joblackford on Jul 20, 2021 0:11:59 GMT
Ugh, the gallon bags are a pain to ship! I couldn't get them to fit neatly in to any size of flat rate box and the box I found for 4 of them is going to cost $25-36 to mail to TX. It's 7lbs. I just double checked and getting them into a smaller box won't make any difference. I really wish I could use a flat rate but there's no way to get them to fit. My bags are pretty thick and full. Oh well... TBH I was underwhelmed with the amount of promotion the "hosts" of this did. I could hardly find any examples on Instagram of what people were putting together and the ones I did find were much more organized into kits (like here are the pieces to glue this thing together into this, not just random stickers and scraps for kids to craft with. In some places they said to buy new supplies for the kits and in others they talked about sharing your stash. I took some things out of my kits because I was worried that they were too obviously *used* supplies (mostly colored pencils and pens) and might not be considered appropriate. I don't want to send stuff they can't use! I'm resdistributing the extra stuff though my local buy nothing group, which is where I got most of it, so it's all fine. Just feeling uncertain about whether my kits are OK. Thanks for the heads up on the flat rate box. I better check them out. All that paper is heavy! Could you divide them up so they aren't as thick? My bags are not as full at the top so I was hoping to alternate them to use the large flat rate box. I found that the zip lock bags with the zipper pull are a slightly different shape than the one with the old-fashioned seal. My bags have a few empty inches at the top too so I was hoping I could do a “top and tail” kind of stack so they would fit together across the box but no, I couldn’t find a way to make it work so far. The box I’m using now is about 10x10x14. The large flat rate is not very deep - it always fools me. I checked whether it would be cheaper to send them in 2 separate boxes but no luck there either. I’ll double check and see if I have a regional rate box that would work but I think they’re all quite small. Hopefully lots of you all live closer to TX than I do! I’m pretty sure it would be more like $15 for priority if I lived in a neighboring state.
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azcrafty
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,816
Jun 28, 2019 20:24:21 GMT
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Post by azcrafty on Jul 20, 2021 1:03:58 GMT
I feel the same way joblackford. There is not a lot of directions about this kits. I watched the video it was linked in this thread and didn't help at all, maybe just made me question if I want to do this at all. I did buy some glitter glues from Michael's and some foam stickers from Hobby Lobby. joblackford if you are sending papers how big are they?
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Post by joblackford on Jul 20, 2021 2:47:36 GMT
I feel the same way joblackford . There is not a lot of directions about this kits. I watched the video it was linked in this thread and didn't help at all, maybe just made me question if I want to do this at all. I did buy some glitter glues from Michael's and some foam stickers from Hobby Lobby. joblackford if you are sending papers how big are they? I am sending 8.5x11 cardstock cut in half and little bundles of papers (scraps from cardmaking) that are mostly smaller than card front size but a few are 6x6 or a bit bigger. I didn’t have any spare 12x12 paper to include so I didn’t have to cut much down. I’m trying to keep in mind that most kids (foster kids or not) would love to be given a bundle of crafty random fun so it should be fine. I packed my friend’s 11yo kid’s art cart yesterday because they are moving and she had lots of the same kinds of random things in her crafty stash that I’m giving in my kits. So I think it should be fine.
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jediannie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,870
Jun 30, 2014 3:19:06 GMT
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Post by jediannie on Jul 20, 2021 17:52:14 GMT
I sent 6x6 papers, stickers, glitter, glitter glue, pencils, crayons & markers, random kid friendly ephemera (die cuts and other stuff). I paid the flat rate large box priority, I think it was $21 or so from NorCal. I don't mind paying the postage, I'm glad to help them out. TBH I was underwhelmed with the amount of promotion the "hosts" of this did. I could hardly find any examples on Instagram of what people were putting together and the ones I did find were much more organized into kits (like here are the pieces to glue this thing together into this, not just random stickers and scraps for kids to craft with. In some places they said to buy new supplies for the kits and in others they talked about sharing your stash. I took some things out of my kits because I was worried that they were too obviously *used* supplies (mostly colored pencils and pens) and might not be considered appropriate. I don't want to send stuff they can't use! My thoughts are, if they were very particular, they could have listed it out but since they weren't, they get what they get, as long as people didn't send crappy stuff or partially used stickers, stuff like that. Everything I sent was new or used/new condition (you can't tell the items were used like the markers).
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Post by joblackford on Jul 20, 2021 23:50:30 GMT
as long as people didn't send crappy stuff I was worried that some of the stuff I had in my kits might be perceived as crappy by other people (it's hard to tell sometimes, especially when it's your own stuff, which we all tend to overvalue) so I went back through the kits and took out a lot of stuff... mostly things that looked irregular or like scraps, but also some awkwardly shaped things, and now I can fit my 4 kits into a large flat rate box. Hopefully I'll find local kids who can take the extra stuff or I'll keep it and use it myself. I'm still not sure that my kits look like what the hosts intended but I'm not going to worry about it any more.
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jediannie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,870
Jun 30, 2014 3:19:06 GMT
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Post by jediannie on Jul 20, 2021 23:54:36 GMT
I was worried that some of the stuff I had in my kits might be perceived as crappy by other people (it's hard to tell sometimes, especially when it's your own stuff, which we all tend to overvalue) I figure as long as you're not sending damaged stuff or half used up sticker sheets, that's what I consider crappy, stuff you'd toss in the bin because you've used most of it or it's damaged.
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Post by pepperwood on Jul 21, 2021 0:40:31 GMT
I wish they included more guidance too, especially about paper sizes since the the gallon ziplock bags required cutting up 12x12 papers. A lot of the papers and embellishments I had were leftovers from kits I used to scrap my niece and nephew (who are now in their early 30's!) Some of the sheets were missing a couple of stickers, but most were still there.
I cut some of the 12x12 into 8x8 and then included the 2 8x4 and 4x4 remainders. I cut some of the holiday papers into 4 6x6 pieces because I had quite a few square card blanks to include. I also had some 5x7 mats and A7 card blanks. I tried to include coordinating ribbons, flowers, brads and buttons and a glue stick.
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Post by pepperwood on Jul 24, 2021 12:56:23 GMT
My bags have been shipped! Now I have to put my craft room back together because I made quite a mess pulling things out to put in the kits. It was worth it for a good cause.
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Post by joblackford on Jul 25, 2021 1:42:26 GMT
My bags have been shipped! Now I have to put my craft room back together because I made quite a mess pulling things out to put in the kits. It was worth it for a good cause. I had to do a big clean up after I shipped mine too! Partly because I changed my mind about some things and pulled them out of the kits to make everything fit. But I decided there was some things I didn’t want to put away so I actually used up a bunch of scraps on cards instead of putting back into storage.
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Post by crafty on Jul 25, 2021 2:30:07 GMT
Thank you! I just cleared a bunch of stuff and I'm going to send some!
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