Staying Connected...CARE PACKAGES!!!!!

I love making Care Packages for my husband, but I can't send something simple. Since I began scrapbooking I realized I could incorporate that into my husbands packages and send a little bit extra love. But my first piece of advice is not to spend too much on decorations, they most likely will just be thrown away. Find a simple way to dress up a package. Being a scrapbooker I tend to have most of these things already lying around my house. Specifically papers and washi tapes. I get inspiration and ideas from Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook pages were memebers share their personal packages and ideas. I recently started painting the outside of the boxes, something I haven't seen other people doing but that I know my spouse appreciates. He says he always knows when there's a package for him because of the wild paintings all over the sides. The top box was a movie themed care package. I'd sent him a season of True Blood and other movies so I wanted to make the box to look interesting and entertaining. See if he could guess the contents by what was on the outside. The bottom box was for our anniversary. I kept that a little more simple and included some personal gifts that I knew he'd love. You can't send much because of their lack of space but if you really try you can figure it out. 

 This was the first package I sent for the deployment. He loved it and said everyone thought the tentacles were "sick" and it raised my street cred on the ship. The theme of the package was Cats and I just decorated the inside with pictures of cats and funny little comparisons of how being a cat is a lot like being on deployment. He appreciated the humor and that was the point so this one was successful. 

 This was MY birthday care package. Since my husband had to miss out I decided to create my birthday in a box for him. With decorations, pictures of all our nieces as the guests. And I wrote "happy birthday to Kayla, Happy Birthday to me!!" And I filled it with things I love, my favorite candy, my favorite drinks. I also included stuff for him but this package was designed in order to really make him laugh and it did.There was a princess hat inside for him to wear and lots of treats for him to enjoy. All in all I think he really liked them.

CARE PACKAGE TIPS

1. Timing is important, it's the difference between a package taking 2 weeks to 2 months to reach your spouse. I time mine accordingly and have never had a problem. If you wait until you spouse leaves a port and then you send a package you ensure that package going directly to their next port instead of being bounced around as it tries to catch up to their current location. 

2. Don't send a ton of drinks, send Mio's and water flavorings. Sailors especailly have VERY LITTLE space. So when you send them a ton of full size drinks in a package they don't have the room to store them all and according to my spouse often they're forced to chug them quickly, give them away or toss them. By sending Mio's and water flavorings they get a ton of options and can store them easily. 

3. Send tape. I found some mini posters to send my husband in order for him to personalize his rack and I included tape because that's not really something they have. But you can send pictures, kids art, and all kinds of things but withtout tape they can't really do anything with it. I like Washi tape so I sent him some fun ones to make the decorating even better.

4.  Fill out the forms at home, it's easier and saves time if you just bring the customs forms home and have everything filled out and taped up before you get to the post office. It makes the whole experience much fast. 

5.  Use them as a count down, I love count downs. The more you have the better in my opinion. If your husband is deploying for six month send him six carepackages. When you put so much work into the decorating, buying items and writing little notes to include when you finally send one you realize quite a large amount of time has gone by. And then when they recieve it that's another positive thing to celebrate and chunk of time that has passed. It's something both of you can look forward to.

6. If you're like me you want to see your spouse open his package. So ask him to have a friend take a picture of him opening it on his phone. One that's great for scrapbooking later and two you get to see his reaction after opening it. Also ask your spouse to email you right after opening it to tell you what he liked, this seems obvious but it really isn't. In our first deployment I'd get one sentence saying "thanks for the care package" and frankly after all the time and effort it wasn't enough. But after I let him know, he completely understood and always writes me after getting something to tell me his reaction and his thoughts on what he got. I really cherish those emails. 

7. TIDE PODS, on a ship there's government detergent but my husband loves having Tide Pods to throw in with his clothes. They smell better, feel cleaner, and are just a tiny aspect of home that you can give them while they're underway.

8. Don't over think it. You know your spouse. You know what they like and don't like and just think of things to get them according to that. 

UPDATE: This is my most recent and probably favorite care package to date. It was very simple to make, just some scrapbook paper, washi tape and envelopes from Micheal's but a little extra work really can make a care package mean so much more to a sailor. 

This is a link to an awesome Facebook pages where woman and men share their ideas and I love being apart of it. It is a private group so you have to request permission to be apart of the page but I highly recommend joining it. You will learn and can share ideas with people from all over the world. 

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/creativecarepackages/?ref=ts&fref=ts