Welcome to Loving Hands - if you are reading this far you must be getting interested in joining us to add your busy needles and pins to the thousands who have already taken the plunge.  The usual first step to getting on board is to go to our forum (tab is among those on front page of web site) and when in the forum you can then go to login/register and fill out our registration form.  Once the registration is submitted it comes to me to be approved and the very first message you post (usually to introduce yourself to the other members) is also sent here for approval first.  We had to take these security measures to protect ourselves as we were being bombarded with highly unpleasant spam - not very nice for our members to see - and by taking these simple measures we have managed to eradicate this issue.  Therefore please bear with me - I do try to activate new memberships and approve new messages within 24 hours but obviously sometimes life gets in the way so it can take longer ;0)
If you do not have internet access (that is if this information may have been printed off by a friend for you and you do not have a pc yourself) you can send in your details to HQ - Lou Jaap, Loving Hands, 18 Clentry Crescent, Kelty, Fife, KY4 0LG.  tel 01383 830277 or email [email protected].

Once you have registered to become a member then you may want to have a look at our wish list (on the web page and also under the 'important read this first' section of the forum) or our latest challenges again on this web site or under the 'Donations and Countdown' section of the forum to get inspiration about what you would like to make.  There is also a very extensive patterns section on the forum accesible only to members once they are logged in using the username and password they used to register with us.  No matter what you like to make we will have a charity who needs it - with over 36 charities and groups who ask for our help all the time and literally dozens of UK outlets for baby things, animal products and items for the elderly and homeless we never run out of places to donate the items sent in by the members.

Now - you have made your first items and want to get them in to us.  If there is a local group or another member close to you then you can add your donations to theirs - if it is a group why not go along and join them, if this is not possible then the group leaders will be happy to accept your donations and will add them in with theirs - if it is another member then you may be able to combine your items to make up a larger parcel and share the costs to send it in.  There is also a list of charities/organisations who accept direct donations from members on our forum - down near the bottom under postal/delivery chain.  This saves too many parcels and boxes being delivered here (I just have a wee council house so not a huge amount of room to sort and stor items;0) We recommend if you are sending items in to us here at HQ that you use a courier rather than the post office as this works out far cheaper.  If parcels are smaller (between 1 and 10kgs) then box up and use collect+ which will take a package from a store near you to the Costcutters, Blackhall Square, Kelty, KY4 0EP (using recipient name Lou Jaap or Loving Hands and recipients email address [email protected] to make sure they let us know when a parcel has arrived) for just Three Pounds fortynine - great service and as you drop off the parcel yourself to the store no need to wait in for it to be picked up.  If your box is over 10kgs then use parcel2go - we have a discount code  LOVINGHANDS to use on this site that gives you a discount on the cost of sending - you can send a huge box up to 25kgs in weight from your home to mine for under Ten Pounds using this service, you can track your parcels on line with both these services.

When sending in a parcel we ask that you dont forget to add 1/ a note listing what you have in the parcel and 2/ a stamped addressed envelope or postcard so we can return it to you to acknowledge receipt of your items.  This is helpful no matter which method of sending in items you use as our charities also have overheads and like to be able to let you know when they have received items from you.

If you want to acknowledge that you were directed to deliver items to these places through being a member of Loving Hands there are compliment slips you can print off to put in the packages (in the same section of the forum as the adresses under Loving Hands Stationery)

If you do not have a group near you and would like to help in forming one then ask on the new group search part of the forum if anyone would like to help set one up and once you have some interest I will be there to help with the ins and outs of running a Loving Hands Local Group - all groups have their own sections on the forum under the groups news section to let other members share in the progress of their group.

I think that is all of the basics for now - if you have any questions or worries then either email or call me here at HQ or just simply ask on the forum and you will get an answer asap.

Looking forward to welcoming you on board very soon ;0