We're heading out to Shriners for my daughter's next adjustment surgery tomorrow. So I wanted to let you all know that I'll be gone for awhile.
If all goes as planned we should be home on Wednesday, but don't be surprised if I'm no where to be found for a week or two.
If you have any questions or problems while I'm gone you can email me at anne@creative-dreams.net, or leave me a PM on the forums. I'll be sure to get back to you as soon as I'm able.
I forgot to post links to my free glitter tiles yesterday when I put up the Glitter Alpha tutorial. They might come in handy if you don't have any glitters in your stash. :D
I received an email from Mary (aka Catlady) from Digital Scrap Garden awhile back asking if she could use my CU freebies to make more freebies. I said "of course you can" because as long as you're not reselling my CU products as is (without making some changes to them), I don't really care what you do with them! :D
So she's offering up a free kit on the Digital Scrap Garden forum, and she used my Retro Overlays to make some of the papers. Very cool!
Today I uploaded the first of my personal kits to Benevolent Boutique! I'm so honored to be participating at the BB store, it's so awesome to be able to support the wonderful causes all over the world!
The kit I created is called Butterfly Bling. It's filled with color and glitter, and is just a fun kit to play with.
And here's a better look at those papers. There are 15 in this pack, and 10 of them have glitter accents to make your pages sparkle and shine!
This kit is ONLY available at Benevolent Boutique, and a portion of the proceeds will go to support the Charity of the Month. You can read more about Reece's Rainbow and Andrey, the child we're helping, here: Child of the Month
Awhile back a designer that I respect quite a bit contacted me and asked who designed my web page. Since web and graphic design are what I do when I'm not digi scrapping, I told her that I had created it. She then told me about this idea she had for a digi store, where everything sold would benefit charity, and then she asked if I'd be willing to help her build it.
I have this thing about giving back... Giving back to the community, to the world, giving to anyone who is less fortunate or less able than I am. I like to help people out whenever I can. I've been deeply blessed in my life, and if I can pass those blessings on then I'm even richer for having done it.
So of course I said yes! :)
That designer is Crystal Longbrake from DigiScrapalicious, and the store she built with the mission to help those in need is Benevolent Boutique.
As we worked together to build her store we became friends, and I was so touched and honored when she asked me to be a part of the collaboration team for BB! I respect her and the designers that participate in the collaborations so much, and it really shocked me that she saw that level of professionalism in my designs!
So of course I said yes! :D
I'm really proud to announce the first of many collab kits that I will be participating in on Benevolent Boutique...
All of the proceeds from this kit will go to benefit Reece's Rainbow. We'll be helping a Down Syndrome child find a family to love and care for him. To learn more about Andrey and Reece's Rainbow, just visit this link: Child of the Month Project
To help Andrey and this wonderful charity Just visit Benevolent Boutique and purchase Whimsy and/or the sister kit Wishes, and start digiscrapping for a cause!!!
We're home! We've actually been home for awhile, but we've been relaxing and trying to de-stress so I've limited my online time.
Tiana ended up not needing the posterior fusion at this time. It's a good thing, but it's also kind of bad because we were looking forward to being done, and now she'll need more surgeries. It's ok though, we'll do what has to be done to keep her healthy for years to come.
I'm going to be sharing some experiences and stories from Shriner's in upcoming posts as we get ready to launch the Ocean Friends Charity kit, so I'm not going to make this a long post today. I just wanted you to know that we're home and Tiana's doing well.
I'll leave you with a homecoming picture... Tiana wants to be a vet when she grows up, which is appropriate because we live in a zoo. So when she got home, the first thing she wanted was her guinea pig Christy who she missed terribly during the three days she was in the hospital. MacDuff, the family cat, couldn't stand to let someone else have all of the love and affection, so he got in on the act too.
This is the big day... We're heading to Shriner's in just a few hours, and I'll be gone from all of my usual haunts for a couple of weeks. Don't miss me too much! :D
Please Keep Tiana in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow if you can.
I'd like to take a minute to thank Tommy D for letting me use his radio show to spread the word about the "Ocean Friends" Shriner's Charity kit. I don't care what they say about you Tommy, you're a really good guy! :D
Since I'm sure Tommy doesn't have too many scrapbookers in his listening audience, I'm setting up a way to donate directly via paypal without having to purchase a thing! You can choose how much you'd like to donate, and all proceeds will be sent to the Recreational Therapy department at Shriner's Chicago.
Thank you so much for helping Shriner's, and more importantly the children who are patients there!
My daughter is having her final surgery (in a long string of surgeries) to correct her scoliosis this summer. She was born with scoliosis and a couple of years ago it started to progress rapidly, so they inserted rods into her back that straightened her spine but still allowed her to grow. Now that her lungs are done growing she can have her permanent rods put in, and her spine fused into the corrected position.
Since nearly the begriming of her ordeal she's been a patient at Shriners Hospital in Chicago. I can't begin to tell you how thankful we are for the Shriners because we would never have been able to afford her treatment otherwise.
If you're not familiar with Shriners hospitals, let me tell you a bit about them. Children are accepted into their care based entirely on medical need and if they can be successfully treated. Income, race, and nationality have no part of the decision making process. Once a child is accepted into their program, EVERYTHING is taken care of. All medical bills and even transportation is covered by the Shriners; they even provide tutors if children will be out of school for more than four weeks. They take care of everything you can possibly think of and more, so that children and their families don't have any additional stress during an already stressful time. They manage all of this with donations from area Shrines and other sources.
Shriners is such a great place, not only do they treat all of the kids free of charge, but they make their stay as pleasant as they possibly can. Tiana actually loves it there, not so much the doctoring part of it, but everything else. They have a recreational therapy department that plans activities for the kids twice a day, a craft in the morning and then something else in the evening, and the doctors won't schedule any treatments during that time so all of the kids can play.
Since Tiana's been a patient there I've always tried to give back a little of what they've given us by organizing donation drives for the recreational therapy department. Usually I ask for craft supplies to be donated, but Tiana had a different idea for me this year...
I showed her the start of a tropical fish digi kit I was making for her yesterday. She has a thing for Finding Nemo because she has a small left arm and hand and she associates with Nemo's little fin. She was really excited about the kit so I asked her what we should do with it when it was finished. I told her I could put it in my store and that I'd give her the money from the sales so she could get new books for when she was recovering, or we could share the love and give it away as a freebie, or that she could keep it all to herself as an exclusive thing if she wanted. I told her it was her kit though, and that the decision was totally up to her.
My sweetheart thought it over and said that she wanted the kit to go in the store, but that she didn't want the money. She wants all of the money to go to the recreational therapy department at Shriners Chicago so that all of the patients there can have some new things to play with. I thought that was a great idea, and I'm so proud of my girl for thinking of it!
After she went to bed last night I got to thinking, why not open it up to other designers and make a mega kit? The additional pieces would raise the value as well as giving it more publicity, and I know a lot of people really enjoy designing for a cause.
So... If you'd like to contribute to this charity kit, here's the palette we're using:
All kits should have a tropical fish theme, this is especially fun because Shriners Chicago is decorated with fish and they have a few big saltwater tanks with fish in them for the kids to enjoy! You're welcome to add more colors to the palette to color your elements but they should be accent colors only. Feel free to make whatever you enjoy making. Alphas, elements, papers or full kits, it's totally up to you!
Just complete your portion by July 1st and then send me an email (anne @ creative-dreams.net - no spaces) with a link to download your contribution. All files included in your zips should be prefaced by your name or initials, including your TOU, credits and preview so that they're not overwritten if extracted into a shared folder. Please do not put spaces in your file names, but use underscores instead. Additionally, all files must be saved at 300ppi, in jpg or png format. My assistant will compile all of the portions into one big kit, and put it up for sale in my store on July 15th.
Every participating designer will get the entire kit for free!
If you own a store and would be interested in stocking the kit for charity, please contact me for more information.
If you have any questions, problems or concerns, just let me know.
Thanks so much, I know this is going to be a wonderful opportunity to give back to an organization that has given so much to so many!
P.S. This kit doesn't have a name yet, and I'm open to suggestions. If you have any ideas let me know, I'll run them past Tiana who will have the final choice.
