Fundraiser for LWB and Half The Sky

We at LWB feel that we have the best supporters. Some of those supporters are parents that adopted from China and have an interest in digital scrapbooking. They have their own forum called China Digital Scrapbooks and can be found at http://chinadigitalscrapbooks.com. The forum has been around just over one year, and many of the members are now widely recognized in the digital community for their creative work.

Last year, several members decided to create a digital scrapbook kit and enlisted some of the best designers out there to contribute to the project. The result was the Journey of the Heart collaboration kit. See http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/JOTH-Charity-Kit.aspx. All proceeds from the sale of the kit go to Love Without Boundaries and Half the Sky.

Once the JOTH kit was released, one of the members decided to enlist the help of others to create quick pages using the kit. Quick pages (QPs) are already assembled pages with room for pictures and journaling. It makes it much easier for the novice digital scrapbooker to complete projects. Even seasoned scrapbookers often choose to use QPs when they want to create scrapped pages quickly. Again, 100% of the profit from sales of the QPs go to Love Without Boundaries and Half The Sky.

The project grew exponentially: There were more than 30 contributors, and a lot of thought went into the creation of each page. Many digiscrappers print their finished books at http://shutterfly.com; so special consideration was given to the margin requirements for the digital scrapbook option on Shutterfly. Of course there are other printing options out there, but adjusting for Shutterfly's margin requirements took a lot of burden off the end user.

The project team also considered different digital scrapbooking programs out on the market and wrote tutorials for them. The quick pages have been tested out and will work with the following programs and most likely any others that allow you to put a picture behind another image. The project team went to great lengths to create simple QP assembly instructions for users of these programs too:

Adobe Photoshop (7, CS2 and CS3)
Adobe Photoshop Elements (free 30 day trial available)
Microsoft Picture It!
Microsoft Digital Image Pro
Microsoft Digital Image Suite
Corel Paint Shop Pro
Macromedia Fireworks
Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus
Creating Keepsakes (for home printing only)
FotoFusion (for 8x8 printing or 12x12 at an acceptable but lower resolution than required by some online print services)

Pages can even be scrapped using Microsoft Powerpoint!!

The final Lifebook Quick Page kits come in two color schemes: Spring Blossom and Bright Jade. Each set is available with and without page titles.

To view and purchase the page kits, check out the links below:
Spring Blossom with titles: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/Spring-Blossom.aspx
Spring Blossom without titles: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/Spring-Blossom-No-Titles.aspx


Bright Jade with titles: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/Bright-Jade.aspx
Bright Jade without titles: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/Bright-Jade-No-Titles.aspx

The kits have pages for both girl and boys, have several versions for many of the topics covered, and really do offer flexibility. Even if you don't scrap digitally, you can still download these kits and print them to use as traditional 12x12 pages that you can embellish with your own supplies. To make sure no one is overwhelmed, the people driving this project have created a Yahoo Group to provide users with support as they create their books.

This project was really a labor of love!!! Most digital designers produce no more than 12 quick pages from one kit, yet these charity kits, created from the huge original JOTH kit plus many specially-made add-ons comprise 70 different pages EACH! You really are getting some high quality pages at a bargain price.

If you are new to digital scrapbooking, you can download four free sample quick pages here: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/Freebies.aspx.

Now we, as adoptive parents, have some great kits to help us finish those all-important lifebooks to preserve our child’s history. And to think you can do this and help Love Without Boundaries and Half the Sky will make these projects using these pages even more special. LWB sends a special thank you to all who have contributed to these kits and to http://digital-scrapbook-kits.com/ for their generosity.

Scrapbooking for a Cause

I am the mother of two beautiful little girls adopted from China. My husband and I are very interested in continuing to do what we can for the children in China with medical needs. We do what we can to sponsor surgeries and to encourage others to donate to LWB.

As an active member in the digital scrapbooking world, I came across a wonderful site called Songbird Avenue. The co-owners, Jan Crowley and Meredith Fenwick are accomplished digital designers that created this site for the purpose of benefiting charities. Each month a guest designer creates an exclusive digital kit which is sold for the period of one month. The guest designer gets to choose which charity benefits from the sale of the kit and 100% of the profits are donated to that charity. I've purchased several of their kits and they are very nice, created by some of the top names in the digital scrapbooking world. They are well worth the money.

Last month I emailed Jan Crowley and asked her to consider LWB for a future charity. She explained that the designers choose their charity but she would definitely include LWB in the list of suggested charities and she even wrote about LWB on her blog. As luck would have it, September's designer, Carrie Stephens, read Jan's blog and chose LWB for September's Charity. She has put together a very nice kit called Faded Sapphire with colors and elements that can be used in many ways. I happen to own a few of Carrie Stephens' kits and have enjoyed working with them.

Starting today, you can download Faded Sapphire at http://www.songbirdavenue.com/ for just $8.00. All the profits made from the sale of this kit during the month of September will benefit LWB. Even if you do traditional scrapbooking, you can still purchase this kit and print off the papers and various elements and use them in traditional scrapbooks. Here is the preview of the kit. As you can see, the kit offers many possibilities. I do hope you will consider purchasing the kit and encourage others to do the same.

Elaine Mann

*********

(All of us at LWB would like to send out a huge thank you to Elaine for thinking of such a creative way to help children in China, and we also wish to thank Songbird Avenue for this wonderful opportunity to raise needed funds for our programs! Xie Xie!)