A Huge Thank You to those Who Helped Raise Money for Japan!

I just wanted to send out a huge thank you to those of you that donated to help Japan for the Warrior Princess Kit.  Together, we donated $175 to the American Red Cross!

As of now, any sales of that kit will go to the current charity I am raising money for.
Thank you and Hugs!
Denise aka A Grieving Mommy

Disney Template Freebie, Alpha Template Freebie, and Tutorial!

I'm hosting a template challenge over at MouseScrappers so that means you can all download this freebie template and participate to get an awesome Prize Package!
Here's my page using the template (and using my Mickey Freebie Kit and Disney Alpha Template Set):

Here's the template:

Download it here

And I have a super cool Prize Package if you make a page with it and join us in the Template Challenge at MouseScrappers here.  Did you notice the super cute alpha I used on my page?!

It's a Disney Alphabet Template Set!  I have never seen another one of these available anywhere!!!  I absolutely love it and hope you do too :)  I had so much fun making it.  Let me know if you love it - I might make another set!

So here is a little tutorial about how alpha templates work.  An alpha template is an alpha with different layers that you can pick and choose from to make multiple different alphas from one alphabet.
The alpha I made for you has 16!!! different layers that you can combine and use to make.... hmmm how many different alphas would that make?...  well, A LOT!  (Works only in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.)
So here is an example.  I clicked on some of the layers (You can't see all of them in the screenshot since there are 16 layers.)
See how some of them are checked with the little eyeball and some are not?  This will turn on/off each layer.

This combination made an alpha that looked like this:

Mix and match the different combinations of backgrounds, doddles on top, polka dots, mickey heads, and sparkles to make countless (really countless, he he) alphas!

Here are some examples of the alphas you can make using this one template set:

All these different alphas, just by clicking and unclicking the little eyeball!  Isn't that awesome?  Tell me if you love it!

So, you can get it by making a page using the Not So Square Template and joining me here at MouseScrappers!  (After the template challenge, it will be put in my store to help raise money for charity.)

Hugs: )

A Grieving Mommy

PS - I want to send a thank you out to all of you who have donated to help Japan by purchasing the Mulan kit!  We have already raised $100 so thank you for joining me in helping others :)

New Kit 4 Charity - Mulan Themed "Warrior Princess" to benefit Japan

Have you been completely blown away by the devastation in Japan like I have?  I just can't believe the loss and all of the problems that Japan is facing.  I wanted to do something to help them and so I started thinking about what kind of kit I could do that would be appropriate, make sense and so forth.  So my mind went to my favorite Princess who's not a Princess really (and not from Japan either, I know!) but I love the fact that she is considered one of the Disney Princesses because of her courage, bravery, and strength!
What a better person to theme a kit after to help this cause?
So here is my Charity digital scrapbooking kit inspired by Mulan.  As always, 100% of the profits (minus PayPal fees) will go to the charity.  In this case, I will be donating to the American Red Cross to benefit Japan.  (If you would like to make a large donation directly yourself and have a receipt for tax purposes - just send me the receipt and I will still give you the kit!)
Here is the kit called Warrior Princess:

It is a huge kit and includes 143 MB, 67 unique elements, 2 clusters, and 15 papers.
Here are the pages I made with it:

This page uses a freebie template by Jenn for the MouseScrappers Template Challenge here.

This page uses a freebie template by Amber for the MouseScrappers Template Challenge here.
You can get my Warrior Princess Kit by donating at least $4.50 or more to benefit Japan.

**EDITED: Proceeds will now go to the current charity since this kit is over one month old and the donation has been made to the American Red Cross.

You will also get these free clusters with the kit:

And I also have a freebie for everyone out there.

Here is some wordart for ya.  Enjoy!

Download here

If you get an error, please try again in a few minutes.  It just means the server is really busy.

Please remember that I have to email the links out manually and sometimes I sleep a little so give me a few hours to send out links.  Thanks so much.

Sending hugs to you :)

Denise aka A Grieving Mommy

Mickey Mouse Digital Scrapbooking Freebie Kit

I've got a new freebie out!  It's all about Mickey Mouse :)
Get it by completing this MouseScrappers Challenge here

A Sneak Peek! A MouseScrappers Challenge! A StashBuilder Mickey Head Prize Package Freebie!! And a Digital Scrapbooking Organization Tutorial

Come join me over at MouseScrappers.  I'm hosting a weekly challenge this week and you could get a Mickey Head Prize Package for participating!  Plus I've got a special freebie for my Newsletter, Facebook and Blog Followers!!!

This week's challenge is all about Spring Cleaning.  I've been cleaning and organizing everything, but my biggest project has been cleaning my scrapbooking files and photos on my computer so that I can find what I'm looking for quickly and easily.
The challenge is to make better use of your scrapbooking stuff by organizing it.  Then you will be able to find what you want and use multiple different things on a page as opposed to just creating a page from one kit.  To participate in the challenge, you must make a scrapbook page using items from at least 4 different designers/kits.  (Find the complete rules to play here at MouseScrappers.)

So here's a DigiScrappin Organization Tutorial to help you:

When I first started scrappin digitally, I just collected everything and it became this huge pile of crap - which is ironic because that's why I love digiscrappin!  There's no mess - at least you can't see it - unless you look on my external hard drive of course :)  So after trying lots of different ways to organize, (Some people organize by designer, some by store, some by theme, etc.) I've found a system that I really love and it's been so useful to me I thought I would share and maybe someone else will find it helpful.

When I first download and unzip a kit (I use UnZipThemAll and LOVE it), I delete the zipped files and it looks like this:

I then combine the papers, wordart, elements, etc. into one folder, removing unnecessary files and renaming some so they have a descriptive name (so that I can do a search for them if necessary - there will be a follow up tutorial on that soon).
See the kit now:  (You're getting a Sneak Peek at my next Charity Kit - Warrior Princess!)

This way, I can see all the parts of a kit at once.
Now, onto the Organizing part.
I find that there are 2 different ways that I want to find my scrap stuff - by theme and by supply.  Sometimes, I want a Christmas themed kit or a Boy kit.  Other times, I want a staple or paperclip to add to my page.
So, that's why I have my scrap stuff organized by 2 basic categories: By Theme/Color and By Supply
When you click on my Scrap Supplies Folder, this is what you see:

Now I will show you what those 2 categories look like.
Here is the By Supply Folder:

The By Theme Color Folder looks like this:

This way, I can look for a specific themed kit or colored kit or I can look for a staple or ribbon or something else for the page I'm working on.
But it gets a little more detailed with my Disney Scrap stuff.
When you go into my Disney Themed Folder, you see another set of By Theme and By Supply Folders:

This time, when you click on Supply, I have only Disney specific supplies in this folder:

For example, here is what my Mickey Heads folder looks like inside.  It's got all of my Mickey Heads from any kits that I have in one location so when I want to add a hidden mickey to a page, I can just come to this folder!

My Disney By Theme Folder looks like this.  It's pretty much done by Character and Lands, etc.

Then if I'm doing a page for my son meeting Mulan, I can just click on the Mulan Themed folder and see what I have for that page.

Hope that helps!  I have another tutorial almost ready for organizing that I will post in a few days too.

Back to the Challenge!
If you work on organizing and complete your page following the rules, you will get StashBuilder: Mickey Heads 1 to put in that new Mickey Head folder of yours!!

And I have another StashBuilder MickeyHeads for my Facebook, Newsletter, and Blog Followers!  I will be putting this on Facebook, emailing it out to the newsletter people, and blog followers - you know you need to email me for it because Blogger does not give me a way to find you!!!  Contact me at agrievingmommy@yahoo.com

Hope this Challenge helps you get a little more organized!
Sending hugs to you :)
Denise aka A Grieving Mommy

PS - Warrior Princess, my latest Kit 4 Charity will be out in just a few days!

Movement Charity Kit to benefit MS

I made some pages using a Charity Collab Kit called Movement that benefits Multiple Sclerosis.  It is called Movement and you can find it here at Gingerscraps.  My new friend Mandy headed up this cause because of her Mom's battle with MS.  You can read about her story here.

Here are my pages I made with it - that are included in the QuickPage Set that is for sale to match the kit:

Sending hugs to you :)
Denise aka A Grieving Mommy