Calling All Digital Designers!

[beachin2]

CALLING ALL DIGITAL DESIGNERS!

“Operation Story” Digital Brag Book Design Contest
Support the troops and gain national recognition for your design work!

CAN YOU FULFILL THIS MISSION?

Operation Story is a foundation currently being formed by two moms who want to make sure that the stories of our nation’s heroes, our soldiers, are told and preserved for future generations.

One of the ways this will be accomplished is by helping military families create digital “brag books,” hardbound, 5x5 inch books, that their deployed mom or dad can take with them on deployment.

Military families can either purchase these books at a discount or they can receive them through donations that will be given by the general public.

Where digital scrapbook designers come in is by donating their digital designs. We are holding a contest for our first “Operation Story “ brag book. This brag book will be 13 pages and will consist solely of “plopper pages” so the military family only needs to put their picture and some wording on a page. The theme should reflect American pride and military values.

There is not a monetary award for the winning design, but you will receive recognition on our website (along with a link to your website), in all of the printed books and on all Operation Story flyers. The designs will only be used in Operation Story books.

The Operation Story mission will soon be taken to a national level, giving the winning designer wide publicity.

To enter, please submit one 13-page kit as a .jpg contact sheet (low resolution) with your name and contact information to [email protected] no later than June 30, 2007.

The winner will be notified no later than July 5, 2007.

For more information, please contact Kellie Stobie at [email protected]

 

[beachin2]

Thank you ladies for showing so much interest in Operation Story.

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to reply to this post. As most of you may know, I did post this contest on a few different digital scrapping boards.

To answer your question, I am not affiliated with any digital design or scrapbooking board. Operation Story is my own idea and not backed in any way by a digital scrapbooking board, blog, or web site.

To help answer any questions that you may have, I will post a letter that has been sent out for different reasons.......................



Operation Story is a foundation that is currently being formed by two moms who want to make sure that the stories of our nations heroes, our soldiers’ stories are told and preserved for future generations. We are interested in helping three main groups:



1. Active duty soldiers – by helping their families create books (custom, hardbound with letters, drawings and photos) to send to them while they are deployed.

The active duty soldiers could even create a brag book while

deployed to tell their families how much they miss them.

2. The children of the deployed – by helping them to create a book of their parent or loved one to ease the hardship of their seperation.

3. Injured soldiers- Injured soldiers could feel some healing power through writing their

stories.



4. Widows/widowers – write the story of their fallen hero so they are never forgotten.



For the active duty soldiers, the books we are talking about creating are 5x5 inches and about 1/3 inch thick, so they are portable and lightweight. Obviously the books would be done at no cost to the recipients.



We will organize Story Days at military bases where we will go and have access to a computer lab where they can help families put together a book for their serviceman. We will also have photographers to donate their time - they will take pictures of the families right there so they can be included in the books. Also, we will have "art stations" where the children will create artwork and write letters to be scanned and placed in the book.



When the books are published, the ones that are not being sent to the deployed will be brought to the base to be delivered. On this day, we will be having a “Memory Day” party. We will have volunteers to serve coffee & and cake or lunch, along with having activities for the children.



On Memory Days, one of our goals will be to promote support for our troops. We will be anticipating and arranging for local as well as national coverage. We believe that promoting support for the troops is of utmost importance.



We will also work through hospitals like Walter Reed where soldiers are recovering from their wounds and help them write their story - if they want to.



With the injured soldiers, we realize that some of them might not psychologically be willing or able to write their stories, while for others it could be a healing process. We feel it is important that the stories these men and women have – of quiet courage and fortitude – are documented. We remember the World War II generation and of all the little things that were not documented because it was just a part of normal life then, and how interesting it would be for us now. We have an opportunity to make sure that the sacrifices that are made and the great deeds that are being done by our military are recorded and celebrated.

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What I am looking for right now are plopper pages.

Hopefully, we will be doing hundreds of books. This way everything is steamlined and easier. Not only for ourselves, but the military families that we will be helping.

Within the next few months, we are going to have a need for a couple different kits. These kits will be used for the larger books we will be doing for the wounded heros and the fallen. If anyone is interested in participating with the kits. Please feel free to contact me.

A few questions that have come up in emails to me, I would also like to answer here.

Being a digital scrapper, I know how hard that the designers work. I want to do everything I can to have the designers be comfortable with this process, and also protect their products.

This is the main reason why I requested low resolution contact sheets to be submitted. This way, the designer does not have to worry about their product being used.

I also have no problem signing an agreement concerning the use of the designer's products.

Once the winner is selected and notified, I will post the winner to all the boards that I posted the contest to. The designer then will submit the plopper pages at 300dpi to me. At that point, I will load them into a virtual book accessable through the Operation Story web site (soon to be completed). This virtual book will have the ability to have pages, letters, and drawings inserted to the pages. The people inserting these items into the pages will NOT be able to download the plopper pages for their own use. They also will NOT be able to change them.

Within the next few weeks, our web site will be complete. Anyone wishing to be on the mailing list for when this is done, please contact me.

On the web site, we will have an area where we credit the donators and give contact information to them. We will also be featuring our military soldiers, past and present. We will have uploaded patriotic pictures, video, a small shop to purchase tshirts, bumper stickers, and clingies amongst other things. We will also have an area for people, if they wish to donate, to do so.

Operation Story will be non profit. It will take about 1 year for IRS tax deductable status to come through, but our state paperwork will be finialized before the web site is up.

If anyone has any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]

Warmest regards,

Kellie

 

[InLoveWithDOTS]

Wow, what you are doing sounds wonderful! Kudos to you for taking on such a big project!