"If you want work well done, select a busy man - the other kind has no time."
- Elbert Hubbard

How true are those words? As Designers we have a multitude of design projects going on at the same time, we advertise, we read 100's of emails a day, we participate in blog trains, we manage Creative Teams/stores/blogs..... The list is never-ending for us, isn't it? But sometimes, real life throws us a blow and we need to step back, take a breath and re-evaluate our priorities for a bit.

This is one of those times.

A tremendous number of members in our tagging & designing community have had their worlds turned upside down recently. I'm talking of course, about the devastating Earthquakes in New Zealand, centered in a city called Christchurch although the damage has reached hundreds of miles in every direction. At this writing, there are 97 confirmed dead, with hundred more still missing and unaccounted for. These are our online friends, our digiscrap store owners, our designing partners and our customers. Personally I have 3 of the aforementioned deeply affected by these quakes, one has lost a dear friend. I can't sit by and watch this type of suffering and just offer cyber hugs any longer - it's not enough.

It is within OUR power to make a difference.

I've organized this group - Taggers2Gether for the purpose of raising money to be given to the Salvation Army of New Zealand's Canterbury Quake fund. Absolutely no money will be handled by myself or anyone else, all proceeds of this endeavor will be donated directly via the Red Cross' website.

What is involved for you?

If you're reading this, you've already received an invitation outlining the project, but here it is again. I'm asking every designer I know of to participate in the creation of an enormous mega-kit entitled
~ Seasons ~
Once you agree to participate by emailing me at taggers2gether4nz@gmail.com you will be sent a color palette and the season which you are to design a taggers sized kit around within 24 hours. The seasons will be equally dispersed among the participants so each is represented equally. This theme was chosen because we are members of a community that reaches all parts of the world, each in a different Season at the moment. This kit will then be of interest to the entire tagging community thus raising more money for NZ.

Because the need is so urgent and immediate, I would ask that you complete and return to me via a zip file of your donated kit AND your blinkie by March 8th. I will re-upload your zip to my own 4shared account purchased for this project, so it won't even take up your valuable file sharing space. Please name your kit accordingly:
Your Designer Name - TT4NZ - Your Season
In your zip include your own TOU and blinkie. DO NOT name the pieces of your kit paper1, paper2, etc. This only causes confusion to those that "purchase" the kit. Please name each piece like this:
Designer name - TT4NZ - Your Season - and then paper1, element1 - or however you usually name the elements of your kits.

Your part is now done! You've done your part and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Once the kit is ready to go, I will send you a flyer that you can place on your blog to advertise it and your participation in it.

As an added bonus for joining this amazing project, Up Your Art has generously donated to send a Gift Certificate for any tube of your choice to EACH Designer taking part in TT4NZ after their kit is received! Our deepest thanks go out to Raps for this unbelievable donation.

What happens next?

The kit will officially go "on sale" to the tagging community on March 13th here on this blog. That will give me enough time to get all of the zip files loaded to 4shared and get this blog ready with your blinkies. I will send out an ad via Yahoo Groups, Facebook, and my own blog. I will also send the flyer to tagging forum owners for posting in their forums. The ad will direct them here to this blog. See the button on my linkbar above that says "How To Donate 4 Seasons"? Click that to see how the donation process will work.