Adoption Sisters Forever Design - Anyone Interested?

[Kim in PA]

Hello,
I am looking for ideas for 2 different "Sisters Forever" T shirt graphics for our WDW trip next month. One would be a Lilo and Stitch theme and the other a princess theme. I was hoping someone would be interested in designing one or both of these for us.

We are Kim & Greg, and we have been blessed with three children through international adoption. Kaitlyn & Jessica are 12 year old identical twins from China, and Ashley is 7 years old and was born in S. Korea.

Ashley has a number of special needs including spina bifida (she walks without assistance) PDD-NOS (autism spectrum disorder), ADHD, and failure to thrive. She also had Nissan fundiplication surgery for GERD last June and has a Mickey button.

For many years we celebrated our twins' adoption from China with a Forever Family Day celebration dinner at a Chinese restaurant, but since Ashley came home she had so many medical problems, we never did this for her.

I feel like since we finally have most of the medical issues resolved, and Ashley is making progress in a Verbal Behavior Autistic Support class with regular Kindergarten, it is time to celebrate as a family.

Ashley adores her sisters, but they often do not want to include her in their activities partly because they are twins, and partly because they think she is a baby because she has behavior issues related to her PDD-NOS, and still wears diapers due to the SB.

We would like to recognize all three girls with an anniversary celebration of when they all became sisters. Something that would make them all feel good about being together. Ashley came home from S. Korea in June 2002, and our Disney trip is scheduled for June 15 -21 this year.

Lilo and Stitch was the first movie we all saw together after Ashley came home, and there are many references to adoption throughout the movie including:

"Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten."
"This is my family. I found it all on my own. It's little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good."

So I like Lilo and Stitch (maybe doing the hula) with "Ohana means Family" and "Forever Family Day June 2008" THey would wear this to our Ohana Dinner.

All of the girls love princesses, so I thought maybe a graphic with their three favorites with each of their names and "Sisters Forever June 2008". Ashley's favorite princess is Belle, Kaitlyn's is Cinderella and Jessica's is Aurora.

Does anyone have any ideas for either shirt? Is anyone interested in designing either of these for us?

Thank you for your interest and for reading this long post!

Here are some pictures from Ashley's arrival day in June 2002 the first time the girls met:

 

[tinkerbell/pixie]

I am sure some of the designers will step up to help you with this. Speaking as a mom of a child with autism I just wanted to wish you a Happy Mother's Day. You are a wonderful set of parents .

 

[Lemming_of_the_BDA]

Thanks for sharing your story, I was so happy to do these for you. I can change the colors if you want.

 

[rumblytumbly]

To the OP: You have a wonderful story. Our Forever Family Days are in February and November.

To Lemming: Beautiful designs (as always).

 

[scrapbookmomma3]

What a wonderful story, thanks for sharing.

 

[Kim in PA]

Thank you so much!!! They are beautiful!!! The girls will be so excited!

 

[Kim in PA]

My girls are just thrilled with the designs!

I had a few questions since I never did this before. What color shirt would you suggest for these? Would a dark purple work for the Princesses? What about Lilo & Stitch? I Wasn't sure how to match the background - is this for a white shirt?

Also, would it be possible to have the princess one say:

Sisters Forever
Disneyworld June 2008

You wrote exactly what I asked for, but when I saw the shirt I realized I forgot the "Disney World" part.

We were checking out some of your other designs on your Lemmings Design Thread, and the girls would love to have:

1) The 6 Disney characters, just like the Atkins Family one, but with The Reber Family Disney World 2008

2) The one with the same character pose (this one has a teal background) just like the "Celebrating My 50th Birthday at Disney World" but one that would say "Celebrating Our Forever Family Day at Disney World"

Sorry, I wasn't sure how to get the pictures into this thread.

My twins wanted to know what program you use to design your graphics. They both want to be artists.

If you have time, they would love to have you check out their art pages. They were so excited to see what you could do on a computer. I bought them a Wacom Tablet, but we haven't done much with it yet. Their art pages have drawings, cartoons and watercolors.

Here are their art pages:

www.ouradoptionstories.com/kaitlynsartpage.html
www.ouradoptionstories.com/jessicasartpage.html

Thank you!

 

[Kim in PA]

Thank you Tinker Belle and Scrapbookmamma!

Kari,
I love your autism designs! I will be printing out some "My sister has autism" cards for my older girls. They are mortified any time Ashley's behavior causes people to stare so I think this would help.

 

[Lemming_of_the_BDA]

My girls are just thrilled with the designs!

I had a few questions since I never did this before. What color shirt would you suggest for these? Would a dark purple work for the Princesses? What about Lilo & Stitch? I Wasn't sure how to match the background - is this for a white shirt?

Also, would it be possible to have the princess one say:

Sisters Forever
Disneyworld June 2008

You wrote exactly what I asked for, but when I saw the shirt I realized I forgot the "Disney World" part.

We were checking out some of your other designs on your Lemmings Design Thread, and the girls would love to have:

1) The 6 Disney characters, just like the Atkins Family one, but with The Reber Family Disney World 2008

2) The one with the same character pose (this one has a teal background) just like the "Celebrating My 50th Birthday at Disney World" but one that would say "Celebrating Our Forever Family Day at Disney World"

Sorry, I wasn't sure how to get the pictures into this thread.

My twins wanted to know what program you use to design your graphics. They both want to be artists.

If you have time, they would love to have you check out their art pages. They were so excited to see what you could do on a computer. I bought them a Wacom Tablet, but we haven't done much with it yet. Their art pages have drawings, cartoons and watercolors.

Here are their art pages:

www.ouradoptionstories.com/kaitlynsartpage.html
www.ouradoptionstories.com/jessicasartpage.html

Thank you!

I think these would work on purple and pink, they also would work on white. I think they would look good in black, but black in June at Disney World might not be the best idea. I know I'm not taking black on my trip at the end of May.

Here are the other ones...

I personally use Adobe Photoshop CS2, the full version is pretty expensive, I'm lucky that I use for my job so I got it at home for next to nothing. I do know that they have slimmed down versions like Photoshop Elements for a reasonable price, I've never used it so I don't know what they are like.

I love your girls art, I was always a big drawer, I wanted to be an animator growing up. You can tell they have a natural gift, I'm really amazed.

I hope you guys have an amazing trip and let me know if there is anything else you need.

Thanks again for sharing your story.

 

[Kim in PA]

Thank you so much - the graphics are awesome!

I bought Paint Shop Pro a number of years ago (I have version 8) with the thought that I would learn it first and then teach the girls. Well, I am very good at the computer, design our school web site, etc. but I just didn't understand this program. I think I need to find someone in the area that is working with this prgram, or maybe some online tutorials for them. I did find a few tutorials, but they didn't seem geared to kids.

I have been following your pre-trip report and hope you have a wonderful time with your sister at WDW!

Thank you for all your help!

 

[DisneyMom92]

Thank you so much - the graphics are awesome!

I bought Paint Shop Pro a number of years ago (I have version 8) with the thought that I would learn it first and then teach the girls. Well, I am very good at the computer, design our school web site, etc. but I just didn't understand this program. I think I need to find someone in the area that is working with this prgram, or maybe some online tutorials for them. I did find a few tutorials, but they didn't seem geared to kids.

I have been following your pre-trip report and hope you have a wonderful time with your sister at WDW!

Thank you for all your help!

I have used one of the Paint Shop Pro versions (don't remember which one, but think it might x2??). It came free with the kids' computer. Well....I now use Photoshop Elements 6. It's infinately easier to learn for many reasons. First, its more intuitive and user friendly and second, there are many free tutorials online. After that, it's a matter of trial and error. You can get a free trial, I think it's for 30 days, at www.adobe.com. I think I paid $70 for this version. I think you can get PSE5 at Amazon for less, at least you could.

I think your kids could easily use PSE6. At least 90% of design is having the eye, the other 10% is ambition IMHO. They already have the eye. Give them the mouse and you may be shocked at what they can learn. I know my 12yo son can use this program, thought my 15 yo dd prefers to dabble in Microsoft Paint.

Good luck to you.

 

[Kim in PA]

Thank you for your help! I will look into this for them this summer.

 

[noahdove]

Your daughters are precious Enjoy your magical trip, and God will work out all the other glitches...

 

[Kim in PA]

Thank you!

 

[noahdove]

Are you sure they are only 12???? How amazing is their talent!!! Keep encouraging them....have them enter as many contests as they can....God surely has blest them

 

[Kim in PA]

The girls and I are getting ready to make our shirts, and I have two questions.

The first one is for Lemming - Can you tell me what color the Ohana shirt background is supposed to be? It is not printing the same as I see it on my monitor. Is it supposed to be a shade of pink or a rust color?

My other question is for anyone who can help - we are really new at this, so I am wondering if anyone can point me towards the best "How to" posts. There seem to be so many different ideas, and I am not sure which ones to follow to make sure these shirts last. Most of our shirts will be on white.

Should I still use the dark color paper? What about pre-washing / washing? I know this information is already posted, but there are so many posts to get through I am getting overwhelmed. The kids are so excited to make their shirts, I don't want to mess up!

Thank you so much for everything!!

 

[genhand]

Lemming is on vacations now!!! So I can't help you with your color question but I can't help you with he other one

I use this tread: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1772213 to help me with my shirt ( I even posted pictures...) it's really easy once you did one. But the first one, I was really nervous.

I use the light transfert as I don't like the white showing on my dark t-shirt, but then again my t-shirts are light pink and white... I also iron a little longer than suggest and try to go EVERYWHERE so it wouldn't peel (iron a lot at every corner and in the middle since that's where people seems to have more problem!) They turn out great I love it and can't wait for lemming to get back to do some more

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

The girls and I are getting ready to make our shirts, and I have two questions.

The first one is for Lemming - Can you tell me what color the Ohana shirt background is supposed to be? It is not printing the same as I see it on my monitor. Is it supposed to be a shade of pink or a rust color?

I am not sure if this will help or not but if I use my color picker on that design, this is what it says...

The outside is a shade of pink - the RGB values are 235,184,183
The inside is white - the RGB values are 255,255,255

(RGB is Red Green Blue Values)