Welcome to the very first Pledge For Moms Photoshop tutorial. Today we are going to explore some basic steps in creating a Cause Button using Photoshop functions and, of course, your imagination! Essentially, you’re going to work with an image layer and a “styled” top layer which creates the button look – you can use any background underneath the styled layer (photos, plain text, posters, or just colors). Feel free to download the pre-made template to follow along… or to skip right through to the fun and Download PSD Button …

“If the same number of people were killed for belonging to a certain ethnic group or special group, for being black, Jewish or indigenous, people would react differently. But they are women, and unfortunately people are desensitized,” stated Susan Chiarotty, coordinator of CEVI, in response to one of the questions at a Q&A regarding the womens rights movement in Latin America. According to CEVI, despite 30 years of extensive work in the Latin communities (where women-conscious changes are taking place, albeit very slowly), real progress will happen only when certain aspects of the ‘Hidden Genocide’ are finally publicly acknowledged.

This month’s Artists for Moms tags are dedicated to Sexual Assault Awareness (green/blue ribbon – President Obama Declares April to be Sexual Assault Awareness Month on April 8, 2009! See the official Presidential Proclamation here), Maternal Mortality awareness (white ribbon) , and the support of our troops (yellow ribbon). Do you have a tag request or need help with your own awareness campaign? Contact me for tips on how to get started with WordPress, Photoshop, Illustrator (and advice on CSS, HTML, MySQL, and Search Engine Optimization)!

Welcome to the Button Project! Every month I will come out with sets of fun buttons that can be easily posted on any blog or MySpace.com page. Currently, I am still working out the functionality of the text area (as it seems to be interfering with my Shadowbox plugin, and wreaking all kinds of weird havoc). Right now all buttons will automatically link back to PledgeForMoms.org so that any one who is interested can get their own. Of course, any user is welcome to change the link to one of their favorite Charity.