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Crafts With Andrea: Lets Paint!

24 Jan By 4 Comments

Hi ladies!  I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  This week flew by for us and I was busy as usual.  We rounded off our week with hosting snack day at preschool and having some neighbors over for pizza and play time yesterday evening.  So, I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

First of all, I have to start with my finished sewing project I mentioned last weekend.  I attempted to make a vest for my puppy.  She is a 9 month old doberman.  We live in a cold state and she has zero body fat, so she is constantly shivering.  I drew a “pattern” on newspaper (freehand) and whipped up a lil something I thought might work for her.  It turned out to be a bad idea.  She will not leave it on, but I love this fabric and have leftovers I plan to use elsewhere, so it’s not a total loss I guess.  I tried, that’s all that counts, right?  lol  I am trying to get a pic for you all, it is pretty funny, but she is not cooperating as usual.

Now onto my theme for this week….PAINT.  Kids love to paint.  There’s something about smearing thick lines and swirlies of color on paper that is so much fun.  There are many versions of painting for kids on the market and we have tried most of them.  Here are a few I recommend…

Remember Paint With Water Books?  These are still a ton of fun!  Use a paint brush or Q-Tip dipped in water and the colors appear like magic on the page.  My son can complete a whole book in one sitting if I let him though.
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Crayola Color Wonders also offers a low mess option for children.  They have finger paints, gel paints, a light up version and these basic brushes (our fave). Of course you have to use them on either one of their character themed books or on the special paper sheets in order for the color to show up, but they are pretty neat.
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When it’s time for things to get a little messy and a ton more fun, try these….Washable paint pens are great, we like the Elmer brand (yep, made by the glue people), washable Tempera paints are great (we like the big $0.99 bottles at Michaels), brushes in all sizes including sponge brushes are great, and we also like to experiment with different sponge and foam stamps and stencils.
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Don’t forget that sometimes the most basic toys offer some great fun…my son loves water colors.  Give him some brushes, water and water colors and he is entertained for a good half hour.  Mixing the colors on the paper is a great way to teach them about making colors beyond the primary ones.
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Painting is not just for the kids though.  There are some cool things you can make for your home with $0.99 acrylic paints and unfinished wooden items from the craft store.  This week I headed to Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts and picked up an unfinished “word” and chalkboard to use in my dining area.  I painted the word “HOME” and the chalkboard in a cream acrylic paint.  I also painted some little wooden knobs I found there and hot glued them onto the HOME as feet.  Take a look…
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Jo-Ann’s sells a bunch of unfinished wood items ranging from letters, words, frames and boxes. Acrylic paints also come in a rainbow of colors, so you could customize the color for your decor.

Happy painting!

Andrea

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Inkubook Review and Contest (three winners) Dec 13th CLOSED

6 Dec By

Inkubook Review by Andrea

Did you know Americans take more than 30 billions photos per year?  That’s a lot of cheesing it up for the camera.  However, once you take and download your digital photos onto your computer, what do you do with them?  Sure, you can email them to family and friends or share them on your blog, but I have a better idea…

Try out Inkubook!

Inkubook offered MomDot an opportunity to try out their site and receive one free book of our choice.  I was lucky enough to grab this review assignment and I could not be happier about the outcome.

First, I created an account at the Inkubook site.  Then I started looking at all the choices.  They offer books in four different sizes, some in softcover and some in hardcover.  You can make a photo book of your beautiful photos printed on the pages or you can create a scrapbook with their themes or your own digital scrapbook pages.  They offer nine different theme categories with lots of options to choose from, such as a “Little Ones” category with 9 different themes ranging from pregnancy, baby’s first year to school memories.  There are wedding themes, travel themes and even holiday themes.

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Of course I chose to make a scrapbook using my own digital pages.  I went with the 11″x11″ size book in hardcover.  I set to work uploading my images.  The site was very easy to navigate and very user friendly.  I only had two complaints while working on the site to create my book.

  • First, the upload time for my images seemed slow.  I understand that most of my scrapbook pages are around 5mb per file, so I was trying to be patient.  However, it still seemed like I was waiting around for quite some time.
  • Second, once I had uploaded an image, I could not find a way to delete it.  This was a bit troublesome since I tend to change things as I go along and it would have been easier if I was able to delete the ones I no longer wanted to use in my book.  Those are small issues that I am sure Inkubook will work out as their site grows over time.

The rest of my experience was awesome!  I quickly created my book, clicking and dragging the images to the pages I wanted them to be on.  I was able to preview my finished product and move things around easily if changes needed to be made.

After creating and ordering my scrapbook, I anxiously awaited its arrival.  I kept wondering when it would be complete and arrive at my doorstep.  It didn’t take long at all, maybe a week at most.  When it arrived, I tore open the package and was amazed at what I saw.  The hardcover book is well worth the extra expense, the cover is amazing.  The binding is sewn together and the image is somehow printed right onto the cover.  The pages are so professional, luxurious even.  I am not sure what material they use for the pages but it is incredible.  I was beyond impressed with the quality.  The image quality is also fantastic.  My scrapbook pages really came to life!  It was everything I was hoping for and more.

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I definitely recommend using Inkubook.

Other Blogger Inkubook Reviews

* MamaDivas
* Lisa Reviews

These would make great gifts that would be cherished for years.  I know I will be returning to their site for future scrapbook printing needs.

Inkubook has recently added Personalized calendars to their site.

They are big, a whopping 19″ x 13.5″, so you can use them to organize the whole family’s schedule.  You can add your own designed images, just like a scrapbook, or just add photos customized as you wish or using the auto fill feature.  I definitely have to get one of these for 2009!

CONTEST

Want to try Inkubook yourself?  Inkubook has generously agreed to give away these big beautiful calendars to three of our readers.  They will provide a code for a free calendar and you log onto their site and personalize it with your own photos.

All we want you to do is tell us which Inkubook product interests you the most! If we pull your number, you will win one of three amazing calendars. Perfect to combine all your years photos together to relive them all year long next year….we dont want them sitting on your computer doing NOTHING now, do we?

If you want a 2nd entry, tell us what you usually do with your digital photos during the year.

Contest ends on Dec 13th

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Crafts With Andrea: Thanksgiving Inspiration

22 Nov By 6 Comments

Hey there MomDotters! Thanksgiving is fast approaching. My husband and I host dinner for our families on turkey day, it’s about 20 of us plus a couple more at dessert time. As you can imagine, I am really starting to get into the thankful spirit, as well as being surrounded by grocery, to do and to bake lists. However, my son and I managed to make a few Thanksgiving infused crafts this week that we just have to share.

First up is this fun banner we will hang to remind our guests what the holiday is all about. It’s not just football, turkey and my famous warm spiced cider, it’s definitely about acknowledging all we are blessed with and thankful for.  Our inspiration for this project originated here, but we used noodles instead of natural items.  The twill ribbon attaching each letter to the other is a recycled item, it came on a blanket I bought from Target last year, it was holding the rolled up blanket together.  I love to recycle packaging like that.

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For Thanksgiving dinner we set out several tables in the basement to accomodate everyone and adorn them with Thanksgiving table cloths.  Food is served buffet style here since there are so many of us, so we tend to keep it more casual.  So, we made these paper Mayflowers and Pilgrims to dress up our tables as well.  This craft is super simple.  The Mayflower template is printable at Martha Stewart’s website and she also has directions.  I enlarged my boat pieces a bit because I felt it was too small. I also made my boat out of colored card stock, I did not use the veneer. I think it will hold some Chex mix at my Thanksgiving table.  The Pilgrim instructions can be found here.

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My son really enjoyed making his own Pilgrim, although he calls it a cowboy.  We printed a template here and used a paper plate, some colored cardstock and glue to make this little guy…

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We have also been reading stories about the first Thanksgiving this week.  I think next week before the big day we will have to squeeze in a Native American/Indian craft because my son is very interested in that part of the story as well.  Maybe something with corn or feathers, I’ll be sure to post the results on my blog if you want to check back.

I would love to see some of your Thanksgiving crafts, post a link in the comments section!

Until next weekend…
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~Andrea

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Crafts With Andrea: National Board Game Week

15 Nov By 3 Comments

Today is the beginning of National Board Game Week.  Another odd national “holiday”, right?  However, I really think this one has an important meaning behind it.  There is a lot of family fun to be had without spending big bucks if you get your family into playing games together.

My son is only 4 and loves to play games.  We play Don’t Spill The Beans and Chutes And Ladders and Go Fish quite often.  This past week we purchased a new game at a local children’s resale store, Monopoly Junior Toy Story Edition.  He was in love!  We played 4 times in two days, it was a lot of fun.

Winter is here (or on it’s way, depending on where you live) and a fun seasonal game you can print and play Board Games Pictures, Images and Photosis Winter Bingo. Start here and customize your Bingo card with the Winter theme and go from there. You can print out th bingo card and a calling sheet as well. This can be so simple that even the youngest children can play along. Here’s the Winter Bingo card I created for my family to enjoy…

Another game my family enjoys is Dominos.  We play a version known as The Mexican Train.  My husband and I just love to battle against each other and my son loves to get his own pile of dominos and match them up.  Here’s a printable version you can make with a Christmas theme to get you in the holiday spirit.  Start here and chose the Christmas theme you would like and go from there.

Here’s a peek at the ones I am printing for my family to enjoy this week…

If you have school aged children and want to get into the Thanksgiving spirit, I recommend the Thanksgiving Fill Them In Tale from Family Fun Magazine’s website.  This is technically not a board or card game, but is sounds like fun!  They also have a printable Thanksgiving Day bingo for older children as it requires reading.

Also, who doesn’t love a good old game of Memory?  I personally love the Circus characters on this printable version from Family Fun Magazine.  Check it out!

Spend some time with your family this week playing games, laughing at each other, competing and teaching them how to be a good winner and loser.  Printing or creating your own games does not require a lot of crafty skills or money and can create a lot of fun for your family.

Happy Gaming!

Andrea

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Crafts With Andrea: Digital Scrapbooking Part 4

9 Nov By 5 Comments

Written by Mommy Blogger, Andrea: Digital Scrapbooking, Part 4

Other Parts:
Digital Scrapbooking Part 1

Digital Scrapbooking Part 2

Digital Scrapbooking Part 3

Hey MomDotters!  Sorry for my delay in bringing you this crafty post, but it was my master’s, I mean my son’s, fourth birthday today and the festivities kept me busy.

I now have a ton of birthday pictures to scrapbook and sweet memories to record.  This weekend I promised to bring you some time and money saving ideas for digital scrapbooking that will come in handy for all those birthday pages I am sure to create soon.

Two words…Quick Pages!  Some designers create Quick Pages to go along with their kits and these are so so great when you don’t have time to pour over every detail or you just aren’t feeling all that inspired.  I downloaded a set from Beckie Wallace back in July that I absolutely love and plopped in one of my photos to show you what I am talking about…

Everything on this page was already there, the only thing I added was my photo.  I use Adobe Photoshop Elements so I just drag the quick page image onto my background and then layer my photo beneath the quick page layer and voila!  Done!  So easy and simple and looks like I took the time to add all those papers, elements and words myself.  If you wished to add more, you could always do so right on top of the quick page layer.

Quick pages can be found in most shops, as well as on freebie sites and sometimes even on designer’s blogs.  I highly recommend having a stash of them in your digital goodies folder!

Another great tool is a template.  Templates are like the blueprint of a scrapbook page.  The elements are all laid out and you just plug in the items you want to use.  Here’s a preview image from Sunshine Studio Scraps to give you an idea…

Everyone gets stuck on designing a layout from time to time and templates can be the perfect page saver in that situation.  There are some scrappers that use them frequently and I can definitely see the draw.  If you have a chance to add to your digital goody collection, consider adding a few versatile templates.

Now onto the money saving part, something I love to hear in these depressing economic times…sites like From The Chicken Coop provide links to freebies as well as list the current sales happening online at scrapbook stores, this is an incredible resource since it has all been summed up in one post for you.  Many shops offer Freebie Fridays and other weekly sale days such as the $1 Thursdays at my favorite shop, The Funky Playground.  Also, most shops send out a monthly newsletter with links to sales and special offers for newsletter recipients.  If you sign up for their forums and check the box to receive the newsletter, you may be surprised at what you find in your Inbox.

I hope this series of posts about digital scrapbooking has inspired of few of you to get started or get back into scrapping!  I have enjoyed sharing and look forward to all the holiday craft ideas to come in the next several weekends here at MomDot.

Happy Crafting!

Andrea
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Crafts With Andrea: Digital Scrapbooking Part 3

1 Nov By 6 Comments

Hi MomDot ladies!  Welcome to the third weekend post about digital scrapbooking.  In case you cannot tell, this is one of my favorite hobbies.  I am thrilled to have the opportunity to share all of this information with you.

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Last weekend we talked about sites you could visit to download digital freebies.  However, there are also many great sites that have their own digital scrapbook supply shops.  They sell paper packs, embellishment packs, brushes for the Adobe programs, complete kits, alpha sets and much more.  It’s just like shopping for anything else online, only there’s no shipping and waiting for it to arrive, you are given a download link and can immediately download and try out your purchase.

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All sites I have shopped at require PayPal for payment, so please keep that in mind before you shop and make sure you have a PayPal account set up.  Here’s a list of some of my favorite online stores for digital scrapbook supplies:

If you’ve been following along each weekend, you’ve probably started to wonder how you would organize all these fabulous digital kits and treats.  Organization is important and staying on top of it allows you to easily find and use all your downloads.  I have a Dell Desktop with upgraded memory space.  If you do not have enough space on your desktop or laptop, you would want to consider investing in an external hardrive.  Either way you will need to set up a folder to begin organizing your files in.

Some scrappers find it easiest to organize by designer or by theme.  You could create folders based on the theme each kit will fall into and then have subfolders for each kit under that theme, for instance holidays and seasons.  I have found the best way that works for me is to create a folder in My Documents called Scrapbook Stuff.  Then I save each digital kit by name and source (i.e. designer, blog name or store name).  I have also created separate folders for other items as well, such as a brushes folder, a templates folder, and a quick pages folder.

It is important when you save your kits or items to retain the source information to refer back to when crediting your work.  It is also a good idea to retain the provided Terms Of Use or TOU files to refer to when using these kits or items.  Each store or designer sets their own terms of use which need to be followed to prevent piracy.

I also find it helpful to have everything set to Thumbnail View so I can see what I am working with quickly.  Most kits will come with a preview file which has a little picture displaying most of the kit’s contents.  I configure the folder for each kit to show the preview, if provided, by going into Folder Properties, Customize and then choosing the picture I wish to see on my thumbnail view.  Here’s a screen shot of some of the folders containing digital kits on my computer to give you an idea of what I mean.

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Once you’ve chosen software, downloaded some digital kits and organized them, you are ready to start scrapping!  There are a few more ideas to cover that will inspire your creativity and save you some time along the way.  So come back next weekend!  Oh, and don’t eat too much Halloween candy this weekend!

Andrea

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Crafts With Andrea: Digital Scrapbooking Part 2

25 Oct By 7 Comments

Hey MomDotters!  I am back this weekend with the second installment of information on digital scrapbooking. 

Last week we talked about choosing software to create your pages in.  I started using Scrapbook Max when I first went digital.  I was not happy with the elements Scrapbook Max came with, the papers and embellishments just weren’t my style, but there are so many online to purchase or download for free that it didn’t matter.  Which brings me to the next question, “Where do I get all the cool graphics to use on my pages?” 

Let’s talk free first, since everyone loves freebies.  Many designers offer freebies on their blogs, many shops offer freebies and there are sites and blogs dedicated just to finding and linking to all the freebies out there for your convenience.  Here are a few “Freebie-Offering” sites I frequent:

Then there are blogs, blogs and more blogs!  Some of these blogs are by people that design their own stuff to sell and give away and others are blogs that gather lists of freebies they have found and sum it all up for you.  Here’s a quick list of some in my favorites:

Ooopsss!  Did I say a quick list?!  As you can see, there are so many great sites out there!  Please remember to leave comment love on blogs if you download a freebie!  Also, please remember to list the credits of your layouts when you post them online for public display; listing the source for papers, elements, alphas, etc. is the right thing to do.

Here’s a layout I made recently using all freebies.  Underneath my page you will see an example of how to give credit for all the items used in your layouts.  If you can link back to the download location, that is great for readers who may want to download that freebie as well.

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Credits: Background paper from Schoolin at Two Peas In A Bucket, reddish mat from Grunge at KJoi Studios, black mat from For The Boys at Funky Playground (this freebie is no longer available for download), red border from Grunge at KJoi Studios, beaded wires and eyelet from Grunge at KJoi Studios, preschool font is Indian Poker, other font is Pegasus, tag is from School Scribbles by Pineapple Plantation.

 

Next weekend we will talk about all the amazing shops there are online where you can purchase digital goodies, as well as how to organize all your files so they are easy to access when you are working on a layout.  So, don’t forget to stop by next weekend for more digi scrapping fun!

Happy Scrapping!

Andrea (come visit me to see more of my digital layouts) 

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Crafts With Andrea: Digital Scrapbooking Part 1

18 Oct By 13 Comments

What is Digital Scrapbooking?  How can I get started?  What program should I use?  Where do I get all the cool graphics to use on my pages?

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These questions are all too familiar to me.  I was asking myself (and others) these exact questions a couple years ago when I started going digital.

I love my traditional (paper) scrapbooks; I put a lot of work into those pages.  I am blessed to have a whole “craft room” of my own in our basement to work on non-digital crafts.  However, I started seeing these beautiful layouts created digitally on all the scrapbook sites I frequent.  People were creating things that I just could not achieve with paper and adhesives.  I was jealous and that motivated me to find out how I could do the same.

My digital journey began with choosing software.  There are many options on the market and the capabilities and prices vary greatly.

  • Adobe Photoshop retails for around $700 and has professional capabilities, great for someone who wants to design and sell their own digital kits
  • Adobe Photoshop Elements retails for around $100, Adobe has just released Version 7
  • Paint Shop Pro retails for around $70 and does not offer as many functions as the Adobe programs, but is a good intermediate program
  • Ulead PhotoImpact also retails for around $70 and is a great intermediate program
  • Scrabook Max retails for around $40 and is very easy to use, simple format for any beginner to start on
  • FotoFusion can also be used to create scrapbook pages, but the capabilities are quite limited compared to other software on the market, this program also retails for around $40
  • There is also ScrapBlog, a free online site offering premade templates and papers and elements you can use to create scrapbook pages you can share online or have printed, this option does not allow customization outside of what is offered on their website, but it can be a fun tool to play with and email your creations to family and friends

I decided to dip my toe into the water by purchasing Scrapbook Max.  I found this program easy to use, I clicked and learned my way around by trial and error.  Their online community was also very helpful when I got stuck or needed inspiration.  After working with Scrapbook Max for a couple years I decided it was time to take my layouts to the next level and moved up to Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.  Remember that you always have that option, you can start with something simple and see if you utilize it and enjoy it as much as you think you will before making a steeper investment.

Whatever program you choose, you will want to take the time to explore and learn all the features it has to offer.  Many scrapbook sites offer tutorials on how to use different programs.  One of my favorite sites offering tutorials is Two Peas In A Bucket; their tutorials are very easy to follow.  You can also go to the help website for any program you purchase and search their help index of topics.

Next weekend we will take a look at the many many options you have when downloading free or purchasing digital kits, papers and embellishments.  Come back for more, I have oodles of great links to share with you!

Happy Scrapping!

Andrea (come visit me to see some of my digital layouts)

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