Layouts by the numbers

Christmas ornaments

My best friend and I often baby-sit each other's kids . . . she has 3 kids and I have just the 1, so it's a pretty big change for me to have 4 kids at home!  Sometimes I put in a movie and turn down the lights, but sometimes I decide to do an activity with them.  Tonight was Christmas ornaments.  With very little Photoshop prep (and pictures emailed yesterday by mom!), I was able to amuse them for 30 minutes!

Here are pictures of the Christmas ornaments. The first column is the Photoshop file, the second column is the ornaments on the tree, the third is the girls proudly displaying their crafts.  (Jake didn't want to make a photo ornament today.)

I printed the images on cardstock, attached them to craft foam, then let the kids decorate the backs with glitter foamies. Then we ran a ribbon through hole-punched holes, and it's ready for the tree!  (We also sat for a while with more paper to goof off with MORE foamies.  You can tell Lorien - the youngest - liked the foamies the best.)

 

You can find the Christmas kit I used (by Eva Kipler) at SweetShoppeDesigns.

Dog Day

So this was such a fun day, I did an entire mini-album about it.  But I also wanted to put it in Jake's chronological album, thus this quick layout.

Aowyn's book

I was going through a stack of old photos with my friend's daughter Aowyn, and we found several of her when she was a baby.  She asked if I could make her something with them, and I told her I'd try to throw something together.

I was going for fast, easy, and low materials use.  (Budget constraints - aren't we all there?)

To make the front and back covers of the album, I cut out thin cardboard and covered with paper.  For each picture (album page), I added a strip of pink paper to give me a place to punch holes.

Then I just threw it together with metal book rings from an office supply store.  Easy peasy, and perfect for a 5 year old - if she wears it out by looking at it, no big deal.  But she can enjoy a book about just her for as long as it lasts.

This was my first attempt at a book like this.  Looking through it I realized what I wish I had done differently, and I had an idea for a better one.  I'll post that next.

 

Halloween 2009 album

The church down the street had a great trunk-or-treat the Wednesday before Halloween this year, and I took so many great pictures there, I didn't even stress about pictures on the actual night of Halloween! 

I threw my favorites together in an album that is roughly 9x5.  I used chipboard album pieces for the covers, and cut my own inner pages out of kraft cardstock.  (Making my supplies go further!)  The only paper I used was a KiMemories paper pack, and then I used 4 different kinds of stickers - just made that up as I went along.  :)

Making work prettier

My job at a university is kind of mind-numbing.  I sit at a computer all. day. long.  I realized one day that the ugly file folders in my peripheral vision were making me grumpy, and that I would probably somehow be cheered by pretty ones.  So I bought some pretty ones, and it did help, but there was still a huge empty brown file-folder space just outside my line of vision that was distracting.  So I made this:

And I taped it to that file folder, and I can not tell you how happy it makes me!  Now when my eyes need a rest (don't stare at your computer all day! Look away!), I gaze at this print and can't help but smile.  Here's what it looks like at my desk. 

I have great plans to rework the image (I threw it together pretty quickly and there are lots of small details I want to change) and make it a big canvas print for my living room.  Someday, someday.

Barnes & Noble

I think it's possible that somewhere out there, someone loves bookstores more than me . . . but I haven't met that person yet.  :)

ART!

Ok, first of all, my kid rules.  He is HILARIOUS.

Second, I scanned this drawing of Jake's, which was 8.5x11, and printed it at a bit smaller than 5x7 so it would fit on the page. (Isn't it obvious that it's Mario & Luigi with a star bit?) Later on will probably do the same and make a collage of the awesome things he's been drawing lately. (Especially his latest - Darth Vader. LOL)

Edited to add: Here are some of the other drawings:

 

This would be Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and Anakin Skywalker

7th birthday, take 2

This one is for the chronological album.

Note to self: adding .02 to each dimension in canvas size makes the perfect black outline in Photoshop.

7th birthday

These guys are a hoot.  For Jake's dad&me album.

Another Chuck E. Cheese page

for Jake's mom&me album

this is a paper page with the actual photo print-out