Read to a Child!

You may have noticed the new button at the top of my right hand column. If you haven't already, you should absolutely check it out! It's a link to a free online magazine that features a new story to read to your kids every single day!

"knowonder!" magazine was founded by Phillip Chipping a few years ago and he just started it back up again last month. The site is full of awesome resources for kids and parents alike. And guess who's helping him lead the charge...?

My mom! (Check out the "Our Team" page)

The woman who read to me and made up stories so I could star in my very own fairy tales. I'm so excited for this new project and I'm hoping to be involved as much as possible with getting "knowonder!" off the ground for real. So go check it out! For me, for my mom, sure, sure; but mostly for YOU! Read to your kids! Submit your own writing! Get your child's stories published!

Move it people! Get that imagination going!

Teddy Bear Heaven?

Over our front door is this ledge -

We've lived here for almost 4 years and I've been planning on making some sort of decorative display for this ledge since the day we decided to buy the house. I refer to it as "Teddy Bear Heaven" because when I was growing up my best-friend's mom had a similar ledge that she decorated with elaborate teddy bear display scenes (that she changed with the seasons and holidays) and that's what we all called it. 

As of tomorrow I will have the last necessary piece for my newly re-planned display. And yesterday my wonderfully obliging hubby ran to Home Depot to grab one of these babies on sale before they were all gone.

Werner 22ft Multiposition Ladder

I know the online ad says free shipping but once you read the fine print you will see that it's just free shipping eligible if your total comes to more than $250 of eligible stuff. So Kevin drove the 0.81 miles to our lovely neighborhood Home Depot and was back in about 10 minutes with our fabulous new ladder.

4 years of waiting are finally over! Stayed tuned later this week for the before and after reveal!

Put your photos on Canvas

There are a bunch of great online stores out there that will make your photos into books, print them on canvas and give you about 500 other fancy and fabulous options to display your favorite pictures. I've seen the occasional promo for getting one of these free (+ $6.95ish shipping). In reality that's probably a great deal but I'm one of those people who can't bear to pay shipping for anything (I call it the Amazon Super Saver complex). Add to that my major case of OCD indecision (should I use this picture or this picture or this picture?) Even if I could move fast enough, I wouldn't want just one canvas, I would want several and I'd end up spending more money than if I had never seen the promo deal in the first place.

Enter my sister, author of Fostered Attentions.

Becca found this ingenious tutorial on how to put any picture on canvas using your inkjet printer and tissue paper!

Now, between the original tutorial and my sister's blog entry you can definitely figure out how to do this yourself. I just developed some instructions of my own to add some extra advice based on my past 3 days of experience. I'm going to list the exact supplies I used so I can be extra specific with the shortcuts I share. We got everything that I didn't already have at home at Hobby Lobby. They had canvases 30% off and we brought two 40% off coupons and got a pretty good deal over all. I'll give you the complete price per finished canvas at the end of the post.

My Tip-Covered Tutorial

Supplies:
Mounted Artist Canvas (18x18)
Tissue paper (20inx20in sheets)
Regular printer paper
Krylon Workable Fixatif
Elmer's Multipurpose Spray Adhesive
Roll/large sheet of brown butcher/kraft paper
Scissors
A glue stick
An ink jet printer
CorelDraw graphic software

Note: Any graphic software will work, I just like Corel best. Use what you know. I was originally going to include all the details of how I worked in Corel for this project but I've decided I'm going to do a separate tutorial for that in a day or two for anyone who's interested.

Steps:

Choose a photo.

This step probably took me twice as long as all the other steps combined. Told you I'm indecisive.

If you haven't already edited for red eye and anything else you really want fixed, go ahead and do that now. It's never a bad idea to go ahead and save a copy of your picture before you start any editing. That way you can crop and segment and resize and generally experiment to your heart's content without worrying about destroying that precious original. I decided I wanted to put a stone wall from a different photo in to cover the trash cans for my canvas piece. I used Photoshop for this part. I rotated and cropped it just a little to get the wall to look right and then saved it as a new jpeg before I moved on to the next step.

Open a new blank document in CorelDraw and import your selected picture.

If you're not sure how to do these next few steps, I'm going to be including it all in the CorelDraw/General Graphic Software instructions but I'm only going to post that tutorial if people leave comments to let me know they want it.

Resize and Crop picture to 18.5x18.5 square.

Create a grid pattern and break your picture into pieces.
Since we're using a regular size printer for this, we need to make more manageable sized pieces for the printer to print. My printer will go all the way to the edge of an 8.5x11 but to be safe I wanted to leave a margin. So I made sure none of the sections were larger than 8x10.

Now it's time for a definite experience tip. For your grid layout: Make sure you do a regular grid pattern where the corners all meet at corners. Like this:

Do not, whatever you do, try to get creative and reinvent the wheel/grid and do something like this:

For some strange reason I thought my way would be better and I did my first canvas' printing like that. And getting the pieces to line up properly when I didn't have a single corner to work from was not fun. I made other mistakes on that one too and if you look at the end result (it's the black and white wedding shot), you can see lines where I had no choice but to overlap my pieces. I'm going to have to get an Xacto knife and do some tweaking when I get a chance. So there you go, random tip number one.

Assemble your tissue paper/printer paper combos for printing
In order to get your printer to print on the tissue paper, the tissue needs a backing to carry it through the machine. So that's what the printer paper and glue stick are for. You want to put glue just around the outer edge of the printer paper and then smooth on the tissue paper. This is another reason for leaving a margin around your pieces for printing. You don't need very much glue at all but you want to be able to peel up the tissue paper afterwards without worrying about tearing the part with the picture.

Random tip number two: Since you're going to need 6 separate sheets for your 6 separate sections, I wanted to share the bulk assembly system my sister had going. Instead of cutting the tissue paper out and then sticking it to the printer paper and then trimming around the edges, we spread our 20in square tissue paper sheet out on the table and did four at a time.
Like this:

Just lay out the tissue and then stick the printer papers (with their nice glue borders) in the absolute corners. This will mean you only have to cut out two sides for each paper. I also don't know how helpful it actually was but we folded part of the tissue over one short side of the paper and glued it down so it would have a better grip at the top (the end we were feeding into the printer first). It just gave it like a 1/4 in lip. Like I said, I don't think you really need to do that but it made us feel better. Plus our bulk system left the perfect little amount of tissue paper to fold over.

Print.
You'll want to change your print quality setting to High. I left my media type setting on Plain Paper, and it worked just great.

Print each newly segmented piece of your picture on a separate sheet of tissue/paper combo. Make sure you have it printing on the tissue paper side and not the regular paper backing.

And now random tip number three:
This is my brand and model of printer.

(Stay with me on this.)

See how it has a rear feed paper tray in addition to the bulk paper tray underneath?

We tried three different times to get the tissue paper sheets to feed through the rear tray. It did not work. It demolished the tissue paper, tearing it from the regular paper backing. You may be smart enough to have already figured out the reason but I can be kind of slow on the uptake at times. This step was actually why we originally thought of folding one of the edges over to give the tissue a better chance of hanging on. Well, I finally realized that the rollers for the rear feed tray are top rollers and they were pulling on the tissue without touching the regular paper at all. Now, I'm very fond of my rear feed tray. It makes me feel all professional when I'm printing photos on photo paper. However, the moral of the story we have before us is: Use the regular underneath bulk paper feed tray! Just open it up and leave whatever paper you already have in there and then lay your tissue/paper combo tissue-side down on top. The awesomely fabulous bulk paper tray rollers will now pull on the paper instead of just the tissue and zip your project right through the machine. Yeehaw!

Spray newly printed sheet with ink fixative.

As soon as a page is finished printing, pull it off the printer immediately and lay it printed tissue side up on a flat surface covered with butcher paper (newspaper or any other covering you don't care about will work as well). Shake your Krylon Workable Fixatif really well and spray a very light, even layer over the printed tissue. This will lock the ink in place so it doesn't run together or smudge badly. Let the Fixatif dry (the instructions on the can say let dry for an hour before handling). You can get all your pieces printed and sprayed while you're waiting for your first one to dry and then you can move on to...

Trim the printed images.
Once your pages are dry you need to very carefully trim away all the white (non-image) tissue paper from around the picture sections. You're not going to want any overlap or gaps between the tissue on your canvas so cutting exactly on the edge of your image is important so things will line up perfectly. At first I removed the tissue from the paper before trimming but after a couple fairly botched attempts at cutting a straight line, I discovered that leaving the paper backing in place (and holding it there once you've trimmed the glued edges off) makes for much less paper wiggling and made it easier for me to cut straight. (Random tip number four.)

Apply tissue to canvas.

If you haven't already been using a table as your "flat surface covered in butcher paper", you'll definitely want to be working at a (perhaps newly cleared off) kitchen table at this point. I did all the work for my first canvas on the floor of our computer room (so it can be done) but you'll be able to work more effectively at a table. Lay your canvas on the butcher paper and set your tissue pieces somewhere to the side but close at hand so you can work quickly. Break out your Elmer's Multipurpose Spray Adhesive. Shake well and spray an even, but not too heavy layer over your canvas. Start with a corner piece and remember we printed a 18.5in square picture so there will be a quarter inch to wrap around the edge of the canvas on all sides. Lay the tissue down, lined up how you want it. Gently smooth and pat the tissue to get rid of creases and bubbles. The Elmer's allows for repositioning so you can take a little time and try to get it just right. Just be gentle when you try to peel the tissue paper up if you want to move it. Tissue paper is pretty good about hanging on even to minimal tackiness but don't take too much time or you might have to start over and respray.

After all the pieces are stuck to the face of your canvas, take your glue stick and add glue to the sides of the canvas. Wrap your extra quarter inch border of tissue around the edge of the canvas and stick it down well to that glue.

Random tip number five:
I definitely agree with the original tutorial that having someone (like your awesome previously-an-architect-major-so-she-knows-her-way-around-a-straight-edge sister) to help you work and eyeball the straightness of your layout is a good idea.

Display your new artwork!

Project cost:
Money spent on stuff I didn't already have:
18x18 Canvas - $5.75 ($17.25 for 3)
11 oz can Krylon Workable Fixatiff - $7.59
11 oz can Elmer's Multipurpose Spray Adhesive - $6.99

Then we'll throw in a couple bucks to cover the ink and tissue paper and glue we used from our stash at home. I did three canvases so...$2.50 sound good?

So, since the Fixatif and Spray Adhesive still have a lot left in them and can be used for future projects, I think we can comfortably say that the cost for this project was a little less than $10 a pop. You could even go cheaper and easier by doing a smaller size canvas like Becca did. 18x18 is pretty big. I just needed a serious punch for where I'm planning to display these (more details to come on that later).

I hope you love your new display pieces! Now when people come over you can either: smile and just quietly let them think you're wealthy and can afford expensive mounted canvas artwork, or you can explain and wow them all with your savvy money-saving crafting prowess. Either way, people are bound to be impressed.

P.S. Can you say Mother's Day gift?

P.P.S. I'm linking up:

     

       

Dealy Dealy

Barnes and Noble has a listing on Ebay for a refursbished Nook with a buy it now price of $79 and free shipping! It's the regular Nook not the color or I wouldn't be typing this post, I'd be putting a couple of Nook Colors in my Ebay cart. I've had my Kindle for a couple of years now and it's still working great but if I had a use for a second E-reader, I'd jump on this fast! Kevin and I get great deals like this all the time buying refurbished electronics and such and if you don't mind some times having less of a warranty I would definitely recommend it as the way to go.

Contact Paper Laminating: Tutorial

For this tutorial I decided to use the alphabet project I'm working on. I printed out letters on full sheets of paper and planned to cut the sheets in half to separate them. There are too ways you can do this if you're laminating something. You can laminate first and cut afterward, or you can cut first and then laminate the pieces. If you do it the second way you'll be cutting twice in the end because you will most likely need to cut off the excess contact paper. However, doing it the 2nd way you can leave a contact paper border. This will actually protect the paper just a little bit better since the first way leaves the tiniest window, the depth of the paper itself, for water and the like to seep in. Also, if you're like me, you might just like the way the clear border looks (makes it look really laminated); so that's the way I did it.

Print out all your pages and get down your paper cutter.

After wrecking a few pages because your cutter blade needs sharpening, switch to scissors.

Gaze adoringly at your contact paper. 

-If you're wondering where to get contact paper in the first place, you can find it with the shelf lining paper in most stores or you can swing by Amazon and you'll find it on your doorstep. ;-)

Cut out two pieces of contact paper that are slightly bigger than the item you're laminating.

Take the first piece and peal off the backing. The most effective way I've found to do this is to get a really good grip on a corner and peal the backing off in one long swoop. If I do a little and then try to adjust my angle or grip, I tend to end up with kinks in my adhesive layer. Also, remember that touching any of the sticky with your fingers will leave finger prints that you can't wipe off. So if that matters to you, try to hold by the corners and edges as much as possible.

Lay that piece sticky side up on a hard, flat surface (kitchen table). Lay your paper-to-be-laminated down on top of the sticky contact paper. The thinner your paper-to-be-laminated is, the more difficult this will be. I used regular printer paper so I started by adhering the left edge of the W paper and then smoothing the rest of the paper down from that point. The next couple of steps might demonstrate this technique better. 

Take your 2nd piece of contact paper and peal off the backing. With the sticky side down (so the sticky sides of the two pieces of contact paper will be facing each other), and starting with one edge, press firmly and smooth the 2nd piece of contact paper over the top of your printed paper. (You'll be using both hands for this, I just didn't have anyone to take pictures for me at this point.)

You'll want to go slowly at first until you get the hang of it.

Hopefully you won't have any bubbles once you're done adhering the top layer but if you do you can smooth them a little bit with an old credit card or similar plastic object. Depending on your project, a few bubbles aren't the end of the world but if you really don't want any you need to be extra slow and careful in the previous steps.

Now grab your scissors and trim off the excess contact paper until you have your desired border width (or no border at all)

For first timers I'd definitely recommended practicing on single items until you get the feel of the smoothing process. Once you develop some confidence in your skills you can move on to doing larger projects or multiples.

This picture shows the two handed system better. Smooth with one hand while using the other hand to keep the contact paper somewhat taut so it doesn't drop down and make bubbles.

Even after you think you're ready to try bigger stuff, you'll still need to keep a check on your speed because bubbles and skewed layering can happen to the best of us. (There aren't any problems in this picture but about 2 minutes later I got in a rush and botched two sheets in a row.)

So there you go! With about $3 in supplies and just a little more time and patience I will soon have 2 full alphabet sets, large and laminated. I'll be making a post (with free printables!) about the finished product and its use sometime in the next couple days but for now I just wanted to show you the laminating part. It's a simple project but I'm pretty excited about it so please check back and let me know what you think. Thanks!

New Glasses

A few weeks ago Alexander finally finished his strategically orchestrated demolition of my one remaining pair of glasses. I also have contacts but I don't wear them very often and I especially don't like putting them in first thing in the morning unless I have to. So I hopped online and Coastal Contacts was doing a deal for a free pair of glasses to the first one thousand people who ordered. Apparently I have expensive tastes though because literally every pair I found that I liked on their site was either excluded from the deal or already sold out. 

So I gave up shooting for the free pair and went to Zenni Optical. I picked a few different pairs of glasses I liked and I used the zenni frame fit "mirror" to see what they would look like on me. I will not be sharing the picture I uploaded to their site to do that because I was not looking hot that day but that little feature helped a lot in my decision making process.

I ended up ordering two pairs and paying under $30 total. The glasses are manufactured in China so it takes a little longer to get them to you but I don't think I actually waited more than a week. The quality of the glasses is great. Although I think next time I'm going to pay the extra couple bucks and add the anti glare coating to make them even better.

I don't have any good pictures of the glasses actually on my face yet but if I get one I'll post it later. The ones on the right are a little different than what I'm used to wearing but for the price I figured I could afford to try something new. And those are actually the ones I wear more often now.

Yay for saving money and switching things up! Good times all around.

Amy the enabler

So I got a call from my aunt Nina last Friday saying she was on her way over to my aunt Erika’s house to help her clean out her closet. They were planning on getting rid of a bunch of stuff so she thought I might want to come over and pick through the spoils for something to take home.

Now let me tell you a thing or two about my aunt Erika. She is a full on thrifting guru. She will walk into a thrift store and come out having maybe spent $50 but in her bags she will have (for example) four Ann Taylor dresses (probably with the tags still on), six pairs of designer label jeans, a Gap leather jacket, and a mint condition fossil handbag. And mind you that all of the above will change based on what’s *in* that particular season. She has the ability to look at an item hanging from a Goodwill rack and know exactly how much it retailed for and how much it should be worth now. And since all of what I know about fashion could probably be crammed into a teacup, raiding her closest is in my top 3 preferred ways to shop for clothes. She never minds just giving me anything she hasn’t worn in a while and if I really like something she *does* wear she’ll let me borrow it for a while anyway.

And so we come to this layout of clothes on my bed. I’d say I came away on Friday with about $500 worth of stuff. There was more to choose from but one hitch to this system of finding clothes is my lovely aunt and I have very different taste in some things (she looooooves sweaters). And then there’s the fact that her feet are two sizes bigger than mine. So those boots in the back only got there because they’re a little too small for her and I can wear thick socks to make them fit me.

I’ll have to do a post sometime to share some of the tricks she’s taught me for thrifting but for now I just wanted to show you my loot and talk a little about my fabulous good luck in being the proud niece of a thrift store junkie. We give her a hard time about it when her closet overflows but I can’t really complain because that would be like shooting myself in the foot. I’m a thrift-store-junkie’s-closet junkie.

Love you Aunt Erika! Thanks!

Kayak plug

I assume everyone here has heard of Kayak.com and it's spiffy keen-o travel searches. But, if you haven't, I'm here to tell you they kick some serious money saving booty! Back in January, as soon as the June date was set for my SIL's wedding out in Cali, I found a deal on a flight ($228 from ATL to LAX) that we waited about an hour too long to jump on (shot up to $270 while we were mulling it over). So then the hubby and I both signed up for kayak price alerts and decided to wait for the next great deal. And ever since then we've been watching the prices rise to $295 and $318 and $325 with conversely sinking hearts.

Now, I'm not promising that this same thing will happen to you, but, just as we were beginning to seriously lament our lapse in judgement for not scoring the $228 tickets months ago, Kevin sends me an instant message from work at about 8:30 this morning saying he's in the process of getting us tickets for $218! He'd checked his Kayak alert and there it was, the deal of the year just for us! I shot Kevin's GA resident brother and sister an email right away, letting them know about the deal and hoping against hope they'd get online (I'd tried calling, but to no avail). The deal died about 30 minutes after Kevin found it but we got our 3 needed tickets and Kevin's brother got my email and got the same deal for his family of 5! The other great thing about Kayak is the prices they list include taxes and fees and everything. Our itinerary says our tickets were $178 but going through Kayak we didn't have to be surprised when the real price was $40 more.

Moral? Maybe there isn't one except to share my rejoicing for our awesome find. Or maybe it's that if you're vigilant enough and take advantage of some of the great email alert systems available out there, fabulous deals can come your way too. Yeah... I'm pretty sure that's it. :-)

5 Year Plan

Last year all the way back in March I started a list that I called my 5 Year Plan. I didn't get very far on it before I decided I wanted another baby and morning sickness was reintroduced into my life. But I wanted to put that list on here as a jumping off point for this new blog. So here it is all nice and linked for future reference.