Making a Photo Calendar

I took lots of photos when our friends from France were here this past summer - no surprise really - and thought that making a photo calendar would be a great present to send them for Christmas.  The postal deadline is fast approaching and I'm just putting the finishing touches on their calendar.  From my experience making a photo calendar using Smilebox is really no more complicated than blogging and is a very personal gift for someone special.  

A couple of months ago I decided I wanted to see what other types of calendars you could make using on-line or purchased software.  I googled and googled and was very surprised with what I found.   Even the most popular companies showed very few examples of finished calendars and many of them involved a lot of on-line scrapbooking.  While I admire scrapbooking done well, it was more work than I was interested in doing.  The reason I like Smilebox is that it provides pre-set layouts and you just drop your photos into the layout for a very professional looking finished product.  I'm sure you can guess that I used Smilebox again this year.

I wanted to show you just how easy it is to produce fanastic calendars (and I'm not being compensated in any way by Smilebox for writing this).  You can read a previous post with some tips for making great Smilebox calendars here.

To get started making a Smilebox calendar you need to up-load your photos.  In the screen shot below you can see my up-loaded photos down the lefthand side of the screen.  Don't hold back when you're up-loading photos.  The more the merrier is the rule so you can try different photos in various layouts to see what looks best.

Layout for three photos - 

Speaking of layouts, you can choose ones for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 photos.  There are five different layouts if you only want to use one photo - but where's the fun in that.  If you want to use two, three, or four photos there are two choices of layouts and if you want to use five or seven photos then there is only a choice of one layout for each.  I have included screen shots of both of the layouts for three photos so you can get an idea of how the layouts vary.  The layout above is in the "personalize" mode for adding and adjusting photos, while all the other screen shots I included show the layouts in the "preview" mode.

Layout for three photos -

Did you notice that the font colour is different for each month.  The last thing I do before I finish a calendar is to go through and match the font to different colours in the photos on that page.

Layout for four photos -

Layout for five photos - 

I love how the name of the month goes across the photo in the layout pictured above.  However, it wouldn't do to have July written across someone's face, so you have to carefully choose the right photo for that spot.

Layout for seven photos - 

I'm off to load the calendar onto a memory stick and take it to a local photocopy store to have it colour-copied onto cardstock and cerlox binding applied.  Then it is off to France with a couple of candy canes (did you know they don't have candy canes in France).  Joyeux Noël to our lovely French friends and may you enjoy a little reminder of Canada every month.

Linked to Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple

Various Things

This is how things are right now:

1)  I'm a famous photographer.  Okay so I'm kidding, but I was pretty happy to see three photos taken by me, were used by Gwen McAuley in her post on the Canadian House and Home website about the Toronto Blogger's Meet-up.  It was so exciting to see my name - well my blog's name - associated with one of my favourite magazines.

2) I'm enjoying candles at dinner every evening thanks to the early sunset at this time of year.

3)  I have a cast-iron frying pan on the floor of my front hall.  I know I've got your curiosity piqued, haven't I?  Let me explain -

A few days ago I was walking Juno and I saw a cast-iron frying pan on someone's front lawn.  It was quite close to the sidewalk and just sitting there.  I continued on my way, but couldn't stop thinking about the frying pan.  About an hour later I had to go out so I decided to drive by the house and see if the frying pan was still there.  Well it was and the owner's car was now in the driveway.  The only thing I can think of is that they had put the frying pan into the recycling the day before and it had been tossed out by the garbage collectors.  

The truly remarkable part of the story is that a friend of mine, who finds herself with very limited funds right now, had just been telling me what she was going to ask her kids to get her for Christmas.  She was trying to be both frugal and practical so she only had a cast-iron frying pan and a second tablecloth for their dining room table on her list.  Can you believe that I found one of her presents as a curbside freebie.   The frying pan is in great shape and just needs a good cleaning.  For some unusual reason it came complete with three pennies in it.    

Isn't that the most remarkable story - an early Christmas blessing!

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Just a reminder to enter the giveaway to win these magazines (you can find details here).  These are two fantastic Christmas issues of my favourite decorating magazines.  Don't miss out!

Personalized Lingerie Bags

Did everyone grow up chanting this rhyme?

I see London,

I see France,

I see so-and-so's underpants.

Not too big, 

Not too small,

Just the size of Montreal.

The Montreal reference had me wondering if it is just a Canadian thing (we're just so cultured here).   If you have never heard of this rhyme or don't call what you wear under your pants or skirts, underpants, then the project I just did won't make any sense.   

Now that we have that out of the way, read on... and see what I just made.

I've had the idea to make these lingerie travel bags for several years, but have never got myself organized to do it, until now that is.  It helped that my friend Kim recently gave me an ink jet printer, which is what you need to to use with the specialty paper for transferring an image onto fabric. Thanks Kim!

Here are the steps I did to make the bags (and the things that I did wrong, so you can learn from my mistakes - so good of me isn't it):

The first thing I did was sew the drawstring bag.  I looked for a thin cotton material and happened to find this white one, with little bubbles on it, on clearance, but a fine weave linen-type fabric would be pretty too.  The bags are fairly simple to make, just make sure you pre-wash the fabric and, when you are sewing the top part, leave a space to thread the string through.  (in looking back at the pictures I see that I need to poke the material out at the bottom corners of the bag - oops).

After I wrote the text and added the clipart on the computer, I had to reverse it so that the image would show up the right way round when printed.  This might sound easy, but it took some fiddling around and eventually involved getting my husband to sort it out.  If you are interested in doing the project and can't figure out how to rotate the text, then I can fill you in on what I did.  

Then I printed the image onto special paper designed to transfer an image onto fabric.  This is the one I used:

You can see that I made images for two bags on one sheet of specialty paper - I did this because the bags are not that big and also to save money as the paper is almost $3 a sheet.  I've since slightly enlarged the text (you can see lots of white space around the edges of the paper so there was some room to expand it) so that it fills more of the lingerie bag.

Then I cut as close as I could to the image in a nice neat rectangle.  This is important as you can see the material used to put the image on to the fabric slightly when you are finished.  You need to follow the directions very precisely on how long to iron for.  Although I thought I had timed it correctly, I obviously ironed a little too long because you can see the area is a little bit brown on the finished bag (oops - sorry Jenni).

Then you wait until it is cool and carefully peel off the backing.

And there you have it - your own personalized lingerie travel bag to give as a gift.  Now I just have to make the rest of them.

(I do apologize to all the women in my life as they now know what they are getting for Christmas)

Linked to Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville
Get your Craft on Thursday at Life as Lori 
Fabric Fun Thursday at Cheap Chic Home
Handmade Holidays Hooplah at Just a Girl 
Inspiration Friday Party at Southern In My Heart 
Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest 
Air Your Laundry Friday at Freckled Laundry
Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

The 12 Days of Christmas Gift Box - Pass it On!

I want to share with you a project I did last year.  I'm not showing it to you to get a pat on the back, but rather I'm sharing it in case you know someone who is going through a difficult time right now and could do with a fun surprise this Christmas.

Last Christmas I had a friend that needed cheering up so I decided to give her a box filled with twelve presents that corresponded to the verses in the Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas.  I had read about doing this on-line (a quick google search will reveal lots of ideas) and thought it would be a fun way to surprise her with some fun at Christmas. I left the box on her doorstep on December 24th in secret, but she figured out it was me in about 2.5 seconds.

Anyway she loved it, and has told me many, many times how that gift was the one bright spark in her holiday that year and brought such comfort and even healing during Christmas, both for her and her children as she let them help her open the gifts.  In fact it was so important to her that she saved every last piece of paper I gave her.  When I was over at her house last week doing a crafting evening she brought down all the pieces for me to see.   I've taken photos of them so you can see what I did.

I brainstormed different possible gifts to go with each of the verses of the carol, so I had some choices depending on what I could find in the stores.  Basically the gifts I used were -

First Day - a pear made of stone that I bought at Ten Thousand Villages

Second Day - chocolate turtles and a bar of Dove soap (see the photo below)

Third Day - a chic scarf compliments of the French hens
 
Fourth Day - four messages from the 4 calling birds (they were all inspirational messages that I found on-line)

Fifth Day - a tin of pineapple rings

Sixth Day - an egg-shaped candle left behind by the six geese-a-laying

Seventh Day - a bottle of Fresh Water hand soap compliments of the swimming swans

Eighth Day -  a box of milk-white narcissus bulbs to plant

Ninth Day -  a pair of socks used by the nine ladies who were out dancing all night

Tenth Day - a shoe Christmas ornament left behind by one of the Lords-a-leaping (see the photo below)

Eleventh Day - a piping hot drink (hot chocolate mix)

Twelfth Day - I drummed up some cookies (you can see the tin in the photo below that was made to look like a drum)

I also included two versions of the twelve days of Christmas that I found on-line.  The sublime one included the real meaning of all the gifts (I found it here)  and the ridiculous one was a funny series of letters from someone who receives all the gifts mentioned in the carol (I found it here).  The letters starts off all sweet and thankful and by the end she is a wreck because her house if full of geese and cows and people dancing etc.

It was a lot of fun being creative and thinking of little gifts that matched the verses in the carol, making the little notes that went on each of the gifts, and then planning how I was going to deliver the presents.  I have to say, though, by far the best part was that I brought some happiness to my friend.  I'm passing on this idea just in case you have a friend in need.  It is a really fun way to brighten someone's Christmas.

Linked to Strut Your Stuff link party at Somewhat Simple

Creative Ways to Give Gift Cards and Money

This week we are looking at some creative and fun ways to have a great Christmas with teens.  Yesterday we looked at some homemade gifts that might be appropriate for teens (you can read the post here).   Although giving an actual gift seems like more fun for Christmas morning, it is often difficult to get something a teen will like and use.  Sometimes it is just easier and more practical to give money or gift cards, however, they seem to lack creative thought and don't leave much fun in the opening department.  

In the past I have given gift cards or money with an associated item, for example a mug with a Tim Hortons gift card in it, but I wanted to see what other interesting ideas I could find.  I googled creative ways to give gift cards and money and found some amazing ideas.

One of the best sources was here (you really need to read the list for yourself - there are so many fantastic ideas and they are so creative).   A few highlights of where to hide the gift card, include:

• in a box filled with styrofoam peanuts
• in a container of cool whip that you thaw, put the card in the middle, and re-freeze
• inside a roll of toilet paper
• put dollar bills and different messages in tiny boxes and wrap each one separately
• bake money, wrapped in foil, inside a cake 
• attach money by string inside a closed umbrella - when the umbrella is opened it rains money

I have to highlight three ideas, that I read on this list, that I thought would be brilliant for the right person.

The first idea is to buy two copies of the same magazine.  You cut out pictures from one of the magazines and glue them over the same picture in the other magazine hiding the money between the pictures.  The person you are giving the magazine to has to look carefully through each page examing each picture to see if there is money hidden behind it.  Not only do they have the fun of looking for the money, they have a magazine to read.  Brilliant!

The second idea is to buy some really hideous items that you know the recipient will think are awful and then wrap them up.  After the gifts have been opened, give them the sales receipts so they can return the items for money and buy what they want.  You would have to be sure the recipient has a good sense of humour and that the store has a good return policy, but it would make for a fun Christmas morning.

Third idea is to put the money or gift card in a treasure box (along with gold chocolate, and dollar store jewelry if you want) and bury it in a hole in the garden, although here in Canada in the winter it might be better just to hide it somewhere in the house.  Then buy a puzzle and put it together.  Flip the puzzle over and draw a map to the location of the treasure on the back of the puzzle.  Then take the puzzle apart and put it back in the box and wrap it up to give to the recipient to open Christmas morning.  They have to put the puzzle together to discover the location of the treasure box.  You can even make it more difficult by having a combination lock on the treasure box and the combination numbers are on the back of a second puzzle.  Is that not ingenious?

Try googling "money origami" and the designs will blow your socks off.  Although the ones in the photos above set the bar rather high, I have seen some very simple money folding ideas.  I remember seeing on someone's blog a banner with triangle shaped pieces of cloth and she replaced one of the triangles with folded money.  Here is another one that looks doable, with instruction from here.

I love these ideas and just may use some of them myself.  What about you - anyone given money or a gift cards in an ingenious way?  I would love to hear about it.

10 Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas for Teens

It is very easy for Christmas to get out of hand - too many gifts, too much money spent, too much time on decorating and shopping and not enough time spent doing the things that really matter.  I have recently been brainstorming ideas with a friend who finds herself without much money this year.  My friend has teenagers at home which makes it extra difficult to scale back.  It occurred to me that there might be others who would enjoy the ideas we came up with and that I found on-line.  Maybe we would all enjoy Christmas more if we scaled back some and focussed on the important things of family, friends, fellowship, and the real reason for Christmas.

I started writing up the post and realized that there were actually a lot of ideas so I'm going to highlight different aspects over the next week.   The focus will be on teens and Christmas as that age group seems to be the most difficult to shop for and to entertain, particularily if you are trying to do it on a tight budget.

I am going to start this series with ideas for homemade gifts.   Personally, I love making at least one or two handmade Christmas gifts every year.  It somehow makes me feel like I've put my heart into gift giving and been a bit thrifty as well.   As it isn't easy to think up homemade gifts for teens, today I'm going to share with you ten ideas that I have found on-line or have made myself - 

1)  Decorate storage containers to match their room's decor or reflect their interests.

   Martha Stewart 

2)  Create these pretty accessories for a jewelry box.

Martha Stewart

3)  Make a photo scrapbook or calendar of things your teen has done during the past year or from when they were young (you can see my post here about using Smilebox to create a photo calendar).  I had my calendars colour photocopied and then a cerlox binding put on so the total cost for each one was just under $10.

4)  Knit some fingerless gloves (you can find the pattern to make the gloves in the picture below here).

 Thrifty Fun

5)  Crochet, knit, or sew covers for electronic devices, such as cell phones or MP3 players (you can find the knitting instructions for the picture below here; or another one here; and how to sew the one below here).

6)  Make a jar of homemade trail mix - mmm - yummy and healthy! Or give coupons for homemade cookies every month - the gift that keeps on giving all year long.

7)  Make a neck wrap cooler (see here for instructions).

Little Birdie Secrets

8)   Make a music CD.

9)  Decorate a journal,  notebook, binder, or clipboard (you can find directions and inspiration for binders and notebooks here and clipboards here).

Arts Crafts Blog

Echoes of Laughter

10) Collect tried-and-true family recipes and either write them up on the computer and print a cookbook or even better, for the electronically-minded young person, give them a memory stick with the recipes on it.  Using the memory stick has the advantage that new recipes can easily be added.

And finallly, stay tuned for the gift I'm in the process of making.  I'll be blogging about it in the next week or so (whenever I am done).  Here's a sneak peak:

Anybody have any other ideas for homemade gifts for teens???  I'm all ears (... so to speak).

Tune in tomorrow for creative ways to give gift cards and cash.