Yearly Family Photo Books with Blurb

It's that time again--time to make our 2011 Family Photo Book.

I don't do scrapbooks.  I like them, and I'm impressed with those who do do scrapbooks, but they're not for me.  My own personal style tends more towards simple--no embellishments, just pictures and some text.  And that's why I use Blurb.

A girl at my church showed me a Blurb photo book she made with her wedding pictures, and it was lovely.  So I tried it myself for my own wedding pictures and loved it.  I thought Blurb was really easy to use, their books are great quality, and the price was not bad, either.  And I've made one photo book each year since.

Here are a few of the Blurb books I've made.  (Notice the nice hardback binding!  These are quality books!)

And here's the back of our 2009 book.  (Aww, look at that little face!)

I think the best thing about making these yearly books is that all the many many pictures we take each year don't end up just forgotten on the computer's hard drive.  Each year, I go through, pick out the best, and they actually get printed.

And they make wonderful wedding presents, too.  Made a couple of those.

FYI
There are five book sizes of photo books to choose from.  I make my books at 7" x 7".
Your books can have as many as 440 pages.  But mine are usually 80.
There are four different binding methods to choose from.  I use Hardcover with ImageWrap, which means the cover art is printed on the book, as opposed to using a dust jacket.

And my 80 page, hardcover, ImageWrap 7" x 7" book costs $35.  Which when I shopped around, was the best price I found for a comparable product.

{This is not a sponsored post.  I just love Blurb and thought you might, too.}

Perpetual Calendar Tutorial

I like to-do lists.  Mostly, I like checking things off of a to-do list.  I have been known to write something I've already done on my to-do list just so I can check it off.  It makes me feel productive.

Checking things off a a to-do list:  fun.  Writing the same things on the to-do list every day:  not fun.  So I decided to make myself a perpetual calendar, with my daily things already written on it.  I made this with materials I gathered up things from around my house, so this project was free!  (My favorite kind of project!)

I started off with a 11x14 picture frame I already had that wasn't being used.  (I picked that size so I would have plenty of space for writing, but you can use whatever size you like.)  I like the clean look of a glossy white frame, so I spray painted the frame with paint I bought for another project, but haven't used yet.

(Oops!  My cardboard didn't catch all the overspray!)

Next, I drew out a calendar grid on some scrapbook paper from a pack of paper that will eventually become a scrapbook for Boo (I'm not really a scrapbooker...) and wrote in all my to-do's.  Man, this took forever!  I don't think I'll write it out by hand next time.

So I made a couple of calendar blanks for you to use (and me, when my calendar needs to be updated).  I made them up in two sizes, regular printer paper size and legal paper size, if your printer can print at that size.  Or you could have it printed at Kinkos, or some such place.  (Just right click and save your chosen calendar to your computer.)

Next, I cut my 12x12 scrapbook paper down to 11" tall, and I cut a couple of strips of a different scrapbook paper to add to the sides to make my calendar 11x14.

I used the cardboard back for the picture frame as a guide for how large my calendar needed to be.

And there it is!  I have all my regular to-do's, plus weekly events like Scouts on Wednesdays and Date Nights on Friday.  (Hurray for that!)  And since the calendar is behind glass, I can use a dry erase marker to write in the month and dates and unusual things like doctor's appointments, birthdays, and the like.  Now I just need to hang it up.  Maybe I should write that on my to-do list calendar...

How To Add Navigation Tabs Under Your Header with Blogger

Here's a really simple trick to make your blog much easier to explore:  add navigation tabs under the header.  (Like on my blog, I have tabs for Home, Tutorials, etc.)  I was really excited when I found out how to do this, and it's so easy, too!  Here's how you do it.

In Blogger, click on the Design option.  From there, choose Page Elements, and Add a Gadget right under your header.  Add the "Pages" gadget (under "Basics").  You probably want to have the "Automatically publish new pages" option checked.  Save changes, and you have your navigation tabs.  :)  See?  Super easy.

Now for adding pages (and tabs).  You will automatically have a Homepage (of course--this is where all your amazing posts go!), but you probably want more than just that, which is why you're reading this post. Let's say you want to add an About Me page and tab.  Just go to Posting, then Edit Pages.  From there, you can add new pages, edit the ones you already have (but not the homepage--it is what it is) or click on "Learn more" to (are you ready for this?) learn more.  So, click on New Page, and then write all about yourself!

And there you go!  Super easy.

I have an idea about how to make customized navigation tabs.  I'll let you know when I get it all worked out!

How to Tidy Up Your Linky Party Buttons!

You know when you're working on something and it's difficult/ complicated/ confusing/ generally not working, but you keep at it until you figure it out--that feeling you get?  I feel like a mad scientist--It worked!  IT WORKED!  BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!  (Ahem!  Sorry about that.)  I call it the "evil laugh of success."

There was definite evil laughing when I finally figured this out.  Here's what happened.

It all started on a dark and stormy night...or an unseasonably pleasant February evening, anyway.  I was exploring one of the blogs I follow, when I came upon a tutorial on how to resize your blog's buttons with html.  Personally, I'd just use my good ol' Photoshop and change the actual size of the button, but what about OTHER blog's buttons you have on your page?  That would be worthwhile.

Most (all?) linky party hosts ask you to put their party button somewhere on your blog.  (I totally would if I hosted a linky party--advertising!)  So I have the buttons for the parties I join down at the bottom of my homepage, but they were such a mess!  The buttons were all different sizes, and some of them didn't play nice with the other buttons (insisting on being on their own lines), and they just generally made my page cluttered.

But with this tutorial, I could make them all the same size!  (The anti-social tendencies of the buttons would be dealt with later.)  It was great, and so simple!  Well, I was excited and tried it immediately...and nothing happened.  Re-read the instructions.  They weren't very clear.  It was only one step--insert width:##; height:## somewhere after the "img" in the html code.  Problem is, it says "img" several times in the button code.  ???  So I tried a couple of different things, with no luck.  I checked the comments; maybe others were having the same problem, and the blogger clarified.  Well, other's had the same question, but no answer yet.

Okay, next step--try Google.  I found this article, How To Resize an Image With HTML,  and I thought, A button is just an image, when you think about it.  Maybe this will work.

It said to put the new height and width after the img src html tag, so:
<img src="the url where the image is hosted" width={new number} height={new number}

So for a real-life example, here's how you would re-size my button.

The Original Button  and Resized  (Aww, isn't it cute?)

Here's the code:

By the way, sometimes the "img" and "src" bits aren't right next to each other, so look for the "src" specifically.

Now a quick note about the anti-social buttons:
If you see a code like this  <center>  then it is (you guessed it) centering itself.  Just take that out.

Let me know if you have questions!

Update:  I thought you might want a point of reference so you can choose how many pixels tall/wide to make the buttons.  The linky party buttons at the bottom of my page are 75 x 75 pixels, and the Resized Button in my example is 35 x 35 pixels.
Oh, yeah--remember to keep the dimensions proportional.  Rectangle buttons will look weird if you resize them to be squares.

ClothesPin Organizer/Art Gallery/Message Center/...

I went to a Girls' Night Crafting Party last year, and one of the ladies brought this neat little organizer.  She explained to me how to make it, and it was really easy, but so cute.  She made hers for her daughter to show off her artwork, but mine is for making me more organized...hopefully.  (But I do have my baby's first coloring attempts hanging there at the end.  Just a couple of days ago, she figured out coloring, and she LOVES it!)

I don't have any pictures from making it, but it's so simple you don't need them.

You will need:
a 2x4 of whatever length you want your organizer to be
cute cloth to cover it
some clothespins (the kind with hinges)
glue or Modge Podge (I just used regular ol' Elmers)
a junk one inch wide paintbrush to spread out the glue
small nails (two per clothespin)
maybe a drill
hammer
picture hanging supplies


Take the 2x4 and coat it with glue or Modge Podge.

Position the fabric on top and press it on.  Be sure to get rid of any bubbles caught under the fabric.  Fold it around the ends like you are wrapping a Christmas present.  (The glue will probably soak through the fabric, so be careful to not glue your project to the table.  Or your lap.  Yes, I made mine on my lap while I watched a movie with my family.)

Coat the outside with glue, too.  I like the nice, slightly shiny finish the glue gives, it protects the fabric from jelly-covered fingers, and fabric just looks different when the glue soaks through, so this way those spots blend in.

While that's drying, take apart the clothespins.  You'll probably want to drill small holes (to fit the nails) into the clothespins so that they don't split when you hammer the nails in.

When the glue is dry, attach the picture hanging hardware of your choice to the back.  (My husband did this step for me after the clothespins were attached...It's easier before.)

Position the clothespins where you want them to be and nail them in place.  I used two nails per clothespin so that they couldn't spin around to random angles.

Put the clothespins back together.  Now you're done!  That was easy.

Now mine is hung up in my almost-finished kitchen.  Hurray!