Create A Postcard From Child’s Art

Posted on September 19th, 2013 by Jean

I love my eldest daughter’s drawings. Here are some witches she drew recently. I love the expressive eyes, the assortment of body shapes & sizes, and the atypical colors of their gowns and hats.
 
I thought it would be fun to order postcards with this design. I removed the witches names (Rosie, Athena, Nestella, Dixie and Ivy) and a few ink smears. Then I downloaded the standard postcard template from Vistaprint, and placed the scanned drawing on top. I added the holiday greeting, colorful border and copyright info, then uploaded the completed piece.
 
The smallest quantity is 100 postcards, and including shipping, the cards cost approx. 22 cents each.

 
My youngest daughter was excited to see her sister’s postcard, and asked if she could design one too. Of course I said yes! She actually is a whiz at photoshop, and set up her page to the right dimensions. She drew images on separate layers: the pumpkin twins, the moon full of craters and aliens, pieces of candy, and Happy Halloween!
 

 
A few of you are going to be receiving these in the mail. If you are a friend, a reader, a friendly reader, and would like to receive one of these postcards, send me a message through my contact page.
 
• Do you have a little artist in the family?
• Would you turn your child’s art into a postcard?

Don’t Tell Dad

Posted on September 17th, 2013 by Jean

Just before Father’s Day 2013, Natasha Curry of HLN’s Weekend Express asked viewers to send in videos saying why their Dad was the best. Our daughters were eager to take part. While Tom was doing yard work, the girls swam and I filmed. They laughed, they were tongue-tied, they froze, but finally everything fell into place. I had the perfect little snippet of my daughters praising their father.
 
I edited the footage in secret, and told the girls, “Don’t tell Dad”. It was going to be a surprise.
 
I uploaded the video to CNN, and waited. The girls and I checked the site almost daily to see what other families had submitted.
 
One week prior to Father’s Day, my daughter woke me with the words, “Mom! Dad saw the video!” My mind raced. How did he see it? Did he use my computer?
 
“It’s on t.v.!”
 

 
Natasha was using our submission as a promo!
 
Tom, who had gotten up early, sat on the loveseat in tears, overcome with emotion. He had been reading emails, not paying attention until he heard the names of our daughters. He looked up and was amazed.
 
It was the best Father’s Day ever.
 
• Do you have a favorite Father’s Day memory?
• Are you an iReporter for CNN?

5 Ways To Freshen Your Website

Posted on September 15th, 2013 by Jean

I spent the weekend giving my blog a whole new look! Goodbye cleavage, and hello “Skies-the-limit” children.

Here are 5 ways I gave my site a fresh look.

1. Design a new header. Use a favorite photo and a new font in a contrasting color to build a header in Photoshop or other photo-editing program. Free fonts are available at fontspace. Here’s my post to walk you through the steps, PhotoShop Tips.

2. Change background color. I used Color-Hex to identify the colors for my site. I chose sky blue #60b0ff. Depending on your theme, you may need to change the code in your stylesheet.css file.

3. Add a gradient. Scrolling from the top of my site to the bottom, the background color gradually changes from blue to yellow. I accomplished this by following the instructions at ehow.

4. New social icons. Onextrapixel has freebies including the Round Social Media Icons Pack. Upload them to your library, and place the url addresses in your header.php file. When you link to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and the like, be sure to enter the Four Little Words to keep your readers from straying.

5. Declutter the sidebar. I removed campaigns that weren’t working for me (adsense, amazon associates), code that had a glitch (networked blogs), and links to peers who are no longer blogging.

TIP: When your website makeover is complete, freshen your social sites too!

• Have you recently freshened your site?
• What one thing would you change on your website?

Tags: add gradient background, customize wordpress theme, declutter sidebar, design a header, free fonts, free social icons, freshen site, jeanhasbeenshopping, Photoshop, update blog, web design tips, wordpress.org