Five Photo Book Ideas

I seek out deals and often wind up with "free" photo books.  I do photo books for our primary albums, but these free offers very rarely time out with when I am ready to print.  Plus, my albums are usually huge and free books are around 20 pages.  So, I have made some creative books for C's entertainment.  Here are a few of these ideas:  

1. " Who Loves Me?" book for babies and toddlers.  Features pictures of family members, pets, etc.  This was awesome at restaurants, and out and about.  Great way to learn everyone's name.  

2.  Alphabet Book - Ours has pictures of places we have been, our favorite toys, animals we love, etc.  I laid this one out in photo shop to format it the way I wanted, but it could easily be done in a design wizard. 

3.  "How Time Flies" book for school age kids.  Pages show families growing and kids changing.  It is amazing to see all this change in one place.


We did a page (or a few) for:
(1) extended family on each side (2)aunts and uncles dating, getting married, their family growing (3) each cousin growing up from baby to now (4) best friends that have been around for years (5) our family (6) our dogs (7) each birthday labeled with the age (8) each Halloween labeled with the year (9)  each Christmas labeled with the year (10) favorite pictures of my kid from birth to now



4.  Holiday specific books - We have one for Halloween and one for Hanukah / Christmas.  These are collections older than our child.  It includes our childhoods, and when possible our parents childhoods and pre-kids.   We keep them in our seasonal storage and pull them out and look through them and talk about them as the holiday approaches.  It allows us to refresh or teach our traditions in advance so the holiday is fun and not weird surprises.  These books are all packed up, but you get the idea.

5.  Recipe Book - Photos of baking or enjoying your favorite family recipes with the recipe.  I have not made this book yet, but it is on deck.  I plan to create it while she is little and hold on to it until she gets her own place and give it as a house warming gift.  I may never execute this plan.  I lose things, forget things, and who knows, but I love this idea.  

Today's Plan: Fun Work

We had a fantastic Christmas.  Lots of love and fun with our families was enjoyed.  Lots of presents were opened.  Lots of food was eaten, and savored.  

Today we need to get back to normal.  We have vacation for another week from school and therapy.  

We need to make sure we are doing our work.  Today we plan to paint with new do-a-dot paints.  Circle practice is also on the agenda

Practice our signs and verbalization with Sign to Talk cards.  The front of the card has a large 5"x7", full-color, glossy photo of the target item. The reverse side contains a photo of the ASL sign, a written description of the hand shapes, and a series of Kaufman Speech to Language "word shells," which are highly effective for shaping intelligible articulation.

Then I think we will make funny faces in the mirror or the camera and practice following directions and imitating.  "Touch your head.  Touch your toes.  Open your mouth."  or "Reach for the sky.  Reach to the sides.  Stick out your tongue."  These things help her mimic more advanced movements when requested.  

We are also trying to spend at least 20 minutes each day using our talker in a focused task.  Today we will be describing objects, what they are, their color, etc.  

Time to get to work.  

Homemade Christmas 2012

1.  Bottle Cap Magnets - We used our 1" hole punch to cut pictures out of magazines and craft paper.  We added glitter, buttons, and other small items.  Then filled it with dimensional mod podge, attached magnets to the back and packaged them on card stock with a washer behind to hold them in place.   

2.  Relaxation Eye Bags - I made these for all my friends in the 9th grade when I discover them in a yoga class.  I had forgotten how much I adored them until recently I saw something similar on pinterest.  You can make them any shape you want.  These are intended to rest on your forehead and eyes.  They are filled with lavender and rice.  You can microwave them for 30 seconds and then lay back and relax.    This is the amount of sewing skill I have.  I can make a rectangular pillow (more or less).  

3.  Book Page Letter Ornaments - I printed large letters in a font interesting, but not terribly complex.  Then I traced the letters on foam core and cut them out with my exacto.  I spent a few evening shredding book pages and mod podging over the letter to make sure all white space was covered.  Then I threaded a piece of embroidery floss through a hole I had poked with a skewer.  Voila!

4.  Salt Dough Ornaments - We mixed 1 cup of salt, 4 cups of four, and 2 cups of water with our hands.  Then we rolled it out, and used all our fun cookie cutters.  Next we pulled out our stamps and colored inks.  They bake in the oven FOREVER.  I think I wound up leaving them in for about 5 hours at 225 degrees.  We kept a few ornaments and used the rest as gift tags.  

5.  I love making these.  One day you will see me at an art fair with my own booth selling my favorite sayings.  There are many layers and steps, but I really like the way this one turned out. 

6.  Scrabble Name Ornaments - I started by drilling holes in the end letters.  Then I glued the letters together and let them dry.  I used copper wire and pliers to create the hangers.  

7.  Cookies - This year we just made Peanut Butter Kisses and Cranberry Coconut Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies.  They were delicious, but gone :(  

8.  More Treats - We made 120 Spinach Balls, 1 Bananas Fosters Upside Down Cake, 1 Cheesecake and 1 Batch of Caramel.  Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of most of it.