Baby Monthly Growth photos, The Easy Way

I bet you've seen them, the baby growth photos. But, I have to share a super easy twist. These photos always perk my friends' and family's interest every month on Facebook, so I'll reveal the magic.

He's adorable, isn't he ;)

My Facebook peeps love the text at the bottom. 

I shield them from the real stories. I really had, at 2 months, he has peed in my face as least once a week and month 3: by far the poopiest month - hands down. That's another perk of using a blank "canvas," the text changes when you add it later. Because, one day Brandon will get this beautiful baby growth photo book and on the last few pages - the real stories behind these photos. One day... I will have time to make these into a photo book.

Well, the truth is, he is a baby and like most babies', photos are taken on his/her schedule. He isn't going to stand for much posing. So I take a bunch of photos when he seems his best mood, easy is the only way we play this game.

The trick:

He is actually lying on a form poster board I painted with chalk paint. It's the blank sign idea I wrote about in this post for school photos signs.

Supplies:

1. Blank foam board - 2'x3' or 8x10 or really whatever size you prefer 
2. ...LATER.... Computer using Picasa or PicMonkey.com to add text (when you have time)
   Font in this photo: Eraser Dust available on PicMonkey or free download

Picasa is free software you download and PicMonkey is free online software (no download required)
read more about PicMonkey here (I'm not an affiliate, just a big fan!)

Steps:

1) Lay baby on blank foam board or place a blank foam board next to baby

2) Take as many photos as possible before enough is enough. 

3) LATER, and I mean LATER (days, months, years ...and if you manage hours or minutes, great job!) - use the computer to add text.

Every month passes by quick so don't over think it.

Thanks for visiting!

All the best,

Jessica 

The copyright in this blog, and the material on this blog (including without limitation the text, computer code, artwork, photographs, images, music, audio material, video material and audio-visual material on this blog) is owned by Jessica Hines. If you would like to share, only link back to this blog.

Super Easy School Sign

 

I have to share my secret to easy and great-looking school/milestone pictures.
If you are like me, I have great intentions and a fleeting memory. Everything seems to be last minute (despite my best efforts).

And it's not too late to get a couple great school pictures! Get the backpack, lunch boxes or whatever they bring to school and don't forget to grab these supplies (it's really just one thing).

Supplies List/ Steps:

1. White Foam Board - 8x10 or whatever size you prefer
2. ...LATER.... Computer using Picasa or PicMonkey.com to add text (when you have time)

Picasa is free software you download and PicMonkey is free online software (no download required)
read more about PicMonkey here (I'm not an affiliate just a big fan!)

So What's the Story...
The first day of Kindergarten approaches, I search Pinterest for first day of school ideas and find some great free printables. Pin it, swear I'll go to work and print them out. Then, I blink my eyes and it's the morning of Kindergarten.  We are scrambling. Breakfast. Pack lunches & a snack. Draw a note for the lunchbox (the way my mom used to). Get dressed. ...and, remember I did NOT print the sign!!! There is absolutely no time to find it now. I go to my craft stash and on top of a pile is a perfect 8x10 white foam board that came in the mail as an insert to protect a 8x10 photo. The board would have been trash, but I kept it. Thinking, this would be good for something (my husband thinks I'm a hoarder - I kind of am). Hey, my stash saves me on occasion. Like this...

 Benefits:

• Add text or whatever on the computer later, when you can actually think!
• Change the sign many different ways
• The kiddos all hold the same sign - it doesn't matter, it's blank
• Bonus: the sign doesn't have to be held any particular way!!

Addition {fancy} Ideas:
Use a colored blank foam board
Use a chalk board with no writing (there's a great chalk font on PicMonkey called Eraser Dust, see the photo title) 

Bling out or add a border to the blank board

I also use this idea for the last day of school and my baby's monthly growth photos (every month up to one year - see this post).

Thanks for visiting!

All the best,
Jessica

 The copyright in this blog, and the material on this blog (including without limitation the text, computer code, artwork, photographs, images, music, audio material, video material and audio-visual material on this blog) is owned by Jessica Hines. If you would like to share, only link back to this blog.

How'd you make a Blog (or Facebook) Banner: PicMonkey

The current blog banner referenced in this post.

For those that have a blog or curious about banners, let me tell you - you can do this too! Oh, and did I mention, free. No downloads required.

I'm please to introduce you to PicMonkey. PicMonkey is a website that allows you to edit photos or create collages. Simple, user friendly and free. (I'm not an affiliate, just a big fan!)

To create the blog banner, I actually used both PicMonkey functions, edit photo & create a collage. First. click "Create a collage." Then upload the images you would like in your banner. Select the size "FB banner" and proceeded to drag and drop the uploaded images.

You can resize and add images beyond the template suggestion. Also I added scrapbooking files to fill in space to make certain images larger than others. I also recommend trying to keep the banner mostly symetrical.

Then, click Edit, to add text. In the banner above, the text on the left side "Love Laugh Live" and the text near the bottom right "Project Life" was added using PicMonkey.


Presto, your own blog (or Facebook) banner.

Thanks for visiting!

All the best,
Jessica

How to Recolor Images and Photos on Gimp: NO PHOTOSHOP NEEDED

Hi Blog Reader,

You'll come to find, I do not use Photoshop. I'm not against, I'm cheap and I just can't bring myself to pay for such as expensive tool that is not user-friend and most of its usefullness can be found for free. And here's a perfect example...

Recoloring images or photos.

This can  be done for free with a nifty tool called GIMP. Maybe you found or bought digital images, scrapbook kits, paper, etc. that would be great if only it would  match your photos. And I'm kicking myself now, but I've had GIMP for awhile and never knew that I could do this, yeah! I stumbled across an article that mentioned they used GIMP to recolor an image (without explaination), so I tried it myself and after fumbling around figured it out. Well, I should have searched because there are some great resources. But I only discovered these when I literially said out load, this awesomeness must be shared (and I'm too lazy to try to explain the steps).

Long story... here are some great resource step-by-step instructions for you to consider:

• http://brainsongimp.blogspot.com/2008/10/recoloring.html

I like this first link because this is what I've been doing and have ultimately found I love the "SELECT BY COLOR."

• How to Recolor Anything on Gimp: 14 steps - wikiHow

This link taught me how to color photos, blows my mind. That I really don't need Photoshop because I how spent many hours talking myself in and out of buying it. I always figured the image recoloring could be done, even Paint is a very simple, free (clunky) tool that allows for recoloring... but recoloring photos for FREE... mind blowing.

I tell ya, I learn something new everyday:)
I hope you learned something that could help you design too.

Thanks for visiting!

All the best,
Jessica