Create your own font

If you are a digital scrap-booker, like me, you know how much fun it is to play with fonts.  I have been pining away for my own font.  When I say my own font I mean in my own handwriting.  You can pay for someone to make your handwriting into a font.  But who wants to do that!?   In my insomnia I found the website yourfonts.com.    Here are the answers to some of the questions you may have:

Question
Are the created fonts vector based?
Answer
Yes, the fonts are vector based and thus scalable without loss of quality. The file extension is .ttf, but the generated fonts are in fact OpenType fonts with TrueType based outlines that will work on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers.

Question
Is this online font generation service really free?
Answer
The short answer is: YES! The long answer is: Yes, this service is 100% free, no hidden fees and no strings attached.

Question
Can I share and sell my fonts?
Answer
Yes, when you have generated and downloaded a font through our service it is your property.

Question
What happens with the information I upload to YourFonts.com in the Upload Template process?
Answer
The information is used to generate your font. We will never share personal information. If you are concerned about your privacy, please read our privacy policy or contact us.

These answers came from the help section of the website.

I am going to download the template and have my 4 year old write her letters.  I think it would be so sweet to have her handwriting in its infancy!  I am also going to have my mom write a template for me.  I think my mom has great handwriting and I want to preserve it for my girls.

Go check it out and have fun with it!

Baby Sitter Notebook

My husband was the inspiration for this paper craft. He suggested that I do a baby sitters note pad and then post it as a freebie on the blog. I just took it one step further and used a freebie from Lauren Meader and Papertry Ink. Lauren is so generous to let us try her template for the recipe wrap-up . She and her designing friends give you great idea on how to use this versatile template. Go download it and leave her some love because I am sure you will be finding all sorts of projects for this template. Just for your information I used the Happiness freebie kit from Summer Driggs. If you download it tell her much you love it!

On to the project!

Step 1. Download the recipe wrap-up template, leave love.
Step 2. Download the happiness freebie, leave love.
Step 3. Print out 2 8 1/2 x 11 of paper of your choice from the Happiness collection. Be sure to print one side and then run them back through on the opposite side to make them reversible.

Step 4. Print out the babysitter pockets and babysitter pocket 2 file.


Step 5. Cut out all your pieces.


Step 6. Cut 3/4" off of each of the 11" sides of the background. Note the trim section of the template from Lauren.


Step 7. Follow Lauren's score lines and score the background and the pockets.


Step 8. Use double stick tape to join the 2 backgrounds together.

Step 9. Apply double stick tape to the flaps of the pockets and then fold. I found tape then folding worked better for me. If it works the other way around for you go for it!

Step 10. Affix the pockets to the folded background.
























Step 11. Print out and trim the child note pages and the emergency note page papers for the pockets. I trim them to 3"x6".















Step 12. I affixed a ribbon on the outside with double stick tape. OR you can follow the template, pierce your paper and thread string through.








You did it. Here are your freebie links from me but be sure to go to the links at the top to complete your project.! Pocket 1
Pocket 2
Emergency Papers
Child Papers

My Pic Tales

I have been on the hunt for a penny pinching way to print my digital scrapbook pages. Ideally they would be in an 8x8 bound book but I was getting to the point of finding a way of printing the pages individually and them putting them in a book.... old school style. Searching and searching the internet. Finding sites that are awesome but didn't fit my entire bill of sale.

Here were my parameters:
-Easy upload and/or easy software usage.
-8x8 hard bound book. (high quality and customer reviews are a given)
-MUST have an allotment for more than 100 pages. (I have more than 100 pages... how can I cut any memories!?)
-The price HAD to be under $100.

I was finding two out of the four or three out of the four but it wasn't until I came upon My Pic Tales did I hit 4 out of 4!! After some initial struggles with the software (my own learning curve) and working through some of my own server issues I am sure I will have what I am looking for.

A quote from their web site regarding the features of the photo book:
Made of Silk coated or Glossy paper - 100 lb text or 80 lb cover (for wire-o)
Laminated custom covers or Black leatherette standard hard covers
Laser Printing
Glue bound or Wire-O Bound
Sizes: available in Landscape, Portrait and Square

And here is a quote from the same page about the hard bound photo books reguarding prices:

Minimum Price:

4.25 X 4.75 (The Brag Books) - $10.99 additional page - $0.50
5X7 (The Handy Dandy) - $19.99 additional page-$0.50
8X8 (The Scrap Book) - $19.99 Additional page - $0.50

Custom Hard Cover $5.99 extra

8.5X11 (The Classic) - $29.99 additional page-$0.50
10X10 (Square) - $29.99 additional page-$0.50
12X12 (The Legend) - $39.99 additional page-$1.00
11X17 (The Panorama) - $49.99 additional page-$1.00

Custom Hard Cover $10 Extra


I ended up getting a hard case, 8x8 (the Scrapbook), no custom cover, 108 pages and the cheapest shipping they had available. I did note that they are having a special on their hard cover books. 50% off!! (valid only until January 31, 2009) Check the front page for the code. So I got my entire book for $36.57. Shipping included. I was happy with that. If I had ordered my book through shutterfly it would have been over $100 and I wasn't able to get all 108 paged included!

Oh and another feature of My Pic Tales....they don't put their logo on you book! In fact if you have a logo they will put it on for FREE! I will let you know when my book arrives if it was worth my hunting all over the web to find this deal.


Just in case you are wondering... I do NOT work for My Pic Tales. I just came upon them and wanted to pass this information onto my other penny pinching friends!

Love Shabby Princess

For all those digital scrappers and those who just love free stuff for their computers, Shabby Princess is generous each month to provide you with a free desktop paper that you can drag and drop your own pictures into. Her elements and papers are some of my favorite to work with when I am creating my projects. Awesome stuff. Be sure to visit the Shoppe and pick up a few kits for all your digital scrapping needs!

Photos

I think a penny pincher's best friend is a digital camera.  Take a picture and if it is not right delete the picture.  If it is close to right edit the picture.  No more buying film, taking pictures, hoping they are going to turn out, sending them off to be developed and being disappointed only 15 or so of them are usable.  Now you have to do something with them!  

My newest obsession is digital scrapbooking.  I have always looked longingly at the rows and rows of beautiful scrapbooking paper, scissors, pens, embellishments and doo-dads.  But the penny pincher in me just didn't allow me to take the plunge.  I was worried about getting the most bang for my buck.  What if I cut wrong?  Wasted paper? What if I tore the picture when making a circle cut?  I would have to have that picture reprinted wasting more time and money. What if I messed up my journaling with my poor spelling?  I do not like my handwriting so I wouldn't have one of those elegant or kitchy pages.   It just was not worth it to me.  

Jump forward to last August when I was able to convince my hubby to sit down and show me a few editing techniques using Adobe Photoshop.  After a bit of struggling and a few stomped feet (mine) I was able to figure out the bare bones of the program.  Looking for what to do with my newly cropped and enhanced photos I went on line to find a cheap way to have the prints printed.  At the time my Wal*Mart was offering prints for $.24 each.  I was on the hunt to see if I could pinch a penny or two with an online company.  I discovered Shutterfly (there are others out there) and the photo books that they had available.  I was happy to find that you could upload your photos and they would be printed and bound in a hard bound book.  I loved that they had templates that you just dragged, dropped your photos and you had a page completed.

So there you have it.  A great way to save the expenses of film pictures, the expense and frustration (to me) of traditional scrapbooking and pinch yet another penny.