Creative Mom Cafe

This time of year my scrap book obsession really comes out. The sun is coming out of hiding and there are a lot more things going on. Suddenly everywhere I look is inspiration for some great scrap book pages. The best, at least to me, are the natural photos of my kids at play.

This is one of my favorite photos of my oldest when he was younger. Splashing through puddles in his rain boots on a hot summer day. There was no posing or working with lighting. I just snapped a few playful pictures of him enjoying some fun outside. With just a little cropping I managed to turn this photo and a few others into a great scrap book page.

Click image to enlarge.

I put together a small list of some of the best advice for capturing perfect photos of your kids without forcing them to sit and smile.

• How to photograph children; where the magic comes from - An eBay guide that has a lot of great advice for moms with cameras.
• The Complete Guide to Children Photography - Part I and Part II - This two aprt guide really is perfect reading material when wondering how to get the best shots of your children.
• Photographing Children - A Quick Tip - A good tip to follow, and some relevant books listed at the bottom if you want to learn more.
• How to Photograph Children - A great video series for capturing many different great shots.
• Photographing Children - An article from the School of Photography that will help you decide which picture to aim for.

Even if you are not a scrapbooker knowing how to capture a great photo of your children is a useful skill to have. It might even turn into a new creative hobby or career.

children, photography, scrapbooking, scrap book

Pretty Easter dresses, colorful eggs, delighted faces running through the grass. These are the things that make moms carry their cameras every where they go in hopes of getting a few good photos. With Spring almost here and Easter on the horizon I wanted to share some fun ideas for you scrapbook lovers out there. After all, you have to do something with the mountain of photos you are taking every day.

This is an Easter scrapbook page I did when my oldest son was not quite a year and a half yet. The giant rabbit handing out suckers and taking photos was too fun to resist, at least to me it was. Making the page was just as fun, mixing bright colors with the unique patchwork quilt pattern gave a look I loved. And of course the embellishments added the perfect Easter touch.

• Go with the unusual. Instead of the typical soft pastels look for a bright green or yellow, or mix up colors that you would not normally use together. Just think of wild flowers bursting into bloom.
• Use photos that tell a different story. Instead of the sweet faced child in her best dress use the one later, where she’s covered in chocolate looking for trouble.
• Add some nature to your pages. Not just in photos of nature but with some dried flowers, pressed leaves, or even a muddy hand print begging to be preserved.
• Create a paper garden. Toss together little bits of this and that into a scrap paper garden. All those little ends and sides that leave paper messes every where could be reused into a funky and colorful Spring flowerbed.

If you are looking for something great to say but hitting a writer’s block here is a collection of poems and quotes perfect for Spring time use. You might even be inspired by the quotes themselves. “In like a lion, out like a lamb” is already giving me an idea involving two great pictures. one of my youngest screaming as he waits impatiently for his chocolate candy, and the other as he slept peacefully on the couch, chocolate smears across his lips. You can also get inspired by checking out the great pages other scrapbookers are doing for spring at Flickr.

Spring, Easter, scrapbook, scrapbooking, crafts, photos

Nothing else says spring like flowers. Here is another fun little spring craft you can do with your kids to get you all in a spring state of mind.

• cardboard
• paints, crayons, or markers
• scissors
• glue
• a small photo of your child

You can make a cute flower photo frame to show off your child’s artistic talents and spring time smile all in one shot. First you will need to print off the flower template to use. Or create your own flower head to show off your child’s face. For the template click on the small image below.

Use the flower template to cut a flower shape out of your cardboard. You can make this a great recycling project by using cardboard from boxes. If you use food boxes, such as from cereal or pastas you may want to cut two flowers to layer together for a sturdier flower frame. Cut the center circle out for your child’s picture.

Most children will have fun decorating their flowers for unique spring time treasures. You can use just the flower heads, or cut stems and leaves to glue to your flower frames. Once dry add your child’s picture to the center and you have a fun spring time frame. The great thing about this craft is that it is so simple you can adapt it in any way that you want. Attach magnets to the back to hang your flower frames on your fridge or glue each flower onto a doweling rod and “plant’ them in a flower pot. You can get as creative as you want to with these simple frames.

crafts, kid’s crafts, spring, pictures, picture frame

I’m a scrapbooking addict. I love cutting and gluing and playing with paper. It’s a bit like kindergarten with prettier paper. Hey, some of us never grow up.

Digital scrapbooking, however, is a huge hit right now among a lot of scrappers. As much as I love playing with things online I’m still oldfashioned about my scrapbooking. Luckily I’m not the only one hesitant to take the digital plunge. Still I can see the fun in going digital. Drag and drop your photos into premade templates for instant perfection. Or play around with images, backgrounds, and designs to create unique pages. Then you can save them on your computer and have them whenever you want. Email them to friends and family to show off. And being paperless you are also saving some trees from being cut down.

If you are interested in getting started in digital scrapbooking here are a few places to start.

• If you want to test the waters of digital scrapbooking I have a site for you. Create a free Smilebox scrapbook in 5 minutes. Just drag photos into amazing e-designs. Email them free. You can get a 14 day trial subscription to see what you think.
• You can download for free the ebook 15 Things You NEED to Know to Become a GREAT Digital Scrapbooker from Scrap Girls. This is a very simple book for beginners to understand the basics of digital scrapbooking.
• Free Digital Scrapbooking has free page elements that you can download. They also have some great tutorials to help guide you along the way.

Of course those are just a few of the helpful sites out there on the web. But they are my favorites for getting into the beginnings of digital scrapbooking.

scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking, Smilebox

If you have young children in your life you probably know how much they enjoy looking at picture books. You can easily put together a personal picture book just for them to enjoy. All you need is a good camera and you are ready to go!

There are online photo site such as Snapfish that print your digital photos for you as well as make special gifts with your photos. You can use their services to put together and order a special picture book full of people and things that your little one would love. Family members, favorite toys, important places, and even pets all make great subjects for photos.
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Scrapbooking is a fun craft that many people enjoy. I started scrapbooking when my first son was a newborn and I’ve been hooked ever since. It is a fun way to spruce up photos, tell a story, and let your creative side come through. It is also a great gift idea for this holiday season.

Putting together a special scrapbook to give as a gift can be a great way to share memories. If you have a child going off to college, a friend moving far away, or just a family member you do not get to see often you can share pieces of your life with them. Sift through your old photos and find the ones that really capture special moments. They do not have to be posed, in fact the best photos are spontanious and fun. You can also give someone a scrapbook that you put together to remember a special moment in their life. Use photos you have of thir wedding or of their children. Any moment that you think they would enjoy looking back on you can scrapbook.

If you do not have the photos to use you can still put together a fun scrapbook. Create the pages as you normally would but leave the places for the photos blank. You might include small tags that say “place photo here” and let them put in their own favorite pictures. Be as creative as you want to be! You do not have to stick with a specific theme. You can just create fun pages and let the receiver decide what photos they want to use.

A few tips for putting together perfect scrapbook pages:

• Map them out first. It helps you to have a ready made plan before getting to the cutting and glueing part.
• Lay out what you want to use and gt a look at it first. What might sem like a good match in your mind’s eye may not be so impressive in real life.
• Get inspired! Do a seach for scrapbooking on Flickr to see what great pages other people have made. If you see something you take take it and run with it.
• Have fun!

scrapbooking, photos, gifts, 30 Gifts in 30 Days

OK…I am in a Family Fun Magazine kind of mood so far this week so I am going to throw some VERY cool, VERY easy crafts at you that I found while searching their site…gotta love naptime!

This first idea I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE and know my kids would love using this Creative Carrying Tin for lunch money, notes to teachers, etc!

But above all, they will love MAKING it AND the interchangeable, magnetic lids!

Very cool idea - some commenters on the site had a few suggestions I thought were worth relaying to you:

**to be frugal - use magnets you pick up around town instead of buying the biz card ones!
**put the magnet on the back for older kids who can stick the tins to the inside of a locker!
**put photos of friends on the lid in place of artwork

LOVE THIS!!

There are many stories your family has written already. But they most likely are not written down - just spoken off the top of your head. The story about Daddy walking through the fresh cement or when Mommy dropped the birthday cake onto the kitchen floor.

Write these stories down with your children and archive them in hardcopy book form! This is easier than you think.

Snapfish.com has a great memory book project that allows you to upload photos right into book form. You can change the layout and add words. It is a wonderful gift to commemorate a date or for your little ones to remember a funny family moment.

Don’t have pictures of the cake falling to the ground? No problem, you can scan in drawings, too. Have your budding illustrators do the work and VOILA!

You can order these in any quantity. A great idea for each season!

When you get photos developed at WalMart or any 1-hour place you usually get a plastic little photo album along with your order. Most of you probably throw these away. If you don’t get them with you order, you can usually buy similar ones at the counter for under $1.

Make up small photo albums using extras you didn’t scrapbook and give them to your children. This is an easy way for them to share their weekend experience with their friends on the bus the next Monday.

Here are some thematic ideas:

1. My Family Tree
2. My Weekend/Summer Trip
3. My New Baby Brother/Sister
4. Our New Puppy/Kitten/ Fish
5. My Favorite Summer/Winter/Spring/Fall Things
6. Mommy and Me
7. Daddy and Me
8. My ABC Book
9. Things I Like
10. My Friends

I have even used these photo albums for teaching my toddlers different words for their vocabulary by cutting pictures out of magazines and putting them in each page.

Do this activity together. Let them choose the title. Let them pick the pictures. Add words if you like. Create memories that will last a life time.