"Stolen" Giveaways - August

The giveaways below aren't technically "mine," but since I sell through CafePress  anyone who won these could use their winnings to buy things from my shops at CafePress (they could...of course they wouldn't have to).   Check back as I add more as I find them.  :-)  Hopefully I'll find some from Zazzle too later this month.

$25 CafePress GC at MommyFactor (6/3) - Low Entry

$25 CafePress GC at Elitemama (6/6)

$25 CafePress GC at Just Us Girls (6/11)

$25 CafePress GC at Savings in Seconds (6/16)

$50 CafePress GC at A Little Umbrella (6/19)

Quote of the Day

"If it’s pretty and I like it, I won’t buy it.  I’ll just go visit it at the store until some other naïve parent buys it under the arrogant assumption that it won’t shatter on their dining room floor."
  - Christina Gibson, "Can You Deserve Compassion?"

Vacation Bible School - and Sprucing Up Silly "Glamour" Shots With the Gimp

This last week I've been helping our church do VBS.  The theme:  Rome, Paul and the Early Church.  We do something like this every year...decorate our church like a Biblical city, dress up, and reinact a story.  I always have fun the the "marketplace" doing semi-period crafts from that time and place with the kids, while playing a character from that time.  Very fun.

We'll, I took a few shots of myself in silly/fun poses in the mirror in my garb...but of course the background is none too pretty there  (see below) ...so I had some fun with the picture in the Gimp.  Here's how it came out.

Pretty snazzy, I think.  First I changed the canvas size, and added an extra layer under the main picture, which I colored the same green as the stalls (using the dropper tool to grab the green color), then merged the two layers   I then used the clone tool to take out the strong lines, and used the smudge tool to make the smokey clouds (using circular motions with the mouse.)  I also dragged the dress down with the smudge tool into the bottom layor.    What a difference-- looks so much better without the bathroom stalls and glare.  I suppose I could try to remove my glasses...but that's a much harder project.

Pretty cool transformation  huh?  

Speaking of transformation, want to see how we transformed our church?  Here's some pictures...

Two volunteers dressed as statues during the week.  So cool. 

Entering into Rome

(this covered up a table)

Our Marketplace/Forum

where we had crafts, dramas, and worship.

Basket Weaving Shop.

There were several baskets for the kids to work

on, which will filled with baby stuff at the end of the week

to take to a local ministry.

Me in front of my Toga/Wreath Shop

Our Fountain (one of them).  

We have some talented artistsat our church!

Some of our volunteers really did some 

fancy hairstyles for this.

Another of our "Statues"

Fun, fun week.   The kids had so much fun.

Shared on...
Throwback Thursday

"Stolen" Giveaways in June

The giveaways below aren't technically "mine," but since I sell through CafePress  and Zazzle anyone who won these could use their winnings to buy things from my shops at Zazzle and CafePress (they could...of course they wouldn't have to).  

$25 CarePress Cift Card at HSU Super Parents (6/5)

Various Father's Day Gifs Including CafePress Gift Card (6/19)

Art With Kids: Coloring Pages

 

Some of Dover's recent samplers featured some more free coloring pages that would be great for teaching kids about art.  These samples are only up for a limited time, so you may want to save them for later ( You can right click to save the images).

• There are two coloring pages here of famous artowork including American Gothic and the piece above by Asher B. Durand..    I love the idea of letting them color it before they see the original, so they can see what different color choices bring out in a picture.

• There are several coloring pages featuring Art Nouveau patterns and would be a fun way to expose kids to the Art Nouveau movement.  

• This beutiful artwork by Golden Age of Illustration artist Helen Stratton is not technically a coloring page, but being black and white could certainly work as one.  They also have several coloring pages based off the illustrations of Arthur Rackham, another Golden Age illustrator (and one of my favorite artists).

• This website, which is NOT part of Dover, has tons of coloring pages based on famous artworks.  The only things is you have to wait through a lot of ads (yep, so if all you see is an add at first, just wait for it to time through and you'll see coloring pages.)

• These Mosaic Coloring pages help kids explore the art of mosaics.