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Announcement from Martha Stewart and Kodak of a joint venture – custom photo products with Martha magic coming this fall. Could be interesting…

“The new line will feature an array of personalized photo products–including cards, stationery, invitations, Photo Books, calendars, stickers and hang tags –created by the MSLO design team under Martha Stewart’s direction and supervision. MSLO will assume significant design responsibility for products in popular categories such as holidays, weddings, invitations, thank-you notes and babies, and will be developing designs for new emerging categories, including food and gardening.”

This post has nothing to do with photography – just wanted to thank UK-based housebible (great blog that features “good, affordable, quirky and often practical housey things”) for helping me track down these outdoor chairs and find a US location to buy them. I think I first saw the chairs in the Boston Globe magazine but forgot to save the clipping – and then there they were on housebible. Thanks, guys!

This hanging light from ingo mauer at twentytwentyone is ridiculously expensive but the idea is an interesting one. The light comes with pre-printed and blank Japanese paper that you can customize and attach to the light. I think this could be really beautiful with abstract b&w photos printed on the paper.

Seems like the eighties are popping up all around me these days. And as someone who received her first camera during that decade, I thought I’d post a little eighties style photo thingy.

Maripolarama – This book of polaroids from Maripol captures the creative scene of the early eighties on the lower east side with images of Madonna, Basquiat, Grace Jones, and Anna Sui among many others.

Pop Star Frame – This has got to be the perfect frame for those eighties self-portraits. I’m thinking the ones I took with the Kodak disc cam – picture day-glo orange mesh top, irridescent mirror sunglasses, and rubber bracelets up to the elbow.

Polaroid Impulse – Straight from 1988, the Polaroid impulse is the epitome of eighties style. Head over to lomography.com – they’ve acquired 200 pieces of pristine, brand new Impulse deadstock, straight from the late 80’s.

Ice Frame – Reminiscent of the Rubik’s cube, these futuristic frames reflect from different angles for an effect that is totally awesome.

Joy has a great post on animal necklaces, some of which are from Fuzz Design, which also carries this great frame. Almost a work of art by itself.

A few people have written in asking where they can buy the acte-deco vinyl wall stickers. I emailed Stéphanie of Atelier Deco in France and they can ship small items like the wall stickers to the US. Send an email to contact@atelierdeco.fr to find out about shipping costs.

Little bird photo holders – I know lots of people are tired of birds, but I married into a family of them (and not the way Stephen Colbert might be thinking). Also sweet frames for a baby and some green loveliness, all from French company, Coming b.

Weird and wacky photo clocks. Photo clock and memo clock, which has little clips for your pictures. Available online from UK shop Fearless.

Everyday, there seems to be more and more custom digital printing on every surface you can think of. From customised digital ceramic tiles, wallpaper and flooring at digitile (via Chris Glass) to dinnerware sets customized with your digital photo at imagewares (via poppytalk). It’s all still pretty expensive, but gets those DIY sparks a flyin’ in my little brain. I especially love Dominic Crinson’s designs for digitile (picture above and below).

Apartment Therapy has a post on some cool picture frames by Roy Kushner.

Another entry in the school’s out for summer series…

Here’s a quick three-step photoshop tutorial to make coloring pages for your kids from any digital photo. Kids will love coloring pictures of themselves and their family (what could be more fun than giving grandpa spiky purple hair and a green beard). Other ideas – help your kid take photos of their favorite toys, friends and places in your town or neighborhood (school, library, ice cream shop) and turn them into coloring pages. They make great diversions when you’re on the road or waiting in a restaurant.

Don’t have photoshop? If you use Corel Paint Shop Pro, you can try this .pdf tutorial for making coloring pages.

Continue reading to make your own coloring book…

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Here are two cute little Sukie albums for all your road trippin’ summer pics: the winnebago and motel photo albums. Screen-printed cloth cover albums hold 5×7 photos and come with an envelope for negatives and photo corners.

LomoKikuyu is a charity project by the Lomographic Society, and it’s as easy and as useful as it can possibly get: you donate 30 or 15 Euros/USD, receive a friendly little book for yourself, and save the eyesight of a blind person in Kenya. Learn more about it here and donate your money here.

It’s also the last week to enter the LomoKikuyu Online Competition. Upload your shots regarding the topics ‘eyes’ and ‘what would you want to show somebody who has just had their eyesight restored?’ and be in for winning.

“Portaritratti” travel frame ($115) from the new online shop at the Cooper Hewitt.

There’s something so summery about vintage floral patterns – they bring to mind big old midwestern porches, sun tea and snapping green beans into my grandma’s faded apron. And this being the first day of summer, I thought I’d post on these lovely little floral photo frames – the floribunda frame ($25) and garden club frame.

A new album collection from one of my favorites, Kolo. The Cortina Collection includes four new products, the Cortina Mini (a tiny photo album), the Cortina Lux (a 7 1/2″ X 8 1/4″ square book), the Cortina CD album and the Cortina 2-Up (holds sixty 4″ x 6″ photos). Prices range from $12 – $35. Love the great two-tone color schemes.

More 3D frames – this time from Urban Outfitters. The Lego-linking cubix frame has a thin membrance that you can fill with any objects along with photos, too. You pop open the frame and put in your item, clip it back together and show it off. You can use a hair dryer to resize the plastic membrane after continued use. Each Cubix works on its own or can be snapped together Comes in two sizes: cubix large – ($20) and cubix small – ($14).

I love the Thomas Paul frames, and now there are albums, too. $40 from nonchalant mom, here’s the details:

“These beautiful Thomas Paul photo albums are one of a kind, made from remnants of the pillows. So when you order them you will get whatever I have…If you want to be picky send me an email describing the one you want, and we can take it from there! made of 100% silk fabric over a hardcover three ring binder (so theoretically you can add more pages) books come with 20 pages for four 4×6 photos/page (front & back) and measures 8.5×9.5×2 inches.”

Apartment Therapy had a post last week on Cloth UK, a company that will create custom upholstered furniture, wall hangings, pillows and blinds from your photographs. A bit on the pricey side, but great for some diy inspiration.

I’m often just throwing my naked little point-and-shoot in my bag and who knows what happens to it in there. This camera pocket from Gyms Pacific (they make some cool laptop bags, too) is the simple, inexpensive case I need to protect it from the junk in my bag.

Comes in an array of colors (black, milk grey, dark grey, tangerine, bluebell and blue). Available in three sizes: Small 3.5″ X 5.5″ x 0.5″ – $16.95, Medium 3.75″ x 5.75″ x 0.5″ – $17.95, Large 4″ x 6″ x 0.5″ – $18.95.

It’s the second installment of “school’s out for summer” and this week I’ve got some great cameras and albums for kids to capture and store all those fun-in-the-sun moments.

The Mudpuppy line from Galison has these cute little albums for kids to put all their summer trip and summer camp photos ($10 each).

MoMA has a cool album for the tweens from their Modern Kids line, available in green and purple (on sale now for $7). Kids can use the supplied artwork for the cover or slide in their own picture – album zips closed and holds 36 4×6 photos.

Get your young one started taking pictures with some film cameras that won’t break the bank (and aren’t much more than a disposable camera, another good option for little kids). From left to right – frog, chicken and cow 35mm cameras ($12 each), underwater 35mm camera ($9), and the twin view-finder easy cam ($33).

Want to go digital? Check out the Kid-Tough digital camera for preschoolers($70). Older kids will love the cool colors and sleek shape of the Oregon Scientific 3.0 megapixel ThinCam ($100). Of course, another good option is to get a used digital camera for the kids.

Finally, for the wee-est ones, instead of a real camera get these cute camera shirts ($16, size 12 months). And put together their own little photo book with the “Look at Me” animal photo book ($7), in which you can insert a photo of your tot in each animal face frame.

I wrote a piece for today’s photojojo newsletter – all about cool ways for kids to play with your photos. If you haven’t already signed up for photojojo’s newsletter, go do it now! They have lots of cool photo tips, projects, gear reviews and it really is a fun newsletter to read.

I’m having some server/wordpress issues, so the tattoo project instructions are looking funky right now. Will get that fixed as soon as I can. And, I am going on vacation this week, so posting will be light. But check back next Monday for the next installment of “school’s out…” and more fun photo finds.

Introducing a brand spankin’ new summer series of photo projects for kids. Check back every Monday for new, fun projects for kids to do with their photos – all under the “school’s out” category. All summer long – or until I run out of ideas.

Tattoo You

Kids are tough – they don’t need tattoos to prove it. But what kid wouldn’t like to sport a snazzy tattoo of their choosing (temporary, of course). Here’s a fun little project to make your own photos into the coolest temporary tattoos using your handy little ink-jet printer.

Continue reading for all the how-to fun:

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Joy finds fabulous frames wallpaper – check it out here. Use to put up a whole wall of photos!

Fototiller reader Jessica wrote in about this cool little camera bag featured on the making time blog. Made from pattern in Stitch idees – Cafe Sister 2006 Vol 3, (ISBN4529042383). Does anyone know where to get the Stitch Idees series?

I read about inspire company on the decor8 blog and was inspired by these cute vintage photo tag cards ($6). I might have to try something like this using found photos or some old family photos.

Disposable flash camera from Paul Smith (£10). Overpriced? Okay, maybe. But fun to look at nonetheless. Eye candy only for stateside dwellers as it’s not available to USA customers.

I like to pretend I’m Swedish and, having grown up clog-dancing in Little Sweden USA, I can sometimes get away with it. I have a fondness for all things Swedish – Kosta Boda snowball votives, Dala horse signs, post boxes and… Ordning & Reda. So, of course, I have to write about their photo albums. The accordian photo album and meadow album are two of my favorites. Love the bright, happy colors on yet another rainy, dreary day like today.

This works as a picture frame, vase, or photo collection box. It is a clear box and has a pocket for photos. Plop in some flowers in the vase or just admire your photo through a frame of water. From trendform.

Magnum, the amazing photography co-operative, now has video podcasts of their Magnum in Motion series. These multimedia photo essays weave brilliant photographs with engaging audio commentary, music and other graphics. I watched the Alec Soth Niagara video and found it to be very intriguing and inspiring. (So good it gave me chills!) I’m definitely signing up for the video podcast – such a great way to stay connected with the latest documentary photography.

(via the cool hunter)

The personalight is a very cool way to display your photos. These lamps let you illuminate your photos by sliding them in between a diffusion layer (to keep out those hot spots) and a clear outerlayer. You can print out your own photos on the included transparency sheets (comes with two, but you can buy refills, 5 for $5). Or if you’re not up to printing yourself, you can send them a photo and they’ll print it for you. They also have a number of photos you can download and print, if you’re stuck for ideas. Choose from the pop lite ($50), pop mini ($30) and pop nite ($20, a cute little nightlight). Curiously, it is hard to find the link to order – you can buy them here.

I really like the clean and simple design of the dossier bent plywood album, from the Umbra Plus Studio Collection. Contains 20 acid free paper pages and includes photo corners, too.

Lily Latifi, a franco-iranian designer, has some really cute felt frames and photo holders that are perfect for kids. I especially like the puzzle-shaped yek-o-yek frames and the duck photo holders. Also available: yek-o-yek photo holders, pebble photo holders, photo birth cards and felt photo frames. Felt frames are 100% felt and washable in cold water.

In between the drenching rain and caring for my stomach-flu stricken toddler, I did actually manage to get out for a few hours this weekend for some window shopping (ok, was really supposed to be food shopping). I saw these running rhino albums at a great new and used bookstore, the toadstool. The photo journal ($20) includes lined pages intermixed with photo pages. Other photo albums, pictured below, hold 36 4×6 photos ($16).

1. Celadon photo album – friends camera
2. Mocha photo album – tripod
3. Mocha photo album – beach umbrella
4. Celadon photo album – photographer

Boon, the newly launched business of Anjel and Via, is focused on creating unique paper goods using pulp-free abaca papers that are made by a paper-making program in the Phillippines, with proceeds going to local education and a women’s shelter. The designs include some lovely alternatives for holding your photos. They are just now getting retailers, so I’ll post an update on where to buy in the future.

Magnetic Picture Frames (above):
Little magnetic all handmade paper picture frames, tucked in a pouch. Tree-pulp free, they are made from grass fibers. Ribbon handle detailing. Cute, cute, and more cute!

Three-tier Picture Frames (below):
These frames are made entirely of handmade paper! Tree-pulp free, they are made from grass fibers. Lightweight, colorful and durable. A playful touch to any space.

It’s official – summer is here! Grab your sunscreen, crank up the dick dale and hit the beach with these summer-lovin’ photo accessories and gear.

1. Surf Photography of the ’60s & ’70s – signed, limited edition book by LeRoy Grannis at ICP ($400)
   
2. Frog eye lomo cam – first and only lomographic underwater camera ($75)
3. Stripes photo album – from CB2 ($9 )
4. Surf board frame – set of twelve board frames from plum party ($36)
5. Lawn chairs vacation album – at rock scissor paper ($6)
6. Surf stripe large photo album – from hable construction ($45 )