fototiller

Here are some of my favorite baby books for keeping photos and recording those first years. These are great gifts to give for parents of a new baby as they don’t take up much space. Baby bird first year album and baby book from Binth are picture above. I just purchased The First 1000 Days from Nikki McClure - it is a lovely little book with room for photos and journaling.

Cool for a kid’s room - photogram ABC poster ($68) from Spring3D.

Winner in the category of typography - AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts)- the Photogram Alphabet is composed of found, recycled, and reused objects. Each letter is created by capturing the shadow of an object without any distortion of scale with all the objects photographed together.

We’re gearing up for the arrival of child number 2 (aka Sparkle) this summer, so I’m looking for some birth announcements now. I swear I will not buy some and then leave them in a drawer somewhere only to find them three years later unused. So, I think having some sent directly from a site might be the way to go. Not sure if I’m crazy about these photo birth announcements, but at least there are some that are not pink and blue. Anyone have a source for photo birth announcements that they’d recommend?

I was looking for fun kids projects this weekend and came across this tutorial for making a doll using a photo for the face. What a great idea for kids who don’t get to see their relatives all that often. Also, the tutorial contains some useful info on products to use for printing photos on fabric.

SMOY now has a photo cuff design to appeal to the kids.

These cool LEGO-like frames from Pylones let you build your photos into all kinds of fun shapes. Great for kids and the boxes have storage compartments, too. Monochromatic or super-colorful - $12 for a set of three.

From Ogg Studio, cool custom photo lunchboxes for your favorite back-to-schooler. Send in a pic and they’ll send you a lunchbox in a week ($35).

I just read about Perpetual Kid over on Funky Finds. Not only do they sell this cool picture frame with backlight for illuminating photo transparencies, they also sell the tic tac toe puzzle frame I wrote about for the photojojo newsletter, which up until now I had only found for sale in the UK. Check out the sliding puzzle frame, too. Fun frames for adults and kids alike.

As someone who is in the midst of plastic toy invasion, I welcome any and all toys made of wood. So I was very happy to see this wooden toy camera for the youngest shutterbug in your family. The camera is made from walnut, oak and alder with a non-toxic oil and features moving parts and a view finder to look through. Plus it’s made by a small family-owned company in the US. Get it at Romp ($24).

Our little fashionista is turning three next week, and we decided to buy her a camera (her first). We went ahead and got her this little cow camera, but when I saw this Hello Kitty digital camera I almost bought it on the spot. Luckily, l took a moment to read the reviews. It sounds like it’s pretty crappy! Anyone ever use one? It’s so hard to judge a product based on Amazon reviews, but these were pretty harsh. She loves Hello Kitty (as do I) so I was really hoping it would be good. Ah well, it is fun to look at.

These animal frames available at KarmaKiss.com definitely fall in the kitschy cute category. But perfect fun party favors, especially for kids.

1. Photo frame pencil toppers (set of six for $8.99)
2. Dancing animal photo key chains ($6) - pull the string and watch them dance
3. Karma Kritter frames ($8.99)
4. Rockin’ animal photo frames ($7) - the little heads on these frames bobble back and forth

If you’re like me, you’ve probably taken tons of photos of your kids, but maybe not as many for your kids. Growing up with a both a photographer grandfather and father, there are tons of amazing photos of my brother and I, but very few of our surroundings growing up. I would love now to see a photo of the room I had when I was 8 or my first elementary school (which was torn down shortly after we moved) or the sweet elderly woman who lived behind our house and gave us the best easter candy.

So this entry in the “school’s out” series is for a simple documentary project to create a photo time capsule of all those places and things in your child’s life that you might not otherwise photograph.
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Weird and wacky photo clocks. Photo clock and memo clock, which has little clips for your pictures. Available online from UK shop Fearless.

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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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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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.

Feeling a little tired of megapixels, memory cards and battery chargers? Sometimes it’s nice to kick it old school and get back to the basics. Way back. Pinhole cameras are making a comeback with new, modern designs that you can make from kits out of cardstock. These cameras are a lot of fun to experiment with (and also great for introducing kids to photography). There is no lens in a pinhole camera, just a tiny pinhole through which light passes to expose regular 35mm film. Here are two pinhole cameras that are fun and have a great design. With the hole-on ex camera kit, you can make a modern pinhole camera (above) from the printed cardstock parts and metal pinhole aperture (assembly requires glue, ruler and pencil) for only $20. Also, check out the new p-sharan pinhole camera now available at ICP (below). This one is made of tough cardstock that assembles with no cutting or glue ($30). Of course, you can go really old school and make your own.

The retro inspired multi happiness frame (in orange/green or black/white plastic coated metal) is a standing, hinged frame that can be snapped together to create a display of multiple frames. Each frame inset can hold two pics and spins around for viewing from both sides.

I’m always on the lookout for baby/kid accessories that are not too precious or frilly. I love this chinese acrobatic album from china sprout; it has the perfect, playful design for a kids album. Also, a great sock monkey album from uncommon goods.

Orange tricycles and green onesies (yay! no pink and blue)! These photo mailers are on sale now at sparkability.