I am happy to announce that Mike is the winner of the Nikkon CoolPix camera.  Congratulations!  I hope that you’ll capture many happy moments with it and that as you look at your pictures through the years you’ll remember those wonderful times.

(For those who might wonder where their name landed in the randomization of this giveaway, I took a screen shot.  If you’re like me, I always wonder how good my luck is.)

I stumbled across the most clever idea for making paper candy canes. I knew immediately that I had to share it here with you.  (Disclaimer:  the picture to the left does is NOT what the paper candy canes will look like . . .)

Skip to My Lou has great pictures and directions explaining how to make these paper candy canes.  Go there and check it out.  She also has a great idea for making a snowflake using plastic berry baskets.  (I wish I had known this idea back in the summer so I could save some of those baskets.  Oh well.  Maybe next summer.  If I remember about this idea when it’s sweltering hot . . .)

She also has a pattern for making a diaper for baby dolls.  If you’ve got any granddaughters with dolls, this would be a fun thing to make and give as a Christmas present.

And then on her site, she has directions to make adorable totes.  These, too, would be fun to make for grandchildren.  And, not too hard.  There’s a tutorial for a cute, cute tote made out dish towels.  There are directions for making a tote out of a tank top and a tote from a pillowcase. There are ten different styles in all.  It makes me want to sit down at my sewing machine and sew, sew, sew.

Don’t forget to post a comment on my giveaway of the Nikon camera! Hurry now and make a comment. The giveaway ends at midnight tonight!

Grandma Barbara, the winner of one of my giveaways, shared an activity that is a favorite with her grandchildren.  And that is making play dough.  Here’s what Grandma Barbara has to say:

One of the favorite things my granddaughter loves to do is to make play dough. It’s cheap to make. I always have the items in my pantry and it allows her to use her imagination and creativity. Here’s my recipe:

2 cups of flour
2 Tablespoons of cream of tartar
1/2 cup of salt
2 cups of water
2 Tablespoons of canola oil
food coloring

I combine the dry ingredients in a saucepan, and slowly add the water and oil while stirring. Cook over medium heat until a ball forms, about 5 minutes. After cooling, I put small batches of dough into zip lock bags and add food coloring of choice. Zip shut and knead until well blended (which my granddaughter loves to do). Keep in zippered bags for storage or use air tight containers. If you make a bunch of colors, kids can make fantastic things.

Thanks so much, Grandma Barbara, for sharing this!

Grandma Darlene mentioned to me a couple of days ago that for Christmas, she is making a photo book for her grandchildren.  She has been taking pictures throughout the year of them and of all family members.  She is putting them in book form and then will give each grandchild a copy on Christmas.

Here are three sources to help you create those fun and memorable books:

Snapfish.com — This is my favorite one. And, I see on their site that they have 25% off their photo books until December 31. That’s a great deal, if you ask me.

Shutterfly.com — They currently have a deal if you buy more than one, you get all of the others for 50% off.  If you’re getting several copies, this will surely save you money!

Scrapblog.com is offering 30% off the glossy hardback books.

These photo books are fun and easy to create and a delight to hold the final product in your hand and ‘read’ to your grandchildren.

Don’t forget to post a comment on my giveaway of the Nikon camera!  Hurry now and make a comment.  The giveaway ends at midnight on Friday, December 10.

Well folks, here it is.  My cool giveaway.  I hope you are as excited as I am.

First, I have a little something for all of you, Dear Readers.  Every one of you is a winner!  Every single one, down to the shyest lurker on my site.

myPicturetown.com is an Internet site that allows you to backup all of your treasured photos and movies of your grandchildren, friends and family, trips to exotic places, and all of you other photographic endeavors.  You get 2 GB of free storage capacity.  (That’s one heck of a lot of storage space if you ask me!)

Not only can you store your photos, you can also share your pictures with others.  No more clogging someone’s e-mail with copies of your pictures.  You can create movies with your photos complete with backgrounds and styles, special effects, text, and music.  Photos stored in your Picturetown can be shown on your blog, in Facebook, and Flickr.  (Thought: this year, you might want to consider sending a digital Christmas card that you create with myPicturetown instead of the traditional snail mail version.)  I’m thinking of having another contest where readers submit what they have created on myPicturetown . . .

Here is the promotional code where you can get 3 months free of a Gold Account on myPicturetown:

FREE3MTHS

So, hop over to myPicturetowon, sign up for the three free months, and enjoy!

Now for the cool giveaway . . .

Win a Nikon COOLPIX camera!

The folks at Nikon are allowing me to give away one Nikon COOLPIX S5100 camera!!

(See me clap my hands and jump for joy!) This is one sweet, sweet, camera, if you ask me.

Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?

(I told you this would be a cool, neat-o, rad — and every other similar adjective — giveaway!)

Here are some features of this camera:

• 12.2 megapixels
• 2.7 inch diplay with anti-reflective coating
• 5X wide-angle optical zoom lens
• stabilization to minimize the effect of camera shake
• best shot selector that automatically takes up to ten shots while the shutter is pressed and then selects and saves the sharpest image
• blink proof automatically takes two sequential shots and saves the one where everyone’s eyes are open (how cool is that??)
• blink warning that alerts you if someone has blinked (it would be going off all the time if used to take my picture . . .)
• you can take 720 high-definition  movies in addition to still shots

All you have to do is leave a comment describing a photo that has significant meaning in in your life and why it is special to you.

This contest will close at midnight on Friday December 10.  I will use random.org (to select the winner) and post the winning name Saturday morning!

Don’t wait! Hurry and post your comment now!