I thought that I would share a fun site with all of you grandmothers out there who have set a New Year’s resolution to increase your technological skills. (You HAVE set a goal to improve your tech skills, now haven’t you?)  This site is a great one for grandmas — it will help us as we brag about our darling grandchildren.  The site is Picnik.com.

Picnik is an online photo editing program that you use in your browser.  You can fix red eyes, crop, rotate, sharpen,  and fix exposure and colors.  It’s like Photoshop — only cheaper.  As in free (with a catch that I’ll mention in a moment).  There are fun fonts, shapes, frames, effects, and stickers that you can add to your photos.

You can create scrapbook pages that you can print on your own printer or with their printing services.  You can have your creation printed on a mug, postcards, regular cards, calendars, a poster, and even wrapping paper.  Yes, wrapping paper!  I can see it now — a grandchild’s picture on the wrapping paper used to wrap his birthday present.  How fun is that?  You can even send it to Flickr or Facebook (which works slick as a whistle).

Here are a couple of pages I created.  (Be sure to click on them so you can see them in their full sized glory.)

Aren’t they the cutest kiddos ever?

Print up pictures for your wallet, your office, your fridge, to hang on your walls, to pass out to the random man on the street (who, I’m sure, would be absolutely thrilled to get a picture of your grandchildren).

Wouldn’t it be fun to print some of your pictures as postcards then send them to your grandchildren?  I think they would enjoy getting a postcard from grandma with their picture on it — especially if grandma lived far away or was traveling to tropical climes (like I will hopefully be in a few weeks) and sent a postcard during her travels.

So what are you waiting for?  Skedaddle on over there this very minute and have yourself a look see.

Oh, whoops.  Come on back here.  I forgot to talk about this free business.  Ever heard of the saying ‘Nothing in life is free’?  Well, that is only partially true.  Picnik is free.  But, if you fall head over heels in love with it and you want more options, you gotta pay.  Which, I guess, is only fair.  You can pay $4.95 a month, $19.95 for six months or $24.95 for a year.   (You can see that paying for a year is much, much cheaper than by the month.  And I’m all about being cheap.  Just ask my kids . . .)

So there you go.   NOW, you can head over to Picnik.com.  With my blessing.

I click.  You click.  We both click — and share.

Our daughter-in-law and her friend share a photo blog.  (Be sure to click on the thumbnail picture to the left so you can see one of their postings.  You don’t want to miss seeing any part of it!)

They both post a picture-a-day (usually) — Anne on the left, Lisa on the right.  It is amazing to see their artistic and creative pictures.  Oh!  Oh!  Beware!  New idea (for me anyway) up ahead!!

If two non-related people can have a photo blog, why can’t a grandmother and a grandchild have one?  Yes, indeed, why not!

What an interest-snagging way to connect with a teen-aged grandchild who lives far-far-away!  Do you need to be a photo buff to have a photo blog?  Not at all.  Just take pictures.

Here are some additional ideas:

• Do a joint photo blog with you and all of your digital-camera totin’ grandchildren.
• Have just a cousins photo blog.
• Have an occasional competition and then determine which of the two posted photos is the best (i.e. the best sunset, the ugliest dog, etc.).
• Have a daily/weekly theme:  a picture of something white, tasty, shabby, or of water, movement, eyes, or hats.
• Post only once a week if a daily post is too overwhelming.
• Commit to doing the photo blog for just one month.
• Create captions for the other person’s photo.
• Invite a guest artist to submit a photo (a friend, neighbor, grandpa, whoever!).

Do you have any other ideas of things that you could do with a photo blog between grandma and grandchildren?  I’d love to hear your ideas!

I love scrapbooking.  NOT!!

Somehow cutting and pasting little snippets of patterned paper, arranging and rearranging, and scattering do-dads among photos on a page is not my idea of a good time.  Give me programming any day!

However, e-scrapbooking is a whole other animal.  One that I can lasso into submission because it deals with technology and not scissors, glue, and artistic finesse.

Some of you might already be aware of Scrapblog.com.  I wasn’t. What an easy way to scrapbook! It is all done online. You don’t have to download or install any software. There are themes galore to select from. You can add stickers and text, change backgrounds, add shapes and frames, and even include videos. It’s pretty easy to learn.

Here’s a little scrapbook that I created.

You can also have your creation printed into a hold-in-your-hand book.  The prices are a wee bit cheaper than places like Snapfish.  Since there are more theme options with ScrapBlog than with Snapfish, I think I would be inclined to give ScrapBlog a whirl.  (I still would need to develop artistic sensibilities.  Sigh.)

To know me is to know that I love technology.  Not the bits and bytes that make my computer run.  Not the variables, the semi-colons, nor the pesky if-then statements of programming.  I love the fun things that you can do with technology and the fun places on the Internet.  Wordle is one such fun place.

Wordle is a site where you can generate word clouds (groups of words) from text that you provide. Words that you enter in more frequently are displayed more prominently (bigger).  You can tweak your cloud with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. Once your Wordle is to your liking,  you can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share online with your family.

Creating a Wordle would be a fun activity to do with your grandchildren.  Go to wordle.net.  Click on Create.  You will then get a text box where you can either copy and paste text or type in your desired words.  Take a few minutes to decide the words that you want to put into your word cloud.  It could be family names, friend names, hobbies or interests, names of your favorite movies or books, or things you like. Remember, the more times you enter in a word, the more prominently it will be displayed.  When you are satisfied with your text, click on Go (which is under the text box).  Have a little patience while your word cloud is created.

Now comes the fun.  You will see a menu bar at the top of the word cloud where you can play with fonts, color, and layout.  When you have tweaked it to your liking, you can then print it up or save it to the gallery.  If you print it up, you could frame it and give the framed artwork for your granddaughter to display in her room.  (You could also frame one for your home.)  Or you could save it to the gallery to share online with family members.

If you click on the thumbnail with this posting, you’ll see the one that I made . . .

Your granddaughter could make word clouds to give as gifts to friends or family members for birthday presents, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gifts, anniversary gifts, or Christmas gifts. Or just for fun.

Have fun making word clouds!!
Digi-Gram