How To: Make your own book at home

As Milla grows and discovers the world I've grown to love home made books! She has a love of reading and seeing her own face on a page in front of her so they are the perfect tool for establishing routines and expectations that our family has.

You could make a book for anything! Bedtime routines (like in this tutorial), new family members, school time, visiting doctors, or fun ones to tell your own clever stories to kids of any age, gifts for friends or co-workers about themselves. The possibilities are endless!

This tutorial is using a free website called picmonkey.com - it's a really basic website for beginner designers or photo editors. Look it up now and get creating! (i've tried to be as simple as possible, so feel free to email me if you have any burning specific questions on sophieslimATmoo2DOTcoDOTnz)

ONE
Open up picmonkey.com and hover over "design", this will bring down a new menu, click "custom"

In custom you can insert your own size you would like your individual book pages to be. I suggest doing an a5 size. These measurements are "1748 x 2480 pixels". If you'd like a different size page, have a google to find out the pixels (size) it'll be.

TWO
Now that you've got your blank canvas to work with you can play around with all the different features. Pic Monkey works by dragging and dropping, so when you click on a feature, it will most likely appear on your blank canvas for you to move around and resize.

The most fun tools are the Tt and the butterfly down the left hand size. These are your "text" and "overlay" functions.

If you want to insert photos or pictures, click on the butterfly and "add my own" overlay button. This is where you can select photos from your own computer to add in, or select any of picmonkey's pre-made overlays. This is how I got the big green circle that comes in the next picture. You can change colours using the overlay box that pops up when you're moving things around. If you're going to add text on top I suggest you fade your overlay a little bit. Just drag the "fade" option across until you find something you like.

You'll find the text options work in the same way, they're stored under Tt and there's some really fun fonts to choose from! You can also resize, change colours and positions from an editing box that pops up as well.

JUST FOR FUN
This whole process can be as simple or complicated as you like, but most of all its trial and error while you're familiarising yourself with the functions.

If you're feeling adventurous, try clicking on the "eraser" part of the overlay editing box to erase out unwanted backgrounds in your photos, or right click your overlay to find some more options like "bring to the front" to get images on top of each other in the correct order.

THREE
Once you're happy with your first page click on "save" up the top, give it a name and save it to your computer! Wa-La! Your first page in your self published book!

FOUR
Now that you've finished designing each of your pages, print them off, trim them to size and tape or staple together in the correct order! You could even laminate them if you were being extra fancy.

I know that whoever you give this book to they will love it (and they might just think you're a genius!)

Let me know if you give this a try! Leave a comment, or email me with any specific questions you have.

Happy creating!
Love, Sophie

Moving Camilla

(3.5 weeks old)

I just used this tutorial by Make It Love It to create this animated picture! HOW EXCITING!!

The tutorial was super easy to follow. Next time I will use photos that I have taken specifically for it (so the camera stays in the same place and Camilla doesn't magically jump around)

Isn't she handsy?

I love learning new things. Makes me feel a little bit alive.

Garter Stitch Socks

This week I made socks for our little one.

I had to learn how to sssp, 3 needle bind off and master the use of double pointed needles. They are so fiddly and tricky! I found the free pattern here. Check it out and give it a try! The instructions are super easy to understand and cover every step.

I love the detailing on the front with the garter stitch stripe, and the seam that goes across the toe is the result of a 3 needle bind off. That detail was actually what attracted me to the pattern and made me want to knit them.

The back has a garter stitch seem too which is actually no seem at all and is just a design feature.

I ended up with a small hole in one of the heels and I couldn't for the life of me figure it out. The second sock I did was 2 rows longer than the other one. Doh. I guess that's what happens when you knit while watching Hells Kitchen.

I hope they fit our girl - If I get time and bored enough I may just embroid her initials into the side of them.

Next week I'm making baby leg warmers :)

Handmade with Love

A small handmade by mum gift for minimoo :)

I can't wait until we have a name for her. Any suggestions?

Colour My World

I can't wait to get all of our things out of storage and into my hands! Lately I have really been missing my craft boxes of goodness. I packed them away thinking I would only miss them for a few weeks, but those weeks turned into months and now I'm pining after them!

I love Color Me Katie's blog. She's an artist / photographer and everything she does is about colour. It's so inspirational! I particularly love this post she did, here are some photos from it. You should definitely check out her blog!

One Liners

The Quake has made me think a lot of funny things. I feel energised to live, frustrated that in my own eyes I'm not, driven to do what I love, an eager yearning need to settle in my own home with husband and baby and make it our own and a deep deep sadness for the situation that I know only God can heal and make sense of.

Addressing one of those yesterday, I realised it had been many months since I have created everything. Actually, it has been since we moved and I packed up all of my creative belongings and put them in storage. At the time I thought they would only be boxed for a few weeks. It has now been 2 months and counting. I would never consider myself an artist but I find great joy in colours, creating and the feel of paper.

I stumbled across this fun video tutorial yesterday by Carla Sonheim on how to make little random pieces of art with only one pencil line. (This is your cue to watch it)

After watching the tutorial and sitting down in front of Oprah with my pencil and paper I created these 2 little beauties.

(I have no camera and terrible photoshopping skills)

Can I please urge you, in times like this when everything seems uncertain and full of saddness - Do what makes you feel alive. These may look like a stupid elephant drawn with one line and two colours but to me its a step toward healing and being who God created me to be.

I am going to make more of them today. Maybe I'll mount them and put them in our nursery for Mini Moo, maybe I'll just put them in my diary, or maybe in 2 weeks I will put them in the recycling. All I know is that for today it is the right thing to do.

Be blessed. I am praying for you.

This Love Christmas

Graeme and I run a fortnightly connect group for young married couples (like us!) at our house every fortnight. I LOVE our connect group, the people in it, and what we do, and it is definitely one of my most favourite parts of belonging to a Church.

If you go to church but don't go to a connect group (or cell group, bible study, home group, life group etc), definitely find one that you will fit in with. They will help you connect with people on a much more personal level and will be a real support for you when you need it.

This week, we had our Christmas special, it was delicious, we swapped secret santa presents, Hollie and I sung Boney M Christmas carols, we had our next study (on a wife's vital need of openness and honesty), then played cards and watched some Glee with the left overs. It was magical <3

For the evening, I added to my minimal decorations with some home made attempts at putting the Christmas spirit in our house. What do you think?

Also, Perry and Hollie showed up in co-ordinated Christmas colours! We all realised except them! We promptly put a mini tree in their hands and had a fun photo shoot while they were still stunned and confused :D I <3 Hollie and Perry :)