Photo Expressions

Vote for Elaine!

You may know that my wife Elaine has created a product (sold at PE!) called Easy Daysies, magnetic daily schedules to help kids have easier days.  Well, she is nominated as "Mom Entrepeneur of the Year" in a contest by www.SavvyMom.ca.

If you want to learn more about Easy Daysies, you can check it out here, and if you would like to vote for Elaine, you can do so here.  And you can see Elaine's words below:

"I have created a product for children called Easy Daysies – the magnetic daily schedule for kids.  I launched it on September 14th, 2008, two days after Naomi, our third little one, was born!  So, it is only about 9 months old and very exciting!  Easy Daysies™ is 100% made in Canada.  I even package each and every kit on my kitchen table!  It is now sold in over a dozen stores in BC and Ontario and it continues to grow even into the USA.

I am writing to ask if you could give me your vote in a contest that I am in called the SavvyMom Mom Entrepreneur of the Year Award.  It is a long shot for me as I am up against some big guns who are all very, very worthy of the title.  But a friend of mine suggested that I should enter so I thought I would give it a try!

Winning would be such a blessing for Easy Daysies but just being a part of the contest will be a blessing in giving my product some exposure.

If you would so kindly take a moment to vote for me I would so appreciate it!  You can even write a word of encouragement to me on the site too! (That would make my heart smile!)

Here is the link:

http://momentrepreneuraward.ca/MomBio.aspx?momID=319

Everyone is always surprised to find out that I hand-drew every single illustration on the Easy Daysies magnets.  I made them simple enough for even Justin, my two year old, to understand.  The goal of Easy Daysies is to help all kids have easier days. This is how my visual daily schedules got the name Easy Daysies.

Easy Daysies is trying to help children all around the world too. As of January 2009, 5% of Easy Daysies profits got to the International Justice Mission, an organization that helps to free children around the world from devastating bondage like slavery and child sex-trade.  Easy Daysies is also very honoured to be involved with several fundraisers helping to raise funds for children with Autism to get their Autism Service Dogs.

It always warms my heart to get emails and hugs from parents telling how Easy Daysies have made everyday struggles become smooth sailing moments.  I feel so very blessed!

Thank you for reading this and I hope you give me your vote!

Smiles,

Elaine Comeau
www.EasyDaysies.com"

Trust us with your Memories,
Ron C

Cool Tool - Wordle

Here is a cool tool for scrapbooking - but make sure you have a chunk of time available before you try it - it's very addictive!

Wordle (www.wordle.net) is, in its own words:

...a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

You can feed it a chunk of your own text, or the web address of a blog and see what it comes up with!  For example, here is what we have been talking about on the Photo Expressions Blog for the last few weeks:

Life, photos, and backup.  That sounds like us!

Trust us with your Memories,
Ron C

Chocolate Covered Caramel Popcorn

This is the amazing popcorn that Merilee brought to the crop. (We wanted to just keep it in the back for us!lol)

24 cups popped popcorn (air popped is best - don't use microwavable bag popcorn)
3/4 cup of butter
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda

8 oz white candy coating, chopped
4 oz white baking chocolate, chopped

8 oz milk or semi-sweet chocolate candy coating, chopped
4 oz milk or semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped

Note: If using both white and milk/semi-sweet chocolate, amounts can be reduced.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place popcorn in lightly greased large roasting pan.

In heavy large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and baking soda. Mixture will foam. Pour syrup over popcorn; stir until well coated.

Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on lightly greased aluminum foil. In a small saucepan, melt candy coating and chocolate over low heat. Drizzle melted chocolate over popcorn. Let chocolate harden (about 30 minutes).

Store popcorn in airtight container.

Recipe received from Diane S. and made by Marilee S. to share at 2009 crop.

Michele's note: you probably won't need the airtight container to store it in as it won't last long enough for that!  Yummy!!!!!

Tips for Photographing Scrapbook Pages

Here are some great tips for photographing your scrapbook pages, by Crystal Jeffrey Rieger.

Remember, you can also get your layouts scanned at high resolution  by Photo Express for only $5 each ($4.50 for Club Members), at which point you can post them online or have reprints made (12x12, 8x8, or any size you want!).

Trust us with your Memories,
Ron C

Pet Photo Tips

Here are some nice tips on pet photography from our friends at TakeGreatPictures.com.

Trust us with your Memories,
Ron C

Family Vacation Photography Tips

A lot of photo tips I see on the Web are - shall we say - lame.  But every once in a while I see some that knock my eyes out, and that is the case with these tips from Dana Bowden, posted at TakeGreatPictures.com.  Not only does this pro give some great, practical advice on taking jaw-dropping vacation photos, he even shows a few of his own "misses" as examples of what not to do!  Very refreshing.

Trust us with your Memories,
Ron C

Vote and Win $500!

Woohoo!  The results from the 2nd Annual "What I Did On My Summer Vacation" Foto Contest are in, and PE customers won 2 out of the 9 prizes!  This is out of over 2,000 entries across Canada.  I guess our photo classes are paying off, as we sure do have a talented bunch of photographers who deal with us!

Congratulations to Sue Street, who won 1st prize (valued at over $500) in the "Family & Friends" category with this great candid portrait:


Congratulations also to Leslie Chambers, who won 2nd prize (valued at over $300) in the "Travel & Nature" category with this spectacular landscape:

Both of these photos have great composition.

Now for the kicker - YOU can win a $500 shopping spree at Photo Express foto source, simply by voting for your favourite contest winner here! Seriously, that's all you have to do is vote once for your chance to win.

Trust us with your Memories,
Ron C

Christmas Flyers

In case you missed them in the local paper, PE has two Christmas flyers in circulation until Sunday, December 16th, with big savings inside.  One is Nikon themed, and one is the big foto source Christmas flyer with cameras of all brands, accessories and other great gift ideas.  Check them out online by clicking the links below:

2007 Holiday Gift Guide

The Photo Express 2007 Holiday Gift Guide is here!  It is 8 pages packed with gift ideas for those special someones.  It is also great for leaving hints to your special someones if you know what we mean!

Everything from scrapbooking items to cameras and accessories to photo gifts is covered.

Come into the store for your free copy, and also check it out here:

Trust us with your Memories

Canon Flyer

If you live in the Ridge Meadows area, check out The News newspaper today for your Canon flyer from Photo Express.  Please note that a lot of the prices are actually high in the flyer, due to price drops from the strong Canadian dollar.  For up-to-date pricing, check out the flyer online.

Trust us with your Memories,
Ron C

April Page Maps

Becky Fleck has posted her April Page Maps.  What a valuable resource she is for scrapbookers.  "Scrap Lift" the sketches directly or use it as a starting place for your next layout and do your own thing.  Here are a couple of samples from her April Maps.

By Connie Petertonjes

  By Pia Lopez

By Tricia Ribble

Scrapbook & Cards Today Free copy

The spring issue of Scrapbook & Cards today has arrived at PE. You can pick up a copy for FREE with any purchase at PE or we can ship it to you with your order. (while supplies last) This great magazine is also available as a FREE DOWNLOAD (this issue is so big it is in 2 download parts!).

spring issue includes:

• ribbon: how do we love thee? – join us as we celebrate our affection for ribbon

• the wonder of watercolours – love the look of watercolours but afraid to try?  have we got some tips for you!

• an interview with Vicki Boutin – read what Vicki has to say about her style, herself and the industry

• your words, your way – don’t miss part 1 in an informative and hands-on series on journaling

**

Enjoy it!

Michele

February Page Maps posted

Becky Fleck has posted her February Page Maps for all to enjoy.  I'm so glad she does this.  Great place to get ideas for your layouts.  Use them as is or change them to fit your layout.  Whichever you do, they are a great place to get started. Love is in the air as most of them have a love theme.

By Ashely Harris

She has also posted tag maps .  Great for accents on pages and cards.  Here is a nice one for Valentine's day

by Renee Hagler

Remember, you have to make time to scrapbook - it is very important!

Trust Us With Your Memories,
Michele

Typing shortcut

I shared this program with Ali on the weekend when we were discussing emails she answers and that often the questions are the same.  Some of you may like this program also, so I thought I'd share.

If you find yourself typing the same word/word combination over and over, you can create a shortcut that will automatically create that combination.  For example with 3 keystrokes, my whole address comes up, or my email address, or the store website etc.  Cool program.

The program is called Absolute Accessories by Rytech Software:

http://www.rytechsoftware.com/abshome.htm

The "Alias Manager" does the shortcuts.  Cost is $25 US.

Michele

Pinc Pays

I received this email from Pebbles Inc and thought that some of you may be interested.  I love their products and how they work together.  Let me know too and I'll brag about you :)

Create a page or project using Pebbles Inc. products, get published and let them know! They pay $25 for each page and $15 for each card or project published with mention of Pebbles Inc. products. Not only will you be compensated by the magazine but also by Pebbles Inc.

It’s EASY:
1. When your layout, card or project is published by the magazine, Pebbles must me be mentioned in the layout.
2. After your page layout, card, or project is published contact them at [email protected] and tell them the publication, page, and date so you can be compensated for your hard work.

Trust Us With Your Memories,
Michele