The Homemade Refrigerator Magnet – Computer Designed

I spent a year or two as a home tester for Avery Products and discovered that there are some really amazing things out there you can print on.  What really struck me was the printable sheets of magnetic material.  This stuff is great.  I’ve made all kinds of things out of these from simple refrigerator magnets to sheets of magnetic business cards for my special clients – the ones who actually can afford refrigerators to hang my business cards on.  It’s also great for grandparents who can’t hang enough pictures on the fridge.  Magnetic photos pile onto the fridge door like a collage.  The more you pile on, the better they cling to the door.

You don’t need very much to do the project with: 

1. A computer with graphics capability
2. A good printer that does photo quality printing
3. Some desktop publishing software. Even a run-of-the mill word processor that came with your computer can usually manage it.  My ancient copy of Adobe Pagemaker 6.5 handles the task nicely. Microsoft Publisher works well too. There's also a freebie downloadable open source desktop publisher called Scribus that works well too.
4. Printable magnetic sheets like the ones pictured
5. The photo or graphics files you are going to use.

Here’s how I made this funny refrigerator stick-on with the sad-eyed dog.

• Design your project. You can do it in your head or sketch it out on paper first.  I usually design my projects on the computer as I go.  This one wasn’t complex.  If you don’t have the picture you want to use in digital format, you’ll need to scan it or copy it with a digital camera that has a close-up lens.  
• Start your computer and crank up your desktop publishing software.  For this project I created an 8 ½  by 11 inch document.  I dropped this picture into it to make a background for the magnet, sizing it to 4 by 6 inches.

• Add any text or other graphics.  You can see where I added the text over the top.  To get it to stand out you can do a simple drop shadow the old-fashioned way.  Do the text first in a solid font in black.  Then copy the text box, paste it onto the page, change the text to solid white and then placed it slightly above and left of the black text so that the lower black text is almost covered, but not quite. With Pagemaker, however, you can just do the text once and add soft shadows with font effects – much simpler.
• You can even make permanent refrigerator art. If you have a scanner, you can scan your kids' and grandkids' artwork and turn it into a refrigerator magnet of whatever size you want and print them on the magnetic sheets. 
• Save the document so you don't lose it.  Save frequently, every time you add something new and it's right. That way if your file goes funky (as they all do sometimes), you can shut the file down and reopen it from where it was last doing what you wanted. If you rely totally on the auto-save feature, sometimes it saves your screw-ups and you can't go back to where it worked for you. Regular saves will prevent that from happening. 
• Make your document 8 ½ by 11.  The magnetic sheets come in that size and have a white printable surface. To save on the material, I lay my designs onto an 8 ½ by 11 page in Pagemaker.  That way I can move them around to print the image where I want it to.  In this case I was using a new sheet, so I placed the picture and text in the top left corner, allowing half inch margins on top and to the left since my HP 6122 doesn’t print all the way to the edges.  If you’re at all ambitious, now’s a good time to make a whole bunch of stick on pictures and designs of varying sizes and paste them onto the desktop publishing page till you fill the page.  You can also do multiple copies of your design on a single page.  Many word processors will duplicate a single photo and space it over a full page like a business card.  You can always print the one design, then use the remaining material by turning it around and running it through with the uncut end first.
• Print using the photo quality settings.  The flexible magnetic material goes into your printer with the white face turned to the side it’s going to be printed on.  With my printer it’s white side face down.  Don’t handle the sheet when it comes out or you’ll smear the ink.  It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to dry after printing.
• Next, cut out the design.  You can use a sharp pair of heavy duty scissors or an Exacto knife.  I have a wheeled paper cutter that works great for this kind of thing.  At a craft store you can buy cutters that cut shapes like stars and flowers if you want to do that sort of thing.  Just size your pictures appropriately when you lay them out.  Word processors and desktop publishers have rulers you can show next to your work to get your pictures and graphics the right size. 

Once your magnet is cut out, just slap it on the refrigerator door and there it is – your dog, your kid, you fishing boat or whatever else you want memorialized there.

How cool is that?

Tom

© 2012 by Tom King

Writer's Life: Free Pictures



Shuttle Atlantis - Photo - NASA Archives: # ISSC21E029818

One of the tough things if you are a blogger or if you're writing a book is to find pictures to illustrate your stuff.  A lot of us finally gave up and took up photography and learned to use illustration software.

A long time ago (ten years or so is a long time in the information age), many books were published without any illustrations whatever.  This was because finding illustrations or photographs was hard to do and permission to use those illustrations were even harder to come by. Today's ebooks practically require illustrations and pictures and given how easy they are to come by, there's no excuse not to include something to relieve the eyes of your wear readers.

As time has gone by (that last decade I was talking about earlier), photographers and families of dead illustrators have come to realize that there are a lot of pictures out there and with illustrating software, it's easier than ever to make pictures of stuff you want.  All those old negatives just aren't very valuable anymore - not when a typical book may only make a thousand dollars or so for two year's work. So many have given up their dreams of being rich on Grandpa Bob's old negatives and allowed copyrights to lapse willy nilly.

There are literally thousands of downloadable photos, images and documents out there now.  These vast piles of pictures have been collected and placed online by researchers, universities, libraries and information entrepreneurs who make money off the ads you see when you visit the site.  At most sites, you can download pictures by right clicking them and clicking "save image to". Some have a download button which is also nice. You thus have millions of pictures with which to illustrate your blog, magazine articles, your ebook or even your printed book. And they are free - sort of....well most of them.

Watch out for land mines!  In all of these collections are both public domain and copyrighted pictures and photos of documents.  I've included here a list of some of the key sites you should bookmark on your browser and these will help you avoid copyright entanglements.

The government, it turns out, is not totally useless. They have commissioned and collected a lot of photographs. Many of them were designed to promote government programs, the military and to make whatever the current administration in power look, if not effective, at least re-electable. These contain pictures of everything from an Ice Cream Social at Nasa to a family photo of the Wright Brothers' Uncle George. The two images on this page are both courtesy of the American taxpayer through NASA and the US Forest Service.

Flickr conveniently lists photos offered under the Creative Commons licensing scheme that allows photographers and artists to offer their work free to the public in exchange for photographic credit. Just cut and paste the little copyright tagline as requested to identify the photo and you're good to go.

Another handy site is the Dotgovwatch list of Best Copyright Free Photo Libraries.  It includes free government and public domain photos and offers links to other compilations of public domain photos. 

The government itself offers a compilation page called US Government Photos and Images that's a good bit more Spartan, but has links to huge libraries of government bought and paid for pictures. Again, even here there are photos that are restricted in how you can use them so always check the disclaimer.

The United States Library of Congress has a nifty page of links to photos and images in their American Memory Photo & Document Collection.  This collection also includes photographis of historical documents and images related to historical events.  Well worth checking out!

US Forest Service Image by Ansel Adams 

Famous photographer, Ansel Adams, did a bunch of photos of national parks for the US Forest Service just before WWII.  Many of them are considered works for hire and thus public domain since they were done with taxpayer money. The National Archives has a few of these, but notes that some in their Yosemite collection may still be under copyright.

Public Domain Sherpa is a huge collection of links to other collections. Each link includes a description of the site's contents and a word about copyright related to each unique collection.

When you search for free images, beware.  "Royalty Free" doesn't necessarily mean the website won't charge you to download the image.  Many so-called royalty free image collections make their money charging you for the download.

If you need a lot of graphics type stuff, it's better to buy a collection of images that you can then use royalty free.  Be careful there too. Just because you buy an image disk, don't be so sure it's royalty free if you use it for commercial purposes like on your weblog.  Older CD-based graphics collection often retain certain "commercial" rights. Many newer ones have given up doing that and simply sell you the images for a one time price and thereafter they are royalty free.  Watch the disclaimers on the packaging.

A good writer now has to do so much of the work on his own including finding images to illustrate his work.  These websites make it easier to find good pictures for free. Bookmark these links and get used to searching them and watching for copyright notices.  Your weblog will always draw better if you have a picture with it when you post the link on Facebook. 

If you regularly need images and you're making a living at your writing, it may be worth your time to get a subscription to a royalty free image library.  Anything that makes your writing life easier.

Tom

Blackberry Pie with Whip Cream Topping

It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to taste good.

I picked and froze two gallons of wild blackberries last summer and ate another almost by myself.  Up her in Washington State blackberries are considered a pest plant. I usually pick up a quart or so whenever Daisy and I go out for a walk along the roads and paths around here.

I'm trying to use up last year's berries before this season's crop comes in, so I've been playing around with pie recipes (I like pie if you haven't noticed).  This one was easy and fun and a little off the traditional. I'm on one of those low carb diets and Sabbaths are my off day when I can eat bread and desserts.

To help reduce the carb backlash I decided to cut the crust in half.  This doesn't cut the carbs in half, but I figure anything that helps.....

Get the following stuff either off the vine or from the store:

1/3 to 1/2 gallon of frozen blackberries
Pie shells (they usually come two to a package and this recipe makes two generous pies.
Light whipped topping
The rest should be in your pantry if you have a well-stocked pantry

1.  Use a medium sized pot.  Fill it about 3/4 full with rinsed berries
2.  Add one cup of flour
3.  Add two tablespoons of corn starch
4.  Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
5.  Add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6.  Add 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
7.  Add no more than a cup of sugar
8.  Turn on the stove to medium heat
9.   Add 4 tablespoons of butter or margarine
10. You'll be tempted to add water - DON'T.  The berries will produce a great deal of juice
11. Heat slowly stirring occasionally.  As the berries heat up, they will make juice.
12. Keep stirring to blend the ingredients together.
13.  When the butter is melted watch for the mixture to boil.and show signs of thickening
14.  Add a cup or two more berries to make the pie "berrier".
15.  Stir gently so the fresher berries don't get juiced.
16   Lower the heat and prepare the pie crusts.
17 . Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
18. Cut 4-6 evenly spaced slits in the bottom of the pie crusts.
19  Pour the hot thickened berry pie filling into the pie crusts (the hot filling partially cooks the crust.
20  Place the pies on a cooking sheet and bake in the oven till the edges begin to brown.
21. Remove the pies and turn off the stove so your wife doesn't yell at you.
22. Allow the pies to cool to room temperature.
23.  Spread whipped topping over the pie generously and put the pies in the fridge to chill.

The great thing about this pie is that it doesn't need ice cream or any other additions. It's good just like it is.

Tom