Clipart Press

 It is always fun to get a fresh start. Kids will be back in the classroom within the next week and the more involved they feel the more enthusiasm they will have. Since we are in winter and preparing for spring now is a great time to redecorate. Clip art is very handy and extremely accessible.

Have a variety of downloaded clip art from http://www.graphicsfactory.com/ available for this project. You can ask each child to bring in a shoebox or you can simply decorate the room. Give each child a space of their own to depict their favorite things about winter using your themed clip art.

The cherry on top of this project is to have snowflakes downloaded from www.graphicsfactory.com and have the children write their name and one sentence about winter.

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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 History is a big part of our lives and being an election year there are many ways to incorporate this in the classroom. Each state joined the Union until we had the United States of America, which included all 50. 

Since each state has, a shape here is a fun idea. Go to http://www.graphicsfactory.com/ and download an image of each state according to the month that they joined the Union. Place the silhouette on the bard and have each child try to guess which state it is and place the answers in a bag or bowl. The first correct answer wins a small prize. Older children can incorporate more facts or even election news as it happens. Below is the date each state joined the Union.

States by Order of Entry into Union

State Entered       Union Year settled
1. Delaware Dec. 7, 1787 1638
2. Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787 1682
3. New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787 1660
4. Georgia Jan. 2, 1788 1733
5. Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788 1634
6. Massachusetts Feb. 6, 1788 1620
7. Maryland Apr. 28, 1788 1634
8. South Carolina May 23, 1788 1670
9. New Hampshire June 21, 1788 1623
10. Virginia June 25, 1788 1607
11. New York July 26, 1788 1614
12. North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789 1660
13. Rhode Island May 29, 1790 1636
14. Vermont Mar. 4, 1791 1724
15. Kentucky June 1, 1792 1774
16. Tennessee June 1, 1796 1769
17. Ohio Mar. 1, 1803 1788
18. Louisiana Apr. 30, 1812 1699
19. Indiana Dec. 11, 1816 1733
20. Mississippi Dec. 10, 1817 1699
21. Illinois Dec. 3, 1818 1720
22. Alabama Dec. 14, 1819 1702
23. Maine Mar. 15, 1820 1624
24. Missouri Aug. 10, 1821 1735
25. Arkansas June 15, 1836 1686
26. Michigan Jan. 26, 1837 1668
27. Florida Mar. 3, 1845 1565
28. Texas Dec. 29, 1845 1682
29. Iowa Dec. 28, 1846 1788
30. Wisconsin May 29, 1848 1766
31. California Sept. 9, 1850 1769
32. Minnesota May 11, 1858 1805
33. Oregon Feb. 14, 1859 1811
34. Kansas Jan. 29, 1861 1727
35. West Virginia June 20, 1863 1727
36. Nevada Oct. 31, 1864 1849
37. Nebraska Mar. 1, 1867 1823
38. Colorado Aug. 1, 1876 1858
39. North Dakota Nov. 2, 1889 1812
40. South Dakota Nov. 2, 1889 1859
41. Montana Nov. 8, 1889 1809
42. Washington Nov. 11, 1889 1811
43. Idaho July 3, 1890 1842
44. Wyoming July 10, 1890 1834
45. Utah Jan. 4, 1896 1847
46. Oklahoma Nov. 16, 1907 1889
47. New Mexico Jan. 6, 1912 1610
48. Arizona Feb. 14, 1912 1776
49. Alaska Jan. 3, 1959 1784
50. Hawaii Aug. 21, 1959 1820

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Entertaining is always fun and football seems to offer the whole range of emotions. Since many of your guests will have different team preferences and definite feelings about the teams that didn’t make it, here is a fun buffet idea.Undoubtedly, there will be plenty of food served, some will be immediately recognized and some may cause even an experienced buffeter to pause.

To avoid confusion and a barrage of questions while poking a bit of fun at the many teams not present, use clip art to describe each dish or activity.

If you prepare Mexican food, you might choose clip art from http://www.graphicsfactory.com/ that depicted different football positions. Choose black and white clip art and let the kids color in to match different NFL teams.

Your menu might look something like this:

• Touchdown taco meat
• No Penalty on the play pintos
• Flag on the play Flautas
• Field Goal Guacamole

The other option is to name the food after the teams:

• Redskin Refried Beans
• Saintly Salsa
• Panther Pork

This is a fun way to enjoy yourself at your party and have a little fun with the guests.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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 Well the year has ended and a new one is here. It is hard to decide where to start. Immediately we have Martin Luther King Day. To use clip art in the classroom try the following:

Use an overhead projector to create an outline for of each child’s head, several different silhouettes are available at www.graphicsfactory.com. Using construction paper stapled to lined paper cut out the silhouette and depending upon the age of the children have them write about Dr. King’s dream or his life on the back. The older the child the more information the will be able to share. An excellent theme is what Dr. King wanted for children.

There are great essay opportunities for older children as well. If you are teaching middle or high school here are some quotes on which children can base their essays.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle, the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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There’s a host of clip art available on the web, which could be one of the reasons crafting has exploded over the past decade. Homemade items such as greeting cards, aprons, and websites are all the rage. Ten years ago, who would have thought we’d ever have entire stores dedicated to scrapbooking or building bears?

The at-home crafter is inundated with websites that purport to have the exact piece of clip art she needs to complete her project. Before you spend hours scouring these sites, however, it’s important to search specifically for what you want. Making a festive apron for the Fourth of July? Try keying in all those words and see what pops up, as opposed to just typing in “apron clip art.”

Perusing clip art sites is also helpful to crafters who need a little inspiration. You can search by keywords, actions, or browse clip art categories.

I went looking for some great designs to use for my embroidery addiction (er, hobby). These clip art designs work well for embroidery, painting, scrapbooking, screen-printing and more.

You’ll find a mix of paid and free designs online. Don’t be afraid to buy a batch of designs. The prices are usually very reasonable, and you’ll have a mound of really neat options to work with.

In summary, there’s a plenty of inspiration waiting for clip art crafters online. Just remember to make your search as focused as possible. Not only will you save time, you’ll likely stumble across interesting new sites that cater to your subject matter.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Clip art is a valuable too for a variety of projects including PowerPoint presentations, reports, briefs, and even memos. It has been said that it is not what you say but how you say it, if this is true than why not spice up your written communication? Clip art often gets a reputation for being whimsical or less than serious but by strategically choosing your clip art you can emphasize your key points, add humor, or simply break up text.

PowerPoint presentations are a great conductor of clip art because the clip art is easy to download and immediately add to a slide with text or use as a slide in between text and charts. PowerPoint presentations often break down serious topics and include lots of figures and graphs you may want to choose clip art to highlight certain aspects of your slides.

Look and feel is at least fifty percent of your presentation. Presenting information that is well manicured and aesthetically pleasing will help make your information more palatable and peak interest before you even begin to speak.

Using clip art in PowerPoint presentations can increase visibility and enhance your presentations while not over powering your information.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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 With the leftovers tucked away and not many shopping days left it is time to get ready for the eight crazy nights that are almost upon us. Clip art can be very useful in the treasure hunt for Hanukkah gifts. Often there is a time each night after dinner when eager children search for gifts with their name plastered on the front.

For a fun twist on an old tradition, try using Hanukkah clip art taped to each gift instead of the traditional labels. For an added bit of fun, you can download clip art and paste it into a story that will direct the children to their gifts.

Eight nights is a long time to entertain children that are hip to the hiding places their parents have found but not revised over the years. If you have older children clip art Hanukkah projects are perfect to get the older ones involved and keep the younger ones amused.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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 You have the words. You have the photos. But your project is lacking something you can’t quite put your finger on. Why not try clip art? The selection of clip art you can find online these days has come a long way.Back in the early days of the Internet, it was difficult to find quality clip art.

My, how things have changed. Thanks to companies like GraphicsFactory.com, who pioneered the online clip art industry, there are millions upon millions of images to choose from, on a staggering variety of topics.

Here are a few excellent places to use clip art :

• Family newsletters: So the Christmas card evolved into the Christmas letter, which then spawned the yearly family newsletter designed to tell everyone in your family tree all you accomplished this year. Run out of things to write but still have space to fill? Insert a piece of clip art and voila.

• Flyers: Flyers are easy to produce - so easy, in fact that everyone can and will do it. All the time. Then they have to post them so that others can see them. Which means that your flyer is competing for eyeballs with dozens of others, hawking apartments, pets, aromatherapy, whatever. A good way to make yours stand out from the pack is, you guessed it, clip art.

• Business cards: You business card is your portable billboard. It’s your one-second commercial. Your miniature PowerPoint presentation. A few lines of copy aren’t going to cut it. You need to differentiate yourself from the rest of the stack. And don’t try to do it by making your card a different size. Research shows seasoned networkers find that annoying. An easy and effective way to grab attention? Clip Art Images.

• T-shirts: Your high school doesn’t have a uniform policy, but you feel like it might as well. After all, everyone walking up and down the hall is wearing the exact same T-shirt bought at the exact same store. Who can blame them? T-shirts are comfortable and cheap. So why not step out on a limb and create a custom T-shirt that’s all about you? Easy enough with printable clip art.

• PowerPoint presentation: The subject of your speech to the rest of the department might be a little dry, but the actual presentation doesn’t have to be. Jazz up important key phrases of your talk with interesting bullets, clever animations and other varieties of clip art.

• Greeting cards: Sure your homemade greeting card won’t play a song every time you open it, but it will also free up some extra cash that can then go toward a quality present. Greeting cards adorned with clip art are infinitely more customizable, and therefore more personal than store-bought.

• CD covers: With the advent of mp3s, people are downloading and customizing their own CDs more than ever before. But the recordable CDs you can buy in packs at the store are blah. Why not use clip art to create one-of-a-kind covers that pop out from the rest? You can experiment with different themes that go with the vibe of the album you created yourself.

In summary, there are many places to use clip art, both at home and in the workplace. These are only a few ideas please post your own as a comment to this post.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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10. Hallmark is overrated and not available 24 hours

9. Clip art makes you look more creative than you really are

8. You don’t have to be able to read to use clip art

7. Clip art won’t do dishes but it won’t argue with you either

6. You will always look like you colored inside the lines

5. Clip art projects will keep the kids busy for hours

4. Clip art is a great way to drop hints about the gifts that you want

3. If you don’t get the gifts that you want you can use clip art to give pictures of the gifts they want

2. Clip art never laughs at you because you are too cheap to buy a Hallmark

1. With Clip art you can promise your kid a pony and not be a liar

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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If you have ever been on an interstate highway you know the traffic can be intense. Often times while engaged in stop and go traffic drivers begin to look around allowing their eyes to wander and possibly lose sight of the road ahead.

This was the exact circumstance over the weekend.

The driver of a gas guzzling SUV that apparently was disgusted with the traffic and uninterested in the DVD the family was watching for the fifth time began to look around and a shiny laminated object up ahead on the right became the focus of his vision.  It was hard for the driver to make out the exact object but it was brightly colored and laminated, a bumper sticker perhaps, but it was hanging from the rear view mirror and there was colored strings attached.

Suddenly the driver of the SUV decided to change lanes and get a closer look. Since the traffic was at a stand still, the driver could not accelerate and so he had to force his way into the lane beside him with no regard for the other drivers. Once over in the middle lane the driver realized the shiny object was three cars ahead on the right. The driver became so distracted that he leaned forward and this caused him to take his foot off the brakes, once the driver realized this he quickly tried to stop the car from hitting the vehicle directly in front of him.

In theory, that was a great plan, however instead of hitting the brakes he actually hit the gas pedal and slammed into the car in front of him causing that car to slam into the car in front of it. The only good news was the driver that caused the accident ended up parallel to the car with the shiny object. The object was a laminated clip art mobile made by the driver’s daughter.

Fortunately, no one was hurt! It is important that we use clip art responsibly and not to drive our fellow drivers to distraction!

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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