Archive for November, 2007:
Turkey Day has Passed and Hanukkah is on the Way!
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.
Popular Places to Use Clip Art
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.
Top Ten Reasons to use clip art
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
Clip Art cited as cause of accidents and distracted drivers
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!
Quick Clip Art Magnets for kids
Kids will soon be on vacation and waiting for the snow to arrive. With a house full of guests and lots of cooking in the kitchen, quick magnets will keep the kids entertained in another room Any office supply store will have business card magnets available, this does
n’t mean the magnets you make need to be square. A little clip art and a lot of imagination will go a long way!
You will need:
- Business card magnets
- Tacky craft glue (glue dots work great)
- Downloaded clip art
- Spray starch
- Markers or puffy paint
- Paper plates
Directions:
- Have the clip art cut out and available
- The idea is to create a scene or use characters to glue on to the magnet
- The children can use the markers and paint to enhance their clip art
- The clip art can easily stick over the edges of the magnet as long as they are glued to the magnet at some point
- Once everything is dry including the glue and paint or markers have an adult spray the starch on the magnets evenly from a distance of 6-8 inches away to stiffen them up.
Cloth Napkins You Won’t Want to Use
Transfer paper and tracing paper are exciting staples for crafters. The more creative you are the less guidance you will need and you can modify these recipes any way you see fit. For any super crafters that modify the recipe we would love to hear the variations you discover.
You Will Need:
- Cotton Napkins or Kitchen Towels (prewashed)
- Your favorite clip art from http://www.graphicsfactory.com/
- Transfer paper for color printers
- Puffy Fabric Paint
- Iron
Directions:
Print out the clip art on to the transfer paper and let in dry. You need to decide the layout of the clip art. It is best to have the transfers near one of the edges of the napkins. Simply iron on the transfers to the cloth napkin and allow cooling. Next use complimentary colors of puffy paint to embellish your favorite features.
Why You Should Incorporate Clip Art Images and Animations in Your Project
There are gazillions of websites on the Internet that focus on every topic under the sun. What do 99.92 percent of them have in common? They use images and animations to help convey what they’re trying to say.
Think about it. When was the last time you picked up a newspaper or magazine that consisted of page after page of copy? I’ll bet never. Both media use illustrations, photos, and clip art to break up the text and make it more appealing to read.
Same goes for the family newsletter that your Aunt Bertha sends out every Christmas. Right before the update on her bunion and right after she chronicles the latest accomplishment of Chester the cat, she probably inserted an image of one or the other. Hopefully the cat.
The web opens up a whole new world of what you can do with images. Take the said image, code it to move and you’ve got an animation. Everyone was using animations for their personal web pages. Copy blinked, pictures danced…it was all very wacky.
These days, animations are mostly used in ads – banner ads that stretch across the top of the page, embedded ads in the middle of an article, or pop up ads that appear when you click into a page.
Hard on the heels of the Internet explosion came community web forums, where people can chat about diets, religion, politics, or the current contestants on “Project Runway.” At first these chat participant used clever screen handles. Eventually, those were accompanied by avatars, or icons. These days many people use animated avatars. Some are funny, some are annoying, but they’re all guaranteed to draw the eye faster than the non-animated versions.
The images and animations you choose for your own project depends on the purpose of said project. A banker looking for a business card logo for a business card would probably stay away from dousing it with not-so-subtle”$” signs. Especially when a card in a conservative color, that lists his name and contact information in elegant script will do nicely.
However, if you’re a local car dealership and need a website designed to move cars off the lot fast, then go crazy with the animated dancing chickens or whatever your gimmick is this week.
The December issue of the company newsletter could get away with images of a candy cane here or a sprig of holly there, but probably not much else. However, your MySpace page is a perfect place for a multitude of blinking, sparkling images of animated holiday cheer.
Remember, images and animations can add a lot to your project. But only if they’re used appropriately. And, in the case of animations, sparingly. After all, you’re using images and animations to draw the eye to your text, so people will read what you’ve written. Once they get to the actual copy, you don’t want them continually distracted by the rotating photo you’ve embedded in the upper left hand corner.
Clip Art How Do I Love Thee
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lip art is a very flexible and fun staple to have available. Clip art is a great way to occupy the minds of children. It has always been a challenge to get children to read voluntarily. Clip art can help. It has been said if you want to be a great writer be a great reader, well if you are a child and don’t like to read than perhaps you would like to write about something that does interest you.
Children can usually be extremely creative especially when prompted. Clip art is exactly what the doctor ordered. Any Clip art image can become the theme of a book. There is no real recipe needed for this activity, simply download interesting clip art from http://www.graphicsfactory.com/ and attach 3 or 4 pieces of age appropriate lined paper. Once the clip art is stapled to the paper cut it out to define the shape.
Encourage the children to let their imaginations wander and to choose their favorite clip art images and create a story. The object is to make the featured clip art part of the primary theme of the story. By encouraging freethinking and imagination, you may find that your students pick up books more often, even if only for inspiration. Great readers make great writers, great writers make great speakers and isn’t communication the key to success?
Custom Door Hangers Using Clip Art
Clip art door hangers are the perfect way to help houseguests feel welcome and personalize a room for fun. The clip art should reflect the personality of the room or its owner. These foam door hangers are available in almost any color at the local superstore or craft store. Decide on the message you want for each side of the hanger and you are ready to get started.
You Will Need:
- Foam door hangers (one for each room you want to personalize)
- Craft or hot clue (Glue dots work well)
- Your favorite clip art downloaded from http://www.graphicsfactory.com/
- Your message printed in your favorite font and cut out
- Clear contact paper or a laminator
Directions:
The first step is to “laminate” your message and the clip art. If you have a laminator then simply, follow the instructions that came with it. If not you can use clear contact paper to “laminate” your message and clip art. You could also go to the local print shop and have them laminate it for you.
If you are using clear contact paper, you will need two sheets. Place the first sheet on your work area and then place your clip art and message on the contact paper’s sticky side.
Next place the other sheet of the paper over your clip art and message so that the sticky sides are facing each other. You will then need to cut out your clip art to fit your door hanger; use as much detail as possible.
Glue the message on the top half of the door hanger where is can be easily seen. Place your clip art designs on the door hanger, as they will fit. Repeat the process on the other side.
TAKE HOME MORE THAN LEFT OVERS
There is nothing as exciting as having a great dinner with friends and family and then receiving the recipe to your favorite dish. Using Clip art to make place cards is a great idea but adding a recipe to the back of the card makes it a wonderful take home gift.
Often the family recipes remain private until someone gets married or the recipes are passed on. These cards are a great way to start a tradition of adding one new recipe for each special occasion. When choosing the clip art I always try to reflect either the recipe or the personality of the person the card is for.
If you have special guests that cannot attend, you can always send them a copy of the instructions (from this blog) and your favorite recipe to share and they can create their own recipe card.
You will need:
A4 or 8.5×11 cardstock – 1 piece for each guest
Your favorite clip art downloaded from http://www.graphicsfactory.com/
Glue Sticks
Recipes printed or handwritten on separate sheets of paper not cardstock
Name of guest in your favorite font printed and cut out
Directions:
It is better to use A4 or letter size paper as it will be more compact when setting the table. It is not necessary for each person to receive the same recipe. Once your clip art is printed and precisely cut out you are ready to begin.
- On the front of the cardstock, glue your guest’s name and the clip art in any lay out that works for you.
- On the back, glue your recipe
- Place on table on the dinner plate.