If you’re in the market to buy Christmas Cards, my unique and unusual Handmade Christmas Cards will soon be available on eBay and in my Etsy store. Check back next week for that update.

HOW TO ENTER:

Get multiple chances to win my Handmade Christmas Cards by doing one or more of the following 3 things:

1.) Earn one chance to win 10 Free Christmas Greeting Cards (handmade by me) by leaving a comment on this post. *Be sure to leave your correct email address in the comment form.

2.) Earn one additional chance to win the Handmade Christmas Cards by subscribing to my RSS feed by entering your email in the “Sign Me Up!” box at the top left of this page just below the header, and following the instructions to confirm your subscription.

3.) Earn three extra chances to win my Homemade Christmas Cards by using the HTML code in the box below to link to this Christmas Card Giveaway post from a post in your blog. *You must comment on this post to let me know where to find your link so I can verify your extra entries.

The winner will be selected at 10:30 PM eastern standard time on Sunday, November 2, 2008. The selection will be made by assigning a number to each entry and then using a random number generator to pick the winner. The winner of the Handmade Christmas Cards will be announced on this blog on Monday, November 3, 2008 at 10:30 AM; and the winner will be notified by email.

First Time Visitors to JenuineJen.com should click on the First Time Visitors” link in the header at the top of this page to learn more about the site.

You may also be interested in:
Cool but Inexpensive Christmas Gift Idea
Christmas (Planning) in September
Christmas Through My Children’s Eyes
Christmas Activities in and around Atlanta

This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday. Be sure to visit the other participants for more great ideas. To see more blogs that are giving away free stuff visit BloggyGiveaways.com.

One of my most popular posts (with about 50 readers every day from search engines) is Make Yourself Into a Cartoon. People searching for this are usually trying to find a quick, easy way to take a picture of themselves and convert it into a cartoon. Photoshop experts can do it themselves, but it takes hours. This online photo conversion tool helps the average person do it with ease.

I wrote that post 9 months ago, so in an effort to give the masses what they want and keep things fresh at the same time, I’m updating the demonstration of this tool (from our friends at befunky.com) that allows you to turn a photo into a cartoon. They call it their cartoonizer. You can upload any photo and convert it into a color cartoon or a black and white sketch. I’ve used it here to make two Alaska Governor and Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin cartoons and one sketch.

Befunky.com also has a tool they call Uvatar which allows you to make yourself into an avatar by uploading a photo of yourself, going through a few simple steps to outline your head, position your head on a body, choose clothing or costumes, and choose a background. I’ve done it here, again with Sarah Palin. So here is her new “Wonder Woman from Alaska” Avatar! (Note: I like and respect Sarah Palin and could not be happier with John McCain’s choice to add her as his running mate. See my post McCain Picks Palin for Veep. So my Palin Cartoon is done with love.)

How do you keep preschoolers entertained on a long summer day? BusyBoy and GigglyGirl are always ready for something fun, creative and new to do (they love any art and craft project), and it’s tough for a mom to come up with craft ideas on a regular basis. So, with the 4th of July rapidly approaching, to do my part and contribute to all of you in this predicament, I set my mind to developing some 4th of July Crafts for Kids. This post contains my first attempt at children’s 4th of July crafts. There may be more to come.

The first of my 4th of July craft ideas for kids is The Super Rocket!

To start you will need:

• the empty cardboard core of a toilet paper roll
• a white piece of paper (cut to 4¼ inches by 5¾ inches)
• a red or blue piece of paper (cut into a circle 2¾ inches across)
• transparent tape
• an extra long drinking straw (I got mine at the convenience store)
• about 6 inches of red, pink, or orange ribbon (could substitute paper if needed)
• crayons, markers, colored pencils, and other things to decorate the rocket (like star or flag stickers)
• scissors
• at least one preschool kid

Let your little munchkins decorate the white piece of paper with the crayons, stickers, etc. Have them draw stars, flags, swooshes, fire, and anything else they want to appear on the outside of their 4th of July rockets.

Now wrap the decorated paper around the cardboard roll and use tape to secure it into place.

Next, cut a small slit in the red or blue circle. The cut should go only half-way across the middle of the circle.

Slide the edges created by the cut so that they overlap about 1 inch. Doing this should shape the circle into a cone which will be used as the nose of the 4th of July rocket. Use tape to secure the overlapping edges into place.

Roll four pieces of the tape into loops that are sticky all around, and stick them on the inside of your nose cone. Now press the nose cone onto the top of the cardboard roll so that the sticky tape secures the two pieces of your rocket together.

Align the drinking straw with the seam of the white paper on the outside of your rocket and use tape to secure it into place. Once taped, you should be able to use it as a handle to hold your rocket.

Finally, fold the 6 inch piece of ribbon in half and tape the folded end just inside the bottom edge of the rocket. This is supposed to look like fire shooting out of the tail of the 4th of July rocket as it flies. If you don’t have ribbon, you can cut strips of paper to create the same look.

Now let your kids run around and fly their new 4th of July Super Rockets.

If you did it right, you should have occupied them with this 4th of July craft project for about 90 minutes without creating too much of a mess.

Stay tuned for more free July 4th crafts, 4th of July decorating ideas, 4th of July crafts ideas, children’s 4th of July crafts, and 4th of July activities for kids as they come to me.

Free July 4th Crafts

Finally, be sure to check out Shannon’s site for other Works for Me Wednesday participants.

1. Leprechaun Coloring Pages 
2. Pot o Gold Coloring Pages
3. 4 Leaf Clover Coloring Page
4. Leprechaun Rainbow Pot of Gold Coloring Page
5. Mushroom Pot of Gold Coloring Page

For months, I have tried finding a good, affordable site or Photoshop plug-in that will allow you to make a photo into a cartoon.  Mr. Right and I have even tried vectorizing photos.  Vectoring is cool to know how to do but you have to have so much patience and time to make it look really good. Some applications, like Anime Studio Debut 6, help you make yourself into a cartoon and add invisible bones & joints so that you can move the cartoon. Then you can upload your cartoon videos to You Tube and other websites.

Thanks to the makeuseof blog, which is a great blog and you really should check it out!, I went to the befunky website.  The website allows you to create avatars and to make yourself into a cartoon.  It is super easy to use!

 

You have to be invited to join the website.  You submit your email for an invitation and it takes a day or two to get it setup.  Once it is setup, you are ready to go.  Login, select cartoonize and get started.  You upload your images and then you can make the a cartoon with color or a sketched drawing. 

Go check it out yourself!  Let me know what you think of it and the links to any images you create in the comments below!