Hamlet
2K Post Member
Posts: 2,241 
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Post by Hamlet on Nov 10, 2011 22:44:20 GMT -5
Need a gift idea for the restoration fanatic in your house?
Write a book! I've always enjoyed reading the stories folks on the forum have told about their Shastas. We had our own story, too, and I wanted to make sure it got written down in a permanent place. I decided to make a book for my husband for Christmas. I used the I-Photo program on our Mac, but I think Snapfish has one as well. I chose the best pictures from bringing Hamlet home, tearing him down, rebuilding him and from our first trip, from our daughter's blog post and from the newspaper article done on him. It came to 28 pages, beautifully professionally done - just like a coffee table book - and the price was reasonable. It only took about five days to arrive, and when it arrived on his birthday, I knew I couldn't wait until Christmas to give it to him. He loves it! Has anyone else done this? How did you do the story, or was it just pictures?
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Post by dragonfly on Nov 11, 2011 6:55:40 GMT -5
Thank you for the idea.
I will wonder on over to Snapfish and check it out.
Dragonfly
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Post by thehorsepeople4 on Nov 11, 2011 10:50:08 GMT -5
Hamlet is on to something. I pour through the restoration blogs and posts and would love to see some in book form.
Blurb.com has a very simple system for building your book...lots of choices of book styles and now is testing being able to have your book made as an IBook. Like all the others, very reasonable cost for a very professional looking and feeling book
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Post by LittleVintageTrailer on Nov 11, 2011 22:08:24 GMT -5
I've done this with Snapfish. Not trailer related but the book turned out pretty neat. I'm working on some other trailer related book projects and hope to get those finished up in the near future. Fun stuff!
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Post by cdraz on Nov 12, 2011 10:45:05 GMT -5
I have also done something similar for a trip to England, and it is so great to look at a few years later!
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Post by shastaseekers on Sept 30, 2012 10:40:58 GMT -5
That sounds really cool....I was just looking for a book on Shastas. A member suggested Ebay where he bought his vintage mags and cds on Shastas......I snapped one up right away.....You should publish.
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Hamlet
2K Post Member
Posts: 2,241
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Post by Hamlet on Sept 30, 2012 14:06:50 GMT -5
Actually, I wrote a kids' story about Hamlet's first trip and am trying to figure out how to do drawings for it. I can write just fine, but I can't even draw stick figures. As soon as I figure that out, I will self-publish (don't know how yet) about a dozen copies for our grandkids and grand nieces and nephews. If I can make it work, I'll do storybooks about more of Hamlet's adventures. It'll be fun for them to have something from their grandparents to share with their own kids and grandkids someday.
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Post by Redwings on Sept 30, 2012 20:22:16 GMT -5
Hamlet, what a grand idea! I love the idea of kids' stories about Hamlet. Very creative and fun sounding too.
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Hamlet
2K Post Member
Posts: 2,241
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Post by Hamlet on Oct 1, 2012 7:07:30 GMT -5
I was thinking that I might put in a couple photos of Hamlet, and then leave pages blank so the kids could color their own. Then I wouldn't be embarrassed by having someone have to look at MY drawings. There is a woman out there who does wonderful fun travel trailer art (the one with the very curvy '50's girl, outside bending over a campfire or something, but there's no way I can afford several hundreds of dollars for artwork.
Anybody else out there have any ideas?
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Post by harrison429 on Oct 1, 2012 8:29:47 GMT -5
Actually, I wrote a kids' story about Hamlet's first trip and am trying to figure out how to do drawings for it. I can write just fine, but I can't even draw stick figures. As soon as I figure that out, I will self-publish (don't know how yet) about a dozen copies for our grandkids and grand nieces and nephews. If I can make it work, I'll do storybooks about more of Hamlet's adventures. It'll be fun for them to have something from their grandparents to share with their own kids and grandkids someday. wow, what a great idea! I'll have to let this idea percolate and see what i come up with, thanks for the idea and inspiration! |
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Post by Redwings on Oct 1, 2012 9:43:12 GMT -5
Could you photoshop the images to make them look like art instead of a photo?
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Post by Redwings on Oct 1, 2012 9:56:16 GMT -5
Here is Gina using Ink Outlines in Photoshop. Attachments:
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Post by Redwings on Oct 1, 2012 9:56:59 GMT -5
And now using what is called Plastic wrap Attachments:
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Post by Redwings on Oct 1, 2012 9:59:23 GMT -5
Lastly using water color. Attachments:
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Post by neophyte on Oct 1, 2012 10:37:05 GMT -5
I love the idea of writing personal stories for the "grands"-I've always picked up regional books on my travels to give them, but this is so much better. And, synchronicity Hamlet...We attended the local Sterling North book festival this weekend in Edgerton, WI. Amazing WI authors so willing to share their writing, illustrating, through to publishing processes. Do you belong to your state writer's group? Smaller writer's groups are just like this forum, willing to guide us along. One of the poets, an interesting character, said he helps others in their self-publishing. I haven't checked his site out but will www.wordwiz4you.com. His card says, "A Treasure In Everything We Write!" Your Hamlet adventure stories to your family are certainly "Treasures" to them. BTW-my first post title has come back to haunt me in recent days. Your book idea and gift to your husband is just what I needed to read about this morning. Learning how to make an unplanned frame off, fun instead of stressful is going to be vital. |
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offspringin
1K Post Member
Never question the engineer's judgement!
Posts: 1,424
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Post by offspringin on Oct 1, 2012 10:56:47 GMT -5
Shutterfly has a user friendly book making process as well. You can pick the size, cover type and all the pages. They have tons of clip art that can be loaded. lots of backgrounds. You pick a theme to begin with but you can add all kinds of things to that theme. It starts at a base price and goes up from there. Very reasonable rates. You can create what looks like a scrapbook feel or something that looks like a portfolio. Very professional well made book, feels like any book you would purchase in a store. Lots of options and as with anything else it will take hours to get it right. If you do shutterfly take the time to browse everything because you WILL find more things to like and use. I need to gather all my photos together but intend to make some sort of book of the camper from start to now.
On another note. You can get personalized greeting cards from a site called treat.com. I think they start about 2.99. You can add photos to them, write what you want etc etc. Very quick and easy. They will even mail it to the person you want to send it to with your return address on it. Or you can have it sent to your house for delivery in person.
As ALWAYS with anything online, before you process your order take a couple of minutes to search google for a coupon code. You will get a bunch of junk that doesn't work but i generally can find a code that will get me free shipping, or a discount of some sort. Treat has some codes out there for free cards. Shutterfly has codes for discounts on particular products and free shipping as well.
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Hamlet
2K Post Member
Posts: 2,241
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Post by Hamlet on Oct 1, 2012 11:44:30 GMT -5
Thanks for the ideas, everyone! Maybe I can get this done by Christmas, yet!
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