The Perfect Tool: Online Scrapbooking!

Sifting through a fairly comprehensive list of emerging technologies in the education field, I came across an absolutely perfect tool for this blog:  online scrapbooking!  This technology is basically exactly what it sounds like; no tricks of the misnomer here.  It's a tool that allows people to take the photos that they already have in their computer and use them to create an album.  The site I used was Smilebox.  It has hundreds of designs you can use for making amazing online scrapbooks, photo albums, post cards, and slide shows, and miraculously, it's free!  Forget going to Joann's and spending gobs on books, page protectors, paper, stickers...insert here any number of frivolities that make scrapbooks so fun to make!

As an avid paper-scrapbooker (originating in my 4-H years), I had always harbored a malice toward online scrapbooking.  It's impersonal, takes away the fun of making it with your own hands...really just unjustified disdain, but I was okay with staying in my happy little paper box.  Thank GOODNESS for my technology in education class!  It's a snap, I fell in love, and here's how to get yourself started.  Once you go to Smilebox, click on the elephant in the room:  the big purple tube that says "Click to Get Started."  Go through a few clicks, download it to your computer (it will be saved on and added to your computer, but is still connected to the internet when you use it), and then launch your shiny new smilebox icon.  From there, choose what album design you want, they're all beautifully organized into categories and have nice little previews, and then you can start creating!

On the left, there is a place where you can go through your computer's directory; just pull out the photos from wherever you save them and add the ones you want to use to this left margin.  This thing is so user-friendly, if you already have photos in the margin, it will automatically insert them into the album you chose, granted I wanted to choose how to arrange my photos myself.  It's as easy as dragging the photos on the left into the spot you want them on the page, and adding captions!  They give you options to tweak it a bit:  change photos to black and white, zoom in on photos, change the background color, and even picking music!  Seriously, people, this is simple stuff and a great way to get all those digital photos somewhere more illustrious than the folder you save them in on your computer.  When you're done with your album, you can save it to look back on later, email it to friends and family (also to strangers, I suppose, but don't recommend), or post it to a web page.  If you become addicted to smilebox scrapbooks and photoalbums, they do offer you the option of paying a monthly ($5.99) or yearly ($39.99) fee, which allows you access to the bonus features of "Club Smilebox," like more music to choose from, additional layouts, and the ability to print, save as a PDF or burn to a DVD.  Personally, I could do without the extra music and layouts, but I have to say, being able to print it would be a nice feature; however, I'm just as content to be able to make them for free and share them online, as my laptop hardly leaves my side anyway.

Since my blog is focusing on all of the sites I wish I could see around the world and my dreams of traveling away from home, I knew this would be the perfect tool to use to not only talk and learn about other cultures, but to see them, you know, increase the envy and longing just that much more.  However, I wanted my album to show you guys that even though I want to experience the whole world, I LOVE INDIANA.  It's the bread and butter of my life (and believe me, I love my carbs), I hope it gives you a taste of online scrapbooking and a window into what I am blessed to experience every day!  Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Welcome World!

Hey there everyone (a.k.a. whomever in the class clicks on my blog link)!  My name is Shea, and first off the bat, I am pumped to be writing a blog!  I have a couple friends who either blog for fun or for their jobs, and I had never really understood the purpose behind it--well, excluding the ones who write for work because in that case I'm pretty sure the motivation there is the dinero.  However, now that I have my own, I can't wait to see what I can do with it.


Before I get ahead of myself, I'll give you a peek into my life.  I'm majoring in English, here at IUPUI of course, and have the most exciting piece of academic news anyone could give you-I'm going to graduate at the end of this semester!  Of course, that's probably not nearly as exciting for you if you're not graduating as well, but trust me, once you get there you'll want to blog about it, too!  Outside of academics, I spend most of my time daydreaming.  Doesn't pay the bills though, does it?  So I work, too.  Don't worry!  I do have a fun side, I'm not a mass of pencil-pushing.  I love to read, I love kids, so I'm going to be an elementary school librarian.  Also, I have big plans to one day own my own business.  A book store perhaps?  A day care maybe?  Nope.  After ten years of 4-H cake decorating, I have found a hobby that I cannot ignore.  I love decorating cakes, reading about cakes, and naturally, eating cakes.  My highly-improbable, sugar-filled dream is to own my own cake decorating business.  Other than that, I love my family, best friends, adorable dogs,

                                                                        (so cute!)


and, number one my list:  all of the corn that Indiana surrounds me with!

When I first began to set up my blog for class, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with it.  I always thought people just used blogs as online diaries...that absolutely everyone could read...which doesn't make for much of a diary.  Plus, I didn't really want to write about my own life anyway; I'm sure thousands of people in central Indiana could write my daily life story for me, because the routine belongs to all of us.  Then, brilliancy struck:  I could write about the things I dream about and live all of the adventures I wanted to take, through writing my blog!  Since I have always loved learning about the traditions and people in other countries, I knew I would have a ball researching all of the things in the world I might not ever get to experience (I know, strange to think any kind of research would get anyone excited).  Thus, I was able to come up with the title for my blog.


When you're making your blog, consider, "Why would other people want to read this?" With my "Homebody Traveler" idea, I thought hey, I bet there are a few people out there like me, broke (heck lots of those kind) and in love with learning about the world.  Duh.  Travel Channel exists, there must be loads of people out there who love a good vicarious thrill.  And up went my motivation to carry on through the process of creating a blog!  Everything was really simple:  basically just eat out of the spoon Blogger is feeding you from.  I have faith in you!  The really tough choices are all in deciding what you want to name your blog (if you, like me, decide you want to continue blogging after this class ends) and what template will best go with the theme you're creating.  My best suggestion is to just give yourself some time (it actually took me about an hour) to come up with the perfect title.  It will give you inspiration to base your blog on and motivate you to keep coming back to blog some more.

Once you've created your blog, go crazy!  Being the English major that I am, I wrote up my profile first.  Just click on Dashboard in the top right, then click edit profile, and edit your preferences to your heart's desire.  Make it as public or private as you want.  Be sure to put down a good description though, so everyone that reads it will be able to get a good idea of what you are bringing to the blogging world!  Oh!  Definitely add a picture of yourself right after you finish with your description; it's like having yourself as a butler to greet you every time you come to the blog!  Blogger makes it really easy to do.  While you're in the edit profile page, just scroll to where you can edit your profile pictures, and from there it's a lot like adding an attachment on an email.  Just click browse and go through your photo file on your computer to find the perfect picture, double click it, and you're done!  Just be sure you save it everything so your personal, identical twin will be there to welcome you back the next time you log on...because you know how hard it is to find good help these days.