If you’re like me, you’ve probably taken tons of photos of your kids, but maybe not as many for your kids. Growing up with a both a photographer grandfather and father, there are tons of amazing photos of my brother and I, but very few of our surroundings growing up. I would love now to see a photo of the room I had when I was 8 or my first elementary school (which was torn down shortly after we moved) or the sweet elderly woman who lived behind our house and gave us the best easter candy.

So this entry in the “school’s out” series is for a simple documentary project to create a photo time capsule of all those places and things in your child’s life that you might not otherwise photograph.

Have your kid help you take photos of the following:

1. Your child’s room – try to get a picture for each wall
2. Different rooms in your home
3. Exterior shots of the house or building you live in and yard or courtyard if you have one
4. Pictures of the street you live on; neighbors’ houses
5. The school your child attends (don’t forget to photograph the classroom, teacher and schoolmates)
6. Your child’s favorite toys and games
7. Neighbors’ and local townfolk (e.g., the librarian, mail carrier)
8. Favorite local shops, parks and playgrounds
9. Anything else that your child would like to document

Make prints of the photos; document what and who is in every picture and place in an archival storage box (like the havana box from Kolo, pictured above) or an album or scrapbook (check out exposures or light impressions for some archival storage options). Set aside a time to open, say in ten or fifteen years and (this is important) put it somewhere where it won’t get lost.

Another entry in the school’s out for summer series…

Here’s a quick three-step photoshop tutorial to make coloring pages for your kids from any digital photo. Kids will love coloring pictures of themselves and their family (what could be more fun than giving grandpa spiky purple hair and a green beard). Other ideas – help your kid take photos of their favorite toys, friends and places in your town or neighborhood (school, library, ice cream shop) and turn them into coloring pages. They make great diversions when you’re on the road or waiting in a restaurant.

Don’t have photoshop? If you use Corel Paint Shop Pro, you can try this .pdf tutorial for making coloring pages.

Continue reading to make your own coloring book…

Step One: Open image in Photoshop and size to fit your paper. Create duplicate layer to work with for Steps 2 and 3.

Step Two: Go to Filter–>Sketch–>Photocopy and adjust the detail and Darkness settings. Try to keep the Detail setting as low as possible while still retaining the major outlines of the image. I have set the Detail here at 8 and the Darkness at 5. The Darkness setting just needs to be dark enough to see the outlines you want to keep.

Step Three: Now we’ll clean the image up a bit by adjusting the levels. Go to Layers–>New Adjustment Layer–>Levels and increase the shadow levels (arrow #1) until you are satisfied with the darkness of the lines. Then decrease the highlight levels (arrow #2) to clean up some of the noise in the white areas of the picture. Print it out in black and white (staple the pages together if you’d like to make a book) and you’re good to go.

The Mudpuppy line from Galison has these cute little albums for kids to put all their summer trip and summer camp photos ($10 each).

MoMA has a cool album for the tweens from their Modern Kids line, available in green and purple (on sale now for $7). Kids can use the supplied artwork for the cover or slide in their own picture – album zips closed and holds 36 4×6 photos.

Get your young one started taking pictures with some film cameras that won’t break the bank (and aren’t much more than a disposable camera, another good option for little kids). From left to right – frog, chicken and cow 35mm cameras ($12 each), underwater 35mm camera ($9), and the twin view-finder easy cam ($33).

Want to go digital? Check out the Kid-Tough digital camera for preschoolers($70). Older kids will love the cool colors and sleek shape of the Oregon Scientific 3.0 megapixel ThinCam ($100). Of course, another good option is to get a used digital camera for the kids.

Finally, for the wee-est ones, instead of a real camera get these cute camera shirts ($16, size 12 months). And put together their own little photo book with the “Look at Me” animal photo book ($7), in which you can insert a photo of your tot in each animal face frame.

I wrote a piece for today’s photojojo newsletter – all about cool ways for kids to play with your photos. If you haven’t already signed up for photojojo’s newsletter, go do it now! They have lots of cool photo tips, projects, gear reviews and it really is a fun newsletter to read.

I’m having some server/wordpress issues, so the tattoo project instructions are looking funky right now. Will get that fixed as soon as I can. And, I am going on vacation this week, so posting will be light. But check back next Monday for the next installment of “school’s out…” and more fun photo finds.

Introducing a brand spankin’ new summer series of photo projects for kids. Check back every Monday for new, fun projects for kids to do with their photos – all under the “school’s out” category. All summer long – or until I run out of ideas.

Tattoo You

Kids are tough – they don’t need tattoos to prove it. But what kid wouldn’t like to sport a snazzy tattoo of their choosing (temporary, of course). Here’s a fun little project to make your own photos into the coolest temporary tattoos using your handy little ink-jet printer.

Continue reading for all the how-to fun:

	Supplies needed: Digital camera for taking pictures Ink-jet printer Scissors (remember, safety first!) Sponge or cloth Temporary Tattoo Kit ($8.95) Unadorned flesh
	Step One: Take some cool photos for your tattoos. (Tip – tattoos will be easier for kids to create from images on a white background, so you might want to have your kids take some photos of objects on a white cardstock background.)
	Step Two: Use any imaging program (or you can also use a word processing program like Word) to lay out photos so they will fill the decal paper size (8.5″ X 5.5″). Be sure to leave enough room around the edges for kids to cut around the pictures. If image contains text or you don’t want it to be backwards, create a mirror image of the layout or set the print options to mirror image.
	Step Three: Do a test print. If that checks out, grab the “super color decal paper” and print using the best quality or photo quality settings. Let it all dry for 30 minutes.
	Step Four: Cut it out. Cut as close to the edges as possible.
	Step Five: Cut a piece of the adhesive paper (this is the blank white paper in the kit) large enough to cover each of your printed images.
	Step Six: (FYI – steps six and seven will probably be easier for an adult to do). Remove the backing on the adhesive paper (try not to touch the adhesive with your fingers as it comes off easily). Place your printed image face down on the adhesive and, using your fingers, rub of the remaining exposed adhesive that is left around the edges of your now facedown image.
	Step Seven: Carefully peel up the image; try peeling all the edges first and the center last – the adhesive should now be covering the image. Don’t worry if some of the adhesive does not come off the backing – it still works fine. Again try not to touch the adhesive, and place the image adhesive side down on skin where you want the tattoo. Press firmly for about 10 seconds, then place wet cloth/sponge over paper and keep on for about 30-60 seconds or until you can slide the backing paper off.
	Step Eight: Look – a happy, tattooed kid!To remove tattoo, rub off with soap and water. Instructions recommend removing after two days and in case of irritation (which neither adult nor child tester experienced), remove and apply baby oil.