Super Fast Craft Blog Browsing: Google Reader Play

Do you have a bazillion awesome, crafty blog posts in your Google Reader, that you want to browse, but there are so many that it feels like work? That's how I was feeling. One thousand posts in my Google reader. Seriously? Well, I was letting them pile up, like my laundry, because they took a lot of time to go through.

Well, if that's you too, than go--RUN!

Get Google Reader Play

Fast, Fun, Yay!

You can see all the photos in the post on one screen; click one to see it larger and if you want to read more of the text you can. (There is also a button to toggle from "magic" to "classic" layout.) To navigate the the next post, just click the > button or use your arrow keys. You can also set it to slideshow to advance between posts automatically and just stop it as needed.

When you first go there, it will give you a bunch of random stuff. But, if you go to your Google Reader and look at one of your feeds (or folders full of feeds) you can drop down the feed settings and choose View in Reader Play.

Please leave me a comment if you tried Play and you like it. I would love to hear from you!

PS- Just a note for those bloggers who have your feed settings on anything but full: Why? Don't you want to make it easy for people to read your blog? Don't you want them to see your pretty pictures? And about comments: turn off that captcha thing. If you're worried about robots, turn on comment moderation so you can savor and approve the love notes as they arrive. You'll probably get a lot more comments, and don't you just love comments?Sorry, had to add my two cents!

Scrapbook a Shadow Box Picture Frame

This was a challenge at the 2010 Angel Round Up in Salina. We received a box of pre-printed thank you cards and were asked to decorate the box that the cards came in. Since it had a clear lid, my first thought was shadow box.

To make the most of the depth of the box, I popped up the picture from the back of the box and popped up the journaling tag even more. An easy way to do this is to use your Scor-Pal to make some folded strips of paper. See the photo at left for how I did this. It's a really great trick for a card that will be mailed too, because the paper can fold really flat, then still pop up when it comes out of the envelope. It's cheap too! (Which is really great!)

You may have seen some of my other trash-to-treasure, freestyling ideas to get your scrapbooking up on the wall and this idea fits right in. Here are some of my favorites:

Family Photo Frame

Easy Mimi Frame (Great quick birthday gift)

Freestylin' (Scrapbooks up on the wall)

Decorative Corners

This piece with Kate and Lily is for my husband's office. Even though it has a lot of pink, I think it will look great with all the wood grain and he will love seeing their smiling faces!