Free for Your Bindle...

Uh, ehr, I mean Kindle... and for iPad too...

Here is some quick day-specific news for the blog - letting folks know about this free digital book promo (1-27-2013) for the digital edition ending 12 midnight pacific time. These copies are available via Amazon for both Kindle and iPad viewing.

If you are seeing this late, fret not, for during the next 90 days the book is available as a free loaner from the Kindle online library. And the book is usually priced at an affordable $2.99 (of which the author receives a humble percentage). (Note to Nook users - after that 90 days I will make this title available in that format too. Kindle Select regrettably bars other digital releases for that period, which I would argue is a bad idea for all... but I learned a lesson for the next book. Grrrr.)

For those who prefer the old school version, paperback first editions are available on Amazon too. (Please note that if you get any strangely printed copies, please return until you get a correct one). As well, the book is now available from the Bindlegrim store on Etsy. For the latter, I have ordered some stock, which I have eyeballed to be good print quality, that will be shipped direct from Ichabod's Cottage as signed copies.

Well, that's it for now, and my deepest (darkest) apologies to write and run... but Bindlegrim has more exciting mad-scientist creations mutating just around the corner... Stay tuned!

14 Free Cupids for Pixel or Print

While visiting the office.microsoft.com templates page the other day, noticing their current selection of free Valentine templates, I re-discovered this funny little Valentine that I created while contracting there, and wanted to say a few words about this versatile Valenttine's Day Countdown Calendar which was created as something to be enjoyed in either printed format or in PowerPoint.

The opening screen (or front of the card) of this Valentine features 14 numbered doors with cupids delivering love letters through the mail. What the doors reveal is totally up to you. While the download file has already been preset with images and text - you can easily change these. (The first image below shows the doors - and the second image shows a couple of doors still closed but others revealing images and text).

I haven't had a chance to explore this myself, but I think it would be fabulous to do a version on actual paper. Basically, you would print screen the scene with closed doors, and then print screen the scene with all items revealed. On just the front image, cut in such a way that the doors would swing open. And again, you can customize the back image to contain your own text, images, photographs, etc. Glue the two pieces together around the frame of the doors - and you've got a cool interactive Valentine! (The image below is a mock-up of how this might appear, doors ajar):

If you want to do use this digitally on PowerPoint, this help article (How to create a personalized Advent calendar), while it actually discusses a similar type of PowerPoint template, (an Animated Advent Calendar I had created for Christmas), the basics hold true for updating this Valentine.

Happy Valentine's Day 2012...!!!

Free Animal Coloring Books

Okay, so if you haven't figured it out by now, Bindlegrim is obsessed with the holidays, but, perhaps begrudgingly, even he has to admit there are a million interesting (non-holiday) worlds to discover here on earth's little corner of the universe.

So if you enjoyed the Christmas and Halloween coloring books you might also enjoy these eight page coloring books featuring animals from the forest, the farm, and even aquatic animals).

This is free content from office.microsoft.com that I had the joy, while on contract, to create from their clip-art library as downloadable content in the permanent template library. (The result of this blissful project was 5 coloring books taking advantage of one particularly great style of art: #1450).

And, speaking of great style, if you want some fun color-minded music to enjoy while you break out the crayons --- have you ever heard this wonderful mix of poetry and jazz from 1967 called Colors by Ken Nordine???

Did that get you in the mood to color? Below are thumbnail galleries of the three coloring books for your perusal - and be sure to visit the office.microsoft website for the full size downloads.

Aquatic Animals 
(Free Aquatic Animals Coloring Book from Microsoft Office) 

Forest Animals
(Free Forest Animals Coloring Book from Microsoft Office)

Farm Animals
(Free Farm Animals Coloring Book from Microsoft Office)
 

Of course Bindlegrim can't let a blog entry end without mentioning the holidays a couple of times, and if you are reading this entry around Halloween or Christmas, check out additional 8 page coloring books for those festive occasions:

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As a side note - part of the beauty of templates and of Word 2007 is the ability to customize to suit your own tastes. If you didn't catch my original blog entry (on the Microsoft Office blog) that explained the above procedure (creating Word art from the Clip Art library) -- I have recreated the content in this blog entry here.

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Christmas Activity / Coloring Book

Christmas time is coming around again, reminding me of some free things you can enjoy created when I worked at office.microsoft.com -- creating free holiday content from their extensive clip-art library to create free downloadable content as part of the permanent collection of the template library. (I guess the keyword there is FREE).

One day I was given a task to fill in some content gaps per public requests for coloring sheets. The goal was to come up with at least five coloring pages of animals. Well, I couldn't help but run with this project, (and betweent managing the website),  created 5 coloring books (each with around 8 pages), taking advantage of one particularly great style of art: #1450. The result was three with animals: (forest, farm, aquatic) and then, of course, Christmas and Halloween.

The Christmas book was also a bit more than just a coloring book, but was inspired by the activity books I used to receive as a kid during the Christmas vacation school break... and so in addition to pages just for coloring, there are also connect-the-dots, word jumbles, word finds, and pages for writing in your on text. 

Below are thumbnail versions for your perusal - and be sure to visit the office.microsoft website for the full size Christmas Activity / Coloring Book download:


And if you like these (especially Santa there in the last image) don't forget there is full stationery set with letterhead, gift certificates, envelopes, gift tags, and more blogged about here: Summer Santa Stationery Set.

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As a side note - part of the beauty of templates and of Word 2007 is the ability to customize to suit your own tastes. If you didn't catch my original blog entry (on the Microsoft Office blog) that explained the above procedure (creating Word art from the Clip Art library) -- I have recreated the content in this blog entry here.

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Free Summer Santa Stationery Set

While it's cold here in Colorado as December rolls around... (and I imagine Santa is busy making toys up at the North Pole) - we forget here that sometimes Santa just needs a holiday - or as noted to our team back when I was contracting at office.microsoft.com - yes, Christmas does happens during the summer in some parts of the world...!  And so, in an effort to show Santa in warmer climes, I went to work on a summer-inspired set of Christmas stationery. 

The Summer Santa Stationery Set offers images of Santa chilling at the beach with a cool drink, relaxing under the shade of the local palm tree, also visited by, you guessed it, a crab called Sandy Claws. The set for Word 2007 (or later versions) contains everything you need for festive entertaining, and offers the following - 1) Gift Certificate, 2) Stationery, 3) Party Menu, 4) Party Invitation, 5) Thank-you Cards, 6) Large Gift Tags (Placeholders), 7) Small Gift Tags (Address Labels) and 8) Letter Envelopes.


Download the entire set for free and customize in both color and content.  (Note - these were items created while working with the Microsoft Office extensive library of free clip-art... to create content for the free download template library). For this project the goal was to highlight Word 2007's ability to create themes that allows you change color palettes at the touch of a button. And was constructed from items available in their free MS Clip Art Library particularly: MS Clip Art - Style 1450.

If you are interest in using using clip art in this manner, you might study this earlier post that offers an instructional blog entry. And for more holiday-themed downloads (for both Halloween and Christmas) that are free from Microsoft, by designer Robert Aaron Wiley, please check out the Bindlegrim website for Free Stuff!