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    Make a Great Coloring Book

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    fellowes-quasar500-sm3Kids love coloring books, whether they are just for fun or as a learning tool. Here are some tips for putting together your own coloring book.

    Decide on a Theme

    For instance, if you are a teacher you may want to create a coloring book that relates to what you are covering in class (National Parks, the First Thanksgiving, etc.). Same goes if you are just creating a gift for a child, though in that case, it might be fun to create a coloring book that is based on people and places that he or she is familiar with, a recent outing, or whatever the child happens to be fascinated with at the time (sports, cowboys, dogs, etc).

    If you are a company that is looking to create a great marketing tool, or just something to keep the kids happily busy while you do business with the parents, a fun little coloring book that is somehow related to your industry may be just the thing. This would be a great idea for, say, an auto dealership, among other businesses.

    Create The Pages

    There are a few different ways to go about this. If you are artistically inclined, you can draw the pages yourself by hand, or on the computer using some drawing software. If you don’t have these sorts of talents yourself, you can enlist the help of a professional graphic artist. Some photo editing software programs such as Photoshop allow you to alter photos in such a way that they resemble black and white line drawings, and you may be able to use these, at least as a starting off point.

    The images you use should be compelling and complex enough to be fun to color, but not so dense that you can’t easily tell what a given object is. Remember the age of your audience when you are putting this together. You can make it both fun and challenging with a little bit of effort.

    Create (or get your artist to create) a nice looking, color title and cover that conveys the theme of your coloring book.

    Organize it.

    Decide how you want to organize the pages of your book within your theme (chronologically, etc.) and place them within your document-creation software. From here, you will want to make PDF pages of your coloring book making sure that the fonts are embedded. If you are using MS Word, or Acrobat Professional, you can use the PDF creation application within those programs. If not, there are a few free PDF-creation programs available online.

    Bind it.

    There are a few options to consider here when it comes to binding style, but some of the most logical would be plastic comb binding, spiral coil binding, or thermal (hardcover) binding. Take a look around online or head down to your local printer to see what binding style works best for you. If you are going to be creating a fair number of coloring books, now or in the future, you may want to look into owning your own binding machine. They are less expensive than you might think, and most are rather easy to use as well.

    How to Self-Publish Your Church Cookbook

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    GBC-Velobind-and-Surebind-Binding-Machines

    Have you seen church cookbooks from other churches and wondered what would be involved in publishing your own? You’re in luck! This article will tell you everything you need to know to get started on publishing your church’s cookbook. You will be pleasantly surprised by how cost-effective and simple it can be-and by how much money you can make for much-needed programs.

    The first step in publishing your church cookbook is to determine the initial budget. You want to be sure you establish a start-up budget that is not overly optimistic. It should be based on real numbers you obtain through research. You will be printing and binding the publication yourself, so you will need to purchase paper and binding equipment. There are many types of binding machines available. You can look into plastic comb, plastic coil, UniBind, VeloBind, thermal, ProClick, and wire binding varieties. While all of the different varieties offer their own benefits, the most common binding for church cookbooks are plastic coil, wire, or plastic comb binding. The machines and supplies vary in price based on their capabilities and capacities. Be sure to choose a machine that can handle the volume of pages you are planning to publish.

    In addition to assembling the right equipment, you will need to organize a project team to help you organize the cookbook. Begin by choosing a chairperson or co-chairpersons to lead the project. Once you have established leadership for the whole project, the next step is to divide it into smaller sections or tasks and assign responsibilities to members of the team. You can divide responsibilities according to document sections or according to task. For example, you can ask people to assume responsibility for the entire chapter on main dishes or desserts or you can divide people by tasks such as typing, editing, creating the table of contents, or designing the cover
    . Some combination of both approaches may yield the best possible results.

    Obviously, to have a cookbook, you will also need recipes. Place a call for recipes in the church newsletter and on the church’s website. Be sure to list the various recipe categories you seek. You will also want to publish any rules you may have for submissions, such as limits on the number of recipes per person or the number of submissions per person per category. You can save some time and frustration by asking contributors to email you the recipes. If they are emailed, you won’t have to spend time typing them. For some older or less technologically proficient parishioners, you should offer to type their handwritten recipes.

    As you begin to sort and type the recipes, you should establish a style guide to maintain consistency across the sections of the publication. The more consistent your choices in font styles and sizes, margins, and the like, the more professional looking your cookbook will be.

    Once you have assembled all of the recipes and sorted them into chapters or sections, you will want to make a table of contents. People love to see their names in print, so consider listing the contributor’s name next to the recipe’s title in the table of contents. Check and double-check spelling and formatting. Word processing programs will catch many mistakes, but not all of them. There is no substitute for a personal review by an expert speller and grammarian. Ask an English teacher from the congregation to lend his expert eye to the editing the cookbook.

    Print the covers and pages and bind the cookbook using the binding equipment you selected. Advertise the cookbook on the church website and in the bulletin. Set up a table at the busiest church events to sell copies of the cookbook. Encourage parishioners to buy copies for themselves and as gifts for their friends and families.