Scanning Family Memories

Do you have a lot of old photos that you want to have online or in good enough shape to print and scan again? If so then ScanCafe is your answer. The best news about this scanning company is that you only have to pay for the ones that you like once they are scanned.

The process is very easy. All you do is place your order using an online order form at the ScanCafe website. However keep this in mind. You must have a printer for completing this first step in ordering because the process requires that you print out a shipping label and send it to the company.

Also you should be aware that you need to pay fifty percent up front to acquire this service. Once you have paid that via your credit card you pack the photos to be scanned by the Scancafe in a sturdy box and mail it. You do not even have to organize the photos. You can just throw them in the box. You then drop the box off at a local UPS location.

You might be wondering what kind of quality if scan you are going to get. The ScanCafe uses Epson 4490, Nikon 5000 ED and Nikon 9000 ED machines to scan the photos and each of the images are corrected and reviewed by professional technicians. Unless you request otherwise the photos are scanned at 3000 dpi for slides and negatives and at 600 dpi for paper photos.

You are notified when the job is done by email and then ScanCafe puts all of your photos up online so you can select the ones that you want to buy. However you are not allowed to delete more than 50% of your original order. After you have completed that step the images you have chosen are sent back on a DVD along with your originals. The shipment is sent through UPS and is trackable.

You will find the high resolution files on your DVD perfect for screening on a TV or computer, sharing on Facebook or printing for framing.

The other good news about ScanCafe is that they offer an affordable photo restoration service that can restore photos damaged by mold, pets, children, light, fire, water, alcohol and ripping. They can also improve a photo on request by whitening teeth, removing skin blemishes or even removing or adding a person!

Parenting Tips
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Entertaining Your Kids Without Going Broke

Are you leaving all of the entertaining of your children to the television? I don't blame you. Watching television is so cheap!

Some recent studies show that now as many as 83 percent of kids are watching two hours of television or more each day, while an incredible 90 percent of toddlers spending that much time around the tube. That does not give them that much time to interact with people.

Activities with others and in the great outdoors allow for happier, less anxious kids that feel better and are more relaxed. A sedentary kid is going to be a fat and unhappy kid.

You do not have to spend a fortune to play with your kids or make them feel more active. All you have to do is make them simple forts out of boxes and blankets. Any big cardboard box can easily be turned into a castle or a fort. Cardboard boxes and tubes also make great rocket ships. You can make your little girl a kitchen complete with fridge and stove out of cardboard boxes.

It is not that hard to find large boxes. You can find them at stores that carry appliances.
One warning – if you are cutting cardboard, do it by yourself. Your child's safety scissors cannot handle thick, stiff cardboard.

There are also hundreds of fun crafts that your kids can make. You can find instructions for most of them online. You can have them build their own kite and fly it in the back yard. You can have them put together a popsicle stick house or have them build a boot scraper mat out of bottle caps. One of the most fun and simplest of toys is a phone connected by a string and made out of two empty tin cans.

Awakening your kid's creativity is as simple as giving them some paper and colored pencils. You can also let them decorate their own room using washable paints. They can draw all over the walls and you can wipe it clean later.

To get your kid off the couch and walking take a field trip to somewhere free. Go view the nearest public government buildings or take a walk in a part. Some kids enjoy strolls through cemeteries. Basically a kid will go anywhere with you. For them, the quality time has to do with the connection to you. So it does not really matter where you go as long as the two of you are together.

Parenting Tips
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