Wednesday, March 23, 2011

We Love Freebies!

A quick post today to direct you to some freebies! Anyone interested? I know that it's getting pretty easy to find free coloring pages on the Internet that are more adult oriented but how about having them emailed right to you every Friday! It's true!


We're probably almost all of us familiar with Dover Publications. They offer the clip art books on endless subjects, generally with a CD included. Great for crafters!


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They also offer loads of crafting books.



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They also have classic literature, sheet music, math, science, brain games, history books, autobiographies, some really brainiac kinds of publications, drawing books-- you name it, they probably have it.


And they offer coloring books. Endless coloring books on all subject, for all skill levels. It's mind boggling.



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You know about their coloring and project books, as well as their puzzle, maze, and brain teaser books. But did you know about ...







Free Samples


THE FREE SAMPLES !!!


Yup, if you register on their website (there's a tab at the very top of their home page), Dover will email free samples from a wide variety of their selections every Friday. Coloring pages yes, and mazes, puzzles, short stories, all kinds of stuff. Some of it you'll like, some of it you won't be able to use. You are welcome to download and print as many copies as you want. I go through the freebies every Friday morning and save the ones I like to my "Coloring Pages" and "Puzzles" folders so I can print fresh copies any time I need. Remember the days when we copied thing over and over and over again until they were all dirty looking and blurry? Ah, good times, good times.


You really gotta go explore their website- it's incredible. Click on the link here and go browse.  The link for the free samples is here. Some of their items are really inexpensive- check out the Dover Thrift Editions (link is on the left column)- some of those babies are $2.50! OK, yes, their items tend to be, um, obscure, but they're so cool too!


No, I'm not on Dover's payroll. I just know how much Activity Directors love to score free stuff.  So go knock yourself out! And get signed up for the freebies


Here's another site-


Via Patterns for Coloring


Illustrator Carlton Hibbert's Patterns for Coloring is a neat site from the UK that offers blank pages of patterns and illustrations that he and others have created. Sure- you can submit your own (or a resident's) pattern. From the Home Page, click over to the pattern blog and start scrolling down through the library of pages. The images are shown in thumbnail strips- click download to see the entire page.




Via Patterns for Coloring


Some of the patterns are complex, some are easier- which is great for us because we need variety in our jobs, right?


A note about printing- on my computer, when I click "Download and Print" the entire page comes up. However, I only get about a quarter of the page when I actually print. To get the whole image I save it to my computer and then print from there so I can make sure I'm getting the size I want.


Once your residents have finished their masterpiece you can upload their work to Carlton's Flickr group and show off the beautiful creations. Carlton also has a shop where you can purchase calendars,  purse-sized booklets or even a set of 5 posters. These posters are A3 size (about 11.7 x 16.5), printed on cardstock. If you want to make a purchase, you'll notice the prices are in British pounds. As of today, 1 GBP is 1.63 USD. If you add an item to your cart the amount automatically converts to USD in the upper right corner. Don't forget postage. Payment is via PayPal and will automatically convert. You don't have to purchase anything of course- just sayin' how that works.


And I'm not on Carlton's payroll either. Gosh darn it- I've got to get on someone's payroll!!



Get those residents busy coloring and see ya next time.

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