On Saturday, I got up early to finish a Birthday Book for my grand-daughter. She turns three on Thanksgiving this year. What fun to look at the photos each year and remember all the fun things we did. Two days earlier as I downloaded all the photos from her mom, I realized how much I had missed from not being able to see her this year. As I logged into the online application I had been using to create her book, I found only 8 pages showing and the remaining 20 pages were empty...WHERE DID IT GO!?
Technology sometimes brings frustration and disappointment. I had been using an online site that supports the automatic save feature which apparently didn't save my final work yesterday. The company is trying to retrieve the pages, and I am preparing for the worst...to begin again telling her little life story. With every technology error... we learn something (once you are past the tears and frustration). Moving forward, I will take screen shots using my phone that will allow me to rebuild my book faster if this ever happens again, and always double check the automatic save button. This calamity is similar to cooking strategies.... Long ago, I realized that if I used the timer on my Apple Watch, I was less likely to leave something in the oven too long. Technology is wonderful when it works, it isn't infallible.
This year, I decided to do something new in the birthday book...QR codes. I was having such fun viewing and laughing at video taken this past year about Raven's life....how she loves to dance and spin! I remembered that I could turn the video into a QR code. Most people have heard, seen or used a QR code. This barcode is a machine-readable optical label that contains information about something to which it is attached. You can create QR codes for Text, PDF, Email, vCards, Images, Video, MP3 and more. You see QR codes in papers, magazines to advertise, give away coupons, as well as provide information. I thought it would be fun to have QR codes in parts of the book this year.
I took short snippets of funny videos and created QR codes to place in the book that the family can watch using a QR code reader app on their phone. I have a YouTube account where I keep my videos. YouTube is great because I can select sharing these videos to just selected groups. YouTube creates a URL of the video and you copy that URL so you can use to make the QR code.
I next created an account at this website https://www.qr-code-generator.com to turn the videos into individual QR codes. Each file is given a name so I know where to place it in the book. I have attached a step guide for creating a QR code below. Once you have the QR code made you simply add it to your storybook.
Check this out!
If you have a QR code reader app you can open the app and hold you phone up to the QR code in this blog and see a short video of my grandson playing golf. Here is an example of a QR code.
If creating a QR code seems overwhelming, I have attach a PDF file with steps. If you are bored and want to learn something new give it a try! I will be returning to my project to complete the book in time for my grands birthday!