Truly Affordable

Quilters today have access to an endless selection of quilting notions including rulers, templates, marking pens, cutting tools and threads to list just a few. Now and then it may seem difficult to make up one’s mind about which materials to pick and how to start when it comes to creating an unique quilted item. A new quilting ruler called the Double Diamond Ruler is a great place to begin.

You can add a diamond-shaped embellishment to any project when you use a Double Diamond Ruler. Prior to the introduction of the Double Diamond Ruler it was quite cumbersome to produce a diamond pattern. Previously the process involved tracing a pattern onto fusible interfacing, ironing it onto the material and then snipping the lines you drew with a pair of scissors. Talk about time consuming! The Double Diamond Ruler changed all that.

With two sizes available the Double Diamond Ruler now helps you easily make either 1 1/2″ and 3 1/2″ wide diamonds. Utilize the 1 1/2″ Double Diamond Ruler to make an attention-getting eyeglass case or shoulder strap for your purse. Select the 3 1/2″ Double Diamond Ruler and begin adding distinctive, dimensional diamonds to table runners, table toppers or even wall hangings.

Once you’ve determined what sized Double Diamond Ruler works best for your design you’ll need to select 3 quality fabrics to work with: a main fabric, contrast fabric and background fabric. Solid color cloths work best but small prints will result in an interesting effect too. Avoid large prints because they will not display the diamonds as well.

Check out the online idea gallery at Bright Quilting Notions for assistance with where to start. In addition to ideas, there are patterns, kits and even an instructional video to help you get started. Take the first step towards creating your very own masterpiece and order the Double Diamond Ruler today.

Canvas art has become the new trend over the last few years, mostly due to the availability of canvas printers, low-priced canvas and stretcher bars and an unceasing lust for people to decorate their living space in a very personalised style.

Now it’s possible to go to a shop that sells canvas prints carrying a camera, and roughly an hour or so later leave the shop with a large canvas print of one of your photos. There are innumerable possibilities in terms of what you can grace your living space with : holiday photos, family photos, your own artwork represented as a canvas print, other artist’s works, street scenes, graffiti prints, nature scenes, famous landmarks etc. Basically, you can choose your desired photo/design/artwork you wish on the canvas these days, and not just be limited to a particular number of canvas prints.

Are people actually doing this themselves now? Not really, in order to create a professional, quality canvas adorning your living space. You’re better going to a dedicated canvas shop - they should be using the quality canvas, the best stretcher bars, should be proficient in clipping and stretching canvas, and be in possession of top-quality printers and software to create the best prints. Not only that, they have the know-how to adjust your photos in order to produce the greatest resulting print on the canvas.

Many print shops are selling their canvases and canvas service online. Simply enter a keyphrase into a search engine , for example modern art canvas prints and you will locate a lot of vendors where you can buy these types of prints.

The artistry of Feng Shui revolves around re-arranging your indoors so that you have un-obstrusive energy circulation in your home or business location. It evolved to its maturity in Chinese culture. Its literal english translation is “wind and water”. The Chinese originally used it to make divine tombs for their ancestors and kings. As time passed, the divine artistry was applied in building government offices and repositories. It its final phase of development, full metropolises were being built with the sacred feng shui principles.

Feng shui rules are used in approximately 90% of building in the city of Hong Kong. The importance of feng shui rules and its applications is reflected from this fact. Bank of China was litigated by the business enterprises in its locality for its intentional anti-feng-shui plan.

American culture began becoming aware about the precepts of feng shui in late twentieth century. Feng Shui grew into the buzz phrase for the urban shallow socialites by the late ninetees.

One of the most common feng shui components is a table fountain. Particularly, a cozy slate fountain is best-known for its several feng shui uses. Slate symbolise the element of earth. Earth represents Yin, so it is feminine by nature. Element of earth also reflects stability and dependableness because of its strong form. A slate fountain makes an ideal feng shui fountain because its powerful consolidative elements of water and earth.

Your heart will definitely fill with pride and pleasure when you successfully craft chocolate candy, especially when you’ve gone through the trouble of tempering by hand. Tempering by hand, a part of the process, is the more difficult phase because you’ll have to maintain specific temperatures accurately wherein most of the mistakes may occur. This may turn chocolate candy making a laborious process since you could keep re-tempering till you get it correctly.

Preparing the chocolate is easy enough. You melt dark, semi-sweet or white chocolate chips on a double boiler, while constantly stirring to avert burning. Fruits are enrobed with the chocolate melt or shaped by pouring them into cookie cutters, then you chill briefly or air dry to set.

It’s the fact that you have to maintain specific temperatures all throughout that may sap your enthusiasm and make candy-making hard work. You couldn’t leave out tempering because without it, your chocolates will not be shiny and crisp as they don’t have that naturally. Further, you may not be able to prevent blooming from occurring and this will make the chocolates ugly with crystal spots of cocoa butter appearing on the surface your confections. You need not do tempering if the candies are intended for personal consumption but if you’re making them for retail purposes, you cannot leave out tempering. Nobody will buy your unattractive candies.

Why? For starters, once you starting melting chocolates to make them pliant for dipping, they lost the manufacturers’ temper. So you re-temper. Moreover, the large quantities of fatty acids in cocoa butter form six types of crystals but by maintaining specific temperatures, you can prevent the other five structures from dominating and let only the type V crystals form. It’s the Type V that’s responsible for the gloss and snap but each chocolate type (dark, semi-sweet or white) forms type V crystals at different temperatures. Be alert though: type IV crystals also form with the type V. They have the same gloss and snap but they’re not as firm as Type V; they melt quickly at low temperatures.

In order to be sure that you’re maintaining accurate temperatures, you’ll need your thermometer to be calibrated regularly. But during tempering, small changes in temperatures may prove to be costly and you may find yourself re-tempering till you get it correctly. Just for making things easier for you, you may want to use tempering machines. These gadgets have computer software that takes care of holding temperatures even and producing only the type V crystal structures. If you use these machines, you will liberate a lot of your time, which can be used for following through your plans to perfect your small chocolate business and enhance the quality of your products.

You may have read the term “web banner” written a lot on the internet. This word identifies 2 types of imagery. First of all, you have the traditional advertisement banner, normally used as a method to promote another website, as clicking on the banner takes one to the advertised site. The other sort is found at the very top of an average site - the site header location. This area commonly acquaints an individual to the website with a title, perhaps a secondary strapline, and even some images to help theme the website. Advertisement and website header banners serve critical roles in both delivering individuals to a site, and helping make a site “sticky” - by teaching them plainly with what the website is about, and tempting them to peruse the website more, utilising persuasive graphics and strapline text.

So how do you go about creating such banners? There are plenty of online banner makers which can serve you with this task. Not only that but many also provide you with web banner hosting as well. Simply type in a phrase such as banner for website into a search engine and you’ll locate numerous online services.

So what to arrange in your banner? If you have a shopping website, it’s a great tip to put the payment providers your site uses for taking payment, as it hands to people a visible cue that you are selling items and also lets the individual see how they can pay. Put in some graphics of the wares you are vending too, as this is a further visible prompt as to which kind of items you vend. Lastly, the strapline text is vital as well. Ensure the strapline distinctly and concisely says what the website is about in only five to seven words.

As apparent as all this sounds, a slip many sites make is to take for granted each website visitor knows automatically what the site is about before visiting it. We should not assume that the visitor what your site is about beforehand, so one must hold each visitant’s hand in those essential first few seconds upon arriving at your site.

It is getting progressively evident that pairs are no longer taking to the aisle in swarms. Individuals just don’t like marriage so much any more. It’s a bitpitiful really that this custom seems to be dying. Aside from those strong Christians, a church ceremony doesn’t always appeal. It is more the full-dress, the wedding reception ideas and the invite design that brides look forward to. Of course everyone likes looking into the eyes of their loved one and announcing their love for them, but this doesn’t needfully have to be in the context of an recognised marital service. People think of marriage as a huge step, an finishing of something in a way, though it is of course the beginning of a new journey too. The fear is that the whole action of marriage and divorce is a tortuous and pricey one and therefore shouldn’t be undertook lightly. You have to be dead serious about marriage in order to do it, and this puts many people off. There is besides an anxiety of change for some people, who believe that marriage will put an unnecessary stress on the partnership. Others just don’t trust in it, and what it signifies, opting to just live in with their partner instead.

By following a few simple guidelines you can save money by creating rubber stamp artwork that a stamp manufacturer can download without any design input; stamp manufacturers love it when artwork arrives that is ‘ready’ for production.

You may currently be paying $12.00 for an unmounted, mass produced stamp in the shops, buying the same size stamp direct from a rubber stamp manufacturer will be about $9.00 and be custom made for you!

The following design guidelines assume that you have scanned a drawing into your computer or have located a piece of artwork and imported the image.

Design Guidelines

The easiest stamp to make from a manufacturing point of view is one where the artwork has a line thickness that does not fall below the minimum required. The minimum line thickness that is recommended is 0.2mm (0.00787 inch or 0.57 point), if it does fall below this, the ‘wall strength’ of that part of the stamp is compromised and may become distorted. Having said this, you can convert an image with fine lines to one suitable for stamp making.

Computer programs work with image data in a number of different ways, for example programs like CorelDraw work with both Vector images (lines) and Bitmap images (pixels), CorelDraw is also the preferred program for making rubber stamps from images.

When scanning a drawing into your computer it will always load as a bitmap image, (a bit like a photograph in a newspaper). This can be sent directly to a stamp manufacturer as long as it is a black and white scan and the line thicknesses do not fall below the minimum. If the lines are too thin you can convert the bitmap image into vector data by applying a trace to the image. Programs that have tracing ability place a vector line around the lines or can be set to follow the lines, these lines can then have a thickness applied to make them suitable for rubber stamp making.

Complex drawing and illustrations can also be made into rubber stamps; these may not contain many lines and look more like photographs. It is best to send a few different options of these to your stamp manufacturer; one option would be to increase the brightness of the image then convert the bitmap to a simple black and white image. Here it is best to select a rubber stamp manufacturer that is familiar with these types of images, see below recommendations.

File Formats

All images that enter your computer have an extension relating to what format they are in. You may have an image from a scan, a clipart disk or downloaded from a clipart service. Some are .eps and .wmf files (Vector line format more common for logos or line drawings) and others jpeg an .gif (Bitmap pixel photos and illustrations)
Both image formats can produce excellent stamps; however simple images are always best in .eps and .wmf format to allow you to easily manipulate line thickness in the event the lines are too thin.

Online Clipart Services

There are many online clipart services that provide excellent clipart for rubber stamping; the best images are from services that are subscription based that charge a yearly or per image fee. If this does not suit and you really want to save money you should find out which service your rubber stamp manufacturer belongs to, it costs nothing to search through the clipart service that he belongs to as he will be the person downloading the images. This bit of lateral thinking and finding the right manufacturer will save you lots of money because you will never have to pay for the clipart. Clipart.com is one of the best services that some manufacturers subscribe to; I estimate that over 3 million images at Clipart.com are suitable for stamp production and they are fine with manufacturers using the images for rubber stamps.

The craft stamp industry is very large indeed and most people are still buying stamps that are mass produced because they don’t know how to get a ‘custom made’ stamp manufactured. So if you are into card making or scrapbooking and want to find that ’special stamp’ you should find yourself a manufacturer, it doesn’t matter where they are in the world as unmounted stamps are thin and lightweight and can be posted easily.
A network of stamp manufacturers that offer stamps made from online clipart services can be found online, at www.stampsearch.com.au various manufacturers will make unmounted stamps from clipart or your own artwork and send the finished stamps anywhere in the world.

Robert de Rooy is based in Australia and has been involved with the rubber stamp industry in the Pacific region for over ten years; he has provided consultation to the development of http://stampsearch.com.au and operates http://www.instastamp.com.au manufacturing stamp making equipment for people wishing to enter the rubber stamp making industry.

You are to me my lifeline
my security.
That scares me.
I never wanted to trust again that much
I got hurt too badly the last time.
I swore I'd never do it again,
never let the trust out of my hands
into someone elses.

And yet I've done it
and now I'm afraid
of what you will do with it,
of what I'll do because of it.

My first instinct is, as always,
to run, to hide,
to protect myself
from the hurt I know will come.
I don't know when or how,
just that it will, sometime.

I wanted to protect myself
to build the walls around me
but you wouldn't let me.
You smashed bricks as I put them in place
you refused to let me shut myself in,
so now what?
Where do I go now?
I feel lost,defenceless,
my hiding place is no more.

My walls are broken
and I'm now afraid to rebuild the walls
afraid I won't see you if I do
or anyone else
and I'm not sure if that's really what I want to do.

AT times it is.
I want to shut myself away and hide,
and yet I want to be out,
to mix
to talk
to share.
And I blame you
for not letting me before shaking me up
for refusing to let me retreat.

And yet I know that if I were not ready
you could not have reached me
no one could.
I would have protected myself better
I wouldn't have risked
or grown.

I want to curse you and thank you
at the same time.
I want to laugh with delight
at the things I've seen
and found with you
and cry in despair for what will not be.

You have opened me to be
what, I'm not yet sure
but I know that I am stronger
because of you
braver, because of you
more, because of you.

Fran Watson
“Expert Author”
http://www.franwatson.ca
http://www.mormunny4u.org
http://www.diet-basics.org

I planted my vegetables, for a few

years exactly where I wanted ‘em

to be planted. Said to myself: if I

had to make a living and nothing

grows, no one needs to point

fingers, or be anonymous; so,

it’s my hoe, my garden, I’ll clean

the scraps up, I’ve been at that so

long I can’t possibly wear my hands

down (so I told myself). All my life

I’ve been at it: they lay it down, I

pick it up; weedin’ with a hoe-blade

isn’t easy. You try it, see!

I loaned my land out to a retired

farmer one year, who had little land

to mention, but wanted to grow

something: better than me with a

hoe he wasmade whatever he

planted grow (I never could). He

even used his own water (he lived

across from me, in Alabama back in

‘77).

As I stoodday after daylooking

out my kitchen window, watching

him plant, and hoe, and water, and

the cucumbers grow, (God knows

what for) He said those vegetables,

cucumbers he done planted would

grow fat, and huge, and they did.

He could have shown me a few

things about planting, hoeing and

growing (back then); things I never

thought of, but I just wanted some

of those cucumbers. Funny, when

we’re young. Now looking back I

can still see that old farmer looking

over his shoulder at me: smirking.

Reflections of youth, when I lived in Alabama, back in l977-l979.
#1010 1/28/2006

See Dennis’ web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

Making your own birth announcements can be very easy and rewarding. By using vellum, you can announce the birth of your baby while also personalizing the announcements with a picture of your new bundle of joy. Here’s what you need to make your own vellum birth announcement:

* Vellum paper

* Scrapbook paper

* Double-sided tape

* Paper cutter

* Baby photo

* Computer/Printer

* Envelopes

Purchase vellum paper and scrapbooking paper at your local craft store, if you don’t already have some on hand. Vellum is a translucent paper that allows you to see what is underneath it. We will use this paper to print the actual announcement on. You can also purchase the envelopes at a craft store.

Cut a piece of scrapbook paper of your choice to the size of an envelope. Use this as a template for the vellum and your other announcements.

Print your announcement from your computer directly on to the vellum paper. In your printer settings on the computer, select “transparency” as the paper type. This is the closest paper type to the vellum paper and won’t put as much ink on the page. I printed my announcements in Microsoft Word, fitting four announcements on one page. Suggested wording:

We are happy to announce

Zachary David Paxton

February 27, 2005

7:40 a.m.

6 pounds, 14 ounces

20 inches long

The proud parents,

David and Rachel

In our case we were announcing twins! Just use a smaller font to fit both birth annoucements on one page. I also printed their photos in Microsoft Word so that I could “paste” them together and print them side-by-side.

Experiment with fonts until you find the font you like. To download free fonts, go to http://www.google.com and type in “free fonts” and you will find many free fonts to download.

Using the paper cutter, cut the vellum paper with the announcements printed on it to the size of the scrapbook paper.

Trim your photos to be smaller than the scrapbook paper. The paper should look like a mat behind the picture.

Using the double-sided tape, tape the photo to the scrapbook paper.

You will tape the piece of vellum paper on top of the scrapbook paper with the photo on it. Use two very small pieces of tape along the top edge of the scrapbook paper to tape them together. You don’t want the vellum totally taped down because you want to be able to lift the bottom edge of it to see the photo.

That’s it! Your family and friends will love your personalized birth announcements.

Photo of finished project:
http://www.crafty-moms.com/articles/051205c.shtml

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com