Choosing Scrapbooking Supplies

!±8± Choosing Scrapbooking Supplies

Croppers worldwide know that one of the best parts of this creative and useful hobby is the fun of shopping for scrapbooking supplies. Deciding between elegantly designed journaling paper and fancy cut scissors is part of what makes each scrapbook an expression of the woman who made it.

If, however, your budget dictates that you must choose between the thousands of supplies offered, here are some suggestions on which materials will best suit your needs.

Supplies to Suit Your Style

Scrapbooking supplies tend to fall into one of three categories: organizers, tools and decorations. At some point, you will need all of these. I recommend that you make one purchase from each group, or alternate your purchases accordingly. Yes, you may be tempted to spend most of your resources on the beautifully printed paper kits, or richly colored pens, but if you don't have adhesive tape, or your photos get wrinkled before you get to them, all those fun tools and decorations will go to waste.

Organizing Your Hobby

Organizing systems for scrapbookers have come a long way since that shoe box you used to keep stuffed in the closet. Your choices range from simple boxes with labeled dividers, to sleeves for negatives and CDs, to software for your digital photos. Remember, the key here is preservation. Which option will best protect your memories before they go into your scrapbook?

Specially designed cases for toting all your supplies are also available. If you have ever struggled with a tote bag overflowing with scissors, markers and photos, this may have your name on it! With pullout handles and wheels, these mobile devices make cropping with friends possible and enjoyable.

Of course, the photo album itself is the ultimate storage system. The possibilities that exist are endless. I recommend using albums with removable pages, so that you can reorganize or add as needed. You can also choose among colors and designs, materials, picture windows, albums made especially for events like weddings and new babies, smaller portable albums and those designed for gift giving. Now, you just need the proper tools to put that perfect album together.

The Right Tool for the Right Job

While scissors and tape may not have you drooling over the scrapbooking supplies catalog, you can't do the job without them. A good adhesive tape and applicator will make creating your pages effortless. Scissors, as it turns out, can be pretty exciting after all. Along with your basic straight pair, fancy edged scissors can add just the right touch to your photos or paper choices.

Cutters and trimmers will also allow you to crop photos to the perfect size, round corners, and create ovals, hearts and oblongs. Shape-makers are great tools for decorating. Like giant hole-punchers they allow you to add stars, splashes, hexagons, or any shape desirable to your page. And any cropper will tell you, decorating is where your true genius and inspiration come into play.

Decorations

Let your imagination run wild! With paper kits, vellum accents and phrases, pretty colored markers and stickers for every occasion under the sun, the sky is truly the limit. If you are unsure, try using a pre-arranged kit where the color and theme are coordinated for you. A handwritten note on any page describing the events can easily be accented with dots or swirls. Play with the possibilities. Having a few appropriate materials on hand will spark your creativity, and lead you to create a piece of personal history that is truly unique.

Tools for Success

With organized and protected photographs, the proper tools, and a touch of flair, you will have everything you need to preserve the memories you cherish. Enjoy your masterpiece!

Choosing Scrapbooking Supplies

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Ribbon Cutting at the Santa Monica Pier's 100th altogether 9-9-09

!±8± Ribbon Cutting at the Santa Monica Pier's 100th altogether 9-9-09

FAIL! where were the giant scissors?! :P (sorry for the hand in the shot.. it was rather sunny)

Ribbon Cutting at the Santa Monica Pier's 100th altogether 9-9-09

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Move Slowly Into Your First Office

!±8± Move Slowly Into Your First Office

Q: I have outgrown my home office and need to find office space for me and two part time employees. I am really excited about opening my first official office, but never having rented commercial space before I don't know anything about how this process works. What are some things I should consider before signing a lease? I'm really eager to get started!
-- Jay P.

A: Congratulations on the growth of your business, Jay, and I understand your excitement. Putting your name on a commercial lease is one of the first tangible commitments an entrepreneur makes to his or her business and searching for that first office or retail space can be a truly invigorating experience.

We entrepreneurs like to imagine ourselves as modern day explorers, going out into the cold, cruel, commercial world to plant the company flag in our own little piece of rented real estate. I remember that feeling of triumph when I rented my first office so many years ago. Funny how you never get the same feeling when laying claim to future office space. For us old timers searching for new office space is about as exciting as watching paint dry on a new office wall.

For entrepreneurs who have never rented commercial space before, however, moving into that first office or storefront serves to validate their membership in the Official Entrepreneur's Club and makes them feel that they have arrived.

They are like business-minded debutantes at a grand cotillion. They stage an elaborate ribbon-cutting ceremony that involves the mayor and a pair of giant scissors. They invite the entire membership of the chamber of commerce, all their customers and vendors, total strangers they meet on the way to work, and all their friends and family. The more the merrier!

There's a big cake with their logo on it and they hand out twenty-five cent pens that have the company name screened on the side and a good time is had by all.

Then reality sets in and they realize that they used one of those twenty-five cent pens to affix their name to an ironclad lease that is invariably slanted in favor of the landlord. By the time they use that pen to sign the next month's rent check, they often find themselves sitting in a leased space that does not suit their needs, staring at a 5 year lease that they really don't understand, wondering just what the hell they have gotten themselves into.

Many entrepreneurs get so caught up in the swell of their first commercial space that they fail to look beyond their immediate needs. You can't predict the future, but the biggest mistake you can make when leasing space is to put very little thought into whether the space will suit your needs for the long term.

So my first advice to you is to curb your excitement and call in a professional to help you find the perfect space for your business. A good realtor or commercial leasing agent can not only save you time and money, but can also help you avoid mistakes that can cost you thousands of dollars over the course of your lease. They can help you locate property, negotiate with landlords, and possibly spot problems with the space or neighborhood that you might have missed.

My second bit of advice is this: once you find a space that suits your needs have an attorney look over the lease agreement before you sign it. A commercial lease is a legally binding agreement that should not be taken lightly. I have found that many entrepreneurs never even take time to read the lease until they try to get out of it, which is always impossible to do. When you sign a lease on behalf of your business, you are the one on the hook for the remaining cost of the lease should your business decline and no longer have revenue to cover the rent. It's worth the money to pay an attorney to make sure you that your interests are covered.

My third bit of advice is to imagine your needs down the road, not just in the here and now. Rarely will you find a landlord willing to grant a one year lease. Most leases are three to five years in length, which means you must take future growth into consideration when looking for space. It wouldn't be wise to sign a 5 year lease on a 1,000 square foot office if you think you might outgrow the space within a year or two. That's why it's a good idea to request a clause in the lease that gives you an out if your company outgrows the space.

Here are a few other points to consider when shopping for commercial space:

Location, location, location. Is the location convenient to your customers? Is the neighborhood growing or going downhill? Are there major improvements or renovations taking place or are businesses moving out in droves? Also make sure the property is zoned for your kind of business.

Is there sufficient parking for customers and employees. Parking is especially important for a retail store, but also for any business that may have customers coming and going. Very few customers will park four blocks away and hike back to your door. A lack of parking can drive you out of business.

How many employees do you have? The amount of bodies inhabiting the space will help dictate the amount of space needed. Employees get awful grumpy when stacked up like cordwood (trust me on this one). You should have enough space for everyone to work comfortably.

When leasing commercial space the devil is often in the (overlooked) details. If you will be using computers and lot of electronics, make sure the building's electrical system will support your needs. It's a terrible feeling to turn on your computer and blow every light bulb in the place.

If you like a quiet work environment and your office windows are twenty feet from the street, you'll be in for a rude awakening when the rush hour traffic hits.

If the air conditioning in your office is controlled by the thermostat in a neighboring suite that is inhabited by an old lady who freezes in ninety degree weather, you will be in for a very long, very hot summer.

Move into that first office space slowly or you may find yourself quickly regretting it.

Move Slowly Into Your First Office

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Kylie Rupe

!±8± Kylie Rupe

Kylie Rupe is Director of Sales for the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce, but you may better recognize her as the one with the big smile, the red ribbon and the giant scissors. Besides attracting new members to the Peoria Area Chamber, Kylie spends a lot of her time celebrating with current members with the famous Peoria Area Chamber ribbon cutting events. We sat down with Kylie to learn more about her job, what the giant scissors are all about and what businesses have to say about the current economic climate in the region.

Kylie Rupe

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Displaying A Knife Collection

!±8± Displaying A Knife Collection

Several things come to mind when we ponder displaying a collection of knives. First, knives are absolutely beautiful. They want to be seen. Second, they want to be handled. A good system for displaying knives would allow them displayed as well as taken down and handled. The final issue is one of safety, if a knife is mishandled, it is either going to hurt someone, or ruin its edge, or both.

The good news it that knives are roughly the same size and shape, -except for pocket knives –called ‘folders’ in some circles. If you collect both kinds, how do you display them both? I don’t know. Do you display your regular knives and store your folders away in a nice drawer chest? I don’t know that either. Here is what I do know. If you store your collection in drawers, both French Lining Drawers and Adaptable Drawer Linings are great techniques. One warning, if you follow my advice re. French lining your drawers, you must –MUST make absolutely sure that the glue you use has COMPLETELY DRIED or you will have made a wonderful thing to automatically and easily rust your knives.

But what about the collection that you want to display rather then tuck away safely? Well, you could simply leave then scattered artistically on the mantel, windowsills, stereo, piano etc., but this is apt to get them dusty and the issue of safety comes to mind. (And truth to tell, I’ve met more then a few spouses that take the opinion that the marriage might last longer if there were fewer knives on the windowsill, -but I have no advice for you in this direction.) Putting them on the wall solves some of the safety problem –provided you hang them correctly. This might be the way to go for the largest knives and swords, but still leave something to be desired. The best way to go is probably to put them in a display case on the wall. (A display case on a flat surface is also a good way to go –just takes up more room.) So here is how to start with a display case –one of mine or any display case for that matter and make your own…..

CUSTOMIZED DISPLAY CASE:

These ideas are really just SHADOW BOXES taken just a step farther and adapted specifically to knives. May be worth a review. The following is based on the assumption you have a box shaped display case at hand that is the right size and shape etc. If you are making a shadow box out of a broad collection of interesting but relatively unimportant items, more is more. Pack them in –make it a feast for the eyes. On the other hand, if your collection is valuable and important (and perhaps not as interesting), LESS is more. A single knife –or a single anything for that matter, all by itself in a large case just has more weight. Particularly if you include a simple white card-label listing the important details.

Here are the steps:

Nail down your design.

Gather up your tools and materials.

Select and cut a backer board.

Drill holes in board per your design.

Upholster the board.

Add shelves for folders and hangers for straight knives.

Attach case to wall.

Put it all together. #1 Nail down your design.

This means arranging your knives appropriately as they will show up in the case. Start by measuring the INSIDE of your case and draw out a similar rectangle somewhere. The only tricky bit here is figuring out how you will support or hang your knives. Probably need to use a little ingenuity here. (Have a look at the illustrations in my longer article
Displaying a Knife Collection [http://www.home-museum.com/How-To-Arts/Knives/knives.htm] for pictures etc.)The simplest possible solution –particularly if you collect folders- is to use little brass cup-hooks. the only problem is that when you hang the knife on the hook, it lays on it’s back, rather then it’s more interesting side. Use a pair of pliers to bend the tip of the hook up and you can use it sideways. Or use a wooden peg. Or simply make a little shelf out of a short piece of wood. Sand it down a little to round the corners, but don't get carried away. A piece of pine molding will do the job and is easy to cut and sand. Wrap it in fabric for an easy PADDED finish.

So what to do with regular knives -the kind that don't fold up? Especially given that you want be able to take them down and hold them? There are about a hundred ways to do this. First, consider a locking cotter pin. They look like giant safety pins. A good hardware store will have 3 or 4 different sizes. Attach them to your backer board by sewing them down with some soft copper wire. Once you have the cotter pin attached, you can safely hang your knives and yet remove them easily when you want to handle them. If your knives do not have hilts, it is still likely that you can find a pin that will support them. You may have to bring several home from the store, but they are cheap.

What to do for bigger knives or even swords? Have a look at the knobs you can buy for drawer pulls. You can hang your knife from the hilt on nothing more then two knobs set on either side. Depending on the age and 'rusticness' of your sword -a hardwood knob may be just the ticket. And wood will not damage the edge. For smaller or more delicate knives, little brass knobs may be the ticket. There are about a million styles of knobs in my home-center-store to choose from.

Here is a final possibility -one that has the advantage of a huge variety, but the disadvantage of making it hard to remove the knife or sword, -and this might be a good thing if the blade is valuable enough or dangerous enough and you have kids. Use a bail type drawer pull. Your hardware store has about a million different sizes, styles, and finishes. They are easy to install -if you are using a reasonably stout backer-board. You may have to shorten up the bolts that come with the pulls, or just buy a little bag of the appropriate size machine screws while you are there. Consider the different styles you hardware store has. For a medieval broadsword, maybe a rustic Gustav Stickley handle that looks like hand-wrought-iron. Perhaps for an elegant dagger, a classic -if ornate- Victorian style would serve. For a modern commando knife, -a simple contemporary polished nickel handle would be best.. Your collection -it's history and glamor- will dictate the perfect look.

#2 Gather up your tools and materials.

Do you have unfinished projects sitting around for want of a single doodad you neglected to bring home from some store of another? The difference between an enjoyable & efficient project and the incomplete one cluttering up the garage is often a matter of preparation. A few extra minutes spent in preparation for any project is apt to pay off many times in the doing of the project.
Your particular list of tools and materials will depend on exactly how you design the whole thing, but this ought to cover it:

TOOLS:

a saw appropriate for cutting a wood backer board

or

a utility knife for cutting a cardboard backer -life is too short to use a dull blade, get a NEW one if you have any doubt. (And who am I talking to –knife collectors?)

scissors –for cutting fabric

drill –you got to love those rechargeable ones that come in a case with bits, driver, and sockets included

drill bit –if you don’t have a whole set –get one in the neighborhood of 3/16 and maybe a 1/16 inch twist bit

tape measure or equivalent

framing square –a useful thing but you can use a big piece of paper and a straight stick as a straight-edge if you don’t have one

wire cutter and pliers or needle-nose pliers with cutter

MATERIALS:

backer board -I go over your options below.

padding

cover fabric

masking tape –the wide stuff makes life a little easier

wood glue

pine molding for shelves for folders

things to hang the knives

copper wire for safety cotter pins

ribbon for handles as necessary

#3 Select and cut a backer board.

First off you need to decide between wood or cardboard. Wood is best but harder to cut. Cardboard is easier to find and cut, but too flimsy for any but the smallest display. My preference is toward 1/8 – ¼" inch hardboard, There is a product called Hobby Board that is smooth on both sides. If you don’t have a table saw at hand, you can have them cut it for you at the home center store. Failing this, you can score it with a sharp utility knife (score it several times) and snap it in two. Here are some possibilities for a backer-board".

Mat board/ corrugated cardboard / foam-core / what-ever from the art-supply store

pretty & may colors available

cheap, easy to fabricate into shelves for folders etc.

easy to cut -the framing store can cut it to exact dimension

small pieces are available everywhere –large pieces may require a trip to a packaging store

BUT

it's flimsy –appropriate for only small collections of small knives in small cases

Door Skin / Hardboard / Peg-Board
relatively cheep

easy to cut (score-and-snap may work if you don't have a saw)

stronger –appropriate for a medium sized collection

BUT

tends to be splintery if not cut correctly

needs a drill to be pierced, (not pegboard)

peg-board has a nice neat grid for hanging things in a well ordered manner

Hardwood Plywood

strong

can be finished as fine hardwood

BUT

difficult to cut

expensive

needs a drill to be pierced

Cut your backer board to match the inside of your display case. Make it about 1/8 inch smaller then the inside of the case. If you are skillful in such matters, you might carry the padding and upholstery around the edge.

#4 Drill holes in board per your design.

Now it comes time to drill holds into the backer-board to hang your knives. Arrange your collection on the backer board and mark little dots where you will drill holes you will attach whatever you have decided to use to attach your knives. You will need to drill 3/16" holes -or thereabouts- for the screws you are going use to hold the little block / shelves for your folders. You will need to countersink them as well -so the screws lay flat to the back of the backer board. Same thing for the bolts that you will use to attach knobs if you are going in this direction. If you are using safety cotter pins, you will need to drill two rows of little tiny holes for the copper wire.

#5 Upholster the board.

If there is a woman in your life who does quilting and such like, your work is half done. If not -take your self off to a fabric store and be humble. If you have ever marveled at all the varieties of wood a craftsman has to choose from, prepare to be astounded. There are 10 times as many fabrics to choose from. Find a kind soul at the fabric store and ask for batting –cotton is best, but Dacron works. Unless your backer board is huge and you collect broadswords, the thinnest batting will do you fine. Then ask her (and it's going to be a her) for advice in the area of faux leather, suede, ultra suede, or whatever. Do not be tempted to use leather, it's MUCH harder to work with. Also check out velvet, crushed velvet, or even burlap if you collection is particularly rustic. Spend a little time seeing what is available. Ask her if she thinks you ought to iron it before you put it down. Stretchy stuff probably doesn't need ironing. (Remarkable, really, that we have all seen all these fabrics at one time or another -but -I at least- have never noticed them as possible materials that you could actually make stuff out of. I think it's an X - Y chromosome thing.)

Back at your work table, cut a piece of the batting to the same size as your backer board You MUST cut the covering fabric about an inch or two bigger -in both directions. Now lay the fabric down -pretty side DOWN, and lay the batting down in the center. Lay your board down on top of it, and snip off the corners. Then fold the fabric over the back of the board and attach it. If you are using a thin or soft backer board, tape the fabric down. If you are using something stouter, plywood for example, you can use a stapler. Don't worry about stretching it tight. A little softness is nice at this point. Being a wood worker, I tend to use carpenter's glue for a lot of things. Glue does a fine job of holding most fabrics to most kinds of board. You have to clamp it down while it dries, of course. This is what the masking tape is for.

#6 Install hangers & shelves.

Your holes are all drilled through your backer board, so you are all done, right? Alas, not so. You still have to go through the fabric. While drilling or poking a thin wire through fabric is easy, it's also easy to snag, ravel, and otherwise -mess up the surrounding fabric if you need a bigger hole –like for a bolt. Here is what I do. I grab a finish nail with a vice grip and heat up the nail on the stove. You don't need red hot to melt most fabrics. Practice, and if you do it just right, you will not only get a perfect hole, you will melt yourself a nice little grommet around that hole. And all with no snags etc. Once the fabric has holes, you are all set to bolt, screw, lace, or whatever all your knife-holding hardware into place.

#7 Attach case to wall.

You have to do this part right. If you don't know how -find someone who does. (Read my comments on Hiring Carpenters and Other Useful Things in the above if you are just completely un-handy.) A case that holds a valuable collection of sharp things must not come down by accident. Wood screws into studs are ideal. If the studs prove uncooperative, a hollow wall anchor will carry a lot of weight IF it's put in correctly. And check out Hanging Things on the Wall CORRECTLY for advice in this direction.

#8 Put it all together.

The purpose of going to all the bother of a backer-board is to hide the screws you used to hang the case on the wall. So once the case is attached to the wall, you have only to put in the backer board and hang your knives. Or put the knives on the board and then put the board in the case. Don't forget the labels. Labels are the perfect finishing touch.

Displaying A Knife Collection

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Decorating Tips For Easter - Making Your Own Easter Lily Silk Flower Arrangement

!±8± Decorating Tips For Easter - Making Your Own Easter Lily Silk Flower Arrangement

With Easter around the corner we are going to see the artificial Lily's sell out quick so don't delay in getting started on your project right away. I always see the florist get ready for Easter and set there displays with beautiful Easter lily's that look like they are a wrapped basket so fresh but when should I buy is always my question. I know with something live it will be only a matter of time that my blue thumb will get in the way, so I decide to wait for the day before to purchase and I end up hunting since they are now all gone. I think there is a better idea out there and now I know, it's called an artificial arrangement. So easy to create and lasts a very long time with proper care, in fact when I was done I went big and was ask to make 3 dozen for my local church to decorate for service. I was excited and nervous but when the project was complete they looked exactly like the one's you see at the florist or when you are shopping in your local grocery store. Now I have decided why now share my experience and somewhat knowledge with you. This could also make a fun family project to do.

Materials needed:

Artificial Day or Tiger Lily's (preferred at least 2 flowers and 1 bud)
Planters Pot
Spanish Moss
Painters tape
Floral Foam
Celophane or Wrapping Paper
Scissors/hot glue gun
Ribbon or a big bow

How To:

Cut your Floral Foam to fit in your planters pot

Place glue on bottom of pot and on floral foal to adhere, let dry.

Place one lily in each container in center of floral foam (add a touch of glue to the stem so it stays in place.....criss-cross tape on top of planter's pot to hold the silk flowers in place until glue dries, or you can hold until it dries normally doesn't take very long.

Take a square of your cellophane or wrapping paper and place under your pot then lift your paper up so it covers the pot and it should be big enough to pass the lip of your pot. I then used my glue gun to fasten to the pot - it just made it look cleaner this way.

You can now take a giant bow or ribbon or any other creative idea you may have and wrap around container. Us a little glue to hold in place so it doesn't slip down and stays in place.

Top off with some Spanish moss inside your pot to add the effect that this is a growing flower and walah! You are done. Use around your house as Easter décor give to friend, family member, neighbor or a business that you use for there lobby area. At the end of the season you can pack away for the following year always having your supply ready for the next year.

Decorating Tips For Easter - Making Your Own Easter Lily Silk Flower Arrangement

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Create a Once Upon a Dream Fairy Tale Birthday Party

!±8± Create a Once Upon a Dream Fairy Tale Birthday Party

Looking for a way to make your daughter(s) birthday extra special this year? Try Once Upon A Dream Fairy Tale Birthday Party! You can make a magical party that your daughter will remember for years to come. All you need is a little time and imagination.

Let's start with the invitations:

Make it yourself! Shop the thrift store and find several pairs of high heels or purchase inexpensive dress up shoes. Take the high heels and spray them with glossy white, pink, or gold spray paint. Once they are dry, spray them with spray adhesive and sprinkle them with white or pink glitter. Type up the "Royal" invitation with the date, time, and place information on the invitation. Roll it up like a scroll and tie with a fancy ribbon. Stick inside the "slipper". Deliver each invitation on a small pillow and let the guest take the invitation & the slipper. (Take the pillow with you to deliver the next invitation. If you want have someone in your family dress up like a knight, or a royal delivery person to present each guest with their special invitation.)

Plan the Activities:

Attire for The Royal Party:

Ask each guest to wear their "Royal" best dress. For your special princess purchase a  special dress that can be worn for her party, for weddings, for church, for Easter, or for Christmas.  

Princess Crowns-

Purchase some hot pink poster board and cut it in half lengthwise. Along the top of each piece cut a decorative edge with scrapbooking scissors. Then staple or hot glue them together. (Make really tall crowns they look adorable!) Then spray them again with spray adhesive and sprinkle with glitter. Do this ahead of time. When it's time for the party, have crowns ready to go. Set up a place where the guests can decorate their crowns with large sequins, buttons, beads, flowers, etc...

Fairy Tale Ball-

Give each guest a bright pink piece of crepe paper streamer. Streamers are fun to wave gracefully through the air as little princesses dance and move around the floor. Turn on some classical music or princess music and let them dance to it. Stop the music and have them freeze. Those who are still moving have to sit out until the last person is left to win the game.

Castle Pinata-

Fill gift bags with treats and fun fake jewelry, candy necklaces and rings, little notebooks, fun pencils, etc... and put them inside a themed pinata. Then have each guest take their turn hitting the pinata with a baton or wand of some sort. Get creative! Once the bags are on the ground each guest doesn't have to fight or scramble to get the rewards. Everyone gets the same thing!

Put the Crown on The Princess-

Draw a princess on poster board or find a poster of a princess and give each guest a sparkly crown made out of scrapbooking paper or fun crowns you have made yourself.

Fairy Tale Wands-

Make a fairy princess wand for each guest by taking a silk flower and wrapping the stem with floral tape. Take ribbons and fashion a pretty bow with streamers hanging down. You can glue some little jingle bells to the ends of the ribbons. Each guest gets one to take home with them. (This can be given as explained below for the gift giving

Open Gifts:

Have the birthday princess sit on a royal throne to open her gifts. As each guest comes forward to present their gift, have them bow and hand her their gift. She can hand them a cute wand as a thank you for their gift.

Bring on the Refreshments!

You can make refreshments as simple or as fancy as you want them to be!

*You can make little sandwiches with bread cut out with cookie cutter shapes. Fill them with a filling of your daughter's choice.

*Add a chocolate dipped strawberrry (white or milk chocolate will do.)

*Fancy cupcakes or purchase some store bought chocolate or pink frosted cupcakes and put a tall candle or little favor like a giant ring on top of the cupcake.

*Serve pink lemonade and put some lemonade with fresh raspberries frozen in the ice trays. Put a couple of ice cubes in their glass of lemonade and add a cool straw with a lemon slice threaded on the straw.

When all is said and done, you will be glad you took the time to create a fun party and to create memories for your special princess. Isn't that what life should be all about? One more thing...don't forget to capture all those fun moments with her Royal Highness and her guests with your camera.

Create a Once Upon a Dream Fairy Tale Birthday Party

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Fruit Platters - A Short Tutorial

!±8± Fruit Platters - A Short Tutorial

Lets build a fresh fruit platter. First decide what shape you want to use as a platter or base for your creation. I like to use a large rectangle for my creations. Ovals and round platters are okay but they tend to abbreviate the amount of different rows of colors you can achieve. Using a thin slicing knife, core and clean all of the different fruits.

Start by cutting off both ends of the melon or pineapple, now you have a flat base to work with, next take your knife and make your first cut down the side just deep enough to expose the ripe flesh below the surface; do this in one long stroke. Now you are able to see where the skin ends and the ripeness begins. Peel the melon in successive single strokes, moving the melon clockwise as you go. This is easy to do with melons, with a cantaloupe you will see a distinct change from green to orange; simply keep your blade just inside the orange.

As you start each cut be sure that you have the heel of your blade just inside the ripe area and keep it there as you follow the contour around and down. By staying in the ripe area, with a single stroke you avoid the need to go back and trim off the unripe spots with a resulting hacked appearance. After you finish removing the skin, cut the melon in half and scoop out the seeds.

Typically cantaloupe, honeydew and pineapple form the main base. With pineapple there are many uses for the top so if it is in good shape I will set it aside for a centerpiece or a side piece. It can be totally trimmed to look like a spike sticking up with its whitish and green color, it can be trimmed with scissors to look like a tree which can then have raspberries stuck on the spikes, or you can take the leaves and fold them back on themselves and it will look like a giant satin ribbon in the center of your platter.

If I use a centerpiece I will build out from that with the large fruit like a series of spokes, otherwise I like going diagonally. Start with pineapple, I core it using a serrated copper pipe, peel it then cut it in half. Lay the flat side on the board and make thin slices, about a quarter of an inch wide. Cut both halves then transfer them to the platter, A spatula or a dough knife works great for this maneuver. I flip the slices over when I move them so that the inside is facing upward.

With pineapple in the center in a diagonal line you can now add a honeydew half way up one side of the pineapple and put the second half on the other side of the pineapple. Next add the cantaloupe on the opposite side of the pineapple across from it''s green counter part. Turn the cantaloupe and the honeydew so that the inside is exposed like a bowl or cup and fan it out so that now there is a yellow band down the diagonal with alternate orange and green on both sides.

I you can find it, a ripe Mexican papaya is an excellent addition for the next row on both sides, again facing interior side up. By now the platter should be full with your first layer of fruit. The colors are yellow, green-orange, green-orange and finally the reddish pink of ripe papayas you flush out to the opposite corners.

(A word about the Mexican papaya: most stores in my area carry them but they put them on the shelf totally green and hard as a rock...do not use it! Takes it home and let it sit on the counter at room temperature for a couple of weeks. Turn it over every couple of days and wait for the skin to get soft. It will actually start to grow a nice crop of mold but that is excellent because it indicates ripeness is approaching. When it is soft and yet still firm it is ready to cut. Trim the ends, stand it up and take off a thin layer of skin the mold stays on the outside and the fruit is ripe, full-flavored and beautifully colored. Now you can cut it open and scoop out the small black seeds.)

As you fan the fruit out, you can make wavy lines with it, like a sort of subtle ess-curve. You can also face the pineapple half one way and half the other then push the other fruit closer to it to make it stand almost on edge. Thin slices work much better as you can manipulate them more easily...stay at a quarter of an inch. The reason for placing the fruit on the platter interior side up is simple; you now have the platter covered with several sets of cups into which you can now pour different colors of berries.

If you still have some room in the corners opposite of the pineapple; this is a good place to put kiwi fruit. Peel the kiwi the same way as you would a melon, top and bottom ends off and then down the sides. You can either make wedges or wheels, (5-6 slices/wedges per fruit) both ways do a good job of exposing that great translucent green interior. Now it is time to paint your base platter with color.

How you do it is totally up to you; I like to do contrasts. So the honeydew will get blue-berries or black-berries and in the cantaloupe I will use the reds of strawberry and raspberry. I like to cut strawberries at least in half to expose the color inside (and also to be sure that I do not serve a worm...got the tee shirt). For that extra special touch you can also "fan" a few strawberries to put around in any place that needs color.

Lastly finish your creation with some clusters of seedless grapes randomly spread around. I love it when the "champagne" or "lunchbox" grapes come out but that is usually only for about a month or less. Another great fruit for topping is Carambola, or star fruit, if you can find it, be sure it is ripe. I am not a big fan of oranges on a tray and I avoid apples and peaches as they oxidize too quickly.

Fruit Platters - A Short Tutorial

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Decorations For a Harvest Festival

!±8± Decorations For a Harvest Festival

Each year, instead of celebrating Halloween, many towns choose to have a Harvest Festival. Harvest Festival is celebrated in autumn, a time of the year when people have harvested all the crops and want to rejoice and give thanks for all the food which has come from the land.

Corn dollies are one of the oldest and most popular decorative items. People have been making corn dollies for thousands of years, out of the last sheaf of corn cut. They believed that the Corn Spirit lives or will be reborn in the straw ornament. The corn doll can be placed at on the table at the harvest banquet. The decorations are kept all through winter, until spring, in order to make sure that the next harvest will be rich.

Many natural things can be used in order to decorate a house or a yard for Harvest Celebration: hay, corn, corn leaves, flowers, dried fruit, nuts, vegetables, etc. For example, a few blocks of hay can be used as the base of the front porch display. You can add big pumpkins, which give a brighter orange look.

Nature is at its richest in this time of year. You can use that to your advantage and make wonderful decorations. You can make the most original floral arrangements using fruit and flowers. Cut a few holes in giant pumpkin then stuff those holes with flowers of all colors. You can also fill the holes with florists foam, then arrange a selection of grass, willow branches and leaves, oranges, seed heads, berries or pomegranates, arranging them as you please.

Vegetables can be used for making all sorts of figurines, like people or animals. Melons can be used as bodies and pumpkins, beetroots, turnips or gourds can be used to make the heads. On the "heads" you can put terracotta pots as hats. Cucumbers, corn or carrots can give good suggestions of legs and arms.

Set your imagination free and transform an ordinary container into a special one. Take a big plain vase and put some double sided tape around it. Then stick plants to the tape: dry twigs, small vegetables, dry fruit, grass and fallen leaves in all the earthy colors. The remaining empty spaces can be filled by sticking grains of sand or small pebbles to the double sided tape. Make the arrangement tighter by securing the plants with string or with raffia. After decorating the vase, feel free to fill it with flowers.

Wonderful decorations can be made on the middle of the table. Put some paper as a base on the table, in order to avoid damaging the polished table top with moisture from the dead leaves. Next, make a carpet of fallen red, yellow, orange and brown leaves. On this colorful carpet, put small branches, acorns, twigs and cones in the shape of a basket, or a bird's nest. In the middle of the seemingly bird's nest, put fruits and vegetables.

For a more extravagant look, you can add some candles here and there, which, when lit, spread a warm and welcoming light all over the table. Create contras in the arrangement, by making a center of shiny red apples or small pumpkins in the middle of a brownish dried carpet of leaves and twigs. Apples can also be used as candle holders, keeping candles in place, because they can be easily carved in almost any shape.

For those who do not want to stick to the traditional, there is a variety of other natural products which can be used for decorating. Bamboo, in lighter colors, can be found at florist's supply shops. Bamboo sticks can be tied together with heat, dried flowers or silk decorations.

Walls and stairs in or outside the house can be decorated with vine wraths. Wraths can be decorated with red, purple or blue ribbons, pine cones and leaves in order to look more glamorous. Door decorations are, of course, the first thing guests notice. In order to make an ornament for the door you need some raffia festive ribbons, plastic or dried oranges, colorful fallen leaves and some glue to make a harvest wreath.

Braid the raffia rope in a loose manner then tie small flowers and oranges in the braided raffia. Make a big ribbon leaving long tails and tie it around the braid. Glue many leaves on the ribbon tails and on the raffia braids, in order to make it look richer and more colorful. You can also glue some moss on the braid, or even grass.

Children like to play games and receive gifts and candy. Children can decorate the paper sacks in which they put prizes and sweets with leaf cutouts. Children can also help decorating, especially because they have the most fun doing it. For example, they can make paper bag pumpkins for themselves. For this, they need a brown paper bag, some orange and green acrylic paint, scissors, a brush, a sheet of construction paper and some pieces of raffia or green string.

The first thing is painting the outside of the paper bag with orange acrylic paint. The top part of the inside will be painted with green paint. After the paint is dry, this top section will be cut with the scissors in order to make small fringes. Small pieces of yellow construction paper can be glued on the bag in order to make it resemble faces or jack-o'-lanterns.

If the bag is going to be used as decoration, it can be filled with crumpled pieces of newspaper. If not, kids can fill them with chocolate, candy canes, fruit or small toys which they receive. After the bag has been filled, kids can tie them with string or with green raffia. If you wish to place the pumpkin bags outside, you should give them some weight by putting a few cups of sand at the bottom before filling it with newspaper or candy.

Decorations For a Harvest Festival

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