How to make gift bags from newspaper When I bought something at a store recently, the clerk handed me my purchase in a bag made from a newspaper. I liked it very much and had to make some more—thus today's DIY recycled newspaper project: gift bags made from the Wall Street Journal. You can vary the dimensions, of course, but here's what I used to create a bag that's 5" tall, 4.5" wide, and 3" deep. Stack two sheets of newspaper on top of each other. This will be a two-ply bag for extra sturdiness. Cut out a rectangle that's 15.5" wide and 8.25" tall. Fold a flap 1.25" down from the top. Cut two pieces of cardstock or chipboard to 4.25" x 1", then glue them on the widest two panels just under the top fold. Put glue on the outside of the 0.5" tab and bring the left-most panel over to form the body of the bag, aligning the cut edge of the panel with the folded edge of the flap. Upend the bag so the 2" flap is now up. Put glue on both flaps and fold them inward to form the bottom of the bag.
Alibaba Discounts TVs to Woo 193 Million Chinese Online Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is taking a new approach to boosting sales online: paying its customers to cut their prices. China’s biggest e-commerce company plans to spend 300 million yuan ($47 million) on summer promotions for goods ranging from iPhones to televisions to air-conditioners sold through its Tmall. The website, which operates a marketplace similar to EBay Inc. (EBAY:US)’s, is subsidizing its vendors’ deals for their customers. The program steps up Alibaba’s battle with online rivals 360Buy.com and Tencent Holdings Ltd. (700) for China’s Internet shoppers, estimated at 193 million by Boston Consulting Group. “They are taking money out of their own pockets and helping clients slash their prices to steal users from 360Buy,” said Michael Clendenin, managing director of research company RedTech Advisors. Under the program, which is focused on electronics, vendors on Tmall can apply to the Alibaba unit for subsidies to make up for discounts. “Copycats never survive,” he said.
Getting Started with The GIMP: an informal tutorial The tutorials at the GIMP site are very good: There are at least two books available online: the GIMP User's Manual, aka GIMP: The Official Handbook available at and Grokking the GIMP available at Of the two, I definitely favour the latter: it's fairly straight-forward, while I find the former difficult to use online and sometimes overly complex. Two other good books on the subject are Alex Harford's GIMP: Essential Reference, published in 2000 by New Riders, and Michael Hammel's Essential GIMP for Web Professionals published in 2001 by Prentice Hall PTR. The GIMP plugin registry at
Shakespeare Insult Kit Shakespeare Insult Kit Since 1996, the origin of this kit was listed as anonymous. It came to me on a piece of paper in the 90's with no attribution, and I thought it would make a cool web page. Though I searched for the origin, I could never find it. In 2014, Lara M informed found the originating author. Combine one word from each of the three columns below, prefaced with "Thou": My additions: cullionly whoreson knave fusty malmsey-nosed blind-worm caluminous rampallian popinjay wimpled lily-livered scullian burly-boned scurvy-valiant jolt-head misbegotten brazen-faced malcontent odiferous unwash'd devil-monk poisonous bunch-back'd toad fishified leaden-footed rascal Wart-necked muddy-mettled Basket-Cockle pigeon-liver'd scale-sided Back to the insulter. Chris Seidel
25 clever ideas to make life easier Via: amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com Why didn’t I think of that?! We guarantee you’ll be uttering those words more than once at these ingenious little tips, tricks and ideas that solve everyday problems … some you never knew you had! (Above: hull strawberries easily using a straw). Via: apartmenttherapy.com Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings and scrapes. Via: unplggd.com Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or computer screen with WD40 (also works on walls). Via: athomewithrealfood.blogspot.com Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box by securing with a rubber band. Via: marthastewart.com Overhaul your linen cupboard – store bedlinen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be no more hunting through piles for a match. Via: realsimple.com Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone / iPod in a bowl – the concave shape amplifies the music. Via: savvyhousekeeping.com Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags. Via: iheartnaptime.net
Increase Your Cash Flow by Inventing Pet Toys Excerpted from by Joseph Nigro and Nicholas Nigro ©2007 Through the years at Pet Nosh, our most reliable seller in the packaged cat toy department was—hands down—the Cat Dancer. For lack of a better description, this “toy” consisted of a coiled steel spring with a few petite strips of rolled-up cardboard attached to its “play” end. You could be the next cat toy inventor. To invent a cat toy and successfully market it will require a sizeable investment when you feel you have a product that can sell in the marketplace. Foremost, you have to have a good idea and the capacity to turn that idea into more than that. Foremost, as a budding cat toy inventor, you would be wise to comb the aisles of pet-specialty retailers and see what’s out there and selling on their myriad shelves and pegboards. Take your winning creation to cat trade shows, craft fairs, flea markets, and gift shows. Inventing a dog toy needn’t break the bank. • Rubber toys • Plush toys • Ball toys • Durable toys • Nylon toys
2. Image Structure Related Dialogs The following dialogs let you control and manipulate image structures, such as layers, channels, or paths. Figure 15.1. Layers Dialog The “Layers” dialog is the main interface to edit, modify and manage your layers. Figure 15.2. 2.1.1. The “Layers” dialog is a dockable dialog; see the section Section 2.3, “Dialogs and Docking” for help on manipulating it. You can access it: from the image menu: → → ; from the Tab menu in any dockable dialog by clicking on and selecting → , from the (default) shortcut: Ctrl+L. In the menu, there is a list of detached windows which exists only if at least one dialog remains open. 2.1.2. Overview Every layer appears in the dialog in the form of a thumbnail. Layer attributes Every layer is shown in the list along with its attributes: Layer visibility In front of the thumbnail is an icon showing an eye. Chain layers Another icon, showing a chain, allows you to group layers for operations on more than one layer at a time (for example with the Move tool). Mode
How to Write Better: 7 Instant Fixes Does your writing stand out? Do you worry whether your writing is good enough? I can see you nodding your head. You are not alone. Every writer has doubts about his or her writing. The good thing is that writing is a journey. On this journey, you can either travel the long road – or use shortcuts. Using shortcuts means learning to spot and fix mistakes in order to write better. Here are seven instant fixes that will improve your writing. But … what is good writing? Inexperienced writers think that ‘good’ writing is elaborate. No, good writing is simple. 1: The art of natural Check out an example of elaborate writing below (I’ve sourced examples of writing from free Kindle books chosen at random). This is from a story about a young girl who is at home with her young brother when a thunderstorm strikes. An ebony abyss claimed the den. I take this to mean, “The room went dark.” Maybe the author consulted a Thesaurus to create a sentence with special words. Your words should sound natural. Careful!
I feel melty. | Light&Spoon EDIT 11/5/2012: We are no longer selling custom crayon pieces in our Etsy shop. We are now focusing on a new jewelry project, so please check that out and we hope you enjoy the tutorial below! Edit: We are now selling custom crayon pieces in our Etsy shop! If you have questions about commissioning your own artwork, please see the shop or email us at lightandspoon@gmail.com. Here’s our contribution to the melted crayon craze on Pinterest. Anyway! He filled in in with marker, and then we taped some saran wrap around a piece of cardstock to make a run-off barrier for the top of the umbrella. We pulled out all the blues and greys from three boxes we got on sale for $2.50 each at A.C. Then it was just a matter of putting the crayons through the gun–the pretty-but-stupid impulse-buy glue gun that barely works, so I didn’t ruin my good one. The hardest part was removing the guard and fixing the wax around it. Yay! Like this: Like Loading...