Top 5 Cake-Decorating Tips

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1. Always place cake to be decorated on a serving platter with several narrow strips of waxed paper under the edges of the cake to protect the plate. When finished frosting, gently pull out the waxed paper.

2. Brush off any excess crumbs from the cake. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake to "set" the rest, then apply the final frosting and/or decorations.

3. Use paste food coloring to get the most vivid colors. Gradually add color to frosting with a toothpick.

4. Stand narrow end of decorating bag in measuring cup or drinking glass when filling. Fill bag halfway with frosting for easier handling. (Note: A sturdy self-sealing plastic bag makes a good substitute for a decorating bag.)

5. Hold decorating tip close to the surface of your cake and squeeze bag with even pressure. Use your other hand to keep bag steady.

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Top 5 Hobby Websites

A hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit. While some hobbies strike many people as trivial or boring, hobbyists have found something compelling and entertaining about them. Some popular hobbies are collecting, cooking, gardening, reading, and more.

The best websites to discover a new hobby are:

1. eHobbies
2. Fastacks
3. Hobbyweb
4. Internet hobbies
5. Hobby Town USA

You can also check out Hobby Lobby and get a $200 gift card for free!

Free Propellerhead Reason 4?

Get your Propellerhead Reason 4

I've been using Propellerhead's Reason since its first incarnation back in 2000. Reason houses a virtual studio rack loaded with great sounding gear and an easy-to-use sequencer. The samplers and synthesizers provide me with an arsenal of useful sounds while the effects and signal processors give me everything I need to mix and master my songs. To this day I'm amazed with the sound quality I get from Reason, and it's no wonder I keep going back again and again. For my needs, no other program is as versatile or intuitive, which is why I use it on nearly every project. Whether it's rock, hip-hop, or even classical, my songs always come together faster and sound better when I use Reason. When I want to add guitars, vocals or other live instruments, I simply ReWire Reason to Pro Tools and I've got the best of both worlds working simultaneously.

For those of us who appreciate the ability to work within the virtual environment, using familiar "real world" tools, Reason is indispensable. For instance: the Reason rack can be flipped around, revealing all the various connections on each device, while routing is accomplished by connecting the devices with animated patch cables. It is a truly surreal experience, which begs the question "Why isn't everybody doing this?"

New in Reason 4, the Thor Polyphonic Synthesizer blew me away with its intense sounds and extreme flexibility. The presets alone were jaw dropping, let alone the sheer amount of editable parameters for manipulating them. I was also very impressed with the newly revamped sequencer. I am always impressed with Propellerhead's ability to integrate new features without creating a massive learning curve for their users. Other new features like the RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator and ReGroove Mixer inspire creative new ways for building tracks, while classic devices like Subtractor and Malstrom continue to hold their own as some of the best sounding recreations of analog gear to date.

For better or worse. Till death do us part. They'll be prying this piece of software from my cold dead hands. I don't need "a" reason to live... I need Reason 4 by Propellerhead to live.

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Free Xyron Wishblade?

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The Xyron Wishblade cutting machine comes with software that makes welding words, creating shadows, auto-tracing items for simple cropping, fast and effortless! Take a look at the video to find more about it.

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Free Cricut Create Personal Cutting Machine?

Get a Free Cricut Create Personal Cutting Machine

Provo Craft, craft & hobby industry leaders and creators of thepopular Cricut devices, today announced the latest addition to theline: the Cricut Create(TM) personal cutting machine.

The Cricut Create combines the portability of the original Cricutwith many of the features of the Cricut Expression(R). Like theoriginal Cricut(R), the Cricut Create weighs around 10 pounds and isabout the size of a typical home printer. But unlike the original, theCricut Create allows cuts from 0.25" up to 11.5" on a 6" x 12" cuttingmat and also has several features previously available only with theCricut Expression.

The Cricut Create is perfect for the crafter that needsheavy-duty output from a lightweight machine, whether at home, on theroad or in the classroom," said Tonia Conger, Provo Craft's directorof marketing. "We see it as the next logical step in empowering womento express their creativity in the most unique ways possible.

Borrowing from the Cricut Expression, the Cricut Create offers a portrait mode, an auto-fill mode, fit-to-page mode, a center pointfunction and flip function. The Cricut Create is compatible with allcartridges as well as the new Cricut Jukebox(TM) and CricutDesignStudio(TM) software.

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Free Family Tree Maker 2008?

Get Your Free Family Tree Maker 2008

Family Tree Maker 2008 is the friendliest genealogy program on the market. The design gives you a fast start on building your family tree and promotes the most vigorous growth over time. The layout is efficient, the tree theme is engaging, and the prompts are effective. Here is a program that makes genealogy easy, accurate and rewarding. It comes with a 6 month subscription to Ancestry.com, the leading online site for genealogy research.

Features Set

Family Tree Maker is organized differently than other programs. Seven screens or workspaces are available for different tasks. Most of your work will be done in the People Workspace. One screen, three views: pedigree, family and individual. You can easily customize both individual and shared facts for a person by selecting from a comprehensive list including religious rites and retirement dates.

Bonus Features
Gain understanding of the events that may have shaped the lives of your relatives. Easily add significant world events to an individual’s timeline with one click. Wars, major achievements and natural disasters are listed by year with the individual’s age at the time of the event.

Ease of Use

The layout and design is attractive and intuitive with helpful prompts at every step: importing, adding people, researching potential new members, and reporting. Unlike other programs, the primary Workspace—People—combines the family and pedigree view along with the highlighted individual’s personal information.

Help and documentation

Family Tree Maker 2008 video tutorials are well produced, designed to jumpstart the complex process of genealogical research. Once you get started, the program has built-in prompts and an extensive searchable help section. Online, you’ll find a searchable knowledge base, user forum and customer service.

Summary

A beautifully designed program seamlessly integrated with a huge database will inspire the genealogist. The emphasis is on discovery—growing your tree with minimal frustration and maximum accuracy. If you’re searching for a family program, this is the one.

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Free Imagine Line Fl Studio 8?

Get your free Imagine Line FL Studio 8

This new version has many new features and changes. Some key new features:

1. FL Synthmaker is a fully modular environment where you can create & share your own FL instruments, effects & dashboards, all without the need to write basic code in a modular 'plug-n-go' workspace.
2. One-click-recording using Edison wave editor plugin. Edison ia a fully integrated audio editing and recording tool with spectral analysis, convolution reverb, loop-recording and more.
3. Slicex, the powerhouse drumloop slicer & re-arranging tool.
   Soundgoodizer is a 'maximizer-enhancer' plugin based on the Maximus sound-process engine.
4. Fruity Limiter for maximizing & compressing final mixes or individual tracks. Free to all users.
5. Better integration with controllers. FL Studio can permanently learn and remember links to external controllers with the new ‘multilink’ function + 'Override generic links' option.
   Wave Candy, a flexible audio analysis and visualization tool with Oscilloscope, Spectrum Analyzer and Peak Meter.
6. Sinc interpolation now faster (64 point sinc now usable in real-time, depending on CPU)
7. Rendering with improved latency compensation
8. Score logger, records all MIDI & note activity for instant recall. Everything you play, whether or not recording is active, is captured and ready to be dumped to the Piano roll.
9. Directwave Player, broaden your musical palette with downloadable sound banks and multi-sample sets.
10. Recording filter, to select Audio, Automation or Note data recording sessions, independently or in any combination.
11. Slip editing and resizing tool has been added to the Playlist for all clip types.
12. Multi-core safe plugins are threaded for performance gain on multi-core CPUs.
13. A 'Selected mixer track' has been added to the Mixer. The selected mixer track is routed there for better integration with visual effects or a recording Edison.
14. FL8 supports track-based sequencing in the Playlist. Pattern Clips present sequence data as Audio and/or Automation Clips
15. An 'Online Panel', to keep users updated with content and patches.

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