'Puff Pride!

I've just added some awesome Hogwarts house banners to my Etsy shop!

Now, which one should you buy?

For those brave at heart, whose daring, nerve and chivalry set them apart, 

Gryffindor!

Roar, wild Gryffindor lions!

For those who value intelligence, creativity, learning, and wit,

Ravenclaw!

Fly high, fierce Ravenclaw eagles!

For those who believe Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness,

Slytherin!

Slither on, crafty Slytherin snakes!

For those who value hard work, patience, justice, and loyalty,

Hufflepuff!

Uh... dig ... stripey...Hufflepuff badgers?

Yes, I made a Hufflepuff banner, too,
even though Hufflepuff is the butt of just about every House joke on the the internets.

Oh, sure, you'll get an occasional Chin Up, Hufflepuff! message:

But they are vastly outnumbered by another take on the "Canada of Houses" posts:

Even pop culture joins in, as with this Halloween scene from Modern Family:

Et tu, Phil? 
 Et tu?

I mean, I'm not kidding myself.
I'm a Hufflepuff, and this rings painfully true:

But we 'Puffs can claim some pretty illustrious alumni!

This guy was in Hufflepuff, before he got all sparkly and stalker-y!

(Oh, Cedric Diggory, your death was in the top five of those that ruined me!*)

And THE QUEEN, J.K Rowling herself,
has some kind words for Hufflepuff:

So, yeah.  'Puff Pride!

And we should remember these wise words:

So hoist your Hufflepuff banner with pride!

**********************************


* For the record, the Harry Potter deaths, in order of tears shed are:

5. Nymphadora Tonks 
4. Cedric Diggory
3. Severus Snape
2. Fred Weasley
1. Dobby the House Elf **






** And also for the record,
it has been more than five years since I read about Dobby's burial 
( "Here Lies Dobby, A Free Elf"! Ron taking off his shoes and putting them on Dobby!), 
and I still can't talk about it without crying.

Sniff!!  RIP Dobby!

Time To Par-tay!

The Sweet Man recently celebrated his fiftieth birthday.

I guessed he didn't want a Princess Party...

... and he certainly didn't deserve this:

I thought about what he liked, and hit upon Grumpy Cat!

I picked a photo, and took out the color and made it lower contrast.

Then I played around in Word*** until I had a letter on top of each picture.

I cut out the images, punched two holes in the top of each,

strung yarn through them, and voila!

It looked awesome.

I also used Grumpy Cat's image on the Sweet Man's birthday card,

got him one of these mugs...

...and set one of these little paper dudes in front of his presents:

(Click the link to download and make your own Grumpy Cat!)

This party experience made me think of other meme-related opportunities for banners.

What about instead of a lame stork theme,

you decorated a baby shower around the Ermahgerd! girl?

You could make a banner with Ermahgerd!  Berbees!,

have everyone bring their favorite baby Berk! as a gift,

and ask for people to wear pigtails.

(Hey, I'd wear pigtails.)

And what about Darwin the Ikea monkey for a going-away banner?

The banner could read "Miss You Already"

and presents could be wrapped with homemade Darwin wrapping paper:

In addition to a banner, it would be cool to blow this image up,

and use it as a photo-booth background!

I think even Grumpy Cat would approve.

***I have Word 2003, so it might be easier/different for you to make the banner images,

but here's what I did.  I wouldn't doubt there's an easier way, but I was messing around without the Sweet Man's help:

1)  I pasted/inserted however many images I needed, at the size I wanted.  I made them so there were two per landscape 8 1/2" by 11" sheet... or at least I tried.  Word kept fighting me, so I often only had one per page. 

2) After the images, I made as many letters I needed to spell out the message.  I made them red, so they would pop against the grey and white image.  It would probably be easier at this point to make your viewing 25%, so you can see what you're doing.

3) One at a time, I clicked on an image, went to Format, chose Picture from the drop-down, and then chose Layout.  Once at Layout, I chose Behind Text.  Before I moved onto the next image...

4) I copied the a letter and pasted it on top of the image.  The image kept moving around, but it should have the box around it so that you can grab it and move so the letter is centered.  (You'll want to chose "center" for the alignment.)

If you're still having trouble, you could try running the paper through your printer twice, once for the image and once for the letters.  It would take some futzing around,

but it would be doable.