Give Color to Your Party With Blue Birthday Invitations

By Trevor Mulholland

Parties are designed to be special - and if they're not, they should be! Birthday parties should be especially memorable, and representative of the celebrant's tastes and preferences. Birthday parties that have a theme end up being more memorable than most - character birthday parties, retro birthday parties, candle parties, paintball parties, and color-themed birthday parties among them. If your celebrant's favorite color happens to be blue, having a blue theme for your party and your invitations is bound to be a hit. Blue birthday invitations should be part of the planning stage.

Blue may be a sad color, but it doesn't have to be if you're going to use it as a birthday theme. There are many shades of blue, after all - light, dark, somber and vibrant. If you're using a blue color for your decor, giveaways and even your icing, you should use a light and happy shade of it. Blue birthday invitations are no exception.

Light-colored blue party invitations may still seem happy and light-hearted. Light blue and white are easy colors to mix and they could create a comfortable, easy atmosphere. Light blue being the most dominant color in an invitation made out of pastel colors would still make for a great blue invitation.

The choice of graphics also matter. Even if you want your invitation to be made out in monochrome, the pictures and clipart that you use would help a lot in setting the mood for your invitation. If you want your invitation to look fun, make sure to include balloons, cakes, gift boxes and even confetti made out in light blue colors. Glitter or blue foil is also an option - an invitation made of shiny blue material makes for a cheery invitation.

For invitations that have a more formal approach, feel free to use darker shades of blue. Dark may be offset with lighter neutral colors like gray, white or silver. Silver is especially elegant, so if you want a blue birthday invitation for an important event, such as a debut or a 50th birthday party, silver glitter, foil or ribbons would make for excellent additions to monochrome invitations.

A photo of the celebrant would also be a great addition to any invitation of any color scheme. Tone the shade of the blue coloring down to either the shade that the celebrant would most approve of, or a shade that best represents what the celebrant wants the party to feel like. Get the "mood" of the party right. This is always a mark of a good invitation.

And of course, the lettering also matters. Even with a blue coloring, you may control the mood of your blue birthday invitations - you can make it happy, sad, formal, informal, quirky or serious. It's all up to how you make blue work for you.

Find loads of birthday invitation information and advice, articles and blue birthday invitations at your #1 Birthday invitation resource: http://www.birthday-invite.com

The Color to Clear Skin - 1 Colorful Way to be Acne-Free

By Jack Venta

There is a color that is the key to getting clear acne-free skin. Eating this color of food provides your body with ANTI-ACNE nutrients that will kill your acne...

Acne is NOT IMPOSSIBLE to clear. It simply requires that you eat certain foods, and that you avoid other foods. If you have acne, and you don't change your diet you have a VERY SMALL chance of clearing your acne. I know this from personal experience...

I suffered from acne for many years, and tried literally hundreds of different ways to clear my skin - all of which didn't work! I tried antibiotics, accutane, all the different over-the-counters, all the topicals, cleanser systems and acids, all the fasting and cleansing with apples I could take and none of these provided me with clear skin.

It wasn't until I changed my diet that I experienced a real clear up of my acne. So what did I do? Well one of the things I did was eat more food of the color GREEN. That's right, foods like vegetables! And no, not green sweets or anything like that!. So I highly recommend that you to eat as much green vegetables as possible to clear up your skin.

Most people's diet does not contain nearly enough vegetables, and this manifests in many ways, including acne. So eat up your greens for beautiful clear skin - they contain so many nutrients that are proven to clear your acne. For more information on how to clear up your acne visit my free website now

Jack Venta has set up a free website for you that reviews the best acne cures available and reveals how he cured his acne 100% within 1 week. Check out his website at Acne Solved right now.

The Beryl Gem With the Color of the Sea - Aquamarine

By Chris Ralph

Aquamarine, the "gem of the sea", does not come from the ocean, but derives its name from from the color of "sea water". The reference is obvious: aqua sparkles like the sea and its color is pale to medium blue, sometimes trending to a light green color. Aquamarine is the birthstone for March. Aquamarine is always a pastel blue to blue green, but the darker the color, the more valued it is. Many folks prefer a pure blue, with no green in it, however the greenish colors are also very beautiful.

It is a relatively hard gemstone, 8 on the Mohs scale, and possesses moderate brilliance. Because the color is generally pale, larger stones show their color best. Aquamarine should also have a good clarity. If you are looking for a big, durable gemstone, aqua is readily available in larger sizes and is truly dramatic when cut in rectangular or oval shapes. These stones are also often cut in emerald or step cuts. More saturated colors are unusual in small sizes: usually it takes a stone of some size for the color to appear as a darker shade. Aquamarine is a durable and lively gemstone that is appropriate for all jewelry uses. Its pale fire is flattering to most skin tones.

Aquamarine can occur in very large clean hexagonal crystals, and are even found as bi-colors with other beryl minerals such as morganite. The coloring element to produce the beautiful blue green color is iron, which is substituted for aluminum in the crystal structure. The gem forms special in geological formations known as pegmatites. Most of the best and largest crystals form in open vugs, also known as pockets, associated with crystals of quartz and feldspar.

Aquamarine is found in Brazil, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola, Nigeria, Afghanistan and other countries, but Brazil is overwhelmingly the major source.. The principal producer of aquamarine has been Brazil but in more recent times Zambia, Mozambique and Nigeria have been producing very fine quality stones. Some very dark blue aquamarine is also being mined in India. The largest high quality gem crystal ever discovered, mined in the early 1900's, was a 200-kilogram crystal found in Brazil. It was so clean that one could read newsprint through it! Some Aquamarine continues to be produced in smaller quantities, but it has been years since large quantities have come to the market.

This gemstone has been popular for centuries, but received new vigor during the early 1970's. As a result, the price has remained stable or has increased even during recessionary times.
Twenty years ago the demand for aqua was small, and the material was quite inexpensive.
Today the finest gems may wholesale for well over $1,000 per carat. Fine quality aquamarine in sizes over 10 carats is not abundant. Commercial stones tend to be pale blue or pale blue-green, while investment-grade material is deeper blue, and of a medium to dark tone. The pervasive demand for aquamarine in the jewelry marketplace, however, indicates that all grades can ultimately be used for adornment and provides an excellent secondary market potential.

Intensity of color and clarity are the most essential considerations in evaluating Aquamarine.
Aquamarine of pale colors is most commonly seen in commercial jewelry stores, but stones of a good deep blue color are considered far more valuable than the pale ones. It should posses at least a bright sky blue color at a minimum. Exceptionally deep and vivid blue, to blue green colors are very scarce and becoming increasingly valuable. As part of the normal finishing process, many aquamarines are heated to remove traces of yellow and permanently intensify the blue color. Some aquamarine occurs in a blue/green color and even a pure green color, these are sometimes heat-treated to a temperature of 600-1200 degrees Fahrenheit to produce a pure blue color. This treatment is permanent and accepted in the trade as standard. All gem quality aquamarine should be well-cut and free of any inclusions.

For photos and more information on the varieties of aquamarine gems, see the author’s website at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Encyclopedia_pages/Aquamarine.htm

The author has an entire set of web pages which are devoted to providing information about the world of gemstones. His gemstone information Encyclopedia page can be seen at:
http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Encyclopedia_pages/Gemstone_Encyclopedia.htm

Chris Ralph writes on small scale mining and prospecting for the ICMJ Mining Journal. He is a rock hound and prospector and owns his own turquoise mines in Nevada. His website on gemstones and jewelry can be viewed at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com