SORRY CAN'T TALK BOSS BATTLE

To do this you need:

quilting cotton fabric, any pattern you like. Nothing too heavyweight!

heat and bond iron-on interfacing (link is amazon; your local fabric retailers should have it. Buy local if you can!)

an iron and ironing board

a computer, with access to www.photopea.com or an image editor of your choosing.

a cricut or other cutting machine that works with sticky mats to feed material.

A roll of vinyl transfer tape--you can do this project without it, but it will be easier with.

To begin, make your design in your image editor. You want large, single color, relatively simple shapes on a transparent background. I have a 12x24 cutting mat, so I made my image 11.5x23.5. Export it as a PNG, and then upload it into design space or whatever application runs your cricut or cutting machine.

Prepare your fabric by cutting it to the size of your mat. For me, that's rectangles of 12x24 material. Also cut the same size out of heat-and-bond. DO NOT REMOVE THE BACKING PAPER FROM THE HEAT AND BOND. Once you've got rectangles of fabric and rectangles of heat and bond, attach the heat and bond to the fabric with an iron.

Prepare your sticky mat by attaching a layer of vinyl transfer tape face-down, so the sticky side is up when you remove the backing paper. This will prevent the fabric from leaving lint all over the mat, and the backing paper for heat and bond is very prone to tearing--without the transfer paper, you'll be cleaning your mats a lot between every cutting.

Stick the heat and bonded fabric face-up on the mat, so the paper backing of the heat and bond is adhered to the transfer tape. Smooth out to remove bubbles. And then load the mat into your cricut! I've got an explore air 2 (several years old now) and I used my normal blade at its deepest cut settings, and fire away. (Designs do not need to be mirrored.) Before removing your finished cut from the sheet, double check that the blade has gone all the way through and you will not need a second pass-I never did, but check just in case!

Peel everything off the mat, discarding the paper backing/transfer paper layers, then iron your fabric designs onto your bunting! If you want things to be really durable, you can sew the edges down like a normal applique, but for bunting, I didn't feel it was necessary.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

Lying to the reader

Lying to themselves

Simply misinformed

Not paying attention

Has weird priorities

Assumed you knew

Hates you personally

Bad at communicating

Easily sidetracked

Will believe anything

Has weird prejudices

That said, sometimes your body and brain do genuinely just need a pick me up.

The more frequently you practice intuitive eating like this, the better you'll get at figuring out what it is that your body is asking for.

Also, a great trick is to take a look at what you're craving, note the nutritional contents (fat, carbs, protein, plant matter/fiber) and try and figure out what else sounds tasty for your particular craving. This can give you more data points to go off of. For instance, if you're craving ice cream, but a sweet roll sounds just as good, it's probably carbs your body is asking you for. That said, if you're craving ice cream and a sweet roll doesn't sound good at all BUT a bagel with strawberry cream cheese or avocado toast DOES sound good, you know it's fat you're needing.

Another design is using 2 20x25x1 filters, taping them to the sides of the box fan and then to each other so they sort of make a triangle, then cutting cardboard to make a top and bottom to the triangle.

This was discovered as a more effective design during the 2020 US west coast fires.

https://tombuildsstuff.blogspot.com/2013/06/better-box-fan-air-purifier.html