It’s my cousin’s birthday today … & I usually send her a Halloween birthday card. I seem to remember her saying that her Dad always used to give her a Halloween card, so I just sort of started doing that too.

I added some piercing to the card, otherwise it’s a CAS (Clean and Simple) one …

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Yup - 11 years old today.  I haven’t taken a picture of her yet today, so am posting one from August. We gave her a new toy - and it looks like Cooper is going to love it. Ha ha - he grabbed it and took off with it. Brandi’s morning routine is to get up and have breakfast & a pee … then find a cozy spot to nap until at least late morning. Playing with a toy - new or not - isn’t part of her mornings anymore. So Cooper is happy happy happy! No worries - Brandi is still in charge of the crew, and when she is up and ready — she will be claiming that toy.

I also wanted to share a picture of those poinsettias I made last week. I saw them on a project by Melanie Muenchinger, in the November 2009 Cardmaker magazine … and since I had most of the items required to make them already I wanted to give them a whirl. They turned out SO pretty! The poinsettias are about 1-1/4 inches across.

You may be able to see in the photo, that the flowers themselves are made of a pearlized paper — I cut a green flower into 3 parts and attached the 3 pieces to the back of the stacked white ones, to resemble leaves. They will be nice additions to Christmas cards, and I guess I had better get going on those!

Didn’t catch any mice last night, so maybe we have got the last of them now. This weekend I will get the drawers and under the sink all bleached and everything put back. I want my counters back!!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Years ago I had a daily calendar by Mary Engelbright. I did end up recycling some of the cute pages into cards, and this is one that I sent to a long time pen-pal this year:

The card itself is black cardstock, and the front of the card was embossed with the pumpkin Cuttlebug embossing folder and edged with a gold metallic pen. The calendar piece was trimmed with deckle scissors, matted then attached with foam tape.

We didn’t catch any more mice - so far we have caught three - but I am not convinced that is all of them. Tonight we will have to refresh the trap bait, and I want to put a few traps in the basement too. First we have to figure out a way to keep the dogs out of the basement ones.

Training class for Cooper went OK last night. Larry (instructor) was a little distracted I thought, but Cooper did WAY better than last class. I got there early and had him “heel” in the room before anyone else arrived. We are at the point where the dogs should be automatically sitting beside you when you stop … and Cooper hardly ever sits even after the ’sit’ command! So I’ve been ‘placing’ him in a sit, and thinking that Cooper is definitely not on Larry’s timeline. Ha - turns out most of the other dogs  are doing the same thing. This week - no more ‘placing’ — they get a correction instead. Cooper actually sat one time when I stopped -not in the right spot, but hey - he sat and I was pretty proud of him. And I know he can do it!! This week we work on “stay”, which I’m excited about. That one comes in really handy — and Cooper’s stay lasts about a nanosecond right now.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Here are some pictures of the card I sent to Sue this month. It was one of the ScorBoard challenges for World Card Making Day (hey - I don’t make this stuff up), but we were away and I couldn’t get the card done and uploaded in time for the deadline. However, I was enjoying the uploads in the galleries and just knew I wanted to try this one when I got home. It’s called an “Upright Z fold” card…

Ahhhhh this witch stamp. She’s from “A Stamp In The Hand” and I’ve had her for years. She makes me smile every time I open my Halloween stamp drawer. She was stamped in black Momento ink, and colour added with Copic markers. Then I cut her out to 3-d her with foam tape.  If you look at the black bottom strip, you will see that it has been embossed with one of the Cuttlebug embossing border folders. They are a bit tricky to use (well for ME), but I do like the effect! I also like the effect of Prismacolor pencil crayons on a black background.

The moon is also by “A Stamp In The Hand” - done by Kevin Nakagawa when he was still with him. If you are unfamiliar with his work, he has an entire catalogue of scenic images all designed to work together seamlessly … Stampscapes.  One of these days, I’m going to take an entire week and just play with my Stampscapes images … and when I need a break I will sit and let the gorgeous samples from their gallery be my inspiration. Oh, the trees are by Crazy Stamps.

PrintWorks makes the greeting for this card … hope you liked it! It was lots of fun to make … and I’m thinking this would make a fun gift-card holder for birthdays or Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by today.

This was the third and final ATC I put in Sue’s “first of the month” envelope. Hopefully I will get to post the pictures of the card I made for her tomorrow - it’s kinda cool! If you haven’t downloaded my Blog Freebie “Candy Corn”, remember you can still snag it HERE.

The Scary circle on this ATC was done with the Halloween (don’t know it’s official name right now) Cuttlebug embossing folder. I brayered orange ink on the top of the cuttlebug folder, then ran a lighter shade of orange cardstock through. I like the shading this gives the embossed pieces! I punched one of the circles out of the embossed piece then attached it to the rest of the ATC with foam tape. The black background was done with the Herringbone embossing folder … the first time I’ve used it!

Caught a mouse during the night, so that was a plus. We haven’t caught any since Friday  so at least we know this kind of trap works.

 Thanks for stopping by today.

EEEEWWWW - the mice have made up up the inside back of the cabinets and there were droppings in my silverware tray this morning. I am about ready to take the dogs and head to the cabin until this is cleared up. They managed to lick some of the peanut butter (and the Cheez Whiz - they apparently like both) but didn’t set off the traps. I am heading off to Canadian Tire to get MORE traps, different ones … and some of those (awful) pellets. I’m sorry but I just can’t deal with this any other way. UG - I’ve had the heebie jeebies in my kitchen for almost a week now!

I immediately slammed the drawer shut this morning (ok, and let out a little yell too), but I am going to have to go in there and get everything in to the dishwasher at some point. Not right away though — I had to calm myself down. How did I do that? I made some cute little poinsettias out of white bridal flowers, green ones cut apart for leaves and some bling. :-)  I will post pictures once I’ve taken them, ha ha. They are going to be SO cute on cards and tags.

Here is the 2nd ATC I put in Sue’s “first of the month” envelope…

Oh, and I found a simple pattern (simple meaning I can follow it) for some cute cute CUTE little crochet flowers, so I am going to try my hand at those too. People have been using them on cards for the past year or so — there are several on-line shops on Etsy that carry them. I’m finally running after the bandwagon. :-)  Better late than never! Pattern can be found HERE.

Have a great Monday - thanks for stopping by.

I sent Sue’s November first mailing early as I wanted to do a Halloween theme and it’s no fun opening Halloween goodies on Novemer 1st! This is one (of three) of the ATCs I sent …

While on the subject of Halloween - remember my BLOG FREEBIE is still available!!

I have some NEW TOYS coming. Woo Hoo!!!!!  I’m so darned excited I think I’m getting a cold sore — lol - my body is interpreting the excitement as stress. Sheesh!

Ahhhh, gotta love Ebay!I ran into an old acquaintance at Michaels the other day, when I was staring at the 40% off Sizzix dies and trying to decide if I really wanted or needed any of the ones that were there. She couldn’t believe that with all the cardmaking I do - even for hybrid scrapbooking - that I didn’t own a Cricut.  I just laughed and said I’d been thinking about one for months, trying to decide if that was what I wanted for Christmas. But they are SO expensive, and I just wasn’t sure if I would use it. Well - she and I craft about the same, and when she said I had to have it - I believed her.  :-)  And it took some convincing - really it did! But she was able to answer all my questions - including where the best place to buy one that wasn’t going to cost me a small fortune.

Suddenly I was running into Cricut owners! While I was staring at the Cricut supplies at Walmart, trying to wrap my head around the whole idea … a shopper excused herself to reach in front of me for a cutting mat. Well - she was also more than happy to answer my questions! And confirm that YES I needed one.  Okeydokey then…

I won a bid on Ebay for half the price the machine is here in Canada, AND it comes with TWO cartridges. Plus, the kids have said they would each be happy to give me a cartridge for Christmas and told me to ‘bid away’.

But there is more … while searching for online video tutorials for the Cricut — FINALLY - one of the crafters gave the name of their tape gun. I have seen them in demos online for a couple of years, but could never figure out who made them or where in the world to find them. It’s made by Scotch … and it’s main target is FRAMERS. Well … that would explain why I could never find them at online scrapbook stores, card maker suppliers or even Office Depot!

Back to Ebay … and now I have one of those coming too. That is not a Christmas gift, that is a TOOL. One I will use for every card or gift box I make — I’m just SOOOO excited!

We are going out for breakfast this morning - a rare treat - so I’d better hop in the shower.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Ahhhh - getting up early has it’s perks…

Have a wonderful Saturday! Thanks for stopping by.

I found this cute pumpkin stamp in the bargain bin ($1.50) at Michaels — and it was perfect for colouring in with my Copic markers! Here are three of the cards I made with it…

Note the striped background paper on the last two cards? I printed off paper from my Candy Corn Blog Freebie and used that! Just printed on regular cardstock from the office supply store on the ‘normal’ setting.

I bought a box of TWELVE mouse traps yesterday, but … they were almost impossible to load. So … back to Wal-Mart this morning to get the type we had before. We caught a 2nd mouse under the sink yesterday, but I’m sure the remaining ones had a party last night as we couldn’t get the other traps to set at all. Hopefully they just partied and didn’t have any little mouse babies under my cabinets. EEEEWWWW - I am just NOT happy about this situation. I have the heebie jeebies every time I walk into my kitchen!

Thanks for stopping by.

Today’s post is my 2nd one for the CAS (Clean and Simple)33 challenge over at Split Coast. I have a couple of CAS Sympathy cards finished for this weeks challenge, and will post them in a few days. The bright green isn’t really as fluorescent as it looks in the photo!

Cooper and I are taking Novice Obedience classes. Last week we were to work on “heel” and “right turn”. Cooper did amazing. He picked it up quickly and did it SO well all week. I was SOOOOO proud of him! Class was last night, and I was looking forward to the little guy strutting his stuff. Sigh. Dogs and kids - they never perform when you want them to.

We started the class on a bad note - because Cooper was SURE he needed to eat the Doberman. Yup - SURE of it. Even with corrections, he wanted to eat Bosco. It was so bad one of the assistants had to come over and help me correct Cooper. Larry (the trainer) arrived in the middle of the episode, took one look at the twirling, snarling, yipping Cooper and asked “WHO is THAT??”. It was so bad it wasn’t even embarrassing — it was concerning! Larry then had me in his sights, ha ha - so guess who got to demonstrate their heeling first? Cooper and myself. Well Cooper had decided that if he couldn’t eat the Bosco the Doberman, he just wanted to go home. Heel? Never heard of it. Sigh. If this had been a treat based class, Cooper would have gone home very hungry. He did NOTHING correctly all night. Finally I gave up trying and just watched the others. Cooper was not going to learn anything last night, that’s for sure.

The corrections worked though, and he wouldn’t even LOOK at Bosco the rest of the night. In fact, Bosco was on my left - and Cooper refused to even sit on my left side! So there was some good to come out of it. I learned how to give a good solid correction pop! Larry gave us some tips on teaching your dog to never go out an open door or gate without permission, so between the “heel with left turn and sit” and the “open door” training - we have our work cut out for us this week.

Oh, and did I mention that on my way out of the house with Cooper last night I discovered MOUSE POOP in one of our kitchen drawers?? EEEWWWW. I’m off to Walmart to pick up some more mouse traps this morning. Caught one of the critters last night, but I have learned there is always ALWAYS more than one…

Good thing today is a new day! Thanks for stopping by.