Cinderella Story, part 3

She was still livestock. She was livestock living in the house. She was crate trained, but didn't know the wood floor from teh grass outside. Our fence needed some repair so she was led outside on a leash. We tried to put Buster's harness on her to put her on a chain, but she wouldn't allow it.

I took her to the vet the day after she came. The boys came with, in case I needed help with her. There I was, taking this new dog into the vet, not knowing what she would do, how she would react, if I could catch her if she bolted, if she would bite, how she would react to to other dogs there. I was literally shaking as I filled out the forms. We got through the exam without incident, but had to get the full gamut of shots and heartworm pills. That trip cost a small fortune!

Cindy walked. Caesar says a dog needs exercise and lots of it. Walk that dog. Let him learn the scents of the neighborhood so he can find his way home if he gets away. Walk the energy out of the dog, its his job to walk. Cindy was walked by DH. She bonded with DH. She walked proud and happy with DH. She didn't with me. We would get 2 houses down away and she would stop to roll in the grass, stop and not budge, would go down on her front legs like she was challenging me to play. She knw I was scared to death she would get away, and she liked to mess with me.

The fence got fixed, the yard was her playground and she was happy. She was so very happy that she ran and jumped and bit. Not a mean bite, but she didn' know her own strength (and Bull Terriers have a very strong mouth), but she didn't know the rules and limitations about what we considered play. NO BITE MOMMY! She would mouth my arms, but that caused bruises, her jumping up scratched my legs, and she tore shirts. The boys were afraid of her. Excellent. I have this wild beast in my house and DH is at work 12 hours a day. I called our trainer for some immediate private lessons.

Behavior improved over time with consistent effort. Then there was Puppy Class, six pups and Cindy. She was the class clown, the one that didn't focus, the social butterfly. Our poor trainer, she tried so hard, used all the tricks in her book on Cindy. Cindy played the Bull card and resisted. We did the homework - and there was a lot of it! Do we really have to do all of it? I would be happy with a "sit, stay". We used the clicker training method, and the rewards were food. Not just any food, we had to use hot dogs, cheese and other high level treats, kibble just didn't cut it. Armed with the clicker and treat bag I had her full attention, and by golly, this dog wanted to earn those treats. We've cracked the code!

Now I'm not saying she was perfect after a few weeks of puppy school, not at all. But it did seem like every 2 months there was a change, a wave, an adjustment in her. She decided she would stay for a while because the food was good, and the belly rubs were nice. Then she decided she would trust us a little, then a little more. We could all relax a tiny bit.

Socially, she has a lot to learn. She was selective in who she liked, an dfor no obvious reason. She was afraid of my mom, who loves dogs, is small framed, and definitely not a threat to a dominant dog. My mom has cats. Cindy would smell her purse, her things, and back away from them fearfully. She avoided going near my mom, even to get food from her. Maybe she had never seen or smelled a cat before? That fear has since been resolved and Cindy and my mom are good pals now.

Dusting off the blog

I know, I know, the dust bunnies have taken over, and I am sorry that I have not been posting. I've been hearing about it too, right Mom? and Lisa in Iowa? and Kim's sister in law? I'm heading out to the gym and I promise I'll have some cookies for you this afternoon. It's been pretty crazy around here, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Cars, cookies, and unfrozen waffles

Here I thought the stress would end when I got home from CHA, with many events done and over with. But wait, there’s more!

The Monday I got home Visa called to say there were suspicious charges on our credit card, they canceled it and would send a new card. I only have one major credit card, and that was it, so no school shopping last week. Saturday I was out and about getting some supplies for my altered project when my car up and died on a busy road. Guess who still doesn’t have a Visa in her purse? DH came and rescued me, along with his business credit card. I told him, while we were waiting for the tow truck, to turn off the hazards on his car, the cop had the traffic under control for the 10-15 mins – make that 40 mins - for the tow to get there. No, its fine he says.

The car was towed to a chain auto repair place. I’m a dealership repair person, but that was not an option apparently, the tow truck driver didn’t want to go that far. Heck, I get sweaty and uptight getting the oil changed. My early days of driving beater cars put me on edge with every quiver of the gauges on the dashboard, and I prefer to be able to hold someone accountable for my misery. Car failures are enough to commit me to the insane asylum. Strap on the straight jacket, sit me down in the padded room and serve the all-chocolate diet.

My mom came over on Sunday to hang out and go to the new Whole Foods while DH and Spunky went to see Batman at the movies. DH is not one to check up on me, but he called while we were in Costco, all ‘where are you, what are you doing?’. His car was dead at the theater. We hustled out of Costco as fast as you can hustle out of Costco on a Sunday afternoon and attempted to jump his car, which remained dead. We all crammed into my mom’s car, us, the dead battery and the box of 60 frozen waffles that didn’t fit in the cooler and were no longer frozen. $85 later he put a new battery in his car and it started up like a charm.

I suppose I am lucky, the car is repaired and seems to be running fine, gas gauge included, and I even found an online coupon for $50 off the repair. And my mom was not only available to save the day, but happy to be of service, in return for some pool time and dinner. Luckily DH’s car decided to poop out on Sunday, instead of Monday, which made my existence infinitely better. They would have had to tow me away too. I think its time for extra cookies!

MIA

Good Golly, I've been MIA! Well, not really. I spent last Wednesday through Sunday at CHA with Spellbinders. We had a great show, and I met lots of wonderful store owners and artists that had to see all the new products and all the Sneak Peek artwork.

I was able to drive back home last Thursday night to attend Spunky's Championship baseball game, his 8th place team played the first place team. The game was close, but Spunky's team lost in extra innings by one run. All in all, a great season with great coaches and great kids and supportive parents. I can't ask for more!




Nothing soothes the soul like a trophy and a Krispy Kreme after a tough loss.










Since getting home from CHA late Sunday I've been catching up on sleep, and trying to find the kitchen counter tops and the laundry room floor. It seems trolls broke into the house, unbeknown to DH, Sparky, Spunky and Cindy, and ransacked the place pretty good. This has happened before, and I'm sure its the same band of trolls as the last time.

I'll have more art up, and more Cindy stories soon!
Beth

Monday Morning and a Bracelet

Good Monday Morning! What did you think of the Sneak Peeks? Which die(s) are your favorite? For me, its got to be the Labels 1, we've been asking for that one for a long time. I tend to favor the more general shapes that are versatile, instead of the more specific. I also like to use dies beyond their obvious shape. I used the Labels 2 die as an object, not a label, in a project for this week's show, I'll be able to post that picture next week.Today I'm sharing a bracelet I made using shrink plastic and Spellbinders dies and stamps, Copic Markers and Krylon leafing pens, among other trinkets and baubles. I found the bracelet base on sale at Kohl's a year ago and have kept it in my stash waiting for inspiration. Some of the items are 7 Gypsies (oh, do I love 7 Gypsies!), a typewriter key, and watch parts.

I used my Wizard to smash the bottlecap, filled it with loose watch parts and filled in with Glossy Accents. I punched the hole with my Crop A Dile. I used tags and rectangles to cut the shrink plastic (Lucky Squirrel brand), stamped the Spellbinders stamps with pigment ink and colored in random spots with Copic Markers. The stamps I used were parts of a butterfly, the wreath stamp and one from the clock set, going for more of an abstract pattern than actual shapes. I shrunk it with my heat tool and colored the backs and sides with Krylon paint pens to make it look more like metal. While the Copic markers go on semi-transparent, when shrunk they look much more intense.

I'm off to clean my house and get myself ready for CHA in Rosemont IL this week. If you are attending, please stop by the booth to see ALL the artwork from the Sneak Peeks, ALL the new dies, including dies that were not included in the peeks, and a few of the artists, including me! Spellbinders is booth 3909.

And the Winner Is...

Pam Davis of Colorado! Yeah Pam, you'll bet getting the Daisy Border Grand Die! You'll have to show us what you make with the new die!

Congratulations Pam, and Good Luck to everyone else entering today's drawing at Holly Craft's blog, tomorrow at Donya's, and Sunday at Trudi's.

I'm off to Spunky's playoff baseball game, have a great Friday evening!

Beth

You are all so sweet for visiting and leaving comments on my projects and Cindy story. I was really nervous about this! I would love to give everyone a prize, but I don't think my DH would love that, so instead I baked you some cookies. Feel free to take as many as you like, they're not just for breakfast anymore, and cyber cookies are fat free!

I will announce the winner of the Daisy Border Grand as soon as I get the word. Thank you again!

In the mean time, the Sneak Peeks continue, be sure to go see Holly Craft's blog today!

Beth

July 9, 2008 Spellbinders Sneak Peek!

Introducing the Daisy Border Grand, S7-003 from Spellbinders. The die cut measures 12 inches long and 2.5 inches wide at the widest part and retails for $19.99. This is a true 12 inch border and is the perfect partner to Daisy Patch Edgeability S4-043 die, both by longtime product designer Toni Kelly.

For instruction on using Spellbinders dies, I have downloaded the YouTube videos to my blog, see below, or click here to go to YouTube.

For supplies today I am using Spellbinders Premium Craft Foil, which is 12 inches wide and 36 inches long, $8.99 US retail, an awesome price! It doesn’t matter which color I use today, because I want the silver side. It comes in 5 colors plus pure copper, each color has silver on the back, except the pure copper. I used a tag from the Ribbon Tags Trio S3-150. The paper is Worldwin’s ColorMates in Deep Awesome Aqua, Deep Totally Tan, Light Heritage White, and Inkjet Printable Translucent Vellum, the Perfect Printing Pouch, photos are my own, font is Bickley Script, velvet ribbon is Basic Grey, sheer ribbon in white and yellow, and black acrylic paint. For adhesive on the metal, either a liquid glue or red line tape is preferred.

Feeding a 12 inch long die on 8.5 inch long mats is easy. Use the Spellbinders die cut sandwich, when stacked from your table up: white mat, white spacer plate, die, cut side up, material to be cut, white mat. A little tip, if you are concerned your material will move off the die, you can use a small piece of removable tape. It won’t harm the die, and it peels off the paper easily without damaging the die cut.

Feed this into your Wizard. With a 12 inch long die, part of the die will stick out the back end, and that is fine. Only the part of the die that sits on the Spacer Plate will cut, but it won’t leave a line or crease where the spacer plate ends.

After the first pass, lift the top mat, turn the border die 180 degrees so the uncut portion is on the spacer plate, replace the top mat and feed it in exactly the same way as before.

You can remove the excess cut foil from the outside of the die.

Embossing is done the same way. Leave the die cut in the die. Remove the spacer plate from the sandwich so the die sits on the bottom mat, place the tan embossing mat on top of the die, and cover with the top white mat. The tan embossing mat is 6.75 inches long and should cover half of the 12 inch border. Feed the embossing sandwich through the Wizard.

To emboss the other half, turn the die 180 degrees, cover with the Tan mat and white mat and feed sandwich again. The die will not have lines or creases or any indication that you do not have 12 inch plates.

What? You want 12 inch long plates? OK, twist my arm! They’ll be available at the 2008 Craft and Hobby Association Summer Show and at your favorite Spellbinder’s retailer in August!

Now we get to play with the die cut. Make sure that you are protecting your work surface, I use wax paper. After cutting and embossing, paint the entire die cut with black acrylic craft paint.

Paint it evenly, and be sure to get paint into all the nooks and crannies. Let it dry slightly.

Using a dry paper towel, wipe the paint off the embossed areas. Be gentle, but you don’t have to be perfect.

Do not wipe the paint out of the crevices, you want it there. You can always add more a little more paint if you took too much off. You can always take a little more off if you put too much on.

Allow the paint to dry completely, that will depend on the brand of paint you use, read the label for drying time. Cut, emboss, paint and wipe the smaller flowers in the Daisy Patch S4-043 die and one of the Ribbon Tags Trio S3-150.

I love to photograph the flowers in my yard, and I waited not so patiently for my daisies this year, they bloomed just in time to share with you! Photo editing was done with Photoshop Elements. The poem is The Daisy Field, by Ann Taylor, found on the internet.

To make this layout, I cut, embossed, painted and wiped a second daisy border. I matted the photos, arranged the borders and photos, wrapped the layout with multiple ribbons, and assembled as shown. Pull the ribbons over the tag, through the holes and attach to the back side of the page. I see this as a layout with clean lines and basic matting. The detail is in the die cuts.

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This is the album I mentioned earlier, put together as a Scrap For Hire Job for my friend and owner of Bags N Blings, a retail and home party company. I decided to make the album from scratch in the form of a purse. Using chipboard, Fibermark paper, a zipper, ribbon purse handles, album refills, an acrylic page, and my Bind It All, along with some girly rub-ons, pink paper and plenty of bling, I came up with this. I sure hope she likes it!

She allowed me to photograph the purses and bling and other goodies, and supplied me with a key photo and some of the advertising and brochures.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to come back on Wednesday for my Spellbinder's Sneak Peek!

Good Tuesday Morning, and thanks for stopping by again! Thanks for your comments and subscriptions, it keeps me from tapping the microphone and asking if this thing is on.

Cindy's story has a lot more to go, but it gets better and better. She's a silly girl and I have plenty of anecdotes and pictures that will make you smile.

I'm finishing up a project for a friend, I do some scrapper for hire work and I've made an album for her business. I'm sure she won't mind me posting here before I deliver it, so stay tuned for that later today!

How do you like the Spellbinder's Sneak Peeks so far? I think they are amazing! I have seen all the dies already but I am still delighted to see the artwork each day. MY DAY IS TOMORROW! That means I'll be hitting the Starbucks to keep my eyes open so I can post at midnight. All I can say is, are you ready for something completely different?