Cake for Breakfast today!

I'm serving up some cake for breakfast today. If you like the cake I posted earlier, run on over to the new Spellbinders blog and get the recipe. In today's Savvy Saturday post I've written out the directions and included some additional photos.

Happy Saturday!
Beth

New Spellbinders News

Yes, that's right, I've got new news! Spellbinders has a new website! You can find it from the old web address, which was www. spellbinders.us, or the new address, www. spellbinderspaperarts.com . Take a look-see around. There's more coming, and a few things to change and add. We've worked hard to make it more user friendly and attractive, I hope you like it.

Who wants a free Spellbinders Die Template? Be sure to enter a comment, your email address wont' show up online, and we won't sell it or use it, unless we need contact you when you win. To navigate to the Blog, go to Show and Tell, then Blog. Or just click here.

Guess who's writing it? Go ahead, guess! That's right, me! I'll be sharing some of my own artwork and and highlighting Design Team artwork to show off techniques, projects and other fun stuff. See the cake there? I made it (cue hair flipping). I'll be sharing how I made it soon, first we have to go over the basics, so keep checking in!

And I'll keep posting here, I have a ton of hilarious Cindy stories and pictures, and I'll be doing some artwork too.

Storing My Spellbinders Dies

I keep my current dies in a metal CD box from Target. I put each die on a magnet, that keeps it from rubbing up against another die and keeps the parts together on the Nestabilities and Shapeabilities. If there are several parts to a die I also put them in a ziplock type craft or sandwich bag. The magnets are from my dad, he's a realtor and gives out 5x7 magnets with yearly calendars and Bears schedules on them. I've been able to grab stacks of outdated magnets at the end of the year.

I keep similar dies together in categories. I just recently added to the categories when the new dies came last week. Now, I change my mind like the weather here in Chicago, but today I'm using the following:

Borders & Frames
Labels & Tags
Flowers & Nature
Food & Drink
Butterflies & Birds
Seasons
Feminine
Masculine
Accessories ~ another word for Misc.
Geometric (Includes Nestabilities by shape)

The 12" border dies will hang out at the end of the box for now.The categories are separated by a thick piece of chipboard. On each magnet I have the die's identification information. For my Design Team work I have to make a note of each product used. It's so much easier for me to have that at my fingertips than to look it up later. I put the SKU, the die name, the type of die, and the number of pieces it has. For the regular die user, knowing which SKUs you own will keep you from buying duplicates of dies that look similar.
For dies that look very similar, and I'm talking to you, Mr. Nestability, I write on the back side of the die and also mark that on the label. I tried to remain consistant with the pen color. For the small Nestabilities, I used a red Sharpie marker, for the large, a purple. See the little scribbles?
That helps me put the sets back together when I've got dies spread all over the table. Just be careful that when you are wielding Sharpies, you are not wearing your favorite jeans. And be sure not to drop said Sharpie point down onto said favorite jeans. I'm just sayin'.
I am careful to put the dies back in their bags and in their categories so I can find them again, but I can't say that for the rest of my art supplies. We will not be addressing the organization or lack thereof in my scrapbook room.

I do need to thank Cindy for keeping my feet warm while I type. You see, its raining out. Cindy doesn't like rain and hides in the basement from it. She gravitated to the area under my desk, so we put a dog bed there. Now I have a foot warmer and I always know where she is during bad weather. Ok, sometimes she gets tired of the dog bed and sneaks onto the couch. She's all about the cozy. But she would rather be outside playing.

All Treats, No Tricks!

Spunky and Sparky celebrated and ate candy with their friends, we hosted a sleepover of Spunky's 3 buddies. Wow, talk about a haul of candy! There was a wicked candy trading session upstairs, away from the sensitive schnoz of Cindy. I bought 2 bags of mini's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and a combo of Snickers, Milky Way, Twix and Nestle Crunch. Then we ate them. Then I bought a bag of Nestle Crunch, because I don't like them anymore, and I did not let anyone open the bag. Then I caved and bought one more bag of Skittles and Starburst on Halloween day. We don't have a lot of trick or treaters here so I had to buy something that takes a while to chew, unlike the chocolate stuff that gets inhaled. Trust me, I only eat chocolate for its medicinal purposes.

On Halloween I got the best treat of all, my Spellbinders dies came! Yippee, I've been as anxious as the rest of the world, but I already had 7 prototype dies I got in June, unlike the rest of you. But you know how you have tons of scrapbook supplies, then you get this brilliant idea that requires that one thing you don't have?

So yesterday I released those dies into the wild, or the dining room table, that is. Yes, I do have a dedicated scrapbook room. At the moment, its all I can do to shovel a path to the computer desk. The work desk, um, there's no room to work on it right now. I need about 2 weeks worth of time standing still to overhaul the room. Anyhoo, the point of this is to say I'll be sharing how I have my dies stored. I'll take some pictures and get that up this week.

Sorry about the lack of artwork, I can't post recent stuff until I get the OK from the boss. A lot has been pulled for company use, and they get first dibs. I have not been creating regularly for a long time, but I finally feel so much better health wise. I expect to do more personal stuff to post here, bear with me.

AND in honor of Digital Scrapbook weekend, I have been doing my part for the economy at my favorite stores. One of my goals is to keep learning PSE, do more hybrid and all digi stuff, and eventually make my own kits. Can someone come over here and tag all my photos and digi stuff? It's rather tedious and I just don't have the attention span for it.

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