Hail, Fall! October's Come.....

Carol Bishop Hipps says it well: "Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter." ... although I don't look at winter as really miserable.

October's the month when the deer come back and at dusk today one of the moms brought her newest fawn to show off... she/he is a real cutie, still has her markings and hasn't figured out how to get those leaves off the dangling branches.. hopefully this means that the herd or "Santa's reindeer" as I tell my nephews will be back. Steve and Rio took kibbles out for the deer tomorrow morning so the fawn will get used to his smell... Rio and the deer have a very sweet "me watching you watching me" relationship...



Rio is old now and slowing down.. watching but not chasing squirrels and the neighborhood cats, bunny hopping up the steps, sleeping a lot.. but still loves his squeaky toys and a good half-empty cup of yogurt ...

Next week is Quick Quotes Private Reserve in Atlanta and we are all sooo excited! Peggy from Southern Scrapbooks was chosen to be the "store" for the event and it promises to be 36 hours of nonstop creativity. I need to get my card mojo working or my picture taking of cards.. must have done 50 in the past two weeks but this picture, upload, wait thing just isn't in the cards this week...not yet, anyway...

"Homemade" Autumn Scrapbook Paper! A Mini-Tutorial

I've used stamps to add interest to plain cardstock for scrapbooking but yesterday learned a great technique to make my own fall-themed paper from my great Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Maryanne. Will definitely use seashell stamps and ink to make tropical paper. It's easy and allows you to personalize the paper with your own colors, stamps.

Supplies: reinkers, baby wipes, plastic tray, French Foliage stamps.
Inks we used are Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Mostly Mustard

How to: Use 2 baby wipes in plastic tray and add a little bit of each of the reinker colors individually in a section of the wipe (colors will run a bit but that's okay). Use stamps on a clear block; press down onto the baby wipe but don't "squish" it or rub from side to side.. and stamp, voila! Also used a gray ink for the "postcard" text but you could highlight with "stampin spots" as well.

Picture doesn't do this justice because it's stamped on an ivory paper but in person = wow!