Storing My Spellbinders Dies

Posted on November 6, 2008 | Comments Off on 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 5×7 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 I’ve been able to grab stacks of outdated magnets at the end of the year.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.

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All Treats, No Tricks!

Posted on November 2, 2008 | 1 comment

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.

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Cinderella Story, part 3

Posted on October 20, 2008 | 2 comments


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.

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