An announcement

A blog is supposed to be interactive. There is a way for people to post comments, negative or positive, and a way people can enroll as followers.

The blogwriter takes his/her cue from the feedback gained via comments. With good feedback it becomes clear what readers enjoy - and just as important, what they don't.

When there is no feedback it's impossible to know for sure if a blog is providing readers with entertainment or inspiration. It's like talking to a brick wall, without feedback. No response.

Something went mechanically wrong with this blog several weeks ago. Most people couldn't get on to comment(people who know me personally alerted me to this). One person could get on sometimes but only after trying over and over again until it finally worked. This is not normal.

I have reported this several times to the site owners who faciliate all the blogs, but have had no response other than robo-messages. The messages never fit the situation. They also have a "no reply" feature so I can't argue with them!

It was sad to me that after much preparation and interest, when I ran my card giveaway contest through the month of October almost no one was able to participate.

I have to acknowledge the fact that for unknown reasons, this blog is clogged! It is not interactive as it's supposed to be. It's dead in the water. Nothing whatsoever informs me that it will ever be fixed.

Instead of posting here as usual, I am busy trying to find a blog site that works. I will then export my blog to that location and notify everyone here where it is relocated.

Meanwhile thank you so much to all those who have read my blog, who have tried to respond or follow, and who hoped to continue reading. I am very sorry for the technical problems but I did not create them and I have no way to fix them.

Day 31 - October Farewell

How could a month pass so quickly?

October is almost gone and Miss Scarecrow is wearing her somber burlap dress today. Her fierce looking jack-o-lantern candy bucket is slung over one arm. Though she is planted firmly in the ground and cannot go out on the trick-or-treat circuit, she's pretty sure somebody will wander by and leave her a caramel or a chocolate bar.

Miss Scarecrow is a little sad to bid adieu to Halloween fun, but the super-perky gingham bow on her card kind of hints at more festivities to come this fall. Thanksgiving is only a wink away.

It has been so much fun for me to host this handmade card giveaway during the month of October.

I am disappointed, however, that some kind of cyberspace glitch has been dogging my blog! Within a couple of days of starting the contest I began to receive email messages that people could not get on the blog to participate. A very few are always able to get on, but many can't ever get on at all and say they get error messages or "gobbledygook" when they try. My settings are all in compliance with google's cookies and security policies so I just don't know what's going on. Only about 18 readers have been able to access the blog, and some have emailed me that they couldn't register as Followers (no new Followers have appeared since last May, so that should have been a clue to me that something was up). I've tried to find out why these glitches are happening, but all I get are automated help messages that never fit the circumstances. The "help" forum is packed with other users who are having the same kinds of problems, but those problems never seem to be addressed. I apologize to everyone who couldn't get on here and I hope somehow the problems will be resolved. After all, a blog is supposed to be interactive!

The silver lining is, for those who could get on and participate, the odds of winning on any given day were astronomical because of so few being able to enter, and of course not everybody who could register came on each day, either.

I loved sending out cards to the winners! Your feedback was so good to hear and made me very grateful that you all took the time to participate and respond.

Thanks to all the viewers and contestants this past month - and I wish each of you a Happy Halloween today from october pumpkin rubber stamps!

Day 30 - The End Is Near

Last night was trick-or-treat night in our town and several surrounding towns. It's always a big production here in the midwest! After the first several hundred kids we ran out of candy. Each year there are more and more. Vanloads of kids are dropped off in our neighborhood and some of them circle around the loop several times.

I miss the fun Halloweens when our own two were young and we spent weeks working on their costumes so they would be just right. Our daughter, like most little girls, always wanted to wear a pretty costume. Our little boy wanted scary or wild outfits. Once we made a giant green papier mache froghead for him and he wore bright green pantihose for legs with swim fin feet. Oh yeah, it was scary!

When I shopped for candy yesterday (hoping for last-minute markdowns, but there were none)people were grabbing huge bags of it from one section of shelves while across the aisle at the very same time clerks were stocking those shelves with boxes of candy canes and marshmallow snowmen. Pretty weird!

Day 29 - Wichita's mischief

Oh No!!! I had gluestick-fingers when I put today's card on the scanner, and now the smears are visible in the photo (they are on the scanner, not on the card itself!)and I have an appointment this morning so I don't have time to clean the scanner and start all over!

It's almost Halloween and Wichita is already casting a spell, ruining my scan!

You get the general idea of what the card looks like - remember, the gluestick smears were on the scanner surface and will NOT be present on the card if you are its winner.

Remember how I already said buttons & ribbon were my favorite embellishments, but I forgot to say tags were too? Now I'm adding another fave - those tiny stick-on dots, used on shiny cardstock.

Doesn't Wichita look alot feistier surrounded by tiny explosions of metallic green on patent leather cardstock? I made her look so good. She should be ashamed of casting her evil spell on me. Bad Wichita! And it's not even Halloween yet!

Day 28 - Three more days!

When people are scared they turn "white as a ghost". So what do ghosts turn when they're scared?
Transparent!

Day 27: Make to Order

I'm posting tomorrow's card tonight because I won't be home tomorrow morning.

After seeing some cardstock letters I liked at the craft store, it was impossible to resist making the card you see here. It would have been a quick card except the letters were yellow and I wanted orange, so I had to color them with a felt tipped marker. The dots are stick-ons - easy, easy!

This month we have been celebrating the rubber stamp biz called october pumpkin! My daughter Stephanie runs this biz and I design the stamps. I've been giving away a handmade card each day via random drawings - it's not too late to jump in, so scroll back to the start of the month for the info on entering. You can enter here on the blog in the Comments box, or via my email:pelikanbeach@gmail.com - but you have only 5 days to get in on the fun!

Although the name Tara is on the card today, the winner will receive a duplicate card with her own name or any choice of names. That is, unless your name is Henrietta Elfreida Evangelina which wouldn't fit on a card this size.

You may wonder where the october pumpkin stamp images are on this card. The candy corn stamp is used to "pretty up the envelope" and a couple of pumpkins are stamped inside the card along with the message. There just wasn't room for one on the front!

Day 26: Tag addiction

Here is a true story. A few years ago when I found out about papercrafting I became addicted to tagmaking and ended up with hundreds of them before I realised it.

I have always done painting. So, you might say, artsy stuff is artsy stuff. No, it definitely isn't! When you paint it's two dimensional,flat. When you do papercrafts, it's dimensional. You are applying layers and small objects. You can very quickly stamp images, add embellishments, backgrounds and borders, change your composition, your color scheme, subtract embellishments, go crazy because after all it's just fun and very informal. There's no stress or tension because if you mess up you can immediately start over and in a few minutes have something completely different. There are lots of surprises, and ideas burst out like wildfire. Best of all, you're not waiting for the paint to dry!

I started in papercrafting by making tags and I was having so much fun, whipping them out eveery 5 to 10 minutes, that pretty soon I had 2 drawers filled with about 500 tags. Then I stopped myself. What do you do with that many tags? Actually, I started enclosing them in letters and cards. I gave tags away to friends in bundles of 25 at a time. They seemed to love getting them. People used them for bookmarks, package ties, place name IDs.

How about you? Have you tried your hand at this fun little project - making a tag?

Day 25 - A quiet little card

My papercrafting table is right in front of a large window looking out into the upper branches of an ash tree in our front yard. Leaves that at first dropped one at a time now cascade from the tree as fall deepens, and the oak and elm trees are showing their skeletons as well. More leaves are on the ground than on anybody's branches, that's for sure.

It makes for a reflective and quiet mood sometimes, sitting in front of a window watching time actually pass in the annual shedding of leaves from growing plants who will now become dormant for the long cold months.

My card today is a quiet celebration of this rite of passage. The colors do not scream, "Look at me!" Instead there is more - well - quietness to the design. I added a double organdy bow to the tag, its transparency a symbol of the invisible way our time slips past if we don't take a moment to stop and savor it.

Day 24: A Tale of Three Ghosties

The three october pumpkin ghosties, Trick, Or, and Treat, went out to bag their annual Halloween goodies.

In their travels they came upon an olde abandoned monastery. It was a huge and monstrous structure on a hill, made entirely of dark stone with shadowy recesses and deep-set windows wreathed in grime and spiders' webs, many of which were occupied by their fat and hairy architects.

The ghosties were terrified! But you have to be brave if you expect to get any Halloween goodies.

Trick, the oldest ghostie triplet, ran up the steps and knocked timidly on the splintery wooden door. "It's Trick, Or, and Treat!" he hollered in a trembly voice.

By and by an olde man in a monk suit opened the creaking door of the monastery.

"Here is your blasted treat, now get outa here before I throw you in my dungeon!" he yelled as he handed Treat a small paper bag.

The ghosties ran away fast, in case the olde monk decided to grab them. When they had run so far and so fast that they had a stitch in their nonexistent ribs,they stopped to examine the contents of the bag.

Oh no! It wasn't Snicker bars, or even bubblegum! The durn monk had given them a page from an old choir book, a purple paper clip, and a piece of ribbon.

When the ghosties went home later, after a successful run on the neighborhood for real treats, they complained to their mom Ghostina about what they had been given at the olde abandoned monastery on the hill. "It's just junk!" said Or.

Their mom gave them each a Tootsie Roll to settle them down, and took the choir page, the purple paper clip, and the black ribbon. "Never you mind," she told her ghostie boys. "It is a treat for me. I can make a nice card out of this stuff!"

The End

Day 23 - A bargain find

I found a neat bargain the day our bagels got stuck!

We had an old toaster that kept limping along even though the thingie you push down to make it heat no longer worked and either hubby or I would have to stand there holding it down. This week we had another problem with it. The slots were supposed to be wide, but our bagels kept getting stuck.

I said, "That's IT! T've had it with this toaster!" A few hours later I was in WalMart getting a replacement for it. Of course, I had to take a peek down the craft aisle. That was when I found the bargain.

Along an end display I saw some pretty nice packs of embellishments, but one was my favorite. It included about ten pieces. That's a guess, I didn't count before I used 'em all up. They were very nice-looking autumn leaf stick-ons in 3-D. Here is the bargain part. The package was only $1.50 (why didn't I get an extra one?)

You'll see what they look like on today's card. In fact, I used a couple on yesterday's card. Don't you love a bargain?

Day 22 - A pretty fall card

For a change, I had an image in mind for this card before I began to assemble it. However, my image called for a print background behind Miss Scarecrow & the embellishments. I have plenty of print papers, but none were just right. The colors didn't really work.

Not wanting to tear out to the craft store just now, I wondered, "why not make my own print, and why not use something reallly different to do it?" But what?

Just a few days ago I happened to notice some thread on an old-time wooden spool in my sewing basket. It must have come from my mother. I wondered if I could make a design using a wooden spool for a stamp?

Well, guess what, kids! It worked! This card shows my first effort but now I've thought of some other ways to stamp with a spool and am anxious to try them out.

But here's the funny part. I had cut out several pieces of cardstock for experimenting and when the time came to add the print cardstock to the card itself I was concentrating on the way the different pieces looked with regard to the pattern and in the process I inadvertently selected a crooked piece! Without even noticing my mistake, I adhered it to the card. Only after scanning it into the computer did I happen to see that error - look over on the left lower side where the background piece is chopped crookedly! Aaaargh! Just be glad I wasn't God. That wouldn't be a good time to be turning out weird creations.

Anyway, I'm going to remake or reassemble this card and fix the problem, so if you win it you won't see this strange looking background piece.

Do you ever mess up when you're making something? I do, plenty of times! It's easy to overlook details when you're concentrating on something else! But it's probably just part of the fun of cardmaking. . .

Day 21 - A different card

It's kind of interesting to come up with a different card every day.

Some days the creative juice just doesn't flow. Yesterday was one of those days! We were tying up the details on a family member's serious health crisis, and my mind wasn't on cardmaking. . .yet I know it's important to anyone'e equilibrium to get out of a stressful situation for awhile. So I trudged to my workroom and put together this card. As I worked and listened to music, I felt alot of the tension fall away as I entered a space where life was less stressful than dr.'s offices and hospitals!

Art therapy has been recognised as a calming force for many years. I have to take this chance to urge anyone with challenges of any sort to give it a try. When you are feeling anxious about someone or something, take some time to create. It will uplift you and you will come back to everyday life a little stronger.

Gotta run! The day's already getting away from me!

Day 20 - only eleven left!

We're really enjoying our days of Indian summer here in western Ohio. The fall color has peaked here and it's just gorgeous everywhere you look!

Today's card a a little lighter in color than the scary ones from the past two days. I had to sneak in a ribbon and just one button, too. The pumpkin faces along the bottom half are a border I cut from a sheet of scrapbook paper. I have about 300 different papers and usually have to go through most of them to get the one I want, but when I find the one and only paper that matches what I've envisioned for my project, I am only then perfectly satisfied.

How about you? Do you agree that the time making the card is as nothing, compared to the time in selecting the elements you want to use? Do you first imagine the card design and then search for the materials - or do you mess around with all your papers and embellishments until they provide the just right inspiration?

Have a happy day today - and if you haven't entered yet, you can do it right here on the blog or send to my email, pelikanbeach@gmail.com - better hurry! October's running out!

Day 19 - Moving right along!

Here is an interesting way to use many of your medium size stamps. I had a strip of really nice Halloweeny purple cardstock on my worktable, leftover from yesterday's project. Why not make a tag? It takes about 10 secs to make a tag out of a chunk of cardstock.

Next I stamped Wichita on the purple tag, centering the stamp to get her face, and allowing the remainder of the image to land on some scrap paper. See, you can use stamps effectively without using all of a larger stamp.

The cardstock I used for the card is embossed with some primitive house images, though they are not quite as visible via computer as they are in person.These must be the homes of sleeping mortals who have no idea Wichita is flying overhead on her trusty broom.

I'm lunching with a dear old friend today & hope you're doing something fun too!

Day 18 - Still time to enter and win!

Today's card is one I had several ideas for color combos but only time to go with the first try. My father and his wife are coming to visit in a couple of hours, so I can't stay with my papercrafting as long as I usually do,yikes! Now I have to go to my bread machine.

They're bringing us apples from their trip up north last week - there's a special orchard they visit that has great apples in the fall. I want to have a loaf of homemade bread to hand back, plus won't it make the house smell good? Bread, coffee, and anything with cinnamon, vanilla, and/or chocolate are the best cooking aromas I can imagine!

Anyway, I might revisit this card when I have more time to play around with the colors. For today, here you have it. See the tiny october pumpkin jack-o-lanterns making a print background? The haunted houses seemed good just as they are, I mean not colored, but uniformly gray and gloomy.

In case you wonder what the black organdy ribbon is all about, let's just say that's the lunatic fringe.

See you next time! Good luck on winning - lots more are entering now, and remember, you can enter right here via comments or you can send your entry to my email at pelikanbeach@gmail.com

Day 17 of Great Card Giveaway

Can you believe it's already mid-October? If anyone is just now finding us, you're invited to hop aboard and be a part of our Great Card Giveaway where you can enter a random drawing for one of the free cards shown daily. For easy instructions on how to participate, just scroll down through the posts to October 1!

Today I made a fun and colorful Halloween card. Gosh, there go those buttons again!

Few of these cards would fit through the automated letter sorter at the post office, so if you win one and mail it off to somebody, be aware that the USPS requires an extra stamp for hand sorting. The cards are heavy, though, and would require extra postage anyway.

Wishing you all a really great fall weekend! It's more TV football at our house today, with some frantically fast household chores stuffed in during the commercials! My husband follows Ohio State and I'm a Bama fan - Roll Tide! I wonder who your fave team is?

Day 16: Gilding the lily

What if we took pumpkins to a new level? That was the question in my mind when I made this card. Why not a serene, elegant-ish fall card just for variety? Let me know if you approve. . .or not.

To show this is not your grandma's pumpkin card, I stamped a green pumpkin image.
From there it was a short hop to selecting an elegant, baroque type of background paper. Punched out a shiny blue oak leaf! Finally, oh sacrilege, stuck some playful
blue "jewels" on the green pumpkins' frame.

It doesn't hurt to get a little playful when we make a card.

Yesterday was an awful day at our house. Maybe I'll tell you about it later. For now it's time to fix breakfast. (I hope the computer gremlins don't stick a time of 3 p.m. on this post. The time never matches reality.)

Day 15: The Haunted Cupcake

I am in a real time crunch this morning, so no rambling - aren't you lucky?

This card was lots of fun to make. There wasn't quite room for all 3 of the ghosties so after I stamped them I cut one off. Poor guy, no cupcakes for him.

Day 14 of Great Card Giveaway

If you already checked here and found nothing for today, it's because some computer maintenance was being done.

Today's card is the first of its kind in the world, for more reasons than one. The big first is, it's the first ever dignified, serious, sedate, calm,
quiet Halloween greeting ever put together by mankind. Or womankind, in this case.

You may well ask to whom you might send such a card if you wanted to make one. I'm not really sure. How about Auntie Matilda? Or Cousin Melvin? Of course there's always the Pope.

I wanted to show how a small stamp can be used in a big way. The candy treat stamp from october pumpkin is usually used to decorate an envelope, or as a motif in the middle of some embellishment, a tag or bookmark, etc. Today I'm illustrating how a small stamp can be used effectively on a card - or really anywhere that a border would be needed.

October is half over and you don't want to miss out, so enter today!

Yesterday a reader told me that she had been unable to access the blog because she spelled pelican with a c. Don't I wish we all could! But pelican with a c was a domain already claimed (by a posh resort on the seacoast, sigh!)so I resorted (smirk) to a K spelling. It's still pelican, but in German. 'Bye!

Day 13 - enter and win!

You may be thinking, "Why is this old lady using the same stamps over and over? Doesn't she have any other stamps?" The answer to that is, yes, I have loads of other stamps and I love 'em all, but I am promoting october pumpkin stamps in this blog, because this is my blog and they are my designs! Ta-daaah!

My daughter Stephanie and I just started this stamp company a matter of months, not years, ago. We don't have tons of stamps so far. We have them manufactured in the highest quality, which is pretty expensive, and they are produced in our own country. This costs more than Chinese labor. But we think it's worth it. The stamps improve with use, and that's important to us because it means you'll be able to enjoy them for a long time to come.

Getting back to not having alot of stamps yet, we do have a fair size beach set, and we have a smallish Halloween set. We have an elegant set of lighthouse stamps, 5 large and 3 small. (All 8 don't have to be purchased together!) We're gearing up for a Christmas/winter set next. Our company is building and emerging. If you want to see our other stamps, be sure to click on the etsy address to the right.

Because I want to showcase just october pumpkin stamps, all we have to use from our fall line (so far) are 3 medium and 4 small stamps, then we have 2 more fall stamps that could be used for either Halloween or Thanksgiving themes. That number is fewer than the days of our card giveaway contest, so there will definitely be repeats - but the card designs will be different. Also I am now starting to branch out to using the stamps in different ways. For instance, today's card has the scarecrow cut out and fixed to a tag, losing a couple elements of the stamp in the process. There are many ways to alter the way you use stamps, ours or stamps made by other companies. Keep visiting the blog, Stephanie's blog, and the etsy shop, and you'll see lots and lots more examples!

Meanwhile, enter the card contest to win a free card. Some people are saying they don't know how to leave comments because of the directives that pop up. They don't have a google account and fear they are being forced to get one. No, that's not correct. Just check the option that says Anonymous. You don't need to set up a google account. You will be asked to decode some letters and numbers, but this is common internet practice done for your protection from spam. Spammers use "robots" to gather information for purposes of advertising. The robots can only understand certain computer language. They can't read the garbly-looking letters/numbers, only humans can - so when a human types this in, it is alerting the blog folks (google) that a human being, not a spam robot, is trying to gain access. I hope this answers those questions! If you don't want to use the comments box you can send your entry info directly to my email address at pelikanbeach@email.com One way or another, our giveaway month is almost half over, so if you want to win a card it's now or never!