Isn't she the cutest?

If you love felines, this little one is the cutest.  I was at my sister's last weekend and she showed me the new family kitty, now kitty makes THREE cats in this one family.  Let me tell you how this Kitty came to live with them.  My niece, while driving out of the cites and into a rural area with her friend spotted two kittens along side the road, abandoned.  So they scooped them up and brought them home.  Her friend kept one which they found out was male and the female, well you know where she is!   My sister's husband was none too happy about a third cat but guess who she was cozied up to and following around, YEP, she hooked him but good! 

She is still a peanut but already they had her for three weeks, she could barely open her eyes when she was found.  Off to the vet she goes, she is healthy but still very little, you need to feed her in the middle of the night with a bottle, YES a bottle so my niece has been setting her alarm clock to get up with the kitten.  So off to the pet store to buy a very little bottle and some kitten formula too. I got to feed her while I was there and so funny she is!!  A very noisy eater too, slurp slurp and her little ears move back and forward very fast while she eats, I have never feed a kitten like this.  She has just learned to go down the stairs and I watched this little ball of fur tumble down them but like hopping.  Wish I could have taken her home with me but I knew my sister would never forgive me nor my niece.

The other two cats don't seem to mind her either way,   They just go about their business but I have a feeling pretty soon that she is not going to let them ignore her.  HER NAME... you ask?   Well, her name is Annie of course.   Short for little orphan Annie.  

The blog candy below is still open Till October 31st, please sign up now if you are interested.

Blog CANDY as a warm-up for October.

This blog post in closed.    NEW FOLLOWERS  Please use the new Blog Candy Post giveaway dated November first for additional information regarding this giveaway.

Welcome to "Thepaperaffair'  Blog Candy give-away..  This blog candy will remain open until Oct. 31st, Midnight on All Hallow Eves (Halloween!).    For my BLOG HOP candy I am giving away one brand new Martha Steward "Stars", paper edge punch as shown here AND I am also giving away 21 different stamped images  -  X's two, that's right you get 42 stamped images, 2 of each one shown in the pictures.  This is a variety and mix of images and I hope you will enjoy working with them.  They have been stamped with MEMENTO Tuxedo Black ink on 110 lb. white paper.  This will all go to ONE lucky winner and here is what you need to do to enter:

Be a visible follower or become one now

Comment below to enter....  THAT'S  IT!!!

Winner, please claim your prize within 3 days, 72 hours after the Blog Candy closes otherwise another name will be drawn.  Thank you ..  Jane

            The total of the Blog Hop candy at 'Thepapeaffair'.

               A closer look at the new Martha Steward edge punch.

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge 25, PatchPal Puppy

Hello and WELCOME to Midnight Madness's 25th Sketch Challenge, I am so happy you decided to hop over here to visit me and read the details on my card entry this week.  

Our Weekly sponsor is Studio 313 Creations by Shawnee Arnold, you can find her designs   right here. The Midnight Madness monthly sponsor is  Gurlee Girl  Designs. the prize is 3 stamps PLUS a gift certificate.  These stamps are fabulous, You are going to fall in love with them, the new releases are fall and winter themed. 

On to my card for this Week for MMSC25,  PatchPal Puppy

I used pastel colors for the designer paper and I had purchased the crochet flowers in case anyone would like to know because crocheting is beyond my talents.  I colored in my Puppy and put him/her? on a tag and added a tied ribbon for even more color and texture.  I machine sewed in several areas.  My sewing machine has been having several problems so I took it in a few days ago, so Boo Hoo,, I am missing her already!

 

There is a closer look at my little Puppy!

Also, you know I have so enjoyed all your visits, please leave a comment if you can.  My blog candy give-away is still going on so if you are interested please sign up for it.   Thank you and have a great day,  Blessings  ~~~  Jane

My Card for the Buttony Bow Tutorial Challenge

I saw this tonight, I thought I GOTTA do that, I love the way bow looked and Joanne did such a great job on the YOU TUBE I watched. It has to be in tonight and I normally don't try and beat the clock but I think I made it. I also been wanting to (those cat lovers, stop reading) make a Doggie card, this stamp I used reminds me of days gone by. One trick about the bow, best to use ribbon and has the same pattern on both the sides.  My only regret is that I did not see this earlier, in this challenge you could enter as many as you liked and that bow as so much fun, I have to admit I did have to watch the video about 4 times, LOL.

I colored in the image and used some glitter and one half pearl in the lower right hand corner, a white brad as a bone and 2 brads as paw prints and of course my newly "I know how to do that" Buttony Bow.

This is the link up to the Buttony Bow Challenge RIGHT HERE

The Amazing Race

 Actually it is called Bullslinger Rally but this reminds me of the Amazing Race.   Let me tell you about it.   This was my and my husband's first year doing this and the couple we went with it was their 4th, I think.  Now this is all about taking and knowing your directions and reading clues, not my strong suite.  So you start out at point A, get clues to lead you to through leg 1 and then you pick up clues to leg 2 and so on,  there are 3 legs and one final destination for two routes, we drew route 1 to begin our journey.  You are to time yourself at each leg and after each leg you are to met  and get your next clues, eat or snacks usually dumped you out at a dining place so at the end, all routes final destination is a restaurant with a buffet and lodging if you so asked to be lodged, we did not do lodging.  Know that when you sign up, to pay for your dinner and if you want lodging and you have NO idea where you will end up!!

This should have been out first clue, we left our house at 6:30am to met up with friends, this was our first snowfall of the season and the road were icy with black ice from exhausts.  The first meeting place is 45 minutes from our house, the other side of the cities at a Dairy Farm.  We get there are get assigned a car number and our rules (no maps or GPS allowed) and a window flag.  Wait until they say we can all start - GO!

Smokey the Bear!!  This is at a T in the road so you can go either right or left here.  So this clue reads, "Wine and Spirits are just ahead, be Smokey's right hand man".   So you have to turn here.  Now realize that there are 4 of us and I like to think reasonably intelligent people and so we all decided to turn right which was WRONG.   The clue said Smokey's right hand so we should have turned left!!!  I just bet you are wondering how we did on this leg.  It should have taken 2.5 hours but we took the very scenic route and took over 5 hours.  Not very good.

The clue reads, go past the well rested, turn right.  Which is a Cemetery.  I make us stop and take pictures, I tell them all that I am going to be blogging, I get all eyes rolling!!

Other scenery, God's Country out here.  The thought behind the rally is to take you out of the City and enjoy the fall's colors of the leaves changing.  There is another clue: "Silo's are calling, don't make them cry, quick hit the dirt, don't pass them by.  Shy of 100, straight is your way"  Which really means turn before you pass them on a dirt road and the road was County 99.  AND we got that one right!!! 

This one I just thought it was pretty.

        
                                   My view from the back seat.

I bet overall you wonder what happened.  We continued to mess up, having big debates, talking about the merits of the clues, finding restrooms, going down dirt roads we should not be on, eating junk food, ending up in the wrong towns, LOL. and luckily you get envelopes that you can open to find out where the final destinations is but if you open it you are disqualified from the race.  We only opened it because it was dark and we needed gas so bad that we had to stop looking and find a gas station, I so did not want to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere in the dark on a dirt road.  So we did open the envelope and still had to travel 30 minutes to meet up with everyone.  We were so late that everyone stood up and clapped at us/for us?  We were lucky we still were able to eat!

It was a long drive home, I think we got home about 11:30 pm.

Would we do this again, Everyone said YES, In a heartbeat!!!  We had SO much fun.  My girlfriend said, this really is the worst we have ever done.  I say, hang with me, things always get worse!!!

Hope you enjoyed the story.  It is hard to tell and understand from there, one of those that you just had to be there!  I have a few more, my camera is getting full.  This is several weeks old, I have been trying to find the time to get it blogged.    Talking about blog  ~~ Candy  ~~~   I have some blog candy below, take a look and see if you are interested and if so, sign up.  ~~

Warmly, Jane

MMSC24, Gurlee Girl *Winter Wonderland* and The Saturday Spotlight/The hidden Potential

 I hope you are all enjoying our blog hop, this is our last day so please if you have not done so already and wish to participate, please do so today.

Our Weekly sponsor is Sue at mcmahonfivedesigns. The Midnight Madness monthly sponsor is  Gurlee Girl Designs. the prize is 3 stamps PLUS a gift certificate.  These stamps are fabulous, You are going to fall in love with them, the new releases are fall and winter themed.  I also got to play with them, our sponsor was VERY kind to the Design team,  I hope that I have done the Gurlee Girl Stamps justice.

On to my card for this Week for MMSC24

I machine sewed the card front, used DP papers, glitter and some fake snow, made snowflakes using my MS paper punch, aqua colored half pearls in three corners and I used real wood paper to cut out my fence that I bought from my friend Sue at Sue's online store.

There is the card on a side view, a little peek on the inside that it is lined and decorated, can't have it be naked!

The envelope, notice the addressee area, I used my oval nests and layered them and used my MS snowflake punch again to made the snowflakes and added a aqua half pearl for the enter.  This is also entered in the Saturday Spotlight Challenge which you will find right here.

I also want to show you the sister card to this, this is not part of the Sketch Challenge, actually you will see that I did not use a sketch but I really like how this card turned out and I am really enjoying working with these stamped images.               

  Thank you for another week at Midnight Madness and hope to see your card entered in the Sketch Challenge.  As always, have a wonderful week, Blessings ~~  Jane

Also, my blog candy is open until Halloween just to let you know so if you are interested, please read the post below on the details.  Thanks Jane

Prowling at the Midnight Madness Blog Hop.

Here at Midnight Madness we are celebrating 'YOU', our players with a fun and exciting blog hop.  We have TWENTY FIVE exciting prizes to give away.  As a matter of  fact, here is the list of how we are giving away these prizes:

* One Grand prize random drawing valued at $100.00
* 350th BRAND NEW Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize valued at $50.00.
* 11 "Cards from the Crypt" (Picked by out DT members from the MMSC archives)
* 12 Random PACKAGE winners drawn

You have until Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12p.pm. Midnight EST to leave your name in Mr. Linky at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog to be eligible for the prizes.  Prize winners will be notified at the end of the week.

If you would like to be entered in the Prowling at the 1st Midnight Madness Blog Hop and you DO NOT have a blog. you still can participate.  You will have to follow the directions below:

1).  Leave a comment on the Midnight Madness Blog Hop Comment section with your email address, first name and last name initial.
2).  Link up to Mr. Linky with the first name and last name initial and in the URL space enter this address:
http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/

In order to have a chance at winning any of the prizes, you must gather a secret phrase along the Blog Hop.  Each Design Team Member will have a particular word or words listed on their blog and as long as you visit them in order, you will have the secret phase at the end.  If you are picked as a Prize winner you will be contacted by email and you must email back the secret phase WITHIN 48 HOURS to claim your prize.  If by any chance the 350th BRAND NEW player or any of the "Cards from the Crypt" winners are not claimed, then those prizes will be added to the random winners drawn.  To start off, you must begin at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog.  If you have not started there, I suggest you go back and begin again ... you don't want to miss out on the Prizes!  If you have arrived from Jeni's Custom Cards  then you are on the correct course.  If you want a chance to win you will have to follow the instructions listed above.  Thank you and have fun on the Hop.
 
           
                       It's a  SPooKtacUlaR  EveNinG!

                          
                    Welcome Guests to my Halloween Par-TEE

           Your invitation to an Evening of Spirits and Spells.

Our Witches Creations! 

 

Yummy! 

For this Party I made the following paper craft items, the invitation, RX bottle party favor and food menu.

Our Finger Food!

Monster Mash Halloween Party Mix 

 

Ghosts in the Graveyard

                           

  Hun, please open the window, our first guests have arrived!!!
                              

Thank you for viewing my 'Thepaperaffair'  Halloween Blog Hop project. I appreciate your visit.


                                    ****  Cards from the Crypt  ****

For something a little fun to honor our Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge Players we thought we would go back into the Crypt of archived challenges and pick some of our favorites to feature here.  Our winners will need to do the blog hop and collect a word from each of the blogs to collect the winning phase and place their name in Mr. Lindy at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog.  We will email you when we verify that you have entered your name in Mr. Linky, you will need to email back the phrase in order to quality for your prize.  Even if your card has been chosen for the Crypt, you are still eligible for the Grand Prize and Random Drawings.
                        My featured card and Card Artist:

This card was entered in MMCS15 by Georgia Ehrmann 

Georgia has been such a loyal card artist to enter our Sketch challenges and always ready to give it her all.  This card is very refreshing, an  Elephant singing "Happy Birthday", I love a birthday cards!!  Thank you Georgia.  Georgia,  please play along on the blog hop and be sure to link up to claim your prize.

A little bit about me:  Yep, I LOVE HALLOWEEN, I think you guessed that.  I used to throw Halloween parties all the time, while making the 'favors' I don't know why I ever stopped.  Hope my pictures are not too fuzzy, my photo shot was not going as well as I hoped.  I really wanted to be done taking pictures so I could 'dig' into my Graveyard Brownies. 



I hope you have enjoyed your visit here.  Your next word can be found at DesignsbyDenise  blog.  Thank you for playing in our weekly challenges and for all your support and comments you leave with us, we love showing our creations to you and visiting your blogs to see what you have created.  We hope you are enjoying this special Blog Hop, many hours went into creating special projects for you to view and enjoy and  to WELCOME in the Fall  season. 

 Thanks for joining us today ~~~~ Blessings, Jane at the "Thepaperaffair'

MMSC #23, Gurlee Girl Coca, * A Shaker Card *

Hello and Welcome to another week at Midnight Madness.  Let me first tell you about our Blog Hop.

The Midnight Madness Blog Hop will be starting on October 16th and the Midnight Madness Design team each will be posting their own projects to share with all of you get you get you in the spirit of the season.  To show our appreciation for hopping along with all of us, Midnight Madness with be offering up these treats:

* One Grand prize random drawing
* 350th BRAND NEW Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize
* "Cards from the Crypt" (Picked by out DT members from the MMSC archives)
* 10 Random PACKAGE winners drawn

To get the word out, our Sketch players if they add the BLOG HOP LOGO to their side bar they will get an extra entry in the Weekly Bonus Drawing. Enter your name twice on Mr. Linky.. ONE with a direct link to your card and the OTHER ONE to either your main blog address or a Special Post about our upcoming Blog Hop.  BUT in order to qualify with the second entry on Mr. Linky, the logo HAS to be on the SIDE BAR with a link back to the MM blog.  Snag your BLOG HOP LOGO here, mine is on the top left hand side or go to Priscilla's blog, home of Midnight Madness and for the complete details on this extra entry offer.


Our Weekly sponsor is Innovative Stamp Creations, a $50.00 voucher worth of sheets, YES, $50.00.  The Midnight Madness monthly sponsor is  Gurlee Girl Designs. the prize is 3 stamps PLUS a gift certificate.  These stamps are fabulous, You are going to fall in love with them, the new releases are fall and winter themed.  I also got to play with them, our sponsor was VERY kind to the Design team,  I hope that I have done the Gurlee Girl Stamps justice.

On to my card for this Week for MMSC23

 

Don't you love the colors of this card and papers, blue and red?  I love those two together!  See the beads inside of the shaker and the string of silver beads surrounding the 'dome' shaker.  I thought the peppermint paper and embellishment was a fitting touch to the Girl drinking Coca.

A side view of the card, now you can get a better look as to what I call a dome shaker, see how it curves around like a dome, very cool for a winter 'Happy Holiday' card, reminds me of a snow dome.

 

The completed envelope, with velvet ribbon trimming the addressee area.  Again a Peppermint.

Thank you for stopping by today, I enjoyed your visit.  Also notice the blog candy in the post below, please sign-up if you are interested in it.  ~~  Blessings, Jane

Writing Heartfelt Notes

Most of you reading this make wonderful cards and creations, surely you felt that you wanted to give a handcrafted, lovely card to let the person know you where thinking of them, investing a part of yourself and your very valued time into something they would enjoy.  Most times we hope that we can give them in happy times but you know that that is not always the case.  Please, I ask you to send cards and letters in unhappy or sorrowful situations, that is when our loved ones need the most support from us.  At times like these I know words can escape us, this has happened to me and I know you too, don't let that stop you, a few words of kindness no matter how clumsy you think they read are so much better than no words at all. 

In this world of high-tech, we send e-mails, we blog (YUP), tweeter, face book BUT in my heart that will never replace a wonderfully written correspondence from a loved one - how exciting it is to open a card and letter... I know the excitement of it and now... I think I should drop a few in the mail myself just because...and when I do and they tell me how much they enjoyed it, it makes my day too.

I know as I mention I struggle with this so when I ran across this book, I had to take it home with me.  I found it as second hand shoppe as I keep it in  *my craft room *.  Trust me I can take days thinking about what I want to say, how to say it and this helps me find the words and sets my frame of mind.   I hope you can find such a book.   Let me leave you with a quote from this book:


People need joy quite as much as clothing, some of them need it far more.  ~~~ Margaret Collier Graham.

Midnight Madness Week 22 and Blog Hop Annoucement

Hello and Welcome to another week at Midnight Madness.  Let me first tell you about our Blog Hop.

The Midnight Madness Blog Hop will be starting on October 16th and the Midnight Madness Design team each will be posting their own projects to share with all of you get you get you in the spirit of the season.  To show our appreciation for hopping along with all of us, Midnight Madness with be offering up these treats:

* One Grand prize random drawing
* 350th BRAND NEW Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize
* "Cards from the Crypt" (Picked by out DT members from the MMSC archives)
* 10 Random PACKAGE winners drawn

To get the word out, our Sketch players if they add the BLOG HOP LOGO to their side bar they will get an extra entry in the Weekly Bonus Drawing. Enter your name twice on Mr. Linky.. ONE with a direct link to your card and the OTHER ONE to either your main blog address or a Special Post about our upcoming Blog Hop.  BUT in order to qualify with the second entry on Mr. Linky, the logo HAS to be on the SIDE BAR with a link back to the MM blog.  Snag your BLOG HOP LOGO here, mine is on the top left hand side or go to Priscilla's blog, home of Midnight Madness and for the complete details on this extra entry offer.


Our Weekly sponsor is Simon Says Stamp and the Midnight Madness monthly sponsor is  Gurlee Girl Designs. the prize is 3 stamps PLUS a gift certificate.  These stamps are fabulous, You are going to fall in love with them, the new releases are fall and winter themed.  I also got to play with them, our sponsor was VERY kind to the Design team and you will view my designs later this month.  I hope that I have done the Gurlee Girl Designs images justice to be showcased next week.

On to my card for this Week for MMSC22 And Creative Card Crew "Celebrations",

A Birthday card!  Seems like you can never have enough of these.  Very pretty, don't you think?  I got this stamp set several weeks ago at Michaels so if you like it they should still have them in stock.  Some of the highlights of this card is the paper piecing of the Birthday cake and it's layers, YUM.  I love the colors in this card and the 6 x 6 paper pack I bought just for this.  Also notice the lovely white ribbon surrounding the  cake, each lace through is tied off in a knot before being laced again to the next hole, I think it adds some visual details.  Today I am going to show you the envelope I created to go with this card.

The envelope. I also did up the inside of the card.  To view the inside of this card, I have it listed on ebay where you can view it.  Jane's Ebay Site

Thank you for stopping by today, I enjoyed your visit.  Also notice the blog candy in the post below, please sign-up if you are interested in it.  ~~  Blessings, Jane

A walk a day; Outside verses Inside

I try to go for a walk everyday for a least a half an hour.  In the spring, summer and fall I can walk outside but in the winter in Minnesota, well that is inside due the the cold and icy walkways.  I do have a thread mill which I will be firing up there soon but this is why I prefer to walk outside,         how could you not?

             Someone's little Pumpkin patch, not much longer and they will be picked for the season.

Paved walkways, pretty trees.  Over head are power lines, you don't see that much of those here in MN anymore, most are now underground.

                                                   

Have to cross the Rail Road tracks if I walk this way.  I have not figured out yet if I live on the right or wrong side of the tracks!!

See, beautiful.  A small lake after all Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes.