HAPPY HALLOWEEN + FREEBIE !!

Can you believe October is at an end? It's been a busy month here which included a trip up North to visit with my parents and help them with their overwhelming Fall yardwork! I was way more active physically up there on their property than I ever am here at home in my small environment. I happened to hit a really great seasonal time up there. The leaves were gorgeous colors, and millions of them came tumbling down in two consecutive days, thus the raking began. One of their 50+ years old apple trees was over-laden with delicious apples with hundreds hitting the ground beneath the tree daily. Their huge black walnut tree was the same as the apple in its bounty, and the chestnut trees were running a tight third place. I worked out in the yard every day until I didn't think my spine could take anymore. We got the lawn cleaned up of produce, gave lots of it away, sold some to the local markets, and I returned home with a truckbed full to cook and can. That's done now too!  I took lots of Fall photos!  Think I'll take November a little easier!  Here's a LO of the black walnut tree . . . and this template was free from the Template Tuesday challenges over at Jessica Sprague . . . (if you're a template addict, like I am, you should check that out since you get a free one each Tuesday) . . .

And here is a LO of a great odd shot I took while traveling across one of our popular mountain ridges up home, this being shot upward from the forest floor . . .

And here is a LO of our favorite roadside market only a little over 2 hrs. into our journey going North; I always have to stop here and browse all the goodies . . . (another free template from JS) . . .

And here is the last LO for now, just a couple of the trip moments I luckily captured; mom with one of her geraniums, yours truly with my DD on the mountain-top lookout, and my dad pulling a bucket of apples up the driveway in the old red wagon . . .  (another JS free template) . . .

November is full of family birthdays, so that will set a pace of sorts to my schedule.  Better put my mind on some homemade cake recipes!!

I've been enjoying some quality time with my three grandchildren doing pre-Halloween activities like making some party crafts, Halloween cards, candy apples and popcorn balls.  Here's a LO of one of those evenings with them "mugging for the camera", of course.  There are getting pretty self-conscious these days in front of the lens . . . (free template from Tiffany Tillman's blog) . . .

Okay, enough about me!  Here is something for you!  I was spurred by ghosts, goblins, and ghouls and knowing October is ending to make you something for scrapping those photos you'll be taking tonight of your own children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, or all those kids coming to your door for candy (I take pictures of them, too).  I present your FREEBIE, another in my large collection of photo mat/clipping masks, this one "SPOOKTACULAR".  This is a png file, 300 dpi, aproximately 8 x 6" and can be used in most software programs.  It can be easily resized to larger or smaller, easily recolored to use as a photo mat, or you can clip your favorite paper to it, or you can clip your photo to it directly making the photo take on the png's shape for an interesting effect.  Hope you can use it and have some fun with it.  Here's the preview . . .

DOWNLOAD HERE OR HERE

I'm providing two different download sites as the freebies have been so popular lately that I run out of bandwidth using just one download site.  So I hope this helps. 

Until next time, TRICK OR TREAT!  (I prefer TREATS!)

TOOTLES!!

CHALLENGE FREEBIE + OCTOBER PAPERS FREEBIE

Happy October, one and all! Time is certainly flying! I tried something new for me and got involved in a neat challenge over at Cool Scraps Digital and tried my hand at a little design work. The challenge is called "CU for a PU Freebie".  The hostess of the challenge, Addie's Designs, provided a pack of CU (commercial use) elements, and the contest participants had to make something with them.  I'm definitely a newbie at this, but I worked up a pack of 6 papers and 10 elements.  The papers are full size, 12x12", 300 dpi; and the elements include 1 invitation, 2 frames, 2 recipe cards, 2 stickers, 2 brads, and 1 journaling card.  Hope you like!  Here's the preview . . .

DOWNLOAD HERE OR HERE

Hop over and visit the CSD forum to collect all the other freebies available in this challenge!  There are some beauties!  Better still, if you hurry, you can participate in this challenge yourself.  The winner gets a $5.00 gift certificate to the store, and all participants get to keep the CU Pack of goodies!

By the way, from my last post, nobody guessed my middle name correctly so I suppose we'll just keep that a secret for another time!  LOL!  There were some good attempts!

Next up, I have a second FREEBIE for my faithful followers!  I present to you my OCTOBER PAPER PACK.  I've assembled 9 pretty full size papers with fitting color for this month, so I hope you can use them!  I also hope to keep this going throughout the year.  It started with me trying to design a paper with some text on it for the month, and it sort of grew from that.  These are 12x12", 300 dpi, and here is the preview . . .

and here is a closer look at the one paper idea that started this, the focal point of this pack:

DOWNLOAD HERE OR HERE

I'm providing two places to download for these freebies, as I experienced running out of bandwidth for my downloads last month, and that's such a bummer for anyone trying to gather up some goodies!

Unzip your downloads promptly, as I've included a little something special in them!

I believe I've got a busy month ahead, but I hope to check back in before the goblins hit my front door!  Take care and enjoy the cool crisp air of Fall!

TOOTLES!