Wal-Mart craft finds

I stopped at Wal-Mart on my way home from work last night. I highly recommend shopping there at 1:30 a.m.! It's a much more pleasant experience when there are only a handful of people in the store. Anyway, I wandered the craft aisles to see what they had out for Christmas, and I found some cute things. My favorite is this mini craft tote. I have been looking for a smaller bag for awhile. I have two large totes, but sometimes I just need to take a few things along. Michaels had put out some cute smaller ones recently that had liners in various animal prints (giraffe, leopard, etc.), but they were actually TOO small and they have little give, so it's not like you pack a lot into them. But THIS bag is PERFECT! I can't believe how roomy it is. I put the bottle of Crystal Effects next to it to give you an idea of the size. It has lots of pockets, both inside and out. It's also collapsible, so it takes up very little space when not in use. Love it!! And the best part? It only cost $4.97!!

Other goodies I found: a pack of glittery red foam stars, packs of buttons in various sizes in Christmas colors and an ADORABLE little clear stamp set for $2.97. Look at those hedgehogs! Too cute! They had several different clear sets, but this one was my favorite.

There's a LOT of Martha Stewart craft stuff at Wal-Mart now too. They hadn't put out many of her Christmas items at my store yet, though. All I saw were the holiday punches ($8.97) and some gift box kits and tins. I hear there are mini holiday glitter kits available at other stores, so I'll keep looking. No telling what else I'll find next time!

Christmas card swap

I had a card swap at the LSS on Sunday afternoon. Naturally I put it off until the night before. But for a quick card, I thought it turned out cute. I used the same sketch as a card I had seen by Nichole Heady as well as her nifty trick with the Scor-Pal to define the patterned strip across the middle. The colors are so light I had trouble getting a good photo, but if you click on the image to blow it up to a larger size you can see it fairly well. I didn't want to color in the penguin, so I punched a 2" circle out of the middle one of the scallop circle shapes and then used the scallop border that was left as a sort of mask to sponge the Aqua Mist ink inside a scallop circle punched shape.

I'll have to post some of the cards I received in the swap. These girls sure love their Cricut machines! I don't need the temptation. I only just found a home for my new Big Shot here in the closet. There's NO way I'd have room in here for a Cricut. But ohhhh.... You get SO much from just ONE Cricut cartridge! Eeek!

Supplies

Stamps: Juggling penguin (Elzybells), Have a jolly Christmas (Hero Arts), polka dots (PaperTrey Ink)

Ink: Aqua Mist (PaperTrey), White Craft (Stampin Up), Palette Noir

Paper: Aqua Mist (PaperTrey), Whisper White (SU)

Accessories: ribbon (A Muse), SU dimensionals, Marvy Super (blue) circle punch, Marvy mega (pink) scallop circle punch, sponge