ATRS sale extended!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Addicted To Rubber Stamps has extended its 25 percent-off sale through the end of today. Their Web site was so slow on Wednesday that many people could not place their orders, so they decided to offer a second chance. I've been ordering from them for years and this really is the best sale I've ever seen them offer, so take advantage!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to 2009!!

I'm going to try to shoot a photo a day this year for Becky Higgins' Project 365 so I can put something together at the end of the year. Not sure I'll remember to do it everyday, but we'll see. This is the first photo of 2009 -- it's from today's dinner at my mother-in-law's. Collards! You can't have a New Year's Day dinner without collards, right? I don't eat them myself (truth be told, I can barely stand the smell!) but my husband piles them on his plate, and since the more greens you eat, the more green you're supposed to see in the new year, more power to him! Heh!

We left the kids with my MIL after dinner and went to see The Day The Earth Stood Still. I know the reviews haven't been so great, but I didn't think it was bad at all. I remember watching the original in my 10th grade astronomy class. Then we got home and ordered a movie On Demand -- What Happens In Vegas. Needed a comedy after all the drama of the earlier movie. It was about what I expected -- entertaining enough but I'm glad I didn't shell out $9.50 at the theater to see it!

Was Santa good to everyone? I got a Janome Sew Mini, which I've wanted for a very long time. I'm definitely a beginner, so with this I can get more familiar with using a sewing machine before I someday go out and buy a full size machine. But I can also use it to sew on cards, so I'm excited about that too. I've been cleaning up here in the closet this week so now the stamp table is cleared off and I can get back to stamping!

Is it just me...

... or does the design on this box of tissues look like something created by Michelle Zindorf? Hee! Makes me want to break out the brayer every time I look at it!

I got my Stampin Up spring/summer catalog preorder items today (gotta love expedited shipping!) I don't know what to play with first! I also got the new issue of Paper Crafts magazine in the mail BEFORE I saw it in the stores. I'll dive in to that later after the kids are in bed.

Speaking of the kids, my youngest turned 9 years old today. NINE!! I gave him one of his presents when he got home from school, since it IS his birthday, after all, and he should get to open something, but the rest will wait until his party on Sunday. It was a Star Wars Lego set, so that has been keeping him busy all evening. He didn't like it when I told him that on MY ninth birthday (Jan. 19, 1977), it actually snowed here in Charleston and I didn't have to go to school. (It was a MAJOR Arctic blast -- it even snowed in Miami that day as well as the Bahamas!) He has never seen snow that he remembers, so it's kind of a sore subject with him that he is so deprived living in the south. I'm sure all of you in the midwest already digging your way out from snowstorms would gladly trade your blizzard for the sunny 68-degree day we had here today, but you could never convince him of that!

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

Happy Halloween!

The boys picked out their creepy costumes (if you look at the larger version of the photo you can see the blood oozing over the bones in the costume on the left -- he controls it with the red pump in his hand) and had a great time trick-or-treating and then giving out candy later and scaring the little kids who came to the door. It was a nice chilly night too, so no worries of them getting too hot in their robes. Ahhhh, Halloween... Hope everyone else had a frightfully fun night as well!!

There are a couple of online sales going on to mention. Free shipping at Bella Stamps on orders over $45 through Nov. 4. The code is 8d43d7 (it's case sensitive). I've already placed an order today. And now I see that Hanna Stamps is also having a sale so I'm off to check that one out before settling in to watch my favorite scary movie -- Halloween! :)

Happy Haunting!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's my favorite time of the year! It finally feels like fall outside, the sun sets earlier and now we're just a day away from my favorite holiday. I took the week off from work so I could enjoy it all a bit more. The kids have their costumes and I've stocked up on candy, so once the pumpkin is carved we'll be ready for the big night.

This is one of the cards I received in the SCS Halloween swap. Don't you love how the olives look like eyeballs?! Such a fun card -- it would be great for a Halloween party invitation! It was made by Carmen Ramirez. I'm not sure how well it shows up in the photo, but she used Crystal Effects for the 'beverage' in the glasses. Love it!!

Well I finally broke down and got a Big Shot! So now I can finally make some of those cute baskets I've been seeing everywhere. But for everything else, I was doing just fine with the Cuttlebug, so don't go thinking you HAVE to have the Big Shot to use the Top Note Bigz die or Tulipe or Scallop Circle Bigz dies -- they all work in the Cuttlebug with 2 'B' plates. The tricky ones are the dies that include score lines -- the Cuttlebug will slice through the score lines without some type of mat, from what I've heard. I love my Bug, though, so I'll be keeping BOTH!

Supplies:

Stamps: Cheers To You, Tasty Sweet (both SU)

Ink: Kiwi Kiss, black

Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black, Going Gray, Naturals White

Accessories: crimper, Crystal Effects, vintage brads, blender pen