Reminder

In case some of you reading do not receive the Shoppe's newsletter...or even if you do, I thought I'd put a little reminder on my blog about the great deal Cheryl is offering for Black Friday.

Every gift certificate purchased on Friday, November 27th (from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. only!) will receive an extra 10% upgrade! So for example, if you purchase a $25 gift certifcate, you will get $27.50 instead. How great is THAT???

If any of you are participating in the Secret Sister swap at the Shoppe, what a fantastic idea for an end of the year gift! Or, perhaps you have a friend who likes to scrapbook. Heck, considering the upgrade, it might be worth it to even purchase one for yourself! Who doesn't love a little extra spending money...to you, from you! :o)

And ahem...now that I've done my own personal shopping...lol

If you haven't had a chance to drop in lately, Cheryl has some gorgeous new Christmas papers and embellishments in stock. Some have an elegant, vintage touch...and others are just as cute as can be! Just go to the back of the store in the holiday section to check out all the pretties for yourself. I can guarantee you, you're not going to want to miss out on any of it! And if you're working on layouts after a fun-filled Halloween, there is still a great selection of adorable papers for that as well!

Wishing all of you a wonderful weekend!

Money saving tip alert!!

I'm back to the blogging world with a fun new tip to share! Glue dots are wonderful for adhering embellishments to our pages. But we all know how expensive they can be when you use a lot.

So, in my online travels, I found a wonderful idea for making your own homemade dots using glue! All you will need is a bottle of "Aleene's Tack It Over and Over", and an old empty sticker sheet from your stash. Some people have tried using wax paper but apparently, it will NOT work for this purpose.

Cheryl just received a shipment of the Tack It today so if you're interested, stop by to pick some up. Each bottle retails for $4.59 and will make TONS of dots! The best part about this is you can make yours any size you like. Maybe even try making some lines to adhere your favorite ribbon to your layouts!


Apply the glue to your sticker sheet as shown. (Make sure you use the glossy side of your sticker sheet so that the glue dots will peel off easier later.) Allow your dots to dry overnight. The dots will turn clear when they are ready to use.


Hope you enjoyed this tip. Be on the lookout for some more great ideas in the near future!

Attention Cricut owners!

Cricut lovers, have I got a tip for you!!! I found this great idea in my online travels and wanted to share it with you today. I'm sorry that I don't know the person who originated the idea...but whoever it was, he or she is a creative genius!!

Cricut mats can be expensive if you have to replace them often. And with that money, you could be buying more fun catridges! So, this tip will help once your mat has lost it's stickiness.

First, you will need one two way glue pen (make sure it's the one with the jumbo tip). It's by EK Sucess Zig Memory System and looks like this:

This retails for (I believe) $5.99 so if you can use a coupon for this, you would save a little. (You can check http://www.scrappincricut.blogspot.com/ for a coupon). Kendra is a sweetie who is always kind enough to post any coupons that may be available for any given week. It takes her alot of time and effort to do this, so if you do print one off, be sure to leave her a nice comment. I'm sure she'd really appreciate it.

Now for the instructions...

Clean your mat using soap and water. Allow it to dry. Because patience is not something I possess, I used a hair dryer (on a very low setting) to speed up the process. :o)

Once dry, you will want to tape off the outer portion of your mat where you do not want adhesive.

Starting at the top of your mat, run your glue pen across from one side to the other.

Do this over and over until your entire mat is covered in glue. If you find the glue starts to puddle on your mat, wait a few minutes and then lightly dab that portion with paper towel.

After about 20 minutes, your mat should be nice and sticky. However, if at all possible, it's best to leave it overnight (uncovered) to allow the glue to settle properly. Remove your tape. Then you can cover your mat with it's protective clear sheet again.

Enabling!

Michael's now has some new Cricut cartridges in stock: Simply Sweet, Stand & Salute (perfect for military or 4th of July photos!), Home Decor and Jubilee. But, the best part is... they're on sale!! The price listed on the display is $89.99, but they ring up at $44.99!! And if that weren't enough, 20 lucky people will find a gold ticket inside their cartridges~ with the prize being a trip for two to the Carribean!! How cool is THAT??

Also, all Disney catridges are $39.99 this week! Have fun shopping!! :o)

Great info to share!

Yesterday, I heard about this fantastic blog where you'll find plenty of freebies and discounts. Now not all of these things are scrapbook related, but I really think you'll enjoy this fun website anyway.

So, here it is:

http://www.giveawaytoday.blogspot.com

Hope you find something good! :o)

Cricut info

Two questions that I seem to get asked a lot are "Where do you purchase your cricut cartridges?" and "Which ones are your favorites"?

Well, a couple I have purchased off of Ebay. In fact, I've heard some people get great deals there. I don't tend to have much luck with Ebay most of the time. However, I do have some resources for you if you're looking for a new cartridge at a reasonable price.

Michael's is obviously one choice. The limitation there is that you have to wait for the catridges to go on sale. So, here are a few online options that I have found:

One website I've used numerous times is Scrappers Must Haves. Typically I have my cartridges within two days of placing my order. I've been very, very happy with their level of customer service! And, as long as you don't mind them cutting off the top of the blister packaging, two catridges can fit into one priority flat rate envelope. This means shipping is less than $5 (if shipped within the U.S). Just remember to choose that option at check out. They also sell some of the more rare cartridges such as Don Juan and Accent Essentials.

Here is their website so you can see their selection:

http://www.scrappersmusthaves.com

There are a couple of other websites I've heard good things about (although I have never ordered from them personally, so I cannot rate their customer service):

http://www.ohmycrafts.com
http://www.customcrops.com

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones I have heard the most chatter about. Oh, one other thing...you might also want to check out http://www.cricut.com . Within their message board, there is a separate category titled "Product Reviews & Deals". There you will find a lot of people selling some of their used (some new) cartridges at great prices.

Now, I also promised I would tell you some of my favorites. First for fonts:

Storybook~I love the elegance of this font...perfect for formal pages or sweet girlie layouts. It also contains several scallop shapes which are so popular in scrapbooking right now. There are also a lot of flourishes on this cartridges. I don't tend to use many flourishes in my scrapbooking, but if this is something that appeals to you, then you will looove this cartridge.

Alphalicious, Doodletype and Learning Curve ~ three different fonts that are all very versatile. They work well for most of your every day kind of pages. Alphalicious has more of a cute, whimsical feel to it.

Now for the shape cartridges:

Doodlecharms ~ has a wide variety of fun shapes. A little something for everyone can be found on this one. It's a great cartridge and I highly recommend it.

Paper Doll Dress Up ~ is very different than the title implies. It has sooo much more than just paper dolls. It has tons of "accessories"! Just a few of the many things you will find on this one include: a pirate ship, witch's cauldron, pumpkin, mummy, a castle for some adorable prince/princess pages, a shamrock, a rocking hourse, a sailboat, a wagon...the list goes on and on. So many adorable items contained in one cartridge. I'd even go so far as to say this is my favorite shape cartridge that I own.

My only buyer's remorse was my Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. There seems to be a lot of great things on this one, and yet I can't bring myself to like it. Don't ask me why because I really don't know. LOL I'm hoping to learn to love it the more that I use it.

Hope today's post was helpful to someone! Have a great day!!

A tip to share

Sometimes you learn things by trial and error, as was the case today. Now, keep in mind that this tip may not work if you're using a glue stick/pen to adhere your letters. But, if you're using the hermafix dots, xyron, or the ATG gun (which is what I have) this should work for you.

I was working on a layout and wasn't happy with the font I chosen for the title. And as luck would have it, as careful as I was trying to be, some of the background cardstock peeled off with the letters. Once I removed all my letters, I went back and removed any sticky residue left over. (I use a Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser for this purpose. I believe they can be found at most office supply stores).

Now that the sticky residue was gone, I needed something to smooth the background paper where there were little pulls in it. I found an emery board and decided to give it a try. I gently sanded the little tears and before you know it, you could barely tell where I had messed up.

So, the moral of my story: Invest in an emery board. Mine came in a package of two (purchased at Walmart). A wonderful $ .99 investment to have in your scrapbooking stash.

Let the shopping begin!

See if your favorite online store has any unadvertised sales going on:

http://www.naughtycodes.com/

Happy shopping! :o)

Another money saving tip

I came across this and thought it was so helpful that I'm passing it on to you. I know many of you have a Cricut machine. Hopefully this method will help cut down on the expense of buying extra mats.

Click on the following link to find out what Cricut Dan has to say...

http://cricutdan.blogspot.com/search/label/Tips%20-%20Help

Thank you Dan for such a wonderful tip!! :o)

Money saving tip

We've all seen the cute papers out there that have the adorable decorative edging around it. However, many times the pattern or color does not go with the pictures we are working on.
Instead, buy one sheet of the paper you like and use it as a template for tracing. That way you have the versatility of using any patterned paper you like for your layout.

It would also be a great idea to keep all of your "templates" together by putting a hole in one corner of each sheet and using a ring....or perhaps you can just put them all in a page sleeve. Keeping them all in one place not only makes them easier to find when you want to use them~it also provides a quick reference for you to make sure you do not buy duplicates when you go shopping.