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Stamps & Paper

It’s been a yucky weekend. I would of posted a winner much sooner, though Ethan’s been battling a really bad cold and now he’s got a tummy bug. Isn’t it sort of funny how kids manage to get everything at once? I’m terribly fearful it will all come my way. I guess I’ll find out in three to seven days. Oh joy.

Here’s the random winner for the “Snowed In” kit collection:

Maryangella
Ethan is at such a wonderful stage of his life and how great that he was so excited this year. There is nothing like the magic of Christmas when it comes to children. My favorite line this year is by Sassafras, I love the colors and playfulness of the papers. Thanks for the great give-away, that line looks beautiful. Have a great day.

Congratulations Mary! Please email me with your mailing address so I can mail you the kit.

Thank you to the many of you that shared some of your favorite holiday collections! If you haven’t read the comments from the previous post and are in the market for holiday paper, be sure to check out everyone’s faves! There’s lots to choose from and much worth taking home.

I’ve heard a lot about Cordination’s “ColorCore” Cardstock and was lucky enough to find some at one of the local scrapbook stores near my home (Scrapbooks Too , Bloomington MN). I have to tell you, I’m in love with this paper! Why? The colors are gorgeous and the surface treatment/texture is a little different from the other kinds of cardstock I usually use. Another reason I’m excited about this paper is because the paper is heavily saturated with bright, bold color. I use a lot of “bright colors” in my layouts and it’s not always easy to find bright colored cardstock. Bazzill manufacturers every color under the rainbow, but the colors aren’t as intense as palette provided by Cordinations. I’m guessing this may be something unique to Cordinations cardstock manufacturing process…if anyone out there has used this paper, I’d love to hear what you’ve done with it. Be sure to check out the Cordination’s website for more info on this paper…it’s rather informative.

Hero Arts has released their new 2009 Spring stamp collection along with their latest idea book. These “Four Doll” stamps are unavoidably cute. I’ve not a clue what I’m going to do with them, but there has to be some hidden potential there. For a little extra assistance, I picked up the idea book also. I need a serious dose of fresh ideas for using stamps. I rarely use the stamps I own because I’m not always sure how to use them on my layouts. Because stamp images are usually small, it’s not always obvious how to incorporate them in a large layout/project. A stamped image is easily lost on a layout if not used in some obvious way (which I’m not good at). I’m hoping this book will provide me some serious inspiration…I’m desperately in need of it.

Golden Harvest/Holiday Cheer Kit Update: I’m waiting on a few misc.  from a couple of manufactures.  Once the kits have the necessary product to be sold and shipped, I’ll email those on the reservation list first and then post a “paypal” shopping cart on my blog sidebar for purchasing kits. Thank you for your continued patience. Estimated time of availability: Mid-January. Kits will be shipping out of California. I’ve asked Scrapbook Oasis to kit all the items and have them ready for shipping in the next few weeks (pending product availability)! I’ll provide further update next week

Toast & Juice

  

 

 

 

 

My living room is flooded with toys. There's not an inch to spare, but it was all worth it as I watched Ethan open his gifts Christmas morning. He woke up around 6:30am and headed straight for the tree. He knew something was up. His first immediate reaction was to grab and tear. Knowing it was just myself and Ethan this year, I was looking forward to this moment. The immediacy of excitement and surprise that children often feel upon waking up Christmas morning is something I'd not experienced with Ethan yet. To get Ethan ready for Christmas morning, I had him leave cookies and a note for Santa the night before. *Good thing he left Santa cookies cause Santa was hungry when he arrived...he ate all the cookies, plus a few extras..wink. Smile. I spoke a little bit about Santa's visit and then had Ethan go to bed. When he woke up the next morning, there was definite excitement. We dedicated the entire morning to celebrating the holiday. By afternoon, we were at my sister's place and celebrating the holiday with family. Ethan wasn't really feeling well by afternoon (bad cold!)so we left the party early. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and hanging out at home. We finished up the festivities at my parent's home the next day.

There are some new activities that Ethan has taken great interest in lately. Santa brought him a toaster and juice dispenser, so the kitchen has become his new best friend. He's cooking me all kinds of stuff,including lots of toast. Laugh. He's also a major fan of "Wall-e" (who doesn't love a robot with a witty personality?) and now we have a miniature electronic Wall-e living in our kitchen which Ethan likes to turn on while eating meals. We also have Wall-e books to read and color and a dishware set for eating out of with Wall-e in the background. This is totally a fun age..my favorite so far.

 

Supplies: Pattern papers ( Sassfras "Frosted" & "In Love", Crate Paper "Notes") Sassafras Leaf border stamp (Organic Borders), Sassafras Green Scallop Journal Tag Sticker (Life at the Pole), K & Company Ornament Adhesions (Swell Noel), Anna Griffin Epoxy Snowflake Sticker (Georgette Holiday), Making Memories Adore Epoxy Sticker (Michaels Exclusive Valentine Pebble Stickers), Heidi Grace Blue Cardstock Alpha Stickers (not able to locate), CI Creative Cafe Transparency (Neutral Date)& October Afternoon "Believe" Die-Cut Letters (Good Cheer).

There's a new member in our family. His name is Evan and he's sooo adorable and itty bitty. I've completely forgotten what it feels like to hold a newborn baby. He's officially one month old. My brother and his wife had a baby last month. This was my first visit with him...a true blessing.

 

This is one of those layouts that "just" sort of happened. Laugh. I found a few hours to sit down and work on it while Ethan was napping yesterday. It was a spontaneous creation. I find that spontaneous creations turn out to be some of my favorite projects. I love creating when I'm not totally vested in the end result. The process of creating is slower and more enjoyable. This layout came about piece by piece. I experimented with various ideas and supplies. I did some combining of both intricate & bold elements. They balance each other out on this layout. I also toyed around with adhesive rub-ons once again. Love these. The soft, ornate swirl sitting behind the word "believe" is an adhesive rub-on from We R' Memory Keepers. I have a small collection of adhesive rub-ons that I use from time to time.

 

Instead of printing my holiday photos this year using my personal home printer, I downloaded them to Snapfish and had them printed for me. I'm quickly realizing that I need to find ways to save time if I'm going to get my holiday layouts completed. I usually like to tweak and play around with photos before printing them, but it's time consuming. I can easily spend hours on the computer altering photos, which is a whole 'nother hobby within itself. So this month, I had someone print my photos for me. While waiting for the photos, I'm continuing my search for Christmas scrapbook supplies. I have some from previous years that I still love and use. I'm combining those with some new items. My favorite two holiday lines from this year are "Be Merry" & "Snowed In" by My Minds Eye. I'm drawn to the color palette and illustration of both of these collections. To celebrate the season, I'm giving away a "Snowed In" collection pack. If you would like to be included in the drawing, please leave a comment below. Share your favorite Christmas collections and tell us why you chose the collection'(s).

 

Almost Christmas Day

I know it's been a while since the last post and trust me, like the rest of you, I've been braving the weather and doing some last minute shopping & prepping for Christmas day. It's been far from glamorous in Minnesota these last few weeks. It's been snowing almost everyday and the roads have been a real nightmare. Some how, us Minnesotans still manage to get around town. I invested in some new "all season" tires for my car. I've been feeling a lot safer while driving around town since purchasing the tires. I'm hoping that at some point, the snow will subside. For now, the neighborhood kids are taking full advantage of great outdoors. I'm almost certain that if Ethan were five or six years old, he'd be outside building himself a snow fort in the pile of snow at the end of our driveway. Right now, he'd rather stay inside like his mom. It's one very cold, blistery Winter this year.

   

We downsized the Christmas tree this year. We have a larger tree in the basement, but "mom" didn't feel like hauling it upstairs. Laugh. Don't even get me started on trying to put the large, monstrous tree together..not fun. Instead, I brought up our small tree from three years ago. We decorated it with some old fashion glass ornaments and topped it off with a lime green tinsel star. Ethan helped me hang up some of the ornaments. It took us a full afternoon of taking the ornaments on and off to finally complete the tree set-up. Ethan was enthralled by all the ornaments (which wasn't many in comparison to previous holidays). He kept removing them and putting them back on the tree. I hung the fragile ornaments on the top section of the tree so he can't reach them. Since the trees been up, he's been an avid fan of the Christmas tree lights. He insists upon turning the Christmas tree lights on almost everyday. I have to carefully monitor Ethan when he's around the tree..he's very inquisitive at this age...a definite reason to skip out on the big Christmas tree.

 

 

 

 

I decided to keep my Christmas scrapbook supply items out after finishing the above layout. I figure I'll have more Christmas photos to scrapbook and document after the holiday season is over. Why attempt to re-pull all these items after Christmas when I can just leave them sit on my desk for later on? It takes me quite a bit of time to pull supplies for each of my projects/layouts. It also takes quite a bit of time to put it all back in it's rightful place.  I'm hoping that in doing this, that I'm able to produce more holiday layouts and save a little time.

Note my inspiration board above..it's a bit of a mess, but the colors on the board our inspiring and I've been using them for this year's Christmas color palette when scrapbooking. So pretty...

I just because I like to pretend I have all the time in the world to do whatever I desire...

 

I'm hoping that by next Christmas, I'll actually have a knitted scarf in this color. I adore knitting..though it's not an instantaneous process like scrapbooking. It can take a week or a solid three months to finish a single scarf. This is a medium weight wool yarn..so maybe I'll actually be able to finish the scarf before Winter is over for good. Maybe. Smile.

Off to wrap some presents and make myself a warm cup of apple cider. Delicious. Have a wonderful and happy holiday! Stay warm**

Finding Time

Ok, I'll admit, most of websites I visit aren't scrapbook related in anyway. Why? Because I'm always looking for alternative sources of inspiration. I'm drawn to patterns, illustrations, funky color combinations, art and all things unique. Don't get me wrong, I frequent scrapbook websites like crazy, but sometimes, I crave something a little different from the usual. I think we can all relate to this and I'm almost certain I'm not the only one who searches high and low for cool, alternative design sites from time to time. While perusing some of my favorite design sites this evening, I found a few things I wanted to share with you guys. I also finished a two page layout..it felt soooo good to sit down and scrapbook last evening. I'll talk more about that a little later.

Patti Young's "Andalucia" fabric line has me jumping for joy. Seriously. If I had half the skill this talented graphic designer, photographer, and clothing designer, I'd be as happy as a plum. Now I'm just going to wait for her to release a scrapbook collection to match her latest fabric collection. Num.

Found these at Patti's blog. I think I may be in the market for a new camera strap. Find'em here (though most are already sold out. Bummer.) Will have to wait until January. The owner of the "My Funky Camera" is on vacation until the new year.

Jillian Phillips is an illustrator who's work I really enjoy. It's lighthearted, retro-ish, and quirky. She mixes a lot of patterns with lines and seems to have a knack for combining muted colors with bright, vivid colors...something I'd like to do more of on my layouts.

 

Emily from "Inside a Black Apple" is offering up these free printable gift tags. I'm thinking I may have to print these out for myself, though not for gift giving. They're great illustrations for adding to a layout or two.

 

 

After feeling rather "blue" this week, I finally sat down at my desk and spent a full evening on a two page layout. It felt tremendously good to scrapbook, though it wasn't enough to cure me of the unexpected sadness that has entered my daily existence once again. I can't thank all of you enough for your encouraging words of support in response to my last post. There's been a wave of grief I've been riding these last few days. I know it's temporary. Once the holidays are over, I'm hoping some of the grief will subside.

We celebrated Ethan's 2nd birthday a couple weeks ago at my parent's home. I took a fare number of photos during the celebration. I chose a select few to use on the multi-photo layout above. It's not obvious from the photo's above, but Ethan wasn't really sure how to blow out the candles on his cake. After a few unsuccessful attempts, his cousin Myles helped him blow out the candles. After those candles were gone, Ethan ate a large slice of cake in addition to extra frosting...he has a sweet tooth like his mom. Love frosting...mmmmm.

I'm not one to use a lot of chipboard on a single layout, but this Basic Grey "Urban Prairie" chipboard is irresistible. I layered various pieces of chipboard on this layout using foam core pop dots and accentuated some of the chipboard pieces with mirrored cabochons from K & Company. I also trimmed some of the chipboard pieces to better fit the layout. The colors of the chipboard pieces are bright and cheerful and invoke a sense of celebration and playfulness. I thought they were a great option for a birthday theme layout.

Hope all of you are having a wonderful week! More a little later...

New Traditions

Between working at OA and my scrapbook desk, I haven't had a lot of energy for other things. With the holidays upon us and the realization that this will be our first Christmas without Eric, I've been "under the weather" sort of speak. I've been feeling unmotivated and emotional at times. I've shed many tears over the last few days. At one point, I simply wanted to give up because I felt overwhelmed by the sudden onset of sorrow. It came crashing at me when I least expected it. Last Sunday started out like any other ordinary day. I spent the afternoon with Ethan and we had a grand 'ol time visiting the pet store and going out for lunch. I eventually brought him over to my parent's home so that I could finish up my Christmas shopping...that evening, it hit me. Eric wasn't going to be with us on Christmas. He wasn't ever going to be with us on Christmas again. Suddenly, the big picture became increasingly overwhelming. I cried for a solid hour before returning to a semi-normal state where I could think clearly and be rational about things again. I reminded myself that this holiday season is about creating new traditions for our slightly  "smaller family". This year, we've downsized the Christmas tree and organized a visit from Santa whom will be bringing lots of toys for Ethan. I hung stockings and for the first time, will have a stocking full of goodies for Ethan Christmas morning. Ethan is more aware of the kind of "joy" and excitement that most kids feel this time of year. With so many "firsts" this year, traditions are bound to change. There's a sort of comfort in knowing this, but it doesn't totally dismiss the grief in not having Eric with us. It won't be the same.

Because I've not scrapbooked lately, I'm sharing an article from the new issue of  "Country Living" magazine. I'm fond of this room. I'm especially in love with the colors and the wallpaper. It's the sort of room I could be happy in...while scrapbooking.

Spring Classes with Reflections

We made another trip to the local Gertens store to look at the Christmas trees once again. Upon leaving the store, we brought home the most adorable deer snow globe. Didn't take long for it to lose an antler. About five minutes with Ethan and the deer went missing an antler. I only had myself to blame. I actually bought the snow globe to place near our Christmas tree. Instead of putting it on the dresser as planned, I set it down on the edge of one of my tables. Ethan took hold of it and did some traveling with the glowing, sparkly deer. When I eventually caught up with Ethan and the deer, one of the antlers was gone. I did manage to find it some ten minutes later, but I didn't bother to glue it back on. Instead, I removed the second antler. Now, the snow globe looks less like a deer and more like a bear. Oh well..as long as he "glows", we're happy.

 

I'm really excited to announce this special event that will be happening in Newport Beach, California this coming Spring (Friday, May 1st - Sunday, May 3rd). The event is "Reflections". It's a weekend long get-a-way for scrapbookers seeking "rejuvenation" and "new ideas" in scrapbooking. For three days, attendees will have an opportunity to learn from a group of hand selected, talented designers , including Shannon Tidwell, Melissa Phillips, Maggie Holmes, MaraMay Beca, Teresa Collins, Jamie Waters, and myself. For more info about this special event, visit the official "Reflections" website. I'll be talking about it more here on my blog in the near future.

One last mention, I'm trying the new beta version of "Typepad Connect". The new program allows me opportunity to respond to comments directly on my blog (note comment section). How cool is that?! Finally....

Simple is ok.

Hello, "Life at the Pole!" Took out some Sassafras product last night. I've had my eye on this "Wintermint" paper since it arrived on my porch. It's my favorite pattern from the new line of holiday papers. Of course, I'm not yet ready to scrap Christmas theme layouts just yet, but who needs Christmas photos to use this pattern paper? Instead, I combined it with product and papers resonating a funky, vintage feel. I kept the layout simple by using a minimal amount of patterns and fewer embellishments. Sometimes, it's nice to just sit down and finish a layout in an hour or two. I try to remind myself that things don't always have to be complicated when working on projects. Simple is "ok". Actually, I like simple. It's easy on the eyes and provides breathing room for photos. It's not a kind of scrapbooking I do often, but when I do, I'm in love. It's a nice change from time to time. 

I picked up the new Distress Stickles when I was in California at The Scrapbook Oasis. The new stickles had just arrived the very day I flew into California. I was thrilled to find them! What perfect timing! Tim Holtz wrote a post about the new Distress Stickles on his blog. Find it here. They're not shimmery like the original stickles. They're matte in appearance and look more like "mica". They remind me of "sand" and have a unique, one of kind texture. I've been enjoying them recently (as seen above). If you own any of the Distress Stickles, I'd love to see what you did with them! Please share your creations in the comments section below. Thanks!

Return of Winter

Minnesota has a funny way of surprising me, even though I've lived here all my life. With each passing year, I immediately forget how awful it is to drive during the Winter. Today, we got three inches of snow and it's going to continue snowing throughout the night. By the time I wake up tomorrow morning, there will be six inches of snow on the ground. Don't get me wrong, I love Minnesota Winters, though driving conditions aren't always ideal this time of year. Tomorrow, I'm going to take my car in for new "snow tires". I'm actually looking forward to getting them because I almost got stuck while attempting to drive up a steep hill this evening. I had Ethan in the car and we lost traction. Luckily, we made it to the top of the hill in one piece and arrived home safely. Thank goodness. It was an ugly reminder that Winters aren't always friendly and that I need to take extra precautions while driving this time of year.

When the air turns a bitter "zero" degrees, the best way to stay warm is to sit in a cozy little room and scrapbook. That's just what I did last evening. I had some old photos of my niece, Izzy, from last Summer. I rarely catch her sitting still. She's a busy one. I used a few items from the new "Cut 'N Paste" line from K & Company for this layout. I combined them with a bold, Black and White polka-dot pattern paper, which sort of happened by accident. I usually combine White/Black prints with bold colors, not necessarily soft colors like "Pink". See the layout below:

I experimented with Martha Stewart's Crystal Coarse Glitter. After cutting a small section of paper from one of Making Memories Mini Notebook Albums, I applied a thin layer of adhesive (Diamond Glaze) to the cut paper and added glitter. I then layered the glittered paper with a title transparency (Karen Russell) and some misc. label stickers as shown above. The glitter really stands out and accents the title nicely.

The 3-D butterflies were created using butterflies from the Cut 'N Paste line. I hand-cut a few butterflies from one of the Cut 'N Paste pattern papers and combined them with die-cut butterflies from the same line. I adhered the two together using small glue dots. Lately, I've been spending a lot of time creating 3-D embellishments. You can easily purchase layered embellishments, but once in a while, it's fun to create your own as I did above.

 

Real quick before I share newsletter info this evening, I want to mention this new Anna Griffin Holiday Collection titled "Dorothy Christmas". I adore Anna Griffin's designs. They're some of my favorite patterns and I often search high and low to find them. This year, Anna came out with some traditional, clean pattern holiday designs. I'm fond of the simplicity of this particular line and the die-cut glitter snowflakes. This obviously isn't the entire collection, though you can see more of the collection here. I haven't had a lot of luck finding Anna Griffin product online. If you know of another store that sells "Dorothy Christmas", please do share.

Content from last week's newsletter:

Getting Started
Kits from Retrospection

You've all been patiently waiting for me to get out this newsletter and let me tell you, I still have a lot to learn when it comes to creating "newsletters". Laugh. This is totally new to me and eventually, I hope to have my own personalized "newsletter" template at some point. In the mean time, this template will have to do the job of sharing the latest kit project news. With this said, I know it's been sort of a long wait to purchase both Holiday Cheer & Golden Harvest from my blog. I want you to know, that the wait is almost over. Almost. As I go about selling the occasional project kit via my blog, know that once it's advertised, it will be available for immediate purchase. I couldn't do that this time around with these first two kits because they were originally designed for classes. Next time, once I've completed a project and posted it on my blog, it will available immediately. While working on new kits, I'll post sneak peek pictures of the project in progress. When a project kit is complete, I'll post the entire project on my blog.

I appreciate your patience and hope that each project is worth the wait. Let me quickly say, that each kit will be packed with product that's fresh, fun, colorful, and eclectic in nature. I adore layers and to create them, I use a significant amount of product. I also enjoy working with patterns, unusual color combinations, and textured embellishments. With each kit, I'll be including lots of pattern paper, embellishments, and other items along with detailed (literally) instructions and photos via disk.

Holiday Cheer & Golden Harvest
Available January

My current goal is to have both kits available for purchase in January. Kits will be available for purchase via a Paypal "widget" box, which will be located in the side bar of the blog. In the box, you'll see a photos of each kit and a "Paypal" payment option. You'll automatically be able to purchase kits via my blog using "Paypal". If you don't have a Paypal account, you'll have the option to email me with your kit request.

Payments: Payments accepted include: personal checks (there will be a seven day waiting period upon receiving the check), cashiers checks, and money orders. Once you receive a confirmation email for your order, you'll be shipped a kit two to three days following your order.

Shipping: Kits will ship via USPS/ Priority Mail at a flat rate of $9.95 + a $2.00 handling fee. Additional kits can be added (up to two) for the same shipping amount. All international shipments will also ship USPS. International buyers are responsible for custom fees (if any). International shipments are charged on a "per case" basis. Current estimation of international shipping cost is $18.00-$20.00 and may be higher depending on number of kits orders.

Returns/Damage: All sales are final. If damage is accrued during the shipping process, please contact me as soon as possible for either a replacement kit or refund. Damaged kit will need to be returned in exchange for new kit.

Kit Availability: Kits are sold on a first come, first serve basis. Once a kit has sold out, it will not be made available again.

Reserving Kits: If you're interested in staying up-to-date with future project kits and would like to pre-reserve a kit, please contact me. I'm not providing a subscription service, though I know that some of you want to ensure you receive a kit. If so, please contact me with your request.

How not to make a mess...

When it comes to shortcuts, I'm there. Always. Laugh. Maybe there's this lazy part of me that loves to get things done as quickly as possible, especially when it comes to scrapbooking. I don't have a ton of free time to scrapbook, so when I'm working on a project, short-cuts are a must. While working on a layout this afternoon, I decided to use a little bit of "spray adhesive" on a long piece of felt I wanted to adhere to the layout. Instead of simply laying the felt on a sheet of scrap paper, I held the felt up in the air and sprayed away. Little did I know the mess I was about to create..laugh. Jeez. I had spray adhesive everywhere after applying the stuff to the felt. It was on my floor, pillows (which were on the floor), the wall, and all over my hands. The adhesive was stronger and stickier than I had expected. I wasn't able to figure out a sure way to clean it up, so it's still sticky in parts of my scrapbook space where I was spraying the adhesive. Laugh. I still have small sections of adhesive on my hands. Water and soap didn't do much to remove it. I can't believe the strength of this Craft adhesive. It worked great for adhering felt to paper. No complaints there! Guess I'll need to set the felt on paper next time around to avoid another adhesive catastrophy. Laugh. Lesson learned.

The layout I'm working on isn't complete. I'll have it finished by tomorrow night and post it on Monday. I'm playing around with one of my favorite new lines, Cut 'N Paste by K & Company. Really cute stuff! So glad to finally see it reach store shelves. I've been working on creating 3-D glitter butterflies from the K & Company line. This particular line isn't short on butterflies. I'll have the layout posted on Monday. 

Me and Ethan went to 3M's Christmas party this morning. While there, Ethan (with the help of "mom") wrote a letter to Santa. He listed all the things he wanted (again, with the help of mom) for Christmas. It was rather short, as you can see below. 

Trains, flashlights, table and chairs, cars, and a few more items. Not too detailed. Typical for a toddler who doesn't yet know how to write. Smile. We deposited in the letter in the usps box so that it would reach the North Pole. I'm sure Santa will contact me when the letter arrives. We're already working on a few gifts for Ethan for this upcoming holiday celebration. I may also be including some items from Eric. Eric put together a treasure chest of items for Ethan while battling cancer. I think I'll include the little guitar we picked up for Ethan while in Hawaii. I know he'll love it! Only a few more weeks until Christmas. 

I think someone ate enough cookies while at the party! Luckily there was a "one cookie" per person policy. Laugh.

All in one piece. While teaching at the Scrapbook Oasis in California, I picked up a few items to bring home with me from the shop. If you've not yet visited the Oasis and are ever in the California area, take a moment to visit this great store. The Oasis stocks an amazing assortment of scrapbook supplies and is up-to-date on the newest product. I routinely visit their blog just to see what's new and fresh. Not your routine local scrapbook store for sure. So of course, I brought home a shrmogasbord of stuff after teaching there. I told Karen, the owner, to ship the product to my home instead of me bringing it on the plane. It arrived today and I was thrilled to locate the box on my front porch. I took a picture of some of the items I purchased so that you can see the kinds of things that the Oasis sells at their store. I told Karen she needed to move the store closer to Minnesota. Laugh. I'm envious of you California folks!

 

Remember these? Ki Memories released these quite a while ago, but they never reached Minnesota lss's. The Oasis had them in their clearance section and picked up all three packs. Love the felt. 

Had to grab a photo of Ethan just waking up from his afternoon nap. You know the feeling of waking up from a nice, long nap...sweet dreams indeed, though waking up isn't always easy. 

Typepad's compose window isn't working properly right now, so for those of you awaiting the posting of the newsletter here at my blog, know that I'll post it tomorrow or Monday. Thanks!

The Slice

I have a confession to make. I've never owned a die-cut machine before. It's not that I haven't wanted one, I've simply been waiting for the "right" machine to reach the market. After four years of scrapbooking, the wait for the perfect die-cut machine is over. Well, ok..not perfect, but close. I've been anxiously awaiting the release of this machine. It's release date was pushed forward a few times. It was demonstrated at Winter CHA '08 and again at Summer CHA '08. There were rumors flying around about it's final release date. Would it be September? October? November? Finally, it started landing on store shelves a month or so ago, just in time for Christmas! I didn't buy it right away. I was skeptical. I waited for reviews and did some homework first. I wasn't really able to find "complaints" about the new machine. It's been receiving great reviews and of the many people I've been in contact with concerning the machine, all of them have told me that they love "The Slice". So, on Monday, while pondering what to get myself for Christmas, I decided to buy "The Slice". After bringing it home, I left the box unopened for the day. I was little intimidated by the machine. Laugh.  It required the reading of a manual (which only ended up being a few pages) & the organizing of equipment necessary for using the machine (I was able to fit it all in a small size container that now sits on my desk). Once I found a two hour slot in my night schedule, I sat on my bed and opened the box. I reviewed the miniature manual and equipment. The following day, I let the unit charge (only takes an hour) and then experimented with it. Turns out, it's super easy to use and cuts beautifully and precisely! It not only met my expectations, but exceeded them. I love "The Slice". Below you'll find a few little items I put together using the new machine. I can hardly wait to use it on projects. Also, Making Memories has a "Why Slice?" website that is a great resource  for Slice users. Ok, here's a few photos of what I accomplished with the machine (I wasn't really thinking too much about it either. The machine does all the hard work for you.)

I mounted my pattern paper on the glass mat using their removable liquid adhesive. (By the way, you don't need the brayer for this step as suggested by MM. Use the palm of your hand and rub it across the paper to make sure it's well adhered to the mat). I set the machine on my paper, selected a shape & size, and had the machine cut the shape from my paper. You can barely tell by looking at the photo above, but the shape has been cut already. Note photo below:

This is a must have tool for removing shapes from the sticky mat. I almost didn't purchase it, but I'm  so thankful I did. It works like a charm and saves my fingers from having to come in contact with the adhesive on the glass mat. 

I think one of the things that really impresses me about this machine is the detail of cutting that happens while the machine cuts the image from the paper. It's clean, crisp, and beautifully detailed. 

Just for fun. I had to make something to show off this cool machine!

Endless combinations. Make your own personalized flowers, frames, & shape combination using this machine. You won't ever run out of options!

Overall, I'm glad I purchased "The Slice". It was worth the wait and I'm pleased with the it's overall performance. I'm looking forward to using the machine for projects in the very near future. If you already own "The Slice", please share what you've created using the machine!! Thanks ahead of time!

One word of warning about "The Slice"-it can be noisy. Actually, I've heard it's rather quiet in comparison to other die-cut machines..with Ethan sleeping only ten feet from me when the machine was in use, I was worried it was going to wake him up. Laugh. 

Lastly, the first kit newsletter will go out this Friday!! I know, many of you have been waiting patiently for the first newsletter and I'm greatly appreciative of your time. I didn't want to release it "too soon" or "too late". The first week of December seemed the ideal option. In the newsletter, you'll find out how to purchase kits from my blog. It's going to be easy and paypal friendly. Kit quantities are going to be very limited for this first found of kits. My goal is to have the kits ready and available for purchase either early or mid-January. Find out more about the kits this Friday! Be sure to sign up for the newsletter if you haven't already! Thanks everyone!