Starting Valentines....Easy

Hey Bloggy People!

Just a lazy Sunday here, probably just what I need. Finally starting to feel a little better, but too much activity will cause another asthma attack still....like yesterday when Mr. BoJangles took off and ran out into a busy parking lot full of traffic! I wasn't impressed.....but look, he's just so CUTE! (the pic is from the summer) Can't stay mad at him for very long!

 On to some craftiness.......

I made some valentine cards. I'm always a fan of the 3x3 size...just so cute! These are made with the Stampin' Up Love Bug set, the threading water Fiskars punch and some ribbon. They were so quick to put together!

Tomorrow is my birthday, so I may be too busy to post. So have a great Monday, just in case!

Cute Creations from Violet's Birthday!

I know this isn't the first post about Violet's party creations, but I promise it will be the last! :)
I just want to share the final product of all the prettiness with you!


So.....The loot bag tags flipped open and had each childs name inside,
just plain white bags...with 2 holes punched at the top and some ribbon
threaded through, tied with a bow.






A table of goodies.....I made the chocolate snowflakes and the brownie pops.
We cut out all the scallop circles and the 1's for the cupcake toppers on the Cricut!  You could easily use a paper punch too!

A picture banner.... Celebrating Violet's first year of life.










And last...but not least, the Birthday Girl herself....enjoying her CAKE!

So Excited!

Well...Still working on the trimmer replacement blade drama AND I'm still sick.....

BUT....

I discovered that Prickley Pear is looking for design team members!

Prickley Pear is one of my FAVE places to order stamps from.....they offer unmounted rubber and are able to keep the prices reasonable! I actually don't mind mounting my own at all either....and it's even more fun with the hot knife I borrowed from Rose!

I think they are looking to grow their business and they are asking for people to do publication submissions which is right in line with my plans....and since I love their stamps it's a no brainer!!

I have a few cards using their stamps to submit to them with my application that I have already made....I don't need to make anything extra!

Here's a couple of cards that I have made with their stuff......

Love this stamp! I used some Glossy Accents to highlight the parts of the "bike" that would be shiny. One of my all time fave cards!

I use this image often! Of course I love butterflies, so that helps, but I just find that it works for so many occasions! Birthdays, Thank You, Just Because.....

So Excited.....the deadline for applications is Feb. 1st! Happy Birthday to ME!!

Making Memories Trimmer update - Crappy service!

Well, I've had lots of time to think over the last couple of days while I was at the hospital with yet another asthma problem related to a cold or flu. So, I couldn't help but to think about this paper trimmer drama........Even though I have bought a new paper trimmer, it still boils my blood to think that I have another one that is just a waste. Just another piece of junk in a landfill!

So I thought I'd try to contact Making Memories for a solution..... what another waste!

I recieved a message on how to "Fix" it because it had probably come off the track. I had already done that before I emailed them, and it did make the trimmer work a little better....but the blade was still tearing the paper. I let the customer service woman know and told her that I was quite prepared to BUY another blade since I had the trimmer for about 13 months (the warranty is only for 12 months, of course)

So......I was told this: "Unfortunately, we do not manufacture replacement blades since the blade is self sharpening so we cannot replace just the blades. I’m so sorry!"

And when I expressed further disappointment....I was told this:

"I am so sorry! And if it had been less than one year I would be more than happy to help you! I’m so sorry again about this experience."

I guess the moral of the story is to make sure you either break things before the warranty is up....or LIE about when you purchased it if you can! Sucks to have morals sometimes, and expensive!

UPDATE: During a chat with my friend Rose, she reminded me that I only bought the MM trimmer when shopping with her in October! So I've tried to email MM back and now I just need to see if I can locate my reciept! Will keep you updated!

Paper cutter DRAMA!!

So, the other day, I was cutting a piece of poster board with my Making Memories paper cutter.....and it BROKE! I was devastated! My friend Rose had hers break about 2 weeks ago and has tried to contact the company for a solution, but they have not made it very easy. So what do I do.....(Crying just wasn't working!)

I pulled out my old Fiskars one and made do. I really like my Fiskars one too, but I find that I have to push too hard on the blade thing.....and when I'm doing a lot of cutting my wrist gets sore. (Yes, I'm a wimp) But at least the blade is replaceable....NOT like the Making Memories one!

Apparently the Making Memories blade is self sharpening (therefore it apparently doesn't need to be replaced ....so ideally you shouldn't have a problem! Yeah RIGHT! So NOT impressed for the price! I'm going to try to contact the company, but given Rose's experience I'm not that optimestic!

So, I was at Costco on Friday evening and you'll never guess what I found!! A paper trimmer! It was only about $34 (Canadian). It's from a company that I've never heard of (Royal) but I had to get it and at least try it out! It's NOT BAD! (Hopefully it will at least stand the test of time!)

One side has a rotary cutter with the option of a wavy cut, straight cut or perforations! The other side has a Guillotine cutter AND a corner rounder right on the cutter! No more corner rounders lost on my desk!

Here's a link....The web site seems to be charging about $10 more for it though....

http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10324603&lang=en-CA

There is even a spare cutting mat (just the little strip where the blade cuts) stored inside! I'm hoping this will be my lifelong paper trimmer.....is there really such a thing??

A Crafty Day with Violet

Hey my Bloggy Friends...
I'm trying to keep my "resolution" of blogging more often, and I don't think I'm doing too bad!
So, Saturday I had my Goddaughter Violet and her Mom Melissa over so we could get more stuff done for Violet's first Birthday (Which is the day after tomorrow! Eeeek!)

Thought I'd share some pics of Violet hanging out with my Cricut......(Chirp, chirp)

... not really sure she wants to look at that beepin' machine!







    She's curious... "Just maybe it's OK!"

 

"OMG... This is COOL! It makes muffin toppers and snowflakes for

my FIRST Birthday Party!"

We had such BIG plans about what we wanted to finish that day...it SOOOO didn't happen! I didn't remember to snap a pic, but Melissa worked on the muffin toppers. Cute, but SOOO many were needed!

I ended up in the kitchen for the most part....making snowflake chocolates (in white, pink and brown) with silver balls as accents! I also made cake balls.....they were a fair bit of work, but sooo yummy. I got the info for them at Bakearella ( http://www.bakerella.com/ ) But after making only about 6 of them....we scrapped that idea.

I had picked up the Wilton's brownie Pop silicone "pan"......tried those the next day. They turned out so cute, but I don't think that there will be anywhere near enough time to finish baking AND decorating them......So, gotta put the moulds away for another occasion! BUT I would recommend

them! Some pics of them.....not decorated of course! Add lollypop sticks....too cute

(one of them got a little smooshed when I was taking them out of the pan....kinda looked like a little turd! I'm sure you can figure out which one that was! LOL)

REALLY....need to plan these things better! ( *wink* So does Violet's Mommy!) http://www.mamamelissa.com/

Sweet Baptism Card

A Very good friends daughter was baptized last Sunday so of course I made a card!

First of all.....Look how Priceless Isabella is hanging out with her Daddy! The day was perfect, and she was such a good girl...





It was really ironic that Isabella's Godmother chose the same necklace and the same shoes for her that I got for Violet (my Goddaughter)!!

Back to the card....sweet and simple



I love this cross stamp! I have been able to use it many times for baptisms, sympathy, religious birthday, we used it for the invitations for Violet's (my Goddaughter) Baptism invitations and I'm sure I'll get a lot more use out of it.







                                                         I customized the inside to match the card....






Well, I'm planning on having a crafty day with my friend Melissa and Violet to work on more crafty stuff for Violet's First birthday party. I'll be sure to take some pics to share later!

Have a Happy Saturday!

A Snowflake Banner for Violet's Winter ONE-derland Party

My priceless and adorable Goddaughter is turning ONE and her birthday party is coming up on January 23rd. Her Mother ( http://www.mamamelissa.com/ ) has come up with an awesome party theme of Winter ONE-derland with Pink, Silver and White snowflakes. I'm in LOVE.....
So we (both) ordered the Limited Edition When It's Cold Outside (Snowflake) Cricut Cartridge (and the Snowfriends one too)
We had this idea to make many of the decorations and see what we could find in the Christmas sales. One of the decoration ideas that we had was to make a banner.......Lots of Cricut cutting, but well worth it. We figure that we will reuse the snowflakes in a scrapbook of some sort for her after....

First of all.....This is Violet
(With her skirt on her head, only acceptable under the age of 4!)


Then the banner details....
It says "Violet is 1" with one letter per snowflake and a blank snowflake for the spaces!
We used a Christmas pom pom garland from M's ($2)
SU glitter
rhinestones

Here's some pics of pieces of the banner...Let me know what you think!!!

Happy New Year (the delayed greeting!!)

Hello all my blog people. I'm sure that I've lost some of you by now with my lack of posting....busy and tough times (all I'm gonna say! LOL) HOWEVER.....I have a New Year's resolution to blog much more often, starting today! So even if it's a little post or a few pics....there will be something several times a week! Wooo hooo!

My Buddy Rose and I did some crafty sales over the holidays to generate some craft money and we really had mixed results....really good results at a couple and a waste of time for others. I think it has given us a good idea of where to go for next year and some ideas of new sales to try. The other thing we worked on was our displays. We've gone from basically laying our cards out on a table at our first impromptu sale to having Rose's (Handy) Hubby create a peg board stand and a "clothesline" for us. Here's a couple of pics from our show(s):

At this sale we were in a school gym. We hated the clothesline, it looked MESSY. Perhaps no fabric in the background would have been a better option?
We also created a "Make and Take" table where people could use supplies to make some Christmas tags for a nominal fee (I think it was 50 cents). The plan was to donate the proceeds of this to the school, but we didn't sell ANY and towards the end of the day we were just letting some kids make some for free. I think there was some opportunity to improve signage overall, but also for the make and take table. Oh well, you never know unless you try eh?!



This next sale was AWESOME for us! I'm certain we will do it again next year. We got into it at the last minute! It was also in a school, but wasn't really FOR the school. Our table was in a classroom right by the only entrance to the sale and I thought it may not be good since the bulk of the people were set up in the gym...people came in anyhow! There wasn't a HUGE amount of people traffic, but the people that did come were set to buy and were prepared to pay the prices for the most part......except for one lady that wanted to pay $1! LOL



Until next time....................CIAO