I’m on the mailing list for CRICUT. They send out a newsletter, new cartridge announcements, etc. Here is the one I received today:
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Hi there! In order to better serve you, we wanted to know what type of computer you are using. It is just one question and we will enter you to win the Cricut Sampler cartridge. Thanks for your time!
Thanks,
Denise Rolfe
Market Research Director
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All I had to do was click the link, choose Mac, PC, or Both, and enter my e-mail addie. Easy peasy.
Being a Mac girl myself, I was very eager to answer this survey. I want retailers to know that there ARE a lot of us out here so they can start making “PC only” products more available to those of us who have chosen the superior product (ahem…did you catch that?). If you’re also a Mac girl, I implore you to take the survey (there’s even a prize drawing….c’mon, you know you want to…). Mac girls, PC girls, “both” girls….if you’re not already on their mailing list, you can join up at the bottom of the HOME PAGE.
I talked about the journal spot swap I was hosting HERE. Well, it’s done and, boy howdy, was it fun! Everyone came through, sent them in, and did a wonderful job. Some ladies sent more than one set to share….PATTI set the record by sending five sets! Patti also sent a whole book of stamps which helped cover any gaps in postage and I was so grateful (‘cuz you know DH’s first words when I told him I was hosting a swap were, “How much is that going to cost us? LOL). Anyway, all of the journaling spots were rockin’ and it was such a pleasure to host. Here is a semi-sneak of what they all looked like, while in the sorting process and then my own pile when I was done.
Aren’t you jealous you didn’t join up? LOL! To thank everyone for participating, I sent them each a Mike’s stamp and then some scallop squares I punched with my new favorite punch. And here is a pic of all the cards and little gifties I was sent as the swap hostess…..jeepers, if I knew you got all sorts of pressies for hosting, I would’ve done it ages ago! {Hee, just kidding…}
Look at what Patti sent! Tons and tons of stamped images from her much-envied stamp collection. These will be so fun to color in and use on scrapbook pages and cards…
So, I just wanted to share my experience at hosting my first scrapbooking swap. It was totally wonderful the entire way and I highly recommend it to anyone. The AMR Girlz are already posting layouts they’re making with the journaling spots received in this swap. Here is one….lovely, huh?
LAYOUT BY LISA aka LBOREGON, journaling spot by KAY aka kaydrenth
If there are more, I will post them here. To quote my friend RACHEL….Toodles!
I got the new issue of CREATING KEEPSAKES at Target last Friday. I’ve flipped through it and like it a lot. It is pretty thin and I’m getting so worried that even CK will go the way of the dodo bird….extinct. All of these magazines shutting down is just depressing me to no end (read my past posts about HERE, HERE, and HERE).
Speaking of shutting down, I got this sad e-mail from the only LSS left in my area (I will quote part of it directly from their newsletter):
================ As many of you know, (store name) has been severely impacted by the poor economy in the past year. We have always relied heavily on the year round tourism … and with the high gas prices beginning late last spring followed by the economic crash in the fall we haven’t had that support for over a year now. While we have strived not only to keep our doors open, but have continued to bring in new product during this difficult time, sales continue to drop. Things have gone from bad to worse.
We have always been hopeful that we could survive this tough economic time, but we realize that we cannot keep going at the current pace. If sales do not pick up over the summer, we will be forced to close our doors in the fall. We promised our customers we would not just close our doors quietly so we feel we must be honest with you about our situation.
================
I feel so sorry, well, for myself of course, but mostly for these 2 sweet ladies who’ve done nothing but run a wonderful store for several years, only to have their dream possibly crushed by this awful economy. They did include a coupon for $5 off any $25 purchase that you can print and use as many times as you like (one per visit) between now and the end of August. I hope that will motivate shoppers to come to their rescue, although I know scrapbooking typically slows down in the summer as we all get busy with outdoor activities and kids being out of school. I will pray (and shop) and hope they can pull it out. This is our last “local” store…we used to have 7 within an hour of me. If this store closes, my closest store will be about 2 hours away. I wish I had millions of dollars and could help these stores stay afloat until better times.
I know many of you have lost most or all of your LSSs in recent times and it’s crushing, isn’t it?
Well, I took the plunge. I just signed up for my own website with Memory Works again! Whoo hoo, feels good! What didn’t feel good was the $25 set-up fee but, oh well, it’s the price of doing business, right? Then it will cost me $10.95/month to keep it. That is for the “Basic” option, which has all the features I really need. There is also a “Premium” option for $18.95/month (plus the $25 set-up fee, of course). So let’s do the math, shall we? I make 20% profit on everything I sell through Memory Works. So just to break even and pay for my website, I have to sell at least $55 retail of MW goodies each month.
Then, let’s average out my catalog cost: They cost me $3 per catalog, plus shipping costs from MW to me, and me to the customer…we’re talking about $5 cost to me per catalog I give out to customers (that would be an average just for estimating sake…sometimes I hand them right to the customer with zero shipping cost, other times it costs me $4-5 to ship a catalog). Say I give out 5 catalogs per month, that’s about $25 per month in catalog costs. To make that money back, I will need to sell $125 in product to cover my catalog costs.
So, my selling goal will be $55 plus $125 = $180 per month, and that’s just to break even. I like to have goals. Then I know what I’m striving for. Now, to put some other things in motion to make that happen. It’s exciting! I know it will be super tough in this economy, so wish me luck….
Oh! I almost forgot to tell you my website, should you be interested (LOL). It’s https://erika.memory-works.com. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions.
As you might know, I’m a big fan of chatting on scrapbook message boards. The ones I’m most active on TWO PEAS IN A BUCKET and ALL MOMENTS REMEMBERED. I was on the CREATING KEEPSAKES message board for a long time before these, although all their format changes caused me to leave when I had to log on every single time I wanted to post (ya know, that’s quite a lot!) and would never accept an avatar pic, which made me feel like a faceless troll, LOL!
So, I’m just wondering what message boards you all enjoy. Please leave me a comment telling me where you like to hang out. Include linkees please! Tell me what you like and don’t like about message boards (you don’t have to name names on the negative part if ya don’t want to…). What makes a good message board? Why are you a long time member of certain places? Tell me all about it. Don’t forget to leave a link to your blog or check back to see if you’ve won!
For everyone who leaves a comment on THIS here post by midnight PST on June 11, 2009…I will enter your name into random.org and pick the winner of a small RAK.
Well, THIS post has been going for a week at 2PEAS, about all the lucky ladies finding THICKERS letter stickers at Big Lots for only $2 a pack (they are usually $4-5). I finally made it to my new Big Lots (I wrote about when it first came to town HERE) and….remember the Soup Naz! on Seinfeld?….”No Thickers for you!” Nope, my Big Lots had none.
Rats. Double triple rats.
As one who likes to take lemons and make scrapbook lemonade, I found a few other things and did not leave Big Lots empty-handed. Here is what I found:
Some AC foam shapes, an 8.5×11 cardstock pack in pretty, muted colors, All Dressed Up adhesive ribbons by DCWV, and 2 packs of tropical colored mini brads. Also, 2 black/1 purple DCWV alphas. I got a pack of the black alphas on my last trip and have since used them on 2 projects so I got me so mo’….
Here’s what comes in the American Crafts foam shapes:
Not bad for a grand total of $14, eh? That includes a binder (not shown) that I needed for work.
But I’m still bummed about the Thickers….Hey, have you been a lucky Big Lots shopper? Tell us which Thicker packs (or anything else) you got!
Okay, part 2 of getting organized with the Cropper Hopper goodies I recently bought at Tuesday Morning. Here is what I started with…a bunch of Michael’s $1 acrylic stamps in baggies, kinda sorted by Series, in a 12×12 Iris drawer. NOT a good arrangement. Again, every time I opened the drawer, it got jammed up. As anal as I was about keeping the sets together when I first started “collecting” them, now I don’t care and would rather have them sorted by topic.
And how easy was that? I cut index cards down a bit to act as dividers. Nothing fancy, just wrote ’em in by hand. I cut the tops off of each stamp package to allow for easy use. I had originally planned to take them out of the package altogether but when I tried that, the stamps alone were so little, it seemed like they sunk way far down in the drawer. Man, I was SO ready to throw more packaging away, LOL!
Here’s what it looks like with the drawer closed. Nice. Compact. Dust free. Love it. I’m hoping I’ll use them more now that they are so nicely organized.
That drawer is pretty packed though, so now the question is, “Do I buy more storage drawers…or quit buying Mike’s stamps?”
If you know anything about me, you know the answer to that question…{wink}
Is this gorgeous, or what? This layout is by my online buddy, CHRISTINE HERTEL aka Chrispea.
Chris talks about the layout HERE. She used the new Bo Bunny line called “ABBEY ROAD“ which is SO on my wish list! I mean it was before, but it REALLY is now….because I will be scraplifting this layout in a major way. I love that color combination of green, blue, and brown, especially how she brought out the shades with the Thickers and Doodlebug letters. Those Bo Bunny swirl stickers are to die for!
Back in the Day, I posted THIS tutorial I found that shows you how to “go around the corner” with the famous Fiskars THREADING WATER punch.
Now, thanks to SCRAPSCENE, I found THIS great tutorial for another way to use your Threading Waters punch. It’s on Crystal aka Scrapper Mom’s BLOG. She has some other great tutorials on there…go check it, ladies!
Here is
CRYSTAL’s LAYOUT
where she used the trim made with her TW punch.
The technique Crystal shares in her tutorial is how she made the red strip. I love how it replicates the yellow sun rays, which look to be made from Doodlebug strips. And, hey! I spy some Fancy Pants SUMMER SOIREE in that layout, don’t I? See, I like this girl. Excellent taste, LOL!
Enjoy Crystal’s gorgeous layout and her cool tutorial. Cheers!
In THIS post, I showed you the new Cropper Hopper storage I got. I decided to use the binder storage to get my cardmaking supplies in one place and out of the Iris drawers I had them in. The problem with the drawers was mainly that the blank envelopes and cards would get jammed when I opened and closed the drawers. Also, nothing stacked in there very nicely and it shifted around, not staying very organized. So here is a photo of what I started with – 2 Iris drawers of cards, envelopes, rub-on books, stamped images, etc.
Actually, I realized when I was all done (or thought I was!), that there was another Iris drawer so it's not pictured here but the finished product has THREE drawers worth of stuff, yay!
Here is how one side ended up, with most of the blank cards and envelopes in the 4 pockets. I like how they have closing tabs so they don't get all yucky or dusty.
Here is how the entire opened binder looked when I was done.
Here is just the right side, with larger cards/envelopes, card sentiment stickers, etc. To make it work for my stuff, I had to cut out some of the dividers. The top section started out with 12 small sections and I cut out 6 of them to create a space large enough for my items. In the bottom section, I cut out the 2 vertical dividers (it originally had 3 sections) to accommodate my larger cards and envies. I just snipped them out with scissors right along the crease, careful to not make holes.
Here's the trash pile when I was done, from taking everything out of it's cellophane packages, ribbon off spools, etc. To me, that is room SAVED, baby!
I hope you enjoyed my card making stash makeover. Have you done something similar?
And stayed tuned...tomorrow will be my Mike's stamps storage revamp!
Oh NO she di-int!!! I received a package yesterday from my girl Leea aka luvzenkm2. You will not believe what she sent me! OMG. I’m totally floored.
First, some background: I’ve (online) known Leea for, what, a few years now? We met on CKMB and she also posts on AMR Message Board (though not often enough…hint, hint, Leea…). We read each other’s blogs but have never met in real life. Come to think of it, I haven’t met any MB’ers in real life (wutuppp???). She joined the same Journaling Spot Swap that I blogged about HERE. Anyway, so Leea has always been such a total sweetheart to me and I love her kindness and humor. For example, her tag line on her AMR siggie is “Illinios, where our governors make our license plates themselves.” You must check out her BLOG. She has a huge love for animals and nature, and is a talented digi-scrapper (check out her layouts in THIS post, for one!). Here is another favorite of mine:
So, anyway, on THIS post the other day about my love for Fancy Pants “Summer Soiree” and how I got 2 parts of the line but couldn’t afford my favorite thing, the Notebook Journal…
…she left this comment:
4 | Leea
Isn’t someones Birthday coming maybe that person will get it for their birthday ;-)
First of all, out of all the people she knows online, I thought it was so sweet she remembered I have a birthday this month {or took the time to look it up at AMR}. I laughed at the comment, thinking she meant that maybe my DH would see my post and get it for me or something. {Ahem, DH is not ALLOWED to read my blog, just for the record. “He let’s me buy all the scrapbook supplies I can hide,” remember? LOL}
A few days later, I got a PM from Leea at AMR saying that I should watch UPS tracking number such-and-such very closely. A called her a little minx and she would tell me no more. But I had a sneaking suspicion she was sending me a little birthday giftie. I knew it wouldn’t be the FP Notebook Journal because that baby costs $9 plus whatever shipping…WAY too generous! Well, you want to hear GENEROUS???
Here are photos of what I received from Miss Leea….
I was totally floored! Here is a list of all the goodies from the CHERRY ON TOP invoice (btw, they’re having a big sale this weekend but I don’t like to enable people so….). Look at her message at the bottom (sorry, it’s a bit blurry but I think you can read it:
I still can NOT believe all the cute stuff she sent! And all my favorite things like the MM wedding stuff that I wrote about HERE, Thickers that I wrote about HERE, and the journaling spots which she knows I can’t resist! And Bazzill swatches? I’ve always wanted some, yeah!
I think that is the truest, sweetest kind of friend who takes the time to find out what you love and they know will make you happy. Speaking of which, I absolutely will be sending Leea a return gift (I’m overdue in this respect anyway). But what do you send to a digi-girl? I will have to research that or maybe you guys can leave me some suggestions? Hmmm….Well, all I have left to say is….
Part 2 of my Big City Shopping day, and now we proceed to Michaels. It must’ve been ANNA GRIFFIN day, because just like TUESDAY MORNING, Mike’s had some new Anna stuff. The line is called “Darcey” and the colors are bright and look better in person than they do in my blurry iPhone photo.
I love this scalloped acrylic album! It has 5 pages and 2 binder rings. I didn’t get one because, as you can see from the signage in the first photo, all the “Designer Corner” stuff was on sale for 25% off. I’ll wait for a 50% coupon and get this album for 10 buckeroonies.
These chipboard letters are cute, too. I use a lot of bright colors AND black, so these may be a future purchase (with coupon, of course…).
This is a new line by PRIMA. It’s a departure from their usual pretty-pretty stuff. The skulls and guitars – I don’t know if you can tell from the photo – are made from tiny bling. Very cute! I think this line is very cool but I don’t have anything I would use it on.
Here is the Making Memories “Black Tie” line that I talked about HERE.
And this was my favorite of the new stuff: The “Vacation” line by Me and My Big Ideas (aka MAMBI). I’m a sucker for bright, tropical colors for all those upcoming summer layouts. We have a swimming pool so I end up doing lots of layouts with turquoise being the main color. This line will be a perfect fit.
This was interesting…a new line by K&Co…darnit, I can’t remember the name of the designer, maybe someone can help me out or I’ll try to find it online. Anyway, the focus seems to be “green” with those tote bags and recycled packaging, similar to the K&CO/Amy Butler “Lotus” line they recently carried. Not my style, but cute.
ETA 5/21/09: Thanks to a comment left by ALESK…..it’s Carolyn Gavin. Thank you! Love my girls who comment! *U Rawk*
Closer look at MAMBI travel and summer stuff…
Cute new EK SUCCESS punches! Flowers and fruit…so summery.
Here are some photos from after I got home. On top are the MAMBI journal spots and “Vacation” title I got…yum! (Both for 25% off). The Making Memories “Well Worn Tags” were sold as a pack at Tuesday Morning. Normally, they would’ve cost about $12 ($4 each), but I got all three for $4. That’s, like, 66% off, am I right? What a steal…
This is the coupon (20% off entire purchase from 9 to 1 on Memorial Day), and June coupon book they put in my bag at checkout. Kewl.
Just an example – the discounts from the first page. Good stuff, yeah?
My favorite purchase of the day, a scallop square Giga Punch. I used my 50% off coupon and got it for around $9. Schwing!
So that’s the haps at Michaels these days, and my fun purchases. At Mike’s, what have you gotten lately or what are you planning to buy?
Made my monthly trip to The Big City and here is what I found at Tuesday Morning…
There were a lot of ANNA GRIFFIN packs – huge ones with 12×12 paper and tons of embellies to mini album kits.
Here were some fun EK SUCCESS punches that were very tempting (but I resisted…can you?). These ones are a pacifier, arrow, and speech bubble. There were a few other shapes, too.
For me, this is where I hit the motherlode….CROPPER HOPPER STORAGE !!! I had always wanting these when they first came out because I love vertical bookshelf storage for my scrappy stuff. I own stock in CH VERTICAL PAPER HOLDERS, ya know. But these items were out of my budget (because I am super cheap, yeah).
But I picked up the 2-drawer/4-pocket binder ($8.99) which I plan to use to organize my card-making supplies. I don’t have a ton but right now they’re in some Iris drawers and not very well organized. The 3×3 embellishment drawer ($2.99) will be the perfect way to organize my Mike’s stamps finally! I’m really excited about that one. They’ve also been stacked in an Iris drawer…til now, LOL!
Here you can see the retail prices, and what a great deal Tuesday Morning has on them…
Here is what the inside of the pocket binder looks like.
When I get some schtuff inside my new storage, I’ll post pics and see what you think. Have you found any good deals at TM lately?
PS: Stay tuned for the next episode of Shopaholic Obsession….er, I mean….Scrapbook Obsession….when I’ll show you what’s new at Mike’s and what I picked up there….
I’m going to write a longer post about this later but it’s midnight and I can’t sleep so thought I’d just write up the short version. I’ve been mulling it over for the last week or so (listen to me, like it’s some huge-amic decision that will affect the free world!)…and I’ve decided to kind of reactivate myself as a Memory Works Consultant. I’ve been with the company for about 2 years, I think, and was having a lot of MW fun until last fall when I had to take a chill with it. But I’ve decided to make a comeback, LOL!
I cashed in an old $15 product credit and bought 5 copies of the new Memory Works Catalog, which came today. I’ve been looking through it tonight and making a mental list of all the scrap I dream of buying. With the same order, I got a couple things from ‘Summer Soiree’ by Fancy Pants that I desired way back HERE. I got the “Exclusive Kit” THEME SET…
…but couldn’t afford it at this particular juncture. Oh God, I am such a freak for cute little journaling notebooks like that. I want, I want, I want! (Don’t I sound like that annoying girl in Willie Wonka?)
I just mass e-mailed all my old customers and crop friends to let them know I’m back in action, and to offer a free catalog to the first 5 who get back to me. I already heard back from my friend “D”, who I’m sure is up Facebooking. I know the economy royally sucks right now, so I’m not expecting to do the amount of business that I used to. But I’m brainstorming ideas and hoping to have at least a little success.
Anyhoo, that’s what’s on my mind late on a Friday night…Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Are you a Thickers addict like I am? Yes, you say?!!? Then you will be happy to know that there are some new releases coming, that might look a little…..like……THIS!
BLADOW!
According to my source SLAPSCRAPPY at 2peas, they are fonts you may already know and love but the colors are new and they are GLITTER. Now here’s the only kinda bad part….and you need to put on your Big Girl Panties for this one, okay? Um, they don’t ship until June 1. Which is almost 2 whole weeks awaaaaayyyyy (said in my best Jan Brady whiney voice). But we are scrappers, we are strong, we CAN and we WILL be patient, will we not? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
If seeing THESE new glitter Thickers has made you fall in love with all glitter Thickers in the universe, go look HERE for the ones that are already out, along with some layout ideas.
And HERE is a link to all things Thicker….Thickerish….Thickery….crap, you know what I mean!
Any thoughts on these new releases? Any must haves?
Yep, as the “advertising director” (LOL) at ALL MOMENTS REMEMBERED, I am proud to say that I arranged for famous scrapper, author, and blogger CATHY ZIELSKE to come visit us at AMR. She is going to be the guest at our weekly SCRAP CHAT HOUR, which is a designated hour when we all meet up online. Each week is a different topic – today it’s journaling – and you can ask questions, post challenges, or just talk NSBR. An AMR member named ABBY puts her {heart} and soul into SCH, and truly makes it a fun time. If you’re already an AMR member, I expect to see you there (what am I going to do if you’re not? um, send the Scrap Police to pound on your door, of course!). If you’re not a member of AMR but would like to join the chat, just sign up HERE and tell the owner, STACEY, that I referred you. She personally approves new members to keep the spammers out. Hope to see you there! I don’t know about you, but I have a ton of questions for Cathy Z…
Thank you to BENITA, such a sweet Pea, who posted the above photo on THIS thread. She pointed out that the black and white flowers are Primas, not Making Memories; however, they were a perfect match so there ya’ go!
On the thread, it was discussed that this looks like the Making Memories line called “Wedding” (which is sold at 2PEAS ONLINE STORE, and HERE is a look at it on the Making Memories site), but it IS a different line, perhaps a Michaels exclusive? HERE is a link to Michaels.com with some Black Tie items, so methinks that’s what is going on in the hizzy.
I love black and white scrapbook lines. They are not only for weddings, anniversaries, proms, etc. but so versatile to use on on other types of layouts. I like to do heritage layouts in these colors. I didn’t really care for Mike’s last black and white line called “Sabrina”.
The pink is what threw me off. I mean, it was cute and all, I just couldn’t use it really (no offense meant to Christy’s adorable layout; I love it!). If you like Sabrina, it’s on Michael’s clearance rack now, btw. Peace out.
