Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

I found a deal today thanks to Christina over at Creations with Christina. She did a video on this calendar and then everyone wanted to know where to get them.  She posted today a place that carried them Walnut H0llow.  No guarantee on the vendor because we have not dealt with them, but I decided to take a chance…..but wait there is more.

I went out to find the discount coupon for Walnut Hollow and to my delight found one NOV65GD.  This is a 65% off coupon and it works on this calendar (Phyllis I ordered you one so don’t order yourself one).  This calendar is usually $8.95 but with the coupon plugged in you can get it for $1.75.  The shipping and handling runs around $9.62 (on 5).

These are great to do altered art on so you may want to get yours early before they realize what they have and the prices go up!

To all have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

I could not help myself!  I visited a website called Waltzing Mouse Stamps and absolutely fell in loved her Claire’s work.

This stamp set is called Vintage Circles Small.

You can find her here.   This is her blog but from there you can venture on over to her store.

All of the  stamp sets I’m showing  are designed to use with Spellbinders Nestibilities.  Now for the added bonus…..Claire and her team then shows you how they use them with the Nestibilities.

This is called Vintage Labels 2.

There are so many stamps on each sheet and they add so much to the Nestibilites.

This one is called Vintage Labels 1

Claire’s attention to detail is awesome and that is the reason it was so hard to only choose a few.  Alright, a lot!

This is called Vintage Label 3.

Take a close look at the border.  This border stamp is 8″ long!

The circle stamp is so beautiful.

This one is called Victorian Frippery.

This group of stamps have little tag toppers….so versatile.

This one is called Vintage Label 4.  Hey I think I’m beginning to see a pattern!

This is the last one I got.

I love the designs absolutely blows me away.

This is Vintage Labels 5.

I know you are thinking what spurred this massive buy of clear stamps?  A couple of things, I’ve been gradually building my Nestibilites as HL has their 40% off sales and then I got an e-mail from Claire about a new release and that she was offering free shipping.  Well, once in her shop and seeing all the beautiful things I couldn’t help but want the stamps that matched the Nestibilities that I own.  Now, all I have to to is get busy and start making some things.  Claire makes it look so easy, we will see.  I’ve got my eye on her stamps that makes a plaid pattern next.

Again, I do not get compensated for mentioning these products or her website, I just like what I saw and it only took about 8 days for it to get from across the pond to excited me, right here in Texas.

Not long ago I bought this cute $1 stamp at M’s of these flip-flops and I decided I needed to make a card.

I was bound and determined to use the paper and items for this card out of what I had on hand.

To challenge myself I decided I would use the vellum to stamp the flip-flops on and color them with Copic markers.

Memento ink is the best ink to use with Copics, it does not smear when you color over it.

Here are the colors I used on the 3 sets of flip-flops.

When using vellum and Copic markers you would stamp on the front and then color from the back.  This gives a very muted coloring when complete.  The reason you do that is because the Copics will sit on top of the vellum and not soak into the paper.  However, I didn’t like the look and did both, I colored on the back and on the front.

I left the straps uncolored because I was going to use a new product I got at the Arlington Craft show several months ago.

This is called Write & Rub Foiling Pen and it is made by Tonertex Foils Ltd.  You can find them at www.tonertex.com.  They are located in the UK.  When you open this pen it looks like a regular ballpoint pen; however, what comes out is an acid free, water based glue.

You put the glue where you want it on your project and let it dry.  It stays tacky after it is dry and then you can take foil or powdered glitter and rub across it and it sticks.  No mess at all.

These are the powdered glitter that you use with this pen and the colors are so vibrant.

All you have to do is stick your finger in the powered glitter and then rub it on the area where you put the Write & Rub glue.

The glitter comes off your finger and sticks.

I did it over a coffee filter and this is how much mess or left over glitter that came off my finger.

Sweeeeeeet!

How cute are these flip-flops.  Summer is computer printed and I attached the vellum to the card stock with a couple of brads.

Here is what I did for the inside and my sentiment on the inside is going to be “It’s all about the flip-flops”.  I had a friend introduce me to Yellow Box shoes and since I tried my first pair that is the only brand of flip-flops I buy.  They are so comfortable and cute too boot!

I think I’m going to send her this card and tell her thanks!

I also used a little green Stickles on the flip-flops on the paper inside.

I used various ribbons I had in my stash and the colors of the card makes me smile.

The punch is a EK punch that I modified and there is a little stitching.  With just $1 stamp and a little imagination you can get a cute card…..don’t you think?

Ok, just to clarify I do not get paid to make any reviews or endorsements for the products used in this card or post.

I have seen this “thing-a-ma-gig” before and decided I “needed” one…..ok I wanted it.  I have been tying my bows by hands or using two post.  The problem with doing them by hand is they are inconsistent in size.  When I use the peg system I only had one size.

This tool, called Bow Easy, makes various sizes of bows; however, the instructions on how to make those bows and use the tool was not very good. 

Thank goodness for Youtube.  There are various demos out there and I just keep watching the various demos until I found the one that made sense to me.

It’s a great tool and once you get the method down to making the bows you can make a one loop, two or three loop bow very easily and they are consistent in size.  I think it was a good investment.  It was only $5.50 and I’m glad to add this to my craft “tool box”.

I couldn’t resist, Henry was so “chillin out”!

Ok, so I got this card magazine and it showed a marker that when heated with a heat gun it would puff up and look like snow.  I couldn’t find it in the stores so I went on-line and ordered three of them, 1) One for my BFF, 1) for my Mom and 1) for Me.

Like any other paint pen you have to open it hold the tip down until the stuff starts running.  Yea, it started rather fast and so I’m calling this my “snow cloud” (not)!

Here is a tip… it doesn’t work well if the items you are using it for (ie “snow”) is too faint.  You need to have a dense amount so there is enough product to puff up.

As you can see this is way to faint.

Looking at this picture you can see where I put dots around the punched out border.

Second tip, it is best to let this product dry overnight, before you use the heat gun to make it puff up.

Unfortunately, you can’t see how much this puffed up, but in real life you can definitely see a difference.

Now, let me tell you I went through all this trouble (ordering a pen, having it shipped, paying shipping cost, etc.) only to find out that liquid applique does the exact same thing.

Hmmm, I wished I’d know that first.

By the way, I don’t get paid by Marvy to review this product.  I just thought it was a cool pen and I would let you know that it works (only negative is waiting until it dries).

Ok, just as I said no one carried the Pumpkin Pie Syrup in this area, I discovered they do.  As I was doing my Sunday ritual (sitting in my big comfy chair reading the sales papers), World Market’s advertisement showed they had Pumpkin Pie Syrup.

Now with this added to my coffee bar I should be able to make a faster Pumpkin Spice Latte.  I’ll replace the 1/4 tsp of Pumpkin pie spice with the syrup.  I do think I’ll add a pump of brown sugar cinnamon and see how that works with it.  When I get the recipe tweaked I’ll let put it back up.

Have to say even the testing of the tweaking of the recipe has tasted good so it’s a great recipe even if you don’t change it.  By the way if the puree is a little to gritty for you, heat it with the milk in the sauce pan to dissolve it more, or if you are making it in your mug just be sure and stir really well.

I’m thinking this is pretty good when you think of it, you are actually getting one of your daily vegetable requirement in your coffee drink.  One down and 4 to go, if I have a V8 at mid-morning I can have 4 of my vegetables by 10:30 AM.   Who would have thought you can meet your minimum daily requirement all through drinking and not even using a juicer.

I took my Mother to Michael’s so she could pick up some paper for a masculine card.  While I was waiting for her to see if they had the crochet thread she needed, I was walking around the floral area.

I discovered these “Decorative Accents” that are tiny acrylic disk.  They actually look like “Dew Drops” or what some people call Skittles.

Now I have made these little items using a hot glue gun, alcohol inks and a silpat.  Some clear, some frosted and some various colors. 

However, a bag of these clear acrylic disk at M’s was about $5.80 and there were a “gajillion” of them and this is not all of them because I’m sharing some of them with my BFF and my Mother.

As you can see they are about a 1/4″ and they take alcohol inks very nicely (the actual color is called “eggplant”).

You can use a sharpie and color the back of the disk and the color will show through.  I also took Stickles (aka glitter glue) and covered this little disk with it and made glitter domes.  I’m pretty sure Perfect Pearls will add that little extra frosting.  I even have a friend who uses nail polish to give them color.

I have to admit these are a lot easier than making the Skittles myself and they are more uniform in size, besides being smaller than what I could make.  Sorry, old trusty hot glue gun, you may be going back in the drawer for awhile.

I learned a new technique this week that uses this beautiful plate (which by the way the other side has a different design), a sheet of metal in “Kiss Me Pink, a new tool that is called an eraser, a stump and I used some distressed ink in “Worn Lipstick”.

This plate is used to emboss the metal and the tool that can either smooth out the thin metal or crease it is used to get deep embossing around the design.

Phyllis and I had a girl’s day where I took her to one of my favorite shops for scrapbooking.  It is called “Gotta Scrap” and it is owned by two sisters.  This store is loaded with all kinds of unique items that you can not find at your everyday craft store such as HL, M’s or JA’s.

Best of all they are always so willing to show you what classes they are teaching, new items that have come out and what is their favorite.  They are also very knowledgeable about the products.

This beautiful deeply embossed star is going in my GD’s scrapbook.  I loved the way the design turned out and once you emboss the tin, you can take a very fine grade buffer and expose the silver metal underneath.  I then took a little alcohol ink and ran around the edge and took the distress ink and shaded in some of the outer parts of the star.

I adhered it to the star chipboard (which by the way I cut out of a cereal box) using spray adhesive.  This particular plate, metal sheet, and tools came from Tenseconds Studio.  I haven’t tried this metal in the CB but I’m going to.  I will tell you I love creasing this metal over the plate and then refining the peaks and valleys to get that sharp detail.  You put the plate down then the metal sheet on top, take the stump run over the design, take the eraser and bring in the detail.  Once the imprint is clearly visible place the metal on a soft surface (ie. mouse pad) and refine the lines.

There are a lot of other tools that go with this technique but we just got the things we needed to play a little.  I loved the results.  You will be seeing more of this incorporated into my cards.  By the way Phyllis bought the lime green shade of metal, I can’t wait to see how beautiful that works up.

Recently I was exposed to a product called Cricut Gelly.  I have the Cricut Markers but have not been to excited about them simply because the lines they draw are larger than what I wanted and they have a tendency to be a little wet and therefore the paper soaks them up and gets a little soggy.  That makes the paper more difficult to cut.

At Scrappy-go-lucky you get this box of 12 gelly pens and the magnetic housing for $55.00 and shipping is free.  

Although it looks like you have two of the same colors in this photo, they are actually a shade different.  So you might have a dark green and a medium green and a light green.  The gelly pens have a metal design on them and the housing has a magnet in the end that holds the gelly pen in place.

They ship out of Utah here in the US.  I ordered mine late night on Wednesday and they were here by noon on Saturday.

This is a picture of the housing and the pink gelly pen in the cricut.   Unlike the normal green housing and the blue deep cut housing, there are no numbers to regulate the depth of the gelly pen.  You use the pressure and speed to control how they draw.  They recommend the speed at 2 and the pressure at 3.  I tried that setting and it worked perfectly, I did not have any skips in the lines even though the Cricut has a jerky kind of motion.

The chandelier is from the Home Accent cart drawn on card stock by the gelly pen.  These gelly pens open up a whole new world of possibilities.  I am so excited about these pens.  They give a nice fine line and although gel pens are known to skip, you can manually draw in the missed area or  just have the cricut redraw the item before you unload.

I can see where this could be used with the MCPT (magic color pencil technique).  It also puts a new light on digital stamping.

Here is their web address (www.scrappy-go-lucky.com).  I have to thank Diane @ Capadia Designs for turning me on to these new pens.  You can also visit Diane’s blog spot and she does a show and tell on how to use different color pens on your design.  You’ll find a link on the right hand side under the BlogRoll.

Thanks for looking and let me know if you are excited about these pens as I am.

Don’t you just love how everything is on the same wave length.  We had never heard of HD a few years back and now everything you see is HD.  Even the lights!

Joann’s had their Ottlite’s (some of them) on sale for 1/2 off.  I had bought one of these for my Mother for Christmas last year.  She actually took offense to me getting her the light, until I explained to her that it would help with her crochet work and now making cards.

I decided now was the time for me to pick one of these up.  Of course, there was only a couple of colors to choose from …one was baby blue and this one which is a “hot” pink.

I would have preferred it to be in black, yellow, or even silver but at 1/2 off I wasn’t going to get to bent out of shape.

Nothing to put together (thank goodness), just plug and play.  I have to tell you I was surprise about how much difference this little lamp made in lighting the area I was working.

It was also small enough it was not in my way.  I’m chalking this up to a good investment and by the way it was only $19.99 at 1/2 off and a perfect size for my work space. 

Maybe this light will make my photos look better since this is suppose to mimic natural light.