Archive for the ‘Tools of the Trade’ Category

I went to get my hair cut and lucky for me I was a little early.  Right next door to where I get my hair done is Tuesday Morning.

They have a small craft section and I try my best to check it out each time I’m in the area.

This is a set of Inkadinkado stamps that came in a box with an black Ink Dot, various tags and some Christmas ribbon.  All of this for $1.99…………sweet.

I kept looking and believe it or not there was a box of wooden stamps.  They were Inkadinkado stamps and they were Christmas stamps………..the going price $.99.   Yes, you read that correctly $.99/ea.

I’m using the large stamp I think for the message inside my Christmas cards this year.  Well worth the $.99.

See you just never know, a quick 5 minute stop at Tuesday Morning and I walked out with two sets of small stamps for Christmas tags at $1.99 each – one set for me, one set for my Mom and these two beautiful stamps.  Grand total was $6.45………….Bouya!!!!

My Mother wanted some Christmas papers for card making so off we went to see what we could find.

Believe it or not there was not much out there.  JoAnn’s was just putting out the Peppermint Forest pack but Mother wasn’t wanting to spend that amount of money.  She also didn’t want to pay $.99 – $1.29 a sheet for open stock but she ended up doing that at Michael’s.

On an end-cap at HL they had a bunch of their paper marked for clearance.  We would have passed it up but there was a piece of Christmas paper that caught my eye.  This may have been last year’s Christmas paper but Mother liked it and she got it for $.21.  So we took some time and started going through the various stacks and she came out with some pretty Christmas papers.

In amongst all the papers was this 8-1/2 x 11 vellum.  It was originally priced at $.69 a sheet marked down on sale for $.24 a sheet.  As you can see in the first picture there was some gold and this picture is the silver.  I can’t wait to use this on some Christmas cards.

Just keep your eyes open and spend some time to see what you can see on the end caps at HL, Michael’s and JoAnn’s.  I find a lot of bargains there, you just have to be willing to spend some time looking.

I have been looking for this punch for almost a year.

I went to Michael’s just to get out and walk around.  I had a 40% off coupon but really didn’t have anything I wanted or needed, so I really didn’t figure I would use the coupon.

I always make a trip by the Martha Stewart aisle to see if there is anything new and to my surprise there it was….the only one left.

I love this border and although I have a cut file that I can use the Cricut to cut this border, sometimes it is just easier to pull out the punch and “get-er-done”.

P.S. I was at Michael’s this week and they were revamping the MS aisle so I’m thinking they are getting to bring out all the new Christmas line and some of her new stuff for the New Year.

I thought these were well worth $1 each.  Michael’s has some cute stamps going on, if you get a chance check them out.

Ok, I’m off to work on my Mother’s bathroom again, so my post may be a little sporadic.  I’ve been under the weather with a cold or sinus infection (who knows), so that is why I’ve been able to post.  Also, I’ve been off a couple of weeks only working one day a week, but have to start back full time Monday.

I hope to have some new pictures up on Mom’s redo and try to get this finish so I can devote some more time to creating and posting.  Thanks for hanging with me, I appreciate your patience.

I can’t help myself, this is one of the new release cartridges from Provocraft.  The name of this cart is From My Kitchen and it has all the icons of various items throughout your kitchen and lots of words.

When you open up the booklet it helps you find all the items that you need to create the icon.  You can pick and choose how much or how little of the items you want to use.  For me I usually follow the picture.

The booklets are not always the easiest to interpret but if you keep trying you eventually start understanding how they are thinking.

I wanted to cut out the little Dutch Oven and I made the blackout (or shadow) in blue, the Dutch Oven itself in rust,  the trim in black and the highlights in white.

The pieces are really small but I needed them to be small because I only have about an 1″ to 1-1/4″ square I get to decorate on this project.

A close up of the Dutch Oven shows that the Cricut makes little marks and cuts where the various items are supposed to be pieced.

This makes it easy to glue because you can take your glue pen and run the glue in the areas marked on the main piece and not have to try to hold down a dot of paper to get glue on it.

I also discovered if you use a pick that is made for paper piercing you can stick the little item and then place it exactly where you want it on the element.

I think this is a lot easier than trying to use tweezers and get it to to release where you want it to stick.

Here it is…..a little pieced Dutch Oven.  I used Zig glue, a quickie glue pen from Sakura and a paper piercer to get it constructed.

I also used only scraps that I had left over from previous projects to cut it out.

I’m working on a Christmas project so I can’t show you the entire thing, but I think it is going to be really cute when I finished. 

So you will have to wait until after Christmas before you see the entire final results, but I will show you some of the kitchen icons along the way.

This little gem is one of my favorite tools of the trade.  For those of you who are not familiar with the CuttleBug or CB for short, it can be used as a die cut machine and it can be used to emboss various items like card stock, metal  and acetate, etc.

On the bottom of the CB is a black rubber mat.  When you fold down the arms it creates a suction to hold the little gem in place as long as it is on a flat surface.

I started having issues with my CB not making a good connection to the tempered glass surface of my work area. 

I’ve been struggling with this dilemma for weeks, so frustrated because it now walks on the work area and I have to use one hand to hold it down and the other to make sure the plate sandwich, emboss folder or die cut went through the machine correctly.

I was cleaning up my “woman cave” and just by chance decide to look at the bottom of the CB to see what was going on and I found that the rubber mat was dirty.  Took a baby wipe and cleaned it up.

Oh my, it works just like new.  If you are struggling with the suction on your CB, take a few minutes and do a little maintenance.  You will fall in love all over again with this sweet little machine.

Can’t help myself!  This is black card stock on one side and color card stock on the other side. If you emboss it and sand it the color will show through the black or vice-versa.

Found it at HL this week ($9.99) and with a 40% coupon off even sweeter deal.  You can’t always find this stuff so you have to get it while you can.

Now I just need to come up with something to use it on or with.

Sorry, don’t mean to enable……..oh wait, yes I do….come on and join in on the fun!

I bought these files a year or so ago.  It is was of those sets of tools you see and think, “oh those will come in handy”.

Strange enough I really haven’t used them much until now.  There are various shapes, one flat on one side round on the other, another just small and round.  They are files and I think they are made by Basic Grey.

I’m working on a item for Paper Cutz Challenge #9 and these tools have come in very handy.

Hmm, what is the item?  You’ll have to wait until Friday to see it, but it is coming out beautiful if I do say so.

My #2 Daughter, bought a trundle bed from Ikea.  You know that no matter what you buy from Ikea it has to be put together.

Saturday evening, Amber and I put the trundle bed together managing all the parts and the million pieces of screws, pegs and locking nuts.  It did turn out great even if we had to back track a couple of times.  I think the instructions could be made just a little clearer.

As Amber was cleaning out (and thanking her Mom for the help), she sent me home with two large boxes of Scrapbooking and Art supplies.

Oh my goodness, there is so much in these two boxes I might just have to buy some more jetmax cubes to hold everything.

I’m certainly going to have to install my other shelf for stamps.  I think I can actually say I have enough stash to last me a long time.  But just as sure as I say that the next time I do a project and need ribbon I will not have the right color.

I discovered my self going ooh, aha as I pulled the items out and try to figure out where I was going to put them.  Amber’s taste is very different from mine so the new items where a nice addition to what I had and in an entirely different genre.

Thank you Amber and you know that any time you want to come and papercraft  you are welcome to come and play with both the stuff you provided and my stash as well.

I know, I know!!!! I can’t stop!!!!

Aren’t these just the cutest!  I thought at first they were paper weights, oh to my surprise they are rubber stamps.   You know I found these in the same 10 for $10 bins at M’s as I did those holiday stamps yesterday.  They are wrapped in cellophane and I could only find 4 patterns, but oh what great patterns they are.

Now I need you to help me keep a secret.  I got one of my BFFs a set of these too, because I was afraid by the time she got to go check them out they would be gone.  I’m giving them to her today but she doesn’t know it and I can’t wait to see her face when she sees how cute they are.

I can see using them to make sweet little borders around a note or a card or maybe making a frame on a scrapbook page.  You know I’m going to see if the zebra looking one will work for a frame on my DGD’s scrapbook page.  Hmm, I wonder how these would look with alcohol inks on embossed metal. 

Ok, I need to go so I can start toying with some of these ideas.  You know how it is you’ve got to do them while the creative juices are flowing.