Whim So Doodle Winners!

Whim So Doodle held an open house the other night to let customers know what-all they had ordered from CHA Summer for the upcoming holiday season. Suffice it to say, if there was a paper line, they ordered it! They got at least one line from almost every company represented at CHA Chicago, and with many of the companies, multiple lines!! They also did giveaways of all the swag the different companies gave them. None of my local girlfriends could go with me, so John said he'd go and double my chances of winning! We each got the cute black and white totes just for going. American Crafts has a new line out called Amy Tangerine. Fresh, bright, funky. Right up my alley! They also added new fabric Thickers to the line, along with 3-D Stickers. So darn cute! First my name was called for one pack and then John's name was called! So I got two different lines! And there is also a 12 x 12 fabric "paper" in one of the lines. Can't wait to use this! (It's the polka-dot one on the bottom of the third picture!) Then I won a mini Smash book. So cute! It's 5.75" x 3.50". Perfect to put in my purse! Check them out at www.smashstoriesblog.com And finally John won (and I picked out!) the Sizzix burlap reuseable bag with a canvas and paper project inside. While the purple paper is a bit too garish for me, I have P.L.E.N.T.Y of hoarded...saved paper just sitting around that I can use. I will use their instructions for completing the project, substituting my own papers for it. I'll share pics once I get it completed! They are getting all of the new t!m stuff, but it's all been delayed, so I'm gonna have to make more trips down to St Pete. The things I do for my art!! They ordered quite a bit of new stuff from new companies that I can't wait to see in real life. We got to see the catalogs and most all of the stuff I'm interested in is all alterable things. Canvas Corp had a bunch of stuff that was right up my alley!

Buttons. Buttons. I've got buttons!

Last Saturday, my mom and I went to visit our cousins Happy and Bob and their spouses in Port Charlotte, about 2 hours south of us. More to come on that later!

When I picked mom up, she hands me a gallon size Ziploc bag of buttons that her friend Ruth picked up cheap at one of the garage sales she went to. Ruth is a dedicated garage saler! Every weekend you can find her out looking for the next bargain or something she never knew she needed! She knows I'ma crafter, so she picked up these buttons for mom to pass on to me. I've been having the best time going thru them! Some are on cards, but most are in these adorable little envies that I'm saving to incorporate on my cards or layouts. There was also a vintage CocaCola tin with a sewing kit inside it and an old (I think!) blue glass rabbit. So cute! He will now have a place of honor on my craft shelves. I've not even scratched the surface of separating the buttons as you can see by the still bulging Ziploc bag! I wonder what other treasures I'll find.....

New Craft Store!

We Finally have a Hobby Lobby on the west coast of FL!!! I've been driving 1.5 hours north to Ocala for 3+ years and now I've got one that's 10 minutes from home! They had their "soft" grand opening today, and of course I had to go check it out. Soooooooooo much better than Michael's and JoAnn's! They have their "official" grand opening on Monday morning at 9 AM, so I think I may have to go back and see if they are giving anything good away! I got some things today. New "B" plates for my Cricut that I've been having to order online and pay ungoldy shipping for. Some t!m stuff that I'd not been able to find anywhere else. Thanksgiving AND Christmas craft stuff is already at 40 and 50% off, so I got some things to put up for next year since I'm done with this year's crafts. One of the employees I was talking to say they are expanding their footprint in FL and have plans to go into Tampa next year when they find the right existing storefront that they can remodel. (This one's in an old closed down Winn Dixie store.) She said they will move further south into FL as they find the right places to fit their needs.

Now all I need is for Trader Joe's to move closer than Hotlanta!

Boo!

Getting ready for Halloween. I had some Hooligans paper pack left and I'm loving all the banners I'm seeing all over the Internets, so I decided to do a few of my own. Course John had to help me figure out how to cut the angles! I still have to have him help me when I need to add higher than 1 + 1! Anyway! The paper pack, as I said is Hooligans. The monster guy is an add-on to the Hooligans paper pack and he is felt. Most all of the other schtuff is from Michael's. The black gummy cat, Akiko-san, John's Japanese cousin sent me last year and I just found a use for it! I did add the googlie eyes to it. There's Stickles on the letters and on some of the other schtuff. Now I need to go put my Halloween stuff out so I can add the banner to it.

Sheetload Shortcuts

In my blog travels last month, I came across a great new (for me!) website. SheetLoad ShortCuts. Alicia was offering a brand new product last month. CLEAR and Frosted card blanks! Nice and heavy, unlike the acetate sheets so many have been trying to use to achieve a clear card. So I ordered a combo pack from her. Five of each style with S&H come to just shy of $7.00. Can't beat that with a stick! And great cs too! She uses Paypal for her orders and since I don't "do" PayPal, I emailed and Alicia told me I could pay by Money Order. She graciously told me my total, emailed me when she recieved the MO, emailed me again to let me know my order had shipped and because I was in the middle of working on the Acrylic albums, I brain-farted and didn't let her know I had recieved them. SHE emailed me to make sure they had arrived and that I was happy with them. It just don't get much better than that, folks! Now that the Acrylic albums are complete, I turned my attention to getting a couple of birthday cards I need for this month knocked out. I used CTMH Floral Tapestry paper pack for the cards, along with my Fiskars Threading Water punch. The new CTMH Color Ready alphabets for the H and B that I sponged with Twilight ink and pop-dotted for dimension. I used Chocolate lowercase stamp set for the rest of Happy Birthday, also stamped with Twilight ink.

And now that I've worked with them, the cards are very nice. Nice weight. Not too flimsy like acetate sheets. They stand very nicely when done in either direction. Only thing you need to know is, the clear ones are pretty static-y and you may have to wipe them off to get rid of any dust that may be on them. And, to make a nice crease, I used my Scor-It and where the "bulge" is, folded that to the INSIDE of the card. People generally fold that to the outside of the card, but it really should be folded to the inside. Best of all...unlike acetate sheets, the clear card blanks DO NOT show fingerprints! Woo Hoo on that!

Now for the cool news. For the month of October, Alicia is offering 10% off your order when referred by a friend. And thats where I come in! Place an order which includes either/or the new clear or frosted card blanks or sheets, mention MY first name, first inital of my last name and city where I live when you check out using PayPal in the "Special Instructions" field and you will get 10% off your total order. And I could get my Sept order that I placed for FREE!! No PayPal? No Problem! Send Alicia an email at SheetLoad ShortCuts and she will take care of the rest! Just don't forget my name and city to get your discount!