Big Shot or Not?

So, did I buy a Big Shot?  Everyone from Wednesday's post says 'yes.'

I loved all the things we made.  I operated the machine with little trouble. When my right arm was a bit affected, I switched to the left. When we went out shopping, I bought some Spellbinders dies.

Then during the night I awoke with some hand and arm pain.  This happens from time to time (as it did last night) for lots of reasons.  I had really used the machine a lot so it didn't concern me that much but did keep me awake thinking.

While I loved all the embossed cards and the die cuts, they were all for cards.  I enjoy making cards yet my true love is scrapbooking.  Buying a Big Shot isn't that much of a commitment but once I got one, I'd be getting more dies and embossing folders.  I'd have a whole new category of things to purchase and they would almost exclusively be used on cards.  Plus I have to give up precious craft room space to store it all.

I know I can emboss paper and put it on a page but the size is limited.  Die cuts could add to my design as the flowers do above but the likelihood of using something like these flowers on more than one page is remote.  When I was a member of a stamp club and buying a Stampin' Up! stuff every month, after awhile I figured out that I needed to pick stamps that would work for both cards and pages.  I knew I wanted my investment in money and precious storage space to work for both parts of my hobby.

So it suddenly seemed clear to me that while I liked this new tool, it wasn't really what I wanted or needed in my crafting.  I would be happier with more background stamps and other products I can use easily on BOTH card making and scrapbooking. I could use my Cricut more and if my Cricut ever dies, I'm going for a Cameo.

So I surprised myself, my friend and now all of you with my decision.  The Big Shot, for me, is a Not.

I had already cut lots of these stamped flowers at Karen's so they decorated this page and this card.  The card is cased from one I saw at Archivers where I bought the stamp and die combo (see, I really, really thought I was going to get one, too!)  The papers and embellishments are from Artfuldelight's October kit.  I would have never put yellow, black and dark pink together myself but I really like them.  Most of it is My Mind's Eye.

I do have a correction for Wednesday's post.  The Big Shot is available at Amazon for $55 (not $60) - free shipping, too!  And gosh, isn't that card cute.  It is sometimes hard to keep my conviction.  So if I buy a Big Shot some day... a woman is allowed to change her mind.  :-)

Thanks for your visit!  Hope you have a great weekend.

Big Shot Cards and purchase?

For months, I've been thinking about getting a Big Shot die cutter.  I have a Cricut but I'd like to do embossing.  Also there are all these great stamp and die combos now.  You can get the Big Shot at Amazon for $60 and free shipping.

I decided to wait until I visited Karen to use her Big Shot and make sure it was easy to use.  I had some trouble a few years back with my right arm and there are certain things that really irritate it - rotary cutter comes to mind.  I don't think I own anything with a crank handle so I wanted to use it quite a bit and figure out how it worked for me.

Boy, did I use the Big Shot.  I gave it quite a work out creating parts of cards using her machine, embossing folders and dies.  Here are a couple I completed this week.

So did I buy a Big Shot?  Come back on Friday and I'll let you know...

Shopping List

Within an hour of submitting my Two Peas order last weekend, I was flipping through a notebook and found one of my many lists.  This shopping list had all the items checked off except orange baker's twine.  I ran out a while back and Two Peas was out the last time I did an order.  Did I remember to order it this time round?  No, didn't cross my mind.  I got lots of other great goodies so I'm not that upset.  It did get me thinking though of maybe a better way to get organized.

Before my order, I did go through my scrap space, looking in various bins and thinking about what I might need.  This is a bit like looking in your pantry before you go to the grocery store and seeing what isn't there.  Tough, isn't it?  It is especially hard if you haven't used something in awhile.
In the kitchen we keep a running list on the refrigerator and I'm supposed to have such a list in my craft space and I not very good at keeping it up.

So I've made myself this cheat sheet.  What's different about this one is that it is sort of like the process I used before my order.  I can browse my bins and see what is missing based on colors. If I'd had this, I would have looked through the twine - like I remembered to do with the Washi - and seen that I was out of orange twine.

Click here to see the cheat sheet as a PDF.  You can download for your own use if you wish.

Now a lack of orange twine is hardly a great tragedy.  I could just order more but you know I won't.  I just hate to pay shipping.  So the first thing that is going on this little printout is orange twine and hopefully I'll get a little more organized in my shopping :-)

(This is my first effort at adding a PDF file to a blog post.  Please leave a comment or e-mail me if you have a problem.  Thanks!)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Us? Shop?

 
Hi!  Hope all my American readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

We went out for dinner this year - my parent's choice.  I wonder if that says something about the meal I fixed last Thanksgiving. :-)  Oh, well.  I baked pies later in the day on Thursday.  I'd promised Lenny a pumpkin pie since I made pumpkin cake last year.  I also made a coconut cream for myself.  Umm! I've shared some of it so I haven't been a total pig though I have to admit doing so reluctantly.

Not making an entire meal left me time to do another Thanksgiving weekend tradition and that is shop!  Two Peas started their sale on Thanksgiving day so I had fun picking out a good variety of items for my bucket.  Also, grabbed a couple of other on-line bargains for Christmas shopping.  We don't do a lot of gift exchanging anymore.  Oddly, my Mother is the one I'm clueless about this year.  She is usually the easiest to buy for.  Will have to give it more thought.

I finished this layout early in the weekend and it seems appropriate for this time of year.  When I visit my friend Karen, we are sure to visit the local crafting stores.  Twice now we have furniture shopped while I've been there. (Her husband might wish I'd stay home!)  Hey, a sale is a sale.

The papers and embellishments are from an ArtfulDelight kit.  They are mostly Basic Grey Paper Cottage. Behind the cutout of SHOP, I layered 4 Washi tapes and then used them again to pull some color to the edges of the layout.

Thanks for visiting today! Back to work for me.  Hope you have a productive Cyber Monday.

Perfect Pearls Angel Card

For this card, I'm using Perfect Pearls in a technique that works flawlessly and gives gorgeous results.  You just need a couple of colors of Ranger's Perfect Pearls powder and some water color paper.

I've made 12 of these cards for my aunt for her Christmas cards.  Today's tip is to cut your cardstock for the card base a quarter inch narrower than normal to make getting cards into the envelope easier.  Sometimes, I find I've put so much on my card it really is a tight fit.  These fit fairly easily at regular size however, I think it will be a lot easier on her to have a bit of extra space.  You don't want to struggle getting cards in envelopes when trying to get holiday cards out the door.

Here's the video on the card:
Watch at YouTube


Anyone cooking yet?  We are going out this Thanksgiving - my parents choice.
Thanks for watching!

Perfect Pearls Ornament Card

Finally, I got Perfect Pearls to work the way they are supposed to!  When I was visiting my friend Karen a couple of weeks ago, I bought some more Perfect Pearls.  I wanted a few more shades to work with the ones I had.  When we were using them, I was amazed that they worked. I'd been able to use Perfect Pearls with a water technique I learned from Kristina Werner (and will be on tomorrow's card), but I could never do the technique described on the package.

For that technique, you stamp your image in Perfect Medium or Versamark and then brush on Perfect Pearls.  A mist of water and everything is supposed to be set - no rubbing off.  Every time I'd tried this in the past, the pearl finish rubbed off.  I certainly could not use this for Operation Write Home cards and really didn't want to send anyone a card that smeared.  This time though, it worked.  What was different?

When I got back to my house, I tried again and had my old results, the image rubbed off after it dried.  So what was it?  Finally it dawned on me - paper.  We had been playing with some cheap white cardstock that we normally wouldn't stamp on.  When I got out my cheap cardstock, the process worked for me.  I guess the smoother cardstocks just don't absorb the medium, the water or something.  Anyway, now I can use my pretty Perfect Pearls for more cards.

For this card design, I CASEd a card from Kristina Werner's Holiday Card Series showing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I changed stamps and colors.  The scallop circle is cut with my Cricut and stamped with the Medallion background stamp and embossed with Stampin' Up!'s Iridescent Ice.

Thanks for visiting!  Tuesday I'll have another Christmas card and a video.

Mini Album - Part 4 - The completed album

And now the book is complete!

The video looks at all the pages, the final touches and how continuity was maintained through the album.

Watch at YouTube


To keep continuity in the album,

• use one or two colors of background cardstock or designer paper
• use a consistent color scheme
• select a group of designer papers and use throughout the album (the multicolored stripe and star paper)
• repeat embellishments scattered throughout particularly on the first and last pages (the circle embellishments and some of the trims.)
• use one or two fonts for journaling

Doing these things allowed me to vary other elements like the title lettering.  I didn't have multiple sheets of the same stickers so I had to change letters on the titles.

And now for the last few completed pages...

I knew I wanted to repeat the layout above on Tubing from the 12x12 album so I used 6 of the 7 photos and cut the circles just a bit smaller.  The journaling went on the top instead of the side and circles of pattern paper were used instead of banners.  A few October Afternoon stickers added some fun to the page.

This photo isn't in our 12x12 album yet.  I thought it was a good way to end the mini album as my husband and his daughter are the connection that brings us together for vacation.

Whew!  It is all done and in the mail.  Thanks for joining me in this project.

Mini Album - Part 3 is a Work in Progress

Welcome back to the mini album based on 12x12 scrapbook pages.  This is part 3 of 4.  The pages are progressing.

Watch at YouTube.


In these two completed pages, one follows the original 12x12 page format and this one about Nai Nai and her doll varies considerably. The original was very girly with lots of pink.  Since that didn't fit in at all with the rest of the mini album, I used a red and white print and a feminine ribbon in green to match the opposite page in the album.

Here's the original 12x12 covered in this post:

In the next page, I kept the same photos, arrangement, journaling, and title, just substituting a smaller stamp.

Here is the original 12x12 covered in this post:

The album has given me the opportunity to repeat some favorite pages in a smaller format and also to use a favorite photo in a completely different design.

Thanks for visiting today!  Tomorrow is the last installment - the completed album.