A Cherry On Top Haul - Christmas Present From Jon

Good morning! I hope you all had lovely holidays! I was sick through the second half of them, and it's taken me forever to feel better. I had planned to share some Project life on Monday, but I wasn't feeling up to finishing the pages and getting the post ready, so I took a couple extra days to feel better and instead, today I'm sharing the one Christmas present that I couldn't wait to open up! Of course it's craft supplies, and of course I have the best boyfriend ever because he let me order a bunch of supplies for my Christmas present. I know the holidays are about giving, and being with family, and next week I'm sharing the one gift I was beyond excited to GIVE this year.

I hate alphas because I always run out of vowels and have to buy more or get creative with titles, but somehow I've fallen in love them anyway. I love the variety of colors, shapes, fonts, etc. Here's the names of the alphas pictured here (left to right):

Gold Library thickers from Maggie Holmes Open Book line. Sunrise Pink thickers from Studio Calico Atlantic line. Bliss 2 Chipboard thickers from Studio Calico Hey Day line. Ali Chipboard thickers from Studio Calico Hey Day line. Afterglow Black foam alpha from Amy Tangerine Stitched line. Darling Geyser foam thickers from Crate Paper Oh Darling line. Dunbar gold foiled thickers from American Crafts. Every Day kraft chipboard thickers from Amy Tangerine Stitched line. Emma red dot glitter thickers from Studio Calico Thataway line.

Some Studio Calico wood veneers, cameras and snowflakes, as well as the Brighton Pier 6x6 paper pad. I was hoping for the 12x12, but settled for the little one, and bought a select few papers from the collection at 12x12.

I have an older embroidery kit from Amy Tangerine, and though I don't use it much, I want to do a little more embroidery on my projects. The two above are Comrade and Hello.

More Amy Tangerine supplies from her new Stitched line. Rub Ons, Oxford embroidery kit, Ephemera, and Matte Puffy Stickers.

More from Amy Tangerine. I was so excited about her Stitched line that I bought as much of it as I could get my hands on. It's beautiful! On the left we have her alpha book, and on the right, some stickers from her Stitched line. They're beautiful and look like they were painted with water colours.

When I found out Shimelle was creating a line of craft supplies, I knew that I would love them. I bought everything I could (of course). Her stamp, date stamp and ephemera.

Rub ons, layered chipboard stickers, and her sticker book. I can't wait to start using all of these new embellishments! I want to do more traditional scrapbook pages this year, and I knew I was going to need some embellishments to do so.

On the left is a set of My Minds Eye prints. They're 8x10 and ready to be popped into a frame and hung up. They're so beautiful and I can't wait to hang them in our bedroom. On the right are two My Minds Eye paper pads The top is Sleigh Bells and the bottom is Metallics.

I got a set of these stickers from My Minds Eye a while back, and I love them so much, I couldn't resist buying another set. The bottom right set is chipboard stickers.

Chipboard stickers are one of my weaknesses. These are from My Minds Eye Just Sayin' line.

These chipboard stickers are from the My Minds Eye Kate & Co. line.

These are from My Minds Eye Market Street line.

This set is just regular stickers from the My Minds Eye Kate & Co. line.

I also got the following individual papers as well. 

 

    

  

I also bought the following 12x12 paper packs

Amy Tangerine Stitched, Shimelle and Maggie Holmes Open Book.

Thanks for coming by to see my new craft supplies! I look forward to sharing more projects with you this year!

-Alexandria

Where Did All The Good Online Craft Stores Go?

Good morning! Today I want to rant a little bit about buying supplies, mostly online, because I live in a small town, but also a little about Michael's. Don't get me wrong, I love that Michael's exists, and it's possibly my favorite store in the entire world, but I always feel like I can never find what I want. They don't always have the latest lines, or when they do, I never make it to the store (3 hours away) before they sell out of it. I can't "wait for a sale" to get things cheaper, or even wait for a good coupon. It's not worth it for me to plan a trip around their sales and coupons, so I usually overpay for a lot of things. I wish they had more variety of products in their online store, but since they don't, I settle for shopping elsewhere, or in store when I make it to the city.

With the help of Jon's credit card, I do plenty of online shopping. That doesn't mean that I use his card and he buys me all the supplies I want with his money. What I mean is that I give him cash, and he puts it on the card for me to buy things online. I know it'd be simpler to just get my own credit card, however I'm terrible with money, and I know that if I had a card, it would always be full, and I'd never get it paid off. At least this way, I give him cash for the amount I want to spend, and he pays it off immediately. His credit score is probably amazing thanks to me.

I never used to do much online shopping, but since I started buying online last year, I've found very few sites that I would buy from again. And yet, I feel like every time I find a website that I want to order from again, they close shortly after I find them. This happened with Two Peas in a Bucket, and now Scrapbooker's Inner Circle. I'm really hoping this doesn't happen with a couple of sites I recently started ordering from! I'll be so sad if I keep making sites close down. (I know it's not my fault, but still).

Some sites I've been ordering from lately:

• A Cherry On Top
• Freckled Fawn
• Studio Calico

Here's a few that some crafty friends have recommended:

• Simon Says Stamp
• Paper Issues
• JoAnn
• Scrappin Great Deals 
• Scrapbook.com

I'd love to know of any online shops you recommend. I'm trying to find some Canadian stores, but they're nearly impossible to find. A lot of them have a nearly impossible time getting any product in, and end up closing down. It's such a shame, but most scrapbooking companies are based in the US and don't want to pay a little extra to ship their product to slightly smaller Canadian stores.

When it comes to online shopping, I wish I lived a little closer to the border so we could have a box number there, and get things shipped to it and save a little money once in a while. I've also considered opening a scrapbook store, but given how many have been closing throughout the province lately, I'm afraid to. It also doesn't help that I live in a small town, and I don't actually know that many crafty ladies in the area. A lot of them buy from Stampin Up because it's almost the only thing available to them.

I'll end this rant about buying supplies. Where do you go to shop, both online and in-store?

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

Happy Crafty Mail!

Today is my birthday. So Happy Birthday to me! It seems only fitting that I'm sharing happy mail on my birthday, because whenever I get happy mail, it feels like my birthday!

I actually got these packages around Halloween, but didn't get to open most of them until early this week. I was happy and sad about it. Happy because I got a bunch of things for super cheap from the Scrapbooker's Inner Circle closing sale, and sad because I'm losing the one place I could always go for my Project Life supplies! I'm also sad because one of the albums is broken (definitely not their fault). I've contacted American Crafts, and they've offered to replace it (and the other broken album from a while back) and to send some free supplies to make up for me paying to ship the broken albums.

First up, I have my order from Freckled Fawn. I love their products so much! I'm trying to convince myself that I don't need a subscription to their monthly embellishment kit, but it's a losing battle, and I may just cave and get it anyways. I do however, love buying just the stamps when they put them up a couple months after the kit was released (and is usually sold out). This is definitely something I wish Studio Calico would do, but I suppose by not doing it, it makes their products seem a lot more "exclusive".

I imagine that now that I own the wood veneer alphabet, and the words, I won't use them. Which is a shame because they're pretty, but that's exactly why I wouldn't use them. I hoard anything I think is pretty, because I'm afraid of running out of it and never getting it again. But of course something new always comes out and I either forget I had these, or wonder what I was thinking when I realize I haven't used them. I need to stop impulse shopping.

Stamps will always be my one weakness. I prefer them to stickers because I can use them again and again, with any colors I want, and in so many different ways! The one on the right will be the least used, I think, but I love the little car. It's so cute!

Once upon a time, I hated enamel dots. I had no idea why everyone was obsessed with them, or why everyone was trying to make their own, or why they complained about how hard they were to find. I gave away the only sets of enamel dots I had because I thought I'd never use them. But since I've began to embellish my pages more and more, I'm realizing they're probably something I should have in my stash! So naturally, I bought 2 of all the colors I could get my hands on from Freckled Fawn. In the near future I want to start collecting some from the Studio Calico Color Theory collection. I feel like they'd match the cards they release better than some of the other embellishments I have.

Arrow paper clips. I considered buying the sampler pack, but decided that I'd just buy the colors I tend to use the most, plus black and white because they go with everything. The gold and silver ones are possibly my favorite!

Then my order from Scrapbooker's Inner Circle arrived (in two boxes of course)! I stocked up on pocket pages. The top box is a Big Variety Pack 1 (includes designs A - F). The next two just contain 60 12x12 pages because I want to do some more traditional scrapbooking, so I stocked up on those. I'm sure there are better ones out there, but they were on sale, so I can't complain. The bottom box contains 60 Design A pages. I'll hopefully be able to save the bottom box until I start my album for next year, though I'm hoping to find another place in Canada to buy my PL supplies. If you have any recommendations, feel free to leave a comment with a link and I'll check it out!

I have some items that don't fit into the pocket pages, but also don't warrant an envelope (not for one or two pages) so I bought some page protectors for them. I wish I'd bought more than one package of these, but we'll see how I use what I've got first.

Of course I impulse bought this album. Gold foil is another weakness of mine, especially when it's paired with black, and my obsession with woodgrain meant this album needed to be mine. Maybe I'll move my Graduation pages into this album, and throw in a few other pages about myself.

This is the Rain Edition: Woodgrain Album. Becky Higgins, just announced that it's soon to be retired, so I'm glad I snatched this up while it was still available. I'd hate to have missed out on it. Though it will likely be in storage for a while. The purpose of this album is to hold all those Hunting pages I made. I hate the post bound albums, and this will fit plenty of pages into it, so I thought it was perfect! Now to find somewhere to store it so it doesn't get destroyed before I need it.

On the left is the Teresa Collins Studio Gold Instagram Album. It's so pretty. I just had to have it. I love that the album itself is translucent. Almost like vellum, but a little less cloudy, but not completely transparent. Plus I loved the gold heart on the front. The album on the right is where I want to put my 100 Happy Days pages.

For some reason, I also got these cinnamon dividers. I imagine this package either came from Becky Higgins' warehouse, or SIC was trying to get rid of them, and included one set for every 12x12 album purchased. I have yet to determine a use for these, but there are plenty of great ideas out there.

After photographing everything, I opened this album and discovered the rings were broken. I suppose if I really wanted to, I could hotglue the top end down, but I'd rather not, so I'm going to find a box for this album and the 12x12 album into and mail it to American Crafts.

Thanks for coming by! I'd love to see what you use the designer dividers for! Do you love or hate the SIC is closing for good? Personally I hate it. It's so sad that so many shops are closing down, making it harder and to get supplies.

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

Michael's Haul #10

Happy Friday! Hope you all have exciting plans for the weekend. Jon and I have a family dinner tonight, and tomorrow we help his aunt move into her new home. So excited for her! Today I'm sharing my Michaels haul from yesterday. I was so excited to have the new Heidi Swapp Project Life kits, that I couldn't wait to share them with you. I snapped these pictures when I got home last night, so they might be a little dark. 

First up, I picked up a package of water colour paper. Hopefully I'll either get to time to do some more painting, or I'll find a way to incorporate it into craft projects. I also picked up two more Martha Stewart wide tip brush glue pens. I've been using them to adhere some detailed pieces to the Birth Announcements that have been taking up my desk, and most of my time. I picked up more tape for my ATG, and blades for my trimmer. 

These were just small packages of Heidi Swapp journaling cards. Probably intended for her Memory File, but I plan to use these in my Project Life. 

I fell in love with these stamps when I watched her YouTube video showing the products, and I was so excited when I was able to get my hands on all of them!

For no real reason, I picked up some Heidi Swapp ephemera. These packs come with one shape in each. From the left, hearts, arrows and butterflies. 

This trip was mostly Heidi Swapp products. The left is some flair, the right is photo frames. 

Heidi Swapp circle stickers. I loved the colours. Fingers crossed I can find a use for them, otherwise they'll go into a rack. 

Left is Teressa Collims Far Away 6x6 paper pad. I bought this to do my sisters scrapbook for her trip to Ireland next April. If I start now I hopefully won't forget I promised her I'd do it. The right is My Minds Eye Sky's The Limit. 

I've become obsessed with letter stickers. Even though I used to hate them more than anything. I love that the title looks uniform, but I hate when you run out of one letter. 

Just a closer view of the names in case you wanted to get some. I bought more of the map ones because I love them so much. 

Here are the two Heidi Swapp value kits I was able to get. I wanted the gold foil one, but they were sold out. 

This one is called Glitter Kit. It's very glittery and sparkly.

This is the Overlay Kit. It's full of overlays and embellishments.

Here's the co kit dreamy. 

It's very pretty and girly. I love the pastel colours. 

Here's favourite things. 

These colours are a lot bolder, but also my style. 

Have you bought any of the new Heidi Swapp products? If so I'd love to see what you do with them!

Have a great weekend!

-Alexandria