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

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

Project Life: Happy Mail

I must admit that I have a crazy obsession with everything Project Life, and it may be getting a little out of hand. However, I feel like it's justified because I'm preserving my memories (and some of my relatives) using these kits I can't seem to get enough of.

This large order came from a Canadian/UK site called Scrapbooker's Inner Circle. I've ordered from them before, and they are amazing! I love how they packaged everything so nothing moved, they maximized the space in the boxes and got a lot more in there than I ever could. Their customer service is AMAZING and their orders arrive quickly. 

Here's what I got.

It doesn't look like much, but there are 5 core kits, 5 mini kits, three 12x12 albums, a ton of theme packs and a bunch more.

I've had my eye on Olive for quite a while and since it's an older kit, I managed to get it on sale! Below that is Strawberry, Azure, Heritage and Kiwi.

I also got 13 theme packs (crazy right?!). In no particular order: floral, celebrate, music, halloween, winter, christmas, mom, dad, spring, summer, fall, family and love.

I bought three 12x12 black faux leather albums. I have a bunch of memories I want to get into albums, so I bought three of them.

I got a 6x8 album and pocket pages for Jon's parents (working on a super special gift), the 12x12 coordinating paper for the Midnight kit and three small variety packs of pocket pages. 

We R Memory Keepers has some pretty amazing kits as well so I picked up a few of those. I got (left to right) Hello Life, Chalkboard, Captured, Quoted, Bloom and Tangerine.

Of course I bought all the mini kits as well. Cut & Paste, Plus One, DAy Dreamer, Polka Dot Party, & Stylerboard. I also bought a pack of pens to try, and some dividers.

I can't wait to start using all of these! I'm also pretty excited to share layouts made using them!

Have a great day!

-Alexandria

Michael's Haul #6

Happy Friday! I'm working this weekend, but last weekend when I was off, we went to Calgary. Jon had a tournament and instead of lusting after the things everyone's been buying at Michael's, I agreed to suffer through the tournament to do some crafty shopping.

I went to two different Michael's, a small scrapbook shop called Scrapbooker's Paradise, and Ikea. At the first Michael's, I spent $70. They didn't have much of what I wanted, and I bought a couple of things for Jon (not pictured), and I was okay with that.

First up, I bought some MAMBI (Me & My Big Ideas) cards for my Project Life.

Of course I had to get more washitape. The tape on the far right is from the Recollections Pastel collection. The teal tape is a fabric tape.

My biggest weakness has got to be for stamps! I was looking for more of the Heidi Swapp stamps, but only found those three. The stamp set on the left is by DCWV.

I also have a weakness for paper. Especially pastel coloured paper. It goes so nicely with my Project Life album, and as much as I say I hate pink, I'm starting to love it again. I also picked up some plastic bobbins. They're traditionally used for embroidery thread, but I have some scrap pieces of ribbon and twine that I wanted to contain, so I plan to wrap them around the bobbins and put them into a bead organizer (still need the bead organizer).

After we got to Calgary, we drove by Scrapbooker's Paradise and Jon insisted that we stop in. He found the Coral kit and insisted that I get it. I swear he's trying to make me broke.

I was on the fence about the coral kit for a while. I'm still a little unsure about it, but after going through the cards, I feel like I'm going to use most of them in various layouts. 

I have so much paper already, but I couldn't pass up this paper pad. I also love these stamps! I'm a sucker for arrow stamps. 

I also had to add more washitape to my collection. The left is white with little blue birds on it, then mustaches, comic book tape, and two sets of purple washitape. I really didn't need more tape, but I couldn't help myself, and again, Jon was influencing my decision. I might have to start Washitape Wednesday again.

After Scrapbooker's Paradise, we headed over to Ikea. I recently joined a Project Life group on Facebook and a bunch of the girls suggested storing PL cards in a Raskog cart using Antonius inserts. I'll share more about this next week.

It has space on the left and right for 3x4 cards and space in the centre for 4x6 cards.

I bought the aqua Raskog cart. It compliments the purple of my craft space perfectly! 

In almost the same parking lot, was a Michaels. I couldn't resist going to see if they had a couple mini kits I wanted. They didn't, but they had a couple core kits I wanted to get my hands on. This is the Maggie Holmes core kit.

I love the pastel colours of this. I feel like it would be great for more vintage photos, but I plan to mix it into my Project Life album!

I also got the Season's mini kit.

I love the variety of cards in this one! Perfect for weather or scenery photos to celebrate the season.

Dear Lizzy core kit. I wanted her mini kits, but I'll take this core kit! It goes PERFECTLY with the 5th & Frolic and Blush editions.

This kit is very floral, pink and pastel. I love it.

I also went overboard on stamps. They had more of the Heidi Swapp stamps (I ended up with a couple duplicates). The two on the top right are from the Recollections pastel collection.

These stamps are also by Heidi Swapp. They're definitely being used for Project Life. They're perfect for it. Plus if I ever get back to making cards, I can use them there!

On the left: Project Life Theme Cards - Inspirational.
Centre: Project Life Theme Cards - Home.
Right: Heidi Swapp Ephemera.

I found the sticky tabs in the dollar bin. Plan to toss them into one of my RAK's this year. The buttons are from the Recollections Pastel collection.

More washitape. I bought these because they match a paperstack I have.

More washitape racks. They were the last two sets they had, they were open, but I made sure all the pieces were still there before I bought them.

I also found a bin of these metal pieces. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but I couldn't pass them up.

I also bought a new pair of shoes, and ended up nearly broke. The tournament was boring, but I learned a bit more about the fundamentals of the game.

Hope you all have a great weekend!