Thrift Shop Deals

Hot on the heels of my success at the scrapbooking garage sale I headed out to one of my favorite thrift stores this weekend for a browse.

A browse that quickly became a successful little outing.

I am always on the lookout for children's books. I found these 10 books, all in new condition, for only $0.35 each.  Can't beat that!

I am going to wrap them up as Christmas gifts for my girls.  

I also found two of these white serving bowls for only $1.95 each.

Serving food to my family out of the pot is one thing, but when I have guests I like to take it up a notch. I have been collecting random serving bowls like this from thrift shops for years.

And finally this adorable breakfast set.

I  absolutely love polka dots and am trying to incorporate red into my kitchen decor so this was perfect. And it was only $0.65 for all three pieces, need I say more.

What about you, find any good deals lately?  I am on a roll!

Card of the Week: Let it Snow

We got our first snowfall this weekend - nothing major, just a fine dusting.

The girls were so excited and have been busy planning their winter activities - jumping in the snow, building a snowman, and throwing snowballs.

I am not a huge fan of winter, but I am going to try and embrace it a little more this year.  To help with this, we bought skates for everyone last weekend so that we are ready to go when the neighborhood rink is up and running.

Anyways, this little ramble about winter and snow brings me to this week's card:

Card Base: Recollections; Patterned Paper: my scrap paper stash; Cardstock: Bazzill; Circle Punch: Fiskars; Doodle Pen: Inkssentials; Snowflake: cut with Quickutz Squeeze: Sentiment Stamp: my craft stash; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives, 3D Foam Squares

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.

So that we can head out as a family to have fun and enjoy winter.

Scrapbooking Garage Sale

Last Friday, my favorite local scrapbook store, The Scrapping Bug, had a garage sale.

People purged their cupboards of unwanted scrapbooking supplies and brought them to the store to sell at rock bottom prices. I did not bring anything to sell, but I was there, lined up at the door before the store even opened, to snag what others had decided to sell off for cheap.

It was so much fun!

And I got some incredible deals!

My absolute favorite deals were on tools. I had hoped that there would be some great tools at the sale, and I was not disappointed.  Most scrapbooking tools will last for years, so if you can get them for an amazing price, why not; they are really an investment in your crafting future.  Okay, let me show you the great deals that I got on tools.

First, this Creative Memories cutter that cuts scallops and waves. I love it and have been wanting one for years, but was unwilling to pay full price (I think it was around $30, it's not on the Creative Memories website anymore). $5 worked for me and into my basket it went.

I also had to grab these punches. I love border punches, but gosh those things are pricey.  I usually lament for quite awhile about which one to get when I am at Micheal's with a coupon in my hand, but at $2, $3, and $4 each there was really nothing to think about.

I was also excited to find this Sew Stamper - brand new, still in the package, with an additional cartridge - for only $5.

And this Xyron sticker maker - brand new, still in the package - for $3.

Like I said, amazing deals on tools!  What an investment.

I also picked up some 6x6 paper pads - $2 and $3 each.  These are perfect for cards....you'll be sure to see these papers on a 'Card of the Week' soon.

Of course there were incredible deals to be had on embellishments - buttons, rub-ons, journalling blocks, brads, and chipboard.  These items ranged in price from $0.50 to $2.

I also got these two huge bags of assorted paper flowers for only $2 each.

There was a lot of 12x12 paper at the sale and it was all really nice stuff.  I bought a few assorted packages for between $2 and $4 a package.

And these chipboard albums were only $1 each.

It was amazing to get these great supplies at such incredible prices.  I just love a good bargain - the most I spent on a single item was $5.

I came home from the sale so excited about scrapbooking, card making, and paper crafts.

Now I just need to find a place to store everything.

What about you?  Have you found any amazing deals on scrapbooking (or other craft) supplies lately?  I'd love to hear about it.  Please share your great finds in the comments.

Card of the Week: Birthday Bling

Card Base: Recollections; Patterned Paper: Stephanie Hunt; Cardstock: Bazzill; Flowers: Prima; Rhinestones: Studio 18; Corner Rounder: EK Success; Sentiment Font: Segoe Print; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives

This week I was not too sure which type of card to make so I decided to follow my own advice: when in doubt, make a birthday card. 

I added a little bling to this birthday card by placing rhinestones in the centers of the flowers.  They were just the thing to take this card from okay to great.

I like to add a little bling to my cards every now and then.  It says 'celebrate' to me.

What about you? Do you add bling to your cards?

Panic, Relief, Panic, Relief

This past weekend, our family visited the emergency room twice within 24 hours.

Now that I am a few days removed from the crisis, and I can breath normally again, let me tell you how this happened and upset the relaxing, low key weekend that I had planned.

Rewind to Friday night. I was putting the groceries away when the phone rang. It was Steve.  He was calling me from the emergency room, and telling me that he had been in an accident while driving home from work on his scooter.

I was launched into the greatest panic of my life.  The one thought that went through my mind was that he had been on his little scooter, and that no matter what he went up against on the road, everything was bigger than him.

In hysterics, I called my Mom and Dad to come and be with the girls while I high-tailed it to the hospital with my heart in my throat the entire way. My heart stayed lodged in this uncomfortable place until I saw Steve and we spoke to the doctor. Relief.  His leg was a little scraped up, and while his shoulder and arm were sore and difficult to move, nothing was broken.  All in all, no serious injuries - it could have been so much worse. We came home from the hospital with him in a sling.

On Saturday we had some errands to run. Simple enough, right? Well, everything was going along nicely until Claire fell. And cracked her head open on a bench in the mall.

There was blood everywhere, she was screaming, Steve had one arm in his sling and one arm on her forehead trying to stop the bleeding, Bridget was in mouth-wide-open shock, and I was in yet another panic trying to get someone's attention in the store so that we could get some bandages/gauze to absorb the blood. It was quite the scene, let me tell you.

Again I had to drive to the hospital with my heart in my throat, this time so that my little girl could get her forehead stitched up.

(This photo was taken on Sunday after the trauma had passed.  Claire was not at all fazed by the injury on her forehead, while the sight of it just breaks my heart.  This girl sure bounced back faster than her Mom.)

So, within 24 hours we visited the emergency room twice - Steve was in a sling, Claire had three stitches in her forehead, and I had a few more grey hairs and was completely frazzled.

We stayed home on Sunday - there was no way we were venturing out, for fear of risking life and limb.  By evening, I could finally breath normally again, and could feel the tension leaving my back and shoulders.

The girls spent the entire day playing doctor.  I guess they needed to process what had happened somehow.  

I am so glad that my guy and my little sweetie were so well taken care of and that they will heal from their injuries.

But I still can not believe that such madness happened in such a short period of time.

And I have learned something, I am no good in a crisis....I panic!

Card of the Week: Birdie Thank You Card

The paper that I used to make this card has to be one of my favorite papers of all time. It is from a few years back and when I found a piece of it in my bin this past week, I had to use it to make a card.

Card Base: Recollections; Patterned Paper: Scenic Route; Cardstock: Bazzill; Flower: Bazzill; Corner Rounder: EK Success; Brad: my craft stash; Sentiment: cut with Quickutz Squeeze; Ink: Ranger Inks; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives

Like last week, I used a larger piece of patterned paper, and kept my embellishments to a minimum to let the pattern shine through.

And older paper inspired me to use an older tool - I cut the sentiment on this card using my Quickutz Squeeze (haven't dusted that thing off in a while).

I love the little birdies.

My Choice of Scrapbook Album

For years, when it came time to put my layouts into an album, I would go pick out whichever album I fancied, grab the appropriate refill pages, and put the thing together.  Finished!

But this led to one problem - I had tons of refill pages, maybe three or four of each kind, that were leftover from various albums, and of course did not fit into another type of album.  And really, what can you do them?  I mean a few can be kept for protecting various projects in progress, but really I had too many and they were essentially useless.  Total waste of precious scrapbooking funds!

So, a few years back, I decided to only purchase one type of album, with the corresponding refill pages, from then on.

The albums I chose to use are by Recollections and are available at Michael's.

Each year (so far) Michael's has them on sale - 2 for $16 - which is incredible since they are regularly priced at $16 each.

They are good quality albums and they come in a variety of colorful cover patterns which I really like.

Each year I do a family album which usually fills two books.  I buy two albums with the same cover pattern for the year so that when the albums are on the shelf I can see clearly which books go together.

I just got around to putting my 2011 family layouts into two of these polka dot albums.

Because I used the same album type last year, I already had refill pages on hand.

And to finish things off and keep everything straight, I made labels for the inside covers using my handy-dandy label maker (love that thing!).

This system is working well for me and so long as I can get these albums I will continue to use them.

What type of scrapbook albums do you use?  The same ones every year or do you change it up?

Card of the Week: Let the Pattern Shine Through

The patterned paper that I used on this card was interesting to work with.

Card Base: Recollections; Patterned Paper: Scenic Route; Cardstock: Bazzill; Corner Rounder: EK Success; Sentiment Font: Elephant; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives, 3D Foam Squares

Why?

Well, because the pattern on this paper is so large.

Any embellishments that I tried to layer on top (which I love to do!) covered too much of the lovely pattern and took away from it considerably.

I tried to add floral embellishments and die cuts, but both covered up too many of the blue flowers and the prettiness of this paper was lost.

So I decided to keep it simple and let the pattern shine through.

By simply mounting the patterned paper on coordinating cardstock, rounding the corners and adding a sentiment, the beauty of the paper is left for the person receiving this card to enjoy.

Isn't it lovely?