Loving the new stuff!

Life has been very busy this past week. After I got my order, I had to make a whole bunch of cards, do Christmas shopping and usual life things. I did not take the photo I had intended of my pile full of goodies! And now that it's all put away, it's a little late. :/

So far, I have used the Polar Party set a LOT.

(All images borrowed from Stampin' Up website and link back to the product.)

I absolutely love it! I've made a bunch of cards with it and the combinations are really endless. I use watercolour pencils and a Blender Pen. When I first tried using watercolour pencils, I was using a little jar of water and a paintbrush. Then I had seen a video where they were using the Blender Pens. I decided to try it and it works fantastically!

I also love the Snowflake Punch. No more attempting to cut out every little crevice!

 But it turns out that the product I love the most of everything I got in is the Frost White Shimmer Paint:

I don't have any photos to upload just yet, but applying the Frost White Shimmer Paint to a dauber, then using the "inked up" dauber on a stamp and stamping with the paint gives an amazing look. I did up a card using Night of Navy card stock and the Serene Snowflake set (gorgeous set!) inked up with the shimmer paint, and it's just lovely. I also tried the Simple Snowflake stamp with the paint just on Whisper White card stock and it's a very neat effect. What I haven't tried yet is mixing the paint with some ink refill--a technique I saw in a YouTube video. You get your colour with this shimmer to it. It's really quite something. There are two other colours available, as well.

Well, you know, there is a tie, actually: between the shimmer paint and the Texturz Plates that I bought for the Big Shot. ;)

I got a whole bunch of other stuff. New demonstrators get an extra 10% off their first order over $200 and since I was acting as my own hostess, too, that meant I got the extra 10% plus hostess benefits. (If you're at all curious about being a demonstrator, email me!) After doing some calculations, I realized that just buying a little more meant I would get a whole lot more! So I went all out and now need to restrict myself a bit. ;) I figure I can at least share what I got.

As part of my FREE hostess benefits:
*Simply Soft hostess set (only hostesses can acquire this with their hostess dollars)
*Flower Fancy stamp set
*Heart to Heart punch
*sponge daubers pack
*Frost White Shimmer Paint
*Scallop Edge Border Punch
*Heart Treat Cups (thinking ahead to Valentine's Day and little projects with the kids!)

Merchandise I got at 50% off because of hitting a certain sales level for the order:
*Big Shot Originals Circles #2

On top of that, I ordered:
*Silver Glimmer Paper (available for a limited time in the Holiday Mini--Jan. 3 is the last day to order it)
*Dazzling Details glitter glue (also from the Holiday Mini; I got 2 of these. So far, I am really liking that it is SO less messy than the usual way of adding glitter!)
*the Texturz Backgrounds #1 plates mentioned above
*the pads needed for the Big Shot to use the Texturz Plates
*the Snowflake Punch
*the Polar Party stamp set
*Mini Silver Brads
*the Paper-Piercing Tool and the Mat Pack to be able to use the brads more easily
*Basic Rhinestones
*I {Heart} Hearts Bundle--this was a special promotion that week to get the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set and the I {Love} Love jumbo wheel and I added to it the jumbo handle, since I didn't already have one
*Many Merry Messages (this was on sale, too)
*both the English and the French stamp sets for On Your Birthday--it was 50% off at the time!
*the Four the Holidays stamp set
*Creatively Yours stamp set
*some gifts for people
*different colours of card stock and Classic Stampin' Pads, and some envelopes

I can say that I met my quota for the quarter. ;)


I now have on the top of my Wish List:
*things for embossing
*the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig--I've had too many things be stamped crooked. The Stamp-a-Ma-Jig gives you a way of making sure you stamp it straight, regardless of how crooked you put the rubber part of the stamp on the wood block! ;D
*more ink colours and card stock colours, especially some textured card stock: so many projects I look at and like use textured card stock! The stuff I already have has the white core and doesn't withstand texture plates well :(.

That's it for now!

My order is on its way! And paper cutters

I'm so excited! I placed my order after supper last night and received notification this afternoon that it is now on its way. I love how quickly it was taken care of! It means I should have everything before next weekend. I'm supposed to have a mini Christmas card-making stamp-a-stack with a friend next weekend, so I hope it shows up in time for me to prepare all the materials! There is a bunch of card stock to cut.

Speaking of cutting, this could be a good time to talk about paper cutters/trimmers. When I was working on a scrapbook project, I decided to get myself one. I went to Michaels and bought a Cricut paper trimmer. I was in heaven! I had used it to make my own cards before getting much in terms of Stampin' Up stuff.

Then I had to prepare for a workshop. And the Cricut was shredding the edge, not leaving it nice and smooth like my demonstrator/upline's cards were. I knew she took card stock in sometimes to have professionally cut (I think it's laser cut!), but some were done by hand and definitely did not look like what my Cricut was doing.

I figured it was because of a dull blade. I was desperate, we were in the middle of a snow storm, so I went to Staples (very close to me) and ended up buying a Fiskars. After I got it home, I discovered it didn't have the fold-out arm, which is a shame because that measuring arm is so useful when cutting for card-making. In any case, it worked well and I was happy. I decided to buy some replacement blades for my Cricut anyhow, thinking it couldn't hurt to have 2 paper trimmers, especially one with the fold-out arm.

I then discovered something.

The new blades were cutting card stock the way the old blade was.

The blade wasn't dull. The Cricut just can't compare to the Fiskars.

I wondered what the Stampin' Up cutters were like, but didn't spend too much time thinking about it--now that I had 2 paper cutters and replacement blades for them both. When trying to figure out my final items for my order yesterday, I was looking at the options for paper cutters. You can see them on page 208. As I looked at the first one, the one that's $35.95, I noticed the cutter blade. It looked oddly familiar. It hit me that it was a Fiskars blade! I looked it up in the online store and zoomed in on the picture:

 

It says Fiskars on the top. :)

Hey, why don't I show you a comparison shot? I'm not sure how well this will come out, but here goes.

Can you see the difference between the two edges? The right side was cut with my Cricut cutter; the left with the Fiskars. What you can't see is that the Cricut also kind of bends the paper more where the cut is compared to the Fiskars.

Now, if you want to have a serious paper cutter, this is probably the one to go for at home:

Stampin' Up's Tabletop Paper Cutter 106959

In the description, it says it won't fray card stock. The Fiskars one doesn't say that. My Fiskars does fray the card stock lightly, but not even close to as noticeable as with the Cricut. This is one of those ones that you raise the handle, then slice down. They're amazing. I think once I go through all of my replacement blades, this is the one I will get. I will still use my Cricut, but for little things, making strips for things to use in punches, etc., NOT for cutting the card stock into the cards themselves. It's pricier, but when you go through a couple of replacement blades a year (at least, if you are cutting a lot), those replacement blades add up!

Occasions and Sale-A-Bration are coming!

The Holiday Mini will soon be expired--if there's anything you want, you have until January 3rd to get it!

After that, it is being replaced by the Occasions Mini. There are some very nice things in it. To the point that after having placed my large order yesterday, I'm thinking I should have gone for the smaller order so I could feel okay about buying things I want in the Occasions Mini. lol.

Since it's not yet active, I don't have a catalogue link to share with you just yet.

I have to figure out just how much I will let myself buy. I think I will wait until closer to the time that it's actually available. (Yes, as demonstrator, you get to purchase some things ahead of time! One of the perks! :D)

*sigh* It's hard having a hobby that you like that involves so many wonderful things available to buy. lol.

I mentioned the Sale-A-Bration in the title, didn't I? The Sale-A-Bration is another mini catalogue that will be out soon. The way it works, if you make a purchase of $60 (before shipping and taxes) during the qualifying period, you can pick ANY item out of the Sale-A-Bration catalogue *for free*. Yes, for free. There aren't any prices listed next to the items. Some items are available through the main catalogue, others are exclusive to the Sale-A-Bration and the only way you can get them is to place that minimum $60 order. It's not hard to get to $60, I tell you. lol

I will share more once I have more!