Craft Critique

There is a great blog called Craft Critique. On it craft products of all types are reviewed impartially. There is no reimbursement or tie to any companies for the opinions, so you can truly get a good idea of the usefulness of a product. Well, anyway, today they have blogged about the SU! paper piercer and I thought it was interesting enough that others may want to go read it. Here is an excerpt:

The piercing tools can be used for ...well... piercing. The tool is sharp

enough to pierce patterned paper, cardstock, chipboard, foam, thin metal,

and some plastics. I usually stick to patterned paper and cardstock.

You can use the piercing tool to create any number of

holes in your projects. Why would you want holes???

Well, you can use them to place eyelets or brads, you can thread

ribbon or string through them, you can leave them open

to show a different layer underneath, you can drag

a marker across them to create the look of stitching,

or you can do any other thing you can thing of with holey paper.

To read more click on: CRAFT CRITIQUE PAPER PIERCER BLOG
You can also send suggestions for products that you would like to see reviewed. I think that is pretty cool.

happy stampin'
Susan

doin' a happy dance up in here!!

all images © SU! 1990-2007

That's right ... my catalog is here!!! The brand new, lovely, fresh and lovable Stampin' Up! catalog arrived at my door. Woot!! I'm lovin' flipping through the pages, straining my brain to take in all the new, wondermous items that I will need to order shortly.

I have also been going through my retiring stamp sets and have a whole boatload of stamps to sell. I plan to put them out Saturday at my yard sale ... but if you wanna email me and see if I have a set you "need", I'll gladly put it to the side for you.

Ok -- getting a fresh Diet Coke and heading back to my comfy chair to drool over my catty some more.

all images © SU! 1990-2007

new stamps are a'comin... and challenge

all images ©SU! 1990-2007

It's only a few days until the new SU! catalog arrives. woot! The card above is made with Vases in Vogue, a new level 2 Hostess set with lots of potential. I am super excited, yet wondering how I will manage to pay for all that new rubbah! I may have to sell some things, what'cha think?? Bear with me and I'll post two more cards at the end of the rambling...

Well ... I'm going to list a weekend challenge a day early because my daughter and I are heading out of town for the weekend. She has a dance competition near the ocean!! I kind of don't want to go, but it will be fun. I do wish the rest of our family could travel with us.

So for this weekend, the challenge is to use something from your stash that you haven't touched in a while. We all have those items in our craft storage. Maybe it's something forgotten, or never opened ... yes, I do that, don't you?? ... or how about paper that you couldn't live without but never ended up using? Whatever it is, pull it out, dust it off and use it! Then post online, or email me w/ your finished project.

The next two cards are also new Hostess sets ... but I forgot their names! Ackkk! {I do like them all very much} Have a GREAT weekend! See you Monday-ish!

all images ©SU! 1990-2007

Enabler alert part two ...

Found something else really cool yesterday while grocery shopping. Electrasol dishwasher detergent has another limited edition tin series!!! Yes, tins! My store had them for $2.88 -- and later I found a coupon for .50 on the Electrasol website.

These tins are shorter than the ones from last year ... totally cute. I can't wait to alter them. Here are two photos of the tins as they will appear in your local grocery:

If you get one and alter it, email me a picture. I'd love to see what you do with it! Now I'm off to clear some space under my table for more tins. LOL.

enabler alert!!

Ok - Cambria has been blogging about this Janome sewing machine. She is not a seamstress, and neither am I ... so today when Cambria posted that the little machine she uses is on sale at Hancock Fabrics online I just had to order one for myself {chuckle}. Click here to see the machine price, and if you happen to decide to order type in WELCOME for free shipping! woot! I'll let you know when mine arrives!!

To view some cards Cambria has stitched with her Janome click HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

update

I know this is not good blogging, but it is my reality for today.

Tonight is visitation, Monday the funeral. It will be a double funeral. Really so sad. Daniel was 32. The coroner told us he was not hurt in the wreck, but killed trying to get his girlfriend out when the car exploded. So horrible. Please pray for Daniel's family, they are heartbroken. And please pray for his girlfriend's family as well. It is a true tragedy.

not a good Friday

No Weekend challenge today.

Friday is a day I ususally look forward to.
Not today.
My husband's cousin was killed, along with his girlfriend, in a one car wreck early this morning on their way to work. Tragic. We are packing and preparing to return home from the beach today. Please say a prayer for his mom and sister.

Last pages today

These are the final two layouts for the mini album. Ellen is on the left, one of the churches they held VBS at is behind her. Will is on the right - standing on the roof of their dorm playing his guitar. The cowboy hat was a market find. I think he wore it most of the week to keep the sun off his face. You can barely see a dorm under construction behind him - and of course, more mountains in the distance. Beautiful scenery.





The colors on this last photo didn't turn out very good. The coral color is the same as the page above with Will playing guitar. I tried correcting it w/ Paint Shop, but this was as close as I could get w/out turning it yellow. Anyway ... the plane ride home. Although they loved the mission trip, they were tired, dirty and ready to come home!

{and yes ... here is my misspelled word. Got to fix that, but I glued it down w/ a liquid scrapping glue and I don't know if I can pull it up. hmpf.}

Photos 7, 8 & 9 of Mexico

More photos. The first page is of a Catholic Cathedral in Matehuala. don't you love that clock? My son said the church was beautiful. One thing they found very different, and I guess it is cultural, there was a coffin at the front of the church with a replica of Jesus in it! The kids had never seen anything like that before. Maybe someone reading this can message me with an explanation of why Jesus would be in a coffin?





Animals are everywhere in the mountains. They are all free range, and you see them at every turn. I thought since the kids had taken several shots of animals, we should let them have their own page. Goats are really important. They serve as a source for milk and cheese, and for really special occasions, they will actually cook the goat! You know you are special if they cook a goat for you. Can you imagine?

In these photos the kids are eating and shopping at the market. It is sort of like a flea market with everything you could imagine. They said the food was terriffic -- especially my son, he LOVED everything they served and ate what the other more picky eaters wouldn't. I believe the meals were all bean-based. In the bottom right photo, they are eating hamburgers -- topped with fried bologna and cheese. yuck.

One more post and we'll be done with this album. Hope you are enjoying it. If not, it will be over soon, lol!!

Mexico on my mind ...

Why? Because my daughter just booked her flight for this summer's mission trip. She will be working on staff this year, in Mexico. It was an awesome trip for her last year and she is busy trying to raise money and get ready to go again.

I guess that is why I finally put last year's photos in an album, because I knew there would be more pictures this summer for another album. Here are the next pages from last year's trip:

Their Bible story was the Coat of Many Colors. Our teens would read the story, and then another person translated into Spanish for the kids. The craft was to glue colorful ribbons onto a coat ... I think the girls loved the ribbons. And, as you can see {sorry, it is a bit fuzzy} they ended with a pinata - what fun.

This is a photo of our youth group -- again, really bad photo, my apologies -- in front of a pond in La Laja {pronounced La LaHa}. It must have been a beautiful place. I do know it was very hot, even though they were up in the mountains of Mexico.

I'll post more, hopefully the end of this week. And ... I got a new TOY in the mail today. I'll share it with you soon. I'm so giddy!!

reporting in ...

So, after posting that I'm hardly working, I got my act in gear {sort of, don't want to overdo it, ya know}. Today I have already been to the dentist for treatment 2 out of 3 {root canal, don't ask}; been to the bank, taken my son's car by the repair shop, mailed $50 worth of letters at the PO; had delicious potato soup for lunch and am heading out again to take my mother shopping. Whew, I better slow down before I ignite! LOL!

I think I should share the mini album I recently made of our teenagers mission trip to Mexico last summer. If you are a friend of mine, you've already seen it ... and none of you were brave enough to tell me I misspelled a word! Thank you. So when you see the page ... posting it in a few days ... just ignore the spelling error, ok??

The entire album was made with Club Scrap materials from the Surf's Up kit, except for using my Quickutz Blossom alpha dies, and a few rhinestones sprinkled here and there ... oh yes, and my new Martha cornflower punch is on a few pages, plus Making Memories square embellies on one layout. Ok, that takes care of the supplies, let's look at some pages.

These pages are of my son and daughter w/ children they were teaching in VBS. The kids were so receptive, and the simplest things made them thrilled. They were in La Mesa, Mexico in these two photos.

This shows the homes in the area. Simple, most were painted blue ... if painted at all. The rock fences were a really big deal to the home owners. The animals are all free range, so I guess the fence keeps the animals out of the yards, not to mention it defines their property lines. Notice how much smaller the door to the house is than my son. He is 6' 2", so tall, but not a giant as he looks in this photo!! These photos were made in San Ramone.

I'll post more later this week. : )

hardly working?

I have sooo much to get done this week ... so what am I doing? Yep, you guessed it, scrapbooking! You know I love it, but scrapbooking is also the perfect activity for anyone in denial! It keeps my mind off those boring things ... like chores, to do lists, laundry, etc. You get the idea! So, since I am hardly working today, I wanted to share my scrapping table {temporarily set up in my front room} and a page I finished yesterday.

This is Ellen's dance photo. They got new costumes this year and it looks like something futuristic to me {I call her robo-dancer}. Anyways ... the paper is Club Scrap Stratosphere kit. It's not quite my normal style, and I would have never picked it out myself but it works so well w/ this costume. The pink embellies are microbeads -- really cool to work with unless they spill and roll all over your floor.




And, this is where the MAGIC happens! Well, only for this week anyway. I never scrap in the same place twice it seems. I am trying very hard to get a pseudo-scrap room set up in my bedroom, but unimportant things like clothes and a huge treadmill keep getting in my way, which regretfully means I have to seek out other areas to pile my stuff. A good friend told me the best way to set up a scrap room is to kick out your kids {LOL, just messing w/ ya Joan!}.

You can see all my mess here, and waayyy in the back are my new, uber cool scallop punches. No, I haven't actually made anything w/ the punches yet ... but I have grand plans for them, yes sirree! I'll be sure to post when I finally make something w/ these cool punches. If you don't have any ... you need them, seriously!

Proud Grad & Dad

Friday night was great. The graduation ceremony went smoothly. The speaker was excellent, and I hope the graduates took his advice to heart. Now our daughter is officially finished with high school! Wow. So hard to believe. That just leaves one more in the nest.

Here is the proud grad:

And here is her proud dad:

Blogger isn't being nice to me!

Blogger isn't playing fair. It wouldn't let me sign in ... humpf! I had to delete a few things, and now I'm back in. Just in time for the weekend challenge - yay!

Here it is: Household items

Find something from your home and re-purpose it for a card or scrapbook page. Anything goes! Then email me a picture. Got it? Great, get crafting.