Tool Reveiw d-stress

Hi my friends, I am back with another tool review plus will include a link to my pal Pinky's video on how to use this great tool.

I am getting some great deals on http://www.scrapbooksteals.com/ so again I purchased from them a d-stress tool by imaginisce. It came with everything you see here and 3 extra sanding bits. Like all the current tools from imaginisce this is cordless and requires 2 AA batteries. It is light weight and fits nicely in the palm of your hand. I am currently experiencing technical difficulties with my camera so was unable to upload a picture of the different projects I have use this on. So far I have used all the tips except the embossing tip, I want to get some glass to try that one on. I never really did alot of distressing or sanding on my cards or LOs because it seem to take forever and you did not always get the look you are after. Now that I have this handy little tool it is so much easier and you can be very precise where you use it. Works the best on heavy card stock and loved using it with Core'dinations card stock. Also found it very useful when doing altered products and needed to remove access paper from the edges of what I covered. This would make the perfect gift for you or someone on your list that loves to do shabby chic or vintage style paper crafting. Also is a wonderful addition to your tool assortment to start adding some different elements or trying new styles. So simple to use that it is a perfect tool for new paper crafters!

Here is Pinky's video, please check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvvGME4OcH0

OMGosh What I am thinking!?!?

Right so its that time of year again, you know when all the scrapbooking companies put out their Design Team calls for the coming year. Last year time ran out for me to try and summit something so this year I have already started. I am going to enter to and see what happens, in reality I only want to be on one DT but the likely hood of getting selected is low. I still see myself as a beginner, learner and I question myself all the time. Sometimes it can take days to come up with an idea or put together some paper for a item in a swap like a tag. Other times like this evening an idea comes to mind completely done and I just have to figure out how to make it look like the image in my mind. Well I almost have my first attempt at a somewhat original project done. Once it is completed I will take some pictures(sorry cant share it here yet) and send it to a friend who is on a couple of DTs to critic it for me. Then back to the drawing board if necessary or just tweak it a little. Then I need to sit down and fill out an online application and send it in with the pics of my project and cross my fingers LOL. Once that is done I will take a little breather and start on a second project for the next part of the competition just in case I make it past the first round picks. Now that is for one of the DT jobs I would like, after that I need to get out all my Imaginisce products and design something for them and submit it. That one seems to be less stressful to do but both will be stressful wondering if I am good enough. Once the projects get pass the selection process and I am given permission I will post pics and tell you how to make the projects.
Good luck to all those that are trying out and I know that in the end it will be a plus either way because in the end it will be a great learning experience.

Spellbinders

Looking back at my blog tonight I noticed that I had not talked about my new favourite toy, I mean tool. For the first half of this year I started to purchase Spellbinders dies, Nestiblities, and other such products, with the intention of buying a Grand Calibur to replace my Cuttlebug. Of course my favourite place to buy Spellbinder products is at http://www.ohmycrafts.com/ , they have excellent prices and the shipping into Canada is very reasonable. Well as I purchased their dies I kept putting off the BIG purchase of the Calibur. I belong to http://www.scrapbook.com/ and belong to a Queen of the Month swap, one month the Queen picked wanted a Cuttlebug so I packaged mine up and sent it to her, one of the other ladies in the swap purchased new plates for her and then we, as a group, got her several embossing folders and dies for it. Now I was without a diecut machine, that is other then my Cricut, which hardly gets used. I did this to force myself to purchase the Grand Calibur, which I did 2 months later! I LOVE it.

The cuts are much crisper, details more intricate and I can cut a bunch of things at a time. It is very sturdy and I love the colour. Now all I have to purchase other then more dies is a Raspberry plate, which is an adaptor plate for my Cuttlebug embossing folders. This is one tool I will recommend to my scrapbook and paper crafting friends to purchase. It is completely worth the price and will be in my travel bag for crops that I will be attending. Also within the first month I had a little issue with it and contacted Spellbinders about it. They contacted UPS to come and pick it up, fixed it and sent it back at no charge to me. They were wonderful about making sure that as a customer I was satisfied with their product and provide some of the best customer service I have ever had with a defective product. I can honestly say that about them as I work in a customer service related job and deal with product return and dissatisfied customers for one reason or another. It tends to be my job to find a way to make them happy and address their concerns. So again I will say this, Spellbinders is one incredible company in both their product and in their customer service! The Grand Calibur is a must buy ladies, you will not be disappointed. I give it a 10/10!

New Tool

As a crafter I am always in search of new tools or products that can make my life easier, I have several tools that I love and use all the time. I also belong to several sites that offer some great deals, one of these sites is http://scrapbooksteals.stealnetwork.com/ . A couple of weeks ago they offered the Imaginisce i-Bond with all the glue sticks for $12USD, well with shipping and conversion it still only cost me about $18 which for Canada is a true steal. I was looking forward to this as I love using my normal glue guns but always looking for less cords because in my new space I am limited on plug ins and space. This tool takes 4 AA batteries, has a light on the front, comfort grip but is a little heavy due to the batteries. The first time I used it was to make a couple of wreaths for my outside door. I tried to upload pictures to show you but the camera that I took them on is experiencing errors when connected to the computer. The first wreath was from an idea I saw on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B5bEfRAVSs , very cute but it doesn't hang well on my door and the crayons would endup getting knocked off. The second one is a Halloween wreath which I will take another picture of with a different camera and upload it. I really like my Halloween wreath. The nice thing is neither one cost much as I got all the supplies at the Dollar Gaint. I made both wreaths one after the other, testing the limits of the i-Bond. Here is what I found. The glue came out nice and steady, it was great having a light, over heated and shut off but I am guessing that if I had not made one wreath after another it would of been fine. Did not burn my self like I am prone to do using my other low temp glue gun. The handle were the batteries are got very hot again before it shut down. I would not recommend this glue gun for large projects but for cards, LOs and other small projects works perfectly. I would buy this again even knowing that it is not good for large projects. I don't do very many large projects and this was just a way to test its limits. Love the coloured and glitter glue sticks. Over all I would give it a 7 out of 10.

Now I just ordered yesterday from ScrapbookSteals an Imaginisce d-Stressing tool with 3 tips. Once that arrives I will play with it and let you all know what I think of it. Hopeing to be able to grab and i-Top and the new Imaginisce hand iron for there soon to. Have a great day all and enjoy your crafting time this week end.

Stamping

So I have really gotten into the whole stamping thing. I love making cards, just need more time in my scrap space, but found they were lacking a little something. I had quite a few wooden mounted stamps but never really liked using them as I found it difficult to line them up just right. Then I discovered CTMH acrylic stamps which are clear and you mount them on a clear block. Much easier to use and clean, just need to figure out a way to store them all so I know what I have, LOL. One of the Blogs I follow is Pink By Design, she makes her own stamps and sells them. Some of them are designed to go with Cricut Cartridges and some are work great with Spellbinder Dies. She has a Stamp of The Month club that I was dieing to join, which I finally did last month. The stamps for this month are Halloween themed and are the cutest things ever. It has several children in costume and several different spooktacular sayings. I can't wait to go and craft some cards today. My oldest daughter loves the Canadian set I ordered from her, hockey and maple leafs plus some adorable sayings. Needless to say the one "Handmade in" then a picture of a maple leaf is both of our favourites and will be going on the back of our cards. I think Pink By Design has replaced CTMH as my favourite place to get my stamps from. Their prices including shipping are cheaper then CTMH which is a plus to me.
So speaking of CTMH, I was able to pick up 17 different sets of stamps for under $140, these set normally cost between $25-$35 each so quite the steal there. I do believe it is now time to start looking at Copics and try them out to see if I like them. Plus there are other ways to add glitter to the images other then stamp ink. I plan on learning some new techniques this fall when it comes to stamping and embellishing the stamped images. Time to check out my LSS to see what classes are offered.
On another note, hope to have pics next time of my new scrappy space, I just need to clean it and take the pictures LOL. Have a wonderful day, and be creative!

Teaching?? Maybe.

Well out and about today picking up craft supplies I went into Michael's to find out about teaching/taking classes. Talked to a great Associate there that provided me with some great info. First they have no teachers for Card making or Scrapbooking at my location, Second they are hiring instructors but right now for cake decoration, I am self taught LOL. And Third they/management wont even talk to me until I apply online. Alright, so I come home and load up their application and it is an hour long with the first part timed. Need to answer x number of questions in a set amount of time then on to 12 pages of questions that are repeated or worded differently each time you see them. OK so that is done now to wait a few weeks for them to get my application then to go in to the store and talk to the lady that is in charge of hiring instructors. Maybe I might make some money to support my habit LOL.

If this doesn't work out maybe I will try my LSS next. I know I can do this just need to be more confident in the work I do.

Card making day

Hello all...Last week my oldest daughter and I got out my supplies and took over the kitchen to make cards. I belong to several cards swaps and she belongs to one. We are behind in our card making and sending so here are pictures of what my kitchen counter and table looked like for most of the day.

 That is my new Grand Calibur and this was the first day to play with it. It works wonderfully and the cuts with their dies are so detailed. We really enjoyed cutting and embossing different labels and things for the cards. It did make a loud popping noise when putting the pendant die into the machine so Spellbinders willing took it back to fix it and I am currently waiting for it to be returned. In the mean time I have received about 6 more sets of their dies that I ordered from ohmycrafts.com. Excellent site to order from and the shipping is very reasonable. They are my go to site for anything Spellbinders LOL.

 You can see my daughter Michaela in the above picture, she was really enjoying embossing then adding glitter and heating it. She has now requested more embossing powders so she can do more with the embossing gun. I think we will do this once a month on PD days. It was such an enjoyable and bonding experience.

 Following is a couple of the cards I made. This one is very simple and I used different rub-ons for it. Not to fond of rub-ons they do not always come out looking nice.

 I corner punched the patterned paper and then the green cs is cut using the larges die for Labels Five (SB). Then using a stencil from Imaginsce I put on dots with stickles.

 Corner punched and boarder punch then added orange glitter. Used the middle size Die from Nested Lacey Pennants (SB) with a thicker circle saying Thanks.

 Again with the corner punch then using pop dots attached a die cut large Blossom Four (SB) Added fabric flowers that have stickles highlighting the petals and a rhinestone center. Made a fabric bow.

 Basic Birthday card

 Foam stickers, 3D stickers and flip flop buttons.

 Used the Tulips Shapeabilities Pendants for the center piece pop dot it on to some green ribbon and added silver studs from Imaginisce.