Pink Journey

Exciting news! I know many folks have been waiting a long time for this to happen. Provo Craft has released the Pink Journey cartridge! It's no longer exclusive to Michael's and the Pink Cricut Expression. Finally!

I just received mine today. I purchased mine from Cricutmachine.com. They had a Black Friday sale and I received free shipping. Not sure what the shipping deal is currently. The price is currently $24.95 which I'm thrilled with! 

Provo Craft also has Pink Journey. They have it for $34.99 and it's currently out of stock. :( 

Provo Craft has the Pink Cricut Expression. It is $179 and comes with Pink Journey. 

The cartridge is even pink! I'm so excited that this is finally available! 

Happy shopping!

Until next time *

Be sure to support Breast Cancer Month next October!

Fantastic Post!

I don't normally post about other blog's I read that aren't paper crafting related, but this one is too good to pass up! Being an artist or crafter or whatever name you give yourself is a rough job. Most of us will never make a million bucks a year....sure we can dream! :)

I've attended many craft fairs over the years. I've been a shopper and a vendor. Being a vendor is so much harder than you could ever imagine. You have to get there a few hours before the event. Drag your 800 million pounds of awkward items through rain, sleet, snow, 100 degrees through parking lots half a mile away up four flights of stairs down narrow hallways....And NO I'm not exaggerating at all! I've done this several times. It's not exactly a blast. And remember when you're all done, then you get to the same exactly thing only this time in the reverse. This occurs many hours later after you've stood all day and tried to earn a living.

I won't even go into the rude comments. Some people are just so nasty. One time I had a guy scream at me for charging sales tax. Don't blame me! I don't like paying it either. The state requires it and if I don't pay it, they will put me in jail. So yeah you're paying me for the tax because I don't like stripes or concrete walls.

You will see on this blog that I do love Etsy. I shop on there several times a week. I have even found a few photographers on Facebook that I follow. I have purchased several of their photos. Yes, to some people $3 for a photo of a momma black bear and her four cubs playing in the Smoky Mountains might seem like a lot. But I know she had to spend at least $3 in gas to get there! Not to mention the hours she spent waiting patiently for a bear to wander around, her camera equipment, the equipment to print the photo, her website, etc. Just a trip to the mountains would cost me four hours to get there and another four home and over $80 in gas with no guarantee of seeing a single bear. I've been there several times and have never seen a bear of any kind except stuffed ones.

Ok so back to why I wrote this post.....a fellow crafter was recently treated rudely by a customer at a craft fair and she/he wrote a fantastic blog post about it. Really you should read this. Everyone - not just crafters/artists - should read this.

She/he received so many comments that they wrote a second post about the situation.

Until next time *

Be sure to support your local small businesses this holiday season!

Photo Sales!

Snapfish:
Use coupon code PENNYNOV and get 500 4" x 6" prints for 1 cent each. Yup 500 prints for 5 bucks. Expires 12/3/11.

Winkflash:
Coupon code ONLY6CENTS will get 6 cent 4" x 6" prints! This discount is unlimited. So if you need to print two thousand pics like I do at times this is a good deal. Expires 12/5/11

Until next time *

Print your photos! Don't keep them starved for attention in your computer!

Another One Bites the Dust

Sigh. Sadly, tonight I was informed that the LSS I crop and shop at is closing. Now this store isn't close by any means, but it is the closest store to me and it's over an hour away. I am so sad over this. This is the fourth store I was a regular customer at to close since 2005. I'm beginning to think it's me!

So if you're near Lexington, SC or feel like a road trip, then get to Scrapbook Utopia before December 31st! Some of the items on sale (25%-50% off) paper, cardstock, embellishments, store fixtures, albums, mediums, tools, Copics.

And they just celebrated the one year anniversary with a huge crop and beautiful cake. So sad I'm losing this shop.

Until next time *

Support your local shops! If you don't, who will?

Ephemera from Australia

Love the stamp!

Yes, you read that correctly. Ephemera from Australia! Home of Hugh Jackman and ummmm other people. I watched him on Jay Leno a few days ago and wow is all I can say. hehehe

Paper Aeroplanes Ephemera and Paper Craft Supplies is an amazingly honest seller. Her postage is beyond reasonable. Now, if you do order from her, there is a bit of a wait. The wait is not from her as she ships right away. Australia is very far away and her packages have come via Air Mail. They have taken anywhere from two to three weeks. Considering that's on the other side of the world, I think it's pretty fast! Definitely not that slow boat from China.

Oh where do I begin? I have placed a few orders with her. She has some amazing pieces. Believe it or not, she has a ton from the US! Who ever would think I'd be purchasing items for places in the US from Australia? Definitely not me!

First up is a set of Traveler cigar labels. They're actually pretty big. And they have raised embossing. I plan on using these in my layouts for my travels. Thinking about making a Tim Holtz collection box showcasing my travels and using these there as well.

These are movie tickets to Cinema 5 located in Toledo, OH. Movies were 75 cents. Yes, 75 cents! Can you imagine?

Until next time *

What have you gotten your inky hands on lately?

Another Photo Sale

Don't you just love photo sales? No excuses not to get your photos printed now! Just in time for the holidays and making books to share with your families. Time's ticking.....don't remind me!

Like Winkflash? Well, guess what? They like you, too, and are having a sale. You can get as many prints as you want for 6 cents each. Seriously, if you need to print 20,000 or 20, it's 6 cents per print. How cool is that?

Oh you need the discount code, right? Might help.....hehehe Here it is: ONLY6CENTS and it ends on 11/08.

So simple. Again, don't wait until the last night of the sale to upload your photos. Trust me. I have a bald spot from pulling my hair out in the weeeee hours one night doing this. Save yourself the aggravation. Everyone and their grandma is on these sites during the last few hours of the sales.

Until next time *

Seriously, why haven't you printed your photos lately?

Discount Time!

Camera chip full? Thousands of photos sitting on your hard drive hoping to escape one day? Well, now is there chance at freedom! 

Snapfish is having a sale! And I do mean a sale. You can get 300 prints for 1 cent each. Yup, 300 photos for $3. No kidding! You can use the discount code up to 5 times.....that's 1500 photos! 

Here's the Snapfish code: SPOOKY300. 

Don't have a lot to print? Seriously, what's your secret? Please share with the rest of us. We could totally use it. Well, Snapfish is thinking of you folks, too! Here's the same 1 cent sale for those only needing 100 photos: SPOOKY100. This one can also be used up to 5 times.

Hurry! These offers end on 11/06. Don't wait until the last minute to upload your photos. The last day of their sales, the site can be pokey. Yup, I'm speaking from experience.  

Until next time *

How long has it been since you printed photos?

Long Time No See

Sorry for being quiet for so long. It's been a long time! I'm super busy with classes, crops, and traveling. Lots of crops coming up and holidays! So excited for the holidays. Working on some projects. I will be posting a ton of pics very soon. Lots of projects are in the works. Stay tuned!

Until next time *

Are you doing what you love?

Got Goodies?

I do! I told you this Etsy was a dangerous place. My credit card has mini heart attacks every time I look at the site. I faintly hear a little "Clear!" in the background just like on Grey's Anatomy. Time for more Etsy shops!

Salvage Nation offers up all kinds of vintage pieces and ephemera. In my first go around with them, I purchased a few lots of vintage buttons. I already have a ton of items in my shopping cart waiting for me to complete the transaction.

Antique Mother of Pearl Buttons

Vintage Kawaii Button Group Buttons

Vintage Red Buttons

Vintage Dye is a tag lover paradise! Dye has a tag for every occasion. She does custom orders as well as custom colors on pieces found in her Etsy shop.

Vintage Style Large Journaling Ticket Stubs

Winter Wonderland Lamppost Vintage Style Holiday Tags

Halloween Vintage Postage Stamps

Merry Christmas Decorative Holiday Stamps

Christmas Caroling Vintage Style Santa Claus Gift Tags and Vintage Style Santa Claus with Holly Gift Tags

Until next time *

Time to get started on your holiday gifts!

Bits and Pieces

Moon Faces slogan is "Where the Ordinary Becomes the Extraordinary!" They have a variety of jewelry and tickets and more! I purchased a set of Vintage Style Hand Stamped Camera Carnival Tickets. I thought they were pretty cute.

Liz's Back Room has a variety of goodies. I took home a set of ephemera from Canby, Minnesota. Nope, I've never been to Canby or Minnesota. I really would love to see Minnesota someday! I just thought these were super nique pieces and I had to jump on them.

Coco St Ives - isn't that a cool name? - focuses on Victorian and Edwardian photographs and ephemera. When you think of the tobacco industry, Massachusetts isn't the first place that comes to mind. Being from the North, I had to have these! Living in the South, I see tobacco plants all over the place. Pretty ironic I'd find these labels for Pearson's Red Top Snuff from Byfield Snuff Co in Byfield, Massachusetts.

I also picked up a collection of cigar labels. A variety of colors and many are embossed. I haven't found cigar labels easily so I was pretty excited to see these.

These are vintage foreign matchbox labels. They are from the late-1950's through the mid-1960's. I still can't believe the 60's were 60 years ago! Just doesn't seem possible.

Beca Runs offers a unique collection of goodies. These are a set of vintage Bingo cards. Most of my Bingo cards are from Milton Bradley. These are from Transogram and are their "Gold Medal" set. They are from the 1950's.

These are definitely something I have never seen before. They reminded me of the punch cards used for attendance when I was in elementary school. These aren't those though. Pretty close though. They are vintage stock accounting detail cards.

I have never heard of these game cards called Keno cards and Lotto cards. Not sure which is correct. Maybe a regional thing with the different names? These are from Milton Bradley whom I just discovered was based out of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Brown Bird Market is another Etsy shop I just can't get enough of! I recently purchased a small walnut stained wooden fence from them. I have tons and tons of photos from beaches with wooden fences just like this on the dunes. So perfect for layouts with photos from Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras!

Everything But the Kitchen Sink has more than just twine! I got a bunch of tags and more Bingo cards from her. The white tags have a sheen to them. They're not plain cardstock.

Remember, all of the Etsy shops I blog about are listed on the right hand side. You don't have to hunt for them. There's also tons of digital ephemera on there. I have made digital purchases and will be blogging about them soon! Stay tuned. You never know what I may find!

Until next time *

Have you crafted today?

This and That

You know that song "Rubber Ducky" from Sesame Street? "Rubber Ducky, You're the one, You make bath time lots of fun..." Time to change up those lyrics a bit! "Etsy, You're the one, You make crafting time lots of fun!"

Sorry, but I couldn't help myself. The name of the shop I purchased these items from is Pookieville. Somehow "Rubber Ducky" came to mind. no idea why, but oddly it works. :)

The first item I purchased was a set of small playing cards. They are circa 1913. Pretty darn old! And they are in amazing condition. I could only hope to look so good at 98 years old!

I thought these were pretty cool since they're not the same size as a regular deck of cards. They also don't have the suits and numbers. They are numbered one through 15. Definitely a unique item! And I have plans to use them with some Fragments from Tim Holtz.

I also bought a pile of vintage hymnal sheet music. Oh the projects in my head are just spinning! So many uses for sheet music! The possibilities are really endless.

Up next is The Bowerbird Bake Shop. Now, don't get thinking they sell cupcakes and muffins. Now they do have some cupcake wrappers, twine, and other baking goodies. But they also sell library cards in a variety of colors. I purchased a set of yellow ones.

Next up is Agony Decay's Creepy Crafts. Funky name, right? Perfect for Halloween! These are a set of poison bottles and tags. I think these are pretty unique. I'm planning on using some of them for Halloween layouts and some for my layouts of Salem, MA. Yup, the home of the famous witch trials.

Until next time *

Have you started thinking about your autumn and/or Halloween projects?

Ephemera R Us

A few more of my Etsy purchases....I tell ya it's a dangerous place! Stay far, far, far away.....so I can buy it all. :)

Vintage Supply Co offers a wide variety of items. Turns out she's located in the same state as me! So some of her items are super spiffy to me since they are super useful with lots of my scrapbooks. The ephemera pieces won't need to be used in collages or other pieces of art. Not necessarily a bad thing. Kind of excited about these purchases!

The Commercial Bank in Chester, SC

I bought a pile of checks from her. Turns out there's five different ones and they're all from South Carolina which is pretty nifty! I received from from The Commercial Bank in Chester, SC and the checks from the 1940's.

The Bank of Abbeville in Abbeville, SC

There were some from Abbeville, SC and I've actually been there! There's an opera house there. Seems like I'm good at finding small towns with opera houses - Cooperstown, NY (granted they are a little famous for baseball), Newberry, SC, and Abbeville, SC. There are a few different checks from The Bank of Abbeville. They are all from the early 1950's. It's interesting how they are from the same year yet they are completely different. The green ones are much more similar to what we use nowadays.

Another check from The Bank of Abbeville

There are also checks from M.S. Bailey & Son, Bankers who were located in Clinton, SC. These are from the 1950's.

M.S. Bailey & Son, Bankers in Clinton, SC

I also purchased two lots of cancelled postage stamps. One bag was full of international stamps. I found these very interesting seeing all the different languages and how different the stamps are from the ones from the US.

International Postage Stamps

There is a bag with cancelled postage stamps from the US. This bag was also lots of fun to look through. Partly because it was pretty cool to see the different stamps. But also because of the postmarks. There are some from Boston, MA and Nantucket, MA. Both are places I've been. And I absolutely adore Nantucket!

US Postage Stamps

Until next time *

Look around and see what you can find that wasn't created for crafting purposes and what you can do with it!

More Travels

One day after classes, I went on a little road trip to a town about a half an hour away from my college. I saw on their Facebook page a small cabinet with shelves which was perfect to hold my seashell collection and the price was absolutely perfect!

Yes, I bought it! I was thrilled that it was still there. For $36, who could say no? A few days after I brought it home, I saw someone post on Facebook wondering if it was still available. Glad I jumped on it! My shell collection looks great on it! Now I need to get the rest of my jars so I can get rid of the Gladware bowls.

Aunt Tique and Uncle Junk in Thomson, GA is definitely a fun place to visit! They are a combination antique shop and second hand shop. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to look around because I had to get to an appointment at the Dodge dealership for some work on my SUV.

I found a few fun things that had to go home with me! Guess what they had? Any guesses? Remember, my postcard nerdiness? Oh yeah, they fed right into it! They had lots and lots and lots of postcards from the White Mountains up in New Hampshire and from various areas of North Carolina. They all came home with me. How could I leave any behind? After all, there are numerous cousins already in my collection.

The first piece of ephemera I found was a bank check for the Bank of Thomson. The bank was founded way back in 1891. I've done some digging around for details about this bank online. I had to know what happened to the bank since it seems like all that we have nowadays are this huge corporate banks that are nothing like the small, hometown banks we once had. From what I have found so far, it looks like it may have been sold several times and is now part of Regions Bank. I have a couple of addresses and next time I'm in Thomson, I am going to look and see what I can find. The check has a drawing of the building on it and the own is very small so it shouldn't be too hard to see if I can find the building in town. This could make for another exciting historic info gathering scrapbook trip! I love those.

Remember, my little thing for all things Coca~Cola? Umm yeah, well Aunt Tique and Uncle Junk certainly did not disappoint! They had an invoice book for the Coca~Cola Bottling Company out of Washington, GA which was about a half an hour outside of Thomson, GA. There are a few sheets with writing, but most of the book is empty.

Can you image getting a case of Coca~Cola for 80 cents? These books kept track of the deposits for the bottles and the cartons. There's even details about the coolers and the sales in them! I so can't wait to add these to my World of Coca~Cola photos! I'm so fascinated by Coca~Cola and all of the pieces they made over the years. The marketing they had was simply amazing. I don't drink any cola sodas and I still have tons of memorabilia in my home. I just can't get enough!

I also picked up a baggie filled with some sort of bus tickets. I didn't really know what they were when I saw them, but the looked cool. I figured I could find something to do with them

Since I was at Aunt Tique & Uncle Junk's, I have done some research and now know what these are. These were weekly trolley tickets for the Capital Transit Co in Washington, DC from 1953 and 1954. I've even found a website that shows what they all looked like for years! The website even has the history of the tickets and transit company listed. Pretty cool!!

Did you know that Washington, DC was a small, Southern town before World War II? And that printing was the major industry? A far cry from what DC is today!

I also picked up a bag of cancelled postage stamps. I can't get enough of these! I really do love seeing the old stamps and the various postmarks. Another art we are losing with all of this fancy schmancy technology.

Until next time *

Have you found a piece of history lately?

Handmade Ephemera

So I don't if it's proper to call these pieces ephemera since they're not old pieces. They are brand new. They are also handcrafted. This artist hand cuts her pieces. She says she does her work all by scissor. That's just crazy! They all look beautiful and I am extremely happy with my purchases from Pacokeco Scribbles. She is an Etsy artist. And I use the word artist because her scissor work is simply amazing!

1 inch circle embellishments

1 inch square embellishments

Vintage Image Kraft Tickets

Moments Word Blocks

Grey French Word Tickets

Time Phrases

Steampunk Scrollwork Journaling Blocks

Black Toile Journaling Blocks

If a Tree Falls In the Forest Tags

Memorabilia Mania

So I got tired of staring at my boxes of memorabilia and the mess in those boxes. There are at least three boxes of stuff just thrown in there. Some of the mess is from my moving a thousand miles and some of the mess has happened since we moved. I had no idea what to do with everything. I would try to figure something out and just get frustrated so I would walk away leaving it for another time. Finally after months of not figuring a system out, I came up with something completely out of the blue! I wasn't even thinking about those boxes. See walking away does help.

I have memorabilia from our childhoods, trips, vacations, races, furkids, family members, concerts, amusement parks, historical sites, and other pieces of life. I also have a box of brochures from trips. It really adds up. Some of it has been scrapbooked. Some hasn't since I need to scan it to have a hard copy in case anything ever happens.

My brilliant idea came to me over the weekend while watching tv. I was looking through a pile of family photos and found a few pieces of memorabilia. I was so frustrated to find more that wasn't in the boxes. So I started looking around our office to see what I could use to organize these pieces. You'll never believe what caught my eye. Something so simple. I just can't believe I hadn't thought of it before.

Manilla envelopes!

There is a pile of them just sitting on the shelf collecting dust begging to be used. So I grabbed a bunch and sorted out the pieces I found mixed in with the photos. I started thinking about how I could label the envelopes so there would some sort of organization instead of mess.

The envelopes are 9" x 12" so they can hold a full size sheet of paper without having to fold it or bend it in someway. Break out the Sharpies! I wrote on each envelope a name of a town such as Nantucket and Cooperstown or an event like NASCAR races. I haven't gone through the boxes yet, but seeing how well this worked for the pieces I found over the weekend, this is a great start! No more hunting through three boxes to make sure I found everything only to find out six months later oops I missed something. That's so annoying and incredibly frustrating. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. Lots of papercrafters have this happen.

So my project for the week is to go through those boxes and sort if all out. I'll finally use it up! I just can't believe I didn't think of this years ago!

Until next time *

Do you know where all of your memorabilia is hiding?

Got Twine?

Another day and more ephemera. Etsy is a dangerous place! Well, my credit thinks so and my mail lady doesn't seem super thrilled with the number of packages I receive. But man oh man, there are soooooooooo many spiffy things on Etsy and I think I have everything on there in my favorites.

There are folks who sell twine on there! I have quite the stock pile of twine. If mysteriously they ever stop producing it, I'm good! Everything But the Kitchen Sink is one of my favorite places for twine purchases.

Blue and White Twine, Red and White Twine

Halloween (Black and Orange) Twine, Licorice (Black) Twine, Christmas (Red and Green) Twine, Airmail (Red, White, and Blue) Twine 

Green and White Twine, Licorice Twine

Lemon Twine, Teal and Blue Twine,  Navy Blue Twine,  Pumpkin Orange Twine,  Pink Lemonade Twine, Cotton Candy Twine, and Lime Green and Green Twine

Until next time *

Support your local crafters!