Sites of the week

Greetings all! It’s a beautiful fall morning here in North Texas. There is certainly a little chill in the air, which is perfect because I am having a garage sale this weekend. Apparently, I am a glutton for punishment! Hopefully it will all be worth it. I had a dream that no one came today. Let’s hope that is not the case because I have 9 boxes of preemie-3T girls clothes to unload. That’s a whole lotta clothes, not to mention everything else.

Other than that, I am continuing to work at Ellie’s school. No more “major” incidents like pulling out “business” in the middle of class, etc. I am also teaching and working at Scrapper’s Boutique. Everything with Baby Boy del Muro is going great! I went for my check-up yesterday and all is well. He’s a feisty lil’ man in there! Even at 24 weeks I can feel him kicking HARD! I can only imagine what it will be like in the later weeks/months. I am getting pretty hugs, too. He’s a del Muro boy for sure…Tony is 6′7″!

Of course, I have been crafting here and there, too. It’s really hard to find the time to get things done these days. I was so used to having a couple days a week when I could truck through stuff. Now that I am working through those same hours, I am beat down and just want to rest when there is a free moment. I did; however, find the time to make this SPOOKY banner… {click on the smaller images to make them pop up larger}

I made the banner using Bazzill Swiss Dots black cardstock, along with Prism and Papertrey cardstocks. The font is cut from the Slice Spook Alley design card {lovin’ that card!!}.

Ok, well that’s it for today. I have to go get ready for this garage sale. Wish me luck!!

Happy {rainy} Monday!

I have been getting a few comments and emailed questions in regards to the Slice machine, so I thought that I would address the subject here.

The main comment/question that has been popping up is…
I have a Cricut that I have barely used. The Slice looks fun, but is it worth it? I am afraid it will end up gathering dust like my Cricut.

Cricut vs. Slice…

I have a Cricut, too. I certainly don’t use it as much as I thought that I would. Tony is probably scowling right now, as I sent him out at 5am on VERY blustery Black Friday to Wal-Mart {a.k.a. The Devil’s Lair} to grab the last one…literally. While I certainly am grateful and truly appreciate the efforts of my dear sweet loving and doting husband, this machine is not made for the everyday card maker. Why?…The Cricut is big and bulky, you have to replace the sticky mat when it loses it’s sticky and the cartridges are expensive. Most of those cartridges only come with images and unless you are doing a themed set, you probably won’t use all of them. What I do like about the Cricut is that you can cut larger images. I especially like this on the Bags, Tags and Boxes cartridge. You can also {inexpensively} purchase a deep cutting blade {don’t forget to get the housing with it, too} that will cut through chipboard. There are 3 Cricut machines. I have the original Personal Cutter Machine, but the Create and Expression machines can cut even larger items. I think this is so cool, but really don’t have a need for it. You can read more about the Cricut machine HERE on the Provo Craft site.

I have used the Slice at least 10x as much as I have used my Cricut. Although I am not ready to ditch my Cricut, because of the functions I mentioned that I liked, I do like my Slice a bit more. Why? First, I love that EVERY design card comes with a font. I love alpha stickers like Thickers, but I always seem to run out of a letter and that drives me CRA-ZEEE! The images seem more up-to-date and I think that there is quite a bit of versatility among the images on each card. The Slice machine is light and compact, making it easy to take with you. It comes with a 6×6 glass cutting mat, but I ended up getting the larger 12×12 mat because it was more convenient. Instead of having to purchase a new mat when it loses it’s stickiness, just clean {kind of a pain, but not too bad} and apply more re-positionable adhesive. The major downside that I have found with the Slice is that it won’t cut through anything thicker than cardstock, and very thick cardstock can even be difficult to cut through. Bazzill and Prism papers are very friendly with the machine. I use SU! and PTI cardstock a lot, too, but sometimes have to do some extra trimming because of the thickness. The new design cards also offer shadow and mirroring functions, which I love! There are 2 Slice machines, but the only true difference in the machines is the color. I have the original and love it. Now there is a limited edition pink one that comes with 2 design cards and supports breast cancer research. You can read more about the Slice machine HERE on the Making Memories site.

I hope this helps those of you that were wondering about this. To sum it all up…YES YES YES!!!…the Slice is worth it. I am so happy I have it and wouldn’t give it up. Like I said, I am not ready to ditch the Cricut because of the functions I love on it, but if I had to make a choice, it would DEFINITELY be the Slice.

If you haven’t noticed already, I am blogging a little less. I think that I have been blogging for close to 2 years now. I still love it and plan to continue to blog, but at a little different pace. I will continue my SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY, as well as releases and challenges for the companies I design for {more on that in a sec} and some “just for fun” projects, too. I have missed doing stuff “just because” and I want to bring more of that into my creative life. With that being said, here are some updates on my DT status’…

As you know, I have resigned from Stamping Bella. I have also stepped down from my position with Taylored Expressions. You may have seen the post HERE announcing that on Taylor’s blog yesterday. I know that there are some of you out there saying, “Are you flippin’ crazy? These are 2 of the greatest companies out there!” No, I am not crazy…at least not in the technical sense of the word and YES, I know that these are wonderful companies with wonderful products. I want everyone to know that my stepping down from those DTs in in NO WAY a reflection of that company or their DT. These were strictly personal choices that I made based on where I am personally and creatively. I will continue to stamp with their stamps and use the products they sell. I wanted to get that out in the open so that there was no speculation to who, what, where, when, etc…

In addition to Bella and TE, I will soon be ending my position with Glue, another FABULOUS {and local!} company. The ladies that run this company are wonderful and easy to work with. I love their products, but again, I made this choice based on where I feel I am personally and creatively.

I have truly be blessed with the opportunity to work with these companies on personal and professional levels. I have actually met all of the people that run the above mentioned companies. They are wonderfully kind, generous, intelligent and professional women. To you ladies…THANK YOU for the opportunities that you have given me. I have loved working with you and your company!

I will continue to design for The Cat’s Pajamas and Verve Stamps, two stamping companies that I completely adore. I will also be taking on Guest Designer positions from time to time. In October I will be Guest Designing for Prism, yet another great company. You can see the announcement for that HERE. While I don’t have any other official positions lined up, you may see me here or there as opportunities present themselves.

My mojo has been smooshed due to all the bad stamping juju going around. I am no longer an SU! demo, but can honestly say that I am unimpressed with what all has come forward from them. Yes, I understand where they are coming from, but MY OPINION is that it is very reactionary and shortsighted. I hope that they will listen to what and why people do what they do and work with the people that make them their money. They need the demos more than the demos need them {in most cases}. For now, me and SU! are parting ways. I haven’t used their stamps in ages, the ribbon has made a rare appearance and their other embellies are non-existent in my stamping room. I do have a ton of the paper and will continue to use it here and there, but once it’s gone it’s gone. There is more to this creative world than just SU!. It took me a long time to realize that, but I am glad that I did. That’s just my two cents. I know that not everyone will agree, and that’s ok. This world would be pretty boring if everyone thought the same way! I hope that if you are a demo that you are able to come to a decision that you are happy with and benefits you.

That’s all for now. See ya Saturday, unless I get some serious mojo going on here!

Happy Friday! Well, I forgot to bring my camera to school yesterday so I didn’t get any pics of my classroom. I got to meet some of my students and they are very, ummm… ambitious 4 year olds. They were all very sweet and I know that I am going to have my hands full {in a good way} this year. I did get some pics of my “new” stamping area, though. Those pics are below my Gertie Lulu card. I am loving the Lulus from Bella! I **just** got mine the other day. I have seen a lot of creations with them and it was driving me crazy that they were “In Transit.” Anyways, here she is…

Gertie Lulu paired with this week’s Bellarific Sketch…

I have to admit that I wasn’t too crazy about this sketch when I saw it at first, but it really is a good one!!…Thanks Meahni! I “adjusted” the sentiment panel a bit, so it’s just an embellishment panel {flower from Jillibean Soup…my last one!}. I’m ok with it just like that!

Now, onto the “new” stamping space. I put new in quotes because it’s not really new to me. I have been in this room for a few months, but Tony has moved his office in. Believe it, or not I was the one to suggest it. It really just made sense because we are turning the old office/playroom into a nursery/playroom and then a dedicated playroom {with a guest bed}. Why a bed in the playroom? I am beginning to think that guest rooms are OV-ER RA-TED, but I feel the need to have somewhere for someone to crash if need be. Blah, Blah, Blah…stamping space pics…

My “half” is on the right hand side of the above pic.

I’ll go ahead and answer this here because every time I post my stamp space pics I get asked…the ribbon containers are from Target. Tony got them for me in the Christmas section a couple years ago {thanks, man!}. I have found them a couple times in the storage container area. You can’t see in the pic, but the ribbon containers are 2 deep on the shelf. I thought that this would annoy me, but it’s actually worked out very well. It’s all sorted my color and a little by brand. I have the PTI ribbon separated…not as a shrine to PTI, but because it’s convenient to keep these colors separated. I also have my SU! colors in a separate container. I don’t access those as much and they don’t fit as nicely in my sweet lil’ containers. In even another container is what didn’t fit in the other containers. I also have loose ribbon in another container. Yes, I have a little obsession with ribbon! The black desk attached to the cubed bookcase is from Ikea and I hope to get more {larger} pieces from this line to eventually replace the bookcases {which will end up in the playroom one day}.

Alright, I’m going to enjoy today and take a minute to relax a bit. See you tomorrow for another SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY!

It was very clear at my ultrasound yesterday that we will be welcoming a boy in January…

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