Home

[mewsmomtoo]

@janet M it was good to hear from you again. It's been too long since I was on the Forums, but if I can keep on using a computer, I will be on a lot more. It's much faster and easier than my phone!

@bad coffee Interesting name! Not sure what I typed wrong,( the system says I have it wrong). Maybe I am missing what I am doing wrong because it is 2 in the morning :-D How did you come up with that name? I love coffee but usually only have one cup a day. Sometimes I want the morning to get here faster because I enjoy sitting and drinking my coffee. It feels like such a luxury at times :-)

[mousiegirl]

@catlady120 @mewsmomtoo  I bought the book.

[Qgirl26]

SusanMKA, I am the same way. I do not want to be contacted through Facebook. I'm not on there either. My late husband was and I still have his page so I can see if my daughter post pics of the grandkids but I don't use his name to type posts. I don't want to startle anyone seeing posts from him and I do not want my own page right now. That might change later as it seems so much of my family communicates that way and we are not living near one another, so I'm sort of the odd man out, but so far, I have resisted. But I definitely don't want to deal with people that I may not want to come back into my life. That probably sounds very bad, huh?

[Qgirl26]

Mewsmomtoo, it sounds like you got some fun things! I'd love to know how you like the tool n one when you get it. I passed for now because I'm trying to watch the budget and spend most of my money on organizing right at this time. I also couldn't decide if the scoring tips were worth it to me. I know the sponges weren't. I don't really care about the color of the tool though, if it means spending so much less. The one I saw by Spellbinders was $12 free shipping on Amazon. Is there another one by Spellbinders out there? I love AG's stuff so am always tempted but she can be very pricey so I'm making myself stop and think before hitting the add to cart button.

Oh my gosh, those ornamental frames were pretty! I sure hope all who got them enjoy!

The organizational binders I got weren't the big expensive ones. I got the one labeled for stencils and templates. I have a ton of clear stamps I need to organize and embossing folders too. Plus I do have some stencils and templates, although not a lot. I am hoping to get a lot of use out of these binders. I have never bought any of this line before but they were $20 each so not too horrible an investment.

[catlady120]

Mousiegirl, you are going to love the book!! 

[mewsmomtoo]

Hi @Qgirl26, I always forget about Amazon! That's a good deal. I know hers was definitely pricey, but I'll let you know how I like it. No matter what you are probably still better off with the Amazon deal. The Ornamental Frames were off-the-chart expensive but I went for them anyway. I'm hoping they will be like a few of the pieces of Joan Rivers jewelry I have in that they have mostly retained their value and her work was respected even when she was alive :-) I'm hoping the frames will be considered special, but who knows...ultimately, I bought them because I totally love them and would always regret not purchasing them.

I would love to buy some of Anna's organizational boxes etc but those are more than I want to pay. Her wallpaper is on clearance and I am thinking of using it in the room where I craft.. It is also the cats room, the office and second bedroom :-)

@mousiegirl You really are going to love the book. I'm excited for you :-)

[mewsmomtoo]

Holy Cow!  All my purchases came today in one well-packed box.  Not only does it normally take a week plus for purchases to make their way to my door, they are usually packed very poorly in the sense that they don't use space very well.  This time they packed it so well they only need 3 of those bubble bags and I don't believe anything is damaged.  I opened everything except the 5" Xyron and nothing was bent or broken - hooray!

The flocked paper not only comes in a box with flocking on it, making it easy to identify, the paper itself is in a plastic bag, I think in order to keep the dust off.  Since I not only live in a desert,but on the corner of two major streets, I appreciate that because I get a lot of sand and dirt.  When I lived in SF, I lived on a cable car line and every day I had to wipe black dust off the window sills and it is just as bad here. The bag is one of those crinkly kinds so I think I will move the paper into a ziploc, but at least they won't gather dust before they get to you.  The colors are so pretty and I really appreciate the olive green, the black and the grey.

The glitter paper is beautiful, but how could it not be?  It glitters! :-)  Again, the colors are great esp the white, grey, light blue and lavender. There are 2 shades of green and 3 shades of pink, from a real pink to a darker one that is almost maroon, like a dark fushia.  As all the reviews state, the glitter does not come off.

I got the Paper Tricks 2 and looked through the instruction booklet.  Most of them require multiple cuts and embossing, from 5-10 times, I think.  I think the person who stated in the reviews that this would be better as a Cricut cartridge was right, but, speaking as someone who does not own a Cricut and never will (I Ithnk they are amazing and I love all the things you can create, but I am not skilled with electronics so I am passing on getting one), I am happy there is a way for me to create these things.  I think she will come out with a Paper Tricks cartridge and it will surpass the Cutttlebug Cut and Emboss version, but I am happy with what I have.

The frames are just as beautiful in person, but I haven't had a chance to try them and only looked at the tool n one and the Epiphany Craft ticket shaped epoxies and, as I said, I have not opened the Xyron, but that I will definitely do tomorrow because my dad wants me to laminate some of his old licenses (i.e.he was licensed to fly hot air balloons) so I will try it out.  Yes, I could just take them to Kinkos/FedEx, but what is the fun in that? :-)  By the way, the tool n one does come in clear plastic bag and I originally thought, oh, big deal, but you know, it is kind of nice and there is plenty of room to store things like craft knives and rub-on sticks etc in addition to the tool.and have it hang off the side of the table and be easily accessible.

Ok everyone, I will be back when I have finally used some of things I bought!  Have fun unpacking.  i hope you get your things as quickly as I did!

[SMA X 2]

Hi!  Did anyone get anything from Anna's Super Sale yesterday?  I totally forgot, and logged in about a half hour after it started and lost about 75% of my shopping cart .

    I got my HSN stuff yesterday and it all looks wonderful & fun - I hope everyone else got their purchases as well.  Quick question - has anyone ever made anything with their kits and sold them?  I see people selling cards made with the Anna kits on eBay and Etsy, but I wonder if they really make any money at it.  A craft fair booth around here would be $60-70 if I was thinking about doing that, plus a cost of a dollar a card... I'm just wondering if it's worth it.  Are people really willing to pay $5 or $6 bucks a card?  I do get a ton of compliments on the cards when I make them.... Thoughts?

[Marsha2003]

@SMA X 2 I placed an order during the super sale for some storage items.  I had a little bit of trouble checking out and lost one item because of the time lag, but that's okay.  I bought the stamp binders; at least I hope that's what they are.  They aren't available on HSN in the ivory damask, so I thought I would take a chance and buy the binders from the sale even though the description is a bit different.

I tried out one of the frame die cuts today.  Unfortunately, I only had some 6" x 6" paper handy and that's too small for the die to fit completely.  It was really hard to get the whole sandwich through the cuttlebug.  I also didn't quite understand how the frames worked, so I didn't put one of the center pieces in which left me without a display hole in the frame...lol.  I get it now.

[mewsmomtoo]

Hi @Marsha2003 & @SMA X 2  I was lucky enough tofind out about the super sale the night before.  I hadn't been opening my email at all, but finally decided I should take a look and found the blog about the sale.  So glad I did, I would have been sad to miss it.  I bought several things including the Xmas decoupage kit and the antique botanicals die cuts.  I tried to buy both of the metalllic paper sets that were available, but they were sold out even though I got to the checkout about 7-8 minutes after the sale started.  Like almost everybody whose comments I have read, I too had a little delay paying etc even though I was going through Amazon and already had an Amazon account.  Doubt that cost me the paper, but who knows.  Apparently I am not destined to own AG metallic paper!

Haven't tried any of my HSN treasures yet except the 5" Xyron.  I used it to laminate a couple of things and it was great!  It is really simple to exchange the cartridges, from adhesive to laminate and back.  The laminate is like what you would get if you took it to a store and I am really happy with it.  @Marsha2003, with the frame dies, you can use the centerpiece die to cut a different color or print of paper and place that in the the center of the frame too.  Did the die cut well?  They are so intricate, was there any trouble getting out the little pieces of paper?  I bought the tool n one to hopefully speed up the process.

@SMA X 2 I have not tried to sell any cards, but like you, I was thinking of doing it too.  I am on Pinterest and I see cards all the time from etsy and ebay.  I have never checked etsy, but I have checked the sold listings on ebay.  The flat cards seem to sell for $2.99 to $5.00 and the pop-ups sell for about $4.95 to $6.95.  I think the popups sell best.  Regardless, they don't really seem to sell a lot of cards. Christmas was by far the most popular so if you concentrate on that you can probably make some decent money.  Since early November, there were about 87 AG cards sold and 59 of them were Christmas.  There are currently 201 cards for sale. 

How all that translates to sales at a local craft fair,I don't know.  If your cards are really attractive, you should have no trouble selling them $2-3 a piece and probably more for pop=ups.  Think of who your customer is and target them.  If the fair is soon, concentrate on Valentine day cards and probably birthday cards.  You can always bundle them, so it's$3.00 a piece or 5 for $12 or whatever you decide. You can always slash prices in the afternoon if they aren't selling at a pace you are happy with.  I would think if it is well-attended, you will do well because you know how people react to these cards.  Even my BIL and nephews enjoy getting these cards and they actually compared Christmas cards to see who had the best one )in a friendly way) and they save these cards.  I usually put the year in top right corner 

of a card, but I didn't do that for my BIL's card this year because he is not sentimental and usually tosses cards pretty quickly.  He asked me why I didn't and I told him, and that's when he told me that he saves my cards!  I could not have been more surprised.  Anyway, all that is by way of saying that her cards are beautiful and popular and, if you can afford the risk, why not try the art/craft fair.and/or sellling online and see what happens.  Good luck and let us know what you decide!