Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Black Friday 2011: My Shopping Report and a WINNER

First off I would like to announce the winner of Cathy's Birthday Blog Hop. The winner is #37 which is Simply Pam. Simply Pam said:

Love this card Glora! It is super fun. LOVE the papers you used, adds design and texture but not over much. :)

Pam


Congratulations Pam!

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NOW HERE is my fun BLACK FRIDAY STORY...


I was crazy. I went shopping at a "Black Friday" sale at my local Roberts craft store.


For those of you outside the United States who are lucky enough not to have such traditions, Black Friday follows Thanksgiving Thursday, and it is supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year. It is the day that puts retailers "in the black."

On this day, many stores open at insanely early hours, and use "loss leaders" and special sale pricing to lure shoppers out of bed and into their cash register lines.

The Roberts advertisement showed, among their sale items, that Cricut cartridges would be $10 each. They even pictured some popular cartridges which appealed to me. Doors opened at a reasonable 6:00 am ("reasonable" when compared to most other stores).

So I set my alarm to wake me up early, and joined the line of customers outside their store. When I arrived about a half hour early, I was about the 25th in line, and many more joined me afterward.

At 6:00 am the doors opened, and it became very clear that everyone in the line wanted the same sale item. The line simply flowed into the store and followed to the Cricut cartridge display.

All the cartridges were against a wall in one location at the front of the store. The press of the crowd flowed that direction also. By the time I got my turn at the display, I found myself at the rack of cartridges, trapped by a mass of people behind me, other shoppers to each side of me, and a wall of cartridges in front of me.
The mass of humanity behind me was growing impatient, and slowly the back of the line was pushing faster and farther, threatening to smash or impale people like me who were trapped with nowhere to go.

I grabbed several cartridges, no time to think about what they were or what I really wanted (other than the fact that they were cartridges that I didn't currently own). All I could tell for certain was that the cartridges they pictured in the advertisement were not on the rack. Apparently they forgot to print "Selection may vary by store."

Being stuck and only able to reach a portion of the wall, I asked people to pass me this or that cartridge which was out of my reach. Sometimes they were helpful and handed it over, but other times they were only looking out for themselves. Unable to move, I asked people behind me what cartridges they would like and began handing them back. I secretly hoped to relieve some of the crowd behind me so I could make an escape, but instead it only angered people who thought I was dawdling.

There were certainly some cartridges I could see but not reach, and there was an entire rack of "SpongeBob" carts that nobody wanted. When I finally could make a break, I took my selections to the checkout. The press around the cartridges was just about right to let one person out at a time, and people were heading straight to the checkout and then leaving the store. Thus, the majority of the store was completely empty.

Now I'm not a business woman, but maybe next year they should think about spreading the sale merchandise throughout the store. If those cartridges would have been scattered about, people would have to explore the store, and maybe see other items that they wanted to buy. As it was, people were only buying cartridges and the store made no profit.

And maybe next year I'll think harder about whether the sale is worth losing sleep over.

Here is what I ended up with:

- Freshly Picked
- Fabulous Finds
- Give a Hoot
- Graphically Speaking
- Pagoda
- Printing 101
- Spring Holiday Cards
- Tie the Knot


In the comments, tell me what your best "Black Friday" find was!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

La bûche de Noël

For the current Let's Face it Friday Challenge over at the Peachy Keen Challenge blog we were asked to make a card or layout with you favorite holiday recipe. About 12 years ago I lived in France for 17 months. I spent two Christmases in France and my favorite Christmas treat was une buche de Noel. It is a yummy chocolate and cream filled creation rolled up and decorated to look like a log. It was often decorated with cute little decorations like holly and such. I am told that they are traditionally served with mushrooms made with meringue and that is why I have added cute little meringue colored mushrooms to my recipe layout.

 
Here is a little bit of a closeup:


The holly is actually a hidden recipe card. You just pull it up and the front has the ingredients on it and the back will have the directions on it. Here is a picture with the recipe card pulled out.


Have a terrific day! Hugs- Glora

Items Used:

Create a Critter Cricut cartridge
Peachy Keen Stamps - Princess Faces
DCWV - Christmas Stack
Tim Holtz Inks for inking
Sakura Gellyroll pen
Chalk

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Cathy's Big Birthday Bash Blog Hop

Hello crafting friends. Today we are celebrating a special 60th birthday for Cathy (from Crafting with Mimi)! If you came here from my awesome best crafting friend Pam's blog than you are in the right spot. If not make sure you start at Cathy's blog and wish her a happy birthday, then hop on through. She also has a small challenge you can participate in for extra chances at winning some awesome prizes.


This darling little mouse, hats and sentiment are all from the Karaoke Birthday Set by Peachy Keen Stamps. I just LOVE this cutie. The paper is all from DCWV both the Nana's Nursery boy and girl stacks.

BLOG CANDY:

I'm offering a Mickey Celebrates Cuttlebug embossing folder for my blog prize along with 10 yards each of red twine and black twine from The Twinery. Just leave a comment on this post and I will post the winner at the end of the hop. You have until the 27th to comment.

Your next stop is MY AMUSING LIFE. Click HERE to go to her blog.

And just in case you get lost along the way, here is the full blog hop.


Items Used:

*Peachy Keen Stamps - Karaoke Birthday Set
*DCWV: Nana's Nursery (boy and girl stack)
*Copic Markers for shading on hats everything else was paper pieced
*Tim Holtz Distress Ink for inking the edges of the mouse
*Chalk for accents on the mouse
*Sakura Gellyroll pens for accenting

Snowmany Hugs and MCT E2 Finalist

Today I have a card for you using the current Peachy Keen sketch over on their challenge blog. I love this sketch and actually made two different cards, but only one could be entered and I think this is my favorite of the two. It was hard to choose. I will probably post the other one sometime next week.


I just LOVE this darling Peachy Snowman, he is called Snow Much Love. I got him free with an order last year but he is also available for sale too. I paper pieced him with the same patterned paper that I used on the card. I also did a lot of inking around edges and such. And that perfect sentiment is from Emma's Mixed Holiday Sentiments stamp set!

ALSO, I just wanted to let you know that the person that is entered in the final drawing for the E2 from my blog is...

Zabrina said...
My favorite sport is football, so of course I'm going to love this!
This is my second HOP!
Zabrina
Congratulations, you will be entered in along with 18 other people into the grand prize drawing. Watch Emma's blog today to see if you are the happy new owner of the E2.

Thanks everyone and I will hopefully see you tomorrow for Cathy's birthday blog hop.

Items Used:

My Creative Time - Mixed Holiday Sentiments
Peachy Keen Stamps - Snow Much Love
Ink
Chalk
Patterned paper

Friday, November 18, 2011

My Creative Time's November Stamp release BLOG HOP!

Welcome to the My Creative Time November Stamp Release Blog Hop! If you came here from Cindy's amazing blog you are in the right spot, if not make sure to get the whole hop in by starting at Emma's blog.

Today I am showcasing the Touchdown stamp set. I have a couple of simple projects for you and then I will scoot you along you way on the hop. The first is a card...


I used a watermark ink pad and clear embossing powder for this card. The footballs and the quarterback are both from the Touchdown stamp set and the I {heart} football is from the Sports Sentiments stamp set. After heat embossing I inked all the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink and I was done.

Next I made a few lollipop holders in our favorite college football team colors...


These were made with white cardstock, Emma's stamps and dies and some Tim Holtz distress ink (even the blue scallops, I just inked them up so that they would match perfectly). Every stamp on here is from the Touchdown stamp set except for the #1 which is from the Sports Sentiments set. As far as dies go I used the new Lollipop Holder Die and the Scallop and Stitched Circle dies.

Here is a closer look at the Touchdown stamp set:



***HUGE GIVEAWAY ALERT***
For our giveaway today, we are  giving ONE LUCKY winner an E2! If you have always wanted an E2, here is your BIG chance to win one! OR if you have one already, just think if you did win, you would make someone SUPER HAPPY by giving it to them as a gift since Christmas is right around the corner!  All you have to do is leave a comment here along w/the rest of the design team's blogs AND also leave a way for me to contact you! Each designer will be picking a winner, then Emma will use random.org to pick the lucky winner out of those 19 names! So remember you  have "19" chances to win! All you have to do is leave a comment on ALL blogs in this hop! The deadline is Sunday night at midnight! EASY PEASY!!! GOOD LUCK!:)

Thanks for stopping by today, your next stop on the hop is the very talented Jeanne! Click HERE to see what awesome project she has in store for you!

If you get lost along the way here is the hop lineup:


Items Used:

My Creative Time stamps - Touchdown
My Creative Time stamps - Sports Sentiments
My Creative Time Dies - Scallop and Stitched Circle
My Creative Time Dies - Lollipop Holder Die
Versamark Ink
Stampendous Clear Embossing Powder
Tim Holtz Distress Inks



Thursday, November 17, 2011

MCT November Stamp Release Sneak Peek #4

Hello friends and welcome to day 4 of My Creative Time's newest stamp and die release. Today I get to share a stamp set called Classmate Valentines and the Lollipop Holder Die. I think these sets today are my absolute favorite of this release. SO many possibilities. I made up 3 lollipop holders for you to see...


I did something different with each one, just to show you how versatile this set can be...


For this one, I used the Lollipop Holder Die along with the Scallop and Stitched Circle dies that it coordinates with perfectly. Isn't that little zebra super cute?!


For this one I only used Lollipop Holder Die along with just the stitched circle die. This look is kind of fun because you can still see the stitching on the scallops of the Lollipop Holder Die.


And for this last one I just stamped directly onto the Lollipop Holder Die. So if you don't have the Scallop and Stitched Circle Die set you can still use this die and stamp set for lots of stuff. The darling little ladybugs with heart spots are also on the Classmate Valentines  stamp set.

There were so many options for this stamp set and I wished I had found the time to make one with every sentiment and image because they are SO darling, but hopefully between everyone that made projects you will get to see a good variety. Make sure to stop by Emma's blog so you can see what she and the rest of the Design Team made.

Can I say I'm REALLY looking forward to Valentine's Day!!! But what I love is that this die works with all of Emma's round sentiments so I can be making some of these up for Christmas, birthday parties and such before Valentine's Day even gets here. SO many options... so little time...


 Sneak Peek Giveaway Time!
Listen up "My Creative Time" friends! We are giving all of you an opportunity to win the BEST PRIZES during Sneak peek week with a total of "6" winners to be announced during Friday's Stamp release! All you have to do is leave a comment HERE along w/the rest of the design teams blogs for a chance! There are some AWESOME prizes w/this release!

 1. SPREAD THE WORD TO THE WORLD ON FACEBOOK about this release & whatever connections you may have! Let us know on "My Creative Time's" FB page here http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/My-Creative-Time/364568506334 that you did so! OR you can just tag me in your post!  and.............

 2. Just comment on ALL of the designers blogs EVERYDAY during Sneaky Peek week!  THAT's ALL you have to do to qualify for the BEST giveaways EVER!;)

All winners will "randomly" get chosen and Emma will announce all six winners on Friday, November 18th @ 12:01am PST in her video during the release of this AMAZING new stamp collection & maybe a new die!;) GOOD LUCK! Log onto to your facebook now & let start spreading word!;)

Items Used:

My Creative Time stamps - Classmate Valentines
My Creative Time Dies - Lollipop Holder Die
My Creative Time Dies - Scallop and Stitched Circle Die
Copic Markers
Sakura White Gellyroll Pen

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

MCT November Stamp Release Sneak Peek #3

Hi friends! I had to sneak in an extra sneak peek today for My Creative Time's newest release. Today the DT is sneaking Keepin' It Classy and Classy and Fabulous. Emma's talented brother,Mark Villar, drew up the images for the Keepin' It Classy set. He did an AWESOME job. The images are very chic! I also love the versatility of all of the extras on this set. There are plenty of purses, bags, a darling dog, leash, etc. Lots of options. The Classy and Fabulous set includes sentiments to go along with these images. Here is my simple but chic card...


I kept it pretty simple because I really wanted the awesome images and paper to do the talking. The paper is all from the La Creme paper pack by DCWV and it is gorgeous. The black is flocked and it looks and feels so cool in person. These stamps really do offer a lot of variety. I don't drink coffee or any drinks stronger than that, so even though there are coffee cups and drink glasses on this set I still feel like there are tons of variations and possibilities for me to work with. I definitely LOVE to shop and with 4 chic girls on this set to dress up with bags, purses and or dog(s) I am definitely going to have so much fun playing with it!!! I can't wait to see what the other DT members made with these sets!


Sneak Peek Giveaway Time!
Listen up "My Creative Time" friends! We are giving all of you an opportunity to win the BEST PRIZES during Sneak peek week with a total of "6" winners to be announced during Friday's Stamp release! All you have to do is leave a comment HERE along w/the rest of the design teams blogs for a chance! There are some AWESOME prizes w/this release!

 1. SPREAD THE WORD TO THE WORLD ON FACEBOOK about this release & whatever connections you may have! Let us know on "My Creative Time's" FB page here http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/My-Creative-Time/364568506334 that you did so! OR you can just tag me in your post!  and.............

 2. Just comment on ALL of the designers blogs EVERYDAY during Sneaky Peek week!  THAT's ALL you have to do to qualify for the BEST giveaways EVER!;)

All winners will "randomly" get chosen and Emma will announce all six winners on Friday, November 18th @ 12:01am PST in her video during the release of this AMAZING new stamp collection & maybe a new die!;) GOOD LUCK! Log onto to your facebook now & let start spreading word!;)

Items Used:

My Creative Time stamps: Keepin' It Classy
My Creative Time stamps: Classy and Fabulous
DCWV - La Creme Stack
Tim Holtz Distress Ink


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