New Cards - Indie Bloom Cards

Here are a couple of recent cards I made.  The first 3 use papers from the Indie Bloom line.  I think these papers are very pretty with nice bright colors, without being to bold to work with. The two stamped images I received in PIFs from Friends That Scrap yahoo group.  I colored them with my new Prismacolor pencils and gamsol for blending.  Lots of fun!

 

This last card uses a small piece of paper from Basic Grey's Picadilly line and blue Petaloo flowers.  I received the embossed card base and the ribbon from a Super Bowl prize pack from a friend at Friends that Scrap yahoo group.

Couponing and Recycling

I've been watching sales and doing coupon match ups for about a month now. Things are getting serious! I had to clean out a cupboard in our laundry room (we didn't really need 25 backpacks for 4 home schooled kids!) for our stockpile of groceries. Almost daily I'm watching the web trying to make sure I printed out all the important coupons. It stinks when you read about a great deal with a sales price but don't have the coupon to go with it! My little photo holder that I re-purposed years ago to hold my coupons was busting at the seams. I needed better coupon storage. I looked around online and initially thought I'd use baseball card storage sleeves in a 3-ring binder. But I hesitated because a) buying the sleeves costs money, b) I'd have to wait for them to come it and I was ready to tackle the project NOW, and c) I'd have to fold the coupons or they'd hang out of the pockets. With a little more digging online I saw the suggestion of using a 5x7 file card box. Which got me thinking...I went to our trusty storage closet to see what I had stashed away. I found a children's shoe box, likely been around for 10+ years - perfect size for coupon storage. Next stop - fire place kindling pile. I grabbed a bunch of cereal boxes & cut out pieces for dividers. And wa-la! FREE coupon storage. So far it's working out great! And the price is right in line with the purpose!

July/August 2009 Layouts Recently Completed

Attempt at Bargain Hunting

So, I'm on this new coupon-hunting, sale-finding kick.  Trying to save some bucks.  I can always use the savings for more scrapping supplies, right?
So here's my attempts for this week:
Last night while we were out we stopped by Kroger - no special trip, almost on our route - to buy some 2L that were on sale.  They were supposed to be buy 4, get 2 free for a net price of $1 per bottle (Pepsi products).  I also had a coupon for 10% off any purchase.  Coupon expired yesterday, and yesterday was the last day of the sale.  And of course the shelves were EMPTY for the types of soda we wanted.  Rejected!
Try #2 - Staples had 5 products on sale - free after easy rebate.  Today was the first day of the sale and all the products were actually on the shelves. I paid for part of it with a printer cartridge reward so I'm not sure how that will work the rebates.  Best case scenario I've converted $4 of store credit to $4 cash & received 5 products free.  We'll see...haven't done the rebate forms yet...Worst case scenario we'll be making another trip to return some of these items.
Attempt #3 - Petsmart - Science diet food on sale.  Had a coupon for $8 off one cat food bag & $8 off one dog food bag.  Store would not accept coupons! They said they were Fake!! Yikes! That's aggravating! I did get to use a coupon for a free greenie and one for a free tiny little cup of cat food, but the $16 of coupons was REJECTED!
So - for the last 24 hours of bargain hunting we've we are 0 for 2 - with the verdict still out on the Staples purchases...Maybe we'll have better luck next time?  Otherwise this REALLY isn't worth my time digging for sales/coupon matches and even stopping by stores that are on our way to regular destinations!

And more Random Layouts - 2009

An album cover:

Playing at the park with Grandparents March 2009:

 I'm not allowed to post online who the subjects are, but I had fun putting together this layout.  I love the flowers & I used my new CTMY ruler to make the marks for the handstitching. (April 2009)

Our eldest son's birthday, April 2009:

 Our kids love to read! I took this pic to document what series/type of book they were reading at the time.  I guess I need to do it again since it's been awhile! (May 2009)

And a trip to the fair in October 2009! One of our favorite home school field trips! 

Easter 2009

Here are two of the layouts I put together this month from Easter 2009.  In the first layout is an egg hunt the big sisters staged for their little siblings.  They had all had so much fun!

Easter morning - in pajamas & Sunday clothes!

Basic Grey Card Kits

I started off this year on a very "scrappy" way! I already have lots of cards & layouts I need to add from the last three weeks.  I thought I'd start off with posting the Basic Grey card kits I put together.  I love these kits!

These are the Curio kit:

The Jovial Kit:

The Life of the Party kit:

Each kit includes some extra chipboard pieces, die cuts and rub ons.  The next 3 cards I made with the extras in the Life of the Party kit: