For Sale: Cricut Bundle

For Sale:

One Cricut Machine
One George Cartridge
One Cricut Tool Kit

Less than a year old.

$130 *shipping included to the USA*

If this sells before Monday I'll include Doodletype Cartridge as a bonus (worth $49.99)

George:

Bonus: Doodletype

Crafting 101

Altering composition books is crafting 101. It's one of the basic projects that requires minimal tools or skills and yet it's one I come back to again and again. Why?
* Composition books are about 10-20 cents a piece during school supply season Cha-Ching!
* They're tough enough to withstand a lot of abuse.
* Way better than having dozens of post-it notes hanging around
* They make great gifts.
* You know that paper that's too pretty to cut into? - This gives it a nice, long, happy life.

My DH switched to using composition books for work to keep track of notes, to do lists etc. He's a hard core techie, iPhone loving gadget guy but his composition book never leaves his side. They really are awesome tools.

But they look so boring.

All I do is ink the spine side edges of decorative paper and then attach it to the cover (ATG is my fave but any adhesive all the way down to glue stick works fine.) Then burnish the paper down thoroughly. Use a brayer, use a spoon - just do it. Trim excess paper with an exacto knife and then file the edges smooth. If you are so inclined, ink the three outside edges and you're done. The binding on composition books is typically very uneven. When it's too much to ignore, I cover the seam with a piece of ribbon. In the case of Chris's new purple skull notebook I had to do this.

Tip: Did you know that the back of printed grosgrain ribbon is solid colored and just as textured? Obvious right? Not to me. I was bemoaning the fact that the only black ribbon in the house was a very girlie polka dot and then it hit me to check the back.

Chris's Notebook (with ribbon seam correction):


This is what is left from a sheet of 12x12 paper:


This paper was so cute I was saving it for something special. I thought my budget/financial planning notebook was a deserving spot:


But I only had one piece of paper and didn't want to put something different on the back. I cut the top strip off and layered them to form the back cover in two pieces. This only works with some patterns, but it's worth a try. Here's mine:


Budget News: In 48 Hours I've trimmed $300 from our expenses - YAHOO - and set two of our variable bills to equal pay. Equal pay is the coolest thing ever. Especially when you live in a crazy climate and your power bill can swing as much as $300 from one month to the next. We are also refinancing our house tonight from a variable rate mortgage to a fixed one with a lower interest rate. How awesome is that?

I have so little control over my health and the things that are happening, it's wonderful to be gaining control in this area of our life.

Tuesdays are Our Monday

Most homeschoolers take Friday off for field trips or just hanging out. We skip Monday. Usually Mondays are filled with laundry, house work, baking, crafts, phone calls etc. The kids are all bedraggled after the rigors of the weekend and trying to get them to do anything more strenuous than reading is just too big a chore. We may be backwards in this but it really suits the ebb and flow of our family life.

So, Tuesdays are my Monday. The day the fun stops. The kiddos are particularly antsy this morning. My back is a wreck so taking them out to explore is not an option. I think they'll just have to suck it up and deal with it. Life is such that sometimes you have to work when you'd rather play - something we adults know all too well.

Two years ago we tried to get our environmental house in order and we did good. Part of the reason for our success was that I posted almost daily about the changes we made on my Live Journal. It really helped keep me focused. Now, with a horde of medical expenses on the viewable horizon we are going to need to get our financial house in order. It's time really. So expect this space to be cluttered with budgetary highs and lows. Among other things, I'm paring down my scrappy toys. First off I'm selling:

DoodleType Cricut Cartridge
Never Used, but opened and petted *wink*
Thirty Dollars *shipping included*
USA residents only as it keeps shipping sane. If you are outside the US please email me and we can work it out.




Remember Healthy, Wealthy and Wise? Haven't posted mine in awhile so here goes~
Healthy: Took a three day med break. Very painful, but good as I was extra-vigilant about ice, water, gentle movement etc. Plus it's good to check in when you're taking the strong stuff that you're not getting too friendly with it.
Wealthy: Working on a budget. Canceled a lot of non-essentials recently, among them Showtime, Starz, Audible, Big Fish, Netflix and The Scrap-room (*sniff*)
Wise: I'm still reading several crappy books for every book of value. But I read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and was pleasantly surprised.

Please leave a comment telling me your Healthy, wealthy and Wise list. I'd love to hear them.

More Color Kits

I couldn't help it. Gauche Alchemy Color Kits are just too sassy and delicious to pass on so I picked up a few more colors.
Behold:





Isn't that pink card just divine????

I also snatched up this print by Stephanie Corfee:


And it is a "good" thing I got these lovelies when I did as we are about to make some financial changes that I'm sure I'll ramble on about excessively here on my blog *grin*

Talk to you later~

Health Outlook Update

Yesterday I had my weekly doctors visit and it didn't go well. Fortunately I was all done moping so I was able to bring my happy, positive mindset to the appointment. Not to go into it all, but if any of you have experience with pain clinics and chronic care plans/teams please contact me. I'm on the emergency ~ See Her Now ~ list so it shouldn't be long before I start down this new path. Thank you Cathy for the lovely card. Your work is even more gorgeous in person.

A month or so ago I changed my outlook on this bone disease. Initially I stuck with a "wheel chairs are not an option" mantra and it has worked for me for the past four years. This past four months though, that hasn't been enough and as my mobility has been reduced, a little voice kept shrieking, " It's only a matter of time". So I changed my perspective to a less positive but a lot more fun one. My new plan has been to do everything I can while I still can, no matter how hard it is. Now I say, " Imagine how much harder this would be if I was in a wheelchair." I came on this thought when I was pondering if a doctor told me I'd lose my sight in one year, would I spend the year learning braille and set up my home for blindness or would I go and see the pyramids, the Taj Mahal, my gorgeous home province of British Columbia and try to cram in a lifetime worth of seeing to remember in the years of darkness.

With that in mind, I've been doing hard things. I'm terrified of bridges but when we were in SanFrancisco I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, I nearly had a heart attack for fear and my legs buckled, my back spasmed, I had a really hard time. But I did it and I wouldn't have missed the view for anything in the world.


LOL. Okay I could have missed that part of the view - it was a LOOOOONG way down.

Here's some proof that we did it:



We also went to Timpanogos Caves. It's this killer hike straight up nasty, nasty switchbacks to a pitch black subterranean caving experience. It's not "limited mobility friendly" in the slightest. Chris and I were both sad that we never took Dad to the caves before he had his stroke and we wanted to learn from that mistake. So up we went. I fell five times, my legs completely canned out on me and my back said, "Uh, uh. Not gonna do it" But then I factored in the thousands of steps it took to climb Timpanogos and five bad steps didn't even make up one percent of the trip. Good thing I have a big strong husband with quick reflexes. He's getting good at catching.

They call this a trail!


The family


Inside the cave:


I'll have to think of something else too good to miss to do this weekend :-)

Tomorrow is Pioneer Day in Utah or perhaps it's called Days of '47... I've heard both. We aren't big celebraters of the Mormon pioneers but it will be nice to have Chris home for a long weekend.

The crop yesterday was a ton of fun and the winner of my challenge is Adeline Brill. Congratulations, Adeline

Crop Hop: Let's Hear It For The Boys

Good Morning Everyone.

Today I'm hosting a challenge for the 24 Hour Crop Hop at Scrapbooking and Crafting Friends. My challenge is to make a layout, card or altered item for a guy. Boys, men, males, husbands, fathers, crushes, bosses - we all have them. Making a cute card for us ladies is easy peasie, but boy stuff can be a real headache. I'm hoping that the entries for this challenge will give us all lots of ideas for the next time we're stumped when we sit down to make a birthday card for that someone special.


Rules:

1. No ribbon, bows, sewing, butterflies, buttons, bling or glitter of any kind.

2. Use at least one piece of fabulous texture to make your project special.

3. Post a link to your completed project both here on my blog and post a pic at Scrapbooking and Crafting Friends on THIS thread by 11:59 EST tonight.

I'll be choosing a winner and sending two fun guy-friendly page kits plus some other goodies.

Have fun and happy crafting.

P.S. To make this card, I drank a delicious clementine Izze and then cut the can into a flat panel. I ran the metal sheet through my cuttlebug using an embossing folder (little squares - can't find the name), trimmed it to a rough rectangle and matted it on black cardstock. Then I added black brads to the corners both for additional adhesive support and to look cool. I took a piece of corrugated cardboard (thanks Amy from Gauche Alchemy ) and bent it in half. It makes a mighty CRACK sound - this is okay, just make sure the smooth side is on the inside and the bumpy side is on the outside. Trim to the size you want your finished card to be. Stamp images. Mat on black paper, attach to metal card front. Using glue dots, affix card front to cardboard card base. This card is thick so make it about a quarter inch smaller than the envelope you intend to use.

Tobor The Great and more

I finished my second stool. Only one to go :-)


Do you know it took me months to realize Tobor is Robot in reverse?

Tomorrow I'm participating in a 24 Hour Crop Hop for Scrapbooking and Crafting Friends. I'm posting at noon EST and my challenge will have something to do with the guys in our life. The prize is two page kits:



Plus I'll be throwing in some cardstock and other goodies :-)

Hope you pop in and check it out.

Oh, wow! Yay! Yippee! Stephanie Corfee posted another GORGEOUS free digital image? You can get it here, but only for the next three days.

Did you notice some changes around here? A few weeks back I added "follow this blog" and I would absolutely love it if you followed me. It's really thrilling to watch the pictures grow. Yesterday I changed my header and finally filled in the "About Me" profile jibber-jabber. Since I've been here over a year I thought it was about time.

See you tomorrow~