Another road trip -

This past weekend my PIC, (stamping Partner in Crime), my DSD, myself and our "Cuber" drive - our personal uber driver for us crafters, all headed out in the dark of the morning to Lewisville, NC to shop the yearly Customer Yard Sale that is held in the parking lot of Enchanted Cottage - a paper crafting store. We have gone to this sale every year they have held it and we always find some good deals with great products. Here is a couple of photos of the parking lot - this year they had a lot of sellers and both sides of the parking lot had sellers set up:

As usual I was not looking for anything in particular but certainly found enough to bring home.. My most expensive find was a plastic ziplock bag of Close To My Heart acrylic blocks - in sizes I do not already have - for $10 for the bag. As I was picking up the bag a shopper next to me said if I had not picked it up and bought them she would have ... The CTMH blocks have a good weight and they are so well made.... one of the blocks was covered in black and maroon ink so when I cleaned them up I just used Dollar Tree rubbing alcohol on that block and it is crystal clear now - this photo shows the blocks with a deckled edge ruler by Plaid that I got from another seller for free with any purchase:

One seller had large bags of wooden stamps $2 for the bag or 3 bags for $5. I picked up two bags and a Unity sheet of stamps for Easter to make the $5 purchase - 

This above photo is of a sealed Crafter's Companion card kit that I bought for $5.00 - the back of the box shows all items inside the kit:

This seller was selling 4 of these kits for $5 each but I made sure I picked only ONE and one that I would use --- not to worry my PIC bought the other 3 once I told her about them..... ;0)

Pink & Main pumpkin stencil and a brand new stencil set from WaffleFlower for $1 with a free gift of a mini stencil inside.... 

Two stamp and die sets from the Greetery:

Background stamps -- Hero Arts and Catherine Pooler...

Happy me to find this Stack-O-Jacks set from Taylored Expressions at a great price of $8 - has the stamp set, stencil set, and die set -- 

Two large baggies of flowers - many of them by Prima.... Happy we were able to shop this sale and early enough to find so many great deals! Shopped the Enchanted Cottage store while we were there as I want to help to support them too -- 

Bought the Pretty Pink Posh Turkey die set I had seen on YouTube. I also picked up a doily die set from Tonic...

We left there and had a delish lunch at Mario's in Greensboro and then we stopped at a paper crafting store in Greensboro we have not shopped before -- the Paper Crafting Studio on High Point Rd.  It is a really nice store with tons of product - Gina K inks, products from Lawn Fawn, LDRS, The Stamp Market, Catherine Pooler, Spellbinders/BetterPress, Pretty Pink Posh, and on and on... The newest of product with lots of samples all around --- bought a few things there:

Happy there is another store I can shop when I go to Greensboro to stop at the Reconsidered Goods store and Mario's for lunch.... A fun day with lots to add to our craft rooms from the used sale and from the Paper Crafting Studio!

Craft room foiled deco project -

During a shopping trip to the Reconsidered Goods store in Greensboro I came across a hot foil plate that was marked $1.00.  It was a cute saying but not owning any of these hot foil plates by this company I was not sure how well it would work with my Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil machine that I use. Here is a photo of the foil plate:

It is a Gemini foil plate and it reads: "I'm so crafty I sweat glitter". I wanted to hot foil it and I also wanted frames that would be upright so they would fit on a small shelf or on the work table and not take up much space for a craft room deco project. I decided on clear acrylic frames on Amazon that I thought would work but before I ordered those I tried out the plate in the hot foil machine..... it worked well so I ordered the acrylic frames off Amazon.  I decided I would make one framed piece for me and one for the DSD. Here is a photo of mine with the red and gold:

For mine I used holographic gold foil from Spellbinders to hot foil the plate. I foiled it onto white card stock. I used holographic gold card stock and I cut a rectangle frame to frame the foiled piece. I put this onto red card stock, cut to size for the frame, and that was done. I wanted the back to look neat so I cut another piece of the red card stock for the back:

The one I made for the DSD is in teal and silver as teal is her favorite colour:

For hers I had holographic teal foil and I hot foiled it with that plate onto white card stock. Then for her rectangle frame I used silver holographic card stock in the stash. Again for the back I used the teal card stock:

Not a bad deal for a 1.00 hot foil plate by Gemini. These frames from Amazon are nice because they stand upright and are sturdy frames. A fun project and cute deco project for our craft rooms!

Used stamping supply sale --

 My PIC (stamping Partner in Crime) stopped over and picked me up and we headed to a used stamping supply sale we have shopped in the past. This sale is held at a ladies house yearly and she used to be a demonstrator for SU so in the past her yearly sales are mostly all SU products. This year she is no longer a demonstrator so I was not sure what to expect --- but happily I did find a few finds to add to my craft room for projects ahead... 

Was not looking for anything in particular but happy I was able to find Pumpkin Pie card stock still sealed and I think it was $3.50 or $4.00 which is a good deal since SU sells this size card stock for $11.00 per pack now. I also picked up two ink pads - one with the re-inker and one with the marker:

I think the ink pad with the extras were $3.00 or $3.50 per the set of two. I also bought a JOY die by Penny Black - already on a magnet sheet and in an envelope for $2.00:

Also in the above photo with the JOY die is a border die by Quickutz and it is the Evergreens die set and I paid $1.00 for that.

For the SU stamp sets with matching punches or dies she had them all spread out on her dining room table, in stacks if there were multiples of that stamp set. As I looked at the stamps on the table I would look through the multiples on the table of the same set - more than one stack would have 3 or 4 stamp sets and they all had different prices. So if I were to buy from a multiple stack I would check the condition and to be sure all pieces were in there, and then check for the cheapest price. One stack had a $6 price tag on the stamp set, the next set had an $8 price, and the last set was marked $12 so after I looked at all sets to be sure they were complete and in good condition I would take the cheaper stamp set and put it in the bag.... I picked up the Apple Builder punch:

The punch was $4 and the Rose kit was $3.00. I also picked up the Sweet Strawberry stamp set and matching punch and that was about $13.00 for the two:

The best deal I found was the Pines stamp with matching dies sold for $12 (?) and I was happy to bring that home:

Once home I put all the dies on the inside of the stamp case with the stamps so it will be stored together for easy use:

Glad all the dies were with the set as sometimes when you shop a used sale not all pieces are there together. 

Happy to find a few things to add to the craft room at affordable prices and a great selection. She had lots of printed card stock for sale, brads, ribbons, trims, markers, die cutting machine, steel ruled dies, storage containers, kits, ink pads, etc. But was careful to only pick up items I know I will use and not get caught up with the great prices......

MCT Santa Bag Treat Holder

Recently bought the Santa Bag die set from MCT (My-Creative-Time.com). This die set cuts out the Santa bag with a slit near the top of the bag so you can put a gift card in it. I wanted to make this Santa bag into a treat holder so here is a photo of my project:

This die set has four pieces to it - the base piece, a stitched die for the front of the bag, the tie piece, and the trim piece I put white pom poms on. I also used the MCT Create A Treat Bag die set of two that will cut out the piece to make this into a treat holder/box. Here is a side photo of this treat holder to show this box piece in place:

For my treat holder I used red card stock for the base and the stitched front die piece I cut out of red glittered card stock. For the tie to the bag I used white glittered card stock and I also used that for the trim piece that I put white pom poms from the stash on to give the bag front some dimension:

I do not have a photo of it but I used a floral die set from ScrapDivaDesigns for the red flower on the bag front and the gold flower center. I used this die from the stash for the swirl piece behind the flower:

I also used a holly punch from M Stewart for the two holly pieces - both the holly pieces and the swirl piece were cut out of green mirror card stock:

Went through the stash and found a small stamp set from LawnFawn for the greeting on the bag front:

I used black ink and stamped the greeting onto scrap white cardstock. Cut that out using a charm tag die set from Spellbinders:

Easy treat holder to put together - if you use this die set to hold a gift card when attached the bag front to the bag back (base) then use liquid glue just around the edge of the bag front so you can easily insert your gift card. Another cute project from MCT for the holidays ahead....

Shopping and such - -

Went to the Maxwell Road Yard Sale that is near Fayetteville, NC and held yearly. All I found was:

For the two background stamps, two packages of embellishments, and the Fiskars crimper I paid $4.00 in total. The background stamp on the right is by JudiKins and I really liked that pattern - cleaned up the stamps once they were home and here is the after of those:

The JudiKins background stamp is going to be used for Halloween projects ahead for this year. I was happy to find that and for such a great deal!

In the past I have seen videos of the charity box that SimonSaysStamp that they offer each year and the money you pay for the box all goes to the Huntington Disease Foundation. Since I already went to the one stamp show of the year that I am going to - and now that Impression Obsession/IOStamps has decided to close their doors I will not be going to their yearly Warehouse Sale, I decided to use my craft dollars for a good cause. This week the box I paid for arrived and here is the stack of products inside:

Almost all of what I got I really like -- lots of great products and companies represented in this stash -

I was happy two of the embossing folders in the box are 3D folders I had seen on their site before but did not order - I used foiled card stock to emboss with to show the detailed results. First is their Forest Floor embossing folder that has mushrooms, leaves, and acorns on. I had recently picked up a pack of rust foiled card stock from Mikes on Clearance for $3.00:

Here is my embossed sample piece:

In the photo I put a piece of brown card stock in the embossing folder to show the folder design. The rust embossed piece is the paper from Mikes. As with all my 3D embossing folders I lightly mist my  card stock prior to putting it in the folder to be embossed but I did not mist the foiled pieces - but I was happy the foiled card stock did not crack or break down with the detailed design. Even the back of this embossed foiled piece shows no cracks:

For the other embossing folder I embossed, "Cheery Snowflakes", I used a piece of silver poster board from the Dollar Tree and also a piece of Park Lane (Joanns) holographic card stock:

Again here is a photo of these pieces with the embossing folder:

Again these two silver foiled card stocks did not crack with the embossing:

Never had ordered this charity box before but I was happy with all I received - only about 3 things in there I will not use so I can pass those on but happy with everything else. More products for holiday projects ahead!