Well, as feared and expected, I have taken on my new hobby (Papercrafting) with a vengeance and purchased ENTIRELY too much stuff in a very short period of time. As my little sister, Kelly, said on Sunday when she came over and viewed all my stuff, "Stores must LOVE when you take on a new hobby!" Yes, yes they do! I should really own stock in Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann Fabrics at this point. Heck they should give me stock options for the amount of money that I've dropped on them in the past two months!!!
I won't go over the items that I previously mentioned in my first product post nor will I discuss all the items that I've purchased since then as there is no way I could list everything, much less post links to each product. I've been purchasing from many places so as my stock has grown it has become harder and harder to keep track of where I purchased things in order to link to them when I post cards.
Last week when I was creating the You are Fabulous card for my sister, I wanted to create a sticker for her address label since the envelope had raised/3D polka dots so I could not write on the envelope. I researched and found that Hobby Lobby carried a cool tool that allows you to create stickers, magnets and laminate things and I was all over it and was going to use a 40% off coupon for the $50 tool. Unfortunately although it was sold online it was not in the store and I needed it that day. So as a backup plan, I bought the tool that makes just stickers. It was smaller and cheaper but worked perfectly to create stickers...fast! Pretty cool! I will post the original "Creative Station" tool that I wanted (and may eventually purchase) as well as the "Create a Sticker" tool that I ended up purchasing.
I've gone a little stamp crazy and quickly realized that I needed a system for storing all the cling stamps (any stamp not on a wood block). I researched several blogs and YouTube videos for suggestions and went with what would work best for me. I purchased a set of various sizes of photo pages from The Container Stores (by far the best prices...although shipping wasn't cheap and it took a week to deliver). I also purchased regular page protector pocket sheets from Office Max for large sheets of stamps. I now house the stamps in the pages in 3-ring binders. Does a great job and the stamps are now much easier to access and put away!
When I began this hobby, I couldn't help but notice that Copic markers were HOT HOT HOT and everyone loved them. I could not justify the expense for pens that I wasn't sure that I'd ever use much less pens that I'd never even used before. So I made the fatal error of purchasing "the next best thing" (Prismacolor Premier Double-Ended Markers). They still weren't cheap, over $100 for 48 markers. Unfortunately I was just not satisfied with their performance for that cost but still struggled to justify the Copic markers. I eventually made a compromise and traded in the Prismacolor markers for the "less expensive" Copic markers (Copic Ciao). I must say, THEY ROCK!! I only got 36 (Set A) at this point, plus the colorless blender pen, so I'd love to eventually get more but the cheapest place I've found them (and believe me, I've spent HOURS researching) is at DickBlick (link below). Although the 36 markers are still over $100, believe it or not, they are still about $60 cheaper than the original Copic marker set of 36!!! DickBlick also offers discounts and if you happen to be fortunate to live near an actual retail store, you can sign up and get 40% one item coupons, which is awesome. I SERIOUSLY considered making a trip to Atlanta (4 hours) just to get Set B for that price. Maybe I will make a trip there on the next sale and then I can swing by IKEA....oh I miss that store (there was one near me in California and in Dallas). Can you say ROADTRIP!?!?! ha
Speaking of markers, I wanted to purchase gel glitter pens as well and researched my options. I originally purchased Copic's glitter pens (Spica Glitter Pens) at Hobby Lobby (sell for $36 but used 40% coupon). Boy that was a mistake. These glitter pens are a FAIL!!! I returned them two days later and ordered what I should have purchased to begin with. The Sakura Stardust pens are amazing!! Although Hobby Lobby sells them, they come in two packets so I could only use one 40% coupon. Instead I purchased both packets online from JetPens and thankfully they also had free shipping. Perfect!! I also purchased two "clear" glitter pens (basically silver glitter) from Sakura. I love these pens!! They work great!
In addition to the glitter markers, I also wanted to buy a couple of white pens for writing on dark card stock. I researched "best" white pens and this pen won hands down. I am very happy with the purchase!! I went ahead and purchased two gold ink pens as well. JetPens has great deals on pens. Check them out!
I will also take this opportunity to recommend Memento inks. Although they have larger ink pads, I just love the little "dew drop petal" shaped ink pads. They have good pads and their size make them great for using on small stamps and stamps with multiple ink colors. You can buy these either individually or in sets and they are sold in many places. I've picked some up at Hobby Lobby and others at Jo-Ann Fabrics website.
Although I purchase items online when I find great deals, I do end up purchasing many items from both Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann Fabrics, either online or in person. I RARELY purchase anything from them that isn't either on sale (30-60% off) or using one of their coupons. Hobby Lobby allows you to use a 40% off coupon (in store or online) for one regular priced item. Jo-Ann on the other hand usually has 2-3 coupons that they will allow you to use at the same time. Most of the time they offer a coupon (15%) off total sales in addition to a 40% or even 50% off one regular price item. Sometimes they also offer another coupon for items that are even on sale. You can sign up for Jo-Ann's emails/text and they will send you additional discount/coupons. Both Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann Fabrics have smart phone apps that you can use coupons from so you don't have to print them out when in their retails stores.
That is all the time I have for today. Maybe next time I will spend some time reviewing products that I use for card making (i.e., SVG files, paper stock, stamps, embossing folders, embossing powders, embellishments, etc...).
I will also list a few websites that I recommend checking out. Many offer freebies (SVG, JPG, Digital Stamps) and others are just blogs/YouTube channels that I think offer great ideas.
Links to products mentioned above:
Creative Station
Create a Sticker
Photo Pages (Baseball Card Size)
Photo Pages (Variety of Options)
Sheet Protects (100 pack)
Copic Ciao Markers (Set A)
Stardust Glitter Pen Set (Galaxy)
Stardust Glitter Pen Set (Meteor)
White Ink Pen
Gold Ink Pen
Memento Dew Drop Inks Set
Websites to check out:
Stuff4Scrapbooking
MyGrafico
SVG Cuts
Lori Whitlock
A Muse Studio
Papertrey Ink
1001 Free Fonts
Custom Crops
Paper Wishes
Two Peas in a Bucket
Simon Says Stamps
A Cherry on Top
Prairie Paper & Ink
Prairie Paper YouTube Channel (love)
All That Scraps (love the stamps!)
The Paper Boutique YouTube Channel
Echo Park Paper YouTube Channel
Miss Kerrie J's YouTube Channel (amazing talent)
SVG Cuts YouTube Channel
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