First day of school teacher gifts.

Happy Day, Girls!

We made it through the first day of school. My kids are officially in 1st and 3rd grade. They took the bus for the first time too - and loved it; they said their bus driver "kinda looks like a grandpa" *giggles* The 1st grader has homework already...and so do I? Yeah - they each brought me all sorts of things from the teachers to fill out.

Up today are the gifts they gave their teachers yesterday. For my son's 2 teachers (the way it works is that one teacher teaches M/T and 1/2 of W and the other teaches 1/2 of W and then TH/F) I got them their own school supplies. They each got 2 pink Sharpies, 2 pink Sharpie highlighters, 2 pink Expo markers, and a box of red pens. And then for my daughter's teacher I got her this tub of big colored metallic paper clips and a pack of peppermint LifeSavers (remember I didn't know until the last minute that my son was going to have 2 teachers, so I had to throw together the third gift at the last minute). Not quite the apple from back in the day, but I did have apples represented on my tags - heh.

I packaged everything up in these plain white bakery bags available in my shoppe; at only 11-cents a piece and adding your own embellishments, you can do heartfelt and handcrafted on your own and on the cheap *wink*

I made big tags by cutting white cardstock to 5"x5" and then cutting my patterned paper 4.5"x4.5". This Show & Tell collection by We R Memory Keepers is so fun! I love that it's school-themed but in non-traditional colors. I rounded the corners on one side, added a strip of the Homework paper for the kids to do the to/from on, did some fun stitching around the top, added a piece of chipboard from the Show & Tell collection, punched some apples and embellished them, added a cute lil' hinge clip (from We R Memory Keepers as well) and tied it to the bag with some coordinating Papertrey Ink ribbon.

I had to take pictures of these - not only to share with you, but to remember what they looked like before they were shoved in backpacks, kicked around on the bus and then tossed on the teachers' desks!

If you had little ones going back to school - hope it all went off without a hitch!

:: It's Another Giveaway - Two Sugar Babies ::

Happy Monday, Girls!

YUM. There's really nothing more I can say about this week's giveaway!

I love sugar. Just. Love. It. And I love the smell of it. But sugar in the form of fondant ohhh myyy goodness. Miss Charynn over at Two Sugar Babies made and sent me these adorable fondant cupcake toppers that we'll be enjoying tonight as we have a little first day of school party for the kids.

Ohhh how these just tickle me to bits! And you have to check out her shoppe - she's got a ton of amazing creations. I'm partial to the gerbera daisy one....and anything with chocolate fondant - heh. But guess what! She's sharing a set with you too! Yup, one of you girls gets to choose a set from her shoppe. She even does monogram ones for special occasions! Oh the possibilities!

So here's the details.....:

Comment on this post by end of day Friday, September 3rd.

For extra entries:

(a new comment for each entry must be left for these extras to count)
01. Leave a comment on this post.
02. Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post.
03. Be - or become via the link in the top right corner - a follower of this blog.

04. Become a follower of Two Sugar Babies on Twitter.

05. Become a fan/Like Two Sugar Babies on Facebook.

(5 chances to win, post a separate comment for each.)

Congratulations, Shelly!
Please contact me via the contact me link on the sidebar.
The winner will be announced HERE ON THIS POST on Saturday, September 4th.

* - PLEASE READ MY GIVEAWAY FINE PRINT - *

Giveaways run M-F with winner being announced on the original post on the Saturday after the giveaway ends.

Winner has 1-week to contact me via the contact me link on the sidebar.

I am not going to track down the winner to tell them they've won.

Giveaways that go unclaimed will either be re-drawn for a new winner, or put up again (up to the sponsor).

Thanks for your understanding.

Creative Clear Stamps Blog Hop.

Hello - and thanks for stopping in along the Creative Clear Stamps blog hop.

An exciting thing happened with DT4. The team was given the opportunity to create a brand new stamp set for a charity of their choosing. They chose Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. This charity supports the research to find a cure for childhood cancer.

The charity stamp set Lemonade Stand will be released on Wednesday, September 1st on the Creative Clear Stamps store website. The size of this set is 6"x8" and features 20 clear stamps. The cost of the set is $20.00, of which $10.00 will be donated to the foundation throughout the month of September. And! - the first 10 orders will receive a free secret bonus item with their purchase.

The Creative Clear Stamps store will be closed tomorrow (Tuesday, August 31) to prepare for some changes to the site before the release. A new rewards program is headed your way!

Here is my sneak peek of this set!

As you might have gathered from the title - Lemonade Stand - this set features all the little pieces one would need to create or re-create a lemonade stand. As most of you know, I don't color images. However, I do love cute lil' sentiments to create little gifts. I chose 2 of the teeny elements - the 10-cent stamp and the pucker up stamp - to embellish some of the glassine bags from my shoppe.

I'm the last stop on the Hop; but if you are out of order *giggles* head on over the the Creative Clear Stamps blog and take it from the top!

(Rob's) Adventures in couponing.

Hey Hey Happy Sunday, Girls!

Up for you today I've got a fun lil' coupon adventure - but a good one just the same. I sent my husband (Rob) to the store to get milk, bread and eggs - the things that we have to get almost weekly - and when he came home he asked me if I had any Right Guard coupons. I didn't, but I went online and found some - - Coupons.com and RedPlum.com. He had found Right Guard on a clearance table at Albertsons for $1 each. So off he went back with (4) $1 off 1 coupons, and (2) $3 off 2 coupons. Because the $3 off of 2 would have him getting overage, they gave him back (2) of the $1 off coupons, so he went and got 2 more - LOL

What he came home with was (10) Right Guards - totally free; and the pastas and sauce were free too because the kids went on a field trip with daycare to Albertsons and got a little sheet of coupons for some free things. I'm so glad he didn't get any grief from the checkers, and that the coupons scanned just fine - if anything had gone wrong he would have been soured on it. So I think I may be slowwwwly converting him to my way of shopping - heh.

Lots to do - church, coupon shopping, my son's haircut (we didn't get to it yesterday because we went and gleaned potatoes instead!). I did however get the teachers' gifts done...you'll see those on Tuesday *wink*

Have a great Sunday!

Home is where...

Happy Happy Weekend!

I've got the perfect card for today as we'll be spending lots of time together as a family. 7am this morning we are driving out to pick up produce as part of this co-op kinda thing that we joined (more about that later). Then we are off to the waterpark for my company picnic. Need to get my son a haircut. Need to figure out that last teacher gift. And hopefully tonight I'll get some cards made!

Have a great Saturday!

Merci beaucoup.

Happy Friday!

Still lovin' that embossed Coredinations cardstock by Jenni Bowlin. Although it may be overkill on this card - ha - however, that is not permission for you to bash my card - ROTFL I love the butterflies and the pins...oh how I love my pins...and that pretty seam binding....and stitching.
Oh man I have a lot of my favorite things on this card!

So glad Friday is FINALLY here. I was off a day every day this week, on Monday I thought it was Tuesday, on Wednesday I thought it was Thursday, etc. And then this morning I REALLY wanted it to be Saturday, but no. And I have a boatload of things to do this weekend. Get this - I'm making first day of school gifties for the kids' teachers. Yeah so we went yesterday to see who their teachers are and my son has TWO teachers. One of those classes where the teachers split it. Hi, I already ordered things for 2 teachers and now I have to do something for THREE. Not happy. So the 2 things I have will obviously be for the co-teachers and now I have to figure out something different for my daughter's teacher. I plan ahead so that I don't have to be frazzled at the last minute. And here I am: frazzled at the last minute!

TGIF!

Gracias.

Hey Girls!

Are you remembering to get your thank-you cards out?
Like I've said before: I'm a stickler for thank-you cards; from me and my kiddies. They may get out late, but they get out. Sometimes they are delayed because I want to send a lil' something with, or because I don't have any on hand and I need to make one, but by George they get out eventually! I have to say that I am surprised at how many people do not send out thank-you cards. I feel like e-mail has really taken the place of the personal, good old-fashioned thank-you card. Think about how you feel when you bring in the mail and find a real hand-addressed card or letter in there. That will always beat an e-mail, don't you agree?

Anywhoo - off the soapbox now....*giggles* I've got a bold thank-you card today. I don't use True Black cardstock often just because I am too lazy to put a white insert on the inside to write in. However now that I've got the smokin' hot white Signo gel pen, that is no longer an issue - woooo! So yeah, I've got a little Jillibean Soup patterned paper, some striking and creepy at the same time flowers from Prima, and a lil' gracias stamp from Lawn Fawn.

Thank you for stopping in today!

www.csnstores.com

Hey Hey Hey

My friends at CSN Stores have asked me to do another review of one of their products from one of their stores - remember, they have over 200 online stores where you can find everything from cookware like Corelle to toys to college football things! I had no idea they carried college football stuff - - I can’t wait to show you the BSU thing that I got from them. Look for that post in the coming weeks. I’m using it for a party that I’m throwing for the first game of the year vs. Virginia Tech.

I really do enjoy working with CSN and I'm so excited that I get to do another review for them.

So stay tuned for a CSN review in the future, who knows what I will choose this time!

Simply Chartreuse.

Happy Halfway-There Day!

I have been gushing over Simply Chartreuse since I got it. I buy every color that Papertrey Ink comes out with but some colors I definitely love more than others. This however was one of those colors that when it first came out I was not crazy about. But now that I have it, I'm kicking myself for not ordering the larger pack because I really do like this color. So up today I've got a couple of cards on Simply Chartreuse paired with the Olivia collection from BasicGrey.





Thanks for stopping in today!

Smile + some free finds for you!

Hey Hey Hey, Girlfriends!

I love making cards like this. I just keep looking around my craft table and in my embellishment drawers and see what else I can find to throw on here. It's kinda like stew that way like how you keep looking in the pantry for more cans of veggies to throw in or scrounging in the refrigerator for a leftover onion to toss in. Yeah - so we're callin' this a stew card; how ya' like them apples?

And now for a little enabling...

Y'all know that I'm all about the smokin' deal. Well there's a pretty good one goin' on over at Vistaprint. Right now they have a bunch of items FREE. Like just pay the shipping. And the shipping isn't crazy either. I just ordered a personalized pen, some return address labels, some personalized stickers, a wall calendar, and some notecards with the kids' picture on them. The wall calendar was cool too - - I uploaded pictures from our summer vacation so there will be one on each month for next year...what a great Christmas gift!
So yeah, hit the image below and check it out.

Hope your day is full of smiles!

:: It's Another Giveaway - TLG Crafts ::

Happy Monday, Girls!

I've got a great little papercrafting giveaway up for you this week. Miss Laurie at TLG Crafts right here in Boise has a great little shoppe with all sorts of neat papercrafted things like chipboard pieces, diecuts, journaling spots, premade albums and more.

She sent me some of her cute little journaling tags and I stacked a couple to embellish this little white bag and make it into something more than just a plain white bag.

And for you, she's offering up this adorable little mini scrapbook album already made for you to drop pictures in and gift to mom or grandma!

So here's the details.....:

Comment on this post by end of day Friday, August 27th.

For extra entries:

(a new comment for each entry must be left for these extras to count)
01. Leave a comment on this post.
02. Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post.
03. Be - or become via the link in the top right corner - a follower of this blog.

04. Become a follower of TLG Crafts on Twitter.

(4 chances to win, post a separate comment for each.)

Congratulations, lenainwonderland!
Please contact me via the contact me link on the sidebar.
The winner will be announced HERE ON THIS POST on Saturday, August 28th.

* - PLEASE READ MY GIVEAWAY FINE PRINT - *

Giveaways run M-F with winner being announced on the original post on the Saturday after the giveaway ends.

Winner has 1-week to contact me via the contact me link on the sidebar.

I am not going to track down the winner to tell them they've won.

Giveaways that go unclaimed will either be re-drawn for a new winner, or put up again (up to the sponsor).

Thanks for your understanding.

Adventures in couponing + a project.

Happy Happy Sunday, Girls!

Up for you today is the best *damn* Albertsons couponing adventure ever! Seriously. I saved a boatload of money and got TONS of stuff free....like crazy free. But first I want to tell you about a little project I am doing that started with the couponing adventure you see today. I have decided to save all the receipts and see how much money I spend on groceries in a month. Starting with this trip on August 16th. So August 16th - September 16th I am tracking everything I buy at the grocery store. Sure I save a lot of money when I am couponing, but do we make too many random trips to the store for a loaf of French bread and end up spending another $20 on stuff we didn't really need? We'll see how it adds up. I'm excited. So anyway - back to the best *damn* couponing trip ever, let's have a looksie, shall we?

By the numbers:

(55) boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix

(53) cans of vegetables

(24) boxes of Hamburger Helper

(16) packages of Bic pens

(11) bags of Chex Mix

(8) boxes of Ziploc bags

(4) bags of Pepperidge Farms cookies

(4) 8-pks. of Keebler PB&J-filled crackers

(3) tubs of frosting (looks like I'm gonna need some more)

(2) boxes of Cheerios

(2) bottles of Teriyaki sauce

(2) bottles of Ponzu sauce

(2) packages of Keebler cookies

(1) mini jug of Bisquick (SO BUMMED! - these were FREE and I didn't know it until the lady in front of me cleared the shelf *tears*)

Actual retail price: $403.15.

I paid: $31.54.

That's a 92% savings - - it doesn't get any better than that!

And here's the good stuff: the cake mixes were totally free. They were part of a promo that made them 50-cents and in the store they had coupons for $1 off 2. Yeah. Free. 55 boxes. I'm totally gonna be the cupcake class mom this year - LOL The Bic pens - free too. They were $1 each and I had a coupon for $1 off 2 and then I doubled it. 16 packages - free. The teriyaki sauce was $1.99 and I doubled a $1 coupon and the Ponzu sauce was free when you "bought" the teriyaki sauce *giggles* And the yummy Pepperidge Farms cookies were $1.99 and I doubled $1 off coupon there too. I hate buying cookies for the kids, but if they are free - mamma ain't sayin' no!

But wait, there's more! I have to do a lot of transactions because you can only use 3 doublers per transaction. That means I've got a LOT of receipts. (5) of them had surveys for you to take over the phone which they give you $2 each for - - so they gave me $10 to come back and play again plus a 75-cent Catalina printed off in the midst of the madness. Score!

This week wore me out.
Here's to a relaxing Sunday.

My sweet baby girl.

Happy Saturday!

I can't believe school is starting a week from Monday. My baby girl is going to be in 1st grade - that makes me all teary. I am bound and determined to keep her forever young.

Here's to a great weekend!

It's in the Bag!

Happy Friday, Girls!

And what a happy day indeed.
Because today is the grand opening of my brand new ETSY shoppe: It's in the Bag!

The shoppe features all the cute little bags needed to present heartfelt & handcrafted gifts in a special way. To start, I've got 3 different sizes of glassine bags, 2 different sizes of white paper bags, and 2 colored paper bags. And because I'm not out to be a millionaire *yet - wink*, you'll find that my prices are competitive and in some cases lower than what you'll find elsewhere.

So up for today I've got my fun glassine bags that I've personalized for gift giving.

Small glassine bag embellished with some Prima chipboard, a lil' white tag, some of that lush seam binding, and finished off with buttons. This size is perfect for gift cards. Sure you can give your gift card in the store envelope, but why not personalize the gift a bit?

Medium glassine bag embellished with a busy piece of patterned paper from Prima, a button, and some fun alphabet stickers. This size is perfect for giving tickets, however it does widen up so you can put thicker things in it as well. I'll have more ideas soon.

Large glassine bag was made in a jiffy as I repurposed a cardfront from this adorable card that Danni sent me. A square cardfront works perfectly on this bag - adhered it, added some pretty ribbon to the top and we're done! Who knew that a card would be the gift that keeps on giving?!

Hope you'll come check out my shoppe. I'll be sharing more ideas for these and my other bags in the near future.

TGIF!

Hi girl!

Hi, Girls!

Hey lookie there - my salutation and my card go together. I'm so cool like that *giggles* I've got a pretty card to share with you today which features patterned paper and coordinating elements from Bo Bunny. Stickers...and alphabet stickers. It's like I've opened pandora's box and found a whole new funness in papercrafting. Yes, I said funness....twice. Fun Ness. Love it.

Now go out and add some funness to your day!

Hey girl.

Happy Halfway-There Day, Girls!

Today I've got a pretty simple but fun card featuring patterned papers by Fancy Pants. I've got a base of New Leaf which I don't use near enough and I don't know why because it's such a pretty color!

I'm gonna say "hey girl" to someone at the office today. That's totally not me. But that's the kind of mood I'm in - LOL

Scrapbookin'.

Hey Dolls!

So...I'm not so much of a scrapbooker. I mean I don't scrapbook. But I have been dabbling lately. I think these would be layouts #4 and #5. I like it - I really do. But I just don't know what to do with these things. I'm not organized enough, nor do I have enough storage to keep books and books of these things.

Anywhooo....here are a couple of layouts I did of our Alaskan cruise last month; both of them feature products from Bo Bunny.

Have a fabby day!

:: It's Another Giveaway - Jamie's Jewels ::

Happy Monday, Girls!

So last week we had a girly giveaway for the little girl in your life....and this week I've got one just for you! Miss Jamie of Jamie's Jewels has got the most amazing jewelry shop with pretty bracelets, and earrings and necklaces. Really really nice stuff - - and, free shipping...anywhere in the world!

She also wants to share her pretties with one of you lucky ladies.

So check out these beautiful dandelion earrings.







Do you love 'em?

Do you want 'em?

So here's the details.....:

Comment on this post by end of day Friday, August 20th.

For extra entries:

(a new comment for each entry must be left for these extras to count)
01. Leave a comment on this post.
02. Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post.
03. Be - or become via the link in the top right corner - a follower of this blog.

04. Become a follower/like Jamie's Jewels on Facebook.

(4 chances to win, post a separate comment for each.)

Congratulations, Chiara!
Please contact me via the contact me link on the sidebar.
The winner will be announced HERE ON THIS POST on Saturday, August 21st.

* - PLEASE READ MY GIVEAWAY FINE PRINT - *

Giveaways run M-F with winner being announced on the original post on the Saturday after the giveaway ends.

Winner has 1-week to contact me via the contact me link on the sidebar.

I am not going to track down the winner to tell them they've won.

Giveaways that go unclaimed will either be re-drawn for a new winner, or put up again (up to the sponsor).

Thanks for your understanding.

Adventures in couponing + a deal for YOU!

Happy Sunday, Girls!

Got a quick coupon post for you today. This was an off week for the doublers - meaning no doublers - so I hadn't planned on sale shopping Albertsons this week. That is, until I heard of this deal on the Planters Trail Mix.
Lemme break it down for ya'....

Planters Trail Mix is regularly priced at $2.59 each. They were on sale for $1.25. They were then part of a promo where you buy 10 and you get 50-cents off each making them 75-cents a piece. But here's the kicker: tearpad coupons at the store taking $1 off of 2. Score! - I got 80 of them for 25-cents each. These are great for the kids to take to school for snack, soccer will be starting soon and I can use these when it's my turn to do snack, and I'm thinking these might go in to some Christmas packages as well.

So yeah - regular price was $207.20. I paid $20. That's a 90% savings.

Oh yeah - and about that dressing. I had no intention of buying anything else but as I was leaving, one of the checker girls was doing something with cases of dressing and asked me if I wasn't going to get some of those too. I asked what the deal was. Oooooo - a hot one! Kraft dressing is regular priced at $2.99, on sale for $1.34, and she was attaching coupons for $1 off each. Gah! 34-cent dressing?! Oh yeah, I bought a case of each. The kids love ranch dressing to dip carrots and broccoli in, I like dipping chicken breasts in dressing and then breading them and then baking (or frying) them...and, if you're real adventurous, you can even put it on salad *giggles*

So the dressing was regular priced at $107.64. I paid $12.24. So that's an 89% savings.

Doublers came out today - - off to work on my steals for this week!

Have a great day!

ETA: TODAY ONLY, score yourself a free 8x10 print at Walgreens. Go HERE to upload your photo and get your free 8x10. Pick it up at the Walgreens nearest you and you pay $0 shipping; totally free for today, Sunday August 15th only. I just did this and ordered a picture of Glacier Bay that I took on our cruise and I'll frame it up and give it to my husband for Christmas - - score!

Life is Good.

Happy Weekend, Friends!

I should do one of those wordless posts sometime and not type anything - just pictures. The weekends are slowwwww here on the blog-o because we're all busy. Although it's a rare occasion when I have nothing to say *giggles*

Anywayzzzzz....3 cards today featuring the Life is Good collection from Echo Park Paper. Just some fun and scrappy cards - the kind I make at night after work when I don't want to think too hard, but I want to create anyway *wink*

Hope your weekend starts off just super!