The Scrap Shack - Canadian Store

I found this great online store The Scrap Shack located in New Brunswick that carries the Peachy Keen stamps for my Everyday Paper dolls.  I purchased the Princess Dolls Faces assortment and the Simple Sallies:

Amy, the owner, provided me with such great service and shipped the product out in no time.  Here is a link to their website:  The Scrap Shack

Only a small portion of the actual inventory of items are listed on the website so if you're looking for a great Canadian supplier of scrapbooking items, give Amy a call.



The Big Kick - Big Shot

As many of you know, I had been debating about the Big Shot or the Big Shot Pro.  I finally decided on the Big Shot as I will mainly be using the tool for embossing elements of the cards that I'm making.  I don't foresee in the near future that I will want the XXL dies that can only be used in the Big Shot Pro. 

I looked around for the best deal and settled on Michaels with a 50% off coupon.  No shipping charges so it made the most sense.  Michaels sells the Big Kick in periwinkle, which suits me fine.  Here it is all set up in my craft room. 

I bought a few folders - 6 or so so that should work for me until Christmas :)!

The Gypsy

Having decided to add the Cricut Expression to my repertoire of  tools, I was looking for a design tool to help me to weld words and images.  The Cricut cartridges are great but are limited to the sayings that are included on the one cart that you are using and you can't really mix pictures or put all the words together.  I looked at the Design Studio software and then stumbled upon the Gypsy.  I read a few blogs, watched some Youtube videos and knew this would suit me best. 

I then found a great price for a bundle online at Oh My Crafts - the gypsy unit, the car charger (which will be great for those frequent trips to the summer cottage), 3 extra styluses, and a silicone sleeve.  Also, if it arrived before February 28th, I could get 5 extra cartridges plus the two included on the machine.  It was an offer that I could not refuse...even with shipping from Utah to Ottawa Canada and taxes, it was still an excellent deal and arrived within 10 business days - through USPS, Canada Customs and Canada Post!

When I received my Gypsy, I was somewhat concerned with the "synching" and dowloading of carts.  I had read about many different problems on the Cricut and Splitcoaststampers boards.  I followed the wonderful instuctions and within a few hours, I had everything loaded, my Cricut Expression software updated and was cutting my first project. 

I've been playing around with the Gypsy for about a week now, and it is sooo easy to use! 

What the heck is a Sew Easy Piercer?

My dear aunt introduced me to the Sew Easy Piercer at Christmas time.    It's a simple little tool that pierces holes in your paper quickly to then enable you to do all kinds of stitches. Being a passionate stitcher, I just needed to get one. It's been in high demand since last August and I was able to get mine online from Ohmycrafts.

Here's a look at the tool and the different interchangeable heads.



These are the different stitches that are produced:

I'll be using this tool in my next few projects.