50% Off - Halloween & Thanksgiving Special

Hi everyone,

I hope this finds you enjoy the cooler weather and the autumn fresh air. I will been working hard on getting more into my store, but a few life events has got me a bit behind. It is what it is but I thought I would post a little something that I have completed from playing with my Cricut Explorer Air 2 machine.

This is Ruby, our bird of 24 years. She is attached to JJ which is fine with me cause after handfeeding her from hatchling she decides she like JJ, not usual for female birds to attach to a male for bonding. She doesn't like me but that story is for another day! (She bite me hard, with her 80# pressure bite, so needless to say, I don't trust her anymore.)

50% Off Sale in my Etsy shop

I am having a Halloween & Thanksgiving Special in my Etsy shop which includes everything in the store for one week, From Oct 21 through Oct 31 at 50% off which includes Free Shipping. There is no minimum either. So go check out my stock, which is growing but not as fast as I would like, but will be adding more next week as well. Thank you for your support! Use the coupon Code: THANKSHALLOW50.


PLEASE let me know you visited my shop by clicking on the FAVORITE Shop button!!!

New items in my Etsy Shop this week...6x6 album and Set 4 autumn cards

Just added to my Etsy Shop is this cute little Zoo themed 6" x 6" mini album would be great for a child's first trip to the Zoo, a special family visit to an animal themed park or for any animal lovers photos you would like to showcase to share those special memories with your family and friends. Just add your photos and your story and your memories will be preserver for many years to come.

Materials: A variety of patterned papers, cardstock, chipboard with many decorative techniques & embellishments were used in making this Handmade 6" x 6" mini Album. Some embellishments are raised on foam tape for added dimension. Album is constructed of Chipboard, cardstock and double sided score tape with a ribbon closer.

Included inside album, there are many tags and photo mats inside the pockets in sizes:

6 - 3 x 4 photo/journaling cards

4 - 5 1/2 X 5 1/2 blank Booklets made of cardstock inside each page pocket for adding larger photos

7 - pockets for saving memorabilia or more photos

This album should hold approximately 25 or more photos of your special visit to the Zoo. 

Disclaimer: This album was inspired by a video I watched by Laura's Craft Zone on You Tube. I did pick and purchase the design papers and embellishments  for this zoo themed album and decorated the album myself. 

Also added this week was this set of 4 Autumn/Thanksgiving greeting cards as Fall is just around the corner and these autumn colors make a wonderful palette for greeting cards, notes for a friend or for being thankful for the little things by sending a nice handwritten sentiment. They are blank on the inside for you to personize your greeting. Included with envelope in a protective plastic sleeve. 

A variety of patterned papers, decorative techniques & embellishments were used in making these handmade cards. Some embellishments are raised on pop dots for added dimension.

These were inspired by Kristie Marcotte and her awesome videos she shares with her "how many cards from a 6x6 paper pad" she so kindly shares on her you tube channel. She is a great inspiration with her great talent she has for card making...Thanks, Kristie!

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by to see what I have been creating.

Happy Scrapping!

Time to Relax and get back to business....Hurricane Dorian spared us here in Florida

Since about the last time I posted, August 25, I have been preparing for one of the biggest hurricanes that we were predicted to arrive to the East Coast of Florida in many years. I think the news said about 30 years. Dorian at one point was a Cat 5 heading to our coast. It had been days of watching and tracking this monster. Moving very slowly, as a high ridge stirring her movement in a westerly directions, Floridians awaited the predictably "TURN North" before it found the coast of Florida, it hit the Bahamas big islands and just sat there for 30 some hours as 185 plus hurricane force winds and ocean surges with gusts of 220 mph just demolished the beautiful paradise.

As we in Florida can count our blessings, please remember the people in the Bahamas. They were not so luck.  PLEASE keep them in our prayers, help in any small way you can as most of these people have lost literately EVERYTHING. Find a way to donate something though your favorite charity, no matter how small.

OK...I have been working hard to get more product in my store for the upcoming holidays. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas...I am working on getting the photos taken and edited and will be uploading them this week.

Can you answer a QUESTION for me? 

I have a question for an idea I have been thinking about. If you were so kind to reply to if you don't mind taking a few moments to do so in the comments area below...it is a two part question.

I have been thinking of putting together some card kits to sell. This not and would not be a club or monthly subscription. Just small kits to make two or four cards as well as know exactly what is included in each kit. I would also include a list of what would be needed to complete your handmade greeting cards.

My questions is:

Part one:   1. Would you like to see more DYI card making kits? 

Part two:    2. How much would you like done for you? 
     a. Meaning everything cut out and you just assemble
     b. Guide/suggestions page included for the cutting?

Thank you so much for reading and following my blog!

Christmas Cabin One sheet wonder Cards

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend...what have you been crafting? I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment and I will reply to your comments!

I wanted to do a quick post and share what I have been playing with this weekend. I know it is only August but I am trying to get a ahead start on making some Christmas Card.

Each year we send a Holiday Greeting card to our mowing customers as a thank you to show our appreciation for their business through out the year. I started this when we only had about 15 customers back in 2004 or 2005 which I would purchase. With my love of card making and my huge stash of Christmas paper collections and pads I thought it would be nice if I made the cards this year. So I looked through Pinterest to find some of the gals that do the One sheet wonders to find some ideas and inspiration because we now have over 75 customers. I found a few I would like to use but chose one by Sylvie Drader, who I believe is or use to be a Stampin Up demonstrator. The sketch I found has the information of a web site: www.createwithpaper.com but from what I can tell, I am not sure if it is still her site or not so I am not linking it here. I do thank her for sharing the sketch on Pinterest though and want to give her credit for her work.

When making my cards I used the following:

2 - 12 x 12 sheets of designer paper from a 12 x 12 paper pad called, "Christmas Cabin" by   Recollections from Michaels
3 - 8 x 11 cardstock of white as I used a white mat inside each card to stamp sentiment on and
1 piece of sentiments on the front of the cards and layering-not for sure where cardstock came from it was either Walmart, Hobby Lobby or Michaels.
1- 8 x 11 cardstock of Kraft for layering From Hobby Lobby
2 different Christmas stamp sets from my stash from a few years ago
Some gold mirrored peel offs from Love for Lizzy
Art glitter glue
ATG Gun and 1/4" tape
Purchased A2 Kraft card bases with envelopes from Hobby Lobby

(There is sentiments on the inside of the cards as well with tiny holly berries and leaves stamped as well. Seen above in the middle of the layout.)

(This photo is not the best, but I will be taking individual photo's of them this coming week to share with you.)

I will be using this again, I love how the cards turned out and only took me about 4 hours total to make including my planning, cutting and putting together. I believe I may end up doing a few sets like these to add to my Etsy shop as well.

Labor Day Sale this coming weekend, I will have a 10% off discount on all my items in my shop Aug 30 through Sept 2, 2019. The coupon code is: ETSYLABOR2019 please make sure to check it out. I will be adding more cards during this week as well.

NEW Halloween Card in my store

Snowsmoon's Creations Store

Just a quick post to let you know that I have been busy, getting some holiday cards ready for my Etsy Store. With one of my favorite holidays just around the corner, I have been busy getting some cards ready for someone to send out their loved ones a special "Happy Mail" for Halloween. I wanted to share what I have added this evening and will be back in a couple of days to do another post to do some more updating and sharing with you.

I do have a few more to upload, but need to retake the photo's so I will save them to share next time.

I hope everyone will please check out my store and sign up for a newsletter....until next time!

Celebration for Parents on the first day of School……

Hello everyone,

I hope this finds you having a great day and a productive week. I wanted to share an idea I got from the news this morning, which I thought was a great idea. With most of public schools getting back in session this month, it is time you parents celebrate as well. What I saw on the news was a mom, decided to drop her children off at school and was given a button that she was celebrating the first day of school. She thought what a great way to go visit Disney World and take a photo with a few of the Disney characters wearing the button to show her family how her first day of school went after she had asked her family how their day went.

It was a fun story to watch even though I may not have all the facts correct on the gals story, but the point of sharing this was for us as parents and grandparents to celebrate getting our children on a good start for another school year. So with all that said I would like to share a coupon code for a dollar off a purchase from my  Etsy shop to use on any of the cards that are uploaded. The code will be good till the end of the month, Aug 31, 2019. I will be adding new product into the store weekly as you may use the code until the end of the month as well, which I did get a few more in there this morning. I now have to retake some photos, so that I can get more uploaded for you. 

Use the coupon code: SOFTOPEN0819 for a Dollar off!

Also have been watching the visits to my store and I am very excited that there has been more visitors each day which is very exciting to me. And if you had visited, I invite you to visit again as I have lowered some prices on a single card. I am still doing my search on the best way for shipping to open it up to international views as well. Please keep watch on my blog posts as well as my monthly newsletters, which I want to remind you to please sign up for. Sign up for it is at the left of my blog under my store link. You will get a dollar off coupon to use again, sent to you once you sign up as well. 

My Etsy Shop is back opened with beautiful Handmade cards & other paper crafts

Hello Everyone,

MY ETSY SHOP IS RE-OPENED for BUSINESS

We just got back from a nice family gathering in Atlanta, GA. Stayed a wonderful Air bnb home that was huge! 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms almost 3,000 square foot 2 story home. Loved it! There were a total of 21 of us all together. One brother lives in Atlanta with his family and the longest family traveling were from Okinawa, Japan. 15 of us shared the beautiful home and had a nice visit together. It had been 5 years before this reunion in Hawaii. But sad to say, vacation is over.... 

So now it is time for me to get scrapping and card making....and officially getting my shop opened for business!

This is a soft opening, as I return to My Etsy Shop where I am currently adding new handmade paper items over the next few weeks. There are new items being add daily as I have a good start on my inventory with most being handmade cards which are being added individually. I will be doing that for a little while, then adding new items as I can get them made, photographed and upload. I have found something I really love doing and will be working hard to get new stuff all the time for you. (You can find the link to my shop on the left hand side of my blog at the top.)

 Monthly Newsletter

ALSO for the month of August if you sign up for my monthly newsletter I will send you a coupon code for a dollar off your purchase. * I would like to have a monthly newsletter to send information about new products, specials and Sales which you will only get for subscribing to my monthly newsletter. This currant offer is good until August 31, 2019. Bonus as well, when you do make a purchase use that coupon, it will send you another dollar off coupon that will be able to use on your next purchase as well. (Sign up for that is on the left hand side of my blog under that link to my store. I will not be filling up your email, only one per month and will not be sharing them with anyone else. If you find you don't want to receive my monthly newsletter, please unsubscribe which will be at the bottoms of each email.)

I would like to explain why I have choose to keep this shop instead of just opening up another. It is mainly because of the follower I already have, comments they have made and stats on this shop. I did request that my counters be changed as it does look funny that I have been on Etsy since 2010 with only 2 sales. I have been on Etsy since 2010 but only had items in my store for a few months because I didn't have as much time to spend with my shop as I had liked at that time. I am back and I am here to stay, new look, new product and tons more to come. 

Also would like to add that I changed my name to Snowsmoon's Creations from Snowsmoon's Designs as not to confuse others, I am not a designer anymore, I use products that are designs by others that I try to credit where proper as I am a true believer in giving credit where credit is due. I try very hard as well to ask permission to use products where I think it may be questioned as I don't want to claim credit for someone's else work. Or try to sell something that I do not have permission to do so.  

I am still working on getting the shipping figured out, so for now I am offering Free Shipping on everything but only shipping to the US for now until I do more research on the cost of shipping outside the US. 

If you would please stop by my store and check out the new products I have so far and as I said more to come daily for a while, please leave a comment even if you don't make a purchase so that I know you have stopped by. 

Thank you for your support and please email me is you have any questions. snowsmoonscreations@gmail.com 

Snowsmoon's Creations 


(**credit for Open Sign photo unknown, but is not mine. I could not find the author or creator when doing a google search for an image with an open sign)

Readers….Need your input on a New Die cutting Machine

I have been doing some research on getting a die cutting machine for my new passion of card making. I would love to hear your thought on your favorite machine. I have had my eye on a Sizzix Big Shot for some time now and also been looking at the Spellbinder's Platinum 6 as well. Scrapbook.com has a really good deal on both of them right now until the end of the month. So I went digging into "Spellbinders vs. Sizzix Big shot".  I have decided to share my finding with you but would really like your opinions before making my decision. Thank you now, for your help. 

So here is my review with the research on both the Spellbinders and Big Shot. I prefer watching videos over reading endless reviews. Seeing the machine in action especially when I personally have never used one, is my choice of means of review a new product. So I went to you tube, entered in the search bar, "Spellbinders vs. Sizzix Big shot" and watch about 10 to 15 different videos. There wasn't as many as I thought there would be but I watched many, some favor one or the other.

Here is my conclusion/opinion:

Over all they are very compatible machines, so I guess it would be purchaser's brand choice, and or the deal you find on either machines as a bigger factor, what the costs are and what you get with it. I didn't look into the cost or replace cutting plates for the Spellbinders but have looked on the Big Shot unless you want the longer plates they are not that bad.

Noise- I have heard the noises from both machines, which has to do with the type of die you are using. Not all wafer thin dies are created equal. Which is why the noise comes from the pressure from the rollers on the cutting plates to do the cutting. One of the gals I watched described it as a car driving straight over a big bump in the road, like a speed bump, hitting it straight on puts more pushed on the car but it you hit is on an angle, moving one tire at a time over the bump, it is less force on the impact of the car. So turning the die on a slight angle will put less pressure all at once on the rollers, making less pressure on the cutting plates.

Size for storage: Spellbinders has a smaller foot print once folded up for storage. So if you prefer that to be part of your decision because you are limited on space, the spellbinders does close up in a more compact foot print.

A couple of video's said, "Spellbinders works best with its own dies", and that other manufactures dies can warp the cutting plates is not carefully placed on the cutting plate as some are a little thicker than other die are. In my opinion, means the person is forcing the plate through which I am sure you should not do on either machine. Both machines will cut almost all dies, just need to make sure that the plates are moving through the machine easily, don't force them. And of course you have put the sandwich together for the type of die you are cutting. Until watching these I had no idea there was more than one type of die other than the wafer thin dies.

After watching these gals using both machines, I think the Big Shot has a more stable foot print which would make since to me that is why at times the machine base can move around when turning the handle to move the sandwich plate through the machine. The Spellbinder is more compact for easier storage, but could be the reason it can be harder to stabilize. With all that said, I think for card making using mainly small dies, this should not be a problem so I am still not sure which is the better machine to purchase. I have a Cricut Explore Air 2, but it just doesn't cut shape like a die cutting machine does.

So this is what I found, please comment or email me your thoughts on these two wonderful die cutting machines.

Happy Crafting,

Snowsmoon's Creations

email: snowsmoonscreations@gmail.com

Dawn

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBE AT THE TOP LEFT OF MY BLOG. 

Wednesday Sketch Challenge #445- My Favorite Things

 Another quick post for another challenge I did over the weekend, was going to post tomorrow, but just looked over the rules, ect and realized it is do in a couple of hours....hoping I made it. The large element was fussy cut from one of the papers and the stitch like border, I hand scored as I do not have a die cut machine (yet!?).

It was so much fun doing these challenges this week. Here is my entry for the challenge I found at My Favorite Things. Marieke back to their blog with her take on this week's sketch. 

#445 Sketch

My card is for my son's 33 Birthday which is this weekend- 

Supplies:

• Dia De Los Muertos V from Designs by Reminisce (element fussy cut from paper and backed with white card stock),
• Card stock from paper studio or recollections
• Peal-offs- Love from Lizzy
•  Card bases and envelopes from Darice (A-2 80# weight paper)
• MAMBI- Happy Birthday planner stamp
• Welcome to Joyful Home Stamp set from Woo Yang Fun stamped sentiment on the end side of the card. I got from amazon.

As I said on my last post. A lot of what I have used is from my stash that I have had for many years. If I can't find a name on it, I will state that it was from my stash. 

(it says: Hope your birthday is as special as you are)

Thank You for stopping by and Enjoy your day!

Sketch Saturday Week #572 Challenge

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by my blog to view my first ever entery in doing a sketch challenge for making cards. I have been a digital and paper scrapper for a lot of years, but I just started card making very recently. I am also new to stamping and coloring but am sure I will get better with more practice. I enjoyed doing this challenge, and had so much fun, I did two of them.

Some of the things on my supply list have been in my stash for some time and I am not sure where or when I got them, but when I make my list I do try to list everything I use and tell you if I don't remember or it was from my stash.

Supply list:

• Paper from Doodle Bug's Simply Spring (6x6 paper pad)
• Bee was a stamp set from my stash which I don't know who designed.
• Everyday Essentials Colored Pencils- purchased from Amazon.  I used two light blues, two med yellows and dark yellow. I used the white to do some blending with. 
• Doodle Bugs' Beehive Enamel Dots
• Peal-offs- Love from Lizzy
• Card bases and envelopes from Darice (A-2 80# weight paper)
• MAMBI - Planner stamp set -Be Happy
• Seaskyer Clear Stamps-Stamped sentiment on the end side of card

            Have a blooming marvelous day

Inside stamped:

Sketch Saturday Week #572 with Becky's Place

Enjoy your day!

Dawn aka Snowsmoon

Hello Friends,

It has been a couple of years since I have shared with my creative scrapping friends. Life gets busy and Life just happens...so with no more about why I haven't been here and more about what I am back to share with you.

I have been scrapping in many forms and I want to say that I have really been enjoying actually working with paper products themselves. Most recently I have been very addicted to making A-2 size greeting cards. After watching many you tube videos of other fellow scrappers/card makers, I decided to give it a try bashing through and seeing how many cards I could make from a 6 x 6 paper pad. Oh what a relaxing and enjoyments it is to challenge yourself to use as much of that paper pad as you can, having little or no scraps left over at all. I am so hooked.

I follow Vanessa Peters of Scrappin it up, who teaches how to make DYI Albums from chip board as well as file folders that is so amazing. Her kindness and helpfulness sure shows her passion for scrapping and helping others in her group Facebook Live videos. So many times she goes up and above for each one of us. Her work is awesome as well. Very inspirational. 

An example of March Madness Album we made watching her Facebook lives, she takes you through making the album as well as decorating it. So much fun doing this as a group. Thanks again, Vanessa! I will add more photos of this when the photos are put in to it. I made it for my trip to visit my brother in Okinawa back a few years ago.

credits: March Madness Album by Scrappin it up

            Paper line is: Vintage Traveller by Simple Stories

            Title was cut with my Cricut

I have also followed a couple of gals that have a very interesting way to teach how to make 12 x 12 pages as well with the same paper line and watching a process video by Simple Cut Creations. If you would like to watch her process videos, look her up on You Tube. This one she showed you how to make 6 pages. I don't have them totally finished until I find photos I want to put in them but here they are all made in one evening. Sorry for the poor quality of photos, I am working on finding a way to take better photo's in my house, it is dark and overhead lights as well. If you have any suggestion, please leave me a comment below. 

With all this new creativeness I have learned, I am thinking about doing some scrapping for hire...if you have experienced this type of work before, please leave me a comment below as well.

More good stuff to share with in the next month or so, so please stop by and let me know what you have been up to. 

Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate your following me! 

Dawn aka Snowsmoon's Design