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

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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

....Continued of Week One, Kendallynn Meets the Family

Hello again,

I have had a few busy weekends and between working long hours those weeks, I haven’t had much time to put my thoughts down on paper, So let me see where I left off in sharing from my #happyplanner and continue in my story.

I think, we were still sharing about the visit we had with Greg, Joy and Kendallynn. We were at the beach at Kendallynn’s request and the day was a windy rainy day so we only stayed down on the beach to take a couple of pictures which I shared on my last post…….…

We had family meet us at a family favorite pizza place I use to take the kids to a lot when they were young, the original Bizzarro Pizza in Indialantic, FL. This was the first time my kids meet her. We were all excited.

Kendallynn’s birthday is in a few days, so Jessica gave her an early birthday “mini” party. So she opened her gifts while we waited for our pizza pie.

  

We had a nice lunch, check out this LARGE pizza, it couldn’t even fix on the table. Not sure you can tell by the photo, but is was as big as the table top. One piece hung over the paper plate, they were so big! GREATEST pizza in the world!

She was so excited and must have been over whelmed with all these new people in her life doeing over her. It was an amazing time to see them all excited for her, wanting to meet her. As we sit and ate our lunch we chatted of old times and catching up with each other as well. We decided to go back to Jessica’s house to wait for Dusty and the boys to arrive.

We all got into the cars and drove to John and Ashley’s house so Kendallynn could meet the rest of her family. Uncle John and Aunt Dusty with Javi, Mateo, Tre (she had already dropped Xander off to his Dad’s house so she didn’t get to meet him).

    

The boys were so shy, so they really didn’t get to know each other, but I did get this of them all. (missing is Ashley who was at work and Xander, Chaz and Brittany which she saw earlier in the day).

I don’t think they realize how so HAPPY they make me when we all get together. THESE are the VERY BEST times and so enjoy them so much. No,  it’s not the WALTON’S (inside family joke) but they are my pride and JOY and a Mother can only hope!!! I would love to have them all together in one house to be able to say, “Good night, Jessica & Alex. John & Ashley. Dusty and JonC. Greg & Joy” just one more time!!! and of Course a GOOD NIGHT with lots of kisses and hugs to my grandchildren, “Chaz, Brittany, Michael, Kendallynn, Javi, Xander and Mateo” as well as Tre. Need to get a house big enough for that first.

Here is the most resent photo of My children, which I had made on canvas to hang over my desk for now, but my black and white wall collection I am hoping to put up soon!

Thanks for letting me share my life one week at a time. Hoping to get caught up soon, but this was week one and it was a big one.

Have a  great week and thanks for stopping by!

Feb 19, 2017 Planner update. SCRAPPING WEEKEND-Week 1

Hello again,

Glad to be back here to share another update, As you can see I am still working on  Week one. Week one was a very busy week and with all that happened, it is taking me a while to get it all documented. This weekend I found my digi files for Simple Stories Snap albums so I found myself scrapping without even "planning for it". It was so much fun and I really do miss the storytelling in this matter. Also found my Project Life templates as well. I am one scrap-happy mama!

I am realizing that after finishing up January in my planner, that is won't hold it all even if I slip it up into two or three planners, so I will going to keep that photos I take along my 2017 journey will be kept in a Simple Stories Snap Albums, I have three of four of them. So as I keep memories and things to do in my planner I will have everything I need to keep my pocket scrapping a organized and fun to do. I have more than enough supplies to do this, but have been overwhelmed with thinking that I have to get the many years in my albums first and it seems to never get a good start on it. So, again, Linda thanks so much for telling me about and sending me a happy planner!

Week 1 continued: Above page layout.

Before getting to go over to visit and stay the night with Kendalynn, I had some bad news happen at the beginning of the week. The journal on the layout, explained:

A few days before I was to go see Kendalynn, my car decided that it didn’t want to stay started. We couldn’t even get it to stay started to get it to the auto shop. We called AAA to tow the car to Dave’s Auto Repair in Cape Canaveral. I rode home with JJ and He brought me to work that next day and picked me up so that we could go get my car. It was dirt battery terminals and bad ignition switch. Not as costly as I thought and JJ saved the weekend with my kids. JJ wanted me to try the awesome New England Clam Chowder he thinks is the best he has ever had at Grills. He had a large bowl and we shared an order of their famous Fish Tacos. It was a new first dinner date for 2017. Ended by a beautiful sunset over the Indian River on the drive home. 

In my last post I explained these two layouts, so I won't go in to too much details. It was a very special time for me for almost all my kids to be together. I am going to make a 12 x 12 pocket layouts to share my next post.

The next few weeks will be finished and ready to share. My first week was a big one and family gatherings are always a great sharing moments. I will share my planner for Week one:

Have a GREAT week! Thanks for reading and stopping by!

January 2017 Special Memories- Week 1

HI, I hope that everyone is having a good start to 2017. I am going to do a little catch up for the month of January. As I want to use my blog as my Journal for memory keeping. So when I do start putting my photos together with my Happy Planner notes, I will have the journal all finished. I think I will break it up over the next couple of weeks so that I am not rushed or leaving out important details out that I would like to share with my family one day. The first week of the year was a great family gathering time, so I want to make sure that I get all that happened in writing before the moments start slipping away. That is the little ones that make the big story the best. I have been a little journal in my planner as well so but I really think this will work out better.

WEEK 1-  Jan 2, 2017

As I begin this New Year I was gifted this planner and goodies to create with. It was given to me by a very dear friend and best friend of mine, Linda Walton. Really excited about it as I can keep track of my memories and jot down things to pass on to my kids. As I explained in my first post, I am so thankful for all the love and support that she has given me over the last 10 years or so. Thanks again, girly!

January 6, 2017 – I got out of work early and went to see Kendalynn, Greg and Joy. They came to Florida to take her to Disney, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. She had a great time but so much wanted to meet the rest of the family. I am not sure how I pulled it off But I did. There was only two family member that was not there and that was Xander & JonC.  Dusty dropped Xander off before she got to John’s house. JonC stayed and worked for Dusty so that she could come to meet Kendallynn.

 Here are a few pictures. I have been pretty luck in the last few years to get them all together at least once a year and this time I did it twice within a few weeks of each other was a sure blessing. We took Kendallyn to the beach, she wanted to she it. Of course it was colder thatn it has been in weeks and the to top it off, it was a light rain and very windy. Had Pizza at our family’s favorite Pizza place, The Original Bizzarro Famous New York Pizza . I thinks she was little overwhelmed with us all but it was an awesome day. Before today, I had been the only one who had meet her. Jessica’s and I have been kind of in her life but Jessica’s love it!!!

I have a couple more things to share in January before I get into some exciting news for February goings on!

Well until next week, I hope that everyone is taking the time to put your memories on paper or any other form a keeping them in light so that your future generations can enjoy, laugh and know what has happened in the past.  I know I am enjoying this new journey. May God bless each of you with many happy memories!

January 2017- New Beginnings for Memory Keeping - My new Create 365 Happy Planning Planner

Hello My Friends & Family,

So where to even began, I would like to say Hello to everyone and to any one who is reading this blog post now. Can not BELIEVE IT....WOW.... it's has been almost three years since I have done a blog post. Where on earth has the time gone? Must add that to my #HappyPlanner right away, Get back to my "BLOGGING". Any one have stickers for posting/blogging reminders?

I would like to begin with thanking my BFF for the AWESOME Christmas gift, Linda Walton, surprised me with. As I opened the case, tears ran down my face. They were happy tears but I am not usually a person that tears up about happy things ,but she knows me so well and has a good idea what this means to me. It was FILLED with all kinds of goodies. I have to admit, my first thought reaction was, boy am I in trouble BUT I was so wrong. So again I would like to thank her from the bottom of my heart. I love my HAPPY PLANNER!  

As January is coming to an end, I realized that I would like to take this Happy Planning to the next level (praying I can keep up with our fast pace and ever changing world). Coming back to my blog for sharing my life happenings with friends and family I am hoping will give me just that boost I need. Social media has been sucking up too much of my life & time. Hours of hoping from one site to another getting nothing productively documented..... Many things started and NOTHING finished. Although this is a form of it, I have always felt it was a whole lot more personal as well as useful to me when trying to find a special moments to share. As with most of my digital journey of sharing things over the years, I love that I can make this my own "Happy Place" to keep my love of Memory Keeping alive and sharing with you. I also really MISS my digital scrapping, so how knows, there may be some more of that in my future as well. I sure hope so! 

MOVING FORWARD, please help me along this next year by letting me know that you have stopped by. Leaving a simply "Hi" or "I was here" comment below. It was always been a great encouragement to me in the past. I will have My dear friend & BFF to help me through getting my social media site hooked up so that when I post, it goes to them as well.  I do have some very near and dear followers that do follow me on them as well.  I was old school in the past when sharing my posts through them, don't laugh, I would login to each of them and post my links to share. Sad but true. But as I said moving forward.

Over the next few days I am going to catch you up on my journey through January, it was sure a busy and fun month seeing family who lives out os state, a few birthday celebrations and weekly photo's of just because to share with you. My Happy Planner is all complete with many things I would like to share. So stay tuned as they say in hollywood.  

Welcome back! May your life be Blessed & Thank you for all your support   

Week 8...A little late but a real busy week.

I am behind so this post is going to be a rough outline of Week 8 and I am looking forward to posting Week 9.

Sunday-Had a wonderful dinner with JJ's family in Orlando At Joe's Crab Shack. Debi Bratcher and Johnny (JJ's dad) along with Debi's kids, Allison and Timothy. Thank you guys, it was fun! Even though I had to skip around the restaurant on a Stick horse wearing a ratty looking straw hat while everyone sang, Happy Birthday! (I played along and they said thanks for being a good sport. 

Monday- I decided to stay home from work as my back (which I did find out is a pinched nerve) was hurting and I really just didn't feel up to dealing with the world. RELAX and DID NOTHING!

Tuesday- Wednesday Some of the same things in a daily work week. I did find with new sign of spring in a trimmed back tree at my place of work. I know the leaves look like fall, but this bird worked so hard for the last few days building the nest.

Thursday- started out the same as any other week but the thing that happened is the reason I have fell behind on my blogging, scrapping BUT...I am going to keep my new outlook and not share what caused the messy and depressing mood I had gone through over the last week and half. LIFE is just too short to look back over it.

Week 8- Inspirational Quote

Friday- I backed up an over night bag and went to my daughters house for the night so that I could go with her to look at houses. Went to dinner with Lisa, Alexis and Jasmine. It was fun catching up with her and seeing the girls. By the time we got home and relaxing it was late so we decided to go to bed early so that  we could eat breakfast before we had to meet Bluma, lady who was showing us the houses, to look at six different house for Jessica to check out to buy. (That lady was a mission to sell a house that is for sure).

Saturday-This is the one she liked and so she decided to put in an offer.

Somewhere in this week my new storage 12 x 12 scrapbook paper containers came. Caught you up on the HAPPY SPACE next week.

Happier Day to come!