We Will Always Have Paris

Review: Paper Coterie Swatch Books

About a year ago, I featured Paper Coterie's swatchbooks as one of my Two For Tuesday picks.  Super-sweet reader Lisa left a comment letting me know that Groupon was offering a Paper Coterie discount that week.  It was meant to be.  I bought my Groupon and waited until just before Christmas to take advantage a make up a swatchbook using the adorable pics from my girls' lemonade stand photo shoot.  I used them as stocking stuffers for both my Mom and Mother-in-Law.  Seriously, these books were so cute that I had to order one for myself as well.  Take a look:

Each 5.5" x 3.25" swatchbook is only $15.00!!  $15.00!!!  There are 30 pages (15 fronts and 15 backs) which means you'll need a ton of pictures.  But, what a deal!

I found the uploading/editing process just about as easy as those I've used before (Shutterfly & Blurb) and the results were spectacular.  I plan to do another swatchbook for each of my girls, using pictures from our recent Disney World vacation.  Go make one for yourself!

(The wonderful photos used in this swatchbook were taken by the uber-talented Melanie Zajicek)

Post-Kokuyo Adhesive Options

I get several e-mails a week, asking if I've found another source for the beloved Kokuyo adhesive.  I've heard rumors (from inside sources) that 3M has acquired Kokuyo and will be releasing it in the states.  I did notice that JetPens is selling a Scotch (3M) product that looks like the Dot N' Roller.

I've also heard from readers in Japan, swearing that they are still buying up Kokuyo and that Kokuyo is still releasing new products.  Reader Deb even sent me a sample of the new Kokuyo mini (very very cute!), but her friend in Japan couldn't tell her when it would be released. 

Regardless of the rumors, it is next to impossible to find right now.  (Although a reader recently spotted some refills at her local Archivers -- go check it out!).  So, I've been left to my own devices to find a replacement.  I've been fortunate to have a number of on-line companies send me samples and I've raided every store around. 

 
(Just a handful of the dispensers in my "adhesives" drawer -- I have two drawers full of adhesives.)

I started to review a ton of the adhesives, but then slowly realized that I only liked one of them.  One!  And the one I like, I really, really, really like.

Drumroll, please.....

My Stik by Scrapbook Adhesives (a 3L company)

 

 

(Ignore my crappy production values... I couldn't get my movie software to work this weekend)
(Thanks for the Flip camera Suni, you rock!)

I loved this adhesive so much that I am now carrying it in my on-line store.  I'm placing a bulk order, so I'll be passing the savings on to you.  Click here to get yours.

Product Review: Scrap Catchers & Die Cutter Covers by Etsy Seller ScrapGuild

I regularly receive e-mails asking if I still sell my Do-It/Did-It Rolodex kits .  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to produce new DIDI kits in a couple of years (HOWEVER, I think I have located a new source for the rolodexes & I may be back in business!).   I recently unearthed a half-started DIDI kit in my storage room (those who have been in my storage room know the crafting atrocities that lie in the half-opened boxes stacked precariously one on top of another).  A couple of days later, I received an e-mail from a reader asking if I had any kits.  Great timing!!  I let her know that I just happened to have one & she offered to swap her product for mine. 

I LOVE swaps.  I've swapped Nancy Drew Date Book kits for whimsical T-shirts & boxes of vintage books.  I once swapped a Nancy Drew Date Book for these adorable mama merit badges.  I recently swapped empty CD jewel cases for photo albums to use with my Library of Memories system (Louise, I still think you got a raw deal -- I'll make it up to you at Summer in Paris).

When Clare offered a swap, I scurried over to her website to see what she had to offer.  Covers for electronic die cutting machines!  Heaven!!  My Wishblade sits in a uber-dusty studio & I constantly worry how much damage the dust is doing to my high-priced machinery.  Then, she upped the ante by offering to make it using Michael Miller's Eiffel Tower fabric.

GASP.

It arrived last week and it is perfect!  She specializes in covers for Cricut machines (I'm talking to you Jenny, Beth, Amy, etc.), but she can do most anything with the correct measurements. 

The package she sent me included another little package.  I opened it up & discovered this:

It's a matching bag to hold my scraps as I work.  I LOVE THIS.  It has a removable sand bag that keeps it in place on my desk, or my work table, or my dining room table, or ANYWHERE.  It has flexible boning at the top to keep it open for me.  I can't tell you how many crops I've been to where I'm dealing with a flimsy piece-of-crap grocery store bag taped the the table.  NEVER AGAIN!  This bad boy is coming with me everywhere. 

Both the cover and the scrap bag are well made & durable.  I loved the fact that the scrap bag was lined in a coordinating fabric.  And it is deep!  Deep enough to hold those 12" scraps.  (insert "happy clap" here)

I know that Clare is more than willing to take custom orders.  She has two different Etsy stores:  Scrapincovers and ScrapGuild.  You can find the scrap bags at ScrapGuild.  Let her know what colors you're looking for & I'm sure she'll work with you to make sure you get something perfect for you!  If you're coming to "Summer in Paris", just imagine how handy this would be as you hop from class to class!

As always, I'm more than happy to enable other people in spending their hard-earned dollars...

Oh Happy Day! Kokuyo Adhesive Available Again!

I reported back in August that my beloved Kokuyo Adhesive was going out of business.  Here's the deal... apparently it was no longer being distributed in the U.S.  However, the company was still up & running.  People from all over the world e-mailed me to let me know that they were still able to find it in Europe and Japan.

I recently heard from a wonderful company right here in the good ol' U-S-of-A that carries the Japanese version of Kokuyo.  JetPens.com carries the same adhesive I love & recommend to everyone, it just has different packaging.

Oh happy day!

JetPens sent me three of the Kokuyo adhesives so that I could try them & let you know what I thought of them:

 
(Required FTC Disclaimer: JetPens sent me these adhesives in return for a review.  I did not purchase them from JetPens directly.  Other than the free product, I have not been paid for a review.)

The first adhesive I tried is their Dot Liner Power Acid Free Tape.  This is the same beloved adhesive I have been using for years.  The only difference is the Japanese packaging:

In fact, when you hold the new tape runner up against the old one, you can barely spot the difference:

Hands down, this is my end-all-be-all favorite adhesive.  It is super sticky, so you don't have to worry about things not staying together later on down the road -- even on textured cardstock (hellooooo crappy Hermafix tabs).  It never tears.  Not once in all the time I've been using this adhesive had I had the runner tear (hellooooo crappy Mono adhesive).  It is super easy to refill (ATG, you & I never even had a chance).  LOVE IT.  For all of you tape runner fans, you can scurry out & buy yours at JetPens right now.  They also have refills for your old Tape Runner Plus (sold out as of 1/11/10, but you can request an e-mail notification when they restock).

In my their gift package, JetPens also included the Kokuyo DotLiner adhesive.  This is the same thing as the old fashioned Kokuyo Dot & Roller adhesive.  I have always wanted to try it (Scrapbooking guru Ali Edwards swears by it), but I saw no need to venture out when I was so happy with my Kokuyo tape runner.  However, since it was FREE, what the heck?:

 
I think I need to add this bad boy to my collection of everyday essentials.  It is smooth & easy to apply (God bless you brilliant Kokuyo people), but it is not nearly as permanent as my tape runner.  I used it to glue the liner from a Nancy Drew Date Book to a piece of chipboard.   When I tried to remove liner, it came right up.  I put it back down & lifted it again fifteen minutes later -- it came right up.  Now, when you put something down with my beloved tape runner, you damn well better love it.  That bad boy isn't coming up.  Ever.  However, there are projects where I'm not sure if I'm going to get the placement right on the first try.  I can see why using a dot roller would be helpful.

The final freebie in my JetPens package was this Kokuyo Two Way Dot Adhesive:

You can either roll it out (as you would the standard dot roller OR you can stamp it:

I'll be honest... this one didn't blow my skirt up.  I tried on several occassions to try to stamp it down.  At times, I'd only get two or three little micro dots.  Sometimes nothing.  I don't know whether I had a defective adhesive, but I couldn't seem to get it to work.  Plus, why would I need a stamp adhesive when their glorious products are already so stinkin' easy to use??  I think I'll pass on this one.

Thank you JetPens for the freebies.  And more importantly, thank you for making this wonderful product available again.  You'll be getting my orders!

Things I'm Loving This Week

 

1.  The new hats I bought my daughter from The Portland Beanie Company.  I bought her both a beanie visor (shown) and a newsie hat.  Love them!

 

2.  Wrinkle-Free Glue Sticks from Scotch.  Acid-free & non-clumping.  Gotta love it.  I use mine all the time for my Everything Book as well as my mom's wine tags.  It goes on smooth as butter.

 

3.  My brand new iHome IH36W under the counter iPod/FM/Weather/TV player (thanks Mom!).  I spent my morning putting away last night's dinner dishes to the civilized sounds of NPR.  My normal morning soundtrack is "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?  SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS"!  This was soooo much better.

 

4.  Zinnias from my garden.  Beautiful, no?

 

5.  My cheeseball kid.

What are you loving this week?

Book Review: BH&G Scrapbooks Etc. Page Planner

I picked this up at the grocery store the other day & I thought I'd share my two cents with you.  I'm a huge fan of scraplifting.  Why try to re-invent the wheel for each and every layout?  Sometimes it is easier to play off of someone else's idea.  If you're an avid scraplifter or a fan of sketches, you'll love this book/mag.

This special issue of Better Homes & Gardens' Scrapbooks Etc. offers over 133 sketches with several variations on each.  Their original sketch has an original layout to go with it.  Several different scrappers then provide their take on that original layout, so you can see numerous ways to run with it.  I particularly loved seeing how they take a one page layout and "stretch" it into a two page layout.

I judge a good scrapbooking magazine by how many pages I tear out of it (I keep the ideas in a binder and refer to it later).  Ladies, I tore 34 pages out of this 144 page mag!  That's almost 1/4 of the pages!

The magazine retails for $12.95, but there is a 1 year subscription to Ladies Home Journal included in the price.  If you opt out of the subscription, you can return the card for a $6.00 refund.  That's worth it!

Go get yourself the new BH&G Page Planner.  You'll love it!

Save Yourself Some Money This Week, Then I'll Help You Spend It...

A couple of things to help you save some money:

• AC Moore has a 50% coupon for tomorrow, July 17th.  Click here to get yours.
• La De Da Designs is having a 25 - 50% off Summer clearance sale.  This is the fantastic website I generally refer my students to when they are looking for cheap red line tape (a must-have for all of my classes).  Right now you can get 36 yards of 1" tape for $23.88, 36 yards of 1/2" tape for $12.87, 36 yards of 1/4" tape for $8.87 and 36 yards of 1/8" tape for $6.56.  To give you an idea of just how cheap this is, most local stores sell 5 yards of 1" tape for $8.50.  Compare that with 36 yards for less than 3 times the price and it is one helluva deal.  Shirley at La De Da is fantastic and I've never heard a bad word about the company. 

OK, now hold onto your credit cards because Erika over at Scrapbook Obsession just posted some of the new releases from Basic Grey.  For a brief moment, I stopped breathing.  Holy heck!

This one is my favorite.  It is called Periphery.

This is my second favorite... no wait, it's my favorite... no, my second favorite.  What the hell, I'm going to buy them all anyways.  This one is Recess.

Say hello to the papers that are going to finally help me finish that pesky honeymoon scrapbook.  This is Mellow.

Finally, this is Obscure.  It is my least favorite, but really... is it fair to pick favorites when it comes to Basic Grey?  I love them like they were my children.  There is enough love to go around.

Happy shopping.  I'm feeling a little better about my recent purchases knowing that I'm helping you spend your money as well.

Product Review: New Kokuyo Tape 'N' Roller Plus Adhesive

Before I get going here, the Do It/Did It Rolodex kits have sold out!  Whew that was quick!!  Thank you for your overwhelming response.  I have a new shipment arriving Friday, so place your orders this week before they're all spoken for!

I've been a huge fan of the old Kokuyo Tape Roller for years.  I bought it when I was in a pinch & needed emergency adhesive.  I loved the fact that the tape was incredibly sticky (unlike those pesky Hermafix tabs).  If I put something down with my Kokuyo, it stayed. 

Those who know me & take my classes know that I'm not particularly fond of the ATG gun (considered to be the gold standard by some).  It's big, bulky, a bitch to refill and expensive.  The Kokuyo was equally as sticky as the ATG gun (more sticky, if you ask me....) and it was easy to refill.  It rarely, if ever, gummed up on me.  It is strong enough to hold up to my most complex book projects. 

I recently learned that they were replacing the Kokuyo Tape Runner with the new Tape 'N' Roller Plus.  I was in a panic, wondering why they were tinkering with my ideal adhesive.  The other day, I went to buy a refill for my original Kokuyo at AC Moore (God bless the 40% off coupon), and I discovered they only had the new Kokuyo.  I took a deep breath, used my coupon, and bought the new roller.

OH MY GOOD GRAVY!  I used it at a crop on Saturday.  It is even easier to refill, absolutely no gumming up, it has a snap down adhesive cover (the old one had a removable cover which I lost immediately), and it is just as strong.  I'm in love.

If you need a super strong adhesive, give the Kokuyo a try.  A little goes a long way (each refill has 33 feet of tape!) and it is just about the easiest tape runner you can use.  The simple drop-in refill cartridge is so simple, my 2 year old daughter could put it in!

You can find the new Kokuyo at AC Moore.  Happy shopping!!

Junk In My Trunk

Oh happy day!!  It seems like a decade since I placed my order for Tim Holtz's new ink pad, alcohol ink, distress ink, embossing powder & paint dabber cases.  They finally arrived and here it is after midnight and I'm joyfully re-organizing my studio.  This is the trunk case for distress inks (but, this one is holding my gorgeous Nik Bantock inks).

Here's what I've discovered so far:

• I can fit three Rubbermaid drawers worth of ink pads into ONE ink pad case!  It holds up to 60 ink pads.  Good gravy!  Now I need to buy more ink pads, right?
• The ink pad case can fit 4 Adirondack pads into one slot OR 3 Ancient Page OR 3 Memories OR 4 Sea Brights/Sea Shells.
• Stampin' Up! pads just don't fit in the ink pad case.  They would probably fit in the Embossing Powder case.  I'll have to give it a try!
• The ink pad cases fit in my Store-In-Style cubes (OK, the big one kinda hangs out an inch or two in front, but that's A-OK with me!).  I can actually fit four huge ink pad cases into my cube.  Basically, I can store FOUR TIMES as many ink pads into a cube now.
• The alcohol ink case also works for Stickles glue.
• If you want to "pimp" out your trunk case, you'll definitely want to see Tim's video (click here).  I can't wait to decorate mine with alcohol inks, glass knobs, and oh so much more!

If you're interested in ordering the cases, I'm thinking of carrying them in the Flea Market.  Drop me a note & let me know if you want some of the cases.  I just love them!

Basic Grey Rub Ons

My friend Amy is the queen of the white rub-on.  I tend to buy my rub-ons in standard black as I never like the look of the white ones.  Amy, however, uses Basic Grey white rub-ons on some pretty eye catching layouts & I thought I'd give it a try myself:

I learned that the key is to start with dark paper.  It really makes the white stand out.  Thanks for the inspiration Amy!  I think I'll go buy more!

BTW, I'm quite sure that when I look back at my scrapbooks years from now I'll say to myself, "Wow, went a little crazy with that circle cutter, didn't I?".  My scrapbooks are almost yearbooks for product trends.  I can tell you exactly when eyelets became popular, when color blocking was the trend and when fibers were all the craze.

I'm off to work on my next class project...  an altered book with a circus theme!  I'll let you know when I schedule class dates.