A day of shopping

The Holiday Market was in Greensboro NC this weekend. So my friend, Susan, and I decided we need to see what all the fuss was about and we got our butts up early on Saturday and drove over an hour to get there. She picked me up at 7:30 and we hit the road. First we had to stop for breakfast at Chick-fil-a…super yummmmmmmm! We got to the market around 10:00; traffic was a bear, but boy, was it worth it!! We spent about 5 hours at the Market and then we grabbed a bite at Steak n’ Shake. After that we hit Garden Ridge. This was my first ever trip to Garden Ridge, but I promise it won’t be my last! We spent well over an hour paroozing around there. I was able to buy a lot of things there that I need to make my Christmas gifts this year, so that was a huge plus. When we were finished there we popped back in the car and headed towards home, but first we had a few more stops on the way J…you really didn’t think we were done, did you? We went to AC Moore and bought a few items, then on to Hanes Mall and hit a few stores there. Then it was time for our 6:00 dinner reservation at Arigato (Japanese Steakhouse – the best in the area!!). We stuffed ourselves silly and then hit Krispy Kreme (after all that shopping for ourselves we had to bring something home for the family J), Sam’s, Michael’s and Target. I KNOW…we were just glutens for punishment. We finally had enough, our bodies and pockets could take no more! We headed home and Susan dropped me off around 10:00. I put my stuff in their respective rooms and hit the sack! I slept hard. I thought I would share a pic of the two goofballs we are…these are the fun hats we bought at Garden Ridge…we just couldn’t resist LOL! We are already talking about doing this again next year! Can’t wait!

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Birthday Present for 5 Year Old Niece

So my outgoing, energetic five year old niece tells me about a month ago that she wants a “pink guitar with real strings” for her birthday. Well, after searching around I found a guitar that was the right size and the right price (I mean she is five!). Unfortunately it wasn’t pink. As I was standing there contemplating whether I wanted to spend the time spray painting it and worrying it may damage the instrument, a light bulb came on! PINK VINYL!!! BUTTERFLIES, FLOWERS, GLITTER!!! CRIIIIIIIIIIIIIICUT!!!!!! That was it! I knew exactly what to do to girly it up. Here is what I came up with…I thought it would be cool to put her first and middle name on it too…isn’t her name the perfect rock star name? Emma Raye, rocker chick. Isn’t it the coolest?! She sure thought so. Scored some points for Uncle Alan and Aunt Brandi! Here are before and after pics…

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Frosted Designs Color Challenge

I originally made this card for my nephew’s birthday and then I ran across this color challenge, which seems to fit perfect, so I thought I would enter it. This is the first challenge in which I have ever entered a project. I hope you like it! You can check out the Frosted Designs site here http://www.frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/.

Scubascrapper Brandi

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Birthday Card and Nintendo DS Gift box for 9 year old Nephew

Well, I haven’t posted any projects in a while…to be honest I have done too many. Here is what I have to share with you…

Card is Gifts Pup from Paper Pups. Nintendo DS game gift box using Graphically Speaking for the Nine9 image for my nephew.

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I am a GYPSY owner!!!

I did it! I broke down and ordered the Gypsy last night.  HSN had a second round order for a Gypsy bundle.  This time HSN included the Destinations cartridge.  It appears to be a full content shapes cartridge.  However, its contents seem to be a mystery as there are no pics to be found of the images on this cart, so I am quite intrigued.  It is expected to be delivered by Nov 12, which is just awesome as I am headed to the beach on the 15^th and I usually make my Christmas cards while I am there, so that will work out perfectly.

I was originally going to hold out for Black Friday to see if the price came down, but I was able to use a 15% off coupon code which I just couldn’t resist.  I hope I am not disappointed the time BF comes around.  It is still so new I just don’t know if they will have it as a special.  I guess if they put it on sale for 199.95, I would still have to think I came out ahead because the bundle comes with a carrying bag and the extra cartridge.  The carrying bag is supposed to be exclusive to HSN and HSN also offers a 3 year protection plan for 39.95, which I don’t believe any of the craft stores are going to offer.  The plan even includes damage from dropping!  Well for now I am ecstatic about my purchase and can’t wait for Nov 12!!!!

On another note, I just made my first wordbook; it is a Halloween book.  BugJunkie did a video series on how to make one and so I pretty much copied hers for my first try…I will post pics later.  I think it is cute and am thinking I have to make some as Christmas presents for friends. I already have a few ideas in mind for a couple of my friends.  Can’t wait to get started!

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Wish me luck!!

I wanted you all to know that it is the last day to make an entry to the cuttingaboveblogspot.com to win the new Gypsy!!  I don’t normally have the right type of luck to win stuff so I hadn’t entered until today.  I got a wild hair…who knows, maybe tomorrow will be my day, right? J  Wish me luck…oh and feel free to enter here *no don’t, really, I want to win* OHHHH did I really say that?  LOL!  Good luck to all.

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My newest organization project

Hi, my name is Brandi, I am an anal paper crafting addict that loves to find new ways to organize J. I LOVE my cartridge handbooks, but I HATE having to flip through them to look for images or the different fonts. So I read on a Cricut MB post about how some people put the printouts of the handbooks in a notebook so all of them are handy. Well, I just thought this was a great idea. I found a post where a lady had sized the handbook pages so that you could print 9 pages and have all of the images from the handbooks. I downloaded the .pdf files for my 35 carts from mediafire (I think) and printed them off. I purchased a 3” binder, 200 sheet protectors (it takes 5 protectors per full cart handbook – only one for the solution carts, of which I have one), and one package of tri colored post it flags (NOT the labels – they were much more expensive and you got less. I got 60 for 3.97 as opposed to 24 for 4.97). I simply put the pages in order and made sure that I had the back page flipped so that when I flip through the book I don’t have to turn it back and forth, I can just simply set it on my desk and flip through all images. I used the flags as tabs and wrote the name of the cartridge on the tab, keeping them in alphabetical order. OK, I am telling on myself, but oh well...I am SO ANAL that I used my cutting mat as a guide as to where to place the tabs so they would be evenly spaced…isn’t that sick?! LOL!!

A few things I am planning on doing is adding a picture of the overlays and cheat sheets (if I can find them). The fifth protector only has one page in it and most of them have room to add the overlay and then I can add the cheat sheet to the backside of it. I am also planning on going back through them and numbering them using The Pink Stamper’s method (If you do this make sure you check the overlay, some of the books don’t work that way). Well, I hope you like it…I love comments so let me know if you have any! I am a big girl and can take constructive criticism too, so if you have better ideas PLEASE let me know! Oh, if you want the link to the MB post directing you to the reduced sized handbooks please leave a comment but make sure to provide your email address so I can reply to you. Thanks for looking!

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