Shopper’s Report: Michaels, Dollar Tree and Target

Our tax return arrived so it was my duty to stimulate the poor economy by shopping, right? First stop was Staples on my way to work. I have SO been wanting/needing an external hard drive so I can get my plethora of photos off my laptop. They take up so much space. I found the one with the largest memory — 1 TB! — and was happy to see the price. An older buried price tag showed $329, the newer tag said $289, then with a sale and rebate it was $229 (online right now it’s showing $253; yeah, I got a deal!). So I got it for $100 off! Sweet. I verified on the box that it will work with a Mac but if it doesn’t, they said I have some time to return it even if it’s opened. Isn’t it pretty?

Not SBR, but I also had to get a fax machine for home, which I’d been putting off because I thought they cost a lot, and I already have a printer/scan/copier so I was wondering where in the HAY-ELL I was going to fit another machine on my desk. Well, I really needed one because the online faxing I’ve been using hasn’t been reliable and I need to get faxes for work so I bit the bullet. And found one at Staples, a tiny little cheap-o Brother fax machine for $60 … with a $40 rebate. So just a $20 expenditure..I can live with that.

After work, I went by Dollar Tree cuz it’s the time of year we need to buy new pool noodles. I also got 4 Garage Sale signs to advertise my Scrapbook Garage Sale on May 2/3. They had nothing new in the scrappy aisle except for some 12×12 papers that weren’t my taste. I check there once in a while because that’s where I got my whole stack of fake Thickers. Silly me, I gave more than half of my stack away as crop door prizes and now I find that I use them all the time myself, so I wish I had more! But, no, no Fake Thickers at DT this time :(

Next was Michaels even though I didn’t (GASP!) have a coupon this week. Did I miss the ad on Sunday, or was there no coupon issued? Bah! Anyway, I wanted to see if they had any of the most recent studio g acrylic stamps aka Mikes stamps. Don’t ask me what number this set is, because I’ve lost complete track, there are so many. But here’s a pic of the ones I found:

Sorry about the shadow (that’s me!) but my camera just died and I couldn’t retake like I wanted (oopsie)…

I also have no idea if I got the whole set. I need to find a listing of them again with photos of all the stamps. The stamps say www.hamptonart.com on the back so I’m going to try the website. If not, I’m sure someone has posted them to CKMB or 2peas.

ETA 4/19/08: I knew my CKMB ladies would come through! Thanks to KPax331/~Katie~, I see that I’m missing 4 of the stamps and they are from Series 11. HERE is the post she directed me to.

Not SBR again, but I found some very cool “How to Draw” books for kids that show step by step how to draw animals and monsters. A very cool gift for a very cool kid I know. And now when DH sees the Mike’s receipt, I can just say, “Oh, I went there for a birthday gift.” Mmm-hmmm…don’t try and pretend you don’t pull that one too!

Onward to Target so check out the scrapbook sec….er, um…for more birthday shopping. I did get some great deals on toys but that’s not what you want to hear about, I know! My Tarjay is notoriously behind the curve on getting new things so I wasn’t feeling hopeful. But they did finally put out some of the new Making Memories Noteworthy, 5th Avenue and Animal Crackers that everyone has been talking about. They had almost the entire 5th Avenue line this time, but I only got the Clear Tags and Shapes. I already have most of the line from ALL MOMENTS REMEMBERED online store; it was part of their monthly kit which you can sign up for HERE. Target also had some Disney Jolee’s I hadn’t seen before, so I got the castle one. I was happy to find a pack of MM Noteworthy. I already have many of their papers but I hadn’t seen the felt flowers, die cut shapes or flower stickers. It was $8…not a screamin good price but doable considering you get 2 of the shaped papers, and some embellies along with the regular 12×12 paper. One thing I noticed at my Target is the majority of kits they had that were newer lines were in 8×8. Wazzup with that noise? I know its cool to have once in a while, but don’t most of us still scrap the majority of the time in 12×12? I was bummed to see that. Finally, they had some of the POP CULTURE line from KI MEMORIES. I already have some random papers and the alpha, so I just got the Gel Candy epoxy stickers. They had a Pop Culture theme set but I added up the cost of each of the pieces (isn’t it sad that I know how much everything costs individually??), and it wasn’t a good deal. If I remember right, the pack cost $9.99 and the items individually would’ve been $9-10 anyway. There were a few papers I wouldn’t use so it wouldn’t be a bargain for me. Besides, I’m always disappointed when a big box like Target can’t offer a price that AT LEAST beats what I’d pay at the LSS for separate items. I mean, c’mon! I thought you guys had “buying power” and “bought in bulk” and would “save us money.” I thought that in exchange for you guys putting all of our LSS’s out of business and taking away our buying freedom, you were supposed to give us great prices on the FEW new items you do actually carry. Pony up, dudes…

Speaking of good deals, I did find some cute things in the Dollar Spot…a paper pack with soft pretty colors called Wedding. It includes printed, foiled and embossed papers, $1 for 8 sheets of 12×12 so not bad. And a line of embellies called Vacation that were really cute and bright and versatile, so I got the epoxy letters, epoxy stickers, and glitter tags.

Anyway, here’s a pic of my haul for the day…

Oh! What was that?!?! You’re asking if that’s a FISKARS THREADING WATER PUNCH in my swag photo?? Why, yes, that does seem to be what it is. I am apparently one of the lucky few to find one of these sizzlin hots at Target. The rumor is that each store gets one at a time, so when one sells, they order and wait for another. I was happy to take their “one” off their hands, as I have a friend who’s been craving one ever since she saw mine (I posted about it HERE). So I’m sorry, I know you want my punch, but please don’t send me chocolate or scrap supplies trying to bribe me into sending it your way…well, second thought…send the chocolate. I’ll think about it and get back to you…