I have less than 24 hours to spend my 50% off Michaels coupon. Because NOT using a 50% off Michaels coupon is like giving away a nice chunk of money. I mean, you can use your coupon and save $5, $10, even $20 depending on how you use it. So why wouldn’t you?
I haven’t been to my Mike’s very much recently, but the last time I was there, I took these photos …
Lots of Martha Stewart Halloween stuff:
I think most of this is by Recollections.
I love all of these flowers, and those pretty little bats. In fact, I think those $6.99 flowers qualify as “coupon-worthy.” And I don’t say that lightly.
There were lots of new Martha edge punches or “around the corner” punch sets, as these are. You get an edge punch and a corner punch of the same thing which allows you to punch “around the corner” of your paper. I’m so glad they put a sample on the package of what the punched paper looks like because I have a really hard time visualizing it myself.
If these aren’t already on sale, I think tomorrow I’ll spend my 50% off coupon on a Martha Stewart LARGE CIRCLE CUTTER.
It got some good reviews HERE. According to THIS HSN VIDEO DEMO, this cutter just launched in July (2010). Guess that’s why I haven’t heard too much talk about it.
HERE is what the Peas are spending their coupons on, if you need some ideas-slash-enabling, LOL! Although this review of the MS Large Circle Cutter was discouraging:
“well, i did get the new martha stewart circle cutter, and it is going back.. it doesn’t matter if i go all the way around without stopping, the ends do not meet up properly, and it looks ugly…” {Now, I don’t know what to do}.
What did you spend yours on? What new things have you seen or bought at Michaels lately?
A couple of weekends ago, I went to “the big city” and shopped at the Michaels there. I posted photos of that trip HERE. This past weekend, I went to my Small Town Michaels closer to home ~ which usually is quite a ways behind the Big City store in getting new things ~ and was surprised to find they had a lot of new products the Big City store did not have. Yay for Small Town! (For once).
This was pretty interesting. It’s a paper stack like you usually see by K & COMPANY (this is from the cute new “handmade” line; yes, it’s in all lowercase) but this one was longer. It says, “Designer paper pad. Decorate your life with pattern. Perfect for large format die cut machines.” The front cover has photos of home dec projects, like using paper to cover trays and bookshelves. Very innovative, K! And your Company. All Ya’alls! Good job.
The next three photos are from a rack of new K&Co, and much of it was similar to what I posted in my last Mike’s entry. In this first photo, bottom row center, I think those wooden die cut shapes are new. They felt pretty sturdy, not flimsy at all. Another great, innovative idea by K. And her Co.
Also in the top photo, in the top right corner and partially cut off, is a pack of photo frames. They were in black and white with a kind of deckle edge and that “old fashioned” printing of random dates. It said something like “turn your modern photos into vintage looking photos.” Man, I’m really impressed with all these new ideas that the Company and K are coming up with!
Here’s yet another new idea by K&Co. It’s a postbound, pre-done album with an open spine and no page protectors. It’s also from the new “handmade” line, which is really growing on me now. This is the front cover …
… and a random page inside. As you can see, the pages are laid out in such a way that you would just plop your photos and journaling right in there and either be dunzo, or add some embellishment to fancy it up. I thought the papers and designs were soft and pretty, very useable.
Personally, it gives me the skeeves to think of scrapping something and then leaving it out in the open, unprotected like that. I mean, won’t my nekkid photos get fingerprints and schmutz all over them? It’s one reason I’ve never done a spiral-bound scrapbook and why I have a hard time with a lot of mini-books (so many with no protectors, ack!). Then I got to wondering if there were side-loading page protectors you could get to slide onto these pages when you’re done. Kind of like the THESE by CREATIVE MEMORIES.
Here is a racka new stacks, mainly by K&Co.
A close-up of the Silhouettes from the “handmade” line (yes, AGAIN!). These were different than your average doily-type papers in that only half of each sheet is die cut. I was really wanting these …
SHIMELLE posted some great photos from CHA-W of the “handmade” line on her blog HERE.
Here another racka stacks. These are from Die Cuts With a View (aka DCWV). Lots of cute stuff here.
A closer look at the DCWV stack called “At Home” and it’s matching cardstock stack. This line really caught my eye. The colors and designs are very fresh, I thought.
DCWV stack called “Hittin’ the Books.”
“Songbird” by DCWV; super cute, fun colors, birdhouses, flowers, cheerful, and happy. These papers would make great cards.
Here’s the “Family Connections” stack by DCWV, with family tree pages and great heritage looks.
I almost hate to show this one, the “Vintage Collage Stack” by DCWV, because my Scrap Sisters ANGIE and ABBY might feel like they MUST have it, and you know how I hate to enable (wink).
Wow, another innovative product in my opinion. Wait until you see these papers. They don’t have a repeating pattern, but something totally different. Awesome DCWV!
I think this was called transparency film, and here were the two designs to choose from. I’m not sure how to use them, or why they come in a tube. Maybe someone can enlighten me … please?
Here are some gorgeous trims by Prima ~ black lace and flower petals, 4 choices of colors. So, so pretty …
More new Prima flowers …
In my last Mike’s post, I showed you this:
Well, here is some more of the “Home” line by MY MINDS EYE. The 12×12 stack is very thick and I think every single page had glitter on it. The 6×6 stack in the middle had some pages with glitter and some without (ETA 2-8-10: I stand corrected. I looked at this pad again and every sheet indeed has glitter on it. Some of it’s very subtle and I missed it the first time I flipped through in the store, sorry!). The smaller 4×6 mat stacks had no glitter. No matter though … all versions are absolutely gorgeous.
I don’t know how MME does it but they have a way with color, how they combine specific shades, and give it a distressed or worn out look but not so distressed that it looks grungy. Instead, it just looks soft and approachable. {Jeez, what am I writing, an ad for Match.com? “Soft and approachable?” Yes, I DO love paper. I love it a lot. Much like you love your mom and your dog and your iPod; that is how much I LOVE paper. If I weren’t already married, I would most likely be in a committed relationship with it}.
So, you want to know what I got, right? Because I’m not made of stone. I can’t just go in there, see all this scrumptious new stuff, and not buy anything, right? If loving scrap supplies is wrong, I don’t wanna be right!
I got the K&Co. road trip chipboard stickers from this earlier photo:
I used a 50% off coupon and, from the photo posted earlier, I got the 6×6 MME “Home” glitter pad. {Wait, “glitter pad”??? WTH is that? Something Tinker Bell uses for her monthlies? Bwahahahahaha!}
I also got packs of orange and green Primas like these. Why yes, I do already have them but I was getting a second set for a, um … “friend.” Yeah, that’s the ticket. For a “friend.” J/K, I really was getting them for an online friend who’s local Mike’s doesn’t carry these Primas. I owed her a big time favor so I was happy to find them!
I explained to the cashier that I was buying them for a friend who lived elsewhere but her Mike’s didn’t carry the Primas. I asked if I could ring them up separately and use another 50% coupon … and she said yes! I know that kind of thing is hit or miss with Mike’s employees, but I lucked out today :)
So that’s the latest and greatest at Michaels. Have you seen the new stuff? What’s on your wish list or what have you already bought? What I meant to ask was, What has already jumped in your cart when you weren’t looking and then you didn’t have the heart to tell it to get out? It’s okay, you can tell me …
You’ve probably heard me say a million or so times how much I love BASIC GREY. And I recently did THIS POST about their Granola and Urban Prairie paper pads being carried exclusively at Michaels. Well, after reading THIS post at 2peas and other MB posts, I caved and bought them both. I’ve actually been scrapping a lot lately (vs. my usual ‘scrapbook supply collecting,’ an activity I’ve perfected), so I didn’t feel too awful guilty about buying yet more patterned paper. Yeah, that’s me, the PAPER SLUT…
So, I bought the BG paper pads the other day and love them both; one has such a pretty color combo (pink, black, white, yellow and teal) and the other will be great for men/boy layouts (blues and browns). They retail for $20; I used my 50% off coupon for one and paid full price for the other (gawd, when was the last time I paid full price for a big ticket item….nopers, can’t remember! but there were only 3 of each and I couldn’t bear to miss out). Of course, this week all Mike’s paper pads went on sale for 40% off. I heard through the scrapvine that you could take your receipt in and get reimbursed for the difference. That’s like, what?, 8 bucks. Yep, worth it. I went in to Mike’s tonight with THIS WEEK’s 50% off coupon, browsed the store, and ended up with some Archival Mist. You know, one of those “you need it and it’s very expensive, so a coupon is great, but you’d rather spend it on something more sexy” kind of item. I also got some ‘sexy’ ceramic glue to repair my little green ceramic cross that broke (that’s some kinda really bad sign, right?). I looked at the Cricut cartridges that are on such a great sale this week, but didn’t want any of them badly enough to justify the bucks.
At the register, I asked about the refund and the manager told me, yes, they would refund the difference but I needed to bring the item in with me. Which I hadn’t. She was very apologetic and said she was sorry I had to come all the way back, and I’m like, “Oh yeah, I really hate coming here, it’s my least favorite store in the whole world. Oh…No….Please don’t make me come back again!” and she and checker boy (yes, a boy!) laughed at me. Just another positive customer service exchange for me…or turning lemons into lemonade, however you wanna look at it.
One last story before I go….I delivered a couple orders tonight after work (I’m a consultant for MEMORY WORKS). One delivery entailed dropping something at the office of my friend *J*, who happens to be a doctor. She had ordered a Basic Grey MAGNETIC MAT.
Her office was just closing as I arrived…I assume it was one of her nurses that was putting down the window blinds, etc. So I start handing her this kinda large, black item with a metal ruler, all encased in hard plastic and she kind of backs up and is hesitant to grab it. Then she slowly reached for it, turned it all around and studying it like I had just handed her an instrument of medieval torture or something. I said, “This is for *J*. She ordered it from me,” and she goes, “Uhhhhh…..okaaayyyy.” Gosh I wish I knew what verbage was running through her mind! Suffice to say, she couldn’t have been a scrapbooker and I’m sure she thought I was some crazy lady. It all made me wonder if *J* has not come out of he closet and told her employees that she’s a {GASP!} scrapbooker? I just thought that was a funny little moment. I live in this scrapper vacuum and think everyone ‘gets’ it, because I spend most of my online and IRL time with friends who are scrappers (um, yeah, sad but true). Sometimes I need to be reminded that the entire cotton pickin’ world is not inhabited with scrapbookers; instead, most have no idea what in the heck we are doing…
