Charity Scrapbook Buddies gets a boost from Papercrafts Magazine!

Today Papercrafts Magazine was featuring Charity Scrapbooking on their blog. If you know me, you know how important I think Charity Crops are to the charities and people that they support! So I left a comment about the Charity Scrapbook Buddies group I started on Facebook and guess what, their editor, Kelly Smith posted a link to and promoted the Charity Scrapbook on their Facebook fan page! Awesome!

I believe that organizing, volunteering at, or attending a charity crop are life changing events! It makes you a better person, it gives you a different perspective on someone elses struggle, and it allows you to feel good about yourself! None of those are bad things, right? I know that helping with the Miracle for Savannah crop (visit Savannah's COTA site) a few years ago, touched my life and my heart in ways I couldn't even have imagined!  With all the economic problems out there, it stands to reason that if charity crops were important a few years ago, they are critical now when charitable donations have gone down.  Donations from businesses and coprporations are also down from a couple of years ago.

All that to say, if you haven't already, join the Charity Scrapbook Buddies and support all the charity crops that you can! Oh and sign your organ donor cards. After all you can't take your organs to heaven, but gifting them can save up to 17 lives that would otherwise be lost!

Cri...Cri... Cricut!!!

A while ago I got a Cricut...for the second time! Yup I had an original in 2006, and sold it a few weeks after getting it, but I won't bore you with the details.

There are times when I think it pays to take a formal class and for some reason, I believed that if I took a class, I'd be less likely to have the Cricut sit idle next to the Silhouette (I need to sell that) and the Slice which I actually do use from time to time! I wanted a good class with a really good teacher. I 'm really hoping to get very, very good at using it and that eventually share that knowledge with other people!  I love to teach, whether it is a large financial software package like Oracle Financials, how to make a cute mini scrapbook album to 4 year olds, or anything in between! Luckily, we have one of the very best Cricut teachers in North America right here in the area, Pat Davenport. I finally got to take the class I wanted, with her! 

This is the lovely Jann B who shared a table with me.

What a nice lady!

There were a few chalenges in the class along the way, mainly because I have a Cricut Create and the 5 other students had Cricut Expressions. While the Create is closer in functionality to the Expression than the original, there are significant differences other than the obvious differences in their size, mainly the difference in how to do certain functions, which the Expression has dedicated buttons for and the Create requires a number of steps to do.

From left to right: Lori S, Lori B, Kim H,

Mary L, and standing, our teacher, Pat Davenport

Despite the challenges of that first class, Pat and I recognized that we could do some good together and so I'm spending time helping her fine tune the Create portion of the Cricut 101 class, which allows me to use my somewhat rusty skills as a software functional analyst and of technical writer! I think going forward, Pat and I will be friends and possibly co-operate on some projects.I'm also benefitting from Pat's unbelievable knowledge when it comes to using the Cricut, which makes me a very happy Cricuter! I can't wait to dig into Design Studio, the Gypsy and Make the Cut!

Ouuu Coupons Week of May 24 to 30

ARCHIVERS
Still no new coupons from Archivers, but the ones you got mailed are still good till the end of the month! Here is the link to their latest ad.

AC MOORE
AC Moore has completely revamped their paper crafting area.  Here is a link to their latest ad.  The coupons seem to be imbedded in the ad this time!

HOBBY LOBBY
HL has a 40% off any regular price item coupon for this week. Click here to go to their coupon print page.

MICHAEL's
Michael's is having a coupon bonanza this week.  Click here to go and pick and print your coupons! This week there is a 60% off (from the MSRP) on Cricut cartridges costing $69.99 that are in stock.  Wonder if they have any left!!!(they didn't at the Michael's that I went to)

Have fun shopping and do post and let us all know if you got anything this week using the coupons!