Giveaway Alert!

Hi, everyone! Just a quick post to alert you all to a giveaway!

You'll be especially interested in this one if you're a Ranger/Tim Holtz fan! Dawn and Kim from Wild West Scrap Divas are giving away a bunch of Tonic & Ranger products:

1 Tim Holtz Paper Distresser
1 Tim Holtz Tonic Scissors
1 Inkessentials Craft Mat (large)
1 Bottle of Crackle Accents
1 Bottle of Glossy Accents
1 Bottle of Matte Accents
1 Bottle of Sepia Accents
1 Pack of Ranger Embossing Pens
1 Ranger Craft Bucket
1 Perfect Pearls Naturals Kit
1 Tuscan Garden Alcohol Ink Set
1 Bottle of Blending Solution
1 Mini Mister Block
12 Mini Misters

Just follow the steps below and this awesome prize could be yours!
1. Check out their blog {http://wwscrapdivas.blogspot.com} and become a follower!
2. Tell your friends on the net about their giveaway on your blog, facebook, myspace or twitter!
3. Leave a comment here on their blog to let them know what you did to spread the word {be sure to include a link}!

Once they reach 100 subscribers, they'll draw the winner!

Good luck, everyone!

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

Decisions, Decisions

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!

Thanks so much for all the great tips and advice you left on my Cricut post! You guys are awesome! Thanks for helping me out!

I went to the Cricut library last night and looked at every. single. cartridge. Well, that's not completely true. I didn't look very carefully at the font cartridges because I had planned on getting either SCAL or MTC right from the start. And I made a list of all the cartridges with images that work for me and what I am doing with my scrapping:

A Child's Year
Beyond Birthday's
Christmas Cheer
Easter Seasonal Cartridge
Fabulous Finds
Graphically Speaking
Heritage
Home Accents
Home Decor
Joys of the Season
Everyday Paper Dolls
Paper Doll Dress-Up
Life Is A Beach
Love Struck Seasonal
Mother's Day Seasonal
Pagoda
Picturesque
Sentimentals
Storybook
Tags, Bags, Boxes, & More
Tie the Knot
Very Merry Tags
When It's Cold Outside
Wild Card
Disney: Mickey & Friends

Those are not necessarily the cartridges I plan on buying. I need to go through that list again and split the cartridges into three more lists: 1) buy now, 2) buy eventually and 3) add to wish list. Ones that are "Gee whiz, might be nice & I could use it" but I don't really want it enough to spend my own money will go on the third list. Then I just need to start hunting down the ones on the first two lists for good prices and slowly build my cartridge library. :D

In the meantime, I am 95% sure I will be going with "Make the Cut" over "Sure Cuts A Lot" as it seems like it combines the features of Inkscape and SCAL into one program that appears to be very user friendly. I am waititng until I get home, however, to make the final decision. My only hesitation with MTC is that it is still pretty new, so not sure how people like it long term. But I am pretty good with the computer, so I can probably get either to work for me just fine. Mostly I am just waititng until I get home and can load the trial software on my big computer for playing around.

I'll also be investing in the deep cut blade because I do want to use the shape carts and my own SVGs to cut the pages for mini albums out of lightweight chipboard. I think that would rock!

Anyways, thanks again for all your suggestions! They were so helpful!

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

At Last ~ A Cute Camera Bag!

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!

I have been on the lookout for a cute camera bag for some time. I wanted one big enough for all my cameras and gear, but also with enough room to carry my wallet, sunglasses, and anything else I would normally have in my purse. That way I would just have to carry the camera bag and not a purse + a camera bag. I also wanted all that in a package that looked like a purse and not like a camera bag.
Here is the winner & my new camera bag: Jill-e Small Yellow Nylon Camera Bag.
The manufacturer calls this as a "small" bag, but it is not actually all that small. It is large and roomy and has enough space for all my crap ... er, stuff.


The company also makes a "medium" bag and a "large" bag & the large bag is on wheels and is HUGE so I think that "small" is more of a relative term & not so much a descriptive term.

This camera bag was a Christmas present from my sister & a total surprise & I love it! So much thanks to my sister & if you've been on the lookout for a cute camera bag, definitely check out their site!

What did Santa bring you for Christmas that was a big surprise?

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

Proud Cricut Owner

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas & that you're either relaxing today with your families or hitting the after Christmas sales ~ whichever is more your speed.

I know you've all been wondering if I did, in fact, get a Cicut Expression for Christmas & the answer is YES! I got the Cricut Expression {the regular one} with the Accent Essentials and Plantin Schoolbook cartridges. I've already been playing with it & so far it has been working smoothly with no major mishaps. I use the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge to make a snowy village scene complete with mountains and trees and I can see that there is a lot to do with these machines that I'd never thought of before.

Accent Essentials has a lot of images that will be excellent for mini album pages, so I am really excited about that. When I get back to Miami, I want to get my hands on a deep cut blade and SCAL and just play around with what it can do. So, those of you who have Cricuts already, what cartridges are a must have? I like Storybook & there are some cool images on "A Child's Year" but I haven't really done a ton of research in this area.

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

Calling All Northern Virginia/Metro DC Blog Readers!

Hi, everyone! I wanted to let you know that I will be cropping at ScrapbooksPlus in Chantilly, VA on Wednesday, December 30th, from 6:00 p.m.to 9:00 p.m. Wednesday is 40% Off Coupon Day out at ScrapbooksPlus, so be sure to print one off and treat yourself to some goodies!

There is no class at the store that night, and ScrapbooksPlus allows free cropping in their classroom area on nights without classes, so we should be able to crop and chat and shop and just have some fun!

Please leave a comment here if you are interested in joining me ~ I'd love to meet some of you gals! I already have a couple of scrappers from The Beach who have let me know they will be coming!

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

Some Snow Pics

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! Nothing beachlike about the weather here, though ~ brrr!

I am still snowed in. We managed to dig out my sister's Jeep {didn't required as much digging as my car, since it's a 4 Wheel Drive SUV} and get some food, but my car remains buried in a snow drift. My brother is coming with his truck {big, black, Dodge Ram} later today to dig/push me out. So I should be free by this evening! Yay! In the meantime, I thought I'd share some pictures of the snow with you!

Anyone care for a stroll? :) This is the view from my sister's balcony of the sidewalk that runs past her building. I just took this picture a few minutes ago, so there's already been a good deal of melting and shoveling going on.



Here's a picture of her swimming pools. Looks inviting, yes? :) Notice the drifts along the fence?



And this is a decorative footbridge she has in her complex's shared area. You can't even see the little stream/valley thing it crosses.



I hope you're staying warm & enjoying your families from the comfort of a sweater this holiday season!

Merry Cristmas!

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

It's Snowing! *UPDATED*

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!

After many hours on the road, I made it to my final holiday destination! I am very tired and very achy. It was a pretty bad drive ~ I got rained on the whole time {buckets and buckets ~ Miami is flooded right now!} and then as soon as I got here, it immediately started dumping piles and piles of snow on me! :) It is officially too cold for me. Yikes!

UPDATE: We have been upgraded from a Winter Storm Warning to a Blizzard Warning by the National Weather Service! They have all the trucks on the road, but the snow is falling two inches per hour and they cannot keep up with even the highways. My sister and I were going to finish up Christmas shopping today, but instead we're drinking hot chocolate and are buried in a snow drift while we watch the news on the weather. :)

I hope you're all staying warm and dry this holiday season!

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

She Likes It!

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!

I finished my November swap mini and I was so excited to get it into the mail to my partner Hope, that I forgot to take pictures or make a video! Luckily, Hope made a video so you could all see it:



There are a lot of techniques in the album, which may be appearing in future videos, and I will be doing a tutorial video on the double slider card very soon!

Thanks for watching!

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

New Video: Dive into Fall, Part 6

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!

It's finally here! Here you can finally see the entire "Dive into Fall" mini album. I know you've been waiting for this one for for a while, so I hope you're excited to see that I have a new video uploaded over on my YouTube channel! Without further ado, here is Part Six of my "Dive Into Fall" mini album series:



What's next? I have no idea. Maybe the double slider pocket tutorial I promised a while back. We'll just have to see! Have a great week, everybody!

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

New Video: Dive Into Fall, Part 5

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!

I know you've been waiting for this one for for a while, so I hope you're excited to see that I have a new video uploaded over on my YouTube channel! Without further ado, here is Part Five of my "Dive Into Fall" mini album series:



Yes, there is a part six coming with an overview of the completed album. I'm going to have that up on Monday for you!

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

And I Thought I'd Always Be A Bazzill Girl

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!

Yesterday I handed over 23 of the 26 Christmas Kits to the USPS Carrier & so they are {almost!} all gone! Those were for everyone who has paid their final balances & all kits have been invoiced, so things are almost back to normal around here. Not that I was ever really normal, but you know what I mean ~ normal for me. Which is most likely certifiably insane to the rest of the world.

So, the other night we were all chatting over on The Beach about the "new" American Crafts cardstock, as my friend Jenn sells some in her online shop and over at the Beach Boutique. Right now she has the 60 sheet box of black textured cardstock for $15.00 ~ it normally retails for $19.99, so that's a great deal! She also has some Thickers for super cheap as well! I bought a bunch from her & they will be making an appearance as part of the 12 Months of Christmas. Maybe. Could be. It's a secret.

I got some questions about the AC cardstock ~ specifically how it compares to Bazzill cardstock ~ since I had used it in my Countdown to Christmas Kits. And prior to using it in the Christmas Countdown Kits, I had been exclusively using Bazzill cardstock. And I still have a ton of it, so I will probably be using it for quite a while, BUT I will be buying AC cardstock going forward.

I thought I would do a blog post about it, too, to answer the questions from the other night & basically to just ramble on like I normally do.

1. Price: The prices are pretty comparable, although the AC cardstock has a slightly cheaper MSRP than the Bazzill, at $0.50/sheet vs. Bazzill's $0.60/sheet.

2. Texture & Finishes: Both AC and Bazzill come in a variety of finishes and textures. AC has some really cool ones, though. I am particularly fond of the Damask and the Alligator {it's a pearlized alligator skin finish and it rocks!}. They also have foil, glitter and pearl finishes, as well as weave, tweed and linen textures.

3. Weight: Same. AC cardstock and Bazzill cardstock are both 80 lb. cover weight cardstock.

4. Color Variety and Saturation: Both have really good, rich color saturation. Each layer of cardstock is deeply dyed, both with the AC cardstock and the Bazzill CS. As for variety, I didn't look this up {so sue me, I'm lazy} but I am looking at the AC catalog now and my guess is that Bazzill probably has more colors. However, AC has a ton of colors that are much more ME ~ bright, vibrant, etc. They have plenty of lovely neutrals and earthtones, too, but they seem to have more brights and bolds and that is great for me.

5. Scoring, Folding, Cracking & Splitting: I have had more luck scoring and folding the AC cardstock. It could just be me, but I seem to work with it better than with the Bazzill. I have less splitting and cracking when folding pockets and cards and envelopes.

So, there you have it! Just my opinion on cardstock, which, along with $5.95, will get you a Venti Frappaccino.

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

WINNER ANNOUNCED: Black Friday Giveaway!

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!

This is just a quick post to announce the winner of the Black Friday Giveaway:

Joanna said...
mini ablum kits would be a fab giveaway.

lovely cards :)

Friday, November 27, 2009 10:54:00 AM

Congratulations, Joanna! You have won the cards from the Black Friday Giveaway! Please email me your mailing address at thescrapbeach{at}gmail{dot}com so I can get them on their way to you!

Thanks for participating, everyone! The first giveaway for the Twelve Months of Christmas will be announced on Monday, January 4th, so stay tuned for more prizes!

~Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.