A Million Little Things

More Deals of the Day!

 

Hi there :)

More Price Reductions added today:

Entire Stock of Kaiser Craft 30-75% off!  Including new release items

Entire Stock of 3 bugs blowout priced!

Making Memories Price Slashes on the following Categories:

5th Avenue

Garden Party

Animal Crackers

And new items:

MM Lovestruck (a few items I neglected to order by mistake, the rosettes, journaling book, diecuts, large tags... I've gone back and ordered them so hopefully they will be here in a day or so.

MM Slice Cartridges Under the Sea, Farm Life and Jungle

More tomorrow...

 

 

 

 

 

Let the Deals of the Day Continue/New Items

Hi there!  I got a too little much going with the Holidays and didn't quite keep up with Deals of the Day like I had planned!    I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and continue to enjoy the rest of the season!  This is my favorite week of the year, family home all together each day and sleeping in with no real schedule.  That life would get old after awhile but it sure is nice while it lasts!

Before I continue on with sales news I want to give my design team a very special public thank you for all their hard work with the Christmas Countdown.   It required alot of extra time and commitment for them to provide daily inspiration for you this last month and I hope you all were inspired.  Thank you girls!  I hope you all enjoyed  having more inspiration on the blog, it brings me to announce we are changing up the responsibilites for the team in the coming year to bring a bigger focus the the blog and daily inspiration, so if you haven't already bookmark us so you don't miss a thing!

Now on to sales news!  First off, a couple of announcements.  If you are holding orders I want to make you aware that I would like to have them all shipped by December 31 if possible.  (This week on Thursday.)  I would like to wrap up for the year, and also I want to make you aware that the post office will be increasing their rates again on January 4.  We want to save shipping for all by getting as many shipments out before the increase.   We will...  like I said earlier be adding new items each day this week, and as needed through January.  We do recommend shipping your current holding box by the end of the week, but you are welcome to start a second box if you find more items to hold.  We will be out of town visiting family over the New Years weekend, but we will be here all week until Thursday afternoon working adding and shipping. 

We will be kicking it into high gear this week getting items slashed and out of here.  The CHA show is in a mere month!  We have not made a decision as to whether we will be attending or not, but I do intend to bring in as many new items as we can fit in the budget no matter if we decide to physically be at the show.   2009 has been a rough year for us, and the time has come for us to make some adjustments as the industry is ever changing especially when factored with a hard economic year for small businesses.  I do want to assure you though that this does not mean by any measure that we have lost our fight, and we will continue to do all we can to stay here for you as your scrapbook source as long as you will have us.    We are most hopeful for many more years once we get over this hump.  However part of our plan for adjustments and going forward is  drastic price slashes on our stock this coming month as we try to further reduced inventory and build a cash flow for newer release items in the coming months.    Keeping new and fresh items is the bread and butter of our store, but we also realize that there is an ever increasing portion of our customers who love deals, so if you are a bargain hunter this will be your month!!  Our losses will be your scrap stash gains!!

Please watch our blog daily for new links to new items added to sale.  Here's what has been added recently or today:

My Little Yellow Bicycle Say What Journaling Books 40% off our price (wholesale cost)

Entire stock of GCD Studios.. 50% off and up!

Entire Stock of Cherry Arte  75% off and up!

Entire Stock of Hambly Screen Prints 50% and up!  Most stock was already in clearance so the shown marked price is an clearance price.  Please note that the majority is  75-80% off original price!

Best Creation -- 70% off and Up on All items!

Pink Paislee -- Entire Collection 25-75% off!

and some BRAND NEW items listed today:

AC I Heart You Stamps

Scrapbook Trends January Issue and Quick and Easy Scrapbooking

My Little Yellow Bicycle Sweet Love

Making Memories Lovestruck is here as well and will be entered very shortly.

Warm Those Bellies~Hot Cocoa Recipe

I hope that Christmas this year found each and everyone of you cozy and warm with your loved ones!  Mine sure did.  (Except that it was COLD outside!)

My plan was to post this scrumtious Hot Cocoa Recipe prior to the holidays so that you could give it as Christmas gifts...but for some reason called "time" I didn't.

Every year since I received this receipe, I have made a huge container of it (last year I mixed in a tall white kitchen garbage bag-unused of course! and this year I mixed it in a large plastic tote from Wal Mart.)  It is one of the yummiest cocoas I have ever had and it is great to make if you are going to have a huge crowd...lots cheaper.  Also, I use this as winter birthday gifts with a couple of winter mugs.

    Hot Cocoa
4 pounds powdered milk
1 package (2 pounds) powdered sugar
2 big (32 oz) jars of non dairy creamer
2 big Nestle's Quick (It's about 4 pounds)

Then to make the cocoa use about 1/3 cup of cocoa and mix with 6-8 oz. of hot water.

I normally add a little extra cocoa mix.  Just depending on how strong you like it!  This is a really creamy mix and a last note...I use as many of these items in the store brand as I can get.  This year, I had to use Nestle's Quick brand cocoa but it tastes just as good with the cheaper stuff!

This is cute stored in glass containers or plastic treat baggies with a beautiful ribbon tied around them.  If you are like me though, you will save enough for yourself that you could keep it in those plastic totes you mix it in.

Blessings to you and yours as you finish 2009 and begin a happy 2010~

Amanda

christmas countdown: day 24!

  Happy Christmas Eve!  This is Rebekah just sending some AMLT love from our design team to all of our fantastic readers. 
From all of us on the AMLT design team,
we wish you and your family a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Take the time to slow down and enjoy the moments and memories you create this week with your family.  Take photos with your camera.  But also slow down and take a minute to record the moment in your mind.  Take it all in and don't take it for granted.  Spread the love and the midst of it all, remember the love that was shared on the first Christmas...the true reason for this season.

Merry Christmas!

Countdown to Christmas: Day 23

Hi everyone! Only 2 more days until Christmas! Are you ready? ;) Well, this little project is a quick and easy way to use some scraps you have AND there are multiple ways you can use it. The other day I was staring at some scrap drawers that I have in my scrap room. One is full of cardstock scraps and the other one is full of felt scraps. Then I saw my sad sewing machine sitting there looking at me wondering if I was ever going to use it again anytime soon and I thought to myself, "I'm going to make some cute garland!" And that's what I did. :-D


This is a cardstock garland that I made very easily. All I did was take a bunch of cardstock scraps that I had, punched out 1-inch circles using a circle punch and then sewed them altogether using my sewing machine. It was SUPER easy and turned out cute. Here are a couple more pictures of the cardstock garland:



Then I did the same thing as above, but instead used the felt scraps I had laying around. I just hand cut circles out of pieces of scrap felt and sewed them together, too.



There are so many things you could do with these garlands. You could decorate your Christmas tree with them, decorate your fireplace mantle with them, wrap them around presents (they would be SO cute wrapped around a present that has been wrapped with kraft paper) or you could just use them for other decorative purposes year round. I will definitely have to find a couple of places to hang these in my scrap room. They're just happy little garlands made with scraps and I love that they are so inexpensive to make and a good way to recycle at the same time. There are lots of ways to use them, especially during this time of the year. :) I hope you like them and I hope you pull out your lonely sewing machine and whip some up! Thanks for stopping by! Have a Merry Christmas

Countdown to Christmas, Day 22

Today I don't have a lot of time. Here we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, and today we're leaving since we're spending the holidays with my family in the south of Sweden. I have a last minute gift suggestion for you. I love reading. I love bookmarks. I love getting surprised every time I open the book! Here is a bookmark that was really quick to make. I stamped an image, colored it, matted the image, braided some embroidery floss and added a Prima felt star to it. Done! (Much easier and faster than the braided heart baskets I showed you last time, eh? :-)

Meet Guest Designer Helen Brass!!

Hi Everyone, happy Christmas week!  I hope you are all taking sometime to enjoy this time of year in all the hustle and bustle.  Some advice for myself as well :).

Today I have a special treat for you, I've asked Helen Brass to join us as a guest designer.  Helen began shopping AMLT a little over a year ago, she's entered a few of our contests, and I adore her style!  She has a special project just for you today that is her unique twist on Ali Edwards ever so popular December Daily Album.  I'm sure you will all be as thrilled with her idea as I am and be inspired to scrap as soon as you have a free minute this holiday season!!  So please join with me in welcoming her! First here is a little micro interview with Helen:

Tell us a little about you:

 I’m Helen, from the UK, currently living abroad. I’m 35, a freelance writer, married with one son and a daughter on the way (I’m 37 weeks at the moment!). I don’t have a blog, but my Flickr page is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29946141@N05/

What is the most unusual thing you've scrapbooked?

 Hhhmm….the most unusual thing? Not sure about this, but I do scrap photo-less pages a lot – for me, scrapping is all about the memories/feelings it can evoke and so I’m a great believer that you don’t always need a photo to create a LO.

 What is your favorite go to supplies?

 Definitely kraft cardstock! I usually use it on almost everything - it’s such a good ‘base’ for scrapping on. Have recently discovered the white Bazzill swiss dot and am in love with this too!

 What to you do when you are in a scrapping rut?

 I stop scrapping and don’t look at blogs/magazines/anything scrapping related and then come back to it after a week or so. It always helps clear my mind and get me scrapping again!

 Share with us your favorite tip or trick?

 Using packaging from supplies and other ‘found’ things in my scrapping – I think they give projects a unique edge. As Jill knows, I must have enough stash by now for fifty full albums, but I always end up using some non-scrapping items in my projects. I can’t resist: old stamps/vintage papers/ribbons from the haberdashers etc etc.  I loved the MM Vintage Findings packages Jill recently had in, because of all the interesting ‘bits’ they had in them.

 Besides the projects in your spotlight, share with us your current favorite layout or project.

I especially love this one

  because my son’s at nursery now and this recorded some of my feelings whilst he was still at home in the mornings – it still makes me weepy whenever I see it! I also love this one

 because I love how the flowers turned out – Cosmo Cricket papers are so lovely to use!!!

On to my project: I’ve been completely smitten with Ali Edwards ‘December Daily’ idea and, since completing my first one last year, have been using this technique throughout 2009. My husband travels a lot and I always make him a ‘Whilst you were away’ album for when he gets back, so he can see what we got up to every day he was away: the ‘December Daily’ format is ideal for this task, as I compile the blank album in advance and then just need to sit and finish the pages at the end of each day. I also used the concept for my son’s 3^rd birthday album and for my pregnancy album. I’m in love with the idea!

Anyway, like many scrappers, “I, me, Helen” tends to get left behind when I’m scrapping, as I tend to scrap my hubby or son – almost any topic, in fact, except me. I’ve been half-heartedly doing various ‘Book of Me’ LO’s over the past few years but they’re all sort of floating around without a home at the moment….so….I was laid in bed the other week and had a light bulb moment! I could use Ali E’s ‘December Daily’ idea to prepare some ‘base’ pages in advance and then complete a Book of Me album throughout the coming year using these base pages. Yay!!

I decided to use a MM Vintage Findings album to hold the pages: it’s a ‘nice’ size (8x8) in that it’s not too daunting because it’s possible to complete pages fairly quickly. The content of the pages is my priority, in this project, not the products used or the quality/artistry of the finished pages. I’ve not titled the album as yet, as I want to see how it evolves throughout the year before I give it a title.

I then set out, putting two dozen or so blank pages together, to give me enough blanks to get a good head start to at least March or so (planning that I’ll be able to complete around 1 or 2 a week). To make the blank insert pages, I used some of my favourite papers from AMLT, cropping them and punching them to tart them up a bit. I also collected a pizza box full of supplies I know I’m likely to use in this project – the album is in there as well, the idea being that when I have a moment to scrap, I can just pick up the pizza box of stash, and ‘Voila!’, I’m ready to add to my Book of Me.

Now, having said this is a ‘Book of Me’ album project, the first two pages are a bit ‘non-traditional Book of Me’. As I’m about to have our daughter, and have major deadlines coming up in the next year for a few exciting projects, I thought I’d start the album with a motivational page, intended to keep my mind focused on my projects, whilst sleep deprived and in that misty ‘new Mum’ stage, LOL.

The second page is a ‘2010 resolutions’ page – just a quick collage, including a list of the things I’m hoping to achieve/manage this coming year. Again, I thought this album was an apt place to include this as it does give insight in to my mindset (for anyone viewing the album in future).

Note: I don’t like my own handwriting, but think that for a project like this, it’s important to include it. Hand written letters from some of my deceased family members are amongst my most prized possessions: reading their typed words would just not evoke the same feelings in me as opening up their letters and seeing their hand-writing, warts and all.

Now, on to the strict ‘Book of Me’ type pages: as I say, I’ve been half-heartedly attempting to do a project like this for years and have a glass vase on my scraping desk, full to bursting with ‘Book of Me’ prompts. I can now, armed with Ali E’s concept and my blank album with base pages ready, just pull prompts out from here when I sit down to work on this project.

Here’s a prompt list I’ve put together for this project Download Prompt_helenbrass Please note that these are a random assortment from prompts I’ve been stuffing my vase with for years, from different sources (the Creative Therapy blog is a regular haunt of mine), yet the sources for questions aren’t noted. Sorry, sorry, sorry if I’ve included a question of yours and not attributed it…..no malice intended – just enthused with the whole idea and wanted to share!!!

Note: it’s not too late to turn this in to a Christmas present for a loved one! Just print and cut out the prompts, pop them in a decorative jar, include pen and paper, write a few simple instructions (explaining the idea) and “Voila!”, you have an instant Christmas present for a family member, which will provide you, the scrapper, with many, many valuable – scrappable - memories/facts from loved ones!!!

Wow, that was a MIGHTY long post. Sorry! Hope you stayed with me until the end…………….and hope you find the idea useful (thanks Ali E!)……

And thank you Helen... I have to admit my own brain is swimming with ideas just posting this project for her!  Wow, amazing, thank you!!!!

Thanks everyone for reading, and once again..

Happy coming holidays, however you celebrate!

Jill

Basic Grey December and Bonus kits

Awesome, gorgeous kits again this month! I love the Eskimo Kisses papers and the Bonus kit has papers from the Lemonade line, probably my favorite of the year!

December kit examples:

love that the Eskimo Kisses line can be used for so many other things other than holiday pages...it was perfect for a layout about my oldest learning how to wave!

the Bonus kit:

 
 
 
 

Christmas Countdown Day 17

 

Looking for more gift giving ideas? The opportunities for gift giving are endless; the teachers at school, bus driver, neighbours, pastors, friends, etc... Here is another easy and fun idea that comes together in a snap.

These are icing containers (ie: Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, etc) that fit Christmas cookies perfectly. And the other thing I love about these containers is that they have straight sides, so cutting the cardstock for the outside is super easy, just a straight cut at 31/2 inches.

For the lids, I used my circle cutter and roughed up the edges, rubbed on a sentiment and embellished with Christmas decals.

Patterned Paper : Crate Paper

Vinyl Embellishments: American Crafts

Rubons: Pebbles Inc.

Snowflake Punch: Martha Stewart

Deals of the Day

Hi Everyone

Busy time of year, sorry for some missing days.  Some hard things to deal with this week, and some happy things too.  My Grandmother is very ill and may not make it too much longer we were told yesterday.  I pray for minimal suffering for her, she is 89 and is ready to meet my Grandpa again.  On a lighter note we had an anniversiary to celebrate, Happy 14 wonderful years to my DH!

Ok so to the point.. some more price blowouts:

Sassafrass has asked us to join them with a price promotion on their pads from the last 3 lines, so we 're playing along.  If you want these for 50% off get them now, Sassafrass will be advertisting on their blog as well, and I would be they get quite a bit more traffic that I do!!  I've also put the little 6x6 pads on sale as well.

Some more My Minds Eye stock blowouts:

Garden Party

Adore/Kiss and Tell

Just Dreamy I

Out and About

Transfer Titles Rubons

Bohemia II Collection

Have a great one!

Jill