Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Friday, February 24, 2012

Share the Memories News You Can Use!






I love sharing great things with my friends and family!  I recently found MyMemories Suite which I use to create the coolest photobooks for my family.  It is SO EASY and FUN to use!  I created these wonderful photobooks in minutes (yes, minutes) and my family absolutely loves them.  MyMemories has changed the way I keep and share our family memories. And now EVERY PERSON who buys MyMemories Suite Software using my STMMMS48375 promo code between February 24 and March 31, 2012 is eligible to receive a One Year RAKStar Membership - free!! That's a free HUGE Digital Scrapbooking kit every month - and it's MyMemories Suite compatible, so it's like getting a free software content upgrade every month!!  Valued over $247!!!

Here's how it works: Purchase your MyMemories Suite Software, e-mail me the receipt of your purchase showing you used the code STMMMS48375. Make sure your purchase is dated between (February 24, 2012 - March 31, 2012).  That's it!

Simply go to http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software and use STMMMS48375 in the promo code box on the shopping cart page and be sure to e-mail that receipt to me!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

My Memories Suite Software Review & Giveaway









I was recently given the opportunity to try the My Memories Suite 3 digital scrapbook software.  I've been a fan of digital scrapbooking for a while now and this software was so much fun and easy to use.  This My Memories Suite 3 scrapbook software is rated number #1 by Amazon and Top Ten Reviews.  That's saying something!  

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Cleaning up with Magid Blue Nitrile Gloves-Review


Recently, I received a box of Magid EconoWear T9557 Blue Powdered Disposable Nitrile Gloves (100 pack) from Magid Gloves and Safety Manufacturing Company LLC for review and I knew I could put them to good use!



I like to use disposable gloves to protect my hands when working around the house.  My husband always has a box of disposable gloves handy out in his garage to use when needed.  And I always use disposable gloves when cleaning my dogs room.  Cleaning the kitchen and bathroom are other areas when I use them.  Because even when organic cleaners are being used they can be very hard on your hands.  My skin becomes so dry when I don't protect them.  



The fit of the glove was okay (they sent me a large).  I can easily move my fingers without difficulty.  However, it does pull down slightly around the wrist when I bend them forward (which might not have been the case if the glove fit a little tighter), and as you can see from the pictures they don't cover much past the wrist.  So be careful if you are dipping your hands in liquid that is deep, it could leak in over the top of the glove.  The Magid Blue Nitrile Gloves are ambidextrous and completely liquid proof so you don’t have to worry about anything coming into contact with your skin through the glove.




Not only are these gloves great for cleaning and general maintenance purposes, they offer better protection than vinyl or latex disposable gloves against chemicals, punctures and abrasions—they are a great value too$8.25 /DP.  They are ideal gloves for single-use purposes like handling raw food in the kitchen, to have on hand in the garage, or just general home projects and maintenance.  Your next paint project—the Magid Blue Nitrile Gloves would be awesome!  

I would like to thank Magid Gloves for sending me these gloves to review.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Decorative Wooden Clothespins



Happy Wednesday everyone!  I hope your week is going great so far.  Today I've got another fun, little D-I-Y craft project--Decorative Wooden Clothespins.  You can use these fun pins on magnets boards, to adorn gifts, as place card holders and more.  I hope you enjoy making your own variations of these charming little clips as much as I did. 

Ribbon Flower Clothespins
Supplies needed:
  • Standard wooden clothespins 
  • Fabric scraps of your choice.
  • Ribbon (variety)
  • Embellishments - for flower center (optional)
  • Colored pencils (optional)
  • Thin strip magnets (optional)
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
  • Scissors
  1. Color the entire surface of your clothespin with your colored pencil until well-coated and then smudge with your fingertip to soften.  This gives your clothespin an overall worn/vintage effect.
  2. The ribbon flower is identical to the ribbon flower I made for my jewelry and headbands (tutorial here) except instead of beginning with a felt circle, I just glued the end of the ribbon directly onto the clothespin.  Apply a small dab of glue with your hot glue gun onto the clothespin where you want your flower center and carefully press the end of your ribbon onto the hot glue.  Begin twisting your flower, using the hot glue as needed .  (If you want a fuller flower than is possible with the width of the clothespin, use a small felt circle as directed in the tutorial and then glue the felt directly onto the clothespin.
  3. Turn the clip over and glue thin strip magnets (found at your local craft store) onto the back to use on a magnet board, or leave them blank to use as gift tag holders on presents, place card holders at your next party, etc.


Fabric-covered clips:
Gift giving idea: Using a strip of decorative cardstock or a fancy ribbon, clip a row of pretty pins to give as a gift to someone special.
Need a cute place card holder for a birthday party?  One that's easy and not time-consuming?  Then these are the clips for you.  These clips are easier to make than the first version.  You can even get your kids involved.  
Supplies needed:
  • Standard wooden clothespins - 
  • Fabric scraps in your choice of color
  • Ribbon or other embellishments (optional)
  • Double-sided tape - permanent
  • Thin strip magnets (optional)
  • Hot glue gun
  • Scissors
  1. Color the entire surface of your clothespin (except the side you are going to glue with fabric) with your colored pencil until well-coated and then smudge with your fingertip to soften.  This gives your clothespin an overall worn/vintage effect.
  2. Pull out a strip of double-sided tape that is as long or slightly longer than your clothespin.  Attach it to the surface of the clothespin making sure to keep it smooth.  Line the tape up evenly along one edge so that the excess hangs off the other side.  With your scissors, trim the excess.
  3. Place your fabric (right-side down) and then press your prepared clothespin tape-side down onto the back side of your fabric.  Turn over and with your fingers, smooth and flatten the fabric onto the tape.  Cut excess fabric off all sides.
  4. Decorate if you wish or leave with fabric only.  You're done!




Fabric Pom Pom Flower Clothespins:


These pom-pom flowers are fun to make and really cute.  The picture of this clip (the first one on the left) doesn't really do it justice.  I've included a link to the great tutorial that I found on how to make these flowers (since it's near impossible to take photos of yourself making these).  So take a look at the tutorial before judging these cute little flowers.


Supplies needed:
  • Standard wooden clothespins
  • Fabric scraps in your choice of colors
  • Needle and thread - color should match the fabric you will be using.
  • Colored pencils (optional)
  • Thin strip magnets (optional)
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
  • Scissors
To begin with you will need to follow this pom-pom tutorial to create your fabric pom pom flowers.  It should take you only about 3-5 minutes per flower.  For a small circular shape you can use an object in your home as a template to trace around, such as a spool of thread. 
  1. Color the entire surface of your clothespin with your colored pencil until well-coated and then smudge with your fingertip to soften.  This gives your clothespin an overall worn/vintage effect.
  2. Apply a small dab of glue with your hot glue gun onto the clothespin and carefully attach your pom pom flower onto your pin by pressing it onto the hot glue. That's it!

Fabric Poof Flower Clothespins:
 


These poof flowers are quick to make and super cute.  They would be great for a cute birthday place card holder or a birthday gift as they remind me of balloons.  


Supplies needed:
  • Standard wooden clothespins
  • Fabric scraps in your choice of colors
  • Needle and thread - color should match the fabric you will be using.
  • Colored pencils (optional)
  • Thin strip magnets (optional)
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
  • Scissors
To begin with you will need to create your fabric poof flowers.  It should take you only about 3-5 minutes per flower.  For a small circular shape you can use an object in your home as a template to trace around, such as a spool of thread. Stitch around the entire outside edge of the circle with a running stitch and pull tight to gather into a poof.  Knot and tie off.  Make three poofs for each pin.


  
  1. Color the entire surface of your clothespin with your colored pencil until well-coated and then smudge with your fingertip to soften.  This gives your clothespin an overall worn/vintage effect.
  2. Apply a small dab of glue with your hot glue gun onto the clothespin and carefully attach your poof flower onto your pin by pressing it onto the hot glue. That's it!
I hope you will enjoy making your own fancy clothespins.  



Get organized with Avery Binder--Review


I received some office supplies from Shoplet.com for review and honestly they couldn't have come at a better time.  I recently started organizing all of my recipes (stacks and stacks of recipes) and this binder, note tabs and binder spine inserts came in handy for my recipe organization! 

The first product I pulled from the box is the Avery EZD Heavy-Duty Reference View Binder. 


This binder has one handed easy open rings.  With little effort, just one push of a thumb on the rubber button pops the rings right open.


They also close easily without feeling as if they are going to capture my fingers when they snap shut--a big plus for me.  The design of the rings really permits this binder to hold a lot of pages.  I stuffed a 375 page document inside this binder (I'm sure I could have fit more if I had them).  All the pages fit easily and they turned smoothly in the rings.  


The binder has four stacked pockets (two on each side) so you can organize and secure special notes, smaller pieces of paper or even photos.  The plastic is non-stick and archival.  It won’t lift the toner from your pages, so your photos are safe--Yay!  The plastic is PVC free and the chipboard is 100% recycled content. I definitely like this!  The binder front and back are wide enough to cover index tab dividers and sheet protectors from view when closed.  Overall this is a good quality binder that is worth the money.  There isn't anything I have found that I don't like about this binder.  The rings don't pinch fingers and it has nice organizational pockets, plus it's well made.  What more can you ask for?

The next item was the Avery Custom Spine Inserts.  



The binder spine inserts are made to work with the Avery EZD Heavy-Duty Reference View Binder.  The binder spine inserts come in packages of 25 (5 per sheet).  They can be customized with your printer and favorite word processing program or at Avery.com.  The perforations make them easy to separate them.  They are made from firm cardstock and are a perfect fit for the binder spine pocket--slipping in easily.  However, if you decide to change them, they are a bit more challenging to get back out.  Your fingers are useless unless you want to destroy the binder spine pocket (made of plastic).  Double-sided tape on the end of a letter opener solved the problem, but it was quite a bit of trouble to remove.  Overall this is a good quality product.  The only downside is how difficult they are to remove from the binder pocket.  

The last item was the Avery Note Tabs




The Avery Note Tabs come in a package of 10 and a variety of colors and sizes.  They are made from an thick, durable material that you can write on or use with a highlighter.  The material is transparent so you can see content beneath.  



The tabs are also repositionable, but stick well to pages clipped together in a stack or while inside a binder--even when shuffled around they won‘t lift off.  Although the glue is not sticky enough to damage your paper when the tab is lifted. These tabs would work great to divide a wire bound notebook into multiple sections--one notebook for several subjects, school, writing project, work project, etc.  However, because of the type of material the tab is made from, some writing instruments work better than others.  I found the ink from several pens tended to smear.  Sharpies work the best.  Overall a great product--they won't damage your paper when moved and still stick well, but the downside: not all writing instruments works on this material.

I'm sure you will find each of these products as useful as I did. They can be used for so many different projects and each compliments the others so well.





 


Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Get Wired Wednesday Blog Hop

All you have to do to join is Follow the Hostesses Victoria's Voice and Three Boys and an old Lady through GFC

Link yourself to the list below

Follow some of the other great blogs (Remember to leave a comment so they know to follow you back)

Copy and paste the blog hop button on your blog so that others can join (optional )

Not mandatory, but I would love for you to leave a comment that you have joined up to the blog hop.




ENTER YOUR FACEBOOK, TWITTER, OR WHATEVER HERE. This is a Blog Hop!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Friday, February 3, 2012

Thursday, February 2, 2012