Back in the Saddle again...lol

I have no photos to show but I have been back into the couponing world. July marked the last of Ub's unemployment checks and with no income what so ever we needed to do something and I knew what I had to do. First I am doing classes for scrapbooking and card making again. Second COUPONING!!! I am not an extreme couponer at all but I try to get things for my family that they can use and I spend little to no money on.

I went to Wal Mart today and here is what I bought

4 battery operated toothbrushes, they were priced at $5.97 and I had a 4 $10.00 from 10/16 P&G insert. That meant I made a profit of $16.12 that I could use towards my groceries.

4 cologate complete toothpaste used 4 $2.00 (the coupon did not exclude trial size, so I bought trial for .97cents) making $4.12 profit to use on groceries

13 trial size Tide and used several kinds of coupons to make these all .47cents each (who doesn't want to do a load of laundry for only .47cents.

3 old spice trial size body wash .97cents each I had 3 $1.00 off coupons (no size restriction) so .09 cent profit

2 aquafresh extreme clean .97cents used 2 $1.00 off coupons, again no size restrictions so a .04 cents profit was made.

Then went on to grocery shop for things we needed at home (staples like, bread, milk, cheese, eggs and dinner stuff) my total was $71.46 after all my coupons I spent out of pocket (OOP) $17.08. That is the best I have done at Wal Mart before. Couponing really does pay off!!!

Then we went on to Walgreens

they had 12 in DiGirono pizzas 2/10 with their ad, in the walgreens booklet (located in the front of the store) there was a coupon for $1.00 off 2 and then to sweeten the deal I liked Digirono on facebook and got 2 $2.00 off coupons I printed off my computer SO two pizzas for $5.00 is such a great deal.

They are also offering chinet plates (10 count) 2 for $3.00 and I went onto the chinet website and got 2 $1.00 coupons. So I go 2 pkgs for .50 cents each

Also on the front of the ad was a special candy deal $1.99 for fun size candy bags and I had somehow printed 2 coupons for $1.00 the candy, making them .99cents each.

THE BEST DEAL EVER!!!

Large Huggies wipes (216 count) $4.99 Buy 2 $9.98 but there is an infant booklett and if you can't find it the cashiers know the code and if not here it is #5519 that will give you $4.00 the grand total. Now to make it even sweeter the SS10/23 has a coupon for .75cents off wipes. if you have 2 of those coupons it makes your total price $4.48 that make them $2.24 each for a big bag of wipes. I just got my grandson 2 of those wipes (you can never have enough)

My total at Walgreens, was $52.00 but my out of pocket expense was only $14. and some change. I had an awesome couponing day.

Why do I ever stop when I save so much.....

I will start keeping my blog going with scrapbook pages and some other fun stuff. I am planning to do some recipes and photograph what I made as well as my coupon hauls. My son is going to help me make youtube videos of my projects and my coupon hauls. I also have some other fun things I want to do for instance some cool challenges, weather it be cooking or crafting or just random tips. Be on the lookout for some new changes in my blog.

NEXT time I promise to take pictures of my haul.

I'm a GRANDMA!!!!

Aiden was born on Sept 21, 2011. He weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 21 inches long. Jillian was induced starting at 6 am and had some really hard labor until later in the day when she finally dilated to 4 and got her epidural. They continued with the pitocin and the baby didn't do well on it at all. Finally by 11:15 that night they decided that the baby was not handling the pit so well and she had only dilated to a 5 that it would be best for the baby and Jillian to do a c-section. They wheeled her out of the room at 11:25 pm and by 11:40 Aiden was born and healthy BEAUTIFUL baby boy. He is his grandma's pride and joy. I love this little guy more then words can describe. He will be a week old tomorrow(Wednesday) and he is so perfect. He looks alot like his moms side of the family but tonight while his grandpa was holding him and he was sound asleep he had a look just like his daddy's. He may have those Hispanic features but he has his daddy's face(although his eyes look just like Jeremy and Zachary's).

Thank you all for letting me gush about our precious gift. Aiden is going to bring so much joy into our family. He already has.

Coupon Haul

I had taken a break from couponing for awhile but this week at Walgreens was just to good a week to let pass without trying to get the good deals. Now normally CVS is my store of choice but they are pretty boring this week as far as deals go. I did ALOT of transactions for everything I got here but I went early in the morning with my hubby(who helped me organize and sort my transactions)AND we went to the cosmetics line where most people(at least in my area) don't know you can check out.
So Ub and I started with ONE $10.00 roll of quarters and no other money except the change in my hubby's pocket(thank goodness he isn't like me, I hate change and give mine all away) Here we go in what I spent and let me say that my sister now works fro Walgreens and because she lives with us I get to use her employee discount card (Nice right!!!)

I started my shopping trip with a $2.00 RR (free money from Walgreens when you buy certain products) from the day before. Nivea body wash was on sale for $5.99 and I had a $2.00 coupon so I was out of pocket(OOP) $3.99 but got a $2.00RR back (RR's are like free money you can use on anything in the store)

So I can't find my receipts to give breakdowns BUT everything I got above(including the 8x10 photo) would have cost me $51.83 but because of the employee discount, Register Rewards, and my coupons my out of pocket was only (drum roll please...lol) $10.58 That might be the best shopping trip I ever did and the really great thing about this is I got another $6.00 in RR's to use next week or on something else, like another proglide razor and all I will pay is tax.

Here is a great site for shopping at Walgreens www.wildforwags.com I used her shopping transactions and threw in a few of my own to get all that I got. Happy shopping.

July 4th page kit

This is the page I made for my class in July. I didn't actually hold the class but my kits are going like gang busters. If you would like one please let me know. Thank you to all of you who are supporting me as I get my feet wet in Stampin Up again.

round #6 at Paper secrets

It's such a terrible photo of my page but I can't get my hands to stop shaking when I try to photograph my pages. This was for the Scrap Your A** Off challenge at Paper Secrets and so far I am still in it. The next sketch has me really stumped but then again so did this one.

This is for Jared's album, he graduated June 13th and we are so proud of him. The next page I do will be for Zachary's graduation so I can keep it fair...lol


I have other pages to post but they are for Jillian's pregnancy album and she doesn't want to see them until her shower SO since she looks at my blog on occasion I can't post the pages until after July 8th.

Have a great day and thanks for checking out my blog.

Susan

Challenge # 6 at Got ink Girlz and Grad pictures

Zachary graduated June 8th 2011 from Odyssey Charter school and we are so proud of him. School has always been a struggle for Zachary and when he came up credit deficient last year I thought he would just chuck school and not try any more. He came to me and said he wanted his diploma but didn't want to be embarrassed by having to go back to his high school so we looked up an alternative way of achieving his diploma. He worked hard and got to graduate this year.

Jared graduated June 13th 2011 from Western High school. 4 years of hard work and dedication for this moment paid off for him. He got the ropes for being a loyal dedicated cadet in the ROTC program for all 4 years of his high school years. He loved the ROTC program and really bloomed under Lt. Col. Coode and Sargent J.

I am so proud of both boys for sticking with it even when time were very tough. I love you both so much.




This card was done for the Big Shot challenge over at gotinkoirlz blog. We would really love some feedback or leave a us a comment if you hop over and check us out. At Stampin Up we have alot of dies that are sold exclusively through Stampin Up and the Beautiful Wings embosslit is one of them. I love that you get 5 varied sizes of butterflies all embossed with their own design, it makes glittering them so easy. I'm not a huge fan of butterflies but I LOVE this die cut. The other thing Stampin Up sells is embossing folders, yes you can get them at craft stores but the Stampin Up folders are just a little bit larger AND the design goes to the edge where as the craft store folders don't go all the way to the edge. So when you are making a standard cards base our folders will the design to the very edge of your paper.

Entry #1 and #2 at Paper Secrets

I joined a challenge over at Paper Secrets called Scrap Your A** Off (SYAO) and we are now into week 3 and so far I have done what I need to to stay in the challenge. It's really easy but for me who scraps so slow most of the time, it's been a challenge and I'm loving it.

The fun part is only you can get yourself booted off. All you have to do is complete the sketch assigned and the twist and get your page uploaded and you're in but if you don't get your page done then you are out of the challenge. We go until there is only one person left.

So here are my two pages I've done and the 3rd one is done and waiting for me to journal on it but it looks like I move on to round 4 since my page for this week is basically done.

Thanks for looking
Susan

Challenge #5 at Got ink Girlz is up

I am the one who posts all the cards over at gotinkgirlz and I had fallen behind so I have been asked to post 2 challenges over there this week. Click on the the link above and check out all the other fun cards and projects the others have made. They are some really talented ladies.

Here is the sketch we worked with for this weeks challenge


Here is my card for this challenge




The card base is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 and I used Cherry Cobbler( #119685 $6.95 for 24 sheets of CS) as the CS. I stamped the navy log from the stamp set The Open Sea(Item #123032 Clear $18.95)found in the new summer mini (LOVE THIS SET) in Cherry Cobbler ink( #119669 $5.95) to give it the tone on tone look. I punched a circle using our 1 3/4 circle punch(Item #119850 $15.95)I ran a strip of Crumb Cake cs (#120953 $6.95 for 24 sheets)5 1/2 x 3/4, I distressed the edges with my scissors and brown ink, each piecs of patterned paper was cut at a different size in length but the width is 1 11/16, the patterned paper (DSP-Designer series paper) was called Nautical Expedition (#122343 $10.95 for 12 double sided papers)this is also found in the new summer mini catalog and is for a limited time. I water colored the ship using aqua painters (#103954 $16.95 for 2) and black Staz on ink (#101406 $7.95)I used Marina mist (#119668 $5.95) for the sky, Not Quite Navy for the ocean(#103008 $5.95, Night of Navy(#102977 $5.95) for the ships shadow, and soft suede ink(#115657 $5.95) for the ship and sails and the tiny flag I used a touch of cherry cobbler. I finished it off with a bit of Baker's twine(#123125 $2.95) found in the new mini for a limited time. I used a navy blue button from our old retired buttons collection so any button will work.

The white CS I watercolored the ship on was a scrap that I glued to the inside of the card the size is 2 7/8 x 2 1/8.

I didn't add a sentiment but it would work as a great masculine birthday card, or thank you card or a Father's day card. Guy cards are sometimes so hard to come up with, this new set is wonderful for a manly card. There are alot of guy oriented stamps in this new summer mini, I hope you check them out.

I will have a new challenge posted at gotinkgirlz on Monday so check back with us

Happy Stampin
Susan

P.S. I have had no time to proof read as I have a child breathing down my neck waiting to get on the computer...lol...so sorry in advance for any type-o's ;-)

Challenge #4 is up at Got Ink Girlz

It's May Flowers over at the Gotinkgirlz blog. Here is my card featuring the fun dies cut that we carry at Stampin Up called Fun flowers. It is carrying over to the new catalog that comes out in July (SOOOOO excited for that)

Here is my card, it's a standard size card, 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, chocolate chip CS is 4 3/16 x 3, the vanilla 2 7/8 x 2 1/2, the DSP is 4 3/16 x 1 inch. Everything is inked in Early espresso and the ribbon is our Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon that will be carried over in the new catalog as well. The last little touch is the rhinestone center. I stamped the sentiment in Early espresso using the Just Because set in clear, I used a punched oval and the punched scallop oval. Hope you enjoy.

I would love to see some friends and family over at the gotinkgirlz blog. Drop by and say hello and show us what you can do with flowers.

Thank you
Susan

Challenge #3

Well it's May and that means National Scrapbook month so the design team at gotinkgirlz Have been busy making our pages. Here's one I made at stamp club just yesterday,








Thanks for looking. Click on the gotinkgirlz link above and join our challenge blog.

Challenge #2 is up

This week at the GOTINKGIRLZ blog the challenge is Mother's Day. We made cards for one of my favorite people, my mother. Remember to click on the gotinkgirlz link above and it will take you straight to our challenge blog. Play along and link your pages, cards, or any project over there and show us what you made using any of our challenge. Hope in any time we would love to see what you made.

Here is my card for this weeks challenge. My mom loves the color blue, our house is in all shades of blues and so I thought it fitting that I use the color blue as well.

Stamps-Wonderful Favorites (# 115114)

paper-Not Quite Navy(#101722), Baja Breeze(#11352), whisper white(#100730)
DSP-new in this years Idea book & catalog

ink- Not Quite Navy(#103008)

Accessories-Scallop Trim border punch(#118402), Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder(#120175), Beautiful Butterflies die(#114507), Basic Pearls(#119247), 2 1/2" circle punch(#120906)

It's back!!! The challenge blog is back up and running..

The challenge blog is finally up and running and we have some amazing talent in the gotinkgirlz team. Hop on over and see this weeks challenge which happens to be a fun color challenge. Here are the colors if you would like to play along






Here is my take on this weeks color challenge





Here is the supplies I used to make this cute boy birthday card. First I have to say I fell in love with this Make a Monster stamp set when I first saw it and I finally got to use it.

Stamps
Make a Monster (Wood-#118742, clear-#120606) Bring on the Cake(wood-#121899, clear-#121958) Please note that the Bring On the Cake is only available until April 30th.

Paper- (CS- stands for cardstock, DSP-designer series paper)
Baja Breeze cs (#111352)
Cherry Cobbler(#119685)
Crumb Cake(#120953)
Very Vanilla(#101650)
water color paper(#105019)

Inks-
Stazon Jet Black(#101406)
Baja Breeze(#111833)
Cherry Cobbler(#119669)
Basic Grey(#109120)just a touch for shadowing

Accessories
Square Lattice embossing folder (#119976)
1" circle punch(#119868)
Pinking heart border punch(#117649)
2 1/2" circle punch (#120906)
Modern label punch(#119849)
Word window punch(#119857)
3" circle die (#122125)
Aqua painter(#103954)
Twine(#100982)

If you would like to order any of the following items go to "place order online here" box and click "shop now" and enter in the item numbers you have chosen.

Remember to check on the gotinkgirlz blog and leave us a link to your creations, if you choose to play along. We would love to see what you come up with. Every Monday a new challenge will be issued. Hope to see you there.

Happy Stampin
Susan

It's official, it's broken...

Well Steven officially broke his foot while at Laser Quest last Friday night. He is in a non weight baring cast for 6 weeks to 3 months. The bone he broke should really have a pin in it but the will try it casted first for 4 weeks and see if it will heal ok, if not we (or he, Steven) will be off to surgery to get a pin in the side of his foot. He's a trooper but the crutches are his biggest pain. They just are tall enough for his 6'3" frame. Poor guy.

Laser Quest fun...except for one

Jeremy picked this year where his and Jared's b-day was going to be and he picked Laser Quest. Jared turned 18 and Jeremy turned 16. What a fun place that is, very noisy but so much fun. Great place to hold a b-day party for a bunch of teens. Poor Steven was our only casualty, on the first round he hurt his foot and couldn't walk on it much so for the next round he had to sit it out. No fun for him but he did get a gift certificate for 2 free rounds when he can go again.

The last few pages done so far

I also decided make a goal for how many pages I wanted to get done in 2011. The goal I set was 211 pages in 2011(I took out the 0, brilliant idea I know...ha ha ha)

17/211 pages done so far...194 to go....lol

and a few more....pages

I have also been using up some pages I have had from Stamp club and some kits I have purchased. The kids have loved looking through their books and the books are getting so full.

I have been going to crops and actually have pages to share...

I have been keeping with my resolution of making it to at least one crop a month and now I have many pages to share. I haven't scrapped this much in a long time and it's been wonderful. I love all my scrapbooking buddies.

A couple of new things

Number one I have my Demonstrator website back up and running, which means anytime you want to place an order all you have to do is click the "place order here" on the side bar and it will take you to my website. Click shop now and you are on your way. I will also be adding my classes to the calendar but the pictures of the up coming classes will be here on my blog until I can figure out how to add the pics there too...lol...so not computer savvy.

Also (this is way to exciting) Sale-A-Bration is here!!!!! Yahoooooo




When you spend $50 in any of our catolgs you get to pick anything out of the Sale-A-Bration catalog for free. Spend $100 pick 2 and so on....

Host a workshop of at least $300 and pick one free Sale-A-Bration product

Join my Stampin Up team and save 15% off the starter kit PLUS get a bonus bundle with over $50 in free products.

Just a little FYI if you plan on spending $150 in products call me so you can get even more free that the online store won't give you.

Sale-A-Bration runs from January to March 31, 2011

My printer is back up and running and I can finally start uploading my pages and cards I have been waiting to put on my blog.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend

Susan

Fillied with Love Promo ending soon

This promotion is almost over. The papers in the line are perfect for Valentine's Day pages or for any occasion. They have soft stripes and dot patterns that are great for any occasion AND for purchasing this bundle you get the clear Bitty Buttons. These buttons are just adorable. Hurry don't wait the promotion ends on the 24th.

My next post will show 2 super cute cards using this promotional set.

I am trying out some new things on my blog

So I have been a bad blogger of late. I mean really no post since November 25th, how terrible. Well I am going to try and change that.

One of the new changes is the tabs on the top under my header, it's labeled workshops and classes. I only have January listed for right now but I will do some thinking on my classes for next month and get them posted. I want to add tabs labeled kits, the kits will be pages that you can purchase and put together with a photo of the page as well as any other instructions. I also want to start learning how to video some 3d projects, pages, and cards, so there will (eventually) be a tab labeled videos.

I have joined a picture a day challenge in the year 2011 and except for one brain freeze I have managed to do one photo a day. The other thing I have decided to do as a resolution is leave my house and go to one crop a month. I am so excited that this weekend I get to go to a 3 day crop. I am teaching a Card Party on Feb 11th if anyone is interested please let me know. I will have to get times from the lady who is hosting it. The cost is $14.00 for 12 cards and she providing snacks and drinks.

In the year 2011 I have joined yet another motivation challenge to get more pages done. One of my good friends set a goal for 800 pages in 2010 and she met her goal. I won't be able to hold a candle to her and what she accomplished but it certainly motivated me to make my own scrapbooking goal. SO for 2011 I have set a goal to scrapbook 211 pages (I took out the zero in 2011 and that's how I came up with 211...I'm a dork I know)

Anyway, with that I will have more pages to put up on my blog and some random photos of my daily photo challenge(only those I find funny enough to post. I will also get my demonstrator website up and going this month and if you would like to place orders you will be able to.

Thanks for those that check in with me regularly and sorry I have neglected posting anything.

Take care
Susan