Silly Cards

It's really late so I'm gonna be quick. Always feel free to post questions or even email me. I check my comments like a million times a day!
I'm not sure why I put the party hats, I just felt it needed to be done. The seal is Hambo Stamps, the boy and his hat are Eat Cake Graphics and the hat on the Seal is SU from the Crab and Co set. I colored all these with Prismacolor markers.
This one was Brian's idea. He was SURE the seal stand would make the boy just high enough to put water on the seal's head. Of course he was right! The seal and the stand are Hambo, boy with hose is Eat Cake Graphics. Patern paper and ribbon are American Crafts.
These are all Hambo Stamps. I'm SURE they didn't intend me to put that seal and his stand on the truck but just look... Also they were all on the same sale page so it seemed obvious to me.
All these stamps are Eat Cake Graphics. I LOVE having a balloon tied to an animal's tail.
The main image is Hambo Stamps. I LOVE this stamp, it might be one of my all time favorites. I put some glitter on the image, not sure if it shows. The words are from the Crab and Company SU set.

Birthday Thank You's

I saw this paper at the No-So-Local Scrapbook Store (ie, the big one over in Manderine) today and knew I had to use it to make Stephen's Birthday Thank You cards. I think they turned out pretty cute don't you?

All the pattern paper is by Daisy D's and the ribbon is from Ribbons and Bows Oh My. Kerry over at The Stamp Shack did a share with it. I'm almost out! You should be proud because the cardstock is all random cardstock I dug out of my stacks. So it only cost me $1 in new supplies to make these cards! That's pretty cool. (And no I don't want anyone to figure out how much the stamp, ink, paper trimmer, cardstocks I had on hand and adhesive cost!) The stamp I believe I got at the dollar store AGES ago. It was one of the first stamps I ever owned!

Oh Daisy D's has really pretty floral paper that goes with the red dot paper as well and I made more of these with that. They are cool but not quite as cute as these with the airplanes.

The full story of the boy with the hose!

Once there was a little boy with a garden hose. Don't ask me why they gave him a garden hose, you will have to take that up with the artists at Eat Cake Graphics! I KNEW it would be a bad idea...

First thing he does is give his doggie a bone to keep it still while he stood on it's head to water the couch. He was trying to help by cleaning, but as you can tell by the look on his face he was a little naughty too...
He got sent outside with is hose (a good idea if you ask me!) where he watered the dog. Poor doggie didn't seem to like it...
The dog ran away and the little boy was trying so very hard to be good. He decided to water the yard instead.
A few days of that and flowers sprung up!
Now there is nothing that attacts balancing pigs like a garden hose! This gave the little boy an idea...
And he sure was right! Farm animals love water, just look at this chicken playing in the pool!

And that's the story of the little boy with the garden hose.

These are my creations for the "April Showers" themed swap at the LSS. The flowers are SU from the Loads of Love set, the Doggie is unknown to me (if you know by all means share with the group!) All other stamps are by Eat Cake Graphics. I colored with Prismacolor Markers. I drew in the eyebrows on the little boy and a few of the grass marks and other accent marks as I felt they were needed. I used Glossy Accents by Ranger on the water.

A great cause.

So I was blog surfing today. I did a ton! I saw so many cool projects that for a while I was super inspired, then it got to the overwhelmed point... Anyhow I found this awesome thing. (stay with me while I get the details straight...)

Dawn's this cool woman who'se blog I found (here's the link). Her husband is serving overseas right now. She is collecting greeting cards that she will send to him. Then he will give them to all his buddies over there so they can have nice cards to send home. She is trying to make him "The most wanted man in Iraq". So that's all super cute, and I emailed her and she is excited to collect the cards and I know I will be sending some. THEN I read her blog closer and see that a friend of hers, Angie has a Blog Candy contest on her blog in regards to this collection. (here's THAT link) The person who sends the most cards to Dawn by May 1st will recieve a prize and of all the people who send cards there will be a second prize drawn. So that makes it even more fun.

Anyhow after emailing with Dawn and finding out what a sweetheart she is I decided to encourage all of you to send cards. Any excuse to make cards right?

ATC Swap issues

So there is a swap I want to be in at the LSS for "April Showers" Themed ATC's. I tried my cutsie little rain cloud and I wasn't feeling it so...
I decided to just make it raining on this tree I LOVE by Eat Cake Graphics. That was ok, but in the same case I keep this tree was...
This little guy and I felt that lately we are having such a drought that this was appropriate because it's about all the showers my grass will be getting..

Then...

I felt he needed company. So I gave him something to be giving his shower to. I really ment it to be cute, but it just looked mean so I added the eyebrow line in a scowl look so he was a mean kid.

This made me think...

What other trouble could this kid get into... Well this won't be the end of his story, I need to make a total of 6 of these. I may make 3 more with the boy and just have them be a collection. I mean each person will just get one, but I could make a note that they can find the full story here right?

And that's how an innocent swap about rain became a kid standing on a dog spraying a chair with a garden hose...

Doggie stamp - Unknown. All other stamps Eat Cake Graphics. Sky in tree ATC is done with watercolor crayons, all other coloring with prismacolor pencils. All stamped on Bristol Smooth paper. Glossy Accents added to water.

I almost forgot!

I almost forgot I promised to tell you what I got at the Garage Sale! I got a TON of magazines, literally like 50 or so! I also got a few stamps, including one SU set I knew was gonna be there and I really wanted, I got like 8 SU inkpads in cool colors (not cool temp colors like blue but cool, neato colors...) I got a pack of watercolor crayons. I'm SURE there is some reason I need those and I'll be prepared next time someone makes something awesome and says they used those. I got a box for my friend Nita that she can store pencils in, a stamp-a-ma-jig for my Birthday Erin's Favorite Things box (ie next month's blog candy), some paper and some other unmounted stamps for a few friends who I KNEW would love these particular stamps. I think that's about it... The store had a sale too and I got the dinosaur from the "You may be old" card at 20% off. I spent a record breaking $90! OUCH. I've already sold $65 of my stuff BEFORE the sale so I only need to make an additional $25 to break even. I'd like to make more of course! :)

You may be old...

I have a friend who has a birthday next week. She's feeling old but has a fantastic sense of humor so I thought this dino would be perfect!
The dinosaur is Whipper Snapper and the letter stamps are Karen Foster. I colored the image with Prismacolor Markers.
I wanted a little bit of decoration on the inside too so I stamped just the head of this cute guy peeking in. I used a computer font to do the words here on the inside.

I'll try to get creating more, I had a terrible weekend and now have sick babies, so we will just see. Oh and somehow my house is a total mess too! I wasn't even HERE this weekend, not sure how that happened.

ETA - My friend DID love the card and thought it was funny and took it with the humor that was intended. :)

A bird may love a fish...

... But where would they live?

This was a line in "Ever After" which DH and I watched last night. I knew right away I HAD to pair the phrase up with the Just Johanna fish and bird I'm so fond of making kiss.

And here is the card:

I colored with prismacolor markers of course. The paper is Basic Gray, I'm really proud it was a tiny funky shaped scrap and I used it! The ribbon is May Arts. Oh this is cool, I didn't have a blueish green so I colored the bird with Light Ceriluean Blue and then over top with True Green to get this blue/green looking color. Now how cool is that? I did the phrase on my computer. I did email Johanna though and tell her I really think she should consider making a phrase that says this. (Erin's too lazy to print her phrases more than once in a while.)

Today Nita came over and bought a bunch of the stuff I have for the garage sale at the LSS (Local Stamp Store, mine's Scrap N Stamp) this weekend. She got $30 of stuff! CHA CHING! So I sold stuff on Friday too and now I'm up to $60 of that junk sold and there is still piles and piles of it! My goal is always to make $200. I'll keep you posted!

Hey did you see that counter thingie that is for Stamping Top 50? It's down near the bottom on the right. Anyhow I broke 200 yesterday! I'm at 197 now. It's fun to watch that number go down.

Don't forget that I have my birthday next month and YOU get the presents! I'm putting together a HUGE box of all my favorite things (will there be prismacolor markers in there? Who knows!) and one lucky person will win it all! It will be something super easy to enter too so don't worry one bit about that!

Oh and did you know my oldest turned 2 today! Happy Birthday Stephen!

Yea another Just Johanna Fish card!

Ok, I'll admit it, I only have a hanful of Just Johanna stamps. I know it's very sad for me. Because of this I'm forced to try to figure out all sorts of things to do with the ones I have. This time I decided to make a group of fish. Actually the red one I did first and then decided she looked lonely. I colored them all with the prismacolor markers and then added stickles glitter glue over the tops. The pattern paper is from the DCWV Pocket full of Posies stack. close view of the coloring, You ignore that gold smudge on the top fish, I plan to ignore it! Also look at this neato thing I got for my markers! Here's a link to where you can see them at Office Depot. I decided to go see them in person and I'm so glad I did. The red was for some reason half price! Then when I rang up the packaging on them was torn some so she gave me even more discount, I got all 4 of these for SEVEN DOLLARS!!! It should have been ten for each of the ones with the X's and some other price for the just cube one.. Anyhow I love it. And I have my unmounted phrase stamps in the one part which is cool because I always forget what I have.

I think that's all for now! huggeronies

Cards for a Pink Cat Class

I'm going to teach a Pink Cat Studio class next month at my LSS (Local Stamp/Scrapbook Store). We are going to make these cards. They are all colored with tombow markers. It's mostly a fun way to get to play with a bunch of the Pink Cat stamps. I hope they like it.

Erin can't follow directions.

These are my NEW cards for the Just Johanna Sketch Contest. Leave it to Erin to not read the directions. You can use ONLY Just Johanna stamps on the cards. I had made up my own goofy sayings "strange love" on mine. So here's my new cards...


They are all colored with what else... Prismacolor Markers. Not a whole lot to say, all stamps Just Johanna (duh...) The blue one that fish is actually on the inside and you see her through that window.

I still love my markers. Oh my stand for them is only supposed to hold 24 and I have 38 and it keeps dropping the extra ones I'm jamming in there then it all fell apart and I had a little spazz out and now I have no stand! heehee. It's ok, I just took it apart. I need to get something else to keep them in, I have too stinking many. Anyone need a stand for 24 prismacolor markers? It's not super fantastic...

Playing with Markers more!

Ok, if you are so sick of hearing about my new Prismacolor Markers, feel free to scroll down and just look at the pictures. I've heard that lots of you just look at the pics anyhow. (Jodie!)

But if you are ready to hear even more about my markers and even watch a movie then grab a soda and lets go!


I can't remember if I told you about the package deal at Costco. (Yes costco the warehouse store) It's $38 for 12 prismacolor pencils, 12 prismacolor markers 12 prismacolor watercolor pencils, 12 prismacolor art sticks (no idea how stampers would use those but watch they will be the next big thing) a CD Rom that's instructional two types of eraser, something else I cannot remember and it's all in a wood case. Now how cool is that? I tell you Costco rocks. I didn't get it as I had all that stuff but someone should buy it!


I wanted to learn more so I started with the Prismacolor Website. It's pretty cool. You can see about the markers and all on there. I have read over and over on the message boards that the markers are "solvent based" instead of "alcohol based" but on the Prismacolor site it says they are alcohol based. I feel we must believe them, I rekon they know! There is a video of an artist using them, he does blending and stuff and it's really cool. Here's the link. He also uses them in combo with his prismacolor pencils. I must have convinced you to buy the pencils by now right?



I wanted to learn more of course so I googled Prismacolor Markers and found plenty of stuff. Lots of it has to do with Manga Artists. That's pretty cool stuff but some went way over my head. I did find this artist message board deviantART. Generally that board is over my head too (and I don't think I'll join something with "deviant" in the name I have a "white bread" reputation to uphold), but there was a post where a member gives a very detailed review of the markers. It's long but a great read. Here it is.

It's all true, you can make colors by overlapping two, so you can put down red, then put yellow on top and get orange. Another thing I'm loving is that if you color one dark color then go over it with a light it does not gunk up your light colored marker! Even black to yellow, it's just fine. gotta love that right?

I don't have the blender marker yet so I've been practicing with blending by coloring in with my lighter color, then adding some darker then taking the lighter and going back over where they meet. You have to go pretty quick, once it's dry it doesn't work as well.

Also paper matters. I use normal office cardstock and it's working fine. I'm going to get some "Smooth Bristol" though as that deviantART person said to and I do what I'm told! I'll report on that. I tried this really cheap paper that I had and it didn't work at all. It blurred stazon and palette inks which normally do not smear and also the colors were all ugly on it and generally yucky. I tried on an envelope a bill came in and it was GREAT! How totally strange. Oh and glossy doesn't seem to work great, but you know your normal waterbased markers are awesome on glossy so that's good, gotta use them for something right? (as I have about a million of those too!)

Ok, on to the cards I guess!
This little boy is "Kevin" and he's by The Angel Company. He is colored with the markers, I used eggshell for the skin. I'm really loving this color for skin. His hair is goldenrod which I think is the best light haircolor too. I drew in the wallpaper and floor lines before I noticed he has a bee with his flower! Opps! I guess there is a bee in the kitchen? This kid looks a LOT like my son Stephen by the way. Oh and I used the blending on the flower and his pants can you tell? You can tell in person.

These are my newest Pink Cat Studio stamps. We all know I am in love with that stamp line of course. I used a bit of the shading on the umbrella, it's apple green with true blue on the edges, then blended back out with apple green. I drew on those sketchy marks on the edge I tried to make my normal sketchie marks look more Asian, I think maybe they just look like barbed wire? Anyhow I'm generally happy.

And that's what I have for you today! I want to know if you are bored with hearing about markers or if you want more? I mean I'll be using them more, but do you want me to talk about them in detail more or just move on already?

April Self Addressed Kit is here!

My April Self Addressed (link) kit came yesterday and I had to make a quick card. No stamping on this one. (I know, shocking) I felt the patern paper was enough. That little ribbon buckle thingie is a brad, how neat. Up in the left corner there is a little heart dohickie. I have no idea what it's for, but it sure is cute. Oh and it was all bulky shaped, so I put it on and then hit it with a hammer until it was flat. (I'm not into bulk) That's pretty much it for this card, all supplies except for the white prefolded card were in the kit.

I love that monthly club I get tons of junk in each kit and it all goes together so cute. This kit came with chipboard flowers, not sure what I'm gonna do with those.

I went to a crop Friday night. I only made 4 cards and I gave them all to the store to use as store samples. I did chat and generally have a nice night though so that's cool. I also bought just a very few things. Oh and I got to see the copic markers that the store is thinking of getting. They were nice but I am commited to my Prismacolor ones as I now have 30 some odd of them! (Did I mention I found more at HL on clearance?) I even have the little stand thingie. Anyhow I've researched online and now know how to blend some with them and combine colors to make new shades so I'm loving them. (course you can do all that with copic ones too) Apparently there is this woman who does amazing things witht he copic and Jodie is going to go take a class with her and come back and teach the rest of us... Pretty cool. (hey guys, I'm going to do another big entry about markers with links to cool stuff I've found, but I know not all my readers are super into makers yet so I'm going to wait a few posts, don't want to bore anyone!)

Well that's all for now. Oh and special thanks to Ronnie! *wink* (see there I said something to you)

Playing with markers and Inspired by The Key

So I had to play with my new prismacolor and copic markers of course. I very well may be getting more tomorrow too! The Key is the little end zone part of basketball. I noticed today that it is a great shape and cool for cards I have anoter layout in mind where the circle is extended and sticks up.. You'll have to just wait and see if I pull it off.
Did some masking and stamp-a-ma-jiging on this one.
Markers are: (all prismacolor)
Sand PM-70
Green Tea PM-197
Aqumarine PM-37
Eggshell PM-72
Lilac PM 171
paper is SU cardstocks Certainly Cellery and Almost Amethist.

Markers are:

Copic Cadmium Red R27

Prismacolor Indigo Blue PM-43

Prismacolor Copenhagen Blue PM-40

Prismacolor Eggshell PM-72 (for the skin and it's pretty good I think)

Prismacolor Goldenrod PM-69 (for the hair)

Paper are SU cardstocks Real Red and Temping Turquoise.

I used snow white tulip pearl paint for the details.

This is done with my prismacolor pencils it's for the Shack Survivor Round 2 contest over on The Stamp Shack. Each day Sherry will announce an elimating statement and whoever is there at the end wins. I made it pretty far last time then got out. Maybe I will win this time?

Copic vs. Prismacolor markers vs. waterbased markers

So I broke my no buying rule. I went to HL to look around and they had a handful of prismacolor markers on clearance and then I had a coupon in my pocket (how did that get there?) so I got a single copic marker to test. The copic are TWICE the price of prismacolor... So here goes:


Red Crabs are copic on the left and impress on the right. I use impress and tombow pretty much interchangeable and won't buy a red tombow as I have a red impress..
Blue crabs feature prismacolor marker on the left and tombow on the right. I didn't have a closer match so you need to compare color coverage, not the ACTUAL COLOR. :)
This was the most important test for me. I used the PEN end of both this time. Purple clam, prismacolor pen end on the left tombow pen end on the right. I feel this most dramaticly shows the difference.

On all of them the waterbased (tombow, impress and the SU markers are all waterbased) the paper got a bit fuzzy and you can really tell where I had to go back in if I missed a spot. On the copic/prismacolor ones you cannot tell where I had to go back in.

This photo shows two things. 1. The alcohol markers bleed through the paper A LOT. There is NO marker on my desk from this but you see they went through the paper. If you make cards with no layers these will not work for you at all. 2. The tips. This is where I actually perfer the prismacolor (thank heavens they are cheaper!) because they have the wedge tip just like the copic but then a super fine tip. Strangely you see my one prismacolor one has a finer tip than the other? There is no indication on the marker of this, the little drawing that shows you the tip is the same on both. Weird.. Anyhow I wish it was the brush tip and the super tiny tip, but I MUST have the tiny tip, I stink at coloring with the copic because it's just a pretty big marker. Oh the copic won't roll off your desk.

Also the copic comes in like 300 colors, now of course over 30 of them are gray but anyhow...

So for me the plan is this, About once a week I will buy a new marker, I will ALWAYS use at least a 40% coupon for them. If I cannot find a good shade in the prismacolor I will get copic. (they have especially great pinks and flesh tones)

one last thing...

Use Stazon, I did this one with totally dry versafine ink. I even heat set it then left it for a while. You can see it was a mess.

I'll try them on glossy another day I'm not feeling well but wanted to get this to you as I know you all sit at home thinking, "What is Erin up to tonight" hahaha kidding!!! (although there are a few of YOU who I wake up and say, "I hope so and so posted overnight" I won't name names and make you blush but I bet you know who you are!


Edited to include:
I emailed Em of http://www.stampingbella.com about her 4 pack. She has GREAT prices on the prismacolor markers. she has 5 seperate then a 4 pack, but the pack doesn't list the colors. Anyhow they are :
Eggshell
Terracotta
Tuscan red
Olive green

She's super friendly and I highly recomend getting stuff from her. ESPECIALLY if you happen to live in Canada. :)

Babies are soooooo fun.

So I watched House tonight. Love that show. Anyhow it was a baby one, and when the little hand... I don't want to ruin it for you if you haven't seen it but anyhow if you watched you know what I mean with the little hand... I just lost it. Tears everywhere. I was ready for a new baby that very second. So what do you do when you want a new baby but only because you think having another will be cute?

You make a baby card of course! *wink*
This is for Shara, she should be having a baby any day now. Less than two weeks I think is her due date. And it's a girl! How totally fun. I decided to make this girly card for her.

The image and words are TAC and I watercolored with watercolor pencils. The patern paper is Lasting Impressions and the cardstock is Stampin' Up! I used the stipple brush all over to keep the white from being too white.

That's it for today. I'm still really tired, I might be coming down with something.

Oh and I am not really thinking about another baby right now. I have my hands full for now. :)

Chipmunk, Tulips and a Cat

How on earth are a chipmunk, tulips and a cat related? Well they all are stars of cards I made last night! Sorry I'm only now posting, I've had company and had to take a nap this afternoon. (for hours it was great)
This one features Marcia's favorite animal the Chipmunk. I think they are creepy looking with their strange little feet, but to each her own. I believe that paper is Basic Grey. I stamped with vintage sepia versafine ink and colored with colored pencil. I also stamped a small chippy on the envelope. :)
This is the Terrific Tulip set by SU I got it last year at the LSS garage sale for just $4! (They are having another one next weekend local girls better go!) I stamped with only two colors, getting the various shades by stamping off on scratch paper then layering with fully inked images. I don't know if you can tell but I took some blue ink on my stipple brush and put it in the "sky" part.
This one features a cool name plate thingie that I learned to do on Asela's Blog here. You must go read how to do this as it is too clever for words. I'll give you a hint, it involves the scallop square punch. Actually I thought I wasn't going to make a card in this sitting, I just couldn't think of anything. I remembered the nameplate trick and wanted to give it a try. It worked of course, and then I just whipped up this card because I wanted to use it. :) Thanks Asela! (Her blog is Hop Art Studios and every day she posts something that has me running to my craft desk! Did you know I'm so lucky? She's moving to my very own town in a few months! I'm probably gonna tackle her moving van as they come across the state lines I'm so excited.

Oh I'm planning a cool blog candy, I'm calling it "My Favorite Things" and it's going to be for my birthday. (May 9th) I might have another small one before then, but you better make sure you watch around the 9th because I'm gonna share ALL my very favorite things in one huge giveaway. And I have more than a month to add to the shopping list for it.

Well I guess I should go play with my babies...

More cards! :)

Here is another stab at the Just Johanna sketch contest. You know you can enter as many times as you want right? So of course I'm gonna. I'm DETERMINED to get some more JJ stamps and I'm out of $$. Anyhow this time it's an unlikely pair!
This doggie comes from Pink Cat Studio. I colored with chalk and colored pencil. I like this funky shaped mat too. :) (it's on purpose!)
Same dog, different pose. I actually colored this one thinking it would go on the above card, but it was just too much with the pattern paper and the scalloped punch and all.. Anyhow I decided to make her a new card. :)

Did you know that Pink Cat Studio has this thing called Pink Cat Points? You can earn them in a pile of ways, get published, give her cards for her gallery, link to her on your website, have referals... Anyhow I got the dog set almost free and I think I have enough points for another free set! You really should check that site out, it's just too cute. If you go over there because of me then please let them know and I'll get even more cute points. There is no end to the length I'll go in my search for free stamps!

Hamtastic Prize!!!

The winner of the Hamtastic Prize is....


Cinda! Hurray Cinda.


and now back to the show!

Just Johanna sketch contest

Over at Just Johanna there is a contest to make a card with a sketch she posted. You can win $25 in JJ stamps. So of course I had to play! :) These fishies are colored with prismacolor pencils, the ribbon is from my stash and the "thinking of you" is a TAC stamp. I stamped it with versamark and then put some perfect pearls over it. They are super glittery so they didn't photograph great but you get the idea. :)

This is how I take my photos

Ok, let me say first I am NOT posting this because I think my photos are fancy. I am doing it because my set up is simple and I have a cheap camera and I don't have special light bulbs or anythign like that at all. :) I was totally inspired by Amy R who did a tutorial on her blog you can see here. Also Stampin' Kub has been doing a series on how he takes his fantastic photos on his blog. He has a pretty fancy set up and tells you about changing light levels in the computer and all that. These two are way better at ths than me, but if you feel that you might want to star small then maybe you can try my set up.

So I have a desk lamp that I can move around and aim and a floor lamp that I lay down on it's side and prop on an open drawer. They both have florescent bulbs. I am a NUT about saving energy and so we have all those compact florescent bubls. I've read you cannot take good photos with them, but I just can't bring myself to change. Other than that I just do like Amy with the two pieces of 12x12 cardstock and arrange my card and any stuff on them.

My camera is a Fujifilm A303 3.2 megapixles camera. I take my photos for posting online at .3 megipixles. Yup, the smallest it has. I do not use a flash and use the macro (tulip) mode. (Thanks again for those tips Amy) I do crop in a photo editing program, any will do and I do "auto exposure adjust" I've tried to do the color correct and it's wrong all the time so I don't.

It takes me only a few seconds to set this up and I didn't have to spend a dime on my supplies. (see my fancy paperclip to hold my paper up.)

And that's what I do. I'll go post the card I took with this set up now and you can see.

My trimmer...

Ok, so I have a trimmer I love. I know it's hard to find a great trimmer so I'm gonna tell you all about it. It's name is Dahle 507 I bought it from Oozak. It's not cheap, I believe the current price is around $70. The blade is self sharpening so it should not need to be replaced ever. I have a friend who has had one for years and she says it cuts as sharp as ever. I've had mine about 4 months and it's still perfect.

There are some tricks to it and I'm going to share them here for all the people who I have told to buy it who then did buy it and might want to know the tricks.
This is the trimmer with it's nomal blade. You will not need to push down on the blade to cut, simply pull it along it's metal track. Your paper goes UNDER the plastic paper holder thingie. (see it there?) Do NOT EVER EVER EVER try to remove this plastic thing without taking the blade cartridge totally off. I tried to pull it up to get a bit of sticker off it and broke it. The trimmer does not work without it and it is expensive to replace. I was heartbroken, but the wonderful people at Oozark were able to get me a deal on a replacement.
When you want to take the blade off you have to remove this little red thingie from the end.

Sometimes I can just push on it from the outside and slide it off but sometimes not. I have weak fingers. When I can't just pop it off I just reach under here and see the little notch part? I just pull that back with my finger and it comes right off. No sense hurting yourself!


This is one of the deco deges. You can get it with the fancy edges, (I believe that's when it costs around $70) or not for less money. You cannot go back and add them later if you don't get them though, it costs almost as much as a whole trimmer to buy them seperate. See the orange plastic thing, I remove that.
Then you slide it on your trimer bar. The plastic thing on the right in the photo is ONLY for when you are using the deco blades. It's a floppy cutting mat thing. If you try to use it with the stright blade the blade will push your paper down into the space between the mat and the cutter and give you a funky edge. Also, the deco edge blades DO requre you to push down on the colored button them as you cut. At first this annoyed me but then I realized that it was great because I would not accidentally leave a wavy edge in there and cut with it when I really wanted straight. If you try it just won't cut unless you push the button.

The deco blades are deckle, wavy and perforated. I honestly don't use them that much but it wasn't much more to get the cutter with them. I use the perf blade some and everyone thinks it's very clever. When it's all assembled I think it's very safe, the blade is almost touching the bottom of the trimmer so you can't really get at it and there is no arm that comes up and down. The blades that you are not currently using however do not have covers so keep them out of reach of little fingers! All the blades are SHARP!

The cut edge I get with this trimmer is super smooth. I have never seen a trimmer cut this sharp and I love that.

Downfalls:
You can only cut maybe 3 sheets of cardstock at a time. Maybe 4 but don't try to push it.
There is no swing out arm for measuring. The part you can see on there goes to 6 inches, so for most projects with cardmaking that's enough. There is a ruler on it because it's 13 inches long the other way so if I need a longer than 6 inch cut I just use the ruler and make a tiny mark with a pencil and then line that up.

That's all the negative I can think of.

Ok, I hope you found this useful, if not don't worry I'm gonna post a card right now! ;)

Pam asks a good question in the comments so I will answer here:
(her question is how do you know a narrow cut is straight as there are not a lot of lines on the trimmer (I think they are only every half inch) to use as a guide.)
Pam, I'm gonna go pm you with this too, but for a small piece I use the little dents in the plastic thingie you slide paper under to make sure it's straight. Actually almost all my mats are whatever it is to that first edge. (I'm sorry you just have to have the trimmer to see what I mean on that)