Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Baby Card....


You might remember my practice baby cards from previous posts. Here is the final card I am sending in the baby card swap. This swap was a little more difficult for me because I could only use SU products. It's cute. The template and idea came from a card by Pampop on SCS who is a member of my monthly swap club. She makes beautiful cards.

Still no response to my blog contest winner. Jeanna if you are out there, email me.

Still looking for my blog contest winner....

If you are Jeanna, please email me with your mailing address and I will get your prize right out to you. It's all packaged and ready to go, just waiting for your address. There is a spot to email me on my blog. Look for it on the left hand side of the blog.

I know I haven't posted in a card in a little while, but I am working on three at this moment. I am getting my May cards ready my monthly swap and just finishing up my baby theme cards for another swap. I have to get my baby cards in the mail by Wednesday so I should finish those up tonight.

In the meantime, this is a card I am working on for my May swap.



Since I tend to work and rework cards, this is probably not the card I will end up with for my monthly swap. I do like the SU DP that matches the polka dot and paisley stamp set.

What else is new you ask? BOOK CLUB is this week. Book Club is always a fun night out. I have to confess though, for the first time in a long time, I just didn't have time to read the book. Work has been crazy and the fact that I was sick for week on top of that, left little time. The book is WICKED. The worst part about me not reading the book this month is that several of us in book club are going to see WICKED on Broadway this Saturday. This was a bad month for me to not read the book but life happens. I will still go to book club and facilitate.

If you are in book club, I'll see you on Wednesday night. I not, I will hopefully post another card tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Friday, April 20, 2007

And the winner is.....

JEANNA! Congratulations Jeanna, please email me your mailing address and I will get your prize right out to you.

And

jeanna said...
I was wondering how many different flavors of pez candy there are....
I was almost a pez head......a long time ago

I hope you enjoyed reading the answers to all the PEZ questions. I think I answered them all. Thanks for all of your great questions and for reading my blog. I am hoping to get a new card posted tomorrow. If you recall from previous posts I have been whining about not being able to find scallop punches either on-line or in the craft stores....the whining has stopped. I am now the happy owner of the Giga Circle, Square and Oval Punches as well as the Mega's. I'm a happy camper. I was able to finally find them on the A-Muse web site. Love their stamps, their customer service, etc. A great company.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Answers to Some of your PEZ Questions...

Here are answers to the PEZ questions asked in the comments as well as answers to questions you didn't ask but I thought you would find interesting:

Q. Of all the PEZ dispensers you have, which is your favorite?
A. While this answer will change from time to time, my current favorites are the 80th Anniversary Mickey and Minnie Mouse I bought at convention. They are only sold in Europe and will not (as far as I know) be released in the U.S. I am also happy to have bought the space gun at this years convention. My mom always gets me the annual PEZ Christmas ornaments as well. 2007 is the 80th Anniversary of PEZ!

My mom’s favorite is the Breast Cancer PEZ we bought last year at convention.

Q. Who is Shawn Peterson?
A. Shawn is a PEZ collector and author of many books on PEZ

Q. I was wondering how many different flavors of pez candy there are....
A. The flavors in the U.S. and other countries differ. In the U.S. there are currently 11 flavors including two new flavors (Cherry & Raspberry). Besides Cherry and Raspberry you can find Orange, Grape, Lemon, Strawberry, Cola, Sour Green Apple, Sour Pineapple, Sour Blue Raspberry and Sour Watermelon.

At one time Cherry was discontinued because PEZ didn’t think children would like candy that is the same flavor as cough medicine.

The dispensers are manufactured and imported from Hungary, China, and Slovenia. The candy is produced and packaged with the dispensers at the plant in Orange, Connecticut facilities.

Q. I do have a question about the gun you showed. Is this hard to find? Do you have to go to a convention like this to find one?
A. We bought the space gun this year at convention and last year we bought the smaller orange gun. They are found easily at convention and I am sure you can find them on Ebay. They are from the 70’s and 80’s so they only way you can get one is from someone who has one to sell. They have older guns from the 50’s that we saw at convention that we would have loved to buy but they were going for $300-$400 which was way out of our price range.

Q. Do you have a batman pez? and do you have the one with the cape?
A. We have several Batman Pez but not the one with the Cape which runs about $75-$120.

Q. My question is if the candy itself has improved over the past 35 yrs?
A. I don't know if they changed the recipe over the years but it’s basically flavored sugar. I have massive amounts of the candy but I don’t eat the candy myself.

Q. Which Pez is Kerry's most valuable?
A. The guns go for $25-$35. I have some PEZ without feet that go for about $40-$60 each.

Q. What PEZ does your daughter want, but can not find?
A. Usually, it’s not a matter of not being able to find it, it’s a matter of not being able to afford it. The prices on some are pretty high. For example the guns from the 1950’s go for hundreds of dollars. I can usually find things I am looking for at convention.

My mom tells anyone she knows traveling to other countries to be on the lookout for PEZ. PEZ in other countries are different than those released here in the U.S. For example, the INCREDIBLES Pez dispensers in the U.S. all had masks on and in Europe they didn’t. I would like to get the European version of the INCREDIBLES but haven’t found those yet.

Q. Why did she start collecting PEZ and at what age?
A. I started collecting PEZ when I was 8 or 9. When I bought one once, my mother mentioned that people collect them and I thought it was a good idea. At first I just collected what I found in local stores. We always buy complete sets as soon as they come out. For example, when the Shrek 3 dispensers came out recently we made sure we had all four characters in the set.

Q. How do you display your PEZ collection?
A. I actually purchased, on ebay, special stands designed specifically to display PEZ. I have two stands that hold about 80 PEZ each so I have about 160 on a dresser in my room along with some of the GIANT PEZ dispensers. My collection is well over 700 Dispensers and the majority of the collection is in tubs in my closet. Honestly, I stopped counting I have so many. We would need an addition on our house to display all the PEZ I have. I not only collect PEZ but PEZ related items. I have PEZ Games, PEZ Pins, PEZ signs, PEZ jewelry, etc. I have recently been asked to display my collection in our local library and am considering doing that.

Q. My question is, do you know if they have Care Bear PEZ dispensers? Those would be way cool.
A. No , ther are no Care Bear PEZ dispensers. I would love to see one since Care Bear is one of my nicknames since I was a baby.

Q. What does a PEZ taste like? Is it a candy or a gum? Are all PEZ the same...meaning a hard candy or gum with just diff. flavours?
A. They are hard pieces of flavored sugar





Questions not asked but thought you would want to know….

Q. What do they call the president of PEZ?
A. The Pezident

Q. What does PEZ stand for?
A. PEZ comes from the first, middle, and last letters of the German word for peppermint, pfefferminz.

P E Z

Q. Who invented PEZ?
A. PEZ was invented by Eduard Haas III.

Q. How long has PEZ been around?A. PEZ candy was created in 1927 in Vienna, Austria. The PEZ dispenser was
invented in 1948. PEZ candies and dispensers have been marketed in Americasince 1952.


A. Is PEZ Candy good for you?
Q. While I have massive amounts of PEZ candy (in my many unopened packages), I do not eat the candy.

The nutritional info is:
Serving size: 1 roll (9 g)
Calories: 35
% Daily Values per Serving (based on a 2,000 calorie diet):
Total Fat (0 g): 0%
Sodium (0 mg): 0%
Total Carbohydrates (9 g): 3%
Sugars 9 g
Protein: 0 g

The sugar-free candy has the following nutritional info:
Serving size: 1 roll (8 g)
Calories: 30
% Daily Values per Serving (based on a 2,000 calorie diet):
Total Fat (0 g): 0%
Sodium (0 mg): 0%
Total Carbohydrates (9 g): 3%
Sugars 0 g
Sorbitol 8 g
Protein (0 g): 0%
Vitamin C: 35%

Monday, April 16, 2007

PEZ Convention & Surprise Blog Candy

You are all probably wondering about my title....PEZ Convention. My daughter Kerry has been collecting PEZ since she was a little girl (she's a teenager now). For the past 5 years I have been taking her to the North East PEZ Convention. It's a three day convention but we usually just go for the Friday Night events and the Saturday morning dealer show. It's been a lot of fun over the years. Kerry has quite a big collection at this time. The fun thing about the convention is that you can purchase PEZ from all over the world. Kerry has all kinds of PEZ or PEZ related products from all over Europe, Japan and many other countries around the globe. We've also met a lot of nice PEZ HEADS (yes that's what we are called....PEZ HEADS). This is only one of the many Pez Conventions that are held every year around the country (and around the globe). They also have PEZ cruises!



Friday night is PEZ BINGO and this is the 5th straight year that we won NOTHING! We play 21 games every year (21 each so between us we have 42 chances to win one bingo) and so far we have never won. We also didn't win one of the 40 or so door prizes. Maybe next year.

Here is a photo of Kerry playing PEZ BINGO!




Kerry Ann made some great purchases this year including a PEZ Space Gun from the 70's (she already had the pistol...she got that last year). They are a great collector item. You should see all the kids at the convention shooting pez at each other with the PEZ guns. They were recalled years ago from fears that kids would choke by shooting PEZ into their mouths. Here's a picture with "some" of this years purchases. The book she is holding was written by Shawn Peterson (who is always at the conventions) and he signed it for her.





Here is a picture of the ballroom with all the PEZ dealers on Saturday morning.



After the dealer showroom on Saturday morning we met Pat's cousin Laura and her little girl Bethany for breakfast. Here is a picture of her with Kerry Ann...isn't she adorable!



Since you were so nice to read all about the PEZ convention, I am going to offer some more blog candy to anyone who leaves a comment with a PEZ question. Here is what you will win: 3 clear $1 stamp sets from Michael's, 2 blocks and, of course, a PEZ!



Leave a PEZ comment by Friday, the 20th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and I will use the random number generator to pick a wiinner.

Good Luck all !

Thursday, April 12, 2007

No Card Today BUT You Are Going To Love This!

This is why the internet is the greatest media created in history.

Take 60 seconds to do this, I guarantee you will show someone else, it's too funny not to.

How to get from NY to London
1. go to www.google.com
2. go to the spot where you see: Web Images Video News Maps more »
and click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type "London" in the second box (the "to" box)
(hit get directions)
6. scroll down to step #23
7. Laugh

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Chip Board Coaster Box

Who would have thought you could make such cute items with chipboard coasters. I ordered a few of these from someone on SCS and then followed the tutorial on SCS to make these cute coaster boxes. This is my first attempt so I kept it simple. I used SU DP from the winter mini, ribbon and prima flowers. The tutorial suggested both tying the ribbon and braiding the ribbon so I made two boxes and tried both methods Here are my boxes.




We had a nice Easter weekend. Unfortunately Pat and Jack had to work the entire weekend but the girls and I had a fun visiting family. We spent Saturday with Pat's family and Sunday at my sisters.

This is a busy week at work but also I have a lot to look forward to this week. I have Woman's Club tomorrow, which is always fun and this weekend Kerry and I are heading to the Northeast PEZ convention. This will be our 4th year going. Kerry has been collecting PEZ for many years now and has quite a colelction. The PEZ convention is a lot of fun. We meet a lot of great people, attend seminars and on Friday night there is PEZ Bingo with great Pez prizes. When Kerry was younger she entered the kids PEZ costume contest but she is too old for that now. There are many dealers at the convention and Kerry uses this opportunity to buy some interesting items. Last year she bought a PEZ gun. The guns were prizes in cereal boxes many, many years ago. They stopped putting them in the cereal boxes because they felt they were dangerous for kids (the kids would shoot PEZ into their mouths and choke). It was quite a find and a great addition to her collection. She has PEZ from all over the world.

Next I am planning to use the Chipboard coasters to make picture frames.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

And the winner is.....

dd2njoy! Congratulations. Please email your mailing address and I will get your ribbon organizer and 2 spools of ribbon out to you this week. I used a randon number generator to pick the winner.

dd2njoy said...
This is such a good idea for a blog candy...I'm one of those people that needs any kind of organization idea.This one sure would help me !!! TFS

Spending the weekend with family so I may not post till next week. Have a Happy Easter and a wonderful weekend everyone!

Friday, April 6, 2007

Last Day For Blog Candy...

I'll take your comments until midnight (Eastern) tonight and announce the winner of the ribbon organizer on Saturday Morning. I will be using a random number generator to pick the winner.

I have been very busy with work and have not had time to stamp all week. Hopefully, I will post something next week. I have been working on the cute jumbo paper clip bookmarks from the tutorial on SCS. I will post when done. I have the chipboard and paper cut using my cuttlebug and just have to put them together.

I had a great mail week. I participate in the DSS (secret sister) group on SCS and this was reveal month! My secret sister was Kimmery and I was so lucky to have her. She sent me great cards every month, a great birthday package and a wonderful reveal package that included some cuttlebug embossing folders (yeah!). She really made this round fun. Thanks Kim!

Also, in the mail was a swap I participated in (remember the faux stitching cards I made?). Great cards!

Next in the mail came ribbon from a ribbon share I participated in with Texasjodylynn. Polka dot ribbon in so many colors. I can't wait to use it.

Finally, I bought some chip board coasters and I plan to make one of those adorable chipboard coaster boxes.

Oh, and I don't want to forget that I won BLOG CANDY on not one, but two blog sites this week! Very exciting.

The best part of the week was today when Meghan walked in the door around 2:00 today. After work, I took her out to dinner at a new restaurant in town, Milano's. It was wonderful.

I will post the winner in the morning.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Great Ideas!

What great ideas you have all come up with. If you haven't read the comments from the previous post you should! I think every crafter has to work their way through storage and organization issues. My biggest issue is that I don't have room devoted to stamping or scrapbooking so I have to pull out what I want to use and I can't just leave things out if I didn't finish what I was doing. Also, I have so many different storage areas, I forget where I put things and sometimes end up buying a duplicate item I know I have because I can't find the one I have....ugh!

I have already put two of the suggestions in the comments in place. I keep my cardstock in a file cabinet (two draws) and I love the idea to keep a folder behind each color for scraps. What a great idea! I have kept my scraps all together and it's been a pain to sift through the box looking for a particular color. The other idea I implemented right away was to Label-Label-Label. When I first started stamping I didn't realize that the sticker with the name of the stamp set went on the box. Once I realized it, I did put it on the box but I wasn't consistent and the label could be on any side of the box. When I was looking for a set in the cabinet, I could never tell what the name of the set I was looking at without turning it several times. Yesterday, I took out my label maker and labeled every stamp set on the same side so the label was showing when I opened the cabinet. It's so much easier to find a set now. I am hoping to implement more and more of your ideas.

Another thing that helped me when I labeled the stamp sets, I found I had 14 unmounted/unused stamp sets. When I went through them I mounted the sets and made a promise to myself I would use them in April. Tonight I made a quick and simple card using Think Big and Riveting. Both sets have sat unmounted since I bought them oh so long ago. I added a prima flower and a little ribbon. My favorite color combination is Green Galore and Pink Passion but I tend to over use those colors. My second favorite is Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip so I went with that combo today.




Remember the BLOG Contest goes till midnight on Friday, all you have to do is leave a comment with your organization tips or issues on the previous post (April 1st).

Thanks to everyone for their best wishes to Kerry. She is still not feeling well but went to the doctor today and he said it's just a really bad cold. Not sure yet if she will be going to school tomorrow.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

It's Time For Blog Candy!

Happy April 1st. It's April Fools Day but I'm not fooling...it's time for more blog candy. If you read the last few posts you read that the blog candy for April will help you with your organization of craft supplies. As you can see from the picture the prize is a Ribbon Organizer and two spools of Michael's paisley ribbon to start you off. All you have to do is to leave a comment on this post and mention either a craft storage tip or your biggest craft organization problem. Maybe we can share some tips and resolve some organization problems.




Leave your comment, on this post, by Midnight on Friday, April 6th and I will post a randomly selected winner on Saturday morning, April 7th. Enter once and good luck.

Kerry's home from her 8th grade trip to Florida. She had a great time but she came home exhausted and sick. She has a temp and cold. She went right to bed. We're so happy to have her home.