Crafty Saturday: supply stock up and Back to School card!

I've been on such a roll with scrapbooking that it was becoming pretty obvious I had to stock up on some supplies so I could keep up with my current pace. I haven't found a really great place to get scrapbooking supplies at great prices, but one website I do check fairly frequently is Crafty Steals. They often have kits in various sizes and prices that you can actually do a lot with and get a lot of use out of them. I bought a few recently and I've been tinkering with some of the products.

This was the entire shipment that I got. It's a pretty wide assortment of stuff and I think I paid around $80 after shipping for it all? The only complaint I have is that you don't get shipment tracking information and it takes a long time for you to get your stuff. I think I waited almost three weeks before it arrived.

One of my favorite companies is Doodlebug Designs, so I bought this summer/mermaid kid thinking some of it I could use for Penelope pages and some I could even use for Fetus Four's future book. I also bought a summer kit by Echo Park, and then some Fourth of July kits because I have nothing for those pages!

So here's my Doodlebug Designs Fourth of July Kit. It came with a bunch of paper but look at all of the embellishments I got! I can use those on pages but I can also use them on cards and not just Fourth of July stuff!

Also, that was the summer/mermaid kid I got that is also Doodlebug Designs. Their stuff is automatically geared towards kid pages but I always love the bright colors and fun embellishments. My next confession is that sometimes I get something and it's SO CUTE I don't want to use it. Which is insane, I know, but it's totally true.

But all of that aside, this baby is due in what, three weeks? I have to get my butt into gear when it comes to Back to School.

I know, some of you just had the first stab of a panic attack, didn't you? Well my goal this year was to be 100% done with my clothes shopping as well as the school supply shopping because I know full well I'm not going to want to battle the crowds with my two school age big kids, a toddler, and a newborn.

NOPE.

But in addition to all of that, I also give a Back to School teacher gift to my kids' teachers every year. I don't know what my plan is once they get to middle and high schools when they have more than one teacher, but at least for the elementary teachers, I always do a fun little basket. I'll post more on that basket perhaps next week, but I wanted to share the card I made to go into the basket! I always, bare minimum, do a card with my contact information and just a general "good luck/looking forward to the year" note for them. Honestly, I have to think Back to School is just as stressful for them as it is for us. They have to learn a whole new set of kids, their strengths and weaknesses, a new schedule, sometimes a new curriculum, and I feel like whatever I can do to encourage them, I'm all for it.

Just a simple little learning worm card. The inside is blank, but isn't the front super cute? I have this little stack of accent paper I've had for a few years now that is all school related so I've been using that for teacher cards for a few years.

Do you love it? Do you want it? Do you feel like totally not making it because you don't have the time? Head over to my Etsy shop- I have three in stock! I know, you're like- holy hell, Sara! I know, I'm going to try to resurrect my shop in the hopes of a little extra income (we desperately need it) but also to help out you non-crafters who want to give super cute, original, unique stuff. I've got you, boo. I'll be adding things periodically (hopefully) and I have a few larger gift items I can custom make for people in the future... but more on that soon.

Until next week lambs, happy crafting!