Friday, April 22, 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen, Let the Freebies Begin!

Come one, come all! The day has finally come for our Water for Elephants Giveaway! Huzzah! This was a fun giveaway for me because 1) ECS loves elephants! and 2) I love themes. :) I am a theme hound, and it was really fun looking for supplies to make this week's giveaway. Here, ladies and germs, is what we are giving away in honor of a fabulous-looking movie, Water for Elephants:
Here we have a set of 5 matchbook notebooks with 15 pages of recycled newsprint paper in them. We've got some cycling elephants, some circus poster taglines and the beautiful trapeze artist alongside her elephant pals (her elephant pals are on the reverse side :)). This one has rules just like the last one did so keep on reading!

Rule #1:
Like Ehle Custom Stationery on Facebook. If you already have, fabulous. This just makes it easier for me to find and notify people when they win. Click the link below to be taken to the ECS facebook fan page:
 Also, by becoming a fan on facebook, that's another way to keep up with the doings of ECS like sales, new products and shows!

Rule #2:
Let me know which act it is that brings or would bring you to the circus. I'll start. I love the animals. The boring ones are okay, but mostly I like the dangerous ones. The elephants with their sharp tusks, the lions and tigers with their man-flesh-eating-ness and the alligators who also eat fleshy men. I love the danger in it. :) Now you. What is your favorite act at the circus?

So leave a comment on this blog post telling me all about your circus habits, and I can't wait to read them! Plus you'll be entered in the drawing. :) Also, if you join the Ehle Custom Stationery Ehlebots, there are discussion boards and other ways to get savings and new product reveals. We've just got all sorts of stuff going on!

The giveaway starts as soon as this is posted (if you're reading it now, that's now!) and ends Sunday night. Joey and I will be picking a winner Monday morning sometime so tune in then to see the winner! Just remember: elephants are our friends, R-Pat and Rees are tremendous actors and unfortunately good-looking people, and, hence, you should go see Water for Elephants. :) Ciao, bellas!   

Friday, April 8, 2011

I Can Yudu, Can You?

I have FINALLY got myself a Yudu. I've been watching these things for a LOOOOONG time, and seeing as there's no way I'm ever buying myself a craft something for $400, I didn't have one. Until yesterday... Being an exclusive member of Michael's email list, I get these awesome coupons from time to time. Yesterday, for ONE DAY ONLY, the Yudus were $99.99! That's hundreds of dollars in savings! I ran right out and got one. I stood right by the Yudus while the lady looked to see if they had any left. She was finally able to scrounge one up, and it was still in the shipping box! I'm still getting shivers thinking how close I was to having to run all around town looking for one of these things. Oooohhh...

Anyway, I got it, brought it home and immediately opened it and started trying to make something. I then proceeded to immediately mess it up. First of all, I'm not entirely taking the blame on this one because the instructions are crap. I should know, instructions are my living. They truly suck. So I effed up the only emulsion sheet I had. Scott had to run out and get one on the way home from work. He's such an awesome husband. :) Then I found out I needed some things that, for some stupid reason, were not included in the box. Okay, check this out. You put emulsion on the screen to make the image. You need emulsion remover to clean the screen of the emulsion ick. THE DAMN YUDU DOESN'T COME WITH EMULSION REMOVER! And I didn't know I needed it until I got the damn thing home and read the instructions. So then I had to run out and get that. :) The good thing is that I was able to find and print a 40% coupon. So there, Michaels. Take that.

So we're now at the point where I have watched several videos online to try to figure out what the heck I'm doing since the directions sucked. I have some new emulsions sheets and emulsion remover now so I can clean the screen I effed up the first time. After all that mess, it was pretty easy to do. I got my screen burned and inked.
The Yudu originally only comes with an adult t-shirt platen so I had to improvise to make this shirt for Joey. It worked just fine, though sticking the back of the shirt to the platen (like you're supposed to) and sticking a piece of cardboard (with double stick tape on the inside of the front and back so the cardboard doesn't move around in the shirt) in the baby tee. I just had to make sure the image on the screen was in the spot I wanted on the shirt.

Then you just make a couple runs over the t-shirt with the ink and you have a screen-printed tee! This one came out super awesome for my first try. The bottom's a little smudgy, but I wasn't sure how much pressure to put on the squeegee when I was pulling the ink through. I didn't push hard enough the first time, and then I lifted the mesh screen to see the shirt. Don't do that. :) So, after that, I made a couple more passes with the ink pushing much harder this time, and it went over it like buttah. I got this design from Michaels. They sell their own art transparencies, but you can also make your own designs. I might have to try making my own next time.

I'll admit I'm slightly concerned about the cost of maintaining my Yudu because emulsion sheets are 2 for $20, and you have to burn a new screen for each image you want. Unless you're doing bulk screenprinting or are an enthusiastic crafter (like myself), I probably wouldn't recommend it. You're essentially paying $10 plus the cost of whatever you're screenprinting. It's up to you whether it's worth it or not, but I just like the idea of making my own designs on t-shirts and such. I LOVE tote bags, and this will be perfect for that. Also, I just had another thought. I can screenprint my own notecard caddies! Holy moley, I love the sound of that idea.

I think Joey liked his new shirt. It made him run around like a crazy person. :) He looks so stylish in his mock designer tee!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Ehle Custom Stationery's First-Ever BLOG GIVEAWAY! (that means free...)

Yes, you read that right. In the spirit of getting my butt in gear and getting back to business, I'm giving away my first-ever prize package. Exciting, right? I'm pretty darn excited about it! Oh, but not only is this a wonderful prize package, it includes a couple exclusive products that aren't even for sale, yet!

But now for the rules. I'm not just going to GIVE it away. You have to do something for it. Don't worry, it's not hard.
  • Rule #1: Like Ehle Custom Stationery on Facebook. Here you can get all sorts of news from ECS and get pics of what is currently in the works. You'll also find some sales announced here from time to time. If you have already liked us, fabulous! If not, I won't make you feel bad, but I will look away while you head on over to Facebook to like us. I'll pretend I didn't notice you hadn't liked us already... (you can click on the image below to go to the Ehle page on Facebook)
  • Rule #2: Leave a comment on this entry letting me know where your notecards go. Where do you send them? If you don't write letters, to whom do you gift them? If you're not in it for the notecards at all, if you're more of a magnet, book or gift tag kind of person, where do they go? I thought it would be fun to know where all my products have been. I can't wait to hear about it!
With that said, I feel like I can now reveal the prize... curtain's being raised, you're on the edge of your seat... ta da!
 For the lucky winner, they receive 3 ECS original design notecards, 2 of which are not in the shop, yet. There is also 1 set of ECS bubble magnets and a lovingly hand-stitched pocket notebook also not in the shop, yet. I had a really fun time choosing what to give away, and these notecards are seriously some of my favorites, the banner one, especially. Here's the breakdown:
  • (1) Thank You Card w/ envelope (invitation size)
  • (1) Hello Friend Banner Card w/ envelope (invitation size)
  • (1) Party Penguin Card w/ handmade self-adhesive envelope
  • (1) 4-piece Creamy Soup Magnet Set
  • (1) Breezy Trees 20 page Pocket Notebook
To recap, in order to win this prize package, you must 1) Like ECS on Facebook (see Rule #1) AND 2) Leave a comment letting me know where your ECS products have been or will go. It's easy, right?! All entries are due by Wednesday, April 6 at midnight. Don't worry about the time zone, I'm sure it'll be close enough. :) On Thursday morning (April 7), I will put all the names in a random drawing, and I'll let Joey pick a name for me. I will do my best to read the name before he tries to eat it.

If you have any questions at all for me, please let me know. I'm really excited about my first giveaway, and I hope you guys have fun with it! Good luck!