ATG- Love it or Hate it???

I finally broke down and ordered an ATG for my craft projects.

The adhesive is SO much cheaper. I calculated I was spending about $100 on adhesive runners when I could get the same amount of ATG adhesive for about $20. Eeeek.

So I ordered a cute pink one from Custom Crops and it took Danny about 10 minutes to load it for me. LOL. I figure I must have him or another "wise loader" in my presence if I ever run out of adhesive....no way am I patient enough to try and figure that out!

So here is my issue- this gun is NOT for left handed people!!! I can NOT see where the adhesive strip is- and I swear this afternoon more adhesive went on my desk than on my projects! I am fairly versatile with my right hand but I think this gun requires too much coordination for me to be able to use it right handed. I could crank my neck around and possibly see where the adhesive strip is.....but what a pain (literally!)

Any other lefties out there with my problem? Not sure what to do besides maybe just practice with it. The cost savings are so great...I hate to give it up... but goo gone is kinda expensive and its looking like I need a whole jug of it for my desk so in the long run it might not be that much cheaper!

Cards

Today was the LMNOP monthly crop. I stayed the entire 13 hours!!!! It is sooooo time for me to go to bed but I wanted to post this before it slipped my mind. I had a great day of socializing and finished a small amount of scrapbooking. I had a goal to complete 4 sets of cards, an 8x8 album and 2 recipe boxes. Normally I am super speedy and that is not unrealistic.....today I finished 2 sets of cards and that is it. LOL! Oh well....it was a great day.

This card is for the theme Red, Black, and White. My Aunt Cheryl recently had to put her dog down so I wanted to make her a card and just decided to incorporate it into this theme.

The next card was based on a sketch and inspired by my Aunt Sharon. On my 21st birthday she made me this sun.

On the back there is a message that says May the Sun Always Shine on You. I always loved that she wrote that and since we lost her to cancer in May she has been on my mind alot and I have been missing her. So I used the sketch challenge to make a card with the same greeting on it.

Here is the sketch

and here is my card

So it took me 13 hours to get those two cards done....HA-HA. Not really. I did make 9 of each card but still....that wasn't much production for the day. I still have 2 sets of cards I need to finish for the swap before next month.

New Desk

Thanks to Danny's Dad I now have a new desk! I removed one of the craft tables to add the desk. I love it because I can hide some of my goodies in the desk drawers! LOL. I still have one craft table against the other wall and of course my small desk against the wall you can't see in the picture that just holds my computer. I have a little more room now to use the creativity room as the occasional real estate office. :-)

A family layout

This is a picture of my Grandma, me, and my Aunt Sharon. I miss my Aunt Sharon so much. We lost her to cancer in May. She was such an amazing women and so talented with all of her arts and crafts. I always asked her to paint me roses- which she hated painted- but did such a great job at. When I saw this paper I knew it could be our little inside joke with all the roses on it. LOL.

Recipe Box

Last weekend I went to the MMM crop in The Woodlands. I made this Recipe box out of Close to My Heart paper and embellishments. The word RECIPES was cut with my kitchen cricut cartridge. Of course I added stickles to the words and a few of the cherries.

I plan on making several of these for Christmas gifts this year.

Now to just get the recipes put inside!