Has anyone posted about the Ellison Warehouse Sale yet?

Kate, is there something specific you want? I can look to see if they have it and buy one to hold onto for you until you get here in December.

I'm assuming the prices will be as awesome as before. If they have what you want, it's almost shameful not to buy it when the prices are so low. You can't find a store that could sell this cheaply. That's my approach tomorrow, anyway. A little justification to get me in the shopping mood!

I will check back here tomorrow after I return from the sale to see if you're interested.  I know I'm also going on Saturday to shop for my sister, so I wouldn't mind picking up something for you.

I just got home from the sale.  I agree with you, chrispeas, there were a great deal more embossing folders than cutting dies.  Much more than the last sale.  Fortunately, I like and use embossing folders, so I got some.  And actually, I hadn't seen most of them in stores recently.  

I am intrigued with the embossing folders with the matching stamp to go with the embossed design. I've got lots of ideas for playing with those. I don't know whether I will stamp first or emboss first.  I'll have to see what gives me the best result.

I thought some of the prices were very reasonable, like $1 to $3 for those little embossing folders for metal from their jewelry line.  I'm not familiar with the price of those in a retail store, but I picked up a few of them to play with.  I will look them up to see if they were the savings I think they were. I know Hobby Lobby carries them.  I already have some jewelry findings that I bought on ebay for super cheap. A friend and I were going to go together on a table for an elementary school Christmas sale, but her son was injured and we didn't do it.  I've made a few things for friends, but I still have a lot of product to use up.  I can picture putting an embossed metal insert into the shaped frames that I have.  

As far as the regular plastic embossing folders, they were a good price.  I use them in a lot of my card making.  I add a shaped piece that is embossed in a coordinating theme to the rest of the card.  It just gives it a little extra texture.  The embossing folders are also really nice when you use the Coordinations paper with two colors.  Once embossed, before removing the paper from the folder, use a fine sandpaper to take off the top of the embossed layer to really make it stand out. Even just adding a strip to the card cover makes a big impact.

I have cut up an aluminum soda can, cut it into a shape, and embossed it in the plastic folders.  You can then paint the piece and after it dries, sand the top off like you do with the two-color papers. Or you can ink it with Stazon.  

I hadn't seen the embossing folders that had a matching rubber stamp with it. I can see embossing a sheet of aluminum can and then stamping it with the rubber stamp, maybe using the clear sticky stuff for embossing powder.  The melted embossing powder over the physically embossed metal shape may look awesome.  At least it does in my head.  I will have to try one out tonight to see if they are as good as I am picturing.

As far as Tim Holtz's stuff, he tends to keep with the same few designs, just brings them out in a different size than the previous year.  I bought a lot of his dies at the last sale and the few they had at this sale are the same, just smaller in scale.  I may have to go back and get a few for my sister after I show her how to use some of his things.  There were a few embossing folders with matching stamps in Tim's line.

A man helped me to carry my stuff to my car and he mentioned they were going to be bringing out new stuff for tomorrow's sale.  At least, that is what he heard.  A fellow shopper and I were wondering if they are going to drop any prices tomorrow.  She is planning on returning for the last hour to see if there are any great end-of-sale deals.  

I will need to go back to get a few things for my sister.  I'm going to take pictures of what I bought and send them to her for her to get an idea of what they have.  I'm a bit miffed at her for not making the drive down here.  She had to work, but she is going to be quitting that job next month.  She could have taken a sick day to spend shopping.  Especially since she doesn't need to save her sick days up now.  If she wasn't quitting, I would totally understand her needing to be there, but since she hates her job and will be giving notice next month, a day of retail therapy today would have been just what she needed.
Maybe I can get her down her for tomorrow.

chrispeas, what did you think of the prices?  I thought they were much higher than the previous sale.  There were some deals, but overall, it seemed like everything was higher priced than before.  I'm going to compare a few things to retail to give my sister an idea of what she will save.  Since I haven't shopped for any dies in a store for a long time, I have no idea of the current prices.  

Okay, I just did a little price comparisons, and I guess these things were pretty darned good deals.

The stamps with matching thin metal dies were selling for $6 to $10.  At Hobby Lobby, the same thing is $24.99.

I bought a set of banner dies and matching stamps for $8, and it is for sale at HL for $29.99

Magnetic cutting platform for use with the metal thin dies, $20 at the sale.  Hobby Lobby has it for $34.99. (I read some great reviews on this and I have a lot of metal dies, so I bought it.  The $20 price was high in my opinion, but seeing that it is normally $34.99 makes that easier to take.)

6x13" long extended cutting pad - $7, Hobby Lobby, $19.99.

There were a variety of 3D dies where the item pops forward when you open a card.  Prices at the sale varied from $7 to $10.  Hobby Lobby, $49.99. Wow.

I picked up a package of these things called "TalkingTags"  Several of the dies and stamp sets were marked that they contained a free TalkingTag inside.  I hadn't seen them before, but gathered they were basically something you stick on your card and the recipient gets to hear your recording.  They had video tags too.  

I opened them a few minutes ago to try one out.  I downloaded the free App.  You simply scan one of the tags and it gives you a screen where you start talking as the timer counts down.  Each sticker can record 1 minute of talking.  That's actually longer that you think when you start saying something. When you are finished, you can listen and rerecord if necessary.  When you are happy with it, you save it.  

You would then affix the sticker stamp to your card or scrapbook page.  To listen to it, the recipient just uses the same free app on their smart phone to scan in the coded symbol on the stamp.  Your recorded saying is played  back.  They guarantee the message will never be erased.  This particular type of sticker is for one use only, which I discovered when I tried to delete my silly test one.  Oops.  It was easy and fun and I could see lots of uses for a sticker like this.  

I was surprised when I did this price comparison.  At the sale, you bought 20 stickers for $3.  To purchase a package of 20 from TalkingTags on line, it costs $19.95.  That's quite a savings.   You can also copy the message you are satisfied with and paste it to multiple stickers.  That would come in handy if you were sending out Christmas cards with a recorded message.

I started thinking of all the opportunities to use something like this.  The obvious use would be to record something like a snippet of your child at their piano concert to attach to your photo used in your scrapbook or card to Grandma so they get to hear a bit of it too.  But you could also record fun hints for a scavenger-type hunt for your kids.  Instructions on how to operate something for when you are not home. (I'm thinking my washing machine.  It's complicated for some people)  And for 20 of them for only $3, it makes it feasible to use them for smaller things.  Spending $1 each would mean I had to wait until it was something major.  Spending .15¢ means I could use them on anything that I want to leave a message on.

So, even though I thought the prices were pretty high, I guess they really weren't when you see what they are selling for in the retail stores.

Enough of my babbling about the sale.  Who else went and what did you get?

I don't remember seeing that particular snowman. I have the other snowman.  I suppose you could always use that one too and just use one of his branch dies to place the arms however you want them.  I have the small extra branch and leaf die and I've used the branches for antlers, to fill in a tree, and now I'm going to have to play with arm placement on the snowman.  If I end up going back for my sister, I'll look to see if they have one.

Yeah, having only one talking tag makes whatever you do with it seem like it has to be worth it.  That would be me if I bought them for a buck each.  I'm thinking of all kinds of things I can do with them.  I might have to spend another 3 bucks and get another 20.  If I would just get some grandkids soon, I could have fun with an audio clue treasure hunt.  I used to do those for my son all the time, starting with recorded hints on his little Playschool tape player before he learned to read, then to a hand drawn picture map, and finally typed difficult clues, right up until it wasn't cool anymore.  I want some grand babies to play with.

The TalkingTags are so small that if you, or anyone else, want some, I could stick them in an envelope and mail them.  Is this my inner spender trying to give me a reason to go back tomorrow?

If you are not a card maker, I can see how disappointing the sale might look to you.  I agree that the last one they had in the back of their warehouse was bigger and better than this one was.  But I'm happy that they even held it at all this year.

I wonder if they will have some of the alphabet dies you are looking for in the stuff they are bringing out tomorrow..  It looks like I am going to attend tomorrow for a little bit, so I will post on here if I do see them.  

As for the embossing folders, I hate hearing you have some that are not being used.  They reallyare quite   versatile.  You can use cardstock that is a bit heavier than regular paper to give the embossed area a decent depth. As I stated above, you can use aluminum cans and turn it into jewelry.   Have you tried layering a shaped piece of embossed card stock to ground a focal point photograph on a layout?  Or emboss the peddles of a flower for a different look.  Just a little bit of treatment to the embossed paper can give you some interesting looks.  

Do you make gift tags for any holiday packages?  I use embossing folders there too. Last year I used the brick embossing folder in conjunction with a drippy looking edge cut in white around the top of the I glued a little tuft of cotton ball stretched out to be smoke coming out of the top of the chimney.  Add a burlap piece for a sack of toys tied with that red striped twine for a cute touch.  I put just the arm and mitten from a santa die inside the chimney as if he is already almost to the bottom.  I put the recipients name written small on the piece of paper rolled up like a scroll and sticking out of Santa's hand.  They looked cute when they were all finished.

I saw that one letterpress die.  I wasn't looking for anything specific to show up at the sale. Although I was hoping that they would find some cases of things that were long forgotten like they did last year. They had a bunch of letter-sized sheets of magnet that was white on the front.  I bought some back then, but would have purchased more today if they had it available.

No one else got those TalkingTags?

Yes, chrispeas, they did put out a bunch of new stuff.  There were a lot more dies, including Tim Holtz dies this time. And I think they added new framelet sets and more embossing folders.  They moved things around too. Outside they had some boxes to store your dies in.  I didn't stop to look at them because they were in the sun.  They put some older sizzix dies out and some additional extended card dies.
 
Kate *, while I was shopping, someone came into the tent and announced that ALL of the framelet sets, the ones with the stamps and metal dies to match, were all marked down to $6.  There were a few other mark downs, but nothing that stands out in my mind other than the framelet sets. I need to check my receipt to make sure she altered the prices on mine because the computer was not taking the prices down on them.  She had to scan an alternate set for my sister's basket.  I got sidetracked talking to someone when she was scanning mine.

I picked up more of the audio TalkingTag sets, so if anyone wants any, I can mail them to you.  They are $3 for a set of 20 versus $19.95 for a set of 20 as sold on their website.

You may see me listing a lot of stuff on the sales board if my sister doesn't call me.  I went ahead and bought some things for her, but she didn't give me any input.  I kept calling and couldn't get ahold of her.  If she doesn't take the stuff, I will end up selling it here because a lot of it was duplicates to what I have.  We were supposed to talk about what she wanted first.  Oh well.  

I just went to put away some of the things I bought at the sale and it jogged my memory that I hadn't responded yet on this thread. 

Yes, Kate *, I have more than enough of the TalkingTags.  I'm not quite sure what happened with those.  I wasn't going to be at the sale for long, so I brought my little dog with me.  We were going to meet up with a friend and her dog to go for a walk after I picked up a few things for my sister.  My pup is small enough to sit on my purse in the shopping carts they provided, and the sale was outside under a big tent, so I knew they wouldn't mind the dog being there.

Well, not only did they not mind, they kept wanting to pet him and ask questions about him.  I normally encourage him to socialize with people, but I was interrupted by both staff and other shoppers so many times that I kept losing track of what I had in my cart.  I was trying to balance the total in my head so that I spent her $100 for her.  Well, oops.  I went over.

And, I'm not quite sure what happened with those talking tags, but either I put a batch in twice by mistake, or someone else put some in my cart too.  I'm thinking that is what happened because a few people were asking me what those were, along with the people asking about the dog, and all of our carts were kind of smashed in together in front of those boxes.  So, I have enough tags to share with you, your friends, and their friends.  Please, buy as many as you want because I seriously ended up with a major chunk of the 20-sticker packets.

And yes, I will be having additional items that I will be selling for the great price I paid for them because I have already found a couple of duplicates to things I already had (how dumb is that?  I need to seriously catalog my stuff and carry the lists on my phone)  I will be going through it in the next couple of weeks and pulling out duplicates, things that I bought for my sister that she doesn't want, and a few things that are really too close to something I already have.  I get caught up in a sale sometimes and then when I go to put the stuff away, I see I have something similar and don't really need both.  

I had lunch with the friend that told me about the sale today.  She did the same thing I did with buying m ore than she really needed or has room for.  Only she bought A LOT more than I did.  She can afford it all, but she said she is going through her bags and keeping some and is going to list the rest on Ebay.  We got some really good prices on what we did buy.  She pointed out that we can sell the extras on ebay for the same price we paid for them to people who live on the East Coast that don't get to attend these warehouse sales.  Well, she is going to list hers for higher and still be giving people a good deal.

So just let me know how many packets of the audio tags you want and we can work out the details via pmail.  And this goes to anyone who would like some of the tags, not just Kate.  If you are reading this post and want some, go to TalkingTags to see the little demo, but don't buy them through that site. They want $19.99 for 20 tags and we got them for $3 for 20 tags.  With them only being 15¢ each, you can do some fun things with them.