Get Your Own QR Code!

Here is my new QR code! It will take you to a page on my website where you can get a code for free shipping. This just shows you a little of what you can do with your own QR code. You can also set it to your email address, You Tube account, a Vcard, a map or plain old text or your Facebook page.

According to WikiPedia:

A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is designed to be read by smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, a URL, or other data.

I've had my smartphone for a while. Never used it to scan these, but the other day I got one in the mail for a special offer that I wanted to take advantage of. It was so easy! Of course first I had to download an app to read them at the app store. So I got redlaser, it reads them and also can read bar codes and check price and availability at nearby stores! You can also use Blazerfish or QRafter at their respective websites.

Here's a great article on Marketing with QR codes 

and here is another socialmediaexaminer.com

Here are places to generate QR codes:


http://goo.gl/
http://goqr.me/
http://app.qreateandtrack.com/#/create/url
http://www.qrstuff.com/
http://delivr.com/qr-code-generator ( I used this site as you can get free reports showing how many views and clicks your qr code as gotten)

You can also get them in color. I think these would be great for business cards, or mailers if you do them. You could set it to give users a special discount code like I did above, or lots of other marketing ideas.

If you have a smartphone, please check mine out!

Fabulous Prize! and Glass Etching

I won this fabulous prize from Antonella! Blogiversary Giveaway! Antonella has a wonderful blog. She is my Go To blog when I need help with my quilling. I just took that up a few months ago and am having a great time with it.
Included were papers, stickers, a punch, Twirled Paper by Klutz, pencils, a calendar, cards, a glass ornament, just so many great things!!

 I have done a few projects with this already, the first being glass etching. I have been itching to do some etching! ;-) This glass ornament was my first project. I also had a bottle that I got at the Thrift store and a pumpkin shaped jar that I wanted to etch on.




For the glass etching,  I got all my supplies together, my glass pieces, some inexpensive paint brushes, Armour Etch (purchased at Hobby Lobby) and covered my work space with paper.

Using my Silhouette I cut some pieces out of vinyl. For the glass ornament I chose snowflakes. For the bottle, I decided to make a vase out of it for some paper flowers so found a scrolly flower design.

The next was the hard part for me since my glass jar was tapered where I wanted the etching to be. The glass ornament was a cinch. Decide where you want the design to be. Place the vinyl accordingly.
For the glass bottle, I should have made extra cuts in my vinyl and overlapped in spots. When placing the vinyl you don't want any buckles on corners and such. If you have these, the etching cream will get underneath them and etch spots you don't want etched.  Be sure your vinyl is as flat as possible before adding the etching cream.

Next, slather the etching cream on being very careful not to get it on your hands or anything but the glass. The instructions say to leave the cream on for 10 minutes. I have found that that's not long enough. I left the cream  on these 2 items for 30 minutes. When I did the pumpkin, I left it on for an hour! Set them somewhere that they won't drip. My soon to be vase dripped incessantly. I tried to keep the drips under control with my brush every few minutes.

Once your 30 minutes has lapsed, taking your brush, you can scrape off any excess cream and put it back in the jar for the next time. After you've done that, take items to the sink and rinse with water. I also used a paper towel to help get the cream off. Once I had all the cream off, I removed the vinyl. My ornament came out fabulously!



 
I will show pictures of the vase and pumpkin in another  post. I've also done some quilled birthday cards with the quilling book that I will post later.

Thanks so much Antonella!!

Adding a Pin It Button to your Posts - Revised!!

Well.... all that trouble trying to figure out how to add this little button to a post!

Then you figure it out and they change it! Well, this time for the better!

 has made it much easier to add the 'Pin It' button to your posts so your readers can pin you to their boards.


Now you can go to their 'goodies' section on their website, enter in your details and get the code all written out for you!
Click here, scroll down to "Pin It" Button for Websites and you will see this:

Fill in the info asked for, the URL of the webpage you want the pin on, the URL of the image, and the description you want. The description is not necessary but it gives your readers a place to start and can be changed/ replaced by them. You can also specify if you want your pin count next to or above your button, or not at all.

So, now that you have all this fancy code, you can copy and paste it into your blog post in the 'Edit HTML' mode and voila! You have your pin it button.
For specific instructions on which url's to use, see this post Adding Pin It To Your Posts.

We've Been Featured!!!

Wow! We've been featured over at the Wisconsin Street Team Blog! What a great way to start a Friday!

The Wisconsin Street Team is an Etsy team for Wisconsonites. They have almost 500 members! Thanks so much for featuring me!

Another Hoo Are You!

Well, I certainly have to participate this week, as Leslie asked a question I'd suggested! Go on over and participate!



Here are this weeks questions:

1. What is your favorite craft or type of craft and if you are a crafter,how did you get into it?
2. What shows have you been watching this summer?>
3. Who does the yard work at your house?
4. Are you working on any projects inside the home or outside this week?
5. Do you have to worry about getting ready for back to school? 

And here are my answers:

1. I do all kinds of crafts. I used to homeschool my teen until we moved to Wisconsin where the schools are oh so much better than Arizona. Crafting was a big part of our lessons It's always more fun to learn if you can make something while you're doing it. My favorite is machine embroidery. I actually have a website where I sell monogrammed and personalized towels, baby stuff, lots of cute things. I needed a sewing machine, so hubby took it upon himself to get me one for Hanukkah one year. I guess he thought just a sewing machine was too boring so he got me one that does machine embroidery too. I've been hooked ever since! My second fav is paper quilling. I also make cards, etch glass, and try lots of new things.
2. Oh thank heaven for Tivo! We watch a lot of SyFy channel programs, Haven, Eureka, Alphas,  So You Think You Can Dance, Warehouse 13, Master Chef. There are more but most are not playing in the summer.
3. We have someone mow our grass. In Arizona we didn't have grass and now our yard is huge! It takes a riding mower to get it done. So we haven't purchased one of those yet!
4. No projects this week. It's too hot. We've had heat advisories out all week. Besides, the kid has been keeping me too busy being a mom taxi! LOL
5. Yes, we start school in a month. I'm sure we'll need new jeans and lots of supplies!

Have a great week!