SU Catty Review Part One!

is in the house. I thought I'd share a few of my opinions. Level One Hostess Sets: Event Full: 6 stamps with line drawings and sayings on each one. Stocking/fill 'er up; graduation cap/ hats off; cake on wagon/ you take the cake; bunny jumping out of a hat/ you amaze me; hanger with hearts hanging down/hang in there; peapod with 3 peas, one is smiling; sweet pea. Grade: B So Many Sayings: 3 rectangles full of sayings in different fonts, etc. Things like love of a lifetime, missing you, celebrate life, small wonder. Each block has about 10 sayings, so this is an absolute STEAL of a deal -- but unrelated sayings are on the same block. This set cries out for cutting up and going unmounted. Grade: A+ (if you go unmounted); B- if mounted as shown in catty. Oh, So Lovely: set of 4 stamps. Reminds me of Art of Life. One is a long rectangle that is kind of scratchy and then 3 individual flowers in a light double line style that will each fit on top of the rectangle. Very nice. Grade: A Party Punch: set of 6 desgined to go with either the Designer Label Punch (3) and the Tab Punch (3). Grade: B Creative License Simply Scrappin: colors are pumpkin pie, soft sky, wild wasabi and blue bayou (nice combo, by the way). And you get some textured paper (looks like Bazzil). I can never figure out how to use these kits, but if you like scrappin kits, this is a solid A. Sidekick Sayings: set of 3 stamps. Each is a rectangle, with a saying in a font like Friendship Flowers and each has an image to the right of the saying. Christmas is here .... with a tree; the grand essentials of happiness are ....with a branch with leaves; let us be grateful to people who make us happy with a flower. The images are the double line doodle style. This is a nice idea. I think the words are a bit close together, making them hard to read. For that reason I'm giving this one a B-. end of Level One Sets************ A New Hardware Kit -- Pretties Kit $29.95 Nice, very nice. White embellishments and a lot of them -- flowers, pearls, rhinestone brads, beads, etc. You can dye the flowers, which come in 5 sizes (10 each size). I think this is a good buy and give it an A+. More on Stamps: There are some baroque style stamps -- similar to the Baroque Motifs we've seen in the sneak preview and Carte Postale, which is in this catalogue. One is a set called Illuminations. It is 4 stamps, each is a large letter followed by the rest of the wordwith a lot of swirls around the words. It is $28.95 and has an old English feel. The words are Cherish, Joy, Hope, and Thanks. This is one of those sets that isn't my style, but someone else will do something awesome with it!! I'm giving it a C+, partly based on the price. With tax and shipping, that's about $8 a stamp, which is reasonable given the cost of other wood mounted, but I'm just not loving this one enough to pay this amount. Some Western Theme Sets: Hey, I'm a Yankee, so I shouldn't even try and grade these (but I will anyway). Wanted: set of 8, with a solid horse, star, paisley, the word "WANTED" in a Western style (duh) and a few medallion type stamps. $22.95. This is pretty nice. Not something I'd probably buy, but nice. A good B. Bronc Buster: set of 4. A rodeo guy on a bucking bronco in a solid scribbly style, with some flourishes, a stamp that says Genuine The One and Only with a star in the middle; another star with some flourishes and another flourish. B- Starstruck: a set of 6 small stamps. Sort of like Little Pieces only each one has a star in it. $10.95 A+ if you like stars!! Probably a B- for me. Bronco Wheel: this goes with the Bronc Buster and Wanted sets. Kind of a scribbly/solid style with a badge, doodles, a boot with spurs and a steer head(?). $6.50 This is soooo NOT me. C- Do you like dots and circles? There are a lot of sets similar in style to Big Pieces. One is Big Flowers and a coordinating Little Flowers. Big Flowers is a set of 8 for $22.95 and Little Flowers is a set of 6 much smaller stamps for $10.95. Each stamp is a circle with a flower in it and there are a fair amount of dots and scallops. Pretty nice. Not different enough for me, but talented stampers will make really nice stuff with this. B+ Ginormous Flowers set of 6 for $28.95 -- think Big Flowers only really big! I have too many similar flowers, but if you are looking for some big solid shapes, this is for you. B+ Garden Whimsy: A set of 8 for $23.95. I like this one a lot. Solid butterflies, tulip, snail and lady bug with two sentiments and a couple of small bugs with tails. Each has swirls and dots built into the design. Do I need this? No. Will I get it? Probably. Solid stamps are easy -- this will make quick pretty cards. I'm giving it an A-. Whimsy Jumbo Wheel -- more dots and swirls. It's nice enough but how many swirls and dots does a stamper need? I won't buy it, B-. More later, have to go be a domestic goddess....