Frugal Die-cutting: Gel PENS that work with CRICUT EXPLORE from DOLLAR TREE (no adapter needed) and GIVEAWAY news!

Hello all!  Today, my 7 year old son and I stopped in our local Dollar Tree to buy a tin container for his teachers at school for Valentine's Day! He wanted to get both of his teachers (women) some pens and erasers and candy bars so we did. While there, I spent $40 and some change and left with a whole slew of crafting supplies and such.  We bought blank gift bags (to decorate of course) in white and kraft, glue sticks, glitter, glitter glue (for small details), lots of organizational containers for my smaller crafting supplies that seem to be everywhere and no where, and PENS! I got to looking at them while he was picking out the two packages he wanted to buy his teachers and comparing to the Cricut Explore Scoring tool which seems to be my go-to guide when trying different pens for the Explore. I have two of them actually. One for the Explore and one to keep in my purse for buying new writing utensils to put my machine to work. I bought six packages of pens close in size and of those six, THREE of the different types worked. I was elated!  I know how hard it can be to find these little treasures that make our lives so easy, so I thought I'd share what I found.

Two of the packages are Jot brand. They come in a blue cardboard package {pictured below on top and bottom left}

  

The first package are ball point pens in various colors (and colored inks!) and feature a white stripe down the bulk of the pen. They come 6 to a package (green, orange, red, purple, pink, and blue) and have a fine tip. In the Cricut Explore pen holder (A) these pens snap right in (remember to hold the bottom portion when inserting any pen into the holder. This will prevent the breakage that many seem to be experiencing, though, I have not had problems with this). I've seen these in every Dollar Tree I've ever had the pleasure of visiting so they should be fairly simple to get your hands on. Below are those pens.

 The second Jot pens are Metallic Gel Pens.  They are slim and handy.  They come 4 to a package in Red metallic, gold, green metallic and silver.  These are fine pointed as well and fit snuggly in the pen holder (A).  I'm not sure how many Dollar Trees carry these, but keep your eye out for them. A photo of the Jot Metallics:

The last package I found is Cello brand.  They are named Cello Top Gel Gel Pens.  They are in a neon green plastic package and come 5 to a package (though the package says 4).  Colors: green, yellow, blue, PINK and orange (all neons!) I love neon!  These would look fabulous on black paper! These fit great in the pen holder as well.

I also tested each type of pen in my Cricut Explore and you can find the test sheet below.  Please excuse the awful camera glare on the top test for the Blue ballpoint pen.

All 3 pens wrote beautifully using the Explore as a tool.  I am totally happy with the money spent.  I feel as though it was money very WELL spent. And only $3 and some change. WOW!


Having trouble finding these at your local Dollar Tree? Leave a comment and I'll be happy to pick some up for you and send them your way.  All you have to do is show me some blog love and send someone you think would enjoy my posts this direction and follow me.  It's that simple!

I also spent just over $30.00 on Lettering Delights today! They're having their Head Over Heels Valentine's Day sale so many Cut-It sets are $1.25 or less. I also bought about 6 fonts, got more than 6 free, 5 FREE cut it sets, and their entire NEW Betty the Yetti line for spending $14+. I also got many Cut-it Sets (SVG) that have been in my wish list for a while. So, I spent most of the night unzipping those files and saving them to my computer.  I can't wait to start cutting them, creating projects, and sharing them with all of you! So, stay on the look-out for those.  Interested in what's in MY LD library? Just let me know and I'll send you a list or help you out with how to get started with them. It's pretty simple. They're offering 30% off orders over $14.00 too using code: snowmuchlove.  I am not affiliated with Lettering Delights at this point, I just LOVE their stuff. I got hooked from Under a Cherry Tree.  You should check them out. They have beautiful artwork.

In other exciting news,  I will be doing a GIVEAWAY starting on Monday running through Saturday (January  25, 2015 - January 31, 2015). Drawing will be held Sunday, February 1st, 2015!  I think I'll be giving away a PAPER PAD and other miscellaneous paper crafting goodies.  Wanna get it?  Follow my blog.. that will be a requirement for entry!

Alright my fellow Die-Cutters, I better head to bed.  I'll upload the photos of my pen test quality tomorrow or so.

Thanks a bunch for reading,