I again , want to thank everyone for the warmth, and kindness they have shown here. The humour reminds me of "Family"... Make any sense ? I check here everyday when I can , and enjoy reading the posts. And I am learning so much it almost hurts !! My DH just sits back and rolls his eyes..... ( Good exercise , if you ask me..) I also scan the Brug sales on E-Bay. Cant wait till I get caught up on bills to get a few plants from triggerman. The prices are good,and plants look perfect!! I saw someone selling just the roots. From what I've seen with my one and only blooming size Brug, I wouldn't think you could do a root division, unless it's huge.... I have a few Bamboos, and understand dividing the offshoots, but on a Brug ?? And from what I can tell, cuttings are good, but I am so leary of getting cuttings that are not yet rooted. I am not that comfortable with "the Unknown"... Well, I need to run. Today is my day off and the weather is good today- forcasting to be rainy and cold tomorrow. ( I work at U-Haul, and have been accused of having Orange Blood, our days off vary considerably, but I take what I can get...) One of these days, when I have time , I would love to share a story about my brother, and canaries......It also makes my husband go on a roll. And DH is having fun throwing it back at me now with the brugs !! later,,, Sandra ^,,^

I had the same problem when my son was in Cub Scouts. I clipped cartoons and scouty pictures from his Boy's Life magazine and photocopied them onto acid free paper. If you have a Xyron, you can then turn them into stickers. There might be some real scouting stickers out there, but I couldn't find any.

Yes, I did take a quick look at the link. The machines they listed are more like the high end models. They're more for someone that do papercraft as a business rather than just a hobby like me. I've been doing more online searching and finally found some real good advises and tutorials on YouTube. I was able to narrow it down to 2 machines, the Sizzix Big Shot (hand cranking) and the Sizzix Vagabond (electric). While looking at these models, I spotted the latest one: the Sizzix Big Shot Plus. It is basically the same as the Sizzix Big Shot but much wider and steadier. One nice thing about YouTube, I was able to see that it didn't take much effort to manually turning the hand crank. Looked like something I can manage with. Bic Warehouse (through Amazon, Walmart & eBay) had a fairly good deal on this model so, I went ahead and purchased it. Now, I just need to start looking for the different embossing and die cutting designs. Oh, and to answer your last question. I don't know about cutting paper strips with these machine. I do have a shredder that can be used to cut paper strips for quilling. However, the pre-cut paper strips aren't very expensive when purchasing them overseas. The paper strips are more at a proper weight for curling, and are acid free. Nevertheless, your thought/idea to use the cut die machine is very appealing. I need to research on this a bit more. Thanks for the idea!

TLBean, the only kind of begonias I've rooted are angel wings, so I can't speak to the particular begonias you're attempting to root. But I've rooted cuttings of many different kinds of plants, and in general, the cutting needs a way to uptake water. Some plants can uptake water through a cut stem, but many cannot do it efficiently enough or long enough to root. So they need to be able to absorb moisture through their leaves; hence the need for a humid environment. When I root plants that don't root easily in water, I put them in an aquarium. I like clear plastic drinking cups with holes poked in the bottom because I can see when rooting happens without disturbing the cutting. The soil needs to be damp but not dripping wet. I have a lid with a light over the top and gravel in the bottom of the aquarium. I put water in the bottom of the aquarium no deeper than the gravel. I also use a reptile cage heating pad (they get warm but not too hot - around 75-80 deg. which is perfect for cuttings) and place it under the aquarium for bottom heat. Obviously, the cups with the cuttings sit on top of the gravel. Since the water is just below the gravel level, the cuttings aren't sitting in water, but the water evaporates and provides the moist environment they need. I have the aquarium light on a timer for 14 hours a day and the heating pad is on all the time. I've had great success with this set-up. It provides constant moisture and heat, which cuttings generally need for rooting, as well as light. The more light your cutting gets, the more energy it will have and the better it will root. The aquarium is a controlled environment, whereas if you enclosed your cuttings in plastic and placed them out in the sun on a warm day, they'd probably cook. BTW, I always clean the aquarium with soap and bleach, as well as soaking the gravel in soap and bleach (rinse it of course before using) before setting up the cuttings. Cuttings are very susceptible to pathogens so everything needs to be very sanitary. And cuttings can take a month or two to root, so just when you think nothing is happening - voila! You start seeing some roots! Good luck! Deanna