My Spot of Sunshine

Project Life Week 6

2012-02-13T13:58:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was awesome and tiring LOL We had a nice party on Saturday to celebrate Maxwell's 11th Birthday and it was so much fun! So, I wanted to share my latest Project Life page today. I'm still sticking with it, mostly I feel is because I'm having fun with the project and it's not a chore to me.

Well last Sunday the NY Giants won the Superbowl - my kids we're so excited. I'm not much of a football fan but I'm excited to be a NY'r and have them win. I used a lot of Sassafras Nerdy Bird line for this week, it's just so fun and my style.

The picture on the right I took while I was on the bus going to work and you can see the tons of people lining up to see the Giants parade. I didn't attempt to go out and see the parade, it was way too crowded. The middle picture is of Max at the doctors office, he was not a happy camper that day. And the next shot is of our tree in the front of the house. I decided to take a picture of it on the 9th of each month just to see the difference in the weather each month.

Last friday I stopped at Crumbs to get some cupcakes for Max's party. Man they are sooooo yummy. Here's Max with his ice cream cake.... I can't believe he's going to be 11 tomorrow. I always wanted my boys to get big so it would be less work to take care of them when they were little, now I just want them to get little LOL

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!! xxx Marlene

PL Week 5

2012-02-09T14:49:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone. I'm back to share with you all another week of my Project Life. For this week I decided to go the traditional scrapbooking route and not use any digital elements or journaling cards. I had fun picking out different papers that I've been hoarding lately and some fun embellishments. I didn't do much journaling this week either, I gotta remember to do that next week.

Here's a closeup view of each section:

I had seen this confetti method on one of the blogs on my Google Reader {I can't for the life of me remember which one} and I thought it would be cute to do on one of the spots. I also used some cute yellow star washi tape to make a frame around the end photo.

For my middle card I decided to do some embroidery stiching, I like the way it came out. For Groundhog's Day I decided to do a little match up between PA Phil and SI Chuck LOL Do other states have their own groundhogs??? Maybe.

I just love love love this mustache Hambly transparency. I also made a woodgrain sunray card - too fun.

Have a lovely day. Marlene

My Travel Journal

2012-02-01T10:43:00.009-05:00

Good morning fellow crafters :)

Today I want to share with you my Traveling Journal. I came across this video on YouTube last year and thought it would be a blast to do. So I am doing this album with Val {her album is up on her blog}, Renee and Carrie {who all ROCK} and I'm so excited!!! Our albums will be traveling to each person and we'll all have different page prompts.

My cover and some of my pages are not done completely. I figured I'd complete them when I get my finished album back. I used an old book as my cover. I covered it with primer and painted it hot pink. Then I did a coat of clear Tim Holtz Rock Candy crackle paint. I found this cute zebra felt at Michaels and I just knew I had to use it. I sewed on some lace to make a ruffle and a red heart button. I also added some red heart washi tape on the ends of the covers.

Page 1) Intro pages. When I was putting this book together I had just received my last warehouse box from Sassafras, so I used a lot of those papers in this book. I made a little pocket for my page and some tags for each page. I embossed the little girl chipboard and dressed her up.

Page 2) Postcard from where you live and your favorite thing about where you live. I love this map paper, I can't remember who makes it though. The strip on the botton is a little pocket to hold the postcards.

Page 3) Doodle your name. This paper is from a DCWV stack, I think it's the Retro stack.

4) Your favorite color. Mine is green LOL Looking at this page now, I really don't like it. I may just do it over later on.

Page 5) Your favorite recipe. I love these papers from October Afternoon and the diecuts. I printed some cute owl recipe cards from My Owl Barn, you can find them here.

6) Your favorite books. I love this bookcase wallpaper for the Iphone, so I printed it and added my "books" on pop dots.

7) Things you find super cute. I made a little collage from my "Super Cute" board on Pinterest. I've been hoarding this piece of Hambly paper for so long too.

8) Your favorite TV shows. Mine is Little House on the Prairie, journaling is behind the picture.

9) Favorite things from your childhood. I did another collage for this page, just some of my favorite things from the 80's. Ummm random fact: when I was a teenage I had all 4 walls and my ceiling completely covered in Duran Duran posters.

10) Your favorite scrapbook company. Sassafras {of course} :)

PL 2012 Week 4...

2012-01-31T11:44:00.005-05:00

Well, I finally got some pictures of Week 4. I used a lot of digital journaling cards this week. Pinterest has been my main source of finding these cards, some are reasonably priced and some are even free. If you do a search on Pinterest you'll find a lot of links and inspiration. I'm also seriously bummed because my job blocked the Pinterest site :( Seriously???

Anyways, here's a little detailed look:

I love this Facebook journaling card {another Pinterest find}. I put my Facebook status in there for the day and a picture of the boys celebrating the NY Giant's win. It's not the best picture but I wanted to use it anyways.

I love this bubble saying journaling card so much. I wish I could remember where I got that set, maybe the Jessica Sprauge site. I also made a little crepe paper ruffle on the middle card.

I covered the tag on the left with strips of washi tape. I love that picture because it's fun to get out of work and it still be daylight out LOL On the right I used a square of Hambly transparency sheets for my card.

For Week 5 I'm using all scrapbook materials, no digital images. I just made my own graph paper journaling cards and have them ready to decorate. Here's a little sneak peak...

Have a wonderful day!!! :)

My Winter CHA 2012 Wish List... {and shoes}

2012-01-26T12:35:00.006-05:00

I know most of you all have seen all the great CHA sneaks out soon. I composed a list of my favorites that I'm hoping to get and I'd like to share.

***

But before I do, how cool are these shoes...

Women's Oar Chop-Out Wedge {Payless}

Women's King Platform Wedge {Payless}

They're both definately on my wish list for spring :)

***

Okay, moving on...

I'm still sad about Sassafras, but I have a new favorite scrapbook company to take it's place

American Crafts! I love the new Dear Lizzy & Amy Tangerine lines, they're so pretty and fun.

I love these papers from Crate Paper and the cute label stickers from Jillibean:

Another new favorite is Studio Calico, how cute are those wooden cameras??? And October Afternoon's 9-5 line is adorable.

I thing the Prima Yuki line is so different. And washi tape from Queen & Co. is awesome, I love the chevron patterns:

Do you have any favorites yet???

PL 2012 Week 3

2012-01-24T12:29:00.002-05:00

Week 3 {wow}! I can't believe January is almost over and the fact that the weather has been really crazy lately. I'm loving the mild winter, so I'm not complaining LOL

So I just finished my third week of project life that I'd like to share with you all. There is so much PL inspiration out there, especially on Pinterest. Also, lots of great digital journaling cards that you can re-size and print.

I made some graph paper journaling cards and I used these awesome journaling papers by Erica Hernandez @ Two Peas in a Bucket. The "One Little Week" file is free to download from Ali Edwards.

Project Life 2012

2012-01-17T15:40:00.005-05:00

What I'm using:

* American Crafts Black Modern D-Ring Album 8.5 X 11
* We R Memory Keepers - Page Protectors - 8.5 x 11 & 6 x 6
* Digital Downloads from Design House Digital:
   Tu Es Jolie Vintage Mail Labels
   Kitschy Dymo Labels
   Kraft - Party - Digital Elements
* Digital Download from Two Peas in a Bucket:
   DigiKit - Jan. Pea Soup Elements

This is my title page with pictures of me and my boys. I used Hambly transparencies and the cute polariod frame that says hello from the Jan. Pea Soup Elements kit. I cut down a baseball trading card protector to six squares for this page.

I used another Hambly transparency for my monthly divider. The January card is from Sassafras and I added a cute glittery snowflake from my December Daily stash.

Week 1 - I used a lot of the digital elements I mentioned above for the weekly date on the top and the airmail journaling card. The bottom middle card was made with an old subway map that I had laying around. The picture with the sunrise is mounted on cork paper and I stuck a little pin in it.

I added some of Maxwell's artwork that he brought home that week.

Week 2 - I decided to make some of my picture a little smaller so I could fit two in one slot. The bottom middle quote card is from Pinterest, I found so many great quotes to save for later weeks. My journaling is short and sweet, one card for the whole week. I may add a little journaling on each card as I go along in further weeks.

I'm sorry my pictures aren't that great. It's a learning curve photographing these transparencies. I've been setting up each week's photos on MS Word and I fill in my journaling card each day. At the end of the week I just print - one sheet for the whole week.

So far I'm having a blast with PL. For me it's so much easier then trying to keep up with traditional scrapbooking and I love the smaller size too.

Wanna see my weight loss SMASH?

2012-01-12T11:11:00.005-05:00

I finally got going on my weight loss smashbook. I don't know if you all have this problem, but I think these smashbooks are way to pretty to write in or mess up LOL Anyways, I decided to devote one whole album to my weight loss journey for this year. I'll be filling it with monthly pictures of myself, my weekly weigh ins, monthly measurements, exercise logs, etc.

Here's my cover...

I decided to outline the embossed lines on the cover and I stuck down this Heidi Swapp mirror that I've had forever.

I divided all the pages evenly for each month and added these cute Smash tabs and labeled them with my label maker.

This is my inside page with my favorite heart washi tape. The green "good stuff" page was from inside the book. I ripped it out and added it to the inside cover. The little pictures I drew are copied from a poster I saw on Pinterest.

My intro page and goal weight page. I love the little post it tabs that I added next to my picture and the flag paper clips - so cute. I misted the left side of the page and the poster above and below the "I AM" is from Pinterest also.

I made a little pocket out of a window envelope, just added some washi tape to it. The weigh in and measurement stats are written on some Smash journal pads and the little poster on the right is from Pinterest.

I'm hoping that keeping this journal will keep me motivated to continue throughout the year.

Also, I completed my cover page and first week of PROJECT LIFE but I'm having a hard time photographing them. I either get glare or they're too dark and it doesn't help that it's dark out in the morning and evening when I get home from work. As soon as I get some good shots I will share. I'm having so much fun with it so far.

Have a great day!!! Hugs, Marlene

Hello 2012

2012-01-04T14:48:00.004-05:00

A new year is here and now is a great time for a fresh start. I know I had a lot of goals for 2011, some I didn't complete and some I did. I was able to complete P365, P12 & DD in 2011. I can't believe I stuck to it!!! I have to say that taking a picture a day has become a habit and actually enjoyable.

I'm so excited to begin some new projects for 2012 which I will be sharing with you all.

1) Project Life - I had made a bound 8.5 x 11 album ahead of time that I shared, but I went ahead and ordered an American Crafts D-ring binder after thinking about it. I want to be able to mix up the page protectors and not be locked into using a certain amount of slots for each month. My album will be done monthly rather then weekly. I have filled up a bin on my desk with lots of goodies to use in my album too.

2) 30 Days of Lists - It's coming back this March! I never finished my album from the last round in September. This time I want to have my album decorated and ready to go ahead of time. I think I'll be making an album most like the Amy Tan Daybooks.

3) Circle Journal with Friends - I'm so excited about this project. Me and my 3 scrappy buddies {Val, Renee & Carrie} are each making a little mini album and we will each be making a couple of pages for each of our books. I have mine almost done and I'll definately be sharing as the months go by.

4) Smashing - I now own 3 smashbooks {green, pink & red} and I have designated a topic for each one. My green smash is called "A Boys Life" and has pictures of my two boys when they were younger. My pink smash is going to be a book of me of sorts. And finally, my red smash (which is my favorite one of the three) is going to be my Weight Loss Journey album. This one I'm really excited about, I'm going to divide up the pages into months and record my journey.

My word for 2012 is: PERSEVERANCE - i never ever want to give up, now matter what!

My goals for 2012 are:

1) Read a ton of books {I'm currently reading The Hunger Games and I'm loving it}

2) Start a bible study.

2) Spend quality time with my kids.

3) Eat healthy & exercise.

Here's my P365 before I go. Have an awesome day! xxx Marlene

wishing you a...

2011-12-30T21:38:00.004-05:00

What my smartphone does for me...

2011-12-30T11:54:00.001-05:00

Before I begin,

I want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year!

May your new year be filled with heath, joy and happiness!!!

What does my smartphone do for me you may ask. Well....

How about lessen the load that I carry around each day to and from work!

This is what I used to carry around every single day and I tell you, if you felt how heavy my bag was you'd say I was crazy LOL A book to read, a notebook, a planner, a checkbook - all essentials that I can't leave home without. I first made the switch from regular books to a Kindle with I loved, but I swore I would never give up my planner or making lists in my notebook or keeping a traditional checkbook.

Well I've now replaced all the above with this...

My new lightweight Samsung Galaxy 2II and some awesome apps that I'd love to share with you all.

{these are all Android apps}

Cozi Family Organizer

Free shared calendar and lists. Voted #1 Practical App for Moms by Babble.

Cozi makes your phone the ultimate family organizer with a centralized calendar, shopping lists, to do lists and a family journal the whole family can share on the go.

I love this and I never thought I would. You can set up a calendar for each person in your family and all the information is shared between each family member.

Kindle for Android

Kindle books on your phone including thousands of free books. No Kindle required.

Read books on your phone, including thousands of free Kindle books. The Kindle app puts over a million books at your fingertips. It’s the app for every reader, whether you’re a book reader, magazine reader, or newspaper reader—and you don’t need to own a Kindle to use it. Choose from over a million Kindle books from the Kindle Store or enjoy popular magazines like The Economist and Reader’s Digest with high-resolution color images.

My old Kindle got messed up, something must have pressed up against it and it has lines running thru the top. I was contemplating getting the new Kindle Fire, but my girlfriend got it and found out it has no 3G service like our old one had. So I decided to upgrade to the Galaxy and I download the Kindle app. It syncs right up to my account so I'm able to access all my old books. It's awesome, especially with the big screen.

Zinio

Zinio is the premier app for magazines on Android, giving readers immediate access to thousands of global titles. Read and download single issues or subscriptions of your favorite magazines and sync your library to your home computer, smart phone and tablet seamlessly. Keep up with trending topics and stories from magazines like Rolling Stone, The Economist, Hello!, US Weekly, T3, Macworld, Travel + Leisure and many more.

I signed up and got 5 free mazagines plus $25 to spend in the store, which I used for a copy of Cloth Paper Scissors Pages and ScrapBook Inspirations-Ideas Book 2nd Edition. I have to say I'm not that crazy about magazines anymore and I think this app would be better with a tablet instead of on the phone, just because of the size of the screen. You have to zoom in and out but it serves it's purpose.

Checkbook (free)

Stay on top of your finances from anywhere using your mobile device.

Enter in your withdrawals and credits and it adds and subtracts your balance automatically.

Mini Paper Widget

This app puts a yellow sticky note on your phone, you can add lists of what you need at the store - anything really.

Camera Apps

There are so many that I like,

Paper Camera

Pixlr-o-Matic

Camera Effects

Lightbox

Vingette

Oh and I heard that Instagram is coming to Android!!!!

I'm so excited!

Have an awesome holiday weekend. I'm so glad it's a three day weekend.

Hugs, Marlene

December Daily 2011 completed

2011-12-29T15:26:00.001-05:00

Yeah I finally finished my December Daily 2011 album.

If you'd like to see my album in more detail click here

Hugs, Marlene

Christmas is over already???

2011-12-27T14:16:00.000-05:00

Hello!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday.

I can't believe it's over already, after all the planning, wrapping and cooking LOL

My family and I had a wonderful Christmas.

I love all the presents I received, my whole family spoiled me silly.

But most importantly I'm so grateful for all the blessings in my life.

I know a lot of people are struggling financially and I'm so grateful for my job and the genorosity of my bosses and company and also that my family is healthy and holding their own.

This is my family - don't we all look crazy LOL

Every year we always take turns wearing the reindeer antlers, it's so fun!!!

Wishing you...

2011-12-24T10:49:00.001-05:00

and your family a very

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday filled with joy and cheer!

December Daily 2011: Days 14 to 20

2011-12-21T11:16:00.000-05:00

Well hello again!

I'm here to share some more DD pages, so here we go...

Day 14: sharing my love of eggnog :)

Day 15: I was home that day and we got all the house cleaning done.

Day 16: I was home again {using up my vacation days}. Spent almost the entire day wrapping gifts.

Days 17 & 18: the weekend was so busy and fun. Had dinner at Charlie Browns to celebrate my Dad's birthday with my sister's family.

Day 19: Max got to go on a trip to Michael's school today! The figure was cut out from a Trader Joe's bag.

Day 20: a Christmas Countdown :) I put a little mustache on my gingerbread guy - he's so cute.

Thanks so much for stopping by :)

My word for 2012 is...

2011-12-14T12:17:00.000-05:00

{continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : steadfastness }

My word for 2011 was GOAL. Now that it's December I can't say that I've reached the goals that I set but I did learn a lot of lessons about myself. My main goal was to loose weight, you may even remember that I was posting about my weight goals throughout the year. I started the year off great and lost around 20 lbs. And then I just quit, I can't say why. Plus on top of that I gained all the weight back. I do know that I have this tendancy to start out with things really strong and then I just loose steam fast. But I learned that I can do it, it is possible.

So that is why I picked my new word for 2012 - Perseverance!

I need to keep continuing in my efforts, even if I fail - I need steadfastness.

On November 30 I started back on Weight Watchers Points Plus program.

I've been eating healthier and journaling my points every day. I weighed in today and lost 5 lbs so far.

I have 45 more to go. I think I'm on a good track right now :)

So have you picked out a word for 2012?

Please share!!!

December Daily 2011 Days 9 to 13

2011-12-13T15:07:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday!!!

I'm back again with some more photos of my December Daily.

Day 9 - took some pictures of Downtown NYC. I printed these photos with my Polariod Pogo and I have to say I'm not happy with them. For some reason all the photos get streaks on them if you print lots of prints at a time. I'll have to look into what I can do to fix it. Maybe one day I'll get a better portable printer. So I just had to make due with the crummy print quality until I get to Staples and buy more ink.

Day 10 - SING at PRHS! It was so much fun, I'm so proud of my son. They all did such a terrific job. I added a pocket page to keep the program in.

Day 11 - my Dad's birthday! Got some shots with the Polariod Instax of me and the boys. Max is big into drawing lately, I had to get him a larger sketch pad.

{sorry for the glare}

Day 12 - nothing much going on so I thought I'd do a page on what I'm grateful for :)

Day 13 - I love this picture that Maxwell drew for me. He's been drawing certain items from around the house and I asked him to draw my nutcracker that I have on my dresser. I think he did a fab job on it.

Have a great day and thanks for looking! xxx Marlene

December Daily 2011 - Days 6-8

2011-12-09T13:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!!! I'm back again to share three more days from my December Daily. Oh and quess what? I found my charger for my Polariod Pogo Printer!!! I had called up Polariod and to get a new one costs $29.99 plus shipping which is outrageous when the printer itself is around $40. Well, I'm just happy that I found it.

Day 6 - I've been keeping a list of different ideas that I've found around the web for days when there's nothing special going on. I glued a tag onto a regular sheet of paper and ran it thru my printer - super easy.

Day 7 - Some of the shows that me and Max have been watching this week. I can't believe how funny the Grinch movie was, I don't remember it being so funny last year LOL These tiny pictures were printed with my Polariod Pogo.

Day 8 - another day with nothing going on and I didn't have any special pictures to print. I've been looking for some new cookie ideas and decided to do a page on that.

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm so looking forward to mine. My oldest son Michael is having his high school musical competition {SING} this weekend. I can't wait to go see it tomorrow night, he's been working so hard on this.

If you guys have any favorite cookie recipies please share :)

Hugs, Marlene

December Daily update...

2011-12-06T12:26:00.000-05:00

My December Daily album is currently up to date... finally LOL I've spent this morning getting my last pages finished up and I just love working on this album every year, it's just so much fun. I'm bummed out cause I went to print pictures last night I saw that my ink is low and my photo paper is almost gone, and was just in Staples this weekend. I think I'm going to have to use my Instax camera for a couple of days. Plus I have a Pogo printer but I can't find the charging cord anywhere...ugh.

Anyways, let me share my pages...

I fixed up the cover a little more from the last time I posted. I added some Dear Lizzie Christmas line ribbons to the rings and the year. All the papers in this album are Dear Lizzie Christmas and Hambly.

Day 1 - I decorated my desk at work.

Day 2 - my cute little Christmas tree.

Day 3 - full sized photo of the boys.

Day 4 - 25 Days of Christmas schedule included in the pocket page.

Days 3 & 4 - I added a baseball trading card page for extra pictures for both days.

Day 5 - I added the envelope that the stamps came in from the post office and one of our Christmas card for this year with some journaling.

Thanks for taking a peak.

Are any of you doing December Daily this December? I'd love to see your albums if you are.

Have a wonderful week! xxx Marlene

Hello...

2011-11-29T10:27:00.000-05:00

Well, I just got back to work yesterday from Thanksgiving vacation. I had 5 days off in a row and it was soooo great! Hope you all had a great holiday. Ours was so nice, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner this year. We stayed home all day, watched the Macy's parade and some movies - it was perfect. We attempted to go to the mall on Black Friday and it was too crazy, had to get out of there. Max got two shirts for $5.00 each and Mike got 2 shirts too. I also got 99.9% of my Christmas shopping done on Saturday!!! Now I have to wrap all those gifts LOL....

So now that it's officially the Christmas season, here's a little survey I saw at The Curious Pug. Feel free to take the survey and post it on your blog, I'd love to see your answers :)

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Eggnog wins hands down.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps them and they look so pretty.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I love blinking white lights.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? I only did one time, never think to do it every year.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The weekend right after Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? We always have Italian food for Christmas, so I would have to say baked ziti.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Where I used to live when I was little, the street across from us was just trees. I remember one Christmas Eve looking out the window waiting for my aunts to come over and seeing all the snow falling and all the snow covered trees. It seemed almost magical and I'll never forget how I felt, the excitement and anticipation of Christmas.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I really don't remember to tell you the truth, but I don't remember being upset about it.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, we exchange gifts with my aunt and my sister's family every Christmas Eve.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I used to always change it up. I used to do different themes and colors every couple of years. Now I just keep it simple, not too much decorating.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love to look at it but hate to go out in it.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, well I did years ago. I actually want to take my kids ice skating this winter.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I've had a lot over the years, but my favorite when I was little was my Cabbage Patch doll.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Remembering that we're celebrating the birth of Jesus and also just being with family. I love to celebrate the whole season leading up to Christmas Day too.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? My homemade Tiramisu.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Baking christmas cookies every year.
17. What tops your tree? A star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Definately giving, I love to see everyone open the gifts I bought them and see their faces.

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum - I like them in hot chocolate.

20. Favorite Christmas show? I love all the shows on ABC's Family 25 Days of Christmas (one more day!!!).

21. Saddest Christmas Song? That Christmas Shoes song, it's so sad :(

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Wishing you...

2011-11-24T08:30:00.000-05:00

a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

May you and your family have a wonderful day!

Hugs, Marlene

My 8.5 x 11 Project Life album update & how I print my pictures...

2011-11-18T12:18:00.000-05:00

Hello and Happy Friday.

Today I want to share an update with you all on how my Project Life album is coming along.

For 2012 I decided to make my own album since PL is offered in only 12x12 size and I think the 8.5 x 11 size will be more managable. I decided to still go with the picture a day format and I have set-up my book by months. This is my first volume for January to May 2012.

Items I bought for this project:

* We R Memory Keepers Photo Sleeves Item No. 50030-8 (fits 8.5 x 11 three ring albums)

* Cinch Wires in white

* Karen Foster Design Treasure Keepers (4 clear pockets with magnetic closures)

* Jillibean Soup sweet & sour soup Cardstock Stickers

* Year.O.Graphy Expressions Cardstock Stickers

* Year.O.Graphy Fundamental Cardstock Stickers

* Various scrapbook papers

* Smash pads for journaling

* Bind-it-All (which I already had)

For the covers, I took two pieces of old chipboard that I had and cut them down to approx. 9 x 11 and covered them with patterned papers. I also had an old clear 3 ring binder which I cut the front and back covers off to use just for extra protection.

On the inside cover I placed one of the clear pockets to hold journaling cards and labels. They come with a sticky back so you just have to peel it and slap it down.

I used two photo sleeves for each month which holds 36 pictures for the month, more then enough for a picture a day and journaling cards.

I also love the Smashbook concept, so I decided to add three sheets of 8.5 x 11 papers after the photo sleeves. I plan to use these pages as I have with my current monthly Smashbook, for extra pictures, events that are going on, etc.

I also added a plain cardstock page which I plan to add a calendar page. I created both a calendar and a sort of calendar grid page in MS Word, I'm not sure which one I'm going to go with yet.

I'll be journaling in each box for each day, things that are happening, birthdays, cute stuff my kid's say, etc.

I've set up each month's pages the same.

I bound the whole book together with my Bind-it-All machine and I did use Cinch wires and they worked great with the Bind-it-All hole punches.

When this book is done, I'll make Vol. 2 for June to November 2012 and a separate book for my December Daily 2012.

I also wanted to share how I will be printing my pictures for each day.

I love to use Microsoft Word. Here's a little tutorial on how I size my pictures {hope it's not confusing LOL}:

(1) I go to MY PICTURES where I have all my pictures stored. I right-click on COPY of the photo I want to print.

(2) Then I open MS Word and I right-click on PASTE.

(3) Now my picture is in Word. I click on the picture and then click on my TEXT WRAPPING button which is on my picture toolbar and select SQUARE.

(4) Now I can click on the each of the circled points and size my picture down. I usually will eye-ball it and line in up against the ruler on the top and left side. Once I get it close to the size I want, I print a copy {greyscale of course to save my colored ink}, cut it out and see how it fits into the photo sleeve pocket. If it needs to be adjusted I go back in and re-size the picture until it is perfect.

(5) Once I get my pictures perfect I can go in an add my next picture. I size it against my first picture so that they're both the same size. I can fit 6 pictures in one sheet to print.

I also created my own grid cards for journaling in the same way. I printed them on white cardstock front and back and I like the way they turned out.

I know this may be different for some of you but it's a method I just go with and it works for me.

The only thing I foresee as a problem is that if I take horizontal pictures they're going to have to be smaller then the vertical ones. But I do plan on using my Polariod Instax camera too and those fit in really nice to the pockets.

The main point I want to get across is that you can make any album the way YOU want.

You don't have to be stuck with just one option - make it your own!!!

I'll definately update you guys with pictures once January comes along.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Hugs, Marlene

December Daily 2011 update...

2011-11-14T11:16:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend - I did :)

Back in July I had shared the beginnings of my December Daily album. I had put it away and took it out recently and decided that I hated the cover. So I re-did it and hated that one too. Well third times the charm LOL I'll still be adding embellishments to the cover, but this is what I have so far.

And these are my pages, not all of them but the whole book is basically set up the same. I'm using one page per day. I used the DearLizzie Christmas line and some Hambly vellum and overlays throughout the whole book. I made some different pocket pages on some of the pages and I haven't glued down my number tags until I'm ready to do the page.

Thanks so much for taking a look. I can't wait for December 1st to come so I can get started.

Have a great week!!!
xxx Marlene

11.11.11 @ 11:11 am photo challenge...

2011-11-11T11:26:00.000-05:00

On 11.11.11 @ 11:11 am

I am at work in NYC

It's a slow day because of the holiday

Can't wait for the weekend!!!

DearLizzy Photo Challenge tomorrow...

2011-11-10T11:13:00.000-05:00

Hello... just wanted to share this cool challenge that is taking place tomorrow

11.11.11 @ 11:11 am

check it out HERE

I'll be participating!!!

my Smashbook pages {picture heavy}....

2011-10-28T09:36:00.001-04:00

Hello & Happy Friday!!!! I wanted to share pictures of my current Smashbook with you all. I decided to break my book down by months, so this book I'm sharing is from July to November. I've been doing a Book of Me page in this book too every month which was fun and just stuff that took place those months. Enjoy...

July 2011

August 2011

Sept 2011

October 2011

Have a great weekend!!!

quest blog post & givaway...

2011-10-27T09:37:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone,

just wanted to let you all know I have a quest post & giveaway going on over at my dear friend Val's blog.

Stop by and check it out if you'd like :)

http://allthingschula.com/2011/10/blog-tutorial-and-giveaway.html

Oh, I forgot to add this to my "right now i'm loving" post yesterday...
* Mylo Xyloto - Coldplay *

I love their new album, especially since they're my favorite band :)

Have a wonderful day.

Hugs, Marlene

Right now I'm loving...

2011-10-26T10:58:00.001-04:00

* Washi Tape *

I have a confession to make.... I'm a washi tape junkie!!! I love this stuff. I ordered a bunch of rolls from WashiWishes on Etsy the other day and they're so pretty. I also got a pink Smashbook set from A Cherry on Top - it was a great deal & I couldn't pass it up LOL

* American Horror Story *

I really like this show even though it's so creppy but I like the story line. I'm not a horror fan at all so I only watch it during the day in bright sunlight - never at night with all the lights out {I know, I'm such a coward}

* Secret Circle *

Comes on right after Vampire Diaries, love it! {I'm actually loving it better then Vampire Diaries}

* Once Upon a Time *

Love this show so much, I couldn't wait to see it and it didn't disappoint!

* Sweet Genius *

Sort of like the "Chopped" of desserts.

* Kindle Fire *

I'm definately getting one for Christmas, one way or the other LOL My Kindle got broken cause I was carrying it around in my bag without the cover. I can still use it but I seriously need an upgrade.

mini smash to share...

2011-10-18T12:25:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone...

I forgot to share this with you all, I made a tiny Smash book for my summer vacation and

it was featured on the SmashStories blog!!!

You can check it out here:

http://www.smashstoriesblog.com/2011/10/lancaster-in-mini-form.html

Have a wonderful day!

Hugs, Marlene

hello....got some SMASH pages to share

2011-10-13T15:02:00.000-04:00

Hey there everyone!!!

Happy Thursday.... one more day til Friday {can't wait}

So this past weekend was my son Michael's 17th Birthday.

Holy smokes, I can't believe he's 17 - I was just 17 LOL

We had a great day with family.

We went to a fall fair at Ocean Grove, NJ, then to dinner at Olive Garden.

When we got home we gave him his presents to open, it was so much fun.

Maxwell came to work with me on Monday since it was a holiday and there was no school.

He just had to get a foot long Subway for lunch {it's bigger then him}!

I've been working on my handmade Smash journal and I have tons of pictures to print.

I seriously need to go buy a new printer this weekend.

Anyways, I did buy the green SMASH book and I did two pages today that I thought I'd share with you all.

I have to tell you guys I love the whole Smash philosophy, it's right up my alley and I haven't scrapped any traditional 12x12 pages in ages.

This is my fall themed page, I used some pages from a magazine, and the crinkly colored paper near the owl is a leaf that my son Max made in school.

I've been keeping all these little notes and drawings that Max has given me over the years, so I decided to make a pocet and stick them all in there. The pink bird is from the Smash collection {love it}

Okay, hope you all have a great rest of your week!!!

Hugs, Marlene

October is here...

2011-10-07T12:33:00.000-04:00

Wow I can't believe it's October already. It's my absolute favorite time of year!!!

I love all the beautiful mums, the colors of the leaves, the cool air... it's so awesome.

I've been busy this week working on some new items for my Etsy store. I haven't given it enough focus the past year and I thought it would be fun to fill up my shop with some of my favorite things.

Some of the things I love the most are teeny tiny mini albums, mini instax albums, altered notebooks and planners. So that's what I'm currently working on, I'll keep you all posted on when they're up.

I've also been thinking of what I want to do with my Project 12 for 2012.

I really like the format of Project Life from Becky Higgins but the only thing I don't like is the size.

To me the album is soooo big. Also, I've really enjoyed my SMASH book this year. I've been breaking down the book into months and filling it up with things we did and stuff like that.

Then I got this idea, why don't I make my own Project Life album and combine it with a SMASH book.

Crazy huh???

This is going to be Book 1 for 2012: January to June

I cut down a used FedEx envelope to 8.5 x 11 for my covers and I cut the covers off a clear binder to use on the outside for protection. I'm using baseball trading card protectors and 8x8 protectors for my monthly pictures. I already sized a sample picture in MS Word so it'll fit exactly into the slots.

In between the monthly protectors, I'll be putting two sheets of patterned paper for my "SMASH" pages.

I decided that the papers will be seasonal - Winter theme for January, Valentine for February, etc.

I'm going to bind the whole thing with my Bind-It-All.

I also found some clear envelope pouches like shown above on SB.com which I ordered along with some awesome date labels.

I'll be sharing more as I get it all put together.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs, Marlene

pixlr-o-matic

2011-09-28T12:19:00.000-04:00

Just a quick share of an awesome app I found yesterday...

I've been envying all those Iphone users who have the Hipstamatic phone app,

all those cool pictures that they get to take.

Well guess what, there's a new app in the Android Marketplace that is just like it,

it's called:

pixlr-o-matic

I love it!!! I'm so happy LOL I took this picture with it:

Oh and it's free too :)

Pinterest inspiration

2011-09-26T11:46:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone!!! I can't believe it's Monday, man this weekend flew by sooooooo fast. But it was a good one. I got tons and tons of cleaning done yesterday and then did some cooking (yum) LOL

So I recently created two projects that were inspired by pins on Pinterest. I created a board where I keep all my pins of projects that I'd like to re-create.

The first one I want to share is a paper sorter made out of UPS boxes!

{source}

This is what I came up with, I made it exactly the same way but I covered the outside of mine in contact paper and lined the shelves with scrapbook paper:

My second project is inspired by this gorgeous paper pieced doll:

{source}

I created an art journal page for my new Smash book

{the buildings are paint chip samples}:

So if you haven't checked out Pinterest yet, I highly recommend it. There's tons and tons of awesome projects and inspiration there!

Have a wonderful week :)

Hugs, Marlene

Me A-Z...

2011-09-21T10:09:00.002-04:00

A. age: 42 {i'm not afraid to share my age LOL}

B. bed size: Twin

C. chore you hate: Vacuuming

D. dogs: I love dogs but I don't have any pets

E. essential start to your day: Coffee {for sure}

F. favourite colour: Green

G. gold or silver: I tend to wear more silver jewelry then gold

H. height: 5 ft 1 inch

I. instruments you play: None {I was in Chorus in Jr.High}

J. job title: Administrative Assistant to the SVP of Operations

K. kids: Yes ~ 2 boys, ages 17 and 10

L. Live: Staten Island, NY, USA

M. maiden name: Filipiuk {I switched back to my maiden name after my divorce}

N. nicknames: Marl

O. overnight hospital stays: Twice when I had my kids

Q. quote: Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strenthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

R. righty or lefty: Righty

S. siblings: 1 younger sister

T. time you wake up: Anywhere betwen 5:45 - 6:15 am

U. university attended: None, I started working my senior year of high school in a co-op program and after I graduated I went straight to work at a bank as a Letter of Credit Specialist.

V. vegetables you dislike: I don't like green peppers

W. what makes you run late: Getting my hair done when it’s not cooperating or picking out my clothes

X. x-rays: Oh yeah, tons of sonograms & xrays for various stuff

Y. yummy food: I love Funny Bones

Z. zoo animal favourite: Panda Bears & Tigers

weekend update...

2011-09-19T12:43:00.000-04:00

Hello...

Have you guys noticed my new header and blog buttons?

My very sweet and talented friend Val designed them for me... thanks Val!!!

I had a really nice weekend, the weather has been soooooo beautiful and cool!

We went out to the annual Scarecrow Festival at Peddler's Village yesterday, it was a lot of fun.

They had tons and tons of scarecrows outside of the shops, they were all so cute to look at.

I love these deers, they were my favorite display {plus I love these two kids so much :)}

Oh and check this out..... I blinged out my cell phone!!!!

I was watching Cynthialoowho's YouTube Blinged Out Cell Phone video on the way home from work Friday and was inspired to bling out mine...check it out:

I used a regular pink plastic cell phone case for this. I stopped in Michaels on Saturday and picked up a package of Recollection double strand green bling, a package of different size plastic gems and E-6000 glue. Then I got out my bling stash and went to work on gluing all of it down. I wish I had the same mesh bling that she has in the video because it took me forever to glue down all those tiny gems on the back LOL

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Hugs, Marlene

camera mini & 30 day photo challenge share...

2011-09-13T12:20:00.001-04:00

Here's a little mini that I made before I went on vation that I wanted to sahre with you all. I've been wanting to make a teeny tiny mini for so long now and I'm glad I finally got it done. I searched on Google images for a cute camera clipart, printed it and used it as a template. I just used lightweight chipboard for the pages and covered them with lots of Sassafras yummy papers. The pictures in this mini are really small so the quality isn't so great.

I also wanted to share my 30 Day Photo Challenge {August 2011}

photo collage...

Have a great day!

Hugs, Marlene

remembering 9-11...

2011-09-12T11:32:00.000-04:00

9-11-2011

10 years have passed and it feels like just yesterday that it happened.

I'll never forget that day, I was working at my old job on Whitehall Street, Downtown NYC.

I'll never forget the terror that we faced that day, being in our building and not knowing what was going on.

Seeing the skies turn pitch black from all the dust/debris from when the Towers fell.

Getting home and watching the footage on TV all day, crying and feeling numb all over.

I'll never forget that day, never.

It's so good to see the rebuilding, to actually see progress being made.

I can't wait to go down to the site when it's open to the public and visit the memorial, to pay my respects.

This is a shot I took of Battery Park on Friday.

The "One Flag One Life" project was set up to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

On Saturday we took a ride down to Ocean Grove, NJ and they had this beautiful memorial set up also:

God bless all the families and everyone who have lost loved ones.

Love, Marlene

i'm back...

2011-09-08T15:24:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone. I've been on vacation last week and I'm finally back to work this week, still trying to catch up on lots of things here. Me and my family went to Lancaster, PA for a couple of days and we had such a good time! I also finally got to see The Help, it was such a good movie.

I have lots to share in my upcoming posts and lots of new projects that I'd like to work on soon!

I'll be sharing the rest of my August 30 Day Photo Challenge pictures and my 30 Days of Lists pages.

I also signed up for the This & That class and I haven't done any layouts with the prompts yet but I can't wait to start. I also want to do some more Smashbook pages on my vacation. Speaking of Smashbooks, I caved and bought one, so I'm using it as sort of an art journal. And I also have a couple of projects that I've done that were inspired from projects I've seen on Pinterest, so I'll be sharing them too.

Today was my boys 1st day back to school!

Michael only had an orientation and Maxwell got to meet his new teacher.

Have a wonderful day!

Hugs, Marlene

PS: Question???

Have any of you been doing Project Life this year and have you kept up with it?

I'm contemplating doing it for 2012 and I'm on the fence, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks!

hello...

2011-08-26T15:21:00.004-04:00

It's been one of those really busy and crazy weeks.

Tuesday August 23, 2011 I experienced the earthquake that hit VA, DC & NY.

I still can't believe it, I never thought I'd experience an earthquake!

Me and my friend were talking and all of a sudden our chairs starting shaking and we started feeling dizzy.

It seemed to last forever and it was so scary.

Now Hurricane Irene is coming towards NY.

I'm actually watching the news online as I type getting all the information.

Where I live is not right on the coast of the island so we don't have to evacuate.

We're prepared to stay in all weekend and ride out the storm.

The good news is that I'm on vacation this week!!!

Hope everyone in the storms path is safe and sound.

I'll be praying that God keeps us all under His care.

Hugs, Marlene

Food Smash!!!

2011-08-18T11:39:00.005-04:00

Hi guys!

I wanted to share my newest "smashbook" that I made: Food Smash.

I was totally inspired by a mini album made by GingerCupcakeCards on YouTube.

{you can watch it here}

I decided to make a little Smash book to hold all my recipes and also to have a place to write down my favorite foods and their Weight Watchers points value. I broke it down into sections: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

I used a lot of the Sassafras Cherry Delicious line and some other lines mixed in.

I sewed the pages together with embroidery floss.

Thanks for taking a look :)

30 Day Photo Challenge... Days 16-18

2011-08-18T10:24:00.001-04:00

Day 16: what I ate

{Arnold 100 Calorie Sandwich Things, turkey breast & horseradish mustard}

Day 17: on the shelf

{love my owl I got in a swap & my little monster made by Jackie}

Day 18: in my bag

{this bag just broke this morning, the zipper came right off}

what I've been up to lately...

2011-08-17T09:24:00.002-04:00

I've been...

loving: Nice 'n Easy Color Blend Foam

No mess, no fuss haircoloring, it's awesome!!!

missing: Falling Skies

I can't believe this show is over, it's been my sci-fi fix since V went off the air.

And now I have to wait until next summer for Season 2 :(

watching: Big Brother

Lawon what were you thinking??????

Lovin this season of BB and I'm even liking Brendon & Rachel too

{I can't believe I just admitted that LOL}

reading: Memoirs of a Geisha

I just finished The Help {which was awesome by the way} and decided to read this next.

It was on the "100 best books to read before you die" list.

waiting for: my order from Two Peas in a Bucket
I ordered a green SMASHfolio
papers from Amy Tangerine, Pebbles, Crate Paper, Echo Park & Jillibean Soup
and embellishments!

crafting: 30 Days of Lists

Got my album ready for September!!!

I found this great file folder tutorial here:

http://burstsofcreativity.blogspot.com/2011/05/file-folder-mini-album-tutorial.html

You can register for 30 Days of Lists here, I did it back in March and it was a lot of fun!

Have an awesome day!

Love, Marlene

30 Day Photo Challenge... Days 9-15

2011-08-16T13:34:00.000-04:00

hello... just catching up on my photo post here {geeze i'm really behind}

Day 9: faceless self portrait

Day 10: something i made

3-Dimensional Photo Display with Sandi Genovese

Day 11: something fun

{sparkly nail polish}

Day 12: close-up

{my boys being silly}

Day 13: from a distance

{Delaware Water Gap}

Day 14: flowers

Day 15: my shoes

i've taken 227 pictures so far for 2011!!!

i'm so glad i stuck with it.

Sparkly Nail Polish!

2011-08-11T10:42:00.000-04:00

Hi guys, I just wanted to share a really cool product I found yesterday!

I was in a desperate need of a pedicure and for some reason I really wanted to get some glitter nail polish.

I didn't want to spend a ton of money on getting my nails done or buying expensive polishes.

So I went to the drug store and I found these awesome Wet n Wild Fast Dry polishes.

They're only $1.99 a bottle and the quick drying was great, I was able to do a manicure and pedicure in no time flat! You can check out all the colors here, I picked up these two:

Party of Five Glitters

The Gold and the Beautiful

I combined the two polishes and I love how it looks.

Have a great day!

xxx Marlene

30 Day Photo Challenge... Days 4-8

2011-08-08T12:55:00.001-04:00

Happy Monday!

I know, I know... Monday's are just horrible sometimes. I wish the weekends could go on and on.

Hope you all had a good one, mine was really nice.

Oh I got a brand new blog design.

What do you guys think???

I stumbled upon http://smittenblogdesigns.blogspot.com/ and I just love their designs.

I really love this one and hopefully I'll keep it for awhile now that I found something that I really really like LOL

The family and I went to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes and it was really good, different from what I thought it would be like though.

I got no crafting done this weekend, I've been pretty laid back in that department lately.

I got some more pictures to share...

Day 4: Favorite color

{green of course}

Day 5: Someone I love

{my awesome son Michael who actually let me take his picture}

Day 6: Childhood memory

{seeing my kids boardgames and remembering playing some of them as a kid, although the ones they have are way more modern}

Day 7: Something new

{brand new brown satchel bag and flower pin}

Day 8: Technology

{it's great to get all my favorite sites on the go}

Have a wonderful day!

Week in the Life 2011 ~ completed album!!!

2011-08-05T12:49:00.001-04:00

Hello...

I've been busy this week finishing up my Week in the Life 2011 album.

I'm sorry I didn't share the last few days of my pictures. It took me so long just to get them uploaded and edited, so I figured I'd just share the album once it was completed.

So here goes....

I used baseball trading card dividers for the pictures and I cut them down to 4x4 to fit in my album.

I kept a lot of receipts, labels and stuff like that from the week.

The journaling I did in MS Word and printed out, saved me from handwriting everything.

I used my Polaroid Instax camera some days and the rest of the days my cell phone camera.

I re-sized the pictures in MS Word and printed them out on sheets of photo paper.

I'm going to be putting in the rest of the years P12 layouts in this album also and I still need to decorate the cover. I'll share when it's done.

I'm really liking the baseball trading card divers so much. I think I may use them for next years P12 album.

Thanks so much for looking.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

30 Day Photo Challenge - August 2011

2011-08-03T16:23:00.001-04:00

I've had my eye on this photo challenge to start in August and now I've been seeing it on a lot of blogs this week too. Since I've been doing P365 I think this will be a fun to incorporate into it.

Day 1: self portrait

Day 2: what I wore

Day 3: clouds

Are you guys taking part? I'd love to see your pictures!

Week in the Life... Day 4

2011-07-29T12:11:00.003-04:00

Day 4

7.28.11

got a free T-Mobile gift card

my new ComoComo planner arrived from Korea

{it's got the cutest illustrated pages i've ever seen}

ordered a new cell phone case

my boss treated me for sushi :)

{California Rolls & Spicy California Rolls}

home*sweet*home

dinner is ready!

have a great weekend!

Week in the Life... Day 3

2011-07-28T14:52:00.001-04:00

Day 3

7.27.11

another day at the office

working away

reading The Help {love it!} and checking emails

my new favorite snack

{Rosemary & Olive Oil Triscuits and French Onion Laughing Cow Cheese Wedge}

waiting at the doctor's office

Week in the Life...day 1 & 2

2011-07-27T12:32:00.001-04:00

Day 1

7.25.11

catching the bus:

coming home in the rain:

picture of my boys when i got home from work {Max looks like a deer caught in headlights}

dinner time {Mom made pork braciole with sauce and Michael did his best Godfather impersonation}

Day 2

7.26.11

i started going to Flavors for breakfast since PaxFoods closed and the girls already know how i like my coffee in the morning :)

elevator ride {minus the music}

me {hating my hair today, it's way too long}

morning ritual

got an email that my favorite scrapbook store in Peddler's Village is closing {dislike}

yummy lunch

Max enjoying his hamburger sliders

December Daily is complete...

2011-07-27T11:40:00.002-04:00

Hello hello...

today is my last installment of Christmas in July!

I was very busy this past weekend working on finishing up this book and all the tags.

I hope this gives you some inspiration on what you can do for your albums.

I have all my tags bagged up and ready to go for December. I'm not going to stick them down until I'm ready to do the actual page each day. I'll probably add some more stuff when I start working on it, but for now I'm done with it!

Thanks so much for checking this out.

ho ho ho :)

Week in the Life underway...

2011-07-25T15:59:00.008-04:00

Hi everyone!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Mine was really nice, got a lot of projects finished up on Saturday. It was so nice to craft all afternoon, I haven't done that in awhile.

I changed up my blog once again, my son Maxwell said to me

"mom your blog looks so boring" LOL

I guess it was all the gray, oh well.

I just wanted to quickly share a page from my Week in the Life project. I had picked up this clear binder at Target awhile ago, it's around 7 x 9. I'm using this for my P12 layouts from June to November. I decided to add pages into the same album for Week in the Life. This is my first time doing this and I think it'll be great to look back on.

Each day has a page and a sheet of trading card
transparencies. I did a set like that for each day. I didn't want to go with anything larger, just keeping it simple.

I took a sample print of my first picture to see the sizing for when I print. I'm also going to use my Instax camera for this also.

Are you guys participating?

I'd love to see your pages!

PS: I finished my December Daily 2011 album up and I'll be sharing this week :)

Warning re: Picasa Web Photo Gallery!!!

2011-07-20T12:25:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to give you guys a head up about what happened to me. I lost all the pictures on my blog, every single one since I started my blog in 2008.

I feel so sick about it and bummed out :(

I went in and put some of my last entries back but it'll take me forever to get every single one back on and I'll most likely never get to it.

What happened was I have an Android phone that is run on Google.

So I had all these photo groups on my phone that were transfered there when I first synced it. Anyways, it was driving me crazy so I found out that you can go into Picasa Web and delete them and they will get off your phone.

I did that and it worked and I was happy.

Turn around and I see that my blog looks crazy and all the pictures were gone.

I did some investigating and come to find out that every single picture on a Blogger blog is hosted on Picasa Web Albums.

If they are deleted then every picture on your blog will be deleted.

How knew???

So just a warning to you guys,

never delete your blog photo album on Picasa Web!!!

my blog is a mess...

2011-07-16T18:15:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone.

I just wanted to apologize for my blog, it's a mess.

I deleted all my photos on Picasa trying to solve one problem and and now all my pictures that were on my blog are gone.

I'll get it fixed soon so please hang in there.

Enjoy your weekend :)

getting ready for December Daily 2011

2011-07-13T16:19:00.006-04:00

HO HO HO

{insert merry christmas carols playing in the background}

I'm so excited to get my December Daily 2011 album started and I really hope some of you will be preparing one along with me.

This will be my 4th year that I've done one of these albums and I really enjoy putting it together and looking back on each year too. It's well worth all the effort.

It's always good to be well prepared so that when December 1st comes around you're ready. And believe me it'll be here before we know it.

I decided to put together a kit for myself.

I pulled out all my Christmas embellishments, doilies, envelopes and tags and got them together in one place.

This year I decided to purchase an old paper line so that the cost would be less and also because I want to start this album early and not wait for the new lines to be released.

I picked Dear Lizzy Christmas from American Crafts.

I like that it has some traditional green and red papers but also throws in some blues and vintagy papers too.

You could easily use items that you already have in your stash. And you don't necessarily need to use Christmas papers.

I also decided to buy some Hambly papers and transparencies, just cause I love them. The gold candy jar paper and the silhouette velum paper are both so gorgeous.

As for the cover I decided to go with the 7Gypsies Vintage book covers. I love these covers! I'm using one for another mini album that I'm working on this year. I also love the size.

That's one of the main things you want to consider when picking an album. For myself, I prefer a smaller size because I don't have a ton of time to do such a big layout for each day.

You also need to consider how you want to bind your album.

This year I'm going for giant binding rings. I want each page lumpy and bumpy, so the rings will help with the extra room. I also want to be able to more things around if I want to at the last minute.

So today I cut down all my papers down to the exact same size of the album. I will be doing a 1 page layout for each day.

That's the next thing you need to consider, whether you want to do 1 or 2 pages.

I also purchase some of the Dear Lizzy Christmas embellishments for a great price. I added some other items that I already had and I'll probably pick up some more goodies as the month's go by.

I now have to decide how I want to do the numbers for each day.

My biggest advice to anyone who is doing one of these albums is to not glue anything down to the page until you actually sit down to scrap the page. I've done that in the past and some days I had to pull up stuff to make the page work.

I'm also thinking of making some pretty embellishments to go into my album, maybe some altered tags.

If you're following along with me start pulling out stuff and preparing the bare bones of your album.

I'll be back next week with the progress of my album.

I can't wait to see what you all do with yours.

Here are some great links for inspiration and instruction:

http://aliedwards.com/2009/12/december-daily-compilation.html

http://www.flickr.com/groups/decemberdaily2010/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/decemberdaily2009/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/decemberdaily2008/

SmAsH!!!

2011-07-11T13:37:00.004-04:00

Good afternoon everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was nice once we got all our appointments done. Max had to get blood work and they couldn't find his little veins and they had to stick him twice, poor guy. Then it was off to the dentist. Max got sealents and I had to have my tooth pulled (yuck). I'm going back tomorrow to start the bridge work. Max got to spend Saturday afternoon in the sprinkler, he had a blast!

I did get to get some crafting done this weekend - yeah!!!

I wanted to share my May & June layouts for my

Things I Love mini album:

Omg... I really can't believe how much I love Nuetella, it's soooooooooo good!

Okay, next I decided to make a another Smash junk journal.

The first journal I made, I had set it up so I had sections for each month. But what happened is I used way too many lumpy bumpy embellishments and my book was getting too fat in just two months. So this new journal will be for the rest of the year and hopefully I'll keep it pretty flat.

I used my Bind-It-All to bind the album and I used Hambly pink woodgrain transparency paper for the cover.

I decided to pick up some of the SMASH accessories. I couldn't resist the little mustache guy :) Oh and the cloud paper is Daisy D that I had in my stash, I just couldn't cover it up cause it's so pretty.

Another two pages...

I need to add Curb Your Enthusiasm & Degrassi to the list!

The page on the left is my monthly Book of Me layout that we have over at The Scrappers Sanctuary. I did keep the layout flat, I'm so proud of myself LOL

Thanks so much for checking out my journal :)

Now it's onto December Daily album prep.

I'll be back soon with some more about that!

Have a great day!

hi :)

2011-07-08T16:21:00.004-04:00

just wanted to jump in here fast and say hello.

i'm feeling a lot better, thanks for the sweet comments.

i haven't gotten to post anything this week but i wanted to let you know i still have lots of stuff to share.

i started a brand new smash junk journal

and i'm also going to start getting my December Daily album ready too.

hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

have fun!

hold on to hope...

2011-07-01T12:47:00.004-04:00

hi everyone, happy July to all of you.

i can't believe half the year is gone already.

i know i'm supposed to do my fitness friday post today but i'm just not feeling it. i've been feeling kind of down lately and so blah. it's so easy to get swallowed up and let depression sink in. i prayed to God for help and He gave me this one word...

H O P E

{source via Pinterest}

when you feel like the world is on your shoulders,

when life isn't going right and your facing hardships,

just hold on.

God doesn't give us anything that we can't handle.

there's always a reason for whatever is going on in your life.

i just wanted to share that with you all.

i hope you all have a wonderful 4TH of JULY weekend.

December Daily 2011... are you interested?

2011-06-27T13:00:00.002-04:00

POLL------------>

this December will be the 4th year that i will be participating in Ali Edward's December Daily. so i will be putting my album together in the month of July...

they don't call it Christmas in July for nothing LOL

just wanted to know if any of you guys would want to do it along with me???

if you can answer my poll on the top right hand corner, i'd really appreciate it!

hugs,

in the sun & art journal every day...

2011-06-27T12:51:00.002-04:00

hi there! is the weekend over already???

hope you all had a great one. mine was nice, spent the day at Ocean Grove, NJ yesterday, enjoying the great sunshine!

i've been loving my SMASH book guys.

i got a couple of more pages that i've been doing for June and it's been so much fun!

i ordered a bunch of the accessories too, they're coming in the mail today, i can't wait.

i'll share some pics soon.

i also started on working on my 30 Days of Lists album. The next round is going to start in September, can't wait!

i did some more pages for the In The Sun online class, this are two of my favs:

and i'm also making progress on my Art Journal Every Day page:

i'm thinking of coloring in each square with colored pencils, it's still a work in progress.

have a great day and a wonderful week!

tomorrow is my son's last day of school, they're so excited :)

TSS Come ROCK It Blog Hop is today!!!!!!!

2011-06-26T00:00:00.010-04:00

Hello and welcome to The Scrappers Sanctuary first ever

Come Rock It Blog Hop!

We are so excited about this hop and we want to welcome all scrappers, artist and crafters. If you have arrived on my blog other than through the Scrappers Sanctuary Forum please click here. This will take you to our wonderful forum where all the fun for today starts. We have some great challenges and wonderful prizes going on here for this event. Once you have signed up at our forum you are on your way to great challenges, lots of talent, great forum and most of all FUN!

So now for the excitement!

Today my challenge to you is:

make a tag out of a security envelope

Bursts of Creativity
i've stumbled upon this great blog, Bursts of Creativity
and i just love the little envie tag that Melissa made.
i can't wait to make one, so my challenge if for you guys
to make one! you can decorate it any way you'd like, just make it your own!

To be eligible for the grand prize and my blog RAK you must:

* Be a member of TSS ~ please make sure you sign up.

* Become a follower of my blog for my blog RAK.

* your entry must be new and you may not combine challenges.

* you project must be uploaded to the Blog Hop Forum by July 10th, 2011 9 pm EST.

* follow all rules of the challenge.

* leave a comment here on my site and on the forum to let us know you stopped by.

For completing this challenge you will be entered to win this great prize package:

and there is more, yes I said there is more.

If you become a follower of my blog you will be in the running for a RAK from me! This has to be exciting!

Thank you so much for participating and stopping by my blog!

I hope you are enjoying the Come Rock It Blog Hop.

Please hop along to the next blog, you are going to be excited about this next blogger:

Michelle

http://michelle-just-me.blogspot.com/

Michelle is one of the lovely and talented founders of TSS
and she has the next challenge for you in this hop.

Happy Hopping!

fitness friday & a reminder...

2011-06-24T10:34:00.003-04:00

TGIF ~ Happy Friday!

i'm so glad friday is here, it's been a long week.

so this week has been pretty good eating wise.

i still feel like i can do a lot better though.

i also wanted to start exercising this week but on Tuesday i fell in the street and twisted my ankle. it's been hurting all week but it's getting better.

i wanted to share the following pictures I found on Pinterest:

{source}

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

no matter what your goal is, don't give up!

my goal just happens to be getting healty, yours might me something else. don't give up hope.

oh and by the way, do you guys love PINTEREST?

at first i didn't really get it, but now i just love it!

if you need an invite just let me know :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

love,

PS: DON'T FORGET THE SCRAPPERS SANCTUARY IS HAVING OUR BLOG HOP THIS SUNDAY JUNE 26!

I'LL BE HAVING A GIVEAWAY HERE AND IT INVOLVES SASSAFRAS :)

2011-06-20T10:15:00.002-04:00

Good morning everyone!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Mine was great, I got lots of cleaning and organizing done. Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day, we had a great dinner at Killmeyer's, a local German restuarant.

I actually didn't get anything anything crafty done this weekend.

But I do have some pages from my In the Sun Summer Journal that I did last week. I used Sassafras Nerdy Bird line to make this little art journal, the line is just so adorable!!!

Thanks so much for looking :)

Have an awesome week!!!

2011-06-17T10:33:00.007-04:00

today is my very first post for Fitness Friday!

what is fitness friday you may ask?

well, every friday i'll be sharing either an inspiration quote, a healthy recipe or a fitness tip, along with my personal journey to get healthy.

my word for 2011 is GOAL and one of my biggest goals is to get healthy. unfortunately i haven't been doing a great job with it, so today i'm re-commiting myself to my goal!

one of my downfalls are snacks.

i can't seem to give up my nightly snack and most of the time i head for all the bad things to eat LOL

this recipe uses Vitalicious Deep Chocolate VitaTop muffins, which are delicious. you can find them in your stores freezer section. i can't wait to make these this weekend!

FREEZY-GOOD WHOOPIE S'MORES

(courtesy of Hungry Girl)

Ingredients:

1 Vitalicious Deep Chocolate VitaTop (or any other chocolate variety), frozen

3 tbsp. Cool Whip Free, thawed

10 mini marshmallows

1/2 tsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 sheet (1 cracker) low-fat graham crackers, crushed

Directions:

Carefully slice the VitaTop in half lengthwise (like you would a hamburger bun), so that you are left with 2 thin round Vita "slices." Set aside.

To make the filling, combine Cool Whip, marshmallows, and chocolate chips in a small bowl; set aside. Place crushed graham cracker on a small plate, and set that aside as well.

Evenly spoon filling over the cut side of 1 Vita slice. Top with the other Vita slice, cut side down, to form a sandwich. Very gently press the sides of the sandwich into the crushed graham cracker, so the crumbs cover the exposed filling.

Freeze until solid, about 1 hour. Tada!

MAKES 1 SERVING

{sounds yummy}

have a wonderful weekend!

mark your calendars...

2011-06-16T11:00:00.002-04:00

Come ROCK it at TSS!!!

A fun forum filled with monthly challenges, lots of scrap talk, games and chit chat.

There is a challenge for every taste – from sketches to altered items to mixed media and everything in-between. We have some incredible monthly sponsors providing excellent prizes each month.

Drop by and feel free to participate in the fun, and imaginative challenges that our dt has inspired us with every month!

So come and roll your way through our Grand Opening blog hop and end up ROCKING with us on our new forum with a chance to win an awesome prize pack supplied by Tim Holtz!

When: Sunday 26th June

Where: Starting at TSS Blog

head on over to a blog party...

2011-06-15T08:54:00.000-04:00

hi everyone, hope you're all doing well!

Happy Wednesday!

i have something fun to share with you all today!

today my friend Val's Birthday

{happy birthday Val}

she's having a blog party and you're all invited!

http://allthingschula.com/

oh and there will be a little DIY my me.

plus tons of fun stuff all day!

have fun.

love, marlene

happy friday sharing...

2011-06-10T10:55:00.006-04:00

Well hello....

happy friday!!!

i'm soooooo ready for the weekend.

thankfully it's been a really fast week!

so i have been very busy crafting lately and have some stuff to share...

(1) this is my June Book of Me challenge layout over at TSS:

Scrap Laugh Love

has an amazing challenge going on to lift Amy Tan's layout!

check it out here:

http://scraplovelaugh.blogspot.com/2011/06/challenge-1.html

(2) these are my tags that I created for a tag swap over at

Ms. Keandra's blog: http://kreativity.kreatorvillekraft.com/

(3) i stumbled upon this blog:

In the Sun

http://inthesuncourse.blogspot.com

it's a FREE course that lasts all summer to make a summer journal. so far i've been having fun with it!

here's a couple of pages...

(4) i'm participating in

Julie Fei-Fan Balzar's Art Journal Every Day

for June! http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/Julie decided to do one page for the whole month, concentrating on drawing faces. so i'm going with the same idea. i'm still working on it and need to color them in, here's what i got so far:

what projects are you working on this summer???

i'd love to know :)

have a wonderful weekend!

hugs, Marlene

long time no post...

2011-06-02T13:23:00.002-04:00

hello

it feels like ages since i last posted, sorry about that everyone. i've been having tons of trouble with my laptop. it's been freezing a lot and i've been getting tons of blue screens.

plus i couldn't get on here at work until today, blogger was acting all weird.

The Scrappers Sanctuary:

we have tons and tons of fun new challenges for June!

my Inspiration Challenge is to create a layout/card/altered journal page this layout:

i'm sorry but i can't remember where i found this picture, so i can't give credit to who made it. this is what i came up with:

at the end of each month at TSS, everyone that has done a challenge will have their name put into a hat. the name drawn will then be our member of the month and will receive the monthly prize from our sponsor.

want to know what the prize is for June????

ever heard of Tim Holtz???

love his stuff???

well check this out:

there's tons of awesome challenges. come by and hang out, it's so much fun :)

***

next I'd like to thank Melody for the wonderful blog award she gave me some time ago...

i'm sharing this award with all of you!

you all rock.

thanks so much Mel, I really appreciate it.

please check out Melody's blog, she makes the most beautiful cards ever!

***

i'm lovin my SMASH book!

i can't wait to get some of the accessories.

has anyone seen these in their Michael's or AC Moore stores yet?

i'm curious to see if they're gonna sell them there.

check out The Counterfeit Kit SmashBook Challenge that's running all summer:

http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/05/summer-long-counterfeit-challenge-and.html

***

i finally got my April P12 layout done:

i have tons of projects planned for June too!

* May P12 layout

* May things i love layout

* TallyScrapper Treasurehunt Week 1 layout (plus a mini album to put them all in)

* Scrap Laugh Love's new layout challenge

*TSS Book of Me layout

*Sassafras June layout contest!

oh and i caved and bought the Sassafras Mystery Box.

i'm swimming in all my lovely sassafras goodness

sorry for the horrible blurry pic :(

***

okay that's it for me now.

tomorrow is friday!!!

TGIF :)

hope you all have a great weekend.

Love, Marlene

Fab Friday post...

2011-05-20T12:15:00.001-04:00

Happy Friday ~ TGIF!!!!

(insert dancing banana here)

i'm so glad it's the weekend.

so, i'm a little sad

three of my tv shows have been cancelled...

i think a lot of people didn't like this show but I loved it,

plus Ben Rappaport is adorable :)

goodbye Anna...

and farewell Brothers & Sisters :(

***

this little guy made Student of the Month:

i'm so proud of him!!!

and this guy got an awesome report card:

way to go Mike!!!

***

and finally, I made it thru 12 weeks of Survivor over at TallyScrapper

it was so much fun!

and I ordered the Sassafras Mystery Box, wasn't planning to but I just went for it. My Sassafras supply is running on low LOL

***

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

xxx Marlene :)

PS: don't forget there's still time to enter into the May challenges over at The Scrappers Sanctuary!

SMASHing tuesday....

2011-05-17T12:37:00.003-04:00

hello hello...

wow, is it seriously the middle of May already?

i can't believe it!

this past weekend was nice.

michael went away on a school band trip to Hersey, PA.

he had a blast and bought me home a giant stuffed hershey kiss doll. while he was away, we went on a major shopping spree. maxwell got some new jeans and t-shirts. i bought a new handbag since my other one was falling apart and two new pairs of open toe shoes.

figures it's raining all this week and i can't wear them yet.

so, have you guys been dying to get your hands on a SMASH book?

i really love the idea behind it, saving little bits of things from every day life. but i didn't want to spend the money for one. i had made a junk journal awhile ago but i wasn't happy at all with it. i usually get a nice feeling after i make a project, it just feels perfect and i wasn't feeling that one.

so....

i made another book.

my own SMASH book!

it's called "life... Smash It"

i found this video on YouTube that i just had to share with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyA2TmPftdw

i seriously love this tutorial!!!

it's THE best book i've ever put together.

especially if you don't want to use a Bind-it-All or binder rings.

i made sections for each month of this year, starting with may.

i used a lot of the Daily Junque kit from Pink Paislee/House of 3, which i love!

here's some of the pages i started for may...

this is the first page of my book.

i used the Daily Junque number diecuts on each section.

i made a little folder out of some Hambly transparency.

the paper doll owl i saw on Michelle Rydell's blog:

http://inspirationeverywhere.blogspot.com/

i saved an old metrocard and the note that came with my Administrative Assistant's Day flowers.

i decided to add a "all about me" page each month.

the fabulous Katie is hosting a challenge each month over at

The Scrappers Sanctuary.

some more fun items: Pogo pictures,

a feather from one of my earrings and a label from Starbucks.

and i'm still working on this page.

smashed some lil inchies i've been saving from an old swap.

and some cute mini polariod pics, got the idea from

Jennifer Kirk's blog:

http://www.ambrosiagirl.com/blog/tiny-polaroid-magnets/

i saved all the labels from the our shopping spree this weekend in a clear pouch.

this is gonna be fun to fill up this year and especially to look back on :)

so are you going to SMASH???

i would love to see yours!

love, Marlene :)

Makeover time...

2011-05-13T21:25:00.006-04:00

Yes, it’s that time.

I need a little change.

So as you can see I gave my blog a little makeover.

What do you think?  I was so happy to find out how to center my blog header too.  That’s been bugging me I’ve been trying out different blog formats with the new template designer and I finally decided that I really like the white space and larger photo format.  Hopefully I’ll keep this one for awhile and not change it again :)

I'm also starting a new skin care/makeup makeover!

I have to admit, I’m really don’t have a skincare regimen.  My mom had a Mary Kaye rep come over so she could buy some new products.  It got me to thinking that I really should take better care of my skin. 

So I went out to Duane Reade today and got some goodies!

Oil of Olay face cleanser and moisturizer kit was a good deal. I also bought some foundation and concealer. I never wear foundation, only face powder but I’m going to give it a try and see if there’s any difference. I also got some new lipstick and mascara. It’s good to treat yourself every once and awhile.

p.s. I got new glasses!!!

I just need to start wearing them more during the day.

Hope you all have a spectacular rest of your day!

Love, Marlene

check out Sassafras blog...

2011-05-13T21:25:00.005-04:00

Sassafras is having a big mystery box sale!

http://sassafras.typepad.com/sassafras/2011/05/what-begins-with-b-and-is-loaded-with-sassafras-goodies.html

I have bought one of these in the past and you get a ton of great stuff, so get in on it while you can :)

Happy Monday...

2011-05-09T15:25:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone.

Happy Mother's Day, hope you all had a great one!

These two guys make being their Mom the greatest job in the world!!!

Yesterday was my birthday also and they spoiled me with such sweet presents and so did my parents :)

I got some scrappy projects done this weekend that I'd like to share. I haven't had a long to-do list in so long but I've signed up for a couple of swaps again so I've been busy working on all of them.

domino mini album swap

these are my March & April pages for my Things I Love mini album.

This layout was for two challenges: Tally Survivor and the Book of Me prompt over at The Scrappers Sanctuary.

I also finished my pal's jar of whimsy but I'm not going to post any pictures until she receives it :)

Projects left to work on:

* matchbox swap - music theme

* tag swap over at http://kreativity.kreatorvillekraft.com/

* April P12 layout

* a new ongoing Smashbook

Alrighty, hope you all have a wonderful week!

hugs, Marlene

My new challenge is up!!!

2011-05-01T19:16:00.002-04:00

Happy May 1st everyone!!!

Yeah, I love May, especially because next Sunday is my birthday.

I wanted to share my first challenge that I'm hosting over at The Scrappers Sanctuary.

This month I'm doing an Inspiration Challenge.

Recently I came across this library drawer from 7Gypsies:

I love it! You can use it to hold Artistic Trading Cards, mini albums, index card ~ the sky's the limit! I didn't want to spend $20.00 plus shipping and handling on it.
So I decided to make my own:

I made my drawer out of a file folder and covered it with lots of Sassafras love I added a little glass knob that I had bought years ago and never used. And I also added little wooden spools as feet.So my challenge for you is to make your own library drawer!1) use the original 7Gypsies library drawer above as your inspiration.

2) it can be any size, it’s up to you.

3) you can use anything you want to make it: a file folder, lightweight cardstock, old cereal boxes, a wooden box from Michael’s/AC Moore/Dollar store.

4) you can decorate it many ways: paint, paper, lace, ribbons, rickrack

Here are the rules:

* Each submission must be a newly created project specifically for the challenge.

* Only one entry per category.

* Each submission must be uploaded to the proper folder in our gallery no later than 11:59PM ET on May 31st, 2011 to be eligible for the random draw.

* Each submission must follow ALL requirements of the challenge to be eligible for the random draw. For example, if the challenge states blue must be used then there must be some blue in the project to qualify.So come on over and join in the fun! I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Hugs, Marlene

PS: There's also a wonderful prize up for grabs each month :)

Challenges begin at The Scrappers Sanctuary!

2011-04-30T19:14:00.001-04:00

Join us tomorrow May 1st at The Scrappers Sanctuary.

New challenges are up tomorrow, so come on over and check them out. There's tons of inspiration for you guys.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs, Marlene

I'm so excited!!!

2011-04-26T18:37:00.002-04:00

I have some exciting news to share with you all!

I've been accepted on the design team at...

What is The Scrappers Sanctuary you may ask?

 Well, it's a brand new forum  and you're all invited!

If you love scrapbooking, mixed media art, digital  scrapping, card making, challenges ~ well this is the place for you.

And all the  girls are super sweet and talented! 

New challenges will be going up soon but in the meantime please stop by to  introduce yourself and chat with us.

 We'd love to have you :)

Hugs, Marlene

PS: Pay it Forward 2011 and my giveaway packages have gone out today so be on the lookout! Please let me know when you receive them. Thank you!

happy monday :)

2011-04-25T15:46:00.001-04:00

Hope you all had a great Easter weekend. Ours was great, but it went way too fast. This was the first year that we didn’t color Easter eggs. We’ve been having hard boiled eggs a lot lately and the boys didn’t want to eat anymore. Plus my little guy is growing up way too fast nowadays, I wish he was still small LOL

Our tree in the front yard has finally bloomed...

Isn't it pretty?

I also got a great shot of Mike and Max this weekend..

Ah, brotherly love. We went to both cemeteries to leave flowers for both my grandmothers and my aunt. Max bought flowers for them with his own money, so sweet :)

I have two new projects that I’ve been working on this weekend also!!! I can’t wait to share with you guys. But I have a question??? I love making mini albums; actually one of the projects I just made is one. My question for you guys, do you love making mini albums and what do you make them for??? See I love making them but half the time I don’t even know what I’m going to use them for. Any suggestions??? I’d appreciate it :)

Have a great day!

xxx Marlene

New blog button!!!

2011-04-22T18:28:00.000-04:00

My new blog button is finally working!

Woohoo :)

I finally found a site that helped me out,

here's a link in case any of you guys would like one:

http://oikology101.blogspot.com/2008/09/make-your-own-button-for-your-blogger.html

Hugs, Marlene

Happy Easter!

2011-04-21T20:26:00.004-04:00

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter holiday.

we have a winner!!!

2011-04-21T10:55:00.000-04:00

Are you guys dying to know who won?

Well, let's get on with it!

Each name was put in a bowl. I reached in and twirled the papers around and the winner is......

Congrats Katie :)

I hope you enjoy your mini!

Please email me at marlener8@earthlink.net with your full name and addy and i'll get it out to you asap.

Thanks everyone for participating :)

Thanks also for following my lil ole blog and for all your sweet comments, it means the world to me :)

Have a great holiday and weekend!

Hugs, Marlene

Giveaway reminder!

2011-04-20T11:04:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder, today is the last day to enter your name in for my handmade mini album giveaway!

I will pick a winner tomorrow.

see post below to enter.

bye :)