Jen's Cropping Creations

Final Day of Digitals Birthday Bash 6!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:45:00 +0000

TGIF! I hope everyone's had a great week so far! First, let me say thank you to all of you who posted comments or e-mailed me to thank me for this week's freebies. The thank you's mean so much more than you know and are much appreciated!

Also, thank you to those of you who posted comments or e-mailed me with well wishes for our little guy and his rash. Yesterday over the phone when we called to make and appointment, the nurse suggested that we try the California Baby Callendula cream or lotion, so I picked some up last night at Target. It worked wonders literally overnight! We had been taking before and after pictures with my phone each time we tried one of the suggestions from the pediatrician to see if there was any improvment ... yeah, I know we're kind of hyper about the baby, but he is our first and only - LOL! So, when we got home last night, we took a photo of his little cheeks, and they looked as if he had rug burn on them, and it was hard and sort of crusty. I put some cream on them immediately after we got home, and then again when he woke up to be fed around 4:30 this morning, and by 8 am his cheeks were completely back to normal; you couldn't even tell that there had ever been a rash there! We still brought him to the pediatrician's for his appointment (just in case) and explained everything, and he told us that from the photos and the results we got from using the calendula cream that our little guy most likely had eczema! I sometimes get patches myself, but his looked so much worse. I have a prescription steroid-based cream to use for mine, so I was really pleased when the doctor told us to just continue to use the calendula cream as the ingredients in it are all natural. So, end of story is that Mr. Drew is all better, and he's back to his smiley, sweet self today. So, again, thank you to everyone who sent good thoughts our way!

And just as a reminder ... today is the last day for all of the birthday bash events including my store-wide 40% off sale where you can get all of my designs*, both personal and commercial-use. (*Excludes items already in my clearance section for 50-85% off!)

Today is also the last day to get my Grab Bag which contains 4 all-new "Quotables" word art sets. You can see previews of the four sets in Wednesday's blog post HERE.

And, last but not least, the blog train goodie! Today's piece coordinates with my Quotables Word Art Set #7 - Dreams Set #1 and Quotables Word Art Set #18 - Dreams Set #2, currently in my Grab Bag.

You can download today's goodie HERE.

If you've miss a day of the blog train, the complete set of word art will be available in my Digitals Store within the next few days!

You can find a list of links to the blogs of other Digitals' Designers participating in the train as well as all of the other great events that have been planned for the week HERE in the Digitals' Forums.

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 7 - Digitals Birthday Bash 6 Blog Train!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:49:00 +0000

I hope everyone is having a great Thursday! I've had a very busy morning today, and I have a very busy afternoon/early evening in front of me. This morning was filled with laundry and other household chores as well as tending to a cranky Andrew again. A red, dry rash popped up on his face yesterday and no matter what our pediatrician told us to try to put on it - Johnson & Johnson baby lotion, Aveeno baby lotion, Vaseline, baby oil, etc. - the poor little guy's cheeks are still all inflamed! I'm now pretty sure that's why he's been cranky the past two days, so we're bringing him in tomorrow, and the pediatrician is going to check him out just in case. The silly part is he is scheduled to go in for his 2-month well baby check-up on Monday, so we'll have to take him back on Monday as our pediatrician doesn't like to mix sick baby/well baby appointments. Oh well - LOL! Hopefully we can get some other suggestions to help get the rash to clear up so he'll be more comfortable. And this afternoon, I have a Dr.'s appointment at 4 pm. Andrew and my mother-in-law are also coming along so that we can visit Old Time Pottery (one of my favorite stores!) so we shop for some things for the house, halloween decorations, and some picture frames so that we can put up some photos of the little one. Provided Andrew cooperates - LOL - I might also check out their scrapbooking section to get some inspiration for pages and designs as well! Then, on the way home we need to stop at Target to get some Baby Oxiclean Spray (which works wonders with ALL kinds of stains) and some new footsie PJ's. He's swiftly outgrowing the newborn size of the brand he's been wearing (Carter's), but the size 0-3 months in the other brands we have are still too big! So, he currently has three pairs that fit him just right. Two are Disney Baby sleepers that are great, but that brand is super expensive and my husband refuses to buy him more (grandma bought those two pairs for him - LOL); however, the second is the Circo brand at Target which we've found to still be very good and fit him well, so we're going to try to get him more. It's so frustrating that the sizes between brands are SO inconsistent! It would be so much more helpful if the companies would just mark the weight and length ranges ... even if they put it on their tags or web-sites ... but, sadly, many don't. So, because things are so hectic today and my rant about baby clothes sizes is now over - LOL, I'm going to hop right and post today's piece of word art which coordinates with my Quotables Word Art Set #8 - Home.

You can download today's goodie HERE.

Please Note ... each goodie will be available for 1 day only. I'll be posting to my blog every day sometime before 2 PM, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of word art will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion!

You can find a list of links to the blogs of other Digitals' Designers participating in the train as well as all of the other great events that have been planned for the week HERE in the Digitals' Forums.

See you again tomorrow!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Grab Bag Reveal & Day 6 - Digitals Birthday Blog Train

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:27:00 +0000

Hi again everyone! First let me apologize for being late with my post today. Mr. Drew (one of our many nicknames for the little one) has been a crankpot today. For some reason no matter what I tried to do for him this morning and early this afternoon, he just couldn't be appeased. It's not the norm for him, so I definitely can't complain, but it did put me very behind today - LOL! So, now that I am here, let me start by jumping on the bandwagon and reveal my grab bag to you! As I mentioned previously, this bag contains 4, brand-new sets of word art - Happiness #3, Love #2, My Favorites #1, and Dream #2 - which you can see previews of above. This grab bag is on sale for $3.00 until October 8th, and then each of these sets will be added individually to my Digitals store at the conclusion of the Birthday Bash for their regular price of $1.75. You can purchase my grab bag by clicking HERE or on the preview at the top of this post.

And, last but not least, the blog train goodie for today! Today's piece coordinates with my Quotables Word Art Set #14 - Winter Weather.

You can download today's goodie HERE.

Please Note ... each goodie will be available for 1 day only. I'll be posting to my blog every day sometime before 2 PM, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of word art will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion!

You can find a list of links to the blogs of other Digitals' Designers participating in the train as well as all of the other great events that have been planned for the week HERE in the Digitals' Forums.

See you tomorrow!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

CT Call & Day 5 - Digitals Birthday Bash 6 Blog Train!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:17:00 +0000

Hi again everyone! With me taking several breaks from designing and just with the passage of time my creative team has dwindled to just a few girls. I've had (and still have) some amazingly talented ladies on my team, and I would love to have some more scrappers join them. I created the graphic above to send out to my Yahoo group (Jen's Cropping Creations), the Yahoo groups at Digitals, etc. so I thought I would post it here as well so my blog visitors can see what I'm looking for and e-mail me (JenMaceyunas@gmail.com) if they would be interested. So I hope to hear from some of you :)

This month at Digitals, my Autumn in the Air kit is being featured along with, my friend and fellow designer, Sarah Meyer's new Apple Crisp kit for the October Digitals Quickie Challenge. Both kits are on sale for $3.00 for the entire month of October. To participate, purchase one (or both) kits and create just one quickpage with the kit to exchange with the other challenge participants. Everyone who joins in the fun will receive all the other quickpages made with whichever kit they used. You can read all the specific details for the challenge by clicking on the image above or by visiting the forum HERE. I hope you'll join us!

And, last but not least, the blog train goodie for today! Today's piece coordinates with several of my pet word art sets - Crop Your Cat Word Art, Quotables Word Art Set #4 - Dog Set #1, Quotables Word Art Set #5 - Dog Set #2, Quotables Word Art Set #6 - Dog Set #3, and Quotables Word Art Set #10 - Dog Set #4.

This download has now been removed.

Please Note ... each goodie will be available for 1 day only. I'll be posting to my blog every day sometime before 2 PM, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of word art will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion!

You can find a list of links to the blogs of other Digitals' Designers participating in the train as well as all of the other great events that have been planned for the week HERE in the Digitals' Forums.

See you tomorrow!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 4 - Digitals Birthday Bash 6 Blog Train!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:07:00 +0000

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend! We didn't do anything special as Jason had to work on Saturday which left Sunday as our "chore" day this week and we focused on our backyard ... cutting the grass, pulling up weeds, trimming trees/bushes/plants, fertilizing our citrus trees, etc. Being from New England, it actually made me sad in a way, because everything is still green and pretty much in full bloom! We do have one tree on the side of our yard (picture above) ... well it's actually in the neighbor's yard, but we still get to enjoy it ... that changes color somewhat. But it's still not the same as the foliage in the northeast!

Back in 2006, we were lucky enough to be in CT and RI in October, and I took a TON of photos while we were in the area. They came out so much better than expected, because generally photography is not my forte, so I made them into a photo-realistic papers and called the set Fall Flair, and it's currently on sale for 50% off, making it JUST $0.88! And I was so inspired by the colors of the photos, I created a coordinating kit called Fall Foliage, and it is also currently on sale for 50% off, making it JUST $1.63!

And, last but not least, the blog train goodie for today! Today's piece coordinates with my Quotables Word Art Set #9 - Birthday Set #1.

This download has now been removed.

Please Note ... each goodie will be available for 1 day only. I'll be posting to my blog every day sometime before 2 PM, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of word art will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion!

You can find a list of links to the blogs of other Digitals' Designers participating in the train as well as all of the other great events that have been planned for the week HERE in the Digitals' Forums.

See you tomorrow!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 3 - Digitals Birthday Bash 6 Blog Train!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:24:00 +0000

Happy Sunday everyone! A lot of friends and family have asked if I had a picture of the little one from when he was first born, so here is one of him Jason took in the hospital the first day after they had given him his bath. I still can't believe he was ever that small. He was actually one of the smallest babies in the nursery while we were there. Most of the babies were seven or eight pounds, and there was even one little girl who was almost ten. He looked even tinier next to all of them - LOL!

And, here is today's blog train goodie! Today's word art coordinates with my Quotables Word Art Set #11 - Love Set #1.

This download has now been removed.

Please Note ... each goodie will be available for 1 day only. I'll be posting to my blog every day sometime before 2 PM, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of word art will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion!

You can find a list of links to the blogs of other Digitals' Designers participating in the train as well as all of the other great events that have been planned for the week HERE in the Digitals' Forums.

See you tomorrow!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 2 - Digitals Birthday Bash 6 Blog Train!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 14:38:00 +0000

Happy Saturday everyone! I just have to share another photo of our little guy that I snapped last night. We got him a thing called a Wubbanub which is basically a pacifier sewn securely into a Beanie Baby-like stuffed animal. You can rest it on their chest so that way if they spit out the pacifier it stays close to their mouth so they can get it back in again. We got him a doggie one, and he's been named Max after the dog in the Grinch, because grandma thought he looked like him. Anyway, it just came in yesterday afternoon, so we gave it to him last night. And he loves it! He holds onto it's paws and smiles and makes cooing noises like mad, especially when Jason makes woofing noises for him. He's been smiling now (for things other than passing gas) for about a week and a half, but we hadn't been able to get a picture of him until last night!

And, here is today's blog train goodie! Today's piece coordinates with my Quotables Word Art Set #8 - Home Set #1.

This download has now been removed.

Please Note ... each goodie will be available for 1 day only. I'll be posting to my blog every day sometime before 2 PM, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of word art will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion!

You can find a list of links to the blogs of other Digitals' Designers participating in the train as well as all of the other great events that have been planned for the week HERE in the Digitals' Forums.

See you tomorrow!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

All Aboard the Digitals Birthday Bash 6 Blog Train!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:25:00 +0000

Well, I've determined and come to accept the fact that I'm just a decidedly poor blogger – LOL! I had intended to take a short break after my last post here way back in October 2008 to catch up on designing things, but then life got in the way. First, came the 2008 holidays and all the chaos that goes along with that time of year. Then at the beginning of 2009, I was asked to go back to teaching at the school where I taught from 2000-2004, because their current teacher wanted to leave to go back to school. Needless to say, that endeavor occupied pretty much all of my time. I even taught SAT Preparation during the summer session! Then, just as things were finally getting to the point where I had all my materials prepped for school, and I thought I might have a chance to do some designing and blogging ... I found out I was pregnant last December! My husband and I had been trying for a while, so it was a pleasant surprise; however, it ended up being a very difficult pregnancy. The good news is that I delivered a perfect baby boy, who we named Andrew Jacob, just over 7 weeks ago. Here is the birth announcement that I designed to send out our family and friends. I recolored my Cute & Quilted Denim Kit and my Cute & Quilted Denim Add-On Kit to match his little doggie onsie that his grandpa bought for him.

And, not only is our little guy adorable (if I do say so myself - LOL) he is also an extremely good baby. He only fusses if he needs something or has gas, and he's even been sleeping 4 or 5 hours at a time in the evenings for us! At his one month pediatrician's visit, he had already grown one inch and was up to 7 lbs. 15 oz. from his birth weight. He's now just over 7 weeks old, and I think I finally have a system that works well to take care of everything that he needs along with all of the normal household chores and such so that I can once again start designing and (hopefully) blogging more regularly again.

So as I haven't gotten a chance to blog in a long time, when the ladies at Digitals decided to do a blog train to celebrate Digitals' 6th birthday (I can't believe it's been that long!), I knew that I just had to participate ... so here I am!

I have so many fabulous things for the birthday bash it's hard to know where to start! But seeing as I have to start somewhere, let me start by telling you that you're going to want to visit my blog each day, starting today and going until Friday, October 8th after 2 PM, EASTERN to grab my goodies blog train goodies! In addition to the train full of goodies, I am also having a store-wide 40% off sale where you can get a great deal on all of my designs*, both personal and commercial-use. (*Excludes items already in my clearance section for 50-85% off!)

Also, as part of the Birthday Bash, I have my third-ever Grab Bag, available for $3.00. My grab bag contains 4 all-new "Quotables" word art collections valued at $7.00. All sets are PU/S4H/S4O. Please see my Angel Policy in the product's description for specific S4H/S4O acceptable uses. You can purchase my bag, from October 1st through 8th, by clicking on the link or preview above. You can also check out all of the other word art collections I've designed thus far in my store HERE.

And, last but not least, the blog train goodie! So, because my grab bag is filled with word art, and (as you may have guessed by now - LOL) one of my favorite things to design is word art, for this blog train, I've created 8 different pieces of word art for you to collect! Today's piece coordinates with my Quotables Word Art Set #7 - Dreams Set #1.

This download has now been removed.

Please Note ... each goodie will be available for 1 day only. I'll be posting to my blog every day sometime before 2 PM, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of word art will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion!

You can find a list of links to the blogs of other Digitals' Designers participating in the train as well as all of the other great events that have been planned for the week HERE in the Digitals' Forums.

See you tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 8 of Blog Train, Wonderfully Wordy & Grab Bag Reveal!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:35:00 +0000

I can’t believe that it’s already the 8th day of October! This first week has really flown by with all of the Digitals’ Birthday Bash events going on along with all of the normal beginning of the month things to tend to at home and also for designing … I definitely will need a nap once it’s all over. But as it is the 8th, that means two things ... time for a new challenge & to reveal my grab bag! First, the latest round of my Wonderfully Wordy Word Art (try saying that 3 times really fast – LOL) Challenge at Gotta Pixel has started. Each month for this challenge, I provide you with a wonderful piece of word art to use to create a layout with. And, if you post your page by the 7th of the following month, before the new challenge begins, you’ll also receive a posting bonus! You can read all of the challenge details and download the word art in the Wonderfully Wordy Challenge Forum by clicking on the linked text or the word art preview above. Hope to see you all there!

And as today is the last day of our Birthday Bash it’s also the last day that you can partake in the 30% OFF Sale as well as the last chance to purchase my Personal Use Grab Bag #2, containing three new designs for $3.00. All designs in this bag can be used for your S4H/S4O endeavors under my Angel Policy. If you’d like more specific details on what is and what is not covered, you can read my entire Angel Policy in the grab bag’s description. And in case anyone missed my links to the previews of the contents of my bag yesterday, here are the previews themselves. Included in my bag this time are my three newest designs - Autumnal Equinox Kit, Autumnal Equinox Brag Book, and Just Journaling Layered Templates – Set #1 (.PSD, .TIF, and .PNG files included):

And, last but not least, on to the blog train goodie for today! This download has now been removed.

I will be taking a break from blogging this long weekend (Jason actually gets the day off on Monday!), but please check back on Tuesday for more news and a new little goodie!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 7 of Blog Train & Scads of Sunflowers!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:28:00 +0000

Each year for Christmas my husband always gets me a basset hound calendar to hang in my office, and I always get him the USPA’s Skydiving one for him to hang up in his office at work. While his is probably considered to be “cooler” than mine - LOL, I love looking at all of the different hounds each month. Generally, there is at least one photo in the lot that looks like one of our three bassets – Baxter, Molly, or Klaus - so that generally makes me enjoy it even more. This year though, for the first time in the past seven since we’ve had this tradition, none of the dogs pictured seemed to have the same look as ours. I did find one, however, that I absolutely loved despite of that, and it happens to be this month’s picture (above) … an adorable basset puppy surrounded by sunflowers! I know a lot of people often associate sunflowers with summer, but for some reason I’ve always thought of them as being perfect for fall. I think it’s because when I was younger, my mother had a grape vine wreath that she had decorated with all kinds of autumn-y craft things - a little scarecrow doll, silk leaves, acorns, fall colored gingham ribbon, etc. – but it also had silk sunflowers intertwined throughout! It always hung on our front door throughout the fall, coming down just for the week of Halloween so that one made of plastic canvas Jack-O-Lanterns could be put up for the trick-or-treaters.

While I like just about any kind of flowers, sunflowers are one of my favorites, so when we went to Cyprus Gardens here in Florida one spring a few years back when my Dad was here for a visit, I took tons of photos of them in their botanical gardens. Once I got home and went through my photos, I found that I captured a beautiful shot of one in full bloom with the light shining down on it just perfectly. Ecstatic, because I am generally not that good of a photographer – LOL, I extracted the flower from my photo and created an entire kit around it which I called Shabby Sunflowers with the result shown above. And, while it’s not your typical fall kit, I think it has fantastic colors for scrapping fall photos. This is another of my kits that will be retired very soon to be used in my “special project” so grab it while you still can, at 65% off (just $2.25) by either clicking on the linked text or preview provided above. This kit is also included in my Clearance Bundle, which is also still available in my Digitals store.

And because designer’s can never seem to stop designing once they get on a roll – LOL – I’ve also created a coordinating Basic Grey “BRACKET” Album, a 4”x6” Brag Book Album, and a cute pair of
12”x12” Quick Pages, all on sale for 30% off until the end of the Birthday Bash Sale tomorrow for $3.50, $2.80, & $2.45 respectively. You can get more details about the items or purchase them by either clicking on the linked text above, or on the preview provided.

And don’t forget to pick up my second-ever Personal Use Grab Bag, available for $3.00, exclusively at Digitals until tomorrow! My grab bag contains 3 all-new products valued at over $12.00. You can purchase it by clicking on the preview or link above. I also gave you a few subtle and one not-so-subtle – LOL – hints about what was in my bag, but if you really can’t stand the suspense any longer, you can take a peek at Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE, and Part 3 HERE. But shhhh … it’s a surprise remember!

And, last but not least, on to the blog train goodie for today! This download has now been removed.

Please note that each page will be available for only 1 day! And as a reminder, I will be posting to my blog every day sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of templates will be available in my Digitals store at the end of the promotion!

See you tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 6 of Blog Train, Little Bundles & A Missing Skunk!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:32:00 +0000

There was some excitement for a half hour or so yesterday afternoon in the Maceyunas household when we couldn’t find our youngest skunk, Jasmine. Usually when Jason is home, and I’m going to work on the computer, I bring my laptop out of my office and sit on the couch beside him. And usually, little Jazzie is sitting (well sleeping more often – LOL) there right beside me. Jason took this photo of her beside me just this past week, and I thought it was so cute I just had to share! Well yesterday morning while I was working on getting everything posted for the blog train, she started to wander around instead of just sitting, so I let her down on the floor figuring she either had to use the littler box, wanted a drink, or something like that. Later, when we were getting ready to eat lunch and Jason went looking to round up all the skunks to put them in the laundry room while we ate (they’re shameless beggars!), he found everyone but Jasmine. We weren’t worried at first, because they have favorite places that they sometimes like to go to sleep … our bedroom closets, under my desk in the office, in one of the baskets of doggies toys amidst the stuffy/squeaky toys, under the couches, in any laundry baskets if they’re left out for more than 5 minutes with clean clothes in them … so we just started making the rounds of their usual spots and figured she would be in one of them – but no! So I started to get anxious thinking that maybe she snuck out when one of us was letting the doggies or perhaps she followed Jason out into the garage when he went out there for something earlier in the morning. So we frantically started looking for her outside and then out in the garage, but to no avail.

Amidst all of this, I accidentally knocked into the dogs’ water bowl and made a flood on our tile floor. So not wanting to make the situation worse by having someone slip and break something, I went over to our oven and opened the bottom drawer to get a cloth to wipe up the mess, and this is what I found … one small skunk, all bundled up amongst the pot holders, kitchen towels, and cleaning cloths – sound asleep! The camera just happened to be out on the counter, because I had been getting ready to transfer some pictures off of it, so I couldn’t help but take a photo of the little stinker.

She actually stayed sleeping until I called to her, and then she proceeded to climb out as if nothing unusual had happened – LOL – sniffing around to see why we wanted her. So, thankfully she was just in a new “hiding spot” and all ended well. Jason’s going to get a baby latch for the oven drawer on his way home from work tonight and that will be locked up just like all the cabinets in the house. Oh, did I mention they’re mischievous – LOL? Way more so than our nephew ever was when he was little that’s for sure. We installed baby latches on all of the lower cupboards, bathroom vanities, and bi-fold closet doors to the pantry shortly after we got Tinkerbell, because she was determined to get into each one to see if there was anything interesting to explore and/or any food to be had. Now that everything’s secure (or will be by this evening – LOL), we don’t have to worry about them getting into anything they shouldn’t. Other than their curiosity, they’re really excellent pets, and Jasmine is probably the sweetest of the bunch because she’s “the baby”.

And while we’re talking about babies - LOL, all parts of my Little Bundle Boy & Little Bundle Girl Collections are on sale for 30% off during the Birthday Bash. For each gender I created a full sized kit (separate element and paper packs also available), brag books, coordinating felt alphas, quick pages, and digital sticker sets … everything you could possibly need to scrap about baby! As my DH and I don’t have any children yet, I have to live vicariously through those who do – LOL – so I had originally made these kits for one of my very best friends who was pregnant but had chosen not to learn the sex of the baby before it was born. I don’t know how she and her husband managed … I just would have had to have known – LOL – but, she said several of the mommies to be that she met during both her pregnancies chose to be surprised too!

When she told me that fact, I had the brain storm to create my Little Bundle Add-On Kit, Little Bundle Add-On Felt Alpha, and Little Bundle Add-On Brag Book in shades of gray and white for those in that same situation. I also thought that these would be great if people wanted to scrap their little ones in colors other than the traditional blues and pinks, because they could easily recolor the gray to whatever they wanted! This kit, alpha, and brag book are currently in my clearance section and will be retired very soon as they’re going to be used in a special (but secret at this time – LOL) project. So grab these three designs, while you still can, at 50% off (just $2.25, $0.75, and $3.00 respectively), by either clicking on the linked text above, or on the preview provided.

And, last but not least, on to the blog train goodie for today! This download has now been removed.

Please note that each page will be available for only 1 day! And as a reminder, I will be posting to my blog every day sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of templates will be available in my Digitals store at the end of the promotion!

And don’t forget to visit the other Digitals' Designers blogs on the Blog Train:

Allesandra Desisgns
http://www.alessandradesigns.blogspot.com
Amanda Thorderson
http://flamingo-amanda.blogspot.com
Beth Rimmer
http://www.bethscreativechaos.blogspot.com
Dea Spina
http://deaspina.blogspot.com
DeDe Smith
http://designsbydede.blogspot.com
Diana Burton
http://www.dbdesigns.digitalscrapbookpages.com
Georgia Oliver
http://dreamsinkdesigns.blogspot.com
Glenda Ketcham
http://scrapville.blogspot.com
Jennifer Maceyunas - You Are Here :)
Juliana Gordon
http://www.thejulianablog.com
Karla Kellum
http://karlas-digi-scrappin.blogspot.com
Kathryn Estry
http://kathrynsdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com
Katie Mann
http://katiemann.blogspot.com
Lynne Simmons
http://digidigs.blogspot.com
Nini's Notions
http://ninisnews.blogspot.com
Sarah Meyer
http://sarahbscraps.blogspot.com
Scrap4Brains
http://scrap4brains.blogspot.com
Shawn Walter
http://csuramsrule.blogspot.com
Silvia Romeo
http://www.silviaromeo.blogspot.com
Spellweaver
http://dizzyb13.blogspot.com
Tink
http://www.andikadesigns.blogspot.com

See you tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 5 of Blog Train & Fabulous Fall Things

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:15:00 +0000

Let me start off today by saying how excited I was to see several girls from Wisconsin post in the comments section that they call water fountains bubblers in their home towns too. I just had to show my DH, because I think he secretly thought that I had just made this whole term up or perhaps that my family did – LOL!

Last night while Jason was watching all those MMA fights that were on CBS (not my cup of tea to watch people punching at kicking at each other - LOL), I took a few minutes to finally make my October desktop calendar. As I've mentioned in the past, I usually “feature” some of our pets on them, and I usually ask Jason who he wants me to use pictures of when I create them. Well, last night he was so engrossed in this martial arts thing … men and their TV - sheesh … that I decided to just pick this time! I chose one of our prairie dogs, Porter, to use because I thought he would “go” with the fall colors of the desktop quick page that I chose, and because he’s so small (only about ~8” tall & ~ 6 lbs – maybe pushing 7 now that he’s packing on his winter weight – LOL) it was easy to crop the photos to fit in the filmstrip and still be able to get a good look at him. So, the above is the resulting desktop that’s now on our laptops and will soon be put up on Jason’s computer at work so all of his co-works can see yet another of our menagerie. It was designed by Kim of Simply Sweet Designs @ Scrap Matters with her Hoo’s Ready for Fall Kit which is just adorable – love those owls!

The fall things that I’ve designed thus far are more “realistic” style-wise, having used some of my own foliage photography. First, I have my Collage Frames – Fall Edition that are great to use either as page toppers or to create photo gifts for family and friends. Secondly, I created a set of photo-realistic papers from some of my pictures that I took during a visit to a friend’s house who lived in beautiful Burlington, Vermont at the time. I called this collection my Fall Flair Paper Pack. I’ve also included a pumpkin patch photo-realistic background that’s not shown in the preview above that I took at a local farm when we went pumpkin picking … definitely not something I get to do here in Florida – LOL! I also created a kit using some of the close-up foliage photos that I called … what else … Fall Foliage - LOL! These are all on sale for the Digitals Birthday Bash as well. The Collage Frames and Fall Flair Paper Pack are both on sale for 30% off, making them just $1.75 and $1.23 respectively, and the Fall Foliage kit is on special for 54% off, making it just $1.50! If you’d like to check them out in more detail or purchase them, please click on the linked text or previews above.

And, last but not least, on to the blog train goodie for today! This download has now been removed.

Please note that each page will be available for only 1 day! And as a reminder, I will be posting to my blog every day sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of templates will be available in my Digitals store at the end of the promotion!

See you tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 4 of Blog Train & Home and Hearth Kits

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:16:00 +0000

Well it seems that with all of the great goodies being given out of late on 4shared, they’ve been having some problems handling all of our traffic! I hadn’t checked back on my blog last night, because when I tried out the download it worked just fine, so I apologize to those of you who had some problems not being able to download due to all the traffic. One of my creative team girls actually e-mailed me to alert me to the problem this morning (thank you Teri!), so what I did before preparing this post was upload yesterday’s zip file to an alternate location, so that if 4shared is still giving you some troubles, you can download it (this download has now been removed) instead. I’ll also keep both links active until I post my entry tomorrow morning. As with the download links at 4shared, please do not share it with others, but please do send them here to my blog to download it from here.

Now without knowing that all the business with my 4shared download was going on – LOL – I was thinking what a beautiful morning it was when I went outside to let out doggies out. Here on the East coast of Central Florida today it’s clear, sunny, and in the upper-70s with a nice little breeze … just perfect for sitting out on the lanai. That’s what they call the little covered porch areas behind the houses here in Florida. Back in New England we just called them patios, and not too many people had them. While I was standing out there, it actually reminded me of the first time a friend who’s lived here in FL since she was small invited me over to scrapbook. It was just about this time of year and the weather was equally lovely, and she asked if I wanted to go and scrapbook on the lanai. I said “Um, sure!” not knowing where the heck we were going - LOL. And then when we got out there, I said, “Oh, you meant out on the patio!” and she started laughing and asked what the heck a patio was. It’s really funny how different areas of the country have different names for the same things! The one my husband loves to tease me about most is that in Rhode Island, my home state, we call water fountains (the kind you drink from), bubblers. Nowhere else in the country, except for maybe a few areas of MA that border RI, call them this apparently! On our first date I took Jason on a tour of the UF campus where I was going to graduate school, and when I took him inside one of the buildings, he asked if there was a water fountain around. So, I promptly told him there was a bubbler just down the hall. Well, after looking at me like I had three heads, he asked what a bubbler was, because he just wanted a drink of water – LOL! He’s from CT, so I thought for sure he would know what a bubbler was! To do this day he still teases me about it.

But I digress … the whole weather & lanai thing made me think about while I do miss being in New England at this time of year because the foliage is just beautiful, I really do love living in Florida. And I also really love our home as well. We must have looked at (without exaggeration) about 50 houses before we finally found the one we're now in, which we both loved. This house, our home, was definitely the inspiration behind one of my newest kits that I ended up naming Home & Hearth, pictured above. I know designers say this all the time once they finish a kit – LOL – but I really do think this is one of my most favorite designs. In fact, I went overboard when I was designing and ended up with so many extra pieces that I decided to create an Add-On kit as well, pictured below. Both are on sale for 30% off during the Birthday Bash Event, making them only $4.55 and $1.75 respectively, until October 8th! You can see larger images and find out more details about both by either clicking on the linked text or the previews. And don't forget to check out my second-ever Personal Use Grab Bag, available exclusively at Digitals for $3.00 until October 8th. My bag contains 3 all-new products valued at over $12.00. And I'll give you two little hints about the contents here! First, if you like my Home & Hearth kits pictured here, you'll love the full-sized kit that is one item in my bag as it's been designed in a similar style. Secondly, if you look at the preview (you can see it in my Day 1 Blog Train post HERE) you can get an idea of the beautiful, muted colors used to design the kit and coordinating brag book. I guess that's really three hints now isn't it - LOL?

And, last but not least, on to the blog train goodie for today! This download has now been removed.

Please note that each page will be available for only 1 day! And as a reminder, I will be posting to my blog every day sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of templates will be available in my Digitals store at the end of the promotion!

See you tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 3 of Blog Train & October Sketchy Details Challenge!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:41:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my first birthday blog train post, I’ve been scrapping a lot of pages in the 4”x6” brag book size, but I’ve also been using a lot of quick pages lately as well. With having so little time to actually scrap, I find they’re a huge time saver, and I am guessing that many other scrappers feel the same way. As a result, in my designing I’ve also been trying to create Quick Pages to go along with all of my kits, and this set shown above is my latest creation! This set was created with my Shabby Romance Kit and Shabby Romance Mini Add-On Kit which have recently been added to the Clearance section at 50% off for just $3.00 and $1.00 respectively! You can get more details about the kit and the mini add-on kit by clicking on the linked text above or on the previews below. As I’m also a perfectionist and a “filler” (I like to have all empty space filled with photos, embellishments, or journaling – LOL) so I love to be able to add to the Quick Pages with the matching kit. Doing that makes me feel like I’ve actually scrapped the page instead of just plopped in photos … I know silly – LOL!

I also have my regular Sketchy Details challenge going on this month at Digitals as well! If you'd like to participate in this month's challenge, you can find all of the details in the Sketchy Details Forum. And, if you post your layout in the Sketchy Details Gallery before October 31st, you'll get the very cute and funky Artisty of Digitals mini kit (shown below) designed by the very creative & talented Denise Liemert; one of my personal favorite designers … I love her cute style!

I've also created Scrap-A-Sketch Template #27 in two sizes, 12”x12” and 8.5”x11”, based upon this month’s sketch. You by no means have to use the template to participate in the challenge, but if you wish to do so, they're both now available in my Digitals Store, and you can purchase them by clicking on the previews below. During the Birthday Bashe Sale, these are also on sale for 30% off, making them just $1.05 each! These templates include the layered .PSD and .TIF files as well as the individual PNGs, so they should be able to be used in all of the different graphics programs.

And, now on to the blog train goodie for today! This download has now been removed.

Please note that each page will be available for only 1 day! And as a reminder, I will be posting to my blog every day sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of templates will be available in my Digitals store at the end of the promotion!

And don’t forget to visit the other Digitals' Designers blogs on the Blog Train:

Allesandra Desisgns
http://www.alessandradesigns.blogspot.com
Amanda Thorderson
http://flamingo-amanda.blogspot.com
Beth Rimmer
http://www.bethscreativechaos.blogspot.com
Dea Spina
http://deaspina.blogspot.com
DeDe Smith
http://designsbydede.blogspot.com
Diana Burton
http://www.dbdesigns.digitalscrapbookpages.com
Georgia Oliver
http://dreamsinkdesigns.blogspot.com
Glenda Ketcham
http://scrapville.blogspot.com
Jennifer Maceyunas - You Are Here :)
Juliana Gordon
http://www.thejulianablog.com
Karla Kellum
http://karlas-digi-scrappin.blogspot.com
Kathryn Estry
http://kathrynsdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com
Katie Mann
http://katiemann.blogspot.com
Lynne Simmons
http://digidigs.blogspot.com
Nini's Notions
http://ninisnews.blogspot.com
Sarah Meyer
http://sarahbscraps.blogspot.com
Scrap4Brains
http://scrap4brains.blogspot.com
Shawn Walter
http://csuramsrule.blogspot.com
Silvia Romeo
http://www.silviaromeo.blogspot.com
Spellweaver
http://dizzyb13.blogspot.com
Tink
http://www.andikadesigns.blogspot.com

See you tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Day 2 of Blog Train & Designer Element's Challenge!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:55:00 +0000

After some Internet troubles yesterday afternoon and evening (for no apparent reason mind you, our skies were clear), I was worried that I wouldn't make it for Day 2 of our train. But, a technician from our ISP came out and fixed us back up first this this morning. I think they've been out about once per month for the past 9 months or so having to fix this or that for us. Do you think they might need to upgrade the old “stuff” they have us working off of - LOL? But, at least we're back on-line now, and I am able tell you about another fantastic event that I have going on at Digitals this month ... so all is well with the world again - LOL. Each month a different designer hosts the Designer Element's Challenge where they offer a free mini kit for scrappers to use to participate in the challenge, and this October is my month! You can read all the details about the challenge and sign-up HERE. Above is the preview of the mini kit, and it coordinates with my Hugs & Kisses Kit and Hugs & Kisses Glitter Alpha. I thought this was the perfect mini kit to use to scrap someone you love! No purchase is necessary to participate in the challenge, but if you are interested, the full Hugs & Kisses kit is on sale for just $2.00 (that's almost 70% off!) and both the coordinating glitter alpha and brag book are on sale for 50% off as well ... $1.00 & $2.00 respectively ... throughout the month of October. You can get more details about the kit, alpha, and brag book by clicking on linked text above or on the previews below.

And there is also a posting goodie for participating in the challenge! It is a mini kit that coordinates with the "Artistry of Digitals" October Mega kit and has been designed by my very talented friend Katie Mann! Here is a preview of the posting bonus for you:

And, now on to the blog train goodie for today! This download has now been removed.

Please note that each page will be available for only 1 day; however, I will leave the Day 1 download link up for a bit longer to make sure that everyone who wants to be on the train has gotten aboard! As a reminder, I'll be posting to my blog every day sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of templates will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion!

Also, I wanted to post a reply to a comment made by Betty yesterday about not being sure how to go about using layered templates. First, I want to say thank you for posting that, because you reminded me that I forgot to post something yesterday! I meant to tell everyone that I have included a .PDF tutorial in the zip file so that anyone who hasn't yet worked with templates with be able to learn how to do so! The first portion is specifically geared towards Photoshop users as that is the program that I design and scrap with myself. But, the second portion is written in a manner that is non-program specific and gives you all the basic steps for “covering” layers of the templates with background papers and/or recoloring them. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to post here, and I'll do my best to answer them for you when I post on the next day. Just please be aware that while I'm well versed in PS & PSE, I'm fairly ignorant about PSP, so I may have to do some digging to get answers which pertain to that program – LOL!

And, last but not least, I also meant to post (I sure forgot a lot yesterday didn't I – LOL!) that while I generally include just layered .PSD and .TIF files with my Scrap-A-Sketch templates, I have begun to include the individual PNG files as well! One of my lovely and talented Creative Team ladies, Nancy Caulderon, explained to me that the program she uses to scrap with does not allow her to open those types of files, but she can open PNGs and use those to create pages from templates. So one of my “projects” one the blog train is over will be to generate and add PNGs to all of my layered templates in my stores. If anyone has purchased any of my Scrap-A-Sketch layered templates in 12”x12” or 8.5” x 11” - Letter Sized, my 1st set of Scrap-A-Sketch Layered Brag Book templates (5”x7”), or my Scrap-A-Card Layered Template #1 and you need the PNGs to be able to use the templates in your program, please contact me by e-mail (contact widget on the right-hand side on my blog), and I can get them to you. Also, if you are interested in purchasing any of them now while the sale is going on but have not done so because you need the PNGs, you can also buy them as is, and then contact me via e-mail, and I will get them to you as well.

See you tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

All Aboard the Digitals Birthday Bash Blog Blowout Train!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:57:00 +0000

I've determined and come to accept that I'm just a decidedly poor, or rather, inconsistent blogger – LOL! I had intended to take a short break after the Digitals Christmas blog train back at the end of July to get my house in order and catch up on designing things, but then one thing seemed to happen after another in the month of August, and we all know how that goes! Then, just as I was hoping for a quieter fall that would give me a bit more time to get back into blogging and working on some designs that have been “in progress” for a while, September came upon us and some other things came up – LOL! Isn't that always the way? I also have been teaching the fall session of my Digital Design Fundamentals Workshop that just ended last night. So as I haven't gotten a a chance to blog in a long time, when the ladies at Digitals decided to do another blog train to celebrate Digitals 4th birthday (I can't believe it's been that long!), I knew that I just had to participate ... so here I am! I know I have a lot to catch up on - LOL, but I'll try to do it in bits and pieces as the week goes on.

As far as what's going on right now ... I have so many fabulous things for the birthday bash it's hard to know where to start! But seeing as I have to start somewhere, let me start by telling you that you're going to want to visit my blog each day, starting today and going until Wednesday, October 8th after NOON, EASTERN to grab my goodies for the blog train! In addition to the train full of goodies, there is also a store-wide 30% off sale taking place where you can get a great deal on *all of my designs, both personal and commercial-use. (*Excludes classes, E-Books, and items already in the clearance section)

Also, as part of the Birthday Bash, I have my second-ever Personal Use Grab Bag, available for $3.00, exclusively at Digitals! My grab bag contains 3 all-new products valued at over $12.00. You can purchase it by clicking on the preview or link above, from October 1st through 8th.

In addition to the blog train, 30% off sale, and grab bag, I've also put together a collection of many of my classic designs for an incredible price ... just $30.00 for over $120.00 worth of items. The designs in this collection will be removed from the shelves of my stores this fall, so get them while you still can! You can see larger images and purchase this collection HERE. It's perfect for the new digi-scrapper just starting out or even for the seasoned scrapper wanting to add a variety of designs to their collection for a bargain price! All items are also available individually at clearance prices (see links in the store description) AND there are also over 90 additional items available in my section of the clearance category at reduced prices as well ... many newly added.

And, last but not least, the blog train goodie! With the holidays right around the corner, for this blog train, I've created a series of Scrap-A-Sketch Layered Brag Book Page Templates (4”x6”) as I thought they would be great for using to create little brag book albums to give to family and friends. I've actually started scrapping a lot of my photos in the 4”x6” brag book size, because they're so economical to have printed and to buy cute albums for! This download has now been removed. Please note that each page will be available for only 1 day. I'll be posting to my blog every day sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back each day after that time for the download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete set of templates will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion!

Please note that my TOU have been updated, and the most up-to-date version is contained within the zip file along with the template files (.PSD, .TIF, and PNGs). The new TOU has been updated to now specifically address freebies, samples, and any other promotional items that I offer. You can also view & download this new TOU document as a .PDF file HERE. Essentially the TOU states that while you may you any of my designs that you've purchased for S4H/S4O endeavors under my angel policy, you MAY NOT use any of my freebies, samples, promotional items, collaboration kit contributions, etc. for any commercial endeavors; you must purchase the graphics if you wish to use them in that manner. Please contact me via e-mail (contact widget on the left-hand side of my blog) if you have any questions on this. And thank you in advance for respecting my TOU :)

Other Digitals' Designers Participating in the Blog Train:

Allesandra Desisgns
http://www.alessandradesigns.blogspot.com
Amanda Thorderson
http://flamingo-amanda.blogspot.com
Beth Rimmer
http://www.bethscreativechaos.blogspot.com
Dea Spina
http://deaspina.blogspot.com
DeDe Smith
http://designsbydede.blogspot.com
Diana Burton
http://www.dbdesigns.digitalscrapbookpages.com
Georgia Oliver
http://dreamsinkdesigns.blogspot.com
Glenda Ketcham
http://scrapville.blogspot.com
Jennifer Maceyunas - You Are Here :)
Juliana Gordon
http://www.thejulianablog.com
Karla Kellum
http://karlas-digi-scrappin.blogspot.com
Kathryn Estry
http://kathrynsdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com
Katie Mann
http://katiemann.blogspot.com
Lynne Simmons
http://digidigs.blogspot.com
Nini's Notions
http://ninisnews.blogspot.com
Sarah Meyer
http://sarahbscraps.blogspot.com
Scrap4Brains
http://scrap4brains.blogspot.com
Shawn Walter
http://csuramsrule.blogspot.com
Silvia Romeo
http://www.silviaromeo.blogspot.com
Spellweaver
http://dizzyb13.blogspot.com
Tink
http://www.andikadesigns.blogspot.com

See you tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Last Day of the Polar Express!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:49:00 +0000

TGIF ... again! Well today's entry is going to be short and sweet, because I have a fun filled day of things I need to get done around the house. I was just saying last night to Jason that I can't believe how much laundry and how many dishes only two people generate each day! I can't imagine having a full house to do them for, well, I guess when we have guests visiting I get a feel for the increased number of dishes, but generally they take their dirty clothes with them – LOL! But before I depart for my domestic chores, here is the blog train goodie for today! This download has now been removed. Please note that today's page will only be available for 24 hours. If you've miss a day, don't worry ... the complete album will be available in my Digitals Store very soon! And speaking of the Digitals Store, don't forget to pick up Day 6 of my Vibrant Vintage Featured Designer Daily Download today!

Have a great Friday all!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Fantastic Designs, Layouts & Polar Express – Day 11!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:29:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my “back to blogging” post earlier this month, one of the things that has been occupying a lot of my time recently is teaching my Digital Design Fundamentals Workshop @ Digitals. I've enjoyed it so much as it's allowed me to teach again albeit in a different manner. And, as anyone who teaches any subject can tell you, one of the greatest things about teaching is getting to see your students succeed. And yesterday one of my CT members, Rhonda Hooftallen a.k.a. RhonDoGG, who was also one of my very first students in my design class, shared with me that her first products have been put into her store at the DigitalArts Cafe boutique! Her first collection of for-sale products includes a brag book that she created with my Scrap-a-Sketch Layered Brag Book Templates – Designer Resource Version! I am thrilled and honored that she chose to use my templates in her designs, and the brag book pages that she made certainly live up to their name.

Rhonda created this little brag book with her Perfectly Lovely Page Kit & Add-On Kit which also are beautiful. You can find both of these kits, as well as the Perfectly Lovely Brag Book in her store at their new release price of 50% off! She also has some fabulous free add-ons to this collection in her store there as well, so be sure to take a peek.

And not only has Rhonda been busily designing, but she has also been creating fabulous layouts with my designs as well. The most recent of these, shown above, were created with my Vibrant Vintage kit. I absolutely love the placement of everything on the top layout which Rhonda called “Postcards from the Past”. The coloring of her photos not only works perfectly with the background paper and elements that she chose to use, but I love how they flow down the page, creating a beautiful border. And, the way she intertwined the knotted ribbon through them really creates interest and draws your eye right to them when you first look at the page. In the second layout called “Mom & Robin”, Rhonda also chose another great combination of colors; these offset the lighter colors of the clothing, house, etc. found in the picture. As an aside, this photo also brought back memories great memories for me of a strikingly similar photo taken of my grandmother holding my mother's hand in front of their home when my mother was small. Both my mother and grandmother wore similar clothes to Rhonda's mother and her sister, and Rhonda's mother's hairstyle is exactly the same as how my grandmother wore hers when she was younger! I wish I could have found that photo to post here so you could see those similarities, but as I couldn't find it in my collection last night, I'm thinking that it's one that's still back home in RI in one of my Mom's family albums. My Dad has been bringing these albums to me a few at a time whenever he comes to visit with us here, so hopefully one day I'll have the actual photo to look at again :)

This download has now been removed. Please note that today's page and future pages will only be available for 24 hours. I'll be posting to my blog again tomorrow morning sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back tomorrow after that time for the Day 12 download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete album will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion.

I'll see you all tomorrow with more news & the last goodie for the Polar Express Blog Train! And don't forget to visit the Digitals Store today to pick up Day 5 of my Vibrant Vintage Featured Designer Daily Download.

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

A Quiz, A Crop & Polar Express – Day 10!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:27:00 +0000

Yesterday, I was showing Jason my blog award and then Teri's blog so that he could see where I
was nominated, and he noticed that she had a little block on it that said “My Nerd Score ... What's Yours”. At this point he says, “Hey, I bet your nerd score is pretty high.” And, me being more interested in the scrapbooking stuff and hadn't even noticed this little block, I reply, “What the heck are you talking about?” So he points out the graphic and tells me that I should go get my score. I then huffily say, “So you think I'm a nerd then?” and he gives me one of those what I call his Bart Simpson smiles ... where he's trying to look like an innocent, little angel when in reality he's being a little imp. So I click on the little box to be taken to the quiz, determined to prove my non-nerdiness, and as you can see from the little box, I failed horribly much to Jason's delight - LOL! In my defense, I have a Master's degree in Chemistry and taught for several years which also helps to ingrain subject matter into your brain; so, a lot of the questions there, I did know the answers to i.e. who scientists were from their pictures, the numerical value & units for the speed of light, the brand of my graphing calculator, etc. And, yes, I had to take advanced level math courses in college and grad school, but that doesn't mean I actually liked them - LOL! They also asked several questions about the periodic table of elements, which any good Chemist has (most) of committed to memory. So, according to this quiz, yes I am a nerd- LOL! But as my hubby pointed out (no doubt trying to make up for his being somewhat snarky earlier), I should be proud of it as it was a lot of hard work getting there. After thinking about it for a while and despite my best efforts – LOL – I had to agree with him, so I decided to post it here. So now you all know ... I am just a big nerd!

In less nerdy news – LOL – tonight is my Featured Designer's crop at Digitals! The very talented and sweet, DeDe Smith will be co-hostess, and we'll meet at 9 PM, EASTERN in the Digitals Chatroom where we'll be cropping with this quick page (preview above) that I made from my Vibrant Vintage Kit. So come and join us to get the download link and password for this great little page! And, if you post your completed page in my Digitals Designer Gallery, by next Wednesday (07/30/08) at midnight EASTERN, I'll PM you a link to matching quick page in the set. We'll also be raffling off one of my Vibrant Vintage Paper Packs, Vibrant Vintage Element Packs, AND my Vibrant Vintage Brag Book which is going into the Digitals' store later today! Also, don't forget to pick up Day 4 of my Vibrant Vintage Featured Designer Daily Download.

I also just have to share with you an absolutely outstanding layout that Donna created for my Christmas Template Challenge @ Divine which is going on until Friday. As I said to her yesterday in an e-mail, when I created this template, this is exactly the type of layout I pictured the template being used to create ... pictures of family or traditions throughout the years and journaling about what makes them special. Now I just need to create one of my own! I may just have to scraplift Donna idea and use my Christmas Cheer kit too; the colors on her page are just so much fun!

This download has now been removed. Please note that today's page and future pages will only be available for 24 hours. I'll be posting to my blog again tomorrow morning sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back tomorrow after that time for the Day 11 download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete album will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion.

I'll see you all tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

An Award, About Miss Molly & Polar Express – Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:20:00 +0000

I am both blushing and beaming today because one of my CT members, Teri Merkins has given me this blog award! I never win anything; we're talking not even a free coffee from one of the peel-off stickers on the cups at Dunkin' Donuts – LOL – so I am thrilled that Teri gave this to me! You can check out the other talented ladies that she nominated as well on her blog.
Here are the “rules” of the award:
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated.

So, here are my nominations:
Angela Sharrow
Dea Spina
Kathryn Estry
Michelle Pieters - Loofah
Sarah Meyer
Scrap4Brains – Cristina Guillermo
Simply Yin

We also received some wonderful news yesterday regarding our female basset hound, Molly. As those near and dear to me know, Molly is my “baby”. Out of all of our pets, she is hands down my favorite. Shhh! Don't tell the other animals – LOL! But she holds that special place in my heart, because when we first adopted her from Sun Coast Basset Rescue here in Florida, she was an absolute mess. Her previous owners had allowed her to get pregnant, and then dumped her out on the streets to fend for herself. Thankfully someone found her and brought her to the rescue, but by that time she had all kinds of health problems. We had been on the waiting list for a female basset, and when Molly came in they called us to let us know . We drove about 2 1/2 hours to Hollywood, FL to meet her (we brought our male basset, Baxter with us to make sure they would get along), and oh boy was she a mess. She was dirty, smelly, had all kinds of infections ... the poor thing! On top of all that she was really timid and jumpy from all that she had been through. Jason was somewhat leery about taking her, because we were going to have to work with her a lot and nurse her back to health. But, as with most things, I talked him into it – LOL! He's grateful now of course, because he loves Molly to death as well, but it took some doing that day to convince him let me tell you. Well, it took about a month to get her physically healthy again, but after only a few days in our home she settled right in and became the most affectionate and sweet animal I've ever met. This is one of my favorite photos of her that I scrapped a while back using kits from Julie Mead's From Girly to Grungy collection. So, back to the good news ... recently I found several lumps on Molly while brushing her; two on her side and one on the side of her tail. So we brought her to our vet right away, and he decided that it would be best to remove them and have them biopsied. He told us that he suspected they were benign cysts, but after the surgery was over, he told us he was somewhat suspicious of the one on her tail, because he found it was actually very large once he “got in there” and was in an unusual location. So, we've been waiting with baited breath for a week for the results of the biopsies to come back, and the doctor called last night to say that everything came back negative! I cannot tell you how relieved we were that they were nothing serious. She still has all her stitches and this funky bandage wrap on her tail, but she's been taking it all like a trooper. Much better than hubby when he had his wisdom teeth out a few years ago – LOL! So a huge thank you to all of you who knew Molly was going through all of this and send good thoughts and prayers our way :)

This download has now been removed. Please note that today's page and future pages will only be available for 24 hours. I'll be posting to my blog again tomorrow morning sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back tomorrow after that time for the Day 10 download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete album will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion. And speaking of Digitals, pick up Day 3 of my Vibrant Vintage Featured Designer Daily Download.

I'll see you all tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Merry Messages & Polar Express – Day 8!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:25:00 +0000

With all of this talk of Christmas this past week, I thought I would share a few more of my Christmas designs that are on sale at 30% off @ Digitals. The first of these, is my Merry Message Word Art Collection which contains 10 cute little pieces of word art to use on your Christmas pages, cards, gift tags, etc. The collection contains both the colored pieces of word art shown in the preview as well as all of the graphics in pure black and grayscale so you can re-color them in your graphics program however you'd like to match any of your creations! You can grab them for just $2.10 HERE at Digitals until August 4th.

And speaking of being able to customize, one of the reasons why I love creating and using templates, is that there are just so many options for how you can use them. When I originally created my Dad's 2006 Christmas card for him, I used my Evergreen Tapestry Kit and came up with the design shown in the preview above using a photo I took of him feeding lorries at our local zoo during one of his visits to see us here in Florida. One of my creative team members at the time asked if I had thought about turning the basic design of the card into a template, and so I did! You can also grab this Scrap-A-Card Template for 30% off (sale price $1.75) HERE at Digitals until August 4th. And for those who prefer the card ready to just add a photo to, I also created both a PNG and JPEG version of my Dad's card that I called Beautiful Holiday Season Card (based on the sentiment I used on it). And while you're in the store, don't forget to pick up Day 2 of my Vibrant Vintage Featured Designer Daily Download.

This download has now been removed. Please note that today's page and future pages will only be available for 24 hours. I'll be posting to my blog again tomorrow morning sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back tomorrow after that time for the Day 9 download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete album will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion.

I'll see you all tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Featured Designer Daily Download & Polar Express – Day 7!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:37:00 +0000

It's been a long time in coming (and this is one of the reasons why I have been designing like a mad woman recently – LOL), but I am SO very pleased to announce that starting today and running through August 4th, I am the Featured Designer at Digitals! For this whole time my entire store (excluding classes, E-Books, and items already at 50-75% off in my clearance section) are on sale for 30% off. Additionally, you'll want to visit the Digitals Store every day to collect two great items (preview above)! You'll want to visit between midnight mountain time one day until midnight mountain time when the next day begins; this is Digitals server time and when the daily download is switched out in the store. So for example, Day 1 (today) was put up at midnight, mountain time last night and will be available until midnight, mountain time tonight when Day 2 will replace it. During this time, you can collect pieces of my brand new Vibrant Vintage Eclectic Alpha Collection which contains 3 gorgeous, complete alpha sets: an embossed metallic alpha, an inked jewelery tag alpha, and a silver-rimmed, stamped vellum tag alpha. Also included in the set are matching blank tags and fasteners. Additionally, during this time, you can collect the pages of my new Vibrant Vintage Cosmo Cricket “Jack” style album. If you miss a day, don't worry ... both the alpha and the complete album will be available, separately, in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion.

The Cosmo Cricket “Jack” album was created with my new Vibrant Vintage Collection which is a custom paper pack and element pack that I created for one of my talented creative team members, Donna Handville aka Donnatopia! I asked each of my girls to provide me with a color scheme and/or a theme for their “dream” kit if they could have one made for them, and Donna provided me with these absolutely fantastic shades of ivory, mustard, fern, teal, and chocolate and asked for heritage items with lots of texture, and this is the kit that I presented to her. I think it hits the mark if I do say so myself – LOL! This collection is now available in the Digitals store either separately as the Vibrant Vintage Paper Pack and Vibrant Vintage Element Pack or as the Vibrant Vintage Kit which includes all backgrounds in the paper pack and all embellishments in the element pack at a savings of over 10%. And, make sure to grab these during my featured designer spot you can pick any of them up for 30% off! And while we're mentioning great sales/prices, if you haven't picked up my Gotta Grab It Items at Gotta Pixel, today is the last day to get them for just $1.00 each. You can see the 5 items HERE before they go back to their regular prices.

This download has now been removed. Please note that today's page and future pages will only be available for 24 hours. I'll be posting to my blog again tomorrow morning sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back tomorrow after that time for the Day 8 download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete album will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion.

I'll see you all tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

A Warm & Fuzzy Christmas & Polar Express – Day 6!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:11:00 +0000

It's now Saturday and our little Jasmine (a.k.a. Jasbean, Beanie Baby, Jazzy) is settling right in as you can see from this photo of her (left) and Tinkerbell (right) that I took yesterday. She really loves being with Tinky and follows her around everywhere, doing whatever it is Tinkerbell happens to be doing at the time. While this has definitely been a good thing in terms of her learning to potty in the litter box, when to eat, and where the comfiest (ans skunked approved) spots to take a nap are, yesterday Tinkerbell decided she was going to be mischievous and try to open our trash cupboard. We have magnetized baby latches on all the cupboards and drawers, and the skunks know that they don't open so usually they try once to open them, and then leave it at that. But for some reason yesterday, Tinky was determined to get it open. So she attempted the usual lay on her back and push with her paws on the edge of the door method without success. I heard her thumping around out in the kitchen, but didn't think anything of it, because I knew she couldn't get it open. Well, the next thing I know, I hear twice the thumping. Well, when I got up to investigate there was little Jasmine beside her big sister, on her back, pushing away at the cabinet with her paws. Trying, no doubt, to “help”. It was just too funny, and amazing that she learned so quickly what to do – LOL!

This actually reminded me of our youngest basset, Klaus, when we first brought him home. He followed around our two tri-colored bassets, Molly & Baxter, incessantly, doing whatever they were doing. They were also very patient with him as Tinky has been with Jazzy, but the bassets weren't nearly as mischievous so I've been wondering what else Tinky's going to “teach” Jasmine. My Dad actually taught Klaus one bad thing when he came to visit us the spring after we got him ... to think he's a lap dog! For whatever reason, my Dad just liked Klaus more than any of the other animals and he gave him tons of attention while he was here which included picking him up and letting him sit across his lap. As he was still a puppy then and didn't weigh more than 20 pounds, it was fine, but now that he's full grown and pushing a whopping 60 pounds, you don't exactly want him laying in your lap – LOL! I took this photo of my Dad with his new “grand puppy” that spring, and later that year when I asked him to choose a photo for me to use in his Christmas photo card to send out to family and friends, he choose this one. As soon as he picked that one, I knew exactly what I was going to make for him, and it was so much fun making a pet themed card! I used my (then) newly released Canine Christmas Capers kit (preview below). I had several e-mails from people asking me if I was going to make the card available in my stores for purchase, so I ended making the blank PNG as well as a printable JPEG (for those who wanted to print out the card and then adhere their photo in a more traditional, paper scrapbook way) available and called it my Warm & Fuzzy Christmas Card which to this day is still one of my favorite designs! Both the kit and the card are on sale for 30% off at Digitals, for $4.90 and $1.40, respectively, this weekend :)

This download has now been removed. Please note that today's page and future pages will only be available for 24 hours. I'll be posting to my blog again tomorrow morning sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back tomorrow after that time for the Day 7 download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete album will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion. And don't forget to visit all of the other girls' blogs (list of links posted in Thursday's entry)!

I'll see you all tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

New Christmas Cheer Brag Book & Polar Express – Day 5!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:24:00 +0000

TGIF! That about sums up how I'm feeling today. Well, maybe I could choose one more descriptive word ... exhausted. As I was trying to fall asleep last night I realized, I don't think I've had a moment for myself since we got back from vacation at the beginning of June. I'm sure you all know how that goes! First, I was playing catch up from being away - things around the house, designing, etc. - but then just normal life got super, super busy. I honestly don't know how so many of the ladies who are designers and have little ones at home (and some work outside of the home too!) do it all; I am in awe of them. I often feel overwhelmed with just my husband and pets to take care of! So, I'm hoping that perhaps once things calm down with my “designing life” next month, I'll get a bit of a reprieve to get some extra things around the house done, organize some things that really need it, even scrap some, hey, maybe even just relax with a good book - LOL! But for now, the busyness has to continue :) I have tons of things designed that are just waiting (okay probably some of them are actually crying out because they've been sitting on my hard drive for so long – LOL) to have previews created. I just always seem to put off doing this despite how hard I try, because I really just don't like making previews for whatever reason. I guess the designing is just so much more interesting and challenging – LOL! But, I did manage to create a preview of my latest brag book (shown above) made with my Christmas Cheer Kit, and it's been uploaded to my store at Digitals. Both the Christmas Cheer Brag Book and Kit are part of the 30% OFF sale! From now until Saturday at midnight, mountain time, you can grab the brag book for just $2.80, and the kit for just $4.55!

This download has now been removed. Please note that today's page and future pages will only be available for 24 hours. I'll be posting to my blog again tomorrow morning sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back tomorrow after that time for the Day 6 download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete album will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion. And don't forget to visit all of the other girls' blogs (list of links posted in yesterday's entry)!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday, and I'll see you all tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen

Great Christmas Gift Ideas & Polar Express – Day 4!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Maceyunas) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:58:00 +0000

With all of these “Christmas in July” festivties going on at the various digiscrapping sites, I've been starting to think about what kinds of Christmas cards and gifts I'm going to make this year for family and friends. I'm usually done with my actual Christmas shopping early, because I tend to pick up things all year long whenever we're out shopping if I happen to see something; but, usually (as with all of the creative things that I do) I am last minute on making gifts. I think I just design/create better under pressure for some reason – LOL! In the past I've created calendars, brag books, bookmarks, framed photo collages, etc. and while sometimes they don't get the oohs and aahs that my paper scrapping gifts have gotten in the past (I think people just love the dimensionality of those types of projects), they are always appreciated by all. So, I'm always on the look-out for great ideas, and this year I've found three already! The first of these came from a project created by one of my CT members, Teri Merkins. She created a fabulous little Baby's Book of Numbers for her son, Dominick, using my Scrap-A-Sketch Brag Book Templates.

I thought it was so cute and clever that she took photos of all of his belongings to use, and that she used a mixture of different kits that are all so fun and brightly colored! My husband's best friend, Paul, and his wife, Katie, had their first baby, a little girl they named Molly (who is just SO cute BTW) in December 2006. So I thought this would be a perfect gift for her! Unfortunately, I don't have photos of her personal things to use, but I'm sure I can come up with something. My thought is that if I were to have the photos printed and laminated and then bound them together with something soft and “baby approved” ... still trying to think of something good for this – LOL ... then she would be able to handle it as much as she wanted, and it could also be easily wiped clean. So a big, huge thank you to Teri for such a great project idea! And if any of you would also like to use my templates to create a similar book, please click on the preview above, and then use the coupon code 1014fad07c during the checkout process to get 25% off the set. This coupon will expire on 07/31/08.

Another project that I've actually been wanting to do not only do for myself for some time, but also to give as gifts to my family members, is to create a digital cookbook of favorite family recipes. Right now all of my recipes are either on index cards or scraps of paper in a tin box. Not only is it a pain in the rump to find something when I need it, but it's not exactly pretty either - LOL! Well Sarah Meyer must have been reading mind, because as her Polar Express Blog gift, she's been creating and sharing a wonderful collection of 8.5”x11” recipe quick pages on her blog. These are exactly what I've been looking for, because as I've mentioned in a previous post, I am such a SLOW scrapper that creating recipe pages from scratch has always seemed so overwhelming that I probably wouldn't have attempted it any time soon. So a big thank you to Sarah :)

The last type of project is actually what spurred me to offer a Cosmo Cricket Jack album as my Polar Express goodie. When I was in college, I loved to create collages and decoupage (a.k.a. “alter”) things which is why it wasn't a big surprise that when I first tried paper scrapping back in 2001 I fell in love with it! But let's face it, decoupaging and paper scrapping are usually messy, require you to spread out all over the place, etc. which is why I ended up transitioning to digi in the first place. Well, as I mentioned before, it just seems that whenever I show people my digi albums or give them a digi-only gift, there is always just that slight sense of disappointment in the air. But, I think I've found the perfect solution this year with these new hybrid albums! I can do all my scrapping on the computer, and then when I get several completed, I can adhere them to the physical albums and decorate them all in one sitting! Then I won't have anywhere near as big of a mess to clean up, I get to create digitally, AND now the albums that I give will have more of that paper-scrapped feel to them! So, I'm hoping that this will be a win-win for everyone. Another of my CT members, Donna Handville, said that she's used regular ole' modge podge to adhere her printed digi pages to the albums without there being any smearing of the ink, which was my main concern. There are actually two great tutorials on hybrid albums that you can find HERE, written by Beth Rimmer, our hybrid guru at Digitals.

And speaking of hybrid albums, here is the blog train goodie for today! This download has now been removed. Please note that today's page and future pages will only be available for 24 hours. I'll be posting to my blog again tomorrow morning sometime before NOON, EASTERN, so you should check back tomorrow after that time for the Day 5 download link. If you miss a day, don't worry ... the complete album will be available in my Digitals Store at the end of the promotion! And don't forget to visit all of the other girls' blogs:

Amanda Thorderson
http://flamingo-amanda.blogspot.com
Beth Rimmer
http://www.bethscreativechaos.blogspot.com
Chris Beasley
http://seebeesfreebies.blogspot.com
Christine Smith
http://christinesmithdigital.blogspot.com
Dea Spina
http://deaspina.blogspot.com
DeDe Smith
http://designsbydede.blogspot.com
Diana Burton
http://www.dbdesigns.digitalscrapbookpages.com
Georgia Oliver
http://dreamsinkdesigns.blogspot.com
Glenda Ketcham
http://scrapville.blogspot.com
Jennifer Maceyunas - You Are Here :)
Juliana Gordon
http://www.thejulianablog.com
Kathryn Estry
http://kathrynsdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com
Katie Mann
http://katiemann.blogspot.com
Lynne Simmons
http://digidigs.blogspot.com
Maddy Fernandez
http://oilnwine.blogspot.com
Nini's Notions
http://ninisnews.blogspot.com
Sarah Meyer
http://sarahbscraps.blogspot.com
Scrap4Brains
http://scrap4brains.blogspot.com
Shawn Walter
http://csuramsrule.blogspot.com
Silvia Romeo
http://www.silviaromeo.blogspot.com
Sophia Davies
http://www.sophiadaviesdesigns.com
Spellweaver
http://dizzyb13.blogspot.com
Tallula Moon
http://tallulamoon.blogspot.com

See you tomorrow with more news & goodies!

Happy Scrapping,
Jen