Just Scrappin

Shepherd's Salad

2011-02-02T00:37:00.001-08:00

I guess I am doing more than just scrapping on this blog now :)

Dave and I got to go on a data last night while my sister watched our girls. I was beating myself up for not bringing my camera because I really wanted to take a picture of the salads we ordered. But afterwards I googled it and found a picture of it and the actual recipe on Eva's blog.

I don't know Eva but I really liked her recipe and photo so I thought I would share it with everyone. She has a lot of awesome recipes if you want to check it out. They are all in Bulgarian though.

This is a typical Bulgarian salad that you can get in almost any restaurant here and it's especially popular in the summer. I've also translated the recipe for you.

Here is the recipe in Bulgarian and English:

Продукти за 4 порции:
300 гр домати
150 гр краставица
300 гр печени чушки
връзка пресен лук
150 гр мариновани гъби
150 гр сирене
150 гр шунка, филе
150 гр кашкавал
4 твърдо сварени яйца
3 с.л.растително масло
1/2 връзка магданоз
оцет и сол на вкус
маслини за украса

Начин на приготвяне:
Отцедете гъбите от маринатата, нарежете магданоза на дребно, шунката - на кубчета.
Измитите зеленчуци се нарязват, прибавят се магданоза, гъбите и шунката.
Сместа се разбърква леко, подправя се на вкус с оцет и сол, полива се с растителното масло.
Изсипва се в чиния, оформя се като купчинка и се поръсва с настърганите сирене и кашкавал.
Салатата се украсява с нарязани яйца, маслини и магданоз.

Incredients for 4 servings

300 gr. Tomatoes (about 2 tomatoes)

150 gr. Cucumber (1 cucumber)

300 gr. Rosted peppers (peeled) . You can also use fresh peppers which you don’t need to peel but it tastes better with roasted peppers.

1 bunch Fresh green onions

150 gr. Marinated mushrooms

150 gr. Feta cheese

150 gr. Chopped ham

150gr. Yellow cheese

4 hard- boiled eggs

3 table spoons vegetable oil. Olive oil works great too.

½ bunch fresh parsley

Salt and vinegar to taste

Olives to decorate

Way to prepare: Drain the mushrooms from the marinade; chop the parsley and the ham. Chop the rest of the vegetables and place in a mixing bowl, add the ham, parsley and mushrooms. Stir the mix and add salt and vinegar to taste. Pour the vegetable oil on top. Place in a serving platter and grate the feta and yellow cheese on top. Decorate with the chopped eggs, olives and parsley.

2011-01-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, MScraps is turning one today!!!!! So to celebrate this fun event the designers and creative team are hosting a blog train with tons of amazing freebies. I also have a freebie for you, I hope you enjoy it and please feel free to come back here and post in the comments section so I can see your page also. You can e-mail me as well at alexieva@hotmail.com. I really enjoy seeing everyone's pages with my templates. There was a little mistake as my scrapping blog was given for the blog train instead of my design blog so if you would like to visit my Busy Bee Blog and follow it you can go to Busy Bee Designs

MScraps Birthday Bash Freebie by Busy Bee Designs

and here is a really cool page my friend Josette made with the freebie:

Your next stop on the blog train is the super talented scooty designs
I am sure she has something wonderful for you.

2011-01-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,
I have some new pages to share today. I feel very behind on this blog but it's a new year and I'll try to be more regular here. This is not a New Year resolution but I'll try :) although my life promises to be crazy in the next couple of months. Anyway, here is what I've been up to lately, this first one is from today with K Studio's beautiful new collection Sweet Life

this next page is made with a kit by a designer I absolutely love, Ju Kneipp Designs. She is from Brazil and you wouldn't believe how young she is. I think she is about 17. I just recently became a part of her creative team. I really enjoy her eclectic style. This next page is using her brand new and shabby collection My Project 365/2011. This collection is specifically designed for project 365. If you are not familiar with that, this is a project where you take one photo a day every day for the whole year and you post it on your blog. It's kind of fun I think although I've never done it. Here is a quick peek of this gorgeous collection:

And my page:

and a few other pages I've scrapped lately with Blink of An Eye by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Traci Reed and one of my templates Snowflake Clusters, Part 3 by Busy Bee Designs:

with Grateful by Kitty Designs

with Happy New Year by ET designs
" My Happy World " by Marta Designs

another one of my templates that you can get for free Snowflake Clusters freebie by Busy Bee Designs

this next one is with:

Frosty Winter by Shabby Miss Jenn
Template Bunches-Frosty Winter by Shabby Miss Jenn

Well, enjoy the rest of the week! Hopefully I'll update again soon :)

Sisters

2010-11-16T06:33:00.000-08:00

I always love scrapping pictures of my girls together. Here is a page that captures just a normal everyday moment. They do that a lot, holding hands and playing together. Sophie is such a good big sister, she always makes sure Veronica has a buddy to play with.

This new kit by Shabby Miss Jenn Comfy Home was just perfect for the photo and kind of page I wanted to make.

And one more page to add today. We just had our first snow but these are actually photos from last year. I love the pink colors in this kit, they are so girly but they go really well with the winter colors too. This is made with Kay Miller's gorgeous new kit Softly Falling

Have a wonderful week!

New kits and new pages

2010-10-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

Shabby Miss Jenn has two new wonderful kits in her store today. This first one is called Together Time

and the second one is a collab between Shabby Miss Jenn and JuKneipp Designs. I love the colors in both of those kits, they are just beautiful.

Thanks for looking!

Some recent layouts

2010-10-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

I realized today that I haven't posted here in a while so I thought it's time for a little update.
The battle of the creative teams is going right now at DSA so I have a couple of pages I made for the competition. The first one is made with a few kits by Kristin Cronin-Barrow. I am on her team by the way battling for her on the battle of the creative teams. Click here to go to the gallery for credits.

And a few other pages from this week:

It's been a while

2010-10-09T13:22:00.000-07:00

Since I posted here but I have a page to share today that I love. It's made with the brand new kit by Kristin Cronin-Barrow called Glow. I love the name and the whole kit really represents the gorgeous glow of the fall.

And another page I made this week with Sweet and Sound collaboration by Kitty Design and Bisontine.

Enjoy your Saturday everyone!

Friday release

2010-09-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!!! I have some new templates at the store Easy Breezy, part 15

Here are a couple of pages I've made with them. The first one made with this gorgeous kit by Joyce Paul, Darker Days:

and my page with this pack of templates:

and the second one is made with this stunning kit by Marta Designs, Autumn Treasures

Have a great weekend!

Template Collab with Berry Sweet Designs

2010-09-12T13:35:00.001-07:00

I have some new templates this week, a collab actually with Berry Sweet Designs at MScraps. We decided to make a mini album that includes 10 templates, 5 from each of us. I hope you like them. You can find them at MScraps as usual. They are on sale at 20% off right now.

And a couple of pages by me made with the templates. The first one is made with the Stunning new collab by A5D September's Promise
September Shot by JazzminDesigns. The second one is with Lucky in love by Jazzmin Designs at A5D.

Huge Sale at MScraps

2010-08-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

Check it out!

My templates are at 30% off too. Easy Breezy, part 13 is out today.

And here is a page that I used to make one of the templates from. It's with Kitty's beautiful new kit
Stay Beside Me.

Easy Breezy, parts 9-12 are out now too and on sale :)

That's all for now. I am hoping to come back later this week with some pages made by the CT too.

Fall Freebie!

2010-08-21T11:22:00.001-07:00

I have a new fall freebie for everyone! I hope you enjoy it! Click on it to download.

Fun pages

2010-08-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

I have two pages to show you that were really fun to make. The first one is with Shabby Miss Jenn's brand new kit Every Day. I am totally in love with that kit, it's fresh and full of fun elements and papers. It's really perfect for scrapping every day memories. Here is a preview of the kit:

and the second kit I would like to show you is a kit that struck me with the unique colors. It also has beautiful flowers and leaves which I always love in a kit. This is called Morning Dew by K Studio.

Have a great day!!!!

New release

2010-08-13T06:00:00.001-07:00

New templates at MScraps today at 20% off until Sunday. You can get them here. Here is the preview and I love what the CT has done with them.

by Nataliya Zima
by Lisa_Mommy2Two

by WendyW

by Kjersti

by Josette31
By maaike

by Nataliya Zima

by Gemma

by Tinci

by Kay M

by Natalka

by Lisa_Mommy2Two

by Natascha

by me with a kit called The Reasons Why.. by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Meghan Mullens

New Week!

2010-08-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone!
I have a new page to show you that I made with Kitty's adorable kit Morning Breeze. This kit is in the store today and you should definitely check it out. It's a 20 % off right now so you don't want to miss out.
I also used a template from my new pack Easy Breezy, part 10 that comes on Friday. I'll have a preview for that later this week. But right now here is a preview of Kitty's new and adorable kit:

Have a great week everyone!

Easy Breezy, part 9 and parts 5-8

2010-07-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Easy Breezy, part 9 and parts 5-8 are in the store.

and some beautiful layouts by my CT and the MScraps store CT:

by Arumrose

by Kay M

by hollyinjapan

by Natalka

by Stefanie

by Lisa_mommy2two

by Meltem


by SMI

by Kjersti

by Natascha

by keyr

by Arumrose

by immaculeah

by Nataliya Zima

by josette31

and this one by me with Hey Girlfriend by Kaye Winiecki and Studio Basic

and the next one with Au Naturel by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and ScrapKitchen Designs

and finally the preview for the combined pack:

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Veronicabook

2010-07-22T08:52:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

New Templates!

2010-07-18T04:52:00.000-07:00

Here a preview and a link to my new templates at MScraps this week.

and some gorgeous layouts created by the talented CT:

by hollyinjapan

by KayM

by Mi Monteiro

by Stefanie

by sue_falstaff

by Tinci

by Topsi

by inklover13

and a couple by me:

Have a great Sunday!!!!

New templates and a freebie

2010-07-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

I have a pack of new templates today at MScraps. I gave your a preview earlier but here it is again with some beautiful layouts by my CT and the MScraps site CT. It's at 20% off until Monday.
Easy Breezy, part 7

by josette31

by immaculeah

by biancka

by KayM

by Mi Monteiro

by slurpeegirl13

by OliO

by immaculeah

by josette31

by Mi Monteiro

and here is the freebie preview. You can download it here:

and a couple of layouts with the freebie:

by Arumrose

by hollyinjapan

I also released parts 1-4 of my Easy Breezy Collection in one bundle today right here.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Summer

2010-07-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

Summer is definitely here. It's about 80 degrees F outside but it feel like a hundred because of the humidity. The girls have been enjoying the hot summer playing with the sprinklers outside and their inflatable pool.
And I got to work with an amazing kit by Boutique Cute Dolls called Sunshine.

I actually made a couple of pages :)

The second one is made with a freebie template I made coming on Friday to my store at MScraps
And here is a preview of my templates coming on Friday:

and another page from this weekend made with a beautiful kit Just Breathe by Lauren Grier and Kristin Cronin Barrow

Have a wonderful week everyone!

SMJ Quick Pages

2010-06-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

I had the amazing opportunity to create some quick pages with kits by the amazing Miss Jenn. They are in her store today at a 43 % discount. Here is the preview and link to the store:

Thank you so much Jenn for this incredible opportunity!

And a couple of beautiful new kits by SMJ today too, Summer Ponies and Summer Splash:

I'll post some more pages later :)

I scrapped!

2010-05-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

It's been so busy lately. We've been packing our house to move. We are moving everything out of the house on Saturday. We'll be staying with friends until Tuesday and then we fly to the US. We are excited but really tired. I can't believe how much junk we've accumulated. I got rid of a lot of stuff these past few days.
While Lexi was taking a nap today and I had to keep the house quiet I scrapped.
Here is a page I made with this new and beautiful kit Catchin' Grasshoppers by Nikki Beaudreau at A5D

and my page:

And another beautiful new kit by a new designer at Pickleberrypop Fishercat Story by Shayarka Designs

I love all the painted elements here. Such a gorgeous kit!

Well it's late and tomorrow we have to finish packing so I have to say goodnight now. Thanks for looking :)

New endeavor!

2010-05-25T11:41:00.000-07:00

I started something new about a week ago. I started selling my own templates. I am super excited about this but haven't had too much time to advertise it since we are in the middle of a move right now.
You can find them at MScraps. I have 4 pack out right now. I am also planning on doing some freebies when I have a little more time. Here are the previews:

http://www.mscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=624&cat=0&page=1

http://www.mscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=625&cat=0&page=1

http://www.mscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=646&cat=0&page=1

http://www.mscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=647&cat=0&page=1

And here are some pages that were made by the talented Creative Team at MScraps.

By SMI

By me

By MiMonteiro

By Dani Vignoli

By iJenny

By Vissarah

By PhoebeJo

By keyr

By Heatherbird

By immaculeah

By sue_falstaff

By me

By MiMonteiro

Thanks for looking :)

Bright and fun

2010-05-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Kristin Cronin-Barrow has a fun collab this week with Melissa Bennett at SSD called Hot Diggity Dog

I had so much fun making this page of my sweet little V.

I worked with another fun kit this week Somekinda Wonderful by Creashens:

I decided to make a baby page with this cute baby/pregnancy kit by Jazzmin Designs at A5D called Little Wonder

The question is who it this baby in the picture? It looks like Alexis but it's actually Veronica. The two of them looked very similar at this age.
That's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy INSD!

2010-04-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

Happy INSD everyone! For my non scrapping friends, INSD stands for International Scrapbooking Day.
A lot of fun things are happening at MScraps this week, lots of challenges, games and awesome sales. Make sure to check them out.
Here is my part of the blog train at MSsraps, I've made a template for you. I hope you like it and find good use for it. Click here to download.

And here is a page I made with it using the beautiful Sonny {Heart}s Candy Collab that the designers at MScraps made especially for INSD. It's free with a $10 purchase at the store.

*******And your next stop on the blog train is Polly&Rufus Designs**********
Thank you so much for stopping by and have fun scrapping!

Sharpening photos

2010-04-30T06:15:00.000-07:00

This was previously a post at A5D that I am posting here now.

Hi everyone! It’s Sasha here with my first blog post. Tiki talked about sharpening your layout for web last week and today I would like to focus specifically on sharpening your photos to make them look great on your page. Do you ever look at a layout and think “Wow those photos look so crisp, I wish mine would look like that”. There are many different methods that are used, I will focus on three of them here.

Sharpening with the the unsharp mask filter

Go to Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp mask.

Once you open it you'll see three sliders. The amount controls the amount of sharpening of course.For higher resolution images a value between 150% to 200% is usually enough. Next you can play with the radius. Usually a value between 1 and 2 is recommended for high resolution photos. I used 2 for my photo. Finally you can adjust the threshhold. When the slider is set at 0 every little part of the image is sharpened and when it's at its highest value of 255 nothing happens. Usually a setting between 5-20 is good for a high resolution photo. Here are my final settings.

And here is the before and after picture. I boosted the brightness and contrast a little at the end too. This always helps with making the photo look crisper too.

Sharpening with the Smart Sharpen Filter

This is the method I use the most. Unfortunately this filter is only available in Photoshop CS2 and up. Go to Filter/Sharpen/Smart Sharpen.

Just like the unsharp mask you can control the amount and the radius of sharpening. I usually set the radius between 1 and 5 pixels. You can adjust the amount to get the effect you want. Unlike the unsharp mask this filter has the ability to remove some of the blur on your photos. I usually select "remove lens blur" but you can also have fun and play with the other ones. So here is the values I used on my photo.

Here is the before and after photos:

Sharpening using Hi Pass Filter

First duplicate your background layer. Next Go to Filter/Other/Hi Pass.

You'll see a gray covered area. Enter a value between 5-10. I used 10 on my photo. Next change the blending mode to Hard Light

You can play with the other blending modes to see how your photo will look but this is the one I usually use. Linear light and Soft light work really nicely too. You can lower the opacity of that layer if it's too strong for you. So here is my before and after high pass sharpening photos.

You have to be careful with this method because you can easily go overboard and your image may look over sharpened. There is one more thing you can do to enhance the hi pass effect on your photo. Go back to your background layer. Duplicate it one more time and change the blending mode to screen. This is what you should have

And now my photo looks even brighter and more vivid.

I hope this was helpful and that you would find the sharpening method that best suits you. Have a wonderful day!

New week

2010-04-12T02:20:00.000-07:00

I am feeling a little under the weather right now, woke up with a nasty sore throat this morning. I just hope the girls don't get it because Alexis is still recovering from another virus. She and Sophie were supposed to get shots last week but weren't allowed to by the doctor because of being sick. I hope they can get them this week though.
Anyway I have some pages to share with you all again. In this first one I used a template by Tiny Toes Designs.

I used a kit here called Anne with an E by Creashens.

This is for Lexi's alphabet album.

Here is another page I made with a kit by Creashens: Sweetnenss

Kristin Cronin-Barrow released a beautiful new kit on Saturday- Good Morning Sunshine

And I love this new kit by Shabby Miss Jehh-Spring Gardens. It just screams spring to me. I love it so much I made two pages with it:

Here is a super cute kit I had the pleasure to work with-Smooches by Cinnamon Designs at A5D.

And one more page with this gorgeous kit -Chocolate Sunday by JBDesigns at Pickleberrypop

Have a great week!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. We don't have much planned this weekend. Dinner with friends tomorrow and a family lunch on Sunday. I hope we have nice weather so the girls can go egg hunting outside. I would really love to take some cute pictures.
I just want to share real quick a couple of adorable easter kits. The first one is by Kitty Designs who is a guest at MScraps in April. I am a big fan of her work and really enjoyed working with her new Easter kit New Spirit

here is my page:

and the second kit is this adorable full of color and fun element kit by Fruitloop Sally called Egg Huntin'

I had so much fun with it and it was nice to finally scrap those pictures from last year. Our lawn looks awful but we had just come back from the States after being there for 7 months so no one really took care of it. Anyway, here is a preview of the kit:

And one more page I made with a kit called Sunshine of my life by Jazzmin Designs who is also a guest at MScraps this month. I also used a template for this page from a pack First steps vol. 2 by Tiny Toes Designs who is a brand new and super talented designer selling at Catscrap and ZigZap Scrap.

That's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend!

Easter Bunny

2010-03-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

Shabby Miss Jehn released an adorable new kit today Easter Bunny so I wanted to show you the preview and my page:

Have a great evening everyone!

More weekend scrapping

2010-03-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

I just realized when I read the title from my last post that it's been a whole week sinice I last wrote here. Well it's Sunday again and I would love to share with you the pages I've made this last week.
Here is a page that was inspired by this photo:

And I used this lovely kit for this page Pink Chocolate by Kimla Designs

Here is another page I had fun with:

made with Grow with Love Collaboration by Nikki Beaudreau and Jazzmin Designs

One more page with a beautiful kit from A5D- Floral Phase by Kimla Designs

I really had fun with this page. It's going to be the fist page in Alexis' new photo book

This page was made with a kit called Family tree by MDesigns

Here is a very flowery spring page that I really enjoyed making:

Made with this beautiful kit Spring time by LadyPapillon

This next page was made with a collab by the MScraps Designers called Ready for Spring.

Subscribe to the newsletter before monday March 29th, 2010 to get this collab for FREE!!! You can susbcribe right here

My page:

I also used a template for this page from a pack called So Simple by Fizzy Pop Designs and Polly & Rufus Designs.
These templates are just fabulous and I highly recommend them.
I think that's it for now. I'll try to post again before next Sunday but I don't promise because life is busy.

Weekend scrapping

2010-03-14T00:57:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure to work with a bright and colorful kit called Colorful World by Iscrap

Isn't it fun! I love all the bright colors. We got more snow so I had to do something to cheer me up.

Here is another page I made with a beautiful kit Time for a story by Magali.Designs & Line Designs

Jazzmin Designs has the lottery ticket at A5D this month so she has created two kit for it that you can get at a great price. Here is the link to the Lottery Ticket

And I have two pages with it:

And last but not least here is a beautiful spring kit available at Pickleberrypop- Spring swirl by Sarah Designs

I just love the pastel colors in this kit. Have a great Sunday everyone!

New kits

2010-03-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

Shabby Miss Jehn released a couple of fabulous kits yesterday. The first one Bella's Attic

and here is what I made with it:

the secone one is called Oh Deer

my page:

I just love her style. Her designs are so gorgeous, such a pleasure to scrap with.

And here is a beautiful kit available at A5D. For Keeps by Nikki Beaudreau

I adore this picture of Veronica. Her personality just shines right out of the page.

I love the next kit Jos & Jordy by Kristen Rice
She is one of my favorite designers, I love her funky, eclectic style.

This next kit and page just makes me smile. It's so bright and cheerful. MDesigns made her debut at Shabby Pickle Designs today. I am so happy for her, she is so talented.

Garden of love by MDesigns

And one more.

Twinkle, twinkle little star by Vesi design and Damayanti Studio

Thank you so much for looking!

Is spring here yet?

2010-03-01T07:44:00.000-08:00

Well, not yet in this part of the world but it's slowly starting to feel like spring. The snow is almost all melted and you can feel that something is changing in the air. I know we have at least a month before it feels like spring but I am so ready. And since I am talking about spring here is a layout I just made with a photo of Alexis last year taken in April. I did this for the recipe challenge I am hosting at MScraps.

I used this beautiful kit by Three Paper Peonies and Ange Designs at MSCraps

Available here

And one two more pages with kits by Kristin Cronin-Barrow

This was made with Kristin Cronin-Barrow's new kit Dear Diary

Available here:

One more thing before I have to go feed the kids. I made a quick page using a beautiful kit by Mag Designs. Mag has it on her blog right now so you can download it there if you'd like. Here is a link to her blog.

Creative genius

2010-02-20T00:54:00.000-08:00

I was invited to be a creative genius at After Five Designs. This means I get to be on the store's creative team and get everything for free, yay!!!! I love that store,
Here is a link to the store
http://www.afterfivedesigns.com/shoppe/home.php

And some new pages from me:

This was made with a new kit Zen Garden by Cinnamon Designs at A5D(After Five Designs)

I used Tea Party by Kristen Rice at A5D for this page.

And I really love this next one. It was made with a collab by Dilo and Mag Designs at Shabby Pickle Designs

One more

I used a kit called Smile Every Day by Damayanti Studio available here. I actually got to meet this Bulgarian designer when we were in Bulgaria a couple of weeks ago. It was a really fun meeting.
That's all for now. I have more pages that I'll try to post later.

Jazzmin Designs

2010-02-06T03:43:00.000-08:00

Jazzmin Designs at A5D release a couple of beautiful new kits. Here is a preview of her kit My Everything

I made a page with it

And the second kit is a collab with Joyce Paul called My Love

And my page

MScraps Grand Opening-Blog Train

2010-01-29T12:29:00.000-08:00

Today is MScraps grand opening and I feel so privileged to be a part of the creative team. The designers on there are all so talented. Please come check us out. There will be a lot of challenges and prizes.

And here is my quick page freebie for you.

Click on the image to download the quick page.

You next stop is the blog of the amazing new designer Sophie from Polly&Rufus Designs. She is making her debit today at MScraps. Here is a link to her blog:
http://pollyandrufus.blogspot.com/

I bet she has prepared something super cool for you. And if you need a list of all the links on the blog train, you can get them on the official MScraps blog http://mscraps.com/blog. There will be a freebie waiting for you too.

Sweet as cake and Follow your heart

2010-01-28T13:30:00.000-08:00

Two beautiful new kits came out by Shabby Miss Jehn. The second one is actually a collab with Kay Miller. Two amazing designers getting together has created this beauty

And the second one by Shabby Miss Jehn

I've made two pages with these kits but there will be more I am sure

I'll be back again on Friday when I'll be posting here a freebie for the grand opening of a new store called MScraps. A whole bunch of us are doing a blog train so there will be a lot of freebies.

Happy Go Lucky

2010-01-25T06:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Go Lucky is a new kit by Kristin Cronin-Barrow that was released on Saturday at Sweet Shop Designs. I just love the rich colors in this kit and I always have a weak spot for flowers. Here is the preview:

And my page

Two more Valentine kits

2010-01-22T14:48:00.000-08:00

Two more Valentine kits that are not following the traditional colors of mostly reds and whites. Tracie Stroud released a beautiful new kit called Little Blue Box yesterday.
Here is a preview of the kit

and my page with it

and the second kit is by Karina Designs at After Five Designs. Here is a preview

and my page

I have a couple more pages but it's late here so I'll try to post again tomorrow.http://www.afterfivedesigns.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=1298

Sweetheart

2010-01-21T04:54:00.000-08:00

My friend Vesi released a beautiful new kit today called Sweetheart available at Sunflower Scrap. It's full of bright and fun colors. Here is a preview of the kit.

Click on the preview to go to the store. I love it so much I made two pages with it. I am working on a second photo book for Alexis right now including pages from her first year. Those two layouts are definitely going in there.

Valentine page

2010-01-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

A lot of Valentine kits out there in digiland. I just made a page with a brand new kit by K Studio coming to After Five Designs tomorrow. This kit doesn't use the trditional Valentine colors but is absolutely beautiful nevertheless. Here I present you my page made with the kit We by K Studio starring me and my sweet hubby :)

New CT and new pages

2010-01-19T02:08:00.000-08:00

I am so, so excited. I made it on Shabby Miss Jehn's creative team. I love her shabby style, her designs are so much fun to work with. Here are a couiple of pages with her brand new kit Too Sweet that's in her shop today.

Click on the images for credits.

It's been a while

2009-10-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted anything here. I started homeschooling my oldest daughter and while it's been fun it has taken away time from scrapping Things have changed with my scrapping too, I accepted a position to be on a store creative team which means that I make layouts for them and in exchange I get the whole store for free. Here is a link to the store I am working with now. I really love it, it's been fun getting to know designers there and the rest of the creative team.
http://www.pickleberrypop.com/

I had to drop some of my other creative teams so I can have more time for Pickleberrypop. But I am still with Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Julie Billingsley from the Sweet Shop and Tracie Stroud and Megan Turnidge from Scrap Orchard. I am also doing some guest creative teams. This month I am a guest for MDesigns from the French Frog and Digital Crea and next month for Cinnamon Designs at After Five Designs. I am all over the place now, not just one store :) So I am still pretty busy. Here is a link with my gallery that has all of my layouts with all those designers:
http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=14175

And some of my newest and most favorite layouts9click on images for credits)

That's probably enough for now :)

Pages

2009-08-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Just quickly posting some new stuff

Battle of the creative teams

2009-07-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

Battle of the creative teams is a contest that I am participating in at http://digiscrapaddicts.com/forum/. It will last 4 weeks and our team just finished our first challenge. It was on the use of white space which is basically negative space you leave on your page. The point is that "white space" should draw you into the photos and layout. It doesn't have to be white, just empty. It's should bring somewhat of a dramatic effect.
So I am posting this hoping some of you that read this blog will vote for my team, the Cowbell Crew. Here is the page with our layouts
http://digiscrapaddicts.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4734
My user name is mom2peanuts (first layout on the page)
and you can vote here:
http://www.digiscrapaddicts.com/battle/designer.html if you think we deserve it of course :) Remember we are the Cowbell Crew. Off to post this on facebook now too.

Some pages

What's new?!

2009-07-12T01:51:00.000-07:00

The biggest news around here is that Alexis started crawling two days ago. I would've been happy if she had waited another month or two but she was getting very frustrated with not being able to move so this is better. We are in trouble now, she gets into everything :)
Here are some of the pages I've made lately

2009-06-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this in a while. I haven't scrapped too much lately. Whenever the weather is nice we try to be outside more. Here are some new pages.

I thought I haven't scrapped a lot but I guess I have :)

New layout

2009-06-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

Kits used in those pages:
1.Summer Breeze by Nikki Beaudreau
2.Pink Lemonade by K Studios
3.Clarity by Kristen Rice
Word Art No1 by Kristen Rice
4. A moment in time collab by After Five Designs
5.Children at Play by Manda Bean and Julie Billingsley
6.Everyday Play by Krystal Hartley
7.Under the Sea by Krystal Hartley and ScrapKitchen Designs
8.Blossom by Kristin Cronin-Barrow
9.Sweet Garden Kit by Kasia Designs

Zoo

2009-06-09T07:11:00.001-07:00

We took the girls to the zoo yesterday. They had so much fun, I think their favorite animals there are the monkeys. They loved watching them and the monkeys had fun watching our girls :)
My favorite part was the tigers, one of them put on quite the show for us. He climbed a tree, ran and roared at us. Here is a picture of the tiger.

Summer Plans

2009-05-29T02:55:00.000-07:00

Dave and I have been planning our summer so I thought I'd make a quick post in here. We seem to have a busy summer ahead of us. My family from Bulgaria is here right now, they leave in the middle of June. It's been so nice having them here as Dave and I have gone out on a few dates (no kids) bought some furniture, etc... They've been great help changing diapers, watching the kids, honestly I don't want to let them go :)
In July we have a short term missions trip coming from the States so we'll be busy with that for a week. At the end of July we are going to the mountains in Southern Poland where we have our Europe area conference. We are staying in a beautiful 4 star hotel that is also a water park, I know the girls will love it. It will be a busy week but they always leave time for relaxing too.
In August we are taking a vacation to Bulgaria. We decided to go in August because summer in Bulgaria guarantees nice weather whereas here in Poland you never know what the weather is going to be like. So if we have a cold, wet summer here at least we'll enjoy good weather in Bulgaria for a couple of weeks. Also I am looking forward to going there because it will be grapes season and there is nothing like Bulgarian grapes, yum.

Some new pages:

About May

2009-05-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

I feel bad about writing here only when I am doing a blog challenge but here it goes again. I am supposed to write about some of the important things that happened in May.
Of course first of all is our wedding anniversary on May 26th. It will be 8 years, it seems like time goes by so quickly. Dave and I have had our share of great times and trials as well. We are so blessed to have each other and our girls.
Alexis turned 5 months in the beginning of the month. She is so sweet and has such a fun personality. We are so in love with her.
My family came to visit and they are still here. They are really enjoying their grand daughters. They don't like the weather here in Poland though, it changes so much. You never know what it will be like the next day. I think they are looking forward to going back to sunny Bulgaria.
I think that's about it. Here are some pages that I've made recently. I am working toward making a scrapbook album for each of the girls and have them printed. My most favorite page ever is here, the one of Sophie in the rain. She loves to play in the rain.
I was excited to make the one of Veronica about her brown eyes because her eyes are finally and officially brown. She was born with blue eyes with a tint of brown and they changed in the past 2 and a half years. I've never seen anyone's eyes change like that. The other two girls on the other hand both very clear blue eyes.

What is your Star Wars name and title?

2009-05-14T00:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a little quiz you can take to find out:
http://www.blogthings.com/starwarsnameandtitlegenerator/

Your Star Wars Name Is Sasbl Gakos

Your Star Wars Title Is Ssicho of Rethguad Ym

What Is Your Star Wars Name and Title?

New pages

2009-05-13T04:46:00.000-07:00

Another FOBTY

2009-05-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

Another from our blog to yours challenge at SSD. This is a little cute quiz called "What part of Spring are you" . Here is a link to the quiz http://blogthings.com/whatpartofspringareyouquiz/results/?result=Chirping and my results:

You Are Chirping Birds

You are a very caring person. You especially feel for innocent beings, like animals and children.

You are keyed in to the world and very peaceful. You believe that everyone is connected.

You remain focused and in the moment. You are not easily distracted.

You have a good memory, especially for things that you hear. You listen carefully.

What Part of Spring Are You?

And some new pages. The last one is from summer 2007 when the girls were still so little. The pictures were taken when we were at the Baltic sea.

Some new ones

2009-05-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

I don't have too much to say here except that the weather has been super nice lately so I've been able to take some cute pictures of the girls outside. Here are pages with some of the new kits I have and a few outside pictures in them. Sorry the one of Veronica is so big, I loaded it from somewhere else. I have more pages but I'll post them next time. I am going to have a pretty big album soon :)

2009-04-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

I've been asked by my family in Bulgaria to post my newest pages so here they are.
Also some super exciting new happened this weekend in regard to my digi scrapping. First I applied to be on another creative team called Tootsie's 2 :) This is a team of two designers at SSD, Manda Bean and Robin Carlton. I applied and was accepted so I am a part of their new creative team. I have already made two pages for them but I can't post them yet because this are new kits and haven't been released yet.
The second exciting news is I was invited by Kristin Cronin- Barrow who is my favorite designer of all times to be on her creative team. I didn't apply, she just send me an invitation. This really made my day/week/year :) Here are the pages.

The next 2 are with kits by Kristin Cronin-Barrow

In this page I used a kit called tubby time by Melissa Bennett

2009-04-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

So what are some of the things that my household does that are eco-friendly since yesterday was Earth Day. One of the things that we do is when we go shopping we use reusable bags. I have two big bags that are made of recycled material. It also helps that the grocery stores here don't give you free plastic bags so you have to bring your own anyway. Another thing we do is we try not to use our car whenever possible. It's a little bit harder here in Lodz than it was in Sczcecin because we are at the edge of the city but we still try. We have a couple of little grocery stores withing a walking distance so we try to walk whenever we can.
Our washing machine and lights around the house are also energy efficient so that's another thing.
The dryer is not but in the summer I try to dry our clothes outside more to save energy. I hope I am helping Earth in someway :)
Here some new layouts.

FOBTY

2009-04-16T23:13:00.000-07:00

From Our Blog to Yours is one of the challenges I do at Sweet Shop Designs to get a point. So today's challenge was to write about things I haven't been able to give up inspite of the hard economy.
So the first thing is shopping which is good because it helps the economy, right :). Well there is certain things you can't go without like toys and new clothes. Just kidding, I am not buying too many toys for the girls anymore. For one thing we are full of toys, sometimes I feel like our house is being taken over by them :) And they are expensive but I still buy them some every once in while. I bought the girls a couple of pet shop toys for Easter. About clothes it's really hard to resist cute baby clothes for Alexis but the temptation is not as big here as in the US even though they do have H&M and they have some adorable stuff.
And of course scrapbook kits. This temptation is so easy to give in to because you buy everything on line and it's just click, click, click so I really need to watch myself on that. But it does help that I am on a couple of creative teams now so that gives me plenty to work with.
Some new layouts:

Easter Candy

2009-04-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

Here is another little quiz I took for a challenge at SSD to earn a point. I have to link my blog to theirs to get the point. Here is a link to the quiz and my result
http://blogthings.com/whateastercandyareyouquiz/

You Are an Easter Egg

You're so sweet, you don't need candy. You much prefer the taste of artificial coloring instead.

What Easter Candy Are You?

Gallery Standouts

2009-04-09T03:27:00.001-07:00

My layout made it on the SSD blog again in the gallery standouts. Here is the link
http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/blog/
I also got invited to be on another creative team for Tracie Strout at Scrapmatters. Her kits are so pretty, I am looking forward to scrapping with them.

Layout of the Week!!!

2009-04-05T23:44:00.001-07:00

I won layout of the week at SSD. Check it out here:
http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/blog/
So I get a free kit, yay.
Here is the layout that won. I love that picture of Lexi, she looks so calm and thoughtful. Here is some other layouts I made .

2009-04-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

New challenge at SSD today. I am supposed to list 5 TV shows I've seen every episode from. Well this is a challenge because I only have one, Gilmore Girls.. The rest I've seen most of but becaused we've moved to Poland I am not up to date. But here is the list:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. Stargate-Atlantis(except the newest episodes)
3. 24 (almost all of them except the ones currently showing)
4. Heroes (this season is not that great)
5. Everybody loves Raymond

And a new layout

Finally Internet!

2009-03-31T06:19:00.000-07:00

We finally have fast speed internet! Yay! We started to think it would take months when they showed up and hooked us up to a phone line. So we got connected to Telecomunikacja Polska or TP:) as they call it. I am happy because I can participate in the challenges again and download kits for my scrapbooking. I haven't made too many lately but here is some:

Back in Poland

2009-03-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated here in a while but we've been in transition and without Internet. We arrived back in Poland last Sunday and it has been a crazy week. We are over jetleg now but it took the whole week to adjust. It's interesting explaining to a 4 and a 2 year old what jetleg is and how they need to go to sleep even though they don't feel like it :). I hope we can get Internet soon so we can keep in touch with people. Here is some scrap pages I've don in the meantime.
Something cool happened since the last post. I participated in a challenge by Kristin Cronin Barrow (designer at SSD). In the challenge I was supposed to use one of her scrapkits and make a layout opposite of what the kit was intended for. So I turned a spring kit into a winter layout. My page is the last layout above. I used Cherry Blossom to scrap these cute pictures of Veronica playing in the snow. Oh and the cool thing is that I won the challenge, I got $25 to use in her store, yay. I can buy a few kits with that and I looooooove her work.

Birthday trivia

2009-02-26T21:48:00.001-08:00

So I am supposed to research some birthday trivia so I can get another point at the SSD challenge.
So here is some birthday trivia I copied and pasted
Strange Birthday Facts

Since your last birthday 31,536,000 seconds have passed.
In the past year your hair will most likely have grown 12 cm and your nail about 4 cm.
Your heart beats at a rate of around of 72 to 80 beats per minute - since your last birthday it will have beat about 42,075,900 times.
You breath at a rate of about 30 breaths per minute so, since your last birthday you have taken approximately 15,768,000 breaths.
The volume of blood in your body is approximately 5 litres. The heart pumps about 280 litres of blood around your body every hour - that’s 2,688,000 litres per year!
The average garden snail (not one that has entered the Olympics 100 meters race) moves at around 0.03 mph. If one set out on your last birthday, and walked non-stop it would have traveled 263 miles. If you walked this distance non-stop you would complete it in around three days.
Since your last birthday you will have had about 1,460 dreams.
World population has grown by around 76,570,430 since your last birthday. In the time it takes you to read this another five babies will have been born.
During the past year there have been more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world.
The Earth is zooming around the sun at around 66,780 miles per hour! Since your last birthday the Earth has completed one journey around the sun travelling about 584,337,600 miles.
If you counted 24 hours a day, you would be over 31,000 years old when you reach one trillion!

Creative Team

2009-02-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

Some cool things happened in my scrapbooking world since I last posted here. I became a part of a Creative Team (CT) for Melissa Bennett. She is one of my favorite designers and I just loooooooove her work. Being a part of a creative team means that I get to do layouts using her kits and post them in some digital scrapbooking galleries. The cool thing is I get all of her products for free and make pages of my girls which I love to do anyway. Here is a link to her store if you'd like to take a peek
http://www.melissabennettdesigns.com/store/
This is my first CT and I am really excited.

And here is some layouts I did with some of her kits
Another cool thing is this week my gallery at SSD got picked for a challenge on their blog called Spin a Lift. Here is a link to that
http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/blog/

And one more page using a brand new kit I just got called Twitter. I just love how it turned out

Quiz challenge

2009-02-19T12:56:00.000-08:00

I am doing another quiz for a challenge at SSD. This one is about what kind of a person you are according to your birthday. Here is a link to the quiz:
http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourbirthdatemeanquiz/

and my results:

You Are a Sage

You are a spiritual soul - a person who tries to find meaning in everything.

You spend a good amount of time meditating, trying to figure out life.

Helping others is also important to you. You enjoy social activities with that goal.

You are very generous and giving. Yet you expect very little in return.

Your strength: Getting along with anyone and everyone

Your weakness: Needing a good amount of downtime to recharge

Your power color: Cobalt blue

Your power symbol: Dove

Your power month: September

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

So excited

2009-02-17T05:55:00.000-08:00

I am so excited, one of my layouts was posted on Eva Kipler's blog. She is one of my favorite designers and I just loooooove her work. Here is the link:
http://evakipler.com/ It was this one:

I also have a few more pages that I've scrapped.

2009-02-12T06:54:00.000-08:00

I did a quiz for a challenge at SSD called What's Your Word? Here are the results:

Your Word is "Fearless"

You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it!

You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing.

Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities.

And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary.

What's Your Word?

Really?!!!!!! I am surprised, I didn't know that about me. Interesting......

3 New Pages

2009-02-11T15:03:00.000-08:00

3 new pages of Miss Alexis.

Flower and Bloom!

2009-02-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

Well I am ready for Spring as you can see in my most recent pages. I am tired of the cold even though I can't complain because it's been a sunny winter. Cold but sunny. I prefer cold and sunny over gloomy but warmer. So I've made some springy layouts. In this first one I used a kit called Simple Pleasure by my favorite designer Kay Miller. This is such a precious picture of Alexis.

In the next two I used a kit called Deerest Spring from SSD (deerest because it has deer in it)

This last one is again of Alexis using a kit called Lola's Lollipop from SSD. I really need to make a few pages of Veronica too. She is so hard to take pictures of lately. For one thing she is shy of the camera and is also constantly busy.

Princesses!

2009-02-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

Not too much to say today just a new page :)

Sweet Shop challenge!

2009-02-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

I am participating in a challenge at the SSD blog (my favorite dogi scrap store) so I am supposed to talk a little about my favorite birthday. I have to say my favorite birthday ever was my 30th. My wonderful husband threw a surprise birthday party for me. I am usually pretty good at figuring out surprises and he he can almost never do it. But this one I totally didn't see coming. I remember we had a barbeque with sweet corn, hamburgers and cake (summer birthday). We were at my brother and sister in law's house and had such a great family time.
I also have three new layouts to add to this post, not connected to birthdays though. For the first one I used a beautiful kit called Cherry Blossom. Alexis is so beautiful so that's why I called it "Beauty".
In the second one I used a Valentine kit called Organically yours because of the earthly tones, it's not the traditional pinks and reds. The third one is just a fun one of Veronica when she was a year old. The kit is called Sunny with a Chance, lots of bright colors. I love her smile in that picture.

Silly Girl!

2009-02-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

Sophie really likes to make silly faces so I finally got a good picture for my scrapbook :)

Princess Sophia!

2009-02-02T13:05:00.000-08:00

Sophie celebrated her 4th birthday on Saturday. She had a princess party and even her uncle and auntie came dressed up. I had a hard time getting any good pictures of her though because she was on the move the whole time and did not want to pose for me :(. I tried to make a page with what I had though. I used a scrap kit called Storybook Princess by Julie Billingsley at SSD.
The second page is of Alexis using a kit called Organically Yours by Manda Bean, Eva Kipler, & ScrapKitchen Designs.

Card and sleeping pictures

2009-01-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

I have two things to post here today. The first one is a card I made for my friend Daria for Valentine's. She will send it to him and surprise him :). It's in German because he is German.
The second one is a page I did with some cute pictures of Veronica sleeping. I love watching my girls sleep, they are so peaceful.
Also today is Sophia's birthday, she is turning 4. She is such a big girl now and is so excited to be having a birthday. Tomorrow is her official birthday party which will be a princess theme. Her cousins are coming over. We are keeping it small this year. I'll post a page or two with those princess pictures.

This is what love looks like!

2009-01-25T14:02:00.000-08:00

I took these pictures of Alexis today so I had to make a page with them. This is such a beautiful kit and I thought it would go well with a Valentine theme.

Winter Fun!

2009-01-24T14:16:00.000-08:00

It's time to scrap some of those fun winter pictures. I used this adorable kit Frosted Flakes by Dani Mogstad found in the SSD (click on the flower on the bottom of this page). I love Veronica's face in this picture, she is such a silly little girl, it really shows here :). Dave took the pictures, I prefer to stay inside although it does look like they had fun.

My little girl is turning 4!

2009-01-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

I can't believe she is turning 4 already. I decided to make a scrap page with some of my favorite pictures of her. I just love her beautiful smile and sweet personality. I used these bright colors because they really reflect her personality, she is so full of life and color.

My first scrap page!

2009-01-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

Well, at least to post on this blog. I've made other ones too. But I thought I'd start with these pictures of Alexis. I really want to keep up with scrapbooking this time and start with pictures from the hospital. I have a lot to make up with my other two girls.

2009-01-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

I am starting a new blog so I can post all of my scrapping projects somewhere. Of course this is going to be mostly scrap pages of my girls. I am super excited for this as I think it will encourage me to scrap more.