More fun with wedding shots

Our Big Day, scrapped...

He really does have my heart. :)

stamp heart. Another newbie stamp!

I LOVEEEEE sparkle thickers!

Saw a cute idea with a photo collage in the most recent "Scrapbooks, etc." -they did this comparison of one idea done by a designer and one done by a fan. I liked the general idea, so this is what I created. The original similar concept was done by Donna Jannuzzi in the August/September 2008 issue.

- Making Memories black lace

- Studio G heart stamp and circle sayings

- Sparkle thickers letters

- Kaiser scrapbook's red rhinestones

- ColorBox light pink and red paper

- Pink/red floral paper by ???

I hope to get my craft on this weekend. Already I got pretty much my entire secret swap sister's Feb. package done tonight. Did some fun altered stuff  to go with the other stuff for her. I already have been thinking of ideas for other things for future months. :) I have been having so much fun with this swap, and it has become a great help in my journey towards weight loss happiness. Having a group of people cheering you on, really does help. I love you ladies!

Gonna be a short entry tonight, since I'm getting sleepy.

Night!

-M

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Just a bunch of Hearts

Bunch-o-hearts!

heart stamps...I finally got some!

So I went out today and got me stuff for my secret swap sister. I am set for the next 3 more months- Feb, March, and April on stuff. I just have to do one altered item for each of those and my packages are all set to go. 

Today I kinda went a little "buck-wild" and got some stuff at Micheal's, Target, and the Cropping Station. I girl-scout-promised my hubby after today that I am not going to buy any more craft supplies for a LONG time, since we are determined to fully pay off our credit cards as soon as we can (which I might add I did NOT use to buy the stuff today). Luckily we got an extra paycheck each of us this month, so we had a tiny bit of extra cash to back us up.  Next on the list of save ups is for a future house. Apartment life will do till we save up enough money for a decent down-payment, payed off our credit card, and made a dent in my student loan. Goals, goals, goals. That is what I strive for.

Today was not one of my "good" days. I basically forgot to eat all day until about 7pm. And when I did eat, my hubby didn't want to cook because he is sick today, so we ordered pizza. I had part of a chicken and cheddar cheese pizza. It at least isn't pepperoni, which gives me heartburn- I've learned from that. I'm glad I got to make a card tonight, but not proud of me spending more money than I expected to today, nor am I proud of my eating habits for the day. But we all have bad days once and a while.

- white and pink paper by The Paper Company complete color set

- Chatterbox "Love Note" designer paper

- heart stamps by Pink Paislee- Stripe, polka dot, and scallop heart stamps

- ink-Adirondack Brights Watermelon

Fiscars scallop punch

- red satin ribbon by ???

Hope the card works for you all. I got a couple of the dollar stamps from Micheal's today that also are Valentine's day themed, so I want to try them out too. Will probably make some cards with them later, probably tomorrow. Enjoy!

-M

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Color Inspiration #38:it was a toughy

My submissions for KWerner's Color Inspiration Challenge #38.

Here were the colors:

Card #1: Hugs and Kisses

I think this is my favorite for the challenge. But you might think differently.

My ruby red ink isn't the best, but I'll make do.

Clear Embossing for the Hugs and Kisses part!

Card #2: 4 U love, or Love 4 u or whatever you want to call it

It is closer to the colors I think, except the love in the middle, that isn't one of the colors. (sorry about that)

I wanted the focus to be on what's happening on the center.

I did clear embossing flowers on this too. I don't have a very good heart stamp so I thought flowers would work.

Card #3: hugs and kisses and hearts 

This is not my favorite to be honest. These are the only heart stamps I have. Can you believe that with all the stuff I have, these are the only hearts I have?!

I tried to incorporate all the 4 colors in the top part. The orange button I hoped to brighten it up a bit.

So now that I have a new schedule, I can do more things on Fridays (I now work Sundays instead of Fridays-not by choice, but it isn't soooo bad). Basically last night I couldn't sleep so I did my color inspiration challenge #38 cards and started on stuff for my SS for the splitcoaststampers.com's Battle of the Bulge. I should be done with my SS's presents today, since I just have one item left to work on. 

This Color Inspiration #38 was tough. It might of been the fact that I worked on them from 11pm to about 4am, but I just really struggled with these colors. It also might be the fact that I am completely out of white cardstock. I have to go get more, but I was determined to make the best of my supplies, but using backs of one sided paper, etc. Also, I don't have very good stamping inks in the color challenge's colors. My pink ink is too bright, my red is too dark, and my orange, well, I need a new orange ink. My white ink works well, but on certain colors it doesn't show up at all, so I resorted to the key supply of the night-embossing. Stamped with my watermark ink, which can also be used for clear embossing, put on some clear embossing powder, heat set, and tada! I also longed to do some valentine's day cards with these colors, but sadly I don't have very many stamps with valentine's day themes!-poo. So what you see is what I got basically.

Anyways, going to the grocery store later today..Guess I'll have to brave the cold, since we are completely out of the necessities. Also going to try my Nintendo DS's Personal Trainer game/program. I picked out 6 dishes to start with and try, so I made a shopping list on the DS for those. I wish I could get other things, like that I know I need that arn't in any of those recipes, to be added to the shopping list so I don't have to have 2 shopping lists. :)

Okeys, Here are the supplies for the cards above. I decided to to put the card pictures at top, since that is really what you want to see anyways. My ramblings are just a side note. haha

Made a supplies icon as well, which you'll see below.

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Card #1: Hugs and Kisses

- red brackets from Making Memories 5th Avenue Elizebeth die cut pack

- Flower stamp from Pink Paislee's retro spring, in Vibrance Studio G ink

- Hugs and Kisses stamp from K&Company's Brenda Walton Chelsea Sentiments stamp set, in VersaMark watermark ink with clear embossing powder by Stamp'n'stuff

- Pink Paper by ColorBok

- Pink stickle in cotton candy on heart

- orange paper from My Minds Eye designer paper pad (I think it was the Magnolia collection)

- white paper from ?

Card #2: Love 4 U

- orange paper from My Minds Eye designer paper pad (I think it was the Magnolia collection) punched with Fiscar's dot scallop punch

- Flower stamp in background by Pink Paislee's retro spring set, in VersaMark watermark ink with clearn embossing powder by Stamp'n'stuff

- buttons by Making Memories

- Minibrads in white by American Crafts Elements

- Love popup from heidi grace designs midnight kisses set

- heart and frame from two scoops chipboard stickers by BasicGrey

- Glitter "u" by K&Company's smitten letter set

- tag, ruby strips and white paper from ?

- pink paper by Colorbok

Card #3: Hugs and Kisses and hearts to u

- heart stamps by ( I think studio G, but not sure), in Adirondack brights sunset orange, ColorBox pink, and Vibrance studio G red

- buttons by Making Memories

- Hugs and Kisses stamp from K&Company's Brenda Walton Chelsea Sentiments stamp set, in VersaMark watermark ink with clear embossing powder by Stamp'n'stuff

- Pink cardstock by ColorBok

- red and white cardstock and ribbon from ?

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I am slowly training myself to take down in my mini notebook my mom made me, what supplies I use. I know when I read others blogs, I often want to know what they use supplies wise. 

So far the weightloss program is going strong. Last night was my only real slip up, darn Applebee's, but at least I only had 1/2 the meal, instead of the whole thing. We hope to go to the grocery store soon (probably in an hour or so from when I post this) so I'm excited to stock up on my healthier foods. 

For the first time ever- in our new apartment- it is cold. Now mind you, it is only 14 degrees outside today, (low of 4 degrees, yikes!) so it is no wonder it isn't its usual toasty warm in here. Since we can't control the heat in our apartment (the complex controls it), it usually is so freakn hot in here I open a window. But today, my hubby and I are wrapped in blankets. I know I know, it is a Friday, what are you two being home for? Well now with the schedule change and my hubby's weird schedules, we actually have a day off together. Who would of thought that it would work out in our favor!?

Anyways, tata for now. I might post more creations later if I get to make any today or tomorrow. Adios!

-M

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mosaic quiz

1. Morgaine campestre, 2. Marco's Pizza, 3. friday night lights, 4. pink | red | orange, 5. JOHNNY DEPP, 6. mango orange juice, 7. AN IRISH COUNTRY HOUSE. KILKENNY, IRELAND., 8. special brownies, 9. graphic designers, 10. for Photo Thursday: I spy at Create a Connection, 11. Color Addict, 12. engagementPhoto

This has been something I have seen on MANY blogs, so I decided to do it myself.

So, here's the deal... you answer the following 12 questions about yourself 

(my answers are in parentheses after each question):

1. What is your first name? (morgaine)

2. What is your favorite food? (pizza)

3. What high school did you attend? (northwestern lehigh high school)

4. What is your favorite color? (red)

5. Who is your celebrity crush? (johnny depp)

6. Favorite drink? (Dole’s orange mango juice)

7. Dream vacation? (ireland)

8. Favorite dessert? (brownies)

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (graphic designer)

10. What do you love most in life? (creating something pretty from something ugly)

11. One word to describe you? (loving)

12. Your Flickr name? (moblondeart)

Wanna play?: Type your answer to each of the above questions into Flickr's search. Using only the images that appear on the first page, choose your favorite and copy and paste each of the URL’s into the Mosaic Maker (3 columns, 4 rows)

Try it yourself and have fun! Enjoy!

-M

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Let the Good Times Roll

So I have been trucking along with my weight loss. It has only been about a week, but I am feeling more confident that I can DO THIS. Thank heavens for my Battle of the Bulge swap, since it keeps me motivated to be healthier. Basically this is what I've done this week:

1. drank more water. I am allowing myself 1 beverage a day other than water (be it diet sprite- the only soda that doesn't give me heartburn and is zero calories, though diet sodas make you more hungry, so you have to be careful with them.) I had a glass of Mango-Orange juice with my breakfast, so I am set for the day on non-water beverages. Also drinking more water makes me less hungry.
2. smaller portions. I have this tendency to eat large meals and then feel so full afterwards that I don't want to do anything but lounge around. Eatting smaller portions and eatting slower has helped me a lot. I also put things on plates and bowls. ie. I don't sit down with a whole bag of chips, if I was to eat chips, I put them in a bowl or on a plate and only allow myself to eat that.
3. not going out to eat. The only "out to eat" this week I've done is gone to wawa for soup and salad because I forgot to make a lunch for the day, but all week we havn't been out to lunch. No fast food either! I've been packing the lunches baby!
4. giving up caffeine and candy. I LOVE sweet things. I also LOVE caffeinated beverages. I have found out over the past month that if I don't drink caffeinated beverages I don't get heartburn. I also really don't need all the sugar. I"m trying, we'll see how I handle Valentine's day time with avoiding sweets and chocolate. :)
5. calorie counting. Ok, so I technically am not on a diet. I hate the word DIET. I could never fully give up carbs and I really hate the idea of "dieting." My husband swears that when he had to loose weight for wrestling, it was all in the math of the calories. So I've been doing just that. Counting every calorie I consume and jot down what I'm eatting in my food log. It makes you realize just how bad certain things are for you. It also makes you sad that if you had a certain food or drink item, there just went a large percentage of my daily calories. It isn't the most 100% nutitious way, but its helping me get there.

I hope to get back into the exercise drill again. I was sick earlier this week which made me keep away from the gym, as well as I seemed to have pinched a nerve at the bottom of my spine, putting me out of commission up till today. Luckily today I feel 100% better and plan to go to the gym tomorrow hopefully.
Anyways, below is the other card I made today besides my 3 color inspirations. I used the same stamps as the one in the color inspiration, but I like how this card turned out in the long run. I find it hard to make 5 colors work. I'd prefer only a few. This one is more of green, tan/white, and brown. Enjoy!
-M

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Let the good times roll- in green!

I love this crocheted flower by laundry line!

Buttons buttons!

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~ SUPPLIES for this CARD ~

• White and Olive paper by Colorbok
• Brown and green paisley paper by K & Company from their Hannah 6x6 paper pad
• lace from Making Memories
• brown and tan ribbon from?
• buttons from Making Memories
• crocheted white and green flower by Laundry Line
• Bracket frame from the "retro spring" stamp set by pink paislee, in StaysOn Timber brown ink
• "let the good times roll" stamp by Studio G, in StaysOn Timber brown ink

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Color Inspiration #37: I finally did one!

These are for the KWerner's Color Inspiration Challenge #37:

Let the good times roll!

I love these primas I got. The colors match perfectly!

I love bracket-type frames. They make me happy. 

The paper is awesome! Actually it was taken from a wedding greeting card I had left around, that I was able to savage after taking everything off of it. Isn't it wonderful!

Here's a slightly more up close one.

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SUPPLIES 

for this CARD:

• "Let the good times roll" stamp by Studio G, in Stays On Timber Brown ink
• Brown paper from the Sultoy paper pad by basic grey
• Blue paisley paper torn from wedding greeting card by carlton cards
• prima flowers
• bracket frame from "Retro Spring" stamp set by Pink Paislee, in Versa Color's sky blue ink
• Dot orange ribbon from ?
• Olive paper by ColorBok
• Orange buttons by Making Memories

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So I FINALLY got to get around to doing one of KWerner's Color Inspiration challenges. I never can get to do them since they usually are put up and due during the week, and my only free time is mostly on the weekends. Anyways, It is freezing outside so I decided to give it a go since it is due tonight. So here we go! I got a little carried away with the challenge and ended up making 3 cards, but the one up top is my favorite and I think stays to the color challenge the best. Enjoy!

These were the colors in case you don't know :)

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Card number 2. Just for you!

Ribbon tabs I thought to dress it up.

I thought the stamps turned out nice for once. I usually wiggle a little.

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SUPPLIES 

for this CARD:

• Flower stamp from Pink Paislee "Retro Spring" stamp set, in Brilliance sky blue ink
• "Just for You" stamp from ?- bought at the Cropping Station, in Stays On Timber brown ink
• Brown paper by Basic Grey
• Blue floral paper from an wedding greeting card (torn from) by Carlton cards
• Green jewel by K & Company
• Dot ribbon by ?
• Olive and White paper by ColorBok

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Card #3-Party time!

Tried to use my scalloped dot punch on the sides.

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SUPPLIES 

for this CARD:

• "Party Time" stamp by Studio G
• Prima Flowers
• Making Memories brown button
• Fiskars scalloped punch
• Dot ribbon by ?
• Brown, Olive and Orange paper by ColorBok
• Scalloped White paper by ?

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So I'm trying to get my blogs more organized and helpful, by including supplies used, etc. I know there isn't much readers out there, but for the few of you who do, I hope that helps. I plan to make a little graphic bar for the "supplies", but I haven't gotten that far in sprucing up my blog. I did only start this blog shortly after our wedding.

Anyways, I must be off. Maybe I'm make some more stuff to post later. I hope to make some items for my new swap on Splitcoast for my future SS whoever she might be, though I might not post what they are till the swap is done, so as to not give away my identity to my secret sister. It is supposed to help us keep up with our weight loss programs.

Adios!

-M

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First Wedding Scrapbook page

So I finally got around to doing a scrapbook page from our wedding photos. This only really focuses on one photo our photographer took (I looooovvveee the photos he took). It also includes mini boxes from our wedding cards. I saw a similar box idea done with Christmas cards and I thought it was a novel idea to use those wedding cards. So I spent one day last week going through ALL the wedding cards and cutting apart pictures, textures, ribbons, beads, etc. that could be usable in some way or fashion again and threw away all the other junk. Now I have some cute sayings and graphics that I can use for when someone I know gets married. I had issues photographing the full layout, so I'll include the single pages as well. I have come to the conclusion I LOVE these Thickers letters. I used both kinds that I had purchased a while back (red foil and white sparkle) and now I want more! Time to save up.

Today I cleaned ALLLLLL day. My scrap room/spare bedroom is cleaned up and I found a spot for my new organizer that my in-laws got me. Now I have less on my tables and more space to work in. I also have less filled drawers (now I have more room for my stamps, so I can separate the stamps from the ink pads, the letter stickers and 3D stickers from the flat stickers, the designer paper from the plain color paper. All-in-all it was a productive Saturday. Right now my husband is playing "World of Goo" on the Wii while our two friends Dave and Mike are over. It cracks me up that they can be so fascinated with making "goo balls" get to pipes. haha.

Anyways, here's the layout. Enjoy!

The full layout far away but together.

The left side, which kinda could be on its own I guess.

right side, which kinda could be on its own too.

Friends foil word and tag.

using only a small portion of the cards we got.

Top part of journal.

I really need to learn to write not at an angle!

I really do like how this turned out. :)

I tried to make it look pretty with cursive. Sadly my "b"s don't really look like b's.

Glitter letters!

The layout together.

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New Year's, a new start

So this New Year's day what did I do?

Well we had a New Year's party last night. We are going to have soooooo much food to go through for the next month, due to people bring way more than we expected and my husband being grocery and baking crazy. I'm half tempted to hold another party to go through the food and drinks! Anyways, today I spent more times of it sleeping I think than anything else. 

I did however do some things this New Years. I want to start a new year on a good one after all. 

I came across this great program (that I am sooooo saving up for) called SiteGrinder. It helps you take your designs in Photoshop and converts them easily into a website. This is something I've always been looking for. I work primarily in Photoshop and Illustrator, and I'm not extremely good at html stuff, so finding a program that I can create it all in my favorite programs is awesome! It also has some great plug-ins for Flash and Dreamweaver if you do want to add some html stuff. I know all you web-gurus are rolling your eyes at me and groaning because it probably creates "bad html code" or "messy code" but quite frankly, right now clean code is not what I'm worried about. I'd like to just have something that looks nice to start with, then I'll go back and cleaning things up once I know what I'm doing.

I also decided to make my first digital scrapbook page (not counting my blog banner as a digital scrapbook page). I know the photo choice isn't as whoopie as so other photos I have, but I really wanted to make a digital scrapbook page that was technically Christmas theme but wasn't red and green. My kitty cat C.J. always sleeps on our couch arm with his head propped on the table. This photo was on Christmas eve, he was so sleepy after we opened our presents. Anyways, this is all done with freebie digital scrapbook stuff. For my first try it isn't bad. I have a lot to go, but its a start to the new year!

I'll post a scrapbook layout (2 page) that I created with parts from our wedding cards (I had so many of them!) and a photo from our wedding, however my camera's batteries are dead and I can't find anymore, so when I get new batteries I'll photograph it for ya! 

So my 9 New Year's resolutions of 2009 are as follows:

1) Keep my scrap room/spare bedroom organized and clean.

2) Go to the gym more than 1 day a week (goal is 3 times a week, not counting my dance class on Tuesdays).

3) Completely pay off our credit card (we only have one, but we are determined to have no debt at all).

4) Save up a decent amount of money for our future home.

5) Start eatting better. I've already cut out caffinated beverages (I've found it to be the major culprit behind my heartburn. I'm only 22 years old. I don't need heartburn ruining my life!)

6) Stop splurge shopping. I do it with scrapping supplies more than I should. I need to go in with a little bit of cash and don't dare use my card. That way I only use the cash I allocated and not spending more than I should on things that I might not use right away.

7) Cut back on my video game time. I've already temporarily stopped World of Warcraft. I am going to try to go a month without it, I might not make it, but I can try. I need to do more things with my time than plastered in front of the computer or tv.

8) Spend some quality time with my hubby. We are newlyweds after all! I want to spend more time doing stuff with him. We had spent 2 years of our time together almost 6 hrs away from each other and only got to see each other every 3 to 5 months. We did the long distance thing then, but now that we have lived together for more than a year and a 1/2, I want to enjoy the time together more.

9) Lastly, try to spend more time on looking better. Get back into my skincare routine and maybe actually put makeup on for work (gasp) I do sell MaryKay after all!

I hope I can at least stick to most of my top 9 resolutions of 2009. These goals hopefully will help me to make the best of life even in this crappy economic situation. Anyways, Happy New Years!

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