2010 Brag Book Calendar Blog Train

I am back with more fun! And speaking of fun...have you been by the KjoiStudios forum to check out the Advent Calendar Hunt? Every day another part of this kit is hidden in the shop for you to snag for free...but if you want to know where it is hiding you have to check the member area of the forum.

Now for some more freebie fun!! Some of the KjoiStudios designers have gotten together to help make your family calendars for 2010 a breeze! There are 10 designers that took on the 12 months...each designer with one of their items, which is now on sale for 50% off during the blog train for the calendar pages. So...here is my BB-sized Quick Page Calendar Freebie, for May 2010:

(Click on the image above to download directly.)

And here is the blog train list so that you can grab the rest of 2010 from their blogs:

Jan * Panda Bear Designs
Feb * ScrapznBitz
Mar * SandEz
Apr * Lizard Dau Designs
You are here!---->May * April Dawn Creations<----You are here! Jun * ScrapznBitz
Jul * KatLen Kreations
Aug * ice princess
Sep * Lori Imel
Oct * CACTUSmango Designs
Nov * Designs by Angel
Dec * KatLen Kreations

Breast Cancer Awareness-Charity Kit and Freebie!

Hi all, just popping in to let you know what I have been up to lately. Did you know that this month is Breast Cancer Awareness month? If not, now you do! It is amazing how many fabulous things I have seen going on this month to push forward this cause. I know this disease is one that hits families hard, and catching it early is key. So...the designers at KjoiStudios wanted to do their part in helping contribute to the awareness of this disease so more lives might be saved. And what do the designers do...but design! So 13 of us have put together this INCREDIBLE and gorgeous charity kit:

(Click on the image to visit it in the KjoiStudios Shop.)

All proceeds of this kit go to the Susan G. Komen Fund...the shop paypal fees are included too, so every cent goes to them! Here is the description in the shop for you to see what we put together for you:

This kit was put together by 13 designers who want to get out the word on Breast Cancer Awareness. ALL proceeds from the sale of this kit will go to the Susan G. Komen Fund to aid in this cause! For more information, or to donate to this cause directly visit: http://ww5.komen.org/. This kit is for all the mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, cousins, friends, grandmothers, and many other loved ones who have ever suffered from this illness and their families.

It is so important to catch this early...and that is the message we want to get out! Check yourselves, be checked by your doctor, and be aware for those that care so deeply about you! To those that haven't survived this...we will remember you forever!! And to those that have survived this...we are amazed by the strength and courage you inspire in those that are around you...THANK YOU!

This kit includes 71 papers, 113 elements, and 2 alphas. All items are 300ppi resolution, and are jpg/png files. The papers are all 12x12 in size.

There is also a generous coupon added by Kara of KjoiStudios for her shop!

The elements include: 12 frames and frame clusters, 13 flowers (1 of which comes in 3 colors), 15 Word Art, 9 individual Breast Cancer Awareness ribbons, 5 bows, 8 ribbons, 5 tags and journaling tags, 4 butterflies, 4 buttons, 2 bottlecaps, 3 doodles, 3 glittered chipboard pieces, 3 borders, 2 crowns, 2 flourishes, 2 mats, 1 marquisite pin, 1 sparkly tree, 1 butterfly trail, 1 scatter of silver hearts, 1 frilly heart, 1 silver swirlie, 1 Breast Cancer Awareness t-shirt, 1 glitter leaf, 1 photo turn, 1 Hope rock, 1 chipboard piece, 1 rose stick pin, 1 eyelet ribbon, 1 Hope charm necklace, 1 lace clip, 1 ribbon pile, and more...

The alphas are: A distressed chipboard alpha (Uppercase only), and A glittered polka dot alpha (Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers, and Punctuation).

Now this isn't all we have for you, if you like BB pages and freebies you are in luck! Lori Imel has taken this fabulous kit and put together an FABULOUS BB page album for us to post parts of on our blogs to help get the word out! You can get the part she donated for me to use by clicking on the preview image below:

(Click on the preview to download the BB pages Freebie!)

You are probably wondering where you can get the rest of this STUNNING album?! Well, no worries! All the information about what blogs to visit will be/or is posted on the KjoiStudios Blog! Just visit the blog for the list! And please help us in getting the word out, both about Breast Cancer Awareness, and our charity kit! THANK YOU!!

Life's Brick Walls and Scrapping past them.

Okay, I know it has been a little while since my last post. I happened to hit one of life's brick walls, and had to take a few months figuring out how to work around/over it. Of course the funnest answer to this is to just scrap and design my way past it...unfortunately I hit the scrappers form of "writer's block" at the same time. But I am glad to say that the brick wall seems to have shrunk to a climbable height, and I am making my way over this one now!

I have a lot of good friends and family to thank for their help with this, and as always the LORD for his mighty hand having the place it does in my life!

Anyway, while I haven't been posting...life at Kjoistudios has gone on! You should see the past few collab kits that the fabulous designers there have put together, they always do such a fantastic job putting them together! And our CT has been hard at work putting out some truly FABULOUS layouts...you should see them in the gallery! Oh, and we have added a weekly hybrid project to our newsletter...with our COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS themes each month from now until then! Check out these ones I added to my shop this past month when we focused on ornaments:

Oh, and I added a 2010 Calendar Grungy Brush set to my shop, for those of you working on the family calendars already:

Can you believe we only have 11 Fridays after today until Christmas!!?? It is hard to believe it comes so fast! And speaking of holidays...what does your family do for Halloween that doesn't involve SUGAR?! One of my sons has an issue with sugar and after last years fiasco with trick or treating...we have decided to do a homemade Halloween party, and see if we can find a fun way to dress up sugar free items. We already have decided we can have "dirt"...you know where you take sugar-free chocolate pudding, find some sugar-free oreo type cookies and crush them up over the top of the pudding, then add a gummy worm coming out of them...but I want some more fun things to make and do with them, as it will be a long night of them wondering why they can't go trick or treating! Any ideas you want to share?? I would be most grateful!!

Updates, and Birthdays!!

Wow, it is amazing how time flies! My poor neglected blog...oops!...anyway it isn't neglected now!! I have been busy playing with the construction again. Check out the TOU tab and the About Me tab...they are updated! I still need to add the general information on the About Me page...but it is started and ready for me to finish. I am hoping to finish up some of the other tabs this next week as time allows...we will see as the kids are on summer break.

And speaking of time flying, this hit me hard the other day as I realized how close my son's birthday was. They grow so quickly. The changes are subtle from day to day, but when you look over a period of years they are incredibly and drastic!

Here is a LO that I made around his birthday last year!

Do you find the same happens with your scrapbooking? Are you one that tends to redo old layouts because they just don't fit your style or scrapbooking knowledge anymore? If so, my opinion is that you should let it be. I am like you on this...it truly does bother me, but a good friend pointed out the other day that this is a journal of your knowledge and how you have learned and grown.

If you change this, you lose that record of you, and as scrappers we are the person most often left out of our scrapbooks. Let's see what we can do to leave a record for our children, grandchildren, and other family that might really treasure it. It is amazing how much they see in us that we just don't see in ourselves!

Now, back to my son's birthday...with his birthday, I am having a "My baby is turning 9!" sale!! There are 9 items in my shop at KjoiStudios.net, that are only $1...these items are at least 50% off or MUCH more!! Oh, and the Fighting Fire kit that I made for his birthday is FREE...but all of this is ONLY for today!! So, come grab these items if you are interested!!

April Fool's Day...LOL!

In the past this has been one of my least favorite days, but not this year!! There is SO MUCH going on this time to have FUN with, there is no way I am going to feel anything more than excitement at what I KNOW you all are going to LOVE!!

But first let me get a tiny bit of business out of the way...lol...that sounds so drab! This is FUN business!! Kjoi has a new collab and it is our biggest yet, Garden Paths Mega Collab is perfect for scrapbooking those photos of doing yard work, landscaping, gardening (flower or vegetable), or even just simply enjoying the beauty nature brings us this time of year! This kit has 98 papers...all 300ppi and 12x12 jpg files. It also has 167 elements...all 300ppi png files. Here is the preview of this fabulous kit:

(Click on the Preview to visit it in the Shop.)

The elements for this kit include: 35 various flowers, 18 frames and frame clusters, 17 bows, 10 ribbons, 7 tags, 6 borders, 6 word arts, 4 butterflies, 4 branches, 3 seed packets, 3 overlays, 3 flower cards, 3 fence elements, 3 wavy beads, 3 leaves, 2 bowflowers, 2 kitty garden clusters, 2 pairs of brackets, 2 shovels, 1 folded paper, 1 bunch of grapes, 1 set stitched shapes, 1 tap w/drip, 1 frog, 1 fly, 1 bush, 1 aphid bug, 1 spiders web w/spider, 1 fox statue on a rock, 1 pot of tulips, 1 journaling mat, 1 clip, 1 trowel, 1 cart/wheelbarrow, 1 clay pot, 1 pot cluster, 1 rock, 1 snail, 1 bee, 1 archway, 1 tomato, 1 pea pods, 1 turnips, 1 carrot, 1 sun, 1 tools cluster, 1 flower stem, 1 button, 1 polka dot tool belt w/ tools, and 1 paper vine.

Now what else have I got for you...LOL...just you wait and see!! KjoiStudios is holding it's first ever GREAT KJoi Egg Hunt April 1st-April 30th!! One product from one designer will be on MEGA special for $1 every day during the month of April...we are talking greater than 50% off, some as much as 80% off!! But which designer, and which product, on which day??

Well, for that you must register in the Kjoi forum and visit it to find out! We will post one Egg with a clue each day. Find the Matching Egg in the Shop, and you will have your special for the day! There will be a crossword to fill out for those looking for more fun and a fabulous freebie to those who fill it out. For more details visit us in the KjoiStudios Forum to find out!! Here is the ad we put together...

(Click on the ad to visit our forum!)

I have a freebie, it was posted on the DigiScrapStation blog several months ago but not many were visiting there then, so I have chosen to dust off this fabulous Add-On to my Rosebud Garden Kit as it holds some of my favorite parts! Here is the preview:

(Click on it to download from the shop.)

I hope to see you around more often...oh, and no worries, this blog is still under construction...so if you click on my links above and find a blank page that is why!

Crazy Days

Where did I go?? Well, things have been crazy...lol, and it is long past due for an update! I was hired on as Media Manager and Site Admin at KjoiStudios. Learning my new role there has kept me hopping! But I have enjoyed every minute of it!

On top of this, there is a chance that my boys both have an autism spectrum disorder...at this point we think Aspergers. So, I have been busy trying to work with Dr.'s and the school and my boys to see what accurate diagnosis we might find. This of course is a job and a half, but I am finding a ton of support from friends...online and offline...who know what I am facing and are showing they care.

I have now officially left DigiScrapStation...although I hope to go back again at some point. With the above mentioned things going on I haven't had time to do anything more there, and didn't feel that right for Nancy who is so kind and easy-going. Anyway, I will miss them greatly but will still stop by from time to time as life allows because the ladies there ROCK!! They are so nice and welcoming!

Then, at KjoiStudios...we are preparing to celebrate International Scrapbooking Industry Day on March 4th. There is SO MUCH going on there! We have at least 6 different challenges, 3 chats, 2 games, and 2 drawings...all of these come with a prize for the winner, or for the participants!! We were able to line up some incredible sponsors for the prizes too!! Plus we will be hosting a hunt...don't worry there isn't a piece to this hunt kit that is hosted on 4shared or any other file sharing site...so no need to worry that freebie hunting is going to destroy your computer! So, I hope to see you all there! And I look forward to hearing what you all have been up to...lol!!

Progress...What do you think?

So, I am sure that you see the changes I have been making...what do you think about the new look?? It is done using a collab kit--Forever Bliss by Lizard Dau Designs and April Dawn Creations (Me)! You can grab it in my store at Kjoi...and soon in my store at DSS. I must warn you...the tabs don't work as of yet. Like I said I have a LOT of ideas and it will take a bit to implement them, but hang on as the ride has only just begun!

Under Construction!! YAY!

I have decided it is LONG past time for me to truly customize this blog! So, hang on as it will be a really interesting ride to the end of this truly FUN endeavor! I look forward to seeing what the changes will bring! I have a TON of great ideas and can't wait to put them into action! There are many surprises coming, so hang in there while I get them up and going. In the meantime I will post as I can about the amazing things I am adding to my stores at DigiScrapStation and KjoiStudios! Oh and did I mention that I am saving up for attending the CK Digital Scrapbooking Experience in Provo this year??!! So many exciting things...so little time. I guess the true adventure is seeing how far I can get and how fast I can get there...LOL!