101 Expert Solutions Week

I know that I mentioned it before, but I want to let everyone know that 101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking is out on the stands and also available at CK online.

I picked up a copy this weekend for my Mom at Barnes & Noble. I have not had the time to sit down, relax, and read it from cover to cover, but I am making my way through it page by page. So far, it is amazing. Here's what CK has to say about the book:

101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking

Easy secrets for achieving spectacular results

Got scrapbooking questions? CK has answers!
• Discover your journaling “voice.”
• Employ photo-editing software for cool effects.
• Save money by making your own embellishments.
• Incorporate multiple photos in a clean design.
• And so much more!

For the first time, scrapbooking’s top talents address the most common reader dilemmas. Imagine having your very own team of experts! Featuring CK’s 2008 Dream Team, Hall of Fame, and Scrapbooker of the Year, this issue is packed with tons of tips and ideas! Meet these amazing designers and learn the secrets behind their incredible pages. Order yours before they’re sold out!

I am so excited about this book that I can barely stand it. Lots and lots of talent in there! For some sneak peeks, you can visit the CK website. There is an online group set up for chatting, sharing, and posting about the book, also.

Here is a little sneak from the book of one of my layouts:

This layout was one from my HOF entry. I used it as a "favorite" layout where we were able to choose 4 of our favorite unseen layouts as a part of our entry. This layout was done when I was going through a hybrid stage. I printed the title, journaling, and the star design along with the patterned paper. I then added my paper scrapping skills to finish it off! I still love this layout, but it is not my favorite one from the book. You'll have to buy a copy to see that one...I can't reveal everything, ya know! If you do pick up a copy, you will know which one was my favorite because Lisa Bearnson liked it, too. She liked it enough to scraplift it...how cool is that?

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

CK 101 Expert Solutions!!!!

I know, I know...I seem to only post when I'm excited these days. Well, I certainly don't want to bore you all to death with my everyday ramblings about school, school, and more school. Since that is pretty much all I have been doing lately, I figured I would wait until I had something fun to share.

Well, I have something fun to share today. I was on the Creating Keepsakes website and found this baby up for pre-order:


This is the 101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking Special Issues from Creating Keepsakes. I have been waiting so patiently to finally see this as the cover layout was created by little old me! Go, me!! This special issues contains the artwork of the 2008 HOFers, the CK Dream Team, and the CK Scrapbooker of the year. It has been in the works since April, and it will hit the shelves at the end of December. I was thrilled to be able to contribute some of the layouts from my winning HOF entry along with some additional layouts.

Just knowing who is featured in this book makes me know that it will be a "must have." I am on pins and needles to get a copy. You can pre-order it here on the CK website. I am going to....have to get copies for the family!

And keep your eyes on the CK website when the new years rolls around because they will be having a launch party there to celebrate this special issue! It is sure to be fun!

We have a 2 hour delay today, so I get to enjoy some free time this morning....yeah! Hope all is well with everyone and you are all getting ready for Christmas! Enjoy your day!

HOF Challenge: BasicGrey

I spent most of my "Creative Sunday" doing work for school, so I was feeling a bit stressed about not being able to scrap. Don't get me wrong, when I do my lesson plans, I am being creative...just in a different way. I do enjoy it, but it is just not the same as scrapbooking. So, I put the books aside and took some time out to let the scrapping mojo flow.

This month's HOF Challenge at the CK website was to use BasicGrey. I have to say that BG is one of my all time favorite companies. So much that I often find myself hoarding it a bit too much. The problem is that I hoard it for so long that I rarely get to use it. So, I was thrilled to pull some of my HOF goodies out and go to town. I had some birthday pictures that I wanted to scrap, so I chose the Cupcake collection, which turned out to be the perfect choice! Because it was an adult birthday, I chose some of the darker colored patterns. The swirly cardstock sticker down the middle was yellow, so I inked it up with a red stamp pad. I also cut the "happy" off of the "happy birthday" cardstock sticker and made my own "happy" with the BG letter stickers. Lastly, I cut some of the candles shorter to fit around my title better. Mostly everything on my page is BG with the exception of the small phrase stickers in the upper left hand corner which are Scenic Route and the "celebrate" rub on which is Creative Imaginations. I even used BG fibers to thread my buttons! I can't remember the last time I used fiber! Oh my!

If you have a chance, stop on over the CK website to see what the other HOF gals created, and if you create your own BasicGrey layout...you might be able to win a CK book of your choice! You can check out Erin's post here. Sounds good to me! I hope everyone has a super wonderful day!

September CK, New Ride & a Winner!

I opened my mailbox yesterday to find the September issue of CK! I was so excited to see my new friend, Cindy Tobey's, layout on the cover. Congrats to her! Cindy is a truly talented girl with a refreshing and creative style.

I haven't had a chance to read the issue yet, but I did flip through to see a layout of mine in it. The 2008 HOF gals each contributed a layout from their winning entries for articles in the August and September issues. Mine appears in the September issue, so look for me in there if you get CK. The layout they chose was one of my faves from my entry, so I was pretty excited. I can't wait for some free time to sit down and enjoy the rest of the issue.

In non-scrapbook related news, I had a burst of spontaneity on Thursday evening. I went to the dealer where I bought my Explorer 6 years ago to get a brake light bulb replaced. Well, instead of leaving with a new bulb on Thursday night, I drove off the lot with a new Explorer Friday afternoon. So spur of the moment and so fun! Sometimes, the best things are the unexpected ones. Didn't really need a new car, but why not? I'll miss my old one...it served me well. I think I'll look a bit more classy now, don't you?

I'd also like to wave "Hi" to a hometown friend here in PA....Stacy! "Hi Stacy!" I hear Stacy has been reading my little blog, and I am glad that she is enjoying it. I'm not sure if Stacy knows this or not, but she is the reason why I am named Denine. You see, my Mom and Stacy's Mom were friends from High School. I guess they both got pregnant at about the same time, and I guess they both had the name Stacy in mind. Well, for whatever reason, once it was revealed that they both chose the same name, my Mom decided that it would be best for her to chose a different name...that's where the name Denine came in. Not exactly sure where she got Denine from, but she liked it. So, if it wasn't for Miss Stacy being conceived about the same time as me, you guys would be reading "Stacy Zielinski's" blog today! Pretty neat!

And, I am glad that some of you were interested in the 2 punches from my previous post. I do want them to go to a good home. I wish I had one for everyone who was interested. I loved everyone's happy and upbeat attitudes. Remember...happiness is contageous!

Ok, so Ryan picked a name out of a hat (so to speak) and the winner is:

briTT and joNNy said...
I have been a regular blog visitor of your for awhile now :) You do some awesome work, girl! I would adore to have that scallop punch... so fun and funky!
8/9/08 11:36 PM

So, Britt, drop me an e-mail at Denine2@aol.com with your addy. Then, I can get your punches out in the mail. I am off to get some stuff done on this gorgeous Sunday...maybe even some scrapping! Thanks for stopping by my little blog, and I hope you all have a great day!

We're Home & I'm Procrastinating!

We arrived home safe and sound at about 11:30 last night....exhausted. After a full day of travel, it was good to be home. I do have to say that I love to fly, though. Just look at this view as we flew away from Orlando:

We took quick showers, made sure the animals were okay, and off to bed we went only to rise at 7:30 this morning to wait for the plumber to come. I spent the day unpacking and getting ready to do 6 loads of laundry (ewe)! I had to wait for the plumber to finish up before I began to wash and then wait for my new dryer to be delivered before I could dry (my 11 year old refurbished $100 dryer finally kicked the bucket the day before we left for Disney). The rest of the day consisted of opening mail, balancing the checkbook, making appointments, cleaning, washing dishes, checking e-mail, etc. Not too much fun to say the least. But, there is no place like home (said in my best Glenda the good witch voice).

Now, I sit at my computer procrastinating over a scrapbook assignment that is due on Thursday at 9 a.m. EEEK! I feel like I have no mojo at all! So, I blog. Just another excuse not to start scrapping! Please, someone, send some good vibes my way!

In other scrappy news, the August CK HOF Product Challenge is up on the CK website. I actually finished this layout before vacation. You remember...the one with pipe cleaners? Well, here it is:

The manufacturer this month is Making Memories, and they were so very generous. I had a lot of fun and used almost all Making Memories products on this layout. I am loving doing multi-photo one page layouts these days. These are some pics from my Mom's birthday. Not the best lighting in her house, but the memories are there. You can see some of the other HOFers work in the CK Gallery. Join in to win a CK book of your choice!

And, last but not least, my RAK winner from the Chip & Dale trivia is

simply susan said...
Chip has the dark (brown) nose like a chocolate "chip." Dale has the red nose. Now here is some trivia for you: Which window above Main Street has a lantern that burns eternally?And Why?
8/3/08 12:00 PM

Not only did Susan point out that their noses are different, but she knew why! And she hit the nail right on the head. You go, girl! Plus, she came back at me with a little trivia of her own. Without consulting the Internet for the answer, I am guessing the eternal lantern has something to do with Walt Disney. I think I heard that somewhere, but I am not sure 1. if it is correct, 2. exactly why it never goes out, and 3. what window it is. Hopefully, Susan can enlighten me. E-mail me at Denine2@aol.com with your address, Susan!

Okay, so I am thinking it is now time to stop blogging and start scrapping. Have a good one!

Happy July & Little Yellow Bicycle HOF Challenge

This month, the HOF girls and I used the product we received in our prize package from Little Yellow Bicycle. The line that we received was the Delightful Collection by Sharon Ann, which has great color combos of pinks, blues, oranges, and greens. I had some wonderful pictures of my niece, Emily, that I really thought would work well with this line. Since I do not often work with such a girly color palette, I was worried that I would not be able to pull it off or that things would not "pop", but just kind of blend in together. So, to solve my problem, I combined the girly colors of the patterned papers with black. I know, it might sound a bit odd, but I really think it turned out nice.

I often get on these tangents where I seems to pull toward a certain product or technique. For some reason, it just happens. I think I mentioned that before. Anyway, I am on a bead kick right now. I have this very strong urge to make jewelery, and I spend so much time in craft stores admiring the beads and jewels. Since I really have no idea how to make jewelery, I have been buying beads for my scrapbook pages. It has really been fun, and I love how my pages turn out.

You can see this page and other pages by the 2008 HOF game girls by checking out the CK gallery, and you can join along in the challenge to win a prize from CK on the CK message board! I'd love to see some pages with this LYB line or any of their other awesome lines! Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Let The Vacation Begin!

It's official...summer vacation is on! It has been a brutal week for me with school finishing up. The kids were done on Friday, but we teachers had to go until today. No biggie.

The good news is: I am now an official HISTORY Teacher....8th grade Civics to be exact!

Whoo Hoo! Now, don't get me wrong, I really liked my other job. Actually, I liked it a lot. There were days when I would look at my Teacher's Aide and say, "And they actually pay me for this!" In reality, my job was not that easy. In Alternative Education, students who are discipline problems are referred for a sort of rehabilitation. I had kids from grades 7 through 12 throughout the day. Some stayed with me all day. Others were with me for a class or two. In addition to discipline problems, I also received students who had attendance issues, were in danger of dropping out, or were just not functioning well in the regular classroom. This year, I had a total of 50 students coming in during the day. With such a small amount of students, I really got to know them well. It was almost like I was a second Mom to them. They told me things that they would never tell a regular teacher. They opened up and trusted me. It really was kind of nice. We became close. I spent a lot of one on one time helping them with their studies. Some did not want help. I got that. I tried my best, but if they refused my help...so be it. Every one would refer to my students as the "bad" kids. Maybe they were. I guess I had some that I just was not able to get through to. But, for the most part, I kept the peace. Discipline came before studies in my room. It had to be that way. Some said that I was a highly paid babysitter. No offense taken. They had no idea what really went on in my room. There was learning...just not in the traditional classroom style. I did a scrapbook layout about my job for my HOF entry. It was for the "Journal Your Passion" assignment. I am surely hoping it gets published because it is very special to me. I really put my heart into the journaling. Anyway, even though I loved my job, it was time to move on. I went to school to teach, to use my skills to help the kids to learn the importance of History, and I need to do that. History positions in our district are few and far between, so passing this up was not an option. I will miss my job, the closeness with the kids, and my Teacher's Aide very much. I need to do this, though. I believe I was meant to do this. I want to make History fun. So, I guess I have my work cut out for me this summer getting ready for those 8th graders in the fall!


So, now that I have told you way more than you wanted to know, I am off to get packing for our overnight trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. It is our first time visiting there, and our way of kicking off the summer! I can't wait. Not sure if I will have a chance to get any pictures, but I am taking my camera along just in case.


I just finished up a few scrapbook layouts for assignments, and I am looking for some new pictures to scrap. Getting more scrapping time in is one of my goals this summer, too! I've been feeling pretty scrappy lately, too! Oh, and speaking of HOF, I don't think that I ever posted this layout from my entry:

This is the one that Creating Keepsakes chose to display on their website for the HOF announcement. My beautiful nieces. This is the only one that I used a black and white photo for. I liked the soft colors with the black and white..

Hopefully, I will have some kind of pictures to share after our trip to the Lodge! See Ya Thursday!

HOF Challenge

I forgot to post my other layout for the CK HOF Challenge. The prize is a great package of MAMBI goodies, and I just know the winner will be thrilled. Click the link to join in! They are one generous company! This is the first one I created, and it was so much fun to use all of the MAMBI goodies.

I love using flowers and I often hesitate to use them on boy pages. I see a lot of people doing it, so I don't know what my big hang up is. I just have to get over it. I have yet another MAMBI page in the works just because I love their stuff now. It seems that I get to start a lot of stuff, but I don't often get to finish. Maybe later this week! Tomorrow is the last full day of the school year! Whoo Hoo! Boy, that went by fast! Next year, I will be the 8th grade Civics teacher, so it will be the start of something new for me. I have a busy summer planned....some remodeling, some lesson planning, and a trip to Disney! Ryan's first ever and mine since my Senior trip in High School! Can't wait! Enjoy your night!

Creative Sunday with MAMBI

Long time, no blog...huh? Wow, time just flies by, doesn't it? Good thing for me that I remembered my password...LOL! Today was a very productive day all around. I got the grass cut and the house cleaned. I did a nice workout on the Wii fit, and I got to scrap! My kind of day...got a lot done!

I did a layout today using all of the wonderful goodies that MAMBI contributed to our HOF prize package. As I mentioned several times before, they were super generous! I am loving their papers, and I can't believe the variety of embellishments that they have! I am officially a huge MAMBI fan!
I am into bright colors these days, and MAMBI has a lot of goodies to offer. I also used my Silhouette (once again) for the big peace sign and the title on this layout. I have another MAMBI layout done that I will be sharing tomorrow on the Creating Keepsakes website in their image gallery. All of us 2008 HOF gals will be doing monthly challenges with our goodies at the beginning of each month. CK is offering a prize for the winner of the challenge each month. Check their site tomorrow morning for layouts from all of us. I am sure it will be tons of fun, so think about joining in! Until tomorrow! Peace!

Hall of Fame Goodies!

All I can say is WOW! My Hall of Fame goodies arrived today, and I am overwhelmed...3 big boxes! The manufacturers who donated prizes for the contest were more than generous. The list includes BasicGrey, Buttons Galore, Chatterbox, Clearsnap, Cosmo Cricket, CropperWare LLC, Die Cuts With A View, Doodlebug Design, EK Success, Fancy Pants Designs, Little Yellow Bicycle, Luxe Designs, Making Memories, Me and my BIG ideas, QuicKutz, ScraPerfect, Scrappin’ Sports, Sizzix, Three Bugs in a Rug, Tinkering Ink, and 7gypsies.

Believe me when I tell you that I could scrap for years with all of the supplies and never have to shop again. Of course, I won't do that because I love to shop for scrapbooking supplies just as much as I love to scrapbook. I took the above pictures of Ryan surrounded by the goodies. He was just as excited as I was...if not more! He tore through those boxes in record time yelling "I call this!" every time he saw something that he liked, and he liked a lot! Like mother, like son. He loves being crafty! A few of my fellow Hall of Famers took the time to separate all of the goodies by manufacturer and photograph them. You can visit, Suzy's blog here and Linda's blog here to see the details of all of these goodies. They have some wonderful pictures that will blow you right away!

I have to thank CK and all of the manufacturers for their generosity. Look forward to seeing me and this years HOF gals doing challenges with each of these manufacturers goodies. I can't wait to get started!

Thank You Again!

I have to say Thank You once again for the sweet comments and e-mails on my HOF win. I am glad that you all stopped by to say HI and check out my little blog. I wish I had a new layout to share today...because I did scrap another one on Sunday. I decided, however, to keep it for a submission. You know...the whole "never seen before layout" thing. I love to share, and that rule seems to take the whole sharing thing away. BUT, I can't say that I don't agree with it. We all want to see fresh, new layouts in the mags. No one wants to buy a mag to see something that they can see for free.

I can, however, share with you one of the layouts that did not make the cut for my HOF entry. Since I can't share the layouts that I did enter, this one will have to do for now

I like the colors on this one. I have nothing against this layout...I guess I just liked other layouts better. =)

I also got a great picture of Ryan and his buddy, Devn, the other day at the park. They are just growing up so fast and both getting so handsome! Love these guys so much!

I hope everyone is enjoying their week so far. I have officially completed my University classes for the Spring semester as of yesterday....woot woot! Pretty sure I busted out a 4.0! Yeah for me! Now, let the summer begin! Have a great night!

Still here

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and the congrats in your e-mails, on the boards, and here on my blog! Everyone has been so sweet...you all have made my week. It has been a bit busy here finishing up my last assignment for my University class....yeah! Not to mention the weather has been awesome. I LOVE spring! We had our first day outside this week with the great weather...bye bye winter! It's hard to sit at a computer when the birds are chirpin' their little hearts out! I hope you are all enjoying your week. Tomorrow is Friday...woot woot! More then!

Good News All Around!

This past week was a pretty good week for me! First of all, I found out at my district's school board meeting that I will, indeed, be teaching history next year! Yeah for me! For those of you who might not know, I was hired by the district in 2006 to teach their Alternative Education program. It has been quite an interesting ride. Most of my colleagues shutter at the thought of being in a room full of kids with behavioral issues. The job, itself, is usually a stepping stone as teacher burn-out is high in Alt. Ed. I happen to really enjoy my job, but I guess I really don't know how I would feel if I stayed in the position for several years. I have lots of thoughts on the subject, so more of that later. The bottom line, for now, is I am thrilled to be able to finally teach history as I have always wanted to do. Yippee!

And, on a scrappy note, I am very excited to finally be able to share that I have been chosen as one of Creating Keepsakes 2008 Hall of Famers.

You can check out all of the talented ladies who also won here. You can click on each of the names to hear their call stories, read their answers to some questions, and see a layout from their entry. I am very excited to have been chosen and to be included with such a talented group of girls! Congrats to all of them! Very Exciting!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my good news with me!!