Happy Happy Joi Joi!

Happy Happy! Filipino American Heritage Month! Woohoo!

taking a cue from one of my fav bloggers (paislee press), I decided to tantalize you all with reveal previews. In the coming days, we'll get to know the fabulous digital arists that have come out of the woodworks to participate in Mabuhay Project's fledgling collab kit. Three more pinay digi artists who have joined in, so I'm making a new preview once all their goodies are in. Stay tuned these next 10 days for Crop Dreams big reveal - Oct. 10!

And more great news: K-Joi Designer Search is BACK! from outer space and that's a good thing! That means there are now FOUR rounds of FREEBIES gorgeously and lovingly designed by the uber talented contestants, or as they like to call themselves: Joi de Vivre. Here's the links to download, please thank and leave some lovin' on their gallery posts, vote/see past vote results.

Round 1 freebies. Please visit the gallery to thank & leave the contestants your lovin'. Click here for Round 1 Vote Results

Round 2 freebies. Please visit the gallery to thank & leave the contestants your lovin'. Click here for Round 2 Vote Results.

Round 3 freebies. Please visit the gallery to thank & leave the contestants your lovin'. Click here to place your vote > Voting Closes Oct. 6th

Round 4 freebies. Please visit the gallery to thank & leave the contestants your lovin'. Click here to place your vote >Voting Closes Oct. 6th

OH, I made a new banner...it's alright for now. Still haven't made "The One".

The SEARCH is on..

for the next K-Joi Designer. The annonymous contestants are havin' a ball rockin' their designs and their annonymous avies. Round 2 is already underway. The site is undergoing some upgrades to accomodate the growing membership! Woo hoo! So, there will be slight delay in getting the voting up. Here's the link for the voting thread: ttp://kjoistudios.com/messages/index.php/topic,4944.0.html

If you haven't already, hop on over to download a massive coordinated Round 1 mega kit, created by all the contestants. Here's the fabulouso round 1 previews. Click on it to take you to the shop to download download download!!!! :D

Oh if you noticed a little change on my blog? it's inspired by Paislee Press. She did a revamp of her blog and is having a lil' sale to go with the fun. Hop over to Oscraps to stuff your shopping cart! It took me awhile but I finally figured out how to put a third column in my blogger template. whew! I've been cleaning up, moving things around and removing useless nonsense. I'm going to really try not to over load my blog with cutsie pie stuff. I will focus on what inspires me to design, like music, fashion, and food. And what I'm designing or creating! Sounds simple, but when it comes to creative pursuits, I have no set structure! At least, I'm trying and out if my efforts I have now a cute lil' fan blinkie. My first ever fan blinkie. Hee hee hee. So, if I do happen to see you sporting it, I'll whip up a 12x12 digital scrapbook quickpage for ya! ;D Ok, I really ought to climb into bed now...it's now 10 'til 2am, and cheer on the Men's USA indoor volleyball team!

Urban Tropics

it feels so good to be finished with my last digital contest of the year. i've definitely learned alot of new techinques and learned that i can really work it on PSCS2 after participating in the Stand Up & Scrap and Scrapstreet.com. Now that I have my last entries up for the final round 4 of Scrapstreet.com's Digital Designer Contest, I can get ready for the holidays!

EYE of the Tiger!

By nature, I'm competitive. So naturally I've entered another contest in the wake of Stand Up & Scrap. This one is only four weeks long, but it's to vie for a spot as a designer at Scrapstreet.com. If you've ever heard of Cut+Paste Digital Design Tournament you'd know how excited I am to be doing the Digital Designer Contest at Scrapstreet. It's of course a lo-tech scrap version, but still is really cool! for lack of a better way to express that! Another interesting twist to this design contest, is that everything we submit each round must be offered for FREE DOWNLOAD to their registered members exclusively and we can't share the download links for the free kits until after the contest. But we can show our work according to the rules, in our blogs & websites. So, here's my Round 1 & Round 2 entries. The first round we were tasked to design 8 elements & create a preview.

For the 2nd Round we were asked to pick one of the other contestants element set & create coordinating papers, plus create a LO with the resulting collaboration kit. I just finished up my entry, zipped it & uploaded to 4shared. But I can't share the link, just yet. You can find the link & the password to download it in the Digital Design Contest gallery at scrapstreet.com. So sign up so you can watch the excitement unfold. I'm in it for the pure exhilaration of competition! Unlike the Stand Up & Scrap Contest, the Scrapstreet contest posts each contestants point standings each week. So the pressure is on. It's like you gotta look back & see who's catching up to you in a race...and also see who's in the lead ! LOL! All the designers are pumpin' out some mean [as in great] designs. But it ain't over yet! We still have TWO MORE ROUNDS! Or if you like - you can also participate in the appreciation gallery, 'cuz you might get picked up as a creative team member. click on the FAB4 preview thumbnail to see the .gif flip through the other 3 pages in the set. And the next one is the LO i submitted for Round2's - 2nd requirement:

This LO is to commemorate my hubby's dad...I call him DAD too. :) He's a Vietnam & Desert Storm Veteran and he walked/ran his first 10k (6.2 miles) along with the whole Carranza family during the Tempe New Times 10k on Veterans Day just this past weekend. He's 65! and he was still wanting to run/walk some more! Same thing with mom - she was only a few minutes behind us with Ron. Ron is pumped to RUN next year! I was really inspired by Ron's parents' gusto for staying fit and active. They've change the meaning of retirement for me. It just goes to show that you gotta "keep on keepin' on" - if you wanna live a happy long life. mmmmhmmmm that's right! Mabuhay Baby!

Toot! Toot! for "twenty seconds later."

When I got the email from Merek telling me that I had recieved honorable mention, I was ecstatic! I really shreiked! My hubby didn't know what the commotion was all about. But he was so happy for me. So was the rest of my family. But I was not suprised that my dad's expectations were not met...When I told him over a long distance phone call to the Phillipines, he simply replied, "Yeah, but you didn't win." He always says what you don't expect. And I guess I get that quality from him too.

But thank goodness my mom balanced me out with optimism & a cheerful heart, because...Well, ya know what...I'm just going to go ahead right here and toot my own horn! Even though I didn't win the big fat juicy first prize, it's a great feeling to have one of my submissions recognized among 800+ layouts! The BigiDigi contest at scrapbook.com really got my creative juices flowing. Honestly, I did more layouts in one month for the contest, than I ever had done in the past two years! I didn't realize how competitive the digital scrapbooking world really is. This just seals it for me. I'm absolutely hooked.

Here's a link to the announcement page with all the other gorgeous winning work:

http://scrapbook.com/blog/view/84629.html

Ron & I always love spending time with our friends' children and our neices & nephews. We like to think of it as parent-training for that "someday" when we are blessed with another chance at parenthood and having our own family grow.

I have to thank my super guapo & funny hubby Ron, who's facial expressions are the source of much of my happiness. Margie & Tom Fooshee for "lending" us their lil' princesses for these snap shots. Without these pix, the layout would have no cuteness factor to play up! Here's a link to this layout in my sb.c gallery, where you can find info. on the products i've used to make this page and see other sb.c members' comments. http://scrapbook.com/galleries/88021/view/903229/-1/20/1.html