Last part of the October progressive challenges

I have three more days until I am flying and the whole house is a mess. I am almost done packing my bags, but I still have to pack some boxes my mom will send next year. Thus, I will be more than  short and just show you the final page in the October progressive scrap and hope to be able to take part in some challenges in December.Wish me luck and pray for me and my family. Thank you all.

step 3 and some more...

I have step 3 of the progressive challenge done:

it's way too late for me now, but I'll be back with some news and maybe a new layout tomorrow. Stay safe!

step 2

I have the second step of the DSM progressive challenge done and ready for display. I also have some new post on in my other corner of the blog :) See you there!

NEW Blog!

I have decided to give up my personal website because right now I cannot afford the housing costs. I will however keep my domain name and hope hat sometimes in the future I will be able to put my web page back up. In the mean time I decided to start a second blog - the twin sister of Mariance's corner. The new blog is called Mariance's other corner. This is where I plan to post my poems, prose, photography and designs. Mariance's corner will continue to be my place to showcase my digital scrapping and other layouts I will be making.

If you have the time, please take a moment and visit my other blog too and tell me what you think. Thank you.

Mariance's other corner

trying again for a giveaway

There are a lot of giveaways on the internet and I stumbled onto one I'd like to win.

This is what I could win if I am lucky enough. You do not have to buy anything or do anything to get a chance to win this except post a picture on your blog and spread the word. You can find more information about this giveaway at Tiddly Inks.

There are a lot of ways I I could use this giveaway in so right now I am dreaming with my eyes wide open. If you don't want this giveaway, please keep your fingers crossed for me.:)

something dear to me

For one of the challenges I did, I had to do something related to birthdays. I didn't want to do one in particular, so I decided to do them all. Here is the result:

almost done

I'm almost done with challenges for this month. I already have 17 points so I only need 3 more to get to the 20 I need. I have the first step f the progressive challenge, which means I will have 18 points after I complete this challenge. I am also planning to work on another challenge and with a bit of luck that one will be worth 2 points.

This challenge is made with my pictures and the DSM August BAK.

Numbers again

1 year.

1 blog.

6 months.

100 published posts.
22 countries from where the blog was viewed at least once.
167 visitors on the blog.

22 days until going home.

58 layout for 58 challenges at DSM.

93 comments on the layouts.

Thousands of pictures taken with my camera.

Too many years since I haven't seen my best friend.

6 years since I graduated university and got my tattoo.

4 and a half since I am a MOM.

Almost 4 years since I said I DO.

Too many days since I saw my love.

Less than a month till we are moving in our house.

1 dog - ordered.

Few things still left to do where I live now.

2 plane tickets.

One new life together.

I've already said too much so I am just going to say one more thing:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLERTA! - you are always in my heart, the sister I've never had. I love you.

As for my newest layout, I made it with Jen C Designs' kit - Memory Lane.

will miss WINTER

I know it's not even mid October, but I did a new layout and used some of the few pictures I have with Alex playing in the snow. I know I am not going to miss winter and all its cold, but I have to admit that there is a special something about a white Christmas and I know Alex will miss playing with snow although she is not crazy about putting too many clothes on. The ideal would be to wear her swimming suit and yet play in the snow without catching a cold. Until I figure out how to do that, here is my layout:

3 more challenges

I've just finished the added inspiration challenge, so I am left with three more challenges for the month. Early month this one because I have to worry about packing and sorting through my things. I still have some things here, but they go into two categories: things I have to take with me and things I can ship next year. I am also helping my mom sort through her things and making sure our things did not mix. Alex had a cold this week again so she is on a forced vacation. I still plan to take he two more weeks to preschool so that she spends some more time with her little friends, but she can't go unless she is feeling better.

Now here is my layout and although I used papers from the OCT BAK, i played a little more with the blending modes. Here is the result:

Halloween...

I know it is still early to talk about Halloween, but this year I don't think Alex will make it to the party. Reason being, that Halloween is the night we start our journey so we will be busier saying good-bye and making sure we packed everything than thinking of a costumed party. This being said, I know she has a great time last year at her first Halloween in preschool and I know she liked her costume too. I know I spent hours cutting all the butterflies and sticking them on her outfit so that she could be the Butterfly princess.

Quick one

Alex is sick. I took her to the E.R. earlier today. She got a shot. She cried a little. Fever is down. She is sleeping now. A restless sleep. She likes to feel me close to her. I worked a little. I have a new layout. Followed instructions from "Scrap this way". See result:

Scraplifting

I like the Scraplift challenge. It give you the opportunity to choose your favorite layout from a certain member of the forum and do your version of it. Oftentimes, while I am browsing through other designers' layouts, I'm thinking " Neat idea! - my photos would look great in a similar template... I should try this sometimes." Scraplifting someone gives me the opportunity to do exactly that and show some appreciation to a designer's work.

This month's designer chosen for the Scraplift challenge is Jacque aka play4school. She has a lot of great layouts, but I liked this one in particular:

and here is my take on it, using the DSM October BAK:

numbers, days, points on the list

These days it's all about numbers, days and points on lists. I still have quite a large to do list with a lot of points on it. Alex still has 13 days of school, I've just shipped 5 boxes to our new home, people from 20 countries visited my blog, I'm getting close to 100 posts, and so on. Also I am trying to get my 20 points in the DSM challenges, but this is not something new for you. Anyways, I have a new layout ready and hopefully will have the time to work on the next one.

lyrics challenge with a twist

For this month we have to do a song that has a number in it or in the title. One of the songs I like a lot is Will Smith's song - Just the Two of Us.

Here is my take on it:

First one for October

It's already October and I can't believe I am getting ready to move to another country. I already shipped 5 boxes and I will have a bit of extra luggage too. It's amazing how many things one can get in a few years and how difficult it is sometimes to let go of some of your memories. Well, it's not only my things I have to take care of, but Alex's too. She is only 4 and "a quarter" - as she says - but she "needs" her toys, her books, her things. It's okie, she is still my baby girl and since she is the smallest she gets away with a lot of things.

Anyways, I know this month I will make all the DSM challenges I need for my $5 GC, but I am not sure this will happen starting next month since I will have a lot of things to do: unpack, help Alex adjust to a new country, a new language, a new home, etc. We will take it one step at a time and when she will feel comfortable she will go to preschool too.

Enough about me and my brat. This blog should be more about layouts and hopefully soon about some freebies. In the mean time, here is my first October layout:

one more to go

I told you I've been buzy buzy like a bee these days. Here is another layout I did for the leaving a legacy challenge. I wanted something simple and since the layout was about Who I Am, I decided to put a picture of me and one of the poems I wrote. The poem is called Me and somebody else and I wrote it while in university. I liked this challenge because it gave me the possibility to to combine the present with the past - new picture, old poem.

I still need to do one more layout in order to get my 20 points and thus a $5 gift card and I am going to do the technique challenge. I didn't write in a long time the forum I do these challenges in, but I guess by now all the people visiting my blog know I am talking about the challenges from Digi Scrapbook Mania or simply called DSM. So if you like what you see, you should know it's all done with their kits and that there are some wonderful designers there and a lot of fun challenges.

And here is my last layout for the month of September:

Welcome October, my last month before moving to a new home!

working on the last 4 challenges

I have four more challenges to do til the end of the month which is in two days!!! I've actually just finished the added inspiration one so I have three more to go. This means enjoying my work, commenting on my layouts and pictures please and not too much blah-blah from me. I'll have a bit more time to chat and all when I am done with these challenges and I'm done sending my things. Both should happen by the weekend so keep your fingers crossed so I can have a little bit more time this weekend.

final step in the progressive challenge

Quick post tonight. I got a lot of the things on my list done so right now my to-do list has only three items on it and these I'll deal with tomorrow hopefully. Right now I have another challenge ready so here you go:

working hard to get my points

There's a double countdown happening now: 5 weeks till I am moving and 5 days till the end of the month. Right now it's 1:30 am here and I am working on the things that have the deadline in 5 days: the DSM challenges. I have the third step of the progressive challenge done and will post it below and will come back with other layouts as soon as possible. So keeping in mind that I have a lot of things to do for both my countdowns I will keep it short and show you my layouts.

And here is my fot challenge too:

it's all happening these days

Today I got a call that I have to ship my boxes early next week. Am I ready packing? NO! But I do know what will go in the last box I am planning to pack. I still don't have the box yet, but should get it soon. So now apart from getting a box and packing it, I have to make a bunch of calls and arrange everything.

Today I also found out, the package from hubby arrived, so I'll have a bunch of space bags to fill this weekend and get my plane luggage ready too. At least I need to have an idea of how much luggage I will have. I still have to pay for the fare to the airport, but the most important things are solved: we got the tickets and the passports and we are almost done with the paperwork.

I still have a lot of things to do and I've just realized it's the last week of September, and I am only half way through with the points I need for my $5GC. My husband keeps laughing at me when he hears how hard I work for this gift card and how badly I want it... 

Alex has a cold so instead of being in school which is good for both of us, I have to keep her at home which usually means trouble and more trouble. And on top of it my mom was sick too, so for the last two days I've been running between the two of them making sure they have everything they need.

I felt so tired tonight, that all I wanted to do was go to bed and have a nice dream, but I had to restart the laptop and send my hubby an e-mail with the shopping list we still have to cover and then I decided I'd better sit down and do another DSM challenge and try to get my 20 points for the GC. So here is the layout I did tonight and I'll try to come back tomorrow with another round of layouts. As always, I used the Septemer BAK kit.

one more challenge done

So I managed to finish another challenge. I usually do them in the order that they appear in the "keep track of your challenges" thread, thus the next one on the list was the Scrap lift challenge. This month the layouts we could scrap lift belong to mycau.

This is the layout I decided to scrap lift:

And this is my take on it:

I used the DSM September BAK.

definitely not me...

It might be that the school and kindergarten start in September - where I live that is, but I sure don't feel like working too hard these days. I only managed to do 2 challenges for DSM and as an excuse I have the fact that we are organizing and reorganizing and sorting through things where we live now. Yes, I am getting ready to move to my new home, which is not close to where I live right now and I have my things and my kid's things to go through and then help my mom arrange her house before we leave. I already mentioned where I am going, but if this is the first time you are visiting my blog, I will just say this: to get to my new home I travel for 22 hours and change two cars and two planes... YES, it is that far away. So now you know why this month might be considered my lazy month in terms of challenges. And I have no idea what will happen in October and the rest of the year since I am sure I will definitely not have too much time to stay in front of the computer. But I will take it one day at a time and Now I have the second step of the DSM Progressive challenge:

busy but not with challenges

This month I seem to be too lazy to do my DSM challenges. We are half way through and I've hardly managed to make 2 and a half layouts. Well I only posted one and a half , but I have one more ready now. I am using the DSM BAK September and this layout is for the template challenge. I used some pictures with Alex's trip with the famous Mocanita train from Maramures, Romania. It was a really nice half a day we spent in that train and had a lot of fun. The scenery is amazing and we were lucky to have a sunny day. As usual I took a lot of pictures and showed them to some of my friends - I know I promised to post a few here too, but I hardly find the time for the challenges, let alone to post re-sized pictures. So anyways, if you every come to Romania, make sure you take the Mocanita train.

Busy, busy like a bee....

It's almost mid September and I am still packing and weighting things and making thousands calls... and somewhere in between all these I am trying to complete my DSM challenges for this month. Here is the first one:

September progressive challenge at DSM

I've almost missed the deadline for this challenge, so I started to freak out and although I am not extremely satisfied with the first step - I hope the next steps will help me fix what I messed up in the first one. The papers used for this challenge and all the elemnts are from the BAK September DSM kit.

This is what I call a great giveaway

Today I stumbled upon a great giveaway: 1000 6x6 sheets of paper and the person giving it all away will ship it anywhere in the world, so this is a chance for all the paper scrappers and card makers from other countries than the United States. If you blog about this giveaway you get a chance at winning the 1000 papers and if you do not have a blog, you still have a chance of winning 200 papers and some other goodies by leaving a comment on the blog. Yes, I will give you the blog right now and let you have your chance at it, but you must hurry because the giveaway closes Friday September the 3rd. The name of the blog is A thousand sheets of paper and the particular post about it is 1000 sheets for A thousand sheets...

And just to give you a glimpse of what you can win, here is a little photo with some of the papers:

For more information and to enter the giveaway go to the blog.

2 more DSM challenges left

I am trying to finish the DSM August challenges before the month is done and also catching up with my things after the one week vacation I had. I know I already promised once that I'll come back with pictures and some stories from this trip, but please bear with me and let me finish everything that has a deadline.:)

Now I have the lyric challenge done and will come back in a little bit with another layout for the technique challenge. For the lyric challenge I used the Boys, boys, boys kit by Roseytoes Designs.

Back with the technique challenge where I am actually still trying to figure out how to use different shades in the same layout. Anyways, for this layout I use the August BAK kit and decided to show a little piece of Romania - a place I wished I knew about before and take my husband there for a visit. The place is a Monastery and it is situated in the north of the country. Who knows, maybe one day we'll come back and try to visit as much as possible in Romania.

MIA and a quick layout

I am on vacation till Monday and computer time is very limited. I will be back next week with a more extensive account of what happened and where we've been, but I just wanted to post the final step of the DSM progressive challenge. The final step says:  Title, date and journal on your page.

So here is my layout in its final version:

Leaving a legacy again

Once again it is time for the leaving a legacy challenge from DSM. This time it had to be a page about someone important in our lives and we had to have 70% of the page journaling. Here is the journaling from mine- just in case it is too difficult to read from the layout.

a. Conceived in U.S., you traveled safely in my tummy both to Romania and Jamaica. You gave me a lot of

trouble the first four months of my pregnancy, but it was all worth it and I’d do it again. I wanted you to be

a boy, but you decided to be a girl so I switched from Alexandru to Alexandra and gave you my best friend’s

name Blerta. Thus you ended up with an international name, an Albanian name and an English family name.

b. When you were 13 months old I had to go to work and be away from you for almost five months. Those

were some of the toughest moments from my life and after that summer I promised myself to be near you as

much as possible and see all the good or not so good things that you do.

c. You are now 4 years and 3 months old and you act like you know it all. You ask to be treated as a miss and yet you love to play with cars. You ask to wear dresses and have your sun glasses match your outfit and yet you don’t take care of your things. You like to go out for walks and yet you want to take a cab because “your feet are tired.” You want to wear perfume and yet you climb on anything you can. You like to eat ice-cream and yet it is too cold for you. You like to tell me I love you and yet you do things you know will upset me. You like to do it all and yet I have to remind you that you are only 4!

Daily Downloads

There are several blogs where you can collect free kits just by simply following thier blogs, forums or store and downloading the daily piece of the kit. These daily downloads are usually offered for about 24 hours so most of the time there is enough time to download the bit no matter where you are. However if you miss a day or two you have the chance of getting it later if you join the forum and post a layout. For more details you have to read the terms from each daily download that you are hunting. I am following the DSDI daily downloads which start today and the Gotta Pixel daily downloads. DSDI Daily download is Splash - a ten part kit created by JenC Designs. The kit is also available for purchase at the DSDI store. Gotta Pixel has four designers offering weekly daily downloads. the week from August 15-21 -is Litabells Designs week. She offers a kit called Chocolate Overload.

Today I have step free from the DSM progressive scrap challenge: Add another frame. Attach your framed and matted pictures in some way. Add 4 or 5 more elements and stitches (these are separate from the attachment items). And this is my layout so far:

more DSM challenges

Here is my embellishment challenge. I did the layout making a little road from the mandatory element we had to use and using the Spring has Sprung kit from RoseyToes Designs. The photo was taken today and Alex is holding a little clay frog.:)

I use the same photo for the added inspiration challenge because I really like the way this photo came out and she looks almost like the Disney's princess and her frog:). Anyways, for this challenge I used the BAK August kit.

back with the scap this way challenge

I was telling you about this challenge in my previous post and how I did not know what to do with it and yet almost messed up my font challenge because of it. Anyways, here are thy lyrics I am going to use:

Wise men say, only fools rush in.
But I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay? Would it be a sin?
I can't help falling in love with you

As the river flows gently to the sea
Darling so we go, some things were meant to be
Take my hand take my whole life too
'Cause i can't help falling in love with you

We all know the song sang by UB40 and this is my layout for the word FALL-ing - the layout is created using the kit Happiness is... by Modern June.

back to DSM challenges

While trying to do my scrap this way challenge I kept changing things and did not know what I wanted to do with it so... I simply put it away and started the font challenge. The idea for this layout came from browsing through the BAK August kit and seeing all those cute butterflies. Of course, none of them as cute as mine - Alex was a red butterfly at one of her preschool shows. There were two other butterflies - a white one and a yellow one, but they were both played by boys - thus she was the only girl butterfly. Now while I was working on this challenge, my mind was still trying to figure out something for the scrap this way challenge. What's the big deal you might ask? Well the challenge for scrap this way sounds something like this: your challenge this month is FALL....your LO can be about fall, your elements can be "falling" off the page, your titling can have the word fall in it, the colors can be fall themed....how ever you want but I must feel fall either the season or word from your LO!!!

So while I was working for the font challenge - where I made a mistake... good thing I didn't post the layout yet; it hit me what to do with the word FALL  - cheesy or not all I have now in my head is the UB40 song "I can't help FALLing in love with you..." So, yes, this is what I am going to do for the scrap this way challenge.

Now back to the font challenge, I did my butterfly layout and even wrote a little title on the page so that I could use the required font. What did I do? I used a combination of other two fonts.:) well I guess I am falling in love more and more with my husband and can't put my things in order. Thus realizing my mistake while writing this post I changed the font and now I have two versions of the same layout. The first one is the good one:)

Quick challenge for another forum and will return to DSM challenges

This is a challenge made with all the papers and elements provided by six different designers all of whom create for Crafty Scraps. The prize for this challenge is another kit created by them. If you want to know more about this challenge and how you can win a free kit, please check their forum. In the mean time here is my layout using a photo I took the first day of preschool with my little one.

August color challenge and more

Working on more DSM challenges. The august color challenge is based on the newly releases kit For the boss created by Z Pink Boudoir Designs I am still not confident enough in making my own mini kit using a color palette, so doing a new layout with her kit was a lot of fun.

Last layout for today

OKie, last layout for today is the layout i did for the DSM Scraplift challenge. I had to choose a layout made by g6scrapped and redo it my way.

 The layout I decided to do is:


















My take is a layout created with a DSM August new release kit Boys, Boys, Boys created by Roseytoes Designs.

Let the layouts roll...

Not too much blah blah here. I just want to post my second step of the DSM Progressive scrap challenge so that I can start working on a new challenge. 

The second step said: Matt and frame of your pictures and place them vertically on your layout. Blend 1 picture into your plain background. Add a border horizontally on your page and add 5-10 like elements (buttons, stars, hearts, etc) on your page. 

Here is my BAK August challenge. I used two mini kits created by Paper Planes and Z Pink Boudoir Designs.

Giveaways... and 1$ sale

Well not mine, but I will tell you where you can get some great giveaways for your paper scrapping and card making. Searching through today's freebies, I stumbled upon a great blog, JLJ Designs Crafting Blog, and she has a lot of freebies you can download too. Apart from her candy, as she calls it, she also has the links to several other blog who offer paper scrapping and card making products as giveaways. All you have to do is to become a follower of the certain blog, post a comment on it and if you have a blog, blog a little about it. It's just as easy as 1,2,3... and you have the chance to win a wonderful gift. Good luck to all. Am happy I found this blog and I hope I win.:)

The $1 sale is available, still, at DSM. Of course i took advantage of it yesterday and bought quite a few wonderful kits; enough to keep me busy this week and let me get my points for the $5GC.:) So I should get more and more layouts posted these days, as I complete my challenges.

My new desktop - is a challenge

I started putting up on my  desktop all the new layouts I make. So now I've just finished a desktop challenge for the DSDI forum. I used their Tutti Frutti kit and there is the outcome, a bit too colorful I think, but I used the template offered and wanted to see what I would end up with. Who knows, I might like it better tomorrow:) It happened to me before that I didn't like too much a layout and it got to be one I liked very much later....

blast from the past

This is the DSDI challenge where you get to scrap about your pet if you have one or any other friend's pet. I did a page about one of my brother's dogs called Muki. My brother and his wife had him for a few years and then one day the people that were working on the house left the gate opened and the little dog went for a walk. We all looked for Muki for days in a row and they even offered a reward, but the little dog could not be found. We suspect that someone took him and decided to keep him instead of giving it back. Muki was very dear to all of us and I am sure he is now watching over my brother's dogs from the dogs' heaven. They also had a German Shepard called Athos who died just recently so now they only have one of Muki's grand-kid and they will buy a new puppy soon. Anyways here is the page and may the both rest in peace and guard the gate to heaven.

For this layout I used papers and elements from two kits:

Jen C Designs - Spring Fling

Modern June - Happiness is...