New Candy + Stitch-less-ness

The other day I was craving M&Ms and learned that you can now personalize them with your own photos and messages! They're having a buy 2 bags, get 1 bag free deal right now. So, I uploaded a few of my Bizarre graphics and this is the sample of what it would look like: How cool is that?! But, I shouldn't be gorging myself on sweets (since I have gestational diabetes). I figured the next best thing for me to do, is to make my own sugar-free candy-coated treats..."digitally" of course! With Halloween just around the corner, you'll enjoy sprinkling your newest Halloween scrapbook pages with these yummy goodies.

Bizarre Candy Pack

Bizarre Candy Word Pack

Bizarre Candy Frames
Bizarre Candy Borders

Not only is Halloween a week away...so is a major milestone for my pregnancy...I'll be 37 weeks prego on Halloween Eve! Therefore, from now up to the day after Halloween I'm offering these new Bizarre Candy Packs for 37% off when you use this special blog coupon code:

bizarrecandy37

Get the Bizarre Candy 4pack instead of the individual packs and save another $1 ;)
Now for me to brag a little. I won a prize from DueMaternity! I never win anything! It arrived Thursday, and I was thinking it was from my friend Adie, but nope. I actually won a gDiaper starter kit (which is perfect because we're going to gDiaper our baby and needed 2 more diapers! Awesome!) That's not all, we also received the newest What to Expect book! Even though we're heading into the home stretch of this pregnancy, this book also has breastfeeding and postpartum info. (layout credit: Desert Botanicals v2 and ck ali's hand font.

layout credit: Desert Botanicals v2 and ck ali's hand font.

So, I want to share with you the 10% savings code they also gave me for being their winner! Here's the code:

MarissaC

This code is valid for a year only on purchases of $25 or more at duematernity.com only.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, my friends' package finally arrived yesterday from Virginia! What a sweet way to spend my 1st day as a "stitch-less" prego while simultaneously celebrating our 36th week milestone! What a strange feeling to have come this far and to know that there is no longer that tiny stitch holding baby snug inside! Now, we have to let nature take it's course. layout credit: Desert Botanicals v2 and ck ali's hand font.

Well, I've got a couple K-joi Studio Collaboration kits I'm working on, almost time to wrap up the Crop Dreams fundraiser and I have a handful of my own products that I'm scrambling to get up into the store before baby arrives. I have a sneaking suspicion that when baby arrives - I won't have the time of day to do any designing! So, that's all for now folks! Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!

Updated TOU

Find CACTUSmango Designs @ K-Joi Studios + Zazzle

PregoBrain + Boo Baby

With baby-birth fast approaching (possibly could happen anywhere in the next 3wks-7wks! oh my!) my husband and I have been busy busy busy getting ready. He's assembled the packn'play, the bouncer, the stroller, set up the closet, installed the infant car seat, set up the diaper changing table, laundry...we're almost all ready to go. I know it may sound easy for me, watching him work away, while I'm on bed rest, but it's not! I am going nutso wanting to NEST too! There's only so much satisfaction I can get from internet window shopping for the best deals.

So today, I thought I'd put up some new Halloween baby gear in my zazzle shop. These are inspired by my Bizarre digital stamps/brushes at Kjoistudios. Boo Baby Onsie - Bat wings + Boo Baby Onsie - Spidey Pumpkin They turned out pretty darn cute and they're printed on organic cotton to boot.

The horror story is that I had an attack of PregoBrain and deleted half my zazzle shop! arrrrgh! I was just trying to move them to another folder, but hit delete instead! doh!

Gone are my best selling products: my 'Eclectic Black' slim business card, my multi-lingual 'thanks' postcard and the funky fun 'Urban Island Keds'!!!!

oh, it hurts! forever gone are all the sweet commentary/ratings by fans + customers. (deep sigh) But, I will just have to try to recreate them, someday...

------------------------------------------
updated: Sat. Oct. 03, 2009 5:12pm.

phew! it took some 'doing', but I have successfully recreated my Eclectic Black + White skinny card. There may be some variation to the original of course, because I was referring to a super small image that I had. Why I didn't save the original is beyond me. Anyway, it's back in my zazzle shop. HERE woohoo!

LAST CHANCE!!! for Crop Dreams Charity Kit

Hello Scrappers!

So far, we've raised just $36 USD for Opportunity House. Thank you so much for supporting Mabuhay Project since October ‘08. We'd love, however, to get the donation higher. We have a goal of $200.


So, if you can, we would love it if you could tell everyone about our Crop Dreams Charity kit. If we get the word out to the entire scrapbooking community, we believe we can raise a lot more this last month. This October 2009 is our last chance to make an impact!


Please remember, with your purchase of the full collaboration, you will recieve the Crop Dreams Alpha Set for FREE!

(Yes! I want to support Opportunity House Today with Crop Dreams!)

Crop Dreams Charity Collaboration Kit is packed full of all the essentials you need to scrap a whole bunch of beautiful pages. There is so much in here you will love it!

Crop Dreams includes: 18 gorgeous papers, six awesome 12x12 quick pages, 10 beautiful bracket pages, 7 unique word arts ("flourish", "flourish.thrive.grow", "hip!hip!hurray!", "mabuhay!", "proud of you", "sumisibol", "U Crack Me Up")

and 53 tropical fun elements, including: 1 decorated tri-bamboo frame, 1 tied-branch frame, 1 heliconia flower, 1 plant stem, 1 glittered nipa hut, 1 rice stalk (green, yellow, tan), 1 brown vase, 1 watermelon (as a stamp + sticker), 1 watermelon slice (as a stamp + sticker), 1 multi-colored border, 1 pink flower, 3 different leaves, 1 branch with leaves, 1 nut, 1 stone, 1 knotted string, 1 twisted ribbon (in green + in olive), 1 cluster of water drops, 3 glass bead buttons (flower, leaf, wood), 1 green bullnose clip, 1 tropical clipped cluster, 1 brown leather flower, 1 ripe mango, 1 cluster of painted wooden flowers, 1 stapled olive ribbon, 1 pink sash, 1 string of shells, 1 sash with clustered elements, 1 plain wooden flower, 2 wooden "tsinelas" slipper key-chains, 1 lightwash border 12x12 overlay, 1 mango morning 12x12 overlay, 1 mango traffic jam 12x12 overlay, 1 sticker of a string of sampaguita flowers, 1 sticker of a sampaguita flower cut-out, 1 plumeria sticker, 1 plain brown hut, 4 "gumamela" hibiscus flowers, 1 brown with green striped ribbon, 1 "go mango" tropical cluster, 1 multi-colored "community" of huts, 1 cut-open coconut, 1 "coco flora" tropical cluster (2 styles), 1 fiesta "carabao" water-buffalo head, and 1 leather+wooden flower cluster.

Plus, with your purchase of Crop Dreams Charity Collab, you will also recieve the Crop Dreams Alpha Set for free. Crop Dreams Alpha set includes a natural weave texture and a subtly painted version. It consists of a lowercase alphabet, numbers 0-9 and the following punction { } , ! . ? *You may also purchase just the Crop Dreams Alpha Set here > http://kjoistudios.net/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_75&products_id=2238

More about Crop Dreams: This is a beautiful, fresh collaboration kit originally released in October 2008 in celebration of Filipino American History Month - and will retire at the end of October 2009.  Inspired by the agriculture, nature and island culture of The Philippines, Crop Dreams was lovingly made by several Filipina digital designers from around the globe under MabuhayProject.blogspot.com, to benefit Opportunity House - a Pearl S. Buck Foundation International (www.psbl.org) program that helps children in Asian countries, like The Philippines.

To learn about the designers who collaborated on this charity kit and for more layout ideas please visit http://www.mabuhayproject.blogspot.com/

Crop Dreams Collaborators: 
CACTUSmango Designs - Mars Carranza, Aimee Designs - Ma.Aimee Suarez, Lorie M. Designs - Lorie Manlapaz, Bev O'Loughlin Designs, teysT - Tes P. Tirol and Dianeskie - Diane Mirabeles.

All Proceeds of Crop Dreams and Crop Dreams Alpha set (minus PayPal fees) will be donated online to Opportunity House of the Pearl S. Buck Foundation

International in celebration of Filipino American Heritage Month. Crop Dreams and Crop Dreams Alpha set are for Personal Use Only.


If you would like to donate directly to Opportunity House, please visit http://www.psbl.org/.

Celebrate every day.

It wasn't too long ago, that I wondered if I'd ever make it to the third trimester.   Now, thankfully here we are, heading into week 31.  Every day we get closer to meeting our newest family member, is cause for a celebration in our house.  

So, while we anticipate the arrival of our little one, and as the holidays roll steadily near, I was inspired to create a "word cloud" that is non-denominational.  This way it can be used for all family/celebration themed events in your life.

Word Cloud - Celebrate is available now in my CACTUSmango shop at K-Joi Studios.

Here I've used the multi-colored Celebrate word cloud for our newest family portrait.

Thank you for visiting my blog.  Please enjoy 15% off  the product "Word Cloud - Celebrate" by entering this coupon code at check out:  cmdblog_celebrate (Valid from sept 13-14 only.)

Click here to visit my CACTUSmango shop at K-Joi Studios.

A Lovely Place to Be

Music + Fashion are great sources of inspirations for me in general, when I get ready to design a new scrapbook kit. I love acoustical artists, especially ones with a slightly raspy voice. I recently learned about Melissa Polinar, while perusing vids on YouTube. I am loving her lyrics and her vocal quality.

Melissa Polinar - Lovely Place

With a little one on the way, I've been intensely looking for the perfect diaper bag, among other things. While this may not be meant for diapers, it's definitely one lovely tote. I'm especially loving the color palette.

Artist's Tote - Blue Motif @ Anthropologie

So with a pretty color scheme and joyful lyrics in my mind I made this mini kit: Lovely Place. It's feminine yet still neutral enough for scrapping pages of your every day moments. Lovely Place is not really a location themed kit, it's more of how I'm feeling at this moment. Having been blessed with another chance at motherhood, to carry a miracle inside, having this little one just take her time and grow at her own pace, and having a wonderful man to experience and share this happiness with...to me, it's a lovely place to be, even if I have to spend it bed-ridden! ;)

I hope you are smitten by this mini kit Lovely Place and it's 6 coordinating 12x12 quick pages.

Here's one of the pages I made with Lovely Place. Visit my {gallery} @ kjoi studios to see others and to share your Lovely Place creations.

Also, for kjoi studios newsletter subscribers, I made 5 Lovely Place freebies for August. So, be sure to sign up {here} if you're not already and enjoy!

Bump in Progress

Boy, my blog's dusty! I actually designed a quick page and digi scrapped for the first time in months!!! And yes folks, that's my bump in progress...the reason I've been away from the blogosphere & all of digiworld. That little growing package is very delicate...such that, I've had surgery, bed rest, weekly injections and tons of ultrasounds since my last post in March. We're just living it day by day, week by week.

fonts used in [bump] title:  Tahoma and Desryel.

But, the joy of finding out that baby's a lil' girl, has brought me back to the drawing board with a fresh new goody to start the day.  This kit is based on the first ever digital scrapbook kit that I designed, called Desert Botanicals Collection Volume 1. That was a mouthful of a name! LOL!  My 2009 version Desert Botanicals v2, has been reborn into a sweet little 5x7 quick page album set.  Desert Botanicals v2 is inspired by the colors of the southwestern landscape and the surprisingly exotic looking flora that bloom in the desert.  The floral patterns on the paper are based off of the Mexican Bird of Paradise.

Desert Botanicals v2 5x7 Album is available exclusively at K-Joi Studios.

This 5x7 quickpage is a sample of the album set above and will be offered as a freebie on K-Joi Studios Blog sometime this week.  Please check K-Joi Studios Blog to snag this quick page ;)