Tomorrow's the FINAL DAY and EVERYTHING'S $1.00

Yep, you read that right. My store at the fabulous 9th&Bloom will be closing tomorrow at midnight. As I retire from designing, I want to leave you all with one final, amazing, blow-your-mind sale: EVERYTHING in my store is $1.00.

Insane, right? Once again, I just want to mention how thankful I am to all of my team members, my amazing store owners at 9th&B, my fellow designers, and my customers. It's been an amazing two years and I'm so happy to have been able to share it all with you. THANK YOU!!!

Lots of love,

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Memorial Day.....

Tara here with some thoughts on Memorial Day!

Here in the states we are celebrating Memorial Day. There will be people visiting graves to pay respects, there will be cook outs, there will be patriotic songs played, American flags flown and time spent with family. I hope and pray that all my American friends takes the time to thank a soldier. If you agree with wars or not.....the bottom line is that soldier is putting their life on the line to protect our country. They are brave, patriotic and heroic.

On this Memorial Day, I will also be shopping!!!!! Sales are my very best friend. Jennifer is having the best sale of all! Check this out!!!!!



You better hurry! This is only good for today and tomorrow!!!! After that, all of these beautiful designs will go away! I know, I am sad too. I tend to shop when I am sad, so it works out. :)

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These are a few of my favorite kits....

Since Jennifer is retiring at the end of this month {*tear*}, I thought I'd showcase a couple of my favorite kits of hers. 

I love this bundle! Since I have both a boy and a girl, I've gotten a LOT of use out of these kits. They are also available separately.

The other kit I really really love {and it's so hard to pick favorites!} is this one:

It's perfect for scrapping those "off" days that seem to happen every so often. 

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to Jennifer's store and take advantage of her fabulous sale!

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No More First Looks!

Obviously, since Jennifer is retiring {so sad!}, there will be no more First Looks from her. With that said, have you checked out her retirement sale, yet? Holy smokes! 

Be sure to take advantage of this fabulous sale because when Jen closes her store, the products will be gone for good!

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Desktop Freebie

Hey Scrappers- My apologies for the lateness of my post. We had some storms blow through my area today, and in doing some repair work, they cut a line running to our internet provider, so I had no access most of the day.

This is going to be the final desktop freebie (for now) for Jennifer Fox Designs. I am REALLY hoping she decides to come back after a short break... It sure has been fun working with Jen, and getting to create beautiful layouts using her awesome kits! Make sure that you head over to her shop at 9th&Bloom and get in on her retirement sale.. 65% off everything in her store through May 31st! Make sure you get everything before it is gone for good!!

So without further ado, here is the desktop freebie. I created it using Jen's kit, One of those days.. I love this kit. I love the funky colors, and all the great elements. It is a pretty versatile kit. Make sure you pick this one up!! To download the file please click here

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Tidbit Tuesday & More

Good afternoon all, Kara here with Tuesday's Tidbit. Summer is just around the corner, that means summer break for our kiddo's! You know how it goes, they drive us crazy because they are bored, and so on. A friend of mine pointed out a very cool blog to me. Positively Splendid I LOVE this blog. They have so many cool summer ideas to do with your kids, and so much more. Be sure to stop by the blog and check out all their cool idea. One of my favorites is Sponge Water Bombs totally doing this with my little man as soon as we can.

Just a reminder, Jennifer is having a HUGE retiring sale, on now until May 31st. Be sure to stop by here 9th&B Shoppe and pick up your favorites by Jennifer. We are gonna miss Jennifer, she is such a wonderful lady to work for, and we hope once things calm down she will be back. That is all for today, enjoy your day, and enjoy shopping :p

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My Big Announcement: I'm Retiring

Those are some words I'm shocked to be typing to all of you. I'm still surprised that I'm actually going through with it and retiring from designing. However, due to some personal situations in my family, I'm over-extended, over-stressed, and overwhelmed. This decision isn't one I came to lightly, but it is one that I'm confident in.

I have loved designing for the past 2+ years. I love 9th&Bloom. I love all the fabulous friendships I've made as a result. I love seeing your creations with my products, talking with all of you via this blog, facebook, and twitter. I love this little digiscrap world. That's why I don't plan to leave digiscrapping entirely. At heart, I'm a scrapper first, and I need to get back to that. I'll be around in the forums, and I plan to leave this blog (and all the freebies on it!) intact. Just look for more personal and scrapping posts from me rather than design related team posts. My facebook fan page...I'm still not sure what to do with it, so I just may do nothing for a while. It will be around through May 31 at the very least. My Twitter account will also remain active, though look for me to change user names soon. All in all, I'll still be "around," just in a different capacity.

I suppose you're looking for the good part? Check this out...a super fabulous retirement sale, effective immediately and running through May 31, 2011.

This is a pretty awesome sale, right? These products are leaving for good, so if you need anything, be sure to grab it by May 31st.

Finally, I want to thank my Creative Team...you are the best group of girls and I'm so proud to have been able to work with each and every one of you. I love you all and wish you so much happiness! To 9th&B, Lizzy, Holly, and my fellow designers...I'm going to miss you guys! Thanks so much for having me, believing in me, and understanding why I have to go. You guys are amazing! To my "fans," THANK YOU!!! Thank you for being supportive, for enjoying my products, and for coming along with me on this journey. I appreciate you all and am so blessed to have been part of your scrapping lives. Take care.

xoxo,

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Sunday Spotlight

Happy Sunday fellow bloggers/scrappers. Kara here with today's spotlight. Do you have a best friend? Maybe a brother or a sister who you consider to be your best friend, or maybe your husband is your best friend? Whoever it may be, Jennifer has this great kit to scrap those memories with your BFF. My Best Friend

This kit has pretty much everything you need to create a wonderful layout. Here are a few from some scrappers who used this kit. Be sure to stop by Jennifer's Shoppe at 9th&Bloom to get My best friend for only $6.00! Have a great Sunday!!

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Tidbit Tuesday

Hey Everyone! Tricia here with my very first tidbit Tuesday! I had a thousand ideas running through my head for this post and had a horrible time trying to narrow it down. Finally it just hit me.. duh I have this amazing friend who just happens to make amazing things!!  Catherine of Hats by Cat creates not only adorable hats, scarfs, etc for winter BUT also has hairbows, shirts, dresses, etc that are just perfect for summer time! 

Not only is she one of the sweetest ladies I've ever got to know; she is excessively talented! She is a doll to work with and gets your order down in a very timely manner. Hope you guys fall in love with her stuff as much as I did!

Have a great Tuesday!

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Meal in Minutes Monday!

Hello! Tara here with a great recipe that will not only be quick but REALLY yummy!

Coconut Chicken Strips with Pina Colata Sauce

1 cup sweetened coconut
½ all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder (I doubled this part)
1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch strips
1 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup melted butter

Mix coconut, flour, salt, pepper and garlic in a shallow, flat-bottom dish. Dip chicken in egg then coat with coconut mixture. Place in shallow baking dish and drizzle with melted butter.

Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes or until chicken is browned and cooked through, turning once.

Dipping sauce :
½ cup sour cream
¼ pina colada mix
¼ cup crushed pineapple
2 Tbsp sugar

Mix ingredients until fully incorporated.


I really hope that you enjoy this recipe! My family really enjoyed it!

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Scissors Sunday - Hybrid Rewind

Hi, all, Sarah here. I was browsing through the Hybrid category on the blog and came across this project that I did last summer. I absolutely love how cute and easy they are to make so I wanted to share them again so that the newer readers will see them, and maybe give them a try.


I found the initial inspiration for these notebooks here. The instructions on how I adapted them for using with digital paper is found here on Jennifer's blog.

If you're new to the blog or new to hybrid be sure to click the hybrid link under the categories header to see all the amazing projects that Jennifer's hybrid team has created and shared with you on her blog. You can also click the other categories that interest you to see the posts on those specific topics.

I hope you have a fantastic Sunday!

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Saturday School-Image Inside Text

Good morning scrappers, Kara here with today's Saturday school. I've been scrapping for 4 or 5 years now and I love learning new things. Last year I learned how to place an image inside my text, and now I'd like to share this with you.

1. Open a new image, make a new layer, and drag and drop a photo onto your canvas.

2. With the Text tool, click on the canvas and type your text. A bold, fat font works best. Pictured is Aharoni Bold, but there are many others that are similar. Here I added a Stroke Layer Style to give the letters a black outline.

3. If your text is on the layer above the image, move it below the image by clicking and dragging the Text layer thumbnail below the image in the Layers Palette.

4. To make the clipping mask, go to Layers>Create Clipping Mask, or type Ctrl-G, or Alt-Click on the line between the two layers in the Layers Palette.

5. Now resize your image to fit in the lettering better. Here I resized and duplicated the layer and moved it over to give more coverage. Remember to add the Stroke Layer Style to the text layer if you want an outline.

*Info from digitalscrapbookplace.com*

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Tidbit Tuesday - Meal Planning

Hi Scrappers! With the start of spring, I get inspired to try to organize, clean, and generally make my life easier... I recently discovered a website called Say Mmm. It is a meal planning website, that combines recipes, and shopping lists, coupons etc all in one place. You can go in, search for a recipe, add it to your menu, and it will add the ingredients to your shopping list. Then you can also search for coupons for the items on your list... I haven't used it much yet (as I just found it) but I can see how this could be a very useful tool. Oh and did I mention that it is free?? They do offer a paid subscription, but their free plan is pretty awesome! What ways have you found to better organize your life? Share with us!!

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Scissors Sunday - Hybrid Project

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's out there.  I hope you are enjoying some time with those you love. 

For today's Scissors Sunday post I thought I would share a little project I put together this week for my son's teachers in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.  Who doesn't love chocolate, right?  As a small token of our gratitude I created a candy bar wrapper using Jennifer's kit:  Bloom

along with her contribution to the blog train: iNSD Freebie Alpha

Here's is what I came up with after using some ribbon and flowers I had on hand.....

Enjoy your day!!!

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Happy iNSD!!!! Sales, Freebies, Blog Train, and MORE!

Happy Saturday and Happy iNSD!!! We've already shown you lots of goodies over the past couple of days, and today I'm thrilled to bring you ANOTHER Blog Train!!! This train, sponsered by DSA, will help you collect all the pieces for a mega vacation themed collab, including alphas and templates!

Here is my contribution to the train:


I sure hope you enjoy it! You probably arrived here at my blog from the MScraps blog, and once you leave, you should head over to Traci Reed's blog. If you get lost at any time, go on back to DSA, where you can find the complete list of blog train participants.

Enjoy and Happy iNSD!!!

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iNSD Template Freebies

Happy Friday Scrappers!!! Lori here, and I am so excited to be here to post today! Finally the kickoff to iNSD is finally here! YAY!! This is stop #5 on the 9th&Bloom Blog Hop. From here, you should head to stop #6, Crystal Livesay's blog. If you get lost along the hop, you can head back to the 9th&B forums for the full list.

Jen's CT team came together to create a great layout template pack!! There are 6 layout templates included, as a thank you to all of Jen's fans and followers!!

Make sure you visit 9th & Bloom to get in on all the fun activities they have planned, and also make sure you visit Jen's Facebook Fan page for more fun!

So without further ado, here is your template pack. There are two files to download.



Set 1
Set 2

Hope everyone has a great time this weekend!! Be sure to spend some time at 9th&Bloom. There are so many fabulous things going on over there! You could even WIN your ENTIRE WISH LIST for FREE!!! Head on over and check it out.

Have a happy iNSD, a wonderful weekend, and a Happy Mother's Day!!!

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Tara's Spotlight

Cindy here to bring you today's CT Spotlight. I hope you enjoy getting to know Tara as much as I did. I also hope you enjoy the template she created for you just enough to leave her a comment saying thanks or even a gallery comment her layout is linked :) I hope you have a great Friday and iNSD weekend!

How long have you been digital scrapbooking? This month (March) is my three year anniversary! I was a paper scrapper for many years before that but was having a hard time doing my scrapbooking with a toddler constantly reaching for my scissors and sharp tools. I was introduced to digi by a blogging friend of mine, Nikki (nikkiARNGwife). I dove right in and have never looked back.

Who/What is your inspiration? Mostly my children. I want to make these books as my love notes for them to read in the present and future. I just want to leave behind a legacy.....not only in what I teach them but in memories we share also.

What program do you use? I have been in PhotoShop Elements since day one. I started in version 6 and now have version 9. I have just recently purchased CS5. I have it installed and watched several tutorials. I just haven’t been gutsy enough to try a layout yet! I promise I will soon. It is just hard to get out of my comfort zone.

Mac or PC? Just got my Macbook Pro a few months ago and LOVE it. As they say....Once you go Mac you never go back!

When do you create? I am a night owl. It is usually after everyone is asleep and I can work with no interruptions.

What is your creative environment? I have to have a Coke to drink and snacks on hand. Depending on my mood, I am either listening to my playlist on itunes or watching old girly movies. It has to be movies I have seen a lot so I don’t have to actually “watch” it. I can basically picture it in my head as I work! Movies that are constantly played: Sweet Home Alabama, How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days, any of the Twilight's or Friends episodes on DVD.

Besides scrapbooking, what are some other hobbies you enjoy? I really love to read and I am totally addicted to my Kindle. I also love photography and am trying harder to get better at it.

What is a random fact that not many people know about you? I am pretty much an open book. There is not much NOT known about me. I guess the fact that is hard for people to believe if they don’t know me in real life is the number of kids and grand kids I have. I am only 34.......I have 7 children: 2 step daughters (19 and 17 yo), 4 adopted kids (20,19,18 and 6 yo) and 1 foster son that is 6 months old. My two oldest adopted kids have made me a Nonna to two beautiful girls. One is 20 months old and the other is 12 months. My husband and I have been married for 12 years (June 1998) and have really found our place as a foster/adoptive family.

What is your favorite product by Jennifer? Wow...that is tough. I think my very favorite will have to be In the Air with Nikki Epperson. I am normally not a fan of purple but LOVE the shade in this kit. I have already done three pages with it and will use it again for sure.





















This is my favorite layout using In the Air by Jennifer Fox and Nikki Epperson
To leave Tara some love her layout is linked to her gallery :)




















and the template Tara made for you
Download here at box.net
and here at mediafire

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Are you ready for iNSD? Celebrate with me!!!

I just love iNSD. I love the games. I love the chats. I love the SALES!!! I'm so excited about my plans for iNSD that I just have to show you now...I can't wait!

There will be so much going on this weekend!!! Be sure you subscribe to my newsletter, are a fan of my facebook page, and subscribe to this blog because I know you won't want to miss out on a thing!

9th&Bloom will be amazing all weekend long. The forums will be hopping, the sales will be AMAZING, and there will be so many free gifts you won't believe it. Make sure to spend some time over there starting now to get in on the fun.

I'll be back to post tomorrow with more info on the festivities at 9th&Bloom, plus a follow-up on my own amazing plans...stay tuned!!!

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Rough and Tumble Product Spotlight

Hello! Cindy here to spotlight Rough and Tumble. Do you have a little (or BIG!!!) boy to scrap? This kit is perfect for you! Jennifer filled this kit with softly grunged colors, tons of metal, and amazing elements, Rough and Tumble has everything you need to scrap page after page of your boys.

Check out these fantastic layouts!

by Cindy






















by Tara



















by Jenn



















by Ella



















I hope these layouts have brought just the right picture to mind! We’d love to see what you do with this fabulous kit. Link us up in the comments section so we can leave you some love. I hope you have a great Thursday!

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Midweek Freebie

Is anyone else having a long week so far? How about a fun little freebie to get you over the midweek hump. I decided to create "Just Because" with Jennifer's wonderful kit One Of Those Days and here's what I came up with.

You can get this QP for yourself by clicking here.

Hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful rest of your week!

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Tidbit Tuesday

Hello! Tara here with your Tidbit Tuesday. I don't know about you but I am ALWAYS looking for new recipes. I also happen to love FREE! Amazon has a couple of free ebooks that are cookbooks. You can have them sent to a kindle, PC or phone. How exciting is that? Here are the links....

Slow Cooker Recipes

Meatloaf Recipes

I can't wait to try some new meals from these books! I just wanted to pass on the great deal!

Also, iNSD is coming this weekend! You don't want to miss out on the great things happening at 9th & Bloom!!!! Jennifer is going to have some great things up her sleeve too. You might want to be a fan on her Facebook and visit 9th and Bloom for some fun!

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Meals in Minutes - Homemade Sloppy Joes

Hey Scrappers! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and a great start to the week! I don't know about you, but in our house, Monday's are a little crazy. I have a great go to meal for you!

Turkey Sloppy Joes! Now this recipe is VERY adaptable.. If you don't like a slightly sweet sloppy joe, leave out the brown sugar. These can also be made with ground beef, or chicken..

2 lbs lean ground turkey

1 medium onion chopped fine

1 bottle chili sauce

1/4 cup ketchup

1 small can tomato paste (can use no salt added variety)

2 tbsp cup yellow mustard

2 tbsp brown sugar, packed (or to taste)

2 cloves garlic minced fine

2 tsp. dry gravy mix (brown variety)

1 tsp. vinegar (regular white or cider vinegar)

Add onion, and ground turkey to pan. Crumble ground turkey and cook on medium heat until no longer pink.

Drain off any fat (should be very minimal)

Turn the heat down to low, and add the remaining ingredients, adjusting to how "saucy" you like your sloppy joes. I like mine with a lot of sauce but not runny.

Once all the ingredients are added, stir well and let simmer for 15 - 20 minutes for the flavors to meld, stirring occasionally.

I usually serve this with Crash Hot Potatoes (found on the Pioneer Woman website) Soooo YUMMY!

Also as a quick dessert, you could serve my version of Cookie Monster Ice Cream Sundaes! We have a restaurant here called Cheddars (I believe they are a chain but I am not sure) Anyway, they have this awesome Cookie Monster dessert.. Basically a freshly baked Chocolate Chip cookie with ice cream stuff on top.. Here is my version:

Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (I use the pre made to save time, but if you are a purist, then by all means make them from scratch)

Bake according to package directions.

When they are still hot and fresh out of the oven, place one cookie in the bottom of a cereal sized bowl.

Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Drizzle with hot fudge and a bit of caramel

Top with whipped cream and a cherry.

Now THAT is what I call a fun dinner, and you can have this all on the table in about 40 minutes..

Hope everyone likes the recipes! Have a great rest of the week!!

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