Saturday, December 3, 2011

The Smurfs on DVD is available for Christmas!!

I was so excited to hear that The Smurfs DVD is available NOW!

We saw The Smurfs movie in July and we LOVED it. All the favorite characters are back including: Clumsy, Grouchy, Jokey, Smurfette and of course Papa! The Evil wizard Gargamel (played by Hank Azaria) chases the Smurfs out of their village through a portal landing. The poor Smurfs wind up in the middle of Central Park in NYC. What a surprise that none of the New Yorkers seem fazed at all by the little blue smurfs running amok.

They end up falling into a box after being chased by Gargamel. They and turn the life of two soon to be parents (Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays), completely upside down. They help the Smurfs work their way back to their world and build their own confidence about their future parenting skills. The Smurfs go crazy in FAO Schwartz, while constantly singing their little theme song "La La La La La La..." You will never forget that!

My little one loved The Smurfs movie so much that I will be buying the DVD this weekend. It would make a great Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa gift for any child (or anyone who loves The Smurfs). If you are a Katy Perry fan don't forget that she is the voice of the female S

murfette too! I would love to know where Mama Smurf is though...maybe that will be answered in the next sequel.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Crayola Holiday Giveway Sweepstakes Prize Pack!

I was so excited to receive a great new product pack of goodies from Crayola. Crayola recently came out with Crayola Story Studio, ColorStudio and Crayola iMarker. Crayola has gone high tech! Keep reading to learn more about the products and the exciting contest I have to win them!

Crayola has never let me down with terrific products for the kiddos. Sometimes the best gifts are more than presents. They’re ones that inspire hours of imagination. This holiday season, when you give Crayola, you can give your kids more than a present, you can give them wonder and adventure as they colorfully bring their original ideas and dreams to life.


Imagine your child morphing into a coloring book character and starring in a story with a Disney Princess or Spider-Man with Crayola Story Studio or turning an iPad into an interactive coloring book with the Crayola ColorStudio HD app and Crayola iMarker digital drawing tool. When kids unwrap one of these high-tech Crayola gifts this holiday, they’ll have fun, new ways to express all that inspires them!

For the child who craves action and adventure, Crayola Story Studio: Spider-Man lets kids upload a photo and transform themselves into a superhero that stars with Spider-Man in personalized comic book they create and color. A free access code inside the kit unlocks the Story Studio application at Crayola.com/storystudio. Kids can choose a super power, story-line, and one of six villains to battle alongside Spider-Man in their own web-slinging adventure. When they finish their story, they can save it, share it or print and color it. The kit includes paper, glossy cover sheets for printing comic book-style covers, binding strips and 15 Twistables® colored pencils to create three complete books.

For the child who loves fairytales and wonderment, Story Studio: Disney Princesses lets kids star in a fairytale with a Disney Princess. Crayola Story Studio™: Disney Princess lets kids create fairytales starring them and a Disney Princess! Kids upload a photo to transform themselves into a character, then create a story with their character and a Disney Princess! Story Studio includes everything kids need to create personalized storybooks and unlimited coloring pages – just print, color and bind the pages. They can choose storylines from Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, the Little Mermaid, Tangled, Sleeping Beauty, and Princess and the Frog. With the free on-line access code that comes inside, Pip-Squeaks® markers and glitter glue, blank sheets and binding strips, kids create three complete story books!

For the child who likes creative adventures, the Story Studio Adventure Maker: Cars 2 lets kids join the pages of a story with Lightning McQueen, Mator and the Cars 2 characters form Disney Pixar. The set includes 10 Pip-Squeak Skinnies markers, 3 Pip Squeak broad line markers, 2 Pip-Squeak glitter glue tubes, 30 story sheets, 6 glossy cover sheets and 3 comic binding strips to make three complete story books.

At $9.99 for each kit, Crayola Story Studio proves that high-tech doesn’t have to mean high cost!

Remember how cool it was to receive the Crayola 64 Box with the built-in sharper as a holiday gift when you were growing up? Just imagine how excited your kids will be to turn an iPad into an interactive coloring book using burnt sienna, carnation pink and a rainbow of Crayola colors from the Crayola digital 64 Box! The Crayola ColorStudio HD app and iMarker let kids’ imaginations run wild as they color moving, animated scenes that come alive with music, sound effects and hidden surprises. The app is free on iTunes App Store with the purchase of the iMarker for $29.99 at Toys R Us, Best Buy, the Apple Store and www.griffintechnology.com.

Kids can select from 64 colors in the digital Crayola 64 Box and then use the iMarker to create the look of Crayola crayons, markers, paints and colored pencils as the stylus interacts with an iPad. The digital coloring pages respond with movement and sound as the pages come alive as kids color.

Animated images stop moving on the screen so kids can easily color them in without going outside of the lines, so objects look picture perfect when they start moving again. Tidy up your page with an eraser function or an “undo” arrow that removes larger areas of color.

In addition, kids can save their work in a gallery to be emailed, printed or uploaded to Facebook (mom’s account, and with her permission and help of course!), and also free draw, play interactive games and create their own customized coloring pages they can print and color off-line.

Recommended for children ages 3+, the Crayola iMarker includes, a set of AA batteries, and free download of the ColorStudio HD app.

“Disclosure: The Crayola High Tech Holiday prize pack, product information and prize pack for giveaway have been provided by Crayola through MyBlogSpark.”

Here are some great links for crafts and creations to check out as well:
Crayola Holiday Gift Guide Website http://bit.ly/CrayolaGift
Crayola on Facebook http://on.fb.me/CrayolaFacebook
Crayola on Twitter http://bit.ly/CrayolaTwitter
StoryStudio on Crayola.com http://bit.ly/StoryStudio
Include links to Griffin Technology On-line Store http://bit.ly/CrayolaGriffin
Griffin Technology on Facebook http://on.fb.me/GriffinTechFB


Leave me a comment about how you can create with Crayola with an email address or website where you can be contacted in order to win. Next week I will announce the winner!

The winner’s prize pack will contain:
(1) Crayola Story Studio Comic Maker: Spider-Man
(1) Crayola Story Studio Fairy Tale Maker: Disney Princesses
(1) Crayola Story Studio Adventure Maker: Disney/Pixar Cars
(1) Crayola iMarker to use with the ColorStudio HD app for iPad
(1) Free download of the ColorStudio HD app

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

WIN free Torani Syrups to warm up your coffee this fall!

SheSpeaksbutton

Since 1925, family-owned Torani has been crafting great tasting flavored syrups that coffeehouses use to make their flavored drinks taste so delicious. With over 120 flavors in regular and sugar free varieties, Torani flavored syrups are perfect for flavored lattes, mochas, coffees, cocoas, Italian sodas, teas, lemonades, cocktails and smoothies. Coffeehouse professionals choose Torani flavors because they are expertly crafted and made with the highest quality ingredients, like natural flavors and pure cane sugar. The sugar free flavors have no calories and are sweetened with Splenda. Now, Torani Flavored Syrups are widely available at retail so you can easily create authentic coffeehouse quality drinks at home.

I just rediscovered Torani Syrups through SheSpeaks.com They were kind enough to share some of their samples with me including the Peppermint and I had some fun checking out some drink recipes. I was excited to find out that I can also buy Torani Syrups on Amazon and at Walmart. I included one of my easy and yummy coffee recipes I found on the Torani website here at the bottom of this post. I love my new Peppermint Coffee-it helps me wake up in the morning!

Thanks to Torani and SheSpeaks I am offering a chance to win a free coupon for a FULL SIZE Torani syrup of your choice. Leave a comment (with a way to contact you via email) with a Torani recipe suggestion in order to be entered in the giveaway!

You might also want to see what others are saying about Torani too!

Peppermint Brewed Coffee



INGREDIENTS
1 oz. Torani Peppermint syrup
8 oz. dark brewed coffee
INSTRUCTIONS
In a glass or mug, add Torani Peppermint syrup to strong brewed coffee and stir gently.