Sushi Like a Boss! ~~ LO Love Linky

So a while back,

I did a page starter.....

kinda by accident.

I started it for a LO

and then didn't like it,

so I put it in my CKC this month,

and was determined to use it.

I am linking this to Ashli's Layout Love Linky

primarily because she was the first one I've ever seen

use an actual page starter.  

So here it was a a starter.

Yeah, I know.

Needs help.

I agree.

I loved the hearts

& 

the sewing 

& 

the mists and paints....

but it still needs something else.

AH yes!

That is better.

Some more aqua....

Yes that is much, much better.

So this definitely gave me a place to get going.

Voila!!!

I decided to use a sushi picture from me and the beautiful

Miss A's favorite sushi place.

And because we have been trying to eat better,

we have not been eating sushi,

because of the white rice.

So I am really craving sushi 

right 

about now.

I've already put in a request with the beautiful Miss A,

and she has concurred.

Sushi needs to be eaten,

&

SOON.

Yep,

we're gonna get right on that.....

SOON!

And I am ABSOLUTELY loving

using tissue paper on my LO's.

I sew across the top of it,

then fringe it.

And yes, I fringe it with regular scissors,

and no, sadly I do not have Martha Stewart fringe scissors.

I do have it on my mental scrapbook wishlist.

Oh please tell me you keep one too :)

Anyway.....

I fringed my tissue paper

and then heated it with my heat tool

to curl it up.

Well it wasn't curling very good,

because my fringe was too long,

so I sprayed it with water,

and heated it back up,

and just look at this cuteness.

Love it!

I usually outline my letters,

or 

put polka dots on this 

or 

lines.....

just to make them stand out

ya know.

BUT.....

on this particular LO,

I like it just like this.

Oh 

&

my bow on the "L"?

Yep it was actually a J,

(I was out of L's in this particular set of letters)

that I cut apart and made an L.

SO

I added a sweet little twine bow to hide the line.

Shhhh.....our little secret.

=)

I added this little journaling spot,

and another little bow.

&

called it good.

This page was SO much fun!!

Now excuse me,

while I go dream of eating 

Sushi Like a Boss!  =)

Have a Blessed and  Beautiful,

Crafty Kind of Day ~~

More March LO's

I have thoroughly LOVED my CKCB kit

this month.

Thoroughly.

I have 2 more LO's to share with you.

****

I love these two so.

They make me SO happy!!

The corrugated paper behind my photo 

is actually a piece I had die cut a heart out of,

so I just put my 4x6 acrylic piece down,

and then my 4x4 paper 

and you wouldn't even know that it had been cut on.

I just love that.

Now granted, 

I could have used the negative,

but I really like it as a mat.

Then the stamps on the upper left is 

my Heidi Swapp stamps.

I just LOVE them!!

In fact, all of Heidi Swapp things are my fav's

right now.

I mean seriously,

her items are so well made.

Love it.

And they fit my style so seasmlessly

I just love this die cut here,

and this story of our bedtime routine.

I'm SO glad that we have it documented now.

I love these two so!!!

I mean seriously look at these stamps.

I embossed these here,

and I know that there is a little extra embossing powder,

but I left it on there instead of brushing it all off.

I really love it.

Love it!

And then my second LO

is another one that goes with my surgery LO's.

This one was before surgery.

I wanted to document some of the ways in which I was feeling

before surgery.

and the fact that I was still smiling =)

And oh please,

please notice these Sassafras Lass foldies.

Yes I still have some.

And I will be so sad when their gone.

LOVE them.

Oh Sassafras.....

How your foldies make me so happy.

I mean seriously.

How cute are these flowers.

Yes I love the journaling spot too.

But Oh these flowers.

And oh that Heidi Swapp.

LOVE.

Just one last peek =)

And yes I coupled Heidi stamps with Tim Holtz Washi.

I mean seriously,

whats not to love here?

And that Gold and Green Color Shine,

I can hardly stand the cuteness!!

Thank you for stopping by.

The month isn't over yet,

and there is more fun to come,

so come back and see me.

Until then.....

Have a Blessed and Beautiful,

Crafty Kind of Day ~~ 

And Then..... The Photo Bomb..... =)

So I have been trying to take pictures

of my latest LO's

Like this one.....

This LO is a very important one to me.

This pic of my chucks were taken

with my mom at her most recent

Oncologist appointment.

My mom is a 2 time cancer survivor.

So Oncologist visits every three months and every six week port flushes

have become a regular part of our lives for several years.

So when our new Oncologist told us that she will have no more scans

unless she is symptomatic,

and instead of every 3 month appts,

we are going to every 6 months,

was such great news.

This page documents that,

and that card that says "Remember"

actually sits right underneath the photo,

and it has some hidden journaling about my

precious mama.

So I got the above picture amidst this....

my little photo bomber.  =)

He usually runs from the camera,

but on this day,

he wanted to be right in front of it.

I'll take it!

He even wanted to pose with the LO's.

So funny!!!

So CUTE!!!!!

This picture is my take on Challenge 2 for the CKCB.

It was the Vera Bag challenge, to use at least 3 patterened papers

on one LO.

I did that here using 3 Glitz Design "Color" line 6x6 sheets.

And more photo bombing.....

I LOVE this page!!!

LOVE!!

And this is absolutely true.

Especially when our dear Sir Cuteness is here!!!

This page is about my recent surgery.

I had an Anterior Cervical Dysectomy with Fusion.

In short, it was spine surgery C5-6, 

but they go through the neck.

I decided to document this in our yearly album.

This will be a 3 or 4 page series.

Although it looks kinda icky here,

I'm doing good.

Battling muscle spasms being caused by a realignment of my spine,

because of the surgery,

but my balance is so much better,

and my energy is starting to come back.

I LOVE the Heidi Swap stamps.

The "Remember" stamps and the "today" stamp is Heidi Swapp.

And this guy was laying under the table I use to take pictures on.....

He is SO funny!

And then there was this....

haha

Cutest little legs I've ever seen.

So sweet!!

And more photo bombing.....

And here.....

more photo bombing.

I LOVE this boy so much!!!

He is the BEST Grandson!!!!!

THE BEST!!!!!

Thank you so much for stopping by.

I really appreciate you.

Have a Blessed and Beautiful,

Crafty Kind of Day ~~

Happy Heart & LO Love

So when I was asked to be the Guest Designer 

for CKC for the month of March,

I was SO excited 

and really poured over the items in the Kit for March,

and took a lot of time figuring out what would go in my kit.

I love the March kit SO much,

and it is so fitting,

seeing how, March 2012 

was the first month I participated in CKC.

I love it so much,

because a new way to scrap and get the most out of my much loved items

was found.

So having said that,

when I create with the kits I make,

I also like to find really great sketches to use

along with it. 

Well, Shimelle had this GREAT sketch on her blog this week.

I love her Sketch to Scrapbook series.

I mean LOVE.IT.

This is my take on the sketch

I love wood grain paper, 

but I find that it rarely takes center stage.

I love it so much and let it be my "white space"

for this sketch.

So many fun elements on this page,

like the Heidi Swapp stamps on this little embellie.

The arrow is stamped off, so it isn't real black,

but more of a dark gray.

Then that "Adventure".

I mean seriously,

how cute is that?

And yes you do spy a little Tim Holtz 

Tiny Tag die love on here =)

And here is that little DIY confetti vellum bag

that made my kit this month.

And "Good Times" here is a speech bubble,

but I didn't like the part of it that makes it a speech bubble,

since it wasn't going close to my picture.  

It looked a little odd,

so I cut that little piece off,

sanded it and inked the sides.

Just looks like a wood embellie now.

Love.

Something I do on my pages,

as part of my style,

is to add "hidden" journaling.

When you look at the big picture here,

this just looks like a tab up there,

but attached to it is a love note 

for my Mr. Winslow.

I LOVE doing that!!!

Makes my heart happy.....

Both the above picture and this one are from our vacation

last May.

It was so delightful and fun.

It was an adventure vacation.

Which is right up our alley.

And this picture I enlarged to an 8 x 10.

This is in the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area)

in Northern MN, just 50 miles from Canada.

It is SO beautiful!!!

Twiney, Banner, and Birdie Details.....

This banner was SO fun.

Cut by hand and sewn on in layers.....

Love.

It was indeed,

a Completely, Lovely Day.

This is a Tim Holtz paper that I took

and wrote on in the entire background.

I got this idea from a Maggie Holmes paper

that the entire background is handwritten words.

I so wanted to create something similar for this page,

so I started writing.

Mostly it is about a girl who loves her Jesus,

and her husband,

and that girl is me.

And then the rest of it is straight out of Proverbs 31.

What I strive to be.....

a P31 woman.

I love all the flowers I see everywhere,

and decided to take my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and get to work.

I make lots of different kind of flowers.

These I wanted to be very dimensional and thick.

They are.  I even have an idea about how they will fit into my page protector.

If it works out I'll post about what I did.

We shall see =)

Here is a pic I posted on Instagram of the writing.

It was so therapeutic as I am still recovering.

And then this last one is also from my March CKC Kit.

This picture was taken several years ago,

but I love it SO much,

I wanted to document it.

I made a little pocket out of this Crate Paper On Trend line,

and some Glitz Design paper as well.

Yep, there is another little love note to my man in this pocket.

I love him so.

He is just THE BEST!

The key was not the right color,

so what's a girl to do?

Well heat emboss it another color of course.

And my letters were raw chipboard and they are 

heat embossed too.

I read that you could heat emboss raw chipboard,

I had NO idea.

I LOVED the outcome.

So pretty!!

Thought I'd just show you the misted love on this one.

I do love my mists.

A.Lot.

And my twine.

And.....And.....And....

Well you get the idea =)

So there you have it.

Lots of inspiration and fun.

IF you haven't tried CKC

you should.

You really should.

It has really helped me use my stash.

Love it.

I hope you have a Blessed and Beautiful,

Crafty Kind of Day ~~

Telling the Story without Words.....Challenge 1

Challenge 1 for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog 

is.....

Pictures only,

no journaling.

So I thought about this,

and knew I needed to pick

a picture that would kind of tell

it's own story without words,

and so decided I would take a picture 

from our vacation last May,

because I have so many pictures

from that week,

and since SO many similar stories

will be told in my Vac SB,

that this one really didn't need journaling.

I took a Tim Holtz kraft resist

and cut out the circle.

I LOVED the result.

I love the slight tilt to my picture and all the embellies.

I didn't over embellish,

because I LOVE this map.

It just makes me happy.

Happy I tell you!

I have a hard time throwing away my scraps.

I try very hard to use them up as best I can.

And for this particular piece,

I used the negative of punching out some hearts,

and slid a piece of vellum underneath, from the scrap box,

and voila!

Love it!!

Oh and misted.

I love mist.a.lot.

They are my go to.

It gives great depth and texture.

And then here are those hearts from the aforementioned

opposite corner.

And this little metal "Sweet Memories" clip.

And Washi.

Oh Washi.....how I love thee!!

And then this cute little sticker

I nabbed from a sticker sheet I included in this months kit.

And then tucked a little sticker behind it.

Ahhhh.....the details.

Love the details.

And here is that little tissue fringe I forged from Heidi Swapps

in the kit.

This was so easy to do,

and I LOVED the result!!

I even dropped a few mist splatts on there.

So sweet.

Oh and then the photo corners.....

Yes are those splendid or what?

I added the black border at home,

and then went to WalGreens to print,

and decided to put a little bigger border around it.

Well it kept the black corners as well.

Love.

So when it came time to scrap,

the thick white border was just to much,

so I fussy cut the scallop and just cut around the corners.

And look at this cuteness.

*****

Well I started on another LO,

and about halfway through,

decided it didn't need any journaling either,

so I thought I'd just submit it as well.

Yep its a BOGO for you.

Your welcome.

grin.

This is a pic of me and my baby sis.

We are very close,

and she is very AWESOME!!

She is the funniest, sweetest girl,

and boy does she know how to love.

Yep.  BIG!!!

She is a nurse,

so she's my go to for all things medicine related.

And Bless her heart, she gets a lot of calls from me.

double grin.

Well at CHRISTmas,

we took this silly picture,

and it's so funny that our silly faces are exactly the same.

Cracked.me.up.

Isn't she the most adorable thing?

I love her.

Well I decided to kick this LO up a notch.

I took a very muted,

and if you will, serious back ground,

and added some Washi Whimsy to it.

My sister loves pink,

and I am a pianst and singer,

(well I will be a singer again when my voice 

comes back after surgery.  Yes I know, its been almost

3 weeks, but I'm not fretting.  I'm having faith).

anyway.....

I love the very muted back ground of the sheet music

with the hot pink Washi.

I took the Bright Ideas class in February

over at Studio Calico,

and it was fab!!

One of the challenges,

was to use Washi in a new way.

So I made a big ole frame,

and then laid strips of Washi on a tag,

and punched my arrows,

and then I stamped using the "Love You So"

stamp I put in my kit.

It needs to see the light of day more often.

Isn't it sweet?

Popped those arrows up,

added some more Washi,

and tied it all together with some

beautiful pink and white twine.

Up close and personal.....

And even more up close.....

I don't even mind that my treble cleft ended up

upside down.

Sometimes it happens.....

I love the Whimsy of this

with the very muted background.

I have so much more to share with you from this kit this month.

So.much.more.

I've already made five LO's and currently have one lovely

on my desk awaiting completion.

Thank you for visiting!

Have a Blessed and Beautiful,

Crafty Kind of Day ~~

I AM SO EXCITED!!! ~~ CKC March Kit

I am SO excited!!!

I am the Guest Designer for March for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog!!

And I am the first stop on the blog hop.

I'm SO excited!!!!!  

Did I say that already?  =)

When they contacted me, I was so excited I could hardly stand it.  

With surgery looming large,

it gave me something positive to focus on.

So great!!

My plan was to get everything set and ready to go before surgery

on the 25th,

and then the docs pushed my surgery up 2 weeks!

YIKES!!

But no prob.

I got busy and got my kit together.

So let's get to it shall we?

*****

The kit for this month is FANTASTIC!!!

It is the Soda Shoppe Kit

by Noel Mignon.

This kit is so large and so right up my alley.

The colors are delish.

I mean YUMM-Y!!

So here is my kit.

I'll start with the paper:

Represented here are:

Crate Paper On Trend - LaMode and Style

American Crafts - 5th N Frolic - Foxy Fairview and Storytime Street

American Crafts - Campy Trails

Glitz - Pretty in Pink

Authentique - Blissful and Pleasant

Fancy Pants 

Then for my cardstock I chose:

Bazzil:  Turquoise Polka - Mustard - Leaf

Tim Holtz Kraft Resist Card Stock

Tim Holtz Kraft Resist Graft 

Salmon (Christmas Pack, Paper Studio)

I LOVE the salmon color in this kit and tried to get lots of it in my kit.

Every little snippet I could find.

I've decided I need more turquoise and more teal =)

So onto the embellishments.....

I LOVE the Heidi Swapp trimmings.....

but I didn't have any, 

so what's a girl to do?

Well, make her own of course =)

I LOVE how it turned out and have used it on a LO already and 

Love it!!

I also picked up some teal tissue paper that I'm going to be making into

some more yummy trimmings.

Also, I dolled up my own mini bags.

LOVE how those turned out.

A little washi.....

A stamp here.....

a stamp there.....

some patterened paper.....

some punched hearts.....

a Studio Calico mask.....

some Tattered Angels Mist....

and yes lots and lots of fun.....

and those little bags are complete =)

There's also some confetti filled hearts....

a confetti filled bag and lots of trimmings....

Elle's Studio banners.....

so many fun embellies in this kit.....

Oh and the journaling spots, doilies.....

letter stickers....

and this month I wanted to include some 

stamps that rarely see the light of day.....

and my doily die.....

things I really want to use this month.

And oh the stickers.....

Aren't those owls lovely?....

There are so many fun stickers and die cuts.....

and see those darling little papers in the back there?

Well those are from a Webster's Sprinkle Pack

that I have not used and the colors are 

perfect and lovely for this kit.

So they are included.

And then just some more bits and pieces.....

Scraps.....

Stickers.....

Ribbons.....

Fun.....Fun.....

Stuff!

And now I'm sure your thinking,

"This is one HUGE kit!!"

To which you would be right,

but it is the way I scrap.

I like lots of choices at my finger tips.

Kits have become the way that I scrap.

It makes things so much easier.

And if your wondering how I store it.....

Here ya go.

All of that is packed in these.....

Very organized.....

Very together.

Now if I can just keep it that way =)

So thank you SO much to CKC 

for asking me to be the Guest Designer

this month.

There is more to come from me this month,

and I am looking SO forward to it.

And now the next stop in this blog hop is

Andrea.

Have a Blessed and Beautiful,

Crafty Kind of Day ~~