This child of mine was only 13 years old when she did this self portrait of herself. A tween. I hate that term, but it is the age when they are climbing out of childhood and headed toward young adulthood...Tough age... I think about what her life was like at this age. I think about how far she has come in the last 6 years. She didn't know then, how strong and confident she would be now. She has come so far!! And I couldn't be more proud. The April kit from SWIRLYDOOS is the perfect kit for these kinds of photos. It was like the kit was made for them. So cool. Love it!!

Sometimes, the photos you think about deleting from your digital camera are the photos that turn out to be best because they tell a story...This is my wild child...No, she is not really wild, she just isn't afraid of anything. Not like her momma who was afraid of everything!!. She lives life with zest, gets every moment out of every day and Lives Out Loud. Her mantra is "Say what mean and mean what you say cause those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter"...Boy, that Dr. Suess, he was a smart man... Loved creating this lO with Aprils "Urban Grunge" kit from my favorite place!! SWIRLYDOOS... Love designing for Krissy and SWIRLYDOOS... She puts the best kits together. Makes you think outside the box, helps you to expand your skills by working with a variety of products. Hell, I even scrap the post office boxes the kits come in. lol...

Here it is. My first LO from the April SWIRLYDOOS kit Urban Grunge. This was a little hard for me to do as I love Girly frilly flowery elements, and I had to refrain myself from adding that kind of stuff.But the kit made it easy for me to get into the "tough stuff" theme. Even my husband had suggestions for me as he thought the paper was "cool". He gave me a piece of fabric that looks like leather and made to mimic carbon fiber. I used it for the gear circle that I framed the photo with. The flames came from a template, as my husband builds custom hotrods and has these templates in his files. This kit really makes you think outside the box!! I had fun with this one. Now onto the next one...

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY SECRET IS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY REVEALED!!!!!! I MADE IT!!!!!!!!! I am on one of the best design teams of all times!!!! SWIRLDOOS KIT COMPANY!!!!!!!!!! You can not imagine the excitement I am feeling at this moment. I was chosen among the probably hundreds of great scrap artists out there to be a part of a fabulous design team. And to top it off I will be working along with a just a few of my IDOLS in the scrapbooking world, Irene Tan from Malaysia, Robin Schelin from Las Vegas, Beggahuna from Iceland, Krissy Mosbarger from Colorado, and ME!!!!!!!!!!! MEEEEEEEEEEE !!! Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! On the same design team. I am so honored that Krissy thought that my work was worthy of such a much desired position!! This is a dream come true for me!!! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever even think about being on a design team full time!!! But here I am...So so so so so happy!!! Go check out one of the announcement. http://www.swirlydoos.blogspot.com/ I can proudly say that I am a SWIRLYDOOS DESIGNER!!!! Little Lisa from Brentwood...Playing with the big girls!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!! Lisa aka StarSailor formally StarSailorScrapper in the scrapbooking world!!!!!! Just like Prince!!! lol ...Sorry, I am a little delerious right now...Time for some needed sleep after my 12 hour shift at the hospital, gotta get some rest so that I can get up early and start Scrapping!!!! Urban Grunge has been calling my name for a few days now!!! Sweet dreams!!

GRUNGE KIT AT SWIRLYDOOS

OK, so I am sitting in my scrapbook room this morning just trying to figure out where to go first with this fabulous Grunge kit, and in walks dear husband with this fabulous piece of material in his hands and says," I think you would like to use this with your current pages". It is a black leather like trunk liner fabric with a textured pattern that mimics carbon fiber." Oh how totally awesome" I answered!!! And he left the room with a smile.
He used the material on his current project, a custom 55 Chevy. Oh, and he also informed me that the paper with the cars on them?. It is a mustang...men...He thinks this line of papers is so cool...So do I!!! So get in on the awesome fun at SWIRYDOOS and subscribe to the monthly kits!! They are totally awesome!! http://www.swirlydoos.com/news.php

This is the last LO I managed to squeeze out of Whimsy March kit from SWIRLYDOOS (with the exception of some left over embellies). I even used the postal box it came in for the distressed cardboard back as well as the great brown paper that so lovingly wrapped our kits together. I punched and painted the flowers with the paper. The last of my scraps embellished the flowers. I only added the Prima Flower Vine and Tim Holtz green crackle paint.

It has been an absolute Blast working with Krissy, Robin, Sasha and Beggahuna!! What a fantastic team in SWIRLYDOOS!!. Then to work along side Toni as co March Designer, well I was honored. This kit was fantastic to work with! I still have leftovers...Cant wait till the April kit comes a knockin at my door!!! Go subscribe!! The kits get your creative juices flowing. I worked with stuff I thought I would never do. Like cardboard!! I am addicted. And those wonderful acrylic inchies, who would have thought??? And stitch templates!! LOVE EM!!! But just the newest most creative scrappers on SWIRLYDOOS are wonderful creative artists. Such an inspiring group they are!! I am looking forward to learning something new with each kit!! YUMMY!!

This is a LO I did with the March "WHIMSY" kit from SWIRLYDOOS. The Prima paper feels like a fine linen. It is absolutely gorgeous. The stitching gives it such beautidful dimension. I took apart the ZVA crystals that came in the kit to place beneath the feather butterflies, them picked off some more of the crytals to embellish each butterfly. I stitched th eedges of the pink paper together and used Fiskars Border Embossed Rose punch. It is an awesome punch. I used Sizzix 12 inch vine border die and Martha Stewart Hydrangea puch to make the flowers. I found pearl stamen in the bridal section at Michaels and used Tim Holtz alcohol ink to color them green. The ink is great because it lets the luminence of the pearls shine through. I loved this paper!!http://www.swirlydoos.com/news.php

Beauty is Looking

This is another LO I did as March Guest designer with the wonderful March "Whimsy" kit from SWIRLYDOOS. http://www.swirlydoos.com/news.phpThe diamonds on the side of the photo were made with acrylic inchies. I used Tim Holtz alcohol in ink to match the the paper in the LO. Acrylic Inchies are a wonderful thing! So many possibilities. Check out the gallery at SWIRLYDOOS to see more ways they were used. I used a new EK Success border punch to edge the photo and covered the chipboard swirly with paper for the flower stem. The leaves were made from excess green paper and cut with fiskars decorative scissors to give them a leaf edge. Then folded them in half and curled the ends under to give them dimension.

Blossom

This is a layout I did as March Guest Designer for SWIRLYDOOS. A wonderful kit club started by Krissy Mosbarger, known to the Scrapbooking world as Rodeogirl. You have got to check these kits out!! They are awsome and put together with the newest and greatest products. http://www.swirlydoos.com/news.php

I made the flower from excess paper I cut out from behind the photo. Each petal is separate then edged with some excess green paper and cut around with scallop scissors. I curled each petal to give it some dimension. I used Fiskars new Effervescense Border Punch for the green paper then laced some ribbon through the holes and tied in a bow. I painted the Prima flowers to match my paper and added the May Arts vine ribbon. I painted the white Thickers letters for the title to match also. This kit was just full of gorgeousness. I loved working with everything in it