Greetings lovelies,

I’m going to keep this as short as possible as I became ill yesterday while doing taxes for my sons.  LOL!  I know what you’re thinking, doing taxes made me sick!!!  ROFL!  Well, actually, not!  I believe I picked something up from my oldest son who camped out with us for four days and the night before last while sitting here working, I was feeling funky and mentioned a few times to him that I’d better not be getting what he has!  HA!  He assured me it was nothing more than a cough, which may be the case, however, he could have been the carrier of something more.  I feel awful and have been in bed sleeping most of the day.  I very rarely every get sick and last year I actually had contracted the flu for the first time in two decades or better, so not too shabby, eh?

My only concern at the moment is that my vitamin D levels are VERY deficient.  I’ve been using Sunshine Mist, available on Dr. Mercola’s site, for three weeks now and am not knowing if that is long enough to bring my levels back up to a normal range.  I tweeted him and asked when I should go back in to be retested and will check to see if he answered tomorrow as my head and eyes are too achy to sit here for long.  Imagine that? *wink*

Vitamin D is a HOT topic amongst the medical profession today and Dr. Mercola has some incredible videos on his site, as well as a plethora of other information for the day and age we are living in.  It was in frequenting his site that I learned of the epidemic of low vitamin D levels today, which prompted me to ask for my levels to be checked when I went in for my annual blood workup a couple of months ago.  My reading was 20, which is on the borderline of being severely deficient.  UGH!  Dr. Mercola does a very thorough job of explaining “why” we are in such an epidemic of low vitamin D levels and what we can do to keep our levels in a normal and safe range (It is not safe to bump your levels up too high either).  I encourage all of you to take a peek at Dr. Mercola’s findings.

I have hyperlinked his name directly to the main page of his site.  Here is the link to several of his links to various articles on VITAMIN D.  LOL!  I went to his site to get the link and started reading about stress!  You can spend an entire day reading his articles!

AND THE WINNER IS ...

SO ~ INKIN ~ CUTE!  Congratulations Ms. Candi!

The winner was chosen from  a hat by my son, John, who had just showered and hit the hay for work tomorrow!  I asked him to do me the honor as Robert had already been asleep for some time and John had just turned off his light!  The draw was completed in the dark, no less!  So much so, that he could not read the name on the folded piece of paper.  LOL!  Or, perhaps it was my handwriting that was not legible, eh?  *big grin*

No one actually guessed the “portion thereof”, so the draw was from those who guessed my flair logo and my “about me” image.  As you can see, the above banner is taken straight from the side of the image with the camera to my eye.

However, y’all have given some COOL ideas and I may just change things up a bit as I go, but for now, this is “simple” and VERY neutral and the Bon Scrapatit font will still be familiar to y’all, I hope!

Thank you to ALL of you who posted your guess.  It was SO much fun reading your comments!

Candi love, please email me: bonscrapatitdesigns (at) gmail (dot) com with the name of the store you wish to use your $5.00 gift certificate at, along with your full registered name, and I will have it to you tomorrow if I’m feeling better and if not, then on Monday.  Congratulations once again girlie!

I apologize for the delay in getting the journaling strips to you, however, I’ve not been able to work on them since falling ill.  I will try my hardest to get them posted no later than Monday.

Hope everyone is having a LOVELY weekend.  It’s been pouring rain here, so it’s a VERY good time to spend a lot of time in bed sleeping so that I get better quickly!  LOL!

Keep on scrappin’ …

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

*Heartfully Yours* Scrapkit by Bon Scrapatit Designs (free here on my blog!)

Font: Pea Eshley by Kevin and Amanda

Template: Bella Gypsy

Happy Friday y’all!!!

Somehow I missed visiting you on Thursday and as you can see by the timestamp, I am still up the wee hours of Friday morning!  ROFL!  Now, I am not supposed to be keeping these late hours anymore, am I?  *wink*

Well, yesterday was kind of crazy in that I had a zillion distractions and my oldest son is still here!  LOL!  He lives about five minutes from us and decided he needed a vacation from home!  ROFL!  I suppose I should feel honored that he finds respite here (from a house full of guys!), however, I’m just getting back to business and cannot completely ignore him, now can I?  I mean, after all, he is literally sitting directly behind me on another computer!  LOL!  Definitely time well-spent! 

Anyhoo, I did not get Photoshop opened until nearly time to start dinner and when all was said and done, I decided I’d take care of two projects all-in-one!  Now, please don’t fall off your chairs, but this is the FIRST layout I have scrapped in 2010!  Why, you might ask?  For a number of reason, but mostly because I am returning to my TRUE self … you know, the simple girl who likes clean lines and the focus to be on the photo!  The photo I used  is of my oldest, April (yes, the one getting married on the 20th!) and my grandson, Kaleb Jace who is now being called Jace by his mommy and daddy so Grandmas is following suit!  I think Jace is a pretty cool name, don’t you Sharon?  He, he … 

My layout shows the versatility of *Heartfully Yours* and that it works well for much more than Valentine’s Day! 

I’ve decided since I have 30+ years of photos to scrap that I’m needing to take a different approach than I initially set out to.  I’m going to start creating photo books and I will share a bit more with you about that next week.  I know that there are LOTS of options out there, however, I have found what I believe will work best for me and the goal I have in place.  This is what I wish to share with y’all and then, of course, I will thoroughly enjoy getting your feedback!

Needless to say, I have been collecting LOTS of templates that I feel will work well in a photo book but, of course, they will look great in scrapbook albums too!  I just LOVE versatility, don’t you? *big smile*

I see several of you are preparing yourselves for Super Bowl Sunday and, naturally, the guys will be watching here as well.  I’m thinking I will be joining them as I’m really rooting for the New Orleans Saints.  Why?  Well, firstly, I actually had tears well-up in my eyes when they won the against the Minnesota Vikings in their final playoff game.  Why?  Because they have NEVER been to the Super Bowl and because I believe this will help the BEAUTIFUL city of New Orleans and surrounding areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina to REALLY put themselves back on the map, so-to-speak.  I can’t help but think it will surely help to generate more business, sponsorships, etc. 

I will be busy doing taxes for three out of four my sons today and I will try my hardest to finish up the journaling strips to get to you either later tonight or Saturday when I announce the WINNER of the $5.00 gift certificate to the digital scrapbooking store of THEIR choice.  This is what I get for just HAVING to add twice as many words as I originally had!  Oh, can’t forget this one to go with that one!  HA, HA!  I’m SO bad! Or, is that GOOD? 

If you’ve not yet taken a guess yet as to the image, OR portion thereof, already located somewhere on my blog that I have used to create my new blog header, head on over HERE for the details on where to leave your answer for a chance to win a $5.00 GC to your FAVORITE digital scrapbooking store!  The deadline is 11:59 pm EST tonight!

Have a FANTABULOUS weekend everyone and I’ll see soon!

XOXO,

Linda :D

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SCRAPATIT #1

Hi y’all!

How is everyone mid-week?  Time to climb on over the “hump” into the final stretch of this week, eh?!  WOO HOO!  And how do y’all spell weekend?  Okay, besides the obvious! *big grin*  What is your favorite thing, aside from scrapping, that you enjoy doing either on the weekend, your day(s) or your partner’s day(s) off?

I have actually been watching some of the playoff games with Robert as I do like to spend time with him and he enjoys it!  I have to laugh though, as I was REALLY into the playoff game between the Louisiana Saints and the Minnesota Vikings!  Games such as that one are easy for me to watch because there is a lot of “game” going on!  LOL! 

I truly believe the only reason I have any interest in football whatsoever, aside from having raised four boys, is my playing girl’s flag football in my sophomore year of high school.  Uhm, you know, so I actually have some understanding of what is happening on the field!  LOL! 

Before I post this evening’s links, if you rely on my feed being delivered to your inbox via Feed Burner, please make sure to scroll all the way down as I was too late in posting last night for it to be burned and sent to y’all.  Hopefully, I get this posted and am not sounding like a CRAZY woman!  ROFL!  HA, HA, HAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Also, I neglected to mention with yesterday’s post that I included a “Tips and Tricks” file for those that may be fairly new to digital scrapbooking and also so that everyone is privy to the fact that both the heart scatters and the glitter scatters were created on the same canvas and are the same size so that you can merge them together if you wish to do so.  I have explained how to do so in the “Tips and Tricks” file.  If you have any questions, just hollar! 

This evening, you will find two more links for Embellishments-3 and Embellishments-4.  Tomorrow night, I will post the journaling strips!

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday!

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EMBELLISHMENTS - 3

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EMBELLISHMENTS - 4

Evening everyone! 

The day has slipped away from me as I’ve been trying to figure out why my RAM-ometer (LOL! This sweet little widget on my desktop) is hovering in the RED while I work in Photoshop!  I’ve not really noticed it before and I’ve cleaned out files, returned PS to it’s default settings and I’m still struggling to keep from entering the DANGER zone!  ROFL!   Photoshop is open with nothing going on in it and I’m sitting at 68%.  Perhaps Mozy preparing for a backup contributes to this, but I am not sure about that.  I’ve been moving files around quite a bit lately so it seems that Mozy is always preparing for a backup!  No complaints as I sleep VERY peacefully at night knowing that my files are safe! I think, perhaps, a little Googling is in order though to get a clue on the high stats on my RAM! *wink*

I have enjoyed reading your comments from yesterday’s post and your guesses as to what image, or portion thereof, I am using for my new blog header!  I have to chuckle as I think I’ve done this backwards and I should have asked y’all what I SHOULD use because I am REALLY liking some of your ideas! I’m just sayin’!  :D

My girlie, Ms. Dawn is back in action over at Snowsmoon’s Designs after her computer crashed last week (I talked her into Mozy sometime ago and she is good as new y’all!).  Dawn is now up and running and back to her WONDERFUL Project 52 Weeks of 2010 (a nice alternative to the many Project 365’s for those of us that are challenged with daily photo taking and/or scrapping!), as well as providing some goodies via a Hide and See over at Hummie’s World.  When you click on Project 52 Weeks of 2010, make sure to put your shades on because the sun is SHINING in Scrapland tonight!  WOO HOO!  And don’t forget to check out Snowsmoon’s Designs for her other FABULOUS happenings!  If you scroll down a ways, you will even find a LOVELY scrapatit Dawn created using my *Floralessence* scrapkit from last month!  We are also working on our *Days Gone By* challenge for February, so stay-tuned for that too!  Love ya girlie and I’m SO happy that you are back!  MWAH!

This evening’s download consists of two links for Part One of *Heartfully Yours* embellishments!  There are a few items that are large in file size, so I’ve broken the embellishments up into four files to keep them all below 30 MB.  I will post the final two tomorrow, followed by the journaling strips on Thursday!  Now, you just KNOW that my week is going to fly by, right?  Uh, huh!  Keep me busy and time soars! 

For those who might be here for the first time since my posting of *Heartfully Yours*, I am giving y’all an opportunity to win a $5.00 gift certificate to the digital scrapbooking store of YOUR choice (just make sure that they offer gift certificates) for guessing which image, OR portion thereof, that I will be using for my new blog header coming soon!  To leave your guess, please comment below the post HERE!  Deadline is Friday, February 5th at 11:59 PST.  Winner to be announced here on my blog on Saturday.  Good luck everyone!

Until tomorrow …

XOXO,

Linda :D

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EMBELLISHMENTS-1

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EMBELLISHMENTS-2

HAPPY MONDAY Y’ALL!

Thank you SO much for ALL of the WONDERFUL welcome backs!  It surely does feel good to be back in the designing saddle again and, hopefully, I can stay in this saddle for a while without falling off! LOL!  You know the old saying about falling off the horse and getting right back up on it again! He, he …

Please bear with me in that I will be revamping my blog and hope to have a new template in place soon.  I just don’t wish to mess anything up, so I’m practicing a bit on a test blog and then will try to convert it and, hopefully, not lose my widgets!  Of course, I shall back this one up first!  ROFL!  Better make sure I’ve had a good night’s sleep too, eh?  :D

I have done SO much browsing and pondering in what I wish to do with my blog and keep coming back to my love of simplicity and clean lines!  Funny how we do that, isn’t it?  I SO adore the creativity in others, but I cannot fight who I am!  Not to say that I don’t fight with myself on occasion, but I always fall back on who I really am!

With that said, my blog is not going to look scrapbookish per se, which I like, but I find too confining unless I wish to change it around all the time and I don’t! :P  And, y’all KNOW how color coordinated I am!  So, what do think I’m going to do?  Any guesses?  I’ll give you a wee bit of a hint.  My new header will sport an image, or portion thereof,  that is already somewhere here on my blog and it will go with anything I post!  Now, that piece of information should make your guess MUCH easier!  LOL! Oh, and I’ve finally decided to go with a white background as much I love the way things POP on black!  It will make it much easier for me when others snag my images and/or I don’t have to make extra previews for my own blog!  ROFL!

Now, for that “chance to win”!  I am offering a $5.00 gift certificate to the digital scrapbooking store of YOUR choice (check to make sure that they offer gift certificates) via a random drawing by my sweet man or random.org from those who correctly guess the image I will be using as my new blog header!

Please post your ONE guess (give specifics!) in the comment area of this blog post.  Deadline for all guesses will be this Friday (2/5) at 11:59 pm PST!

I will post the winner’s name on my blog Saturday and have that person email me with the store of their choice.  I will then purchase the $5.00 gift certificate and email to the winner! 

Happy guessing! :D

Here are some detail images of *Heartfully Yours*:

Today’s download will consist of the patterned and solid papers.  Tuesday and Wednesday I will post embellishments, Thursday I will post the journaling strips and if I come up with any extras, such as scrapatits, clusters, etc., I shall post them on Friday!

Until tomorrow, get your scrap on and don’t forget to post your guess as to the image I will be using for my new blog header!

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PATTERNED BG PAPERS

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SOLID BG PAPERS

Do you remember the time … when I used to blog nearly every day?  He, he …

HI Y’ALL!!!

How is everybody? I’m doing GOOD, just been busier than a little ‘ol worker bee! LOL!  I can’t even count how many times I’ve tried to get a post together so y’all wouldn’t think something had happened to me, but then I do pop up on Twitter, Facebook and update my scrolling marquee from time-to-time!  I’ve also done a bit of blog-hopping when time has afforded me to as I miss visiting some of my favorite places!  I don’t make promises, generally speaking, however, I do promise that if I am NOT ever coming back to Scrapland, you will be the first to know, although, God willing, I do not see that happening any time soon!  You can always catch a glimpse of what I might or might not be up to on my marquee and below that in my Twitter updates.  However, I actually punished myself by abstaining from ALL social media for nearly three weeks!  HA, HA!  Would that be considered, self-abuse? LOL!  Just kidding.  I had to do it as I can find myself lost in my Tweet Deck for hours and before I know it, it’s time to start dinner!  I was also needing to give attention to myself and the fact that I was having a HORRIBLE time trying to stay focused on any one particular thing.  Overwhelmed comes to mind!  You know, when the brain lets you know that if YOU can’t manage things then it’s taking a vacation and will see you some time in the, hopefully, near future! ROFL!  I think this sums up my past two months rather well.  My brain has returned and is giving me another go at it!  LOL!  I’d better be good now, right?  Uh, huh!

A VERY special “thank you” to those of you who have stopped by leaving me well-wishes here on my blog or via email.  Your words are uplifting to my spirit, endearing to my heart and help to keep me making my way back to Scrapland!  MWAH!

I’ve decided that trying to play “catch up” on my blog is like trying to catch up on sleep and we all know that just never happens! So, I shall start anew and would like to wish you all a VERY happy, healthy and humorous new year!  I am resolved to the fact that if we just keep on laughing no matter what our situation might be at any given time, we shall be just fine!

My last post was on December 9th (ACK, I cannot believe this!) and I was just preparing to work on additional Christmas goodies when I received a phone call from daughter number one, April, who was ready for me to start on her wedding invitations ala postcard! I liked this idea for several reasons, one being that they are VERY “green”!  LOL!  See, look at all that green behind the love birds!!! *wink* Very simple and not requiring a lot of paper and/or money!  Now don’t laugh, but you would think something this simple would have taken less than a day, right?  No way!  Not with this girl!  LOL! 

We started out with a 4X6 and once I posted the script on the back, April was concerned about recipients being able to read it.  I told her that I could with my reading glasses on!  She informed me that most of those invited were in my age group!  ROFL!  Now the girl has got some humor going on too!  Too funny!  So, I suggested we bump it up to a 5X7 and this is what we got.  I, painstakingly, worked and reworked to make sure that nothing important fell victim to the cutting machine!  Yes, I used their templates, however, being the first time for either of us to use a printer, I just wished to make sure there were no regrets once my baby girl received them in her hands!  I was SO excited when I answered the phone and April had just received them and she said they were PERFECT!  All the way down the to opacity on the reverse side, which was my main concern!  WOOT! 

These photos were taken by April’s dear friend, Rebecca, of Rebecca McLachlan Photography,

located in Vancouver, Washington!  Yes, the same young lady who photographed my daughter,

Joan’s wedding a year and a half ago!  She had them pose in places they visited on their first date!

If you click on the link, you will see April and Ethan and if you click on their photo, you will see other

engagement photos which include Joan and her husband, Travis! 

The image of April and Ethan is actually darker on the printed product and the background is

more defined.  Better contrast.  You can see my dilemma as I did not really like the way this

looked as a .jpg, which makes the background look washed out.  Files were sent PDF.

If you are looking for a printer, Next Day Flyer ROCKS!

From this point on, everything else is pretty much a blur as we went right into Christmas, having Robert’s two youngest boys with us, babysitting my precious grandson, my boys popping in AND out needing me to do this-and-that, and an out-of-town adventure just this past week as Robert attended some training classes for work, along with the usual busyness in a woman’s life! Come on y’all, you KNOW what I’m talking about!

I am also still diligently working on my health issues, which I get more and more excited about daily!  I’ve spent months doing research and keep stumbling into the SAME information from a variety of trusted sources so, I do believe that I am onto something and must just be patient as I begin the process of healing one step at a time.  I’m not talking a temporary fix either.  I’m looking at long-term results and with my new found knowledge, hopefully, the ability to prevent myself from ever traveling down this same road again!  I mean, I LOVE road trips, but this one has had me begging for an alternate route for quite some time know!  ROFL! 

Okay, so now you KNOW I’m still alive, that I’ve missed the dickens out of you and am still MADLY passionate about designing and sharing with y’all!  If nothing else, I snag Kim B’s monthly colour challenge palette and tuck it away in a special file until I’m ready to start playing.  I am ALWAYS challenged and my end results are never what I would have thought them to be, so I guess that is a GOOD thing, eh? :D

Today, I have a set of greeting cards for you that have been created using items from my new scrapkit, *Heartfully Yours*!  The name came to me as I was pondering on a title that would convey the fact that these creations are from my heart to y’all! 

I will start posting the papers tomorrow, Monday, and then the embellishments will follow.  I forgot to copy my working files for the journaling strips to take with us last week so I need to finish them up before posting and I will post them last.  There are three sets of about 55 words that you can use as titles and/or journaling to make your own greeting cards or layouts!  I’ve left two of the included cards blank for you to add your own title or sentiment.  You will find the selection of journaling strips versatile and for all ages!

Wishing you all a SCRAP-HAPPY weekend!

Much love and BIG squishy hugs,

Linda :D

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD GREETING CARDS

Y’all, I am like TOTALLY speechless!  WOWSERS!  I had NO idea that y’all would be liking *Floralessence* quite this much!  I mean, I know MANY of you LOVE glitz and jewels, but who knew that Ruthy’s choice of colors would make me look SO good!  Thank you Ruthy!  Thank you Kim!  And, I thank y’all for your LOVELY comments! 

Please find the final two links for embellishments beneath the preview!  Uhm … now you just KNOW that I am NOT finished yet, right?  Uh, huh … I think I see an alpha or two to coordinate and, perhaps some frame clusters and such.  Surprise, surprise!  :D

I will also be adding to my *Twas The Night* blog train goodies! Stay-tuned and stay sweet!

XOXO,

Linda <3

Embellishments - 2

Embellishments - 3