Toby Keith Concert

WOW! That word does not even BEGIN to cover it. I have been trying to see him in concert for over five years now! I missed him by a WEEK when I was in Iraq, he was leaving as I was going in, then by a month from returning to the states, then the third time I was 7 months pregnant and on bed rest so I missed him then too! BUT I GOT TO SEE HIM this past Saturday! My WONDERFUL Mommy bought us tickets to the Fort Knox Memorial Day Concert. He is such an AWESOME military supporter and he put on a fantastic emotional concert! It was amazing! Here are a few pictures! We were pretty close. The first four rows were for the families of the Fallen Soldiers and Wounded Warriors which I thought was so generous and befitting! We were about ten rows back from that, I could see him from where I was sitting and take pictures with my zoom so that is pretty good. Enjoy the pictures and if you ever get the chance GO SEE HIM it is well worth the money!

Mom and Me before going in. I made the shirt I am wearing for her (The American Pride one)

This was the first opening act, the Charter's Chord I think? Not sure!

I love my Mommy!

Second opening act, Katharine McPhee, she was awesome!

Sexy pose!

Mrs. Kathy, Mom and Me after the streamers came from the sky! Thank you Mrs. Kathy for fighting to get us awesome seats!

"How do you like me now?"

Fourth of July! I love love love the guitar! He only used this for American Soldier. I loved it! I took 457 pictures but only 290something came out. These are some of my favorites. I really wish I would have gotten one where he was saluting the crowd but I did not. He also sang two or three songs that don't play on radio and that was super cool. I had a blast. Thank you Mommy for the tickets and Thank you Danny and Dad for watching Caitlyn so that I could go and have a blast!

I am so EXCITED!!!!!!!!! Great news to share!!!!!!

YAY! I can finally share!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOOOO!!!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!! I made the www.scrapbookpal.com FIRST EVER DESIGN TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this store; I shopped with them a LOT during the CKC 2008 in N.C. I loved the products and prices. I am so honored and flattered to be selected for this amazing journey! You have to make sure to check out the blog and the store! They just got all the new cuttlebug folders in, to include the 12 inch borders!!!!!! Check out all my fellow Design Team sisters, they all look pretty familiar!!!!! I am super excited! Come check out the store www.scrapbookpal.com!!!!!! And here is the BLOG where we will share our wonderful creations!

Strawberry picking!

My brother getting a high five from little miss for helping her pick strawberries today!

Look at the concentration! This is Papaw helping her!

I love this one of Uncle Danny's hand helping hers pull the strawberry! Precious!

She looks so grownup here!

Look at all those yummies!

We had a great family day today! We all got up and got ready early, then drove to Indiana for some good strawberry picking! I thought Caitlyn would love it and she did, and so did Papaw! We all had a GREAT time! We rode a tractor out there and back, picked TONS of strawberries (and ate a few too LOL); found some cute thing with Caitlyns name spelled like we do. Caitlyn and Daddy fed some goats, pigs and ducks. Caitlyn had her first time on a tire swing and of course LOTS of slides! Then we all went to a yummy lunch where Caitlyn was supposed to share her plate with mommy but didn't LOL! Then to Hobby Lobby for Mommy (since we do not have one at home) and then in the kiddie pool and cookies for dessert! An awesome day! We are all pooped now but it was so much fun and so worth it!

Caitlyns T shirts!

I made these last week for Caitlyn to wear this week while home. I have a few more to make. Simple and easy using the Freezer Paper Method with fabric paint.

Bingo shirt for my Daddy

My Daddy has a raunchy sense of humor and loves Bingo. He is a retired Tanker from the Army so this shirt is just up his alley. I made this for his birthday along with a bingo box with Taz on it and some lucky charms(pictures of him and his granddaughter). He loved it! We are here safe and sound here in Kentucky so this will probably be my only post this week. Hope you have a great week.

My First Bleach shirt

I used Stand and Salute for the sentiment. I had plans on doing "Land of the Free because of the Brave" but that was too much to do, while sick like I am (yes AGAIN! It stinks!). This shirt did not come out quite like I thought but I like it I think. What do you think?


For Bobbi and anyone else wanting to know. I used Freezer paper (got it at Walmart in the Reynolds Wrap aisle) Place the freezer paper cut to size on your cricut mat SHINY SIDE DOWN. Make sure it is thoroughly stuck down. Load and cut what you wish using your cricut. Now iron the NEGATIVE cut on a PREWASHED and IRONED Tshirt making sure to get all the edges truly fused to the shirt. You then need to put the center of the "O"s and such down, ironing them also. On this shirt I used a MINI MISTER (Tim Holtz/Ranger) 3/4 with bleach and 1/4 with water. It only took a couple sprays. It will take about 5 minutes for the bleach to start working. Do NOT saturate it as it will seep under the freezer paper stencil no matter what. You can also use fabric paint using the freezer paper cut as a stencil, same process just paint instead of bleach. Hope that helps!

I got SPOILED!!!!

On the cricut.com Messageboard every month there is a Happy Mailbox thread. This month was a little different, we were allowed to list five wishes. I always enjoy this swap since I can make someone else happy, well today I was SPOILED!!!!! Kittyshoes aka Lisa granted ALL of my wishes, she said something from SU! is on its way (I think it is the top note die SCREAM HERE!!!!!). Oh man I am still grinning from ear to ear, I even cried a bit and I am shaking! HOLY SMOKES! I am not sure what I did to deserve this kindness but OH MY GOSH I LOVE IT!!! THANK YOU TIMES A MILLION!!!!!!!!!!


The Basic Grey KIOSHI Collection pack
Basic Grey KIOSHI Page Kit (makes FOUR LAYOUTS!!!!)
Kioshi buttons, canvas labels, brads, fabric flowers and epoxy stickers!
TWO Signo Uniball pens (love these for journaling but cant find them here!)
UNITY SEW CUTE STAMP SET!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!
Karen Foster Countdown Calendar (I have been wanting to alter one of these for Caitlyns Christmas countdown since she was born WOOHOOO!)
AND TWELVE Distress Stickles!!!!!!
AND the most LOVELY card with a cute fuzzy lamb on it!!!!

HOLY SMOKES I AM FLOORED AND SO GRATEFUL!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!

Just one M&M

No cricut. Simple and fast. Used studio G stamps for the backgrounds in circles, Pink Glitter Thickers for title, Scraps of paper including gemstones (pink); journal behind left picture. Yes this is what happens after ONE M&M! I am not sure she even got any in her mouth, but one thing is certain she lost that battle LOL! She was almost 2 in these pictures. Look at the difference in her hair!

Again MOM DO NOT LOOK! Second post today

Mom do NOT look any further! Don't ruin the surprise for me please!


*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************

Ok here we go. Here is the second layout I did. They will NOT be shown at the same time so it is ok that the background paper is different. The shadowbox that I have you simply pin in the items to the foam/canvas that way you can switch it out as you wish. No cricut on this one, used some of the kit that was left and some Vintage Making Memories paper; and K&Company Ancestry line from Michaels. It is a bit simpler than the first but again I don't do vintage often. Hope you like it!

DONT LOOK MOM! I MEAN IT STOP LOOKING NOW!!!!

Mom why are you looking?? I Told you to stop, now STOP (please!) Seriously STOP or you will spoil the surprise!

****
***********

****************

***********************
OK here is what I worked on, my first vintage layout! EVER! I think it turned out great thanks to some advice from Hubby! He is fantastic at that! What do you think? I used Design Studio to make the title using Calligraphy Collection. That was the only Cricut I used though. BE HONEST this is my first one so PLEASE tell me what you would change! I can't change anything now but it will be good for the future, if I do this style again.

Easy Peasy Scrap Cards

This one I used a new dollar stamp (the camera) that I got and some leftover paper and sticker letters.
This one is all paper scraps, some American Crafts vinyl embellies (pushpins) and CTMH letter stamps. Super simple and quick.

Journal Swap

Hey all,
I am hosting a handmade journal swap on the cricut.com board if you are interested let me know!

Here is the LINK

Hope to see some of you there!

My "Texan" -second post please scroll down

SECOND POST PLEASE SCROLL DOWN!

Super simple and fast. I used 50 states for the Texan flag a six inches. Thickers for the title and Autumn Leaves star stamps with versamark for the background; 7 gypsies "permission" slip. There is a tag behind the picture with the whole story!

Always show me the way

I have to say I LOVE this layout. I wanted to keep it simple and focus on the pictures and the journaling. I love these pictures, they really capture the relationship between Jonathan and Caitlyn right now. I obviously had a lot to say, pretty sentimental. I love how it came out though. I used all colorbok papers from a pack at target for a buck! I wanted to use lots of arrows to emphasis, Jonathan showing Caitlyn the way to love, live and be. I made two of them and used a clear ghost shape with ink for the third. Everything on this layout is inked. I used two white primas, some bling swirls, and some Kaisercraft pearls. The title is Thickers. I also used an EK Success border punch to frame the massive journaling I did. What do you think honestly? It is rather mushy but I get that way sometimes! LOL!

Mothers Day T shirt, Altered letters and a layout

Here is the T shirt that Caitlyn and Daddy made me. Daddy said it was a ROUGH experience but do you see what it is? Her hand prints turned into a butterfly. It is super glittery. I wore it proudly all day Sunday!

Here are some altered letters I did for either our living room or the hallway. Jonathan has to fashion something on the back to make them stay on the wall. They are just 3D cardboard/paper mache letters that I picked up at Joann's awhile back. Our living room is in red, cream, black and a touch of gold with Asian accents. Mostly it is cream. The papers are from the Far West stack, added some sheer ribbon and various stamps. Nothing fancy simple, just our style.





This is a quick layout I did. I wanted to do an all green (or mostly green) layout so here you go. Nothing fancy.

My Mothers Mother Day Card

My mother is so special to me. There is nothing in the world to give her to tell her how thankful and blessed I am to have her, but I tried with this meager card. She loves blue/brown (yep we have that in common) and sunflowers. I know this is not really a sunflower but I took some creative license with it. I used kraft cardstock for my base, stamped a polkadot pattern on the bottom with versamark ink, white ribbon for the middle, blue/brown polkadot paper for the top. The label is an EK success punch and CTMH stamped sentiment that someone sent me in a Rak. The flower is my first time two time stamping to get a 3 D look. Not sure if you can see it here. I also used LOTS of chalk for shimmer that did not show up here either. What do you think?

I sure hope your Mothers Day is grand. We all woke up sick but we are relaxing. Jonathan went and purchased me some Dunkin Donuts (super yummy!) for breakfast, him and Caitlyn made me an awesome tshirt with Caitlyn's hand prints turned into a butterfly. She also drew me a picture on my Mothers Day card that Jon made me. I could not ask for me. I know I am loved and appreciated. He has taken care of her most of the day so I can try to get some energy for this upcoming week. Tonight he is making me my favorite dinner (fried potatoes and scrambled eggs)! We went to ACmoore and he got me two new Glitz design background stamps that I cannot wait to play with when I am better! Hope you have a great day where you feel loved and needed!

Rocky and a Zebra

SECOND POST FOR TODAY! Please scroll down for Stamping Boutique!

I finally felt like doing something, or should I say I was going insane NOT doing anything! The wind is fierce here today which leads to horrible bootie kicking allergies for me. These pictures are the last one (I think) I have printed from our rainy day at the petting farm back in October. Our favorite season is fall and I always tend to have double (sometimes triple) the layouts for this season. Good thing I love the colors! All the patterned paper is from DCWV Guy Stack, the journal card is from Jenni Bowlin brown notepad collection (LOVE THESE!! after spending ban will be getting more for sure!). The stamped hearts are a Kaisercraft stamp that I bought before the spending ban. I love the textures of it! So cool! The title is of course thickers and some letter stickers I had in my stash. Some ink and ribbon from stash and there you go all done! Happy Mothers Day y'all!

Stamping Boutique!

Hello out there, this week has been a rough one here, BUT it is the weekend! WHEW! We survived lol. I have some good news to share with you so that makes it a little better. A great friend of mine from the cricut message board is allowing me to join a new Design Team, The Stamping Boutique.!!!!! YAY! I have never (OK once) used digital images before so this is super new territory for me, so please be patient as I learn LOL! I am so honored to join, but I will be different than most of the designers as they do wonderful and amazing cards and I specialize in clean and simple layouts. I hope you can still get some inspiration from me anyways. Here is my first design team work that I submitted. I hope you enjoy it. It is based off a sketch that Stamping Boutique provided. I do not own copics and wanted a soft feel for these images so I simply used regular Crayola colored pencils. The pumpkin journaling spot and the frog sitting on top of the pumpkin are both images that are sold in the store HERE.
Hope you enjoy my first try at digital images and have a fabulous Mothers Day weekend!

MIL Mothers Day card

Since she received it today and opened it I guess I can post now LOL! We also made her a mini album out of baseball card holders and ribbon to put in her purse. It was filled with pictures of Caitlyn but I am sure she can remove and put pictures of the other grandchildren also.

Simple wall vinyl

I have been wanting to do this since we moved in here, we are renting right now and I don't want to put too many holes in the walls, but vinyl is removable and all that. So I used black and red wall pops and Lyrical Letters and Opposites Attract to make this simple saying for above the bed. I wish I had made it bigger but alas I am OK with it! Next up is C's room, but that is a long quote so we will see when that one gets finished.

Blog Award! From K-E!

What a great way to wake up this morning! K-E ALWAYS has nice sweet comments on my blog! I love it! Thank you sweetie for your kindness and heart!

Okay, rules for this award are:

• Link back to the person who gave you the award (K-E at KECreations)
• Post where you would like to be in 10 years
• Give this award to 10 awesome bloggers

Hmmm Ten years....In ten years I will almost 40 with a 12 year old little girl (about to be 13!). Hopefully by then we will have our second, have bought a house and got it to the point where we want it. Maryland is EXPENSIVE! I will either be home schooling, volunteering or back to work. I hope to be financially stable and making more time for myself.

Now onto my ten awardees:

Kim
Lynne
Dayna
PenLight
Mandy
Melissa
Courtney Baker
Lori Apgar
CraftyGirl (Barb)
PammieK

I would also like to extend this to ALL my followers past and presetn a

DIY-Tim Holtz applicators

These only cost me .77 a piece (had to buy the blue handles which are drawer pulls from Lowes). Everything else : the wood blocks, screws to hold the handle on, and the Velcro we had laying around. So now all I have to do is put some of the foam on there and we are good to go! What do you think?