♫Still Dancing on the Ceiling All Night Long♫

Last weekend I went to the Lionel Richie concert with my sis and some friends. I didn't love the concert t-shirts, so I made my own. Check out my blog post from a few weeks ago... I helped my nieces make t-shirts for a trip and we made freezer paper stencils. I used the same technique for my concert t-shirt.

Multiple Cricut font cartridges and used the Gypsy to format. Freezer paper cut with the Cricut.

Tulip Soft Glitter fabric paint in silver.

Ain't we cute?

Group selfie!

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Baby Shower Cards

Well, not the best photos in the world, but they are the only ones I took...with my Iphone. Two of the girls in my office are having "bebes"! We are giving them a shower at work and I made the cards. I used ideas from the bedding they each picked out... 

Club Scrap cardstock, B is for Boy, Animal Antics, and Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut cartridges. 

Phrase from B is for Boy 

Club Scrap cardstock, Mini Monsters Cricut Cartridge, Perfect Pearls mist

Phrase from B is for Boy Cricut Cartridge

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Freezer Paper Stenciled T-shirts

OK, where was this idea when I was growing up?! My nieces came over to play in my craft room and made freezer paper stenciled t-shirts. +Joy Tracey made a great tutorial for this technique. I had the girls watch it before we got started...


I didn’t have my Silhouette Cameo hooked up yet, so I helped them design their stencils with the Gypsy and we cut them out with the Cricut. The process was actually pretty fast. Once they chose their designs (this took the longest) and plugged everything into the Gypsy, the rest was a piece of cake! I steered them to choose simple designs for our first time. We’ll tackle a little more complicated design the next go ‘round.

Ellie wanted to paint an anchor on hers…

T-shirts from Justice, Tulip Soft Fabric paint in Grape.

Ava had her phrase all picked out, we just had to find the right fonts AND her dolphin!

Tulip Soft fabric paints in Grape and mix of Ebony/Glacier White to make the gray dolphin.

I have to say, they came out pretty good for a first try. I was skeptical that the freezer paper would leak, but I ironed it really well for good measure and it was stuck. They want to come back and make another after we go paint color shopping!

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City of Lights and Some Good Memories!

Chris and I made a leisurely road trip to Natchitoches to pick Jake up from NSU football camp. Of course we had to hit all of our college hot spots! Most of them looked the same, just older. Some a little run down and overgrown, but recognizable. My memories of our one bedroom apartment were a lot more pleasant than what the complex looks like now. Twenty-four years ago rent was $225 a month and utilites were about $80. It was comfortable until Christopher was born! All the baby needs and furniture...we could hardly walk around! I can't believe I washed my new baby's clothes at the dirty washateria. Ignorance is bliss.

Rain Tree Apartments

Jake was born when we lived there the second time around. Christopher was in first grade. Those were sweet memories of my little family.  I had just graduated from LSU Dental Hygiene school.  I drove 80 miles one way to work every day. Chris was in school at NSU finishing his degree after he worked to put me through school. It was hard, but I wouldn't change a thing. Poor as church mice, but we were happy. 

Behan Street, our first home rental! It was yellow with white trim back then.

Woodyard Drive. We moved here the last year we were in Natchitoches. Chris worked at the fish hatchery while he was in school, so we got a sweet deal on rent in the employee housing!

The big tree where Christopher used to play. Our sweet lab Petey is buried in that grove of trees.

We ate lunch at Lasyone's. I always wanted to eat there. Eating out was a luxury we couldn't afford when we lived in Natchitoches. Of course I ordered the meat pie platter! 

I snapped a few pics of downtown Natchitoches before the rain came...

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church where Christopher made his first communion.

Veteran's Memorial, I just thought this was cool tucked away in a courtyard.

We left town just as the bottom fell out. It was a fun quick visit full of happy memories! 

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♫ Put the Lime in the Coconut...♫

Hipstamatic and Wordswag

OK, I put strawberries in the coconut, but that song kept coming to mind while I did it! I'm trying to eat healthier...I bought frozen fruit, coconut milk, coconut manna and experimented. This recipe turned out pretty good! 

Strawberry Colada Smoothie

5 frozen strawberries

1/2 cup vanilla Chobani yogurt

1 tsp coconut manna (warm jar in hot water to soften)

1/2 cup chilled unsweetened coconut milk

Blend in blender til smooth! Serve in your favorite glass. 

My favorite glasses...

Hipstamatic

I have been married for 23 years and these were a wedding gift. I remember picking them out, they are the coolest rocks glasses! I rarely took them out because I didn't want them to get broken. Sigh...life is too short not to enjoy them when I want to! So, here's to good health...cheers! 

A new to me app, Bubble Frame. Fun! I was playing around with it at the ballpark waiting for Jake's game to start...

Check out +Barb's  blog for the "app happy wednesday" linky party!

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Cousin Chatter from the Back Seat

Captured from the Texas visit last weekend...

Club Scrap June 2014 Picnic Digital Kit
LO sketch from the Club Scrap Idea Deck Volume 2 Marquee Formula (King of Diamonds card)

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Dungarees Blog Hop!

Welcome to my stop on the Club Scrap Dungarees Blog Hop! If you started the hop on the Club Scrap Creates Blog, you are in the right place. If not, keep in mind that you can access the whole list of participants from there at any time. I chose digitally simple for this month's project. I used the Dungarees Layout Card to make a two page digital LO:

We celebrated Memorial Day at my parents house. My husband loves all the kids (because he is still a BIG one!). He is usually helping one of them get into trouble! They all started screaming for Chris to jump in the pool when we walked into the gate. Of course he obliged with a giant cannonball and spent the afternoon playing "shark" in the pool. The girls love it that he lets them climb all over him. He has been letting his hair grow and the girls were teasing him about it. They told him he needed to get the hair out of his eyes, so they fixed it for him!

Realistic Embroidery Photoshop Actions by Black Null

Dungarees Digital Kit

My best friend and my valentine... he plays both positions on this team. We started dating 22 years ago, when we were both babies! We've grown up together. We started out "playing house" and built our family. My "balentine" has a raunchy sense of humor, doesn't mind offending people, likes to be the center of attention, loves us with every fiber of his being, is and has the most loyal friends in the world, you either love him or hate him, but he's mine. I am as in love with that big kid as the day I married him. I don't ever want him to change!

Your next stop on the hop is +Karen  at Club Scrap Creates. Thanks for looking!

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app happy Wednesday #5

Jake and Drew made dinner tonight...homemade salsa with roasted peppers, fresh toasted tortilla chips drizzled with a little olive oil and sea salt for the appetizer...

Spanish rice...

Fajita chicken and beef grilled in the Pittmaster...

DELICIOUS! Food always tastes better when someone else prepares it for you!

I'm linking up to +Barb Brookbank's app happy Wednesday. Click here to check out the other cool pix edited with apps! 

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Texture Tuesday Black and White Edition

Our patio is alive with "wildlife". The backyard looks so harmless out of the kitchen window. The grass is all cut and nice, flowers are growing...but if you sit, listen and watch it is a jungle out there! Chris calls it Wild Kingdom. The lizards have populated my garden and will venture out to my potted plants on the patio. They fight each other, try to charm the females and occasionally get snatched up by a bird. This little flirt would look at me and seem to pose for the camera! He was the star of his own show and it was pretty entertaining.

kk_rainy day texture, JoAnne Brisbois photo overlay, Fun in the Jungle font

Check out +Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday Black and White Edition  and the other cool B&W photos!

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This Magic Moment...

I took this of my mandevilla on my front porch. It was so beautiful last year. The tendrils climbed all the way to the roof. Flowers are pretty amazing. How that little bit of pollen gets to the inside of the flower and sticks to the stigma is just short of a miracle. Mother Nature is a pretty cool chick.

Canon Rebel EOS T3i, EFS 18-55mm lens, Macro setting

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Graduation 2014!

Big excitement for the class of 2014, GRADUATION! We received five graduation announcements this year. I made these cards with the Cricut Wild Card cartridge and used card stock to coordinate with school colors. The "For the Graduate" envelopes fit inside a #10 sized envelope, perfect for mailing. Everybody loves getting mail, especially if it is $$! Congratulations to the Class of 2014! 

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“app” happy wednesday #4

We planted our front garden 12 years ago in April. I remember because I hosted my sister's baby shower and "had" to re-landscape our front yard for the party! This is my Pineapple Guava, my favorite. As long as I've had it, it has never produced fruit! I love the blooms though. Supposedly it requires 50 hours of winterchilling to fruit. We've certainly had that this crazy Louisiana winter, so maybe this will be the year!

I took this picture with Pro Camera and edited with DistressFX and added word art with Word Swag. The quote is from the anonymous poem called the Bronx National Anthem. I thought it was cute since birds have taken up residence in my garden! I can hear them scatter when I walk down the front steps, but all I see is a blur of feathers. 

Hop over to +Barb's blog to check out the linky party, app happy wednesday #4. 

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2+2=37

My Memaw turned 89 last week. We celebrated her birthday on Mother's Day with a family picnic. All of her children, most of the grandchildren and great grands were there. It was a good day, even with the few rain showers. I think we all had a good time! I wanted to make something she would enjoy, so I made her a folding album chock full of everyone's Facebook pictures. You can find the instructions for this mini scrapbook album at Club Scrap Creates blog.

My aunt sent me some pictures of her, daddy and my uncle when they were little. Those were my favorites. My sister said she could see a little of all of us in daddy's sweet little face. 

Memaw is pretty crafty herself. She could make anything! She even writes a blog! Click here to visit her blog and read some of her stories. My earliest paper crafting memory was paper dolls in the McCall's magazine! And she could sew the most beautiful Barbie clothes. If something didn't go just right she would say, "We're just going to do it like this," and she would magically make it work. Well, that echoed in my mind when I got a little frustrated while making the album. My envelopes kept tearing from the weight of the pictures! I ended up taking the whole album apart and reinforcing the folds where the signatures were attached. Worked like a charm.  I sure am glad I got some of those crafty genes. Love you Memaw. 

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Vintage Flashback!

I was born in 1969 so I was a 70's kid. Who remembers ponchos, huarches, braids, bell bottom jeans...and embroidered denim?!

My Memaw is a pretty awesome seamstress. She could make anything, or at least that was what I thought! She made our clothes, dolls, dress up clothes, dance costumes, booster and cheerleading uniforms, quilts, blankets...we were well dressed. I can't remember if we got our embroidered jackets for a holiday gift, but we all got one. My sister's and my jacket had patches embroidered on them. My dad's had a beautiful design on the back. He still has it. Memaw even made me a little jean purse and embroidered my name on the front.

Jean jacket and purse circa 1976

These memories inspired my digital card for the new Club Scrap Dungarees kit...

Includes Digital Elements from Club Scrap Grafitti 2014 and Wildflowers 2012

I found some very realistic embroidery photoshop actions and frayed denim brushes that worked great in Photoshop Elements 12. Love the effects! I recolored parts of the embroidery designs using the lasso tool and adjusting the hue/saturation. How's that for a vintage flashback from the 70's?!

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