About Me

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DFW, Texas, United States
I'm the luckiest woman out there. I'm blessed to be married to my best friend. I have two amazing children, one son-in-law and the most adorable grandson ever with grandson number two due February 2013!!! My passion is people and preserving their memories for generations to come.
Questions, Comments or Concerns:

Email me at craf_t_scrapper@yahoo.com

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Monday, May 16, 2011

It's a Boy!!!!

I'm so excited to finally know what the gender of my grandchild will be!!  As the title of the post says, IT'S A BOY!!!  He was not shy in any way about showing his goodies so there is absolutely NO doubt!!!  After the appt we went to WalMart and splurged just a little and got a couple boy items - so exciting!!!

Heading to bed but wanted to share a few pics from the sonogram today!!!

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Thanks for stopping by!!!

Vacation...............

................well sorta!!  I'm back in Albuquerque til Wednesday morn when we leave to come back to Texas.  My daughter is graduating and wow, how time has flown!!!

Here's a pic of Cait when she was a little thing (all I could find was her glamour shot at age 4 - when I get home I'll have to update with a baby pic):

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And here's one with her hubby taken the week before he was deployed back to Iraq:


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It's great to be here though as some of our family is able to gather for this grand occasion!  I'd like to thank my Dad (Joe), my MIL & FIL (Debbie and Chuck), my BIL (Cory) and my BFF from high school (Julie) for making the trip out here - I know it was a long drive and your tush's are probably wondering why the 10 1/2 hour torture but I definitely appreciate you being here with us for this!!!!

I have nothing crafty at all this week but I'm trying to NOT be a bad blogger and just post nothing................LOL................like that hasn't happened a lot lately with all that has been going on!!!  Anywho, I thought I'd leave you with a few photo's I've taken lately in my amateur photographer career.............LOL.............I'd love to be able to charge and do this for a living but I know I still have a ways to go so I practice with friends and family and hopefully soon will feel comfortable enough to at least compensate for my time.  Hope you enjoy these, they are of my BFF from high school's daughter, Shelby :)


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(sssshhhh this is my fav one)


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And then one of my darling neighbor girl (well she lives by my Dad and I've watched her grow up), Ms. Marissa!!!


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As always, thanks for stoppin' by and I wish you happy everything today!!!  Will be back later this week hopefully with some scrappy stuff - when we get back I have to get Cait a prom dress as she is going with her BFF from childhood, Shelby (which also happens to be my BFF's daughter) to her prom!!!  So exciting (it's another photo op for me)!!!!

I'll probably be back later with news on my upcoming grandbaby - we are having a sonogram done today so cross your fingers that my grandbaby is cooperating and showing his/her stuff!!!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Panic Attack!!!

OMG!!!  Really blogger, take me down for how long AND lose my post that had challenges in it!!  At least its back up so I can post my new card BEFORE we had to Albuquerque!!!


This card is for many challenges:

Kenny K Challenge - Let's Go Retro - the skater chic reminds me of when I was a kid and we used to watch the roller derby all the time, so much fun!!  The colors, well, they remind me of our house - we had shag green carpet everywhere!!!

Kenny K DT Call

2 Sketches For You - Farewell Sketch - you will be missed greatly by me!!!

Polka Doodles - Easel Card

Lollipop Crafts - More Than One Fold

Design Dollies - Fold It Together

Craft Your Passion - Checks, Plaid or Gingham

Prairie Fairy Fridays - For the Girls

Southern Girls Challenges - Let's Hear It for the Girls



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Sctuff used to make the card:

Image - Kenny K
Patterned Paper - DCWV Lemon Flower (love the colors in this stack)
Cardstock - American Crafts/Bazzill
Sentiments - TPC Studios Playful Expressions (love this set)
Ribbon - Stash
Gemsones - Doodlebug Designs
Markers - Copic & AtYou Spica Pens


Ok, that's done, dog dropped at vet, oil changed, truck washed................now to pack and figure out wha other last minute things need to be done!!!

Thanks for stoppin' by, have a fantastic weekend and week next week and I hope to be back with another post by Friday or Saturday!!!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Leaving On A Jet Plane...................

...............ok actually it's in a Chevy truck but the point is I am going to Albuquerque to see my family!!! My dad, my BFF (well one, I have a couple :p )and I will be driving out to see my daughter graduate on Tuesday. While there I will get to spend some much needed time with the hubby - it's been hard being apart so much since the beginning of the year but I am so blessed to have him as he is understanding and actually urges me to help care for my family knowing I will always be his! Aw, I get all mushy talking bout him, he truly is the most amazing guy ever and I honestly do feel blessed to have him to complete my life...........there I go again!!!

Anywho, our trip will find us seeing family and celebrating Cait's graduation (our son is another story, 5 weeks before graduation he dropped out because of problems with one class he didn't think he could fix ***sigh***) and the start of a new chapter in our lives. Once graduation is over we'll be coming back to Texas - unfortunately leaving my husband behind til he can get a transfer - and staying with my dad til everything settles down. This is good for us and for him as we are all still adjusting to losing my Mom. It's been 7 weeks today and I still wake up at night reliving the last moments when she passed. Luckily, as I said in my previous post, I've started to come to terms with the facts and am starting to let myself cry over it.

Enough, enough, enough - today will keep me busy finalizing the last few things that I need to do - like making my list for tomorrow otherwise I know something will get overlooked!!!

1. Take truck for oil change.
2. Pick up RX's for Dad.
3. Drop Dad's dog at the doggie hotel - he doesn't travel well unlike my girls who love to travel.
4. Get dog food for the other dog that our neighbor will take care of.
5. Pack my suitcase w/the exception of toiletries.
6. Fill truck with gas.
7. Put luggage in truck.

There, think that is it!!!

As promised in the last couple posts, here is some of the jewelry I've been making and selling. I have a large stock of materials but haven't done anything in the last 2 weeks but will get back to it soon. If you see something you like or would like to order something custom shoot me an email at craf_t_scrapper@yahoo.com and I'll get ya taken care of!!! I sell them for $25 per set plus shipping if you aren't local (will be in the DFW area after next week).

Not a fav, very simple:

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This one was made and worn for my Mom's funeral:

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Another simple one:

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These two were custom orders:

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Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back in a week or so with pictures from graduation, stories of family and hopefully some more crafty stuff as I truly feel my creative juices coming back because my daily activities are sparking ideas again!!!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Chase Your Dreams

This card will be the first scrappy thing I've done since my Mom passed.  The day she left us I felt all creativity go with her - I've sat down time and again and picked up my beloved Copics and tried to color only to put them away and throw away what I had started on.  I felt like all my dreams died along side my Mom.....until today. 

This week I've learned acceptance.  I've learned to cry and let it out.  I've learned its ok to be sad and not understand they why's as to what the big guy upstairs always does.  As hard as it has been this week to let myself cry and feel, it has been uplifting as well.  I've found myself driving down the road bawling like a baby talking to God and Mom.  I was cleaning out the chest freezer in their utility room with my head down and tail in the air just crying and talking to her.  All in all its the first time that I've let myself start to heal when experiencing a loss like this - to this day I can tell you I do not believe I've ever dealt with my grampa or gramma's deaths, maybe that will change now.

So enough with the downer post.  This card is simple yet what I needed to get started again.  When I first finished it I hated it.  I thought things just didn't look right and work with each other.  I fiddled with it a little and then thought about what I accomplished making this card and realized it is just perfect the way it is.

So, I used this card for a few challenges:

Just Magnolia - Anything Goes

Mojo Monday - Sketch

Creative Card Crew - Flowers

Creative Inspirations - Decorate the inside of your card.

Colour Create Challenge Blog - Color challenge: aqua, green, purple, white and glitter optional

Here's my card - front and inside (I don't usually do insides but I like it):

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Card Recipe:

Neenah Solar White, Magnolia Image, LilyBee Design Picket Fence Papers, Ribbon and Rhinestones from stash, Mulberry Flowes from stash, Sentiment by TPC Studios and of course my beloved Copic Markers and AtYou Spica Pens!!!


Thanks for stopping by and happy scrappin'!!!!

PS  I mentioned jewelry I had made - I'll try to get a few pics of that up soon!!!

Followers

Just to cover all bases...................

I am not the best scrapper out there. I don't claim to be totally original, I lift from many places and in many forms from color combinations, to product usage, to technique and so forth. I try to be fair to all scrappers out there and mention them when I lift from them - now keep in mind, there are so many people out there scrapping, card making and altering items that naturally more than one person will have similar ideas. When I mention lifting, or casing as some call it, I mean when you intentionally take a design you see and duplicate it exactly or only change up the coloring........KWIM???

With that said..........

All content, including text, photographs, and concept design elements are © Karen Brooks unless otherwise noted. Content within this blog is shared for personal, non-commercial use and inspiration only and shall not be used for personal gain or entry into contests or for publication. That wouldn’t be very nice now would it???

Thanks and happy scrappin'!!!!