Happy Birthday Skyler!

Happy Birthday Skyler!  

It's hard to believe that my spiky haired sweet boy is turning 16 today.  

Driver's License here we come! 

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Merry Christmas 2012!

From our family to yours ~ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ******


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Sports Cupcake Toppers with {free} Printable

click here to print

To make 24 cupcake toppers here is the supplies you'll need:

• 4 pages white cardstock

• Click here to print sports balls x 2 times

• Stamps in sports theme  I used Sport-tastic & Boy Crazy by My Pink Stamper

• 2 inch scalloped circle punch

• toothpicks

• brown ink (optional)

• liquid glue or hot glue gun

• scotch tape

Directions:

1. Punch out all balls using 2 inch scalloped circle punch.
2. Stamp sentiment on each ball. 
3. Ink edges (optional).
4. Take toothpick and tape about 1/4 on back of one circle.  Take a second circle, facing it the opposite direction and using adhesive or hot glue to set together. 
5. Insert into cupcakes and enjoy!

Happy 6th Birthday Spencer!

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Beautiful Rain!

  I couldn't think of a more fitting blog post than to share these awesome pictures with you of my front year this morning….


   Some of you may remember my request to Pray for Texas last Summer when our state was plagued by drought, 100+ degree temperatures for days ….if not months in a row - it was miserable and totally heartbreaking to hear and see all of the wildfires that took thousands of homes, scorched property and ruined our beautiful state, dying trees and farmland.  The Texas Drought of 2011 is one for the record books…..our children and grandchildren will be learning about this in their 7th grade Texas History class in years to come, my husband and I will be talking about this when we are in our 70's -- to our grandkids as a reminder of Mother Nature's brutalness and how we should take nothing for granted.


Bring us forward to today….my area of Texas has had more rain in the January, February and March 2012 than we had in the entire year of 2011.  Ponds and lakes are filling up {if not full to the brim}, the grass is green, livestock are more healthy and our entire land is recovering.  Praise God for his blessings!


These are pictures of my front yard this morning….

Rain puddles means that our ground has soaked up previous days/week's rain and it then sits on top until it can soak more in the ground -- Hallelujah!  

RAIN PUDDLES -- {{{love}}}

Last summer this grass was "dead" looking - brown and ugly --
it is now green and pretty ready for spring!  

Thank you for letting me share this with you -- I believe all things are possible through Jesus!  Thank you for the prayers.  






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{Family Love} Valentine Subway Art

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I was totally inspired to create one of these valentine subway arts for my family when I saw this one over At Second Street.  I totally fell in love with the idea and couldn't wait to get it finished.

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{30 Things to Stop doing to Yourself!}

I received so much positive feedback from my Positive Messages Journal Project {thank you} from Friday night's Pink-alicious Blog Hop and I had so many comments and personal messages from those interested in my first journal entry on the first page of "30 things to stop doing to Yourself" (you could only see the first 15 in the photo) that I'd thought I'd share the source and the rest of them with all of you.  

When one of my friends first shared this link on facebook I immediately checked it out….wow!  I'm so happy I did as this list has made a real impact on me and I refer to it often.  Great food for the soul to live a happier life.   

Click on the button below to find out the entire list of 30 Things to stop doing to Yourself! 

Life Tips!

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Country Christmas at Craft Junkie Too!!

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas -- we sure did.  Lots of family time and lots of yummy food, entertainment, and all around good times.  Its great to get together and have fun!


I wanted to share a few pictures of my Country Christmas decor with you.  I'm a true country crafter through and through and it works for me!


My tree has tons of ornaments…..I actually put on ornaments for days - literally….I'd do a few, quit and return later or the next day.  It was so fun.  I have a EZ Rotating Tree stand (got mine at Garden Ridge Pottery about 5 years ago and paid 89.00 -- they've come down about 20 bucks since then) and my whole tree rotates -- I love sitting on my sofa watching my tree and admiring all of my special ornaments.  It's definitely one of my essential Christmas decorating items I must have!  Most of these ornaments were given to me, handmade by friends, a few are purchased but not many.  



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Merry Christmas from Craft Junkie Too's family!

Wishing you and your loved ones a
 joyous season!

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An Update & Christmas Craft Show

Hi everyone ~ I hope you are all doing well!  Just a quick update on me and my world.  Spencer is doing well and adjusting to his meds to treat his ADHD as well as can be expected.  We continue to see improvements in his behavior at school and home because he isn't always getting into trouble….It's definitely building his self-esteem and self-confidence.  We had a fall parent/teacher conference last week and his teacher had the best things to say about his attitude, behavior and interaction with other kids.  She actually called him a "star student", fast worker and is ready for kindergarten.  whoooo momma -- never thought I'd hear that…. We are truly blessed.  We continue to work on good choices and not pushing the boundaries quite as much.  Thank you to everyone who sent me messages, commented, and for your unspoken thoughts and prayers.  I am truly grateful for each and every one of you.



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ADHD Awareness Week :: For this Child I Prayed!

This is Spencer -- my sweet boy, my crafting buddy and my very strong-willed child!  

I have a plaque above his bed that reads "For this Child I Prayed!"  I found this plaque a little over a year ago and at the time of hanging it in his room we were desperate for answers.  What is going on with this child??  When will he grow up, mature and act right??? Where is the line drawn in the sand when your rambunctious, intelligent, fearless, rowdy boy goes from "just being all boy" or "strong-willed" to…questioning….is there something else going on with him?  He was unable to sit still.  At home, at school, in church, at the dinner table, watching tv -- everywhere.  More than that he was very impulsive.  Aggressive impulsive.   At school something would "rock his world" and he would not be very nice to his friends, hitting, kicking, pushing or tackling was all in a days work.  I had many parent-teacher conferences, cried, prayed for guidance, pleading for wisdom to help this child that is a gift but so very difficult to raise.  My husband and I were at our wits end.  We tried every discipline tactic….but to no avail -- nothing got through to him.  



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Update & October Fun!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to let you know a few things that are going on in my world.  First of all, I {personally} will be taking a little break from posting here at Craft Junkie Too.  We recently confirmed through testing my little crafting buddy Spencer has ADHD (Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder).  It makes my heart so heavy and sad but my little guy needs me more than ever.  He has shown signs of ADHD for years but the doctor wanted to wait until he was 5 for him to be officially tested.  He has a very hard time controlling his impulses, sitting still, listening and this leads to not making the best choices which gets him into trouble.  We are all struggling right now to find the best way to deal with his needs and help him through the tough periods.  He requires lots of positive attention to ensure his needs are being met.  I have read so many stories, articles and reports but the most effective and supportive thing we can do as a family is work together to make our life more organized and consistent for Spencer’s sake. This includes the evening time which was also my blogging and crafting time.  

I will continue to post holiday projects when I can and have also been working with All Free Holiday Crafts to produce some videos for them.  As far as the T.G.I.F. Linky Party – I will try to keep this going but may hold off on the spotlights for now until life gets more stable.  I also have a large local Christmas Craft Show that I coordinate and this will take up lots of my time as I need to get things organized and ready for the show.  I know – how do I organize all of this and keep things straight?  By my faith in God and for the gift of the Holy Spirit to remind me of what is important and what I should do. I am fortunate to have a great husband, teen-ager and other family and friends who are ready to pitch in to lighten the load.   

To keep things going here….I have enlisted the help of some very talented crafters and bloggers to keep the crafty projects, ideas, tips and tricks going through the holiday season.  So you will see some guest designers and posts the entire month of October.  I am super honored to have these super gifted and clever people to share projects, tutorials, ideas and more with my CJToo friends! I know you will be delighted too.  I want to send a special thank you to my Head Design Team Leader Cheryl Gaffney for her assistance and for helping me keep our crafty connections going here at Craft Junkie Too.com. My first guest is scheduled for Monday morning.  Stay tuned!  

Thanks for your support and for making my blog so super successful by visiting, leaving comments and sending me personal emails.  Your friendship is greatly appreciated.  

♥Tracy

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"Doggie Walk" Celebration

Click here for the T.G.I.F. Linky Party…..

Welcome to Wendy and Gilby's "Doggie Walk" hop.  Today we are celebrating our good friend Wendy's brand new blog design with a wonderful walk through along with some awesome prizes.  If you're following the dog walk you should have walked over from Theresa's blog.  To start at the beginning you can walk over to Wendy's blog and follow the dog walk line up.









My sister and her family live so close and their dog Chesney is definitely a great pup!  Well, he's full grown but he's a great friend to us all.

Here is a picture of Chesney with my 2 nephews…..I created this digital scrapbook page using My Memories Suite software.  It's super simple to use and makes outstanding projects.

Now…onto my project for today.  Today's projects are all about "makeovers" so you know how I love to find one thing and "make this" out of it -- so here is an "envelope" goodie bag…..being that Halloween is right around the corner I have a super simple Halloween Mini Goodie Bag to share.  You can create these simple mini bags using an envelope, scrapbook paper, stamps, embellishments and ribbon.  I'm so excited that All Free Holiday Crafts contacted me about doing some videos for them.  You can check it out on YouTube VIDEO HERE and I'll tell you more about it soon.

Click here to see the Video Tutorial

 Now onto Ms. Veronica's blog to finish out the doggie walk….

::Prize Alert::

In order to win one of the many prizes leave a comment on everyone's blog along the hop.  Wendy will draw the 7 winners via random.org sometime next week.

A BIG thank you to the WONDERFUL prize sponsors.  Check out Wendy's blog for a looky-see at all of the fabulous prizes.

{{Thank you Wendy}} for inviting me along the blog hop today!

Here is the "doggie walk" line up…in case you get off the walk for a little rest stop.

Wendy

Angie  

Brynn 

Edna 

Emma

Glora

Jana

Katie

Kendra

Paul

Princess Penelope: 

Shar

Tanya

Theresa

Tracy 

Veronica

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T.G.I.F. Linky Party ~ #20 & Giveaway!

Happy Friday Thursday everyone! It's going up a day early…. 

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Best Buds Scrapbook Page

I was going through my computer photos and came across the "Best Buds" Scrapbook Page that Spencer and I did back in May to help Robyn (My Pink Stamper) celebrate National Scrapbooking Day (click here to view that)- but I never posted it here at CJToo.  ooopsey!

The photo's are new but the video has been on YouTube since May so some of you may have already seen the video.

Better late than never!  :)

. . . . . . . . . . 

Here is my sweet Spencer showing off his masterpiece.  In the video you will hear and see all of the materials we used.  I let him basically design this page for his scrapbook.  Notice his "doodling" too. :)

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Decorating Car with Vinyl for All Stars!

::Click here for latest Linking Party ~ we'd love to see your projects!::

My nephew made the All-Star baseball team again this year and it's a tradition in the community to decorate the windows of your vehicle to support your kid.  It's - a - very - big - deal!!!
Most of the people use paint but my sister just got a brand new Tahoe oh about 4-5 months ago and she said "no paint" so I put my Cricut machine and Gypsy to work. 
The decorated windows are seen from all (except windsheild) windows decorated to just the back glass - which my sister opted to do this year.  I think it turned out super cute.  


I designed everything in my Gypsy and then cut it out on my Cricut machine.

My sister ran into a RAIN shower on the way to my house -- and I wanted to show you HOW WELL the vinyl sticks on your vehicle even after getting wet.

● Baseball ~ Baseball Solutions (I did use red paint to draw the lines of the ball)
● Flames on ball ~ Indie Art Solutions 

● WC for Washington County ~ Gypsy Font
● All Stars, Rylan & #13 ~ Mickey Font
● Stars ~ Baseball Solutions




This All-Star team has been playing together since 2009 (just a few changes) - HERE are the baseballs I painted for them.  You can see how they hang them on the fence during their game HERE a well as the first year I painted my sister's car.  In 2010 I used the Cricut Lite cartridge Varsity Letter to decorate her car ~ click HERE to see that.  

Here is my All-Star nephew Rylan!!  Go Boy!

I'm linking up to these parties this week....you should too....

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How to Make a George Washington Wig

Being the "crafty" one in the family sometimes has it perks and sometimes not.  When my nephew asked me to help him "look" like George Washington for a school program -- I didn't really know where to begin.  SO I "googled" it of course....LOL This is where I stand "true" to my name CRAFT JUNKIE TOO (plural) I do a little of everything!  I am posting this in hopes it may help someone else in the future.  

I started with a white Durag like this one.  It's very stable and I knew I could tie the strings around his head as tightly as needed.

Then I hot glued TONS of white cotton balls all over the Durag -- this takes a bit of time because it needs LOTS of cotton balls.  I used a butter cup for a "make shift" mannequin head -- works great! 

 

To add the "gray" to George's hair I dabbed gray paint all over...here and there.  I used a paintbrush to do the dabbing.

Then I used some curly ribbon bows (like you put on gifts) for George's pony tail.  I took out the silver ribbon and it was perfect.  I added this to the nape of his neck after putting the "wig" on his head to ensure proper placement at the nape of his neck -- otherwise you may get the ponytail too high.  Hot glue keeps it nicely in place.  

I used a pony tail holder to gather the ribbon and make it look more realistic.  

The ties on the Durag can be hidden under the pony tail and tucked inside the child's shirt or jacket.  

For the neck covering we used a large white flour sack towel I picked up in the kitchen section of the Dollar store.  We then used a handkerchief to position in the front for a more "George" style shirt.

Did you spot the $1.00 bill in George's pocket?  Pretty snazzy, huh?

  

If you need more specifics -- just email me.  

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Homemade Robot for Pre-Schooler

Share your creations on my T.G.I.F Linky Party -- we'd love to see your Spring, Summer, Easter, St. Paddy's, or "anything goes" creations.  -- Click here for that.  

........

Today I wanted to show you this adorable robot we created for our pre-schooler Spencer.  It was a family project because it took mom, dad and Spencer to create this.  Each of us contributing a special "touch" in the creation process.  Dad is very "crafty" too -- more in the "building" aspect though.   I'm sooo lucky. 

At his pre-school (and like many others) each week they bring a show and tell for the letter the class is working on for that week.  This past week was "R" -- so the teacher wanted each child to create a robot to share with the class and then be on display for the next week so everyone who passes by can see them too.  Here is our little guy Spencer proudly showing off the finished creation -- Rodetta.  :)  If you are new to my blog -- this is my little helper -- he LOVES to craft with me and sometimes you will hear/see him on my video's.  

Here is what we did --

- body - box (it had little bags of chips in it), covered with red paper.

- legs - paper towel roll (cut in half, covered with patterned "star" paper), attach to bottom of box with hot glue.

- arms - another paper towel roll (cut in half, then the tube was slit so we could roll the arms a little smaller), attach to side of body with hot glue.

- head - chicken breast can (like tuna in a can but a larger one that had chicken breast in it.) 
- adhere pattern paper around can and on top (which would actually be the bottom of the can upside down).

- hair - curly polka dot ribbon, adhered to top of can.

- red bows in her hair.

- eyes - black (1" scallop circle), white (1" circle), smaller black (3/4" circle).

- mouth - piece of red rick rack

- lace trim around the can (serves 2 purposes - to cover up the glue from adhering the can to the box and adds a nice touch to a "girl" robot.)

- extra stuff includes a blue gem and some robot patterned paper (blue 3" scalloped circle, robot paper cut 2" regular circle) -- adds a nice touch in the center. 

- to help the robot stand on her legs I took a semi-thick piece of cardboard and covered the top with some blue paper.  We then hot glued the legs to the bottom to help her stand up.  To cover up the "glue" I just tied some more curly ribbon around the bottom of her legs.


Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day :)
--Tracy

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Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Merry Christmas everyone! Love you all!!!!

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School Picture Keepsake Ornaments - Video #137

This project is a 2010 project!  :)

Happy Saturday CJToo friends! 

For those of you who stopped by my blog during the Jingle-Jangle blog hop last night  you've already seen this picture BUT I also have a video to share with you who are interested.  Sorry but I FINALLY got it uploaded to YouTube today and wanted to share it.  For some reason it appears that I was NOT supposed to get this video completed.  I filmed the entire video with my new HD Flip camera (that I got on Black Friday) and it was not zoomed in enough so my work space was tooooooo far away for you to see anything.  Geez....then YouTube wouldn't cooperate and it kept failing my upload.  (big sigh)
ÜÜÜ 

Okay....finally....here is my video. 

Since I had to do 2 posts to ensure I get my video uploaded you can leave a comment on this post also as well as one on yesterday's post (CLICK HERE).  I will give away 2 gift cards to Hobby Lobby.  Welcome new viewers and followers and THANK you my loyal viewers.  I appreciate you all sooooo much! 

Hugs!

Tracy

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