Another PSA ad from JMC, and something scrappy

Came across this video .. Jason is doing a public service announcement for Get Schooled.

Jason Michael Carroll for Get Schooled from Get Schooled on Vimeo.

These are my August Crop atcs - no theme, just whatever we wanted... so since Melonscrap already did a bingo card... I kind of expanded on that.. and did Jonas Brothers cards!

Why Jonas Brothers? Because Michelle's sweet daughter Sarah was picking the bingo words for us, and she really likes the Jonas Brothers... so we were all searching for and posting Jonas Brothers photos to post in the bingo thread to "bribe" her to pick out words! so.. Jonas Brothers atcs.

{I'm not sure who took the Jonas Brothers photo - I found it on a google image search and just looked for a halfway decent thumbnail}

These atcs were made on watercolor paper from the art department at Hobby Lobby. I used one of Tim's masks for the background, and sprayed it with homemade mist (made from Vintage photo reinker, gold perfect pearls, and water). Once they were dry I started stamping - the french script was done in Vintage Photo, and all the black with Black StazOn. The edges were inked a la' Tim with Vintage Photo and Shabby Shutters. The photo corner was made with a Martha Stewart punch. I also use gems, pink and red glitter pens, and gold glitter paper.

And yeah, I made an extra one for Sarah! Hope she likes it!

Hurry Home Video

Jason had announced at one of the July concerts that the video for Hurry Home would be out soon, so I have been waiting (not so patiently) to see it. Yesterday, they posted it on Jason's website.. so here it is.

I love the way this video was made - it holds so true to the song, and the acoustic bit gives me chills every time I hear it.

Awesome blog candy, and a crop layout

Check out Priscilla's blog for this awesome stamp blog candy! This is another "just because" giveaway. The more people that play, the more stamp sets that will be added.. is that cool or what??

This is one of the layouts I did for the Scrap Attack Birthday Blowout! The challenge was to scraplift an assigned victim.. er.. player.. My victim.. er.. scrapliftee was scrappitydee (DaLynn)

This is the layout I chose to lift.

And this is what I came up with.

And I love love love this layout. The photo is from the Sauget concert on Aug 13th. I knew I wanted to do a JMC layout, which meant Rockstar papers (because those are the papers I am using for that album!) and I remembered that I had a chipboard pack with stars. Cool! Found all the other pieces while looking for the stars, including the definition. JMC is not "rock and roll" but he is definitely rockin' and the definition they use fits him. I used MM rubons to add the YOU to the middle plate and the date on the star, and a souffle pen to add the lines in the definition, the journaling, and an outline to the silver arrow (which you can't see in this photo). The rest of the stars are from Pressed Petals, except the little gold ones, which are grungeboard. The brackets are Thickers, and the brads from 7 gypsies; everything else is DCWV.

Happily Ever After Crop, and another fairytale princess

The Happily Ever After Crop starts today at Serendipity Scrapbooks!! There are already some great challenges posted, with more to come. Everything is going to have a fairy tale theme, which will be quite fun!

One of the first challenges posted is based on "Finding Nemo".. and I already know which picture I'm going to use for that layout! Come and join us!

Check it out ---> HERE

And since the theme is fairy tales, I have been thinking constantly about Brittany Coppedge, who was friends with Jason Michael Carroll for many years. One of Jason's singles, Livin' Our Love Song, is a love story between a "backwoods boy and a fairytale princess." This song was Brittany's favorite song. Every time Jason sings this song in concert, he talks about Brittany, not just because they were friends, but because Brittany died at the age of 19 from a rare form of lung cancer, and Jason works very hard to raise awareness and money to help support families dealing with lung cancer. If you would like to find out more about Brittany, or make a donation to Brittany's Battle, click HERE to go to the Brittany's Battle Website.

{Photo of Brittany and Jason, from the Brittany's Battle website, link above}

Fabulous blog giveaway, new SAS kit, and don't forget!!

Check out this FABULOUS blog giveaway!! And this is a "just because" giveaway, isn't that sweet??

And part of it is this ADORABLE mini album shelf - I LOVE it!!!

{photo from Melissa's blog - link above}

Lauri at Scrap Attack has just released the new August Simple Pleasures kit - isn't it awesome!?

{photo from the ScrapAttack Scrapbooking blog - link below}

I love how versatile this kit looks - it could be used for boys or girls, just about any photos you can think of. Check out THIS LINK to the store for more details.

And, while you are there, don't forget about SAS's 4th Birthday Crop!

I'm going to be SUPER busy this weekend, because Serendipity is also having their Happily Ever After Crop!! Check it out HERE!

Life is a JMC song

{I'll give you fair warning - this post is long, photo heavy, and has nothing to do with scrapping - so if you aren't interested in reading about my OTHER obsession, feel free to pass it up, and check back next time!}

Today.. ok.. well, yesterday LOL, Rhi and I drove around St. Louis to Sauget, IL, where Jason was doing a free concert at the GCS Ballpark to help celebrate Shop and Save's 50th birthday. The local radio station WIL 92.3 was also having school supply donation drive - and if you brought school supplies, you would receive tickets for a chance at a meet and greet with Jason.

Well, we ended up leaving later than originally planned, because we had to stop at the laundromat to wash our JMC shirts before leaving {we had a very unfortunate issue with our water heater. VERY unfortunate, because it means there will be no Branson concert for me {Insert mad face here} Anyway. } We got our school supplies {we actually got pencil boxes and filled them with pencils, crayons, pens, erasers and pencil sharpeners}. Picked up my check from work, ran to the bank, got some snacks, and got on the road. It was almost 4 when we left. I wasn't TOO worried, because I knew that Jason wouldn't start singing before 7:30.. figured I had plenty of time.

Did I mention I'm not a St. Louis rush hour traffic kind of person?

Most of the trip down was fabulous and we made good time. We went down 61 to 40 to 270 which turned into 255, which would actually take us where we needed to go. We were actually kind of laughing while we were on 40... cos this is what the road looked like:

{And, again, before you yell at me, at no point was the camera up at my face - the only thing that ever obstructed my view of the road is that annnoying smear of dead bug blood on my windshield that you can see in the photo below}


Oh, all those POOR POOR people trying to get home.. they were all going in the wrong direction {See, they should have been going to see Jason instead!}. We started seeing signs for 270 - 6 more miles... yeah, ok. Then we split off from the main road - if you're going to Chicago stay left and breeze on through. If you need to go south, towards Memphis, get in the right hand lane, and stop before you hit the semi-parked cars in front of you. Holy freaking cow. My WORST traffic nightmare. I worry about getting hit, about hitting someone else if I have to try to change lanes, about my car overheating, about being stuck all the way to the left and needing to get off at the next exit {or vice versa - that happens sometimes in St. Louis}.

And what kept running through my head? Waitin' in the Country.

Five o' clock smokestacks 15th, check's fat
Hacked off, backed up
Hurry up and wait on the interstate
Irate, tailgate tight
Yeah, nothin' but brake lights
High rise concrete, painted up city street
Fed up, red tape, add another lane
Make it more insane, more strain
Starbucksed up
Man, I know where I'm pointin' my truck

{Ok, so it was after 6, on the 13th, and I had a Red Bull instead of a Starbucks... CLOSE ENOUGH!}

{Incidentally, the other bit of lyrics that makes me smile is part of Where I'm From:

"Where the quarterback dates the homecoming queen
The truck's a Ford and the tractor's green
And Amazing Grace is what we sing"

Where, again, my truck is a Chevy, and my Ford tractor is blue... but I drive a green Ford car, so that has to count for something, right? Right??}


This picture was actually taken after things got moving again - at one point, I started laughing hysterically, because the sign with the speed limit said 40, and when I looked at my speedometer, it said 0. Yeah. Without the 4. Talk about white knuckle.. I don't know exactly how long it took - long enough for me to start worrying about my car overheating. But everything was fine, and we finally got to moving again. {Have I mentioned how much I love my car? Yeah, I call it a little Ford POS sometimes, but really, it is GREAT! and gets better mileage than some of the newer cars!}

We crossed over the Mississippi via these really cool bridges. Rhi was like "we're crossing AGAIN!" cos we went over to get to Quincy, then back to get to Hannibal, and now again??



I didn't realize how close we were going to be to the Arch - ok, so it wasn't that close, really, do you know how tall that thing is?? But there it is - This photo was taken in the GCS Ballpark parking lot. We arrived just after 7pm.. plenty of time..


Here's Rhi at the entrance. Kinda weird to have a concert at a ball field, but kinda nice too, especially if you don't want to be in the standing area - the seating was fabulous! Since outside food and drink weren't allowed, they asked us what we had in the bag. Just school supplies. So we dropped them off with the radio station staff, who very apologetically said "We were giving tickets, but they actually already drew for the meet and greet..." No biggie, I said, we were running late, and it was a great cause..

Surprisingly, despite how late we got there, we were still able to get pretty close to the front. Like only 2 people between us and the stage close. Eventually we were able to get a little bit closer, but that's later.

Stopped at the merchandise stand - got a new t-shirt, and bought new hats for Rhi and me. Said hello and grinned, but it was busy, so we didn't hang around long.

When Jason came onstage, he made a point of thanking the radio station, because, as he said, without them playing his music, they wouldn't be around for a concert. The first song, again, was Anywhere USA. Good song to start with. I wrote down the playlist again - it was a bit different from the last 2 shows - which I think is great. Especially since I've been to 3 shows this year - it's much more fun when they are different! {Oh, and LOOK, Tim has his shades on again!}. Jason saw us again - Rhi and I waved at him, and he grinned and waved back.

Guess the old mike stand has gone bye bye - he had a new one this time. I miss the leopard print.

Got a great picture of Richie, the "new" guitarist, this time. {I say "new" because he wasn't with Jason for last year's tour}. He's from Queensland, Australia, and he is awesome.

A fairly decent picture of Jason and Shaun, the bass player.

Rhi, of course, was worried that she wouldn't be able to touch Jason this time. But there was a very nice lady in front of us {I wish I had caught her name} that helped out a little - the picture is crummy, but it was the best I could get. On the other side in front of us was the family we had seen at Carlinville with the little girl.. and of course, Jason flirted with her again. She is such a doll.

Didn't have the camera ready for this little trick.. but he tossed the microphone in the air, caught it with his foot, and kicked it back up into his hand. It was really cool.

Yeah, no fun here LOL.

Then the Fight happened. Yikes. Jason had started singing Happened on a Saturday Night, after commenting on Honky Tonks and beer, which were part of the inspiration for this song. I don't know exactly what happened {because Rhi and I didn't notice until people were getting pushed into us}, but apparently some jerk decided to rush the stage and wasn't paying attention to the kids that were up there - the guys in front of him tried to stop him, and he started throwing punches. SERIOUSLY. Jason saw what was going on and stopped singing. The band couldn't really see what was going on, and stopped when Jason motioned for them to stop. Not only did Jason stop the show, he pointed the guy out and made sure security took him away. He was seriously TICKED. {This is the MAD JASON photo}

He was SOOO Not Happy. He even made a comment {and I'm probably paraphrasing, cos this happened HOURS ago}, that this was a family venue, and we were here to have a good time, and there was no room for this kind of S*(&. {Yeah, I blinked too.}

Then he asked us if we wanted to have a good time, and started up the song again, pretty much right where he left off. Kudos to you Jason. I thought you handled that quite well! And Rhi was happy too, because this time, he even did the "Hey Larry, I found your tooth!" comment at the end {that's her favorite part of the song}.

I took this photo right after he finished Alyssa Lies. I think it turned out pretty good - one of the better photos from later in the evening.

Something cool he did at this show, was to take requests from the audience - he joked that if anyone wanted to write a request on a $20 bill, they'd sing it, and if they couldn't figure out who the $20 belonged to, they'd make sure it went to a good cause, like the Thirsty Band fund - and I'll be darned if people didn't start holding up 20 dollar bills!! {And NO he didn't actually take ANY of them!}
Sometimes, when taking pictures, you just get lucky. One of the things I do once it gets dark, is just take pictures when the lighting is good, and with how quick Jason moves sometimes, you just don't know what you're going to end up with. And since my camera will take pictures continuously {that word always looks funny to me}, I can get some pretty good sequences.. sometimes. {LOL especially when he's doing the Honky Tonk Friends "I like the dances they dance" bit} This picture was taken during Waitin' in the Country. LOL Love that song.

Something else that was different at this show - after the break, Jason and Tim came back, and he sang Hurry Home with only Tim as backup. It was FABULOUS. Not really acoustic, since they used the speakers, but as close as you could get. He made an announcement that it had gotten into the top 40 (YAY!). And everyone was singing along. It was awesome.

He sang Take It On the Run again too.. only this time it was the Cousin It version... he had me laughing so hard that the people standing next to me kept looking at me to see if I was ok. LOL But it was FUNNY.

This is actually one of my favorite pictures from the night - I just think the lighting turned out really well. Especially for a picture taken late in the show. Nice sharp image.

And remember what I said about sometimes getting lucky? This is one of the last pictures I took. The one just before it, where the green light is actually behind Jason, didn't turn out nearly as well. The one after, once the lighting had changed again, also did not turn out so well. This one, well I think it's great. And it's one of my favorites of the night.

He didn't jump out into the crowd this time {not that I blame him after the Fight!} but he did sign autographs. He signed Rhi's hat, taking my Sharpie to do so.. and kept it long enough to sign another hat and a CD for someone else. And then {and this is just one more reason to love this man} he made sure to get the Sharpie back to me. Yeah. I know. It's just a Sharpie. But I thought it was cool that he was so thoughtful - some people would have just kept it, or thrown it out into the crowd. And he made sure I got it back. I said Thank You, but I'm not sure he heard me. But he did smile, so maybe he did.

We hung around for a bit after the show, because I hate trying to leave when everybody else does {especially at night}, and we kinda hoped that Jason would come back out, but knowing he has to be in Branson tomorrow, pretty much figured he wouldn't. We watched them break down the stage for a bit, then we stopped by the merchandise table again and talked with Joel {Yep, I remembered to ask him his name this time!} We talked with another lady about t-shirts and concerts, and Rhi and I wished them well in Branson.

On the way out, we saw this car, which Rhi called the Red Bumblebee {yeah *I* know it's a Dodge!} and we thought it would be cool to get a picture.

Drove home a different way, because Rhi wanted to go THROUGH St. Louis to see the Arch closer. WHY OH WHY did I listen to her?! I had forgotten how much I HATED driving downtown! That said - the Arch was way cool at night. Rhi said take a picture, so, since I couldn't stop on the interstate, I held the camera in the general direction of the window and the Arch and hoped for the best. This is what I got:

Kind of an interesting little light study.. oh, and the tiny squiggle at the bottom is the arch - when I can look at it closer in the Windows Photo Gallery, you can actually see a little red squiggle from the light on top of the arch.

We got home late - almost 1am, but it was so worth it to go. I really wish I could make it to Branson, but maybe next time. I hope he has a couple of shows out here next year.

AMR Crop, and a kid's atc swap

All Moments Remembered will be having a crop this weekend - to include challenges (including one from yours truly), games and lots of fun!

Yep, this is another board you have to be a member of in order to play, but again, it's a free membership, and there are a lot of nice people with great talent on this board. AMR typically has a crop every month (on the 2nd weekend), as well as monthly challenges posted.

Come and join us!

Marilyn has posted a Kids Only Atc Swap on the Swap Addicts Anonymous board - if you have a child that likes to create, and would like to make atcs to trade, please check it out!

This Rainbow atc was made by my daughter - I helped a little, buy cutting the cards, drawing the pot, which she cut out, and drawing and cutting out the gold coins. She did the rest by herself.

The Happily Ever After Crop

Serendipity Scrapbooks will be having the Happily Ever After Crop on August 21st.

Serendipity's crops are always a lot of fun, have some GREAT challenges, and Kristen provides some fabulous prizes! There will also be a Queen of the Crop crowned at the end of the crop! Again, you will have to be a board member to play, but membership is free, and there is TONS of inspiration here!


Happily Ever After Crop-August 21

Why should we let the kids be the only one's to believe in fairy tales and that there is always a happy ending?

For one weekend Serendipity is going to take us back to our childhood when we still were able to believe wishes do come true by wishing on stars. If you love Disney and Fairy tales and love to let your imagination run wild every once in awhle then this crop will be perfect for you.

Come and join us for Challenges and games that the DT has worked hard to come up with and that all have a fairy tale twist. Each of these challenges and games will have a Rak and as always we will crown a queen of the crop.

Pre Crops will start August 14th with The Main Crop and challenges starting August 21st.

Finished products for the crop will be due August 24th at noon your time. They need to be uploaded in the gallery and linked to the original thread.

By the way feel free to play dress up with the DT and dress up your Avatar with your favorite fairy tale.

OH, and one more thing!... Ok, maybe two...

How cool is this... so I posted the other day about Lauri's newest kit at Scrap Attack Scrapbooking...

Well look at this month's ribbon kits from Savvy N Sassy!!! Specifically THIS ONE:

This is the {My Sweet Cherry Pie} ribbon kit - which coordinates with those Nikki Silvis papers in the SAS kit! How cool is that???

AND I finally made it to Michaels {insert rolling eyes smiley here} {LOL} Had to take my mom to Columbia for an eye appt at the VA hospital {yup, my mom is an Air Force Veteran!}, and we stopped at Michaels before coming back home.

I so wish I had more money to spend there.. But I did get the picket fence MS punch {they had SO MANY MS punches... but naturally not the loopy ones that I wanted!}, my coveted TH Distress Inks Broken China ink pad, some self adhesive bling packs that are the same size as the tiny MS ones that I love so much {And there are 6 times as many in the package for LESS $$$!}, some TH Trinket pins, a tin of mixed Prima flowers, and some glittery Primas that were on clearance. I wanted to get SO MANY MORE things.. they have such a great variety of things.. and almost totally different things than Hobby Lobby!

Probably is a good thing I won't be going back to Columbia until November LOL.

Tanisha's birthday blog giveaway!

Girl, Lemme Tell You...

Check out Tanisha's blog - it's her birthday, and she is giving away some fabulous goodies!

While you are there, check out the rest of her blog - seriously, Tanisha is an AMAZING scrapper, and I find her very inspiring!

Speaking of SAS.....

ScrapAttack Scrapbooking is going to be celebrating its 4th birthday with a special Birthday Blowout Crop!!

Come and celebrate with us August 21-23, 2009! You will have to be a board member to participate, but membership is FREE. So come and check it out!!

New SAS kit!

Lauri at Scrap Attack Scrapbooking has put together this kit using the new Nikki Sivils My Sweet Cherry Pie line of papers!! {Click the photo for a bigger picture!!}

Lauri puts together some awesome kits, with tons of product.

Check out this new Kit in the SAS store!