This Country Love

Super Bowl Scrapping Weekend!

2012-02-04T09:57:00.002-06:00

Hi! It's been a whole month basically since I've had a chance to stop by here! I've again been busy with work and studying to pass my insurance license. I've also been limiting my time on the computer so I have more time to do other things. When I do sit down for some screen time, I've been trying to actually scrapbook rather than just browsing around the internet for an hour. So forgive me for neglecting this little blog!

We're getting snow here in Nebraska so it's the perfect weekend for lots of scrapping. At Design House Digital this weekend, there are TONS of Super Bowl activities going on. They have challenges all weekend, awesome sales and chats today and tomorrow!

I also thought I'd share a few layouts that I've finished lately. (click for credits)

Favorite 11 from Twenty-Eleven

2012-01-02T12:07:00.001-06:00

11 from Twenty-Eleven...doesn't quite roll off the tongue as nice as 10 from '10 or something like that does it? Oh well, I still want to share with you my 11 favorite crafts, projects, pages, pictures and moments from 2011. Here goes...

11. Frame/Key Hook

10. Chicken wire Frames

9. Ribbon Headbands
This was a big adventure this year. I started my Etsy shop and even went to my first craft fair. I've been really busy so I haven't put a lot into it lately. In case you're wondering though...the shop is still open and everything is marked 1/2 off if you're looking for an after Christmas sale or little gift for yourself or a little one.

8. Distressed Wall Shelf

7. Sugarland Concert & Bachelorette Party

I had an amazing time with some awesome friends!

6. Raised Garden Beds

I love that I accomplished this project, even though the garden didn't turn out so well...again. This is a big goal of mine in 2012, to make the garden better and have yummy fresh veggies.

5. Old Window Wall Decor

This project is pretty awesome because we took an old window that was part of the house before we remodeled and I turned it into a piece of decor for our home. It reminds me of all the hard work that we put into making our home.

4. New Job

I don't have a picture for this really but I finally found a new job this year! I'm so excited to be moving in a new direction and I feel like I'm growing up just a little bit more!

3. Entryway Door Hooks

Another sentimental project...this door is from one of the old barn buildings on Chad's family farm. I cleaned it up and put some hooks on it for our entry-way. It's rustic and puts more meaning into our home.

2. Alaska Honeymoon

We spent an amazing week this year, exploring Alaska. We went on a cruise for our honeymoon and while we didn't enjoy the boat that much, the experiences were amazing!

We went rafting, hiking, on a train ride, a float plane, the Misty Fjords, watched Glaciers calve at Glacier National Park and we rode a helicopter to a glacier where we went dog sledding! It was amazing!

and of course my number 1 from 2011...Our Wedding!

July 2, 2011...It was seriously so beautiful. It was 85 degrees and a little cloudy. We had a sweet, simple and short ceremony followed by a wonderful celebration with our friends and family. And now, I'm married to my best friend and we're experiencing life together and I can't wait to experience 2012 with him!

(credits to Alida's Picture Pages - she took amazing pictures of our big day!!!)

I'll be back to share my goals and ideas for 2012 soon! Until then, I hope you are enjoying the first few days of the new year!

January Scraplift Challenge @ DHD

2012-01-01T15:54:00.005-06:00

Who likes a good scraplift?! Well, this month I'm hosting the Scraplift Challenge at Design House Digital. Here's the layout that we're lifting...

Come over to the Challenge Boards and play along! You could win a $5 gift certificate for participating. Just make sure to post your layout back in the correct challenge forum.
Have fun and good luck!

Goodbye 2011...Hello 2012!!!

2011-12-30T18:04:00.001-06:00

Once again, hello! It's been so long since I've been able to share anything with you!

I thought that I would come say hi and wish you all a Happy New Year!

I'll be going out to supper with a big group of friends and then probably board games, some drinks and watching the ball drop on TV.

I'm excited for 2012 and all the new beginnings that will come with it. I have a lot of personal goals that I've been working on lately and will hopefully be able to expand on in the new year.
(I'll be sharing those in a layout later)

First, I wanted to share a few new layouts with you and tell you about Design House Digital's 2nd Birthday!!! I hope that you'll check it out and celebrate with us!

Christmas Sale!!!

2011-12-21T18:44:00.000-06:00

Hi everybody!! I know it's been a long time since I've been able to post anything. I started a new job at the beginning of November and have been really busy with that. The holidays have sped by and Christmas is already here. If you saw any of the Christmas headbands that I made this fall or any of the other headbands that you liked, I'm having a big sale. I'm clearing out all of my ready made headbands at HALF OFF!!! There aren't any coupon codes or anything, I just marked everything down for you. Go check it out!!!

Merry Christmas! I hope to be back after the holidays to start sharing some new pages and projects with all of you!

It's That Time of Year....

2011-12-03T07:38:00.001-06:00

...when the world falls in love...

Anyone else singing along? Haha. I LOVE Christmas music so much and have actually been listening to just a little since Halloween. I got the new Michael Buble CD per advice from a bunch of ladies over at DHD. It's great! He's got such a pretty voice and reminds me of Frank Sinatra. I'll share more about my love for Christmas music and movies later.

What I really want to talk about is December Daily! Are you doing one this year? Do you remember mine from last year? You can find all the posts here, here and here.

Well, that was when I was paper scrapping and I still love that album so much. This year however, I've decided to tackle the project with digital scrapbooking. I have a few pages all set up already but for the first few days so far, I've just been making the pages as I go.

(click on the pages to link to all the credits)

It took some playing around to figure out the style I wanted to go with. Karen Funk has a Christmas kit that's very kraft based and Karla Dudley has one that's more modern. I'll be pulling pieces from both of those kits for my DD but Robyn Meierotto's Vintage Holiday kit will be my starting point for most of my pages. I also did a lot of browsing other people's ideas to see what I liked and I did play with using an all white background but the kraft just looked so much better! In case you're still wondering if you want to do a DD this year, here's some of my favorite inspirations from other scrappers. (click for credits)

Celeste (above) is using a kraft background and a lot of Robyn's Vintage Holiday kit as well. You should seriously check out her Flicker gallery for all of her pages!

Source: flickr.com via Christy on Pinterest

Source: ellesstudio.blogspot.com via Christy on Pinterest

Source: aliedwards.com via Christy on Pinterest

Source: huffordhouse.blogspot.com via Christy on Pinterest

I hope you will follow me along on this December Daily journey! It's snowing here today and it's our first snow of the season so I know what I'll be scrapping today!!! :D

Cyber Monday @ DHD

2011-11-26T06:55:00.001-06:00

Happy Saturday everyone! We have 2 more Thanksgivings to go. One today and one tomorrow. The wind here is awful though and I really don't want to drive an hour in it.

Did anyone do any Black Friday shopping or are you saving it for Cyber Monday? Well, I thought I'd let you in on a pretty big sale that's happening over at Design House Digital on Monday. You can do a little early shopping for yourself this way!

Here's a little inspiration for using those holiday kits...

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:49:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that you have a wonderful day and weekend filled with lots of yummy food and amazing family moments!

Is anyone doing any shopping on Black Friday? I have a friend that likes to do this but I have to admit that I've never tried it. It seems now that all you have to do is stay up late and hit the stores at midnight instead of getting up at 3 or 4 am. It's crazy! But nope, not me. I have to work and I'm fine with that. We get to decorate at work and then I have to come home and bake for 2 more Thanksgivings. Then Sunday when all the festivities are over, I get to decorate for Christmas! I'm really excited!
So, if you are doing any shopping...I just put up all my new headbands in my Etsy shop from the craft fair. There are a few different styles and lots of Christmas goodies! You can even go over to my Facebook page and click "like" to find an exclusive Black Friday coupon.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving and many Blessings!!!

New Items!!!

2011-11-20T17:41:00.001-06:00

Thank you to everyone who came out to the craft fair yesterday in Albion. There were so many great vendors with amazing crafts! I'll be busy getting all my new headbands and clips up on my Etsy shop this week for all of you. I've just put up a new batch now! Lots of polka dots, new colors and new styles...go check it out!

Holiday Extravaganza...tomorrow!!!

2011-11-18T21:46:00.001-06:00

Craft fair tomorrow!!! Join me at the Holiday Extravaganza at the Knights of Columbus hall in Albion tomorrow from 10-2 for some fabulous homemade Christmas shopping!!! (you can get a special coupon over in the "exclusive" tab on my Facebook page) Hope to see you there!

Holiday Extravaganza

2011-11-15T06:38:00.001-06:00

Just a little announcment if you will be in my area on Saturday! I'm participating in my first craft fair and would love it if you stopped by!

Oh, and if you're a Facebook fan, check out the exclusive tab for a coupon that you can use at the craft show or at my Etsy shop on Black Friday! All the items from the craft fair will be in the Etsy shop after this weekend.

11.11.11 Winner

2011-11-13T16:28:00.001-06:00

Wow! What a whirlwind week and weekend! I started a new job on Wednesday, picked up my bridesmaid dress and shopped on Thursday, finished my old job on Friday and trained the new girl on Saturday. Then, I cleaned and decorated our house for my sister-in-law's bridal shower today! It's been crazy so I'm sorry if you've been waiting on a winner...

Beatricemi...you've won a $10 gift certificate to Design House Digital!!!

Email me at christy.carlson@hotmail.com and I will get you your gift card code.

Congratulations!!!

~Winners~

2011-11-11T06:36:00.001-06:00

We have our winners from my 10,000 blog views giveaway!

Monica Mueller won the $10 gift certificate to my Etsy shop and was announced on my Facebook page.

Congratulations to Pamela!!!

You've won the scrapbooking giveaway!
I'll be emailing you soon to get your shipping info.

Make sure to enter the 11.11.11 giveaway below!!!
Happy Friday!!!

11.11.11 GIVEAWAY!!!

2011-11-11T06:13:00.001-06:00

Did everyone have fun during the Digital Scrapbooking Day events at DHD last week/weekend?! I know that we had a lot of great comments about the kit that the designers put together and the quick pages from the decorators. You can still find all of the pages and pieces of the kit and they will be available forever!

Well, the fun continues because I have a $10 gift certificate to the DHD store for one lucky winner! Just leave me a comment on this post by 11:11 pm and tell me if you're doing anything special for 11.11.11! (You do NOT need to be a follower of my blog)

The designers have been releasing some really great stuff lately including lots of Christmas goodies. As inspiration to leave your comment, here are a few of my most recent favorites...

Lori Whitlock is a new designer at DHD and you may have seen
her work in the Echo Park Paper lines!

3 More Days!!!

2011-11-07T11:32:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to remind everybody that there's 3 more days to enter my 2 giveaways here and here! You could win a little stash of paper scrapbooking goodies or a $10 gift certificate to my Etsy shop. Just leave a comment either on the giveaway post or on my facebook page.

Giveaways are open until midnight on November 8th!!! Winners will be announced the evening of November 9th! Good luck everybody!

Digital Scrapbooking Day 2011 - DHD Blog Hop

2011-11-04T00:01:00.000-05:00

Hi guys! I'm so excited to be participating in my very first blog hop as a Design House Digital Decorator! I've hopped around on the DHD blog hops before but I actually get to host one of the stops this time. And what is a blog hop with out some goodies for you guys?! You'll be able to pick up 19 quick pages from all of the decorators on this blog hop! Here's the page that I made with the 2011 DSD kit.

You can download my quick page by clicking on the preview.
All of the quick pages are available in 12x12 and 8.5x11 sizes so that everyone can play.

Don't forget to stop by the rest of the decorators' blogs and pick up their quick pages too!
When you're done you'll have 19 pages that would make a great album all on their own.

Aria Andrus

~~~~~~~~~

If you're here for the 2 big giveaways I have, click here or scroll down.
You have until November 8th at midnight to enter!

DHD Blog Hop Kit

2011-11-03T09:26:00.002-05:00

Good morning! It's so close to the weekend and if you're looking for something fun and creative to do this weekend then you're in luck. Today you can hop around to all the Design House Digital Designer's blogs and pick up this amazingly HUGE kit for free! Then, tomorrow you can hop around all the decorators blogs for some awesome quick pages! Okay, here's the kit preview and the links to all the designer's blogs....ready, set, GO!

Audrey Neal http://audneal.typepad.com/

Angie Hinksman http://angiehinksmandesigns.blogspot.com/

Celeste Knight http://www.sweetcarolinestudio.com/

Dana Zarling http://danazarlingdesigns.blogspot.com/

Deena Rutter http://deenarutter.typepad.com/

Gennifer Bursett http://thebursettfamily.blogspot.com

Jen Allyson http://www.theprojectgirl.com/

Karen Funk http://kscraps.blogspot.com/

Karla Dudley http://karlastudio5.typepad.com/

Robyn Meierotto http://www.pinktrikedesign.com/

Shannon Hegarty http://scottygirldesign.blogspot.com/

Tiffany Tillman http://simplytiffanystudios.com/

Have fun playing with this fabulous kit and be sure to come back
tomorrow for your free quick page made by me! :)

~~ Wednesday Giggles ~~

2011-11-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I had a friend get married (our wedding photographer actually). They had a little photobooth set up and it was so cute! Guests could just jump in, take some pics and then the pictures would print and they signed in a little book next to their photo strip! My friend and I were there alone because our husbands were in the field so we really had fun with it. Just for giggles, here's out pictures!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a happy hump day!
Anything making you giggle lately? ;)

Digital Scrapbooking Day 2011 @ DHD

2011-11-01T16:21:00.005-05:00

Just a little announcement that DHD is holding some awesome activities this week and weekend for Digital Scrapbooking Day!!! Click on the image for more info!

Giveaway!!!

2011-10-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

I love you guys, my followers!!! Many of you may be new and some of you may have been here since I began blogging. This Country Love used to be Full of Laughter and Happily Ever After but that was a mouth full. I recently changed the name to better reflect my life and my passions. We live in the country and my blog reflects all the things that I love and love to do here in our little part of the world. Hence, This Country Love. I also used to be a paper scrapper and that topic took up many of my early posts. Over time, I've been working on DIY projects more and have switched to digital scrapbooking. We've added a puppy to our family, gotten married and went on an amazing honeymoon. Now, I like to share just a little bit of everything here on my blog!
I recently noticed that I had passed 10,000 views of my blog!
I knew that I wanted to give something back to you guys for following along with me and encouraging me at times like when I was opening my Etsy shop and switching to digital scrapping.
So, I have TWO giveaways for you! Yes, TWO!
The first is for all those paper scrappers who are still sticking around even though I don't do anything with paper anymore. I have cleaned out most of my stash but I do have some things left that I know one of you will appreciate so much more.

Giveaway #1

There's paper, die cuts, a chipboard alpha, chipboard pieces, rub-ons, miscellaneous tags and even a Christmas embellishment pocket which would be great if you're doing a December Daily album!

To win Giveaway #1...

You have to be a follower here on blogger, new or old it doesn't matter!
Leave me a comment here on this post and I'll pick a random winner from all the comments.

Giveaway #2

This giveaway is to my Etsy shop. I'll be putting some new items up very soon for Fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas (see the sneak peek above)!!! I'm actually going to have a booth at the Holiday Extravaganza in my town on November 19th so I've been super busy making new product. If you're in the area head over to my Facebook page to check out all the details and vendors that will be there! But back to the giveaway...
One person will win a $10 gift certificate to This Country Love on Etsy!!!

To win Giveaway #2

Go to This Country Love on Facebook and hit the "like" button!
Then leave a comment on the Facebook page and I'll pick a random winner from all of the comments!

Giveaways will remain open until midnight on November 8th.

The winners will be announced the following evening on November 9th!

I've loved having all of you as followers and hope that you will continue on my journey with me! Thank you so, so, so much! Good luck!

New Layouts

2011-10-27T08:55:00.002-05:00

Hi all! I have quite a few layouts to share with you so let's just get into it! You can click on each layout for credits and the store it came from.

2 Peas
Polka Dot Pixels

Design House Digital (30% off all new product today!)
Audrey Neal

New Designer - Shannon Hegarty

Decorator Pages

2011-10-20T09:23:00.003-05:00

Well, it's my first week as a decorator at DHD and today is the first release day that I've been able to play with all the goodies before they come out! There are tons of great kits and templates being released today and they're all 30% off. For this layout I used Robyn Meierotto's new Sweet Autumn. My jounaling is from the song "Back Road" by Rodney Atkins and goes perfectly with these pictures of Chad and I driving on our country roads.

Here's another layout from earlier this week. This layout used Robyn's Funky Fall kit.

Halloween Crafts

2011-10-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted any crafts or DIY projects projects lately. I've been busy enjoying life, scrapbooking more and working on less glamorous projects like seeding new grass and getting the dog house ready for cold weather. I really haven't done anything extra for Halloween this year but I did put up the decorations that I made last year. Here are some pictures of those projects and their posts on how to create these yourself!

post

Hurry...Last Day!!!

2011-10-19T11:33:00.002-05:00

I hope that everyone has their Halloween costumes picked out and that your ready for some Trick-or-Treating!!! I just wanted to let you know that if you still need something to spiff up your cute and spooky outfits, today is the last day to order Halloween headbands!

Stop by the shop and check out all of your options!

There's also an exclusive code for Facebook fans if you go and "like" This Country Love on Facebook. Hurry, this code is only good through October!

~Exciting News!~

2011-10-14T09:16:00.002-05:00

Who would have thought that waking up 15 minutes before my alarm clock goes off (5:45) would be a good thing?! I stumbled out of the warm blankets into the cold and turned on my computer...because the news just isn't that interesting that early in the morning. Guess what was waiting for me in my email?! ....this!!!

I'm so excited and honored to be joining a wonderful group of ladies on the Design House Digital Creative Team! I'm officially a Design House Decorator! Come over and check it out if you're into digital scrapbooking. The DHD site is so welcoming and has tons of fun stuff like monthly challenges, 1Kit4Ways, 4Play and speed scraps.