Happy Sunday to everyone

I enjoyed the day on Saturday scrapping at church with old and new friends and my sister. I got several pages done and one card.



I loved these pictures showing different generations in our family. The color picture is my Grandmother, my mom, my sister and my niece (my brother's daughter). The larger picture is my great grandmother, my great aunt, my mom and her sisters.


Grandparents are so important. Theses are my grandparents on my Dad's side and my grandfather's grandparents.


These are my mom's parents and grandparents.


I saw this paper and immediately thought of these pictures. My husband and son playing in the snow. How I wish for those sweet days back...one day I'll get to relive them with my grandchildren.


My sister and I went to the Zoo for the lights on Honda night (she works for Honda). It was very pretty. The night would have been perfect if it hadn't been drizzling and had I remembered my camera. These pictures were taken with my phone.


Neuschwaunstein Castle and Cinderalla's castle in Disney. I got to visit both.


I got a lot done in a day...can't wait for the next all day crop.

thanks for stopping by, Susan

President's Day cards

Got a lot of work done today. Several sets of cards for OperationWriteHome.org and pictures organized for scrapping next weekend at the all-day crop at church.

I got the first two of these designs from Cards. This first one is thanks to Kesket Shenkar Starr




I got this idea from the Stampin Up catalog - to use the tags.


Keep your heart open and create something that will change someone's life. Susan

challenge cards 2-19-11

Why do Saturdays go by so quickly? I enjoyed breakfast with my husband this morning and then went to Red Letter Journal (my LSS) with my friend Pati, and then came home to play in my scrap room!

I got this music paper online in a digital file so I can print it off in any size. Love it!



Here my card based on the challenge at Jingle Belles. If you haven't visited this blog yet, get your Christmas stash out and join us in making a card a week. I've already got a stash of cards ready for this Christmas :)


Another Christmas card challenge site is Hazel's blog. Her challenge this week is "the white stuff." Use white on your card. My base is white with a dark blue layer and white paper with the song printed and embossed vellum overlay


Do you like my angel? She was so easy to make. I copied her from Becca's blog and she was so easy to make. I think you'll enjoy Becca's blog - her cards are fabulous!

I'm excited about having a 3-day weekend. I bought some new supplies from Custom Crops, Red Letter Journal, Stampin Up, Michaels...can't wait to start using it all.

Keep your heart open and let your creativity change someone's life. Thanks for stopping by, Susan

challenge cards 2-17-11

I haven't been feeling so great this week but I knew time spent in my scrap room would perk me up. I had some challenges to get caught up on.

This card is for Hazel's challenge to "feature a creature". I don't get to use my wise men on camels stamp too often! I used vintage brads from Stampin Up - my order came today!! My first compulsion was to save them...but for what? What's the point of having really great stuff if I'm going to hoard it?


This card is doing double duty on the Stars & Stamps blog. I'm using it for the sketch 56 challenge and the masculine card challenge. The truck stamp is from Stampin Up.


This card is for the Paper Variety week 21 sketch challenge. I'm not so happy with the way it turned out. I love everything except the red paper. I should have made that "border" thinner.


I got a new laptop a little while ago and I'm still organizing my files. I back-up my laptop fairly regularly and when I bought this new one, I decided to restore the files to it. Well, it restored it all right. I have everything ever saved on that back-up drive back on my computer - including deleted files and duplicate files (where I moved them from one folder to another). I'm sure there was a smarter way to do it.

Anyhoo, while reorganizing my folders, I found a digital image with the happy birthday circles on them and decided to use them on a card. I really like the way it turned out.



Sorry about the picture quality. My camera is downstairs and I'm just too lazy to go get it. Fortunately my phone was in my scrap room so I could at least get this entered into the challenges.

I'm definitely ready for bed.

Thanks for stopping by. Remember to keep your heart open...your creativity could change a person's life. Susan

Love You card

I CASEd this card from Dawn McVey out of CARDS magazine.



Isn't this angel adorable. I found it on Becca's blog and had to recreate it. I went to Hobby Lobby and all the components were 1/2 off! Can't wait to make a card using it.


I finally figured out the crocheted flowers. Found the crochet string at the thrift store (of all places) and I'm making flowers of all colors and combinations! I'll have to break down and actually buy string at Joannes if I decide to make different colors (all I have are blue, cream, red).


The pattern I'm using (thanks to Chat's Blog, Me, My Stamps & I) is:
chain 4 - connect to form ring
chain 3 (counts as 1 double crochet (DC); DC 14 (total of 15); slip stitch in top chain
{chain 2, 1 DC in first DC; 2 triple crochet (TC) in next DC; DC in next DC, chain 2 and slip in same DC} (pattern worked within 3 DC)
repeat { } to form 5 petals

I used a #5 crochet hook (tiny).

Challenge cards

Back in the scrap room! I was rushing to get my challenge cards done so I could watch CSI NY with my husband. He worked late so we didn't get to eat together and I went upstairs right when he got home, so I wanted to spend some time before I went to bed!

This card is for Stars & Stamps blog - use red, white, blue and kraft.


For the Jingle Belles challenge, we were to make a Christmas card using NO RED. This card is purple (even though it looks blue). Most of my embellies that I wanted to use on this card had a little of red in them. Ladies, you weren't kidding when you said red is the most popular Christmas card.


For my final card tonight, The Paper Variety challenged us to make a card (or layout) using a cupcake.

I copied this idea from StacysFire at ArtFire.com

I hope to spend more time in my room tomorrow after book club, cleaning, and laundry.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to my Son, David. He turned 21...which is hard to believe since I don't think I'm old enough for a child that age (at least I don't FEEL that old).

Cards 2-6-11 Sunday Cards

I spent some time straightening my scrap room. It was getting rather messy. I still need to get the vacuum in here! I did get some cards done. Here are two. The second one is the for the Stars & Stamps challenge.

Blog Candy

It's been a while since I've posted about blog candy. Head over to Outside My Window and take a look.


When you leave comment, please be sure to let Jennifer know I sent you.

Another Christmas card

Over at Hazel's challenge blog, we are to use a digi. The picture on the nativity scene is from my digital camera and the overlay is from a free digi I got somewhere (sorry, I don't know who to give credit to).



I may have to take a nap before I can work on more cards! See ya later, Susan

Challenge Cards 2-5-11

Good Evening my friends. It's been a long week and I'm glad the weekend is here. I hope to catch up on some sleep. Planned on leaving work at noon so I could get some errands done before I got home. Did leave early...3:00! Oh well, I'm happy that we are busy - it's better than having no work and no income.

On to the challenges. The first one is from The Paper Variety - create using this picture as inspiration:



Here is my take:


One of my errands today was going to the thrift store to find old books with yellowed pages that I could use to make flowers. I love books...it was so hard to tear out that first page and punch out the scalloped circles. My next quest is to find old hymnals so I can use the pages as background papers.

My next challenge was for Jingle Belles - create a card inspired by the song Baby It's Cold Outside. i found the lavender ribbon (both top and bottom) at the thrift shop too.


I also bought a bathroom shelf - it has 4 cubbies over the towel rack. I want to turn it upside down and do some altering. once I get it made and hung on the wall in my scrap room, I'll share a picture.

Thanks for stopping by. Remember to keep your heart open...your creativity could change a person's life. Susan

CARDS 2-3-11

Our electric came back on after 24 hours off - ice on the lines. It went out at 7:30 pm (right before our favorite show NCIS was to come on) on Tuesday. Come on, 7:30 is too early to go to bed, but what to do?? My husband did go to bed (he gets up at 5:00 am)...but I headed to my craft room. I decided I could make cards by candlelight. Not as easy as I thought...you really do need light to match colors!

Anyway, here is the card I made -- I got 4 of them done. I'm actually surprised the picture came out.


We did spend the cold night at home but we didn't sleep well because we're used to having the fan on during the night. So the quiet was deafening. Our neighbors across the street had electricity and the ones through the woods behind us had it...go figure. It was cold Wednesday morning when I got up to go to work. No lights, no heater in the bathroom, no hair dryer. The no hair dryer was the worse...my hair does not look good with no hair dryer to fluff it up.

Wednesday at 5:00 pm we still had no electricity so we decided to check into a hotel and eat. After checking in, my husband opened the soap to wash his face and used one hand towel and then headed to Longhorn. We needed to run by home to pick up something we'd forgotten and saw the electric trucks (from Virginia, thanks guys). Lo and behold, we had electricity. YEA.

Went back to the hotel to check out and they charged us 1/2 because Brad had used the soap and hand towel - the guy said the maid still had to clean. WHATEVER. We were glad to be in our own bed and warm.

This next card is for the Stars & Stamp blog challenge: "Our challenge this week is “On The Farm” We challenge you to make cards for our heroes to send home to their loved ones using a “farm” theme." Well, after spending the day working on horse farm insurance, I knew just what I wanted to do :)


You can't see it but the letters are crimped. I love my crimper but forget to use it!

By the way, I'm an insurance agent that specializes in horse-related insurance products. We write policies for horse farms, liability for trainers/instructors, and mortality/medical on horses. If you are interested in learning more, check out our website: www.FrysEquineInsurance.com