Matt 6:33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (NIV)


But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides. (Amplified)

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (NLT)

 I like the way each one of these translation have this verse.  Something pastor said at church really stuck with me....Make God's kingdom your primary concern. 

What does that mean?  My primary concern.  My first thought, my priority, my focus, the most important.

I pray that I will make the kingdom of God my primary concern.

Thanks for stopping by, Susan

Christmas pages

Thanks for stopping by...Susan

Sisters' trip pages

This was Spring cleaning weekend but my husband wasn't home so I got a reprieve.  I got the downstairs done (including my office!) and we will tackle the upstairs next weekend.

I worked on a few more pages.  Here are the pages from my trip to Pittsburgh with my sisters at Christmas-time.

 

Tomorrow I'll post the pages for 2 Christmases.  Keep your heart open...you can change lives with your creativity.  Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.  Susan

Scrapper/Card Maker needs our help

I'm reposting this from another blog - You and Your Big Dreams:  Crafty Friends.  Would you please consider sending some supplies or a gift card?  Could you ask your local craft stores for some donations and send that along?

Crafty Friend Needs Help!

***Edited 03/2302012***

***My heart is so happy knowing I belong to such a wonderful community. You all are truly amazing! Thank you all so much, from the bottom of my crafty heart :) For those of you who have asked gift cards are welcomed we have Michael's, Joann Fabrics, Archivers, and Hobby Lobby near us. Thanks again <3***

Hello all. Today I'm posting about personal things. Usually I keep it just crafty around here but today I am appealing to the crafting communities generous heart.

Like I said I usually don't do this so you probably don't know that my career of choice is being a dispatcher for a local police department. I dispatch for Police, Fire and EMS. As I'm sure you can understand this job can be quite stressful. In order to relieve my stress, I craft. As I'm sure many of you do too. My co-worker and friend Angie does as well. Well, she did until she lost everything in an apartment fire on Tuesday night. Thank God Angie, her two boys, and her mom made it out safely. Ang was able to grab two photo albums of the boys when they were babies and a laptop, that's it.

I would like to do a card drive for Angie. I would also like to ask for any kind of crafty donations you can make. She is an avid scrapbooker and card maker. If you have something that has been in your stash unused forever ( I know I do!) Angie could sure you use it. I know how devastated I would be to lose everything I owe, including my crafty stuff. I know it's just stuff but it's my relaxation, my oasis, from my crazy life. Now that Angie's life is nothing but crazy I sure would like to provide her with the tools to practice her beloved hobby.

Let me tell you a little bit about my friend. She is a single mother of two boys who works two jobs to support them. Anthony is a 14yo freshman and Christopher is a 18yo senior. The boys play many sports but their favorite is hockey. Angie travels with them for games, goes to their practices, fundraisers, and works very hard to afford their equipment, which is very expensive (thankfully it was in the garage during the fire). She is the type of friend who is always doing for other people, always putting them first. Sometimes I think she is super woman! She works her first job, gets off at 5:00pm, stops home makes sure the boys are eating/doing homework/or taking them to practice, drives to her second job (police station) and works until 11:30pm. Yet she still finds time to do for others and make it to mass every Sunday. I'm telling you all she is AMAZING!

Okay so here's the run down:

I'm looking for thinking of you cards and cards with cheery sentiments.
I would like to be able to give her the cards/goodies by April 7th so please have any donations to me by April 6th. If you can't meet the deadline but have a crafty donation send it anyway. I can always get it to her later.
Like I said Angie is both a scrapbooker and a card maker so literally anything you have I will take. She is especially sad about her Cricut so if you would like to make a monetary donation towards the purchase of a new cricut that would also be greatly appreciated.
Patterned paper, stamps, adhesives, plain card stock, ink, . . . .you all know what you use.

You can send it to: Kelly Latevola 192 Autumn Ln Brunswick, Ohio 44212

I know this is a long post, and I thank you for staying with me :) Please keep Angie and her family in your prayers and share this post with your other crafty friends :) Thank you so much!

For  those of you who are interested this is the photo Angie Sent me and a link to a news video

Video

Weekend pages - part 5

The last of the weekend pages - all from Christmases.

Weekend pages - part 4

 I love seeing how my scrapping has evolved over the years!  I've scrapped some of these same pictures before (in my cram-as-many-pictures-on-a-page-as-you-can days) but I'm loving my new style.  I don't take apart the old pages though.  It's neat to compare them.

I got some pages done at lunch time this week :)  I love working from home!!  These were part of my crop page kits so all I had to do was put them together.

Keep it crafty...you never know how you will touch someone's life.  Susan

Weekend pages - part 3

Here are some single pages.

 

H

Weekend pages - part 2

I'm so glad bloggers are sharing their layouts and for great publications like Scrapbooks Etc, scrap catalogs, and scrap calendars - I got so many layout ideas!!

Easter from 1991 and 1993

 Halloween from 1999 and 1988

Weekend pages - part 1

Here are more pages I got done over the weekend

These are some random shots of my husband with our son, niece and nephew.

Here is Brad with our dog Smokey from 25 years ago!

I went to Camp COTUBIC as a teenager and my son went as a youngster.

Thanks for taking a look. Susan

Scrap-happy day

Yesterday was my crop day at church.  I had 30 or so page kits ready.  I got several done yesterday and some today.  I'll have to put more kits together for next time.

Here are some of the single pages I got done.

My son's 10th birthday.

We love going up to Amish country and here is David's first trip.

Me, my SIL, and my MIL at a Mother-Daughter banquet at church.

My son and his good friend Ryan.  Ah, the stories these two could tell.

I'll post more throughout the week.  I'm back in my room for a little bit Sunday evening and hope to get a few more pages done while I watch Once Upon A Time.

Thanks for stopping by.  Let you creativity change someone's day.  Susan

a few cards

My father-in-law just had triple by-pass and valve replacement surgery (a week ago) and the nurses at Mt Carmel West CVICU were so good with him and the family. We appreciate the excellent care he got and that the nurses were always willing to spend time explaining to the family what was going on and how he was doing.

I made this card for them. I copied it from one I saw in Split Coast Stampers gallery. The sentiment came from Create With TLC. Love it. I will definitely have to make more of these for my next OWH box. I'm going to find a different trim to crochet because this one will be nice in a longer pattern, I don't like it as much as the one of the original card.


While up at the hospital, my husband has had the opportunity to pray with a couple of guys. One man is dying and they just took him off the respirator. His wife and sister stopped my mother-in-law (they recognized her from church) and she prayed with them and then my MIL suggested her son go pray with the husband. It really touched his heart to be able to give this man some comfort. I hope he knows the Lord and knows where he is going.

In the waiting room, he met another gentleman whose fiance is not doing very well. She has so many health issues and it is not looking good. Brad took time to pray with him on Monday and then looked for him again yesterday to see how things were going. I made this card to give to his wife - to let her know that we are praying for her and for her fiance.

I copied this from Lisa E's blog.

I appreciate all the awesome scrappers and card makers that put their creations in their blogs. I love to look at them and get ideas - and sometimes just outright copy them. You are all so creative!

Here is a doily I made. I made several for Christmas gifts but didn't keep any for myself. So I put this together to use as a backdrop to my card photos (it's in the two above :D).


I'm working on another design but it is slower going. I also made a little clutch to hold my cell phone and credit cards (it's divided so I don't lose my cards when I pull out my phone). I'm still tweaking it out so I'll show you pictures when it's completed.

Wish I could be scrapping today instead of working! We have a small storm rolling thru and I love to listen to the rain and thunder. A nap sounds good too...but, I gotta earn the dough to support my habit...scrapping that is!!

Saturday is all-day at church CROP. I have 30+ page kits ready to go. I have another 35+ to get ready for the next time. I'll share when I'm finished.

Thanks for stopping by. Keep your heart open because your creativity can change a life. Susan

Blog Candy - check it out

Head over to The Papercrafting League for a great give away. Tell them I sent you so if you win, I win too! I love how generous scrappers are :D

Bridal Shower card

This card is for a friend's future daughter-in-law. Her shower is today. I copied this from DoStamping's blog.