birdday card with Chris's file

I needed a quick birthday card. I knew I had the perfect file from Chris. You can find it here. It's her Happy Birdday file. How cute is that little birdy?! I backed the bird with the same green the greeting is cut in so his little eye and wing would stand out. Be sure to check out Chris and all her files and the forum where there are challenges going on.

I've been on vacation this week, and man has it flow by. Seems like I didn't have any time off at all. Stephen is supposed to take off tomorrow and he claims we're going to do something fun, but I'll believe it when I see it. He's notorious for sleeping in late on his days off and being tired and only wanting to sit around the house, usually playing video games. So we'll see.

Scuba Brag Book using Chris's files

I made this brag book for Stephen for a recent scuba trip. I used Chris's files:

Tab Book

The Deeper You Go

Scuba Card

I also used a couple of files that aren't in the store - Water Bubbles (on the front) and I Kick. Stephen was so excited, he asked if he could take the book to work and show it off.

I should have more scuba pics to scrap after June. Stephen is going to FL for a dive trip. Wish I could go to FL!

Til later!

cupcake wrappers - not just for cupcakes

So how cute are Chris's cupcake wrappers? I wanted to show that they can be used for other things too. Like napkin rings and party favors. The first wrapper is from her everyday collection, which you can find here.

I cut the wrapper, lined it with a paper cupcake holder and filled it with Easter jelly beans. Makes a perfect little party favor.

And then I used two wrappers from her frilly collection, which is here. I cut them smaller, and used them to make napkin rings.

Don't forget to check out Chris's Quarterly File membership. She's already got a ton of files up, and they are all darling!

Nothing new to report, get up, go to work, come home, go to sleep, do it all again the next day. I HAVE to get my rear end back to the gym. I've gained all my weight back and it is so depressing. Stephen hasn't even been going to the gym. But of course he hasn't gained any of his weight back, he can eat all he wants and is just fine. So unfair!

We are starting to get some better weather and we've been riding to work again instead of driving. Gas is already up to $2 a gallon again, so I'm so very, very thankful we have the motorcycles to save on gas. I filled up yesterday for $2.25 and had put 82 miles on the motorcycle. Gotta love 70+ mpg.

I'm hoping to get some work done on our Green Bay albums. How sad that it's been a year and a half and I haven't made any progress on them. I think I'm going to box up a bunch of my scrapbook stuff and either take it to goodwill or throw it away. I need to make some room, and since I can't knock out a wall and build a sb room, I guess it's get rid of stuff time.

I hope everyone has a lovely Easter. It's supposed to start raining today and rain thru Friday night. I hope it clears back off for the weekend.
Happy Thursday!

Here's a layout with two of Chris's files. You can find Chris here. Behind the vellum is Chris's fabulous Heart Jumble. I used the included heart files to make the heart border on the left side. I resized the hearts and even embossed a couple with glitter embossing powder. The border on the left is also one of Chris's fabulous files.

We've both been sick with the bug going around. We've been miserable with this. In fact this winter, I've been sick off and on. I'm so tired of being sick. I haven't felt like working out and I've put on a ton of weight. It's so depressing.

We've just about got the yard cleaned up enough to mow. And boy do we need to mow. I am looking forward to warmer weather, altho I don't want the 95+ degrees with 90%+ humidity. I'm picky, I want it 75 and sunny year-round.

At least tomorrow is Friday. Gotta love Friday! And tomorrow is the Series Finale of Battlestar Gallactica. Boy are we gonna miss that show.

Star by Beloved Keepsakes

If you've been reading my blog over the last year or so, you know that I am honored to be a member of Chris Durnan's design team. Chris generously gave us a Star ornament from Beloved Keepsakes for Christmas this year. If you haven't seen Lori's stars, you need to check them out. They are amazing! You can find her here. I sent Lori pictures of sweet Annabelle and this is what she made. I bawled when I opened it. Stephen couldn't believe how beautiful it was. I think I saw a tear or two in his eyes too, but he wouldn't admit to it. I knew what to expect, sort of, but honestly, pictures do not even begin to do these ornaments justice.

So thank you to Chris for a fabulous Christmas present and thank you to Lori for making such a fabulous ornament.

storm pics

So I thought I'd post a few pics of the ice storm that hit January 28th. The first three were taken in our front yard. The entire front yard was covered with sticks and limbs.

The next two are of the cedar trees that lost big limbs. You can only see about half of the cedar limbs in these pics. One big branch was still hanging from one of the trees. I didn't want to get too far out in the yard for fear of more limbs falling on me.

Then the next two pics are of the limb that fell on the garage.

Stephen and I didn't get any sleep that night after about 2am. When the power went out, the limbs started falling. It was such a creepy sound, hearing massive limbs break, a really loud pop, like a gun shot, then a swoosh as it fell thru the remaining tree branches, and then a hard thump when it hit the ground. We lost count of how many times we got up that morning to be sure none of the limbs fell on the house or the truck. We never dreamed one had landed on the garage. Thank goodness the garage is made of petrified wood.

And finally, there's a picture of the top that twisted out of one of the trees last Wednesday during the high wind storm we had. You can barely see the edge of the two stacks of branches that Stephen had already moved out of the driveway.

We've had several customers come in to the office this week that are quick to inform us that according to the Farmer's Almanac, we're getting an even bigger storm next week. Apparently the FA predicted the storm of the 28th. I guess we'll see what happens next week.

Valentine's Day - with Chris's swirly heart

I made Stephen's Valentine's Day card with the swirly heart designed by Chris. I matted it with a piece of pink cardstock. The stamp is a Club Scrap stamp. And I thought I'd make a matching gift bag too. As always, you can find Chris and her fabulous files here.

Pretty low key Valentine's Day here. Stephen had to work. We had dropped by bike off Friday after work to be serviced, so when he got home, he drove me over to the shop to pick it up. Then we decided to walk over to our favorite restaurant. Reason number one to live in town: water still runs (if only a trickle) when the power is out. Number two: the power gets turned back on quicker. Number three: we're within walking distance of our favorite restaurant AND the theater.

I still need to post my storm damage pics. I've also got one from the wind storm we had THIS week. The entire top twisted out of a tree and landed in the middle of our driveway. What a mess. Please send spring soon! And no more storms!

Just a Note card

How about a card? I used Chris's Music Mesh file (found here) to make this Just a Note card. I matted the mesh on a piece of white card stock and layered that over the stamped Just a Note phrase on a beige card. Wouldn't these make a neat gift set? Make up a dozen of these, tie them with a ribbon, easy gift!

layout using Chris Durnan's January Sketch files from her forum

Have your checked out Chris's forum lately? There are some fabulous challenges going on over there. This layout uses her files for the January Sketch challenge. Mine is late, because we were hit with an ice storm that knocked out our power. Things are finally back to normal, so here's the layout.

And this is a picture of a card I made for a card challenge from Chris's forum. I used Chris's tree files (found here: http://www.visualdesignsbychris.com/store/product.php?productid=16258&cat=0&page=1) and a thanks word from one of her freebies from her blog.

I'll post some pictures of our yard from the ice storm. We're still cleaning up debris and probably will be for some time. At least we only had some damage to our garage and a lot of food spoilage.

new project to share

Stephen's boss always has his Christmas party after the New Year because everyone is so busy. So I needed an extra gift bag for the party. I used Chris Durnan's card file - Contemporary Happy Holidays - for the bag. I just cut the card front and glued it to the bag, letting the green bag color show through.

And for the tag, I used her tag file set - Holiday Tag Package. You can find Chris and all her wonderful files here: http://www.visualdesignsbychris.com/store/home.php

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season. I have to say, as much as I love Christmas, there's really too much going on and I'm always relieved when it's all said and done so I can rest. I'm trying to get back in to a routine, trying to get to the gym before work, trying to get caught up at work, taxes done for work, and trying to not be a grumpy witch. I'm not sure any of it is going to happen. And I'm hoping like crazy that I can get to some of our Green Bay trip photos this year. I can't believe it's almost been a year and a half! How sad. But then again, I'll probably have to take out a loan to afford to develop all the pictures.


So, it's almost 9, and I'd best get wrapped up. The alarm goes off at 4am, and let me tell you, that's really, really early.

another layout to share

Here is another layout for Stephen's mini flip album. It uses Chris Durnan's file Ornaments and Trees. You can find the file here. This file has several different trees and they all cut like a dream.

Shopping is done, just waiting on that postman to deliver one last thing. Still have some wrapping to do. I'm finding it really hard to get in the mood to wrap. Plus our Christmas tree lights keep blowing fuses so I can't keep the tree lit. Stephen wanted the big bulbs this year, and I think they're getting too hot and blowing fuses. Not a happy camper, esp considering all the stores are out of fuses! So if they blow one more time, I'm out of fuses, which means either a dark tree (which I CAN'T stand) or pulling all the bulbs and ornaments off and redoing the whole darn thing. Not looking forward to either of those.

Hope everyone has a safe, happy holiday. It's looking like a brown, wet, muddy Christmas here. :(

Sussann

two layouts and Happy Thanksgiving

I have been working on a small flip album for hubby of our Annabelle. I used one of Chris's files on each of these layouts. One uses her Reindeer file. I added Diamond Glaze to his nose and pen stitching on his antlers and muzzle.

The other layout uses her Snow title. This is one of the over 20 files in this quarters cutting membership group. Have I mentioned what a great value that is, btw? $20, and a minimum of 20 files - that's a steal! If you haven't signed up for her quarterly club yet, do! You won't regret it! A new quarter signup will be available soon. You can find her here:
http://visualdesignsbychris.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone has a happy, safe Thanksgiving. Be careful if you're traveling. And be sure to hug a loved one.

Sussann

VOTE!

I don't care who you vote for, just exercise your right and go VOTE!

Here's a little freebie - sorry I don't have a picture of it cut yet.

fall card

First off, I have a fall card to share with you. I used the challenge files from Chris Durnan's recent challenge to make this card. You can find Chris here. Stephen bought a scanner this weekend, and scanned this card for me, but unfortunately you can't really see the glittered embossing powder on the pumpkin and the word fall. It's much more glitzy in real life!

This picture is from a recent ride we took on a little country back road. I just loved this fall display! I had not seen one of these before, so I made Stephen go back and take a picture of it.

We're still trying to ride the motorcycles whenever we can. It was 34 degrees this morning, and I felt the cold despite my gear. I think I'm going to pull out my real winter coat and wear it instead of my lined motorcycle jacket.

Any one have any ideas how we could celebrate our 15th anniversary in December? We were going to see about taking a cheap cruise, but we still don't have our notarized birth certificates, so that means no passports. Plus I hate to be out so much money for the passports, gas down to Alabama, hotel the night before and gas back home. So, any neat ideas?

New project and conversion is over!

First, I'd like to share a project I just completed using Chris Durnan's word books. You can find out more about Chris here.



The book was so easy to cut. I have to say, I've never been a fan of the "project" type kits, where you have to fill little spaces and resize everything. But Chris's book made this a dream to do! I'm very happy with how it turned out, and Stephen thinks it's "cool" so it meets with his approval.

The conversion is finally over at work. So I'm hoping I can find some time to play at night and not just collapse in exhaustion. The entire ordeal at work cost me 60 hours of my personal time. Which I will never see a penny for. Oh well, at least I have a job, right?

I've been on vacation this week and it was SOOOOO needed. I've been so tired and mentally wiped out too, that everything has suffered. I did a fall house cleaning this week, and got a few projects around the house done, like totally redoing my closet. Stephen is off today, so I'm not sure if we'll do anything together or just hang out. Either way, it's been nice to have the time away and to recharge.






Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. Later!