Tagged!

Chrissie tagged me! Here are the rules:

"You've been tagged:
The rules of the game:
• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog".

Here are my seven random and/or weird facts about me:

1. I have moved around most of my life, rarely spending more than a few years in each location.
2. I met my husband later in life through a mutual friend who was secretly acting as a match maker - who knew she would be so right? We've been married 11 years now. Sadly, my friend has passed away. RIP, Ruth.
3. I like winter better than summer, regardless of how cold it gets.
4. I lived in Far Northern Canada, a VERY cold place, for 3 years when I was a kid.
5. Two of the towns I used to live in are now ghost towns.
6. Now I live in Far North Queensland, a VERY hot place. Guess I like contrasts.
7. I love blues, purples, pinks - all winter or cool colours.

Now here are the people I've tagged - hope you all enjoy the challenge and Happy New Year!

1. Paula
2. Pearl
3. Andrea
4. Suzanne
5. Ness
6. Chelle
7. Amanda

Do pop by their blogs to see what interesting facts they come up with! And Happy New Year to all!

New camera + Nature = pics!

I had a chance to take some pics of birds and butterflies long-range this last few weeks. I've been pleased with the results, though I htink the camera would do better in more experienced hands! Oh well - I'm going to make sure I keep experimenting. Here are a couple of photos (I went to the Birds in Backyards and this site [thank you, Dr Don Herbison-Evans, for helping me identify this moth!] to find out what the scientific names were):

Aprosmictus erythropterus, King Parrot

Alcides Metaurus (Zodiac Moth)

Another King Parrot

Christmas cards!

I have been making cards for Christmas but didn't want to post them till they had been received by everyone I sent them to. I think they have been in the mail long enough, so here goes. All stamped images are from SU! and Hanna Stamps. All cardstock is from SU!. Embellishments came from lots of places. I used mostly the Rennaisance Angel stamps this year, only colouring them differently with various glitter/gel pens. I've given you a sample here of cards I made 'in bulk'.

Display Board!

I just got a new Display Board from CM! They come in distressed white and black and i love mine :-) The board is magnetic so I can change the display when I want to, and put the old display in an album when I do!

I had to try it out last night. The photos didn't come out very well as they were from my old camera, but I will use my new camera more in 2008 so the quality should be better.

Contact Tag!

I just broke my mojo block! Yay! I spent the last couple of days making 20 contact tags for a Scrapchat forum swap. It was something I had never tried before and I think it might be close to what Gillian calls an ATC swap? Anyway, here's the front of the tag - I used manilla 11cm x 5.5cm tags from a newsagent's, all dressed up. I used matte photos printed out at home, CM punches & pens, SU! ribbon & ink (Rose Red), and MM brads. What do you think?

Scrapchat & Stamp With Kim and the INKcredibles

I have been a member of Stamp With Kim and the INKcredibles's forum for some time now and I love to go there every day. This week I decided to add to my forum membership (and therefore the joy!) by joining a new scrap book and crafting forum called Scrapchat. If you would like to check it out and see if you would also like to join, do go ahead!

I find forums like these inspiring and good for keeping up with what is new. You also make some great new friends!

It's December!

It's December and I put up our Christmas Tree today. I still need to decorate it. It was a new tree, bought by my dear DD to cheer me, as my old tree was bought by my Dad in 1970 and was looking much worse for the years of wear! I had fun trying to make my new tree look 'authentic' since it has bendy branches and you can make it look as though the branches are reaching towards the sun. Neat!

To get further into the Christmas spirit, I then read a blog (Hanna Stamps!) and followed a link from there to find out what my Elf Name is. Here it is - see if you get a better name than mine! Lol!

***Susan's Elf Name Is...***



Floppy Snowballer


What's Your Elf Name?

Picfolio Pages

I started a new album - a Milestones Picfolio! It seems to go together so quickly and easily, I did 5 pages after dinner last night :-) I had a pack of mats and embellishments that fit so all I had to do was make the picture fit and go in logical order. I think it took me longer to think of what words to say than it did to order the shots. The only problem is 'flash glare' when I take their pictures fro you to see. See what you think, anyway:

Catching up with friends

We spent a lovely evening out with friends while away. Here's the pics to prove it! Papers and embellishments also from the CM 'Cottage' pack.

Catching up with younger DS

Our second DS is still single, and we got to see him this trip as well. Since these photos were taken, he has had a haircut! Papers and embellishments are from the SM 'Cottage' pack. I have lots of journalling to catch up on.

One more of DS's wedding

These ladies were all bridesmaids, and the fellows were groomsmen (of course!)

DS's wedding

Here are some more pages of our son's wedding. The wedding was over a year ago and now they are expecting our first grandchild, I thought I had best get a move on with cropping their wedding photos! I still want to get some of their professional pictures done. These are my own snaps taken on the happy day. The papers are all from a CM wedding pack, and the accents of colour are also CM papers.

Niece's wedding

I used Pink Lemonade paper from CM and the Friendship micro punch, with silver and purple accents from a CM mat pack.

I'm baaaaack

I'm back home and have some posts to make of the cropped pages I did while I was away. Hope you like them :-)

Here are some pages of my niece's wedding, first:



I used the CM wedding pack for this - it just went so well with the church colours, and the mats from another CM pack were nearly the shade of the bridesmaid's dresses,

I may be without card making supplies, BUT

I did bring my scrap booking supplies. I didn't bring my photo sharing software or the lead to connect it with our friend's computer, or I could show you the pages I made yesterday. Oh well. It felt good to finally have some pages done for DS's wedding. I still want to get some of the professional photos printed so I can make some lovely pages with them, but I managed to get my happy snaps into album format :-)

Must make a list of items to bring when we go away next time. I forget several crucial items for scrap booking too. I guess it was a sign that I needed a bit of a break from all usual activities!

Today I am trying my hand at some feel-good cooking. I have a beautful smelling spice cake half done in the kitchen. I found the recipe on the Internet today. (How good is it to find recipes at the click of a mouse?? Just Google for what you want! I have never been steered wrong!) It's a boiled spice cake - that's why the house smells so good. I'm waiting for the boiled bit to cool down enough so I can add the last few ingredients, then I'll pop the whole thing in the oven. I had to alter the recipe somewhat as I didn't quite have all the ingredients on hand that the recipe called for, so it's an experiment in more ways than one. A new recipe AND I altered it already!! Ah well - live dangerously when you can. Lol!

I'm away from home without my card making gear!

I'm visiting family and friends for a couple of weeks so won't be adding any cards for awhile. Be back at the end of October when I will look forward to seeing some other people's creations!

Rosemary

My friend Rosemary just had the best news - she has beaten cancer! She used natural therapies and lots of people prayed for her. It's wonderful news. I found out on Sunday (there were lots of joyful tears!) and her birthday was Monday, so celebrations without tears were in order! Here is the card I made for her. It is bold and bright to reflect her happiness. I used stamps from Kolette Hall, craft shop gros grain ribbon and brads, and SU! cardstock from the Bold Brights range. Lots of gel pens were also used, as well as the Stampin' Pastels and the Paper Piercing tool from SU! I used Black Stazon and Versamark as well.

A wedding!

We're going to a wedding this Saturday and the invitations had a buckle theme, so I thought I'd put one on the wedding card. I used all SU! products - Stipple Rose stamp, Versamark, So Saffron ink, Chocolate Chip and Creamy Caramel paper with Whisper White as a background, a gold brad, gold gel pen. I cut the buckle out with a square punch then did the inside of it with scissors freehand. The LO was CASEd from Amy - thanks, Amy!

Cropping and making memories come alive again

I recently found some special pictures of dear relatives' visits from overseas in 2002. I decided to do something with them today. One page was completely finished - the other one still needs some details and I will work on that another day :-)

Salt Challenge - John 10:10b Abundant Life!

Over at Salt, they have issued a challenge: "I have chosen the theme "Life to the Full." This theme comes from the verse John 10:10b where Jesus says that He has come so we may have life and have it to the full (or in abundance)!

So, we would really love to see your take on this challenge of what
"Life to the full- in Christ" means for you.
You can do it whatever format you like e.g. A Layout, card, beyond the page, canvas etc."

I came up with this because I believe we who believe Jesus is the Son of God, Who takes away our sins, have been given the free and immense gift of eternal salvation. What is more abundant and full of life than that?

Thinking of you, Rita.

A friend's father sadly passed away this weekend and we're going to attend the funeral tomorrow. This is the card I made after seeing a very elegant one done in soft greys on SCS. It's done with SU! Mixed Bouquet, Simple Sketches, Perfect Plum, Mellow Moss and Whisper White cardstock, Not Quite Navy and Certainly Celery ink, and grosgrain ribbon.

We've Got Your Number

The challenge from DCM one week involved numbers - and here's my attempt, finally!

Numbers and Fun? Those two words don't often appear in the same sentence, do they?
Well, we'd like you to have some fun with numbers and put a numeral on your card - it's as easy as that
So a great opportunity to make some kid's birthday cards, but there's also Sweet 16, those milestone Birthdays, Special Anniversaries, even New Home cards personalised with the recipient's new house number on - as long as it's got a number on it, it counts (haha - did you spot the extra-subtle pun there?) There are probably loads of other ways to use numbers on your cards so get inventive and enjoy a bit of creative accountancy for our little bit of midweek fun. Don't forget to leave us a message to tell us where we can see your card.

Sweet 16!

I made this for a friend turning 16. I used SU! Itty Bitty Backgrounds & Simple Sketches stamps, Rubber Stampede Heart Cluster, SU! paper & ink - certainly celery & rose red, gel pens & bling from a chain store.

Last of the quilts for 2007

This is all I took pictures of. There were more quilts, but some were in awkward places for me to photograph!

More Quilts

Here's some more - aren't they amazing? Some were made by very young sewers

Quilts!

I took some pictures of some beautiful quilts that were made at the Atherton Show in July and thought I would post them here especially for Suzanne

Twin baby boys!

A friend had twin baby boys on Monday and I'm going to visit her tomorrow and take her this card which I CASEd from Split Coast Stampers. I made the babies by cutting out circles, dotting in the eyes and drawing a copper curl on each little head before chalking the cheeks, then used scallop scissors to cut out roughly triangular shapes and scoring them for the blankies, SU! Fresh Fillers stamp on the Whisper White strip on top of Barely Banana, with Ballet Blue ink. 'Twins' and the nappy pins are die cuts Andrea sent to me (Thanks, Andrea!) This was a fun card to make!

Birthdays

I had two birthdays to 'make' for last night. The water ing can card I CASEd from Split Coast Stampers, and the other I made up with a stamped image sent to me by Amy (thanks, Amy!) The colours are all SU! and are Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard and Certainly Celery.

Grad Gifts

I have a graduation to attend this Friday. Eight of my 29 grads are attending too and I wanted to give them all a little favour. I made these Kit Kat sheaths for them and used a 'W is for wonderful' stamp from SU! to decorate the top! Hope they like them.

Well, this week the Design Team at DCM have come up with this idea for you to play with, we hope you'll enjoy it.

TEXT...

definition... the main body of matter in a book or manuscript. the actual wording of anything written or printed, short passage of scripture, etc
We'd like you to somehow incorporate text into your cards this week - not just one word.. but a portion of TEXT... like a poem, or newspaper print, Caligraphy, Even rip up an old text book and use some of the paper from it, there are masses of possibilities here, so let your imaginations run riot and let us see you texting to your heart's content!

I made this card for the Show this week - how about that???

Card for a friend

I finished my marking I wish it was last week so I had another week to stamp!! I have to go back to work on Monday. As soon as I finished the paperwork, I made a birthday card for a friend. It's smaller than average so the stamp looks bigger on the scan - it's all SU! - the Mixed Bouquet set and the Happy Birthday is from the God's Blessings sayings. I used Ballet Blue, Taken with Teal, Rose Red and Basic Black ink, Brocade Blue and So Saffron paper. I CASEd a stamping friend's idea (thanks, Jean!) of tearing around the flower after wetting the paper.