CloudWPlus9 #1

I cannot believe that I was on the computer and saw a post on Facebook from my UBER sweet friend Suzanne ( LOVE HER ) that there was blog hop today and I had 20 minutes to spare, only because I had the kids doing homework.  YES I am aware that the summer is here but too bad!!!   Since this card, about 20 minutes ago, I have broken up bat man and cat woman fights and now Emma is in time out for not listening ........ OH how I love the summer!!!  But lucky for them I am happy to keep to the rules so they do not have a problem getting back into the swing of things when school starts in 48 days and 18 hours but who is counting?

My friend is very sick and I try to send her cards on a regular basis because she cannot remember conversations, but when there is something tangible she can hold it and remember.  Her husband told me this morning that she holds them and looks at them so I thought this was the perfect time to multi-task.  

Here is the inspiration photo.

Seriously perfect ~ my friend Nela has a smile and eyes that can light up the darkest of days!!  

I went more with the white space of the cake and cups below it and the beautiful flowers.  Love the raffia so I had to use a bit of twine as well.  

And since my card was standing against my MOST favorite bowl filled with fresh North Carolina 

PEACHES........I thought hey why not throw in a photo of Wilbur ~ 

My husband knows me so well........ it was a gift from him!!!

Have a great day!!

  Gotta run and do the CEO of Hallinger and Halinger thing~

Sue Ann

WMS Blog Hop and Sketch

My friend Cathy told me that I should do the Waltzingmouse Stamps sketch challenge , so here I am. Do not get me wrong,

 all the stars and the moon had to align for me to do this.  

The kiddies have been running like crazy the last few days so we are going to have 

a "ruhetag" today, which means "rest day" in German 

and

 speaking of German how about the German National soccer team, YAY!!!

I have plenty to keep my busy today 

so I am combining 2 parties into 1~~  

This card is for both the WMS sketch challenge and theWMS Blog Hop.

I have this super cute tissue box next to my bed and I wanted to recreate the flowers but I did not really have anything kind of funky and modern in my stamp collection, so I thought.

  I started looking at all my stamps instead of doing a mental inventory and as soon I saw Teeny Trees I knew my luck had just changed.  

I was going to sew on the card, I thought it would be cute to do a quick zig zag stitch on the side to attach my 2/3 circles (does thinking count) but Ava had another idea  ~ 

so the sewing machine went away LOL !!  

She is so bad sometimes but I laugh at her because she is bad in a comical way.  

Have a GREAT DAY~

Now I have to answer my laundry,

I hear it calling my name!!

Sue Ann

Show and Tell for Janelle

Good Morning

Today a few friends have gotten together to celebrate our friend Janelle of Show and Tell and to let her know we have been thinking about her and pulling for her.  Since Janelle always has something to show and tell I thought I would do the same since this is all about her!!  

If you visit Janelle's blog just one time you will already know what I am going to "tell" you.  She has a smile that will cure any fog or clouds, she is sweeter than sugar AND she is an all around amazing woman.  

Janelle, I know you have had some ups and downs lately........ for that I am so sad.  I also know that you have handled every hurdle thrown at you with grace and a smile.  I am pulling for you!!  I know this battle has been long and hard but, I also know you are fighter!!!   I would also like to give a shout out to your hubby Ken, he is someone I would want on my team any day of the week and I am so happy he is on your team!!  YOU ROCK KEN!!!  

And now for the "show"  Okay so I am NOT a Copics girl and I watched MANY tutorials on how to color flesh over the last day ...... and I have MANY pieces of card stock to "show" how much I practiced.  YES I could use some Debbie Olsen flowing through me but I got it done and the coloring is not so bad that you have to put on dark glasses or anything like that.  I watched and tried because there was no other card that I wanted to make.  The sentiment is true........ I am pulling for you Janelle!!!   And the red shoes ..... well what girl does not want red shoes :)  Keep your chin up and know in your heart there are MANY people pulling for you and hoping that each day when the sun rises it is a better day than yesterday. 

My buddy Laurie has all the links on her blog for our special blog hop.  I would also like to say Thank You to Laurie and Dana for getting us all together ~ I love you girls but you already know that!!!!

Have a GREAT DAY!!!!

xoxoxox

Sue Ann

Journal

Over on the blog for Market Street Stamps they are having a "block party" for the upcoming release.  They are also teaming up with CAS-ual Fridays.  The challenge on the CAS-ual Fridays blog is brown paper bags tied up with strings and on the blog for MSS they wanted us to use any of their AMAZING stamps.  

I decided that I needed a journal for myself because I am better with eating when I have to be accountable. My journal sits right on the bar in the kitchen with a pen next to it and for sure it keeps me more accountable and I love being able to go back and look at what I had during the day.  I have had a horrible cold so I am trying to be better with my food until I can get back to running, weights and Zumba.

I used the word inspiration because I knew when I looked at this book laying on the bar it would always inspire me and remind me to try and do the best I can for me.   I absolutely LOVE this "peace" sentiment and the words are SO TRUE.  You cannot really see the stitching but I did a cut out for my pattern paper  and then it was attached to my corrugated cardboard with my sewing machine.  I love when I get to do a project for me and it for sure does not happen too often!!!  

I hope everyone has a wonderful evening and I am going to attempt to go check out some of the other people at the block party. 

 Can someone please pour me a wine?

Thank You gift

One of my favorite movies is The Sound of Music so when I found out it was brown paper tied up with string over on  CAS-ual Fridays blog I had to jump right in, of course I had to finish singing the song first and believe me I am NO Julie Andrews. 

What I made for the challenge are a couple of Thank You gifts.  I had ordered these bags from "Mish" and I knew I wanted to use them for the project but the problem is they were too big for what I needed so out came my sewing machine.  Of course when the sewing machine comes out for a 10 minute project it becomes a 1 hour project because of AVA.  The thread is pulled out when my back is turned, she is on the peddle with foot up, somehow she gets the spool of thread and it unwinds ....... seriously I should have a primetime sitcom.  An hour later I have sewn up 10 of these smaller bags that are seen in the post today and I have the rest stashed away with the ones I got from Mish ...... her sewing is so straight.  I hope the girls getting these gifts look at them with a head tilt because my sewing is always a bit off.

 Here they are all packaged up and ready to get to the post office.

The focal image on the front is held on with my "string" and it is a 2 in,

a focal image and a pretty magnet.

Here is a wee look at the cards on the inside.  I put 5 in each package

and they are 31/2 x 5.  

On a quick side note when I worked for American Airlines my job was to meet and greet high profile people and one night I had to meet and take Julie Andrews to her flight.  While I was waiting for her office to call I was in club and of course my friend and I could not miss an opportunity to be nutty so we started singing a nice selection of Julie Andrews movie songs.   On my way out the door to meet her  I walked around the corner and she was standing there smiling ......... right there listening to us sing and laugh.  I do not know how many shades of red I was but I am sure Pure Poppy was in the mix.

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

HELLO

Oh my goodness, it has been a LONG time since I have had time to update my blog so you know this will be a long post trying to do a little catching up.   I have been creating like a mad woman but time has not been a friend lately.  Okay I will admit that August was not a productive month for crafting but I did AMAZING work on my tan in Montauk.  Montauk is located at the very end of the south fork of Long Island and is the best part of the Hampton's if you ask me.

My bathing beauty....

Curt's mermaid 

Light House 

 When we got home Emma and Anton started school and then Anton turned 5, so lets start there.

I took a snack to his school that day and he is a Spider-Man freak so I made some cakepops and a city scape for display.  The buildings that are cut out were all named for local places around his school, it goes all the way around but as usual I was running out of the house so this was the best I could do for a photo.  I did not show him what I was doing I just told him I was bringing a small snack for the class.

 Here is a close up of spider man .........

 My HANDSOME boy

Next up a card and bag I made for Emma's buddy 

I cut the filp flop part with my cricut and then added

the Papertrey Ink Bloom Bloom builder die .... LOVE IT

 And the matching gift bag with her name all glittered up

just like Emily's personality.... 

she is a super fun and crazy girl!!

Since the kids are up and we are getting ready for school I think I will save Halloween for 

tomorrow or the next day ......... for sure not a couple of months.

xoxoxoxo

Sue Ann

Happy Birthday

Here with a quick post today, kids are going to have me running in a few hours and I have do complete all of my domestic goddess tasks before I leave so I do not feel out of sorts when we get home.  

I made this for my future sister in law for her birthday!!

I know the lighting is horrible but I could not wait for good weather

I needed to get it in the mail.

Have a GREAT DAY!!!

xoxoxox

Sue Ann

Make it Monday #24 / Journey

I love the whole theory of dry brushing but I will admit I probably should have used paint vs an inker and the canvas sucked it right up so the brush marks are not as present as if I did it on paper with paint but I wanted to use the canvas. I also did the dry brushing on the cardboard but it is hard to see.

My friend is going through a tough time right now and it is indeed going to be a journey so I thought I would make her a journal to help her move into the next phase of life.

  I do not even know how many times I have used this stamp "JOURNEY" I love it!!!    

  I could do a whole book on my journey of waking up every morning being Anton's mom, will he shoot me in the head today with his Iron Man missile or do I get off the hook with one of his Star Wars talking toys in my ear or the best of all him tapping me and saying he loves me .......

 I love that boy

 but it does hurt when he chooses the missiles because he gets me in the head and there are 7......

 he makes me laugh!!!

 

I stamped on all the pages on the inside using Daydreamer, Happy Trails, and Mini Year of Flowers series, the stamping went pretty fast and it really added a nice touch to the overall book. 

Here are 2 of the inside pages.

Playing catch-up!!

Where is the time going this summer?  The kids have me running like crazy to the pool, I have been on the treadmill every morning or at Zumba, you know sometimes I need a laugh, and I can burn 1,000 calories having fun.  There have been PLENTY of trips to the Farmers Market, we are going today for more peaches, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, and I am sure some other things will jump into my bag as well.  I love cooking/baking with fresh from the ground food.  I have sauteed' zucchini on the menu today from the Farmers Market with tomatoes and basil from my herbs and that will be with home fries and hamburgers, I hope we are celebrating a World Cup Championship ......... GO USA!!!

 I am posting a ton of photos in this post because I am trying to catch-up with some of my favorite projects that I wanted to post but have not had the time.

And a photo of my FAVORITE fruit bowl.

Let's get this party started!!

My sister's friend is moving away so we were discussing what she should get for her.  She loves to bake so we came up with bread pans, the gold ones, from William Sonoma.  THEY ARE FABBY!!!!

So then I said and if you do some recipes to put with them

and then I offered to assist the best sister in the world.

YES I need a new blade on my paper trimmer :)

Magnet clothes pin for hold recipe on fridge

I still had some fun stuff on my desk so I decided to put a little notebook together 

and a matching pen.

I love my piggy fruit bowl!!!  It came from Napa Style.

 I made this card for Curt for Father's Day.

The kids wrote on the inside for him....

well Emma did and I helped Anton and Ava.

He is a Brooks Brothers/ sailboat kinda guy so I am not sure why I did grunge 

but I think it turned out cool.

This is the seed packet from PTI and I made it into a gift card holder for one of my favorite girls in the world, her name is Gussie....... I love her 4 sisters just as much and I miss them.

Gussie graduated this year so I am sending her a little Starbucks love.  

I computer generated the sentiment and then stamped the label over it and then die cut

worked perfectly!!

Like me, she loves green so there you go.

And here is my last card for today. 

 Did you have to take a nap during this post :)

My friend Laurie made this card a few weeks ago and I have not been able to get it out of my head.

Yesterday I was able to sit down and play some with my Copics, I really need to get more colors.

The little peek of the boarder you see if from my Starbuck's Chi Tea Latte this morning,

oh how I love Chi Tea Latte's.

Here is a closer look at the beads.  

I tied twine around the fold of the card and then attached 

the beads and spacers.  

This image makes me think of belly dancing......

 I love to belly dance.  

Have a great day.

xoxoxo

CR84FN32

I always want to play along with the sweet gals over at CR84FN but with my little whipper snappers  the opportunity does not come often.  When I saw the colors for this go around I had to figure out some "ME" time at my craft table and today opportunity knocked and I answered the door.

Here is inspiration photo over at CR84FN for this challenge and I have to say 

I LOVE these colors together.

I made this card for my niece Stephanie, 

she has just graduated from 8th grade and had a very successful year!!!  

Way to go Steph~~

I used an impression plate from PTI to give them a bit of texture ....... 

I cannot remember the name of it but I am sure you all know :)

This is the sentiment that is inside the mini envelope.

  

I must say it was nice to create something today.

Women's World Cup is taking place in Germany right now and the Germans play again tomorrow.  I am cheering for America and Germany and if they meet in the quarter finals, I will be hiding in my closet because I cannot watch games like that.
When Germany plays my nice Bavarian husband Curt likes
 to have a nice Bavarian breakfast to put us in a festive mood .........
here is a photo of breakfast beverage to go along with the German cold cuts and butter bread.   

IT WAS DELICIOUS ~~

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!

Make it Monday 20/Yankees BDAY

We have a birthday party for a little boy coming up and tis the season for baseball so I thought this would be a perfect fit especially since he is a Yankees fan.  I was looking at the Label Baisics, I knew I wanted to use it but it was feeling kinda blah but when I masked off the outer part and turned my notebook paper stamp on the side to make YANKEE PINSTRIPES, I was not blah anymore.

  Spencer is going to be 7, Mickey Mantel's number, so that is the perfect number to create an UBER fun birthday card for a Yankees fan. 

 I generated my wording on my Mac using the Team Spirit font.

  My coloring needs help but the glove does kinda look like it has seen some fun days in the ballpark.  

This is close up of the masking but also of a baseball that Joe DiMaggio sent me

when I worked for American Airlines.  

I walked him on the aircraft and sat beside him ...... tough work ya know!!

He was such a sweetheart.  He asked me for my address and I thought maybe he would send me an

autographed photo or something.

I took it out of the case for this fun backdrop.

HAPPY SUMMER!!

xoxox

Sue Ann

Hula Girl

I do not take my cricut out as much as I should but I did for this birthday card since we were attending a Luau, yes I did attempt to do the hula with the girls but being a left handed blonde sometimes does not serve me well........ but now I have to learn because I will not let that grass skirt beat me :)  I made this right before the party and when I showed Curt he told me that I had to take a photo and put it on my blog because it was his favorite, anything that is about the beach is our favorite.  So here I am posting this cute little card I made for the party.  

The center of the flowers for the lei were Raspberry rhinestones.  Recently when I was on my friend Amy's blog I saw this card and it kinda pushed me to do a "scene" card which I do not do often.  The skirt and the seashells both have a very fine glitter on them to bring it up a notch.

That is all today. 

 Off to the gym, library,

 home for lunch and then back to the pool.

Have a GREAT DAY!!!!

xoxoxo 

Make it Monday #17

Hey there.  I needed a couple of teacher thank you cards so I thought  why not join in on the fun with Make it Monday over on Nicole Heady's Blog.  The challenge this week was cracked glass.

Here is my take on the challenge

This is for Mrs. Barnes, she loves The ECU Pirates and purple and gold are the colors.

I am in total love with the new Wildflower Garden set from Heather.

That is all for me today. 

 I have been up since about 3 am when Ava decided that was the moment

 she was going to give up her pacifier and she wanted to have a debrief.  

She has been one chatty girl this morning.

Have a GREAT DAY!!!

xoxoxo

Sue Ann

Make it Monday #16

Hey there.  I do not like making Sympathy cards but unfortunately I needed one.  

This is also for the Make it Monday over on PTI.

I love how the woodgrain impression plate was the perfect finishing touch.

Have a GREAT Memorial Day weekend!!

xoxox

Sue Ann