Happy Birthday Juliana

My Juliana turned 9 today! She is such a cheerful girl, with a lovely personality! Her favorite birthday gift was a bicycle in her favorite colour - turquoise, of course! It doesn't matter that she cannot ride it until the ice melts. It is enough that she got a new bicycle!

We had a birthday party for Juliana, and invited the neighborhood girls. When I asked Juliana what she wanted to do for an activity, she said she wanted to do a drawing with the girls. Juliana then quickly sketched and colored this tulip with special pastels totally from memory (she had done this at school with her art teacher a few weeks ago). When the girls came, she helped each of them to make this drawing for themselves! Everyone enjoyed making a special drawing to take home! I am absolutely amazed and impressed with Juliana's art and teaching skills!

Our bunny Bits has just had a litter of young. The kids are so excited and cannot wait to see the baby bunnies. They will be one week old tomorrow. Bits is special to us, and especially to Juliana! She loves her bunny Bits. This page idea was taken from the Stampin' Up! main catalogue - I changed the colors, and love how the page turned out.

My friend's daughter was selected by her school to be a torchbearer for the 2010 Olympics! We were very privileged to have Danielle and her friend Taija come to our school to do a presentation and slide show of their experience. They and their school were chosen to be torchbearers, because they make a difference in the lives of others (they do a lot for the homeless in Calgary). We got to hold the torch and get our photo taken!! It was amazing to hold a piece of history, and I was inspired to hear the stories of these amazing young ladies. My prayer is that each of us can make a difference in the lives of those around us, and that our children will see and be inspired by these young leaders as well.

Take care, all, and have a great week! Susan Bruyn

God's Love Story

I've been asked to make a mini book with some children at our church. The theme is love. When I pondered what to include in this mini book, I thought of God's love, and how the story of the Bible is really God's love story.

 

God loves each of us so much, and actively shows that love for us.  He desires for us to spend time with Him, and make a difference in the lives around us, and show His love to others.

I wanted to share my book with you.  I hope it encourages and inspires you.

Take care, and have a great day!

Susan Bruyn

Timmy Turns Eleven

Happy Birthday to you, my Timmy! My Timmy turned 11 yesterday! We had a fun party to celebrate!

We had some friends over for a sleep-over, and we all went bowling! What a hoot!! I think only one of the children had bowled before! We had so much fun, with many laughs!

Timmy's Oma made him a fun quilt for his bedroom. Notice the all-boy colors! He was delighted, and slept with it right away!

Happy Birthday, my Eleven-Year Old Timmy!!

Crystal Lace

We woke up one morning to a crystal world!

Every tree branch was painted with a brush of ice crystals! It looked like fine lace.

I couldn't resist going out to explore this frosty, lacy wonderland!

Only in winter, can we see beauty like this!

I do enjoy viewing God's creation, and enjoying the little gifts He sends,

like crystal lace and winter wonders!

Truly, God's workmanship is incredible to see!

Have a great day! Susan Bruyn

Christmas cards and gift wrap

I have been having such fun making Christmas cards and gift packages! This year, I decided to use some of what I have and 'clean house' while doing my Christmas preparations. I love the way this poinsettia card turned out.

I gave some of my friends a challenge, to decorate some cardstock gift boxes with a sheet of designer paper. We got snowed in last weekend, so I had fun creating some special cards and tags, and even a mini accordian book! The two gable boxes were decorated by my daughter to hold gifts for her cousins.

Calgary had a huge snowstorm last weekend. My brave boys kept the driveway cleared Friday. Saturday morning, however, we had huge drifts all over. The largest was by the front porch! It took some digging to get us clear. Here is my brave Jon-Jacob, heading out to shovel Saturday morning. The huge drift is just in front of him, and covered the steps to the level of the porch (which is 4 steps from the ground).

We are due to have more snow this weekend! Isn't winter exciting?!!  Take care, all, and stay warm! Susan Bruyn

Iris folding ornament punch card

As I write this, we are in the midst of yet another winter snowstorm.  Here is a photo of our newly painted green house!  I love the depth of colour it now has!  It's quite a change from the brown we've had for 9 years. 

Last night, I had some ladies in for a Christmas party.  I designed this delightful iris folded card for them, using Stampin' Up!'s ornament punch.  I'm really tickled with how it turned out.

I wanted to show a few other samples of iris folding, so I came up with these two cards as well.  I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed my evening with friends!

Take care, and stay warm!  Susan Bruyn

Scrapbooking the Memoreis

I've been making some scrapbook pages for my calendar classes.  It is so good to scrapbook those memories, and I find when I teach a class, I am inspired to scrapbook the memories right away.  Above, you can see the page I created for September.

This is the October page.  We went to a greenhouse just outside of town.  They have an annual Autumn celebration during Thanksgiving.  The kids all carved pumpkins, and had fun watching a 600 pound pumpkin drop onto a car (creating an instant sunroof).

This is the page I created for November.  I haven't done the journaling yet.  Although it looks a bit 'fussy,' it turned out really nice.  Everyone really liked it a lot!  Black and white with a 'pop' of color, can really dress up a page.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Susan Bruyn