December Birthdays

Hello and Merry Christmas!  Can you believe it's less than a week away?  What a rush we've had lately.  I've had a good time crafting, but haven't actually finished much.  And it looks like that trend will continue for a couple of more weeks, at least.  We're leaving as quickly as possible after school gets out tomorrow to spend a week with our daughter in Portland, Oregon.  I'm a little excited!  Unfortunately our son is unable to go but we'll visit him on the way out (tomorrow night) and again on the way back.  Now if the weather will only cooperate...

This family was not content with having Christmas in December, but we decided to add three birthdays also.  If we did it over, well...  Two of the birthdays are on the 22nd, my niece and my daughter.  They're exactly a year apart, which was really exciting in the beginning, but doesn't seem so important now.  The niece lives in New Jersey, so we don't get to see her.  This is where I have learned to appreciate Facebook.  She keeps us supplied with pictures of her so cute kids, what a treat! 

The first card is the first cut I've made off my newest cartridge, All Wrapped Up. 

 Isn't that a good card for a guy?  It's for my brother-in-law, the new English/Writing teacher.

 And here are the cards for the girls.  The digis are from Karber stamps.  When I saw them last week I knew that I had to have them; they are just perfect for for these birthdays.

Now aren't I right?  These are perfect!  My daughter is quite a shopper, my niece is quite a knitter. 

Well, I should get busy and get my clothes packed.  Or maybe I should plan on doing a lot of shopping when I get there.  NOT!  Have a wonderfully blessed holiday.

SiskiyouSue

December FEEL THE LOVE Project

Wow, I didn't realize I had been missing for so long.  I apologize, things have just been crazy between school and home.  Seems like I used to handle the fall and Christmas season better than I am this year.

My students and I have created cards again for Madison's Feel the Love project (http://funkycards.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-feel-love-novemberdecember.html).  We have had a good time.  You might notice that the girls have improved their design skills and their cards are a bit more complicated today.  I hope they will continue to show improvement.  Our small school has no art program (typical of schools with so few students), so this is a chance to provide something they wouldn't get to experience otherwise.   

 The first card was made by Katie, using Create-a-Critter.  Katie really enjoyed turning her favorite animals into Santas!

 I did this one.  I tried paper piecing with a digi from A Day for Daisies.  I love their designs, always special.  I think I enjoy coloring more than paper piecing, but I do like the look...  The background paper is from Create with TLC.  I use Paulette's papers often.

Jesse made this card, also with Create-a-Critter.  She had become very independent at using the Cricut and even bought her own (original) to use after she graduates next year!

Thank you for visiting us.  I will try to get some other things posted that I've been working on.  I really haven't done much.  I broke my glasses (oops!) about 6 weeks ago and have been wearing an old pair.  My eyes are so tired at night that I just can't do much close work.  I really miss it!  Hopefully my new glasses will arrive in a day or two and I can get back to normal.  I can't even read my new book!

Have a great time preparing for your holidays.  I love this season!

SiskiyouSue

I Feel the Love Project

Today I have something a little different to share.  Two of the three cards below were made by students in my class.  One had never made a card before, the other bought the stickers herself to make the card.  Both girls were excited to have the opportunity to reach out and share with someone else.  

If you are not familiar with I Feel the Love you can read all about it at www.funkycards.blogspot.com.  The creator of the project is herself a high school student who should be commended for putting the project together and maintaining it while she is also completing high school classes.  That sounds like a big job to me!

My students plan to participate in I Feel the Love every month this year.  What a great way to gain small motor and art skills while having fun!

Maybe I'm overdoing it??

I'm sorry the pictures haven't been cropped.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong tonight, but I just couldn't save my cropped pictures.  Must be tired!  The "Eye of Newt" is from Dustin Pike, another source I love and the little wizard is from Bugaboo. 

Today was an awesome day.  I took one of my students, a high school senior to Great Falls, a much larger town, on a shopping trip.  It was such a joy to watch her operate as an adult in a non-school environment.  We had a great time together.  That's one of the wonderful things about my job.  Along with reading, writing, and math, I am responsible for teaching life skills.  I always say that I'm never bored because you can never tell what I might be doing tomorrow!  What a great way to finish out my career (in a few years, not yet).

No more Halloween cards so I want to say thank you to all you who have shared freebies and inspiration with everyone.  I can hardly wait to see what you all come up with for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Oh, by the way, we had SNOW today...

SiskiyouSue

Still Halloween!

One more card,this one made with graphics from Lettering Delights. I just couldn't resist it because I loved this song when I was (much) younger.  It still makes me laugh.  The background paper is digital, from Create with TLC's September Club.  Hope my friend will like it as much as I do!

Happy Halloween!

Hello fellow crafters and friends.  Hope you're having as much fun with Halloween as I have been!

This is one of those darling Bugaboo images.  I colored with pencils AND a black marker, and I paper pieced the cauldron.  Don't know why I used so many things, but I just couldn't make it look right otherwise...  I do love the background paper, from my scrap box.  The ribbon came from there also.  The sentiment is from Joy's Life Halloween puns.  Those are so great!  Thanks for looking!

Halloween Fun

This was so much fun to make!  I used lots of stickles, though they do not really show here.  If anybody has a tip on how to photograph them, please share!  Anyway, we don't have kids at home any more (my son has finally moved out...  maybe for good?  We're praying for him to find a job SOON!) but I really enjoy this holiday.  It's such a great excuse to pretend to be a little kid again, so I'm just having fun and hope you are too!

 

LINK UP FOR PINK

If you haven't already had your mammogram this year, this is your reminder!  Please get one as soon as you can.  They really do make a difference.

This sentiment came from a fantastic site:  Create with TLC.  If you haven't checked it out, you should! 

SiskiyouSue

I do not have anything to post today (have to confess that I mailed several things off without taking pictures)!  School has started and I haven't had a lot of crafting time.  Boy, have I missed it!  It has been a busy month in other ways, also, including a celebration of my 60th birthday.  I guess it was good to have a celebration because I had not realized how many friends I actually have!  It is almost overwhelming.  I am the luckiest woman I know.

The main reason I am posting right now is that I want to be sure everyone knows about the Link Up for Pink affair that begins Oct. 1.  Click the button on the right to find out more.  This is a cause that we can all support!  Hope to see you there!

SiskiyouSue

Sympathy Card

My daughter called the other day asking me to make a simple sympathy card, everything she found was too elaborate or just said the wrong thing.  I used the Mucha Flower from A Day for Daisies and 2 coordinating papers, inked with walnut distress ink.  I was pleased with it, and have made a couple more for myself.  I even printed a sentiment of my own inside in a matching color.  I learn so much from reading everyone's blogs.  Thanks for the inspiration and tutorials.  They really are a big help.

School has begun, hence my absence here.  (Oh, and had to get a new computer, what a pain!)  We are already 3 weeks into the school year, a couple of my students even commented on how fast the time is going already.  Hope they still feel that way in February!  I had been expecting an easier load this year, and so far that's held true.  I'm plunged into an early round of special ed. meetings (I do all paperwork, make all contacts, and conduct all meetings) so I  haven't had much time for myself, but I don't plan to give up my card making.  I do love it!

Thanks for visiting me!
SiskiyouSue

TENT CARD

I was inspired to make my first tent card by Carrie at A Busy Bee, then watched a video on how to from Cricutologist.  Thanks to both of them!  This was really a lot of fun!  In the video she used a circle cutter, which I don't have, so I used kitchen things, an old biscuit cutter and a container that was just a little larger with an X-acto knife to make the opening and the frame.  It worked, but it wasn't easy to do, but the results were worth it.  I'll probably do it again.  Hope you like it also! 

I have 9 more days of my summer, minus 5 days for doctors and school related meetings.  I hope to make several more cards, and I'm toying with the idea of using my cutters to make a variety of things so that I can put cards together again when I need them in a hurry.  That always sounds good!

Have a great day!
SiskiyouSue

Baseball!
Those of you who know me well probably think I've got heat stroke or something because you see that title.  This is a birthday card for a sports lover (i.e. nut??).  I am actually not into sports much, almost not at all!  The cut out is clipart, isn't he cute?  I just couldn't resist using him.  The cloud paper is from TLC I think, hope so anyway.  I love it.

  The baseball on the inside is on a homemade action wobble.  That was fun to make!  I am hand writing in this card since it is for a brother-in-law's 60th birfthday...  Don't know what yet.  (lol)  I do have to be a bit careful here, since he's actually only a little older than I am.  Which is my tactful way to say that I'll be 60 soon also.  Wow!


Hope you like this card for a man, always an interesting thing to make.

Have a great day!
SiskiyouSue

August Wedding
I believe this will be our final wedding this summer, and I'm surprised to admit that I have enjoyed making this card more than any of the others!  I thought I would be tired of wedding cards, but this was a nice excuse to play around with Make the Cut and my new Silhouette, since I've used my Cricut Expression and all the cartridges I own already.  I imagine that I will reuse some next summer, but not this soon.

 I'm a little frustrated with the pictures.  The paper is actually ivory and the top layer is pearlized.  Oh, well, you can get the idea.

SiskiyouSue 

Another Week Gone

I haven't accomplished much since we got home from vacation!  I am glad to say that it has stayed warm, even hot here.  We are all greatful that it hasn't cooled down again.  We are really lucky here in that it does stay quite cool at night most of the time.  If you can sleep you can handle almost anything.  

I wish I has been sleeping instead of wandering through a dark house last night!  I stubbed my toe, maybe even broke it.  It's quite sore, swollen and purple!   And tomorrow I am driving to Gt. Falls for a doctor visit (the wrong kind for broken toes, I'm afraid).  I hope I can manage it, of course it was my driving foot!

I had a great time making this card.  I used a  notecard (the dotted background) from a set that I got at Marshall's in Portland.  All those colors really rev up my imagination!  I wanted to add some Stickles, but don't know where they are.  I put them somewhere different since I was taking my craft supply carrier with me in the car.  And of course I can't find them...  it must have been someplace I thought was logical and obvious!  That's me all the way.

Thanks for listening to my rambles.  I have another card to post tomorrow or the next day.  Have a great week!

SiskiyouSue

Hello again!

I wanted to share a few more Christmas cards with you.  If you can't tell, I really love Christmas!  I'll be making more in the near future because I still have tons of stash left to use up.  I haven't bought much this year at all.  I probably will replenish my Christmas stash after Christmas is I can find anything on sale.  That is always fun!

My husband and I are on a short trip, visiting our daughter then meandering home, trying to see some country that we have not visited in Washington state.  

Happy summer to all!

SiskiyouSue

Scrapbook for May
I have decided to try making a scrapbook page for each month and this is the first, May, 2011.  This was a big month, but overall the things most important for this family to remember are the two family weddings that took place.

I'm sorry for the odd picture, but it was the only decent one in the bunch!  I haven't written on the tags yet, but will do that soon.  Oh, the significance of the picture on the card at the bottom - it is a tradition in my husbands family to take a family portrait with each bride and all the uncles who are there (as well as the only aunt).  This is a family of 10, only one was missing from this picture.  That's pretty special!  The card was sent by one of my sister-in-laws and contains pictures from the wedding inside which makes it perfect for a page like this. 

Thanks for looking again!  Hope you are having a great day! 

SiskiyouSue

Christmas in July
This has been lots of fun.  I spent most of today putting cards together.  I had already covered the fronts, made the die cuts, colored the digis, etc.  That really helps!  So here are some of today's works:

 This penguin is another of the leftover Christmas tags from last year.  I was feeling ridiculous when I realized how many were unused, but now I'm so glad!  They're great to use for these cards.  Oh, the base cards are also recycled from a box I found left in a drawer for several years.  Some of the envelopes are even addressed already!  Bad me, I didn't mail them out!

 The snowmen and all Cricut cuts are from the Winter Woodland cartridge.  I love this cart!  I used my white gel pen to add a little snow to the trees in the background.  Joy is on a piece of prismatic gold paper from  1 lb. pack of scraps I bought when I first began creating last year.  It has been a lot of fun!

 Isn't she cute?  She's one of the two Knobby Knees I bought from Bugaboo.  I want them all!  I am disappointed in my red pencil.  There must be one out there that is REALLY red, so that will be my big search for the next year.

  This image is from A Day for Daisies, which I absolutely love.  Their images are so delicate.  The card is very simple, just one piece of patterned paper under the white.  Simple seemed to fit.

Thanks for looking.  I hope you have all enjoyed Christmas in July as much as I have!

SiskiyouSue

The Craft Channel

I don't know how you could have missed knowing this, because it is already everywhere on the craftblog circut....But the newest thing is that there will be a new tv channel all about crafts.  The show hosts are being announced individually, and Teresa Collins will be one of them.  AND  they are giving away an E2 every day for about another week and a half, I think.

Check it out here (I cannot find their blinkie):
http://www.mycraftchannelblog.com/

Good luck!

SiskiyouSue

Beach Bum

 This is a very simple card and all the diecut shells as well as the light house were made last summer.  Glad I saved them!  They were made from a variety of papers from one of those 1 lb. paper scrap packs.  I love them because you never know what you will get.  The background is from ColorBok.  Now, the sun is a paint chip!  Again, hope my Home Depot people aren't reading this...  They'd never let me back inside, would they?  I used a punch for the circle, and for the rays I used a Martha Stewart corner punch, these are the throwaway pieces, 3 for each punch.  They'd make great watermelon seeds also.  I really do like the bright color and the different texture that the paint chips have.

Don't know whether you can see it or not, but I embossed Beach Bum just below the sun with my Sizzix Texture Botique and a Cuttlebug folder.  Love them!

I am going to enter this card in summer challenges at Die Cutting Divas, The Crazy Challenge, Make It Monday, and Paper Playtime. 

Wouldn't the beach be nice right now?
Have a great day.
SiskiyouSue

Excuses...

  I missed posting yesterday because it was my anniversary.  When my husband came home he announced that he had been able to get the evening shift off (he was supposed to cover for his coworker, again...)and that we were going out to dinner.  Which necessitated a shower, fixing my hair, changing clothes, etc. because I do NOT dress well during the summer when I'm out of school.  In fact, the older I get, the sloppier I seem to become.  The happier, also!  Anyway, it was our 36th anniversary!  I can remember when I couldn't even imagine being married this long, and here it is.  Funny that I'm about to turn 60 also, and I'm getting those "old lady" comments from younger people who do not know me (those who do would never dare to say those things to me, lol) but I don't feel anywhere this old.  Let that be a hint to all of you who are much younger, first that this arrives while you're not looking, and second that we just are not old at 60 the way women especially used to be.  I feel about 20 years younger than my mom was when she turned 60, thank goodness!   


This is just a quick card I made for my daughter.  I saw the sentiment in my cling stamp set from joyslife.com and immediately thought about this joyful little chick.  I just love it.

Thanks for visiting me!
SiskiyouSue




 

SUMMER CELEBRATIONS

This card was made for my mother's 82nd birthday.  I also made a photo album using my Your Story and will post pictures from that tomorrow.  This project kept me pretty busy.  I had a hard time finding the right pictures.  Mom suffers from dementia and I wanted pictures that will have major memories attached, things that would mean a lot to her.  Anyway, this card was fun.  I used digital papers, except for the solid pieces which are actually paint chips.  (Hope no one from my local Home Depot reads this...)  They are surprisingly easy to work with and have a totally different finish than anything else that I have found.  I do wish I had inked the edges of the orange slightly as I did the rest, it gave a lot of pizazz to the border, especially.  The flowers are Prima, the first I have used.  The colors are perfect for this card.

Thanks for visiting me again!
SiskiyouSue

HAPPY SUNNY JULY!

This is A Day for Daisies image, of course.  Isn't she beautiful?  She reminds me a lot of my daughter when she was small.  She was a very petite girl whom I thought of as a fairy child.  However, the real child was towhead, not brownish as this image...  I have no idea how to do towhead with my colored pencils.  Oh, well.  The background paper is DCWV. 

I have to say that Montana has finally warmed up.  We've been in the 80's for 4 glorious days right over the Fourth of July weekend!  How amazing is it that the entire weekend was so nice?  Wow.  I hope you enjoyed your holiday and the sun shone on you also.

SiskiyouSue

LOOKING FOR TANGO!

Hope someone out there can help me.  My daughter has recently begun card making and has asked me to help her find images of tango dancers/dancing.  I've not had much luck, so hope you have maybe noticed something that I've missed.  Thank you!

SiskiyouSue

Creating from the Heart

WOW!  Melissa, at Creating from the Heart, is having an awesome giveaway to celebrate the third anniversary of her blog!  Check it out, it's really worth your time.  Here's what she is giving away (yes, all three!):

 Good luck!  If I don't win, hope someone who reads this will.
SiskiyouSue

Santa in June!

I just love Christmas!  And I am really enjoying making Christmas cards.  I haven't sent many for several years (I'm really very, very lazy) but guess I'll have to this year, since I will have a nice supply of cards.  Hope my husband's family won't all hate me, almost none of his brothers/sisters-in-law send cards.  (Have I mentioned that he comes from a large family, 10 kids?)  But they'll have to forgive me.  I wonder whether I'll keep this up for many years.  Hope so!

Now, the truth is that this is one of those take things from your stash and put it all together.  Santa and the backgrounds are all leftovers from last Christmas.  Santa is actually a tag that has writing on the back.  I just couldn't bear to throw him out!  Hate to use things like that just once.  I think they recycled quite well!

I'm also trying to organize my craft room, again.  Seems like it needs it every two or three days.  I'm way messy, which you can tell before you ever get to the craft room.  One of my goals this summer to CLEAN up the stuff everywhere.  I feel like I'm drowning!   So my living room has to come first.  My family (especially my husband) thinks any flat surface was put there by God for his to leave stuff on.  Old mail, newspapers, VFW club paperwork, I never know what to do with much of it...  So I've given him fair warning, and whatever is left is going out the door!  Oh, that sounds good.  Wonder if I can actually do it?

And I am working in my craft room.  I have scrounged every old CD case I can find for my clear stamps, and tonight I started making covers for them.  Boy, you are all right that it really helps!  I can quickly see what is in each case instead of having to look through each one by itself.  Thanks for the ideas!  You are all wonderful.

SiskiyouSue

BIG CHANGE OF PLANS!

That's right, a very silly card!  But I couldn't resist when I saw this digi cat...  I added EEK! for the mouse,  my sister will love it.  Actually, I might make another for my mom later on...  Nothing fancy, but I really love it!

Well, my sweet hubby is celebrating Father's Day by sending me away!!!  No, not really, but I'll be jumping on the train in about 2 hours for a 17 hour ride to Portland to stay with my daughter.  She unexpectedly has a week off and we'll have about 5 days to play around, the weatherman is predicting nice weather, I can't clean house (can you tell that I absolutely hate housework?), I think I'm the big winner here...  However, hubby and our son have some plans to do a little hiking while I'm gone, and the weather is supposed to warm up here by the end of the week (wouldn't that be nice to come home to!), so they'll have a great time also.  I'll take the train part of the way home next Friday and meet hubby with our camper on the other side of the mountains where we'll spend a couple of days.  Sounds like summer!!!

Have a lovely week.
SiskiyouSue

A Day for Daisies

 I'm finally back...  after going out of town for 4 days, then having trouble downloading my pictures!  Isn't that one of the most frustrating things?  I think the port on my computer is going bad.  Which isn't good because we just got a new computer for my husband, so I'm not liable to get one in the near future.  Guess I'll be borrowing his next time.

Anyway, this card was actually designed for a challenge on CDAC, but it's way, way too late, so I'll just share it here.  I really enjoyed the way this came together.  The patterned paper is a scrap that came in exactly this shape and size when I picked up a pack of odd pieces at a small scrapbooking store.  I've had a lot of fun with that pack!

Meanwhile, I have several more cards finished, and will get them posted in the next few days.  I've really had a very good time lately!

Until next time, have a great day!  Remember that even if you're too hot, you could always be too cold...  and at least you have real summer.
SiskiyouSue

A BLUE CHRISTMAS

I am entering this card in Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge, Wintertime Blues.  I don't know why, but I just cannot walk past the stickers!  I absolutely had to have this one from Jolee's Botique, and I'm wondering whether I'll be able to give it away, or will I have to keep it for myself.  Not, I think.  This is also my first gatefold card, and I see that I have too think a mat inside.  I'll have to work on that...  But I still think it's great.  I have had this blue glitter paper for about a year.  It didn't cut well in my Cricut, but it is perfect for this!

Too early for Christmas, but it was fun to think about it for a few minutes at least!
SiskiyouSue