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

WINNER!   Expressions by Elaine

I used Random.org to choose a number which was Expressions by Elaine.  Please contact me with your address so I can get the candy mailed off.  Congratulations!  And again, many, many thanks to all you followers.  I just can't believe any of this...

And here is another card that I just finished. 

We're now up to 6 weddings, can't wait until all these nieces and nephews start having babies!  Advice, do not marry into a really big family unless you enjoy buying lots of gifts!  My husband is one of 10 kids, and his dad was one of 12.  We have nieces, nephews, and cousins coming out of the woodwork...  I love them all, enjoy most of them, and wouldn't trade them for anything, but do we really need to buy gifts for everybody!  In this family, yes!  I've given in and am giving gift cards most of the time.  Much easier, especially when shopping is so far away.  Back to the card...  I used Colorblock white cardstock, cut all shapes from Gypsy Wanderings, embossed with Swiss Dots and Elegant Flowers (I think that's the name?) and inked all edges with gold ink.  The ribbons are from my stash, and I got the rings at the dollar store.  Who knew that they'd have a good selection of wedding things?  lol   I think after looking that I'll add a bow to the top of the rings to hide the glue, maybe even put a ribbon through to the reverse side so that they cannot come off???  Hummm.  I'm never satisfies, though I do like this.  Oh, I patted the top layer all over with an embossing pad and used hologram embossing powder to give it an iridescent look.  That was something new that I've been wanting to try.  I realize this is not its intended use, but I like it anyway, and the way to reflects color from the ribbon.

We had sun this morning, but the rain clouds are building again.  I hope the rest of you are having a respite from bad weather, and not getting sunburned!
SiskiyouSue

CANDY!!

I have enjoyed winning a couple of giveaways, so in celebration of reaching 100 followers (or 105 tonight), and in thanks for winning myself, I'm going to have a giveaway.  I'll choose from those who are followers of my blog and those who comment to this post on Monday, June 6 by choosing a random number.  Good luck!

SiskiyouSue