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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Thanksgiving and Christmas, Christmas, Christmas...

I have been sooooo busy crafting that I didn't have time to keep up with my blog.  So sorry, I'll try to make up for it now!

It is frigid here in the Northeast tonight, an arctic blast has tumbled the temperature from a balmy 40s two days ago down into the single digits.  The wind is driving it into the below zero range!  Our wood stove has its work cut out tonight...

Well, here are a bunch of pictures showing what I've been up to.  All are available on Etsy.com, a link to my store is on the right, click on the squirrel with the red cast.

I had fun making a bunch of these Origami Christmas trees with different patterned papers.  The background is embossed card stock, the sentiment is raised with dimensional foam dots.  I make my own sturdy envelopes to fit my cards and to protect them because we all know that the postal service can get a bit rough at times.







These cards are favorites on Etsy.  The ornament punch and stamps are from Stampin Up, but I embossed the images on different colored card stock and added a gold string onto the back of each ornament.  I don't like plain cards, so I add stapled inserts in all my cards with a nice sentiment.  It makes for a more finished, polished look.





This is my 2013 Thanksgiving card.  I used heavy foil and embossed, then colored it with metallic inc and let it dry.  The frame is chipboard wich I spiffied up with Viva metallic rub-on, love that stuff.  The pumpkins are a GinaK, the wheat is i.o., the corn stalks are Sizzix, I think.  The flowers are from Yours Truly.  This is a straightforward easel card, and it has been well received.










I also got busy with some shadow boxes, and this is one example.  It shows one of my squirrel babies when he tried his teeth on a fresh maple branch.  The oak leaves are made from heavy card stock, hand inked, and glazed, the flowers are my own as usual.  The flourish is a Cheery Lynn.  The background is a Cuttlebug embossing folder, caning, I believe.  The acorns are real but have been heat treated and dried.





The last two days I worked on this large holographic foil Kusudama flower ball.  It measures approximately 7" in diameter and was a little tough to make because I used high end wrapping foil which doesn't fold very easy but is much less susceptible to humidity than paper.  It also looks really cool.  I embellished the finished ball with clear jewels and added a purple ribbon so it can be hung. Two days of patiently folding 60 perfectly cut pieces of paper...







The other thing that kept me busy this year, aside over 80 wildlife in my care once again with 14 still with me, has been doing concrete casts using real live leaves.  Here is a show piece, a hosta leaf which I color washed and finished with gold rim and a high gloss glaze.  This is a bowl, and it came out beautiful.  These casts are always true originals because no two leaves are ever alike, just like thumb prints.  And no cast ever comes out the same as another, so this is original art work.  I am super proud of this bowl.

Have I made up for the silence?

I still have stories to write about my 2013 wildlife rehabilitation adventures, but these will come later.

As always, I welcome any and all feedback.  It lets me know that you are looking at my post and helps me improve myself.  I consider life as one endless learning experience, both bad and good...

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Sigi

5 comments:

  1. How wonderful it is that you've been crafting up a storm! Praying you stay warm and that all is well with you!
    Have a great Thanksgiving!

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    1. Thanks, Jennifer! And a happy Thanksgiving to all of you as well! Thankfully the frigid cold has eased up, it was brutal last night. My squirrels in the outdoor cages are snug in their nest boxes stuffed with poly fill, but my three little cottontails, a mouse, and a chipmunk are spending the winter in my rehab room down cellar. An expensive venue since funds have long run out and today I had to take a long drive up to New Hampshire where a distributor lets me buy laboratory quality squirrel food and a large bale timothy hay for the bunnies as cage substrate. I should try to take a video when I clean their cage because they behave like popcorn, popping up in all directions and right out of the cage if I don't block the door sufficiently. They are nut cases! It doesn't matter that I hand fed them as tiny babies, cottontails turn wild even while they are still being syringe fed.

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  2. Thank you so much, Jan! I am so blad that animal lovers read my blog because I have several stories to write. 2013 has been an interesting, although at times heart-wrenching year. This is work where you are always faced with new challenges and can't help keep learning, and boy, have I learned a lot! Sometimes it isn't until much later that I gain perspective and take a deep breath and think "Wow!" because, had I had time to think up front, some things might have seemed impossible to deal with. But when the door bell rings and I look at what has just arrived, triage comes first, thinking about it and the emotional impact much later... Does that make sense to you?

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  3. Crafts & animals? My kind of person. Now add in some neuropsychology, a little progressive politics, and we'd have a mix made in heaven! I just saw a post on Pinterest that made me think of you. It was woodland animals made of paper: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/223772675204453160/. When I clicked the image, the page said it was no longer available, but think you could replicate it from the photo. It occurred to me that more of your Etsy offerings should relate to your rescue work. People love cute little animals. While I don't do rescue work, my Mother used to. She didn't have training as such but was a nurse. We nursed many a bird who'd flown into our picture window and concussed him/herself back to health. Living in the DC burbs, we were near the agricultural research center where we took many of the injured animals that were more than mother could handle. We also took our recovered birds to them for banding. We got a call one winter that our Scarlet Tanager had been spotted in South America. We saw him again the next summer. Fortunately, I haven't had to deal w/ any sick or injured wild life but have taken in a number of stray cats, including a pregnant feral female who gave birth to 8 kittens in my hall closet! (I kept them.) Not being especially religious, I like to think of my adoptions as a form of prayer--a way to "pay back" for all my blessings. Next time you feel discouraged, you may want to give that strategy a try.

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  4. Oh, and yes, your response (triage first) makes perfect sense to me. I'm that way, too. Great at the time of the emergency & allow emotions to come after, when usually I fall apart! LOL

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