WOYWW #291

Happy New Years Eve :) These desk views are coming to you because, well most of us are really curious about what everyone else is pushing around on their desks even if they don't link up to the hop that starts at Julia's blog here. 

these were all taken tuesday evening after work. and will wonders never cease... I have officially done something with the December Daily things I bought this year. ( gasp) and I even have some photos that finally I was able to manipulate to print to use able sizes. 

So, it has been in the back of my mind more than once... what if, what if you dont "have it" anymore the whole ability to scrap. to tell the story is not my thing... I have a quote somewhere that reads something along the lines of... If I could tell a story in words... I would not need to lug around a camera. that is me to a T... 

So, after I finished that last FS card ( previous post) I knew that I wanted to at least see what would happen. the people who do those PL albums and December Daily albums they make it look so easy. when I was making the ice run today for work I did stop in the craft store in that city ( had a gift card ) and I picked up this PL die set at half off for 10.00. ( opened it after this photo was shot. it does work. but, it is I was actually fairly surprised by how thin and light weight these dies feel in my hand out of the packaging. and I own a lot of dies from a lot of different mfg.s so, this was a big surprise to me. I am glad they actually cut the cardstocks. 

some of the mess because, I don't make anything in a clean space. not really. and So, its way worse now tonight after pushing more things around for a few more hours tonight.

and this was "the sign" I actually picked up coffee three times on tuesday. ( left town before the sun came up to make it to pick up the ice in a very narrow window their office would be open during the in between the holidays) and so, it was a long day... but the sign was... every single lid said...

You Got This.

and so far it seems to be true :) Hope you all have a great Holiday too! we are headed over to the neighbors for there annual party. (walking) so, I will probably be making the rounds next year hee hee... been having fun saying that today. well there is always next year. 

FS Butterfly Card & some Threads...

On last Sunday evening after I had given up sorting scrapping cards for a while I made this Featured Stamper card inspired by this one from Natalie and then I shot these after dark under the artificial lights. It is not so dark in real life. there is an tim holtz memo pin holding the sentiment die cut to the keytag. which is really hard to see in these shots. 

This is 4" X 9" in real life. the base is early espresso. the Sentiment is also from SU thinking banner greetings? the butterflies were die cut from some glossy paper that had alcohol ink added to it. the green lace is from Oct. Afternoon ( *gasp* its not vintage lol) the pearls are from Kaiser, the keytag is from Recollections and all the colors are "off" on this. the butterfly pp is from Kaiser crafts also and has some shimmer to it in real life. 

now this is my other thing I spent way too much time thinking of what to do with them when the box was opened. ( I am in charge of buying the Co. Christmas gifts... and this is what I chose for me. I have wanted these for a long time I have a black, cream and iridescent spools on my table now but...) these have 400 yards on them. 

I tried a few different things in my space but, the reality is, although I like them on the vintage receipt picks I have... there are more of them now than I have picks for and there is no way to display them anywhere either... so all of them even the old rolls have been placed into a large basket and put on the shelf in the closet. ( with an towel over it to keep the dust off) so, its not {pretty} but, it is working at the moment. 

During the Sorting Out

In the excitement of Christmas last week... I had actually forgotten I had left such a mess behind as in the previous post... SO, this is part of the during stage from last sunday. I had made more dividers at that point I had divided the two big boxes of PL cards into those color sections. and here is a shocking to me thing about those boxes... there are a lot of cards... there are multiple cards that are exact duplicates of each other... ( which seems like such a waste to me, yes they are double sided but... seriously does anyone actually USE up all those duplicates?) I doubt I will. I can easily see a PL RAK in my future. 

some of these things to the left are too large for the vintage sewing drawers. 

The letter stickers are normally inside a hanging file folder in the cabinet with A-4 sheets of cardstock. but, I had dug some out and tossed them in a tray last month thinking I would use them for December daily.

and some things are too small... thinking out loud I will be putting the too small things back into the top drawer of the dresser by the window that has like previously stamped and die cut sentiments and such in it besides these little things. 

Before Christmas... Desk errr Mess views

When I finished the last of the wrapping last week.. I got the idea I really needed to "organize" all this scrap stuff I have collected over the last year or two and not done a thing with, with the idea being that I would actually scrap again... 

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So these are the "before" shots, the during and after posts will follow. 

making dividers for the cards. I had two big boxes of Project life cards and some free print-ables found on pinterest there and here along with all the other various pocket scrapping companies ( some came as 12" sheets that I cut up years ago, and some were other kinds of pocket things) and I thought about this a lot during the during... (sorting process) and I still feel like when you scrap it's a personal ( private ) thing so, I have made no dividers that say this is from this company. because, I am also thinking if I do share some pages. they are not going to be listed like cards with the stamp and ink and paper info listed... so, scrapping will be just for me more or less and no, I don't really know who made the what paper anymore. I know that is irritating for people who want to duplicate something but, the truth is. I have not scrapped in about 10 years now, and some of my things that are in my stash are older than that. so, this is kind of freeing and opened up some possibilities for me wanting to scrap again. which leads me to what I think I may do and I have been toying with the idea of December Daily for about 6 weeks or so now since, I like little, mini, themed or gift type albums best. 

Finished Wrapping & a FS Christmas card

This one is a pop up gift card holder ( the tutorial is a two part video from Gina K on stamp tv) 

This was done totally inspired by this beauty in Myrna's gallery today. I just LOVE her card, and the first thing I did with mine is changed the colors and the tree die to this one I received in Nov. as a free gift from My Favorite things cut these out of scraps on the table and then switched out the doily for the other die? lace-y snow on her card. and then it came time to pick out the buttons. do I have them? of course, could I make myself use them... not this time. maybe next time. ( some day I will do some project covered with cool buttons I hoard but, that day is not today) This is A-6 in real life.

and then I needed to get the last of my gift cards wrapped and I had this die still out so, these were done ( pretty flat ) to get them done. 

these are 3 1/2" square and did them sometime last week and just came across the photo in my folder they go to waiting to be shared... 

WOYWW #289

If your wondering why the mess is on display, head over to Julia's blog and read how you can play along. ( It's Whats on your workdesk Wednesday)

So last week, I did take a photo. (you can find it at the bottom of this post here) but, I did it with my cell phone and I was so tired when I came inside from (after a long day at work) I never took the photo out of the phone to upload it until it was way past wednesday... So, this week I decided to shoot these shots tuesday evening after work. At any rate a few days ago or maybe last week sometime. I had a thought to alter a lunch sack to make pockets to hold several gift cards. yes, that is coffee in that mug. (it's am somewhere) 

The first sack was run through my sewing machine. every sack since has used some score tape. ( its faster) 

These sacks get sprayed with (various colors) and I let them drip dry in the window sill on an old cd holder ( this thing works great for drying lots of tags at once too) and some are on some wooden spools. 

how they turned out, the dies are all Mama Elephant except the piece the sentiment ( hero arts) are on was diecut with a spellbinders labels trio die. Hope your all getting close to being ready for Christmas, and If I don't make it around next week. Have a blessed day! I did have some comments about seeing pretty packages and there is another blog post with a few shots found here. ( I am still wrapping and have not addressed and mailed my cards out yet) 

VSN {so far}

Tammie's challenge is to use snowballs... so, my snowballs are those goosebumps gems...

Whipper snapper image with an Impress sentiment. This one is 5 1/2" square made mostly with scraps on the table because, there is a view if you scroll down of what the table looked like before I started this card. ( the image was colored in the house) 

My own challenge is to use something strident on an sympathy card. this was the first version and it seemed like it was missing something and so I added the sliver of black mat to the sympathy panel ( this is heat embossed on shimmery white) and that is up on pop dots, but, the black bothered me after so.

I made a second sample which used scraps from the first one and added in vintage lace and switched out the dies. this one is 5" square in real life. Dies are from justrite vintage labels 4 and judi kins sentiment. 

Yes, now you see why nothing else gotten done yet. I had to go clean the mess on Sunday and which I finished cleaning the table I ended up switching gears to start wrapping gifts. ( sometimes making tags or pockets in between) see yesterdays post. 

Wrapping Continues

the wired ribbon ( whole spool) was used on this and cut into three pieces. the gold slim ribbon was from the SU Christmas book. the snowflakes were die cut with the lawn fawn stitched snowflakes die. the pearl is from Jollees, the layers of snowflakes are up on pop dots above the avery tag. 

I had one piece too tall to fit inside the round box and close the lid, so I placed that piece on top of all the other things in the box ( all wrapped) and decided to tie the lid on, the square box under the bow is holding a Christmas card ( lumpy, boxed) 

the second altered gift sack, I love how these look when finished and filled with the cards, this one and the one after it I used some score tape to keep the flap folded in place instead of stitching the edges. 

a third altered sack for wrapping multiple gift cards. 

slim tags trio die with Hero Arts sentiment. May Arts ribbon, unknown old Christmas papers. 

the green snowflakes ( wooden) kind of threw me for a loop when I seen them, and I thought I would have to paint over them but, thought the green blended pretty well with this ribbon ( also found at Joanns recently) the gingham tissue is also from Joanns. 

So I picked up some of these tin gift card holders at Joanns a year ago on a deep sale after the holidays and decided to alter one today to better suit the person (man) receiving this card. 

Lawn Fawn stitched snow die with a wooden snowflake (joanns) with an old wooden button and May arts burlap string. 

a finished view of the card holder box.

Some Christmas Packaging

This is a lunch sack with the bottom folded up and the sides stitched down, so it has two pockets with three tags in it. I think I may have mentioned before this is gonna be the year of the gift card. lol so, a few people are getting more than one gift card and this was a prototype idea I thought of to hold more than one after decorating the single sacks below. 

The blue corrugated paper is from DCWV, and it was cut with an Taylored Expressions labels stacklet 3 die ( love this shape) you'll see I used it a bunch since it arrived on friday night haha. the kraft colored doily is recollections brand on an end cap at Micheals with some washi tapes and Christmas tag type things. The three tags tucked into the pockets are from an Mama Elephant set called ( I have to go look it up they are all stitched on the sides) The kraft corrugate tag on the lace is die cut with the My Favorite things stitched tag die and the labels trio die is from spellbinders using the Unity Stamps sentiment. The stitched snowflake dies are from lawn fawn. The gingham pp is from My Minds Eye and the text paper is from A Muse. ( I cut all the removeable tags twice so, those printed paper tags are backed with cardstock) 

These were done for people at work receiving gift cards this week. I had asked my mil if I could borrow her Anna Griffin holly berry boughs folder and she said oh, I have new ones I will bring you all my Christmas ones.. so, this is a "new" one. ( I didn't look at its name will check later) but, I ended up using the brayer to ink the folder before pressing then diecut the shapes. it did flatten it a little but, not to the point of flatness. 

My favorites are the ones I used the kraft paper to ink. I just may have to make me a few more sheets of this haha. the sentiment is from Hero Arts and cut with those lawn fawn slim tags trio dies. the lace is vintage and the strings are from May Arts. these little sacks are also recollections brand from Micheals but, these hide in a normal isle where it looks like they carry them all the time. (there are tags and such hanging with them) 

had to of course try it in mellow moss too. :) these are just for my stash. so, only did a couple. 

now that they are inked and dried they look like snowflakes to me, but when I first seen the folder it reminded me of some really old basic grey printed paper I have that was a white round pattern with a solid reddish base. ( I am hoarding what I have left of that paper) so, if you ever receive a card with it, you'll know you're on my LOVE list..

I had made these before the one with two pockets at the top it was just an idea to see what the doilies would look like stitched to these diecut shapes. the sentiment on the one on the right is from Penny Black. the stocking die is from Tim Holtz ( sizzix movers and shapers mini )

now these I did after we got home from the dinner on Friday night because, the die and that one on the left the base was run through the TE burlap folder. the sentiment on the left is Hero Arts and the one on the right is from Mama Elephant. 

December Daily

So, the last few years I have "thought" about doing a December daily album... and this year so far I have looked through my stash and started gathering some things I could use for it and last night I ordered an binder cover and some pocket pages because, I like the idea of trying an 6X8 book. ( I have not done that size before so, it will be an adventure) I think the hardest thing will be getting the photos to print correctly in sizes that will work. I have hauled home more than a few headless people from Costco prints of cell phone shots... I have not taken any of the actual shots I think I will for the album yet. 

WOYWW # 287

It's Wednesday! and the mess is on display because, there is a world wide blog hop of crafting spaces today. you can find all the details and play along at Julia's blog here:

I had some happy mail arrive on monday but, I went down for the count with a migraine tuesday evening so, since its still lingering the shots are few and the words are less. 

These skinny tags were made on black friday. (lawn fawn slim tags trio dies) (can you say LOVE?) :) getting ready to get my Christmas packages pretty. the large tag to the right was done from things on the table quickly since I had climbed the stairs to get the desk in progress shot with my phone. It may take me a few days to make the rounds. hope you are doing something that brings you joy. :)