WMD - Even More Wedding

WMD - It's STILL pink...

But I'm making progress.

The first pic has photos with one or the other of them making a face. When I found the quote by Emily Bronte I knew it was a match made in heaven.

WMD - It's Pink.

Remember in Beauty and the Beast when Belle and the Beast are about to have their first civil dinner together? Belle comes in the room all decked out and Lumiere whispers to Beast, "Say something about the dress." Beast replies in his gruff way: "It's Pink!" That's how I felt when I returned to my desk tonight.

I almost never craft in pink. But it is the perfect color for Mrs. DS3. She certainly is a lovely, feminine girl.

WMD - Memorize Monday T-10.1

Blog surfing. It comes naturally to someone as "open-minded " (ie: scatterbrained) as I am. It starts innocently enough, usually on Pinterest. You find a recipe, or craft idea, or card or scrapbook page you want to pin. But of course you have to make sure the link actually works (many don't). Then you have to check out the whole site because... uh... because that's the way I roll. Eventually you find a link to some other blog, and Click! another hour gone. Eventually, inevitably, I find something I think I need to incorporate in my life NOW. That is how I found Memorize Monday.


The Girl Child is leaving on her mission in ten weeks and she feels like she doesn't really know how to teach in English, much less in Spanish. So we are going to start Memorize Monday.  Each Monday we will select a much loved scripture or quote  to memorize. We are calling it Memorize Monday but we are hoping to memorize at least two a week so I may have to add a midweek episode or something. We will memorize it "Primary style". That is to say it will be posted on the fridge on Monday and each day we'll delete parts of it until we can say it all without prompts. We will also throw in some MTC style learning as we write it on a 3x5 card, only the first letters of each word, to carry with us and refer to often. And for added excitement we will review it aloud in Spanish until it can roll off the tongue.

It sounds like a good plan. But that's only part one. Part two is getting the Girl Child to buy in. (note: The entire paragraph above was written using the Royal We.)

Current Passage: My purpose  as a missionary: Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. - Preach My Gospel ch1

WMD -In the beginning

In the beginning there was a wedding. And the wedding was good and the photos thereof were brought unto the Mom. And the Mom said: Let us go down and make an album for the wedding that it may not be forgotten by future generations. Thus went the Mom to the scrapbook store and obtained many supplies to make the album. But it came to pass that the Mom was displeased with the colors in those supplies. For indeed the wedding clothes were pink and the papers were blue as the heavens. Therefore those supplies were cast aside to be used in another, equally worthy project on another day. Therefore it came to pass that the Mom went back to the scrapbook store to obtain new supplies and the new supplies held much pink like unto the photos and brought much joy to the heart of the Mom. And the Mom said: Now I will go down and build a wedding album. And there was rejoicing in the land.

But it came to pass the Mom was not wise and put her trust in Pintrest and not the Scrapbooking Fairy. The Mom wiled away many days searching in vain for the perfect album to scraplift. After many days the photos of the wedding became lonely and remained apart from the album for the album had not come to pass. And the Mom heard a still, small voice, even the voice of the photos as from under the dust. And the voice said: Oh thou wicked and unproductive Mom. Why sit ye gazing into the computer screen?Wilt thou put thy trust in Pintrest rather than follow thine own workings? Hast not the Scrapbook Fairy been thy companion and repaired the flaws in thy scrapbooking many times in the past? And thus the Mom repented of her vain searching and said unto the photos: if it be possible, remove mine insecurity from my mind. Thou photos are acceptable unto me. I have been blessed with lovely supplies that will serve well as thy companion. I will set aside my vain longings to scrapbook in a style that is of the world and I will bring forth a wedding album by my own hand and in the style which I have heretofore used. And it was good and there was rejoicing in the land.

WMD - Wisdom of the Aged

Years ago my mother recognized that with 7 children and 34 grandchildren, keeping track of birthdays and holidays was going to be increasingly difficult as families grew and age took her memory. So she solved the problem by a) sending money rather than gifts and b) delegating distribution to the parents. It's a brilliant plan really, no one has ever returned the gift because it was the wrong size or color or age appropriateness. 

So each year at Thanksgiving Mom writes checks to my siblings and I as the current year's Christmas gift and birthday giving for the following year. When the kids were young I just used the money to buy gifts. Now the kids are on to me; they want the cash. Figures. So I try to find some clever way to gift the money to the kids. This year I made these adorable Toy Soldier Boxes. The cut file and assembly video are free on SVGcuts.com.

I also remind the young uns to send Grandma a thank you card, which has never happened. Lightbulb!...This year I'm going to give each kid an addressed, stamped Thank You card and tell them when they give it back to me with a nice note, ready to mail, they can have their Grandma Gift. I'm feeling a new tradition blossoming. Too bad it took me 30 years to think of it. This is why I talk to myself... I'm only brilliant in complete sentences.

WMD - 24 Quick Cards

I got this great idea on Pinterest. It was originally posted on SIMPLY SIMPLE STAMPING with Connie Stewart under the Big Shot tab. You have to scroll down the page quite a way. Connie has a seriously awesome blog. She is a Stampin' Up demonstrator so she posts really clever and lovely crafts; even a pie crust recipe. I went there to get the link for the cards and got lost for an hour. I pinned four or five things before I decided just to pin the whole blog.

In one evening I made 24 card faces from four 12x12 sheets of coordinating card stock. If you use double sided you can get 12 cards from two sheets. (You end up with one 1.5x12 inch strip left over from each sheet from which I'll make adorable Spring rosettes.) Use 8.5x11 and get 16 cards from 4 sheets with no waste. You get the idea. A greeting and a drop of bling or a snip of ribbon and you are good to go. Another go-to pattern for using scraps or making quantities in a jiffy.

WMD - Rosette Christmas tree

This very cool rosette tree was shown on the Archiver's Online ad a couple of weeks ago. There are printable instructions on their website. Another great project for the Martha Stewart scoring board. This is what I'm making on this Where's My Desk Wednesday. Photo pending...

(updated 12/6/2012) Here's mine.  I chose to leave it undecorated. It's a lot smaller than it looks, only six inches at the base and about 10 inches tall; just right for setting on a mantle.


The paper is the O Christmas Tree stack by MME. I love it; so nice and glittery. However, double sided cardstock may have been a better choice. The photo makes me feel like my slip is showing.

WMD - Dude! Where's My Desk?

 No, I don't live on the East Coast and this is not the result of a natural disaster; FEMA is not on it's way for cleanup. This is my workspace while I'm making cards from scraps. What you see here is the box of small bits I'm using for small bits cards. The boxes of large plain and patterned scraps are on the floor below and the drawers of card sized, and nearly confetti sized, scraps are on the other size of the room with the ribbon. Sometimes I have to create ways to force myself out of my chair so my legs don't shrivel up and fall off. The notepad between the donuts and the Pepsi (Breakfast of Champions!) has sketches of the cards I hope to make today.

Below is the latest contribution from the Perfect Pages Kit remnants. These are the remains of the All Occasion kit. The pinwheel sketch and instructions are on the OWH site and the smile card sketch is this week's I Spy Sketch.

WMD - Let's go fly a Kite

More cards from scraps! Hooray! The sketch for these fun Kites once again comes from the OWH Using Scrap Tutorial.

All you need to make a kite is: dark cardstock at least 4.5x6.5 (I ran out of black scraps and started using pages from a Matstack. It was a perfect fit, no margin for error.) and two coordinating scraps about 1 3/4x4. If they are a little wider they can be a little shorter, and if they are a little narrower you can make your kites a bit smaller. I made one change in the assembly: I glued the top corner then cut it off and brought the scrap down to the bottom corner. That probably won't make any sense until you watch Sandy's video and make your own kite. The kite tut is at the very end of the very informative and inspiring scrap wrangling video.

WMD - Back to the Future

Several years ago it seemed like a great idea to streamline my yearly Christmas gift giving by purchasing page kits to make calendars. So I bought all the Colorbok Perfect Pages kits I thought I could incorporate into the 12 months and off I went. As I recall it was a successful project with minimal design time and I like to pretend everyone was delighted with their calendar. (Insert rolling of eyes here. The sad truth is, people who don't papercraft don't appreciate the handmade gift. Oh well! they are going to get another one this year.)

ANYWAY...  there remains a pile of  matchy paper bits and elements just ripe for cardmaking. I promise to use everything I can and toss the rest.

WMD - Trick or Treat

My job has moved to a new building just around the corner from O My Crafts. Will Call is just like Trick or Treat: you go to the door, say the magic phrase and walk away with a bag full of goodies.

This is what I got today at O My Crafts for around $20. Imaginisce Glam Rocks, Martha Stewart scoring board, 29 packages of Making Memories Bravissimo! sentiment packs, Making Memories Halloween stamps. Add to that a "25% off any online order" coupon code (OMC25). TRICK OR TREAT!

WMD - Witchy pops

With Christmas cards done in September and Spring Cards on my desk I was starting to get a bit season confused. I thought a quick Halloween craft might fix me right up.

This cute and easy to assemble Witch hat SVG is free over at SVGcuts.com. I cut 8 per 12x12 sheet of double sided cardstock. I made 24 of them in an evening. Three sheets gave me lots of variety.  Inking the edges took most of the time but is totally worth the effort. It's a treat that looks like you fussed, only without the fuss. How can that be bad?!?

WMD - Cards and More cards

Well, here they are. A box full of cards for Operation Write Home all tucked and stamped. There is a bottom layer all sorted by category, and a bulging top layer waiting to be sorted. They will be off to OWH next week to fill the measure of their creation. It's kind of exciting really.

If you have any more cards to add to this shipment, I need them this week. And if you are willing to donate dollars toward shipping that would be appreciated too.

My next box will go out late December with Valentines, St Pat's, Easter and all that is Spring related. We also need Birthday, Thank You, Missing You, Thinking of You, General and Blank cards.

Now I'm off to celebrate the Hub's Birthday. Happy B-Day darlin'. Who loves you most?

WMD - Don't Blink

Here is something you don't see very often. You can see parts of the actual desk. It just means I'm between projects. It will be back in action the instant I finish this post. The red striped boxes at the top of my desk are chock full of cards ready to be stamped and tucked and mailed off to Operation Write Home.  From there they will be resorted and shipped to Our American Heroes in Afghanistan (or wherever) in time to make it back to the soldiers families by Christmas. They have a long road ahead.

(The Hub just walked in and said "Hey! Your desk is black!" Followed by "Have I ever seen that cutter?" To which I responded, "Not for a while." Truth is it hasn't moved from that spot since the desk was built, it is usually just buried in paper scraps. I don't think he's ever realized it's a cutter.)

Our very first Operation Write Home shipment will happen next week. Our goal was 350 cards. If you have cards to donate make sure I have them by Sept 30. I'm pretty sure we'll make our goal and have some cards that will have to wait until the next shipment scheduled for December. That makes me super happy.

I haven't made any cards in a while because I've been moving furniture in my craft room trying to find this stash of Christmas cards. These are from some swaps we did a few years ago when the Aspen Friends site was in full bloom. I love doing swaps but I never actually send cards so I knew these were in here somewhere. (If you look closely you may find a card you made.) After they were unburied I spent several days weeding out the weedy ones, shoring up the weak ones, liner-ing the dark ones and resizing the odd sized ones. That left me with about 3 dozen OWH worthy cards to add to the box. My Aspen Friends...the gift that keeps on giving.

WMD - Don't try this at home

I missed WMD last week, but I had a very good reason. You see... the girl child made me do it. A friend recommended she watch the previous seasons of Vampire Diaries. That sounds like a show that I could enjoy so I watched it with her. We watched 2 seasons last week. We couldn't help it....we just got SUCKED in!!! Bwahahah! see how I did that? Vampires...sucked in!

Yeah I know...go work on cards.

I'm astonished and a little embarrassed at how often my computer keyboard becomes my crafting workspace. I guess that's because I love svg's but I also like to look at what I'm building after I get the bits cut out. I'm absolutely positive that one day I'm going to be really, REALLY sorry I do this. Once again, another project for another day: make room on my desk for my computer AND my crafts.

I got this adorable free SVG Reindeer from DieCutGirl.blogspot.com posted April 1, 2012. The original doesn't look as angry as mine. It has to do with the placement of the eyebrows. In spite of the reindeer wearing his angry eyes, I think the cards turned out adorable.

WMD Embellishment Central

OK, so today's photo isn't my desk. But I wanted everyone to see the very cool printer the Hub got me for my birthday. It is wireless so it doesn't have to live on my desk. I can even print from my phone. It also has a copier, color or b/w. I'm so excited about it I can hardly stand myself. And because it doesn't have to live on the desk, it gets to live behind the desk in embellishment central...another space in my world that needs attention. Ah well...projects for another day.

WMD - A Happy Mess

One of our scrappy friends moved to Missouri several years ago. She is in town this week to deliver her 2 oldest kids to college. Last night we had a par-tay with her as the guest of honor. Today's Where's My Desk is the aftermath of a fun evening with friends I haven't seen in a while.

At the back of the desk you see my growing boxes of cards for Operation Write home. The blue shoebox contains the cards that were made and donated last night. I borrowed the CTMH Wishes book, it contains a card workshop of  A2 cards that I want to do. I think you end up with 20 cards from 6 sheets of paper. I'm looking forward to trying that out. Under the book is a bag of embellishments I got on clearance at JoAnn for 97 cents a package. The foundation of all the other stuff that needs to be put away is the stack of Christmas paper I've been using for cards and other projects. I have big plans for it all!

WMD - Where's my desk?

You probably thought I forgot about Where's My Desk Wednesday. Nope. My computer was just ill yesterday. But I turned it over to the loving care of Dr. Hub and he fixed it. Well, he put it in a splint for now and ordered a new power cord. Thanks Dr. Hub! You truly are the amazing Mr. Fixer Man!

So here is my desk. I'm trying out a "sketch" found on Pinterest originally published by Jill Rancourt in 2011 at TheScrapoholic.blogspot.com. Which blog is, btw, chock FULL of sketches, svgs and other fun stuff. I'll be adding her to my web hangout list. Jill calls these "5pc emboss cards". Two sheets of solid colored cardstock and an embossing folder makes 6 cards, three of each style, with almost no waste. Easy, fun and 6 more cards to add to my OWH box. I'll be making these again and again.

I love the paper lace on the blue cards. I've had this piece in my box of orphaned embellishments for a while. I didn't want to use it because it is all I had and it was so pretty. Imagine my delight while rummaging stamps to discover I actually own this set! It is called Lovely Lace from CTMH.