Passing Out ...

... no, not literally!

Hi Everyone,

No WOYWW today ... I've a busy few days in front of me and I just know I wouldn't be able to give my fellow WOYWWers the attention they deserved :( Besides, there really was nothing on my desk to show ... it's so tidy it's boring. Instead, I have this scrap page to share.

The photo in this layout shows me dressed in my 'best', No.1, uniform immediately after my Passing Out Parade in February 1966. I'd just finished the six-week initial training period at Queen Elizabeth Barracks,  Guildford, which, sadly, no longer exists. To my knowledge, this is the only photo of me in uniform still in existence - one for the Family History album, methinks :)

Choosing the papers to go with this particular photo was interesting and not just because it's black and white, the subject didn't lend itself to the obvious 'vintage' style papers.  They just didn't work with it. Unfortunately, I didn't have any swinging sixties style patterns in my stash - pop-art might have been good. I could have tried green ... the WRAC uniform was dark green - designed by no less a man than Norman Hartnell, designer to the Queen! - but that didn't appeal. I finally decided to use the very current Dear Lizzy papers because I like the aquas and teals and the stripes and triangles struck me as more appropriate than flowers/leaves/etc.

The layout is a scraplift inspired by Hayley Morris's page, entitled 'My Precious Memories' in Issue 70, Scrapbook Magazine.  For the background, I chose a dark grey SEI paper which had a tiny lighter grey dot pattern. The embellishments are a mix of ready-made stickers and die-cuts and a few I made myself, e.g the yellow stars were all made using either a die or were punched from Dear Lizzy paper and the taupe deckle-edged circles were die-cut from scraps of Kanban paper. When it came to the journaling, I almost came unstuck - where to write it was a bit of a test. I suppose I could have used a white pen on the grey background but I didn't think I could do a good job with the only white pen I own. As you can see, I went with filling in the area to the right of the photo.

Supplies used:
Papers: SEI Juliette, My Romeo patterned paper(side 2) for base; Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic paper collection; Kanban Vintage Tapestry
Embellishments: Corners from Docrafts Chronology Die-cut Toppers; My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline Howdy Doody 'Lovely' stickers; Teresa Collins Fabrications 'Canvas' Die-cut sheet & Sticker Sheet; teal coloured tiny brads; teal/white baker's twine; Trimcraft Flower Riverbank Revels yellow polka dot washi tape
Titles: BoBunny letter stickers Country Garden Tiny Type; American Crafts thickers Newsprint
Tools: Docrafts X-cut nesting dies Star & Spiro Circle; X-cut star corner punch

Only a few snippets went in to the layout but I think I'll be skipping over toDi's at Pixie's Crafty Snippets. It's week 59 and I'm keen see what the others in the playground are up to :))

More background to the photo which might be of interest to some readers:  The WRAC - Women's Royal Army Corp - was disbanded in 1992 and women have since been integrated into the rest of the army. Queen Elizabeth Barracks was also known as the 'Powder Puff' barracks - all those women - and was the height of luxury compared with any other army camp I was billeted in - only four beds to a room!  Now redeveloped, it is an estate of private houses and flats, I believe.  We had two uniforms, one for 'best' and another, more practical one for everyday wear.  The best, as seen in the photo, was the least flattering ... it had a way of flattening our natural attributes :) Oh, and I loathed that cap - it had a metal band inside that was like a vice - it hurt! I much preferred the everyday beret :)

Right, I'm reliably informed that there is a pot of tea on the go, so I'm off to get a cuppa and start planning the next project on the to-do list.

Thanks for visiting, take care all and happy crafting,