What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 834

Hello Everyone,

Happy WOYWW to you all.

There's nothing on my desk right now. Instead, this is what was on my desk yesterday afternoon. The latest page in progress using an Ella Bonella kit. There's also, under the pencil, a checklist which I created using MS Word. If I didn't keep that list, I'd forget the details I do know, never mind those I don't! At the back on the left is a box containing packs of embellishments. They are there to remind me to use them. They are all lovely so the deserve to be used, not forgotten. There's also the obligatory cuppa. 

This is the sticker sheet used with the letters for the title and the stickers that formed the base of the embellishment clusters on the page. It's and oldie but a goodie from Crate Paper's Farmhouse collection. Here's the finished page.

13/2025 - We Made a Garden

I think it's very timely that I'm scrapping photos of the garden we made together, given that I'm now making another garden. The photo on the left was taken in November 2013, just after we moved in. It's a bit crumpled and creased because Alan kept it in his pocket to remind him of the 'before' while he admired the 'after', something he did often! The one on the right, the 'after, was taken about seven years later. 

 

Details of items used:

The layout was inspired by the Premium sketch #98 from Scrap-a-Sketch. Materials used are as follows: the background is made up from a Cosmo Cricket paper from the Hansel & Gretel collection dated 2007 and Circa 1934 'Chaplin' paper dated 2010. The photos are mounted on Bazzil Cardstock with the delightful title, 'Granny Smith' and then backed with 'Victorian Rose' from the Kaiser Kraft Devonshire collection, an unknown green paper, and 'Cross Stitch' from Crate Paper Farmhouse collection.  The clusters were constructed using stickers, wooden buttons, and fussy-cut flowers from a variety of sources, e.g. the sticker sheet photographed, Maggie Holmes 'Market Square', and Simple Stories 'Garden Party' from the Bunnies & Blooms collection.

I think I may have mentioned in my post from Monday that we've been enjoying rainy weather. Torrential rain, in fact. It started on Friday afternoon and just kept coming steadily until Monday, since when we have had a few dry and sunny spells, interspersed with yet more rain. Nice!

It forced me to get myself some wellies. The cross-stitch was a gift from a friend who is sadly no longer with us. It's waiting to be hung up but that's easier said than done. The walls here are solid so it's not simply a case of knocking in a nail. It requires an electric power tool. A piece of equipment I'm less than confident, or competent even, using, In the meantime, Mary's gift will continue to grace the porch at floor level. 
  

You may have noticed that my in-house quality controller, Silver, is missing from the desk photo. I took advantage of one of her frequent snooze periods to get it done. 

Here she is in deep sleep mode! 

And finally, the funnies for this week.

That's it from me for this week. I hope you had a great Spring Bank Holiday despite the change in the weather.  To see more creative workdesks pop over to Sarah's blog, Sarah's Craft Shed. If you don't already do so, feel free to join in the fun and show us what's on your workdesk this Wednesday. You'll be made most welcome.

Have a great WOYWW day and a fabulous week everyone,

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth  

Scrapbook Page - Recording Memories of the Scottish Highlands

Hello Everyone, 

10/2025 - On Honeymoon

Now that the heatwave has ended and my garden is soaking up the much needed rain, I suddenly have more time on my hand to do some scrapping and I'm using it to catch-up with recording all the lovely memories I have stored away in my photo collection. It's an extensive collection and the chances are I will never really catch-up. Just as I am unlikely to use up all my old stash. Especially when I'm so sorely tempted to buy some of the new collections released each year. 

However, that's the two main aims for this year and this page is one that combines both a happy memory and old stash. Tick! 

The photo is of my beloved Alan taken when we were up in the Scottish Highlands on honeymoon in August 1996. We got married in July but had to delay the honeymoon until we could both have time off work. I'd just returned in June from a year of study in America - a great experience but an expensive one. To recoup some of what I had to spend, I did some temping in a GP's surgery for a few weeks before the trip. It wasn't the first time we had been to Scotland together, We'd gone up the summer before stopping to introduce him to family in Ayrshire on the way. Alan had completely fallen for both my family and Scotland and couldn't wait to return.  I think you can tell from that lovely smile that he was delighted to be back in the Highlands. 

The layout was inspired by not much more than the materials that I had available in a kit I had put together prior to packing up and moving house in 2022. Though I should mention that Shimelle's classes, Half and Half and New Pages from Old Stash, have clearly influenced the outcome. I just built up layers of scraps to mat the photo and then created a half and half page for the background. It's a tried and tested formula that works well when using up scraps. 

I wish I could give more precise information on what's been used but I all I remember is that most of the papers are from an old Project Life collection. The light green scrap is from 49 and Market's Kaleidoscope Solids Pack 3 from 2014 - that is old. The alphas are from Elle's Studio Jane collection of 2021 - not so old. A few of the stickers are from Dear Lizzy and the wooden button is from Cocoa Vanilla Studio's Storyteller - one of my all-time favourite collections. 

I thinks that's enough from me now. There's so much more scrapping waiting to be done.

Hope those of you in the UK are enjoying the Spring Bank Holiday despite the inclement weather! And those not in the rainy UK, have a happy Monday no matter where you are. 

Take care

Elizabeth 

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 833

Hello Everyone,

Happy WOYWW to you all.

After having missed last week's celebrations, I almost decided not to post today but here I am hoping to write the fasted WOYWW post ever, We've had the most heatwave of heatwaves up here in Scotland. Totally unexpected and I, for one, am not acclimatised to anything like it. So much so, I've been suffering from heat exhaustion. My own fault! I went out in the midday sun and only fools do that. You'd think someone in their late seventies would know better!! I've recovered but. as you can imagine, very little has been accomplished in the meantime. The photo above was actually planned for last week's post. I hope you all enjoyed WOYWW's 16th Anniversary celebrations. I was so sad to have to miss it. 

This is the desk this morning. I have to admit that there's not been a lot going on, Not here in the craftroom and not out in the garden either. It was all going so well too! Anyway, yesterday was my kid brother's birthday. Looking for pics of him had me dashing down the proverbial rabbit hole. There's nothing quite like a sibling's birthday to make me nostalgic for the 'good old days' when we were young and the world was, well, different!

While I'm showing what's actually on my desk, I think I should reveal what there is to the right of it. Stuff, of course. Paper kits, stencils, Nuvo drops, a basket of small paper punches, the guillotine, more scrappy stash, sketches, rulers and an essential, the TV remote control. There's more underneath. Carefully horded embellishments and the basket of punches is perched on top of a box of old photographs. Family history that I'm trying to record for posterity or, if not that, for my very interested granddaughter, 

09/2025 - Movie News

This is the page that was in progress last week. The photos are from the news photos that appeared when Hollywood came to Glasgow to make the movie Batgirl in January 2022. It's the second of it's sort filmed in the city. The Victorian architecture makes the perfect backdrop to these movies. To quote my granddaughter, 'Glasgow is the new Gotham City'. 

Still aiming to use as much of my old stash as possible, most of the materials here are pre 2022 with the exception of the die-cuts in the embellishment clusters. They are from a more recent collection - Shimelle's 'Reasons to Smile'. An impulse buy last year. What can I say? It's so difficult to resist all the lovely new collections. I try. I try.

As Silver has aready had a starring role in this week's post, here's just one of the photos I unearthed from the box of memories yesterday to mark my brother Colin's 73rd birthday. 

Here he is with my middle sister, Margaret, It's lovely. They were lovely. They still are lovely. They are both wearing sweaters our mother made on her knitting machine. I remember them well. 

And finally, 

As if there is any doubt!

That's it for this week from me. Once again, I'm sorry I missed last week so belated congratulations to Julia, who dreamed up WOYWW for us all to enjoy for so many years, and to Sarah for taking up the baton and keeping the weekly desk fest going. Long may it continue. 

Have a great WOYWW day and a fabulous week everyone, 

Take care, 

Elizabeth 

What's On your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 831

Morning Everyone,

And it is a lovely morning here in North Ayrshire.

On my desk this morning Silver. She's thinking about going out by that open window but first a few quiet moments watching a magpie perched on the neighbours fence. To the left of her is my next project. 

I've put together photos and materials for a page I hope to make later today. Homework for Shimelle's class. It's all from old stash, of course. Even the photos are dated 2022! I have unfinished albums from the year of Covid, 2020, up to 2023 so I hope to remedy that this year. 

January 2025 - Side 1

At the same time I'm working on this year's album and this is the introductory page. I'm not a great fan of pocket pages but they are the best way of beginning each month. 

January 2025 - Side 2

The photos used capture some of what's happened during the month. There will be a few 12"x12" pages following this introduction. I spent a few hours over the weekend sorting through photos taken so far this year trying to decide which to scrap. Decisions! Decisions!

Most of yesterday was spent in the garden. My daughter and SIL were round so we stopped to sit and soak up the sun. It wasn't all play though. I did check on my seedlings in the mini greenhouse, which turned out not to be as mini as I hoped. Sorry, I forgot to take a pic to show just how big it is. I also planted out a climber, Clematis Grandiflora Alba. 

We had this fabulous one in our last garden. I'm hoping for a similarly stunning display with the one planted yesterday. Perhaps not this year, but in years to come. 

I did think to grab this shot of Silver squeezing into an empty basket during a latte break in the summerhouse. She never fails to amaze me!

 

And finally, a few funnies for this week.

That's me for this week. I hope you all had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend. Just in case you missed it, there's another one in a few weeks time. To see more creative workdesks pop over to Sarah's blog, Sarah's Craft Shed. If you don't already do so, feel free to join in the fun and show us what's on your workdesk this Wednesday. You'll be made most welcome.

Have a fabulous week.

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth 

Old Stash

Hello Everyone

I've been prompted to search through my stash to look for the oldest items I have. Here's just a small selection of papers that I found. I've purposely concentrated on papers because it would take me forever to sort through stickers and embellishments and I'm in a hurry!

The oldest paper is dated 2004 from Paper Adventures. There's also papers from Basic Grey dated 2009, Prima Marketing dated 2010 and Echo Park dated 2011. That's the dated ones. There's even more that are not dated at all which suggests that they are very old indeed. For example, there's Anna Griffin, Le Crea Designs, Kaisercraft and Webster's Pages. 

Some were bought from a shop in Ayr that has long since gone, and others were from one of the first online shops I discovered, Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn also sadly gone.

As I aim to use up as much old stash as possible before I begin buying any new, I'll be focusing on making pages featuring these lovely old papers. If only, because my current craft room is much smaller than the previous one so I need to make space before I'm tempted by all the lovely new collections!

I hope you are all enjoying this Bank Holiday weekend. Up here in the not so frozen north we are enjoying lots of sunshine but the breeze is still a tad chilly for my liking. Perfect weather for staying in and joining in with some of the challenges to mark International Scrapbooking Day weekend. 

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth