WOYWW Week 901/121 - After the Week 900

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all well and having a good day. After the fun of last week, I must thank all who left their very welcome comments to last week's post celebrating WOYWW 900! It was a pleasure to catch up with so many deskers we haven't seen in a while. 

That's not a mess on my desk today. I've been preparing for a class that had me putting together a few autumn themed kits ready for the off today. The class is Shimelle's Clear the Desk Autumn 26 - an extension of her earlier Clear the Desk Live. 

Most of you will have seen me banging on about the kits I put together before moving house in 2022 but I don't think I've ever mentioned where I got the idea from to make them. It's all down to several clever scrappers who make videos for YouTube and/or run classes on how to put kits together. My first introduction was from Nicole Jones (nicolejones911). Then I discovered the many videos from RTS Scrapbooking - Record the Story And, of course, Shimelle who puts together monthly kits and then creates live videos throughout each month using the contents of those kits. It's thanks to these talented ladies that I am now having great fun working my way through my own kits, discovering supplies I'd completely forgotten.  Beautiful papers and fabulous embellishments all making it easier and quicker to put together a layout, and as I am the slowest scrapper in the world this is a bonus! 

This layout was made using one such kit. 

I had fun using up the sticker borders - something I continually forget to use - on this layout inspired by a sketch from Scrap-a-Sketch. The photo, dated 2019, is off three of my great-grandchildren getting excited on the car trip to Motherwell Country Park with their grandparents. One of the patterned papers used is 16 years old, and others have no date on them at all!

Last week, I wanted to include a photo of this layout but didn't locate it until too late so here it is now.

It's of Shaz in Oz who travelled all the way from Australia to be with us at the WOYWW crop in LLandudno. I thought traveling down to Wales from faraway Scotland was quite a long trip, but Shaz's journey beat me hands down. That smile says it was worth the journey. 

It's been more than a wee while since I posted what's in my vase today. That's because my garden here isn't as floriferous as my previous one.

This very dry summer has been particularly hard on the garden but early in spring I tossed a mixture of annuals on the top of the pots of clematis more in hope than certainty that they would grow and flower. But, the Welsh poppies, marigolds and clarkia, together with a few cuttings of ivy, have struggled through.  

Finally, it's Silver time.

Here she is supervising what I'm up to on my desk - one of her many duties! 

It's a long post today so if you have got this far give yourself a pat on the back. However that's me for this week. As usual, if you don't already do so, I urge you to join in with WOYWW. You can do this by clicking on this link, Sarah's Craft Shed, where you will be made most welcome.

Take care and have a fabulous week.

Elizabeth

WOYWW Week 900/120 - Celebration Time!

Hello Everyone,

Happy 900th edition of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. What an amazing number to reach and all down to the three wonderful ladies. First and foremost Julia, Stamping Ground, who dreamed up the idea some 17 years ago! Then there's Jan, Lunch Lady Jan's Fabric Frenzy, who stood in temporarily while Julia had a much needed break. Finally, we have Sarah, Sarah's Craft Shed, who has now been hosting WOYWW for 120 weeks! What they have created is a wonderful community of crafters that just keeps going - it may well be the longest, most enduring, weekly get-together in blogland.

I don't remember when I first became aware of Julia's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, but it was on Week 71 I plucked up the courage to join in. I have been ever grateful that I did. The welcome I received gave me the confidence to become a regular desker. 

Sarah suggested that we share our first 00 post to celebrate this wonderful occasion. For me that was this one here, Week 100. It's not particularly exciting though it did follow the Easter weekend, a Royal Wedding - Prince William & Kate - celebrated with an extra bank holiday. 

I believe it was Jan who originally suggested the WOYWW crops that became an annual event for a few years - until 2020 stopped the fun. I can't remember the years I was able, with the help of my dear enabler, Alan, to attend the crops but what I do remember is how wonderful it was to meet up with so many lovely crafters, many of whom have become firm friends, and sadly a few who have since passed away. I've spent way too much time today looking through posts trying to find some of the many photos taken at the crops, but with very little luck. I think they may be on my old computer and not this newer laptop. Here's the few I have tracked down.

These two photos are from 20017 & 2018

Annie, Wipso, Jan and Julia.

Jan & Julia.

Julia & Me.

This is a scrap page made with photos from crops and it seems I have a year missing - I'm just not sure which one. 

Happy days. 

There's not much on my desk today but this was how it was last night. 

I'd had to shoo Silver off to work on a page. My trusty guillotine, an adhesive tape runner, paper scraps and a reel of pink & white cord are, unusually, all that was lying about. On the far top left is an alphabet stamp set waiting to be used one day. 

The photo on this page is of me, my two brothers and my middle sister - the youngest had not arrived by the year this was taken, around 1955/56. It's a photo that always makes me smile because the wee story attached to it. My mother's youngest sister, Jean, still a teenager was babysitting that day when a travelling photographer knocked on our door - they did that back then. Jean happily agreed to have him take this photo of us. She got us together, sat us on the top of the sideboard for the shot. It wasn't until the photo was delivered some time later that mum spotted something Jean had missed completely. The sweater my little brother, Colin, was wearing was not clean - he'd spilt half his dinner down it! Mum was so embarrassed. The photo was hidden away then and it was many years before it saw the light of day again! 

This week's pic of Silver enjoying the afternoon sunlight. 

Instead of how I usually sign off it's seems fitting that I repeat how I signed off, updated, for WOYWW Week 100. 

For anyone who has just stumbled over this blog post and has no earthly idea what I'm prattling on about, what WOYWW is about, then please, with no further ado, hop over to the lovely Sarah's's blog, Sarah's Craft Shed, where you will find a plethora of links to a lot more crafty desks - go on, treat yourself - it's the best snoopathon ever!

Take care and happy crafting to you all.

Elizabeth Worthington

WOYWW Week 899/119 - Scrapbooking Supplies

Hello Everyone

Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. I hope you've had a lovely week whatever you've been doing, and whatever the weather you've been enduring. Up here in my corner of Scotland it's been cooler but dry forcing me to get the watering can out again. It could be worse. Heavens, it has been worse, so I'm not complaining!

On my desk today a pile of photos. Just a fraction of my entire collection. It's only too evident that I am never going to scrap them all. But, I will do my best. For me it's the photos that come first when it comes to what I need for scrapbooking. That being said, the supplies used in making pages are many and varied. I know I go on about being on a spending freeze because of how much stash I have already but the requirements for scrapbooking are many and varied. For those who are not scrappers, but who might want to give it a go one day, here is a glimpse of just some of what I use in the making of pages.

Cardstock in various colours. Great for backing photos and layouts. Not absolutely essential as a starter, many of the plainer patterned papers make good starting points too.   

Patterned paper. I'd say this is absolutely essential. It can be bought loose or in themed packs. Often the packs contain other supplies, e.g. sheets of stickers, journaling elements, labels, etc.  The sheets can be single or double-sided. I prefer double-sided as it gives more choice. 

Letters, often referred to as 'alphas', and word stickers for creating titles. There are other supplies not shown in this photo - die-cut sets, stamp sets and even ready-made acrylic words to name a few.  

Sticker sheets and books used to create embellishment clusters. Oh, there are so many available to the avid scrapper like me. I'd say they are the sweeties of the scrapping world and just as hard to resist!!!

Die-cuts. Almost as hard to resist as stickers. These can be purchased ready-made in packs or they may be cut out using dies with a die-cutting machine. Alternatively, they can be fussy-cut from pretty patterned papers or downloaded printables that are specifically designed for cutting out. 

And last, but not least, the finishing touches. What some scrapbookers refer to as 'confetti'. For example: enamel dots, rhinestones, pearls, stencils, inks, washi tapes, punches, dies, stamps, Nuvo drops, wooden embellishments. Pens! I've almost forgotten the pens that are essential for journaling.

It's a lot for anyone contemplating becoming a scrapbooker. Be warned! As I know only too well, supplies have a way of multiplying! 

However, it's worth it to be able to create layouts like this one. Another first of the monthly pages for my 2023 album. This time for the month of March. The photos are a wee selection of those taken on walks and a trip to Glasgow during the month. Of course Silver had a starring role. 

She's been busy distracting me from finishing this post this morning. She wants to play.

How can I resist!

And finally a few funnies that I think are appropriate for today.

It's another long post today so if you have got this far this week give yourself another pat on the back. Next week is the big 900 and I'm so looking forward to seeing all your 00 memories. Such fun!  As usual, if you don't already do so, I urge you to join in with WOYWW. You can do this by clicking on this link, Sarah's Craft Shed, where you will be made most welcome.

Take care and have a fabulous week.

Elizabeth

WOYWW Week 898/118 - Burning Eggs

Hello Everyone,

Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. I hope you are all well and enjoying a great crafty week so far. Here on the Scottish coast of the Clyde Estuary it is cloudy and there's promise of yet more rain. We've had a lot of that over the last few days. All of it very welcome - for now!

On my desk this morning - photo actually taken yesterday evening but nothing has changed so far this morning. I thought you might like to see the contents of one of my home made scrap kits. Not in numerical order - this one is No.67 - and possibly not the best example but it was the next pulled out of the pile. It consists of one sheet of yellow cardstock, one sheet of patterned paper, a wee pile of paper strips, embellishments and a photo. I'm not sure what I had in mind to do with all those paper strips when I put the kit together but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Just not today. 

I have another desk I'm working on today and for the foreseeable future. 

It's the table in the living room. It's a very old gateleg table. The Ikea craft desk is practical and serves it's purpose but it is no match for the solidity of this old table made of real wood. What I'm working on there is a pile of recently made layouts. They are almost complete. All they need is for me to add some journaling then they can be filed away in the appropriate albums. It's one of those jobs we scrapbookers tend to procrastinate over but eventually it has to be done!

This is the page last made and is there in front on the table waiting for that final journaling. The photos are of my youngest granddaughter Shari taken in her 20s in 2023. She was a guitarist and singer performing in a band at the time. I associate the colour purple with her so this, another of my kits, was perfect. All the supplies are from old stash, details of most long lost but I can say that the foiled background card used as a photo mount, 'Sheet Metal', is from Kanban Crafts. Now there's a blast from the past.  The foam letters for the title are from Shimelle's ' 'Main Character' collection, appropriately enough dated 2023. There's scraps and bits and pieces from Simple Stories and Studio Light Art. The finishing touch is the sewing machine stitching. I can't remember when I last did that. 

And now it's Silver time. 

Looks like she's decided that if she can't beat me, she will become a bookworm too. 

She's checking out the shelves. 

Spot the cat in the library!

It's August, start of the school year and time for me to begin the home study of Scottish literature. This term I'm concentrating on Scottish crime fiction. I'm doing it for pleasure so it has to be my favourite genre. Over summer I've been reading 'Read Yourself Happy' by Daisy Buchanan. I love books, and there's rarely been a time when I didn't have my nose in a book, but recently I went through a long spell where I couldn't concentrate on reading. Seems that it's down to something called "grief brain", a temporary condition that I admit I did find distressing. Happily, the love of reading has returned to normal and 'Read Yourself Happy' has helped. It's a great book to dip into with chapters such as 'Read yourself funny', 'Reading like a writer', Reading around the world'. The author recommends so many books to read - many of which I've added to my TBR (to be read) list. So many books, so little time. 

I realise I haven't added any funnies to my posts as I once did. I haven't been collecting them like I used to. But maybe this will make you laugh - it certainly had my daughter laughing out loud. Recently I was hard boiling three eggs to use in potato salad. I put them in a pot of water and on the hob to boil. I knew I had seven minutes to wait. Seven minutes can't be wasted. I thought I'd just do a bit of prepping for the scrap layout I was working on. I'm sure you know what happened next. I forgot the eggs. It wasn't until I smelt a strange odour that I remembered them. I found some very burnt looking eggs but I was just in time to save the pot. 

When my daughter stopped laughing she recommended that this electric egg cooker was the only way to ensure I never burn eggs again. I should add, this isn't the first time I've burnt the eggs. I've done it several times before. The first time I remember was when I was in the army and working shifts. When I came off a night shift I boiled my breakfast eggs in the kettle in our barracks kitchen. I burned out the kettle! Of course, I had the cost of a new kettle deducted from my wages that week and banned from the boiling of eggs in the new one. You'd have thought I'd have learned, but, no, I've repeated it many times since. 

It's a long post today so if you have got this far give yourself a pat on the back. However that's me for this week. As usual, if you don't already do so, I urge you to join in with WOYWW. You can do this by clicking on this link, Sarah's Craft Shed, where you will be made most welcome.

Take care and have a fabulous week.

Elizabeth

WOYWW Week 897/117 - On Photography and Cameras

Hello Everyone, 

Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. Hope you have a lovely day - whatever the weather.  

On my desk is the scrapbook world's newest recruit! (Photo taken yesterday), She's a quick learner.

This has now become a bit of a change for me - a layout with just one photo! It's of my only niece and I just have this one photo of her from that time, about 1984/5. This page just had to have flowers, butterflies, hearts and the colour pink - all so appropriate for such a pretty little girl. The spending freeze is still going surprisingly well and I've not felt the need to buy anything except the essential adhesive tape runners. The oldest supply used is the alpha set for the title - Dear Lizzy's 'Serendipity' foam letters from 2011!

I'm finding it increasingly wasteful to create a page with a single photo. Mainly because, as I may have mentioned before, living in a small flat means there is so much less room to store scrapbook albums, but there's also the inescapable fact that I have hundreds of photos to deal with. I've been sorting through all those photos, binned the ones that are no longer relevant for one reason or another, e.g. if I don't recognise the subject or it's yet more of the many beautiful plants in the beautiful gardens we visited. There's only so many pages of flowers anyone needs in their albums!

So, knowing this, the aim from now is to get as many photos on one 12x12 page as possible. I've completed Shimelle's 3x4 Photo Love class which has helped enormously. This page is an example of what I've learned. The photos are all of my late husband's mother holidaying on the Isle of Man. To make scrapping them easier, I used my camera to photograph the original, very old photos and printed them all out in 3x4 size. Much easier than trying to work with the variety of sizes of the originals. 

This page is going into an album I've been putting together for Alan's nephew. It's one of several I'm putting together for various members of my family, like my niece in the page above. Another way of dealing with the limited space I have for my own albums. 

Of course, I wouldn't have this problem if I wasn't such a keen amateur photographer. I just can't help myself. Ever since I watched my father taking snapshots with his old Kodak Box Brownie, I've been interested in all things to do with photography so found this exhibit in Callender House, Falkirk, fascinating. 

The photos are a record of the people and industry that were once seen in the area. 

Most of the pictures in the exhibition were taken with this Mamiya 545 from 1975, using the Kodak Tri x 400asa film. I believe the film is still available today.

It's totally different from this, my first camera bought in 1964 - an Ilford Sprite. I remember being so thrilled to have saved enough from my job in the bank to buy it before I went off on my first solo holiday that year. It's a world of difference from the digital cameras I have to choose from today - either my Nikon D3400 Digital Camera, or even the one on my mobile phone. 

As Silver has taken the starring role already today and after that trip down memory lane, I think it's time I left you with my usual message. If you don't already do so, I urge you to join in with WOYWW. You can do this by clicking on this link, Sarah's Craft Shed, where you will be made most welcome.

Take care and have a fabulous week.

Elizabeth

WOYWW Week 896/116 - Trip to Callender House & The Falkirk Wheel

Good Morning Everyone,

Happy WOYWW to you all. I hope it proves to be a good day for you wherever you are, here in the south west of Scotland it's cool and damp after the storms yesterday. Just how I like it. :) 

Correction. The heavens have just opened!

On my desk today are the supplies together with a selection of photos for the next layout. I'm trying to decide which photo(s) to use for my niece's album. Decisions, decisions! On the back to the left is a wee pile of scraps and a very scruffy stamping block. I intend to punch circles out of the scraps. Circles often come in handy as the base for clusters and it's so much better than tossing them in the bin. The block will get cleaned. 

Oh, and I've just notice on the far left, by the table lamp, is a tube of Nippon ant killer. There was an attempted mass takeover from a nearby nest of flying ants last week. I've nothing against ants when they are outside but to have them swarming all over my home, that's entirely different.

I've had less time for scrapping this week but here's one of the last pages made.

One of my niece for her album. The inspiration for this layout came from a sketch by one of my favourite YouTube scrapper's, Moira O'Reilly. I think she might have said it was her first attempt to create a sketch. Of course, I tweaked it a bit - I always do. The supplies were all I found in one of my kits - not a lot, but enough. 

What kept me from the craft room was that my daughter and son-in-law decided it was time to make the trip to Falkirk that had to be abandoned a month or so ago when the car broke down. That episode was recorded in this page. 

This time all went well and we were able to not only visit the beautiful Callender House in Falkirk, but also visit the Falkirk Wheel - a fantastic feat of engineering that might just be the eighth wonder of the world! I took 'hundreds' of photos of course. Here's a just a very select few,

I could post so many more from Callender House but best I stop now. Here's a couple from the Falkirk Wheel.

All such a brilliant experience and one I can heartily recommend to any of you planning to visit Scotland one day. 

I almost forgot, here's one for those of you over the pond. Smores cake on sale in the cafe in Callender House. It is the first time I've seen it outside the US! 

Note: I did not try it this time. Next time, for sure!

Finally, here's Silver keeping an eye on me in the craft room. 

That's me for this week. As usual, if you don't already do so, I urge you to join in with WOYWW. You can do this by clicking on this link, Sarah's Craft Shed, where you will be made most welcome.

Take care and have a fabulous week.

Elizabeth

WOYWW Week 895/115 - New Desk Shelving

Hello Everyone,

Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday to you all.

I've been busy changing things around on my desk this week. 

I even managed to overcome my dislike of flatpack furniture to make up the shelving you can see at the back there. I was so fed up with the decreasing size of the area I had to work on. Something had to be done and this is it. Look at all that space! 

All I have to do now is keep it that way. 

With all that clearing and reorganising I haven't had much time to do any scrapping but I did manage to create just this page. 

The photos are of Rothesay Castle on the Isle of Bute taken just a couple of weeks ago when we visited the island. It's a ruin but it is still possible to cross the moat to look inside. 

Yet more lovely old stash and leftover scraps were used in this layout. The base paper came from a very old collection from Craft Sensations, 'Capture This Moment'. It's another of my 'so old it's not dated' supplies. 

Most of the embellishments are from Simple Stories collections, 'Simple Vintage Meadow Flowers ' and 'Take Note', and one of the sets of Alpha letters from Alison Kreft's 'Sprinkled With Love' is also undated - purchased years ago from an online store now closed. 

There's been a lot of changes in the scrapbooking world in the 30 years I've been scrapping. It makes me sad to think of all the lovely makers and suppliers that are no longer operating. 

It's just as well I have this little one to make me laugh. She's got no sense of modesty!

That's me for this week. As usual, if you don't already do so, I urge you to join in with WOYWW. You can do this by clicking on this link, Sarah's Craft Shed, where you will be made most welcome. 

Take care and have a fabulous week. 

Elizabeth