WOYWW Week 888/108

Hello Everyone

It's been a while! I won't bore you with the reasons why I've been missing except to say I've gone through a difficult period health-wise which affected my ability to concentrate on the fun things in life. However, I'm doing much better now and feeling more my old self again. In fact, the last month or so has seen me starting to get back into scrapbooking, reading and even a little light gardening!

So, after all the months of neglect, it's great to be able to show you my busy desk covered with evidence of scrapbooking in progress. There's several completed layouts, a pile of paper scraps and some photographs that I plan to use on the next layout. 

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you will already have seen that I have been taking an online course, Shimelle Laine's Clear the Desk Live. I hoped it would get me scrapping again and it well and truly has! I won't post all twenty pages made so far,but here's just one because the subject is very dear to my heart.

Love this photo of Alan when he was indeed the family handyman. Here he was showing me the herb rack he made for our daughter, Juli. He also made one for our kitchen which is still in use today.

I'm keeping it short this week as it's the first time back in a long time, but I will leave you with a photo of my beloved cat Silver. 

She's proudly posing in front of the painting made for her by my granddaughter Shari. 

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

Scrappy Sunday - Little Garden Visitor

Hello Everyone,

A bit late today but I've been distracted by the tennis at Wimbledon but better late than never! I hope you've had a lovely weekend.

This layout was inspired by the course I'm following, very slowly, from Shimelle Laine, Clear the Desk.

The photo is of the little cat, one of a few, that often visits our garden. I did think it was female because it so small but it's recently been wearing a blue collar so I think I got that wrong!

I've used some very old papers. In fact the blue background paper I've had so long I no longer know who the manufacturer was. The cat patterned paper and most of the embellishments are from the Meow collection (2015) from Echo Park. The red frame with the black paw prints was left over from a two page kit I bought 20 plus years ago, again I don't remember the manufacturer but I'm almost one hundred percent sure it is no longer available. The black title letters are from Simple Stories' So Rad Expressions Sticker sheet and the turquoise ones are another mystery - all I can say is they are old too.You can tell I'm trying to use up my oldest stash ... I've been hoarding for far too long.

That's me for today. I'm off to watch Poldark now even though I've watch much too much television today.

Take care

Scrappy Sunday - Crazy Hair Day

Hello Everyone

It's Sunday so time for something scrappy for Pixie's Snippet's Playground, and for the second week it's not a card but a scrap layout. I still haven't got back into cardmaking but I am enjoying putting together scrap layouts so, for now, I'll just go with the flow.

This photo has to be one of my all-time favourites of my little great-grandson, Brodie, as he looked on his school's Crazy Hair Day last year.

The inspiration for the layout is from the second part of Shimelle Laine's class, Clear the Desk, which I am still working my way through. This part begins with the mixing of two collections. I never buy full collections so I've had to mix what I have of Echo Park's 'Meow' and 'Magical Adventure'. The combination works well because, as they are both by the same maker, the colours are similar too.

The blue/white spotted paper used for the star (top right) and film strip backing plus the yellow/white starry half circle (bottom left) are all scraps. There's also a scrap of red tartan paper which I used as a nod to his grandad calling him a Green Oor Wullie ... for those who don't know, Oor Wullie is a the 'hero' of very popular Scottish comic strip ... a lovable rogue known for his shock of blond spiky hair!

As usual, if there are any of the supplies you'd like to know more about, please do not hesitate to ask.

Have a great scrappy week and thanks for visiting.

Clear The Desk - Layout #6 - Mystery Solved

Evening Everyone,

This is the last layout from the first section of Shimelle's class, Clear the Desk.

By the time I got to this layout there wasn't too much left of the papers in the kit and I had to eke it out by adding a sheet of white cardstock for the background together with some toning scraps of card from the scrap mountain for the embellishments. I used several dies - a layered butterfly (Dovecraft), layering circles with heart detail and a delicate rose (The Works), and a fern leaf shape (Tattered Lace, Lavish Blooms Leaves) - to create embellishments. I also stamped the elegant lady (Crafty Individuals CI-323), watercoloured here with a combination of Vintage Photo distress ink and Mr Huey's mist in Heirloom Blue before cutting it out to use as the main embellishment. The tiny butterflies were punched out of card and patterned paper and the cameras were fussy cut from a Project Life Jade Edition card. The journaling is on a cut-apart from the Summer Garden collection of papers in the kit.

I found the photo in my late mother's photo collection and vaguely remembered her telling me that she'd forgotten who the subjects were but that she was sure the woman was a relative and that one of the girls was her sister, Minnie. Well, thank goodness for social media. I put a copy of the photo up on Facebook tagging my cousins here in the UK and in Australia. The photo was passed around and my aunt in Australia was able to solve the mystery, hence the page title. I'm delighted. I can now file this page in the Family History album knowing that I have a photo of my great-grandmother as a relatively young woman holding my uncle Billy and the older girl is my aunt Minnie, as mum thought. The real surprise is that the younger of the girls is in fact my mother - she'd obviously forgotten what she looked like as a toddler!

So that's the first section completed and it's now on to the second which I suspect is going to be just as much fun as the first. I'm so pleased that I've created six layouts in what is for me a short time. Now to find places for them in the relevant albums.

There was very little paper left over from the kit but I have managed to make three cards which I will share in my WOYWW post tomorrow.

Happy Crafting,

Clear The Desk - Layout #5 - Knickerbocker Glory Days

Hello Everyone

Today's the day for the fifth layout made for Shimelle's Clear The Desk Class.

It's a return to a seaside themed layout featuring, as it does, two photos of scrumptious ice cream sundaes enjoyed, I hasten to add, on two separate occasions. The background paper is another B side, this time  Swimming Fish from Echo Park's Summer Party collection and one that I've been hoarding, and stroking, for a couple of years. However, it's was such an appropriate background for the two photos that I couldn't not use it. In the embellishment clusters the flowers and cameras were fussy cut from other papers in the kit - see here - I made up for the class. The title letters are from Snap Color Vibe Stickers Brights. I've used a mix of enamel dots and Nuvo Crystal Drops in pastel shades to reflect the colours in the ice creams.

The journaling, written in grey ink, tells how we began the tradition on a visit to Barmouth in Wales of always having just one Knickerbocker Glory ice cream whenever we were at the seaside. Now that we live in a seaside town we have had to re-write the tradition somewhat. Our 'glory days' are confined to holidays only!

Once again, I'm keeping the post simple but if you are interested in taking the class you can find the details over on Shimelle's website.

Layout #6 follows tomorrow.

Happy crafting to all.

Clear The Desk - Layout #4 - Retiring

Afternoon Everyone

Here's the fourth layout from Shimelle's class, Clear The Desk.

For this page I used an over-sized photo. This was a bit more challenging but the background paper -  Simple Stories, Life Documented - helped a lot. The clusters are based on scraps of leftover paper and the black stars which were punched from a snippet of black cardstock. The camera was fussy cut from one of the patterned papers I chose for the kit. I used a Project Life card for the journaling spot. 

In 1998, just a few weeks before he retired, my husband's company sent us both on a course to prepare him for retirement. We were put up in a beautiful hotel, there was a four-poster bed in our room, and the content of the course was interesting. That's where I learned that our hair doesn't go grey as we get older, it goes lighter ... I've happily accepted that ever since. The photo shows everyone who attended the course. 

I should add that my husband was only retired for about six months! He was much too young to hang up his hat back then!

Yet again, I'm keeping the post simple but if you are interested in taking the class you can find the details over on Shimelle's website.

Although this is not a card, I'm submitting, because I've used quite a few scraps of paper and the snippets of black card, the layout to Di's snippet challenge at:

Pixie's Snippets Playground

Layout #5 follows later.

Happy crafting to all.

Clear The Desk - Layout #3 - Island Sky

Morning Everyone,

Another layout from Shimelle's class, Clear The Desk, today. I've got this page out of order so although this is the third posted it is, in fact, the second one I made. I obviously had a senior moment!

And that's not the only senior moment I've had recently. The white cardstock I've used for the background is actually short by an inch, it's 12"x 11" and I didn't even notice until I came to crop the photo. I must have cut the inch strip off for some other project and forgotten about it. I'll have to fix that sometime but I need to think about it first. I'm still using the same kit as for #1. The striped panel is the B side of a cut-apart from Echo Park's Summer Party collection giving, I think, quite a different, though still summery, feel to fit with the photograp. It's of my husband against the bluest of blue skies taken in June 1999 on the island of Jersey. It's framed with two layers of patterned paper in shades of aqua. The kites in the clusters were fussy cut from another of the Summer Party papers. Some of the shapes, circles and hearts, were punched out of the leftover scraps from layout #1. All the other embellishments and the title letters, with the exception of the enamel dots, are from the sticker sheets in the collection.

Again, I'm keeping the post simple but if you are interested in taking the class you can find the details over on Shimelle's website.

Layout #4 follows later.

Happy crafting to all.

Clear The Desk - Layout #2 - Nothing Like A Dame

Morning Everyone,

I'm back today with the second layout made from the kit I put together from stash for Shimelle's class - Clear The Desk.

It's a similar colour combination to yesterday's layout but uses different papers from the kit and a woodgrain pattern for the background. It's also an unusual combination of photo - a 4" square and a 6x4 portrait taken at the 2014 Scottish Air Show here in Ayr  - not one I'd normally attempt but I think it's worked out okay. Some of the embellishments - flowers and cameras - are fussy cuts. Instead of my usual enamel dots, I've sprinkled amber gems, red dew drops and blue Nuvo crystal drops around the embellishment clusters - I thought they more suited the panto dame's personality!

Again, I'm keeping the post simple but if you are interested in taking the class you can find the details over on Shimelle's website.

Layout #2 follows tomorrow.

Happy crafting to all.

Clear The Desk - Layout #1 - Day Trip Destination

Morning Everyone,

This is going to be a very quick post today - I'm off out to the craft club this afternoon.  As I mentioned in yesterday's WOYWW post I'm taking Shimelle's class, Clear The Desk, and this is the first layout made with it.

I've used a mix of old stash from Echo Park's Summer Bliss and Summer Party collections, Simple Stories Life Documented for this photo of a poster for Burntisland in Fife, Scotland, spotted recently in a Glasgow shop window which brought back a raft of childhood holiday memories.

Here's a photo of the supplies I pulled out for the first kit I've used for the class.

I'm having fun following Shimelle's suggestions and getting a heap of layouts done and a ton of stash used up too - which is, of course, the object of the class.

I'm keeping the post simple but if you are interested in taking the class you can find the details over on Shimelle's website.

Layout #2 follows tomorrow.

Happy crafting to all.