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

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 

First Photoshoot Together Scrap Page

Afternoon Everyone

It's Friday - the start of the weekend - and I keep thinking it's Saturday! Being retired means that there really isn't a great deal of difference between weekdays and the weekends - whatever, I still don't have to get up and go out to work. I do have to work of course ... that's the dreaded 'h....work' ... but, happily, there's just no rush like there used to be back in the day. And I still haven't got used to such freedom!!!

Anyway, I've digressed long enough. I hope you are all well and enjoying your day. I have a scrap page to share today.

Ever since my granddaughter, Jenny, passed on this lovely photo of my two great-grandchildren, Rhian and Brodie, I've been wanting to make a scrap layout with it. The way big sister Rhian cares for her baby brother, making sure he doesn't fall forward, just shines out of it and I think they look adorable ... but then I'm totally biased :)

I matted the photo on to several layers of patterned paper that include varying shades of pink, green, grey and sand. Once that was done it was all adhered to a sheet of coordinating patterned paper, which has been trimmed down (by about ¼" all round) and matted on to a base of plain green cardstock. I then added the title and three clusters of embellishments. Here's a few close-ups that make them easier to see:

The clusters are made up with die-cut labels, stickers, punched shapes, Baker's twine, wood veneer shapes, enamel dots and Washi tape. I'll put a list of materials used at the end of this post.

So another page for the album, loads of stash used up and even a NBUS or two ... now on to the next page. So many to do and so little time :)

Thanks to all who take the time to look at my projects, read this blog, and leave comments when you can - I know you all lead busy lives so appreciate any time taken. I think too that many of you must be on holiday, either vacationing or staycationing,  ... whichever, I hope you are having a whale of a time, even if it is just that you are taking time out to rest and relax and not do much of anything :)

Happy Crafting,

Materials: green cardstock for base; Patterned papers: Scrapcake One Moment In Time collection - In My Hands, Papermania Vintage Notes (green doily & hearts), K&Company Cuddly Friends Chenille (pink dot, Paper Adventures Holly Pond Hill (leafy lattice); green chevron & grey lace patterned Washi tapes; Alphas: Papermania Alphamania Curly Font (pink); Punches: Stampin' Up 1" circle and Woodware tiny heart; Memento London fog ink pad; Enamel Dots: Teresa Collins Summer Stories, My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland; wood veneer shapes; Vintage Notes Sentiments; green/white baker's twine.

Butterflies on a Leafy Swirl ... and in my garden today

Hello Everyone

Happy Friday to you ... hope you are enjoying your day and looking forward to the weekend. Still nursing a sore shoulder so it's another card made some time ago that I have to share with you today.

And it's predictable perhaps but it's another card made with pretty paper :) This time I've covered the front of a square Kraft base with a sheet from Prima's Romantique 6x6 pack.

I then stamped, in VersaFine Olympia Green, the larger Leafy Swirl from a Clarity Stamp set and the Birthday Wishes from Stampin' Up's So Happy for You set.

Next it was embellished with three butterflies made by stamping Docrafts Urban Stamp Butterflies, again using the VersaFine ink pad, onto another sheet of paper from the Prima pack, cutting them out, inking the edges with Rangers Stormy Sky distress ink and applying Baby Blue Stickles to the bodies.

The faux bow was made with peach satin ribbon in two widths and blue eyelash trim topped of with a Prima flower ... dipped in glue and iridescent glitter. Blue pearls provided the finishing touch.

Much as I like Kraft card, I always think it's not the best colour to write on so I've covered the inside right with another trimmed down sheet of paper ... the trimming was used to decorated the left side. And the back is decorated with the last of the butterflies.

I will be submitting this card to the following challenges:

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper March challenge - if it wasn't for Hazel I wouldn't be making such an effort to use up the pretty patterned paper from my stash. If, like me, you have lots of pretty paper tucked away in your stash then this is the very challenge to persuade you to use some of it up.

Creative Knockouts #29-Things With Wings - that'll be the butterflies :) 

What a week it's been so far. The first day of spring, according to Google that is, and the weather took a turn for the worse here. Gales and blustery showers wreaked havoc and left the front garden litter strewn, again! The Boss hates wind and simply refuses to go out in it so she's out of sorts. And just to make matters worse the EM hasn't been at all well ... a really bad cold verging on man flu. But all that aside I still found something in the garden for Annie's Friday Smile.

Not absolutely sure about this shrub but I think it's one of the many Berberis - common name Barberry - possibly, because it's evergreen, Berberis stenophylla. This is a shot of the one in the front garden but there's another tucked away at the back in what is going to be the wooded area ... well, that's the long term plan :)

Now I'm off to check out what's making everyone smile today ... to the background of all the Sport's Relief Does Glee Club ... it doesn't get much better than that :)

Have a happy weekend everyone,

Sweet Pea Card and Daffodils

Hello Everyone

Hope you are all having a lovely day. It's a showery one here but still has the feel of spring about it.

I have a quickly made card to share with you ... using some pretty Kaisercraft paper and chipboard shapes that came free with a copy of Quick Cards Made Easy magazine.

As you can see the images are roses and yet the collection is called Sweet Pea ... I wonder why? The layout is a favourite ... and perhaps I use it too often but the finished look is always very nice. The base is covered with one floral patterned sheet and the belly band is made with a strip of another coordinating paper from the same pack. A rake about in stash produced the trims - pearl bead trim, cotton lace and seam binding. I never throw leftovers away ... it's surprising just how far a scrap of trim will go!

For the inside and back I just layered up some leftover strips of the paper.

Materials used:

• Base - square white card
• Paper - Kaisercraft Sweet Pea Paper Collection from Quick Cards Made Easy with matching chipboard die-cuts
• Ink - Memento Black Tuxedo
• Stamp - greeting from Stampin' Up So Happy For You stamp set
• Trims - scraps of cream cotton lace, pearl bead trim; green seam binding

I'm submitting this card to the following challenges:

Hazel's Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper March challenge - anything goes as long as the card is covered with patterned paper.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 116 - anything goes as long as snippets have been included ... I'm hoping the scraps of lace and pearl bead trim qualify me for entry to the playground.

I began this post by saying that despite the showers it still feels like spring and I thought I'd close by leaving you with this photo as evidence ...

... the first daffs the EM picked from the garden. They were still in bud yesterday but opened up overnight - just lovely :)

Enjoy your day and happy crafting,

Simplicity - a sweet wee card for Sunday

Hello Everyone ...

... and a very happy Sunday to you too.

You may have noticed that I've been missing for a few days. On Thursday my daughter and I tootled up to Glasgow SECC to the Creative Stitches and Hobby Craft shows ... lots of photos taken which I'll include in a post soon. On Friday we drove our son-in-law to and from the day unit at Crosshouse Hospital ... he had a wee operation on his elbow ... the patient is doing well. Saturday was spent recovering from Thursday and Friday!

Today I'm fighting fit again and I have this little card to share with you.

Pink and green ... one of my favourite colour combinations ... taken from the patterned paper, Parisian Dreams by Jenny Ellory for Quick Cards, used to cover the front and decorate the inside and back of the card.

The topper is made from three ovals, cArt-Us Oval dies, using a snippet of white card, for the stamped image, pink sorbet from PaperMill Direct, and the delicate pastel green card, a gift from my lovely friend, Di.

I combined two stamps, the Penny Black vase of greenery, Simplicity, and the greeting from Inkylicious' set Sentiments 1, stamped with a grey ink, Memento London Fog, and coloured with ProMarkers, Lime Zest, Leaf Green, Ice Grey 1.

To give it a pretty pink edging it's been sponged with Ranger's Spun Sugar distress ink. And just to be little different I placed the three layers off to the right side ... leaving the perfect margin for placing the butterfly, that was cut from the pink sorbet and using a freebie die from Simply Cards & Papercraft, then decorated with Stickles Cotton Candy and tiny pink gems, Anita's.

Pastel green satin ribbon from Papermania Spots & Stripes Festive Assorted, and narrow cream cotton lace from Marianne were used for the trimming on the card.

I'm submitting this card to the following challenges:

Hazel's Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper March challenge - using up patterned paper on the front

Di's Pixies Crafty Workshop - Week 115 - the white card for the stamped topper, the pink sorbet card for matting and the butterfly were from the snippets box.

Right, I'm off to check my pots for water ... some have little seedlings popping through already ... so exciting :) Then I have a long list of crafty things to be getting on with including post all the fab pics taken at the craft show on Thursday ... I don't know, I take a few days off and the list just gets longer :)

Hope you are having a wonderful day.

Happy Crafting,

Remember to Explore - card using patterned paper

Evening Everyone

I trust this finds you all well and happily crafting the evening away :)

I don't think it is any secret that I like patterned paper. In fact I have amassed a huge collection over the last few years - to the point of being ridiculous! Which is why I was delighted to see that Hazel - of Crafty Hazelnut fame - has started a new monthly challenge, Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - just the thing to force encourage me to use up that stash. The challenge is easy - anything goes as long as you cover your card blank with patterned paper or card ... I think I can do that :)

So here's my first entry.

For this card, I've covered the front of a square Kraft card with one patterned paper and decorated it with clocks and compass images fussy cut from another sheet from Docrafts Papermania Chronology 8x8 pack. All the paper edges were sponged with Ranger's Black Soot distress ink.

Next, I stamped the Remember to Explore sentiment (using Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad) from the Life's An Adventure set from Get Stamping in the bottom right corner.

To make the topper, a scrap of white card has been stamped with Docrafts Papermania Urban Stamps Chronology - Looking Glasses - with the same ink pad as used for the sentiment. This was then matted on to a layer of buff cardstock (Papermilldirect), and then some brown string (Docrafts Papermania again) was wrapped around it several times and knotted before being attached to the card front with glue gel.

Gold card candi completes the front embellishments.

I used the leftover scraps of patterned paper to decorate the inside and back.

So that's two sheets down ... just a few hundred to go then! I suspect I'm going to be working my way through all my lovely stash for some time to come. Happily, Hazel's challenge will encourage me to keep it up and who knows, I might be able to start treating myself to new papers in 2015 :)

If, like me, you have an abundance of patterned paper do consider participating in Hazel's challenge too.

I'm also submitting the card to Pixies Crafty Workshop - Week 114 - that's two days on the run - the white card used for the topper came out of the snippet box.

Off to watch the next exciting episode of DCI Banks - I love a good police drama, and Stephen Tompkinson has long been one of my favourite actors.

Hope you are having a great evening too, whatever you're doing.

Happy Days Photo Album

Hi Everyone,

It's been an odd week so far ... because of my sister's illness, the craft space has been neglected. Many thanks to all who left get well messages for Margaret ... crafters are all so incredibly kind and thoughtful.

And I've just heard that she is on the mend although she has a long way to go yet. The scan revealed that she has heart failure though it's not certain which came first, that or the infection.

Whatever, the treatment she is now on seems to be doing the trick, but we have been told it will be quite some time before she is well enough to return home.

Somehow I did  find enough time in the week to make this photo album for my daughter's 41st birthday today.

The album is made almost entirely with Papermania's Happy Days 12" x 12" paper stack and embellishments - all fifties style and very pretty. The only additional materials used were some cream cardstock, blue satin ribbon and vintage lace trim.

The base is made from one sheet of 12"x12" paper, as usual - you can see how here. For the pocket trims, I used the chevron pattern paper and cut along the blue stripes - it's a bit different from using a punch. Actually, my scissors were working overtime as I fussy cut a lot of the embellishments from the heavily patterned sheets in the stack.

The photo mats - cut to fit inside the pockets - are constructed from the cream cardstock and yet more of the patterned paper.

Here they are tucked inside the pockets.

Confession time - the lace trimmed wasn't planned. It's covering up a mistake I made trimming the red/blue patterned trim on one of the pockets - I held the scissors at the wrong angle and cut to much away :(

Here's the birthday girl showing off her first attempt at crochet - a cushion cover for her newly decorated lounge.

She's mainly self-taught, she watched a few YouTube demos - I only had to show her how to do the corners of the square and off she went  - now she has caught the crochet bug too :))

We have the Ayr Flower Show this weekend and normally we'd be going along but we've had to give it a miss this year. The weather has been appalling, we've had some really extra heavy showers today, so I suspect that the ground will be like a mud bath by now - such a shame for the organisers and all the folk involved.

Before I go, I'd like to welcome my new followers - hope you will enjoy popping in every now and again to see what I've been up to.

I hope you will all have a lovely weekend. Hopefully, life will now return to normal for me and I will be able to get into the craft room more over the weekend and do a lot more blogging too.

Happy Crafting,

Focusing on Patterned Paper Card

Evening Folks

I made this card after watching Kristina (aka Starof May) Werner's tutorial on YouTube - click here for the link.

Over the last few weeks Kristina has been focusing on patterned paper in her Friday Focus demos and this card particularly appealed to me because I could see that it would be a great way to use up some leftover scraps of paper and cardstock - even quite tiny pieces could be used ... and I'm always trying to find clever ways of using these up. In the demo she shows how to select papers and gives the advice to sketch out a plan ... something I never do, but probably should :(

Of course, I didn't have any of the materials Kristina used so I substituted with my own. However, I followed her tips about how to pick out papers to co-ordinate with the one multi-pattern paper chosen.  In this case, I chose to use same patterned paper left over from yesterday's scrapbook layout - you can check out the post here.  And, yes, I'm pleased with the result ... I think it's a pretty combination of papers and colours and I really like the sentiment.

The inside and back are trimmed with leftover scraps of paper - I just don't like leaving them bare.

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Papermania cream textured card for base; snippet of white for topper and rose-pink pearlescent card for heart shape
• DPs: Leftover snippets of Basic Grey, Kioshi Motochi, Papermania pink polka-dot and green stripe papers, a strip of BoBunny Alissa Twirls and a tiny off-cut from a punched edging (the reverse side of the Basic Grey DP)
• Stamp: Inkylicious Sentiments 1
• Other materials: Small Woodware heart-shaped punch; black fineliner pen for faux stitching effect

Kristina has a very distinctive style which reflects her love of paper and she is well-known for her popular video series Make a Card Monday where she walks viewers through the creation of a handmade card each Monday. If you would like to know more about her, she also writes a blog, KWernerDesign, where you can find lots more chat and inspiration.

As this card is made entirely from snippets I'm submitting it to Jules' Crafty Snippet Challenge - Week 39.

I'm now off to look out the pile of Christmas themed scraps that might be used in a similar way.  I might just catch up on the backlog of Christmas cards ... it's week 40 now so I'm about 3 weeks behind on my card a week challenge ... sigh!

Happy Crafting