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

Sunday Snippets - A Beery Male Card

Hello Fellow Snippeteers,

And welcome, too, to my new followers - hope you enjoy my crafty prattlings!

I'm still on 'clean up craftroom' duty but took a little time out to make this quick and simple to make card for my Grandson's birthday.

It's his 29th. I don't know how it's happened but the last 29 years have passed in a flash and he's gone from cute baby to a daddy himself in the blink of an eye. One of his passions is playing pool - I'm told he's not half bad at it too - and because that usually entails the partaking of a pint or two I thought this topper was quite appropriate.

Supplies used:

- a white A6 card blank from Docrafts Papermania

- snippets of Kraft and brown card trimmed to size for matting and layering

- Kanban male themed topper and greeting

I did say it was simple to make, didn't I?

It's a snippet card so I'm off to check in to Pixie's Snippet Playground and catch up with what Di and Parsnip are up to today.

Before I go, I'm sitting here looking at the most gorgeous golden/red sunset.

The real thing is so much better then this photo but it is the best I can do with the camera I have. Still, I hope it gives you some idea of just how lucky we are living on the west coast of Scotland ... we get the pick of the skies!  That's a telephone wire right in front of my window. Birds congregate there periodically during the day, twittering, tweeting, gossiping and bickering and I have a front row seat to it all. 

Right, that's it for today. I wish you all a very good evening, or morning, depending on where you are. 

Hot Shot Card

Evening Everyone,

Today has been a day of celebration for us. It's my husband, the EM's 76th birthday and our friend Margaret's 73rd ... the perfect reason for us all to get together for a day of fun, laughter and food :) Indeed, we enjoyed ourselves so much the day just flew by.

So card #3 is the one I made for himself ... and here it is.

It's really quite a simple design relying on lots of matting and layering in silver, black, green and red cardstock. The pool themed toppers are from a Kanban sheet, Happy Hour. I did take the opportunity to have a play with some Brusho crystals to create the background ... I think I might have overcooked it a little but I love the way the powders react to water. I only sprinkled two of the colours, Brilliant Red and Leaf Green, on to wet watercolour paper and was stunned at the colourful result ... especially as they made the perfect background for the toppers. Can't wait now to experiment with more colours :)

The inside - there was one small topper left to decorate the inside.

You might have guessed from the card that the EM likes a game of pool. And as our grandsons also like a game I decided that a pool table would make the perfect birthday gift. As we were going to be out all day today, I arranged for it to be delivered tomorrow but a message from the supplier tells me that it won't be delivered until 23rd now ... so disappointing :( Finger's crossed it will be safely delivered next week as arranged.

I'm submitting this card to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 142 ... the snippets are green and red cardstock used in the matting.

I hope you had as good a day as we have had.  Thanks for dropping by.

Happy Crafting 

Male Birthday Card

Evening Everyone,

I trust you have had a good day. It's been a bit of awful here - I've come down with a sore throat and generally not feeling well so accomplished absolutely nothing at all :( No crafting, no housework - nothing, nil, zilch ... nada!!!

That being so, the card I'm sharing this evening is one I made earlier.

Made for my firstborn grandson's 24th birthday. I simply used a Kanban topper, matted on to toning cardstock and embellished with some twine and a greeting. But how dumb can a grandmother get? I thought I was choosing an image of a football player but it wasn't until I'd completed the card that I realised this was a rugby player ... not one of my three grandsons plays rugby. Fortunately, William loved the card and completely forgave his old Gran's mistake :))

Materials: white card base; topper from Kanban's The Champion set; brown card for matting; natural button twine; greeting stamp from Ladybug Craft's It's Only Words set stamped with VersaMark and gold embossing powder.

Not much for you this evening - I'm off to take a couple more tablets and it will be an early bed for me tonight.

But before I do, an appeal! Now that the festivities are completely done with I'm looking at a new look for the blogger again. And this time I really would like to create my own header. I believe it can be done in Serif Craft Artist but I'm not sure where to start. If any of you clever folk out there have any hints and tips, I would be grateful if you could pass them my way - otherwise I'm struggling.

Right, there's a cuppa with my name on it downstairs so I'm off. 

Take care all, and happy crafting,

Boo! to You ... Again ... cards from leftover Halloween papers

Hello Everyone,

How are you all doing? I hope you are well and enjoying the week so far. I see from the school just across  from our house, that the children are back to school after the October break ... that must be giving a lot of mums more crafting time :)

I've been trying to catch up on my to-do list ... uphill work at the moment but I'm getting there. Today, I've been working on and have finished my Rudolph Day card for this month ... early! Will wonders never cease!?!? Of course, I will not be sharing it until the 25th so here are two cards I made using the leftovers from the tag shown in an earlier post.

The materials used are more or less the same as for the tag with the addition of red alphas, Docrafts' Forever Friends Cosy Christmas, for the 'boo!' and the black gems used for a finishing touch. The gruesomely stretchy spiders are resting on a tangled web ... I made this by just taking a length of the webbing trim, pleating it and after tying the centre with a length of bakers' twine, spreading it out to form a circular shape. Instead of cutting off the tails of the bakers' twine, they have been looped around the card.

Loved that the patterned paper had the word Halloween repeated throughout - it enabled me to trim round it for the decorative strips inside and on the back.

It seems I have a thing for pennants at the moment - they are so useful they keep popping up on my cards and scrap pages.

Materials:
Leftover dark green cardstock, Paper from My Mind's Eye 'Boo! to You' Collection, Kanban ivory web trim, googly eyes, Asda stretchy spiders, black/white bakers' twine, Docrafts' Forever Friends Cosy Christmas Alphabet letters; black gemstones

All those leftovers means that I'm heading over to Di's again - that's Pixie's Crafty Snippets Week 43 - I think she might be impressed at how quickly these snippets got used up instead of being dumped in the pile, which is what usually happens.

I'm planning to play with embossing powders and glitter now ... I have an idea which might or might not work. If it works, I'll let you see it, if it doesn't I did say a thing :))

Have a lovely evening and see you tomorrow on WOYWW,

Happy crafting,

Tuscany Hills ... two cards from one sheet of toppers

Morning All

I trust you are all well and that yesterday turned out to be a good Monday for you.

The cards I'm sharing with you this morning were made some time ago now and they have been lying in the basket forgotten till today. Both cards, a note card and a birthday card, feature toppers from the same Italian themed  Kanban sheet  - Casa Colonica.

For the note card I used an off-cut of Kraft cardstock trimmed, scored and folded to make a card base measuring 4" x 5¾" covered in paper from Prima's 6x6 Botanical collection. For the layering I used papers from Docraft's Papermania 6x6 Birdsong collection topped off with a strip of the Prima paper - bakers twine has been wound round and tied with a bow topped with a button before attaching the topper which was matted on to a piece of the Birdsong paper. Butterflies punched from the leftover edges of the topper sheet;  and decorated with pearls embellish the front. Off-cuts of the Prima paper decorate the inside.

This card was made for my elderly uncle's birthday. As he is well-travelled and loves Italy, I thought this would please him and maybe even give him the desire to visit Tuscany again.

The base is a square white deckle-edged card covered in Basic Grey's Origins 6x6 paper pad matted on to some textured gold paper, I've forgotten the source but I think it was from the fab box of goodies Jo of Jozart sent me some time ago.

This topper is built up in several layers - I hope you can see this in the photo - and matted on to more of the gold textured paper. All papers are edged with a Tim Holtz Brushed Corduroy ink pad. Caramel/white baker's twine was wrapped around one of the layers several times and just knotted. The inside is decorated with strips of leftover paper. 

When it comes to making quick cards - especially if, as in this case, I've nearly forgotten the birthday so rushing at the last minute -  I've found Kanban's sheets of toppers really handy and I like the quality of the card too. My favourite craft centre carries a great stock of them too and that means I can cherry pick for ones that I really like and I don't have to buy an entire collection.

Time for bed for me now - yes, it's the early hours again. We are visiting Arihanna later today so I need to be as fresh as a daisy for the trip.

Thanks for looking and take care everyone.

Happy crafting,

Inspired by the Kindness of Others - How Beautiful

Hi Everyone,

I trust you are all well and enjoying your weekend, whatever you are doing.

While I was choosing a sentiment for this card this one jumped out at me and sent me off thinking about the numerous times I have been touched by the kindness of others. For example, through this blog I have been shown much kindness. Take yesterday, for instance ... I asked a question in my last post about crochet patterns and, two lovely bloggers, Cass and Angie, were able to help and give advice. And then there is Neet who found the time to look up and kindly pass on a recipe I had loved and lost.

There are so many others who have helped me in some way throughout my life, for whom I am eternally grateful.

I think I've mentioned it somewhere before on this blog but I'll risk repeating myself yet again to mention that I didn't go to university until I was in my mid-forties ... I was obviously a late-developer :)) And whilst at university I had the good fortune to go to the US for a year as an exchange student and study at Wellesley College, MA. There I met many amazing women, it's a women's college, one in particular who befriended me is Dr Ruth Harriet Jacob, the founder of the Red Hat Society.

Now in her eighties, she is still an outrageous older woman - and she wouldn't mind me saying that :) Author of several books, she gifted me a copy of her autobiographical work, Women Who Touched My Life: A Memoir, in which she gives thanks for the women who, in some way, influenced and inspired her life ... it's a fascinating and thought-provoking read, and one that I will treasure always - thank you Ruth Harriet.

In the spirit of Dr Jacobs I'd like to give thanks to all those who have influenced and inspired me in some way. There are so many that I can't possibly mention everyone in one post alone so I intend to make it a regular spot.

And I want to start by thanking Teresa Kline at Paperie Blooms. I have been inspired by Teresa's beautiful work for a considerable time now and frequently visit her blog to check out the latest work she is kind enough to share with us. A published crafter, she is on several design teams, I would describe her style as shabby chic - my favourite I'd say. This card was inspired by this design of hers:

I was even encouraged to get out the sewing machine to add the row of zig-zag stitching just like Teresa's.

So thank you for that, Teresa. I'm sure I'll be getting the sewing machine out more often in the future.

About the card I made ... the starting point was the strip of card I'd decorated using the H2O and distress ink technique I'd been playing with recently - see it described here. It was the narrowest scrap but the result was too pretty to throw away. However, I remembered Teresa's card and thought the design perfect for my snippet. So after stamping it with the Simply Script stamp from Inkylicious and dusting with silver mica powder, it was embossed with the Kassie's Brocade folder from Cuttlebug. The papers are from Kanban's Vintage Tapestry Paper, a gorgeous collection, and the sentiment, embossed with gold powder, is from the Inkylicious Sentiments 1 set. The butterflies, a gift from friend Chris - more kindness, have been given the VersaMark and mica powder treatment to make them shine.

As a couple of snippets went into the making of this card I'll be popping over to Di's playground, aka Pixie's Crafty Workshop, for her Sunday Snippets Challenge #42 although I suspect she is absent, playing hookie  at some WOYWW workshop in Wiltshire and having far too much fun to even think about what is going on in the treehouse today :))

I hope you will visit Teresa, Cass, Angie and Neet and enjoy their blogs as much as I do and I also hope you will read the article I've linked for Ruth Harriet - she truly is an amazing person and I have nothing but admiration for her.

All that said, it's late and I should be heading to bed now so I'll bid you good night and wish you all a fabulous weekend.

Happy crafting,

A Rose Garden Birthday Card

Hello Everyone,

I'm still not here ... I'm off on my jaunt to the Yorkshire hills ... so by the wonders of modern technology here is a card I made for my sister-in-law, Margaret, who will be 86 on her birthday next month.

A pretty feminine card for a very feminine lady who is going through a hard time at the moment. Her husband of goodness knows how many years, Cyril, has for the last nine years been ill with Alzheimer's. And, sadly, this year it was decided that his condition had become much worse, so much so that Margaret herself has become too old and too frail to continue looking after him. It wasn't an easy decision for the family - but a necessary one. Nevertheless, and understandably, Margaret, despite accepting that it was necessary, is taking it badly now that Cyril is in a care home, particularly as she has never in all her 85 years lived on her own.

This sentiment is one of Pink Petticoats digital New Simple Sentiments #1.

Back

Materials list:

A4 sheet of white card, folded in half to form A5 size card

Holly Pond Hill Victorian Collection 12"x12" design paper - very pretty little patterns in pastel shades but bought about 15 years ago so probably no longer available.

K & Company Brianna Block Collage 12"x12" design paper

Kanban Rose Garden Topper Collection - just love these overblown peach roses

Tim Holtz Coordinations, Milled Lavender

Birthday greeting - from another Kanban Topper Collection - Weston Park Squares & Sentiments

Pink Petticoat digital sentiments - New Simple Sentiments #1

Spellbinders Nestabilities Die, Labels Nine 

Adirondack ink pad, Peach Bellini

Embellishments: Prima Say It With Pearls flourish, Papermania pearls, peach lace, peach satin ribbon, gold peel-off edging

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and that the weather is being kind to you.

See you all again soon,