WOYWW - Week 560

Hello Everyone,

Wednesday again and, at last, I can report that it's a lovely day. There's fluffy white clouds in a blue, blue sky and the sun is shining. It's still chilly out there but it feels like spring in my craftroom and, given that it's Julia's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, here's what's on my desk today.

I admit I've tidied up after the cyber crop that took up much of my weekend. Working against the clock leads to nothing but chaos here in my room. The pile of empty Stampin' Up DVD boxes are a new acquisition, just delivered yesterday. I've been increasingly frustrated with my stamp organisation or, more correctly, lack of organisation - it had got well beyond useful. Spotting Sarah's beautifully organised stamp storage last week was just the inspiration I needed to do something about it. Time to get sorting - I just have to decide where to begin!

The layout is my interpretation of the fifth challenge from the weekend. Appropriately for today, the subject is WOYWW.

Crops 2017, 2018 & 2019 recorded with the group photos for each year. Those photos of so many happy, smiling ladies, are reminders of how much fun these get-togethers are.

I've been slowly sorting through stuff since the start of the year.

I've re-jigged the contents of this trolley and now I have all my packs of alphabets in the one, easy to access, place. They are filed, more or less, by colour - very helpful.

And now I have the mixed media/painty stuff on one shelf and markers and pens on another.  So much better than being spread about all over the place.

And finally - a few posters that have made me smile this week.

That's it from me this week. I'm off now to see what Julia and our fellow deskers have been showing us today.

Take care everyone and have a great week ahead.

Catch up after the MTS Cyber Crop

Happy Monday Everyone

Hope you are having a good day. It's not a bad day here. Dull and chilly but calm -  probably the proverbial calm before the next storm - expected any day now. Makes a nice change after what we've had to put up with over the weekend - hail, snow, torrential rain and gale force winds. Lucky for me then, that there was the Mind The Scrap cyber crop on Facebook to keep me indoors and busy over the weekend. Not that I managed every challenge - I am, without doubt, the slowest scrapper on earth - but here's the four pages I did make.

Challenge #1 - My Handmade Bags

This one gave me the opportunity to record a few of the many bags I've made since treating myself to a sewing machine about five years ago, and rediscovering the joys of making projects with pretty fabrics.

Challenge #2 - Deah Dudi

For this page I took a trip down memory lane with a very old photo of my children. I can hardly believe that it was taken 46 years ago. The page is about Alun's nicknames for his baby sister, Juli - Deah and Dudi. Coincidentally, her husband, who is profoundly deaf, calls her Dudi to this day.

Challenge #3 - Joyful

Memory lane was well trod this weekend. Going against the trend for outside shots, we had our official wedding photographs taken in a studio and, as you can see, this shot benefited from the camera's soft filter. It captures the happy occasion perfectly and is probably our favourite shot taken that day.

Challenge #4 - Tree Sculpture

The photos I've used here were taken on a day trip up the coast to Arrochar on the coast of Loch Long. We discovered this tree trunk chainsaw sculpture in the car park there - possibly the car park with the best view in the country.

That's it. Four pages in all. Not a lot considering some participants managed all 19 challenges, but I'm pleased with what I accomplished. It's the participating that makes it fun. The materials were, in the main, from MTS kits.

I'm on a roll now so I think I will keep going and see if I can complete all the challenges over the next few weeks. You never know, I might get them all done before the next cyber crop. Unlikely, but I'll be trying my slow best!

Take care everyone, and given the weather forecast for the UK, stay safe.

Weekend Scrapbook Layouts

Hello Everyone

I spent the weekend participating in the cyber crop ran on Facebook by Mind The Scrap. I didn't make as many pages as hoped but enjoyed the process and the banter. Here's what I did manage to make.

2.20 From Grosmont

These photos were taken on our recent holiday in Yorkshire when we took a lovely trip on the steam train from Pickering to Grosmont.

Family

It was fairly rare to get my grandchildren to sit still long enough for a photo shoot but this was one such occasion. This one was taken when the oldest four were very young.

Art at the Clutha

The photo on this page  is an example of the wall art that can be found around Glasgow. This one is of the mural, created by three Glasgow street artists, as a tribute to the disaster of 2013 when a helicopter crashed into the roof of The Clutha pub killing the crew and seven patrons.

Keeping Secrets

This page was just a bit of hark back to my young days in the Women's Royal Army Corps. Back then I was attached to the Signals Corps and so had to sign the Official Secrets Act.

Happy Together

I love this photo of my grandson, Josh, with the EM. It's of just an ordinary day, a shopping trip together, but it sums up perfectly how much they enjoy the company of each other.










Five pages altogether - an improvement of one on last time! Five more pages to file away in the albums.

Luckily, as the EM says, it's been persisting down all weekend - perfect weather for scrapping. Today isn't any drier so I think I may just continue while I'm in the mood. There's still the album I'm putting together for my son to work on.

Have a great day and stay safe.

MTS Cyber Crop Weekend - Pages 3 & 4

Back again with two more pages made today.

For the Love of the Beautiful Game

This photo is of my grandson playing football on a very unseasonably cold, miserable, day in July 2015, hence the title. I pulled out several punches and a set of circle dies to create all those circles. Supplies used are mostly from Mind the Scrap's kit for March - patterned papers are from Dear Lizzy, Maggie Holmes and Paige Evans; embellishments Amy Tangerine and alphas from American Crafts Marquee thickers and Kesi'art Script stickers - the orange letters are from old stash.

Sock Knitting

I don't usually do this but I posed for this photo earlier on today so that I could make a layout to record my sock knitting. Again the supplies used are mostly from the March kit with a few from older kits included. Patterned papers - Jen Hadfield and Dear Lizzy; die-cut embellishments from Amy Tangerine and stickers from Maggie Holmes; alphabet thickers are American Craft Charming and The Works black puffy stickers.

I can't pretend I'm making good progress - in fact, I'm way behind - but as the EM says 'it's not the winning that counts, it's the taking part'. It's fun and at the end of the weekend I will have a few more scrapbook layouts for the albums.

I'm off to bed now. Hoping to be up early, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to create a few more pages.

I wish you all a super Sunday whatever you're doing..

MTS Cyber Crop Weekend - Pages 1 & 2

Hello Everyone,

I'm participating in the Mind The Scrap Cyber Crop all weekend so thought I'd try to post as many of the layouts I complete as possible throughout. Here's the first two.

Lovely Day.

The photos of us with two friends were taken in the tea rooms on a visit to the art gallery at Rozelle Park here in Ayr. Supplies used are patterned papers from Echo Park, Petticoats & Pinstripes - Tiny Teapots - and Simple Stories So Fancy; white and blue cardstock; enamel dots in three shades of pink from stash. The background stencilling was created with a Heidi Swapp  stencil #312291 and teal blue Letterpress ink.

Believe in the Most Magical Things

These photos were taken on two different occasions but they are both of Scotland's mythical water horses, the Kelpies. Keeping with the mythical theme I've used unicorn embellishments - the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland. It is both a symbol of purity and innocence and masculinity and power. Supplies used are patterned papers from Vicki Boutin Field Notes, Daydreamer, and Crate Paper's Hooray, Sprinkles and Birthday; embellishments are mainly from Shimelle's sticker sheet with Washi tape from craft Sensations and green enamel dots from stash.

There will eventually be more but I'm already way behind so we'll just see how I get on.

In the meantime, I hope you are all having a great weekend. As ever, many thanks for visiting.

MTS Cyber Crop - Rock-Climbing & Abseiling In The Lake District

Morning Everyone,

Happy Sunday to you all. Not a nice day here - the rain is coming down like it's not going to stop. A good day to spend in the craft room, I think. And I'm here to share the third layout from the MTS Cyber Crop. 

In this one I've told the story of my disastrous initiation into the sport of rock climbing whilst on 'Adventure Training' on Helvellyn in the Lake District way back in 1966. My army boots were too big - they were issued with the instruction to wear an extra pair of socks! It was inevitable that something would go wrong. I got my foot stuck in a crevice on the rock face - farcical really but completely unnerving - and had to be rescued by the Sergeant leading our little troop - a very handsome but tough task master. I recovered and went on to climb a few more rocks and discovered how exhilarating it is to abseil down a rock face. Sadly, I have no photographic evidence of this time in my life so I've borrowed an appropriate photo from the Internet. Shame I didn't have those shoes at the time. 

The layout is very simple starting with a black cardstock base, some Ranger's textured paste and a Prima stencil. The photo is matted and layered on to leftover scraps of patterned paper. The alphas used for the title are from old stash and the embellishments are a mixed lot from various sources. I used white Sakura Gelly Roll pen for the journaling.

That's it for now. Will be back later with the next challenge page. 

MTS Cyber Crop Page - Cheddar Gorge

Afternoon Everyone

Well, I'm struggling to keep up but here's page #2.

Cheddar Gorge

Many, many decades ago, 1967 to be precise, I, and a bunch of army mates, visited the Cheddar Gorge, Somerset. We were stationed in Wilton, near Salisbury, then - quite a way from Somerset but distance was no object for the army. We all piled into a 3-ton truck and off we went - it was the only way to travel! It was a fun trek, amazing place and never forgotten.

Again, most of the supplies used are from the October kit from Mind The Scrap but I did use leftover scraps for the matting and layering of the photo. The leaf printed vellum is very old from a Nancy Watt collection, 'Owls and Swirls'.   I used the packaging technique and Heidi Swapp Colour Shine in Patina and a Vicki Boutin stencil with Ranger's Opaque Matte textured paste on the background. The alphas are also old - a mix of Pebbles ABC stickers and Kaisercraft letters. The two stamps used are from Kaisercraft too - the Polaroid set - stamped with Memento Dew Drop Pistachio.

Right, better get on with challenge #3. Will be back later.

MTS Cyber Crop Page - Love You All

Good Morning Everyone,

This weekend I'm participating in Mind The Scrap's Cyber Crop. Throughout this time we are being challenged to make as many layouts as we can based on various challenges. So far I'm straggling along behind everyone but that's okay - I can live with that. Anyway, I thought I'd post each page aas soon as they are done and not wait to do them all in one huge post. Otherwise, they may never be posted. Here's the first.

Love You All

And, of course, being a proud great-gran it had to of these four cherubs that made my first page. I have six grandchildren and, so far, two of them have added to the next generation. Great-grandchildren have got to be the best reward for living a long life!

Supplies used:

• a sketch from Creative Scrappers Creating With Sketches book
• all papers from Mind the Scrap's October Kit - base is from Heidi Swapp's Emerson Lane Collection, 'Details'; layering & matting is from One Canoe Two Golden Rod collection 'Meadow Floral' and Pink Paislee's Paige Evans 'Whimsical 22'
• title alphas - Gold Imprint thickers from American Crafts
• embellishments - 'Along the Way' die-cuts and Amy Tangerine Sticker Book, all from American Crafts
• journaling - Sakura's Pigma Micron 08 archival pen

That's it for now. Will be back later with the second layout.