WOYWW 182

Morning WOYWWers, Followers, and Fellow Bloggers,

Well, it's Wednesday, and after the week I've had already I am not a bit prepared to reveal what's on my workdesk today. But, in the interests of desk snoopers of this world, here it is.

Absolutely shameful! But I do have the best defence ... if you scroll down to my previous post, or click this link here, Reason to Celebrate, all will become clear :))

Anyone wondering why I am showing what amounts to my dirty linen should pop over to Julia's place, the Stamping Ground where you will find around a hundred or more others revealing the state of their desks to the world.

So what's on the desk ... the detritus left from making another scrap page. Usually, I clear up after completing a project but, so far, I just haven't had time this week - it's all had to be left in situ while attending to more pressing matters. Here's a closer look at the page.

This is the result of Prompt #7 of Shimelle's Remix class and features two photos taken on my youngest granddaughter's second birthday - that's seven years ago!!! Where does the time go?!?!

The base is Kraft and the papers are from Daisy Bucket, Papermania, Fancy Pants and My Mind's Eye. The embellishments are handmade from scraps, including the windmills. The title uses Jillibeans Alphabeans and American Crafts thickers.

Julia likes brief, so brief it is this morning ... if only because I've yet to have breakfast :) 

I'm not dashing off anywhere today so will be back after breakfast to take a peek at your desks too, check out if yours is anything as messy as mine, and see what you are all up to.

Finally, my thoughts go out to those of you who are involved in the terrible floods happening around the UK this week - I hope you have all escaped the worst, and if not, you are receiving all the help and assistance you need. 

That aside, I wish you all a very happy WOYWW,

Scrapbook Remix - Prompt #6

Hi Everyone,

And a very warm welcome to my newest followers, Robin and Tina - hope you continue to enjoy my little blog.

I've several layouts to share with you - all inspired by Prompt #6 of Shimelle's course.

The first is entitled Retro Girl and features one of my favourite snaps of my middle granddaughter, Jolene, taken in 2005 when she was only five years old.

Apart from the strips of polka-dotted pattern, and the base paper which is from Panduro Tilda Party collection,  all the papers are from Papermania's Happy Days collection, chosen because the Baker Boy hat Jolene is wearing took me back to the sixties, when I was a teenager and this style of hat was very much in fashion. The bottle top embellishments were punched from one of the papers. The fabric flowers are also from Papermania - I've had them for a year or so - it was nice to finally find a use for them.

There is a large corner image on the Garden Party print which I felt did not work with the photograph so I've covered it up with the stack of Happy Days papers, you would never know it's there.

The second layout, Waiting to Meet Santa, shows a nervous and apprehensive Shari-Ann outside Santa's grotto, not too sure she really wanted to meet the big man in the red suit and white beard. That was in 2008 when she was tiny ... now she has no worries about meeting Santa.

None of the papers used are Christmas papers but because I've used a traditional colour combination of red, white and green, the effect is Christmassy.

The papers are SEI White Elegance, Daisy Bucket Playful Petals (the red polka dot) and Basic Grey Hello Luscious (the red and green strip). I've also been inspired to get out the Cuttlebug and die cut some holly and circles, and some stamps to make a few festive embellishments, e.g. the pile of packages is a stamped image coloured with ProMarkers, as is the Joy embellishment and the sentiment.

The final page from this prompt is Smiling for the Camera featuring the Boss who clearly thinks she is a Cheshire cat. I've never known a cat to smile before :)

One of my favourite colour combinations is pink and brown and, as my cat is a very dainty, girly cat, that's the colour mix I decided to go with for this page. The base print is a 'b' side from Papermania's Happy Days collection - the 'a' side has very pretty doilies scattered all over it, not what I was looking for. At the back of the many layers is a piece of printed vellum - Owls and Swirls from a Nancy Watt Collection. I've found it difficult to handle vellum - never know how to fix it so that the adhesive doesn't show but Shimelle has a video on YouTube that helped me overcome that problem. All the other papers are bits - some ancient - from my scrap pile and the embellishments are handmade using punches/dies and the letters are from American Crafts (Darling) and BoBunny (Ambrosia).

And for those folks that have been enquiring, I did indeed find some really useful type boxes that now are home to my scraps and so far it's making it easier for me to pull just what I'm looking for. I've devised a system that I think is the best solution for me and hopefully speeds up the scrapping process. For example, most of the strips and scraps on the last layout came out of these new scrap boxes. I've forgotten to take a photo, and it's a bit late tonight (just turned midnight), but I will try to remember tomorrow and post a piccie for you to see. 

As it is so late, and I was up very early this morning for no better reason than I couldn't sleep, I'd better get myself to bed - at my great age I need all the beauty sleep I can get.

Take care all and happy crafting,

Scrapbook Remix Course - Prompts #3, #4, #5

Hello Everyone,

Recently I posted the first two scrap pages made after reading prompts #1 and #2 - either scroll down or click here to see them -  of the course I'm following, Shimelle's Scrapbook Remix. This time I'd like to share the next three pages. Most of the papers, and even the embellishments, are from my stash and are fairly old - they may even be out of date now - learning to use them up, by mixing them up, is the main aim of the course.

The photo on this page dates back to 1995, to our holiday on the Amalfi coast. After walking from Amalfi to Minori in the baking heat - typically, like mad dogs and Englishmen, we went out in the midday sun - we were in need of a cuppa so we popped into the nearest cafe for a coffee. We were served quickly and efficiently by a young man and this cup just made my day!

Materials used: Papers from My Mind's Eye - Ooh La La 'All Dressed Up', Docrafts Papermania - Happy Days, Sassafras - Life Is Beautiful Woodland Whimsy - Paper Garden. Grey Pebeo paint, Alphabets, punched hearts, ivory web trim, baker's twine, brown twine, wooden butterfly (inked with TH's Scattered Straw & Fired Brick) washi tape; flower, gems, all from stash.

I love the blue of the water in these photos of my grandchildren and the EM having great fun splashing around. It was June, in Scotland, in an open-air pool - and it was a lot chillier than these photos would lead you to believe!  

There's a lot of aqua - the colour of the water is fairly overpowering - with just a little yellow and red in the photos so I've used papers from Crate Paper, Fancy Pants and a couple with no name attached that include toned down shades of these colours. Apart from the word stickers (Bo Bunny) all the embellishments are handmade from snippets of paper - easy to do and definitely cost-effective. The title uses Doodlebug Simply Sweet alphas. The result is a bright and vibrant page that I probably would never have tackled before taking this course.

Finally, something completely different - in fact you couldn't get more of a contrast! The patterns on the papers I've chose are all delicate and pastel so the photos of the beautiful showy roses are what you focus on - as, of course, they should be :) You might remember seeing these photos before ... this was the first blooms we got this year from our new Queen Elizabeth floribunda bush. 

Materials used: Papers from Bella Blvd Plastino, Bermudas, SEI Juliete, First Kiss, Making Cards Editors Selection, Pretty Pastels, Reminisce Baking, Recipes (striped one used for journaling); Tilda paper cut-outs; Alphas from American Crafts Emerald Chipboard Thickers (cream) and Nikki Sivils We Are Family Cardstock Stickers (blue); pearls and narrow pink lace from stash.

Thanks to this course my scrapbook albums are starting to fill up and my pile of photos is starting to diminish - just a few hundred more to scrap :)) Give me a few days and I'll be back with some more pages.

I see it is near the witching hour so I'd better take myself off to bed and see if I can get a better night's sleep than last night. My head was buzzing with so many ideas last night that I woke at 2.30am and no matter what I did I could not get off again! 

I bid you all a good night too.

Happy crafting,