What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 827

Hello Everyone,

Happy Wednesday! Happy WOYWW too.

What's on my desk is a page in the planning stage but just look at the sunlight gleaming through the window blinds. A very welcome sight any day of the week! 

It's sad but sometimes I have to close the blinds and shut out the sunshine to work on a scrap layout. Here the last two I put together.

The photo is of my youngest great-grandchild, Freddie, taken just after he was born. He's now a loveable three-year old whirlwind! 

Materials from Echo Park's Welcome Baby Boy collection from 2021. If I remember correctly the collection was purchased from The Mad Scrapper, based here in Scotland.

In complete contrast, this is one for the Family History album. The photo is of my mother and stepfather visiting my great-grandmother, Nana, in hospital on their wedding day in 1969. Nana had fallen, breaking a hip, while running to catch a bus. She was in her early nineties at the time! It's not the best of photos but the only one I've got. So few photos have survived from those years.

Materials from Ella Bonella's Family Blues Kit. Ella Bonella can be found on Facebook. 

Most mornings I note what the temperature is for the day in my journal. Recently, it's been in the low teens - typically 11-15 degrees Celsius . This morning it's only 8 degrees, despite the sun shining. Not only that, but the reports says it feels like 6 degrees. That's cold! 

Fortunately, it usually warms up enough for me to spend a wee bit of time pottering in the garden. I'm still having to take it easy but have managed to cut back the brambles up at the back of the garden. They were on a mission to take over completely but I believe I have tamed the beast! 

As well as that, I've been rescuing the many pots of plants scattered front and back. All brought from the last garden but completely neglected. They don't just have plants in them, they have weeds. Lots of weeds. 

My plan for the coming week is to clean them up, split plants where needed and repot and, hopefully, give them new life. 

It wouldn't be a garden report without a shot of the undergardener!

And finally, 

T

This is so true!

That's it for this week. Apologies once again if I didn't leave a comment on your post. I'm still not a hundred percent fit so having to rest often. It's a pain but it's life. 

To see many more WOYWWer's desks, and admire their work, pop over to Sarah's Craft Shed. Indeed, why not join in the fun and let us see what's on your desk this Wednesday. They are a very welcoming bunch of crafters.  

Take care everyone.

Elizabeth

Catching Up Again - August Scrap Pages

Hello Everyone

Once again it's been quite a while since my last post. I thought I was 'raring to go' but clearly I got that wrong. In fact, although a lot of sorting and organising has been going on in the craft room, I've managed very little real crafting time over the last few weeks. The result is I have just two scrap pages completed in August to show today. 

There's still a lot of the kits I put together before we moved house waiting to be used up. That was two years ago! There's between four and five kits in each of the boxes you can see piled on the shelves above. They should make it easier for me to get down to creating pages, and would do if my get up and go hadn't got up and gone. Despite this sad state of affairs I did pull a kit out to work on last month - here's a few photos of the contents:

That last photo is of a partly used sticker sheet that I really wanted to use up completely for that reason it the kit was based on it. I was able to make the following two pages using the kit.

I chose the pocket style for this page thinking that it would be best for the three poor quality photos of an occasion from the 1990s It's going to be added to an album I've put together as a keepsake for Alan's nephew. I'm regretting the choice of pocket style because now I have to create another layout on the reverse!

This page uses one portrait and one square shaped photo. Challenging. It's so much easier to create a page when photos are the same size and orientation. I didn't use a sketch for this layout. Not that there aren't sketches for photo combinations like this available. There are but I decided that, as I was working with leftover paper scraps, it would be best if I just made it up all by myself. 

Some of you may recognise the photos from a recent Facebook post in which I mentioned that this year would have been our 28th anniversary. We married late in life so we considered every anniversary a huge bonus!

All the materials in the kit were old, 2013 being the oldest, so probably no longer available but the paper used for the base, 49 & Market's Kaleidoscope Solids Paper 2, is bang up to date. The glittery alpha set used for the title is also fairly new from Shimelle's Reasons to Smile collection from American Crafts. 

That's it from me for today. I'll be back hoping to join in with tomorrow's What's On Your Workdesk. Well that's the plan but given how long it's taken me to type up this post, I'm perhaps being a tad optimistic. 

Take care and enjoy the rest of your day.

Elizabeth 

WOYWW - Week No.788/8

Hello Everyone,

It's been a while since I've been able to join in with What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - hosted by Sarah on her blog, Sarah's Craft Shed. I won't go into the gory details, and risk boring you all. I'll just say I've been too ill to do much at all. Not least, scrapbooking. I think I've made about three pages since my last post, which was way back in May! 

That's why all that you see on my desk is the album I'm keeping for this year, with guidance from Shimelle's class, This Year's Story. Needless to say, I'm way behind! Not to worry. I'll catch up eventually. Anyone who follows me on Instagram or Facebook will have seen my recent progress but for those of you who haven't here's the latest pages made for the album.

This last page was made with really old stash and I even managed to add some inky stencilling to the background.

The stencil is from Scrap-A-Sketch's collection. I've been a bit naughty recently, spending more than I should on new stash. My way of trying to cheer myself up when I've not been up to anything more than wishing, dreaming and mentally planning future scrap projects. And when I've not been doing that, I've been doing this:

This book, The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus written by three noted nature writers, has indeed been a consolation. And with a nice cuppa in this cute cup, a gift from my daughter, what could be better. Not much, that's for sure!

Before I go, I just want to thank everyone who has left me their kind comments and emails. They have been much appreciated even if I haven't been able to say so at the time. Indeed, one of the reasons I haven't shown up on WOYWW for the last goodness knows how many weeks is because it wasn't possible for me to visit you all and admire all the crafty stuff you've been up to. I changed supplier recently and found I was without broadband, WIFI and TV for longer than expected. Never again!

To end, late as I am to the party, I still intend to visit everyone who is participating in WOYWW today and leave a comment where possible. Experience has shown that's not always possible for reasons beyond my ken. Suffice to say, I plan to do my best. 

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth

WOYWW - WEEK 718

Hello Everyone,

Happy International Women's Day to you all. Thanks for visiting and I hope this finds you well and enjoying lots of crafting time. 

So another three weeks has sped by and I've been missing in action again! Still trying to get my new craftroom sorted but I'm getting there, slowly but surely. A new desk and shelving has been added. 

With thanks to my daughter and her hubby for assembling it all for me. Silver approves too. 

I'm still unpacking but taking my time to finding a home for everything. The labeling of the boxes is essential or I won't be able to find a thing. 

There's someone coming tomorrow to mount the TV up out of the way on the wall above the desk. Then the next big job I have lined up is to set up my PC and all its attachments on my desk in such a way it's taking up the least possible space. Such fun!

I've had very little time, or inclination if I'm honest, to scrap for several weeks but I did join in with the Mind The Scrap Cyber Crop recently and manage to create these four layouts. 

Not great but every little helps. 

It's still cold up here though we've not seen so much as a flake of the promised snow. Not that I'm complaining as it would put a stop to my occasional walkabouts. Here's a couple of pics from a recent walk to the beach. 

In a garden a few doors down. 

And this is a rare site - a post box! This one was tucked inside a privet hedge, almost in hiding. 

And, of course, the beach. 

The vessel that can be seen in the distance is the ferry to the Isle of Arran. 

That's it from me today. I'm late again but, as it's still Wednesday, I hope I'll be forgiven by not only our Head Desker, Julia, over on the Stamping Ground but by all you lovely WOYWWers! 

Before I go here's a wonderful photo taken of the Aurora borealis (also known as the Northern Lights) seen here in Ardrossan one night last week. 

Bye for now,

Elizabeth 

WOYWW - Week 714

Hello Everyone,

Goodness, it's been quite a while! Lots of reasons most of which I will resist boring you with here. Instead here's a shot of my workdesk, such as it is, today. 

As you can see I'm still working on a makeshift desk, actually a camping table,  but it's at least in what will be the new craftroom. I'll not deny there's lots to do yet. The old craft desk had served me well for something like sixteen years.

Beautiful but far too big. So, regretfully, it had to go. It's now in a local primary school and I hope the children there get as much pleasure using it as I have. It certainly took the sting out of parting with it to know it was going to a very good cause.

A new, smaller, desk has been ordered and delivered. It's flatpack so I await the help of a handyman to put it together. I look forward to posting a photo very soon. 

 

Time for scrapping is short but I've managed a few (13 so far) pages by working in short bursts. Here's just a few. 

That's Christmas and winter done with for now. The days are warming, sunshine has even been spotted hereabouts and I can feel that Spring is just around the corner. Happy days ahead!

Have a wonderful WOYWW and a fabulously crafty week ahead. 

Bye for now,
Elizabeth

WOYWW - Week 707

I know I've been missing in action for a few weeks but I just had to join in with Julia's What's In Your Workdesk Wednesday and wish you all a 

Very Merry Christmas! 

There's not much to show on my desk today. Just the glittery gold Christmas album and the last page made waiting to be filed in it. It's looking a bit too bulky now, weighs a tonne too, so time to order a new album. 

Here's a close up of the page. The design is a good way of using up lots of leftover strips of paper. 

I've not been able to do much scrapping, or much of anything really, because of arthritis in my hands. All the packing and unpacking with moving house has caused a flare-up so I've been advised to take it a bit easier for a while. Not too difficult as it is Christmas so I'm giving myself a break. 

I hope to get back to normal again in the New Year.

ln the meantime, I wish all of you wherever you are, whatever you are doing, a wonderful holiday weekend. 

Elizabeth

Sunday Chat

Hello Everyone,

Happy Sunday to you all. I thought I'd start a regular post for Sundays to chat about what I've been up to recently. This week it just happens to be about scrapping from a sketch. 

I like using a sketch. They make a great starting point.  In particular, I'm a great fan of Lisa Sikorski's sketches - they can be found on her Scrap A Sketch Facebook group  This one is sketch is No.2. I've used it not just once, but twice. 

Our Sweet Kind Boy

Fresh Air

Seen together like this it's obvious I used the sketch both times. But different backgrounds, colours, patterned papers, embellishments and, of course, photos and each page looks completely different. 

I created the tags by cutting a variety of papers to size, rounding of the corners with a corner punch, and punching a star centre top ... the hole punch is still packed away goodness knows where! It's a trick that I often use when there's no suitable labels in my stash. 

Eventually each page will be filed in different albums so the similarity of the layouts probably won't be noticed. Not that it matters to me if they were - I'm just pleased to be able to use a sketch more than once. 

If you are a scrapper do you use sketches and, if so, do you use the same one more than once ... your favourites, perhaps? 

I have an evening of scrapping on my temporary workdesk lined up, after dinner, of course. And I'll be catching up with Strictly Come Dancing in Blackpool too ... hoping my favourites get through to dance another week. Can you tell I'm addicted? 

I wish you all a lovely week ahead and 'keep scrapping'! 

Elizabeth 

WOYWW Week 702

Afternoon Everyone,

After a morning taken up with yet more unboxing and sorting through stuff, I thought I'd unwind by joining in with Julia, at the Stamping Ground,  and show what's on my desk today. 

Well, there it is. My desk. Covered in stuff. So not ready for scrapping yet but closer than the last time I was here. 

The sewing table is a lot less cluttered but no sewing machine to top it so nothing doing there either.

But fear not, fellow crafter's, the temporary workdesk is still serving me well. Here it is between projects. 

And these are the projects. Before the move, I had the foresight to put together page kits from stash. Over 140 of them. Each one is made up of cardstock, patterned paper, alpha's, embellishments and one or more photos, whatever seemed appropriate - all put away in a polythene baggy and stored in a numbered 'pizza' box saved especially for the job. 

I expected to get just one layout from each page kit but that has rarely been so. For example, from page kit #22 I got the following three.

The photos on all three are from different periods, years apart, and will be filed in different albums. I'm delighted. A little paper goes a long way! 

Update on the internet status: we're still not online though we were promised it would be up and running by 17th November!!! So communication is still patchy and I have discovered that I am unable to listen to an audiobook on my phone if the microwave is on. It's life, just not as we've known it. 

That's me for this week. I've given myself an hour or so to check as many of your posts as possible before making dinner. 

Take care everyone and have a wonderful week. 

Elizabeth 

Saturday Chat - September's Highlight

Afternoon Everyone,

In all the excitement anxiety of the house move I failed to record the most exciting event of the year. 

Our long anticipated great-grandson, Freddie, was born. As you can see, his parents, William & Heather were almost as delighted as his big brother Callum.

And the same can be said for his three cousins, Rhian, Brodie & Lacie. They were round just as soon as they could to meet him. Luckily, they live not too fat away so I'm sure he'll be seeing much more of them in future. 

And this was Freddie at just one week. Such a sweetheart and a much loved addition to the family. 

We're in November now so September seems so far away, and much warmer too. 

We have a weather warning for high winds today so my plan to walk down to the promenade (photos taken a few days ago) has been cancelled. I hope it's better wherever you are and that you are having a lovely weekend. 

Take care.

Elizabeth