Stretch - A Scrapbook Page

 

This is the last of the pages made and not posted during my blogging absence. This one is dated May 2022. In the photo Silver looks as though she's scratching the wall but, in fact, she's just stretching after a snooze at the top of the cat tree. 

The layout is another scraplift of a page, this one made by Melanie Marshall, that appeared in The Scrapbook Magazine. I do wonder what inspiring scrappers like Melanie, and Sam featured in yesterday's post, are doing now that the magazine is no longer published. 

Materials: Papers from Jen Hadfield's 'Peaceful Heart' collection and Pink Fresh's 'Right Now' & 'Time To Chill' collections; Nuvo Crystal Drops 'Red Berry'; Embellishments from stash. 

Today's shot of Silver. I've brought the scrapping trolley through to the living room. I plan to watch YouTube videos on the big telly while I scrap.  Well, that was the plan but clearly Silver has other ideas. It would seem the camping table makes a perfect perch.  

I'm still getting used to the lighter evenings - it's almost 8pm and it's still nowhere near dark. The weather has been better today - windy, not unusual here on the coast, but sunny and warm and, in my experience, that is unusual! Hope you've enjoyed better weather today too.

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth

New Specs Documented - A Scrapbook Page

The weather continues to be wet and miserable here so I've been working on a scrapbook page this afternoon. Not this page. This is one I made earlier. November 2022, actually. Still not sure about those frames. 

The layout is based on a page by scrapbooker  Sam Sweetlove. This page appeared in an old copy of Scrapbook Magazine, which, sadly, stopped being published in November 2009.

Materials: Kraft and yellow cardstock; papers from Pinkfresh Studio; embellishments from my not inconsiderable stash. 

Here's hoping for an improvement in the weather soon. I have a garden that's crying out for some attention. And talking off attention seeking, and to finish with, here's a pic of my little furry princess.

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth 

Scrapbook Layouts 2022 - Nos. 5&6

Hello Everyone

I hope this finds you well. The news is still full of the devastating happenings in Ukraine and, sadly, there seems to be no end to the war. I don't profess to know what it's about, but I do know it's inhumane! 

It seems, therefore, frivolous to be sharing more of my scrapbook layouts, but scrapping is what I do to escape, even if it's just for a little while. Here is page 5&6 of 2022.

No.5 2022

This one is the title page for my 2022 album. The photo is of the image I downloaded and used in the first post of the year. I'd been hoarding the stunning  patterned paper for something special (Vicki Boutin's Fernwood Collection, 'Fable'). What could be more special than welcoming a New Year. The metallic flair (Dotty About Flair) are rather special too. 

No.6 January Week 1

This page is put together in the style of project life but there are no pockets. I've tried the real PL pocket pages, persisted with them even, but they're not for me. This method, borrowed from Mind The Scrap's Emma, enables me to record a snapshot of a week on a page. I shall be using it throughout the year. 

That's it for today. I'm still finding the time I have to escape to the craftroom limited. I suspect this will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. However, I've spotted the first signs of Spring - the sparrows are back to nest behind the weatherboards above the craftroom - and we're looking forward to spending time pottering about in the garden. 

Take care and keep safe.

Scrapbook Layout 2022 - No.24

Hello Everyone

I had every intention of joining in with yesterday's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, but it was just one of those days when nothing worked out the way I intended. Which is a shame because i planned to post the partially made page pictured on last week's desk now that it's finished. So, believing it's better late than never, I'm sharing it today instead. 

No.24 This Photo

The photo is of Alan taken the day he was discharged from hospital, 8th April 2020, after he had his hip operation. As you can see, he was doing well, adapting to using the crutches and finding his mouth made a useful third hand! 

Of course, what we didn't know was that he was already infected with Covid and it was only a matter of time before we were both ill and admitted to hospital. 

The layout is based on one of Lisa Sikorski's sketches, one I've used before. This time I flipped it to allow me to fit the cut-file title (from Peartree Cutfiles). Originally white, it was coloured with an Aqua Marker - colour 'Spice'. 

Apart from the flair and flower embellishments, all materials are from older stash. I'm resisting the temptation to break into the new goodies bought recently with my birthday and Christmas money. Their day will come. 

That's it from me today. I can't even begin to guess what tomorrow will bring so no promises that I'll be back with another post. Fingers crossed. 

Stay safe and keep well. 

Elizabeth

Scrapbook Layouts 2022 - Nos. 3&4

Hello Everyone,

Well, that's Monday over again. I know it's not everyone's favourite day of the week but it was a particularly frosty start here. Hope today isn't so cold. 

Clearly, I've fallen behind with recording pages completed so far this year so here's numbers 3 & 4, just for the record. 

3/2022 - Breathe

This layout came from my choice of  'one little word'. Not to make too much of it but I've found the last two years stressful, and there's little sign so far this year of things improving.  So I decided I need to do something to combat the stress. Choosing and concentrating on OLW is said to help and telling myself to slow down and just 'breathe' seems to me a start in the right direction. 

The choice of yellow and green - so cheerful and optimistic - seemed right too. Especially in the dark days of winter. The lemons always remind me of a wonderful week spent on the Amalfi coast, Italy, twenty or more years ago now. 

 

4/2022 - Meow You Doin'?

Loved this 'Playful Pets' paper collection but did wonder how best to use the many cut-aparts that came with it. Lisa Sikorski to the rescue with the perfect sketch (Scrap a Sketch on Facebook) and Silver, of course, with the perfect playful snaps! 

Right, that's it for this morning. We have a pink sky outside - a real bonnie dawn - which probably means more frost. I'm off to enjoy it, and do as I ought, just breathe!

Take care everyone.

Elizabeth

December Scrapbook Layouts Nos. 10, 11 & 12

Hello Everyone

I hope you had a lovely first day of the year yesterday whatever and however you celebrated. We skipped the Hogmanay celebrations this year - bed and sleep being a much more attractive proposition than partying into the wee small hours these days. But we did enjoy the traditional New Year's Day dinner to welcome in 2022 with a heartfelt wish for a better year than the one just gone. So far, so good. 

And I'm back with three more scrap pages made in December for my Winter Album. 

10. The Christmas Rose

I love my Christmas Roses, hellebores. They are special as they are often in flower when nothing else is in the garden. I usually steer away from black backgrounds - black is scary - but I thought it would show the pristine white of the flower very well. Disappointingly the mixed media looks so much better in real life than it does in this photo.

11. Hustle

This beautiful dog is one of my middle grandson's fiancée's collies. She has several that she trains for shows and they are lovely dogs. Hustle's coat is very different from the more usual black and white. I believe it's known as Lavender but why it's called that I really don't know. Because the photo is so striking I kept to a very limited white/black/silver colour choice and can't deny I'm pleased with the result. Most of the embellishments were made by either punching out circles or die-cutting snowflakes. 

12. Christmas Wedding

Another limited colour palate for this page. The photo is of my younger brother on his wedding day 46 years ago. There's is a marriage that has stood the test of time. The frame is from a pack of special die-cut paper that isn't quite as old but it's been in my stash for a very long time - DCWV's Holiday Specialty Diecut Stack from 2009. 

All layouts inspired by the same three Facebook challenges I've been participating in throughout December. Even though I've fallen behind, I aim to continue until done - it would be quite something to have a completed album for winter 2021. For more information scroll down to the previous December Scrapbook Layout post or click here. 

That's it for today but there's more to follow. 

Take care, stay safe and have a lovely evening.

December Scrapbook Layouts Nos. 8&9

Hello Everyone

I hope you are well and have had a good weekend. Around here it's been really quiet with not much going on now that the rules have been tightened again to cope with the new variant of Covid. It's such a shame for everyone, especially if their festivities have been cancelled as a result.

Happily for me, I was able to take myself to my craftroom whenever I had a bit of free time and work on pages for my winter album. In fact, I did really well on Sunday and completed these two layouts. 

No.8 - Merry Christmas

The photo is an old one, taken in 2007, of my two youngest grandchildren. They were such a cute pair, they adored each other and were inseparable back then. They are still quite close now they're grown up but no longer inseparable. 

I've added red machine stitching to this page and the bells, stars and poinsettias were fussy cut from a pack of papers that were included in an issue of a now defunct scrapbooking magazine. 

No.9 - Holiday Cheer

Another old photo here. This time from Christmas 2002. It's a rare shot of me with a glass in my hand. Not alcohol, but non-alcoholic mulled wine. We'd just left England and moved up to Scotland to live and I was celebrating getting the tree up and decorated. Moving home just days before Christmas is not to be recommended. 

The die-cut hexagons took time to prepare and I think I could have made a better job of keeping them straight. Too late and I won't be changing it now.

Most of the materials are, like the photos, old but still good. The exceptions are the base papers on both layouts. They are:

Merry Christmas

- 'Holly Jolly' from Photoplay's Tulla & Norbert's Christmas Party collection. 

- 'Tis The Season' from the Holiday Magic collection by Pink Fresh. 

Holiday Cheer

- 'Starry' from 49 and Market's Vintage Ancestry Peace & Joy collection. 

All from Mind the Scrap's December kit. The flairs are from a Christmas set from Dotty About Flair. 

I had a day off yesterday so I'm hoping to do a bit of catching up today. After, that is, domestic duties have been attended to. 

Have a lovely day and stay safe and well. 

December Scrapbook Layout No.7

Hello Everyone,

Another day nearer Christmas and another page for the record. 

This one has a photo of our beach taken in one of the few dry days we had in December 2019. The kind of day that, after days of being stuck indoors, makes a walk along the promenade so refreshing. 

Materials:

- Plain white cardstock, Mind The Scrap.

- 'Starry Night' stencil, The Dusty Attic.

- Tim Holtz distress ink, 'Iced Spruce'.

- Patterned paper pad, The Works Make & Create Contemporary Christmas 'Happy Holidays' collection; 'Reach for the Stars' from the Bella BLVD To The Moon collection; scraps of papers left over from previous pages. 

- Cutfile from Peartree Cutfile Designs.

- Snowman fussy cut from a other leftover. 

- The number 7 stamped from an old woodmounted set, origin unknown.

- Shapes: stars die-cut from silver card; circles punched from paper from the same pad as used to make banners. 

- Dies from Docraft's 'Stars' nesting die set.

This layout owes a lot to yet another of Lisa Sikorski's sketches. I think I was lucky to find papers that so matched the photo. It made putting the page together a pleasure. 

Hopefully I'll be back soon with yet another page in this winter album series of posts. 

Take care and stay cosy. 

Bye for now,

Elizabeth

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 636

Hello Everyone,

Miracle of miracles, I'm finding time to join in with What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, Julia's weekly get-together of crafty people. 

This shot was taken last night, just as I'd finished the layout and was off to bed. What a mess. You wouldn't think that the desk was very tidy before I started putting the layout together, but it was. The problem is, I pull out and rehearse so many papers, inks, stickers, embellishments, etc., before I settle on what goes well with what. And the rejects just pile up. Chaos!

This is the finished page. The photos are of my daughter's first day out of hospital. After weeks in the prem unit she was considered well enough to come home. She weighed a tiny 5lbs 5ozs and was no bigger than a doll. She turned 50 last week! 

Materials used were: base patterned paper from P13s Sugar & Spice O2; other patterned papers from Bella BLVD's My Candy Girl Collection, 'Bubble Beauty' and Cocoa Vanilla's Happiness Collection, 'Expressive'. The cutfile is from Peartree Cutfiles. Stencil from Clarity Stencils. Inks are Heidi Swapp Color Shine in 'Hot Pink' and 'Sweet Mint' and Tim Holtz Distress Ink in 'Picked Raspberry'. Stickers from Simple Stories I Am collection, Tim Holtz Idea-ology 'Chitchat'; Vicki Boutin Sticker book and sequins both from MTS Kits. 

Sequins! More sequins than I am likely to use in my lifetime! But aren't they pretty? In the interests of enabling they are from Craft Medley Creative Essentials, purchased in a mixed media kit from Mind The Scrap. They look good enough to eat. Note to self: keep away from the kitten. 

And talking of the kitten:

Up to mischief, as usual, trying to snatch Alan's yarn and needles. 

And finally, a funny:

And that's me again for this week. I will, as usual, try to visit everyone but I can't make any promises. My playtime is somewhat limited these days but I'll do my best. 

Have a great WOYWW and a wonderful week. 

Situation Update & Scrap Page 22/2021

 Hello Everyone

Many thanks for visiting today and for all the lovely comments. Your continued support is much appreciated. I hope all is well with you wherever you are.

Situation update: things took a turn for the worse here last week when the EM became very unwell and had to be admitted to hospital on Friday. Happily, he's responding well to treatment but a scan shows that he has heart failure and his kidneys are damaged - all from having Covid-19 last year. Thankfully, he's looking and sounding very much better today and hopes to be allowed home soon.

Now on to today's scrap page.

Another one made in February - the intro page in my daughter's album. Juli was born premature and spent her first weeks of life in an incubator looking incredibly fragile, so this photo celebrates the day we finally got to bring her home. The background has inky splatters and some floral stenciling in green and pink inks. I dipped into very old stash for the patterned paper scraps, embellishments and alphas. Even the background paper is so old, I've forgotten the source. 

That's it from me today.

Take care.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 587

 Hello Everyone,

Late again! No good excuse except that my workload has either increased due to Mr W's Covid induced incapacity, my preferred excuse, or I'm just slowing down - hard to admit, but true nonetheless. Whichever, I'm still late to Julia's weekly WOYWW party over at the Stamping Ground. 

And before I reveal what's on my desk, I need to apologise to everyone I didn't manage to visit and leave a comment with last week. I did try, honestly, but I just ran out of time. I'm trying. When he's being flippant Mr W would say I can be very trying indeed :)  Enough of my grovelling! Here's what's on my desk today. 

Still scrapbooking - it's what's keeping me sane at the moment. (I won't go on, but there's an increased incidence of the dreaded virus in our area which means we could be back in lockdown imminently.) And just for my own entertainment, I'm working my way through a pile of mini kits I put together a while ago - last year, I think. The papers in this one look perfect for the wedding photo of my lovely cousin, Rachel, and her hero, Chris. 

And many thanks to Jan, aka LLJ, who sent the lovely notecard you can see lying on the keyboard. She, like many of you, has been so kind while we've been poorly, regularly getting in touch and asking how we're doing and sending best wishes. Needless to say, it all helped immensely and I am so grateful for all the concern shown. It's the friendships made through this blog, and especially through Julia and her What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, that have meant, and continue to mean, so much to both of us. Our thanks go to you all. 

And now a sort of return to the book bit.

Note: not the usual audiobooks but real, have to pick them up and read, printed on paper books. When I was able to do not much more than just keep breathing these books kept my interest from day to day, and they continue to do so. It all started with the audiobook of 'Wonderland - A year of Britain's Wildlife Day by Day' by Brett Westwood & Stephen Moss. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the authors taking me through the year on audio. But it didn't take long for me to realise that really what I needed was the printed version so that I'd be able to check out each daily entry on the date itself. And the search for the book online led me to 'Every Day Nature' by Andy Beer, which is subtitled 'How noticing nature can quietly change your life'. For me, that has proved to be so true. This book has beautiful illustrations throughout. I now know so much more than I ever thought I would about our native wildlife - from the Emperor Dragonfly to Woody Nightshade, Montagu's Harrier to Wart-Biter Cricket!  And the two bird books? They're old faithfuls that have been around for years!

That's it from me this week. As ever, I'm looking forward to catching up with you all, over at The Stamping Ground, 

Take care and stay safe.

International Scrapbooking Day - Three Scrapbook Layouts

Evening All,

I was at a crop hosted by the Scrap Dollies, a group of Ayrshire crafters, yesterday and managed to make these three layouts - a good number for me.- from page kits I put together using stash with leftovers from Mind the Scrap kits. 

(All Good Things Are) Wild and Free

The photos are of the squirrel that is a frequent visitor to our garden. He is very difficult to photograph at close quarters - one sight of me and he's off. (We assume it's only the one, and that it's a he, but really there is no way of telling just how many there are and whether it's male or female.)

 Always

This is about as romantic I will get in a layout but I thought it appropriate for my lovely man. He's had a bad year or so healthwise and come through it still smiling. I'm not too sure what he'll think of this predominantly pink layout but I like it, especially the peony patterned paper - 'Ta-Dah', from Dear Lizzy It's All Good collection.

Lovely Llamas

I have a real soft spot for the llamas that live in the Deer Park in Culzean Castle Estate and visit them every time we go down. They always come rushing up to the fence when we draw up - I think they mistake us for the rangers who feed them. The llama patterned paper was just perfect - 'Llama Drama' from Heidi Swapp Color Fresh collection - not to mention that die cut llama with glasses - from Dear Lizzy - pink llamas, whatever next!

I rather optimistically took five of my homemade page kits with me but I ran out of time - too much chatting, not enough scrapping!!

It's been a chilly weekend here so I hope you've enjoyed warmer weather wherever you spent this May Bank Holiday weekend.

Have a great week ahead.

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.