These are the days..

'These are the days we will remember....

these are the days that will never come again'.

Not the exact words but Keith Urban was one artist who recorded 'These are the days'. Do you remember the song?

Anyway, I thought these words would make a good title and 'lazy-journaling' for my layout with these photos I've taken over the years of my daughters on Brighton Pier. I dry-embossed the balloons (a technique I like doing but it's not fashionable these days) and cut out flag shapes for the words. Doodling in black pen features all around the page to highlight different areas. It's a colourful bit of fun and I enjoyed making it.

Everyone's musical tastes are different and when I see people listening to i-pods I wonder what's on theirs. I'm a nosey sort of person obviously. Sometimes it's so loud I know already! Would that person have some of my favourites that they listen to as well? If I ever dared to ask I might one day be surprised at someone listening to Pop music who I had 'labelled' as a classical music lover!

I did a layout a couple of years ago about the music on my i-pod and the background paper I used was a printed list of all the songs I was listening to then. I should probably repeat the exercise now and see the difference in my favourite tunes. I think music is a lifelong journey, ever-changing as songwriters and musicians release new tunes, but music can bring back so many happy memories just by hearing a few bars of a song. I love music. I enjoy listening to Rock, Pop, Soul .... old and new. Yes, even the new stuff ends up on this 50-ish person's i-pod!

Pink Saturday

I own up! I'm not too keen on pink! But to take part in Pink Saturday I need to display something pink (done) and visit a new site (done).

I really did think I had nothing pink around me to photograph. I was very surprised that, to show a photo here of something pink, I didn't have to look far. Right in front of me in my computer room is my Discgear CD/DVD holder. It's double-sided and full up with craft CD's and recordings of TV craft programmes. And I mean full up! Many of the pockets have two CD's in them and I find it hard to close the case.

The new site I have found whilst blog-hopping is

http://thesecretlifeofascrapstashcollector.blogspot.com/ with Wrightboysmum who's made a  lovely album for taking part in Shimelle's 'Learn Something New Every Day'.

But the originator of 'Pink Saturday' is Beverley at
http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/pink-saturday
There are loads of participants in this weekly gathering and plenty of pink to go round!

Angle-poise lamps?

Doing my rounds of WOYWW blog posts yesterday was very enlightening. It's great to see how other people craft. Amongst other things I saw a pillowcase being used as a background for taking photos of cards. Wonderful idea. 

It got me thinking about how everyone here takes photos of their layouts before putting them on their blog.

Do you take great care to get perfect lighting and a plain background for your photos? I have pictures in my mind of people precariously climbing on steps to get the perfect shot. And positioning angle-poise lamps to prevent unwanted shadows!

Are you a perfectionist? Or are you more laidback and anything goes?

I tend to use a wooden table or the lounge floor for my photo-taking but I'm never totally happy with the end result. Cropping the photo doesn't always remove the background either if I haven't got the camera perfectly straight to begin with. And lighting is always a problem in the evening when I tend to take my photos for the blog as I'm at work all day.

My daughter often uses large pieces of white card as a blank background for her photography shoots. She has even hung sheets from the  lounge walls - but come on, I'm not taking an 'A' level here - I just need a decent picture of my layouts for others to see! And layouts tend to flippin' bend in the middle if stood upright I find! Not helpful at all.

So, any tips shared on how you overcome these pesky problems would be gratefully received.

WOYWW

This is the first time I've been able to take part in WOYWW! I've been at home today and spent most of it crafting. It's very rare my workdesk is out of the cupboard on a Wednesday, so make the most of it, as I may not be taking part again for a long while!

I 've been making some Christmas cards with a couple of snowflake stamps I bought in wet and windy Worthing yesterday. Papermania stamps, I think, but I've already got rid of the packaging. They were £1.99 for two which I thought was reasonable as I already have plenty of Christmas-themed stamps and don't really need any more. But what has need got to with anything??

So here's my desk this Wednesday afternoon before I have to put everything back in the cupboard again. The other half's asleep in bed as he worked last night, so I get to play a little longer and let you see the results....

There's actually a bit more mess around than this shows.... of course there is! The photos show one half of the table only. I also have two small drawers of ink pads, acryllic blocks and stamps, and a paper trimmer (or two) in use.  Have you spotted a ball of crochet thread and a needle? Well, I did sew buttons on a couple of the cards to give them some texture. You can just about see my blue scallop punch and a glass of water. No, not to drink - I did plan on doing some painting but ran out of time!

There's not as much on my table as there often is ........ but under the table there's more............

All the essentials like rulers, craft knives, glues, sticky tape, scissors etc. And two magazine holders that I use to store unmounted stamps vertically. There's my heat gun and embossing powder somewhere around too.

Well, I'm off to see everyone else's WOYWW on their blogs now, but here's a photo of one of the finished cards (with button present!).

Sizzix Giveaway Winner

I have a winner for my Sizzix Giveaway.

ANGIE

Thanks very much for your idea to use up my white cardstock. I will try out your idea this week as I have a couple of days off work! Please e-mail me with your address so that I can send you your prize. My e-mail's in my Profile.

Hats and More Minibooks

I've been busy this morning as I knew the weather was going to be better this afternoon. Hopefully I'll have time for a walk later. I have made a couple of minibooks in my crafting session. All the photos are quite small so they fit well into a flip book made from one sheet of 12x12. 

Most of the people in the photos are dead now so the book is a record of who's who in the older members of my side of the family.

My husband's family do not have any old photos of previous generations. He is one of 5 children living with their parents in London's Islington district. He and his brother shared a bed, and his three sisters shared another. They certainly did not have any money spare for photographers. The family was moved out of London to Aylesbury which is where I met my husband, but that's another story.

I think black and white photos are so much clearer than colour. You can see every fine detail in the faces and clothing even though the images may be old. Personally, I think it's hard to scrap old photos. You need to be sympathetic to their content,  not be too modern in the choice of papers, make room for names (and stories if you know any!) and try to let the photos speak for themselves.

I just love the hats in old photos! Isn't it a shame we rarely wear hats now? Usually they're worn just for weddings these days, yet I think they are lovely at any time. Look at these 1930's hats. The ladies' Sunday Best I'm sure! Dad's written on the back of the photo 'Mr Watson School Master at Sunday Church Outing'. He can't remember the place, date, or the ladies' names, but I'm  guessing one is Mr Watson's wife.

I also made a small fold up minibook documenting Dad's working life. He worked in an Ironmonger's Shop from when he left school with the only break being when he was drafted into the RAF. At 18 he was made the manager, although he thought he was too young for the job! I remember going there as a young child and watching Dad serve petrol and paraffin to customers - he tells me the petrol was 1shilling (10p) a gallon in those days! He later moved from the shop in Woburn to the premises in Woburn Sands where he was manager for 33 years before retiring with ill-health. Both shops are still there today, but the Woburn store was taken over and now sells china. To keep both minibooks safe I made a slipcover to keep them in.

So now I hope there's time for a walk before tea, but I don't have a hat to wear for my Bank Holiday Promenade!

Challenge Junkie With Time To Spare?

Chalk Cliffs, Peacehaven

I'm not one who enters every scrap challenge I come across. Rather, I use them when I'm short on ideas and need some inspiration to kick-start my layouts. Occasionally I might enter a challenge but it's a rare event.

Do you ever dream of being asked to contribute to a crafting website or a magazine? I do. But I am realistic enough to acknowledge that I work full-time and could never combine the two! Not only that, I have some huge cliffs to climb before I'm good enough!

I did win a runner up prize once with my entry for a card competition, and it was briefly shown on TV, which was an unexpected surprise. I have also had a couple of my card 'recipes' printed. Nothing

major. 

Crafting remains just my hobby. It keeps me sane. But if any of you are interested, there is an 'advert' for a designer to join Method Playground, a challenge website that I visit for prompts to get me started on a project  http://methodplayground.blogspot.com/

If you love challenges and have the time, why not go take a look? You could make your dream come true.

Important Me

If you have a pet you will know what I mean when I say they wrap themselves around your heart and manage to take over the whole household! They have everyone doing their bidding in the shortest space of time. But what they take from us and 'demand' sometimes, is more than paid back though, by the love and company they give us and the humour we find in their characters.

Smokey was no exception. We had him such a short while before he went out one day and never returned. He was only 8 months old when he disappeared. I like to think that he is with a family or an old person and giving them the pleasure he gave us for the short time we had him.

He is irreplaceable and we still miss him a year after he left.

For the layout 'Important Me' I used two shades of blue paint dabber on large stamps to make a background and stamped on contrasting paper with the 'original' and 'important' stamps. I did the journaling on the computer because 'Smokey' had a fair bit to say and I needed to fit it on the page!