Tea Break Layout

Taking inspiration from The Scrappiest Sketch 109 but changing the theme from 'Valentine's Day' I've made a layout this afternoon featuring a very old photograph of me working, or rather, taking a tea break at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury. 

It was my first job after qualifying as a Radiographer in 1980 and this photo was taken about a year later.

The shot was taken by a colleague who was a keen photographer and he developed his own photographs in the x-ray darkroom after hours. If you look very carefully you will see my wedding ring on my right hand. He obviously reversed the photo by mistake before developing it.

I've included a tag, attached to the clock face cut-out, which can be pulled upwards to reveal the hidden journaling, highlighting his error.

For the layout I used K&Co and Tim Holtz papers and stamped clock face images over the background. 

As I am determined not to increase my scrap-booking stash this year, I delved through my many boxes and found some items I had forgotten about. My collection of punches hasn't seen the light of day for ages so it was past time that I used them again on a page. 

Can you spot the three I've used from Martha Stewart?

I think it's as much fun rediscovering old techniques as it is in using new things - or am I just trying to convince myself?! 

Doesn't Time Fly?

I can't believe that I've not posted here for a month! I have been so busy lately. Work and life in general (i.e. visiting Jenni, fetching Karen from Uni, and a busy period at work) has meant there hasn't been time for crafting. So, I'm back today with two quick scrapbook pages in my favourite colour - blue - to show that the photographs still need scrapping and the mojo's still there to do it! Thankfully.

The first features some photos from a sunny day spent at Shoreham-By-Sea with DD1 and her partner Tom. They met at college and have been together now for three years. Doesn't time fly?

I used Papermania and Tim Holtz papers, Graphicus stamps and some orange brads.

The second layout shows DD2 and her friend Ginny in Cannes in May. They were there for the annual Film Festival and were very lucky with the weather. It seems like a 'home from home' with the seashore and McDonald's! Karen's back home now for the summer, with her first year at Uni completed. Doesn't time fly?

Again I've used Tim Holtz papers, and stamped on them with Papermania alphabet stamps.

I'm away after today for a few days, but I will be taking part in WOYWW this week. The 'time manipulation' wonders of Blogger allow me to set the post up in advance, but I'll be back and checking everyone's workspace Wednesday evening. I hope to see you there!

Bird Houses and Storage

Today I've been tackling a Hunkydory kit and making lots of cards. And bird houses, of the paper kind!
The bird houses come as die-cut white card which you can then decorate with the papers provided, or any way you choose. I chose to use messy inks and my hands are stained to prove it! With hindsight I probably should have used glimmer mists or something more sparkly and eye-catching. Anyway, here they are, one with a resident bird already.

I used Tim Holtz Distress ink pads and Graphicus stamps. 

I think I'll use them in my computer  room cupboard for storage (the roof comes off each one). I can always make use of extra storage.

And here's the cards I made from the same kit.

Now though, I need to find storage for these until I send them to people. Oh well, it kept me amused for most of the day!

King For A Day

At last I've been crafting again! And here are some details from the light-hearted page I made this afternoon, showing my dear Hubby after he had finished the Brighton Marathon last month. I used a sketch from The Scrappiest for my inspiration.

You can see the 3D elements of the flags and the crown, and the brown circle tag beneath the main photo. This pulls out to reveal a second photo, shown below.

The title 'King For A Day' is a bit of fun because Hubby's surname is King, and it seemed appropriate for the layout.

Firstly, I cut out the background shape from plain blue card and then used a Versamark pad to create a watermark effect with the Hero Arts clocks stamp. I also stamped onto white card the crown, the Papermania alphabet title and the clocks once again. Then I distressed everything with Tim Holtz distress inks. The journaling card is from My Mind's Eye and the orange card that I used for the flags is from my box of scraps.

At the end of the event, the King decreed that he will enter both the London Marathon and the Brighton one next year. They will be just one week apart in 2011.

Personally, I think the King is mad!

Quick Post Today

Just a quick post today as it's the first Brighton Marathon and as Hubby is mad enough to take part, I need to make my way to the centre of town. Not an easy thing to do with most of the roads closed and the buses changing routes for the day! He left this morning at 6.15am and managed to hitch two lifts to get to where he needed to be for the start line.

Anyway, Jenni and Tom are moving into a new flat very soon. They will be living in Shoreham-By-Sea in West Sussex, a small town with the South Downs to the north, the Adur Valley to the west, and the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on the English Channel to the south. Their flat has a balcony looking out over the River Adur and the houseboats moored there. It's a beautiful spot and they are very lucky to get the flat.

I made this card quickly this morning to give them today as we are meeting up in Brighton at lunchtime to watch the runners and take some photos.

I used a Hero Arts stamp and Tim Holtz ink in Cranberry, dragging the colour around each clock face  with a water brush. Inside I included a quotation that I think is very true about what makes a house into a home. 

Gotta go now as I have to put away my crafting stuff and find a bus that's actually running into town!

A Revealing WOYWW

Here's my workdesk for 'Teacake Tart' alias Julia at Stamping Ground  who hosts this weekly madness. Hop over to meet others in this group, be nosey and join in if you like.
The desk is not too untidy this week but there's more mess on the sofa as usual. You've caught me in the middle of catching up with pages for my 52in10 album. There's no new items on the table, but you can see my hole punch, Tim Holtz distress ink and tool, book rings from my disassembled album and the green glue machine. And I made sure I removed the evidence of eating-whilst-crafting!
You've seen the sofa before so now I had better give you a glimpse of my er-hem drawers, as promised last week. They are in our bedroom, well-hidden behind the door because they don't match with anything in the house and were a cheap find at a flea market. In fact, Hubby found them and brought them home, probably because he was desperate for something to keep all my inkpads from falling down inside the cupboards!
This should make sense later.

Voila! My drawers! Each is stuffed with lovely inkpads, except for the bottom one which holds my embossing powders. I should probably paint the wood and freshen it up a bit, but I haven't got around to that yet.

On the top there are three boxes you've seen before on my craft table. Two hold my punches and the third contains my Tim Holtz distress inkpads. I know, I know, there's no method to how I store things.
On the left is a glimpse of my wardrobe....... and within.....

.....lies some of my craft Stash. This photo was taken mid-crafting session so there's  lots of things missing and on my craft table or the aforementioned sofa! Things like boxes of paper, ribbons, embellishments and the bag holding all my essentials like scissors, rulers, glue etc.
But wait! I said, 'some of my craft Stash' so where's the rest of it?

........Here, in Hubby's wardrobe of course!
There's stuff missing from here too and bear in mind that these are double-sized wardrobes! When I fold up my table at the end of each crafting session, this is where it goes. It fits in very nicely at the front.
Perhaps now you can see why I cannot buy any more stash. There's nowhere to put it!
It would be nice to be able to leave a project half-way through and go back to it or to leave something out overnight and see it with fresh eyes the next day, but as I've explained before, Hubby has OCD and his excessive tidiness prevents me doing that.
Now then, which box are those metallic paints in?

Getting Ahead

I often try to get ahead with card-making. I've made Christmas cards in July, sometimes straight after Christmas! And I just hate to be caught out and have to make a card in a hurry for someone's birthday. I need time to come up with an idea that's personal to the recipient or in a style they will appreciate.

So what's next on my calendar for getting ahead? Valentine's Day of course!

Am I really going to be sending two Valentine's cards this year?? Does Hubby know about this? No and no.

One card is for me to give to Hubby and the other is for my eldest daughter to give to her boyfriend.

So which one's for Hubby? Would you believe the frilly one? I know no other man who likes flowers and frills as much as my dear husband. He often gives me a bunch of flowers and then proceeds to arrange them in a vase and centre them on the table - you see he's actually buying them for himself but pretends they're for me.

I stamped the card background myself with Tim Holtz distress inks (Faded Lipstick and Shabby Shutters)and a small heart stamp, then sprayed with two colours of Glimmer Mists to get a sparkly finish, which doesn't show very well on the photo. The large hearts are cut from My Mind's Eye paper and backed with cream card. The sentiment stamp is from Graphicus and I also used some American Crafts ribbon.

I just love the effects you can create with the new punches from Martha Stewart, but with my self-imposed ban on buying new stash, I had to dig out my Fiskars border punch instead to make the frilly border.

Maybe I should have made three Valentine cards as my younger daughter has a new boyfriend? Hmmm, maybe not. Something this pink and girlie would probably frighten him off!

Paper Doll Chains

Did you ever make paper-doll chains from newspaper? I did when I was a child. Just folding newspaper and drawing figures on it and then cutting them out in a linked chain kept me amused in those days. I had to make certain that the drawing always touched the sides of the folded paper so that the dolls linked arms.

I also loved the dress-up dolls that came in a book format with tabbed clothes that you cut out and dressed the dolls with. Great fun when I was about 7 years old! It didn't cost much to keep a child entertained and happy in those days.

Anyway, this is my entry to The Creative Type Challenge . The challenge is to use newspaper on the layout and I've done this with a chain of newspaper dolls and another with flowers. The background paper is by K&Co and I've used Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade distress ink and an orange pen. Orange is not a colour I like very much but as the paper included shades of green and orange, I decided to step outside my 'comfort zone'.

My title, 'Crafting Sisters' and the hidden journaling shows how, although my sister is 6 years older than me, we still have something in common.

The journaling reads: 'Maureen was an art teacher and is a gifted artist and sewer (she made my wedding dress) whilst I enjoy scrapbooking, card making, cross-stitch and knitting as my hobbies.'

I'm the one on the right by the way!

WOYWW

Not a very interesting craft table this week maybe, but if you want to see others in this Mad Group who post a photo every Wednesday of their work area, hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground where you'll find them in ever-expanding numbers!

Hello All. What an awful couple of weeks weatherwise. Too much snow, not enough grit, no buses, no way of getting home from work etc. etc. Anyway, I did get to craft a little on Sunday, only to have a phone call from work to say there had been a pipe burst on the roof overnight, the roof had fallen in and the scan room was flooded!!! Argh!

Needless to say, this photo was taken very hastily as I packed up my Stash. I couldn't concentrate on anything after a message like that.

Back to the photo.... there's the front cover and first page of my 12x6 album for '52 in 10' in the making. The 'necessary equipment' on the table includes a corner rounder, American Crafts ribbons and Thickers, hole punch and box of Tim Holtz inkpads. And I've caught myself out again by leaving something on the table for all to see! The TV Remote this time.

OK, I admit it. I often watch TV as I craft. Preferably murder mysteries, sometimes cooking shows (not such a good idea as they make me hungry!) but on Sunday it was the news channel to watch the weather forecasts. I had to be sure I would be able to get into work at 7.00am on Monday to sort out the flood chaos. I just can't seem to escape the effects of the bad weather!

WOYWW

You know by now that this is not a 'Wednesday Workdesk' but a weekend one. I don't think it matters. It's what's on it that interests you, I'm sure!

I've given you a bird's eye view of a few cards I was making at the weekend and the associated craft essentials - two craft mats (why have one when you can have two?), paper guillotine, corner-rounders, scissors, clear stamping block, embossing powders, a can of gold glitter spray..... and a partridge in a pear tree.... Sorry, got carried away there!

Some of these items have absolutely nothing to do with the cards but were still on my table from the previous project I had been working on. There's no sign here of the papers and ink I was using for the cards, because all the extra mess from my crafting session, which couldn't fit on the table, was on the sofa (and I'm not showing that disaster area!).

The papers and stickers (forming the flower centres) are from BasicGrey's Sugared collection and I also used Tim Holtz distress inks. I am a fan of both BasicGrey papers and Tim Holtz products, but they are not so Precious that I cannot use them. Julia was asking yesterday what we really, really didn't want to use from our crafting stash - my answer would be buttons and ribbons. I have loads of both, in every colour imaginable, but find it extremely difficult to use any and give them away to someone on a card. Isn't that silly? That's what they're there for after all!
Whoever receives one of these cards had better be aware of their Good Fortune in getting a piece of my ribbon stash on their card! And if it they eventually put it in the bin, I want my ribbon back ;)
Now there's an idea! Instead of  stamping on the back 'Handmade By' - I could have a stamp made for me which says 'When Finished With This Handcrafted Card - Return To Sender' - or even -  'Don't Bin Me, Recycle Me, Return To Sender'

Anyway, this rambling WOYWW post is all Julia's fault at Stamping Ground - she's a Really Nosy Lady who gets all of her followers to reveal our craft desks every Wednesday, just to see what we're up to! So join us and reveal your crafty messiness - or tidiness if that's you. Whatever!