Hi hi!

What an incredible achievement Julia has reached with 12 years of desk sharing?! I’m sure she never thought it would turn out like it has when she first started in 2008!

For the first time since I started back, I didn’t manage to get around all the desks last week, I’m so sorry. I went out for a coffee with a friend in the afternoon and stood up to come home and almost keeled over. I’ve been suffering some strange stuff ever since but basically it feels like I’m on a boat! So yes, I would love to swap ATCs with you (just ping me an e-mail via the contact form) but I can’t promise it will go out before the weekend! Having never made one before, I am starting from scratch at some point today (Wednesday) but I have another funeral on Thursday and my head is still swimming so I don’t know what form they will take!

And so, to my desk, working from the left – the finished piece of stitched paper ready for the layout, a print off of the Distress Oxide colour chart so I could choose some new colours to purchase, ‘puter for ordering said Oxides, little pots of gorgeous Shimmerz goodness to see what new colours of those I am going to purchase. I know, I know, stash diet. But in my defence, I won a voucher for the Shimmerz as part of iNSD. The Oxides you ask? Um… And so moving on to the rest of my desk – some paperwork for a therapy course and a package from Cheeky Wipes. Best purchase I ever made but nothing to do with crafting. Period pants. There I said it. Nothing to be ashamed of, especially if I can enable others (if you want a code for 15% off, give me a shout) and make other ladies feel as comfortable.

Oh, I forgot my ‘onion’ as Doug calls it, top left – it’s a diffuser!

So, congratulations Julia! And thank you from me (and I assume so many others) for giving us this space – to find friendships, stash, techniques, chat, a weekly placeholder, and oh so much more. If you want to join in, it’s not too late, we’re here every week. For now, I’m going to lay down again but I’ll be around soon so stick the kettle on!

Hi hi!

I just about have a desk photo to share for this week’s What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday (details and linky over at Julia’s) after my trip to Wales. I was exhausted from the journey on Monday so Tuesday saw me unloading everything onto my desk and getting straight on with some crafting to cheer me up. I am working on 2 layouts on my desk here – the egg shape is auditioning papers and stencils (I’d love to know your stencil storage tips and tricks please!) and the intention is to use the spotty stencil all over the vellum with texture paste, for another iNSD challenge. I’ll then back it onto white cardstock because everything else went a very dodgy colour under the green vellum!

The embroidery threads are being used to stitch onto some starry patterned paper and to outline that little EPIC card you can see poking out from the green paper, ready for a layout about gaming. The stitching was the only crafty thing I took to Wales in the end and as you can see I didn’t finish it, even though I had extra time available as I wasn’t able to meet lovely Lunch Lady Jan after all. There was an absolutely horrendous storm predicted the day we were due to meet up on the beach and not only would it have been dangerous to drive but we wouldn’t have been able to hear each other speak with the wind! As it happened, the ‘storm’ in my part of Pembrokeshire was well within normal parameters… until I drove home on Monday. After 2 hours of driving I almost turned back. Lorries less than a foot behind me, hardly anyone with lights on, 3 accidents passed in along the M4 just on the Welsh side and 2 of those can only have happened a couple of minutes before I got there. Good grief I needed my day of crafting yesterday to make up for it!

I took this pic on Friday from the cliffs along the coastal path and it is the furthest / highest I have walked along the path for about 15 years so I was very proud of myself! The tide was mostly out – the right hand side of the horseshoe of water is where the estuary meets the sea, just past The Parrog, which is the smaller of the two beaches at Newport (not to be confused with Newport, Gwent, MUCH closer to England). To the left is Big Beach (Traeth Mawr) which takes me about 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other, hence the name. You can actually drive onto the sand at the back of this beach and I love to sit in the car, watching the waves but protected from the wind, reading or stitching or just planning future layouts. I have rather a lot to get through… oh yes… I definitely do…

Bye for now x

Hi hi!

It’s time for another What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday headed up by the lovely Julia over at The Stamping Ground. All artists, crafters & enablers welcome! It’s a flying visit from me this week as I’m off to Wales tomorrow morning for a few days to put our in-laws’ house back on the market. Last time we tried, it was on the market for 3 weeks before Covid hit. *sigh

So – to my desk! What chaos?! The craftermath / art sediment of the weekend still reigns supreme as I’m still trying to get some more challenges done before the deadline passes. I’ve been trying to combine several challenges but as I often do, I start a challenge with certain parameters, plunge ahead with the layout, and then afterwards realise that I’ve strayed too far from the brief! The layout in progress here is for 2 different challenges involving rainbow colours and pastels plus a scraplift, plus a recipe challenge! The layout on top of that one with the blue corners is for a sketch challenge, a recipe challenge, and one to use a random item! I loved that! The stack of scrap paper in the clipboard is holding all my notes for the different challenges and which layout does with which one – it’s a military operation I tell ya!

Last week’s Throwback Thursday is from 2015 using Shimelle’s True Stories collection. The title refers to our BIG day out at Beaulieu where we met Jaws from the Bond films (Richard Kiel – lovely man) and then saw a monster truck show where Big Foot trampled a whole line of cars – fun indeed!

I’m hoping to get to see the lovely Lunch Lady Jan on my travels this weekend for a socially distanced walk so with any luck we shall have windswept photos to share next week! In the meantime, pop the kettle on, I’m on my way!

Stay safe and keep smiling x

Hi hi!

Happy Inter-National Scrapbooking Day! Are you attempting bundles of challenges? Or picking out one or two that speak to you? I hope you have fun whatever challenges you are engaging in and perhaps you can also include this one in your plans!

A few weeks ago I was delighted to be chosen as favourite layout by the Scrap The Boys challenge team and to then be their guest designer for May. The theme for this challenge is Winter is Coming, which seems funny for us in the Northern Hemisphere, where Winter is just going! And then coming back, and then going again… About a week after I got the e-mail, my tendonitis kicked in big time and I had to stop crafting / moving my arm completely and I was really worried I wouldn’t get the layout started, let alone finished. In the end it took me about 5 days!

We don’t get much snow here on the south coast of the UK so I deliberately avoid snowy / wintery themed collections normally but of course, this year, we did have some and so I had to go shopping… I’ve not bought anything since November, but with the aid of some strong painkillers, I managed to end up with 3 packages coming through the post with only a small amount of it being the Carta Bella Winter Market that I needed… I’m back on my spending freeze now…

Freeze… see what I did there…

I saw a layout involving a circle of ink with a cut file over the top and I can’t for the life of me remember where I saw it. I’ve searched all my normal groups, my saved posts on IG, etc, nothing. Anyway, thank you to that lovely crafter, it inspired me to create a circular layout – perfect for a snowball fight! For my first layer I used clear embossing ink (sheesh, that needs replacing – it had started to suck itself back into the plastic!) with some very old snowflake stamps and white embossing powder and TRIED to get them into a rough circle.

The next layer was the Distress Oxide on a blending tool. Once I was happy with the blue, I used a clean cloth to rub over the snowflakes to polish up the white. Doing the inking after the stamping & embossing gives a crisper whiter finish to the snowflakes, especially as my inks and powders are a bit old now! I then used the same Oxide (Stormy Sky) as a watercolour to add some splatters and then some white acrylic paint splatters on top of that. I punched a load of snowflakes from white cardstock and arranged them around the circle with a tiny amount of glue before stitching in place with messy circles. I used my old Singer hand crank because I didn’t know how my electric machine would cope with the metallic thread, but of course I needed two hands to slowly rotate the layout. Mr Pretty ended up having to crank the handle for me!

I mounted my photos onto 2 different designs of patterned paper because I wanted to highlight the blue circle and green border to echo the blues and greens in the photos. I ignored Luigi’s red te-shirt of course… Honestly, teenage boys… a snowball fight in a te-shirt, I ask you!

Obviously I added some enamel dots from the same Carta Bella collection and then I took the opportunity to go wild with Bramble Fox winter perspextives – how gorgeous is that snow globe?!

The Scrap The Boys challenge is open until the end of the month so you have plenty of time to get your wintery layouts done featuring the chaps in your life. If you’ve been inspired this weekend, I’d love to see what you’ve created.

Have fun! x

Hi hi

Good morning, good yawning! I’m finally in the jab club so feeling a little fragile but not half as bad as I expected (I tend to overreact to everything…). That is my excuse, and I’m sticking to it, as to why this week’s desk is devoid of craft. I’m getting some photos and then potential kits ready for the weekend, which is (Inter) National Scrapbooking Day (and also Naked Gardening Day but we’re still experiencing morning frosts here so I might forego that event, thanks. You’re welcome…)

There will be hundreds of challenges over the weekend and of course you never know what they will be so if you’re looking to support certain groups or businesses, or playing for entry to prize draws, you can’t really decide what to get ready in advance! Prepping a few “kits” that cover various themes, colours, moods etc isn’t fail safe of course but it might stop some of the faff and indecisiveness – “can I do this challenge with the kits I have prepped?” No? Then move on to the next.

Talking of kits, last week’s desk showed a work in progress from a class kit from Go Go and you can see the finished layout here. Nobody could guess what I was making but it was actually a bunny bow – yes, a bow that formed a bunny face for a Spring layout!

At the end of last week my final article for The Artistry Blog went live (although they want me to do some more). You can read all the articles by clicking here. This final one was all about interactive pages and although it is a single page layout it has lots of flaps and pockets so that you can fit a lot of info in.

“Our Story” in this case is about 9/11 and our subsequent decision to go travelling for a year. Somebody did ask me if that’s what I really meant a few weeks ago and it is indeed. We rented out our house, sold our two cars, the cats went to stay with a friend, I took a career break from the police and my husband left his job. We got an open jaw ticket that allowed us to travel one way around the world with 5 flights included, arriving back where we started exactly a year later. Happy days! And yes, definitely before children, which reminds me of a few more stories that need telling about that time…

And finally we have last week’s Throwback Thursday which was created about 4-5 years ago using Simple Stories So Rad.

I can definitely recognise this as one of mine as it’s not too dissimilar to how I scrap now with the clusters and layers and groups of 3 enamel dots. I do tend to mount my photos onto a narrow white border now though. Talking of photos, I’d better get back to my weekend planning. I’d love to know if you’ve got a strategy for challenge events and if you’ll be joining in with NSD at all. In the meantime, stick the kettle on and I’ll come over and see you via our lovely WOYWW host, Julia.

Stay safe and keep smiling x

Hi hi!

Back again with another Go Go class from the March cyber retreat. So far, so good with the jab yesterday so fingers crossed it continues!

This layout ‘should’ have been fairly straightforward but I made a total meal of it…

Oh my heart… these two. It was such a big day. Miss B heading out for her first day at senior school without anyone she knew in her class, and Luigi back at school for the first time in 6 months after the lockdown. Every time we have a significant milestone with our children, it feels like life is on warp speed so Kirei’s title of Time Flies in the Garden Grove Thickers was perfect.

We used Paige Evans Go The Scenic Route collection but this is all from one piece of paper. Using strips to backfill the apertures instead of a single piece of patterned paper really adds a lot of interest and dimension, especially when you distress the edges. I’ve seen this technique a couple of times since I did the class and I’ve loved all of them so I’m definitely going to try it with another cut file.

Using tissue paper for some of the apertures stops the layout from looking too busy and concertina-ing the thin tissue gives the colour more depth and echoes the strips on the other butterflies. The pink tissue is picked up by some of the smaller butterfly negatives that we painted with Shimmerz Pink Lemonade.

The white cardstock is lifted up on foam and this is where I started to collapse. I could NOT for the life of me match up the carefully arranged strips on the base sheet with the apertures. Every time I got it in the right place and then added some foam, I noticed another gap. Because it wasn’t then straight, I couldn’t stick the border strips onto the background and I’ve had to carefully attach them under the top layer. *sigh. I got there eventually and with a few Lucy Abrams sequins I could stand back and admire another lovely class.

I see you there, rescuing your branding strips from the bin…

Stay safe and keep smiling x

Hi hi!

Big day at Pretty Towers – I’m finally getting my first jab this afternoon! I’m very prone to reacting to any sort of medication or treatment so I won’t be surprised if I feel like poo on a shoe tomorrow. Luckily Mr Pretty will be on hand to look after me, as he does so often when any of my conditions make life tricky. I’m so lucky to have him in my life and despite the passing years, 29 years in July, we’re still totally besotted with each other.

Such romantic pictures, huh? We don’t normally “do” romance and as a result, I very rarely purchase any Valentine / love themed stash so this class by Nicki Rowland at the March Go Go cyber retreat was a nice break from the norm. We used a paper from Simple Stories Sweet Talk that was made up purely of tags – blank on one side with a patterned top and then the other side has icons, sayings and patterns on. I’ve subsequently purchased every one of these types of papers that I could find.

The mixed media background was quite a wet start and even with the Bazzil Marshmallow cardstock it still warped a lot by the time it dried. I sprayed the back of the layout and sandwiched it between two Silhouette mats and then weighted it down to dry and this really helped to flatten it a bit before I carried on.

I really love how this turned out with just small pieces of 2 patterned papers and lots of stickers. Like with the blooms on the bunny layout the other day, ordinarily I would feel almost guilty for using so many stickers but when you have a kit for a class like this I have no such qualms!

With the Shimmerz paint in blocks in the background, then the layers of tone on tone tags and then the same tone of stickers on top, it creates a cohesive layout that doesn’t feel overwhelming even though it has loads of “stuff” on it. It’s definitely a style I’ll be trying to recreate in another layout – I just love Nicki’s layouts and I’m so happy that she chose this collection to work with so I could document a rare romantic scene, including this very pertinent phrase “I only have fries for you!”

Mr Pretty, Miss B, Luigi and myself, once restrictions lifted in the very first lockdown, decided to go out for dinner because we were all desperate to go somewhere other than walking distance of our house. Restaurants were open by this point but we didn’t fancy eating where people were serving in masks and gloves (we’ve since changed our minds of course!) so we decided to do a doorstep visit to my Dad who lives near the sea. We got some fish and chips and sat on the sea front watching the paddle boarders as the sun was setting – perfect. Simple things isn’t it? Simple things…

Stay safe and keep smiling x

Hi hi,

I’m gradually getting back into the swing of things after my recent blip with my arm (and subsequent mental health). One of the big differences this time is that I knew what I had to do (rest my arm) and try not to get frustrated about it… ahem… Easier said than done I know, but after a few days of total rest and anti-inflammatories, I was able to start doing a few minutes of scrapping at a time. Eventually I managed this layout.

This page was a class at the most recent Go Go Getaway cyber retreat taught by the lovely Lorraine Morris. I hadn’t completed it at the time because my ‘happy’ was already well into a decline and I couldn’t cope with following instructions etc. I completed some of the challenges instead while we chatted in our little on-line bubbles, which was lovely, so while I was sad that we couldn’t be together in person, I was at least able to ‘park’ the classes and come back to them.

The focus of this class was obviously the bunny bow which we had a template for. Miss B soon snaffled that and created an Easter card for a friend – so cute! The bow is painted with 2 Shimmerz paints – Gosh Garnet Inklings and Pink Lemonade spray. I’m such a novice when it comes to mixed media so I love these classes for pushing me on my messy journey.

The papers and die cuts are Maggie Holmes Marigold collection and the sequins are a gorgeous mix from Lucy Abrams. I struggle with these big blooms generally so they’re not something I would normally purchase myself but it’s funny how when someone gives you ‘permission’ to use loads of them, you find it a lot easier!

In our retreat kits we had a pack of Amy Tangerine puffy stickers as a gift. I thought the gold in them worked really well with the lettering, sequins & die cuts and that the dark pink matched the variegated thread and flowers really well too. Using the Hello from the stickers meant I could save some of the precious Garden Grove Thickers too. Everyone’s a winner!

The photo of the daffodils with the fields behind is our view from the sofas in the barn that we usually go to twice a year for our scrappy friends retreat. We sit there watching the lambs, having our morning cuppa, sighing happily and chatting about pretty paper. We normally go at the beginning of March for our first visit of the year so I went with Hello Spring for my title, as Lorraine had in her original. We just about got there last year before the human malware issue forced us all into the first lockdown and hopefully it won’t be long before we are back there again.

Stay safe and keep smiling x