Getting your ATC OK

I have posted how the ATC swap will work for WOYWW8. 
The page is shown at the top of my blog, imaginatively entitled ATCs.
THIS is a link to the page if you want to rush over there.

Postage is expensive and if you want to take part, you only need send one ATC. It is not the law that you send one to me as well, I wallow in the goodwill of the fact that WOYWW qualifies for an anniversary and that we all seem to enjoy it, so please, there's no need or obligation.

These beauties represent a teeny part of my collection.

The trouble with ATCs (if trouble is the right word) is that they can feature anything; as long as it fits on the base card, and can bear the postal system, it will work. I've been trading and collecting for some years now and probably have hundreds of ATCs. I cannot possibly pick a favourite....they vary too much in content and meaning. Strange the things we get attached to.

At some point, the WOYWW Anniversary used to coincide with the WOYWW Crop. It wasn't deliberate, but was a great way to combine postage in some cases. This won't be the case this year, given the months between the two, and that the Crop is the first in our 'one off' locations.  Instead at some point, for those of us attending I'll steal a good idea from somewhere to come up with a souvenir to make and swap at the Crop.

Clear as mud? Good oh. Carry on with your designs then. I haven't a clue what I'm going to do. Again. Some things just don't change.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 412

I've shuffled stuff around to accommodate the business 'books' and two paper pads that I picked up in the pound shop last week. I was with my sister. She made me. Steph now lives in Eagle, Idaho - anyone nearby that she and I can visit when I get there in June?
I've had a week, Steph came home to help support our other sister in her bereavement. It was a bittersweet time for the three of us. So you understand why I didn't get to any desk visiting last week. This week is far more likely, after lunch! I'm off to another medical appointment this morning. If we are friends on Facebook, you cant have missed my current status - am facially swollen gentle reader, from some sort of infection. It's not pretty and I've had enough of it, so this morning I plan to be a slightly impatient patient!  Don't wait for me though, show some of your awesome spaces will you? I really need the distraction!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 411

Gentle desker, we are 5 weeks away from the 8th anniversary of What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday.  It's hard to believe. It will be week number 416 which by my calculations is Wednesday 24th May. Wanna do the PIF ATC thing again or is that getting old?  When you comment, let me know...make any suggestions!

Meanwhile, look in horror at the dark desk:

It hasn't recovered from being moved out of the doorway at the weekend. As part of the renovations, it will change location anyway, but meantime, really that access to the garden - not good for my creativity! Still a great view of my perfect LLJ made craft tote and there may be a view of a couple of new dies that Shopkeeper Gal made me buy. At far right there's also a little tin of Sugru. Heard of it? I'm going to review it soon - the fact that it has a little tin is a major attraction for us storage junkies isn't it! Please share some genuine art and crafts, I will need it to keep my sanity!

I seem to have 'a thing'

One of the best things about being a crafter is the things it reveals about you. Well, me. Well, you too, I'm sure. Take scrapbooking. It's a prime example I think, and utterly reflects my mind set. It's taken me a few years to really become a scrapbooker. I started initially because I had a craft shop and products to use in order to sell products. Now I do it for pleasure, and I seem to have hit on a format.

You can see the pattern. Use one photo, layer it on a load of other paper - some of it made to look like casual scraps. Actually, this is a skill. I can easily reduce a £1.30 piece of 12 x 12 to a badly ripped 2" circle for the sake of my art. Then bung on something that might use up some of the embellishments I've spent ten years collecting. I like to add hand written journaling when it's necessary....I figure if I have to explain the LO to anyone looking at them, then it needs to have that explanation included on the page. After all, I may not always be around to explain, and I'd hate the pile of albums to end up on a bonfire before my art has been understood. *cough*.

And then, because I like to reflect trends and be a bang up to date scrapbooker, I add a flair badge. I have no idea why, but I really can't help myself in either buying or using them. In fact, I should probably employ one of my many storage boxes or saved tins to use as a lovely home for the collection of waiting to be used badges. But that would be very silly. I know full well that I would then feel obliged to buy lots more to fill the tin so the others aren't lonely. Then they wouldn't be 'flair' badges...more 'saturation embellishments'! Of course, at some point, I might find a different embellishment to saturate my formula with. I think it may be a while though. And meantime, hark at how self aware I am. I'm evolving!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 410

It's a side shot from me today. This is my 'cutting' station. It is on the worktop at the immediate left of my desk.

Despite my habitual laziness, I always stand to use the Big Shot. I don't know if this is because I don't have the same arm power if I stay seated, maybe it's because my arms are too short to reach the selection of dies. I rather suspect that it's more to do with the state of my scraps box. It's too full to hunt through without standing up! Apparently, it's in colour order. I remember that there are tabbed dividers between the colours. I also remember at some point deciding that anything A5 and under would go in the box for re-use. A4 or similar that have just been snipped would be re-housed at their original location with the whole sheets. I'm not sure how the rule was broken down, but I am pretty sure it has something to do with me. You can just see that the pen and scissor holder at right are on my desk. It usually spans the two surfaces and this is a clue as to why my desk isn't in the shot. We had to move it away from the door at the weekend to allow access and you guessed it - it's piled high with stuff.
Show us what you're up to then, it keeps some of us going!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 409

Joking aside, even I was getting fed up with reporting on my slovenly workdesk attitude. So I spent today's down time tidying up a little.

Now I have room to do the month end, so the desk will be book heavy for a couple of days and then I plan to do some more mess-making! See those 5 little bottles? They are Pixie Powders by Cosmic Shimmer. You treat them like Brushos, but they're pearly too. Looking forward to those. The iPad deckchair behind the  lovely bone china mug (a gift from Jan to help my wonky mouth learn to drink without dribbling) is loaded with new stamps.. I will show and tell later, when I finally spread them out to gloat over. There's a bunch of finished card ideas between the drawers and the basket, and the only other item of interest is the pack of Sugru which is going on the telly as a kit...I will play and tell more about that in a while. Which is why it's on the desk...I promised a review and can't possibly be allowed to forget. It's fascinating stuff, I must say.
Meanwhile, show and tell your own workdesks - put WOYWW in your post title and link here. It's easy and its fascinating. We visit, we comment, we enable. Ha, think I just came up with a motto!