Back to the storage thing…

While I was away with Coven, conversation inevitably turned toward storage. I think we all have it sussed for some stash and not for others. I store my photos in these acrylic packets that each hold about 100 6x4s. 

It’s great, I can just pick up one of the pockets and pack it for crop, confident that I won’t use the whole lot up in one session! It’s also a great archive for the photos that I won’t scrap and the old stuff that would otherwise be in several different drawers through the house. Still in their paper pockets with film negatives. I’ve streamline, my shoebox is now this acrylic suitcase!

I’m mulling over the acquisition of another acrylic suitcase. See, scrapbooking is in the era of ephemera. Every collection has at least one matching or contrasting ephemera pack and journaling labels. Of course, you don’t have to buy the ephemera, but it’s pretty irresistible if you fall for a paper line. But storing loose, printed die cuts isn’t always easy. All of mine are in A4 and A5 acrylic boxes and I rifle through it every time I make a LO to see if there’s something I can use to enhance my pictures. Here’s a birds eye view of how I store and carry the non 12 x 12 stuff….not the only bag full, I should add.

I actually think that storing the ephemera in these smaller boxes and transferring other stuff like labels, brads, stickers, gems etc may well be my way forward.  It means I can pick up and go in terms of packing for crop certainly. I recognise that size will be an issue for some things, but am not particularly against taking one bigger box anywhere. And it would be nice to get rid of the rubber bands! I’m not totally convinced, but it’s always good to have something to mull over isn’t it. And it’s not a bad time of the year to be thinking about making a list entitled ‘I would like’ is it! Your thoughts and opinions are always welcome, storage is such an issue!

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 699

I put all of my scrapbook supplies, a tiny suitcase with a few clothes in it, a Chilli and a Sticky Toffee Pudding in the car, and left home for a few days. The weather was perfect - it was rainy and blustery. No moral imperative for going out for bracing walks! A nice big kitchen and an additional fold up table made the set up ideal for five gals, a LOT of stash, even more food and a conversation that didn’t have to finish because of the time. We scrapped and chatted and stayed up very late! It was marvellous and I actually made quite a few LOs. I shall use pictures of them as diversionary pictures in other blog posts! 

The larger picture shows the end of the wooden table where I sat all weekend. Apart from my trusty paper cutter, I actually tidied up between LOs. I know that I don’t do this at home, but when you’re sharing a space with four others and we’ve all got a lifetime’s amount of stash to rifle through, it’s only polite to keep the clutter at a minimum. Interesting isn’t it. Not my manners…(well, maybe!) no, the fact that I made a surprising number of LOs and stayed tidy. Does one affect the other I wonder? Probably! Am I a spot changing Leopard? At this age, I seriously doubt it! Can you spot the little black cauldrons on the desks? Each one has different coloured handles and feet so that we can tell them apart and we have our sweeties in them. Cute aren’t they; perfect actually, as the husbands refer to us as The Coven!

So, while I unpack and catch up on Monday and Tuesday chores, please sign in and tell and show….

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 698

Today’s post is scheduled…I’ll be around later today; please don’t let the kettle get too cool! 

Well would you look at that. It’s so clear that you could be forgiven that I’m moving out! Well, I almost am. Look…

Empty shelves! I’m going away for a weekend of scrapbooking and chat and that means packing all my supplies. In the past, I’ve laboriously matched photos to papers and taken those and all the accessory type stash. It works reasonably well, but occasionally I get to a photo and wish I’d chosen different papers, so this year, as an experiment, I’ve packed every sheet of paper I own. And a little over one hundred photos. This doesn’t mean I have ambitions for a huge stack of LOs, oh no. I’m really just trying to save choosing time at the preparation end because I’m a bit over committed this week. The left hand edge of the desk was the push back area for the various components I’ve been working on for a few Christmas cards. Now I’ve ‘packed’, I was going to glue them down and call the cards finished - but in the warm light of yesterday’s sunshine, I don’t like the red cards for the base. Argh. Next week, I’ll correct that! Now that really does sound like procrastination doesn’t it.

Don’t be like me, please post a link to your desk without putting it off, and we’ll visit. 

This is no eulogy

In various ‘long’ shots of my workroom over the years, you may have noticed that the walls are well decorated with crafted pieces…pictures, texts, canvases. All sorts. Most of them were gifts and each of them is special in some way. This week, since we learned about the untimely death of our friend Debbie Rock, I am grateful for two or three things that she made for me, but this canvas in particular.

I had checked on her and sent her a couple of cards of encouragement during lockdown - something and nothing, lots of us were doing this for each other, weren’t we. She wrote some words on the back that are as lovely as the Maya Angelou quote on the front, and I have happily looked on these words every time I use my workroom since, slightly awed and a bit smug that she should apply such words to me. She had so many gifts: we knew her artistic flair, her unending love for her family as it grew and flourished, her devotion to Phil. She didn’t believe in her artistic skill, however much we tried to convince her. Her great friend Maggie Craner  has written a beautiful tribute to Debbie and talks about this in more detail. Everything about Debbie though, is now for me, summed up in this Maya Angelou quote. Not only will I always remember her talent, her love, her giggle;  I will never ever forget the way she made me feel. 

What’s on your Workdesk? Wednesday 697

My desk this week is photographed in the gloom of sundown on Tuesday. It’s untidy, messy and in a state that is generally a reflection of a normal week of to-ing and fro-ing that as you well know, I don’t tidy until it drives me mad. It doesn’t matter - it never matters really, but this morning it feels like a weight. A silly, foolish thing that makes me feel lazy. Funny how mood affects you, gives you an overview. I will be tidying up and setting things straight, it’s overdue.

I found out yesterday that our WOYWW community has lost another great friend, a great artist of a crafter. Debbie Rock died recently and suddenly. My heart goes out to Phil, her literal and absolute Rock, and her extended family. There is more to be written.

Meantime though, and in the best tradition of WOYWW, please show and tell your desk story this week..Debbie always enjoyed looking in, and I can’t think of a better reason to rally to the call this week!

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 696

Not my Workdesk this week friends, lots of yours. Huge, silly enormous thanks to Jo and Annie for the organisation, the venue and the work involved in hosting us for the Crop. It was lovely. Truly lovely.  Lockdown may have got in our way for two years, but once we were gathered, it felt like five minutes. 

Chris was working in a very mini journal, with her travel case. impressive, huh, both the fab little journal and the amount of stuff that lives in the zip case!

Helen had travelled light too, but was still pulling out her fab style to make a journal page to record the Crop. Note the words on her stamps…so apt. 

Caro sat down, unpacked and launched…immediately. No humming and hawing or procrastination at this desk! Note the cup of tea…this girl is fuelled by it, believe me.

Eva was putting the finishing touches to an amazing selection of her cards. Honestly, she is a master of so many styles, and the Parchment styles were, well, sublime. 

Neet was putting together a journal that she’d die cut, and planned to fill and decorate. Typical of her, it was an odd set of page shapes that ‘lock’ together at the spine with a key. Don’t hold your breath, but Neet gave me one to work on. Gulp.

Sarah was using her envy-inducing coloured pencil collection to watercolour on a page from a colouring book. Intensity of colour or what!

With huge thanks to Bestest Friend Dee, Christine made it!  And she had made up the parts of ATCs to swap, so was happily assembling amidst chatter and dreadful colour drinks.

I took other photos gentle reader, but I’m not a good photographer and I don’t want to post the ‘candid’ pics of people who may think they’re unflattering. Let me just say that everyone looked well and as lovely as ever. Here’s a group shot without me…

you will see others - big thanks to Chris’s Tony who took a proper group shot that included all of us, so we do have one for the record! 

This card was made out of leftovers from my Crop ATCs. Sums it up really. At the Crop or not, you lot are great friends. Meeting and gathering is a wonderful treat, but here on the strange internet thingy, we can meet anytime. Perfect for a community like this, huh. Thanks.