Tuesday 31 October 2023

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 752

Consider this a decoy. I'm currently in beautiful Yorkshire, on fairly short notice visit, and didn't even think about needing a desk shot when I left home! This pic isn't too old - taken when I was actually working on a LO at our crop just a fortnight ago
I've no idea how old this paper is; the gold embossed leaf pattern is actually a pumpkin shape - but if there's a photo of our daughter describing one of her many childhood Halowe'ens that isn't on a LO, I'll be very surprised. And it's probably fifteen years since any of those Hallowe'en party shenanigans took place, so I think it's safe to hide the pumpkin shape a bit and get the paper used up! So you see here the stage where I rummage through my embellishments and ephemera to see what I can use up and yet make it look like a deliberate and arty choice. *cough*.
It doesn't look very different now it's all stuck down and called finished, but I quite like it. The two beauties pictured are my neice and great neice. *cough* *again*. They are not mother and daughter. Work that out! 
So Deskers, as we turn to face November and the seasonal crafting and it's inevitable deadline, please feel free to inspire and motivate at will! I am already thinking that I'll have so much to catch up on when I get home that I'll either go into overdrive, or procrastinate even more than usual as a reaction to self implied pressure. We'll see. Meanwhile, see you at yours, I'll bring Pudding and Parkin.

Tuesday 24 October 2023

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 751

Well gentle desker, I've decided to share the desk I've been working at since last Friday, came home Tuesday evening. I know it's called a 'retreat', but really, it's inaccurately named. I live a charmed life and have no need to retreat from it in order to make scrapbook pages. It is however, fab to get away with girlfriends. Previous years have been no different of course: we eat, sleep late, stay up late, eat, chat, and scrapbook. But each year it's just fab. American Kathy joined us via FaceTime for an hour of chat...she got up at 5am to see our mess, imagine! 
Now, here's another version of that picture, with some notation....it's important that you see that when I'm away, I don't take up all the space!
The red area is mine. The green area is Lolly's and it was much reduced within about an hour of this photo. She has been watching organisation videos on You Tube and spent a good couple of hours sorting through her large collection of ephemera. She wasn't brutal, but my word, the logic she applied was fab. She had pre-sorted her scraps (bear in mind they are from 12 x 12 papers, largely). Anything bigger than a quarter page was sorted into colour matched bundles. Enough pieces to make a page; patterns and plains that could be used together to make a LO. Not to think too hard about it, just gather some pieces that look good together. Separate them with a sheet of copier paper or some such and then do something similar with the embellies and ephemera. So you can take 3 boxes to crop and hey presto, your scraps and older stuff are being used. Genius to me, and I shall be attempting it before I put my weekend stuff away. 
I made up a good lump of LOs and really had a great time, polishing my mojo...here's one straightforward page
Hope the mojo hangs around to help during the upcoming silly season! Show and tell yourselves please, it may be a great help to me if you want to write some motivational words about getting on with the upcoming seasonal stuff. Elizabeth, hope you're benefitting from some down time. 

Wednesday 18 October 2023

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 750

Well I'm not surprised that it's week number 750. Except of course, I am. Staggered, actually. I type the number in each week and don't really give it a lot of thought, but because the last week totally got away from me I'm actually surprised to find myself here already. If you know what I mean. I've made a big effort to have a couple of hours at my desk if I'm at home. That led me to panic start some Christmas stamping last week as you know, and this week, I've over complicated it by deciding to paper piece a significant amount of each stamped image. 
So my desk is just a mass of stamped and cut up pieces....
I used up nearly a whole pot of silver embossing powder in the preparation, so I really have to make these cards up now! I will show you, but not for a while because I'm away this weekend with the Coven for some scrapbooking and staying up late kinda fun. My desk is safe, I'll tidy a little but still leave the card fixings out. And that lovely bottle. It was Courvoisier and it came from my Papa's drinks cabinet after he died, seven years ago. It wasn't full then, and it's taken 7 years of making two or three Christmas cakes every year since to use up the brandy! Then, when the Kathys were here, we had a sandwich and a cuppa in our local tea room and admired a selection of bottles that were decorated with decoupage and had little fairy lights inside. Good idea we thought. So I didn't throw the bottle out, but knew very well that if I decorate it, it won't involve decoupage. I've actually had an idea (!), so now I just need to get around to it! I can see you rolling your 👀. That particular phrase and I are closely acquainted and so my eyes tend to auto-roll when I say it!
Show and tell please, all as absolutely inspiringly usual.



Wednesday 11 October 2023

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 749

Well, I've tried to rally my mojo and remind it that this is a time of year when I could well do with a lot of productivity. We'll see. The last few days, post chores, I've made a bit of an effort. In the light of having missed two consecutive crops and an upcoming scrapbooking weekend, I felt the need to make a layout or two. To see if I still could, to be honest. 
This will probably give BJ even more vapours ...I've finally done a page about last years WOYWW Crop! Underneath that are a couple of other LOs referring to other events in my life last year. In fact, I'm not sure the box of photos (just at the left by the glue) actually contains any of this year's pictures yet! After I'd taken this photo, I got a chance to get back to it, so I cleared up a little and yes, broke out the Christmas stamps. Kathy declared that I had a relatively small collection (by comparison, that is, to hers), which rather pleased me. It was also nice to go through them and both Kathy and Kathy admired stamps that I haven't used for years. So I've started with those stamps; so, far just experimenting. This photo is literally how it looks this morning..
Gosh, clearly I need coffee, seems I've got a shake on! Ah well, you get the gist! 
Show and tell then gentle Deskers, it was great to catch up with you last week. My word, my week has been a lot less out and about without my Kathys. It's not the same!



Wednesday 4 October 2023

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 748

My Kathy friends are enduring a long journey home. I really hope it was worth the travelling; I think we've had an epic week! We've visited loads, and realised that for first time visitors to the UK who don't know it at all, working out the 'must see' and trying to squash it all in can create sensory overload ! We scheduled ourselves a desk day.

#1 Kathy started it off by going through my Christmas stamps. I'm delighted to report that she doesn't think I have that many. She found a couple that she wanted to stamp and take images home. That led to getting the versa ark and PearlEx out to colour some solid images, something I haven't done for ages. Meanwhile, I fell seamlessly into demo mode and #2 Kathy learned the art of embossing. I pottered about and made a Christmas cake. I really did! Then I remembered that my few silicone moulds were to be loaned to a friend next week, and in the best tradition of not wanting something until you haven't got it anymore, I pressed some air dry foam into them..you can see them there, looking a bit like overworked cookie dough. It's brown air dry foam and will have to be painted before use. There's some open packets of beads at left, #2 Kathy brought them with her and we made these really cute candle decorations. It has given me hope for beading.
As I type this, we are on the second day of no Internet provision.  Virgin Media send us a text message telling us when it will be restored. And then of course, as the time passes, so they just send another one! I'm using a teeny bit of logic and thinking that if I schedule this for the latest time we've been given, then it will post at any point thereafter when the connection finally resumes.