LittleBirdyScraps

Under Reconstruction!

If you're not wearing a hard hat and steel-toed boots then I really can't be held responsible for any injury you may suffer whilst visiting my blog.  I'm having to do things one at a time because I only have an Economy brain, so please bear with me while things come and go, look horrible, change size etc.  I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end....:D

WOYWW

I've been a bit busy this week and my desk looks appalling, covered as it is with relocated (ie homeless) stamp sets which used to live in the CD rack I've taken back to my bedroom.  But that's just boring, so without further ado here are some layouts I managed before my workspace was reduced to 4 square inches

I managed to use nearly all of the die-cuts from this collection on my page, even a title which I rarely do - serious stash-busting!

...and here I've used up another fabric tag from LYB which I bought a few years ago; I love them but for some reason haven't found them easy to use.  One left!

 

On this one there are a few of the acetate embellishments that I had left over from the cards last week.  I was really pleased with this page because it used some lovely vintage-patterned papers AND some chipboard AND some scraps. Yay!

Hop over to the esteemed Julia's to see more workspaces worldwide, and happy hopping :D

Piecing Together The Sky

A while ago - I can't remember how, I stumbled across a blog owned by Connie which told the story of her friend Uncle Johnny and how he had passed away very suddenly.  Johnny was a musician, a teacher and that very special thing, a good friend.  You can read about him if you hop over to Connie's blog and follow the link to her earlier post.  The post I've linked to, however, is an update on Connie's 'Piecing Together the Sky' project which involved collecting photographs of the sky from people around the world who had lost someone.  I thought it was a fantastic idea and I went outside and took my photo of the sky, which appears in the video along with all the others.

You'll see that Connie has also asked people if they would like to post on their own blogs about the person who they have lost and of whom they were thinking when they photographed their sky, so I'm going to do that.

My brother Richard was born 16 months after me and we were always very close.  When he started at school in the year below me, I immediately became his protector and would quite willingly - and happily, I have to confess - beat up any of the other boys who did anything to threaten him.  Even if the threat was not very major...!  In fact, I was nearly always the stronger one.  We did a lot of swimming; I was encouraged to train for the Olympics, Richard got blue with cold after half an hour in the water and had to get out.  But on holiday we would charge into the waves together and have a fantastic time.  Our mother thought that I was far too boisterous and that Richard couldn't keep up.  She probably thought I was a bad influence as well; in my teenage years I got in with a bunch of bikers and Richard followed, buying himself a series of motorbikes which culminated in his pride and joy, a Triumph Bonneville.

As Richard got older, he often complained of palpitations and occasionally had to stop physical activity for a sit down.  We're not much on doctors in my family, we're more of the 'grin and bear it' sort.  We both had paper rounds, and Mum would help Richard with his because the bag was a bit heavy on a Saturday.  I never had any problems.

One spring Bank Holiday, Richard set off on his bike for a run down to Cornwall.  He was with all his mates and he was very excited, but a bit anxious because his Triumph wasn't completely reliable.  He'd had some problems.  All the guys set off from someone's house, and within a mile the Triumph was having problems.  Richard pulled over to the side of the road outside the ice rink, and a couple of the others stopped with him.  He couldn't get it going again, and he told his friends to go on ahead.  If he could fix it he would catch them up, and if he couldn't then he would take it into the workshop.  He knew a bit about engines, and he was due to start a motorcycle mechanics course at college in the September, which he was looking forward to.

Afterwards, his friends said that they wished they'd stayed with him.  But they couldn't have known what was going to happen.  It was a very hot day, and Richard was wearing his leathers and some pretty hefty clothing for the long run down to the West Country.  He must have been very, very upset and angry about his bike breaking down yet again, after all the anticipation and excitement over the trip.  And what we didn't know was that those palpitations, the blue lips and shivering after half an hour in a heated pool, the sudden tiredness when he carried his paper bag, were all down to an undiagnosed heart condition.  It's called cardiomyopathy, and straight off the top of my head I can tell you that Gabby Logan's brother Daniel Yorath, the footballer's son, died of it when he was just 15. So did Richard Beckinsale, the actor, Kate Beckinsale's dad. If you ever hear of a sportsman or woman suffering a sudden heart attack at a young age, my money's on cardiomypathy.

Richard had a sudden and massive heart attack, there at the side of his bike.  A woman across the way remembered looking out of her window and seeing him tinkering with his bike, then when she looked out again ten minutes later he was lying there on the road.  It's unlikely that anyone could have saved him.  I've read reports since then, of people who have been struck down by this disease, and a PE teacher who saw a pupil drop dead in the middle of a netball match said that the girl was 'dead before she hit the ground'.

So that's what happened to Richard.  Just before he died I had walked out of a crappy relationship and moved back to my parents' house.  When I say crappy, I mean seriously bad, and yet nothing else had induced me to leave.  That particular day I just packed a suitcase and left.  Over the next couple of days I had felt compelled to spend time with Richard, watching Hill Street Blues with him, listening to music.  We walked our dogs together and when he turned round to take his dog home - she wouldn't walk under the railway bridge! - I couldn't take my eyes off him.  I practically walked backwards, watching him go back down the road and round the corner, until he was out of sight, like I was never going to see him again.  On the morning he left for the run, I snapped at him for knocking my stuff off my desk, although he'd only come in to give me a kiss goodbye.  And then I felt bad, and I had a really strong urge to lean out of the window and tell him not to go.  Seriously.  I didn't remember any of those things until weeks after he died, and I'm not making it up.

At the time he died, however, I didn't 'feel' anything.  I know what time it was, and I know what I was doing.  Mum and I had gone out for the day and were sitting beside a lake somewhere in the sun.  Only my dad was at home when the police came round.  There were no mobile phones in those days - 28 years ago - and after they left he just sat at the kitchen table for two and an half hours waiting for us to come home, laughing and joking as we came through the door.

My brother was 19 when he died, and I miss him all the time.  He was always there for me and we shared so much that I will never share with anyone else.  Every night before he went to bed he used to go into Mum's room and sit on the end of her bed for a little chat.  My youngest son is forever sitting behind me on my bed while I'm here at the computer, reading or just chilling out, or asking me endless questions. And I only shoo him out when I really, really can't concentrate on my work any more!  My eldest son is very, very like Richard, in looks and temperament, and I'm grateful for that.

So, there you go.  My brother, the person for whom I took this photo

I don't talk about him very much because I don't think I dealt with his death very well.  Or maybe I just deal with all these things in the same way, which is to walk straight over them and keep on going.  I'm not a big fan of sentimentality - something I get from my father's side of the family! - but I love what Connie has done and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the stories which people decide to share on their blogs.

WOYWW #mmfm

Yes, I lost count again.  I lost heart a little, too, when it became apparent that there were problems with the comments on my posts.  I'm hoping that's fixed now, please let me know if it isn't!

This week I have been Doing Things.  One of the Things I've Done is to sort out my paperwork, yuk.  There is a tree and a half waiting to be recycled, so tomorrow I'm going to buy myself a cheap electric shredder since most of the recycling is bank-related.

I did manage to sit down the other day and make lots of cards, using some freebies from a magazine I subscribe to.  It wasn't my intention to sub to a card magazine, but it replaced my Scrapbook Inspirations and I couldn't be bothered to cancel it, and the quality of the free gifts has continued to discourage me...:)

Using some free papers and acetate embellies in some lurvely colours, I made these:

...and then when the goodies started running out I added some bits and made these

I do like rummaging around on my desk and finding bits and pieces to use up on cards.  Not that I've made much of a hole in them, but there you go!

Have a lovely WOYWW - I have more Things To Do which involve painting walls, and hopefully there will be more time than usual for blog hopping.  Have a look over on Julia's blog for more inspiration, and maybe by next week my blogroll here will be updated (yeah, don't hold your breath!)

WOYWW #162

Hi folks, just a little request - if you're having problems leaving comments, I'd be really grateful if you could find the time to let me know via email at hsalthouse@yahoo.com.  I know that someone had difficulties last week signing in to the comments, and I've had a similar message this week.  I'm going to contact Typepad but it would be useful if I had some complaints to back it up with! Thanks...:D

One of the things that's been on my desk this week is a canvas.  You may recall the sudden burst of activity that resulted in the oilboard thingy being produced last week.  Well, after that little triumph I dragged out a canvas I've been saving 'for the right moment' and made that right moment happen, guys n gals!  I thought I'd try a paper collagey type background and managed to use up a big chunk of scraps, woo hoo.  Then I painted over them a little bit, and then I took the plunge and painted a figure over the top!  Gasp!  Here she is:

Have to confess I've added a 'boost' action to the photo, but only because the original version didn't show the colours looking as vibrant as they do in real life.  Particularly the red and purple, which are just cheap old acrylics but look lush on the canvas!

After I'd finished Butterfly Girl, I realised that all the effort I'd expended in trying to get her in proportion, had been wasted, lol.  So she has been saved on my laptop as 'Disproportionate Butterfly Girl'... And of course, those butterflies are fluttering over her left shoulder because I just.  Could. Not. Fix her!  However, I'm very pleased with the left hand which started out as a disaster, and the effect of the unfinished skirt with the swirly bits over it.  And the face actually, which like the left hand was repeatedly painted over and tried again!

Most of all I am pleased that I just went for it!

There were other things on my desk, but I put them in a post yesterday so as not to clog this one up too much.  I'd be delighted if you took a look though! :D

So I'll stop yabbering on now and let you continue on your way around the WOYWW blogiverse, starting at Julia's. I hope I'm managing to visit most of you at some point - I start well, but by the weekend I usually have to give up the hopping thing so have tried to approach it randomly.

 

Safe to come out now...

Well, I think the time for shortlisting has passed, lol, so I can show you the thing wot I made for the Craft Stamper competition.  It was a bit stop/start because I have very little confidence that anything I make could compete with the awesomeness usually on display - but that's no reason not to try, now is it!?

The manufacturer whose products we had to use for this round was Chocolate Baroque.  Now, I do have quite a few stamps from Elusive Images as was, but only two sets bought since they became Chocolate Baroque.  I wanted to do something a bit different, so a shadow box probably wasn't a good choice, lol, but I got to use up some packaging that's been sitting in the corner for over a year now, and did this with it:

For some reason it just won't photograph very well, but this isn't too bad.  I think it's easy enough to see what most of it is; the mermaid's tail is made of starfish legs!

On reflection I should have done more starting and less stopping, because I think it could stand a bit more finishing!  But I got to that point where I just had to stop.  I do like the mirror, which is a little plastic magnifying glass of the cracker-prize variety, coloured with alcohol inks and with some foil tape stuck on the back.

The plastic mesh was coloured with alcohol inks as well.

Anyway, I had great fun making it until it got too serious, and tried lots of different techniques!  Now, on to the next one....;)

WOYWW #161

Okay, I'm guessing at the number.  I might have to change that title later, but I missed a week, so it should be right....!

Today my desk is uber-messy.  I started a layout yesterday afternoon during my dayoffsick, and abandoned it because, guess what, I really didn't feel very well, lol.  And then today I was leaping along on the UKS blog hop and I came across this awesome blog which I have never seen before, with video tutorials....bliss!  The UKS post sort of issued a challenge to use the paint techniques demo'd in the videos, and upload a piece quick-smart for a chance of winning a voucher.  Well, I have to confess that the idea of winning something was initially what got me down the stairs and started right away.  I found one of those oil painting boards recently, and once my feeble mind had located its whereabouts I set to and made this:

It was really fun, it took me about an hour of painting and scraping and rubbing and blobbing, etc.  The image is one which I've had saved for ages, and I'm ashamed to say that I haven't labelled it properly so I can't say where it's from.  I can, however, refer you to Magic Moonlight which is the site I use most often, also e-vint and The Graphics Fairy.  Sadly I have re-labelled all my images to make them easier to find, so apologies if this one came from somewhere I haven't linked.

And after all that, I was dead chuffed that I'd just torn straight into it, because just doing it without worrying about what was perfect, or acceptable, meant that I got it done!  I can thoroughly recommend forcing yourself to complete something like this in time to get dinner in the oven!

Anyway, as a result of all that mucking about my desk now looks like this:

 

...but we can still get past it, and it's in a dark corner, so who cares!

Check out the luscious Julia's blog (got bored with 'lovely') for a mahoosive list of people to visit.  And happy hopping! :D

 

WOYWW #159.

Hello, hello! Goodness only knows what Typepad is doing to me now, I don't think I recognise this font but maybe it's just gone inexplicably smaller... First up this week is a card that I made for Daughter's 17th, which is quite scary. (Ooh my font's adjusted itself.)  I'm afraid I made this in rather a dash last night as I was very, very tired - still am, thanks to Daughter - and Youngest, who has taken to sleeping in the living room, wanted to get to bed.  Dysfunctional?  Nous? Absolutement pas!  Or something.  Anyway, here it is:

That pin has 17 on it. I would have liked to do a bit more to the card, but I was fairly pleased with it so left it alone before I messed it up!

Now, I have had some lovely goodies through the post this week and first to arrive was from Lunch Lady Jan.  I've arranged an ATC swap with her, and since Jan doesn't do ATCs she sent me this

Isn't that scrummy?!  I'm particularly thrilled that the colours co-ordinate with my living room.  Even Youngest, who when I took this photo was sitting underneath the bunting with a nosebleed:

...and also colour co-ordinated, apart from the blue.  (I don't know what my boys do to those sofa cushions, they're always squashed up and distorted...:(

Then I got three ATCs. The first is from Ali:

Then this is from Wipso:

And this one from Rosa:

I've seen a couple of these appearing on other WOYWWers' blogs and was delighted to receive one of my own!

I have sent out all my ATCs, but poor Lunch Lady Jan is still without - this is because I felt that her gorgeous bunting deserved something a bit different in return.  It's nearly done, Jan!  I'll be sending it on its way in the next day or two.

That's enough of my wittering on - hop over to the lovely Julia's for some more noseying around, and happy WOYWW :D

 

WOYWW #158

Not much I can show on my desk this week - but I really wanted to show this, which I finished the other day so it's spent most of this week in my workspace!

I have, of course, not taken a Before photo.  I actually thought about doing it, and then I though 'No, I can't be bothered', which is shameful, and now I would really like to see the photos next to each other.

It's not startlingly different, but originally I found this looking reasonably new at a car boot sale, painted white and with the mount divided into six small sections for baby 'firsts'.  I do believe it came from M&S, dahlings.

Anyway, I've painted it cream. And generally knocked it about a bit, which involved crackle paint and distress inks.  As you can see, there are grunge roses which took me For. Eh. Vah. to make.  Honest, flippin hours of die-cutting and scissoring and sponging and rolling and sticking and clamping.

I was particularly pleased with the mount because the aperture is a damn funny size and the original mount no use.  This is a piece of old mountboard I received as packaging ages ago, and when I put the Distress Inks on a mottled effect resulted - pre-distress! (ETA: Cindy asked if these are my girls in the picture.  No, Cindy, I only have one daughter and these girls look like they own a hairbrush, at least one between them.  Although Daughter is, to be fair, more beautiful than all of them...:P)

Here are some bedewdropped petals

Haha, tricked you!  It's not really dew, it's Glossy Accents!  Haha!  Love the 'Soap' ticket....*sigh*- of course it says 'soar' and hopefully my friend can see that!

Now, I have all my ATCs ready to post - later than I anticipated because there was an envelope shortage.  Twice I went to the shops and Couldn't Remember What For, and eventually a packet of small white envelopes turned up in my stash. (ETA: having waved goodbye to them all, I realised that I have neglected to put anything in the envelopes other than the ATCs themselves, and I did have some little notelets ready to add.  So if you receive a rudely unaccompanied pair of ATCs in a white envelope, you'll know they're from me!!)

I have already received the most glorious parcel from Lunch Lady Jan, containing something luscious which I will show you on here next week.  I can't photograph it now because the light is poo again.  In the meantime, I hope that all the ATCs I'm posting out will have reached their recipients by next week, although for those of you overseas there may be a longer wait.  (Although don't get me started on the Royal Mail, you'll probably get yours first...!)

Hop over to the lovely Julia's to see lots of other workspaces and maybe even lots of swapped ATCs!

WOYWW #157 and can we catch up with the ATC swap!

Okay folks, for some reason this post has published itself on THE WRONG WEEK!! - I hadn't realised this because I was away and sans computer last week, and didn't think to check when I got back.  So please read the below info and take pity on me - I'm happy to swap with whoever contacts me!

I've really been looking forward to this ATC swap.  I've got loads of ATCs all ready made - not specifically for the swap, I have to say, but Everything Must Go and so if anyone apart from the person after me (and the person before me, if I have my way) would like to swap, please email me at hsalthouse@yahoo.com and we'll swap addresses.  We don't even have to swap, to be honest, but I'll see how it goes before I start sending ATCs to all and sundry!

My desk is a busy place this week, what with it being half term.  This is how it looks on Tuesday evening

So, if you'd like to know what you're looking at, the layout at the back is actually masking another one made for a design team commission, and which I very nearly photographed, inadvertently, before it has actually appeared in the magazine.  That would have been a major disaster, let me tell you.  Instead you've got an unfinished page showing Daughter's art exhibition at the end of her GCSE year.  Those two fabric brads at the front are destined to be part of it.

As you can see, the circus lady is still on her rope.  And there are bits of Amy Tan Sketchbook cut up for the layout.  AND - after I'd bought some floral tissue paper in Paperchase and covered something with it, I went all painty and attacked my art journal.  I've discovered the joys of the palette knife and thoroughly enjoyed myself, opening up all sorts of second hand and previously unused paints and splurging them about.

This is the last page I worked on; I used the palette knife for the gesso and then painted on some neutral acrylics before splodging an ink pad on and spraying it with water.  I added some shimmer spray and then got the alcohol inks out.  I was really pleased with the effect I got after adding some blending solution.

So that's what's on my desk - a great big mess!  If you want to see more messy/immaculate/somewhere in between workspaces, go and visit Julia's place where all will be revealed!

And don't forget to email me if you would like to relieve me of some ATCs! :D

WOYWW #155

ATC swap next week!  Exciting stuff!  (I've actually got a whole load of ATCs all waiting to go, so I'm hoping to send more than a couple off.  If anyone would like to do an extra swap, and do it with me, lol, please mention it in your comment and you can also email me at hsalthouse@yahoo.com.  Seems easier to just put my email addy rather than asking you to put all yours on show!)

So - this week on my desk is this. Sorry about the glare, it's daylight, but not as we know it.

Oooooh yes, it is my long-awaited Once Upon A Time stack from DCWV.  Well, from the US actually since that is where the Amazon supplier was.  I love being able to order weighty/bulky stuff from the US via Amazon and pay nearly normal postage!  And in fact I didn't await that long - it took under a week for it to turn up.

This is earmarked for my Harry Potter studio tour album; I'm currently trying to work out how to get all the photos into the one book, and if I can do that then I will have some of these lovely sheets left over.

Also on my desk this week is the following LO, one of several which I made at the crop on Saturday.  I am dead chuffed that, largely due to Shimelle's Cover to Cover course, I was able to get five page kits together, complete all five LOs on one day AND add proper, decent journaling after I got home!  Bumper, as Gaye would say, although I have no idea if she will read this or not :D

So, there you go.  Keep it short, Helen, keep it short!  Nip over to Julia's place for the lowdown on the desk display, and happy WOYWW!