More neutral love

Well, it's Wednesday which means that I *try* to get into my room to create a Christmas card or two for Jingle Belles. I made three last week actually (I blogged about two but ran another identical one off at the weekend) and now I've managed another two.

My strategy so far seems to be to just put together two very similar cards while I have the papers and embellishments out in front of me. I don't spend a lot of time on my cards and the extra couple of minutes to make another one really makes the effort worth while. I think I have way more than 20 cards already.  :-)

I really wanted to have a go at the wreath designs that appeared on so many gorgeous cards including Stephanie's but when it came to it, I didn't think I had the right products and it seemed like so much work. I know, I'm a lazy card maker which is funny as I spend SO much time on my scrapbook layouts. I think I need an intensive card making/design course to give me some fresh ideas and maybe help me to break out of doing what I always do and to take a bit more time. In my next life maybe!

So, I used Bohemia Christmas from MME which is really old but I still think it's one of the favourite Christmas lines I've ever bought (shh... don't tell BG!) and the colours were perfect for the neutral challenge.

The next prompt will be up on Friday and I'm looking forward to it already! Are you joining in yet? You know we're already a quarter of the way through the year - better get started sooner rather than later.

In Good Company once more

Well, I had a whole post written and I lost it so here I am again...

I'm so happy that I made time to play along with S's In Good Company challenge again this month after a few months away.

She challenged us to reacquaint ourselves with American Crafts products in our stash and I was surprised to find quite a few products that I didn't remember having. (I think this is the whole point of the challenge actually!) A lot of the AC designs are no longer really my style but I wanted to prove that anything can be adapted to some degree or other to fit. I also used the March Scrap Happy sketch but tweaked it almost beyond recognition :-) , generally having a lot of fun in the process.

Once I had decided to use paper with buildings on it, this gave me the idea that I needed to do a general city or travel layout and then it all came together from there. Everything except the October Afternoon button is AC.

(Please excuse the pink tinge to the photo and I've since erased the pencil lines for my journalling - whoops.)

S runs the challenge from 10th to 20th each month, so why not drop by next month and see who you get to make friends with again in your stash :-)

4 anyone?

The first mini-challenge over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge site this month is all about the number 4.

How will you incorporate this into your page? In the journalling, the title, the number of elements, a cluster of 4 somethings, 4 photos? There are so many things you could do so I was glad when I came up with the idea of just taking 4 adorable photos of my gorgeous niece and putting them together. I have so many photos like this where I wasn't there with her and I just love them without necessarily needing a story that pages like this are often a good idea.

I kept it simple and am pleased to see this sheet of old Tinkering Ink finding a home next to the softer yellows. It was such a bright design, I was unsure how I could use it.

I sanded and inked one of the really old frames I'd included, misted and glitter splatted the cardstock and added a bit of texture with ribbon, paper, twine and thread including a butterfly cut out from the SC packaging I'd popped into my kit because of the woodgrain print.

Simple, sweet and done. And four more pretty pictures for me to look at on my pages rather than sitting in my pile of photos. Perhaps I should do one of these layouts for each of the three children!

CKC March kit, Soothe - layout #3

What 4 comes to mind for you?

Neutral about Christmas?

Jingles Belles are challenging us to feel neutral about Christmas this week.

They featured the most beautiful Christmas cushions from Pottery Barn and asked us to be inspired by them in some way.

I liked the neutrality of the colours and went through my papers pulling out everything that seemed a non-colour deciding that was the direction I wanted to go. Then I got distracted by the rather gorgeous Dasher (vintage BG) papers and ended up making two cards that are not totally neutral, but very very pale none the less! Looking at the inspiration photo, it's hard to see that the cards have anything to do with it! But you know to expect this kind of thing from me :-)

I adore the wreath cushion and would love to have a go at this in paper so I might try that out for next week. Stephanie made such a stunning one that I really fancy having a go. Loving having the prompt for two weeks so that I can try out different directions before the next prompt goes up.

Heading North

Over at Whimsical Musings last week, Pam challenged us to be inspired by Dr Seuss in all his quirky glory.

It would appear she was ahead of her time as several similar challenges have popped up online today :-)

There's more detail about the trouble I gave myself with this challenge over at WM (see the post here) but I thought I'd post the second layout here because I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit, Soothe, to create it.

I was inspired by the quote I found over on the Dr Seuss site which made me smile and think back to our journey up north of the Arctic Circle in Canada (as if I need a reason to think back to that holiday!)

"I'm a North-Going Zax and I always go north. Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth."

I went for soft colours and vellum so that the relatively colour-free photos wouldn't be overwhelmed. When we got to the border, visibility was down to just a few metres as it turned out we were actually IN the clouds! It was really eery and spooky to be honest.

But anyway, it got me thinking about how we seem to be going further and further north with our trips and how lucky I am to have my own North-Going Zax to explore with.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit, Soothe - layout #2

I love how you can find inspiration in the most unlikely places. I created two completely different pages from the same starting point. Now, that's what I call a good prompt!

Soothing

I just wanted to share the first layout I created with my March Counterfeit kit, Soothe. 

I don't know about you but I use scrapbooking as a way to calm down, switch off, relax and take time to reflect while I'm creating. This month's kit is perfect for that as it's true to its name with such soothing colours and soft patterns.

I teamed it up with the Whimsical Musings Challenge #28 which was all about longings.

This layout features a lot of what I'm loving right now - yellow and grey, splats and misting, white cardstock, twine, chevrons, doilies and a vellum envelope filled with journalling and mini hearts! *sigh*

What have you been longing for recently? Why not share with us over at WM? 

And a few more stickers!

I ran off a couple more cards for the Jingle Belles "Stuck on You" challenge.

Makes me feel all virtuous to be using up my stash (even if it feels like it's not going down at all!) and increasing my pile of cards.

:-)

Go me!

Stuck on you!

This week Jingle Belles has teamed up with EAD Designs to challenge us to use stickers on our cards.

They have some amazing sample cards over on the blog (here and here) and I have serious design envy ;-) Wish so much I could make cards as wonderful as these girls!

Not the most inspired and only a couple of Cosmo stickers, but another two for the pile :-)

Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit reveal blog hop

Welcome to the March Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal blog hop.

If you've arrived here directly, you might want to pop back to the Counterfeit blog to hop your way through all the participants and if you're here by way of the talented Julie Ann, then you are on the right track.

This month our inspiration kit comes courtesy of Birds Of A Feather (see the kit here) and I think we all fell in love with it. The simple calming colour scheme made it really interesting.

Here is just a snippet of the original inspiration kit with those gorgeous blues and yellows. So pretty.

I had the full Counterfeit experience this time around as I didn't have a single matching item to the original kit, nor did I really have a lot in the same shades of blue and yellow. Some serious creativity was called upon and I love the result!

Here is my March kit, "Soothe":

Once again, I started off selecting some cardstock - several sheets of white which has become my go-to colour but also a couple of blue and yellow to encourage me to use it up. Then I decided to adjust the base colours of the kit a little to fit the papers that I had and what I'm loving right now - yellow and grey with blue as an accent. I included several partial sheets and one or two really old bluer papers which are use or lose. I've included two sheets of diagonal stripes so that I can counterfeit the chevron patterns included in the original and intend to have a look online to see if I can find some woodgrain that I could print out. I also added in my 6x6 Periphery pad which added some nice blues and grey as well as a hint of green which isn't really in the inspiration kit but adds another dimension to work with. A few sheets of vellum completed the paper side of my kit.

Then I worked on the embellishments, adding is some of the same elements - flowers, ribbon, and some butterflies. Then I looked for some stickers that might go and discovered some very old ones from Tinkering Ink that match the paper - again use or lose - as well as some newer BG. I noticed that the inspiration kit included some frames so I tracked down a handful too - they don't necessarily match the other products but a bit of ink or glitter will do the job fine. A few other items with a woodgrain finish matched the original kit and then I decided I couldn't do without some of my beloved lace and doilies,  and several alpha sets. I consider twine, inks, paints, mists and glitter to be free items and reserve the right at any time to add in any other embellishments that catch my fancy! *wink wink*

I think this will be a very interesting kit to use with the more limited colour scheme than I usually include and have already made a first layout (which I love) that I will put on the blog in a day or two.

I've seen one or two sneaks from the rest of the team and they are gorgeous so make sure you check them out and then share your own kits over at the Counterfeit site (here). Don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you were here - I love seeing who's dropped by :-)

Your next stop on the hop is the delightful Margie (here) and just in case you get lost along the way, here is the full blog hop list.

Guest Designer: Mary Buttons  http://craftycreation.blogspot.com/

Crystal  http://crystalscraftycreations.blogspot.com/

Glinda  http://razzledscrapper.blogspot.com/

Helen  http://craftimperfect.blogspot.com/

Jen  http://mypair-a-dice.blogspot.com/

Julie Ann  http://julieannshahin2.blogspot.com/

Lisa  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/  <----- you are here

Margie   http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com/  <---- your next stop

Milissa  http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Bethany  http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com/

Meridy  http://www.meridy77.blogspot.com/

Happy hopping!

Things I loved... February

It was cold. Very cold. I've missed real winter weather this year so I was happy to get a few weeks of below zero temperatures. There was some fantastic frost to see...

... and it tried to snow, over and over again. But alas, it was not to be. But you have to give it credit for trying :-)

 But this cold snap gave us some beautifully glorious winter blue skies...

... and the chance for some cosy, real fires in the evening.

Of course, there was an exchange of Valentine hearts....

... and roses.

A whole month of LOAD meant fishing out old photos to use which made me smile each and every day...

... helped to develop a slightly different scrapping style with lots of white and an excess of twine and glitter ...

... but still lots and lots of dimension. 29 days, 33 layouts, 48 photos. A successful month.

German carnival came and went, complete with traditional "Berliner" aka donuts! This is my only participation in the craziness that comes with the 5th season round here...

And in true silly style, we celebrated 3,000 days of marriage!

Thanks once again to Deb for starting the "Things I loved..." series. I love looking through my photos each month and reliving the highlights. :-)

What delights did February bring you?