Lacking the Midas Touch

Joining up with Jingle Belles for this week's prompt is The Crooked Stamper (aka Leslie) who set us the challenge of using Midas for inspiration. So a colour scheme of gold, gold, oh and a bit of gold.

Luckily for me, the colour scheme was widened a bit to include silver, white and cream because when I looked at my Christmas paper drawer there was NO gold and NO silver - nothing at all! I guess I'm not all that surprised as I'm a bit (!yeah right!) of a BG fan for Christmas papers and they don't do metallic. But nothing at all? I had expected to find a scrap or two. But there was really nothing. So I had to get creative.

I started off by finding some creamy gold (at a push) Bazzill bling paper as my base and then cut out a white glitter paper snowflake, adding another snowflake in the centre and a silver CC sentiment.

Ok, I could do better than THAT...

Next up came white cardstock, some white embossed cardstock on top which I brushed over with silver ink, then a pre-made white snowflake I had salvaged from some cards a few years ago on the top and some glitter Thickers.

Better, but still not really what I wanted.

So more Bazzill bling cream paper, the same embossing, this time brushed with gold ink and a gold glittered wooden deer shape that has been hanging around for about 12 months, finished off with some gold glitter letters. The shape reminds me of the Jägermeister stag! (And I need to go back to this one and straighten up those dodgy letters!)

Getting there...

Finally, I grabbed more white cardstock, a nestie shape from white dotted swiss, the inevitable silver ink, a wooden snowflake covered with silver glitter, a gorgeous white ribbon bow and a silver CC sentiment.

Finally I was satisfied!

But hey, all that indecision added four cards to my collection this week! That has to be a good thing, right?!?

Grey, coral and a lot of texture

Week #4 of the weekly Whimsical Musings challenge and we (Pam and myself) are still going strong.

Poor Pam got caught up with the tropical storm Irene and has been without power and/or internet for most of the weekend and hasn't been able to share yet but all has been well in my part of the world - apart from the lack of summer...

I had found this gorgeous photo on Pinterest and immediately knew I wanted to use it one week for my challenge - the colours are just so gorgeous and I loved all the texture and items that could also be used for inspiration.

The challenge proved more difficult than I had anticipated as when I looked through my supplies, I realised that I had very few papers in these tones. I didn't want to go too obvious and just go for BG Ambrosia and was determined to find a few items from different collections. After a lot of rummaging, I did manage to come up with a dozen or so papers in grey and coral tones and figured that when I got to it, I'd manage to rustle up some bits for embellies. In the end I found papers from BG Ambrosia, Marrakech, Oliver and Curio, and Making Memories Paper Reverie Sienne. The embellishments ended up from just about all over my room including some vintage Bellaboo sewing thread, buttons, seam binding that I Glimmer Misted, pins and a flower brad that caught my eye.

Even though I usually shy away from sewing because of the time it takes, I decided to go for it this time around and was happy with the added texture and dimension it added.

Looking at the layout now, I think I will probably change out the journalling for a single strip across the page, but that can wait for now. I also struggle with journalling for these types of pages - what to write when the subject of the page is just a building with not all that much story around it?

This week's challenge from Pam is a gorgeous advertising spread from Anthropologie - my brain is whirring!

Happy Mail

Look what arrived in the post for me on Saturday...

I won this wonderful prize over at Ginger's Life of Spice to celebrate her 300th blog post.

Ginger also organises a Mail Art Exchange over there on her blog and her generous prize has convinced me to give it a go! Now that I have the basics - envelopes, a great pen, a funky little stamp and some gorgeous Martha Stewart stamps - it seemed an opportunity not to pass up. I haven't done anything like this before, so I'm a bit nervous but I have a while to think about what someone would like to get in the post in order to create something fun and happy! Why not join in on the fun?

Thanks Ginger for a great giveaway! I'm thrilled.

Sketch Challenge

I have been bad at following the Counterfeit Kit Challenge site challenges this month. And they're great so I didn't want to miss out!

They have teamed up with a (new for me) sketch site - Sketch Support - to come up with the challenges and a prize in August and, you know that I love sketches so I was a bit frustrated with myself that it took me so long to get over there and check out the site. It's great! One page, two page, cards - all available to print out and with lots of size details etc if that's what you want.

Anyway, mini-challenge #1 was "Sketch Swap" meaning to take a card sketch and use it for a layout or vice versa.

I took card sketch #8 and turned it into a one photo layout:

Layout #3 using my Counterfeit Kit "Balmy"

To be honest, it didn't come out quite as well as I'd hoped but I was happy to just play around and use one of the many many photos we took at Easter. I adapted the sketch a little to add a bit more detail and was determined to make a non-pretty, girlie layout using my Counterfeit Kit "Balmy" as this was one of the challenges I'd set myself at the beginning of the month. I think I managed that with the beige and brown tones I highlighted. I have to admit to adding in the bling and a couple of the cluster items but it was good to find a way to use the typewriter key letters that came on a sheet of Graphic 45. I covered each other them with Glossy accents which have made them curl a bit and some have cracked which gives a bit more of a vintage look to them.

I really like this sketch and will hold onto it to use for its original card use sometime.

More sketch based challenges to come.

Making connections

Last week's Whimsical Musings challenge set by Pam was all about making connections. Something we both love to do in our scrapbooking storytelling but sometimes something that takes a bit of time and thought to do. These pages (at least for me) are often not the quickest pages to come up with.

But Pam challenged me to pick three or more seemingly unrelated photos and find a connection to scrap about.

The most difficult thing for me was to just pick three photos without already thinking about which to pick and why. In the end, I lifted down three different year binders and flipped through grabbing a handful of interesting shots – 2007, 2008 and 2009. I had chosen some photos of the two of us together and decided to bring together these photos that are all very nice, but have no story. Nothing really special about them. When I looked at three of them (one from each year) I realised that what they represent is our family. Our little exclusive family of 2. That was the layout. And that was what I made.

I used my Counterfeit kit “Balmy” and created a little flat cluster in a different position than usual for me which made a nice change.

I didn't need much journalling but made sure I included the title of the Marvin Gaye/Kim Weston song, “It Takes Two” as it's the one we chose for our wedding and is totally perfect for us.

Whimsical Musings week #3 and Counterfeit Challenge layout #2

Pam made a fabulous layout (it's not up on her blog yet but go over there and say hi - she's got lots of funky creating going on) about three very unrelated activities that she really enjoys and made me realise that this is a topic I'd also like to do – I'll be revisiting this prompt for sure.

My challenge for this week is a photo inspiration from Pinterest. Not only do I think the colours are amazing (so loving grey right now) but there's so much texture in the photo, so many items to be inspired by and so many little elements that could be lifted and taken. I'm excited to see what the adorable Pam comes up with...

I downloaded this from Pinterest but it (and so many other gorgeous collections of items and colours) can be found over at NiftyThriftyDryGoods.com

Jingles & Sketches... all the way...

This week, Jingle Belles has teamed up with the Clean and Simple Stamping designers to create our cards using sketch #154. In the spirit of the partnership, we should also keep our cards clean and simple - easy right? Not if you've seen anything I ever create! CAS isn't really my style! Full and messy more like LOL!

But I did create something more pared down than I would usually make and the sketch made this really quick to put together. I used up some of my never ending scraps (oh, when will my box ever empty???) and cut out a sentiment from this great CC paper and another card hits the pile.

Fall to layout #154

Happy Wednesday everyone! And just remember that there's only 14 weeks until the beginning of December - how many cards do you have all ready to post? Why not head over to Jingle Belles and get yourself ahead of the game?!?

Whimsical Musings goes weekly

As you know, I'm all about the daily layout challenges (three this year so far) but that really doesn't leave much time for ANYTHING else including housework, cooking or generally carrying out either my main or my second dayjob.

And I'm aware that I haven't actually shared many of my July creations which I will probably just drop in from time to time. But at the end of July, my über-creative friend Pam and I decided that we'd move Whimsical Musings from a daily layout to a weekly challenge. We'd take it in turns to create a prompt for each other and then we'd have the whole week to create and share.

Pam kicked off week 1 with this gorgeous colour scheme:

She thought it was a combination that neither of us use so often and that glorious yellow, while my second all time favourite colour, really doesn't feature much on my pages so I was very inspired. It took me all week to get around to it which says a lot about how fast time is flying right now, and nothing about how inspired I was!

I immediately thought of Canda when I saw this wonderful nature-toned palette so Engineer Creek seemed to be a perfect fit with all those shades of sunshine yellow. I fell back on my favourite Cosmo Mr Campy (might have to get even more of this!) and created another little snippet of my Yukon story.

Week 2 was my turn and I decided to jump right out of the box by offering up a quote and life motto from the US Polar explorer Norman Vaughan, “Dream Big and Dare To Fail”. When I first heard him talk about his life and motto back in 2007 it resonated so much with me that it stuck and I try to use it as my own motto.

I created two layouts the first of which might turn into a series of “Bucket List” ideas. I've always wanted to go to the Antarctic and it deserves place number 1 on my list!

And then I just wanted to capture a few words inspired by the motto itself. I used the Scrap Happy sketch for August for the design and my new Counterfeit Kit, “Balmy”.

Layout #2 for Whimsical Musings and #1 for Counterfeit Kit Challenge

This week's prompt is all about connections which has the cogs in my brain working already.

Putting on the Bling...

This week's Jingle Belles challenge could have been written with me in mind. Kind of sums up what I like about Christmas...

"Bling On The Holidays" is just what it sounds like. Incorporate anything sparkly onto your card.

Sounded so me. Sounded so easy. Sounded a walk in the park.

It wasn't!

I was shocked and filled with horror to see that I had really very little glitter covered Christmas paper and even fewer elements with sparkle or bling. So I had to go very simple by using one of the few sheets I had and adding a bit of extra bling to it. Some glitter letters finished it off and I'm done.

I love the subtle sparkle on this paper - each of the baubles and most of the stars are covered with twinkle. So pretty.

I'm noticing that I seem to be using the same few sentiments over and over so I ought to plan ahead and write down a few that I could use.  And Lauren reminded us on her blog that we ought to be making sure the inside is finished off and ready to address and post when silly season kicks in. Good reminder - I'll try to get around to that. Again, back to that list of sentiments I suppose! Oh, and Lauren's card was just oozing sparkle! So gorgeous.

Anyway, I know I say this every week but I REALLY recommend you head over to Jingle Belles and check out this week's twinkle filled contributions.

So much sparkly and glitter can only make you happy!

Kiddie borrowing

If you have been reading my blog for any time, you might have noticed that I mostly create kiddie-free pages. I scrap about my and my DH, our travels, our experiences, the everyday and the extraordinary. I probably scrap about the weather more often than little people.

But that's not to say that I don't ADORE scrapping my über-delightful nephew and nieces. I like to think that they do, in fact, belong to me a bit too! I take loads and loads of photos of these little bundles of joy (!) when I'm back in the UK as well as *stealing* photos from Liberty's laptop of them when I'm there!

These photos then keep me going and scrapping when I am in the mood to scrap super-cute faces. And I always love the results.

When I was back in June, I made a point of cajoling the kids out to the garden for a few minutes each to capture some latest snaps of them. And was pleased to see when I got home that I really had managed to get a few great ones of each of them.

So when I was doing my daily Whimsical Musings challenge in July, I knew that I would be making a few pages to capture them as they are right now.

The prompt for day 8 was "F for Five" meaning use five of anything - total supplies or five of one item perhaps. I made a pretty average layout using five items as a warm up using a fished-out a stunning vintage Bellaboo kit (from November 2008 I think) and realised just how much I still loved it. I decided that I needed to make more and to use this kit again - right away.

I decided to pick out five photos of each of the three children and to make a page about each of them. Using five wallet-sized photos on the pages made them look quite similar but the products I chose made them quite individual.

My first layout of niece #2 used the vintage Bellaboo kit again but by focussing on the brown shades, I made the layout look completely different from the winter feel of the original kit. Some fussy cutting around my cluster prettied this up so much and gave it some super dimension. Just look at that gorgeous face. She's a bit of a devil but she's totally adorable all the same!

I can't believe how big and grown up nephew #1 is! He seems to leap up between visits and I swear before long, he'll be taller than me! I always feel the boy layouts a bit of a challenge but I guess it's all just down to combining the right papers. These BG and MME papers seemed to work really well and the browns and reds I chose highlight that gorgeous red hair!

Last but by no means least, is niece #1 who has turned into a delightfully lovely girl who is a joy to have around. She needed pretty flowers, pinks and some bling to sum up how beautiful I think she is. I edited the photos with some vintage actions which gave them a bit of a dreamy feel which appealed and added some rosette flowers which I had die-cut from Deb's TH die when I was at the crop (think I neeeeed that die!). Once I had stopped them springing apart/up/off, they gave some great dimension.

I'm heading back again in September and you can be sure I will be stocking up on some more photos of these lovely faces to keep me going again during the winter. Miss these guys so much!

Balmy August Scrapping

Well, at least in my dreams! The weather round here these last few weeks has been about as far away from this idyllic idea of summer evenings as you can imagine. Wet, wet, wet would describe August 2011.

However, better late than never, I made up my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit a few days ago.

Our inspiration kit this month was the September 2010 kit from My Creative Scrapbook:

I loved the soft, romantic, summery feel of this kit. Full of pinks and soft aquas and that was the inspiration that I took away with me.

I made sure I had a soft collection of papers, lots of flowers, some ribbons, some glittery bling and some chipboard shapes including a bird and cage as in the original kit. I've made quite a large kit which might be difficult to use up in just one month but I know that I'll enjoy it as I do.

I've decided to call it "Balmy" in honour of the summer it makes me think of (but that we're not getting).

I'm picturing lots of girlie layouts using this kit but I will try to stretch its use to make something a bit more masculine so watch this space! I'm itching to get going with this and to get busy with my never ending supply of butterflies and brads! ;-)

What are your scrapping plans for the rest of August?

I was worried...

... when I first saw this week's challenge over at Jingle Belles.

Shape Up For The Holidays?

What?

They want me to do some exercise when creating?

Nooooooo!

But then I read the challenge and saw that, phew, what they wanted was for us to create non-standard shaped cards. What a relief!

And then I started to worry again. Different card shapes? Mmmm, pretty difficult for me to think outside the box of my standard 6 3/4" x 4 3/4" card that I make every week. But determined to take on the challenge, I grabbed my Cricut Christmas Cheer cartridge to see if I could get inspired - and yes, I did!

I decided to go with the pretty sleigh on the cartridge and took it from there.

I adore the result (although I have no idea what envelope I can use with it!)!

Don't think I'll be making many like this as it was intricate and tested my patience a bit but as a one off, perfect.

Just wanted to share

I made these a long time ago using up one of the most surprising kits from Scrapagogo last year.

 I was really dubious about the kit to begin with but once I had looked past the individual items and started to cut and use, it was fantastic, and I've lost count of how many layouts I made with it. It makes me a bit sad that I'm no longer a subscriber but I might go back to them later this year. In the meantime, my Counterfeit kits are proving so successful - kits to use plus old stash being using up. What could be better?

Anyway, I think these two layouts were the last two from the kit but I can't be sure now as I made them months ago! But they were just fun and easy pages using up a few photos and a couple of stories that have been waiting to be told.

I seem to remember this was a Page Maps sketch but I'm not 100% sure

Wishing you all a happy Monday and a good start to the week. I have a couple of days off this week to do some local sightseeing with my baby brother (more scrap opportunities coming up!).

What are your plans?

One sketch, two looks

More Scrapbook Magazine layouts to share with you today.

I'm a big fan of sketches and have talked about it before. I very often grab a Page Maps sketch before I even pick up a piece of paper when I want to move things along more quickly. So the idea of creating a sketch and then designing two quite different pages from it to show how versatile they can be, was a lot of fun.

I went to a design that is similar to a few pages I have made recently. It's great for a stand alone photo or a collection of smaller, wallet-sized photos on a die-cut background which is a combination that I love.

So, first came the sketch (yes, I'm very bad at drawing these things!)

And then came the layouts.

This first one features R's incredible Cosmopolitan. I try these wherever I can when I'm out but his are by far the best I've tasted! They are delicious and so I thought that it deserved a layout of its own. These MME papers were a delight to use and were such a gorgeous combination of colours and shades - loved using them. The cocktail glass rub ons are years old and it was so good to finally use them! I have a whole sheet of similar images that I really must find a use for.

And then I flipped the sketch and used 2x3 photos to highlight some details of our Easter decorations. Something very bright and pink and featuring a banner rather than paper strips.

Sketches are whatever you want them to be and are such an excellent way to start your pages.

Do you use them often? It would be great if you could share your sources - always on the lookout for new places to get inspiration.

All good things came to an end...

... and so it was with my Ingonish Beach counterfeit kit.

It turned out to be a fabulous kit and so versatile. I had set a target of 6 layouts plus some cards but had hoped to get a bit more out of the kit because it was a bit bigger than usual (for me). Therefore I was delighted to manage 8 layouts and a set of very simple cards (13 in total).

This month, I didn't join in on the mini-challenges as I was busy doing my daily prompts but there was a gorgeous sketch (here) that I might go back to and see if I can use sometimes.

And I was left with a handful of scraps which made me feel very virtuous and lots of embellishments that went back into my stash to be used in other kits.

This was perhaps the most successful kit so far as and now I'm looking forward to getting my new kit made up and creating with it. The new kit reveal is 5th so why not come on over and join in the fun?

Do you feel the Elvis love today?

I have been an Elvis fan since I was tiny. I think I got my first copy of Elvis' Christmas Wishes album when I was about 7 and loved it from the first moment. And Blue Christmas is one of my favourites of his so when Jingle Belles announced that we had to channel our inner Elvis for this week's challenge, I was immediately on board.

Guest designer June Houck's challenge "Blue Christmas" was perfect for another card using my very vintage MME papers Bohemia Christmas which I have always loved so much, but never found the right way to use it. I really ought to just sit down and make a Christmas layout with it, but in the meantime, cards are slowly eating into the papers.

I found a great sketch online at Skipping Stones Design

and created a slightly off centre (!) version. I love this brown and blue colour combination - it may be non-traditional, but I think it works so well!

There are some incredible cards over at Jingle Belles this week that you really should go and check out, but my personal favourite is this incredible one (here) by Lauren with not only a blue theme, but also featuring Elvis himself. I LOVE it! Wouldn't that be an amazing card to get through the post? Guaranteed to bring a smile to your face when you open it! Fantastic.

This is week 31 and I have a pile of 43 cards, just waiting to be written and popped into the post - talk about getting ahead of myself! I'm thrilled.