13 Loves {January 2013}

True to form, I've decided to copy my wonderfully creative friend Pam and join in on her series for the year {13 Loves} where, on a monthly basis, she showcases items that she's loving right now.

So, I hope she doesn't mind me jumping on her inspiration and I know I'm late this month but I wanted to get it up within January so that I can join in on time for the rest of the year (that's the plan anyway!).

One

My word which just sort of came to me and I promptly ordered a charm to remind myself of it every day

Two

These shoes which I spotted in the Marina Bay Shopping Mall, Singapore when I was there in December. Every time I look at this photo, I fall in love all over again. *sigh*

Three

Where I'm spending way too much time but can't seem to stop {follow me over there here}

Four

My iPhone - loving it more and more. I hardly use it as a phone, but I can't imagine life without it :-)

Five

These cosy pjs. comfy, soft, warm, pretty. who could ask for more?

Six

Trying to eat more healthy food to get rid of a few kilos

Seven

These words. so true. so me. so us. {Pinterest find here}

Eight

Need to go out and get this. sounds like exactly my kind of product.

Nine

My room. it's not finished but it's mine and I'm loving creating in here

Ten

This place. I love it. Thanks Pam. Join us {here}. We'd love to see you there.

Eleven

A recent find from Ikea. Not sure how I'm going to use them yet but I know 

I'll find a way to have them in my room.

Twelve

We had a lot of snow this month which I loved. If I had made this list on the 13th, the snow would still have been outside my window - hoping for more before the end of winter.

Thirteen

The best way to keep up with another year of daily photos and catch up with both my adorable sisters and live a vicarious single life in glamourous NYC through Pam!

Thanks Pam for a wonderful idea. I really enjoyed putting this month's list together. 

Wednesday Wonderland #1

So, in the spirit of shaking things up and copying (I'm such a copy cat!) a lot of what is going on in blogland, and especially being inspired by Pam, I bring you *Wednesday Wonderland* where I hope to share my weekly Christmas card making adventures.

I have already posted one card this year but let's make this week the first official week, and I know there will be missing Wednesdays but I'm going to put myself out there and aim for 35 Wonderland posts before the end of November. My target card pile number this year is 75 compared to 60 last year because I managed to create 70 and still ran out (need to cut down the list! ha ha) so it would be nice to really be over what I need and maybe ease off a bit next year.

Of course, I'm not just making Christmas cards from my own creative inspiration. Naturally I'm playing along with the delightfully delectable girls over at Jingle Belles. This will be my 3rd year joining in and if you haven't been over there, you really should. Lauren and Steffi are so talented and produce just the most beautiful creations - you can't help but be inspired.

The prompt for this week was to be inspired by this gorgeous image.

Isn't it just gorgeous. Doesn't it make you feel all warm and cosy and ready to snuggle up under a blanket with a hot chocolate?

So I started off just fishing out all the whites, reds, creams and anything else which seemed to say Scandinavia to me and got going.

It was good to use oversized felt deer which I hadn't really known what to do with. The cards are a bit large for the sensitive-to-size German postal system so they will have to be hand delivered but that's ok if I mostly concentrate on the smaller sizes.

I found this mirrored reindeer hanging around and didn't think it needed anything else.

and it really is quite a good mirror as you can see

This is the last of these ready-made snowflakes which were salvaged from shop bought cards which were too large to post reasonably. Again, good to see it used up and finished off.

This whole card-making malarky doesn't come easily to me but I'm happy with this little collection!

Too early for you to make Christmas cards?

ps. This is a message to Michele of "Michele's Scrapy Creations". You won my giveaway but I haven't heard from you! Please get in touch with me by the end of the weekend (3rd February). If I don't hear from you, I will pick another name out of the hat. 

Catching up and plans for change

I haven't posted all that much recently (here recently means the last 4 months!) and again, this doesn't mean I haven't been scrapping. There's a whole lot of paper cutting going on in the background, I've just been bad at sharing.

I've been marginally better at Whimsical Musings where I've managed to create and post about 80% of the weeks (tut tut!) and I started LOAD1012 but rushed off to the UK in the middle of the month to meet my new niece so couldn't finish.

Which means a lot of layouts which have been made but not posted. Now don't worry, I'm not going to share them all. But I have managed to finish off a couple of older CKC kits and thought I would show you a few of those finished projects.

One of the things I love most about my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits is that the layouts that get made from them are often really different from each other. I often don't remember that they came from the same kit when I browse through them. I think this might be because I always have several unfinished kits on the go at any time and from layout to layout, I change the kit to use. Going back to unfinished kits means that the papers often get combined in new ways and I might add in one or two little things (such as twine or cardstock) which gives them a new look.

This also means that I get to enjoy my kits a long time, I don't get bored with them (well mostly anyway), and I'm not limiting myself to a certain set of supplies for a lengthy period of time.

However, there's the right time to call a kit finished and today was that day for my very old kit, Packing, from September. So here are a few layouts from that kit...

This was for Whimsical Musings #55 (inspired by summer memories)

This layout is for Whimsical Musings #73 (inspired by orgnisation) but also for WM#63 (inspired by random sets of photos) and using Creative Scrappers sketch #244

Packing produced only 7 layouts which is on the low side. In the past, I was happy with 6 layouts but with my newer style, I've been getting nearer 10. But somehow, I looked into the box this morning and decided that its time was over. I've tucked all the leftovers back into the rest of my stash and that means I've just three kits left on my shelf. And it's time to make up the new month's kit. I fell in love with it and I hope you will too. Make sure you come back on the 1st to see how I get on!

In the meantime, I'm trying to come up with some new ideas for the blog. I've been inspired by Pam who has set up a few creative series on set days of the month and I love that idea! What would you like to see here on my blog? Any ideas for me?

I'll try and post some layouts from other kits soon but in the meantime, happy Saturday!

The Counterfeit Kit Challenge participant blog hop!

Welcome, welcome. Glad you are here :-)

I hope you've been hopping though the whole list (it's a glorious, long list this time around) and I'm here to round it off. You should have arrived via Tammie but if you've landed here directly, I suggest you start at the beginning (Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog here) and grab a cuppa  - there's a whole lot of inspiration out there!

The theme of this blog hop is the prompt posted on the CKC site back at the beginning of the month. They challenged us to make a layout using three patterned papers, three embellishments and a three word title.

Mmmm, not so easy I thought. But I gave it a go and it was so much easier than I thought it would be. Double sided paper helped but to be honest I only used those B-sides for a few of the paper embellishments. Limiting myself made me get a bit more creative than usual and love the result. My January kit, Renew is making me so happy. Bright colours and fun patterns proving to be the perfect antidote to the January miseries!

The three patterned papers are:

Echo Park Everyday Eclectic Doily Multi and Chevron Woodgrain and Bo Bunny Vicki B Loverley.

And my three embellishments are washi tape (love this super narrow diagonal stripe), an American Crafts flair badge from Craft Fair Sew Cool and a couple of stickers from October Afternoon Ducks in a Row.

I know, it looks more! But that's because I filled the page with all sorts of little bits and pieces!

Not only did I complete the CKC Challenge #1, but also the January Page Maps sketch that was featured on the Counterfeit blog...

... and also Whimsical Musings prompt #63 to use a random collection of photos. I'd printed these out before Christmas to do this challenge so it was nice to see them down on a layout.

WEll, thanks for stopping by and please leave me a comment to let me know you were here. Next on the hop is the delightful Andrea so be sure to head over there and say hello - one talented lady :-)

Here is the full list of hoppers if you'd like to go back over their wonderful projects or in case you get lost along the way!

Jemma   http://just-jimjams.blogspot.uk/
Lesley G  http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk/
Lucinda  http://www.scrapbooksandcows.blogspot.com/
Shir  http://shir-benovich.blogspot.com/
Leslie  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/
Julie H  http://spendlesscraftmore.blogspot.com.au
Kate  http://kateblue.blogspot.com/
Tricia  http://triciasimmons.blogspot.co.uk/
Lisa J  http://thesimplelifewithlisa.blogspot.com.au/
Julie J  http://jsquaredscrapspot.wordpress.com
Rebecca  http://howiburb.blogspot.com/
Tammie   http://www.lifeinterruptedthenscrapped.blogspot.com/
Lisa H  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de/      you are here
Andrea   http://SnappingMonsters.blogspot.com   go here next!

And we have a winner...

... Bet you thought I'd forgotten my promise of a little giveaway when I revealed my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit at the beginning of the month.

I may be a little late, but I hadn't forgotten. In fact the number of comments that post got reminded me each time I checked my mail.

So... we had 30 comments and Random.org tells me that number 3 is the winner!

So "Michel's Scrappy Creations" - get in touch with me by mail (on the side bar right) and let me know your snail mail addy and I will get a little package of goodies in the post for you.

In the meantime, I'm making the most of the cold snow weather we are experiencing right now meaning I go out even less than before and I've been creating a little. I think I need some serious warming up of my scrap muscles as the following layout is "ok" but it was oh so much cooler in my head before I made it :-(

I used my December CKC mini page kit, Anticipation and think there's just one layout left in the limited supplies I had. Maybe this time I can remember that I had also chosen a Page Maps sketch I wanted to use.... My excuse is that there's a lot going on right now... ha ha!

CKC December page kit, Anticipate, #2

 

If only photographs could capture the sparkle of the lights (they were literally twinkling the whole time) and the delight I felt when seeing them...

Happy January everyone and Congrats to Michele!

Happy times playing with paper

It's been a long time since I was really able to just play around with paper even though I've managed an odd project or two. But yesterday I decided to leave the TV off and just see how it went.

Back in December, I posted my Counterfeit Kit Challenge December page kit, Anticipate and my good blog friend S kindly pointed out that I had, in fact, forgotten to post the page I talked about in the post. There was a good reason for that. I hadn't made it! I had fully intended to make a page from my kit but the time just ran away and it didn't happen and I forgot that I had written about it.

So that was on my list of layouts I wanted to make and my kit was looking a bit neglected. It also happened to coincide with Whimsical Musings prompt #72 - to use bling, confetti or glitter on our layouts.

A Christmas layout needs a bit of bling as far as I'm concerned so I decided to go overboard and include glitter splats, sequins, glimmer mist splodges and glimmer fabric too. Enough I think?!?

Anticipate page kit layout #1

I did cheat and add in a sheet of white cardstock but that just means that the cream cardstock in the original kit is still waiting to be used and I already have another photo printed out to use for the rest of the kit - I am feeling re-energised :-)

And if that wasn't enough, I had another idea for the Whimsical Musings prompt all about sequins themselves and so I went for it and just got going with a second layout for the same prompt. I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge January kit, Renew and went with gems, glimmer mist, sequins and the story itself. Another piece in the puzzle of my story.  I love that side of this wonderful hobby of ours.

January kit, Renew #2

It's still early in the evening so you never know, I might even just get on with yet another one!