Forger Fun

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Forgers blog hop. Now you should have arrived here via Julie's blog (here) but if you are here directly, you can start the blog hop back at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog (here).

I know I've shared before about the fun that goes on behind the scenes with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge team. There are a few optional, extra activities each year that we can choose to join in on and then share with you all, but they are usually so much fun that I end up signing on for them all.

This time around, Rebecca linked us up to the blog Grace Is Overrated owned by Christie Zimmer whose focus is to help readers with their journalling. Christie graciously (excuse the pun) allowed us all to use these sheets for our team activity and to share them here with you. Rebecca selected two of the journalling prompt sheets for us to check out and fill in and the idea was to be inspired by them create a page. We could use the page as a starting point or even as part of the design of our page.

The two were:
http://www.graceisoverrated.com/2010/07/new-journal-page.html
or
http://www.graceisoverrated.com/2010/08/new-journal-page-24-and-counting.html

I chose the former and filled it in late one evening in bed, hence the slightly skewed answers! I had bed brain and couldn't for the life of me think of one serious news story that I should list! I had just come back from the UK so the meat controversy was the nearest I got! Please don't judge me by my flakey answers....  But I tried not to double guess myself and just write down the first thing that came to mind - mostly about tidying up and sleeping - ha ha

Journalling page design credit - Christie Zimmer at Grace Is Overrated 

I decided to use the sheet as a story starter and the cup of tea jumped out at me as something so important to me (especially being a Brit!) and features in lots of my photos but I don't think I've done a page about it before. Now was the time.

I used my November CKC kit, Dempster. LO#8

See that film strip washi tape? Love this new purchase and sly addition to my kit for this layout

Oh yes, my tea is just perfect. Can't get through the day without it. I buy it in bulk in the UK and bring it back with me so I don't get caught short here without my preferred brew!

Looking back at the journalling sheet, I can see at least a dozen other stories that could be told. What a great starting point for those days when you know you want to create but can't quite decide on what - and a great way to use up some of those bizarre random photos that I take all the time. It took me about five minutes to come up with at least half a dozen tea photos for example.

Please make sure you take some time to pop over to Christie's blog and check out the wonderful array of journalling (more than 50 I think) sheets she has for you to download and use.

Thanks for stopping by. Next up is the wonderful Lisa J. So off you go all the way down under and check out what delights she has in store. We all took such different directions for this exercise, you are sure to pick up some great ideas along the way.

If you get lost, here is the complete blog list:

Angela http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/
Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/
Jennifer http://www.jennifersjumbles.blogspot.com/
Julie http://www.hisglorygirl.blogspot.com/
Lisa H. http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/ ← me
Lisa J http://thesimplelifewithlisa.blogspot.com.au/   ← go here next
Lynnette http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/
Milissa http://millermall.blogspot.com/
Rebecca http://howiburb.blogspot.com/

What's your go to drink to kick start your day?

Wednesday Wonderland #5

I'm keeping it quick tonight. I'm battling with everything and that's very frustrating. Problems with Pinterest, problems with Picasa photos, problems, problems, problems! Probably not in the grand plan of things I suppose so it's no doubt time for bed. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

But before I go, let me just share my next two cards using the Jingle Belles prompt "Sketching in a Winter Wonderland" using this super sketch:

It might look a bit different but the circle element and sentiment were the main elements I wanted to incorporate this time around. And I managed to use up a bit more of some really old product. Always a good thing.

Hope your Wednesday is running a little easier for you than it is for me. :-)

Counterfeit Kit Challenge February Member Blog Hop

Welcome to the February Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop.

As always it's lovely to see you here and I hope you will continue through the hop to check out all the amazing creations our fellow counterfeiters have made.

Today, I'm kicking off the blog hop which is new for me so hopefully you've come to me directly from the Counterfeit blog.

This month our challenge was to create a project about "Why I love..." but without photos.

Not so easy as so often, we are triggered to create by the photo itself. But I looked into my Urban kit and saw my Echo Park paper with the camera motif and decided to go that route. I've probably done a layout before about taking photos, but here I gave myself a bit more space to write a few more lines than usual.

There's a few items on the layout that help support my theme:

• the fussy cut cameras of course
• the heart confetti and border strip
• the washi tape with typical camera posing phrases
• the heart embossed bag
• the clouds - sky and clouds being a very typical photo for me
• all the elements remind me of nature and nature colours which is another top photo subject for me

To be honest, there's so many little meaningful bits and pieces on here, I could have left out the journalling too!

I tried to add some splashes of yellow to contrast with the blue and greens and turned to my green vellum once again to create a journalling pocket. I loved the result of the first chevron embossed bag {here} that I went with the same idea again and used a heart sprinkle stamp.

Originally, I had cut out a handful of clouds which I used as masks for the misting and had intended to add these to the layout too. But they didn't work and off they came to be used another day. I actually like the subtle masking effect much more.

My Urban kit has proved to be one of my faves of recent months. Just love it. What's your favourite of late?

So, I'm going to send you on your way now. The next stop is the very talented Lesley who made such a gorgeous layout last month that she is sure to delight again.

Don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you were here :-)

CKCB http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
Lisa H http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com    ß you are here

Lesley http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk/  ß  go here next 

Julene http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com

Maggie http://maggiebscrapblog.blogspot.fr/

Mandy http://teacupofscrapisms.blogspot.com/

Caryn https://thescorpiancrafter.blogspot.com/

Julie http://spendlesscraftmore.blogspot.com.au/

Leslie http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/

Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk/

13 loves {February 2013}

Here are my 13 loves for February. 

one

Thai Mango Salad found on Veggie Wedgie {here}

New food. Now that I have a new kitchen, I have big plans to get back to cooking and being a bit more foodie. I might even dust the cobwebs off one or two of my huge collection of cookery books. This caught my eye on Pinterest but the blog it came from looks amazing. I really want to give this Thai Mango Salad a try - it sounds/looks like heaven on a plate.

two

One of the best photos ever. I was lucky enough to go home for a few days and caught up with all of my three English nieces and my growing-up-way-too-fast nephew (and way too cool to spend time with boring old me :-) Yes, I've officially become old). It was wonderful to have some time with this little one who of course is developing at quite a speed but still has no idea whatsoever of who I am! But she is adorable and much loved by everyone. Can't wait to see her again.

three

Guess Glensia shoes. Pinterest credits {here}

High heels. Shoes and handbags are my two shopping weaknesses. Not that I indulge that often but I could! Love these. The colour is super and the gold trim is perfect. I haven't managed to track them down on any German sites yet but I have my eyes open.

four

Free printables originally found on Pinterest but the blog link can be found {here}

Printables. Wouldn't these be fun on a layout, in a mini book or even in my new Project Life that arrived recently but I haven't found the time yet to start? I think they are adorable. I really appreciate how generous the creative blogging community is.

five

Skyfall by Adele on iTunes {here}

New music (to me). I love Adele. I love Daniel Craig. I love James Bond. Totally perfect combination. I could listen to this song over and over and over again. I haven't managed to track the film down in English yet but I'll get to see it sooner or later. I so hope she wins the Oscar.

six

Red roses. While it's not true that nothing says I love you like red roses, it's certainly pretty nice to get a token of love on Valentine's Day. Especially when you are sitting at home, feeling sorry for yourself, alone! As ever, I received beautiful, thoughtful flowers. There's a story here that I've shared before but the number of roses is significant. I love that we have these little traditions.

seven

Mint Satchel by Harvey's {here}

A must-have handbag. I had never heard of seatbelt handbags {Harvey's here} before but when I saw a layout highlighting a recent seatbelt handbag purchase, my interest was piqued and I had to have a look. I have a bit of a *thing* for handbags so when I saw this one, I knew I was on to something. I have to say that I could really fancy one of these. And in my colour of the moment.

eight

Christine Middlecamp's blog Retrospection

Crafty inspiration. One of my scrap crushes, the über-talented Christine Middlecamp created these adorable bags for Valentine's Day and inspired one of my recent Whimsical Musings prompts. I dream of creating as incredibly as her.

nineeight

Girlie time. This little girl is quite simply adorable. Almost 9, she has turned into just the most lovely young lady. I took her out birthday shopping alone for the first time and she picked out two very fashionable, stylish outfits for herself. It was good to spend some one on one time and I was happy to have had this opportunity on my short visit home. Next time, I'll make time for one of the other two.

ten

Crate Paper {here}

Pretty paper. I wish I owned more Crate Paper. I really ought to track down a good online shop here in Germany which sells it. I love almost everything they bring out but this Maggie Holmes collection is just stunning. I certainly *need* this in my collection. Every. Single. Piece. Of. It. :-)

eleven

Sparkly lights. Our new dining table light. This is the first time we've had a light over the dining table for 10 years and three flats, so I'm delighted we found one we are both so happy with. I'm getting a few more for other corners of our new home.

twelve

Pinterest credits {here}

Pastel nail varnish (with pretty nails of course). I am a chewer. It's terrible. I have horrible nails and fingers from this dreadful habit but every now and again, I get myself under control and then I love to paint my nails. This colour (and I know Pam would disagree with me that this is a colour at all!) - Bubble Bath, by OPI - is just my kind of thing. Adding to my shopping list. Also just saw on their site that they have a "Germany" range which is full of fun names for the gorgeously rich colours. Will be checking those out for sure. Watch this space.

thirteen

Making Snow Angels. Can you believe that I have never - and I mean NEVER - made a snow angel? Maybe we just didn't do that kind of thing when I was little. Anyway, we had quite a lot of snow (for us) this year and unfortunately, though I tried three times to make a snowman, it was the wrong sort of snow and just wouldn't stick together. So the next best thing was to throw myself down and play.

This is a series started by my delightful friend Pam and I really enjoyed thinking about what I love right now to put this post together. Thank heavens for Pinterest (follow me @LisaInRe).

What are your 13 loves today?

Wednesday Wonderland #4

Jingling along today. This week's prompt over at Jingle Belles is "Sketching in a Winter Wonderland" with this lovely and unusual sketch by Guest Designer Brenda Barton.

Making some quick decisions about which products I wanted to use and how to interpret the sketch, I settled on Eskimo Kisses scraps and chipboard, white doilies for contrast and my ubiquitous twine. Simple and quick. 

And once I had made the first, I quickly ran off the second based on the same design and products.  

I didn't think I'd make it today but I guess I just needed to get my butt moving.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Wednesday Wonderland #3

So, I just got back from a few days away and rather than put all the stuff away that I have accumulated over those few short days, I decided that I needed to get my second card made for the latest Jingle Belles prompt JB:03:13: Ho Ho H2O which is to feature icicles, snow, frozen lakes etc. That long card list is calling and anyway, I don't want to bail out on my weekly feature after only a few weeks :-)

I again decided to make the paper work for me with another simple design. The paper features trees in a snow landscape with lots of sparkle and plenty of snow flakes. A blue mat, some long forgotten Doodlebug ribbon and a clear snowflake finished it off and I'm calling it done.

I'm hoping to manage more than one a week for the next few weeks but this will do for now!

I wondered about adding the title "In the bleak mid winter" to this card - too sad?

Let's talk

I need to confess that I cheated a bit this month with my kit! I happened to get the inside track on what my challenge would be in the month at the same time as what the new kit would be. So, when putting my kit together so I was able to feel very smug at popping a little pack of speech bubble post-it notes into my box of goodies!

So here we are with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge mini-challenge#2 - to use speech bubbles in a fun way on your project and my little cheat made this layout come together so easily. But honestly, making your own wouldn't take so much time either. I'm just really lazy.

I enlisted the help of my husband for this one as I had several ways I could go, but then he came up with this idea. The stories that we repeat to each other over and over again. I know you have them too. The ones where you start, "Have I ever mentioned..." knowing full well that you have told this snippet a thousand times, only for the other person to say, "No.... go one..." again knowing full well that it will be hard for one of you not to laugh because you've heard it sooooo often!

We have hundreds of these little exchanges but the one I've documented here might be the first and therefore the original. He's a big Elton fan, converting me in the process so I found a way to add a couple of concert (bad) photos in the process.

Oh boy, do I love my kit this month! This is my third layout and it's so great to be using these blues and greens after a lot of more typical colours for me. I added in the tiny alpha at the bottom and a few buttons but I consider these free items anyway! Ha ha!

And, going back to the beginning of last month when I promised a little giveaway... I had posted a winner but they haven't come to claim their prize so I pulled another name.

Drum roll please......

Congratulations to Mandy of the blog http://www.teacupofscrapisms.blogspot.com

Mandy just so happens to be one talented Guest Designer over at Counterfeit this month so Congrats to her!

Mandy, use the email link in the side bar to contact me with your snail mail address - really excited to be sending you something all that way! How exciting!

Wednesday Wonderland #2

Two weeks in a row! Amazing...

It almost didn't happen today but I pulled myself together and quickly put this card together for Jingle Belles prompt JB:03:13: Ho Ho H2O which is to feature icicles, snow, frozen lakes etc.

Looking through my papers I found a cute sparkly one with penguins, ocean and icebergs which seemed perfect to use as a simple main feature for the card. I love it when I can make the paper do all the work for me. All I needed to do was cut it out! Matting it up to give some detail and wrapping a bit of twine to make it look more finished and that was all it needed.

The penguin looked to me as if he was gazing off to the distance - a bit sad really - which made me think of the sentiment.

30 minutes and I was done.

Almost a record for me!

Making cards yet? It's never too early *wink*!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge February kit reveal

As ever, welcome, welcome. Glad to see you here.

If you are working your way through the blog hop and are here courtesy of the delightful Libeeti then you are most certainly heading in the right direction. If you've come here direct, might I suggest you go back to the beginning of the hop (Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog here) so that you can catch all that scrummy inspiration.

Because we have a winner of a kit this month :-) and I don't want you to miss out.

We were asked to vote for our favourite kit this month and I have to say that when I saw Chasing Pavements by Scraptastic I knew that was the one for me. And I was delighted to see that it had won. Now, I understand it might be a bit limited in colours for some of you and not pink enough for others (me included ha ha) but let those colours and designs sink in a bit and I'm sure you will start to see the potential. I especially loved the simpler colour range after so much variety over the last few months and appreciated that it wasn't a lovey dovey kit. I hardly make any Valentine layouts and this kit will be perfect for all sorts of non-romantic or non-girlie topics. But you never know, I might even go for the feminine pages to see if I can pull it off.

So here is the inspiration kit we were given.

And this is the kit I created.

So different from the last few kits I've made so I can't wait to delve into it and am sure that I will get lots and lots of projects from it.

It's a huge kit, much larger than usual but as I started pulling stuff, it just didn't stop. And there's lots of older stuff in there which will be great if they get cut into. We will see how that goes.

As always, I started with some cardstock but I expect that I will be adding in more as the month goes on. I've just run out of white and kraft so this was the last sheet I had.

Then I moved onto papers selecting several for the colours they had and several more for the designs which I tried to match up to the inspiration kit. There's a lot more papers than in the original kit and many of these sheets have already been started.

Once I got to the embellies, I started by picking out some of the same types of embellies as the inspiration kit and then just carried on adding and adding until I figured there was enough. I've already mentioned that I have no problems adding in extra items (as if I need it!) throughout the month and I haven't included buttons for example so these will probably work their way in during the month.

I say this far too often, but I'm rather in love with my kit. I am itching to get creating. Watch this space.

It's time now for you to head down under to the wonderful Lisa J (did you see her kit last month? Just gorgeous!) And here is the full list for the hop in case you get lost along the way:

Guest Designer - Mandysea  http://teacupofscrapisms.blogspot.com.au/

Andrea  http://snappingmonsters.blogspot.com/  

Angela  http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/  

Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/  

Jennifer  http://www.jennifersjumbles.blogspot.com/  

Julie  http://www.hisglorygirl.blogspot.com/  

Libeeti http://creationswithlove-li-bee-ti.blogspot.com/  

Lisa H. http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/  ß you are here

Lisa J. http://thesimplelifewithlisa.blogspot.com.au/ ß go here next

Lynnette  http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Milissa http://millermall.blogspot.com/  

Rebecca http://howiburb.blogspot.com/

Make sure you leave me a comment to let me know you were here and let me know your plans for a February kit. Will you go romantic and Valentine? Or are you interested in something a bit different?