Wednesday Wonderland #13

Can someone stop time to let me catch my breath?

No?

Ok, then I'll just try to breathe more deeply :-)

With time against me, I was determined to make my card this evening and made it even more easy and simple than ever.

This week's Jingle Belles prompt is to celebrate Earth Day and go green and recycle in some way. I opened my drawer and discovered a beautiful hand-made card from a few Christmases ago that I loved and decided to take off the felt deer and sentiment, using them to base my card. Recycle? Check.

As I had made a card using my Counterfeit kit Opposite yesterday evening, it seemed appropriate to just use what I had in front of me and lift that design too making a simple card with older product. Easy design? Check.

And it's got my favourite Christmas colour, pink, all over it :-) I felt I needed a bit of pink today to lift my spirits so that was perfect. Happy mood maker? Check.

I swear I was done in 15 minutes! A record? Check.

Love it when it comes together like this.

And so ends yet another Wednesday....

Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop

Hello again. How's life in your neck of the woods?

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop, happy to see you here again.

I have the honour of opening up the hop this time around so please make sure you check out the rest of the wonderful stops. I know you will find a whole lot of inspiration to lift your spirits if you are experiencing a dreary, grey, wet April day.

This month, the CKC challenged us to be inspired by this beautiful photograph

Now it's crazy busy round here so I made it easy for myself this evening and went with a card that lifts the theme of the photo using the papers found in my April kit, Opposite.

You can never have too many cards ready to go in your cupboard so I'm happy to have this for when I need to say thank you.

Keeping it short today so on you go to check out the ever delightful Leslie - I bet she will wow you with her creation! But don't forget to let me know you were here before you leave.

Here's the full list in case you get lost along the way...

CKCB              http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

Lisa H     http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com 

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

Lesley     http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk/

Rebecca     http://howiburb.blogspot.com/

Lisa E             http://lisae-design.blogspot.com

Candace     http://usthreebythesea.blogspot.co.uk/

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

Jennifer     www.jennifergracecreates.com

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

Have a great day everyone and see you back here soon.

13 loves {April}

A busy month full of work and not a lot else so I struggled a bit to find 13 things that I really love this month, but after a bit of head scratching I came up with the following. Hope you find something to inspire you in my list.

1.

Two Peas videos here

I've been catching up on these videos while I do the ironing and have really been enjoying Shimelle's easy, relaxed style of mixing papers, telling stories and making pretty pages. I feel the urge to use more papers on my pages. Very inspiring.

2.

Etsy find here

I'm always on the lookout for men presents and this one looks right up my street. I've tucked away this idea for the future. Loved the idea of personalised presents.

3.

 

Card by Lea Lawson on the Glitz blog here

I wish my cards looked as good as this :-) I need to add more stuff to my cards I think. I love this new Glitz line of papers and have a few sheets so I might have a go at something like this.

4.

Pinterest find here

'Nuff said! Made me smile.

5. 

Spring is here at last. Here in Germany, that means that the BBQ season is officially opened. In the next months, I will no doubt eat more meat each week than I would in a whole month during the winter months. Always making sure there is salad on the side helps me to feel better!

6.

Pinterest find here

I am collecting ideas for my scrap room. I have the luxury of a large room just for myself and it needs reworking. I moved in and just plonked everything where there was space. I love the way this shelf looks so interesting and yet coordinated at the same time. 

7.

Pinterest find here

Oh, yes! So true!

8.

BasicGrey here

Love the look of this new collection from BG. On my wish list. Map papers, as you know, are my weak spot!

9.

The ultimate boy toy for these not quite warm enough evenings. Cosy and comforting. Perfect times.

10.

A present brought back for me from far away travels. In Pink! Need to get to use it more. 

11.

Shimelle's blog here

Like I said, I'm finding Shimelle so inspiring at the moment. I've always liked what she makes and I think she just gets better and better. What a super cute layout.

12.

I keep my eyes open for little pretties wherever I am and was thrilled to pick up some small bags of sequins on a recent trip to my local haberdashery store. A cheap, colourful, on trend addition to my supplies.

13. 

  

The big highlight of the month was a much anticipated concert, the first for quite some time, by one of my musical heroes for the last 30 years!  Nigel Kennedy is a genius and I was thrilled to be able to get tickets for the 2^nd row at his recent concert featuring Bach and Fats Waller – a really super combination, if a little unconventional. Actually, that is probably the best word to describe Kennedy himself… unconventional. Anyway, to get to the point, I got the chance to meet him after the concert as a signing had been set up. I was like a teenager and was thrilled to have a quick chat with him, have him sign my programme and grab a photo. It may not be the best, but one that makes me smile every time I look at it. 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful Sunday and don't forget to share what's inspiring you at the moment.

13 loves is a series started off by my inspirational best friend Pam over at Daily Pamage. I'm sure she had a more eventful month than me so be sure to pop by and see what delights she has to offer.

Wednesday Wonderland #12

It's that time of the week again. Again? Hard to believe, but Wednesday is here once more and I'm back with another Wednesday Wonderland.

This week, the Belles are getting ready for Earth Day (22nd April) with one of our favourite prompts, to use something recycled on our cards.

I don't actually know where I put all the cards from last Christmas as that is usually my go to process for this prompt. The cards we buy these days are so beautiful that they can often be recycled in some way for the next year. However, what I did have were some cards left overs in my scrap box. It's the last one of this particular design and I managed to cut out a card front from the main body, a sentiment from inside plus another I discovered in the box, and the small thumbnail image from the back of the card.

A few scraps of paper, some really old ribbon and a sprinkle of stickles on the small image and I'm finished.

Sticking it all together

Glad you are back today for another Counterfeit Kit Challenge prompt to help you get that stash used up and onto pages you love.

This time around, we have been challenged to create a page using only stickers for embellishments. Eek. Hard one.

I automatically turn to all sorts of bits and pieces when I want to pretty up a page so limiting myself to paper and stickers was a tough one. Made harder by the fact that I did not cheat and put a whole pile of stickers into "Opposite#" when I was making it (I knew about the challenge I was assigned - doh!). And as you know, my kit was made up of old products and mismatched items. So it was, once again, pure chance that I had a few items in my kit that I could use.

In the end, I really did make this layout with a sheet of cardstock, a couple of sheets of paper, three old Heidi Swapp sticker sheets, a Making Memories sticker journalling spot sheet and a set of old Glitz glittery alpha stickers. A word of advice - one that I should maybe have followed myself - ooooold stickers are not as sticky as they used to be. I can see a few corners lifting already on the MM spots and the alphas. Oh well...

And I got happy with the paper punch along the edge of the sticker sheet to get some mini hearts to use as I couldn't add any pearls or bling or mist ;-(

April kit, Opposite, LO#1

This background to the sticker sheet from MM was perfect to punch out a few hearts to add as a sprinkle across the page.

One thing I found was not to worry about how closely the stickers matched each other and just to layer them up with scraps of paper to give them a cluster feeling.

Did I miss using all those scrummy embellies that I usually use? Yes. But do I like the page I made with just these simple items? Oh yes!

Why not give it a try yourself and don't forget to link up over using Mr Linky on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

Also, there is now a Flickr group (here) for the Counterfeit followers to use. It's great for quickly sharing your creations if you don't want to write up a full blog post or to quickly comment on a page or two. We still want you to use the Mr Linky so that we have a complete list of all your wonderful layouts etc but you can link directly to your Flickr entry if you have posted there. :-)

Wednesday Wonderland #11

Super short and sweet today.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather but really wanted to run off one last blingy card on my time as GD over at Jingle Belles where I've been hanging out with my favourite Christmas Belles.

I challenged everyone to use as much bling and sparkle as possible this week and tried to make four very different cards. I think I achieved that goal and am delighted with all that glitter!

Here's my über-simple one this week. The idea just came to me and I'm pleased with how it came out. I even used my own handwriting on it!

My white glitter paper is all but gone now so I will have to track down some more - any suggestions?

Happy Hump Day everyone. How's your card pile coming along? :-)

Fröhliche Friday #2

I'm back again for my second week as Guest Designer over at my favourite Christmas challenge blog, Jingle Belles, with my über-favourite girls Lauren and Stephanie!

If you remember, I challenged everyone to go sparkly with Christmas cards featuring bling, glitter, sparkle, shimmer or shine.

This time around, I tried some different types of shiny with glitter paper, a glimmer misted doily, ready glittered elements and a smattering of sequins. All wrapped up in pink. My kind of card :-)

Jingle Belles #7_2

This card was very loosely based on the March BasicGrey card sketch (here) which appealed to me in its simplicity. I think I would like to follow this one a bit more closely next time. Keeping on file...

I'd simply love to see you over at the ever welcoming Jingle Belles so why don't you come over and link your blinged up card for us all to enjoy? See you there.

Wednesday Wonderland #10

Joining in on my own Jingle Belles prompt, where I am thrilled to be this week's GD, to bring you Wednesday Wonderland #10 (if you can believe it!) full of glittery sparkle.

I started off by using my new Studio Calico mask with Candy Apple Glimmer Mist to give a subtle background effect. Then the problem was finding something to go with it as the red of the mist isn't a true red.

In the end I decided to cut up :-( a piece of treasured Deja Views paper for the cute jumping reindeer. I added the paper swirl underneath them and decided to add a little glitter to the fussy cut images to add extra sparkle. And that led to me splatting glitter over the background and finishing off with some Liquid Pearls along the paper.

Mmmm... not sure it's a win but I kind of like it.

And yes, the last few cards I've made have been a bit bigger - 5x7 - which means that they will all be hand delivered. But the change up in size has made a nice change with a bit more space for elements to fit on the front.

Won't you come on over to Jingle Belles and join in the fun?

Counterfeit Kit Challenge April blog hop

Welcome to this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog hop, so lovely to see you here today for yet another month of kit inspiration.

We are thrilled that Kate is our Guest Designer this month and she's just going to be awesome. She's kicking off the hop so if you are here direct, do make sure you head back there and give her a warm welcome. If you've landed her from the ever creative Libeeti, you are most certainly in the right place.

This month we were given an incredibly lovely kit by Gossamer Blue and I very nearly tried to get hold of one - just gorgeous. But no, that's totally not the direction I decided to take.

In fact, even though I had several of the papers in the original kit I went in completely the other direction. Hence the name of April's kit, "Opposite".

I still have 4 kits on my shelf from other months that are full of a mix of older and newer product so this time I decided that I was going to challenge myself to ONLY use old product. Nothing new. At all. And all my papers are from older BasicGrey collections and totally mixed up. This is really a use it or lose it kit. I intend to see how I get on and if I don't, then out it goes.

Rather than starting with cardstock as I usually do, I chose to leave that out altogether and just add it in as I need it when I use the kit. That left me with a starting point of papers and having decided that I would limit those to BG (which of course I have so many so this is a drop in the ocean) I quickly scanned through my collections and just picked out some papers that reminded me in some way of some of the inspriation papers. Stripes, spots, diagonals, chevrons (trendy before their time I might add!),  yellow, black, orange, soft blue, a neutral. You may not see the connection to the Gossamer Blue kit, but it is certainly there. I'm hoping to infuse a modern feel to these older paper by how I use them. Let's see how successful that is.

Then I went to town with loads of old, old embellies. I added quite a few journalling spots and stickers as there were some of those in the kit, and some metal elements because I wouldn't be able to add in any veneer stuff in - too new! I threw in a bunch of old flowers and lots of gems to go with the dimensional gems in the inspiration kit. And pretty much anything else that caught my eye along the way when I was looking through my embellishment basket.

Journalling spots, stickers and some old rub-ons. Always a challenge for me to use without ruining.

Metal and chipboard - not my go to products any more.

A heap of old gems and pearls.

I've never really known what to do with these glimmer glass elements - any ideas?

And a heap of old flowers.

So as you can see, there's a lot of stuff in there and a lot that is several years old and even more.

My one proviso is that I will feel free throughout the period of using the kit to add in whatever I think the kit or layout needs! Yes, twisting the rules a bit but at least that way, I won't make myself feel too restricted if I can't seem to get the older stash working as I would like.

Opposite may be a long way from the original but I'm happy to give these older items an airing and a possibility to star on a layout. There will be a thinning out of this product as I go along I'm sure. My bag of giveaway stash for my niece is ready and waiting.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to let me know you were here!

Here's the full list in case you get lost along the way. Now off you go to Lisa J who wows me every month with her whimsical style. I'd buy her kits any day!

Guest Designer: Kate http://kateblue.blogspot.com/

Andrea  http://snappingmonsters.blogspot.com/  

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

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

Jennifer  www.jennifergracecreates.com 

Julie  http://www.hisglorygirl.blogspot.com/  
Libeeti http://creationswithlove-li-bee-ti.blogspot.de/

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/