August Counterfeit Kit Member blog hop

Welcome again this month.

You should be here for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop.

If you are here via Lesley, you are certainly on the right way. But if you've landed here direct today, I suggest you head back to the Counterfeit blog and then onto Lesley - you don't want to miss her contribution. It's always fun!

This month we were challenged to be inspired by Geocaching - to create something hidden on our pages.

I decided to make a page with plenty of "hidden meaning" to the elements and choices I made. Then I added a few items which are practically clear and not so obvious on the page and to top it off, a title element which is made of vellum and practically hidden on the page. I love the subtlety of it all - can you find everything?

This layout is the 2nd using my August "Solitude" kit which hasn't seen much daylight yet, but there's a whole lot of pages in there waiting to be made. I'm hoping to find the time next week when quiet hits my home once again!

Please let me know you were here - comments make my day :-) and then off you go to Isbaha who is sure to delight.

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

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

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

Lisa    http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com
Isbaha    http://isbahashome.blogspot.fr

Dawn    http://www.dawnsscrapbookcottage.blogspot.com

Stacy    http://stacy.typepad.com

Leslie S    http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com
Bridget    http://sobejoss.blogspot.com

Milissa    http://millermall.blogspot.com

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

There's a whole lot of celebrating going on....

.... over at Whimsical Musings.

Why not come over and join us as we celebrate our 100th challenge prompt all week long.

You'll find 6 daily prompts, Guest Designers and there might even be a giveaway to be won :-)

See you there

And more kit makes...

.... to share with you.

I've always said that my target for kits are 6 layouts with enough scraps left over for a few cards. The August Scrapabilly kit has produced 7 layouts so far and I have loads of scraps left. I'm really happy with the results and needed to tear myself away from the scraps to move onto other papers and commitments.

If you saw yesterday's post, you'll remember that I did admit to adding some extras in to the kit items which I don't normally do, but The Pier is just such a wonderful collection of products, there was just too much temptation.

You can see all the Pier items in the Scrapabilly shop here and specifically, these are the items I added:

Find it in the shop here

Find it in the shop here

Find it in the shop here

Find it in the shop here

Now, here are the remaining four layouts to share with you from this gorgeous kit. And there are a lot of gorgeous kiddies featured here which seemed only fitting. I can't WAIT till I see these three next week 
:-)

**Lisa doing a happy dance over here**

LO#4 I "stole" this photo of my über-gorgeous niece from my sister's Instagram feed - he he! I haven't got any recent photos and there is a limit to how many times I can use pictures from two or three years ago when I just want to say how wonderful she is (and her brother and sister of course!) I'm sure my sister will forgive me and I intend to catch up on taking some new ones when they visit later this week - yipeee

The pinwheels are adorable and perfect for lazy people like me who just want to stick and go

I just adore all the soft summer colours of the collection

I used a paintbrush to "paint" the page with my favourite mist (at the moment) - my SC gold (here). I love the brushed effect and it gives a wonderful shimmer 

LO#5 The fairground map paper seemed too good to cut up so I used it as a background which is unusual for me. These carousel photos of me with my two adorable nieces seemed the perfect mix

LO#6 Obviously I was on a roll with the nieces and nephew photos and I've been wanting to scrap this story of the curly tongues for some time. They taunt me with their curling abilities and find it hilarious that I can't ;-) I used a whole load of product on here and also added in some of the Crate Paper 12x12 washi tape paper. I like the fact that you have a whole lot of choice as sometimes the washi tape rolls seem to go on forever (ie too long!)

LO#7 I wanted to try to change up the products and make a very different colour for my layout by carefully choosing the items from the kit. I love this softer green/blue look to this and was pleased to get this look.

Thanks for stopping by and let me take this opportunity to give you a heads up for something you will NOT want to miss.

Please make sure you stop by my challenge blog Whimsical Musings on Monday (19th August) for a whole week of fun to celebrate our 100th prompt. There will be lots of inspiration, some familiar faces joining me as GDs and there might even be a prize (or two) up for grabs.

Hope to see you there!

Just to prove...

... that I'm still here and still creating!

Sorry things have been quiet round here. I have the best intentions but the worst follow through!

But really, there has been a whole lot of creating going on with magazine commissions (can't share those yet), a weekly crop that has had me creating several meaningful layouts that are amongst recent faves (no sharing of those either - he he!) and kit layouts that I'd very much like to share with you today.

Ah, the August Scrapabilly kit.... Crammed full of gorgeous Crate Paper "The Pier" papers. A kit to fall in love with. A kit to use up the last tiny scraps of (I'm still going with mine after 7 layouts) and a kit to just get you über-inspired and raring to get out yet another set of photos to scrap.

A fave kit and one I have to admit to adding to. Sylvia had a whole load of partner items in the shop (check out all the Crate Paper stuff in the shop here) and I did just that... shop. Not that I would have needed to. The kit has lots of paper that can be cut up and used as embellies as well as those gorgeous die cuts, but i just wanted to treat myself - so I did.

LO#1 - There was something about the papers that made me think of the fun fair and Crange Kirmes was the perfect choice. I cut out the tags to make a banner and added in the "fun" and pinwheel elements from the add ons I treated myself to

The "fun" stickers came with cute mini clothes pins but I thought this had enough dimension already - don't forget to make the products work for you rather than feeling you have to use them as is.

I think I need a whole 12x112 sheet of these balloons

LO#2 Pretty patterns, cute doilies, fun word strips and a sprinkle of sparkle summed up this little cutie for me. I have to admit to reworking this layout a little to reach this final stage - I do that a lot - take things off and chuck them if they don't quite look right. I was much more pleased with this final result.

I misted a smaller doily with Glimmer Mist to give it this saturated look. The perfect centre to the pretty kit doily

I love piling up words in a stack. There were plenty to choose from and if you are the type to take summer holiday, there are loads of beach based words and phrases

LO#3 was inspired by this Pinterest find (here) - I loved the title over the photo

Lots of distressing going on

And the sewing machine was hauled out for a bit of something extra

Make sure you go and check out the gallery at Scrapabilly to see what we all did with this kit - the gallery is chock-a-bloc this month and tune back in tomorrow for some more shares.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Counterfeit Kit Challenge August kit reveal blog hop

Welcome to August and to the new Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal blog hop. Glad to see you here and hoping to inspire you with my choices this month.

First of all, you should have arrived with me from the first half of my Lesley/Leslie sandwich but if you have dropped in directly, you can go back to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to find the beginning of the blog with our delightful GD Heidi.

This month we were given the Confidence kit over at Scrapbooking From The Inside Out and I was happy to find that I would be able to use some new papers and products from my scrapbooking fave BasicGrey's Hipster collection. I really liked the way this kit was a good contrast to the brighter colours from more recent kits and I know I say that every month, but I really like my resulting selection.

Our inspiration kit by Scrapbooking from the inside out

I'm enjoying a bit of time alone after a summer full of visitors so I decided to call my kit, Solitude.

I am really enjoying creating a Pinterest board as a starting point, so off I went and pinned nearly all the items (see it here) to give me the overview.

I started picking out my Hipster papers that matched the inspiration kit and then built from there. I avoided trying to match up the Simple Stories papers in the original kit (I used lots of Simple Stories last month) but just picked out some papers that had some of the design elements - numbers, cut apart blocks, pre-printed cluster etc. Most of these additional papers are by Teresa Collins and then there are a couple by Crate and Studio Calico.

The cardstock was matched (a bit) and anyway, I always end up adding more in towards the end of the kit so I'm not that worried.

Some AC Thickers were next in a colour that just went with my papers and some OA Mini Market woodgrain stickers instead of the large letter sheet

I noticed that the inspiration kit had some flowers and I haven't used any blooms for ages so a new pack of Prima pretties were added in for a change

Then I went through and added a few Hipster items that either matched the kit or were the same type of embellishment - die cuts, chipboard, stamps

I felt the need to have some brads and stuff so this matching set by Teresa Collins seemed perfect as well as some acrylic blossoms that I haven't even taken out of the packet since I bought them in March.

Instead of the polaroid paper I added in some ready cut frames from Studio Calico and felt that my kit needed some twine so in that went rather than having it as a free item.

I didn't have the Hipster wood veneers and decided that an unopened pack of Studio Calico shapes would be perfect

One of the things I like the most about this kit is that it has a lot of new stuff that I struggle to get used up which is a nice contrast to last month's kit where I made a lot of my own items. I think it's important to mix it up, taking older products one time and then newer stash the next. Full packs of embellishments one month with counterfeited items the next. Change it up a bit from month to month. It's all so much fun.

Now, don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you were here and tell me what your favourite item in my kit is, and then on you go to the top slice of my sandwich - Leslie!

Guest Designer: Heidi http://handmade-heidi.blogspot.co.uk
Angela:  http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/

Ashley:  http://paperforpeoplellc.blogspot.com/

Dawn:  http://dawnsscrapbookcottage.blogspot.com

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

Julene:  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au

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

Lisa H.:  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/ You are here

Leslie:  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com Go here next

Lynnette:  http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Millisa:  http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Stephanie:  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.ca