November Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop

Welcome again this month to the member Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog hop! Happy to see you here.

Hopefully, you've arrived here via newcomer Milica who I am sure delighted you with her pretty creations. If you've landed here directly, you can get to the beginning of the blog hop by heading over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

This month, we've been challenged to create a little mini-album to share a bit of thankfulness. "So Thankful Mini Album:  Create a mini album sharing what you are thankful for!"

I don't make many mini-books anymore, mostly because I don't have space for them all rather than not liking making them but this is the second one I've made in the last month and that reminded me how much fun they can be.

This time, I kept it really simple - just 8 pages, minimal decorations and a few words per photo - the dimensions are 4" x 4". But it still captures a few of the people who have come to visit this year. Living away from my family and friends, I am so thankful that people still like to visit. And of course, my husband is the one person in my life I am most thankful for which is why he gets two pages!

This little book reminded me how quick and easy a mini-book can be and I bet I'll be trying this out again. Of course, uploading these photos, I've realised that I used the word "grateful" on all the journalling spots rather than "thankful" from the cover. I will no doubt change those out. Now that I've noticed it, that will drive me nuts!

Why not make your own thankful minibook using your Counterfeit Kit and then share will us over at this month's Mr Linky - we'd all love to see your creations.

Thanks for dropping by. Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know you were here. It's always great to hear from you. If you haven't visited everyone on the hop or you got lost along the way, here is the full list.

CKCB  http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk

Valerie http://myrainbowcoalition.blogspot.com/

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

Cindy http://www.cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/

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

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

Tricia http://triciasimmons.blogspot.com

Milissa http://millermall.blogspot.com

Milica http://milicaradulovic55.blogspot.com

Lisa H http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

Master Forgers Challenge Blog Hop

Well, this is a surprise - blog hop in the middle of the month!

A couple of times a year, the Master Forgers do a little extra-curricular scrapping behind the scenes and then run up a little blog hop to let all of you in on the fun.

So, if you have come here via Stephanie, then you are on the right track. And if you have landed here directly, you'll want to head back to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge (here) to get to the beginning of the hop. I really suggest you do so that you can check out how wrong (or maybe they are all right!) about whose style the Master Forgers have been scrapping.

Now, what was the challenge then I hear you say? This time, it was my turn to come up with a challenge for us all to (voluntarily) join in with and I scratched my head for some time until I came up with something that mixed up a couple of different ideas.

First off, I came up with 20 questions that could help us describe our own style of scrapping. Now, remember that this is just for fun and really, all of us change it up all the time, but it was time to put a stake in the ground and step up to the line on what sort of scrapper we are! All sorts of mixed idioms here today....

All the answers were sent to me and I pulled them together, made the answers describing individual styles anonymous, then mixed them up and redistributed them out to each of us for a style that was more or less different to our own style. From the chatter in the FB Master Forgers group, I managed to really mix them up quite well and handed out styles that really were quite a challenge! (Insert evil laugh here :-)  )

All sorts of accusations were thrown around - had I returned their own answers back to thems? Did we all have the same answers? Had I just given them some random answers? What had I done to them? I *think* they were all joking and taking it in the spirit it was meant to be LOL but I was giggling to myself. Of course, I knew who all the swap partners were and even knew who I had swapped myself with but it was just as difficult for me as it was for them - I just didn't have to think about who it could be.

The idea is that each of us should make a page using our own "standard" style, then another one in the style of our secret partner and share the results with you. Hopefully they have given you lots of fun along the hop and also told you who they *think* they are swapped with. All will be revealed at the end of my mega-post so bear with me :-)

First off, let me show you the page I made with my own answers to the style questions. I used my November CKC kit, Comfort and tried to combine autumn and Christmas on the same page...

Yep, that looks like one of mine don't you think? There's layers, and distressing and angles. There's a single square photo about nothing in particular, mixed collections, mismatched products. All me I think. I did try to include all 20 answers and enjoyed making this page - just playing around.

Then came my "secret" swap partner. I knew who I had but when I read through the answers, I gulped. Patterned paper background, bold colours, straight lines, no distressing, clean and simple. Double gulp.

Looking that I should use older papers, I decided to delve into my September, Passport kit which is full of older product and also picked up on the travel theme mentioned in the answers. I flipped through until I came across one of my favourite map papers which is relatively bright and decided that this would be good as my background paper. Double, straight matting was all the layers I allowed myself (that was HARD!) and minimal embellies.

I really struggled to keep it simple and am not even sure I managed it! I ended up stitching as my main embellishment which I think kept to the idea of less is more in my partner's style. Visual triangle but diagonal design too - got that. Elements in one of the corners - tick. Mixed alpha - sigh, easier! It was almost more than I could stand not to load it up with stuff and bits and pieces and ink splots. I had to practically sit on my hands.

On a side note, even though I'm not in LOVE with this layout, I love that I was encouraged to scrap this very insignificant (on first view) photograph. All my Philippine photos are pre-digi shots and are far from perfect so this capture of my apartment building from across the street makes me smile - the stitching helps to identify why the photo is important! Love that.

If you are at all interested seeing what I claimed my style to be in comparison to my "Secret" partner then check out below...

Starting points:

1.       photos/story OR sketch/design

me: SKETCH/DESIGN

secret partner: PHOTO

2.       cardstock background OR patterned paper background

me: CARDSTOCK

secret partner: PATTERNED PAPER

3.       neutral background OR colourful background

me: NEUTRAL

secret partner: COLOURFUL AS LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO BE BORING

4.       people/event themed OR moment/everyday themed

me: MOMENT/EVERYDAY

secret partner: MOMENTS/EVENTS/TRAVEL

5.       single page layout OR double page spread

me: SINGLE

secret partner: SINGLE

Design:

6.       graphic/straight lines OR layers/clusters/angles

me: LAYERS/CLUSTERS/ANGLES

secret partner: I’M FAIRLY CONSERVATIVE TO STRAIGHT LINES ETC

7.       organic patterns/designs OR geometric shapes/designs

me: BOTH BUT MORE ORGANIC

secret partner: BOTH

8.       main elements central to the page OR main elements off centre (on a rule of thirds line or in a corner)

me: OFF CENTRE

secret partner: OFF CENTRE USUALLY AT ONE OF FOUR POINTS

9.       embellishments in a diagonal across the page OR embellishments in a  visual triangle

me: DIAGONAL

secret partner: VISUAL TRIANGLE BUT I LIKE A STRONG DIAGONAL TO BE VISIBLE

10.    girly/feminine feel to the page OR boyish/masculine feel to the page

me: GIRLY/FEMININE

secret partner: DEPENDS ON LAYOUT

Paper/Product:

11.    new/trendy products OR older/classic products

me: NEW/TRENDY

secret partner: OLDER PRODUCTS

12.    papers/elements from predominantly one collection OR papers/elements from a variety of collections

me: VARIETY

secret partner: VARIETY

13.    plethora of embellishments OR clean and simple

me: PLETHORA AND THEN SOME

secret partner: CLEAN & SIMPLE

14.    title work from all one alpha pack OR title work from mixed/multiple alpha packs

me: MIXED ALPHA

secret partner: MIXED

15.    bold/primary/bright colours OR muted/pastels/lights

me: PROBABLY MORE MUTED/LIGHT/PASTEL

secret partner: BOTH – DEPENDS ON PHOTO

16.    single photo OR multiple photos

me: SINGLE

secret partner: SINGLE

17.    standard size prints (6x4/5x7) OR custom (Instagram, square, 2x3/oversized)

me: CUSTOM

secret partner: STANDARD

Techniques:

18.    wet (mists/inks/paint/wet embossing/stamping) OR dry (papers/dry embossing/die cuts)

me: DRY

secret partner: DRY. I’M NOT INTO MIXED MEDIA UNLESS IT’S SPECIFICALLY REQUIRED

19.    handwritten journaling OR printed journaling

me: HANDWRITTEN

secret partner: NEARLY ALWAYS HAND WRITTEN

20.    clean cut/common margins/flat OR distressed/sanded/inked edges/torn/stitched

me: DISTRESSED AND GENERALLY ABUSED

                  secret partner: USUALLY CLEAN CUT

So.... who do you think MY secret partner is? It's one of the Master Forgers - one of the more clean and simple girls..... Yes, you guessed it - my partner was JULENE!!! Can you see it? I'm not sure if I can but maybe you can see more of her style in my travel layout than I can - what do you think?

Thanks for hanging out with me today and here's the full list in case you get lost along the way. Make sure you leave me a comment to let me know you were here and tell me a bit about your own scrap style.

Of course, I'm not going to leave you hanging - I'm adding the names of the secret partners after the names in the list below and I'm hoping to do a follow up post to let you know who was right and who was oh, so wrong :-)

Counterfeit Kit Challenge:http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com 

Angela (she scrapped in the style of Leslie):  http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/

Bethany (she scrapped in the style of Milissa): http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com/

Dawn (she scrapped in the style of Angela):  http://dawnsscrapbookcottage.blogspot.com

Jemma (she scrapped in the style of Lynette):  http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/

Julene (she scrapped in the style of Bethany):  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au

Lesley G (she scrapped in the style of ME!!):  http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk

Leslie (she scrapped in the style of Jemma):  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com 

Lynnette (she scrapped in the style of Stephanie):  http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Millisa (she scrapped in the style of Dawn):  http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Stephanie (she scrapped in the style of Lesley):  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.ca

Lisa H (I scrapped in the style of Julene):  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/ 

Wednesday Wonderland #20

Just dropping by to share another two cards with inspiration courtesy of the delightful Marie, GD over at Jingle Belles this week who challenges us to think about holiday traditions.

I immediately thought about a year when Father Christmas brought me socks - lots and lots of socks! But wanting to make up two quick cards in under 30 minutes and not having any sock/stocking die-cuts handy, I might hold onto that idea for next week!

Instead I let myself be inspired by both memories and my trusty drawer of Christmas papers to come up with a card about Father Christmas and another featuring presents.

I was always so in love with the idea of Father Christmas and have many happy memories of lying in bed, hearing him rustling the papers of the presents as he filled my sack outside my bedroom door. Oh so magical!

And then on Christmas morning we would all pile into mum and dad's bed - including the dog! - to dig into that stack of pressies and see what the great FC had brought us that year.

These cards have triggered several scrapbooking stories which I will be capturing as soon as I have enough time.

But in the meantime, these are really simple little cards which *allow* the papers to do ALL the work for me. He he!

Happy Hump Day everyone and just to let you know, my pile of cards is almost done! How are you doing?

Scrapabilly kit part 3

Thanks for coming back for part 3 of my Scrapabilly kit creations.

I went with a simple set of (imperfect) four cards to use up some paper scraps. Using a design that we had all used on International Cardmaking Day - I don't know who had created the sketch I'm afraid but if anyone knows, I can give them credit.

The original card used spray mists on the background, then three strips of washi tape and the twine with a sentiment on top. This time around, I changed it up a little to use spray mist on two and glitter on another two. Then I used paper strips rather than washi and changed up the sentiment element.

The glitter isn't perfect here as I have misplaced my glue stamp pad and had to improvise with ordinary glue! But I think you can make out some of the snowflakes. Sylvia used this glitter with her new glue stamp pad while I was there in the shop and it was PERFECT! So I would advise you to go with the pad and not go you own way! The glitter is still pretty but not as gorgeous as Sylvia showed me :-)

The glitter stars are from the stunning glitter paper that's available in the shop (here). If you have been looking for great glitter paper that doesn't lose its glitter, is easy to cut, not too thick and is SO gorgeous in real life, this is for you. I have the two shades of gold, the copper, the silver and the white. A. maz.ing! Go look

And here are two more examples of the cute button flairs that Sylvia designed and made up. These are some from the first batch she made and I promised to point them out to my blog readers. If you love flair as much as I do, you need to check out what she will be producing for sale in the shop. I've already put in my secret order - personalised flair? I've gone to heaven!

These cards came together in a matter of minutes and are great for production line card making. I love a simple design and along with the ones I made on Cardmaking Day, I think I've got 10 now. Perfect.

How are you doing for your Christmas cards now that the season really is just around the corner?

ps. For those of you in my neck of the woods, Sylvia and Scrapabilly are celebrating their 6th Birthday! Come along to her shop and celebrate - check out the special offers here and make sure you congratulate her on having such a wonderful shop. Oh, AND she's adorable too! :-)

Scrapabilly kit part 2

Thanks for coming back again today and I'm here to share three layouts with you using the wonderfully traditional, festive Christmas kit from Sylvia over at Scrapabilly.

I'm not really a person who has traditional Christmas colours at home - the last three years, my colours have been silver, glass and baby blue, the years before, silver and ice blue! That doesn't mean to say that I don't like them - but it meant that I had to consider what photos to use to highlight these lovely papers in a Lisa way.

First up was the Orchard Road, Singapore Christmas decorations from last year. I took a few of my favourite photos, tweaked them in Photoshop and picked three to showcase. Even though two of the photos have non-traditional colours in them, I think they work with the berry paper and the red and green elements I picked out because the form of the decorations are very traditional and the cream background gives this busy layout some room to breathe.

I splatted glue to form glitter splashes on my paper and mixed it in with gold and a few brads. My only problem with this is that I'm too impatient to wait for the glue to dry! 

Next up was a photo of our alternative Christmas tree last year. Due to some complications, it ended up getting delivered and left outside on a wet, rainy afternoon. After that, I didn't really want to bring it inside to get the white walls dirty and rain and spiders all over the floor! In the end, I decided to give in and left it outside to shine in through our large windows at us. We decorated it with bird food and let it be. In the end, I loved it and am happy to have this very Christmassy page for this non-perfect photo.

I like finding small placed to add a little glue so that it can be glittered up. I thought the veneer tree was perfect - especially once it was covered in glitter to also make it alternative!

Sylvia usually packs the embellies in her kit into small paper bags and I keep them all to use on my layouts. I decided to trim this one down and then punch out the snowflake border along the top to house my journalling.

Last but not least, I came across these cute photos of my niece from last Christmas and a final page was born - pun intended.

Using up the last large blocks of paper to layer things up and then scattering a few glitter snowflakes and hearts made this come together really quickly.

Another great thing about the papers in the kit is that the manufacturer strip is patterned on one side and they are perfect to just add a little something to a corner of the page.

I think I could use the berry paper in this kit again and again and again - definitely my favourite.

With the left overs from the kit, I also made a quick and simple set of four cards which I will share soon. I am nearly at my card target which means I'm late but that's ok! There's still a few weeks until they need to be in the post.

When do you scrap Christmas layouts? At this time of year? Only around Christmas? In the new year? Or are you like me and can get festive at any time of the year? This was fun to get the Christmas feeling earlier than usual. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get my Christmas playlist sorted out :-)

Wednesday Wonderland #19

It's been far too long. But I'm back today with another Wednesday Wonderland with inspiration courtesy of the most wonderful two Christmas girls on the net to be found over at Jingle Belles.

Just because I haven't been joining in doesn't mean I haven't been checking in on their challenges but somehow the time escaped me and now I have to play catch up to make my target 70 cards.

But first, this last fortnight we've been challenged by "Not a creature was stirring..."

So instead of making one complicated one, I made four very simple ones instead :-)

Easy and quick. Job done.

I also joined in with the Pink challenge back in October but didn't get to post so here they are too.

I'm not too far away from my magic number but I will need to make a couple a week for the next few weeks to be sure. So I'm hoping to end the last challenge(s?) with a flourish.

How many cards do you have? Or maybe you don't make cards?

Scrapabilly scrapping for November

Good morning everyone!

Another month is here which means a new Scrapabilly kit and this time around, Sylvia has put together her Christmas kit so that you will be all set up with product and inspiration ahead of getting all those wonderful festive photos or maybe even to get scrapping with last year's photos before you start taking this year's.

It's a very traditional kit full of rich reds and greens, plenty of holly and berries and a smattering of modern shades and designs too. There's plenty of paper and cardstock, loads of die cuts and small items to embellish, a happy red alpha and a tube of the prettiest glitter. I used it lots and the tube is still full - expect to see more. And the best thing of all? Flair buttons created by Sylvia herself - expect to see more of them on my blog as I won't be able to resist them at all. In fact, I begged her to give me a few of the first batch she had created and have already used a few of them on this month's creations

Here's the kit (here) and don't forget to check out the Design Team gallery on the Scapabilly site (here) and the rest of the team's reveal blog posts - check out the team in the right hand sidebar.

Apart from adding in a few sheets of cardstock, I also used a few small alphas (like these), some gorgeous glitter paper that I am totally in love with in both shades of wonderful gold (it's thick but easy to cut, doesn't lose its glitter and is just sumptuous!), a small amount of gold and cream twine and some gold Mr Huey Mist. Everything else is in the kit and I still have quite a lot left - enough for several cards and journalling cards for layouts. This is one big kit.

I am sharing a mini-book with you today but there will be two more posts later in the week with some layouts and cards so please come back again and get your hands on the kit before it's too late :-)

As soon as I saw the kit, I knew that I wanted to break the mold and make a little mini and also knew that I wanted to go back to a design I tried once before and it was such fun - an exploding mini-book.

I don't have so many traditional Christmas coloured photos so I also went back in time to print off some photos from our Sugarmoon in 2002 - at Chateau Lake Louise in Canada. So as you can imagine, lots of snow, Christmas trees, twinkling lights and over the top traditional decorations. Perfect for this kit. This must be the most documented - both in pages and mini-books - holiday in history considering I only have a handful of pre-digital times photos. I think we took three or four films but I have managed to fit so many into my little book that I have it pretty much covered - again!

When you take off the lid, the book falls open to reveal all the pages inside. So much fun!

Both sides of the pages can be used for photos or journalling or other flat embellishments. That gives you a lot of scrapping real estate.

I didn't write so much here as I've already written up bulky journalling in another mini-book a few years ago - I just wanted to make a few notes.

I had printed out a big pile (over 30 I think) small 2x1.5 inch photos and with the left overs I decided to just bind them together and have them as an extra little mini-surprise in the middle of the book.

So simple to make but I just love that all those photos are combined in this project.

Look at that cute flair! Isn't it lovely.

I hope you like my little exploding surprise as much as I enjoyed making it. Why not give it a try yourself - so simple and quick to make and look at all those photos.

Thanks for stopping by and come back again soon.