(Inter)National Scrapbook Day - reminder

Just popping in today to remind you that it's National Scrapbook Day on Saturday (3rd May). These days, we like to consider it International Scrapbook Day as it's celebrated all around the world and even "Day" is a little misleading as there are many weekend events!

The Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog will be hosting a two-day colour inspired event starting at 8am (MST) on Saturday with posts going live every two hours. There will be a mix of inspiration and challenges and all the team are involved. Best of all, each of the 5 challenges have been sponsored meaning prizes!

There is also a Grand Prize draw too so you won't want to miss out. All the challenges will be open until 16th May giving you loads of time to join in on the fun at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge as well as checking out what else is going on in the scrappy world.

See you there! I'm excited to share my colour inspiration :-)

April Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop

Welcome to this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop. 

You should have arrived here via Julene but if you've landed here directly, you might want to go back to the beginning of the hop at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog so that you don't miss a thing.          

This month we were given the following challenges to choose from:

Challenge #1 - Blog Design Challenge: Use the blog design from one of the Master Forgers as inspiration for your project.
Challenge #2 - Pocket Page Inspiration: Make a pocket page card (3x4 or 4x6) the star of your project.
Challenge #3 - BIG Title: Use a large title (or sentiment) on your project.

I've been a bad scrapper recently and this month's kit is practically untouched so it was good to be challenged to get it off the shelf and cut into it. I decided to go with challenge #3 - big titles. 

I had included five different alphas in my April kit, Growth, and managed to use 4 of them here on this page. Three of those are relatively large so that fitted the challenge requirements. And then I made the title so long that I didn't need to add any journalling. I reckon that also fits the BIG title theme, don't you?

I had these six Instax prints from a family visit last year where the quality isn't really good enough for of the photos to be used alone. By grouping them all together into one block, you just get the impression of the evening and the overall feeling is conveyed.

A sprinkling of embellishments across the page in three places for my visual triangle and I was done. It didn't quite kick-start an outpouring of creativity, but it did feel good to cut and glue some paper. 

I'm hoping LOAD next month will get me back to my scrappy self!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you've found something to inspire you today. Here's the full list in case you got lost along the way.

Don't forget to share your creations using your Counterfeit kits or your response to the challenges on our Mr Linky page (here)

CKCB           http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com
Jemma         http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk
Tina              http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com
Isbaha          http://isbahashome.blogspot.fr
Lesley          http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk
Annie            http://www.artyfartyannie.co.uk
Elaine           http://chidkids26.blogspot.co.uk
Leslie           http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com
Kate             http://kateblue.blogspot.com
Virginia         http://celtichouse.blogspot.co.uk
Kim              http://texassantagertrudis.blogspot.com
Maggie         http://maggiebscrapblog.blogspot.fr
Julene          http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au
Lisa              http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de

And just a reminder that on (Inter)National Scrapbook day/weekend, the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and all the Master Forgers will be hosting their own event. There'll be two days of colour, inspiration and even some prizes to be won from some very generous sponsors. Make sure you drop by and join in the fun!

Winner!

Back on 1st April, as part of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge April kit reveal, we were asked to share three random facts about ourselves - two of which were true and one was not. We asked our readers to guess which of the three statements was false and then those who guessed on each of the Master Forgers' blogs (whether you were right or not!) would be put into a hat for a prize draw at the Counterfeit blog. The winner will be announced over there today so make sure you check it out to see if you won!

However, at the same time, I announced a draw here too for anyone who guessed correctly.

Now, to remind you of my three strange facts:

1. I have lived in three different countries
2. I’m scared of counting myself to sleep
3. In school, I wanted to change my name to Portia Le Bon

Let me help you see which one is true...

Here is a layout I made in early Whimsical Musings days for a prompt about Scary explaining how I'm scared of numbers, and especially of counting! Strange but true and the result of a recurring nightmare as a child. The process of counting really freaks me out and there is no way I can count myself to sleep! 

And here is another Whimsical Musings layout for a prompt about names. And yes, I really DID want to change my name to Portia Le Bon! Portia came from The Merchant of Venice which we were reading at that time and it sounded so glamourous to me - much more than my own "boring" name. And as every teenager has a major popstar crush, I was in love with Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran and was determined that if only he could meet me, then he would fall in love with me and we'd get married! Ah the stupidity of youth. Makes me laugh now. As well as cringe a little with embarrassment!

And as for countries I've lived in: I come from the UK and have also lived in France (1986-1987), The Philippines (1997-1998) and now Germany (since 2001) making four in total not three.

Which means that the most normal sounding item on my list is actually false and the two totally bizarre sounding snippets are in fact true!

Only three of the 25 commenters guessed that #1 was my false fact.

So, congratulations to fellow Master Forger, Leslie! My little giveaway will be on its way across the ocean to you shortly!

And.... my bestie Pam pointed out that my false fact was a little misleading as, if I've actually lived in a total of 4 countries, then I have, in fact, lived in 3 as well! :-)

So, to be fair, I put a second, small prize together with some items from my stash and put all the 16 names of commenters who made guesses into another draw and pulled a second name...

Another congratulations to Sherrie! Watch your postbox for a little something from me too.

For everyone who commented, thanks, it's always wonderful to hear from you so please keep coming back. And don't forget to head over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to see if you're the lucky winner there.

Prize draw reminder! Last day....

Just a reminder that today is the last day to join in on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge April Fool's Day prize draw, which was featured on the team's blogs on our April kit reveal.

You can go to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog post here for all the details. You needed to comment on each of the Master Forgers' kit reveal posts with your guess about our false fact :-) Each comment gives you one entry in the draw.

In addition, I am also giving away a small prize and I will draw a name out of the hat for anyone who has guessed my little white lie correctly!

You can find my kit reveal post here and my three random facts.

This is a sneak peek of my prize.

Winning names will be announced on Friday, 18th! Good luck :-)

14 loves {April 2014}

Welcome to the next in the series {14 loves} for 2014 based on the original concept by my beloved friend, Pam, back in January 2013. I enjoyed sharing my loves so much through the year that I decided I needed to continue through 2014. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you.

There's an awful lot not to love this month (stories for another day), but with Pam's gentle nudging in the background to try and see the happy around me, here I am for another month of what I'm loving right now.

I hope there's something in here to inspire you or maybe just make you smile.

one

Still haven't quite come down from my NYC high. After 5 years of having the same background photo on my iPhone (a fave photo from Dubai), I decided that this was the month to make the change.

two

Who doesn't love happy post? My sweet baby sister, who has now opened her own crafty business where she creates the most beautiful crochet items amongst others (here), sent me these gorgeous doilies. I can't wait to use them on a layout and have included the cream and blue ones in my Counterfeit Kit Challenge April kit, Growth.

three

I take so many selfies and 100's go in the trash immediately! However, a good hair day should always be celebrated!

four

Scrapabilly has become a home away from home. On the weeks where I don't travel the 45 minutes up the motorway to get my weekly scrappy fix, I really miss Sylvia and all her lovely products. Good for my creativity and deliciously naughty on the wallet.

five

I was inspired to make a December journal and almost instantly regretted it! But I persevered through and finally got it finished two weeks ago. All 31 days. Looking back at the process and leafing through this fat, chunky book, I'm now really happy I did it. An enjoyable Christmas captured. Now where should I store my book?

six

Roast vegetables with feta, balsamic and couscous. My favourite dinner to make when I'm along. I make enough for two nights and scoff it all - just for me. I tried to limit myself to a smaller portion for my reduced calorie intake right now but it still gave me weekend happiness.

seven

Timehop is a new app for me and I love how it pops up some almost forgotten memories. Two years ago, I got to meet up with my best friend from the Philippines and had the delight of showing her and her husband a little of Germany. Such a great weekend to remember. 

eight

Spring is here. Our apple tree is blossoming and so is my hope for apples later in the year.

nine

I'm still cutting back on the calories and reaping results in the form of a pair of jeans, purchased years ago online and then left in the cupboard all that time as they didn't fit. Now they do, and so does a whole array of clothes that have been pushed to the back of the wardrobe for all that time.

ten

Asparagus season has started! Early harvest can be found and we enjoyed our first of the year this last week. Here's to 8 weeks of asparagus scrumptiousness.

eleven

How gorgeous is this lovely card from my sweet Pam. A Kelly Purkey class make and she chose to send it to me! I'm a lucky girl.

twelve

Pinterest inspiration. Still busy pinning and this tone on tone card caught my eye.

Jenni makes the most gorgeous creations and her blog can be found here

thirteen

Just don't.

Pinterest source here

fourteen

And one last scrap stash wish list. I love sequins, I love autumn colours, I love leaves. This has it all.

Available on Scrapbook.com here

I’d love you to share your own {14 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?

{14 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 14th of the month

Let's get sketchy with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge

You might have noticed that we're doing things a bit differently this month over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

Due to the nature of our CSI inspired kit, there wasn't really the chance to counterfeit items for our kit and therefore the tutorial post over at CKC this month has turned into a sketch inspiration post.

And who doesn't love sketches!

Regardless of if you use them religiously, copying every element and allowing the beauty of the original guide your own creation or if you just glance at them, get the overall feeling of them and go your own way, sketches can be a great starting point for any creative project. I love them and use them quite often so I was thrilled that we are going to be overloaded with great new sketches to inspire us today.

I have a Pinterest board for all the sketches that catch my eye, so that was the first place I decided to turn.

Follow Lisa Hausmann's board Sketches on Pinterest.

And it didn't take me long to come up with this sketch from Citrus Twist Kits.

I particularly liked the position of the two photos as well as all those scrummy layers. (If you go over to Citrus Twist Kit, you can find examples of what their DT did with this sketch.)

When I get to make up my layout using this sketch, I'll be sure to share it with you. I already have an idea of the photos I will be using!

We hope that you found our choice of sketches inspiring and would love to see what you create if you choose to use any of them! Link up over at Mr Linky (here).

Scrapabilly Shares part 2

Hello again for the second part of my Scrapabilly kit shares.

Just to remind you of all that BasicGrey gorgeousness that Sylvia has fitted into this scrumptious kit...

Find the kit here

On Thursday, I shared the layouts I made about Dubai - I really felt like the designs in this collection has an oriental feel to them and were perfect for the exotic feel to the place.

But to show the versatility of the papers and the kit, I also wanted to make a few layouts that were more everyday. I especially love to look through papers to see what different colour combinations I can come up with and was delighted to realise I could make a very pink layout which would be perfect for a layout about my beautiful niece who just celebrated her 10th (when did that happen!!!) birthday.

I'd just like to point out in case it's not clear, that the photo in the middle is from Halloween last year! She doesn't normally go around with a goth look! But I couldn't believe how grown up she looked in this shot and thought it was a wonderful contrast to those girlie shots which also melt my heart!

Selecting only certain elements of the kit to match the feeling I was going for, as well as a bit of fussy cutting, made sure I came up with a really feminine feel to the layout.

The colours in the kit also reminded me of the vibrant silks I used to work with in my Paragon days and so I also put together a layout about a particular dress that has very mixed memories attached. The photos may not be brilliant, but I remember all the details of this (nearly disastrous) dress as if it were yesterday so the poor quality snaps are just a reminder for me!

I was down to scraps right now so the style of the layout was rather dictated by that - however, I really like how it came out with all the little bits and pieces that layered up.

The little off the page clusters top and bottom make use of the manufacturer strips at the bottom of the paper. I just cut each strip out and then piled it unto add some interest.

I added in a small vellum pocket to house my journalling as there didn't seem to be an appropriate place to write it directly onto the layout itself.

And I also ran off four very simple cards. I always say this but I'm not a card maker. I envy my fellow team members who create such beautifully designed and intricately layered up cards. But that's not really me. I just don't get the ideas and I tend to think that all my cards are just variations on a theme! Anyway, I found some card sketches for three of these cards and just got to work. I made them all general hello cards as I never seem to have enough of these types. As quickly as I make them, I seem to run out.

This card is loosely based on the Sweet Sunday sketch 170 (here)

This card is based on this Pinterest find sketch (here)

And this card is made using the Susan Stringfellow sketch for BasicGrey (here)

So that's it for another month. I hope you love Sylvia's kit as much as I do. Once again, the team's creations can be found over at the Scrapabilly gallery (here) or their blogs are listed in the right hand sidebar. And don't forget to check out the Scrapabilly shop for all the scrumminess that can be found there - and there's a special promotion each week, this week is all about the Smash range of products.

Thanks for looking and speak to you soon.

Scrapabilly Shares part 1

It's the beginning of the month which means kit time. Specifically, Scrapabilly kit time.

This month, Sylvia heard my pleas and put together a gorgeous BasicGrey filled kit with Spice Market goodies. Yummy! As soon as I saw this collection featured online, I knew exactly what I'd use it for and yes, three of the five layouts I am going to share with you today and Saturday feature our short trip to Dubai back in January 2009!

First off, let me show you the kit (find it in the shop here) ...

Lots of richly coloured papers and cardstock, a whole flurry of alphas - enough for the longest of titles, die cuts, ribbon, journalling spots and then a mini-spray mist and mask to encourage you to really play with colour and texture. So much possibility here and all the papers are double sided so there's definitely something for everyone.

I created five layouts, 4 (simple) cards and two gift tags with some scraps left over.

I didn't need to add much in either. Just some cardstock, a little ribbon, an extra alpha as I like to mix up the size and design of the letters, two kraft luggage tags, some mist and the mixed brad and flair set that goes with the collection. With colours and designs this bright and bold, nothing else was needed to showcase all that BasicGrey scrumminess.

As I mentioned above, I knew that I wanted to create some pages for Dubai as the colours and designs of the papers reminded me of the paper line Marrakech which had been so perfect for this trip but has been discontinued. So for my first layout, I decided to lift myself and recreate a page I made for the Scrapbook Magazine (UK) and which I featured on my Whimsical Musings blog last week (see here). It featured a flip book right on top of the page which can hold up to 16 photos. I included 13 on my Dubai page and have left three "pages" blank for journalling which I will do when I have checked some of the details of our trip.

I decided to experiment a little with the masks and to have a go at some simple tags. Placing the masks directly onto the kraft luggage tags, I sprayed over the complete tag to ensure a full sparkly covering using Heidi Swapp Colour Shine in teal (here) and Mr Huey in gold (here). To give the masked design more definition, I outlined the shapes with a Sakura gold pen (here) and a white Uniball Signo (here). You can see the full extent of the glimmer and shimmer in the close up photo below. I added the alphas to turn them into present tags but they could just as easily have doubled up as page embellishments. It was fun to have a go at this technique on the smaller tags so that I could test out the coverage of the mists etc and next time, I might give it a go on a full page if I'm feeling brave!

I liked the mottled effect the gold Mr Huey gave on the tag. I could have used kitchen roll to dab off the excess if I'd wanted a smother finished effect.

The Heidi Swapp Colour Shine (also in mini form in your kit) gave a much smoother effect without losing any of the shine. I would probably use the Colour Shine again next time if I wanted to have another go at this technique. 

Tune in again on Saturday for part two of my share.

Don't forget that all the Design Team creations can be found on the Scrapabilly gallery (here) and their blogs can be found in the right hand sidebar. Go and say hello!