Counterfeit Kit Challenge July member blog hop

Good morning. Happy to see you here.

Hopefully, you've arrived here to join in on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop. I'm kicking it off this month and when you're done here, please go on and say hello to Tina (here) to see what she's got to share!

This time around, the three challenges were were given were:

• Challenge #1 - Triangles: Use at least 5 triangles on your project - you can see my layout here
• Challenge #2 - 3 Techniques: Combine 3 techniques (or more) - you can see my layout here
• Challenge #3 - Create a Panel Card: Try a unique card on a panel design

Having already done challenges 1 & 2, it just made sense to continue by completing the panel card too.

Bethany found this great tutorial by Hero Arts which very clearly shows what is meant by a "panel card". I hadn't heard of one before but it proved to be simple, fast and a lot of fun. In essence, the back of the card is just a panel which holds the smaller, mini card on the front. Fun, huh?!?

Because I have two kits this month (Sunshine & Relax) I decided to run off a card from each kit, grabbing a few products and just going for it! I kept mine super simple and easy and will no doubt be making this style again. I left the insides blank so that they can be used for any occasion.

As ever, I apologise for the rather dodgy photography - very blue toned even though I tried to fix that! Anyway, the whites are normal whites in real life!

Why not give panel cards a go? Or any of the Counterfeit challenges, in fact. Don't forget to share over at the Mr Linky (here).

Now, off you go to see Tina and here's the whole list in case you get lost along the way!

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

Lisa      http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de

Tina      http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com

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

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

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

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

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

Growth is no more

Continuing with my shares from May's LOAD where I managed to 'kill' 6 of my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits. 

Today, three more layouts which completed my April kits (Growth and Sprout) - my first post is here.

First up is possibly my least favourite of the month of layouts but which still manages to tell a tiny piece of my Philippines story and for that, I'm grateful.

The LOAD prompt was for "TV" and I chose to tell the story of how I lived for over a year with no TV at all. I have never had so much free time and was always amazed at just how much I achieved. Admittedly, it was also before I was quite so addicted to the internet (!) and long before social media so that helped too.

Next up was the prompt "Playground" and because we use the word playground for the school yard in the UK, I decided to bring together a few more photos from our last day at school when we were 16. I have several dozen silly photos so fitting four onto one page makes me happy. Lots of layering and piling up of the scrap papers from the end of my kit gave this layout a lot of dimension. I especially love how the colours in the remaining kit products seemed to complement my photos (and our uniforms) so well.

I was foresighted enough at the time to write down all the girls' names on the back on the photo. These have now been transferred to the back of the layout as there is no way I could manage more than a dozen or so these days!

Last but not least for this kit was for the prompt "I Believe". Again, I decided to select products out of the kit to give this layout a completely different colour scheme - golds and yellows and soft kraft. A photo I have used at least a dozen times before as well as some stitching for detail and this layout came together really quickly. It was an ideal design to use up all the left over bits and pieces from the kit as well as combine a few details lying on my table from a previous kit (the stars) which reinforced my theme.

I made nine layouts in total from my main kit along with the paper add on. Many of the pages were heavy on paper with so many layers and photo mats that I think it's a great number to have achieved. Four kits now shared and two more to show you another time. Getting there....

14 loves {July 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. You can find previous posts  {here}

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

one

Just a Pinterest find (here) that caught my eye and resonated with me!

two

I don't get much time when I have control of the remote. So I record all my shows and binge watch while I'm ironing. Suits is one of my favourites and as an added bonus, it's set in NYC which reminds me of my time there and Pam. This last week I watched a whole season and got a bunch of clothes back in the cupboard at the same time. Win-win.

three

We are on the move again. Time to declutter, recycle, donate and throw out. I've been going through all corners of my scrap room (again) and my niece will be the happy recipient of these bags full of crafty goodies. Just the tip of the iceberg and an activity which makes me feel really good.

four

There are so many wonderful scrappers out there whom I admire. So much talent and so many pages I could pin. This one from Sian Fair (here) over at "From High In The Sky" is one that I particularly love. I drop in at Sian's blog on a regular basis and her creations never fail to impress me. Her style (scrabooking, writing and blogging) is wonderful and if you don't know her, you should head over and say hello.

five

I think that strawberries have reached their peak this week. I can't believe how delicious they are right now.

six

We had a discussion on our Counterfeit Kit Challenge FB group about organisation and I commented about how I love my Ikea Raskog trolley (here). It corals most of my embellishments and I just adore it. I think I will be needing at least another one in my new room!

seven

Always on the lookout for new sketches, this one made it to my board and I will be using it sometime soon. Citrus Twist Kits have a new sketch every Sunday and they are very inspirational. Another one for your list. 

eight

Still living on the memories of my amazing NYC trip from March. Throw Back Thursday (#tbt) gives me a weekly chance to continue my flooding of Instagram with my photos. I'm limited to photos I have on my phone as my other photos are still locked into my dead computer, but these are still making me happy. The Waldorf Astoria was such an iconic place to be.

nine

It's summer but we are experiencing lots of storms at the same time. Love that! Well, at least, I love the storms that just come and go (like this photo below) rather than the destructive storm we had a few weeks ago. These angry clouds always fascinate me.

ten

I was sad to hear about 2Peas closing down. I'm not a forum or online gallery user but signed up to the new Paperclipping forum as soon as they set it up - less than 48 hours after the 2Peas announcement. It's lively and friendly and full of familiar faces. I don't think I'll become a regular but it's nice to drop in from time to time. On that note, go read fellow Master Forger Stephanie's blog post about the 2Peas closure. Well written and reasoned, it reminds us that this is not the beginning of the end if we all take responsibility for the industry that we love.

eleven

My new/old job is in full swing now and I like to see how the companies I visit can be so interesting and unusual. One of the firms had a suite of meeting rooms full of antique wooden elements such as this door. The previous owner had an Austrian Schloss and incorporated bits of it into the modern office building - cute details!

twelve

I'm addicted to podcasts. Mostly downloaded from BBC Radio 4 but also including Paperclipping Round Table and Get It Scrapped, I hardly listen to any music these days. Love how varied the downloads are and how many bits and pieces I learn as I potter around with these programmes just running in the background.

thirteen

Warmer weather means sitting outside having copius amounts of BBQ food and taking the chance to slow down and just relax. As night falls and the temperature drops, the fire gets started and we enjoy the warmth it provides and chat about everything and nothing. We won't be able to do this in our new home so we are making the most of it while we can.

fourteen

I've watched more football this FIFA World Cup than ever before - and I'm not even a big football fan. With England losing early on (as always), it's nice to support Germany through to the final. I'm writing this before the big match later this evening so I don't know if they will win or not - of course we have everything crossed that they will - but we will be watching and cheering them through the 90 minutes of play regardless of the outcome. As we shout round here... Schland!!!

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

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - piling up the techniques

Challenge #2 is up over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge and it's all about the techniques - at least three different ones on your project.

Now, many of you might have noticed that I'm a very lazy scrapper! No really! I love to layer and potter around on my layout clustering up bits and pieces which takes me a long time. But getting all techniquey is guaranteed to take an awful lot longer for me and runs a high risk of going wrong! Add to that the fact that I need to actually get stuff out - paints, mists, masks, sewing machine, die cutting machine etc - and it's likely that I just won't.

However, never one to shirk a challenge, I decided to see how I could manage to incorporate some (easier) techniques into my standard process but still have some fun along the way.

I took out my second July Counterfeit Kit Challenge July kit, Relax (see here) and the lovely rich aquas and teals grabbed my eye directing my colour choices for this predominantly monochromatic layout.

July kit, Relax - layout #1

As I was at the Scrapabilly crop, I first scrounged borrowed the Heidi Swapp Colour Shine mist from Sylvia and a Tim Holtz woodgrain mask from Charly to get a base layer down on my cardstock. (I never remember to pack things like that - doh!) as well as using the mist to splat across the diagonal and spraying my vintage (manu?) frames to match. There, three techniques in one go!

As well as the different misting techniques, I dragged out the sewing machine to frame the page as well as making some stitched details. When you add in my usual distressing, layering and clustering I think I nailed the challenge - don't you?

Thanks for stopping by. Why not leave me a comment and tell me a few of your favourite techniques - you never know, I might just try to be a bit more adventurous on layouts to come.

Stopping Growth in its tracks

Another sharing post for LOAD creations made from my Counterfeit Kit Challenge April kit (s), my main kit Growth and the paper add on Sprout! And yes, every time I write or read that add-on name, I smile. It was a bit of a weak name all things considered.

However, Growth proved a really wonderful kit to use and produced a total of 9 pages - some more successful than others but still a healthy number for the mix of new and older products I had combined. Not much was put back into my stash when I called it a day.

I don't want to bombard you with layouts but I'll share 4 now and 4 later in the month.

One of the things I like best about my kits is the different colour and style combinations they produce and how I get designs and looks I could never have imagined when I pulled the items together. A lot of that is to do with the fact that almost all papers these days are double sided but another part is definitely just having the items knocking around together at the bottom of the kit box so that you see combinations by chance.

This cloud-like paper was the perfect background for the dreamy effect I wanted to create for the prompt, "Dear Santa". I was a late believer and was grateful to get this snippet of a story down.

"The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" was perfect for another tribute page about my beloved grandad. It was always a wonderful time when I got to be with him.

For "The Best of the Best" I started a page about my deep and never-ending love for Duran Duran but right there in the middle of writing up the journalling, my computer died and I had to let it sit for another three weeks until I worked out how I could manage to type up and print out those words without my main computer. Got there in the end and I was happy to have so many little details down as I was certainly beginning to forget some of them. No doubt, when I've tracked down all the memorabilia related to my teenage love, I'll have to add another page to this 18x12.

And this page is the page I made on the day for "The Best of the Best". Just picking out the yellow toned papers and gold elements made this feel as if it'd been made from a completely different kit. And yes, he's golden!

More to share from this kit another day. Any other Duranies out there? Or maybe share who has been your life-long teenage obsession!

Scrapabilly Shares July kit part 2

On Thursday (see post here), I shared what I've been creating with the July Scrapabilly kit which is full of October Afternoon Public Library goodness. Such a great kit and I found it went a long way and filled me with plenty of inspiration along the route.

Just as a reminder for you, here's the kit...

And here are my last two pages and a couple of cards.

I knew right away that I had a book story just waiting to be told and this was the perfect time to grab a photo and record the detail that my very wonderful scrappy friend, Leslie, sent me these books as a gift some time ago after hearing me say how they were faves from childhood! Leslie is in the US and through the wonder of the internet, she found someone selling a vintage (1970s) set in the UK who was willing to send them to me, here in Germany! Such a wonderful, thoughtful present and one that I treasure. So, now was the time to capture the story on paper.

I used the collage style paper for this layout because it reminds me so much of the style of product Leslie likes to use :-)

And this final layout was just a little fun capture to talk about a new friend I've made at Sylvia's crop - she's often a Guest Designer for Scrapabilly too. I decided that it was my job to gently tease her during our crops and to nudge her into action - a bit like a big sister! Now, I know that I'm WAY too old for that but we have some fun and got this selfie at a recent Scrapabilly workshop. And yes, we were at the naughty end of the table!

I was inspired by this gorgeous layout over at Pinterest (here) - originally from Write.Click.Scrapbook (here)

Last bit not least, I was inspired by this gorgeously simple card from Split Coast Stampers (here) ...

To make two cards...

I especially love the tone on tone woodgrain effect on this stunning cardstock. I used every last scrap of it!

Once again, don't forget to check out the Scrapabilly site to see all the team's creations in the gallery (here). You can also find links to Ilonka, Nadine, Maria and Silke's blogs in the right hand side bar. You don't want to miss out on their amazing projects. Make sure you say hi to them!