Counterfeit Kit Challenge April member blog hop

Gosh, I've been a busy blogger this week! This will be my fourth post which would be great if I could keep it up. Let's see.

Hopefully, you're here for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge April member blog hop and I'm at the end of the list, so you should have reached me via K's blog and I'm sure she wowed you with her creations. If you'd like to start at the beginning, head back to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and the full list is at the end of this post if you get lost along the way.

This month, we were offered the following challenges over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge:

Challenge #1: Pick A Challenge ... any challenge. Scrapbook, craft or in fact any challenge

Challenge #2: Sketch Challenge  using a sketch by Paper Players

Challenge #3:  Spring Challenge - Let spring inspire your next project

Each of these appealed to me in their own way but in the end went with the Spring Challenge. When I think of spring, days full of sunshine, Easter, yellows, bright colours and general fun springs to mind. What about you?

Diving into my kit box holding my April Vivid kit, I found the gorgeous sunburst paper and that was it - I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Some cutting, stitching, distressing and layering featuring a rather unusual Easter Egg and I was done. This came together so well.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge February kit, Vivid #1

I actually enjoyed using up the brads I included in my kit and will no doubt throw in a few more. I have thousands!

Not a lot to say about this page because I think the details show you what you need to know! It was fun to make and about a silly topic which made me smile all the time I was making it.

So, I'll send you on your way. Don't forget to leave me a comment and let me know you were here.

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

Here's the Blog Hop order ...

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

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

Sherrie   http://sherriesmuddlepuddle.blogspot.ca 

Julie   http://jsquaredscrapspot.wordpress.com 

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

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

Tina   http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/ 

Margie   http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com 

Maggie   http://maggiebscrapblog.blogspot.fr 

K    http://kscraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Lisa   http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de

Wednesday Wonderland

It's been a long time.

I don't really know why but I just haven't found the time to make cards over the last month or so. But I decided to sit down and get Jingling along with the girls over at Jingle Belles. I did actually make a few more back in January that I didn't get around to sharing so the pile is not too bad but at this rate, I definitely won't have enough by the end of the year so I better keep playing!

This week's challenge is all about being kind to our planet with "Let There Be Peace on Earth (Day)" and make our cards using re-cycled, up-cycled or re-used items.

I can do that.

I managed 5 cards which has boosted my rather small pile of holiday cards and proved to me that these do not have to be works of art. Simple is good.

My first card is über-simple, die cutting the central motif from a lovely card that I'd kept from last year. All I did was mount it on red cardstock with a length of ribbon saved (probably) from a Tiffany gift. I also included three small fussy-cut sleighs inside the card just to make sure I used them all up.

Card number two also features a fussy-cut element - the mittens - from a saved card. Then I die-cut the white stars and the sentiment from the same card and added some silver sequins. The white tag was part of an advent exchange gift. All simply mounted on red card. Both these cards were done in about 20 mins. Simple!

This card features items from two different cards. The gold wreath in the background, which I've mounted on gold glitter cardstock, was cut from one card and then the tag, snowflake and sentiment was salvaged from a gorgeous hand-made card I received. Mounted onto white card with some gold mist splats. Simple, simple!

And the last two feature central elements cut from a few tags that I've had hanging (pun intended) around in my Christmas drawer for about 5 years. Double mounted with a small sentiment and a bunch of messy thread. Again, it's all about the simple.

Nothing majorly complicated or time consuming but enough to get me back into the feeling that I really should be making my cards on a regular basis. Jingle Belles is fun and at the end of the year, it feels so good to have that pile ready to go.

Won't you play along too? New prompts up every second Friday. Looking forward to the next one now. Let's see if I can keep it up.

The Big Reveal!

Yesterday, I hoped you joined us in our extra Counterfeit Kit Challenge spring team activity, "Scrap Crush" where we created pages inspired by one of our (no doubt many) scrapbooking celebrity crushes.

We asked you to guess who they were and comments on yesterday's posts will be put into a draw on Friday 24th for a small prize. Who doesn't love a giveaway?

Many of you made some good guesses on mine but first, let me enlighten you with the problems I went through with my page.

When I first set the challenge, I knew right away that I wanted to crush on Ashli Oliver (soapHOUSEmama) whose style is one I totally love. I should have just sat down and made my page right away. But of course, being Last Minute Lisa means that I didn't. Noooo, I waited until just a few days before our challenge only to find out that another of our Master Forger team had chosen her. Bummer! Of course, I could have just continued - the MFs didn't know each others' crushes but because I was coordinating the challenge, I did and thought that as I knew, it would be better if I made another choice - to keep up the variety.

If I had continued with Ashli, I would definitely have looked at these layouts as inspiration - as well as all the others I have on my Scrapbook Pinterest Board of course.

Ashli Oliver at Purple Mailbox

Ashli Oliver for A Flair for Buttons

Anyway, Leslie did a fantastic job of nailing her artsy, pale on white, whimsical style so I will save my take on Ashli for another day.

So, then I decided to go with another of my crushes. One that I've had a long time. I've talked about her pages before on here and find her layered up, relaxed style so appealing. I think Rahel Menig over at Swiss Girl Designs is just so talented and I had plenty on my board to look at, such as this one

Rahel Menig for Blue Moon Scrapbooking

I picked out the idea of very minimal colours on a white background with a large amount of layers. Nothing is cut using a trimmer - just by hand with scissors, or even just torn. There are layers of tissue paper, lots of thread, some papers along the top, usually a large and small letter title, black handwritten journalling and small photos.

I came up with this.

I think I need to add that the title is a quote by Coco Chanel herself - this should be on there otherwise it looks like wise words from me!

I used my April Counterfeit Kit Challenge Vivid kit for this, selecting the papers with just a hint of colour to contrast with that bright scarlet tissue paper

I felt that the colours I'd selected were somehow appropriate for Chanel and was surprised to be able to come up with this toned down page out of that brightly coloured kit.

I've never used tissue paper on my pages before but I likes the translucent effect it gives and the rough, torn edge gives some interest to the layers

It was only after I'd finished the page and went over to look at Rahel's blog did I realise that she has given up scrapping to concentrate on her photography. Fail!

That is when I moved on to someone who's been fascinating me for some time, and seems to be one of the names of the moment. I first came to know her name when she was a Garden Girl and I was fascinated with how many different page designs she could come up with based on quilts and patchwork patterns. And how much patience she had in executing these elaborate designs. She's quite the girl for mixing patterns and using tiny scraps of paper in repeating designs and shapes. Paige Evans of course! Who else could it be?? She lives right here in Germany too which made me smile. And her family is racing round the country and Europe getting as many impressions as possible while they are still here. Her list of places visited in the last 18 months or so is incredible and puts me to shame!

I am particularly in love with this page

Paige Evans for American Crafts

And this one too

Paige Evans for Studio Calico

I already shared my page yesterday, but just for direct comparison, here it is again.

But I also mentioned that I had a bit of a nightmare with this one too - it really tested my patience - perhaps the background was too complex for a first attempt!

I cut out the main background overlay and added foam squares to give it a hint of dimension. First 30 minutes of work! But so far so good.

Then I realised that adding all those shapes to the background was going to take precision work. Every space was small and different to the next. But I persevered with an extra template to cut out the shapes slightly larger than the "hole" as well as using it to show me where to stick it. The background doesn't look very good while you're working on it!

But then I was finished! Hurrah! Only to find out that I'd done it back to front so to speak and the overlay I'd already prepared was mirrored with the foam dots on the other side!

Then I had to cut out another overlay and giving up on all the effort of the foam dots, I decided just to use a glue runner and promptly stuck it to my mat. When I lifted it off, some of the front of the overlay came away and THAT is the reason I have the large doily top right - to cover that up!!! Talk about a difficult birth. But even though I went through all this "trauma", I had a lot of fun and LOVE the final result.

I am still in awe of Paige and will continue to ooh and ahh over her creations, even if I don't manage to make so many of them myself. She has a class over at BPC which I will check out.

I could have chosen any of at least a dozen or more Crushes for this challenge (Shimelle, Wilna, Janna Werner, Jill Sprott, Marcy Penner, Sasha Farina just to name a few) so maybe I'll save those girls for another day and another go at this challenge. Won't you join me?

Don't forget that there's something to be won if you comment on any of our posts from yesterday's blog hop. All names will go in the pot for comments posted by the end of Friday 24th April and I'll pick a winner out over the weekend.

Who's YOUR scrap crush?

A little extra for you today in the form of an extra Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog hop.  Hopefully, you've arrived here from Leslie and after this, it's time to check out Lynnette. The full list is at the end of this post and you can go back to the start of the hop at Bethany's blog.

There's a lot of fun that goes on behind the scenes and from time to time there's an extra team activity that we'd like to share.

The challenge we were given this time is called "Scrap Crush" and goes like this:

• Choose your scrapbooking celebrity "Scrap Crush"
• Decide what elements, design features and style you admire so much
• Create a page using the inspiration from your Scrap Crush
• Share the layout during the blog hop
• The "Scrap Crush" will be revealed on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog tomorrow (Tuesday 21st)

There's a bit of a long story about my "Scrap Crush". 

I have many scrap crushes. 

Many! 

So I was unsure who to choose. I fixed on one, and then found out that someone else on the team had also chosen them (I have the insider information *wink wink*)!! I then changed my mind and created a layout inspired by someone else, only to find out that this particular scrapper has stopped scrapping! I felt doomed! That's a layout I'll share another time. 

For now, let's move on to my third crush. I wanted to select someone who is different from my own style to challenge myself to incorporate elements into my own page. So I went over to my Pinterest layout board and had a look around. 

And I realised I already knew who I wanted to Crush on, I just hadn't formulated it in my mind. She is so on-trend right now and is über-creative and innovative. So from there I looked at her style and made the following list of impressions I get when I see her pages:

• long titles - sometimes acting as journalling too
• colourful
• detailed
• feminine
• dimensional
• mixes of colours and designs
• lots of white and bright
• often uses die cut overlays, backgrounds or shapes
• stitching
• tiny photos
• rainbow
• elaborate
• repeating designs

That's a lot of possibilities for me and there's not a lot on that list that is my normal style so I knew this really would be a challenge.

I have several Counterfeit kits on my shelf and looking at the mix of colours and patterns, I chose February's Runaway kit and added in a Cameo goemetric overlay (another story for another day as well - it's been a real comedy of errors today!)

Here's the page I created. Can you tell you I was inspired by?!?  

Leave a comment on this post with your guess for a chance to win. We'll be checking all the comments on all the posts in the hop today for a small prize so make sure you don't miss out. 

This page took me hours and hours to fill all the shapes with small pieces of paper and make sure that they didn't overlap into the next window. The result is actually really interesting and I have to say that I do like the eclectic mix of patterns and colours.

I didn't go for really small photos but had three Instagram shots that told a mini story about the most recent, rather dramatic storm that we had here in Germany and that I thought would work well with the mixed-up background. The photos were strong enough to stand out against all those colours but the whole layout has a windy, scattered, fragmented feel to it which supports the story.

I added in a gold doily to my kit to cover up a little mistake I'd made (part of the longer story previously mentioned) and then used a journalling card with a gold element for my short journalling and which helped to tie in the gold in the rest of the layout.

I noticed that my Scrap Crush still manages to allow the title, journalling and photos to really shine on her layouts even though almost every single layout is chock-full of colour and pattern and detailed, delicate designs. Even though I didn't have an especially long title, I mixed up the fonts to give it more substance against the background and the journalling is on an easy to read white card.

My Scrap Crush often has lots of dimension on her pages with many embellishments almost seeming to fly off her pages but I limited myself to adding a double mat behind the photos including one layer of real veneer which has some depth to it. I also included a few Prima flowers to the two text areas for dimension but also for the feminine feeling that my Scrap Crush has on so many of her beautifully detailed creations.

I mentioned above that this page took me ages to make. I'm a SLOW scrapper but even for me, this was toooooo long! I imagine that when pages take this long to make on a regular basis, my Scrap Crush probably doesn't create that many pages and is very selective about the pages she makes and what stories she tells. Or maybe she's a speed scrapper in private and only showcases these pieces of art in the public arena. This form of slow, (but it must be said, very therapeutic) steady scrapping is not something I can see myself doing very often but it was a very interesting exercise to do and I like the result! It's just not sustainable for me. Something to dip into from time to time perhaps. :-)

Now, don't forget to let me know who you think my Scrap Crush is in the comments and then hop along to Lynnette for more Scrap Crush fun and games. Here's the full list in case you get lost along the way.

Come back again tomorrow to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and also here to find out who were all our Crushes and to hear about my fun and games story!!!

Bethany:  http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com

Julene:  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com

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

Lisa:  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.ca

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

Margie:  http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com

Stephanie:  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.com

Susanne:  http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed this challenge as much as we did. Why not give it a try yourself?!?

15 loves {April 2015}

Welcome to the next in the series {15 loves} for 2015 based on the original concept by my beloved friend, Pam, back in January 2013. I shared my loves (mostly late) all through 2014 and now it's time to see if I can continue the series through 2015. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. You can see all my {14 loves} {here} and now all my {15 loves} {here}

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

one

Found on Pinterest, this is my kind of necklace! Look at that cute, squishy face and the sweet cut out heart. I could buy this for several members of my family and one for me too. Adding it to my wish-list so that I don't forget.

From Etsy shop, Just Plain Simple here

two

I've commented before about how I love Sian's blog, From High in the Sky and this layout is a stand out for me. She has such a wonderful, relaxed style. The pops of pink and green against the neutrals. Love it. Need to scrap lift this at some point.

From High in the Sky

three

Found on Pinterest, I love this colour scheme. I want my bedside table and my corner of the bed to look as stylish and comfortable as this. I clearly need to incorporate some gold elements.

Pinterest find here

four

I've mentioned my love of shoes on the blog here before. These are adorable. Once again, hard to find round here but I can just picture them teamed with a pretty afternoon tea dress for the summer.

Pinterest find here

five

This was really interesting and the quote was a perfect reminder for why we do what we do.

Read the article relating to this quote at Artifact Uprising here

six

At the end of March, I got to hang on online with Lain, Lynnette and Leslie during the Scrap Happy Hour to talk about how awesome the Counterfeit Kit Challenge is! I hope we got a few new converts and it was so much fun to see us all there together!

Scrap Happy Spreecast Hour

seven

Experimenting with new cocktails. Lemon Drop Shots were interesting and the lemon makes it so fresh for the new season. I'm hoping for more!

eight

Following along the new season theme, this layout jumped out at me on Pinterest. I love those bright colours and the mini Europe map. So much to love here.

Ania-Maria at Studio Calico

nine

And this was my chocolate Easter "egg" this year. I love my Percy Pigs (available at Marks & Spencer or as Fred Ferkel here in Germany), so when R saw this for me in the UK, he knew I needed it. The strawberry flavoured chocolate is somewhat "interesting" (read: eughghgh) but this was all for show any way.

And here's a sneak peek of a Percy layout I'll be featuring later on this month.

ten

Yes, spring is here. Lovely to see the beautifully happy, bright, sweet bobbing daffodils. These have to be enough for me as I can't have them in the house these days - hay fever - but they sure make me happy.

eleven

I baked. And I forgot a) how easy biscuits are to make b) how delicious they are and c) how much other people love to receive them. I need to do this more often.

twelve

Talking of Studio Calico Europe maps, I was happy to see this stamp and die set back in stock. I need to work out how's best to use it - these little die cut countries are tiny! - but I'm so happy to have got my own set.

Studio Calico Europe stamp and die set

thirteen

Pam introduced me to Kate Spade while I was in NYC and I treated myself to a sweet little jewellery dish as a reminder. If I'd seen these gorgeous studs, I might have got them instead. So simple, but I think they are so lovely.

Kate Spade Dear Valentine gold heart studs

fourteen


My adorable niece is the star of my baby sister's new website launch. This photograph is one of the most adorable I think I've ever seen. Simply beautiful photography.

Photo by Angela Paul (Bellabambini)

fifteen

And here is my sister's shop, Thread The Love. Featuring gorgeous handmade crochet items for your little loved ones as well as a small collection for adults, it's well worth checking out. So very proud of her for the awesome creations she produces.

Thread the Love

I’d love you to share your own {15 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?

Scrapabilly April kit shares (part 2)

Earlier this week, I shared three layouts I made with this month's Scrapabilly kit featuring all sorts of goodies and based around the Pebbles Happy Days collection. You can find the kit in the Scrapabilly shop here and the gallery with all the DT creations can be found here. It's worth checking out for sure!

Another super easy-peasy to use kit and one that gave me enough inspiration and supplies for a full 5 layouts, two overloaded cards and a handful of scraps.

Here's a reminder of the kit:

And here's layout number 4. When I saw the card about Friday, my thoughts turned immediately to cocktails and the fact that I want to introduce a weekend cocktail hour round here (purely selfish reasons of course!)

A recently captured, and über-delicious Cosmopolitan was all I needed to pull this layout together simply. This is, of course, not the first time that the Best Barman in the World's infamous Cosmo has been featured on a layout and no doubt it won't be the last. But as delectable as it is, I think I can get away with it!

I loved the cut apart sheet included in the kit and this one just had my name all over it!

And one last layout that was made after the gallery went live but I was inspired by all those "hello" words covering one of the papers and I decided to fussy-cut some out. Somehow, memories of 1970s Eurovision Song Contests jumped into my head and the "Germany Calling" bit made me giggle. Who would have imagined way back then that an international, virtual meeting would be possible via the internet and attended by nearly 50 people from around the world! Funny indeed.

Now it might seem a little strange to have used this kit to talk about the Scrap Happy Hour where we discussed the Counterfeit Kit Challenge - surely a CKC kit itself would have made more sense? Well, that's not really how I roll round here because the whole layout came together from those fussy-cut elements and scraps of leftover papers. When that happens, I don't over think it and just go with the flow. In fact, I can think of another angle to this story and photo (just the one so it'll be used twice!) which I can use one of my CKC kits for. Double duty!

To finish off, I made this card incorporating all sorts of bits and pieces from the kit and the cut apart elements. I adore making these over the top banners with the loopy twine and loved how this came out. The card-base was included in the kit which gave me the incentive I needed to make someone a rather special birthday card - heading its way to the UK already.

So, to maximise the idea and to use up some more of those scraps and fussy-cuts, I ran off a second card to finish my use of the kit. This one isn't quite as well executed as the first but I think it will make a very fun "Hi" card - already have that special someone in mind :-)

Did you miss my giveaway last month? I think you did! Yes, my bad. I'm such an irregular scrapper that there's not many readers these days but just in case you do read this and get to the bottom here, and pay attention (yes, that's a lot of "just in case"s), then let me repeat it for you.

I appreciate every single reader and commenter here on this - sometimes - neglected blog. Let me know which layout from which 2015 Scrapabilly kit is your favourite and I might (read *will*) pick a commenter to receive a little something in the post from me!

These are my share posts so far this year:

Scrapabilly January kit shares (part 1)
Scrapabilly January kit shares (part 2)
Scrapabilly February kit shares (part 1)
Scrapabilly February kit shares (part 2)
Scrapabilly March kit shares (part 1)
Scrapabilly March kit shares (part 2)
Scrapabilly April kit shares (part 1)
Scrapabilly April kit shares (part 2)

Who doesn't love a giveaway?!?