April 2019 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge prompt #2 - Hidden!

I'm back with a challenge layout today and am thrilled to be able to say that I not only used my April kit for layout #2, but I also fulfilled the challenge on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog - Hidden!, and also my own Whimsical Musings prompt WM#325 - be inspired by a blue-toned necklace.

I do love it when I get multiple challenges completed in one layout - although there are others out there much better at it than me.

Here's a reminder of my take on the Hip Kit Club March 2019 kit, "Balconia" and you can find all the details for the inspiration kit over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog here.

Right, back to business...

I challenged the team with the following:

Challenge #2 - Hidden!

Easter is coming and many little ones will be participating in Easter Egg Huts in the garden. Create you own "hunt" on your page by including some hidden elements on your page such as journaling, symbolism or more photos. Let the hunt begin!

I decided to go for lots of hidden symbolism as well as a truly hidden-in-plain-sight element to my page. 

Can you see it? 

It's right there in the middle and I have to admit to being rather proud of it and ever so grateful for my beloved Silhouette Cameo which has earned its keep this week in more ways than one. When I use it, I truly love it and don't know why I don't use it more often!

So... if you didn't notice, here are some of the elements I included in my page.

• I splatted gold and blue onto the background to mirror the state flag of Alaska where I bought this gorgeous necklace
• the title is a nod to the flowers in the necklace which also happens to be the state flower of Alaska too. The actual words of the title are of course, double meaning as I really don't ever want to forget my trip and experiences during the holiday of a lifetime.
• I also used blue and gold with the messy thread elements 
• the softer colours of the patterned papers I used reminded me of the autumnal colours I experienced during my travels around the Yukon and my short stay in Alaska
• I've included the constellations you can find on the state flag - subtle but clear to see if you know where to look!
• and the best bit... I've cut out the state of Alaska from my favourite constellation covered Studio Calico vellum and laid it underneath the photo. You have to really look carefully to notice it and that's the effect I wanted. The focus is on the photo and the bead elements I've attached to the page as embellishments but the negative space on on the vellum is there to discover. 

I've been including hidden symbolism on my pages for a long time - colours, motifs, patterns etc - and find myself going back to this technique over and over which makes me happy. I hope you'll give it a try if this is something new for you. Make sure you link up to let me know how you get along!

Head back to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog so that you don't miss any of the other shares today and of course, there's heaps and heaps of inspiration and community shares over on Instagram here and the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Facebook Community here.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop this month!

It's been a quiet month over at the CKC blog which is usually a sign that the year is coming to an end (eek!!!) and therefore we have a cosy hop this time around! Make sure you visit everyone today as I have a feeling it's going to be awesome including a fabulous new follower, Raelene and our lovely Guest Designer Kelly :-), not to mention our regular hopper, Tina who always delights!

When you're done here, head over to Julene and the full hop list can be found at the end of this post.

We were given three great challenges this month by Susan:

• Challenge #1:  - Snip, Snip!
• Challenge #2:  - Balance the Scale!
• Challenge #3:  - Playing Dress Up!

I decided to follow along with challenges #1 and #2 including some fussy cutting and a little bit of pink and gold fancy for my page.

This also fulfils my Whimsical Musings prompt WM#233 - be inspired by Blue Heart of Delft and took this quite literally, including the original inspiration photo, the title of Delft Blue and some fussy cut roses which are very reminiscent of those famous blue tiles that the city is so famous for.

Thanks for dropping by today - make sure you let me know you were here before heading over to Julene to see what she's got to share with us.

Here's the full list. Why not join in yourself next month? Each Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog post has details of how to get yourself on the hop - we'd love to see you there.

• http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com
• http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de
• http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au
• http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com
• http://kaybeetoo.blogspot.com
• http://dyspraxicorganisedscrapper.blogspot.com.au/
• http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk

Happy Blogiversary to me!

I knew it was coming so I checked out my post feed and yes, my 10 year blog anniversary is today.

10 years ago, 15th September 2006, I wrote my first "real" blog post about the start of our Nova Scotia adventure.

It's a badly written piece to be honest and includes no photos... I wrote it from the lobby of the hotel we stayed in at Frankfurt Airport before we headed over the ocean - in the days before wifi and smartphones. I was excited about the trip and excited to share my adventures online - using a fixed internet (modem perhaps) computer available for guests at the hotel - oh the pain of that slow connection. Of course, no one read me back then. I'm not surprised, like I said, it's badly written! But also, blogs were still relatively new back then in the UK and especially over here in Germany. Most people I mentioned it to had never heard of a blog. No one could see the point or why they should be interested.

I'd been scrapping since the start of 2006 and was still a painfully inexperienced newbie but it was exciting and fun and the industry was so much bigger then too. Was that the peak? Did I join the trend at the high point?

Anyway, 10 years on I'm wondering who's out there still reading blogs. Are they passé? Should we all consider giving them up in favour of the dreaded social media? I'm not sure but it's something I'm thinking about - what direction to take. Many people have stopped sharing through their blogs and I'm wondering if I'm just hanging on for the sake of it! But for now, I'm still here. I'm even thinking about an overhaul of the blog - design, layout and even the name. After all, I haven't lived in Recklinghausen for 7 years!

But all this is just a preamble for one of those shares...

This evening I made a layout to celebrate this milestone in my personal blogging journey and followed my own Whimsical Musings prompt WM#299 to be inspired by scrapbooking product made by a manufacturer that doesn't produce scrapbook product any more.

It had to be BasicGrey of course. In fact, this collection is one I treated to myself in that first year. It might even have been the first papers I ever bought. I ended up buying it twice I think. It's "dated" of course, but I still love it. And thank heavens that my style has changed considerably over those ten years so I tried to use some of the products in a more up-to-date way. I fussy cut and layered and roughed up the edges. I matched it up with some modern items such as gold mist, washi tap, Thickers and mini-alphas. Back in the day a BasicGrey collection consisted of papers, a sheet of alpha stickers (almost always the same font!) and a sheet of die-cut labels - non-sticky of course. I did find some remnants of the infamous matching BG fibres and really tried to find a way to use them on the layout - but no! 

I'm not totally convinced at how successful I was at bringing Urban Couture to 2016 but I do like the layout and isn't that what matters?

What's your opinion about the future of blogging? Should I be moving on to other mediums or continuing forward with a bit of a redesign? What's your own blogging adventure? I'm really interested to hear what you think as I carry on thinking about what I'm doing here.

Happy 15th everyone! Back soon with Simple Scrapper shares and a (no doubt) late 16 loves!

February at Simple Scrapper #2

With LOAD keeping me busy this month, I've struggled to keep up with blogging over the last few weeks but just scraping in under the wire to share this second layout I made for Simple Scrapper this month.

I used a current story prompt to scrapbook a Pinterest quotation find. This photo has been sitting there for some time just waiting for the perfect moment to be used and I decided that another retrospective about my feeling regarding Bowie's death was the right time. I reflect on something I saw online when the news first appeared. It really did the rounds and summed up what so many were feeling at the time:

The design of the page was driven by a Simple Scrapper sketch. Each month, members receive a set of story prompts and a collection of sketches to help inspire their pages. This is a sketch that I had used before but I love it so much with those layers in the middle that I knew I wanted to go with it again.

 I used my May 2015 Counterfeit Kit Challenge Rejuvenate kit for this and I have to say that it might have been my favourite kit last year. The mix of pink, gold and aqua was just so good.

I love the way the sketch had all those layers tucked into different levels of the middle band. It gives a lot of dimension without the bulk.

To find out more about the many resources available to inspire you to create beautiful pages and tell meaningful stories in a supportive, communicative community environment environment, check out the Simple Scrapper premium membership.

Kill that (November) kit

As mentioned before, I started off February LOAD with 5 Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits on the shelf.

September's Passport, November's Comfort, January's Begin and 2 from February, Tender and Nostalgic. I have been reaching for these kits almost every day of the month and am happy to see some serious reductions.

January's is complete with 9 layouts and now November has also all been used up producing 6 layouts and a mini-book. Not as many layouts as usual because I think each was a bit more paper heavy than usual. I ended the month with quite a few embellishments left over but only a few scraps of paper. No doubt I could have managed a card or two to really finish it off, but who's got time for cards in the middle of LOAD? Not me :-)

Anyway, I'm here this morning to share two layouts using Comfort - in fact, the first layout I made with the kit but couldn't share right away - magazine layout - and the last before I broke it all up and tucked the scraps away.

This was made for The Scrapbook Magazine on the topic of resolutions. It seemed appropriate to record my OLW for 2014.

Lots of embellishments and bits and pieces to add dimension and fun to this, what I'd like to think is, happy layout. I loved this background paper and hope that I have another sheet left in the pack. Crate Paper's collection packs (unfortunately no longer available in new collections) duplicated some but not all the papers, so I'm hoping for a double on this one!

And I'm hoping to track down some more of these wonderful gold doilies - bought at a local stationary store in the Golden Wedding Anniversary section - as they are perfect on so many of my pages right now.

The second layout to share today is for LOAD214 #24 Myth: Each page you create should have a new design.

For this design, I scraplifted and took inspiration from two of my own layouts: New Year, New Me and On Our Way Down (both found over at Whimsical Musings)

I've blurred out my niece's face for this public forum but take it from me that she's grinning!

Another new fave little embellishment at the moment are these fine star outlines. I had used my Big Shot to cut out some stars for the mini-book I made from this kit and was left with a load of negative outlines. So I just cut around that with scissors to leave this narrow shape! Love them and they are perfect for layering and following through on the theme.

Totally loving these beautiful wooden/birch bark hearts that Lynette so kindly sent over for me

I really loved this kit and am, as ever, a little sad to have said goodbye to it. But there are still three kits on the shelf, along with the new Scrapabilly kit for me to start and a new Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit to go live on Saturday. It's not like I'm short of variety to use right now :-)

14 loves {February 2014}

Welcome to a new series for 2014 based on the original concept by my beloved friend, Pam, back in January 2013. I enjoyed sharing my loves so much through last 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.

one

No February these days would be complete without our favourite LOAD of the year. This month is no exception with many of my scrappy friends joining in - two for the first time *waves* and one very special one coming back to us in a creative way after being busy with life the last 6 months or so :-) *waves to Pam* 

two

I think that one month, I will fill my 14 loves with inspirational or moving quotes (all Pinterest of course!) but for now, this one spoke to me. I've had several of these moments in my life. It's so true.

Pinterest source here

three

Of course, I've been shopping at Scrapabilly - a lot - recently! Full of gorgeous products that I simply have to have. But the winner in recent weeks is the Crate Paper gold foil doily. *sigh* I love it. Bought several sheets in fact. I cut up the first one earlier this week.

See the full sheet in the shop here

four

Chinese New Year fell on a crop night this year so we did our bit by breaking open a bottle of sekt and treating ourselves to some fortune cookies. These girls know how to have a good time :-)

five

Talking of Chinese New Year, dear R was in Singapore over the holiday and was under strict instruction to get me some scrapable photos of the event. I literally shrieked with delight when I opened up this image! Wow. The fact that he has taken photos and picked up memorabilia on this trip for an album makes me love him a little bit more - if that's possible!

six

I was reading a lot about green smoothies on-line, and never one to pass up a trend, thought I'd check them out. The first day wasn't so successful but since then I've found the best combination for me. I make a large one, enough for two large glasses and drink them during the day, saving real "food" for the evenings. Delicious and healthy - 5 portions of fruit and veg in a glass:

Large handful of curly kale

Two large tablespoons 0.1% fat yoghurt

Orange juice (or freshly squeezed oranges)

Juice of one lemon

One apple

Quarter pineapple (I prepare mine ahead and pop the ready chopped quarters in the freezer)

Ice cubes if available

Recently I've also been adding a peeled kiwi

Blend well - c. a minute

I'm sure my body doesn't understand why I'm suddenly feeding it so much healthy stuff, but I love it and it's tasty (honestly - so delicious!) so that's all that matters.

seven

These days with Instagram and Facebook, no one seems to take real photos any more - at least everyone else, I still do! And because it's all so instant, it seems as if no one remembers to send me the photos as in the past so I "steal" a lot like this one here from Amber or Libby's feeds!

This one make me feel warm and fuzzy. This is delightful Phoebe and the Steif Rabbit that we bought her for Christmas - seems she likes it! What a gorgeous photo. This will be hitting a scrapbook page soon.

eight

I saw these on Pinterest (originally on Etsy) and just knew I had to save the idea for a future present. Being big EJ fans round here, and given the fact that we have tried singing this song twice at karaoke events - OH SO BADLY - I know this will be the perfect present!

Etsy source here

nine

As shocking as it seems, to me as much as everyone else, I have been taking baby steps in the exercise department. Determined to do something, we got a treadmill and I've been making the time to do the standard 2.2km walk/jog as often as I can. I managed four days last week, fast walking and  then slow jogging for 2x 3.5 minutes. Then this week, I've managed four times already with fast walking and then a bit faster jogging for a full 10 minutes. This is HUGE for me and I'm pretty proud of myself. Can't say I'm loving it but I certainly feel very virtuous and I know it's good for me. 

ten

A Christmas present. Much wished for and already much loved. I just need to organise things so that I can have it out and accessible so that I will use it more often. 

eleven

Talking of Silhouette, I took a Lori Whitlock class to learn the basics, picking up some great tips and creating this cute mini book. Kind of blows my mind with the possibilities of the machine but it's going to be fun learning. The mini book is gorgeous and I have a plan for it already.

twelve

Modern technology has been my best friend over the last few years with us being apart so often. Thank heavens for Skype! 

thirteen

I love my Scrap Happy family, even if I'm rather absent a lot of the time. But it's great to check in and see all those lovely familiar faces and hear what's been going on. Swaps of one sort or another are organised on a regular basis so I jumped on board with the Valentine tag swap. Of course I was late, always am. But they finally hit the post this week and I'm excited to see the cute tags that hit my door too. Of course, I'm not going to give away what's under those doilies! Let's just say they sparkle!

fourteen

I pin a lot of layouts on my/our Pinterest boards LisaInRe Whimsical Musings . I pin them because I love them and might want to be inspired by them later. But this one? This one grabbed me and made me sit up and smile. I LOVE this layout. I'm determined to give it a try. Check out the link below to see more of this stunner..

Adrienne Alvis for Chic Tags (source 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 oneach 14th of the month

13 loves {2013}

It's the last day of the year and I've been a bad blogger this month but I couldn't let the month go by without one last post.

I loved Pam's concept of {13 loves} and joined in right away in January. I haven't been able to come up with a list every month but looking back, there are 7 lists of things that I loved in 2013. So I've decided to bring together my top 13 favourites for the year...

One

I got myself this gorgeous lipstick and it is indeed fabulous! Perfect pink to match your own lips!

two

One of the best photos ever. I was lucky enough to spend time with all my beautiful nieces and handsome nephew this year and could fill my list with photos of them. But this is just such an adorable photo, I will let it represent time with them all. Can't wait to spend more time with them in 2014.

three

A present brought back for me from far away travels. In Pink! Need to get to use it more. 

four 

Amanda Catherine Des Esty shop (here)

Still love these and they are still on my Etsy favourite list. I intend to get them for someone (or me!) next year. 

five

  

A big highlight of the year was a much anticipated concert, the first for quite some time, by one of my musical heroes for the last 30 years!  Nigel Kennedy is a genius and I was thrilled to be able to get tickets for the 2^nd row at his recent concert featuring Bach and Fats Waller – a really super combination, if a little unconventional. Actually, that is probably the best word to describe Kennedy himself… unconventional. Anyway, to get to the point, I got the chance to meet him after the concert as a signing had been set up. I was like a teenager and was thrilled to have a quick chat with him, have him sign my programme and grab a photo. It may not be the best, but one that makes me smile every time I look at it. 

Six

Scrapabilly online shop here

Back in the summer, I was invited to join the Scrapabillyhttp://www.scrapabilly.de/ design team - lucky me! Sylvia's shop is an amazing treasure trove crammed full of gorgeous stash and I'm delighted and honoured to have been asked, and so warmly welcomed, onto the team. Happy to have found a new scrappy home.

seven

Pinterest find (here)

Considering I am someone who doesn't have nice fingers (I'm a nibbler) or nails, I fall in love with a lot of nail varnishes. I didn't manage to track this one down yet but when I do, I know I will love it!

eight

Pinterest find here

So true, so true!

nine

Check out the Jingle Belles blog (here)

I'm a huge fan of the brains behind the Jingle Belles blog, Lauren and Stephanie. They are so inspirational and help us to stop the stress of homemade Christmas cards by inspiring us every week to create our pile of cards all the way through the year. I am excited to play along in 2014 and have that happy pile of cards ready to go again in December.

ten

These shoes which I spotted in the Marina Bay Shopping Mall, Singapore when I was there in December stole my heart. Every time I look at this photo, I fall in love all over again. 

eleven

My word just sort of came to me back in January and I promptly ordered a charm to remind myself of it every day. I've been working on it, quietly, in my own way through the year and am happy with the progress I made. 2014's word came to me early and I am ready to go with it as of now!

twelve

Counterfeit Kit Challenge (here)

I've been playing along with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge for nearly three years now and I love it as much now as I did back then. Love that I get to shop my stash, love that I have a pile of ready made mix and match products that are ready to go whenever I want to scrap, love the team and the awesomely creative girls over there. The Counterfeit Kit Challenge is an awesome idea and I'm thrilled to be part it. It makes me happy.

thirteen

This place. I love it. I miss Pam but hope she will come back to us sometime. I have some truly special friends over there and am thrilled every time a new layout hits the gallery. Join us {here}. We'd love to see you there.

And there you have it - the highlights of the 2013 from my {13 loves} lists. Of course, there was a lot else that I loved and was a part of throughout the year but this is quite a representative list all in all!

Even though this was originally Pam's idea, I've decided to carry on this idea in 2014 with {14 loves} which I hope to get posted on the 14th of every month. I'd love it if you joined in too.

Wishing you all a very good New Year celebration or "einen guten Rutsch ins neuen Jahr" as they say round here and thank you each and every one of you for visiting my blog. I appreciate every one of you and hope to be a more active blogger in 2014. Why not drop by and let me know how I'm doing.

Goodbye 2013... hello and welcome to 2014.

See you on the other side!