July 2019 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge - Challenge #2

Welcome to my somewhat neglected blog these days.

Today I'm sharing my take on the sketch Tina challenged us with.

I think you all know how much I love sketches and this two photo template was really appealing. I assumed that the photos were 6x4 and therefore, I'm not sure my page has the same proportions as the original, but other than that, I stayed pretty true to the design.

The double photo design was perfect to record a then and now version of me on this anniversary page for moving to Germany. How can it be 18 years already? It feels like yesterday even on days when I think about all the ups and down and changes we've gone through - enough to last a lifetime or two!

The photo on the left was taken at the leaving "do" I had when I left my job in Cambridge to make the big move, and the photo on the right is from just a few weeks ago when we were visiting a fabulous Baroque/Rococo Schloss in southern Germany.  I'm not sure I'm the same person as I was back then - yes, of course, a "bit" older these days - but I feel as if I'm totally different.

Anyway, this challenge gave me the chance to write a few lines about the topic and I'm happy to have been given the nudge to make it so close to the event.

I interpreted the line of stitching and flower element along the top as an extension of my title and a few gems.

The flowers on the edge of the page have changed into a flair, some gems and a little fussy cutting from the Shimelle word paper. I just picked out a handful of phrases that loosely fitted the topic of the page.

And again, the element on this side of the page transformed into another flair, some more dots and a few more phrases.

The places on the top of the photos were a final idea so that I don't forget to notice how the places affected the person in the photo!

Here's to the next 18 years. I wonder what that time will bring?

I hope you'll check out the others and how they've interpreted the sketch for themselves? You can find them all over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog here and don't forget to share if you make a page using this sketch - we love to see you using your kits!

You can use our Monthly Link-up page, post them in our Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using#counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcjuly2019).

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!