September 2019 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge - Back to School!

Good morning - Happy Hump Day!

It's time for Challenge #2 over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge but first, here's a quick reminder of the personalised, curated kit we're using as our September inspiration courtesy of the Secret Not Secret Kit Club.  If you missed this month's reveal, why not head back to the CKC blog hop on the 1st here and get the gen - it's never too late to join in.

And here's another reminder of my own Wanderlust kit (find the details here).

And now it's time for the challenge itself:

Challenge #2 - Back to School

"In the UK, September always marks the start of the new school year and whenever I see September on my calendar, my mind goes back to that time of my life. The low-lying sun, the misty mornings, the beginning of autumn, the smell of new school supplies, the familiar sights and sounds as we all piled back into the classroom."

Be inspired by this "back to school" feeling!

As I often do these days, I made up the whole layout without actually knowing what photo or story I wanted to tell. But it all started with that sheet of photo-realistic Crate Paper that I've used as a background. The road stretching out before me reminded me of the days of school and how it's the starting point to life. I love the design and when I have a pattern such as this, I try to come up with a layout that allows the full picture to be seen with a cluster of layers and elements tucked off to one corner or other.

I've also taken to looking for colour combinations in my kits that have some sort of significance and even though they are not true to the shades of my original school uniform (sky blue, navy and bright green), I picked out shades of blue and green for my layout and brought in blacks and grey to add a little more interest and contrast.

I'm always surprised at how many items of a particular colour I can find in my kits when I look at them critically like this.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit, Wanderlust lo#1

I have to admit to adding in that navy alphabet to my kit and yes, it now lives in the kit box - my kits tend to grow throughout the month!

It was a lot of fun looking for different shapes and small pieces to cluster up for dimension, texture and additional interest. I also like the symbolism that may of those items have to support my story.

The larger "empty" section above the cluster proved perfect for my longer journalling and then a modern (from 2011), bright, eye-catching photo finished off the design. With so few photos from my original time at school, I'm really enjoying finding ways to use the school building photos I have from that visit to tell stories from years and years ago. And I really like the contrast of the colours in the photo with the muted background.

We always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us.

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 #ckcseptember2019).

Thanks so much for stopping by - don't forget to check out the blog after letting me know you were here!

What school stories are you going to tell this month? 

August at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge and mini-LOAD819

It's a new month and I'm going to try to get into a better routine of sharing my scrapbooking projects. I have plans!

I was quite productive in August - well compared to recent times - and made a total of 9 pages. Two for the Creative Team at Simple Scrapper and seven as part of the Scrap Happy mini-LOAD819.

Even though I didn't manage a layout every day - I skipped an evening in favour of a cocktail on the balcony which seemed a good call - I caught up the next day and completed 7 layouts in 7 days which still feels like a win for me.

While some of those LOAD layouts could also be counted for Whimsical Musings prompts (and don't forget my relaunch for that today over at the blog), I decided just to count them for the LOAD819 prompts. I was almost on prompt for most of the week too which wasn't bad for me.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I'm going to share the mini-LOAD819 layouts in this post, 6 of which were made with my Counterfeit Kit Challenge August kit, Macarons (you can find out all about that kit here).

It feels like a long time since I did a regular layout share so here goes (sorry that this is a long post):

LOAD819#1 / CKC Macarons #1

The LOAD prompt was about the learning experience and I just knew that I wanted to make a pretty page featuring my gorgeously lovely niece who is growing up to be a simply wonderful young lady.

I had included this sunburst paper in my kit and decided to go back to a favourite technique of sewing along the rays to give it some interest and texture. I used white and gold thread to change it up a little.

My kit was full of some more cutesy items and they seemed to fit on this page.

You can just see a hint of a pull out tab here where I included a screenshot of her first school report which of course, is glowing. I was so proud to read the lovely words her teacher had for her and thought it was perfect to match the theme of the page.

I raided my Shimelle sticker book for some stickers and elements to add some whimsical elements to decorate different corners of the page.

LOAD819#2 / CKC Macarons #2

This prompt was about school timetables. I discovered that I really only have a handful of random school shots, most of which I'm not even in, so I need to get very creative about how to scrap the few school stories I want to tell. When I saw this photo it struck me as unusual to have me sitting there with my homework spread out. I normally hung out in my room, not doing it if at all possible. That was the way I decided to go to tell a snippet of my ambiguous relationship with school.

I was drawn to the darker shades in my kit along with the star design and then just lightened it up a little to mat my photo. It was fun to pick out some elements from my kit that were totally different to layout #1 and show how versatile most kits are if you look at them in different ways.

I've actually changed this title slightly to replace the a and t for an @ symbol because I needed the a for another title! ha ha.

LOAD819#3 / CKC Macarons #3

The prompt here was about "recess" or lunchtime. I thought about writing about our "playroom" which was always an experience and not really much about "play" at all. But then I saw this photo that I'd taken back in 2011 when the school had a building anniversary that we were happy to attend. It helped me get some captures of corners of the school that are connected to some strong memories even they're not all positive.

Another example of how you can usually shop your kit for various motifs and colours to make each layout different from the last.

The story is a little bittersweet but I haven't concentrated on the negative side of it. Sometimes this is the way to tackle those more difficult stories - connect it to happier times, and just refer to it in passing rather than dwelling on the negative.

LOAD518#4 / CKC Macarons #4

I've shared this already (you can find it in my blog post here) as part of last month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge prompt #2 - What is summer to you?"

Obviously, this was definitely off-prompt for LOAD but it made me happy to get so many photos of a recent event onto a page so quickly.

LOAD819#5

The challenge today was to talk about school friends but I was inspired to make a layout about my "mint greet washi friend" (in-joke) online friend who has become a real life friend. This is the third time we've got together - London, Germany and Paris! That seemed to deserve a page. I recently acquired the Carta Bella Let's Travel collection which seemed perfect for some Paris pages and it's true. This is the second Paris layout I've made and it's got a bit of everything - pretty colours, nice designs, a hint of theme, interesting bits and pieces for embellishment.

I included the banner here and it reminded me how much I love making these thready loops to decorate the top of the banner tags. I have to remember to do that again soon.

I layered up that tag element at the bottom with four die cuts and lot of foam squares. Perfect for a dimensional corner of the page. 

LOAD819#6 / CKC Macarons #5 

The LOAD prompt was a visit to the Principal's office and it immediately made me think of waiting outside the Head Mistress's office, watching the lights with dread until I had to go in to face my fate.

I'm less pleased with this and have changed out the journalling block several times. I've decided to let it go now and leave it as it is. It uses another photo from 2011 but I'm glad to have found a way to connect it back to my time as a "naughty" teenager (I was nowhere near as bad as it sounds!)

I deliberately used blues and greens here to mirror the school uniform that we wore back then. It was fun to find different shades that could carry though that colour theme (dots and stickers) as well as that days of the week strip of paper which made me think about the school weekday routine.

I hate that photo but it's the only one I have so that's what I have to live with!

LOAD819#7 / CKC Macarons #6

The LOAD challenge was to create a page about after school. I immediately decided that I wanted to capture a story about arriving in France on day one of my new life to be faced with the reality of the day to day of adult life after school. Before I made this layout, I went to my albums to look at what other S of France stories I have only to find that I have about three. So there's definitely some catching up to do.

It's another one I'm completely happy with but I'm going to let it go and live with it without any tweaking. Sometimes, you just have to accept that not every layout is going to turn out as lovely as you'd like.

Some pretty elements and a couple of stickers from the Shimelle pack proved perfect decorations to "lighten" up the mood of the layout.

I wanted to write a lot so I knew I had to keep the embellies low key to give me that space on the background paper.

All in all, I'm relatively happy with the results. My Counterfeit Kit Challenge August kit is well used and I now have a few more stories recorded. I'd love to achieve a full month of LOAD in October as part of the Scrap Happy membership - let's see how that works out for me.

I'll be back soon with my August projects for the Creative Team at Simple Scrapper.

10 years!

14th January 2006 was a very significant in the history of Lisa. This was the day (although it might have been a day or two either side of this!) when I stepped inside my first scrapbook shop on a visit home to the UK and caught a glimpse of my very first piece of BasicGrey paper. And I was lost. Forever.

It was at that moment that I knew I had discovered something that I would love and that I had been looking for for a long time without even knowing it!

I'd been reading about this thing called "scrapbooking" online for some time. I think first through Flylady and then just generally as I looked into it and tried to work out what it really "was". It took me about 6 months before I felt confident that I understood the concept enough to talk to my sister about it and her interest was piqued. So when I found a shop that stocked scrapbooking product - whatever that might be - near to Birmingham, I persuaded her to come along with me to check it out. We both nearly gasped when we saw the papers and embellishments. And I'm talking about a shop which had a teeny tiny selection of product! But we were in awe! Such pretty bits and pieces to cut up and use to decorate our photos. Sounded like fun. So I bought a few a lot of items and took them home with me. I had been in England that weekend for my nephew's third birthday and knew that these photos would be ideal for my very first scrapbook page.

I suspect that it took me some time to pluck up the courage and convince myself that I had everything I needed to jump right in and looking at the page, I think that these products are not the items I bought at that first shop. I probably convinced myself that I "needed" an eyelet setter and eyelets - remember how popular they were, back in the time?!? - and the papers and stickers were from a DCWV paper pack - no BasicGrey to be seen here for sure! And I remember ordering some books to tell me how to do it right! But sometime in January would have been that first paper cut...

So, do you want to see that first page?

A double page spread featuring various random, unconnected elements and a bit of a sticker sneeze. Badly printed photos and even themed Barney elements from the party invitation and bits I picked up while I was there - the journalling tucked away was probably something I'd seen in one of the books as was the matting and double matting! I remember being short of title elements/letters and being proud of my computer title work. It all looks so amateur to me now but I'm still so proud of it!

Later on, in the first six months or so of scrapping, there would be layouts made which have not stood the test of time as much as this one due to really awful design and execution - most likely in the bin by now. But even though there's a lot of amateur mistakes on this one, it's really not sooooo awful!

Just for fun, here is that awesome little boy right now! He's 13 and all grown up. And I still love making pages about him and he must get a lot of credit for putting up with his old Aunty Lisa needing hugs and photos.

And this is my most recent layout about him - the ten years have brought a lot to my scrapping, the design style I have, the relationship I have with my family and life in general. Mostly for the good I hope!

Now that I have my layouts in albums, I was easily able to identify and pull out two further layouts from those early weeks - how I love that! I'm not sure exactly when they were made but I'm guessing that they really were right at the very beginning. Maybe even the first handful of layouts.

I still adore Blitzen by BasicGrey and was so happy to make up this page using a sketch (new for me!) I found on the BG website. I remember spending so long on this getting the papers exactly as the sketch suggested and the overlap of the photos just so. And there's story there too. I recall my husband looking at this when I first made it and asking why I had made it - what about the big story stuff. And I told him that these were the memories that were precious to me. Soon after this, I discovered the world of scrap celebs such as Stacey J, Shimelle and Ali E and I knew that this was my home. Capturing the details of life that I wanted to remember as well as some of the more important events...

...such as my sister's wedding. We used to challenge each other back then and this was in response to me saying we should make a page about the other one. Look! There's a sheet of the very first scrap stuff I picked up back in that very first shop we went to, and fibres and rub-ons! And hidden journalling, and the metal charms that were so "in" back then. This page is so dated but I really really love it. Still!

The intervening 10 years and probably way more than 1,000 layouts have brought about a lot of changes to me, my life and of course, my scrap style. Scrapbooking has improved my life in so many ways including the wonderful friendships I've made with creative peeps around the world - both online and in real life. Real, deep, meaningful relationships that make my life happier. I can't imagine not scrapbooking even if I don't make as many pages as I did in the past.

And I'm still scrapping the little memories as well as the big events. And I'm still using and loving BasicGrey papers - even though I'm sad that their time in the paper crafting business appears to be over :-(

Long long long story short, I also wanted to share my most recent page with you today which uses my Counterfeit Kit Challenge January kit, Rekindle and features elements of BasicGrey Infuse papers in what I like to think is a perfectly up-to-date, stylish way.

A big event recorded - a new baby in the family - which calls for an über-pretty page which mixes up old and new. Both papers and embellishments. Infuse papers were from 2007 and the DIY shop collection was new to me in November. 2015. There's brand new gold glitter washi alongside the vintage price tag which was included in a Bellboo kit way back in 2008. This is one of my creative goals for this year - loving and using the stash I have and bringing it together on pages which make me happy!

What are your creative goals this year? With January almost over, it's time to make sure our goals really do match what we can achieve. This layout has proved to me that I'm on the right way.