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).

August at Scrapabilly (part 1)

I haven't shared my Scrapabilly makes over here on my blog for a long time. It feels rather late to try to go back to previous months (although I might share July because that really was a gorgeous kit) but let's start with August's kit. If you follow me on Instagram, you will already have seen these but here they are for those of you who don't!

The August Kit des Monats features Fancy Pants Dream Big collection and is full of beautiful soft colours, gorgeous motifs such as clouds and soaring birds, and is just all round lovely. The kit includes 6 collection papers, some mini alphas, a pack of collection die-cuts, a cute set of postmark stamps and some puffy word elements - also from the collection. 

Here's the kit photo.

And here are my first three shares.

Layout #1 features an interesting find in Mainz that I discovered while exploring the city recently. The 50°N latitude line goes right through the city and they've marked this with a feature in the pavement. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love maps, atlas, and these markations so I was thrilled to record this. I kept this (and most of the layouts with this kit) simple to showcase both the kit contents and the photos.

It was fun to get the sewing machine out to add some detail here and there as well as the Cameo to give me some additional titling options. This is one of my favourite hand-drawn words for a title and have no doubt used it before. But it seems to go with everything!

Second up is a layout featuring some photos I took in Paris in 2007 and a story from way back in the 90s. I don't have any suitable photos from back in the day - way before digital photography and the camera constantly in your hand, and even when I didn't even have my own camera - so it was a great way to link up the more recent photos with a story from the past.

I had a lot of fun stamping and fussy cutting out one or two of the postmark elements - and this was perfect with the Paris stamp - and clustering them up with the words and die cut elements to give detail and texture to the page without a lot of bulk.

This star paper was one of my favourites in the kit. In fact the stars, the map and the cloud papers just made me super happy and I could have made a dozen items with them.

This layout layout - for today - might seem a strange one. It features a photo of a large art photo that used to hang somewhere I used to work. The guys in the photo were my students and I loved the composition of the shot. I used the photo to record a few details about my appreciation for the art the company would commission and how great this particular piece was. It's especially special as I don't work there any more and often wonder what happened to these energetic, ambitious, young men from my class.

Some of the word elements from the die-cut pack seems particularly appropriate and again, my Cameo provided some pretty cool extras!

That's it for today. If you'd like to see more, I'll be sharing the remaining two layouts from this kit in a day or two. Come back for more details!

If you are interested in your own kit, and why wouldn't you be? - you can find it over at the Scrapabilly shop here. Perfect for dreamy, travel, exploration or simply fun-filled layouts.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - A Perfect Day!

I've been busy this evening and once again, it's late - hence the less than perfect photos.

But I decided I wanted to have a go at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge prompt #1 which is all about recording what a perfect day means to me. You can find the details of the prompt as well as the examples by other MF's over on the CKC blog here.

But I had only made a page kit for my mini kit example (see here for details) so there was definitely not enough there for a whole page. So I took the few scraps and elements I'd used for that original kit and then added in a few more items inspired by the original Gossamer Blue kit (find out details about our inspiration kit in this blog post here) to make up another mini page kit. You can see the supplies I brought together below.

You can see that I added a sheet of my Echo Park paper wit heart constellations in navy and a sheet of yellow toned paper which also seemed to match the original GB kit. But the remainder of the kit is pretty much what I had left over.

Here is my page which will be the accompanying page to a pocket page where I will feature small square shots of all the sights we saw in this pretty little German town of Alzey.

This is really what I consider to be a pretty perfect day for me. Just hanging out, wandering along the streets of a pretty old town, catching a few sights, stopping for a beer or a coffee and just being together.  Once again, I've needed to protect the modesty of my internet shy DH.

Those puffy elements! Oh my! I love them.

I did add in some word strips to my mini kit by Pinkfresh Studio - they seemed to fit nicely here.

Head over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog for more examples of perfect days.

And don't forget to come on over to our Facebook Counterfeit Kit Challenge Community here and share your inspired kits and projects. It would be fabulous to see you there. The more the merrier!

16 loves {November 2016}

Welcome to the next in the series {16 loves} for 2016.

For the last few years, I've been sharing my loves each month - a little bit of everything that has caught my eye or been enjoyed over the last month. So, a new year and new inspiration. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. 

To see what's inspired me in the past, click to find all my {13 loves}, my {14 loves}, my {15 loves} and my {16 loves}.

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

This time, they are all experiences I've had this month and in date order too. I hope you'll forgive a little self-indulgence!

one

This one does not offer kisses and cuddles very often. Especially to an auntie she rarely sees. So I was thrilled that my Lilifee wings, wand and sticker book was a suitably good enough present to warrant such a show of affection!

How can it be that she's four already?

two

Yes, I think the wings were a success. She insists on wearing them the whole day we had together looking around Rotterdam when I headed over there to see my sister. What a thrill for me and what a cutie she is.

three

What more can I say - I adore the colours of autumn. Trees like this make my heart sing.

four

I headed down south again for the long 1st November weekend and we stumbled upon this simply gorgeous water tower which has been turned into apartments. Now the really freaky thing is that my baby brother had a German work experience exchange some years ago and stayed down in the city of Worms, working in the architect's office who planned the conversion work. This was long before I'd even heard of the name of the city and I didn't even remember the connection until he reminded me. We kept meaning to find the tower and then one day, took a wrong turn and there it was.

five

I wandered around the Jewish cemetery, Heiliger Sand, early in the morning and discovered the most beautiful light and scenery that I could have imagined. This is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe dating back more than 1,000 years and it felt like stepping back in time. A perfectly wonderful, peaceful start to the day.

six

Somebody won't allow me to take a photo nor to post it, so this one will have to do. I'm not quite sure what has caused the hunchback I appear to have developed but for now, I'm happy with this one.

seven

The palace in Karlsruhe. A great panorama but one that doesn't fit on the blog too easily. Unfortunately, it was heavily bombed in the war and is no longer open as a palace to view, although it now houses the Baden State Museum - something for another time perhaps. But this walk down memory lane for him and a catch up of his history for me was a lovely day out.

eight

The weather is cold enough for a coat and a thick scarf. Yes, this also makes me happy.

nine

I wore my Remembrance Day poppy with pride. As I try to do each year. I was mortified to realise that I'd missed my two minutes of silence at 11am and just made sure I made that time later in the day, on my own, with time to think.

ten

The 1st Essen Light Festival took place and some of the lit up buildings were right in the area where we live which was lovely. All too short at just a week, it was great to see the lights changing and to hear the soft splash of water in the ponds, installed especially for the light festival. A light show to check out again next year for sure.

eleven

My first TNL which is always to be celebrated. Even without the appropriate red cups. Hopefully, they'll soon hit the shops but the red sleeve was a good starting point.

twelve

I miss Bonfire Night in the UK a lot. It's really something I can't copy over here - I think the city might be a bit annoyed if I just built and lit a huge bonfire on the public green outside our flat. So an English Guy Fawkes Night dinner party was the next best thing. It was a great success and beef wellington is now a family favourite.

thirteen

I'm not going to discuss the US election, the result or my feelings about it. But this picture goes a small way in describing those feelings. 

Part of my month of selfies which isn't going so well. There might be half a dozen or so at the end of the month.

fourteen

I was invited to a lovely, girlie, birthday celebration and I broke out my pretty Cadbury purple shoes and matching bag. Forgot the selfie of me with going-out make-up (a rare sight these days) but seemed to remember to take a shot of the shoes. That's the way I'm rolling these days.

fifteen

I'm thrilled to be part of the Scrapabilly Advent Swap again this year. With a limited budget and the fact that I'm just not that crafty at making items for my presents, I tend to cover up the lack of content by going all out on the packaging. I think they turned out well. The ribbon is actually gold and not green as it looks in this photo. Swapping this week. 

sixteen

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Just a couple more days until the Christmas Markets open. With lots of visitors in the next few weeks, I think I'll be going here for poffertjes and a tipple more often. 

I’d love you to share your own {16 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?

{16 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 16th of the month

16 loves {October 2016}

Welcome to the next in the series {16 loves} for 2016.

For the last few years, I've been sharing my loves each month - a little bit of everything that has caught my eye or been enjoyed over the last month. So, a new year and new inspiration. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. 

To see what's inspired me in the past, click to find all my {13 loves}, my {14 loves}, my {15 loves} and my {16 loves}.

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

A day late for this because of my really über-late posting of the September version!

one

Loving the autumn skies these days. #watchmesmile

two

Found this on Pinterest and it spoke to me. I need to get to the coast before the year is done. I especially love the seaside out of season. Maybe my love for that "sharp salty smell of the air" is due to me coming from a city that's just about as far from the coast as you can get in the UK!

Pinterest find - source here

three

The October Scrapabilly kit features the Posh collection by Simple Stories and the layouts practically made themselves - such a pretty selection of papers and embellishments which I hope to share in the next week.

This detail of a page about the wine festival I mentioned in the 16 loves {September 2016} features a pocket full of pretty beads and sequins. I was inspired by something I'd seen online (sorry, just a layout in passing and no reference taken so I can't give credit). 

four

Google informed me that it was 358 years since tea was first advertised in the UK. Fun facts that no-one needs to know!

five

I'm back on the treadmill. Again. Got to do something to get rid of this mid-life flab and this appears to something that might work.

six

There are some gorgeous autumn/thanksgiving decorating ideas in this post over at diys.com but this is my favourite! Not that I think I want real antlers as part of my table decoration but isn't it gorgeous!

seven

*sigh* autumn leaves just make me happy #watchmesmile

eight

I've heard a lot about the concept of hygge recently - it's part of what makes Denmark one of the happiest places to live apparently. This Pinterest find was interesting, as was the BBC article about hygge here.

Found via Pinterest - YesandYes.org

nine

There was a challenge prompt last month at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog for us to be inspired by Kate Spade. My wonderful scrappy bestie Pam introduced me to Kate Spade and her wonderful colours so I instantly printed out these photos to make into a layout only to realise that I need to use my NYC kit rather than a CKC one. Not to worry, they will be turned into a layout sometime soon.

ten

Happy mail all the way from the US. Another sweet package of happiness from my mint-green-washi friend Coda Kathy! She's visiting at the end of the year, and I'm excited to show her a bit of my part of the world!

eleven

A recent Whimsical Musings prompt asked us to be inspired by flamingos (WM#231). I was rather surprised at just how many items I found featuring flamingos in my scrap stash. Making a page proved easy and simple but I'm going to have to make a full album full of flamingo pages if I have any hope to getting through it all! There's even more than in this photo. Oh well, time to get creative.

twelve

Another journey south to the city of Worms meant some more local sightseeing. Speyer proved a lovely town and one to head back to again some time. The beautiful cathedral, which is the largest Romanesque church in Europe, is a highlight and it simply shone out on this gorgeous, sunny afternoon. 

thirteen

Simple food with a glass of local wine seems the perfect choice when you're in the Rhineland wine country.

fourteen

And on the road again to visit my adorable sister and her sweet family who are staying in the Netherlands for a few weeks at the moment. We headed out to Delft which is just gorgeous - I'm such a fan of Dutch culture and their pretty towns. It was a fun day - baby P wasn't so impressed by the look of it.

fifteen

Little P didn't really want to have much to do with me but even she couldn't resist this blue heart piece of art in Delft. 

sixteen

Further to my quote about being busy in my 16 loves {September 2016}, this short BBC podcast series about the same topic seems rather appropriate. I say I'm busy all the time. Apparently, that means I'm one of the least busy people around. Food for thought.

Find the podcast series here

I’d love you to share your own {16 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?

{16 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 16th of the month

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