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.

Forger Fun

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Forgers blog hop. Now you should have arrived here via Julie's blog (here) but if you are here directly, you can start the blog hop back at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog (here).

I know I've shared before about the fun that goes on behind the scenes with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge team. There are a few optional, extra activities each year that we can choose to join in on and then share with you all, but they are usually so much fun that I end up signing on for them all.

This time around, Rebecca linked us up to the blog Grace Is Overrated owned by Christie Zimmer whose focus is to help readers with their journalling. Christie graciously (excuse the pun) allowed us all to use these sheets for our team activity and to share them here with you. Rebecca selected two of the journalling prompt sheets for us to check out and fill in and the idea was to be inspired by them create a page. We could use the page as a starting point or even as part of the design of our page.

The two were:
http://www.graceisoverrated.com/2010/07/new-journal-page.html
or
http://www.graceisoverrated.com/2010/08/new-journal-page-24-and-counting.html

I chose the former and filled it in late one evening in bed, hence the slightly skewed answers! I had bed brain and couldn't for the life of me think of one serious news story that I should list! I had just come back from the UK so the meat controversy was the nearest I got! Please don't judge me by my flakey answers....  But I tried not to double guess myself and just write down the first thing that came to mind - mostly about tidying up and sleeping - ha ha

Journalling page design credit - Christie Zimmer at Grace Is Overrated 

I decided to use the sheet as a story starter and the cup of tea jumped out at me as something so important to me (especially being a Brit!) and features in lots of my photos but I don't think I've done a page about it before. Now was the time.

I used my November CKC kit, Dempster. LO#8

See that film strip washi tape? Love this new purchase and sly addition to my kit for this layout

Oh yes, my tea is just perfect. Can't get through the day without it. I buy it in bulk in the UK and bring it back with me so I don't get caught short here without my preferred brew!

Looking back at the journalling sheet, I can see at least a dozen other stories that could be told. What a great starting point for those days when you know you want to create but can't quite decide on what - and a great way to use up some of those bizarre random photos that I take all the time. It took me about five minutes to come up with at least half a dozen tea photos for example.

Please make sure you take some time to pop over to Christie's blog and check out the wonderful array of journalling (more than 50 I think) sheets she has for you to download and use.

Thanks for stopping by. Next up is the wonderful Lisa J. So off you go all the way down under and check out what delights she has in store. We all took such different directions for this exercise, you are sure to pick up some great ideas along the way.

If you get lost, here is the complete blog list:

Angela http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/
Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/
Jennifer http://www.jennifersjumbles.blogspot.com/
Julie http://www.hisglorygirl.blogspot.com/
Lisa H. http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/ ← me
Lisa J http://thesimplelifewithlisa.blogspot.com.au/   ← go here next
Lynnette http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/
Milissa http://millermall.blogspot.com/
Rebecca http://howiburb.blogspot.com/

What's your go to drink to kick start your day?

Let's talk

I need to confess that I cheated a bit this month with my kit! I happened to get the inside track on what my challenge would be in the month at the same time as what the new kit would be. So, when putting my kit together so I was able to feel very smug at popping a little pack of speech bubble post-it notes into my box of goodies!

So here we are with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge mini-challenge#2 - to use speech bubbles in a fun way on your project and my little cheat made this layout come together so easily. But honestly, making your own wouldn't take so much time either. I'm just really lazy.

I enlisted the help of my husband for this one as I had several ways I could go, but then he came up with this idea. The stories that we repeat to each other over and over again. I know you have them too. The ones where you start, "Have I ever mentioned..." knowing full well that you have told this snippet a thousand times, only for the other person to say, "No.... go one..." again knowing full well that it will be hard for one of you not to laugh because you've heard it sooooo often!

We have hundreds of these little exchanges but the one I've documented here might be the first and therefore the original. He's a big Elton fan, converting me in the process so I found a way to add a couple of concert (bad) photos in the process.

Oh boy, do I love my kit this month! This is my third layout and it's so great to be using these blues and greens after a lot of more typical colours for me. I added in the tiny alpha at the bottom and a few buttons but I consider these free items anyway! Ha ha!

And, going back to the beginning of last month when I promised a little giveaway... I had posted a winner but they haven't come to claim their prize so I pulled another name.

Drum roll please......

Congratulations to Mandy of the blog http://www.teacupofscrapisms.blogspot.com

Mandy just so happens to be one talented Guest Designer over at Counterfeit this month so Congrats to her!

Mandy, use the email link in the side bar to contact me with your snail mail address - really excited to be sending you something all that way! How exciting!

Happy times playing with paper

It's been a long time since I was really able to just play around with paper even though I've managed an odd project or two. But yesterday I decided to leave the TV off and just see how it went.

Back in December, I posted my Counterfeit Kit Challenge December page kit, Anticipate and my good blog friend S kindly pointed out that I had, in fact, forgotten to post the page I talked about in the post. There was a good reason for that. I hadn't made it! I had fully intended to make a page from my kit but the time just ran away and it didn't happen and I forgot that I had written about it.

So that was on my list of layouts I wanted to make and my kit was looking a bit neglected. It also happened to coincide with Whimsical Musings prompt #72 - to use bling, confetti or glitter on our layouts.

A Christmas layout needs a bit of bling as far as I'm concerned so I decided to go overboard and include glitter splats, sequins, glimmer mist splodges and glimmer fabric too. Enough I think?!?

Anticipate page kit layout #1

I did cheat and add in a sheet of white cardstock but that just means that the cream cardstock in the original kit is still waiting to be used and I already have another photo printed out to use for the rest of the kit - I am feeling re-energised :-)

And if that wasn't enough, I had another idea for the Whimsical Musings prompt all about sequins themselves and so I went for it and just got going with a second layout for the same prompt. I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge January kit, Renew and went with gems, glimmer mist, sequins and the story itself. Another piece in the puzzle of my story.  I love that side of this wonderful hobby of ours.

January kit, Renew #2

It's still early in the evening so you never know, I might even just get on with yet another one!