A Counterfeit Kit Challenge mini-kit

If you've been following along this month, you will already know that over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, we're doing things a bit different and have all created mini-kits for each month of the year.

And if you've been paying attention, you'll also know that we are up to November. So here I am.

I chose November as a few years ago, I decided to change my attitude to this month that has such bad PR. You won't find many people telling you it's their favourite month or even that they love it. But I decided to start to feel more positive about it and that attitude has worked for me - I really do like it a lot more than I used to. You might even say that I love it!

Ok, it can be grey and cold and miserable but so can any month. It makes you appreciate the wonderful blue skies even more when they do appear. And the build up to Christmas starts in November which was my starting point for my mini-kit.

I decided to focus on Traditions. And there are a few I thought of straight away for November which I thought might be good starting points for you to think about.

There's Bonfire Night for those of you in the UK, complete with hot sausages, a roaring fire and fireworks. Then there's Thanksgiving for all of my stateside friends. A huge X on the US calendar for sure.

But how about the traditions in the build up to Christmas, many of which start in November?

• Your family might have the obligatory unveiling of the decorations. 
• You might always put the tree up the last weekend in November. 
• You might wait to start playing Christmas music until the beginning of November (or is that just me?). 
• You might take an evening to write all your Christmas cards. 
• You might be organised enough to get all your presents and then spend an afternoon in front of It's a Wonderful Life and wrap them all up. 
• Here in Germany, the Christmas markets all open up at the end of November and it's tradition to head out and get the first Glühwein of the season. 
• Of course a big one is the first Starbucks Christmas drink in those long awaited red cups
• But the big one that came to mind for me is all about Advent. Lighting the first candle on our Advent Wreath on the first Sunday of Advent. And that is more often than not in November. Of course this year it's 2nd December, but you know what I mean! 

So, with all these November Christmas traditions, I decided to delve into some of my Christmas stash which doesn't actually get used for so many layouts, and create a mini kit I called Anticipate

Page Maps sketch November 2011

The products I've used in my kit are mostly quite old and to be honest, could be used for more than just Christmas which I thought was important for my November kit. I could use it to make layouts about winter, cold days, cosy times or ski-holidays if you take out the Christmas themed stamps. Very versatile. Why not look at your Christmas products to see how else they could be used? It's a shame to just use them for those three or four days of the year. 

the important thing about a mini kit is to really restrict yourself but to make sure the amount of stuff you have in it reflects how much stash you pile up on your background cardstock/paper. If you put too much in, it's just another monthly kit. Too little and it's not enough to motivate me to use it and I will reach for the rest of my stash while creating which defeats the point of a kit. 

I've included two pieces of cardstock as my page kit is really big enough for two. There may therefore be a second layout to come. I've made sure there are large and small letters, a good flurry of embellishments and as a challenge to myself as I buy them and don't use them, some stamps.

But in the meantime, here is my Advent layout for you.

ADVENT LAYOUT HERE

Thanks for joining the Master Forgers this month for a look through a year's worth of inspiration. Please make sure you let me know you were here and share your creations with us over at the Counterfeit site.

Traditions

It's that time of year when we start thinking traditions, so it is perfect timing for Counterfeit Kit Challenge mini-challenge #3 to be prompting us to record one (or more!) of them on our pages.

I came up with a long list of traditions for summer, Christmas, the build up to Christmas, things like British Guy Fawkes night. But either they needed photos I didn't have or couldn't find, or they were a bit too Christmassy for my Dempster autumn kit that I was determined to use.

So I fished around in my photos for inspiration and came up with a connection I hadn't noticed before and I suddenly realised that this has become a real autumnal tradition for me.

When the leaves start falling, and the temperature starts to drop, I start taking baths. Regularly. Maybe more than regularly! Let's just say that it's not exactly very environmentally friendly to be using up all that water - just for me.

But it's true.

And this is the layout I put together. A tried and trusted design but one that I love so why not use it over and over again?

Sorry for the bad photos. They are all a bit orange.  I need to try and work out a better routine to photograph my layouts now that I hardly ever see daylight!

So, hop on over to the Counterfeit site and join in the challenge of capturing one of your traditions - every family has them, whether they are the same as many others, totally off the wall, or somewhere in between.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Well, tomorrow will be the start of a new year and I have to admit to being happy to see the back of 2010. Not a good year overall. Close the door and say goodbye to all that and hope for better times in 2011.

There have been so many cool blog posts I read this week with reviews of the year that has been (current 4 list, top ten this and that lists, favourite blogs/pages/blog posts, Christmas in review etc) that I have loved reading and so wanted to do a few of my own but the time is now too tight and I just wanted a short post to finish off the year. So I will just post a few of my favourite decoration photos and call it a day! I will try harder in the new year and already have a three part entry lined up to post.

We had a very pink Christmas (yes, I have total control over the main decorations in our home and can dictate very girlie, pretty colours!!!).

I was thrilled with how my tree turned out - even if it's as dry as a bone and will no doubt be completely bald by the time I have de-decorated it!

We had a pink Advent wreath - stunning

And plenty of pretty, mostly pink touches around the living room.

I will be sad (but also so ready) to take everything down tomorrow and Sunday. Mostly I miss the twinkly lights everywhere...

And what about New Year ("Silvester" in German)?

We are off out tonight to celebrate the new year with family and I will be taking these little piggies with me.

Pigs are traditional for new year in Germany as a symbol of good luck (along with 4 leaf clover and chimney sweeps) and over the years I have received many collected many pink piggy cuddly toys! But it's very traditional to eat these little marzipan cuties to so I have bought one each for us (R will be delighted to get two as I am not a big marzipan fan) and I prettied them up with some labels that I downloaded here.

I will have a full basket of goodies with me as I have made two desserts: Crème Brûlée and Chocolate Mousse which have also been decorated with the cute tags. Christmas and New Year is not a time to count calories in the Hausmann household!!

And I have a whole pile of crackers which are always fun as my German family were not familiar with the British obsession with the crappy present, crappy joke and crappy paper hat filled packages of fun until they met me! And BTW, the crappier the present and joke, the better the cracker in my book!

So there you have it. 2010 is at an end and all that remains is for me to wish you all a very happy, fun celebration tonight and I wish you all the best for 2011!

As we say here in Germany, "Ein gutes Rutsch ins neue Jahre!" 
(literally: a good slide into the new year)