Counterfeit Kit Challenge April kit reveal blog hop

Welcome to the April Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal blog hop.

If you've arrived here directly, you might want to pop back to the Counterfeit blog to hop your way through all the participants and if you're here by way of the talented Julie Ann, then you are on the right track (and I bet she has totally wowed you with her use of colour!)

This month we've travelled across the pond to my side of the world and have two incredible inspiration kits from Kits de Somni based in Spain. Now I don't speak Spanish so it took me a while to find my way around their site but to save you the trouble, you can find the details of the main kit {here}. 

We all fell in love with the simpler feel and tones of our March kit with those softer yellows and blues but I can tell you that there were audible gasps across the internet from the whole team as we checked out these wonderfully bright and dramatic kits for April.

Take a look at them - aren't they just gorgeous?

I decided to take the first kit because I fell in love with all those colours and lots of paper and embellishments.

Again, I didn't have a single item that matched the inspiration so I decided to just go colourful. It's funny as I actually went stash shopping yesterday but deliberately didn't take the kit list with me so that I would shop my stash for this kit - the principle of buying some new stash in but feeling virtuous by using older stuff up at the same time rules round here!

I started by selecting some bright cardstock, layered up piles of paper (which I later reduced to 12 sheets) and then lavished lots of colourful embellishments on top. I matched up a few of the item choices from the original such as some doilies, tags, a bit of kraft, flowers, ribbons and tickets. For the tickets, I stamped my own and cut them out and intend to add a sentiment or two to the centre of each one as I use it up. This was a lot of fun, fishing out all the brightest papers I could find and I've included some really OLD stuff in there - LOL. Let's see if it gets used up or not.

My photos were taken early in the morning so the light is a little cold, but take it from me, it's just gorgeous in real. "Blossom" seemed to be a very appropriate name for this vivid, vivacious kit.

The rest of the team have been swooning over these inspiration kits from Kits de Somni so I just know there are going to be some gorgeous creations along the hop so make sure you check them out and then share your own kits over at the Counterfeit site (here). Don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you were here - I love seeing who's dropped by :-)

Your next stop on the hop is the delightful Margie (here) and just in case you get lost along the way, here is the full blog hop list.

Guest Designer: Libeeti  http://creationswithlove-li-bee-ti.blogspot.com/

Crystal http://crystalscraftycreations.blogspot.com/

Glinda http://razzledscrapper.blogspot.com/

Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/

Jen http://mypair-a-dice.blogspot.com/

Julie Ann http://julieannshahin2.blogspot.com/

Lisa http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/ <--- You are here

Margie http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com/ <--- Go here next

Milissa http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Rebecca http://howiburb.blogspot.com/ 

Susanne http://www.snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com/

Bethany http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com/

Meridy http://www.meridy77.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping.

Things I loved .... March 2012

Another month flies by and I'm on time this time to join in on Deb's "Things I loved..." series.

March was a great month here with spring bursting through, warm weather, celebrations and a surprise visitor. What happened where you are?

I've learnt to enjoy daffodils from a distance due to allergy but I still love them. There was evidence in the city that spring was here and everyone was ready to get into the spirit of the season...

There was a lot of scrapping and I kept on with the messy twine and thread! I love this look...

There was a photo a day prompt challenge that I followed with Pam. We had such fun each day seeing how each of us interpreted the ideas and exchanging advice and encouragement and comments. This one from the prompt "sunglasses" is one of my favourites

As is my name collage - I've been wanting to make one of these for ages so I was thrilled to be given the push to do it...

And through the prompts, I found myself paying more attention and even parking on the side of the road to go out of my way to take a shot...

My brother-in-law opened his own coffee roasting business...

And there was a family wedding to which I got to wore my pretty coat suit and shoes - one of my favourite items in my wardrobe...

And then there were memories of the Philippines brought up due to a surprise visit by my very best Filipino friend. We chatted and laughed for two days non-stop about those days and the time since...

I took her to Cologne where we were treated to a gorgeously sunny day and it was so delightful for me to see her right here in my adopted home country...

And last but not least, I worked hard to turn my winter weary balcony into our spring outside living room ...

With Easter at the end of this week and a planned quick dash "home" to say hello to family, as well as lots of scrappy deadlines and a few family birthdays, April looks to be a busy month. :-)

Somewhere over the rainbow

As soon as I saw what the girls over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge had in store for us swith mini-challenge #3, I knew exactly what I'd do.

I've used this photo once before but such a perfect photo is a sure thing for multiple uses on different layouts.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit, Soothe, layout #5

Knowing I wanted to concentrate on the end of the rainbow rather than the rainbow itself, I fished out all the yellow tones from my kit and was pleased that there was still enough to make my pretty layout. Some gold glitter splats and a Prima flower were all the extras I needed.

The limited colour scheme of this kit has proved so interesting to work with and I have loved each of the simpler pages I've made so far. I think I have one or two more layout in the box but the end of the month is almost upon us so we'll have to see!

I'm looking forward to seeing your rainbow inspired layouts!

Punching and a fluttering

The Counterfeit Kit Challenge mini-challenge #2 is asking us to get busy punching and no, we don't need our boxing gloves. Paper punching is all that's called for :-)

I have a few go-to punches that I use over and over again and this time around was no exception. They are used so often that I noticed the punch themselves was not as smooth as usual and I'm wondering if they have reached the end of their lifespan - how long do your punches last?

Anyway, I knew I needed to punch butterflies but then challenged myself to use at least one or two others. In the end I used a Martha Stewart border punch and as a page tag punch. So three in total which I was quite pleased with.

A simple layout using a few products from my March kit, Soothe although I have to admit to adding the pinstripe paper into the kit when I came across it in my stash a few days ago.

The 3D butterflies were layered up with paper and vellum and I used the negative shapes too although several are covered up. The journalling is tucked behind the photo, inside a vellum pocket to keep it a little bit hidden (again!).

Nothing spectacular here but the chance to add a few sweet words in the journalling which always makes me happy.

What are your favourite punches that I really should be adding to my shopping list?

More neutral love

Well, it's Wednesday which means that I *try* to get into my room to create a Christmas card or two for Jingle Belles. I made three last week actually (I blogged about two but ran another identical one off at the weekend) and now I've managed another two.

My strategy so far seems to be to just put together two very similar cards while I have the papers and embellishments out in front of me. I don't spend a lot of time on my cards and the extra couple of minutes to make another one really makes the effort worth while. I think I have way more than 20 cards already.  :-)

I really wanted to have a go at the wreath designs that appeared on so many gorgeous cards including Stephanie's but when it came to it, I didn't think I had the right products and it seemed like so much work. I know, I'm a lazy card maker which is funny as I spend SO much time on my scrapbook layouts. I think I need an intensive card making/design course to give me some fresh ideas and maybe help me to break out of doing what I always do and to take a bit more time. In my next life maybe!

So, I used Bohemia Christmas from MME which is really old but I still think it's one of the favourite Christmas lines I've ever bought (shh... don't tell BG!) and the colours were perfect for the neutral challenge.

The next prompt will be up on Friday and I'm looking forward to it already! Are you joining in yet? You know we're already a quarter of the way through the year - better get started sooner rather than later.

In Good Company once more

Well, I had a whole post written and I lost it so here I am again...

I'm so happy that I made time to play along with S's In Good Company challenge again this month after a few months away.

She challenged us to reacquaint ourselves with American Crafts products in our stash and I was surprised to find quite a few products that I didn't remember having. (I think this is the whole point of the challenge actually!) A lot of the AC designs are no longer really my style but I wanted to prove that anything can be adapted to some degree or other to fit. I also used the March Scrap Happy sketch but tweaked it almost beyond recognition :-) , generally having a lot of fun in the process.

Once I had decided to use paper with buildings on it, this gave me the idea that I needed to do a general city or travel layout and then it all came together from there. Everything except the October Afternoon button is AC.

(Please excuse the pink tinge to the photo and I've since erased the pencil lines for my journalling - whoops.)

S runs the challenge from 10th to 20th each month, so why not drop by next month and see who you get to make friends with again in your stash :-)

4 anyone?

The first mini-challenge over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge site this month is all about the number 4.

How will you incorporate this into your page? In the journalling, the title, the number of elements, a cluster of 4 somethings, 4 photos? There are so many things you could do so I was glad when I came up with the idea of just taking 4 adorable photos of my gorgeous niece and putting them together. I have so many photos like this where I wasn't there with her and I just love them without necessarily needing a story that pages like this are often a good idea.

I kept it simple and am pleased to see this sheet of old Tinkering Ink finding a home next to the softer yellows. It was such a bright design, I was unsure how I could use it.

I sanded and inked one of the really old frames I'd included, misted and glitter splatted the cardstock and added a bit of texture with ribbon, paper, twine and thread including a butterfly cut out from the SC packaging I'd popped into my kit because of the woodgrain print.

Simple, sweet and done. And four more pretty pictures for me to look at on my pages rather than sitting in my pile of photos. Perhaps I should do one of these layouts for each of the three children!

CKC March kit, Soothe - layout #3

What 4 comes to mind for you?

Neutral about Christmas?

Jingles Belles are challenging us to feel neutral about Christmas this week.

They featured the most beautiful Christmas cushions from Pottery Barn and asked us to be inspired by them in some way.

I liked the neutrality of the colours and went through my papers pulling out everything that seemed a non-colour deciding that was the direction I wanted to go. Then I got distracted by the rather gorgeous Dasher (vintage BG) papers and ended up making two cards that are not totally neutral, but very very pale none the less! Looking at the inspiration photo, it's hard to see that the cards have anything to do with it! But you know to expect this kind of thing from me :-)

I adore the wreath cushion and would love to have a go at this in paper so I might try that out for next week. Stephanie made such a stunning one that I really fancy having a go. Loving having the prompt for two weeks so that I can try out different directions before the next prompt goes up.

Heading North

Over at Whimsical Musings last week, Pam challenged us to be inspired by Dr Seuss in all his quirky glory.

It would appear she was ahead of her time as several similar challenges have popped up online today :-)

There's more detail about the trouble I gave myself with this challenge over at WM (see the post here) but I thought I'd post the second layout here because I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit, Soothe, to create it.

I was inspired by the quote I found over on the Dr Seuss site which made me smile and think back to our journey up north of the Arctic Circle in Canada (as if I need a reason to think back to that holiday!)

"I'm a North-Going Zax and I always go north. Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth."

I went for soft colours and vellum so that the relatively colour-free photos wouldn't be overwhelmed. When we got to the border, visibility was down to just a few metres as it turned out we were actually IN the clouds! It was really eery and spooky to be honest.

But anyway, it got me thinking about how we seem to be going further and further north with our trips and how lucky I am to have my own North-Going Zax to explore with.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit, Soothe - layout #2

I love how you can find inspiration in the most unlikely places. I created two completely different pages from the same starting point. Now, that's what I call a good prompt!

Soothing

I just wanted to share the first layout I created with my March Counterfeit kit, Soothe. 

I don't know about you but I use scrapbooking as a way to calm down, switch off, relax and take time to reflect while I'm creating. This month's kit is perfect for that as it's true to its name with such soothing colours and soft patterns.

I teamed it up with the Whimsical Musings Challenge #28 which was all about longings.

This layout features a lot of what I'm loving right now - yellow and grey, splats and misting, white cardstock, twine, chevrons, doilies and a vellum envelope filled with journalling and mini hearts! *sigh*

What have you been longing for recently? Why not share with us over at WM?