16 loves {January 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 and I hope you'll come back each month to see if there is anything in my list for you too.  

To see what I've loved 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.

one

Last month I posted about how excited we all were to meet "Peach". Well, just one day later, she arrived. Of course I dropped everything to go over to the UK to meet her and instantly fell in love.

two

Couldn't resist just one more photo of my beautiful niece. 

three

I'm so excited to see Shimelle's latest collection for American Crafts, Starshine. Such a beautiful colour palette and with all those stars, constellations and globes, this is one for me. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Shimelle's Starshine

four

This layout particularly caught my eye as a super way of making a highlight page about a journey.

Found on Pinterest but uses elements from The Lily Pad's In Review collection here 

five

Originally found on Pinterest, the link to Etsy doesn't appear to be working but these would be so fabulous to include in pocket pages, directly on 12x12's or even tucked inside cards. On my list to give them a try.

Original Pinterest link here

six

While this may not exactly be something that is inspiring me this month, I feel the need to recognise the loss of my musical hero, David Bowie. His music has accompanied me my whole life and I feel bereft. This is one of the last few official photos of him and I feel my {16 loves} wouldn't be complete without it. 

DavidBowie.com

seven

Continuing my hero worship theme, this version of Under Pressure by David Bowie and Freddie Mercury is one of the coolest things I've heard in a long time. Spine tingling, goose-bump inducing, hair raising, awesomeness. 

Under Pressure here

eight

I bought this album on the day of its release, 8th Jan, which was also David Bowie's birthday. It is fabulous and poignant. A bittersweet love for sure.

Backstair by David Bowie 2016

nine

Love the cosy look to this and the colour scheme. Still working on ideas round here.

Found here 

ten

The highlight of my Christmas holiday might just have been the 24 hours we spent at the Dutch coast at Noordwijk an Zee. Fresh sea air and a walk along the beach was just what I needed. 

eleven

I'm particularly in love with this gold washi tape. The glitter doesn't come off, it sticks nicely and is a great shade of gold. I got it at Scrapabilly.de!

Available at the Scrapabilly shop here

twelve

Exciting news to share! I made the Creative Team over at Simple Scrapper where I've been a member for several years and love everything that Jennifer Wilson does to offer her community an creative, encouraging, simple approach to recording our memories with pretty paper and embellishments.

Such an inspirational group of ladies over there and I'm simply (pun intended) thrilled to be included.

Find out more about the Simple Scrapper membership here

thirteen

I also made the new and expanded Scrapabilly Design Team! Another fabulously talented team of creatives over here in Germany and I'm so excited to start working with them.  

Creating for Sylvia since 2013 has been such a wonderful experience and her shop is simply an amazing treasure so I'm overjoyed to continue that relationship as well as getting every scrappy product I could possibly need from her shop! 

Go shopping at Scrapabilly here

fourteen

I found this on Pinterest and just love it - stars, constellations and a globe - strike. This card uses Stamping' Up products but I'm sure it would work just as well with other products. However, I'm very much in love with this card regardless!

Steffi Helmschrott at Stempelweise

fifteen

This young man is my amazing nephew who just turned 13. Wow! Where did the time go? I love him so much. So proud of the wonderful young man he's grown, and is still growing, into.

sixteen

I have no idea where I saved this quote from but it says it all. Me and tea. Sacred. Full stop.

Thanks for getting this far - 16 is a lot to get through but I'm going to see how it works with such a long list. I'm happy to be back with this though and hope there was something here to brighten up your January day.

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

Scrapabilly December kit shares (part 2)

Yesterday I shared part 1 of my Scrapabilly December kit creations. 

You can check out all the details of the kit in that post but here's the kit for you as a reminder of all its gorgeousness.

For these two layouts I added some mists (as usual), a little strip of gold glitter washi, a partial gold doily, some very old but very pretty mint Thickers, the Pinkfresh Studio gold alphas that I showed yesterday and a good handful of sequins and beads for my shaker element as well as a tiny scrap of vellum for the opaque cover.

I love marking my birthday - which can be a bit overrun by Christmas stuff to be honest - with some photos and often, a page and this year was no different. In fact this year, my mum came to visit and I had a bumper crop of presents so it seemed the perfect kit to record a couple of the pretty details and a "this is me - now" photo.

My gold pen seemed ideal for the journalling again so that it wasn't so stand out as it would have been with black pen which is my usual.

I had this frame left over and I've been wanting to do my Whimsical Musings shaker box prompt for some time so it just came together. I filled it with stars, beads and sequins and love how it turned out. I love the opacity of the vellum so you know everything that's in there, but it's a bit misty at the same time!

And last up was actually the starting point for me as I was delighted to see the mint elements to the kit which perfectly matched a page I've been wanting to do for a while.

When I met Kathy in the summer, we talked and talked as if we'd known each other forever and I got her up to speed with all the corners of the scrappy web which I like to frequent including Paperclipping which is a top favourite of mine. I told her about the wonderful April Fool's Day spoof they made about Noel's planner room and we laughed about being "washi'd" in with mint green washi to signal what level of friend you are - mint green is a friend you like and want to see! Kathy had sent me something in the post including the tag you can see here behind the photo which had some mint green washi on it as well as some photos of the two of us and I just knew that I had to make this page. She really is my mint green washi friend and always will be!

And finally, to finish off the kit, I grabbed a couple of the cute die-cut frames and quickly made up two cards. Nothing earth shattering on the design but you know how useful it is to have a couple of cards on hand for those special people in your life!

Two things to remember!

1. All the design team creations can be found at the Scrapabilly gallery here and go here to secure your own kit.
2. There's a giveaway up for grabs over at Whimsical Musings - check the bottom of this post for details! All you need to do is comment and if you make a layout too, that's extra chances to win!

Scrapabilly December kit shares (part 1)

I'm late again.....

I sound like Alice's White Rabbit. But then we did have Christmas and New Year to contend with over the last few weeks...

Excuses I know but here I am to share what I made with the stunning December Scrapabilly kit featuring Pebbles DIY Home collection - which I loved so much that Sylvia gave me the complete 12x12 paper pad for my birthday! I love it.

Here's the kit for you delectation...

It features double sided papers, one design paper featuring gold foil (SO scrummy), a whole pack of die cuts, a sheet of washi tape paper AND a sheet of stickers from the DIY Home collection along with cork Thickers, and matching cardstock. 

I only needed to add in a small gold alpha sheet by Pinkfresh Studio (in shop here), a little gold doily and a little mist for the two layouts I'm going to share today. Oh yes, and I couldn't resist adding in a pink ombre sheet of paper with gold stripes as an extra from the collection - I think I'm going to need another one!

My first layout features the most fabulous birthday present I received from my adorable friend Lynnette. She saw the perfect bracelet featuring star signs and knew I would love it, which I did. Then she realised I'm Scorpio and not Sagittarius so sent me both. What she didn't realise at the time was just how perfect that would end up being because now I have my sun sign (Scorpio) as well as my ascendant (Sagittarius)! Perfect in every way. This girl is such a great present giver. This is now the second page I've made featuring her gifts.

The paper was so pretty that I knew it was ideal for a soft, feminine background to my simple photo.

I particularly love the gold details on the die cuts like this adorable frame and the flowers.

The Pinkfresh Studio gold letters are the right shade of gold to look as if they were made for this collection and the gold doily just added a little something for detail.

I used the chevron paper for my journalling and by using a gold pen, it doesn't look too obvious or detract from the rest of the page.

With Lynnette as my subject, I was on a roll and decided to match up some paper-filled frames from the die-cut pack with two cute photos of us as we said goodbye at the airport when she came to visit me in Germany in the summer. There's that gorgeous ombré paper in the background - I placed the frames so that you could still see all the fabulousness of it!

Come back tomorrow for the remaining layouts I've made with the kit and don't forget that all the design team creations can be found at the Scrapabilly gallery here and go here to secure your own kit - it's so gorgeous, how could you resist?

Look what I did!

Just dropping by to let you know that I am beyond thrilled to have been asked to join the Simple Scrapper Creative Team for 2016!

Oh my! What an honour to be on the same team as these über-creative ladies. I can't stop grinning and I'm so happy to be able to share the news at last.

It's a great way to start 2016 :-) 

Watch this space for more regular Scrapabilly and Simple Scrapper shares throughout the month - more regular blogging is high on my goals for the new year.

And last but not least, just to remind you that there's a giveaway over at Whimsical Musings - comment and create for chances to win. Who doesn't love a giveaway to kick off the new year?!?

Counterfeit Kit Challenge January kit reveal blog hop

It's 2016! Welcome to the New Year. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for this brand new year and hope that it brings you much happiness. I, for one, have high hopes for 2016 and look forward to what it will be.

However, no doubt you are here for the new Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit and if you have arrived here via Leslie's blue box of wonder then you are on the right lines. If not, jump back to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to start at the beginning and catch the whole blog. Margie is up next and the full list can be found at the end of the post in case you get lost along the way!

We are kicking off the new year with a planner kit to inspire us. This doesn't mean we've all changed into planner girls - although some of those gorgeous planners out there are sure appealing! - but we are just using one of the planner kits to help us build our scrapping kits for January.

The Planner Society Kit Club kits by Scarlet Lime are offered as a starting point and any of them are fair game. Try checking out some of these links April, May and June Kits, July Kit, August Kit Video, September Kit Video, October Kits

I decided to go with the December kit which appealed because of its bright, fresh colours and non-seasonal feel. Here's what it looked like! Lots of exclusive items so I needed to get creative with my product selection.

I decided to approach this a little differently than usual and this will give me some direction and focus for my kits in the next few months, but first of all, let me show you my January kit, Rekindle. I know it doesn't look much like the original, but if you keep reading, you will see how I got there!

You might remember me saying at the end of last year that I was struggling to use up the kits I make each month - mostly because I make HUGE kits and also because I'm not as prolific as I used to be. I'm also aware that I use a lot of new products which is lovely but means that my older items are still sitting on my shelves, unloved and forgotten!

This year I'm determined to do better at enjoying both the older and newer products and getting the most out of my kits. So the first thing I have decided is that I will limit myself to 5 papers plus one specialty paper if one catches my eye. And I will always have at least two old(er) sheets.

For Rekindle, I looked at the inspiration kit and saw that there were two floral papers - one small and one large, there were pinks and blues and reds, lots of frames, a sheet of paper that could be fussy cut, paper clips, veneer, washi, a stamp, tabs and stickers. I decided to go with the starting point of two floral papers (from vintage BasicGrey Infuse - one of my all time favourites) and then I added a stripe, a blotchy spot and a frame printed sheet in an aqua which goes well with the stripe in shades of pink, red and blue. For my paper clips, I added a gold foiled acetate from the Memorandum collection. And that's it! I'm interested to see how this limitation of papers will work for me!

Then I went through the embellishments and matched them up by item and then colours to match my papers. Again, I've made a decision to always add some random, older items into the mix to encourage me to use them up.

So, here are frames - both card and veneer, a veneer shape which is just hanging around and a pink washi tape. I keep all my die cut shapes and cardstock left overs in a tin and I intend to pull out some items each month for my kit - this half clock seemed to match my colours perfectly.

I also saw that vintage price tag and some smaller items which could add to the vintage mix. I've included several alphabets in large and small to use up - very limited letters so I need to get creative. And a small stamp to remind me to use up some tools too from time to time.

I found some tabs in my die cut tin which are a nice colour contrast and those mini envelopes were some I bought last year at Paper Source where Lynnette took us when we met up. Time to use them up.

I've also decided that every kit will have some pocket page cards because I have quite the collection and still no Project Life to be seen! I mixed up some from different manufacturers and collections.

And there you have it. My "rules" for the next few months and my reduced size kit which will hopefully yield around three layouts and get some much neglected stash used up.

1. Five papers plus one specialty or "just because" sheet
2. At least two older papers
3. Die cut and chipboard tin to be used every month
4. Older partially used alphas to use up
5. Pocket page cards to be included
6. Remember to include stamps or other tools
7. Add in some "random" items to see how they inspire
8. Keep it small

Sounds like a plan to me! What do you think? Have you set any rules for your own kit making for the new year? Do you think I'm going to be successful?!? Let me know in the comments.! :-)

Here's the blog list in case you get lost along the way, but next up is Margie - can't wait to see what she's done with these planner kits!

Susan: http://littlethingsbigdays.blogspot.com

Stephanie:  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.com

Susanne:  http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com

Clair: http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.co.uk/

Jemma: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk

Julene:  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com

Kelly: http://66.147.244.112/~honeysv0/

Leslie:  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

Lisa:  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

Margie:  http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com