Bad blogger - April shares at Scrapabilly!

Hanging my head in shame, I'd like to share my layouts that I made with the April Scrapabilly Kit des Monats which featured the gorgeous Dear Lizzy "Happy 'Place" collection.

I made four layouts using the summery themed papers.

Very old photos but which tell such a great story about time at school and a typical British seaside day out!

These wooden letters just asked to be spritzed different colours. Love how they turned out.

I really like picking out different colour combinations from a set of papers and the greens in the kit were the perfect soft contrast to this bright photo. I actually started this layout with the quote and built the rest around it.

I'd really wanted to make some stitching somewhere and this simple little detail makes me happy.

The pretty colours and whimsical patterns made me think of summer and spring time photos but as I don't really "do" summer holidays, I needed to find other subjects. My happy daffodils on the window sill in my scrap room gave me the inspiration for this story about my sudden allergy and a creative solution.

Inked letters again - a great way to match them up to the layout.

My last layout was prompted by the yellow-green hue of this photo that I'd printed out in 5x7 a long time ago and had been waiting for the right time to scrap it. I had used up a lot of the papers so a banner using the scraps seemed like a great idea. You know how much I love banners.

The punch for this border and the larger than life confetti I was delighted to find in the off-cuts was a hand-me-down from my sister which I appear to have broken :-( I love it though so I'll be looking to replace it as soon as I can find it.

So, there you have it. Four bright, happy layouts using this gorgeous kit. I hope you can forgive my tardiness :-(

You can find the full Design Team work over at the Scrapabilly gallery here - make sure you check out all three teams because there's a lot of gorgeous stuff out there.

April & May at Simple Scrapper

I've been a bad blogger over the past two months and forgot to share some Creative Team work.

First up, I seemed to have missed sharing my April layouts so let me remedy that.

This first one used an April sketch and a Story Starter from May 2015 - "Leisure Time" - and was even featured on the cover of the members' only monthly magazine which made me very proud. I also used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge July 2015 kit, Redux.

And this layout, using my Counterfeit Kit Challenge June 2015 kit, Spectrum, featured a current Story Starter - "Spring Cleaning" - with a sketch from April 2015.

You can see my first Simple Scrapper May layout back in the April Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop here but I should share my second one too.

I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge February 2015 kit, Runaway, to make this layout based on one of the current sketches available in the Simple Scrapper premium membership and an older story starter - "You & Me" - with a prompt about a sibling relationship. I don't scrapbook my brothers and sisters often enough so this was a great nudge to tell another snippet.

I'll be back at the beginning of June to share my latest two Simple Scrapper Creative Team layouts in an attempt to be a better blogger!

To find out more about the many resources and inspiration - including the sketches and story starters I use each month - available to inspire you to create beautiful pages and tell meaningful stories in a supportive, communicative community environment, check out the Simple Scrapper premium membership here.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge May member blog hop

Welcome to this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop.

I'm right at the end of the hop so hopefully you've reached me via Natalie but if not, why not pop back to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to start at the beginning so you don't miss out on the fun.

As always, we are here today to share anything we've made with our kits - Challenges, Forgeries on the Fourth or in fact, anything new. Here are the challenges we have to choose from in May:

• Challenge #1: Quebec Kilo - feature Q or K
• Challenge #2: One of our Two Sketches
• Challenge #3: Escher Effects

I'm doing LOAD516 at the moment so I combined one of the prompts about what was making me happy or excited along with the CKC challenge #2 - sketch #1.

As usual, there was a bit of free interpretation of the sketch but I think you can see the original in there if you look close enough.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge May kit, Sprinkle #5

I see there's a little bit of stuff along that white cardstock edge - I'll have to erase that off. Can't imagine how I missed that.

I added in a little paper from my November 2015, Remembrance kit, which is still going strong

I misted these letters and then used my heat gun which gave it this really intense gold surface

While the photos were taken in March during my trip back "home" to the UK, I was totally excited to get to meet fellow Master Forgers Jemma and Lesley! We chatted and laughed and shared experiences over a delicious lunch and became real friends rather than "just" internet friends! That brings my tally to a grand total of FOUR MFs met in real life. Love that I've had that chance and later on in the summer, Julene and I also have plans to meet up here in Germany.

I also have these two layouts which I made using my May kit.

It's not a perfect photo as it was taken at night but I think you get the idea - Counterfeit Kit Challenge May kit, Sprinkle #2

I love these little veneer hearts so much - I could have used dozens!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge May kit, Sprinkle #4

Thanks for dropping by today. Here's the full hop list in case you get lost along the way.

CKCB    http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com

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

Tina    http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com

Jane    http://alittlescrap.blogspot.com/

Julene    http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au

Elaine    http://chidkids26.blogspot.co.uk

Natalie    http://thebigdills.blogspot.com

Lisa    http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de

16 loves {May 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.

one

A gin & tonic is one of my go-to drinks on a Friday evening and we've been enjoying the fact that so many wonderful gins are available at the moment - gin, it would appear, is a bit of an on-trend drink right now. This was a new one for us and at 57% alcohol, you have to be respectful but it's delicious. Fragrant and a little floral. 

two

I'm always on the lookout for interesting travel layouts and so this one seen on Pinterest grabbed my attention right away. The use of the map in the background and then the position of the photos directly onto that map is a perfect way to record a day trip or a short weekend city break. I love it.

Found on Pinterest but originally posted over on Lynn Ghahary's blog here

three

HRH Queen Elizabeth II turned 90 on 21st April 2016 and I, alongside many others at home and around the world, celebrated. I'm so proud to be British at times like this.

four

And to mark the momentous occasion, we had a party! My mum came over and we had a celebratory afternoon tea party. Sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, coronation chicken, red, white and blue decorations and lashings of tea. It was a lot of fun and all the family enjoyed this little slice of Britishness right here in Germany.

five

Of course, no afternoon tea is complete without scones with strawberry jam and delicious clotted cream. My Delia Smith recipe never fails to hit the spot and these remain the best scones we've ever had! You can find the infamous recipe here.

six

Always on the lookout for cute map embellishments, these heart garlands are exactly my thing. Available on Etsy at PaperNotebook and very reasonably priced, us crafty girls could get busy with a paper punch or our Silhouette and run these up to match exactly what we needed.

Map heart garland available at PaperNotebook here

seven

April saw me try a month of selfies. I more or less managed it and some were better than others. I scrap a lot about myself so it's necessary for me to have a ready stock of pictures available to use as and when I need them. This one will be finding its way onto a page before long. Thank heavens for IG filters! I'll no doubt do this again one month as it was quite fun to see how to manage those "bad face" days!

eight

Over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge, there have been a few changes over the last two months. One is that I've taken over the main admin responsibility for the site and the whole team is now working together to select the kits to counterfeit and the challenges to use them up. There are also some new features popping up here and there which we are all finding very motivating! There's new energy over there which is great. For (Inter)National Scrapbook Day, we offered a whole range of Master Forgers'  favourites to inspire our readers. It was super to see the different directions we all took and I loved reading each entry. Even though it's over now, check out the posts starting here for a bunch of ideas!

nine

Still thrilled to receive my Scrapabilly DT kit each month. It's the best day when it's handed to me when I'm in the shop but it's even more exciting to receive it in the post!

ten

It's May which means it's LOAD516. This is the first month that Alice Boll is at the reigns of Scrap Happy for a LOAD month since she took it over from Lain Ehmann and she's doing an awesome job! The prompts are fun and thought provoking and there's been several extra challenges and spot prizes which is nice to shake things up a bit. I missed a day at the weekend but so far, have 18 layouts done for the month so it feels good considering I wasn't intending on trying for a full month. LOAD is one of the best scrappy times of the year.

eleven

Found this on Pinterest. It's calling me...

Pinterest source here

twelve

It was the Eurovision Song Contest at the weekend and the opening ceremony featured elaborate costumes made of paper. They were amazing. A paper crafter's dream inspiration. I tried to take some photos but this stock photo from the ESC site is better and gives you an idea of the incredible creations. Just goes to show that inspiration is everywhere!

thirteen

It's been a while since I posted a nail varnish in my ongoing love of beautiful nails (which I don't have!). This collection of greys by Essie is so beautiful, I'd love them all.

fourteen

Isn't this cute? A Pinterest find which I adore and would love to have a go at one day.

Pinterest source here / originally found on Design for Soul here

fifteen

This makes me want to embroider. I've had a go from time to time and lack the skill and patience but this is simply so beautiful, I might add it to my list again. Check out Mary Whelan Art to see embroidered pieces that will take your breath away...

Pinterest source here / Mary Whelan Art here

sixteen

Something every scrapbooker is aware of. Something I need to keep in mind during my constant battle with decluttering and downsizing.

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