16 loves {March 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

Long long ago, Shimelle had a Design Team call which, although I wasn't lucky enough to be picked for, ended up happily with a guest spot on her blog as one of her featured Guest Artists! I was super happy to be given the chance to use showcase my way to scrap three phone photos on one layout using some of the latest Shimelle Starshine collection as well as some scrummy Simple Stories Heart papers and a smattering of pretty embellies! You can find the full page on her blog here

two

Love this Pinterest find with all those gorgeous leaves and the full line of decoration along the middle. One to lift.

Magda Mizera for Glitz on Pinterest

three

I want this room! What a gorgeous combination of navy, pink, stripes and geometrics. Of course, I'd need to add in a bit of gold too.

Originally found on Pinterest but I can't seem to find the source any more :-(

four

As part of LOAD, I fished out some older photos from the Philippines. I love looking back at those hot days and seeing the adventures I got up to. Here I am on Bohol at the Chocolate Hills - a geological wonder!

five

This looks delicious - Quinoa salad with asparagus, peas, avocado, and a simple lemon basil dressing. 

Found on Pinterest here - originally from Two Peas and Their Pod

six

I needed to get gold foiling for another project I can share next month and then went right on and had a go at the Shimelle Starshine Minc cards. I love the effect. I don't have a Minc but I am intending on getting a cheap laminating machine which is all you need - of yes and oodles of metallic foil sheets. I see a lot of shine in my future!!!

seven

I love the look of this - I clicked on a  few of the links and can feel my sewing fingers itching to get going. If only I could - my sewing machine only knows paper but maybe one day.... maybe I could get back to sewing fabric! Could be fun.

Va Voom Vintage here

eight

My obsession continues. I went along to the David Bowie is... exhibition. Again. This time in Groningen in The Netherlands. *sigh*

nine

I took the chance to stay overnight and headed out to the coast. It was a glorious day - windy, fresh and sunny. Perfect for a stroll along the beach....

ten

And then to a small town called Harlingen right there on the North Sea coast - with that canal and the sweet, pretty houses, it could only be The Netherlands!

eleven

And a highlight of my day. Just standing and looking out at this.

twelve

I'm not really "artsy" enough on my scrap pages to think I could get away with anything like this page by Wilna Furstenerg but I love it nonetheless. You never know, I might try lifting it at some point. But I find it truly inspiring.

Wilna F for Webster's Pages

thirteen

I'm dreaming of finding the money and corner of our flat for an old-fashioned bar cart. Love all the inspiration out there on Pinterest for which cart to get and how to stock it. 

Pinterest source here

fourteen

I love the Instagram steals I make of my sister's photos of my adorable new niece. I think she takes after me! I sleep like that :-)

fifteen

LOAD month means that I made a whole bunch of layouts which I love. 33 layouts in total along with 5 featured layouts for 5 prompts throughout the month. It just makes me happy to scrap every day, no matter how stressful it it!

This is my standard, end of month pile of layouts layout. Love!

sixteen

A trip back to the UK next week means cuddly presents a plenty. Now this one, I could keep for myself... 

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

Wednesday Wonderland

I managed another couple of Christmas cards last week with inspiration courtesy of the Jingle Belles!

Their challenge "All Bundled Up" calls for a minimum of three layers and knowing what I do with layers, I figured I could manage that!

Keeping it simple and easy with some scraps, some chipboard that is unlikely to be used on layout and some messy twine.

I make that four layers plus the thread!

And here I see five layers...

I don't seem to be managing every week but making two when I can is expanding the pile nicely!

Why not join in over at Jingle Belles?

Happy Tuesday!

Hey, guess what?

If you'd like to see the full layout featured below, you can find me over at Shimelle's blog!

I'm so very thrilled - and proud - that I was invited to be Guest Artist today.

Be inspired by phone photos :-)

Happy Tuesday everyone :-)

Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit reveal blog hop

Warning! Loooooong post! Keep going, all will be revealed :-)

Well, February flew by, didn't it? I participated in LOAD, completed 33 layouts, scrapped 110 photos, celebrated 200 prompts over at Whimsical Musings with a week of Guest Designers and prizes, and felt like I was running the whole time. Phew, quite a month. And so, welcome to March.

Hopefully you've arrived here via Leslie's blog and her inspirational blue box full of fabulous supplies and forgeries, but if not, you're going to want to go back to the beginning of the hop back at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge! We have a particularly wonderful treat this month too, welcoming Lesley back to us as Guest Designer. Wooohoooo! We've missed her and I am delighted that she's back with us :-)

Onto the new kit for this month then.

We've been given the 'Click' Story Kit from Ali Edwards  which was "interesting" to say the least - ha ha!

Here are a couple of photos of the kit that I fought with a little before coming up with my own take!

Mmmm, no paper, few embellishments, not a lot of colour! What to do?

There was considerable chatter in our Master Forger group about how to interpret this kit and someone - Clair? - said that she saw it more as an embellishment kit that would then be added to with papers etc. Eureka! That's what I'd do.

So, I started off making up an embellishment kit in black, white, grey and neutrals with the focus on pocket page cards, cameras and loopy words. I then added in some more embellishments which I thought I might be able to use... flair, sequins, washi, Tim Holtz film roll and alphas.

And then... I turned that into a full kit by picking out the (few) colours from the inspiration kit - orange/dark red, dark green, a hint of yellow, an aqua and some lime green - added in my old BasicGrey paper and a speciality vellum paper as well as some more pocket page cards. There's not as much in this kit as it looks so I'm thinking it will be a real challenge for me to see if I use it up!

So... finally... let me introduce you to my March kit, Tangent.

Well done for getting so far. I hope you like all the twists and turns this kit took. Watch this space for how I use it - fingers crossed!

Here's the full blog hop list in case you get lost along the way. Don't forget to let me know you were here :-)

Lesley (GDT) - http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk/ 
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.ca
Lisa: http://lisahausmann.blogspot.ca
Lynnette: http://www.sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/
Margie: http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com
Susan: http://littlethingsbigdays.blogspot.de/
Stephanie:  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.com

February at Simple Scrapper #2

With LOAD keeping me busy this month, I've struggled to keep up with blogging over the last few weeks but just scraping in under the wire to share this second layout I made for Simple Scrapper this month.

I used a current story prompt to scrapbook a Pinterest quotation find. This photo has been sitting there for some time just waiting for the perfect moment to be used and I decided that another retrospective about my feeling regarding Bowie's death was the right time. I reflect on something I saw online when the news first appeared. It really did the rounds and summed up what so many were feeling at the time:

The design of the page was driven by a Simple Scrapper sketch. Each month, members receive a set of story prompts and a collection of sketches to help inspire their pages. This is a sketch that I had used before but I love it so much with those layers in the middle that I knew I wanted to go with it again.

 I used my May 2015 Counterfeit Kit Challenge Rejuvenate kit for this and I have to say that it might have been my favourite kit last year. The mix of pink, gold and aqua was just so good.

I love the way the sketch had all those layers tucked into different levels of the middle band. It gives a lot of dimension without the bulk.

To find out more about the many resources available to inspire you to create beautiful pages and tell meaningful stories in a supportive, communicative community environment environment, check out the Simple Scrapper premium membership.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge February member blog hop

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop. I'm heading up the hop today so when you're done here, Tina is next up and you know she has something fun to share - she always does :-)

February is LOAD (layout a day) month and while I write this, I have a pile of 24 completed layouts waiting to be put into albums. Those make me very happy and we haven't finished the month yet so that pile is sure to grow.

Now, you might remember that my February kit was considerably smaller than kits I've made in the past - you can see the kit reveal here - and I expected to get probably three layouts from the supplies. So imagine my surprise when I realised that I've actually made 6! Ok, so there is a little extra paper that has found its way in there but nothing really much else.

The February Counterfeit Kit Challenge prompts are listed below but to be honest, I've been mostly following the "Around the World in 29 Days" LOAD inspiration which was based around different aspects of places around the world.  But let's see if maybe any of my 6 kit layouts fit the CKC prompts at all.

• Challenge #1 - Sappy Movie Inspiration 
• Challenge #2 - Life is Just a Fairytale...
• Challenge #3 - Say What?

This layout is pretty sappy although it's not really related to specific movie!

I added in that little journalling card from the On Trend 2 collection which matched the geometric pattern in the background

You could say that this layout is all about the "And they lived happily ever after" which would fit challenge #2 - Life is Just a Fairytale.

Now this one definitely fits challenge #3 - Say What! as it's all about some language confusion while I was in Manila and the fact that I just said "Oo!" to everything (it means "yes" in Tagalog)!

Here I added a little gold glitter washi tape and the hint of blue paper in the corner and below the picture crept into the kit too

For this layout, I finished off that blue spotty paper and also added in the map paper. some of the embellishments were smuggled from another of my CKC kits!

At a push, I think I could pull together one more page using the scraps and leftovers from the kit. But you know what? I think I'll just say that this kit is well and truly killed!

LOAD + Counterfeit kits = success!

I know Tina will agree with me on that one as she's also participating in LOAD, so off you go to see what she has to inspire us.

Here's the full list in case you get lost along the way.

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

Lisa    http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de

Tina    http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com

Kelly    http://www.honeysucklehillcrafts.com

Cindy    http://www.cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com

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

Thanks for dropping by. Make sure you let me know you were here :-) it's always fun to hear from you.