Mummy's Revenge!

I made this page a little while ago using this months Counterfeit Kit and a sketch from Sarah's Cards.  You can see the sketch and the other lovely interpretations of it here.

The photo are from our trip to Universal Studios Florida in 2004 where the boys were desperate to be amongst the first to ride on the newest ride ... Revenge Of The Mummy.  They were testing it out before the official opening and we couldn't be sure if the queue would be closed before we got on.

Luckily we managed it otherwise the whole holiday might have been ruined ;-)

Mind you, I think my teenage No.1 Son wouldn't have minded too much in the end ... after all he got to see Anck Su Namun up close - the one and only time he grabbed the autograph book and asked me to take his photo!

Another Forger Forgery

Welcome to the start of the July Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Members' Blog Hop (or CKCBMBH for short)!  Today we are sharing our takes on the scraplifting a Master Forger challenge.  I chose a lovely page to scraplift for this challenge earlier in the month with my July Counterfeit Kit but just had to have another go today as there were so many lovely projects to choose from:

Using yet another photo from our trip to Disney in 2004, I was inspired by this gorgeous page by Leslie.   I loved her use of upside down tags, stitching and space.  Thanks Leslie!

I have yet to add a date and a little journalling about how we were posing in a special spot where you can superimpose the Hollywood sign and it was still rather cold despite the early morning sunshine.

The next stop on the forgery trail is Heidi, but if you get lost along the way, the full blog hop order is published on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog today.  Have fun!

A Stitch Takes Time

I've said it before ... I am a SLOOOOOOW scrapper.  I can easily take a whole day at a crop to make just one layout and I rarely manage to complete more than two pages.  At home, I can have a page in progress for days ... and sometimes it takes me weeks to call a page "finished"!

And so it was with this page: I started it at our "Sleepover" crop at the end of last month, fully intending to have it ready as an "inspiration" page for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog's 2nd July challenge.  It was ready at the end of the crop apart from the sewing at the top of the page, but I kept finding other things to do instead of a little hand sewing!

I only realised I had missed the deadline for the CKCB Challenge 2 post when I saw Lesley's lovely example (started AND finished at the same Sleepover Crop).  To my shame, even that did not spur me on and it has taken me until now to finish the sewing.  Procrastination is certainly the thief of my time!

My July Counterfeit Kit included mini-pegs which were not mini at all when used as pegs ... much too dimensional for my album!  I wonder how other people use them in scrapbook pages ... I need help!

Although the sewing looks laborious, I actually made all the holes beforehand with a thread-less sewing machine and really had no excuse for not getting busy with needle and embroidery thread!

There's a wee tag behind the photo describing my frustration when taking this photo:  the lady with her back to the camera is my Step-mother who spent half the day reading her paper and the other half of the day ignoring her (step-) grandchildren ;-)

Have you had a go with the inspiration sketch (#54) from Deconstructing Jen - her site is full of other inspirational sketches.  Don't forget to link up with the CKCB if you use this one.

Soaked Scavenging

Time for another few photos for Rinda's Summer 2013 Scavenger Hunt.  Last month I posted some sunny pictures when it was raining and today I'm posting some photos taken on a VERY wet day while we're enjoying a mini-heatwave!

My friend & I spent the day walking around the coast north of Liverpool, including a visit to Formby's Red Squirrel Preserve where we spotted THREE red squirrels (or perhaps it was one red squirrel three times?).  My poor camera was on maximum zoom as the feeders were quite far away and even then, the squirrels move so fast that we struggled to get any photos, let alone good ones.

#11 Animal In A Nature Preserve

Hopefully, you can just about see that there is a red squirrel with a dark bushy tail to the left of the tree trunk ... I will try to grab a better shot for #11, but this may have to do!

While travelling south towards Crosby Beach to see Anthony Gormley's "Another Place" I spotted an unusual garden ornament:

#16 Windmill

Upon reaching the beach I put away my umbrella, not because it had stopped raining, but because it was blowing a gale and the brolly was trying to invert itself!  We were soaked, as was the beach (the tide was coming in not out)!  "Another Place" is a collection of  identical 6ft 2in cast iron statues placed along a two mile stretch of the coast.  The sea submerges some of them; others have been half-buried by shifting sands.

After a long walk past about half the 100 statues, we took shelter in Crosby Leisure Centre where I spotted a slightly different version of the sculpture inside the swimming pool:

#14 Mosaic

Having found four Scavenger Hunt photos in 10 minutes, I felt that three finds was a bit disappointing for a whole day out ... so I had no hesitation grabbing a fourth upon our return to the train station: an illegally parked ...

#15 Police Car

So that's now 9 down and 11 more items to find.  Are you joining in with Rinda's Summer 2013 Scavenger Hunt?  How are you getting on?

Scraplifting A Forger

I was very happy to be part of a sleepover crop just after making up my July Counterfeit Kit as it meant I had plenty of time to get scrappy with it.  Amongst my creations I made a page up for the first challenge this month at the CKCB.  We were asked to scraplift something from a master forger which was the perfect excuse to take a closer look at the blogs of some of our newcomers!

I chose THIS super page by Stephanie because its lovely graphic style really appealed to me.  Whenever I scraplift someone else's page, rather than keep referring to the original, I make a quick pencil sketch of the main elements and note down a few of the colours or embellishments used. This way I end up with a page that is "inspired by" rather than "copied from".

If you compare it to Stephanie's original page, you will see that the matting on the large blocks transformed into machine stitched borders and her arrow paper became pennant tags cut from scraps.  My title is a single 3x4 Sn@p card cut up and realigned!  The photo is one of several from a rainy day out at De Efteling and will slot into our Holland 2006 holiday album.

Why don't you have a go at this challenge?  It's a great opportunity to participate in with the counterfeiting, especially as this challenge can be used to join in with the CKCB Members' Blog Hop on July 24th - details on today's CKCB post here.  I found so much inspiration that I'll be back with another scraplift myself!

July's Kit Delivered!

Welcome to another month of kit counterfeiting with the Counterfeit kit Challenge Blog.  This month sees a few changes amongst the Master Forgers: we are losing some old hands, but gaining some new talent, including this month's guest designer, Laura.  She starts our kit reveal hop today and if you hopped here via Dawn you will already know that the luscious kit-to-copy this month is Summer Fun from Crop & Create Delivered.

The kit is HUGE and jammed with embellishments so I knew there was no point in me copying each item ... I'd never use it up!

Instead I squinted at the photo and realised that this kit is full of bright colours along with lots of black and white alphas, words, journalling cards etc. So I grabbed a couple of bright coordinating patterns, some coloured pegs, a little yellow twine, some black and white ribbon, a few alphas and some kraft tickets (I'll admit that I could not find the tiny tickets I know are somewhere in my craft supplies ... they have grown legs!) and produced a kit that I was itching to scrap with:

Supplies:

Peach, yellow and whitecardstock
Basic Grey Lime Rickey Banana Frost and Boston Cooler
Bella Blvd Sophisticates Sprinkles & Lace Banana (yellow brocade reverse)
Nonchalant from Basic Grey's Offbeat collection
DCWV Black & White Numbers & Letters
Straw, Bluebird and Hayloft from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie collection
Prima Marketing Tropics Fire At Sunset

Bo Bunny Precious Thoughts word stickers
White pearls with Sharpies to colour them
Bo Bunny White Shabby Random Thoughts
Luxe Bracket Rub-ons in black & white
Scraps from previous kits
Kraft luggage tags
American Crafts Flair
Woven word labels
Sequin waste
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adage Tickets
American Crafts Remarks JFK alphas
Doodlebug Double Takes Lovely Lime alphas
My Little Shoebox Butter mini-alphas
Mini-pegs in various colours
Yellow baker's twine
Home-made Bingo Cards (check out the CKCB on the 8th for lots of tutorials)
Simple Stories Sn@p! Happy Sayings Quote Cards
Various ribbons & buttons from my stash

Phew - not such a small kit after all!  I wonder whether Julene has gone large or small with her kit?  Why not hop over there to see what she's put together from this month's inspiration kit.If you get lost along the way (we have some gaps due to inexperience I see) ... the full list is published here on the CKCB.