Two In two days?!

Hi again ... my second post on Sympathy cards is up on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog today along with a couple more cards and lots of internet inspiration.  Please check it out.

I am still here!

Whoops - hello poor neglected blog!  Hopefully I'll have a bit more time for you in the new year ... I miss you!

In the meantime the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog is having a month of card inspiration ... and it's my turn today (and tomorrow) with Sympathy Cards - please pop over and see what the Master Forgers have been creating for everyone.

Zoom In Zoom Out #40

I still haven't caught up with Helena's ZIZO schedule ... but here's my week 40 from a recent trip to Italy!  Hubby and I were out walking to clear our heads after a 6am flight to Rome, two hours driving, a quick supermarket shop and some lunch ... the path to the cemetery is steep enough to combat excess pasta ...

... about half way up we spotted that the ground was littered with chestnuts! Far too spiky to handle, but we did come back another day armed with thick gloves to collect a few to roast. Yum!

Lost & Found

Today's challenge over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog is to use confetti on your project.  I had fun punching out some tiny butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch to scatter over my page, featuring photos from my trip to Derbyshire with fellow Master Forger Lesley. 

I blogged here about how lost we kept getting thanks to my inability to cope with the Google maps directions printed by Lesley - and I decided that these photos on top (?) of an elusive "castle" were a great place to record the details in my scrapbook.

My October Counterfeit Kit included ledger paper, great for a lot of journalling and the bakers twine was perfect for some home-made tags from grey scraps of patterned paper.

GC1W5ET

I'm not quite sure why it took me a whole month to complete this simple layout using my September Counterfeit kit.

I attacked the photo and journalling card with a border punch back at the beginning of September at my monthly crop.

A week later, at my Bloggers Retreat, I stamped the background and title letters and stuck the saved punched stars down onto the page.

It took me another couple of weeks before I found time to add the journalling, but now it's finally finished!

Another page for our Scandinavian Road Trip album: Visiting Stockholm without my GPS, an Earthcache was the only way to grab a Swedish geocache badge but it also meant that we explored an interesting area of the city off the normal tourist track.

ZIZO Catch-up #39

Our Indian Summer has meant that the garden is still teeming with weeds and wildlife and there's still plenty to do.  Whilst tidying up some borders I spotted two creatures in our Plumbago bush who were having a late feast on the nectar.

I'm also late with my ZIZO for week #39 - hoping to catch up with Helena's schedule soon.

ZIZO Catching Up #38

We've been a little pre-occupied here recently thanks to the departure of Child No.3 to university and regular blogging has been interrupted.  I hate it when I fail with a regular meme, especially when the photos are sitting there, waiting to be processed!  So today I'm playing catch-up with Helena's ZIZO - with photos from week #38 - when No.2 Son had kindly mowed our mossy lawn:

My apologies if my blog-reading and commenting has also been a bit lax, normal service will resume shortly!

Pretty In Pink!

Welcome to October's kit counterfeiting with the Counterfeit kit Challenge Blog.  This month our Counterfeit Queen Laura chose the kit-to-copy which was the Vintage Floral Kit from Hey Little Magpie in the UK.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your POV) the kit proved very popular and is already sold out, but that doesn't stop us from creating our own ... in fact it's what we counterfeiters do best!  Hopefully you've already visited Laura and Julene so you'll know that the original kit looked like this:

And here's my take on it - concentrating on the pinks (shock horror) and the greys with a nod to the dots, delicate florals, geometric shapes and stickers:

Supplies:
Mustard Moon Grandpa's Overalls Stripe
Echo Park Ombre Essentials in pink and grey (plain ombre reverse)
Little Bo Peep Matilda  from Crate Paper (pink chevron)
MME Stella Rose Mabel Love Letters (vintage script)
KI Vintage Charm Blue Ledger (blue & brown filigree)

Jenni Bowlin Studios Element Stickers
Jenni Bowlin Studios die-cut tags
A selection of pink and green buttons from my stash
A large dress pin
A pink chevron glassine envelope
A kraft/white tag
A selection of toning bakers twine
A selection of trims


It's quite a small kit, but my scrappy time is limited this month so it should be easy to use it all up ... and there's only so much pink I'm willing to use LOL! Now let's see whether Lesley has struggled to include pink or not ... she's next on our hop this month (the complete list is published here on the CKCB).  Happy hopping!

Final Scavenger Shots

I was a bit disappointed with myself as Rinda's Scavenger Hunt drew to a close ... too many last-minute photos and too little time :-(

Here are the final two shots that I managed; neither are particularly remarkable; both were taken in my local town: the pedestrian precinct in the town centre:

#6 An Urban Street Scene

and the landscaped gardens around the war memorial on my way to work:

#19 A Public Garden

Despite a large Polish population in the town and several shops catering for them, I somehow didn't manage to get a photo of a sign in a foreign language (#16) and there were certainly no jugglers (#15) spotted.  A mascot (#12) seemed impossible and I never had a camera in my hand near a horn (#11). I didn't even manage to snap the substitute bird house (in my Mum's garden) all summer!

Still that's not a bad haul out of 21 objects, and I have had immense fun interpreting the prompts on my trips to Scotland and Derbyshire - plus I loved seeing all the fellow scavengers photos around the world.

If I include this attempt at a sort of sunrise one sleepless July night ...

#13 Sunrise

... and combine my holiday hunt with my everyday hunt, I did, in fact, manage the lot which isn't so disappointing after all! :-)

Spot The Horse

A few weeks ago saw the third Bloggers' Weekend, when I met up with some lovely fellow scrappers for a few days of cutting and sticking.  Our first get-together was back in November 2011 and I told the story of meeting up near Ironbridge here.  Our reunion (with a couple of new faces to make up for missing some of the original Telford Ten) happened in March 2013, and this year it fell to me to organise the third get-together.

Each time we've met, Ruth has challenged us to bring a set of "items" for  everyone else to include in a project ... so this year there were 12 random objects to be added to a page ... can you spot a flair badge, some scraps of silk and cotton fabric, a plastic key-ring, a heart-shaped button and bead, a brad, a paper tag, some baker's twine, a wood veneer cat, heart and horse?

The page is based on the September 1st sketch from Stuck! Sketches which was perfect for including so many elements (though I moved the journalling and split my title) and ties in with the autumnal September House Challenge over on UKSCrappers.  My bag of red paper scraps is a lot emptier now!

Not all of my objects matched my colour scheme, so I got inky and messy with the tag, the wooden heart and the cat.  I chopped the heart-shaped bead in two and coloured it and the button with a black Sharpie.  Meanwhile the orange cotton found its way inside the keyring fob and some silk helped cover up the brad. 

Are you still looking for the horse?  A careful decapitation and quadruple leg amputation transformed it into to a (blood-stained) arrow!!!

Three @ Seven

Welcome to the final post of the September CKCB Members' Blog Hop; if you didn't reach me from  Margie then you might want to start at the beginning with Lisa (the full hop list is here)

This month we had a choice of three challenges to use for the hop (#1 Make Your OWN Challenge , #2 Selfie Challenge, #3 Mixed Media Embellies).

I'm not great at taking selfies ... but it just so happened that I had a recent one to hand and some scrapping time at a recent scrappy retreat with my bloggy friends.  Perfect!

We three had just had a lovely meal at a restaurant called Seven!  My page is based on the sketch for the UKS Summer Scrapping Challenge #5 and uses my September Counterfeit Kit plus a few scraps of cardstock, Ruth's washi, Julie's ink and Fay's punches - the joys of scrapping with other people('s tools and supplies) nearby!

It was another short CKCB Members' Hop this month - why not join in yourself in October - EVERYone is welcome!

Short On Supplies

Sarah at S J Crafts asked us to do a page for her September Challenge: choose either black OR white, either doodling OR stamping and either washi OR ribbon/twine ...

... and that's almost all I did pick, because having doodled all over my white cardstock I didn't want to cover it up more than I had already!

I covered some scraps of white card in washi tape and punched various sized stars out of them to mount over and under the photos of No.2 Son struggling to cope in the sting ray pool at Discovery Cove in 2004.  For some reason the fabric of his swim shorts floated and billowed up like a skirt, which was rather distracting when he was trying to keep an eye on exactly where the sting rays had got to and not step on them!  I couldn't get a single relaxed, happy, facing-the-camera photo of him ... but the story still needed to be scrapped!

So that's white, doodling and washi (with some added embroidery thread, Round-a-bout dies and foam pads) from me for the S J Crafts challenge for September. 

ETA: Unfortunately, Sarah has decided not to continue with the challenges, but that doesn't need to stop you from having a go ... What would YOU choose? 

Welcome to ZIZO #37

As Rinda's Scavenger Hunt nears its close I thought I'd better get moving on the final few.  I have driven past a sign like this at least half a dozen times a week all summer, but it's never quite been convenient to stop safely and walk back to take a photo.  However on Friday, I was driving out the other side of the town on my way to a scrappy retreat with my blogging friends when I spotted the sign in my rear-view mirror.  There were no cars behind me and parking on the roadside was allowed so I guessed it was now or never for:

#1 A Sign Welcoming People To A Town Near Me

As I got closer for the photo I was intrigued to realise that the coat of arms thingy, wasn't!  My Zoom In reveals that it is a representation of the town hall!  The town council used to be for Crewe AND its neighbouring town Nantwich which explains the recent date of establishment when they became separate entities!  I'm linking up with Helena's 37th week and am off to look for the final few Scavenger Hunt items before Tuesday 23rd!

Zoom In Zoom Out #36

Another last minute ZIZO from me - just in time to join in with Helena's 36th week.  Hubby and I generally go for a walk around the village on a Sunday - it's a chance to chat quietly, get some fresh air, admire nature and get some exercise. 

Part of our route takes us through a very large field which this year is planted with corn ... of the maize variety!  It's prettier than we see in the greengrocers, with purple outer leaves and yellow tufts.  I think it's for cattle fodder rather than human consumption.

It's interesting to watch the crops grow week by week and always a shock to find that they've been harvested all of a sudden.  This week we picked blackberries from the hedgerows along the way.  I should have taken photos of my stained fingers - maybe next week's ZIZO?

Corking Chipboard Embellishments

Scrapbook Circle have exclusive cork chipboard die cuts in their August kit, being counterfeited by the CKCB this month.

I had just ONE cork embellishment - a plain pinked cork circle.
But I did have some chipboard frames, some cork patterned paper (from the Simple Stories 24/Seven 6x6 pad), some stamps and a few rub-ons ...

AND

... now I have my own set of exclusive "cork" embellishments!

Some are simply designs (stamps or rub-ons) added onto the cork paper and carefully cut out.  However to give them some depth I decide to cover some chipboard with the cork patterned paper.  It's really easy to do, especially if you have some precision files (mine are Basic Grey, but they are also sold very cheaply in DIY shops too) but sandpaper or an emery board will work for simple shapes:

Stick the chipboard face down onto the back of your cork patterned paper, making sure that the glue goes right to the edge of the chipboard.

Roughly cut away excess paper, leaving a little overhanging the edge of the chipboard.  Using fine sandpaper or a file/emery board, use downward strokes from the patterned side at an oblique angle along the edge of the chipboard (see photo). This will push the edge of the paper onto to the edge of the chipboard making a good seal and reveal the core of the patterned paper, softening the edge of the chipboard shape.

Use a precision file or folded-in-half-sandpaper to work on tight spaces where an emery board will not fit, remembering to keep filing down against the edge of the chipboard.  My precision file set has a round file which is perfect for the inside of curved edges and the inside of holes! Unfortunately, you  make an incredible dusty mess of paper filings but the results are worth it:

Back in 2010, I did a charity retreat class on several ways to decorate chipboard - the handout for which can be downloaded via a link at the bottom of this post.  Have fun!

There are more tutorials to help you counterfeit this month's kit over at the CKCB today.

Back To Scrapping With The CKCB

It's that time of the month again ... kit reveal ... with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. Which of course means a hop around the Master Forgers.  Did you start with our Guest Designer Tina and reach me from Stephanie?  Yes?!  Then you'll already have seen the kit-to-copy from Scrapbook Circle'e Island Paradise Kit for August, full of geometric patterns, filled with colour, a sprinkle of cork and loads of foxes ...

Well, I'm fresh out of foxes, but I did find something approaching the feel of the rest and put together my kit:

Supplies:
Simple Stories DIY Boutique Lovely (sequins)
and Outside The Box (ampersand cards)
Echo Park All About A Boy Games (spinners)
6x6 SS 24/Seven Snapshots (red/white dots) 
EP AAAB Journalling Card (blue pattern)
WRMK Teen Angst Punk (blue pattern)
Fancy Pants Childish Things Toy Box (green stripes)
6x6 SS Urban Traveller Grey Grid (brown grid)
and Bingo Card (striped reverse)
plus
Scenic Route Small Random Kraft alpha stickers
Yellow fibres

Counterfeited cork embellishments - tutorial coming on September 8th

Various 3x4 cards from Lesley's prize
Provo Craft Alphabetterz chipboard alphas

Hmmm!  Not exactly a faithful counterfeit, but you get the idea!

Next on the hop is our "newest" Master Forger Sherri who made a welcome return to our team last month as Guest Designer and has agreed to rejoin the Master Forgers.
If you get lost along the hop - the full list is on the CKCB here.  Have fun!

Zooming Towards The End Of Scavenging

Rinda is linking up the Scavengers again as the deadline draws ever closer.  I thought I'd better see how many I have left.

I nabbed this lovely lamppost fairly a while ago in my local town:

#17 A Lamppost

And as I'm still not brave or sneaky enough to get a stranger's tattoo shot, I asked my colleague to share with me:

#8 A Tattoo

I cannot imagine how painful that must have been to do on her side - well done to the tattoo artist for keeping the lines straight!

I already have a rural landscape, so this shot isn't for #7:

#3 Birds On A Wire

Zooming in a little you'll see that it's for those (elusive for many) birds on a wire!  Which allows me to join in with Helena's 35th week of ZIZO too :-D

However I still have SEVEN to go ... #1 A Welcome Sign, #6 An Urban Scene, #11 A Horn, #12 A Mascot, #15 A Juggler, #16 A Foreign Language Sign, #19 A Public Garden ...

August's Book - Hard To Swallow

August's been a lean month for reading: just Daine Setterfield's "The Thirteenth Tale".  This was a book I'd apparently given to my Mum, which she hadn't managed to get through!  I have no memory of that, so it must have been a while ago but I was up for a challenge!  However, I could quite see why she got bored with it, as the first half is uphill all the way with too many hints at secrets, too much atmospheric description and very little actually happening!  In the end it did acquire a bit more pace, but left me cold, despite a twist at the end.  Two narrators, two time-lines, two authors (Diane Setterfield and her character Vida Winter) ... to be expected in a book featuring twins I suppose.

Here's hoping that September's books are a little lot livelier!

Zoom In Zoom Out #34

A quick ZIZO from me - just in time to join in with Helena's 34th week.  Hubby had a Boxed Set of DVDs for his birthday.  Six series worth.  We're watching together; sort of.  I like to watch one episode at a time and think about it.  Although if it ends on a shock cliffhanger the temptation to carry on and watch another is huge.  Occasionally we succumb.  I draw the line at three episodes in a single sitting though, so occasionally I'm left behind if things have been particularly exciting.

It's lucky that a second viewing of an episode is apparently acceptable to Hubby as long as he doesn't have to wait too long.  We're on Season Four now and I cannot believe how much I have engaged with methamphetamine c(r)ooks and junkies.  Anti-heroes doesn't quite do them justice.  No.2 Son & Child No.3 keep telling me "It's not real Mum!" as I sit there urging Jesse not to do it!

Have you watched Breaking Bad?  Can you watch a boxed set slowly, an episode a night or do you binge on it, watching back to back episodes?

40 Love

Welcome to the start of August's Members' Blog Hop from the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog.  I chose the first challenge: to keep to just one layer for my project, adding only embellishments.

A friend turned 40 recently and I decided to send her a card made using Tagxedo:

Just one layer of printer ink ... glammed up with a few small crystals so that it can still be posted as a normal letter (the Royal Mail is annoyingly picky about all three dimensions).

I wonder which of this month's challenges will feature on the next stop on the hop: Tina's blog.

If you get lost whilst hopping the full order is published on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog today.

Raised From The Deep

Do you ever get frustrated that your holiday photos simply haven't worked?  Or realise whilst taking them that you haven't got the right lighting/vantage point/equipment/skills?
If in doubt buy a postcard!

This page uses two postcards from the Vasa Museum because, although I took lots of photos of the ship and the surrounding museum exhibits, I simply couldn't get the whole ship in my viewfinder!

My page started life as Sketch 'n' Scrap's sketch #62 but I merged the lower two photos to accommodate my second postcard!

Then, as is my habit with sketches, I decided to put the journalling elsewhere and tucked it behind the top postcard with a chevron pull and added more chevrons to mimic the sinking of the ship on its maiden voyage!

Back when I worked in Sweden, the Vasa was in the final stages of nearly 20 years of preservation work, having been raised from the harbour bed in 1962.  I missed seeing it then, so I was really excited to visit the museum last year and it did not disappoint - though it's best not to visit on a day when the huge cruise liners have already unloaded hundreds thousands of tourists! Luckily, having seen the enormous queues, we had the time to change our sightseeing plans and returned early the next day!

Supplies are from my August Counterfeit Kit, including some blinged up children's stickers I showed here on the CKCB. 

Zoom In Zoom Out #33

Another weekend away ZIZO from me today.  In fact I have two for you.  We met up with friends from Holland holidaying on the South Coast of England.  We split the distance between our house and their campsite by meeting up at Stonehenge!  It's probably 40 years since Hubby and I last visited and things have changed (several times).  There is a newly opened English Heritage Visitor Centre which explains some of the timelines, artefacts and theories around the stones and has models with "Please Do Touch" signs!

It's a nice detail, especially as you cannot feel the real thing, nor even walk amongst the stones (except by paying extra and booking ahead or joining in with the solstice celebrations).  Instead, regular tourists are driven (or can walk) up to the ancient henge and can then walk around the stones at their own pace, listening to hand-held multi-lingual audio guides.  With millions visiting every year it's important to manage the tourist flow and allow everyone a clear view to take their "selfies" proving that they were there!  I even saw a pair of girls take turns with a selfie-stick ... and wondered why they couldn't just ask each other to take the photo?!?

I'm glad we had free entry with National Trust membership as the price is pretty steep otherwise.  We took our friends over to Avebury after lunch so that they could get up close and personal with sarsen stones erected around the same time as Stonehenge ... for free!

See that large rock nearest the foot of the path ...

... that's us in front of it!  It was quite mind boggling to realise that we were touching a rock of that size that was put there 5000 years ago with nothing but primitive tools and manpower!

I wonder what other spectacles people have zoomed in on with Helena ... check out week #33 here.

Little BIG Brother

My latest page with my current Counterfeit Kit* fits the final challenge this month over at the CKCB because I have incorporated some vellum.  Not just any vellum, but Crate's Boys Rule Starry vellum ... the final scraps.  I received a full 12x12 sheet of it with my DT package from S J Crafts back in February and it has featured its loveliness on four or five pages now.  It makes me sad that there is none left, but one look at my pages and I am happy, especially when I look at this one:

The photo is from our Disney 2004 holiday which was full of photo opportunities and there isn't always much to say about them other than where we were or what day it was.  However, when I looked closely I realised that this photo represented No.2 Son's ability to put others first, especially his little sister and I felt that some journalling was required to celebrate his thoughtfulness.

Which also ties in nicely with Merly Impressions current challenge to tell a story on the front of your page.

*I have added a couple of papers from MME's 6x6 Cut & Paste Charm pad allowing me to use  smaller versions of the 3x4 cards in my kit and grabbed some white BG Chocolate Chip and Woodware Chippies alphas for a contrasting title.