Lock At This!

Welcome to the start of the November Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Members' Hop.  I sort of joined in with Challenge #2 - A Walk In The Woods - though you can't see into the woods and we sailed more than walked ... ;-)

My November Counterfeit Kit had an interesting patterned paper for locks and I got busy with scraps to add some extra tags.  Hubby & I enjoyed operating the locks on our 30th Anniversary canal cruise - the photo was taken by No.1 Son's fiancée while he steered the boat between the gates.

Next on the hop is our lovely and talented Guest Designer for November Dawn.  The full hop list is published on the CKCB today if you get lost on your travels.

I should Cocoa

Happy First of the Month!
Which around here means that it's reveal time at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. We started with Dawn, our Guest Designer, and you will have seen everyone else including Susanne as I'm the last in line.

This month the kit-to-copy is Cocoa Daisy's City Park.

A lovely autumnal set of papers, and I knew I had one themed paper in my stash ... so that was the basis of my whole kit!  Unfortunately as it was a freebie from a retreat give-away pile, I have NO idea who the manufacturer is.

Supplies:
MME Bloom & Grow "Bloom" Vines (yellow vine reverse)
Carolees Creations Little Things Dot
The two unknown sheets!
Simple Stories Awesome Collection Flash Cards & Bingo Cards
Allison Kret Sprinled With Love By Your Side (love-birds reverse)
Various tags and journal cards from my stash
Papermania rub-on alphas
K&CO rub-ons
MME Follow Your Heart gems
Autumnal coloured brads

Next on the hop is Kelly (who chose the lovely kit) - take a look why don't you?!

Wonderful, wonderful ...

Welcome to the final post of the October CKCB Members' Blog Hop; if you didn't reach me from Raelene then you might want to start at the beginning with Lisa (the full hop list is here).  We had a choice of three challenges to use for the hop (#1 Snip, Snip! , #2 Balance The Scale, #3 Paying Dress Up) or indeed, anything made from this month's kit.  I've already joined in with #2 with this page, and decided to finish off the Danish part of my Scandinavian road trip album by putting the remaining Copenhagen photos onto a double page spread:

Despite putting loads of navy alphas into my October Counterfeit kit, I didn't have enough letters to spell Copenhagen ... so two "3"s had to do duty as "E"s and that "A" is an upside down "V" with a cleverly positioned heart ... my thanks to Lesley for suggesting this!

I've room for a little journalling with some memories of a lovely foot and bicycle friendly city with a wide range of things to see and do.

We'd love it if you joined in next month's hop, so why not keep an eye out for November's  Kit-to-copy on November 1st and sign up by November 18th.

Size Matters!

Challenge 2 at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog this month introduced me to an intriguing way to think about the colours on your page:  the "gallon-quart-pint" strategy.  So I took a gallon of white, a quart of yellow and a couple of half-pints of grey and navy from my October Counterfeit Kit to make a page about Hubby's recent birthday bottle of beer:

I made the page last month at a Scrappy Retreat where one of the challenges was to use just 5 items of stash apart from the photo(s) ... so that's 1 sheet of cardstock, 2 sheets of patterned paper (the grey and the grid are the reverse of the yellow papers), 1 navy alphabet and 1 yellow flair button!  There was a fair bit of behind the scenes paper and card gutting involved :-)

And FYI that bottle contains 3 litres i.e. over 3 (US) quarts of beer! 
P.S. Who knew US quarts were smaller from UK ones? Not me!!

Pass The Page 2016

Each year in the run up to our Scrappy Retreat my good friend Julie organises a Pass the Page to get us in the creative mood.  This year my inspiration page came from Alison:

I took a look at the doily, circles and frame, repeated elements, arrows and top right title to produce a page for my Edinburgh holiday album:

My first time ever in Scotland so there were several photos taken on the border with England.

I then passed my page on to Missuss Wookie who took it somewhere completely new ... why not pop over and take a look.

Collecting A Kit

Welcome to another month of kit counterfeiting with the Counterfeit kit Challenge Blog.  This month we have Kelly, our Guest Designer,  to start us off  with her counterfeit of the Indigo Hills collection from Pinkfresh Studio.

If you have been hopping along you'll already have seen what the lovely Susanne did with the inspiration kit and now it's my turn.  It was far too painty and blotchy for me to counterfeit too closely, so (ignoring the pastel pink) I went with a colour match!

Those blues and blacks reminded me of some papers from Teresa Collins Urban Market collection ... which I just happen to have in 6x6 format.  I selected some sheets from that and added some yellow accents from a Sn@p! Colour Vibe pad.

I haven't used buttons much recently so they'll feature this month!

Supplies:
6x6 Urban Market papers - Damask, Floral, Collage, Subway, Circles and Dots
6x6 Sn@p! Colour Vibe 1 sheets
Blue & Yellow buttons
My Little Shoebox grey alphas
Navy alphas by Sn@p! studio
Navy alphas
Grey alphas

No excuse to run out of letters for my titles!

Now let's see what Master Forger Kelly makes of forging a collection - Happy hopping :-)

PURRfectly Placed

Welcome to the start of the September Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Members' Hop.  I went rogue with the prompts this month and did my own thing with an old photo from 2014:

The photo seemed made for the colours in my  my September Counterfeit Kit ... wouldn't you agree?  The perspective makes those Bengal kittens look huge, but they were teeny back in 2014.  Child No.3 was in kitty heaven!

Next on the hop is a brand new member of our Counterfeiting Club, so please pop over and give a very warm welcome to  Anne.  The full hop list is published on the CKCB today if you get lost on your travels.

Picking Up The (Paper) Pieces

Dear Reader

You may have noticed a tailing off with blog posting here.  Guilty as charged.  The creating is still happening, but the photographing and sharing has not been so regular.  I'm determined to get back into it a little. Please feel free to hold me to account!  Part of the reason for my improved enthusiasm is that I've just spent a weekend with a bunch of scrappy ladies, most of whom I met through blogging.  Those that don't blog either used to or know those that do/did!  I wouldn't have had the pleasure of their company, with great cake too, if it hadn't been for this little corner of the Blogosphere.  I'm determined not to let it die out.  I need to reconnect with my friends' blogs too.

Anyway - here are a couple of pages made with my September Counterfeit Kit over the weekend - both of which are from holidays long past.  The first page is from our Disney 2004 trip to Discovery Cove.  I've already scrapped the reasons we went there in this post from 2013 so there's no extra journalling (yet).  Another reason I must finish this holiday album is that the memories not yet scrapped are fading!  Paint and stitching allowed me to join in with a Hey Little Magpie (Facebook) Challenge.

I set my fellow retreaters the challenge of using a September 2016 Pagemaps sketch - and the hexagons were pretty useful at obscuring disctractions in the foreground of my photo!

Pagemaps Sept 2016

The second page I made from the kit this weekend also used a sketch - from new UK Kit Supplier Turtle Crafts.  My friend Sue is on their DT and always gives good sketch!

Again journalling was non-existant - I need to write something on there, but a happy, chatty retreat with lots of banter isn't a great place to gather your thoughts for a page!

So, dear reader, thank you for still being here, I will be back soon I promise.

Felicitations!

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.  This month we started with our Guest Designer, Nicole, and you should have reached me from Susanne.

This month the kit-to-copy, Felicity Jane's August Kit, called "Maggie", was a beautiful combo of orange and blue, black and white, stripes, plaid and florals ...

Last month's kit featured pastel blue,so when I spotted a combination of orange and green stripes in my stash, I decided to go off at a slight tangent.  For some reason all my stripes are diagonals!

Supplies:
MAMBI black & white plaid pattern (from 2004!!!)
Orange striped paper
Puddle Jumper from Pink Paisle's Hello Sunshine collection (green drops reverse)
MME's Now & Then Izzy Smile Bloom (green dots) and Smile Regard (tesselated cards)
BG Typeset Crop Marks (plain green)
White Paisley by Doodlebug
6x6 sheet from Studio Calico's Thataway pad

Various journalling cards, scraps and ribbons from my stash
MME Lush brads
Orange striped washi
Scalloped border punch and some scallop-punched borders 
American Crafts Remarks alpha stickers in black & white
Sn@p! Studio Orange alphas

Next on the hop is the lovely Julene so please pop "down under" to see what she has to offer!
If you get lost along the hop - the full list is on the CKCB here.  Have fun!

Aperto for Business!

Welcome to the final post of the August CKCB Members' Blog Hop; if you didn't reach me from Salla then you might want to start at the beginning with Lisa (the full hop list is here).  We had  a choice of three challenges to use for the hop (#1 Happy Sandcastle Day, #2 Outside The Stash, #3 Sounds Foreign To Me) or indeed, anything made from this month's kit.

Using my August Counterfeit Kit, I used Italian to title my double page spread about a surprise tour of an Italian castle!:

The blues and browns of the kit were the perfect mix for both interior and exterior shots of the Catello di Torre Alfina.  We've visited this quirky town many times over the years - it has an excellent Gelateria!  The castle, however, has always been a mystery.  Never open to the public.  Until this time!

We don't read or speak Italian so we weren't quite sure if we were allowed through the open door ... but others were wandering around taking photos so we joined in!

People then started gathering around a staff member, but we still had no idea what was going on and hoped we wouldn't get chucked out.  However, another member of staff worked out that we were "foreign" and we ended up having a private tour for two of the newly-opened-for-occasional-tours castle!

We were so happy that we'd been cheeky and walked through the green door ... it was a fabulous experience.

I hope you enjoyed the CKCB Members' Hop this month - why not join with a page next time?

A Germane Kit to Copy!

Kit reveal time again ... with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog's hop around the Master Forgers' blogs.  We started with our Master Forger Karen and I'm a hop away from Susanne.

This month it was Lisa's turn to choose a kit and, appropriately enought, the kit-to-copy came from Germany: Papier Werkstadt's March Kit.

A lovely muted kit, full of neutrals plus hints of pastels.  I started leafing through my papers to find kraft/white patterns, but spotted a trio of Basic Grey's Scarlett's Letter that I'd been saving ... and decided that they could work as a starting point.  I added a couple more modern neutrals from Crate Paper's The Pier pad and then added some hints of pale blue ... no suprise that pale pink didn't feature!  Well actually, it is there on a pattern reverse that will NOT be being used!

Supplies:
Crate Paper's The Pier (numbers)
Daisy Bucket Star KissedStardust (fawn reverse)
My Little Shoebox In Bloom Botanical (floral reverse - the pink one!)
Unknown damask pattern
Crate Paper Maggie Holmes (interlocking circles)
Crate Paper's The Pier (chevrons)
Confession, Pearl and Desire from Basic Grey Scarlett's Letter Collection
Paper Salon Enamoured's Iron Gates, Blue Scrolls and Floral
Scenic Route Small Random Kraft alphas
Crate Paper Story Teller alphas
Unknown brown and blue alphas
MME Follow Your Heart decorative brads
WRMK enamel shapes
Paper Salon cardstock stickers
Basic Grey cream rub-ons
Bo Bunny brown rub-ons
Home made paper rosettes

Next on the hop we are welcoming the lovely Julene back from her holidays. If you get lost along the hop - the full list is on the CKCB here.  Have fun!

High Five!

Welcome to the start of the July Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Members' Hop.

I've picked Challenge #2: Inspired by Cool Waters in Hot Weather for my hop page this month - which was pretty easy as my July Counterfeit Kit had some patterned paper with a wonderful mix of cool and hot colours along with cool dotty overlays and warm rub-ons.

I've used the July sketch from at Sue's @ Me & Mine which is a great one for scrappy scrapping.

The photo is from my local crop's 5th anniversary photo earlier this year - we are indeed a happy bunch!

Next on the hop is this month's Guest Designer - Gretchen.  The full hop list is published on the CKCB today.

Forging Friendships

It's Challenge #3 today over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog and we're taking inspiration from word/number puzzles.
There was some crossword paper in this month's Kit-to-Copy but unfortunately, that wasn't something I counterfeited faithfully in my version this time!
Instead I used a crossword style grid to form my title on this page made at my monthly crop.

The lovely photo was a selfie taken with fellow Master Forgers Lisa (on a visit to the UK from her home in Germany) and Lesley (who lives about half an hour's drive away from me).

I love the way that scrapbooking has enriched my life.  I have made friends locally thanks to our monthly crop and blogging about my pages led me to the CKCB which has brought both real and "virtual" friends as well.

Check out the CKCB today to see how the other Master Forgers interpreted this challenge (I've already seen Lesley's page as she was busy with it at the beginning of the month as well).

Bee-ing Busy

Every month at the CKCB we counterfeit the Kit-to-Copy by choosing similar papers and embellishments and sometimes make our own versions when we don't have anything appropriate to hand.

When I first looked at the this month's inspiration from Scrapbook & Cards Today I almost missed the cute bee stickers - but when I spotted one in use on this lovely card from Amy Sheffer, I thought "I can make that!" and got to work!!

I grabbed two punches and an alphabet die ...

I discarded the butterfly wings as I was only interested in the antennae ... and punched two replacement wings with a heart punch.  The bee's body is made from yellow card and the centre of an "o" die!  A black pen was all that was needed for some stripes and the "head", followed by some Glossy Accents to give the body a shiny sticker-like surface.

BUT ... leave time for the ink to dry before applying the liquid glaze or you'll end up with smudgy stripes!  And of course set the body aside for at least an hour to allow the glaze to dry fully before assembly:

There will be lots more ideas for forging this month's Kit-to-Copy in our Fogeries on the Fourth Post today.  Why not have a go yourself?!

UKS Snappy Scrapping

There's a new challenge on the block ... the Summer Snap! over on UKScrappers ... here's the list of photos I need to collect:

vapour trails or clouds a horse drawn vehicle flowers in bloom a summer job in the garden something typifying your holiday destination, or your home town if you are planning a staycation hats ice cream kites or balloons bubbles ducks, swans or seabirds

summer sunrise or sunset eating al fresco somewhere you would only visit when the sun shines flags or bunting summer shoes fruit growing, in the garden, on a tree, or in the hedgerow water umbrellas glasses fete, fair or festival

Substitutes are allowed:

Play Anything in your favourite colour

Something that made you smile Friends

Just girls or Just boys

And the and the scrappy challenges that follow:

1. a layout featuring at least 6 of your photos from the list
2. a page using one large photo from the list
3. scrap a picture of you, the photographer 

Looks like fun! Oh and I nearly forgot to mention ... there are prizes :-)

D'you like a July Kit?

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.  We started with Gretchen, our Guest Designer, and you will have seen everyone else including Susanne as I'm the last in line.

This month the kit-to-copy, from S&CT is 2015's Crop & Create Delivered - Heat Wave.

A lovely summery set of papers, none of which I has ... so I looked out some dots and chevrons, some clouds and text, in reds, blacks, teal and especially bright sunshiny yellow!

Supplies:
Crate Paper's Little Bo Peep Matilda (green floral reverse)
MME Jack & Jill "Life Is Good" Serene Spots (green  floral)
½ sheet Boutique Newspaper (yellow) from Simple Stories DIY Boutique
Hambly Screen Prints teal Mod Circles
Roundabout from Bella Blvd's Pack Your Bags
2 6x6 sheets from MME Cut & Paste Charm pad
Boutique Polka (red) from SS DIY Boutique
Various washis from my stash
Grey and yellow Thickers
K&Co Rub-ons
Home-made bees (details on the 4th)
Yellow buttons (to replace the enamel dots)
Various 2x3 cards from my stash
7 Dots Studio Illumination Elements

Not a close match, but one I can work with!  Plus I dug out some really ancient stash to use up - RESULT!
That's the end of the Master Forger Hop for July - if you're joining in this month, please link up and share.

If at first ...

Welcome to the not-quite-final post of the June CKCB Members' Blog Hop; if you didn't reach me from Roxanne then you might want to start at the beginning with Lisa (the full hop list is here).  We had a choice of three challenges to use for the hop (#1 Inspiration Board, #2 In Quotes, #3 Everything Old Is New Again) or indeed, anything made from this month's kit.

Using my June Counterfeit Kit, I gave a nod to challenge #2 with a humourous take on an old saying:

Having tried (and tried) to get a good shot of Hubby, No.2 Son and Child No.3 before their patience ran out during a birthday meal, I was disappointed to find that not one of the photos was even half-decent of all three of them!  Each one had at least one person moving, blinking talking or drinking!  So I used them all!
I certainly didn't have enough white alphas in my kit for the title, so I broke out some ancient Making Memories rub-ons to help me out.

I'm not quite the end of the hop this month - please welcome a newcomer to the CKCB: Princy

Bustin' Out My June Kit

Welcome to another month of kit counterfeiting with the Counterfeit kit Challenge Blog.  Having started last month's reveal, I'm bringing up the rear this time - so you should have seen everyone else's efforts already ... including our Guest Designer Salla ... and found my blog via the lovely Susanne.  If so, you'll have seen loads of photos of the Kit-to-Copy, the Hip Kit Club May 2016 Kit and all the add-ons and extras.

Whenever I start counterfeiting, I look to see if I have anything (similar) from the original kit.   
Yes - I had some Jillibean Soup mini placemats from the PL Kit and some wood veneers from the main.
The patterns ar ethe next pointer for forgery:  words on a page ... dots ... patterned stripes ... florals ... triangles ...
Yes - I had some bright text-covered paper, loads of dotty patterns, some navy striped paper I could embellish, some matching florals and some triangular brads!
After that I add to what I've already selected, keeping an  eye on the colours ... there was plenty of pink in last month's kit, so this time I concentrated on the turquoise!  Here's my mini-kit:

Supplies:
Freeze Frame (frames), Who's To Say (floral), Chevron/Teal (chevron) from SS DIY Boutique
Some polka dot paper from a giveaway pile
6x6 Sheets of MME Now & Then Izzy paper Smart/Boys (keys) and Frolic/Happenings (orange pattern) which is now a forgery of a Hip Kit Club Exclusive (see Forgeries on the Fourth for details)
Jillibean Soup Mini Placemats - Smile
Triangular brads in various colours
Navy/white arrow washi tape
KI Memories Softies (random extra - to use them up!)
Creative Memories Stencil alpha stickers
Gin XCollege Navy and Chotchkie White rub-on alphas
Wood veneers from my stash

Total effect ... not a lot like the original, but definitely usable, and some seriously old stash busted out of storage!!

The full list of Master Forgeries is available on the CKCB today if you fancy joining in.

Snappy Scrapping

Welcome to the start of the May Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Members' Hop.  I picked Challenge #3: Escher Effects for my hop page this month - i.e. to use tessellation in my layout design with a photo from Gatorland back in 2004:

This was quick to do and brilliant for using up the scraps from my May Counterfeit Kit ... as well as creating more scraps if I'm honest!  I hadn't used any of the gold thread I'd included in my kit, so I decided to add a dash of inspiration from both UKScrappers (this week's challenge) and Whimsical Musings (WM#208 to incorporate string art) and added gold threads between my patchwork pieces.

Next on the hop is a regular contributor in our Counterfeit family - Tina.  The full hop list is published on the CKCB today.

A Perfect 10

I squeezed in with a late layout from my April Counterfeit Kit, so it seems only fair to be really early with my first page from May's kit!  Especially as it was an example page for my UKScrappers Team Challenge which went live this morning!  We are scrapping a treasure, with journalling to tell the story (10+ lines or 30+ words) and some bling!

I recently completed my 10th blood donation and the NHSBT sent me a badge to commemorate it!  Ten donations isn't that big a deal (there was a man giving for the 108th time at my 10th session), but it's progress.  You see, I thought that my blood was only useful for research purposes following jaundice in my early childhood.  However, that certainly is no longer the case, as I discovered when keeping Child No.3 company for her first donation.  To make up for lost time, I've been donating as quickly as possible ever since!

I've used the May Sketch from the FB Sketchy Scrappers Group to make this special page for my Book Of Me using my May Counterfeit Kit (including home-made enamel dots - see the upcoming CKCB Forgeries On The Fourth for details).