Sketching with Sue Again

Sue at Me & Mine posts a monthly sketch challenge which is always fun to join in with.

On top of that my crop buddy Gill challenged me to do a page where nothing was straight ... I nearly managed it!!

And this week UKScrappers has a challenge from my retreat buddy Ruth who wanted us to use enamel dots (enamel shapes count I'm sure), handwriting journalling (a date is journalling), old stash (well my March counterfeit kit is full of OLD stash), plain cardstock, individual alphas, and fussy cutting (not that fussy, but my frames were home-made)!

Looking back at Sue's original sketch ... I have yet again strayed miles off the beaten track, but I'm happy with the page!

Frohe Ostern

I had a wonderful time on Wednesday, meeting up with my fellow Master Forger Lisa who was visiting from Germany ... and taking her to lunch with an ex-Master Forger who just happens to live nearby, Lesley! 

And it was delicious thanks Lesley!

Lisa didn't come empty handed either, as I'd recently won a prize on the Whimsical Musings challenge blog that she runs.  So much nicer to have it hand-delivered.  Thanks Lisa

And of course we had to take a photo to mark the occasion.  There were phone selfies, but this was taken with my conventional camera, Lesley's (short) tripod and the self-timer that took rather longer than expected to fire ... the out-takes may yet make it onto a page!!

Happy Easter to all my friends, real and virtual!!!

Making the Most of My Kit

Welcome to the start of the March Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Members' Hop .  I didn't join in with the challenges this month, but took inspiration from fellow Master Forger Lisa's Whimsical Musings blog and used up some eyelets (WM#203).

I'm obviously out of practice because one or two got a bit squashed ... Making Memories made the hardest eyelets ever!!!!  The photos are ancient ones from 2004 and mean that I am very nearly finished with our Disney album ... but not quite.  We had a smashing if noisy airboat ride around Lake Tohopekaliga looking for crocodilian wildlife ... it dawned on me after doing the title that technically these were the alligator branch of the family!!  I added some toning washi tapes to just one sheet of 6x6 paper and one 4x6 tag from my March Counterfeit Kit ... it'll never get used up at this rate!

Next on the hop is a newcomer to our Counterfeit family, so please give her a warm welcome and plenty of comment lurve by popping over to see Sally.  The full hop list is published on the CKCB today.

Going, going, GONE!

Well that's another fabulous retreat over and done with - thank you Lesley.  I've laughed (with friends from near and far) and cried (over Rosie's beautiful quilt) and won (a prize in the raffle) and lost (my way to the car park ramp) and scrapped (five and a half pages) and punched (a film strip for Pauline) and eaten (too much) and drank (rather less).

Here's a page I made for one of the challenges - a sketch - which also ties in with last week's weekly challenge over on UKScrappers (using aquamarine, 3 of something - the rings, 7 of something - the tiny eyelets and incorporating water - the waves of the Kasiercraft Offshore patterned papers)!

Child No.3 recently shaved off her hair to raise money for Macmillan's, a cancer hospice charity ... and when I say shaved, I mean right down to a #1 setting!  Her original target of £250 has been smashed ... many thanks to everyone who has donated so far.

Hot Stuff

It's been a while since I hand-stitched on a layout ... possibly because I got a bit fed up with making this page!  I'm not quite sure what possessed me to think that it was a good idea to stitch 6 giant circles onto black cardstock?!  I started towards the end of a lovely scrapbooking retreat organised by my dear friend Lesley this time last year as I had packed most of my scrappy stash away, ready to leave.

The photo was taken inside Edinburgh's Camera Obscura which is full of all sorts of interesting illusions and optical wonders, including this thermal imaging screen.

I'm away this weekend on another of Lesley's retreats ... so maybe I'll get my needle and threads out for some smaller shapes!

Clickety 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.  Did you see that we welcomed back a former Master Forger as our Guest Designer?  The hop started with Lesley and I'm fourth in line after  Clair.

This month the kit-to-copy, from Ali Edwards' 'Click' Story, was devoid of patterned paper causing quite a few headaches amongst the team!

As I am NOT a pocket scrapbooker I decided to make a traditional kit, but resolved to only use papers from my scraps bag or 6x6 pads and include as many journalling cards as I could match to the orange/green/black/white theme of the original:

So barely any resemblance to the original, but I need something I can scrap with LOL
I'm also going to try and use EYELETS this month following a discussion with the Whimsical Musings crew.

Next on the hop is the lovely Julene who may be sharing a more accurate forgery, but then again, perhaps not?!?!?  If you get lost along the hop - the full list is on the CKCB here.  Have fun!