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? 

Space Age Scrapping With A Sketch

Today it's Challenge #2 at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog and we're playing with a sketch.  I'd say it was a card sketch myself (the word "sentiment" being my clue LOL) but I've adapted it for a simple page for our Disney 2004 album, putting my title where the sentiment should be.

Supplies are from my August Counterfeit Kit with the addition of a couple of toning paper scraps for the title (cut with Sizzlit Man O Man dies) and the chevrons (cut with fellow Master Forger Lesley's lovely chevron punch).

Thanks Lesley!

While you're here, let me share the new challenge from S J Crafts blog this month: to scrap a holiday or travel using old and new stash.  Being a seasoned kit counterfeiter, I'm constantly mixing old and new supplies in my kits and this month's Counterfeit Kit was no exception, so I chose some more photos from our Disney 2004 trip and got scrapping.

The journalling describes how No.2 Son wanted to re-ride the Duelling Dragons, but his elder brother wimped out and Hubby was sick ... leaving one very-scared-of-heights-mum with a dilemma: disappoint him or keep him company?
.

I rode the coaster!
I've combined new-to-me MME papers from last summer with Basic Grey alphas from their 2009 Marrakech collection and topped it off with some ThermoMorph* dots made by yours truly just last month!

The S J Crafts challenge is open until September 6th if you want to join in and kit counterfeiters are welcome to join our Members' Blog hop - just e-mail the CKCB by August 18th!

*my ThermoMorph review is here ... still working on a post about making the dots though :-D

Not Left Out

I've been challenge combining again for my first page with this month's counterfeit kit.

This time I've taken inspiration from the June sketch over at Sue's blog (she publishes a prize sketch every month if you fancy joining in) and the July challenge criteria over at S J Crafts ... to pick 1 each of shape, colour, phrase/theme from 5 choices ...

... and to tell the story of last year's Easter Egg Hunt that almost didn't happen!!!

As No.1 & No.2 Son were both occupied elsewhere during the Easter holidays, I'd thought that Child No.3 wouldn't be bothered with our usual garden hunt for plastic eggs filled with clues to the whereabouts of something large and chocolatey ...

... but when I saw her looking expectantly out of the window on Easter morning, trying to spot her pink and purple plastic eggs I realised my mistake!  Luckily I was able to set up the hunt in Granny's garden instead and nobody was any the wiser ... until today :-)

The title has been cut with Sizzix Round-a-Bout dies and outlined with my journalling pen and the subtitle has been Dymo-punched with whitewash coredinations.  I'll let you into another secret too (those three squares and the clear letter stickers are covering up an unfortunate bare tummy and an ugly piece of metal  on the wall - funny how these imperfections influence the final page isn't it?!)

Project 12 2014

A while back I was lucky enough to get the Hello My Name Is collection pack from S J Crafts to play with.  You can see how I started to cut into the collection at the S J Crafts blog. 

I've produced three singles and one double from the collection already (here, here, here and here) but I'd kept back the names of the months sheet and the scraps to use on my "Project 12" pages for 2014.

This year I'm scrapping one photo for each month along with notes about our doings ... and squashing two months onto a page.  Here are January & February (minus the journalling).

I'll add more embellishments if there's space after I've journalled!  I had photos ready for March & April too so they were next.

Although I didn't have a photo ready for May I pressed on with (nearly) all the remaining months. It was actually quicker preparing them without worrying about the photos; I'm sure things will work out later in the year.  These pages will fit into two double page protectors that take two 12x12 layouts on each side, leaving me space for a 2014 front page and a page of extra photos too ... I have plenty of scraps left from the collection.  Which ties in nicely with Jennifer Grace's challenge to let yourself go ... create without worrying about the ends result (yet)!

One more? Five more!  :-D

Do you ever prepare pages before you have the photos ready?  Or are you a photo first scrapper?

Västerås

This weekend our scrapbook crop had a sleepover - we scrapped from 10 am on Saturday to 12noon on Sunday.  There were delicious cakes, great company, plenty of laughs and dozens of layouts were made between us.  This isn't one of them though!

 

I rarely "finish" a page at the crop because I like to double check the journalling, dates etc, may have the "perfect" extra embellishment at home or decide that what the page really needs is a touch of machine sewing!  However, I was using papers from this collection (Teresa Collins "My Name Is") and remembered that I had yet to share this one on my blog:

The photos are of three very different toweres in Västerås (the Swedish town I used to work in).  The first two (the cathedral and town hall) were unchanged, but parts of the city centre were filled with unrecognisable glass covered architecture.  Not really surprising after thirty years I suppose!

Zoom In Zoom Out #22

It's been another birthday weekend chez moi ... and this time I managed an appropriate card in time so I'll zoom in on it (and the cute hand drawn Samwise Gamgee tag that Child No.3 put on her gift to her father).

My card is  *not* one that needs to fit in an envelope, though it probably would fold flat enough!  The colour scheme was dictated by the June challenge over at S J Crafts ... check out the lovely examples from my fellow DT members.  I've also added a brief explanation of how I made my balloon (inspired by this amazing project) on the June Challenge post ... *and* Sarah has generously put a prize up for grabs again!

22/52 ZIZOs joined in with so far ... VERY good going for me!  It should be even easier to keep up for the next couple of months as I'll be out and about with my camera joining in with Rinda's 2014 Summertime Scavenger Hunt which launched on June 1st.  Anyone else joining in?

Fancy A Challenge?

Today's the day for a wealth of scrapbooking challenges - worldwide!  Thanks to {Inter}National Scrapbooking Day.  In fact I'm spoilt for choice and have been busy challenge combining to cope!

First of all I wanted to make a fresh example page for MY challenge over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog.  The post already has three of my older pages to illustrate the challenge colour palette but I had some photos of Child No.3 that were crying out to be scrapped in BLACK / WHITE / GREY and shades of ONE other COLOUR ...

The girls dressed up to attend an Emilie Autumn concert and Child No.3 paid extra to get VIP access to her heroine.  I reckoned that the May sketch (#56) by Lisa over at Sketch~N~Scrap could be adapted to suit one large and one small photo and Scrapbook Generation have also got a call out for a monochromatic page ...

Finally I had another go with S J Crafts' Bingo Grid Challenge for May; this time using the middle vertical line of Border Punch (EK Success ledger and cheese-hole), Metal Embellishment (brads) and Torn Paper (well vellum actually).  Supplies are just scraps from my crop box plus a Webster's Pages transparency, a button, BG White Chocolate Chip alphas, some gems from my crop friend Jacqui and an old home-made voile flower I found in my craft room drawers.

Weirdly, I'm posting this at midnight my time, but 4pm over with my friends at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog who are continuing with fun challenges all weekend. Please join them while I get some sleep!

Transparent, Metal, Stamp!

Happy {Inter}National Scrapbooking Day!

I'm playing at my monthly crop today, having fun with some {I}NSD challenges in very good company.  There may also be cake!
Yum :-)

One of the things I'll be sharing with my friends is this Bingo Grid from S J Crafts: their inspirational challenge for May.  Pick a line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and include those elements in a project.

I used the middle row to create another page for our Disney 2004 album: Child No.3 gurning* in the "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" playground at Disney MGM Studios (now known as Hollywood Studios I believe).  She didn't know anything about that movie but "A Bug's Life" was BIG at the time and she had a ball playing in amongst the giant blades of grass, spiders' webs and riding on ants.

My supplies were almost all from S J Crafts March 2014 Kit (full of 7 Dots Studio Illumination loveliness).  The transparent items were clever black & white stickers from a pack of Simple Stories Insta Clear Word Stickers, the metal was the Prima word "Explore" from the kit and the title uses my own Banana Frog Pharmacy stamps.

If you fancy choosing a winning line (or want to see what the rest of the S J Crafts DT picked) ... nip over to S J Crafts Blog and play along - closing date May 30th.
P.S. There is a prize up for grabs too :-)

* Gurning: well not really but still a funny face don't you think?

Home Sweet Home

Welcome to the start of April's Members' Blog Hop from the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog .  I chose the third challenge this month to use a BIG title on my layout.

Forgive the pun, but I couldn't resist it for these snaps of where I used to live in Sweden ... we did a little trip down two memory lanes during our Scandinavian tour last summer.  I'd never lived in a flat before but both were rather comfy, warm (triple-glazed against the Swedish winters) and not too high (no lifts)!  I've added arrows and addresses since photographing the page.

I used up the blue patterned paper from my April Counterfeit Kit with frame & border stamps to create larger frames for my photos. The title is made from Sizzlits Boys Will Be Boys dies and Scenic Route chipboard alphas; I've added a flair badge made by Lesley and some SC veneer stars.

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.

P.S. There's still time to have a go with the S J Crafts April Challenge and be in with a chance of a prize ... check it out ... plus the winner & favourites from March's challenge has just been announced here!

Matchstick Museum

Hubby had a must-do on our Scandinavian road trip last year and I had a must-see: I wanted to visit the match museum in Jönköping! Not that I'm an arsonist with a fascination for matches, you understand.  No!  The one thing that I could remember learning about Sweden in school Geography lessons was that matches were manufactured in Jönköping.  Only I pronounced it "John-coping" in those days because I didn't speak any Swedish; nowadays I know that it's pronounced "Yearn-shurping".  I spotted the name when planning our route between Malmö and Västerås and when I saw that there was now a match museum instead of a factory it seemed an ideal place to break our journey.

I have a thing for mechanised processes and was fascinated by the match dipping, drying and boxing machines that were on display.  These particular machines were a mixed blessing for the locals; they reduced the risk of Phossy-jaw for the workers, but they also took away people's jobs and caused hardship.

Hubby and I spent a good while there enjoying the displays and videos (thankfully in English as my translating skills are beyond rusty), admiring the myriad matchbox designs and making our own match packages from paper (and in true scrapbooker fashion I've included the packaging stamp on the page).  

The sculpture was part of an art exhibition ... there was a film clip of a replica (or the original) burning to nothing.  After giving up on a Google search, I've just found out the name of the artist via Facebook (!) - Jill Lindström - the full video is here.  It takes 4 minutes for the statue to collapse and 10 to burn out!

I've used the Teresa Collins' My Name Is Collection along with some grey cardstock, fabric Thickers and made a little dent in my collection of brads!

Tuscany

Time for another scrapbook page made with the lovely Teresa Collins "Hello My Name Is" Collection. For this one I used the March sketch inspiration from UKScrappers along with a photo of Child No.3 and her fellow G&T artists in Tuscany last year

Part of their pre-trip preparation was to make Renaissance-painting-inspired outfits and one of the highlights of their week was when everyone dressed up for a photo shoot in the Tuscan castle they were staying in.  I've added some gems, veneer stars and used Man O Man Sizzlits for my title.

You can read how I started using this collection here on the S J Crafts Blog (and while you're there why not check out their April Challenge ... there's a prize!).

Seven Steps for S J Crafts

I have a post over at S J Crafts today showing you my Seven Step Process for cutting into a collection; specifically what I did with the Teresa Collins' My Name Is Collection.

Going from this ...

... to this!
 

And I've made a start on my Project 12 album for 2014 plus another couple of pages with this superbly versatile collection since I wrote the post!  Back soon to share :-D

The Wrong Runes

This month's challenge over at S J Crafts is a mood board.  It got me scrapping in 3 columns using bright spring colours and helped me complete another page for our Scandinavian holiday album from the left-overs of my January Counterfeit Kit.

I was showing Hubby the wonderful ancient site of Anundshög, just outside Västerås where I was convinced that I'd had a photograph taken 30 years earlier.  We wanted to reproduce the picture and I duly posed next to the wonderfully carved rune stone.

However, when I got home and compared the photos, I realised that the stone must have been somewhere else entirely.  Either that or it had grown in the intervening three decades!

Short rune-stone, fat thighs, grumpy face!

Last month Annie was offering a prize for one lucky challenge joiner-inner - the winner is will be announced  over at S J Crafts here along with some featured pages.

There's a prize for joining in with April's challenge too.  What inspiration will you take from the mood board?

ETA: This layout was part of my style-scraplift with Karen - she's now been prompted to blog her style-scraplift of it!

My Name Is ... Brie

I'm rather envious of Child No.3 because she has already met the latest additions to our "family" and I have not:  No.1 Son and his lovely girlfriend became proud owners of two Bengal kittens on Boxing Day.  Had they produced our first grandchildren we'd have been up to visit long ago, but it's hard to justify a 6 hour round trip for some cats, no matter how cute they are, especially when Hubby prefers dogs!  However, Child No.3 enjoyed a long weekend with her brother and got to play and pet and photograph them.  I, meanwhile, have had to make do with Facebook photos and videos ... when I spotted a "selfie" there recently I knew it needed scrapping!

And when I received the Teresa Collins My Name Is collection pack from S J Crafts I knew I had the perfect papers for the photo!

There are 9 double-sided sheets and two sheets of sticker in the collection - I've used large blocks from Journal, Love and Words, pieces from Polaroids and Record, along with some scraps of toning cardstock, wooden buttons and twine.

These kittens are quite a handful already - playful, intelligent, spirited - so it seemed appropriate to alter one of the 3x4 cards with the alphas from the collection pack.

I'd better get a companion page done for the "boys" now - off to check out their Facebook uploads!

Very Versatile Vellum

My first DT post over at S J Crafts has just gone live ... I've been playing around with the most versatile product: starry vellum from the Crate Paper Boys Rule collection.  I'd already used it once for this page to tone down the bright stripy paper, but I found another four fun ways to use it, including a pocket ...

... which helped me squeeze 14 photos of No.2 Son with crazy cartoon characters (from our Florida 2004 holiday) onto a double page spread:

{click on the picture for a larger view}

The title letters are cut with Sizzlits Round-a-bout dies but the page is so busy that I had to doodle around them to help them stand out a little more.

I had originally planned to spread the word "Characters" across the two pages, but annoyingly the word wouldn't fit without leaving one letter across the page join or another obscuring part of a photo!  Once I'd decided to split the word and keep it on the RHS, I hated the empty space left on the LHS ... and added the word "toon" in an effort to balance it all a bit.  Ggggrrrrr!!!!  Next time I must remember to plan my title a little better before sticking everything down!

The page supplies, including the starry vellum, are all from Crate Paper's Boys Rule collection (see here for details of the products and all the other ways that I've used the vellum).  While you're over at S J Craft's blog, don't forget to check out their March Prize Challenge - the deadline is March 31st.

P.S. I've already made a Lean Mean MAXI book with these photos for No.2 Son, but now we get to keep them in our holiday album too.  Do you ever scrap the same (set of) photos again?

Surf's Up!

March's photo inspiration challenge over at S J Crafts got me scrapping with some photos that have been in my "to scrap" pile for a LONG time. No.1 Son had a wind-surfing course with his first ever girlfriend back in 2006, but as they broke up shortly afterwards it seemed inappropriate to be scrapping photos of her!  I think his heart has recovered by now, especially as he's currently house-hunting with his current squeeze.

The papers in Crate Paper's Boys Rule collection were a great match for the sails and the banner & pennant stickers were perfect for a nautical theme.  I love how the starry vellum tones down the stripes and adds extra interest.
Initially I cut the title letters (using QK Blossom dies) from one of the journalling cards that matched the stripy paper, but decided that using the coloured stripes themselves was more eye-catching against the white cardstock.

This month Annie is offering a prize for one lucky challenge joiner-inner - check the details here.

Keen readers will remember that I promised a prize for having a go with the S J Crafts' February sketch.  The winner is announced over at S J Crafts here - along with a couple of favourite sketch interpretations.

The Bridge

Holidays are always something of a compromise.  You cannot please everyone all the time.
We've always found it best to make sure each person has free choice with one activity and everyone else does their best to make sure that it's a success.
Last year's Scandinavian Road Trip holiday allowed me to attend a 30 year reunion with colleagues ... and of course, having worked there, I had plenty of ideas for what I wanted to do.  Hubby had just one request: to travel across Øresund Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö (we are BIG fans of Scandinavian dramas on BBC4).

We discovered that it was accessible by car (very expensive toll charges), rail (affordable, but you are travelling on the suspended lower level of the bridge) and bus (cheap and we could both enjoy the view).  We chose bus!  Crossing the bridge also enabled me to claim an earth cache (GC1X4NV) which resulted in a geocaching "badge" for Denmark as well.

Having avoided hearts when counterfeiting my February Kit I'm quite surprised to see hearts on both pages made so far ...  my MS deep Garden Trellis punch makes lots of fun borders!  The title alphas are cut with Sizzlits Round-a-Bout dies and the Versamark stamping uses Banana Frog Tiny Teen stamps.

I took inspiration from the February Sketch from S J Crafts as my starting point ... which is itself based on a lovely page by fellow S J Crafts DT member (and former Master Forger at the CKCB) Jennifer.  S J Crafts have a linky on their blog if you fancy using the sketch too - it's open until February 28th - and while there may not be prizes, Sarah will be picking some projects to feature on the blog, so do please join in.
Actually, strike that!  There WILL be a prize, because I want to celebrate joining the DT at S J Crafts, and I'll donate a little something ... to a randomly chosen S J Crafts-sketch-user-and-linker-upper ... anywhere in the world! 

Winner announced ... here!!

Zoom In Zoom Out #4

As promised, a happier ZIZO post from me ... and (nearly) at the beginning of Helena's weekly link-up for a change.

First there's a shot of a little flag cluster made last year at the Green Button's retreat using my October Counterfeit Kit after some tips on using washi tape creatively from my friend Jolene.

And if I zoom out a little ... there's the layout with the flags in the Readers' Gallery in the latest issue of Scrap365, using a photo from last year's Swedish road trip.  Along with washi tape covered die-cuts, I'm using one of my favourite stitching techniques to outline my title letters.

And while I'm, not so subtly, using ZIZO to blow my own trumpet :-D  I'd also like to share that I recently applied for the Design Team at the UK on-line store S J Crafts ... and was accepted!  Sarah broke the news here on her shop blog on Monday.  I'm looking forward to having a play with some of their lovely stash and working alongside a very talented team for the next three months.  Wish me luck!

6x6 Love

A recent series of posts (1 2 3) over at S J Crafts by Lisa-Jane inspired me to include some 6x6 papers in my September Counterfeit Kit.  The smaller patterns are more my style and strangely enough I found it much easier to to cut into a pristine sheet from a 6x6 pad - perhaps that's because it was already "scrap" sized or perhaps it was the thought of there being at least one "spare" back on the pad?!  Either way, they really helped me when I was creating this page about the sillier shopping opportunities in Las Vegas!

6x6 papers from MME's Lime Twist Fly A Kite pad

We kept seeing ridiculously large bauble necklaces for sale at various stalls on the strip and my friend decided to try one on.  Of course this meant that the stall holder thought we wanted to buy it and kept trying to find the price that we would pay ... eventually we managed to convince him that he'd have had to pay us to take it off his hands!!   We never did see anyone actually wearing one for real!
We were also tickled by the mega-super-sized packaging for certain products in the store nearest to our hotel.  I don't think they always colour-coordinated so well as these Cheese Balls though!

Everything is from my current kit apart from the title alphas and the orange scraps - they came from my August Counterfeit Kit! This page was also made for the Monthly Challenge over at UKScrappers - on the theme of Work, Rest or Play!