A Universal Experience

Welcome to the March Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Members' Blog Hop (or CKCBMBH for short)!  Today we are sharing our takes on the first March challenge - photo-only projects with no journalling - the complete opposite of last month's challenge!  Luckily, I am currently scrapping a holiday album and not every photo has a proper story to tell so this was the perfect impetus to scrap a family shot in front of a landmark object!
All the photo really says is "We were here!".
No words required!

Supplies are from my March Counterfeit Kit with the addition of the "people" and arrow dies and loopy border punch borrowed from Ruth at the Bloggers' Weekend Retreat.  Thank you Ruth for letting me cut dozens of extra "people" for later layouts too!

Your next stop on the CKCBMBH is Angela (if you get lost along the way, the whole hop list is published today on the CKCB).

Take My Advice ...

My recent Bloggers Retreat was a chance to meet up with several blogging friends and exchange ideas, learn new techniques, share supplies as well as eat a lot of cake.  One blogger generously shared out piles of blank mini-book pages as long as we promised to decorate them using two colours of Distress Ink and share the results on-line.  I didn't have time to start during the weekend so I took my blank pages and cardboard covers home and got to work with two of my four shades of Distress Ink ...

... along with some rather tongue in cheek quotes and printed in Type-Ra onto some pages from an old stamp album:

I incorporated a clear page to include a joke that makes me laugh every time:

The pages weren't all exactly the same size so some needed some washi-tape to cover up the joins ...

... while others were fine as they were:

I loved the mix of colours tied together by the repeated font on scissor-distressed and inked stamp album paper:

My embossing folders were a quick and easy way to perk up some plain cardstock too.

Sometimes I could use both sides of the patterned paper for a quote ...

... and sometimes I simply stuck a single-sided piece to another sheet:

Do any of these quotes speak to you? If you do want to take my advice then I'd suggest that:

A Great Cause

I was intrigued today to receive some mail from America ... it's not my birthday ... I hadn't ordered anything ... none of my friends were over there on holiday ...

Upon opening the envelope I had a brief sensation of déjà vu ... I'd seen that striking image before ... a photo-card made by Rinda.  She and her beautiful daughter Clara were thanking me for supporting them with a (small) financial donation as they train for a sponsored half-marathon in aid of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

You can read all about WHY they are supporting the cause right here. 

I lost a dear school friend to leukaemia 40 years ago and while much progress has been made in treatment since then, there is still a long way to go!  Rinda & Clara have raised a massive 85% of the target they set themselves ... perhaps with a few more donations they can exceed it!   

Good luck girls, both with the training for June 2nd and with smashing that target!

Beautiful Buttons

Each month at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog we see lovely supplies to copy and we counterfeiters share the ways to make the most of our existing stash.  This month there have been several tutorials from around the web here, here and fellow Master Forger Milissa did a whole week's worth of tutorial posts!

Orange Button created with
Diamond Glaze

I myself had a go at counterfeiting the epoxy buttons from the Dear Lizzy set ... using Diamond Glaze (similar to Glossy Accents) and acrylic domed stickers.

First off, I punched some circles from patterned paper scraps and then matched up the circles with various buttons from my collection.  A layer of Diamond Glaze on top, left overnight to dry and I had a shiny, but not very domed layer in the centre of my button ... plus quite a few tiny bubbles in the glazed layer.  Not quite the effect I was wanting and far too time-consuming!

It was much quicker and easier to use my ancient Papermania acrylic domed stickers - especially the ones that exactly matched my smallest circle punch!

Punch circle, stick to acrylic domed sticker, secure to correct sized button
Simples!

Yellow Button created with
Diamond Glaze

Using a slightly larger circle punch and bigger buttons I tried to use the next size of domed stickers.  However, they were slightly too big for both the circles and the buttons, so I carefully trimmed the domed sticker around the punched circle before sticking it to the button.

From above, the domed stickers and the Diamond Glaze look pretty similar (you hardly notice those tiny bubbles), but the domed stickers certainly win for speed and simplicity (and using up old stash)!!

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Challenge #2 over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog involved using at least three contrasting patterned papers ... something I wasn't very keen on doing when I first started scrapbooking, but, having put my Counterfeit Kits together, it's become much simpler to use multiple patterns as the hard work of mixing 'n' matching has already been done.  Here I have combined my March Counterfeit Kit with this month's sketch at Sketchbook365.

Can you count how many different patterned papers there are?  I make it ten, counting the vellum of my counterfeit  pocket.  I inked some BG White Chocolate Chip alphas to match the polaroid frame and cardstock.  This page was made during last weekend's Bloggers' Retreat and I was able to borrow all sorts of exciting crafting equipment.  My thanks to Ruth for her fun cog dies and curly border punch and Missus Wookie for her lovely stamps.

The page tells of our worries that the incredible downpour in the afternoon would continue and ultimately ruin our chance to see "Fantasmic" which we had planned for that evening .  Luckily, despite it raining on our journey to MGM Studios, we enjoyed a dry (if chilly) evening and a brilliant show!  My night-time photos were rubbish though so I'm glad that I could get the memory into our Disney 2004 album without them.

Fifty-Five Bags - Week 8

Another week of minimal de-cluttering for me ... and a photo fail with what little I did manage!

As part of the preparations for last weekend's Bloggers' Retreat (organised by Lizzie) I have been setting aside patterned papers, embellishments, mini-albums and stamps that I have no intention of using.  I stuffed a deep pizza box full with assorted papers as well as filling a bag with extras to give away or sell ... including two Clippy-Kit bags.  I had bought three at once to save on postage and have yet to finish decorating one!!!

The front pockets of the bag were completed late in 2006 I think, but the back of the bag still has nine empty pockets!  There's a matching 12x12 layout about my shopping addiction for my new (at that time) hobby.

Spiral, stamp, Corner, chipboard, Rub-on
Alcohol ink, Punch, patterned paper
Photo {Pete (Duel)}, Eyelet, embossing, Ribbon

That's a real working mini-pizza box in the centre ... and it opens up to reveal journalling and some miniature bills from my early purchases (sadly quite a few of those shops have now closed)!

I was not the only person to arrive at the Bloggers' Weekend with unwanted stash and, on the basis of one scrapper's tat being another scrapper's must-have, we enjoyed a good root through each other's cast-offs.

My thanks to Julie for these photos

There was still a fair bit of stash left afterwards (see the bottom right photo), but Sandie has connections with Brownies and took all the papers and stickers that nobody wanted ... so everyone managed a great deal of de-cluttering despite picking up the odd sheet or two of paper to bring back home again!

Random Number Loveliness

I'm away scrapping with some lovely blog friends this weekend, so, in the absence of something scrappy to share, here is a little something related to my other love: