Monster Park

How suitable for Halloween: a park in the Sacred Wood, full of weird and wonderful monstrous (as in large as well as mythical creatures) sculptures. Last year's trip to Italy yielded a morning's visit to Bomarzo where there is a very old sculpture park from 1522.  It was neglected for many years and evntualy restored (after a fashion) in the 1950s.

I did start attempting the 3rd Challenge from the CKCB with this spread - to use Just One Thing other than photos, cardstock and paper - i.e. the semi-transluscent leafy washi tape which gave different effects depending on the background surface. However the giveaway pile at my recent Bloggers' Retreat yielded the most perfect giant gromlet that I had to interpret the challenge as just one thing that wasn't in my original October Counterfeit Kit!

I'd printed photos specially for the retreat but had somehow forgotten to select the bottom left one (of me in the mouth of a picnic cave) so I had to use a scrap of cardstock during the weekend.  I'd used it to practice with the MS border punch and liked the effect so much that the final photo had to be given a border too!

The sculptures weren't that scary after 500 years, but I certainly wouldn't fancy going walking there this evening!

October's Moving Along

Welcome to the final post of the October CKCB Members' Blog Hop; if you didn't reach me from  Julene then you might want to start at the beginning with Lisa (the full hop list is here but there's only Tina in-between)

This month we had a choice of three challenges to use for the hop (#1 Your Next Move , #2 3D Challenge, #3 Just One Thing Challenge).

I had a go with #3 but found it surprisingly difficult to only add one thing other than paper and photos to a page - extras kept creeping on.  So today, I'm sharing a page for #1 about a move I've actually made, but which moved on again this very month!  Using my October Counterfeit Kit to scrap a page for my Book Of Me, I've documented my lovely new job, in which I've just completed my probabtionary period and had my contract confirmed!

It suits me very well and I really look forward to Monday mornings now.  In fact I recently visited Genoa as part of my duties - what a hard life :-)

Thanks for hopping around with the CKCB Members this month - it was quite short and sweet this month, so why not join in yourself in November - EVERYone is welcome!

A {C}old Case

Welcome to the October Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop - if you arrived here from Clair via our guest designer Tina, then you'll know that we're shaking things up this month by creating Counterfeit Kits Identi-kits using a {c}old Case File #S365-9 from the parnership between Colour Stories Inspiration Blog and the now deceased Scrap365 (I miss that magazine)!

The Scheme: I started looking through my papers to see what might match the colours and found a pair of papers in pale green and orange as well as a sheet with ecru/grey on one side and yellow on the other.  All colours found, I raided some 6x6 pads and my scraps bags for extra patterns. Matching mini-alphas should help me with the clues!

The Evidence: Leafy washi, metal brads, coloured string and bakers twine add to the picture along with some wood veneer stars and buttons to scatter around.  Those heart-shaped enamel shapes help support the case. 

Supplies:
Green tiny floral print paper - unknown manufacturer as this was an outcast from a friend's stash
Lily Bee Design Queen Bee (yellow damask reverse)
¼ sheet Grandpa's Overalls Stripe by Mustard Moon
⅓ sheet Basic Grey Create from Colour Me Silly
Orange tiny floral print paper - same source as above!
6x6 sheet Pink Paislee Prairie Hill
6x6 sheet American Crafts Thataway Collection
¼ sheet Echo Park Navy (?) Ombre (grey reverse)
¼ sheet Holly-Christmas Vanilla by daisy d’s
Echo Park All About The Boy Superhero (teal, white, orange explosion reverse)
MM Paper Reverie Noir alpha stickers
WRMK green leafy washi tape
Grey, yellow and orange paper blooms
Grey washi tapes (from a fellow blogger)
American Crafts wood veneer stars
Lily Bee Designs ABC neutral mini alphas
Grey and white baker's twine
Cream and orange hemp cord from Hemptique
MLS Fog mini alpha stickers
Basic Grey Archaic glazed brads
Bingo Card from SS Urban Traveller
WRMK Enamel Shapes
7 Dots Studio Illumination word stickers

There's still some Case File Testimony for use during the month ... which should help me solve the huge pile of photos that I still have to scrap!

Now you need to pop over to Julene and see what supplies she has managed to unearth!  If the trail goes cold, you can always pop back to the incident room here and work out where to take the next step.

Third Time Lucky

You'll recall that I've just returned from a scrappy weekend with bloggy friends.  It gave me the opportunity and impetus to scrap the group photos from last year's retreat!  I used this month's sketch from Sue at Me & Mine too:

The main photo is courtesy of Sandie who was busy elsewhere this year and couldn't join us.

Most supplies are from my September Counterfeit Kit, but I added of the teeniest alpha stickers I have ever seen ... they're from Kaisercraft and were perfect to label those feet!

One of the lovely things about getting together with fellow crafters is that you get to share each others tools and supplies as well as ideas and company: lots of people wanted to borrow my chevron border punch, I got to use Ruth's mini chevron punch and that "Happy" embellishment came from the give-away pile (thanks Kathy).

Pass The Page 2015

I've just spent a grand weekend in the company of some lovely scrapbookers.  It was the fourth meet-up for some while others had a chance to reconnect after a year's absence. For three brave ladies it was an introduction to a supportive, creative, giggling gaggle and for one particular crafter, it was a chance to show off her 2½ week old baby!  Some one-handed cutting and sticking was done, but there were more than a dozen willing "aunties" happy to cosset such a sweet wee thing.  Here we all are balancing on a handy fire escape at the Royal Agricultural University:

Ruth, Fay, Jo, K (& baby), Zahra, Missus Wookie, Claudia, Alison, Mel
Kathy, Jacky, Julie, Alexa, Lizzie and Me!

We'd got into the creative mood even before the weekend started, by doing a Pass The Page scraplift and perhaps you've already been following the progress along the path taken by Julie's original page.  I was last in the chain and received Ruth's version:

I kept the central band and matching top and bottom borders but adjusted the sizes to match the supplies I had in my September Counterfeit Kit.  Those two layered anchors transformed and extended into three faux Polaroids and I added some enamel dots as they weren't in my kit.

The photo is for our Disney 2004 album ... it must be nearly finished by now ... hard to believe that little girl on the left is just starting her 2nd year at university!

Looking back at the chain of pages we came a long way from Julie's original - it was especially fun to line them up and see the gradual metamorphosis. Thanks for a fun challenge Julie x

Down The Dhoon

Welcome to the start of September's edition of the Members' Blog Hop from the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog.

This month I had a go combining the sketches from Challenge #3: I kept the side "white" space and full central section from the first sketch and used two photos (assuming that those two rectangles are meant to be photos.  From the second sketch I kept the background squares but offset them to allow for my journalling tag.

The vellum circles and gold brads from my September Counterfeit Kit helped break up the lines a little and echoed the cluster from the first sketch as well.

The photos are from our trip to the Isle of Man earlier this summer: we walked off a delicious Sunday brunch by descending one of the deepest glens, passing a stunning waterfall and resting on a beautiful beach before climbing the 190 steps back up.  Not that I counted, as I was too short of breath!

Next stop on the Members' Hop is the lovely Tina and you can find the full list of participants Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog today.

Summer Scavenger Hunting - Isle of Man

Have you been playing along with Rinda's Summertime Scavenger Hunt?  I've participated for a couple of years now but this time I was only able to concentrate on it during my holidays ... two long weekend trips to the Isle of Man.  Hubby and I were invited to my friend's wedding to be held in July, but had yet to meet her husband to be, so we decided to have a "catch-up-with-her-and-get-to-know-him" trip in June, followed by a return visit for the actual wedding.  They joined in enthusiastically with pointing out photo opportunities as well as posing for them!

#1 Bouquet (for the bride-to-be)   #2 Ornate Door Knocker (in Ramsey)   #3 Dog Walkers (by Ramsey pier)
#4 Board Gamers (in Ramsey)   #5 Architectural Colums (at Peel Castle)

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing the special facilities of the Isle of Man TT, a super-fast motorbike road race circling the island, including crash mats strapped to walls and lamp-posts (to protect them from damage rather than the riders), porta-loos in the middle of nowhere for the use of race marshals and pedestrian bridges to allow people to cross from inside the circuit to the rest of the island while the race is in progress!

#6 Metal Bridge (in Ramsey)   #7 Turtle (or possibly a tortoise, in the garden)
#8 Someone plugged into social media (what else is there to do while waiting for the ferry in Douglas?)
#9 Cellular Tower (on Snaefell mountain)   #11 Tent (ready for the wedding reception in the garden)

There are no universities or colleges in the Isle of Man so there's no #10 :-(

#12 Public Toilet (at Peel Castle)
#13 Merry-Go-Round (a spinning {water-}wheel at Groudle Glen was the closest I could manage!)
#14 Traffic Signal (the electric railway crosses several roads)    #15 Multi-flagged pole (Peel Harbour)
#16 High-up Panoramic View (of Ramsey bay)

#17 Matching uniforms (runners training along Douglas promenade)   #18 Overloaded Vehicle (time for a new bike?)
#19 Ticket Booth (for Groudle Glen Railway)
#20 Natural Body of Water (another stretch ... the base of the waterfall at Dhoon Glen)
Plus Substitute A (for #10) Hubby & I eating al fresco (outside the museum in Peel)

Finally there's that pesky, un-substitutable self portrait with a scavenger hunt sign ... which I somehow forgot to take ON the Isle of Man, so instead, here's me with a double page spread commemorating the holiday hunt and more, made this weekend at a fun scrapbooking retreat.

Lots of fun ... thank you Rinda for organising it all - the final link-up is here for anyone that's curious.  Here's hoping that 2016 will produce more fun scavenging.