Time To Remember

Whenever somebody asks me why I scrapbook rather than just pop the holiday snaps into a photo album I explain that it's about recording the story, having some creative fun and making sure the details, which are currently as fresh as the photo, remain that way.
My memory was once a thing of wonder for all the right reasons, but sadly advancing age, reducing brain cells and increased stress have started to give my memory a completely different reputation!  By taking the time with a scrapbook page I get to relive happy escapades and preserve special memories for my and my children's futures.
In fact last year I made a scrapbook page about ten of the reasons why I ♥ 2 scrapbook!

Today's page, for the photo inspiration challenge at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, is a prime example of a holiday snap with an important family story behind it.  My children will recall that we had a brilliant day swimming with dolphins, feeding tropical birds and snorkelling over reefs packed with fish.  What they may have forgotten is that the day at Discovery Cove was paid for with a legacy from their grandfather who had died the year before.  The last couple of years of his life were tainted by very ill health and he wasn't able to play with them as much as we'd have liked, but at least this way he was remembered for all the best reasons.

My April Counterfeit Kit had plenty of bright blue & green with splashes of yellow, just like the CKCB's  inspiration photo and I've based the design on a (flipped) Pagemaps sketch as part of the Weekly Challenge at UKScrappers.  If you fancy having a go at the CKCB April Challenge 1 you can share the results on a blog hop later in the month - check out the details & deadlines here.

For The Record

This is my 21st Counterfeit Kit.
The downside of buying a bargain bag-FULL of teal flower buttons is that they take ages to use up!
This month's guest Forger at the CKCB is the lovely Kate Blue.
I've run out of photos to print and scrap.
My craft room is a terrible mess after sorting my kit.
3 weeks ago my 55 bags project stalled - oops!

In the spirit of All Fool's Day, one of these statements isn't quite true ... :-)

Welcome to April's CKCB Master Forger Blog Hop, which started with Queen Kat and brought you to me via Angela.  Our kit to copy this month was Gossamer Blue's March Kit.

As is often the case I didn't have any of the exact supplies and this month I decided I would start my counterfeiting by copying the cardstock colours and see what happened.

There's lots of new stash from a recent win from Echo Park's Blog Hop as well as older supplies and scraps; plus this month I have included some stamps as I really must use them more often.

Supplies:
Blue, yellow, cream and green Bazzill cardstock
EP's For the Record 2 Fancy (blue trellis reverse)
½ sheet MME's On The Bright Side Branches (orange & white stems reverse)
Near & Dear Cameron by Dream Street Papers
EP's For The Record 2 Diamonds (blue arches reverse)
½ sheet teal Kraft-core cardstock
EP's For the Record 2 Chevrons (blue chevrons reverse)
½ sheet Flutter Butter Burst by Bo Bunny (brown circle reverse)
EP's For The Record 2 Element & Alpha sticker sheets

Various journalling spots from my stash
Elle's Studio Number It stamps
Artemio circle stamps
Old book pages
MME Follow Your Heart Be Amazing Rhinestones
Chipboard circles and buttons from my stash


Now it's time to hop over to Jennifer who launched her new blog yesterday - and while you're there, take a look at the launch post here where she's got an awesome give-away!  If you get lost on the hop today, the full list is available on the CKCB here.

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.