Ten on the Tenth: Books

Have you heard about World Book Night?  It's a bit of a grand name for something that took place in March of this year and was held only in Britain and Ireland. A million books were given away by 20,000 "givers" - and one "giver" attends my reading group so I received a book first hand. I then spotted that some of my blogging buddies were also "givers" and I received another book by blog giveaway (which was then passed on here).

The second World Book Night will be more worthy of the name as it will include readers in the USA and possibly other countries as well.  It's scheduled for April 23rd 2012 - UNESCO's International Day of the Book and Shakespeare's birthday - Happy Birthday Will!  The U.S. selection has yet to be finalised, but the applications to be a U.K. "giver" and hand out 24 of next year's 500,000 books are being taken now.  I've applied.  It got me thinking about which books I'd recommend:

My all time favourite book has to be "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger.  I'm hoping that it might be "my" book if I'm selected as a "giver".  It is intricate and interesting and funny and incredibly sad.  It follows Henry and Clare as they meet, fall in love, marry and try for a family ... complicated by the fact that Henry has a genetic disorder that sends him back and forth within his own time-line so that sometimes he's old in the time of his youth and at others he experiences events in his future.  It's a book that makes you think between chapters!

My second choice from the World Book Night list for 2012 is "Room" by Emma Donoghue.  This is an amazing book, inspired by real events, and narrated by a small boy, Jack, who has never known anywhere except one 11 foot square Room.  He sleeps in Wardrobe, eats at Table and has only Ma for company.  Heartbreaking, inspiring, deeply affecting!

I had to pick a third choice book in my application but haven't actually read it (yet) so can't personally recommend it LOL! However here are a few of my other personal favourites (in no particular order) from the World Book Night Long List:

"The Handmaid's Tale"
by Margaret Atwood

"We Need To Talk About Kevin"
by Lionel Shriver

"Cloud Atlas"
by David Mitchell

"One Day"
by David Nicholls

"To Kill A Mockingbird"
by Harper Lee

"Never Let Me Go"
by Kazuo Ishiguro

"The Kite Runner"
by Khaled Hosseini

"The Curious Incident
of the Dog in the Night-time"
by Mark Haddon

Looking at my selection there isn't a great deal of comedy here although I do enjoy funny books too - perhaps that's a topic for another day?
Are you applying to be a World Book Night "giver"?  Do you like similar books to me?

For more Ten on the Tenth bloggers please pop over to Shimelle's blog here.

Cutting up my Counterfeit Kit

Welcome fellow counterfeiters (and everyone else that reads here - do leave a comment and I'll come and say "Hello" back) and my apologies for the slight delay in posting the details of my kit.  It was ready, it was documented, it was actually being used ... but yesterday was Storytelling Sunday as well and I haven't yet figured out how to post about two different topics on the same day and keep them separate.
"Technologically challenged" it says over there in the side-bar → → →
which is embarrassing for a Computer Science graduate, but it's true.

Anyway back to the Counterfeiting in November: this month we have  Scraptastic Club  to thank for the kitS-to-copy.  I fell in love with the rich warm colours of the Home Sweet Home Kit (apart from the pink that is!) and set about my stash to see what I had.
As you will see I went for browns, creams and oranges with touches of teal.   I didn't have any tiny houses (I wouldn't use them if I did) and pulled some buttons instead.  I'll make my own paper rosettes as required and will be trying out my brand-new Sew Easy with some brilliant birthday hemp threads from Hilary (which are a perfect match for the original kit, even including some pink). The glittery red alphas of the original have been replaced by glitzy blue ones, but just in case I struggle with them, I've thrown in some all-purpose brown ones too.

Paper (whole sheets unless otherwise stated):
Citrus Flourish from Scrapworks' Canvas Collection (double-sided)
Checked Out and Playful from My Mind's Eye's Ooh La La collection (both double-sided)
Daisy D's Boston Damask
Scrapbook Walls Pool Tiles Vellum (½ sheet)
Fusion Tangerine and Archaic Fossil by Basic Grey
Daisy D's Holly in Winter Blue
Dream Street Papers {Miss}fit Tough  (double-sided)
K& Co's Folded Wood Tape Measure
Primrose Damask by Bo Bunny &  brown swirly embossed Bazzill (some circular off-cuts)

The reverse sides plus
some Teresa Collins Chic Bébé Boy Ledger paper

Embellishments:
Daisy D’s Top 10 Random Lists cardstock die-cuts
MM's Flea Market Distressed Foil Aplha Stickers
Sei Poppy Alphabet Stickers
Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type alphas
A selection of buttons from my stash
Hemptique Spring Crafter's Cord
Jenni Bowlin Journalling Spots
Home-made Bingo Cards

Then there was the Add-on Kit to counterfeit: with chipboard shapes, a selection of ribbons, lace and ric-rac and some matching Ooh La La border die-cuts:

If you think my counterfeiting is starting to look familiar then well spotted: there is quite a lot of left over stash from my September kit (papers, ribbons, scraps, alphas, buttons) and I've added more papers from the same Ooh La La Collection that I used then.

There you have it ... but wait, can you put up with a little more?  I've used it already!  Several of my blog buddies have been cutting up paper as directed by Shimelle in her Pretty Paper Party.  Before they've even chosen their photos. Eeek!!! The idea is that having cut it up you will actually use it.  So that's what I did first thing at my Saturday crop.

And here is the first page I made - about our visit to Warkworth Dunes (I told you about that one Sunday in October) using the one sheet of patterned paper I didn't cut up ... plus one that I did along with a Pagemaps sketch.

Those glitzy alphas weren't too scary after all ... especially with a little added blue ink to take some of the shine off them!  But the brown mini alphas were too strong for the page so I improvised by stamping with a Studio G mini-alpha set and cutting the letters out to make my own "stickers".  Am I a Master Forger or what?!

Keen to carry on, I started playing around with some of those cut up papers and I rather quickly produced this ... unfinished page!  You'll have to pop back later in the month to see how it turned out!

Dental Drama

Do you hate going to the dentist?
Most of us don't like it much do we?
We have twice yearly check-ups plus the occasional visit for emergency treatment thanks to a lost filling, a chipped tooth or an abscess.  Luckily neither I nor any of my family are afraid to go - it's just a chore that has to be done!

However I can remember one occasion, many, many, many years ago, when I was extremely reluctant to attend my 6-monthly check-up, despite the fact that I'd be missing some school.
It was the missing school bit that was upsetting me.  Now don't get me wrong - I was a good student during the week but I was even better at relaxing at the weekends.  It's just that the Primary School that I was at had got an attendance reward scheme.  So it was worth being there. As long as it was every day! 

At the end of each term there was a final assembly when, if you had been there every single day of the term, your name was read out and you were presented with a selection box of sweets.  This was a really big deal!  Sweets were special!!  And if you attended every single morning and afternoon of the whole year you were given a GIANT selection box of sweets!

Now I had already managed to claim both the Autumn and Spring prizes ... and this dental appointment was putting the ultimate prize at risk!  Naturally enough, this cut no mustard with my mother and I was collected one afternoon around an hour before the end of school.

By the time the end of year assembly arrived I had come to terms with the fact that an hour off school had saved my teeth twice over.  So you can imagine my surprise and glee to hear my name read out as one of the pupils who had been marked present in the register at the beginning of each summer morning and afternoon ... and then imagine my utter, utter joy at hearing my name read out again to take delivery of that GIANT selection box ... as well!!!  More sweets than I had ever had in my possession in one go in my life!

Source (as I have not one photo of either a selection box or me in this school's uniform)

I can't imagine today's schoolchildren caring enough about a selection box of sweets to ensure that they attend every day of school.  It can't have been an incentive because as soon as you'd had one day off with a cold - you might as well stay off for a week afterwards!  It wasn't that great for your teeth either really was it?!

Today's post was brought to you as part of Sian's Storytelling Sundays - pop over there to share your own and read lots more.

P.S. If you've dropped by to see more details of my Counterfeit Kit for November it isn't here yet (sorry) ... but will be up on the blog tomorrow. I was busy cutting it all up yesterday and have already made a page with it by way of compensation ;o)

The Fruits of My Labours

A little while ago I shared the fruits of our Silver Wedding Anniversary August Bank Holiday planting.  You may recall that there wasn't a great deal that was edible other than the lettuces and tiny tomatoes.  Well we are still enjoying lots of great salads (remarkably slug free still) and although we are down to the last half dozen teeny, tiny tomatoes, there are still plenty of (not so) Little Gems and a few Lollo Rossos in the pipeline ... well a plastic cloche actually!

I decided to play safe with the majority of the remaining lettuces in case the frosts appear.  Next year I must remember to leave enough space between rows to accommodate the cloche as several lettuces were a bit squashed when it was deployed!  I must also remember to plant fewer seeds at once as there are only so many salads you can eat in October/November.

Meanwhile the pea flowers have produced lots of pods ... I'm wondering just how long to leave these before trying to eat some peas - they are just tiny bumps at the moment, barely visible through the pods.

Today we harvested the first three raspberries (one each) ... delicious!  There are still flowers being pollinated and loads of raspberries ripening very slowly on the canes ... who'd have thought we'd finally be eating them in November!

And finally I also pulled up the first half-decent carrot.  It was remarkably straight (the hours spent extracting builders' rubble from the soil seems to have paid off) although still pretty small  - a bite each and it was gone!
I did wash it first ;o)
P.S. That finger is for scale, I'm sure you can tell which one is the carrot!

Extreme Scrapbooking

Ever tried scrapping beyond the page?
I've made cards, a canvas or two, some mini-books and the odd bit of wall art.
Child No.3 has recently excelled herself with my scrap supplies ... completely off the wall page ... in the name of Halloween fancy dress!

Normally she looks like this ...

... well actually that isn't completely normal as she generally uses a little bit of mascara and wears her hair loose. However, after borrowing some Rhonna Farrer swirl stamps, some black ink, green face paint and a sprinkling of glitter, she looked like this ...

A few punched leaves attached with glue dots to a hair-band and the application of some red false eyelashes and an even brighter wig and she was transformed into ...

... her version of Batman's enemy and eco-terrorist, Poison Ivy! 

Fifty poses in front of her camera later and she had a new Facebook photo :D

Of course I had to make a scrapbook page about it, just in time for Halloween!

I've used a Pagemaps sketch (twisted onto its side) with some more of my October Counterfeit Kit and also scored some points over on UKS for the Weekly Challenge to use some printed journalling, 10 embellishments and something free (the font, Satellite, and those eyelets ... yes, I know that they're probably maple leaves, but I am so glad to get rid of them as they've been hanging around in my original hand-me-down stash from 2006).
Oh and while we're challenge combining, this page fits in with H for Holidays over at ATDML's Thirsty Thursdays.

What's your craziest use of scrapbooking supplies?  Are you dressing up for Halloween ... or Facebook?

Sticker Magic

Welcome to the October Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop for the Master Forgers - if you found me via Helen's blog then you are on track, if not then you may want to pop back here to start at the beginning so as not to miss out.

"Miss out on what?"  you ask.  Well, this month over at the CKCB the prize sponsor is Momenta Stickers and this month's blog hopping theme is to work some magic with stickers - I can't wait to see what sticky creations the rest of the Master Forgers have come up with!

I have two projects to share with you plus an apology.  The apology is because neither of my projects uses my October Counterfeit Kit - it's half term holiday at the moment and we've taken the opportunity to visit friends and family so my creative time has been severely curtailed!

I have made use of my August Counterfeit Kit though - on a page based on a sketch by my good friend Mary that I started last month at the Green Buttons' Retreat.  My kit had a large sheet of multi-coloured Polar Bear Press stickers that toned beautifully with the papers but I needed the title to stand out more from the page.  My first attempt was to colour over them with some (borrowed) Promarkers.  I left them on the sticker sheet while I coloured them so that I it wouldn't matter if I went over the edges.  The finish wasn't brilliant because a) I've never used Promarkers before and b) the sticker surface was pretty glossy.  On top of that the exclamation mark wasn't plain like the letter and its pattern showed through a little.

So I decided to detract from my rubbish colouring by over-stamping with Saddle Brown Stazon.  I placed the stickers on some cellophane packaging and used a striped circle stamp by Artemio.  The pattern on the exclamation mark is now practically invisible!

This page will go into my Egyptian Holiday album: my friend and I ate lunch on our balcony each day, but we discovered that 2 seconds wasn't quite enough time for me to get back to my chair after pressing the camera button

My second sticker project is from quite an old page, one of my favourites, created for a challenge from Indigo Mill.(I miss that shop).  Here, I took a really nasty, cheap, glossy paper and transformed it using un-loved peel-off stickers and a couple of shades of chalk ink.  I removed some adhesive from the peel-offs by applying them to my skin a few times and then placed them randomly onto my paper.  The ink was dabbed over the stickers onto the paper.  The stickers were carefully removed and I repeated the process until I was happy.

I reckon both of these ways of altering stickers would also work well with part used alphabets - you could mix and match alphabets by colouring and stamping them to match each other or you could use up all those unloved consonants to make a subtle background.  Let me know if you give either of these a go.

In the meantime why not hop over to Jen who has more sticker magic for you and don't forget to drop by Momenta Stickers to see what they have to offer.

P.S.You know I like a good combination challenge ... so my first page ties in with October's Die-cut Challenge over at Scrapbookers Anonymous - thanks to the Tim Holtz rosettes!

Keeping Calm

I was catching up on my blog reading after a few days away (visiting lovely friends) when I saw Siân's post about keeping calm and ... *insert phrase here*.  She wanted to know what phrases her readers liked to add.  I was Googling to see what was out there and came across a fabulous website, Keepcalm-o-matic, where you can fill in your own words, add your own images and produce your own poster.  So here is mine:

As I said to Siân, there aren't many problems that a cup of tea cannot help with!  Further reading on the Keepcalm-o-matic site led me to discover that the phrase KC&CO may be under threat ... take a look here!