CKC Jan. Layout #1

Hello again 🙂

Here is my first layout using my January CKC kit. If you haven’t been following you can check out my kit here and get all the details on how to participate at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

So, first up, I went with a photo of my daughter and her friends having a night out. The photo has several of the pinks, blues and burgundies found in the Felicity Jane ‘Hannah’ collection.

I decided to have a play with some mixed media, using my watercolour paints and the plastic bag technique I smooshed some paint around my white cardstock. The blue paint I used came out a lot stronger than I expected and I nearly started over but decided to keep going and find some way to tone it down.

I tried stencilling on some ink to create some texture and distract from the intense blue. I used Tim Holtz’s Spun Sugar and Stormy Sky distress inks, both work beautifully with the Felicity Jane colour theme.

Then, I began making some embellishments. I stamped out some flowers using the Uniquely Creative Mini Bloom Advent Stamp and coloured them using Polychromos coloured pencils. Then I die cut them out, love this matching die, it makes it so much quicker than fussy cutting them. I also cut some flowers out of coloured cardstock using the matching die.

Next, I stamped some flowers and foliage onto my background. I decided to fussy cut flowers from some papers I had put aside for making embellishments. The colours coordinated well with my pencils and inks.

I then mounted my photo using some patterned paper and coloured cardstock. I rough up the edges using my fingernail and layered the pieces using foam and double-sided tape.

I spent a lot of time fixing the flowers into place, I keep changing my mind and fiddling with the layers. I added a Thickers alpha title and some die cut tags. Overall, I think it has turned out quite well, but my colours are too strong and perhaps a little overpowering compared with the original kit. Moving on to layout number two, I hope you are enjoying participating in the CKC challenge.

Jan. 2019 Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Good morning.

Well, I am off and racing with the new CKC. I put my kit together yesterday and surprisingly found it a little tricky. The papers in the Felicity Jane ‘Hannah’ kit are fairly simple in pattern and design, but I fell short when rummaging through my supplies. I struggled to find just the right subtle blues, greens and pinks. I didn’t quite make it with the patterns, mine were either too heavy and thick in line or not geometric. Even though I knew I had previously had some fish scale/scallop paper, I could not find a scrap of it. So, here is what I ended up with…

For this month, I decided to keep it small and achievable. Often I go overboard and select an abundance of papers and embellishments which makes a mega kit. I am sticking to my word for the year, “Complete”, having a smaller kit will help me achieve this. To start with I chose papers by colour and/or pattern, a lot of the papers I selected in my initial rummage came from Christmas collections. Weird hey?

I didn’t have a floral paper with the right colours, so decided to go with a black and white floral which I can colour to match the collection. No fish scales/scallops meant that I needed a substitute, I went with a polka dot design in both black and white and blue and white. My check is smaller than the original and as you can see has the Three Wise Men featured. The men will get the chop and will not be featuring in my layouts. My text paper has a lot less white space than the original and reads ‘Hooray’. Overall, I have more colour than the original Felicity Jane kit but I think I can make it work.

I had a pile of papers left over once I sorted through to get to this point and decided to keep them on hand for creating embellishments. In the pile are two florals which I had picked out because of the blue patterned backgrounds, then I realised that the flowers had the same colourways as the Felicity Jane flowers, a strong burgundy and a soft pink. I might fussy cut these for embellishments.

For my embellishments, I didn’t have a lot which matched with the original kit. Being a girl obsessed with colour, I don’t tend to buy scrapbook supplies with such a mild palette. I decided that I could forge many of them and make my own. So, I dug deep into my dies and stamps and found similarly themed ones which I could use with my papers/cardstock to make a range of embellishments.

I found that I owned a bicycle die, yes! I also have quite a few texts dies and tag dies. I do not have any heart stickers, so will use my heart die. As for the floral stamp, I just received a lovely floral stamp in my Uniquely Creative Advent Kit which I am looking forward to trying out. It came with two matching dies which means no fussy cutting, hurrah! My bows will be satin ribbon bows, as I’m not interested in purchasing any tulle, even though the tulle bows look very cute. I have included some inks and not being able to deny myself, may splash around some paints. You can see that I selected some cardstock to use for backgrounds, photo mounts and tags. The colours I selected to match the Felicity Jane colour theme, though they look darker in the photos. Hhmm…maybe they are too dark, I may have to swap some out. That’s what happens when you are selecting cardstock at night in poor lighting.

I still need to choose my alpha stickers, I may go with two different sizes in pink. I also need to sort through my 3×4 quote/journal cards and find ones with a suitable colour range. The kit also included a scallop washi tape, hmm, not sure what I use for this. I may just use strips of paper/cardstock or use a different patterned washi tape in the same colour.

If you would like more details and get a better idea about the Felicity Jane ‘Hannah’ kit there is a great unboxing video worth watching by the LindseyDecor channel.

Make sure that you keep up to date with the challenge by checking in often and following the CKC blog. I can’t wait to see what everyone creates. Here are the great CKC scrappers, design team and Master Forgers for you to enjoy

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
Meagan Johnson: http://www.thepracticalscrapper.com/
Cindy: http://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/
Julene: http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com/
Leslie: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/
Lisa: http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/
Lori: https://loriannie670.blogspot.com/
Laura: https://www.instagram.com/mrsp_scrapsandtea/

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all.

Well, down in Oz it is the second of January and our lovely guests are moving on today to visit other Western Australian family. When I say lovely I really mean it. They have been just gorgeous and we have had a lot of fun. You can not love guests who pitch in with the dishes and even cook us treats and meals. We explored parts of the South West region and made lots of memories (and took photos) doing a vast range of activities. We swam in different oceans, went caving, climbed a lighthouse (the tallest in Australia), swam in the Blackwood River, ate local chocolate, sampled and bought amazing olive oil, and enjoyed local wine and gourmet food. Sometimes we drank a little too much wine, New Year’s Eve being one of those occasions, and spent the next day relaxing in the pool, on the lounge reading or watching movies. At times we did old-fashioned things, we put

away our devices, and we played board games. I taught our new family how to play Canasta, something I later regretted when they started winning every game. We laughed a lot and loved the funny interactions between our grandson and our other young family members. We have truly had a happy holiday season spent with much-loved family and friends. I hope that the silly season also brought you moments of joy, love and surprise. Now, to get busy scrapping those moments…

First up, for me, it is to do a whole lot of catch up. I have not scrapped for 6 weeks!

Today I am kicking off with selecting my kit for the January Counterfeit Kit Challenge. Have you seen this beauty? It is a little bittersweet for me, I love this month’s selected kit, but I am

a little sad because I was invited to be the guest designer for this kit. I was so honoured to be asked and sadly had to turn down the offer due to my busy life commitments. I really hope I have a chance at a later date to participate as a guest designer, what a fun challenge that would be. How lovely is it that Meagan Johnson took up the challenge, and what a talented scrapper she is. I love her clean lines and contemporary style, Meagan is part of the Becky Higgins Creative Team, wow, impressive. Make sure you join in with the challenge to use up your stash and follow the CKC team members as they share what they create and set challenges.

Next, on the list is using my one and only subscription kits, from Uniquely Creative. I am way behind with using these up. I set myself a challenge that as each kit came in I would use it. Hhhmm, life got in the way. I have a few to use, the first being the September kit. This one is filled with yummy mixed media products but themed around winter snow/snowflakes which we don’t have here in Western Australia. I am going to have to be creative and come up with some snow-free layouts. I also have the November kit to complete, this one is very girly with flowers, butterflies, lace and heritage pastel papers. The other one to complete is the 2018 Advent Kit, which is also very girly with florals. I am thinking that I may finally finish off my baby daughters album with both these girly kits, my daughter is now 24! Last, the December kit which is sea themed and will be great for my recent holiday snaps. Oh no, the January kit ships in five days, I need to get busy.

So, that is what is on my agenda for the next few weeks. I will try and share what I create and use up. I am looking forward to playing with my new Tim Holtz Oxide inks which Santa gave me and incorporating some stamps and tools which have been sitting too long. Oh, and I have $100 to spend on craft/art supplies, my Christmas gift from my mother. What shall I buy? I also have a weeks holiday planned to join in with the Albany Summer School, I am looking forward to learning some new artistic skills and techniques and meeting like-minded people. My other catch up will be watching my favourite YouTube scrap blogger, Janet from RTS Scrapbooking, whilst I scrap and create. What will you be working on over the summer?

CKC – Sprinkle, Sparkle Layouts!

Morning, here are my two layouts which incorporate some sprinkles and sparkles for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge number one. The first layout features my cheeky grandson at 9 mths, the quality of the photos was not great. They are a little blurry but I used them anyway, as they captured his cheeky personality and a happy moment in time on an adventure. The layout itself was fairly quick, some smooshing of oxide inks for the background on a lovely indigo cardstock and a strip of star paper. Then I sprinkled on some gold watercolour paint and mounted the main photo on layered, distressed edged papers. Some fussy cut stars, Citrus Twist Kit cut apart embellishments, enamel crosses, a wood veneer painted star and it was finished!

The next layout has sprinkles and sparkles, this one also features my grandson. One of our favourite things to do at the local park is play on the wizzy dizzy. We always laugh so much and there have been times when Nanny and Granddad fall off! In these photos, Master Four is trying to do it all himself which is no easy feat. My choice of layout design links to the shape and movement of the featured playground equipment. I liked the idea of building up circular layers and creating that sense of being dizzy by ‘seeing stars’.

The background was created by splashing on oxide distress ink mixed with water and then blotting it off with a tissue. Then I used the inky tissue to apply some soft, swirly, whispers of colour. I wet the inky tissue and rubbed it around the page in a circular motion. Next, I raided the kitchen, to add some wine glass circles of ink, a little forgery inspired by the Vicki Boutin patterned paper in the original Citrus Twist Kit. This was topped off with some splashes and sprinkles of watercolour paint.

Step two, another kitchen raid…use a bowl to guide my stamping. I wanted a circle of stars swirling around my background. I used my new Carabelle Studio art stamp which has a really delicate sprinkling of stars. I didn’t use a block with it, so I could bend and manipulate the stamp to fit the curvature of the bowl.

Third kitchen raid…crockery to cut my paper circles! I also dragged out my old Creative Memories cutting system to cut the smaller circles. Because I was layering the papers, I could use some of the papers which didn’t fit my theme/photos or any layout I was likely to do in the future. For example, the white swan paper, swans where I live are black!

I slotted my 4×4 photos in between the circle layers, intentionally making them topsy-turvy to match the theme. It would have looked better with smaller, 3×4 photos but I was too lazy to print any more photos. I mounted the main photo on another paper which didn’t fit the theme, the rain clouds, but the little pops of raindrop colour did match with the other papers.

Next, I added the title and got busy with my Sizzix cutting out sparkly, gold stars with glitter cardstock. I used my new Tim Holtz thinlit die which has a great range of star sizes. I attached the stars with foam tape and glue. Then, I popped on a few handmade text quotes. Finished!

I am pretty happy with this crazy, dizzy, topsy-turvey layout. It does achieve the feeling that I was going for and was fun to create. Happy scrapping everyone.

CKC Layout #1 – Ma

Good morning, yesterday I had a lovely time playing with my Counterfeit Kit. I got messy with some inks and watercolours and pulled some inspiration from this months focus website, Citrus Twist Kits. They have an amazing design team and I spent a little time pouring over the Creative Team Gallery. Wow, some beautiful work to inspire us CKC scrappers.

I really loved some of the page formats used in the October DT layouts. The work of Nathalie Desousa with her flourish of diagonal flowers made me drool. I decided to see if I could use this inspiration on one of my layouts, using the forged flowers and my CKC papers.

I started off getting messy, building up a background on my white cardstock using some Tim Holtz Oxide Inks and some watercolour paints. In the first layer, I stamped some hearts using a very old, cheap, foam stamp. Then, I layered on the beautiful purples and added some splatters. I dried each layer before adding the next. Next, I pulled out my handmade foam branch stamp and used the beautiful, Dusty Concord oxide ink. I am in love with this colour, full strength you get a dark, dense plum image and activated with water, it creates a musty, dreamy lavender (see the lightest purple, layer 2).

Next, I selected papers to mount my photo. This image is of my mum from last summer (2017) at my grandson’s birthday party. I am one of those lucky daughters, whose mother is their best friend. She can be relied upon to listen to any vent, laugh and cry with me, share guidance and advice, and drink champagne! The photo is quite neutral, you could put any coloured papers with it. I decided to select a floral with some green tones and a bold hit of purple.

Then I spent time fussy cutting flowers form some patterned paper and trimming up some of my forged flowers (FREE cut files from Citrus Twist). I die cut some leaves to add a pop of yellow and jade. It all came together quite quickly after that, building up the layers of flowers, die-cuts and some wood veneer leaves. Then, a few enamel dots sprinkled around the edges of the flowers, title and date.

I love how it turned out and am surprised how the colours worked together so well. I would not have selected to use that colour range in my daily scrapping, the CK challenge is a great way to push you out of your comfort zone. Thank you, Nathalie Desousa, for your inspirational layout design. If you would like to see how Nathalie created her layout check out her video here.

Mixing Challenges! CKC Layout #5 & #6.

Squeezing in another two layouts before the October Counterfeit Kit Club challenge ends. These two layouts were made during Anna’s Craft Cupboard ‘Old School’ Cyber Crop last weekend. The first one was an ‘English’ (school subject)challenge in which you needed to include a story/text. I used products from my CKC kit to make the layout. The photos in the layout are of me and hubby trying to take a nice selfie, you can tell we haven’t quite mastered the technique. Because, the photos were poor quality, taken in a dark corner with very little light and on my iPad, I tried to edit them and fix the colour/light. I managed to get a better image but they are grainy (you can see in the close-up, above). This is why I went with small photos and used a piece of textured vellum over the larger, main photo. Plain vellum can sometimes hide and enhance a poor quality photo, in this case, the textured vellum masked the graininess and anyone viewing it would think I was trying to be creative with my embellishment. Shhhhh, don’t tell them!

The next was for a blind layout challenge. If you haven’t tried one of these, they are a lot of fun! One of the design members from ACC, this time the very talented Rikki Graziani, releases each process step by step (line by line), you have no image to work from just text. It can be very challenging. Unfortunately, this time I had family visiting and wasn’t able to participate live online but managed to give it a go later in the weekend. I copied all Rikki’s instructions from the FB Community page and printed them out before I started. This made it a whole lot easier than having to wade through mountains of comments (live online). The papers and products were from my CKC and worked very well with my photos. I also made a pocket page, as I had a lot more photos of this event.

Mixing Challenges! ACC & CKC

Hello everyone. Today I am sharing a layout which I did in a Cyber Crop with Anna’s Craft Cupboard community group on FaceBook, last weekend. It was a lot of fun and had a challenging theme, Old School, which opened up a whole lot of creative thinking and making. Each challenge was based around a learning subject area or using an Old School style of scrapping, using up supplies which have gone out of style in the world of scrapbooking. This layout was my attempt at the Math challenge, your layout needed to include numbers!

Because I was participating in the October Counterfeit Challenge Kit I wanted to use the papers and embellishments from my kit. I also wanted to use some of my recent purchases, if I buy something new I make sure I use it and not stash it away. What arrived in the mail two weeks ago was the new Tim Holtz Entomology die which matches with the stamp set (released earlier in the year). I had been waiting for months for the release and then for it to arrive in Australia, it is amazing! The die is spot on, there is absolutely no white space around your stamped image, it cuts the thinnest and tiniest insect legs and antennae.

With this layout, I got messy using distress inks, Heidi Swapp shine and some DIY shine. I messed around smooshing and spraying the inks, creating backgrounds to use in the layout. Some I liked and some didn’t quite work.

Then, I used a floral stencil and some white gesso to create some texture on my main background. I used an old membership card to scrape the gesso across the stencil, very rough and messy.

The paper which I wasn’t keen on became the cardstock for my insect embellishments. Just a tip, if you do purchase this wee crawly critter die set, use some washi tape to hold the dies in place while cutting. They do need to be lined up precisely and being so little may move when you crank them through your Sizzix.

Next, I added some more distress ink to the stencilled flowers, the white gesso made them stand out a little too much. I stamped some insects onto the background using a soft grey and a brown distress ink. Then, I got busy stamping orange daisies onto some orange/apricot patterned paper scraps (from my kit), scraps of my mixed media cardstock and onto some white cardstock. Does this look familiar? Yep, it is the same stamp used on this layout here. A few stamped flowers where hit with some distress green, just to pull in some colours in my photo. Then I spent some time watching scrap blogs on Youtube while I fussy cut out all the flowers.

I then built up the layout, layering die cuts and flowers, and fixing everything into place using double sided tape and foam.

So, “Where are the numbers?”I hear you ask. Good question, after all, it was a Math challenge. Well, the numbers tied in with my title and photo and were cut using dies. I used this particular photo because my daughter’s face shone with happiness. We were having a lovely day just messing around on our property, enjoying the sunshine and the abundance of flowers spreading colour everywhere. In a burst of energy, she literally tiptoed into the flowers and sat amongst the colour. Her son did not want to miss out on this opportunity and joined her. Her face said it all…let me ‘Count the Ways’.

Fields of Gold…Faking it!

Hi all 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, one of my favourite YouTube bloggers, Janet from RTS Scrapbooking, shared a video on how to make your own Pink Fresh Studio Indigo Hills collection. Janet is all about using up your supplies rather than going out and buying more. Most of us have been drooling over the Pink Fresh Studio Indigo Hills collection but if you have set yourself a challenge to not spend and use up your stash, then Janet has the answer to substituting papers, building a similar colour and feel collection.

After watching her video, I got excited and decided to give it a go. I made my own kit based upon similar colours/theme and even got messy making some watercolour papers.

As you can see, I didn’t have any florals in the right colour range. Unlike Janet, I don’t use a lot of florals in my scrapping. I did have a black & white floral page which I decided to paint with watercolour to bring it into the correct colour range. This turned out really well and will definitely add more floral zing to my collection.

I decided that I would also incorporate some stamps and inks to create more floral papers and embellishments. With my kit organised, I started my first layout using photos taken of my street. It is Spring here and all the flowers are blooming, being rural this also means the paddocks are being swamped with colour. Yellow fields of daisies are popping up everywhere.

I started off by creating my background paper, I wanted to create a similar paper to one of the lovely Pink Fresh papers which have indigo florals on the corners. The patterned paper I chose to use has a soft, shell pink floral print and two butterflies in the top corner. I flipped the page, as I wanted the butterflies in the bottom, right corner. I went through my stamps and found a rose to use as my stamped flower stem image. I used Tim Holtz’s ‘Faded Jeans’distress ink, as it has a lovely dusty blue/indigo tone. After a good rummage through my stamp drawers, I found a very old, leaf spray stamp which I made about 15yrs ago from kids fun foam. It printed really well and achieved the look I was after.

Next, I went on to make some daisy head embellishments to attach to my plant stems. I decided to use a more realistic daisy stamp and fussy cut them out.

Then, choosing papers from my fake kit, I decided to pick up the colours in the photos and selected an apricot floral, a yellow stripe, a shell pink and the black and white floral. I ended up not using the shell pink or the black and white.

I put down some layers under the photos and then got busy adding more stamped images, some watercolour splatter in indigo and metallic shell pink. Then, I topped it off with layers of fussy cut, stamped daisies and some die cut leaf stalks in navy and apricot. The title finished off the layout. I love how this came together using both old and new products. I can’t wait to get started on the next layout using my homemade kit. Thank you, Janet, from RTS Scrapbooking for your inspiration.

#6 & #7 – Counterfeit Kit

Two quite quick scraplifts today for layouts #6 & #7 using my Counterfeit Kit collection. I am enjoying participating in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge and am finding that it is motivating me to get photos into albums. Sometimes you just want to scrap and not really have to put a lot of time and creative thinking energy into scrapping. It is when I feel like this when I just want to relax and enjoy the process that I scraplift. Both scraplifts were taken from old scrapbook magazines, the first used as inspiration was a layout created by Doris Sander, called Blue Crab Love, 2007. Doris has an online presence, you can check out some of her work here. I selected this design because of the wide border and that it featured three photos.

My photos are of my grandson with my eldest son, his uncle. They both adore each other and love spending time together. There is always lots of rough and tumble play, laughs, chasing and ball games…boys being boys! The paper I used is double-sided, so I cut out the floral frame and flipped the central square and set it back in place to complete the background. Then, I quickly stuck everything down, no playing with mixed media, just good old fashioned scrapbooking.

Layout #7 was also lifted from a magazine, 2008, clearly, circles were all the go then. There is a lot of layouts featuring circle formats or circle embellishments. So, I delved back in time and was inspired by Julie Walton’s, Belly Laugh layout. Julie’s layout is pretty simple with clean lines, as usual, mine turned out very busy with lots of embellishments. Well, I am trying to use things up!

I thought the circle format would go well with my photos, the photos are from about four years ago when we went out to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. The circle representing a dinner plate. As you do, when you have a small child, you need to keep them entertained while you wait for the food to arrive. Out came the book and we read it together, still one of his favourite things to do, read! The messy, circular background was what the highchair table looked like after eating and also his face…wish I had a photo of that! I created the background with Tim Holtz Candy Apple distress stain and some Heidi Swapp gold colour shine, then added all the embellishments and title. It is hard to use red in mixed media without it looking like a forensic scene, let’s pretend it’s Sweet and Sour sauce.

Yellow Challenge!

Hello again, I am just popping in with a layout I created for a September colour layout challenge on the Scrappingclearly FB page. I had fun playing with some mixed media when making the background. I used a Kaisercraft brick wall stencil with some white gesso paint to add some texture. I scraped the gesso across the stencil, then I lifted the stencil and laid it in the other direction and applied more gesso. This created a criss-cross brick texture on the page. I dried it off with a heat gun and applied some Tim Holtz Wild Honey Oxide Ink using the plastic back technique. After drying the ink I applied some Heidi Swapp Mustard Color Shine, again using the plastic bag technique.

Next, I fussy cut a section of flowers from my patterned paper and used it face down as a stencil on the background, dabbing some distress ink over it to create some foliage shadow areas.

Then, I fixed the flowers in place and mounted my photo on some scraps of yellow-toned patterned papers. I rough up the edges of each layer with my fingernail. I then decide to do the same to the fussy cut flowers and used my fingernail to turn up the petals of each flower.

I used my Sizzix Big Shot to cuts some flower and foliage embellishments in grey and yellow card/paper. Then, I created some small clusters of the embellishments on three edges of the photo. Last, I added my titles using two-word die-cuts and some puffy alphas from Pink Paislee.

Bounce! – Counterfeit Kit

Bounce! A quick layout for #3 using my September Counterfeit Kit. This layout got the lovely smoosh effect using the Tim Holtz Oxide inks. One of the self-imposed challenges that I placed on myself several months ago was that any new art/craft supplies coming into my house must be used. No hiding supplies away and not using them. This has been easy with these inks, I am using them every time I scrap.

One of the reasons I decided to join in with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge was that it hit my other self-imposed rule which is using up old supplies and using old tools/media. The materials and tools I have used for this layout are both old and new. I started off working on my white cardstock background using the crushed olive ink. I love this colour, it glows on a white background and really has the translucent sheen of virgin olive oil. I used the simple and fun plastic bag application technique. Swipe the ink pad a few times onto the bag. Then use a paintbrush and water to activate the ink on the plastic, move the ink around so you lose any indication of the stamp pad ink image. Place the ink side of the bag down onto your cardstock and use your hands to smoosh the ink around. Lift and move the bag to smoosh in other areas, if you can see wet ink on the surface double dip and pick up that ink to use somewhere else on your page.

Because smooshing is so fun and I was trying to create an explosive type of texture which would emphasise the energy of a bouncing ball. I went in again with a second colour. I attached a piece of patterned paper and then applied the mowed lawn ink. You need to be a little bit careful when doing this, as you will get some warping if your paper is too thin or you apply too much ink/water in one area. You can see on the right side, the lower corner has a bit of warping occurring. I knew photos were going over this corner so I was heavy handed but I was careful to not have any warping on the other three corners which I knew would be exposed to the viewer.

Next, I added in my photos, I mounted the first two together on an old, green floral paper. The photo featuring the new ball and my grandson I mounted on white because I wanted it to stand out. This was a little moment in time when I was on Nanny duty looking after my grandson while his mum was at work. We had a great day doing lots of things and stopped along the way to buy a drink. The store had one of those giant gumball type machines filled with coloured bouncy balls. He was very excited to use his $2 coin and get a ball. We went across the road to this little park to try out the new ball and did it bounce….yeah, like crazy! Thirty minutes of fun and laughter.

Time to add the embellishments, I still wanted to emphasise the bounce and craziness of a ball out of control. I didn’t have any embellishments which would do this, so I got out some black acrylic paint and a shot glass and made some circle prints to represent the bouncing ball. I dried it off with a heat gun and attached my other embellishments and text from my kit.

I’m really happy with the finished layout, it didn’t use up much of my kit supplies but I did get in a few of my forged leaves, I used 3 papers and some enamel dots. My journaling will go on a tag in the yellow wood grain pocket. The pocket was made from one of the patterned paper sheets I had in my maybe pile. I have used a part of that paper, the wooden drawer front, on layout #2 as well.

All Year Long! – Counterfeit Kit

Layout number two using my September Counterfeit Kit. A little bit quirky, I imagine not many people scrapbook photos of socks but these socks are special to me. My lovely daughters gave them to me on Mother’s Day this year. Well, they didn’t just give me one pair of bed socks, they gave me nine pairs! You see, I have this weird obsession in wearing these socks while at home for most of the year, partly because we have no floor coverings and partly because they are comfy. We have concrete floors and the socks keep my feet warm and create a sense of relaxation. If I have socks on inside it means me time, a little Netflix, some painting, some crafting, some wine (not every day) and maybe a little chocolate or cheese. Who would think a pair of 99c socks could create such luxury. It’s the simple things in life.

After layout #1, I wanted to keep playing with the sewing machine and my distress oxide inks. I put my pale blue and white snowflake bedsocks on and got started. First up, some inspiration! In my recent cull, I decided that I would get rid of at least half of my scrapbook magazines. Like most scrappers now I use the internet for inspiration. The half I have kept I have to use for scrap lifts or if there is nothing useful in the mag they get passed on to my Mum who also scraps. Today’s inspiration came from an old 2007 Canadian magazine, with a layout called Family by Summer Fullerton. I think this may be her blog but I could be wrong, there may be another Summer Fullerton.

The reason I decided to have a go scrap lifting this layout was that Summer had machine stitched the heart photos and papers together, much like a quilt. I thought this idea would give my layout a cosy feeling to go with the socks.

First up, I sketched a heart shape onto a piece of white 12×12 scrap paper. Then I cut out the heart and used it as a template to cut a heart from my patterned paper.

I added some colour to my white background cardstock using the oxide inks and the plastic bag technique.

Then, I roughed up the edges of the heart using my fingernail and attached it to the cardstock.

Next, I worked on creating the central heart, joining my photos and patterned paper together onto my template and trimming it to a heart shape. Then I stitched it together using a zigzag stitch. Both hearts were machined stitched to the background.

Embellishments and the title were added.

The finished layout. I may add my journaling to the top left corner of the heart. On to layout number 3!

Nature’s Wonder – Counterfeit Kit

My first Counterfeit Kit layout features photos of a few of the autumn foliage trees on our property, they were planted over the last 25yrs by my husband. One photo shows some of our daily wildlife which resides in our garden, several well fed kangaroos who love to nibble anything available. They have exotic tastes and at the moment have developed a taste for citrus, stripping our orchard trees of any leaves within their reach. Fencing garden areas and netting the trees is the only way we can harvest anything for ourselves.

I had fun creating this layout. My design inspiration came from Meggy Blethen. Meggy just released a video of her latest layout featuring a shaker section. It is a great layout and the shaker made me think of falling leaves…ahha…genious! I asked Meggy if I could scrap lift her shaker idea and she kindly agreed. With visions of falling autumn foliage tumbling down I got started. I decided to use a piece of paper which I had been holding on to for years. I really loved the crayoned drawn leaves in the design but had not wanted to cover it up. Years later, the answer was simple…fussy cutting! I got busy and fussy cut all of the leaves.

I then went on to make my shaker pocket. I used another old product, a sheet of printed vellum from the now defunct TLC scrapbook company. I used my craft punched mini leaves, I literally sprinkled a handful over my strip of white cardstock and then spent time turning over any wrong side up (white) leaves, and fixing the leaves into place using some clear gel medium. The gel medium worked well, I poured a small amount into the lid of the bottle and applied it with my fingers to the cardstock, pouring a little on and smooshing it around. Some leaves did move a bit but it just added to the random, chaotic effect of leaves in the wind.

Next, I got out the sewing machine and stitched down three sides of the vellum and tossed in some of my forged stamped leaves and some sequin leaves. Then I stitched down the opening and voila…a pocket of falling autumn leaves!

Then I got busy with the sewing machine stitching on my fussy cut leaves. I tried to enhance the leaves by adding some stitched veins. If you try this make sure you shake the loose leaves to the bottom of the pocket before you stitch, otherwise you get them caught up in your sewing and will lose the motion aspect of falling leaves.

I then used one of my 6×6 papers to make some corner strips to mount my photos with. I was able to just use one half (one triangle) for the whole layout.

Next, I got busy sticking down my photo and adding some embellishments and a title. I used a few of the forged stamped leaves and handmade bows.

I was very happy with the finished one-page layout but then decided to turn it into a two-page spread. It took me a while to put together anything I was happy with, I walked away several times and had a break. Which is why this blog post is late, I just couldn’t get the layout finished and fussed around, moving pieces back and forth. I slept on it and finally got it completed the next day. My journaling is missing, it will go into space at the top of the layout. I may also add a few more leaves around the top edge…see, still not completely happy. I need to let it go and move on to the next layout. I had loads of fun making the shaker pocket and doing the stitching.

Forging My Way – Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Forgeries on the Fourth is the first mini-challenge in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. Those joining in with the challenge try and make some embellishments or papers from the original Crisp Apple Classic kit designed by Noel Mignon.

I started early and made some hand cut paper bows in a similar fashion to the Apple Crisp kit bows but I added metallic buttons for a little bling. I am not a scrapper or fashionista who indulges in bows so it will be a challenge for me to include them in my layouts.

Then I had a go at reproducing some autumn leaf embellishments. I decided to use my recent Tim Holtz mini distress dies and some very old stamps. I am not even sure what brand they are, they are made with purple rubber and are very detailed with defined veins. I used up some little scraps of cardstock and patterned paper, stamping the images on with two colours of ink per leaf. I then added some glitter glitz to several of the leaves and fussy cut out the remaining leaves. The glitter leaves will be fussy cut when needed.

I also pulled out some very old small craft punches with three different leaf designs. My first attempt to punch them through cardstock proved disastrous, even with brute force. After some help from hubby who offered and also failed, we got out some Alfoil (aluminium foil) and folded it several times then punched away in the hope of sharpening the punches. It didn’t work 😦

I then decided to try some patterned paper and we had more success, yes, I said we because Hubby had got into the crafting groove and was helping me create a pile of autumn leaves. He is usually the person in the garden raking up the leaves. I plan to use the leaves in my very first layout which will feature photos of our autumn trees planted on our property 20 years ago by my husband.

Clean & Keen

Today I am on a mission to use up a patterned paper which I don’t like. We all have some paper which we wonder what were we thinking to buy that? Perhaps, it came in a kit or was a bargain that you couldn’t pass up. My piece is from a now defunct company, TLC, and has a very bright red, white and blue geometric circular design. It is definitely a dated design which would look very out of place in most contemporary scrapbook albums.

Having strong primary blue and red, I decided to use it for one of my son’s layouts. I am currently working on finishing off his childhood albums, let me just say that I am way behind. He turns thirty next month!

I started off by altering the paper itself, my photo is of my son and daughter bathed and ready for bed, and I was thinking about what related to clean. Bubbles seemed to pop into my creative brainstorm and would link nicely with the circular design on the paper. I used a Kaisercraft stencil and acrylic paint to sponge bubbles across the page.

After letting it dry, I sponged Ranger ‘Denim’ Adirondack Earthtones ink over the white painted bubbles. The layered stencilling creates an interesting texture. You can see in the photos that I use ordinary car wash sponge to apply my mix media colours. I have been using car wash sponge for years, you can pick one up from any of the cheap, two dollar type shops. Use some large scissors to snip the sponge into 8-10 pieces and you a have a very versatile application tool which has only cost you a couple of dollars for the whole lot. When working with inks you can use each edge of your sponge piece for a different colour! They wash clean very easily with soap and water, some staining will occur but doesn’t transfer when you use them next. When you use them with acrylic paint, wash them as soon as you finish otherwise they will dry with a firm crust. Should this happen, you can simply trim off the stiffened surface and you are good to go again.

Next, I got busy making some embellishments. One of my self-imposed rules is if I purchase anything new I must use it straight away. This week I purchased the WRK Precision Press, it is similar to the Misti and Tim Holtz stamping plates. It helps with aligning your stamps and makes stamping multiple copies of images a lot quicker. I grabbed a nice dotty border stamp and some text stamps and tried it out.

I cut some dies, the Uniquely Creative scribble circle die and layered them with my stamped embellishments. It took me a while to decide on the final placement and I shuffled and reshuffled them until I thought it looked balanced.

Finally, I decided what I liked, glued everything into place and added the title. I used some fairly new Kaisercraft alpha stickers and some very old Me and My Big Ideas alpha stickers for the title. I’m not that happy with the look of the title and may change it later, everything is a learning process. Overall, what went from an outdated and unloved piece of paper turned into something a bit more funky and fresh. It is not an outstanding layout but it is acceptable and is one more photo in the album.