September 2023 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge reveal and hop

 For those of you who know me well, you will be aware that 1st September marks the beginning of my #watchmesmile season and I'm excited to reach my favourite time of year!

As always, I start the month with high hopes and big ambitions which may or may not materialise, but especially at this time of year - with so so so many things on my calendar - it's important to live each day and soak up the new pace of life that autumn brings.

So I'm excited to be sharing the new inspiration kit over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge which was picked out by MF Tina and definitely stretched my kit making capabilities.

First up, let's say a big hello and welcome to our wonderful Guest Designer Jennifer Croasdale who can be found over on Instagram as @jen_cro_scraps.

And onto our kit which is definitely something different this month!

MF Tina has picked out the (Not) Just for Boys kit club "Aurora" Limitless kit from April 2023. You can find out all about it over at the (Not) Just for Boys kit club here - including all the contents - and of course, Tina has all the info over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog here.

(Not) Just for Boys kit club "Aurora" Limitless kit from April 2023

First up - I had nothing from this kit except the Silhouette "family" die-cut file. Second up the name reminded me of BasicGrey Aurora which, as fate would have it, features purples and greens. Third up - that reminded me of all the other BasicGrey featuring lilac, lavender and purple which I may or may not have been hoarding these last XXX years. Fourth up, that dark paper with the white dots reminded me of Simple Stories Heart papers. Fifth up - my kit came together much more quickly than I had anticipated! Twenty minutes or so and I had a full selection of papers and embellishments with lots and lots of older, vintage products and so... may I present to you... Treasured.

I actually started by pulling the Siple Stories Heart papers Forever and Always in my Heart before moving on to the BG Aurora collection where I also included the alphabet sheet. Then LilyKate, Granola and Wisteria (including all my scraps). I tried to pick up the beige and white dots, the stripes, the florals and botanicals and the stripes as well as the key colours of mint, shades of purple and blue with a sprinkle of neutrals. I really think this is an interesting mix of colours and prints and am excited as always to see if I can use these older products in a modern way!

Then onto the embellishments where I also wanted to select some older, less used items and dived into my Pinkfresh Studio selection. You can see all sorts of items from different collections here as well as some enamel dots which at least have the dark, the mint and the purple even if that peach is unlikely to see any use this time around... maybe that is a challenge for me!

Lots of different types of embellishments including journalling tags, puffy stickers and words, enamel dots, some BasicGrey chipboard and even wooden elements. I added in a couple of very used up Thickers sheets to really challenge myself and also included a ticket die to match those in the original kit.

Last up was a whole sheet of outline words to find uses for (cards may feature in my future) to go alongside the "family" design from the original kit.

This is definitely an unusual kit for me and I know it will be challenging to use - with the colours and older products - but I'm ready and excited to give it a go.

What will your kit look like? 

Don't forget to check out the whole hop (see below) and say hello to everyone along the way.

• Counterfeit Kit Challenge - http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/ 
• Guest Designer Jennifer Croasdale -  https://www.instagram.com/jen_cro_scraps/
• Christine - https://www.youtube.com/@ScrappingHarden 
• Cindy - https://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/ 
• Julene - http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com/  
• Lisa – http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com 
• Leslie - http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com 
• Misty - https://craftysoup.com  
• Tara - https://kryptonite72-rambles.blogspot.com/ 
• Tina - http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/ 
• Brandi - https://www.instagram.com/scrappy.boymama/

And please share your kits and creations over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge FB community here or on Instagram. You can tag us @counterfeitkitchallenge and use #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcseptember2023

Welcome February and welcome to the shorter, more concise Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal blog hop.

You should have reached me from Kelly and next up is Margie. Don't forget to check out our delightful Guest Designer this month, Lisa Jane who will be sharing her kit over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and on social media!

This month's kit was picked out by Master Forger Clair and she went for something a bit different and for me, a bit daunting!

She's picked out the January [Document] Life Stories Kit, Little Things in Life, from Scrapdelight in the Netherlands which is full of wonderfully subtle colours and designs. Here's just one of the kit photos but there are lots more photos available at the site. 

But as much as I think this kit is gorgeous and really very different from what we've featured recently and it is really perfect for February with its hint of romance, I was rather worried that I didn't really have any products that matched. Of course, looking through my stash today, I can now see that there's quite a lot of lavender in there from Paige Evans and Paislee Press. But I'd already had my eureka moment and knew that the Wisteria collection from BasicGrey (*sniff*) had lots of purple, lilac and lavender. So, for the second month in a row, I decided to go with a (partially used) collection as the basis for my kit. 

So, here's Enchanted. 

I started off with all the papers that I had left from the collection. Several of these are full sheets but many are just scraps. I still love this collection!

I've included several additional small alphas in neutral grey and white in addition to the alpha and stickers from the original collection.

The original kit had a few washi tapes so I tracked down some which seemed to match the papers. The inspiration kit also had a lot of labels so I've added in quite a lot of tags in neutral canvas in varying sizes.

There are a lot of printed pocket cards in the Scrapdelight kit so I picked out a few from my vast collection to try to use up. These tend to be the items that get popped back into my stash at the end of the kit so let's see! I saw that lovely veneer HS word and just thought it might add a modern touch to the older papers.

The two larger cards are actually freebie promo postcards from a jewellery shop two years ago but they seem perfect for this month.

The inspiration kit had some enamel dots so I've thrown in some of those and a sprinkle of confetti for good measure.

And last but not least, I saw these flair and thought the colours seemed to go well so in they went.

I'm interested to see how I get on with this mix of much older and newer products. There's not a lot of embellishments in there but I can always add in a little extra here and here if I need it.

We hope you enjoy our smaller reveal hop and the changes that are trickling in over the next few days. I know that the mini-kit team this month have some gorgeous shares so don't miss that on 6th. Our Forgeries can still be found on the 4th and the two monthly challenges will feature on 12th and 18th. (You can find the full blog scheduled with all the details of the changes on this blog post) You can still link up your projects from your own blogs on the Monthly Link Up Page but don't forget that you can also share in our Flickr Group or even on Instagram (find us  @counterfeitkitchallenge) with the tag #counterfeitkitchallenge. The CKC Facebook group will make its appearance at the end of February once we've settled in to the new routine and we'll be hoping to see you share over there too!

That'a all for today so here's the full blog hop list in case you get lost along the way and don't forget that you'll find our lovely Guest Designer on the CKC blog and her own FB page.

• Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog - http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com
• Clair - http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.co.uk
• Kelly - http://www.honeysucklehillcrafts.com
• Lisa - http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de
• Margie - http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com

Happy Blogiversary to me!

I knew it was coming so I checked out my post feed and yes, my 10 year blog anniversary is today.

10 years ago, 15th September 2006, I wrote my first "real" blog post about the start of our Nova Scotia adventure.

It's a badly written piece to be honest and includes no photos... I wrote it from the lobby of the hotel we stayed in at Frankfurt Airport before we headed over the ocean - in the days before wifi and smartphones. I was excited about the trip and excited to share my adventures online - using a fixed internet (modem perhaps) computer available for guests at the hotel - oh the pain of that slow connection. Of course, no one read me back then. I'm not surprised, like I said, it's badly written! But also, blogs were still relatively new back then in the UK and especially over here in Germany. Most people I mentioned it to had never heard of a blog. No one could see the point or why they should be interested.

I'd been scrapping since the start of 2006 and was still a painfully inexperienced newbie but it was exciting and fun and the industry was so much bigger then too. Was that the peak? Did I join the trend at the high point?

Anyway, 10 years on I'm wondering who's out there still reading blogs. Are they passé? Should we all consider giving them up in favour of the dreaded social media? I'm not sure but it's something I'm thinking about - what direction to take. Many people have stopped sharing through their blogs and I'm wondering if I'm just hanging on for the sake of it! But for now, I'm still here. I'm even thinking about an overhaul of the blog - design, layout and even the name. After all, I haven't lived in Recklinghausen for 7 years!

But all this is just a preamble for one of those shares...

This evening I made a layout to celebrate this milestone in my personal blogging journey and followed my own Whimsical Musings prompt WM#299 to be inspired by scrapbooking product made by a manufacturer that doesn't produce scrapbook product any more.

It had to be BasicGrey of course. In fact, this collection is one I treated to myself in that first year. It might even have been the first papers I ever bought. I ended up buying it twice I think. It's "dated" of course, but I still love it. And thank heavens that my style has changed considerably over those ten years so I tried to use some of the products in a more up-to-date way. I fussy cut and layered and roughed up the edges. I matched it up with some modern items such as gold mist, washi tap, Thickers and mini-alphas. Back in the day a BasicGrey collection consisted of papers, a sheet of alpha stickers (almost always the same font!) and a sheet of die-cut labels - non-sticky of course. I did find some remnants of the infamous matching BG fibres and really tried to find a way to use them on the layout - but no! 

I'm not totally convinced at how successful I was at bringing Urban Couture to 2016 but I do like the layout and isn't that what matters?

What's your opinion about the future of blogging? Should I be moving on to other mediums or continuing forward with a bit of a redesign? What's your own blogging adventure? I'm really interested to hear what you think as I carry on thinking about what I'm doing here.

Happy 15th everyone! Back soon with Simple Scrapper shares and a (no doubt) late 16 loves!

Scrapabilly Shares part 1

It's the beginning of the month which means kit time. Specifically, Scrapabilly kit time.

This month, Sylvia heard my pleas and put together a gorgeous BasicGrey filled kit with Spice Market goodies. Yummy! As soon as I saw this collection featured online, I knew exactly what I'd use it for and yes, three of the five layouts I am going to share with you today and Saturday feature our short trip to Dubai back in January 2009!

First off, let me show you the kit (find it in the shop here) ...

Lots of richly coloured papers and cardstock, a whole flurry of alphas - enough for the longest of titles, die cuts, ribbon, journalling spots and then a mini-spray mist and mask to encourage you to really play with colour and texture. So much possibility here and all the papers are double sided so there's definitely something for everyone.

I created five layouts, 4 (simple) cards and two gift tags with some scraps left over.

I didn't need to add much in either. Just some cardstock, a little ribbon, an extra alpha as I like to mix up the size and design of the letters, two kraft luggage tags, some mist and the mixed brad and flair set that goes with the collection. With colours and designs this bright and bold, nothing else was needed to showcase all that BasicGrey scrumminess.

As I mentioned above, I knew that I wanted to create some pages for Dubai as the colours and designs of the papers reminded me of the paper line Marrakech which had been so perfect for this trip but has been discontinued. So for my first layout, I decided to lift myself and recreate a page I made for the Scrapbook Magazine (UK) and which I featured on my Whimsical Musings blog last week (see here). It featured a flip book right on top of the page which can hold up to 16 photos. I included 13 on my Dubai page and have left three "pages" blank for journalling which I will do when I have checked some of the details of our trip.

I decided to experiment a little with the masks and to have a go at some simple tags. Placing the masks directly onto the kraft luggage tags, I sprayed over the complete tag to ensure a full sparkly covering using Heidi Swapp Colour Shine in teal (here) and Mr Huey in gold (here). To give the masked design more definition, I outlined the shapes with a Sakura gold pen (here) and a white Uniball Signo (here). You can see the full extent of the glimmer and shimmer in the close up photo below. I added the alphas to turn them into present tags but they could just as easily have doubled up as page embellishments. It was fun to have a go at this technique on the smaller tags so that I could test out the coverage of the mists etc and next time, I might give it a go on a full page if I'm feeling brave!

I liked the mottled effect the gold Mr Huey gave on the tag. I could have used kitchen roll to dab off the excess if I'd wanted a smother finished effect.

The Heidi Swapp Colour Shine (also in mini form in your kit) gave a much smoother effect without losing any of the shine. I would probably use the Colour Shine again next time if I wanted to have another go at this technique. 

Tune in again on Saturday for part two of my share.

Don't forget that all the Design Team creations can be found on the Scrapabilly gallery (here) and their blogs can be found in the right hand sidebar. Go and say hello!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge November kit reveal blog hop

Happy November 1st.

It's a Bank Holiday here in Germany but due to the fact that I am always doing things at the last minute, here I am at 7 in the morning, getting my post ready to go live in an hour!

Anyway, I love November. Yes, a bit controversial. It's not usually up there in the top three (or even in the top ten!) of anyone's list. But it's our Birthday month and a few years ago, I decided to change my attitude to this grey, dreary month and since then have been able to see it for all its glory. And we've been lucky the last few years and have had some incredible Novembers full of sunshine and blue skies and even a smattering of snow. I tell you this because since then I have tried to make my November Counterfeit kit a bit special to support this better feeling about the month :-) And this month, I think I have another winner to create with all month long.

So onto the reason you are here - the Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal for November. If you've come to me via the inspirational Lesley - the first slice of my Lesley/Leslie sandwich - you're on the right track. If not, why not pop back to the Counterfeit blog and catch up with all the team - you won't regret it.

This month we are happy to have Vikki as our Guest Designer so please make her welcome and say hi to her as you go along - I'm sure she will have something gorgeous to share.

We were given a really autumnal kit for inspiration from Jenni Bowlin this month. It's really got that seasonal feel to it and is a great place to start. There are a few more close ups if you follow the links (here and here) and even some add ons so there's plenty for you to choose from...

 Realising straight away that I didn't have a single item from the original kit, I let it inspire me in a more fluid way and came up with a kit that definitely has its roots here but they might be difficult to pick out.

Let me introduce "Comfort" to you - and yes, I'm already in love with it!

 First off was to notice that the JB kit had quite a lot of BasicGrey and some Crate paper so to start selecting my papers, I decided that this is where I would go. I've been trying to incorporate a lot more of my newer stash into my kits recently as it seems a shame to let them sit there getting old while my CKC kits are full of older stash. Therefore, I turned to BasicGrey Hipster and Crate Paper DIY shop as well as some from Acorn Avenue (also Crate). I found a stripe that reminded me of the original, some spots, a floral and lots of papers that had a similar small repeating design. I also tried to match up, in a very loose way, the tones and colours although I ended up with something far less brown and much more neutral with a splash of red. Mmmmm. One extra sheet of word bubbles replaced the word bubbles embellies in the original.

  

Having decided on these two companies, it seemed sensible to me to pull out some of the stickers, chipboard and die cuts from the Crate Paper lines which are practically untouched and add them in.

The JB kit has a whole pack of BG transparencies which include a lot of leaves and flowers. Flowers are covered in the Crate die cuts and stickers, so into the kit went a pile of wooden leaves that are so adorable.

Looking back to the inspiration kit again, I picked out letter stickers, stamps, jutte and sequins that needed to be added. So two extra sets of alphas - one large one small; some buttons because I hardly use them any more and I have gazillions; a SC date/phrase stamp (Thanks Bethany!) with a new stamp pad seemed to match and will encourage me to use it up; and some very old ribbons that I threw in for good measure.

Going back to my room, I then picked out a few last things that I think will really be useful such as the Crate slide frames, some lace and a few left over items from Crate Paper's The Pier.

This is another BIG kit. But I'm fine with that because there is lots of variety (especially when I look at the B-sides of the papers and all those stickers) and it's a kit full of stuff that I know I love.

I have promised myself that I will go back to my older stash in the new year for a few kits but at the moment, I'm really enjoying making up my CKC kits with scrummy, inspiring new stash. Last month thanks to LOAD,  I used up my WHOLE October Stargazer kit (12 layouts) which is something that hasn't happened for as long as I can remember. Of course, creating every day helped but also, I was SO in love with my kit that it just inspired me day after day after day. I have big plans for this kit too.

Thanks for dropping by and please let me know you were here - why not let me know how you feel about November?

The ever creative and endlessly delightful Leslie is the top slice of my sandwich and your next stop along the hop.

If you get lost, here is the full list. Have a great day everyone!

Guest Designer:  Vikki  http://islandscrapper1.wordpress.com

Angela:  http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/

Dawn:  http://dawnsscrapbookcottage.blogspot.com

Jemma:  http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/

Julene:  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au

Lesley G.:  http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk

Lisa H.:  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/ You are here

Leslie:  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com Go here next

Lynnette:  http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Millisa:  http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Stephanie:  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.ca