CKCB members blog hop - just keeps on hopping!

Whilst hopping around the CKCB blog hop last week, admiring all the great master forgeries, I found this fab one on Jemma's blog Just Jimjams.

She had chosen to forge this gorgeous LO from Leslie @ Out of the Mire.

Well, what's a girl to do but have a go herself?

This is my forgery, of Jemma's forgery, of Leslie's LO, which I did for the UKS July week 4 challenge!
Loved the tags in the corner with the stitching and the fabric, so did several others who commented on my LO in the UKS gallery.
I think this is one LO that will keep on hopping for a long time to come.

What summer means to me.

This is the probably the last LO that I will do using my July Counterfeit Kit, looking forward to seeing the August kit very soon.

CKCB - July Blog Hop

Welcome to my stage of the CKCB "Master of Forgery" blog hop.
If you came over from Leslie's blog "Out of the Mire" you must be really hopping, if you came here just to visit why not hop on and join the fun?

This was the challenge this month:
Challenge #1:  Pick one of our DT members and peruse their blog for a bit.  Find something that inspires you and use that to create a project!  When you blog about it, please make sure to link up to their inspiration as well as to your finished project!

Well, you know the Design Team are all pretty talented scrappers and it was a pleasure to take time out and mooch through their blogs checking out all the great stuff on them.
I originally picked three LO's as possible scraplifts but finally went with this one which I found on Lesley G's blog "Oh! Blog it!" on a post entitled "Peg It".

Although I didn't have any mini pegs to include in my July Kit I liked this LO so much, this is my interpretation.

I used Photoscape to create the collage image of a pink hydrangea taken in my garden last summer, sadly with the heat we're having here in Normandy at the moment the poor hydrangeas are not looking quite so healthy.

Mostly created using items from my July "Fun in the Sun" kit, with added embellies: Dear Lizzy thickers arrows; "pink" basic grey mini monogram stickers; the "Lovely" clear cut shape is from Little Yellow Bicycle.

I hope you've enjoyed your brief sojourn in Normandy, time now to hop off to Greenville, SC and Ashley's blog "Paper For People".

Or, if you want to start the hop from the beginning go to the CKCB where you'll find the list of everyone taking part today.

too darned hot to scrap!

At last summer has arrived in Normandy (yay!) and my days are filled with gardening and tending vegetables.
Or, I might be sitting on the patio with a good book and a cold glass of something, iced tea or coffee or a g&t depending on the time of day.
My craft room is up in the attic of our ancient house and it gets really, really hot up there with only a Velux window in the roof for ventilation.
So, have I given you enough excuses reasons why I'm not getting much scrapping done?
Before the temps started to soar I did manage to do some of the challenges posted on UK Scrappers this month which I'd like to share with you.

My example for week 1

I set the week one challenge, my first solo attempt. The criteria were to use the colour palette, the sketch and a favourite quote or saying.

I was thrilled that so many scrappers joined in, they seem to love the sketch & colour scheme.

when the girl in your arms is the girl in your heart
Cliff Richard sang this song in the Young Ones movie

The journaling tag tucked behind the photograph tells the story:
When I was 11 years old my Aunties took me to see "The Young Ones" and I fell in love for the very first time. When Cliff sang "When the girl in your arms is the girl in your heart" it was the start of a life long crush. About 30 years later living in Germany I went with some girlfriends to see Cliff in concert. The next day the SP and I were flying back to UK for a visit, Cliff was checking in for the same flight! Shaking, I approached him and said "Thanks for last night". He replied "No, thank you"!
The love of my life drew this heart, with our initials inside, in the sand on South Beach, HHI October 2012.

and finally the July House Challenge.

on the final day of our last visit to Cancun it took some very dark storm clouds
to persuade me to leave the beach

I managed to use quite a bit of my July Counterfeit Kit for these LO's, with just a few dips into my scraps and stash for embellies and cardstock.

Before I forget...

Although I've already assembled my July CK, I just want to share the final LO that I did using the June kit.
One of my favourite groups within UK Scrappers is the monthly Scrap - A - Sketch group.

this is the June sketch

and this is my take on it
 using my Counterfeit Kit

The photographs of the espaliered fruit trees on our west facing garden wall were taken last Autumn.

CKCB July Kit

The "Summer Fun" kit from crop & create is the one chosen for this month's Counterfeit Kit challenge over on the CKC blog.

Bright and sunny with a touch of black & white a perfect choice for July and the (hopefully!) hot, scorching days of summer.
I love to rummage through my stash and create my own forgery each month and today was no exception.
Look what I found ..........

I had thought that I'd be able to apply the KISS principle to my kit this month, (keep it simple stupid) but as you can see, I failed.

The shiny item in the photo's is the Jenni Bowlin bingo card packet, guess I should have taken them out of the cellophane!

Kit details:

Fancy Pants Hopscotch banners; Jenni Bowlin mini bingo cards & tickets; Basic Grey Soleil pins & tags; Teresa Collins enamel dots; For The Record & Jilly Bean Soup alphas & stickers; Basic Grey black/white polka dot chipboard alphas; atd black/white polka dot alpha stickers; white/red/cream mini alphas; jillibean soup labels; Pebbles toothpick flags; labels, washi tape, black alpha stickers & bits and pieces from stash.

Papers: Glitz Design; Studio Calico; Dear Lizzie; American Crafts; Teresa Collins; Crate Paper; 3 Bugs in a rug; Hampton Art; kesi’art; lily bee design; Little Yellow Bicycle; Toga; Kraft, yellow & red card stock from stash.

Looking forward to creating some great LO's using this kit which I'll call "Fun in the Sun" and who knows I might be lucky enough to make the July Fab 5 list, making it three in a row!