Counterfeit kit for February

I put together my kit for February yesterday ready for crop today.

All the links are available at the Counterfeit kit challenge blog, the kit photos at the kit site (Scraps of Darkness) are here.

I've made the colours of my kit less 'boudoir' and more girly, but tried to keep in with the general feel in terms of tone and pattern.

I've got nine patterned papers, plus a half sheet and a die cut sheet. These are a mix of Prima, Webster's Pages, My Mind's Eye and Making Memories.

There are seven sheets of cardstock and a LOT of part used sets of alphas. I like to have a variety of fonts and sizes and I think this is a good mix.

I've added in a lot of bling and buttons (more things I missed last month) together with the ribbons, Cosmic Shimmers and Prima masks. I've not bothered with the mirrors or page pebbles (substituted with the epoxy brads).

I added in the stamps rather than stamping the images onto cardstock as I thought this would give me more flexibility in using them (ie stamping directly onto the patterned papers, which is something I did with the January kit). I love adding stickers to my pages too, especially word and phrase stickers, so just added a few sheets which I felt went with the kit colours.

Finally, I added in a pile of die cuts and metals. I love layering on my pages and use die cuts LOTS! And the metals are from a box I have been hoarding for many years now. Glad to see metals coming back into fashion, scrapbookwise!

So, yes, a HUGE kit, but I limited myself on what I took to crop to this kit, the remnants of the January kit and a Guest DT kit. I had my trimmer, tool kit, inks, Big Shot and a selection of punches and dies and that is it! Walking in with one tote instead of two totes PLUS lots other other stuff was a shock to everyone I can tell you LOL!

Counterfeit Kit pages

A while ago on It's a Creative World, I wrote about a new blog I'd discovered, The Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. My original post at IACW lists all the goodies I used putting together the January kit (together with links to the original kit we were counterfeiting) and can be found here if you want all the details.

This is the kit I put together

So far, I've created two layouts - I've put off doing more as I am wanting to take the kit to crop with me tomorrow. I used everything from the kit. I added a different coloured thread and also used the doily stamps with versamark and and Distress embossing powder on this first page (which was part of the Stamping and Scrapbooking class challenge for February over at Two Peas).

Here's a close up of the heat embossed image - I used the Tattered Rose Distress embossing powder, it was a perfect match for the pale pink on the clothing tag I used on the page.

And this close up shows the clothing tag I used (as part of another Two Peas challenge), just the perfect addition to a page talking about how much fun my daughter had shopping for new clothes for her new High School (no school uniform!).





This second page I added some Cosmic Shimmer mists to the background (hence the slight crumpling to the background paper). Also extra to the kit are the alpha stickers for the word 'so' which, in the spirit of the challenge blog, are by Creative Imaginations and must be six or seven years old! 

I also punched out one of the digital elements, I think it adds yet another touch of whimsy to this page.

And I used some of the border stickers as journaling lines (again for a Two Peas challenge - to use border stickers creatively on a layout).

I really enjoyed working with such a mix of products from so many manufacturers. It did take a while to put together (in no small part due to the huge stash I have and which I trawled through), but all I have to do now is look for a few more photos to 'fit the kit' and I've got another two or three pages all planned for tomorrow.

I'm also going to be putting together the February Counterfeit kit too based on this kit

I have to say I'm not too hot on the colour mix here (rather I can't think of anything I would be scrapbooking with those colours) so I will be changing the colours up a bit - which is one of the great things about putting kits together this way.

Treasure the Joy of Family

Stuck for inspiration on what to call this post, so thought I would just go with the layout title!

This is a page I've just done today based on a great sketch at Creative Scrappers. This is the sketch


and this is my page



It also fits in with another challenge blog (just found today, blog hopping, as you do!) over at Paper Play Challenges - the challenge was simply to use brown with any other colours. Brown was the perfect choice as the border for this page, providing a bold colour contrast as well as keeping in with the natural setting of the photo.

I've used papers from the Letterbox range by American Crafts, plus some of the brads, flair embellishments and thickers that I received this week as part of my (previously blogged about) prize. The flowers are all cut out from a sheet of patterned paper, love the different patterns and colours on here. And the labels sheet of paper is so pretty AND useful. What a combination!

Lots of yumminess

I got my parcel this week from Two Peas in a Bucket - the prizes from the NSD challenges. Huge thanks to Two Peas for organising and to American Crafts (thickers, brads and remarks stickers), Basic Grey (Sugar Rush paper collection and embellishments) and Fancy Pants (On a Whimsy stamp set) for supplying such gorgeous prizes.

I also found out yesterday that I won a Websters Pages rak from Pamela as part of the Scrapbook Challenges NSD celebrations. I am feeling especially lucky and thankful for the generosity of the people in the world of scrapbooking at the moment (including the wonderful Mel and Jill over at A Trip Down Memory Lane who sent me a lovely little gift to help cheer me up as I am facing a tough time personally just now).

I have been playing a little with the Blogger features and figured out that you can add new pages. I've created a page to feature my Slide galleries (in the process of being updated) and also a page to feature FREE classes. To test it out I am starting with sharing some previous classes I have taught.

Just click on the classes tab at the top to go to the page and then the fullscreen option to enlarge the class details. I would love to know if you create something based on one of these classes (okay there is only one there yet, but really, there WILL be more soon so keep checking back!).

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch page

So I managed to fit in the Scrapbook Challenges Sketch last night (okay, early this morning).

This is the sketch, which was a really easy one to work with


And this is my page. It tells the story of my son blowing his candles out this birthday (or not, as the case was!) it was such a funny moment!


I used Making Memories Funky Vintage for the background, Bella Blvd for the two paper strips, scraps from Cosmo Cricket and Making Memories for the banner, the zigzaggy circle and month sticker is by Collage Press and various alpha and word stickers.



They also have a blog hop going on, starting here and you can have a look at what other members have done with the sketch by visting this post at Scrapbook Challenges.