Archi-Scraps/CSI Challenge

I recently discovered Archi-Scraps a scrapbooking challenge blog with a twist.

It is hosted by Julene a member of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Design Team.

As the blog's name and badge suggest the monthly challenges are inspired by something architectural, she had me with the Eiffel Tower!

This month Archi-Scraps are collaborating with the CSI Detectives and using this case file as the prompt.

Quite the fairy tale cottage, n'est pas?

A little over the top perhaps 

and rather more suited to my April CK 

than this month's Retro Metro Kit I thought.

My sister Kathryn and me at the Quimper Club Meeting, Nice France. September 2014.

I had a look through the leftover bits and bobs from the April kit and found an unused double sided sheet of paper with a camera design, a journalling card with a pretty butterfly

 and a Heidi Swapp foil card that I thought would work well together.

A quick rummage through my stash uncovered 

the evidence and testimony needed to solve the case!

Evidence: hearts; paint; metal.

Testimony: journalling from two points of view.

CKCB May Kit - "Retro Metro"

This month under the heading “Everything Old is New Again” 

we are taking a look back at the very first kit that the CKCB Master Forgers were challenged by

 in January 2011, created by Jenni Bowlin.

Introducing “Retro Metro” my Counterfeit Kit this month.

My first impression of the JB kit was 

that it had a strong whiff of nostalgia with floral and flock patterns, doilies and lace. 

As I began to sort through my pattered papers 

one in particular caught my eye a floral décor by Crate Paper. 

I added the complementary sheet of tags and labels and voila the Retro Metro kit was born.

 Two bright floral papers, (Crate Paper & Studio Calico) 

another with a doily and butterfly design (Echo Park) 

two more pp's from Studio Calico all carry on the nostalgic/vintage vibe.
Finally I added a JB paper (Tangerine Bookprint) from 2008 (!)

and a page from a vintage book of French Musical scores 

found at a local flea market..

In my stash I also found an unused page of Jenni Bowlin Bingo cards, result!

Cardstock in red and yellow 

and a luscious deep teal ( Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Nostalgic Collection) from stash.

Assorted part used alphas, some from JB;

 paper doilies & bakers twine;

 gorgeous paper rosettes from Recollections; 

stick pins, die cuts, bottle tops, stickers from stash;

 KaiserCraft resin Blossoms 

and a beautiful melange of buttons, brads, pen nibs, dots and paperclips will all add to the retro feel. 

If you'd like to be inspired to use up your stash be it old or new

why not join in with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge too?

CKCB April Challenge #1 - Scrap A Challenge.

The Master Forgers over at CKCB 

are really thinking outside the box with the first challenge of the month.

Instead of setting a challenge they've sent us on a challenge treasure hunt throughout blogland.

A kind of DIY challenge, challenge!

Scrap A Challenge - Any Challenge.

Google is an amazing tool for a blogger to have, I'm sure you'll agree,

 look what I found on the Scrap Our Stash Challenge Blog.

Stash Challenge # 25 is a word challenge 

 create a layout and include an item from your stash for each letter in the word S-T-A-M-P.

really happy

Here's my entry for both the CKCB and SOS challenges,

 a scraplift of a beautiful page that I saw on 

Michele's blog "The Lilac Diary" recently.

The TH arrow, Mister Huey's Color Mist (Water Cooler) and string from stash
all other elements from
 " It's A New Season"  my April Counterfeit Kit.

the Senior Partner exercising on South Beach, HHI.
March 2015

S - silver "Happy"; striped frame & string; 

T - tape (washi); A - arrow (TH); M - misting; P - parisiennes!

STAMP

Counterfeit Challenge Blog

Scrap Our Stash Blog

Scrapping and blogging again - "It's A New Season!".

I cannot believe that it's been 3 months since I last blogged any of my scrapbook layouts.

I've been blogging on my Normandy Life blog sharing travel stories 

and scrapbooking with my pals over on UK Scrappers

 but haven't joined up the blogging and the scrapping long enough to get back here.

I needed an intervention (!) and the Counterfeit Kit Challenge this month has provided it.

As an alternative to offering a kit to forge this time 

the Master Forgers have come up with A Box and a Messy Box at that.

I began by pulling bits and bobs from my old stash together with matching papers 

but have to say I wasn't "feeling" it. 

I was getting an altogether different look than I wanted for this time of year, 

it was looking a bit "Halloweeny" IYKWIM?

So, back to the drawing board.

I kept the black and white papers, ditched the orange tones and went with pink and blue 

which to be honest aren't my colours usually either but seemed to work with the b/w.

The black & white pp's are all so old I don't remember the makers names!

The rest are from lilybeedesigns; crate paper; fancypants; chatterbox (very old) & teresa collins.

I think I'll also be using lots of plain white cardstock this month.

Back to my embellishment stash I went and put together accent pieces, washi tapes, tags, cards and part used alphas to complement the pp's.

Finally I dipped into my new purchases brought back from Michael 's, HHI, last week: Heidi Swap Foil Packet Cards; white parisiennes (brads to you & me); foil & thickers alphas.

Also, some Prism chipboard stickers; teresa collins buttons and Simple Stories chipboard frames recently purchased from a French online source.

The end result is a much brighter kit with a springtime feel which I'm calling "It's A New Season!".

April Fool's Day joke -were you right?

On the 1st of April I teased you with 3 questions about me, one of which was false.
Over 20 visitors left a comment and opinions were divided between #1 and #2, was it the butterfly or Cliff?
Well, I can now reveal that Cliff and I did indeed chat whilst waiting to board a flight from Munich to London. The night before he had been in concert at the Munich Olympiahalle and along with about a dozen friends and hundreds of other Cliff fans I had boogied the night away, singing along to all our favourite songs. It would have been rude not to let him know how much we had enjoyed the performance, don't you think?

So, really?? 

Do I look as if I'd have a tattoo??

 Those of you who guessed #1 were correct!

Bethany @CKCB has revealed the incorrect answers and the winner of the giveaway

and it's -  Lesley G

Here's my take on the CKCB Challenge #1 - Blog Design Challenge. 

I chose to scrap the design of  Master Forger Julene's blog header 

@ "Julene By Design"

 for my Easter Greeting to you all.

Joyeuses Pâques

hello!

The weekly challenge on UKS last week called for circles, a photograph of an animal and a song title to be included in the layout.

Using Picasa I created a simple collage of two photographs, taken on one of our Sunday walks last summer, of our GS Fleur "talking" to two of the horses that we often see when we go down that way.
Coming up with a suitable title wasn't much of a struggle, Lionel Ritchie's "Hello" came immediately to mind and I thought it was a perfect match.

Any CKCB'ers visiting might be able to spot a few things from my Indolence Blues kit on this page.

The running horse die cut from Dear Lizzy was a no brainer(!) ditto the Toga frame which I placed on the left hand photo to add depth to the layout. The circles were punched out of a template from my Carnets de Scrap magazine.

Cardstock, buttons & tags were also from the kit but I had to dip into my stash for the two butterflies, a couple of extra embellies and the pale blue alphas, pp's are all teresa collins' "He said She said" collection.

and au revoir!

what get's your scrapbooking mojo working

Without the inspiration from outside sources such as the Design Team @ Counterfeit Kit blog and the very talented scrappers at UK Scrappers I think my scrapping mojo would almost disappear.
I also subscribe to a wonderful French scrap booking mag "Carnets de Scrap", leafing through it's pages is my idea of scrapping heaven.
The March House challenge @UKS has been set by Suzy, a lady that I have come to know quite well through the monthly Scrap-A-Sketch group.
This is the sketch she challenged us with this month.

My take on it featuring some of the amazing daffodils blooming in our garden right now, they brighten up my day and tell me that warmer weather is on the way.

Wishing you a great week filled with sunshine and flowers.

take 3 boys

Here's the first LO done with my "Early Morning" CKCB forged kit of the month for the weekly challenge at UK Scrappers.

The brick wall background paper is the Maggie Holmes "Aperature" for cratepaper, I like the way it repeats the pattern of the brick walls behind the boys in the photo.
Even though it's in black & white I just bet those walls were red brick!
Did you spot the cricket wicket painted on the back wall beneath the window?

The journaling cards are from 4heures37, the CLIC CLAC frame is from Toga, die cut words & shapes from Fancy Pants stash, there's a Jenny Bowlin note on there, too..
When I showed the LO to the Senior Partner he finally remembered the names of both boys. Keith  is sitting on the left and John is on the right. I'll have to go back and write their names on before I forget!

March Counterfeit Kit: Early Morning

Time for my March Counterfeit Kit reveal.

CKCB's inspiration for this month's kit comes from the February Kits created by Cocoa Daisy. 

The main kit is Colour Swatch and there are some great papers and embellishments in it.  

Sunshine Kit from Cocoa Daisy

There are lots of add on kits to choose from too and Mood Board caught my eye straightaway. 

Mood Board Kit from Cocoa Daisy

I've been dying to use some fab chalkboard stickers and tags from Toga that I found recently so I mixed and matched from Mood Board and Colour Swatch to create my kit. 

Forged Sunshine Kit #1

I’m calling my kit “Early Morning” because the colours all remind me of the view from my bedroom window this month, slate grey/blue skies layered with streaks of pinky sunrise and wonderful yellow daffodils growing beside the stone walls which make such a striking background.

Forged Sunshine Kit #2

Embellishments:

Assorted washi tapes and PL style journalling cards; Tim Holtz ideaology alpha cards; cardstock photo frames from Toga; transparent die-cuts from Studio Calico;  a variety of bold black alphas and chipboard elements from stash; stickers from MME; coordinating brads & buttons from stash.

Forged Mood Board Kit

Double sided papers:

Crate Paper - Market Curio (Cocoa Daisy includes this in the Sunshine Kit); Aperature; Happy Day.

Adorn it –- Misty Collection – Graphs.

BoBunny – C’est La Vie en Rose.

My Minds Eye – the sweetest thing.

Echo Park- Beautiful life/Floral

We R Memory Keepers – Chalkboard Black/Grey

I've included just one piece of winter white cardstock but will probably use some from stash, too.

Happy Scrapping

Counterfeit Kit - February. It must be lurve!

The ladies on the CKCB have chosen three Kits de Somni for this month’s challenges and I chose to base mine on choice #1.

See how prettily they set out the kit

It wasn't until I began to pull my February Counterfeit Kit together that I realised how many stash items, I had forgotten  saved for a rainy day, that I could use.

I tried to make it look neat, honestly!

Red/White/Black and a touch of turquoisey  blue, hearts & lace, perfect for the month of lurve!

Loving the "He Said She Said" pp's & embellies from Teresa Collins

This month it’s not only about the amazing Theresa Collins papers that I bought recently, more of an embellie stash blast!

Besides the aforementioned TC papers I’ve included pp’s from lilybee, fancypants, basic grey, american crafts, studio calico and hampton art.

so many embellies, so little space!

The embellishments are from bobunny, TC,  jenni bowlin, ikea (!) plus lots of odds & ends.

I’ll be adding cardstock & part used alphas from stash, and inking & stamping a bit too.

"it must be lurve"

I’m hoping to have a go at the chalkboard papers that Jemma talked about in her blog post, here, 

I have the paint just not the nowse!

CKCB August Kit - French Life.

Yesterday, the Master Forgers @ the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog revealed the August Counterfeit kit, "The Confidence Kit" from Scrapbooking from the inside out.

The Confidence Kit

Whilst I was thinking about how to put my own kit together I visited some of the Master Forgers blogs for inspiration.

This is what I came up with.

French Life

Printed papers.

Graphic 45, French Country Collection; Teresa Collins, Now & Then; Crate Paper; Basic Grey, Hello Luscious; Toga, Doux Souvenirs; Bo Bunny, Mama-Razzi.

Cardstock.

Vanilla, caramel, sage, red & blue cardstock from stash.

Alphas.

Lots of mini alphas stickers. Echo Park red alphas; brown & black polka dot American Craft alphas and some typewriter style alphas from stash.

Forgery.

I saw on Jemma’s blog justjimjams how she forged some “Polaroids”,  I pinched  was inspired by that idea and created a few for my kit using the Graphic 45 papers.

Extras.

Gorgeous pastel toned Dear Lizzy chipboard stickers; champagne bottle caps; upsy daisy embellished brads; home sweet home ribbon; red striped washi tape; Ranger Distress Ink; bundled sage & fired brick; Distress Stain; worn lipstick; Adirondack Colour Wash, Lettuce; assorted stamps “a la française”,  trim & border stickers from stash.

I've set myself an extra challenge again this month since my summer/vacation/beach theme worked so well in July.

August's challenge will be to use only new photographs taken here in Normandy.