072414 CKC July Challenge Blog Hop

So glad you could make it to our monthly challenge hop for Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog!

You should have arrived here from our wonderful July Guest Designer Jane.

The challenges this month were:

Challenge #1 Triangles!  *I chose this one*

Challenge #2 Combining Techniques

Challenge #3 Create a Panel Card

I had seen a new paper in a "sneak peek" that I thought could be forged using triangles.

Then could I locate it??? Of course not - bleh!  :~(

 Wait a minute! (you are saying)

Those aren't ... TRIANGLES!

Look again.

Fooled ya for a minute there!

I cut my 6x6" striped paper into 1 inch strips & those into 1 inch squares.

These were then hand cut diagonally in half, but it became a little trickier than you might think...

Half of the squares in each strip had to be diagonally cut with the stripes vertical & half with the stripes horizontal in order for the colors & pattern to match up. I found it simpler to just lay them all out before I cut the diagonal from the bottom right to the top left. 

72 triangles later (!) I got the patterned squares laid out & married with adhesive photo squares. When I started scrapping these were my go to adhesive choice, although I graduated long ago to a tape runner. I still use the squares frequently in a number of applications where they simply make sense, especially to adhere original vintage photos that I could possibly want to remove later.

Here again is the finished page:

I used some fun polka dot washi tape from my kit to cover the chipboard
camera & frame and to adhere the birthday cake card from Pretty Little Studio.
They have adorable vintage stuff including digi versions!

 It was rather hard to cover up those squares, lol, after all that work!

Mounted on a medium grey Bazzill textured cardstock I love how they pop off the page.

 Now hop on to the rest of the inspiring creations!

CKCB   http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com

Lisa      http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de

Tina      http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com

Leslie    http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com YOU ARE HERE

Lesley   http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk GO HERE NOW

Cindy    http://www.cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com

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

Jemma  http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk

071614 CKC July Challenge #3 Create a Panel Card

Now this was something I had never heard of!
What is a panel card, you say?

Imagine opening an envelope & drawing out a stiff card with a design on the front,
only there is no flap to open for the message, at least not on the background bit.

The REAL card is attached to the center - a "mounted" card, if you will!
I have worked with artist trading cards before so this mini-canvas size held no worries for me.

Diving into my July Sweet Summer kit...

...I discovered all sorts of goodies for a birthday card
for my eldest daughter who turns 27 this month.

A chalkboard sentiment in a wooden frame, dressed up with
clothespeg & ribbon forgeries with girlie stick pins.

I had to mount the shiny turquoise paper on white
cardstock as it was too flimsy to support the central card.

Inside:

And a custom envelope to match...

...including a shiny turquoise liner & chalkboard closure detail.

Love it when I get to try new things at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog!

071414 Creative Blog Tour

Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere courtesy of a shout-out from my LOADsista DANI. We are two in a long line of creative types who hope you will enjoy checking out this Creative Blog Tour fueled by friendship & admiration. At the end of this post I will be introducing you to a few more of my creative friends. Please visit their blogs for an inspirational stop on the tour!

 A wonderfully funny, friendly & gifted teacher Dani can help you get all things Instagram down on the page with her series of classes. Her blog is wonderfully entertaining & a few times a year she does a daily video for the LayOutADay LOAD challenge month that is charming & delightful.

Link here

I am a born-again believer living in the heartland, married to my high school sweetheart. My creative interests are scrapbooking, photography, quilting & interior decorating, and I am planning to work on a book series now that I am retired!

At this moment I have been officially retired for two weeks. I have spent the last six months at work purging 30 years of paper records and every day I wondered why I wasn't at home purging 20 years of my personal flotsam & jetsam. My goal in the first go-round is to clear all closets & hidey-holes and make my home work better for this new stage of life.

On the creative front I currently have mini-book kits in progress for my 2013 December Daily & 2014 Spring Break vacation, a secret birthday gift for my scrap-bestie plus some yummy shabby green shutters to mount in my office. I am a Master Forger on the Design Team at Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, where each month we are given a current scrapbook kit to imitate from our own stash, as well as three monthly challenges. We provide tutorials on how we've made our forgeries.

I must confess that I have a rather unorthodox creative & personal style. I would have to describe it on a good day as traditional eclectic with a twist. I am not particularly interested in having the latest trend but I love to have new stuff. I really like to incorporate vintage elements where it makes sense. I have a very active mind & a rather photographic memory so all things visually ingested become incorporated into my inspiration. Visit my Flickr gallery for a look at my pages.


I find it impossible to go even a day without creating although some days that may mean only a mental exercise or jotting down an idea. During a few rough years when my young adult children were having troubles & I was going through menopause & caring for my sweet elderly aunt who eventually passed away, creative pursuits were a real blessing. I don't know if it's that way for everyone but as the old cliche says, It's as essential as breathing for me. I am fortunate to have an inspiring space to create in.

I have tried to analyze how my creative process works. I have come to the conclusion that some days are for visiting my supplies to get inspired. On other days my photographs spark a story or a page style. I have scraplifted inspiring pages, used a sketch as a starting point, or taken up a scrapbook challenge. I find it fun to stretch in new directions. Now that I will have more time I'm looking forward to altered art & art journaling.

Thanks for visiting with me for a bit! I would love to get to know you better. Please leave a link to your blog or gallery with a comment introducing yourself. As promised, I want you to meet a creative friend.

This is where you will find an amazing artist, 

Mandy Dodd, of Tasmania, Australia.

By her own description: We live in a vintage house near the sea....

I cant imagine not seeing the sea. My layouts just about always feature 

my gorgeous daughters, our life, or nature. You'll find a variety 

of scrapping genres - LO's, cards, OTP, journal work and

 Project Life, sketching, painting, photography - just love it all. 

I love nothing more than this, helped along by my computer and a good cup of tea!

I have two other wonderful bloggers for you, 

but will save those until I have their permission.

7/22/14 UPDATE: ANOTHER CREATIVE TALENT

 Sherrie Breese (aka Queen at the Crop) is my Canadian sister-by-another-mother. We are muy sympatico virtual buds who share a passion for photography, gardening & being grannies. Visit her blog at: http://sherriesmuddlepuddle.blogspot.ca/ which includes a link to her Flickr gallery.
 

Thanks for stopping by!

071214 CKC Challenge #2 Combining Techniques

Bethany has come up with a fun CKC second challenge this month: 
Use at least three techniques on your project (bonus points for messy techniques!)

First thing I did was gather up some goodies out of the Magic Blue Box.
Love what my "Sweet Summer" kit provided for this layout.
Then I chose some photos & printed them in a vertical arrangement
that will leave me plenty of room to layer things up & play!

I then went hunting for stamps, stencils, & mists.

Final tally of techniques: sewing (on the tag), stamping, misting,
added bling (Stickles), layering and painting (the orange paper).

Leaving you, I hope, with a smile on your face!

070814 CKC Tutorial

Can't explain why I am so enamored of recreating the patterned papers in our CKC kits, 

although patterned paper IS my favorite scrapbooking supply.

By using the same colored pens I created my own collection of patterned papers.

The white nail polish that I used last month to gloss a wooden asterisk was sitting by my desk. It took all of three seconds to realize that I could use it like a Smooch paint and simply lay the tiny brush once to each side on orange cardstock to make the Amy Tangerine Plus One Co-Pilot knitted stitch shape.

My original idea for the colored dot paper was to punch out a template of two offset rows of dots as in the Echo Park Splendid Sunshine Darling Dots inspiration paper. A quick troll through my stencils & masks unearthed this Mister HueyBubbles mask. I loved how much more free-form the pattern is - makes me happy :~)  My colors weren't a total match but they do match each other.

Ahh, the aqua Amy Tangerine Plus One Accomplice paper. I thought it was a random square until I saw the full sheet on Lesley's kit reveal & realized it was actually a pattern, lol. Could this Tim Holtz Burlap Stencil have been more perfect to replicate that look effortlessly? My blending tool ended up being my finger as I guess my Distress Ink Tumbled Glass ink pad wasn't juicy enough.

I had a bit of fun with the Pink Paislee Hello Sunshine Raindrops paper & turned 

it into geotags using this Prima stencil & MME stamp with the same set of brush markers .
  The Pink Paislee Hello Sunshine Rainboots paper has a grid of teeny tiny hexagons
with the occasional one colored in. I went large with the brush markers again.

Maya Road's lime burlap flower forgery.

May Arts stitched ribbon forgery.

American Crafts clothespeg forgery.

And last but not least, Amy Tangerine tag.

The white paper had a tiny dot pattern, so I stamped the subtle grid.

This was definitely a fun kit to forge!

070314 Suburban Cowboy

Another favorite photo of my little man.

When he got these boots he actually slept in them, lol.

We got him a cowboy hat on our last road trip, and "Auntie" Lynnette just sent both boys a sherriff's badge.

 

I added some blue jean stitching to the tag.

 

Still smiling...

070114 CKC July Kit Reveal Blog Hop

So good to have you joining us at Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, where we love having a rummage through our scrapstash & using up those much loved goodies in a try at passing them off as current product. Our Master Forgers are great at kicking our oldies up a notch & mixing them together in new & exciting ways - be sure to return for the counterfeit tutorials post on the 8th each month.

We are also delighted to welcome former Master Forger Susanne back to the Design Team!

Noel Mignon Balboa Kit

What could be more perfect for Summer than this kit?

Beautiful cool water, green days at the park, brilliant sunsets...

Let's see what's in the Magic Blue Box this month!

Please enjoy looking over my  SWEET SUMMER June kit.

Inspiration papers:

I actually grabbed some of my papers from last month's kit as the color scheme is so similar.
I wasn't particularly keen to use chalkboard paper but I have a page in mind for the hopscotch paper.
I liked the other DCWV for titles, perhaps. I have five forged papers this month.

Here is the rest up close...

The flower & clothespeg are forgeries.

The tag is a forgery.

The packet of Dear Lizzy embellis is the only direct match with the inspiration kit.
A little chuckle - the aqua alphas are 2009 American Craft "Scratch N Sniff"!

Plenty of sparkly pink alphas and the ribbon is a forgery.

And I think I win for the oldest stash this month - 2003 Making Memories stickers. :D

Now to make sure you don't miss anyone on the hop, here's the list:

Bethany:  http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com

Guest Designer:  Jane  http://alittlescrap.blogspot.com

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

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

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

Lisa H. http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/
Leslie  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/  YOU ARE HERE

GO HERE NOW  Lynnette http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Stephanie: http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.ca

Susanne: http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com