A Peek At Some Pages

This is the third month in a row, that I have participated with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. And it is exciting to see the pages develop. This month's combinations of patterned papers is stretching my creative muscle. Plus I am working with photos that haven't been scrapped because they had me stumped. They are mostly four years old and sit in a box on the desk. I flick through them from time to time and say to myself, "I gotta get these stories down." and then move on to something else that proves to be less challenging.

It turns out that odd (to me) paper combinations and left-over photos play well together. I have been snipping and pasting for a week now and have 17 layouts finished, with four more creations queuing up.

The thing that I am excited about and want to share today, though, are the "counterfeit embellishments" that I have made. This it the first time I have followed along with the tutorials on CKC and also copied items directly from the inspiration kit at Birds of a Feather. Here are some of the dandies:

Paper Bows on paper clips

Paper Bow clip, on layout

White frame on kraft

White frame on craft, finished.

kraft note envelope and ribbon bow on paper clip

fabric banner

felt flower

bow on paper clip

another bow on paper clip

Kraft note envelope

Another note envelope

fabric banner

another fabric banner

making the fabric banner

Patterned Washi

The one thing I didn't try to counterfeit, was the wire hangers. But since I did mimic so many of the kit items, when I got to shop at a scrapbook boutique yesterday, I picked up these:

 Also picked up up this whole pile of  scrappy goodness.

The coolest thing was the war time ration book. What a delightful piece of authentic ephemera.

Hope you enjoyed the peek at the pages. Full reveal will be made soon.

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At Season's End

Photo from Birds of a Feather

The Counterfeit Kit Challenge reveal for September is the Birds of a Feather kit for August 2012. I gathered my papers and embellies in record time. As always, I am intrigued by the colour combos and pattern mixes as left to my own devises, I would never combine these products, yet here I have it all in my abundant stash. Excuse me while I take a moment to reflect on the acronym on the post-it, I keep beside the computer. S.E.L.E. (Stash Exceeds Life Expectancy)

Ok, i'm back. When I put the papers together, it brought to mind the brights and the darks of my pots of annuals that are getting tired here at the end of summer, yet still pushing out blossoms. To honour the beauty they have given of themselves since May, (pansies since April) I am calling this, my September CKC kit, At Season's End

The patterned paper and card stock:

Websters' Pages, Streussel
Green with lines, uk (unknown)
ColorCore Impressions Jenni Bolin, this is actually a cardstock
American Crafts, Simply Chic, Squared
Crate Paper, Esason Collection Winter
Blue with dots and swirls, uk
K & Company, Danny O, Polka Dots Flat
My Mind's Eye, Candywrapper paper
ColorBok, from a Pattern Pack
Mottled Red, uk
Green cardstock, uk
Yellow Cardstock, not sure, Bazzil or DCWV.

The embellies:

|Felt Flower on Paper clips, Making Memories, Paperie Rouge
Banners and Triangles with eyelets, to be made using natural cotton and eyelets shown.
Metal frames, American Crafts (in place of mini kraft jotter tags)
Kraft note envelopes, to be made using dotted paper shown.
CTMH pewter paper clips. (in place of vintage trinket love hangers)
Twine, lime twist by My Mind's eye and two bits of baker's twine, bought in bulk, manufacturer uk
(oooo...manufacturer uk. I like that. Hence forth, "uk" is now "muk")
Three button's that positively pop. Blue with brown, muk. Turquoise and Celery are Gramma's button box.
Four fading beauties, Two fabric with buttons, made by me. Blue, Bazill. Kiwi, Prima Marketing
Ruler Tape, 7 gypsies
Green Painter tape, Scotch 3M. I am going to try stamping on it for a patterned washi look.
Alphas, Thickers, Hardcover
Woven burlap cord, Eighteen Karat

Then because it is so much fun to find the matches, I went on to duplicate the add-ons.

Echo Park, Bella Road, For the Record, Noteworthy
Basic Grey, June Bug, Daydream. This didn't really match the kit, but I like how it worked in with the rest of it all.
Creative Memories, Black and White
Neutral with small writing, muk
Echo Park, Bella Road, For the Record,Advertisment. The black with small white dot is the "B" side
Scenic Route, worn lined paper
Basic Grey, Hang 10, Maui
Dream Street, Clubhouse, Bull's Eye
Robin's Nest, Sea Floral
Grey baroque pattern, muk
Blue cardstock, CTMH
Red cardstock, Bazzil
White cardstock, Bazzil. With little holes punched in it. Watch for stitching.
Puce cardstock, muk

That brings to mind a time when I was about 5 or 6 and I told my mom I wanted a beigey purple coat. She said there was no such colour. It was a long time before I learned that my imaginary colour had a name. There might be a layout on that.

Add-on embellies

In the add-on papers, there is a page of tickets and tokens. I will use tickets I got off etsy.
Stickers, Glitz, love games titles.
Replacing the kit's memorabilia pockets with journal cards I made a while back using bits and snips. I will aim to use 6 of these cards.
Felt flowers, Hero Arts
Adhesive boarders, K & Company, Que Sera Sera

And so I present, At Season's End

And we are ready to roll.

Thanks for popping by. Double thanks for comments.

August CKC part III

Like a memorable trilogy; the golden triangle of design; mustard ketchup and relish; many good things come in threes. Come to think of it, they say bad things happen in threes also.

I acknowledge this series of blogs about the August Counterfeit Kit, Around the Block is not going to pull anyone away from a best selling novel. Hope you haven't arrived here between a series of unfortunate events, either. Wouldn't want to be remembered for that.

That being said; and me wondering where did that all come from; I think it means my ADD is in high gear. Anybody still with me? Preamble is over.

Ah, the August CKC Kit. Done. Complete. Finito.
 
 What worked well. Paint and mesh mask. Used it several times. Used paint on title frames and on corrugated paper also. All the paper and fabric flowers that where chosen for the kit are blooming on layouts. Three rolls of felt flowers that were bought over five years ago, and laid unopened, have been opened and about 15% used up. Alphas still have some life left in them.

Just as important as what went well is what didn't work well. It's an invaluable part of the learning curve.
The bottle tops hit the garbage can. I tried to flatten them  and they turned out too grungy. They came in a grab-bag, many moons ago so I don't feel any guilt over poor choices. The copper coloured staples did not get used either. Back into their drawer they go with all the other staples I never use. The patterned ones showed up on a page but I don't really like the way they work. This product I bought when they were being cleared out. So I bought a lot, thinking that I would never see it again and what good would the stapler be with out staples. Turns out, they are going to last forever at the speed I apply them. They may migrate to the kids craft supplies to alleviate buyers remorse.

On the left are the embellies that were not used up in layouts. They are now back in their respective drawers.

 On the right is what is left of the patterned paper. After the pages were done, I cut out all the 2 1/2" squares that I could and made these little cards.

And yes, that is some more of the felt flower boarders, cut up and put to use. These are just big enough to hold a tea bag. Little gifts for my TOPS pals.

Sunday night and most of Monday were spent whipping up another 11 pages. This brings the total pages for this kit to 31. This inspite if the fact that I felt like I had precious little time to scrap this month. How could this happen? By a change in my process. Two months of participating in CKC and I had an epiphany of how I process a design and how I can do it better! (faster! stronger!) But no time for that right now. Perhaps another blog. Right now, here is the third installment of layout created using my August CKC kit, Around the Block and the add-on kit, Best of Show.


This kit was so summery and picnic-y. It worked will with a picnic we had the last day of June. Here are three layouts about it.

Picnic Table Talk

It's How We Play
Paint on corrugated paper. Running low on alphas. Recruited a few from another set. I really only needed and "h" but it would have looked odd with just one green letter, so I saved the white vowels for future use.

Tea Time
 Just between you and me, that's not really tea in my little thermos.
 

Baby Brooklyn
The youngest member of the family

Easter 2012
Three pages for Easter. (Hmmm...there is that "three" thing again.)
Cut photo mats from the remaining off-cuts. Brought in a sheet of Creative Memories paper to tie them all together.

The large mat is the reverse of the yellow gingham. 

Potluck and Brown Bag Auction

Another layout from the barbeque I hosted in June. (bonus points if you remembered that I did pages about this event last month.) This will go in the newly started TOPS album. 

The layout technique is from my power layout workshop. A great "go to"  for me when there are lots of photos and/or I don't feel like re-inventing the wheel, with respect to design.

 Did you notice that piece of measuring tape? It is out of an old sewing box.

Kindergarten Gym
 Again, I used the techniques I teach in the power layout system, Pulled in some stickers from Close to My Heart and used up the last sheet of pp from this kit. 

And that's a wrap. Tomorrow is the 5th. The new CKC kit to counterfeit will be revealed here. And I get to start, all over again. Yipee!

Thanks for dropping in. Double thanks for comments.

A Jasper Jaunt

No place has a stronger call for me than Jasper National Park. The magnificence of the rugged Canadian Rockies fill my soul. It has been three years since our last visit. They were still there! Still waiting to awe me with their grandeur and nourish my spirit. 

The weather was cool and cloudy. Very little sunshine, so not many scenery pics, but the wildlife stepped up to fill the need for this snap happy photo bug. I clicked over 500 times in four days. Then spent a few hours when I got home, deleting, deleting, deleting. Whew......here are a few of the best.

Look! Slow Down! Stop! Quick! It's a Lynx! Rare to see, this elusive cat did not give a second chance to get it right.

Traffic stopping  jam causing mountain sheep, saunter nonchalantly across the road, causing full stop, and back-log of traffic. Truckers muster patience as they crawl along through the herd.

This elk walked right past the window of our cabin, then proceeded to mow the grass for over an hour with momentary pauses to politely pose for pictures. She had enough personality to warrant naming her Anne. Anne Elk.

The next day, we had a momma elk and her twins drop around for a visit.

A bit of sun on the last morning.

On the way home, we spied the ram of the sheep heard.

And not a quarter mile further we met a couple of mountain goats. I have seen them before but only at a distance, so very happy to get this photo.

During our trip, we also kept our eyes open for vintage campers. Another Look! Slow Down! Stop! from me when I spied this little Shasta. We were too late as it had sold the day before, but it was my first chance to be up close and personal with one. Interior was still mostly original.Took lots of photos for reference.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig! Life resumes. Routines fall back into place. But at any moment I can press pause on life and replay a few memories. They will feed my soul until I can return.