It’s a rainy Monday here in the northeast, a perfect day to create with this pretty colorful kit I pulled together for the April Counterfeit Kit Challenge. In the previous post you can see my kit. So liking the happy vibe I feel when I pull this out to play with!

I made a layout using the sketch found here. It’s a really nice simple sketch and I thought it was time to try using an  white back ground, which I have never done before. Here’s my first clean white layout.I was pretty ok with how it came out. I used quite a few pieces of my kit which I liked.  This is a picture of my Dad and our daughter taken 10 years ago. Yup, now you know how dang far behind I am in scrapping my family. I thought I would be scrapping all those pictures in chronological order, silly me!! Anyway, back to this challenge~ I stayed true to the sketch, except for the number of pennants using 3 instead of 4 and  adding a few more embellies.

About the picture, it’s one of my favorites of my Dad and our daughter. I looked over and they were sitting together chatting. So glad I quickly snapped that picture , my Dad passed away 4 months after.  

Oh those everyday moments, how quickly they can become a cherished picture.

So there is my first challenge done.  Let me know what you think, l like it when you pop in and let me know you were here!  And Kasi, I have a copy of the picture for you~

I haven’t played along with Counterfeit Challenge Blog for a long, really long time and I haven’t blogged for as long. With Spring time in the air, creating takes the cake over cleaning, know what I mean?  Just in case you haven’t heard of this fun blog and the idea behind it, check it out here.  The April Kit  is so colorful, seems perfect to me for scrapping pics of my daughter when she was just a munchin.

Here’s my April kit,  I chose all my papers from an old DCWV Stack called Blossoms and Butterflies. No worries coordinating papers. Built the rest of my kit making the tags, using spellbinders for the white die cuts and searching through my mess of a craft room for the Prima flowers. Those pearls in the flowers are those $ specials that I have a hard time to resist. Excellent way to use them! The orange ribbon is hem tape grabbed from my sewing stash along with the green grosgrain ribbon. Butterflies are another $ spot buy. I like using borders so I cut some and punched a couple. To top the kit off, I threw in some bling, choosing black rhinestones for a it of contrast.

Here are the close ups 

Hope this makes you want to pull out your  paper stash and put together your own version of this kit. It sure makes me want to scrap and try the challenges those talented ladies have in store for us.

I am glad to be blogging again, and I know this will please my daughter who was so sweet to get me started in the blog world. Please leave a comment, I appreciate your stopping by!

Wow, long time, no blogging~~ been pretty wrapped up in life around here, but it’s slowly getting back to normal and with the Holiday Season, it’s time to get some creative  mo-jo flowing!  So when I was checking around the scrappy blogs I came upon this very cute Advent Calendar.  Loved it!!  So I pulled out my kraft card stock, envelope templates and tape runner. While making the envelopes, I  had in mind a special girlfriend and got to thinking of what I would be putting in the envelopes for her. Chocolate is nice, but I wanted to include things that were sure to put a smile on her face. So I pulled out some paper lunch bags to have for larger items. Here’s the enevies before decorating  

So now on to the fun part–dressing the envies

I went through my stash and found this DCWV Christmas kit. Not sure if this is from last year or the year before, but it worked great!

Perfect! and after pulling out my scalloped shaped punches, I was ready to roll~~

Two nights worth of  choosing patterns, punching and gluing, here was my finished project

As you can see, I put my envies in a wooden box I picked up at Walmart. This was much better to do instead of the binder ring simply because of the bulky lunch bags. Because I needed to deliver this today, I didn’t embellish the box, just wrapped some twine around it. I texted her to make sure she knew that on her front porch was a little Holiday Surprise for her. I hope she finds some of that Holiday Sparkle that we all enjoyed when we were kids. I would say some of the things included, but if she reads this………..

It’s Dec. 1st already and I know the Holidays came up on me super fast. Here’s to a wonderful month of happy times and making happy memories!

So glad to be back scrapping and creating and blogging! Thanks for taking a peek here!

Welcome September!  That time of year when I feel the need to clean out, straighten up, and finish up any on going projects. It’s a busy time of year-kiddoes heading to school, people rearranging schedules, buttoning up the homes for the winter. Hmmm, think I’m getting a bit ahead of myself!! Speaking of unfinished projects here’s my August mini album–Finished!!  

Here’s the cover and the inside pages

Ending here withe the back cover. This mini is a late August day that we spent with our daughter and son-in-law having a delicious lunch on Peaks Inland, a few miles off the coast of Maine. I’m sad to say that we have lived in Maine our entire lives and this was my first trip there~~~ anyway now I have the pics all in mini to visit on those cold winter days when I’m needing some summer warmth!!

So enjoy this month of change , makes for excellent picture  taking- and memory-making!

Hey, welcome to my stop on this fun hop for the August Counterfeit Kit Blog. You should have arrived here from Emily.  Get all the info about the Counterfeit Kit Blog here. It’s a wonderful source to help you make the most of your paper crafting stash.

For August our challenge is to use this sketch which was created for us special from Allison Davis of Sketch Support.  Here’s my take on this challenge.

I pulled my August kit together with the idea of using it for a mini album. A day trip to an inland off the coast of Me. to enjoy lunch with our daughter and son-in-law  is the subject of this fun little album.  I have the cover done and these two last pages came together easily.   I am trying to keep this on the clean and simple theme and this sketch is a great help. Now I always put together an album in chronological order. To have the cover and last two pages done before anything else is a bit strange for me, but I’m trying hard to break out of my creative box. I’ll show all the album when I get it done.

I followed the basic concept of the sketch, but because the album is a 6×6, I used less pictures and embellishments.  I didn’t really journal as this will be at the end of the album. I only added this tag made special for this kit.

Everything is from my kit, which you can see here. I hope you have enjoyed my take on the sketch and the challenge. Please hop on over to Jane’s. She is bound to wow you with she has to show us! You can get there from here. Enjoy and thanks for hopping here!

Hi and Happy Tuesday! Let me start this off with a big Thank-you for all the “welcome back!” comments, so nice to read!!  I am so happy to be back!

So for the August challenge I had decided from the get-go to put make my kit for a mini album and when the first challenge was posted, it was like they read my mind!  Now to gather all my tools together. (That was a challenge because my scrap room is being worked on so my scrap stuff is scattered between 3 rooms. I’ll be posting celebration pictures when it is completed!!)

Here’s the card sketch I chose 

Fell right in love with this sketch and I knew it would be so right for the cover of the album

I have inked all the edges of the chipboard pages with black Stazon.  Die cut my scalloped square with the Grand Nestabilities, so versatile, love them. The strip is cut from a 12×12  paper. The small square is cut with the Labels One Spellbinders nesting die that is patterned paper glued on top of the white and then embossed with the swirl folder(cuttlebug). I gently rubbed Old Paper distress ink (Tim Holtz) over the swirls. The pink hearts are Sizzix die cut and then misted with Vanilla Smootch.  Can’t really see the subtle shimmer, just enough shine~~  The only thing not from the kit is the ticket. I die cut the ticket with a Tim Holtz Sissix die from tan card stock, stamped “family” and then rubbed the edges using the Old Parchment ink.  So this is the cover and I’m  excited to finish. The photos have been developed so I can get to it when the mood strikes….. or when time affords!!

Enjoy the rest of this day, the weather here is perfect late summer.  Aahhh …..  so nice!!  Thanks for peeking in!

Yay, time for the Counterfeit Challenge Kit!!  I skipped a few months (boo~~~) but am glad to be participating again! Check here to get all the details and inspiration for putting together your very own kit, I have so much fun doing this. I find all kinds of stuff that has been tucked away. Plus it gives me ideas on different ways to utilize my  scrap booking stash.  And ways to “jazz up” my ho-hum paper!

Here’s my Counterfeit Kit for August

I like the colors in this month’s inspiration kit and the idea of a mini album kit, so I put this together knowing I would be making a mini album. I pulled the patterned papers mostly from Momenta paper pads with a few DCWV papers in the mix. My card stock I pull as needed. I know I will be using mostly black card stock because I die cut my alphas using black. The font is Sassy Serif courtesy of Sizzix. Here’s a closer look at the embellishments.

Pink scalloped circle and oval are from the Sizzix big shot, butterflies are punched with the EK Success 3-1 punches(very cool!) black and white  circle die cuts are Spellbinders(black are Doily Motifs and blinged out with adhesive crystals, white are heart scalloped circles). I punched and then inked the two pink tags with Tim Holtz spun sugar and $ bin stamps. I took a piece of transparency and die cut shapes with a Tim Holtz Sizzix die (Styled Labels) and stamped a flourish with butterfly using Staz On black ink. Kinda tricky, cuz the surface is real slick so use steady pressure, I then grabbed some $ bin glitter glue (Hampton Arts) and outlined the edges and filed in the butterfly and flowers. I let that dry overnight and was really happy with the result. Sorry these pictures aren’t the best~~lighting was less than desired

So I’m back on the Counterfeit Kit wagon. One of the best parts of this creative adventure is seeing all the sweet inspiration found on the participating blogs.  Hope this inspires you to check it out !! Thanks for peeking in, let me know what your thoughts are!

Hello, time to get the Mojo Monday challenge posted! I’m loving this sketch.  Squares, rectangles, pennants, and fancy circles!! Lots to play with

So here’s my card. I got to use my new Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Motifs which I LOVE!!  The look of doilies has become a bit of an obsession for me, and I’m always drooling over the doily die cuts and stamps. So yeah, I’ll be sporting them all over my cards and scrapbook pages!! O.K., back to the card, I utilized my scraps on a pre made card base. I chose my papers and colors based on the ribbon. Embossed the white and coral pattern paper with cuttle bug folders. (Sorry,  I don’t know the names of the folders since they are all stored in a basket.)

Here’s a better look at the sentiment, I do like those $ stamps!! They are so handy!! Another Mojo Challenge done and linked up. I’m always eager to see what each Monday brings and check out what the other talented card makers have done. It’s a good way to spark your creativity for sure!

Let me show you my critic, windham. He’s funny, nosy, and affectionate. In other words, he and his brother berkley pretty much rule the house. Whenever I get ready to snap a picture to post, windham suddenly appears. He has to lay on the project, be told he’s the most handsome cat we know and then he lets me take the card or scrap page. Jeesh, he’s such a diva!!

I hope you all are having a good week. Thanks for taking a peek at my card!! Love to hear what you think~~

It’s been way to long since I have done much of anything creative, much less blogged. Life has handed us a hill to climb and sometimes you need some time to prepare. It’s been stressful, but we have a handle on it, thank goodness for family and close friends.

So to start some creativity, I got the Mojo 201 Challenge done this afternoon, here’s the blog, which you can see here. Here’s my card from this sketch challenge

Once again, I ransacked the scrap basket and pulled out the Spellbinders. A  bit off the path , but I am drooling over the new Spellbinders releases. Big sigh here cuz I can probably only get maybe 2 new dies, thanks to the pesky budget~~ anyway, you can see all the new dies on the Spellbinders website. Some seriously wicked nice stuff!! Anyway, I don’t usually wait this long to post my card, I like to post a lot earlier than just before the dead line, but it was now or don’t bother so I’m off to link my card. Hope your Sunday was a fun day. Thanks for taking a peek here!!

Hey all, It’s Friday !! Hard to believe it’s the beginning of June~~whoa, half the year has passed.   For me, I wish time would  SLOW DOWN. Anyone else feeling that way?? But let’s take a look at a page I scrapped this week. Trying to get 2010 all scrapped so I can get going on 2011. I like to scrap in order……….. some people would say I have certain tendencies. Maybe they are right!

So we had rented a camp on a lake close to where our daughter and son-in-law live.  They keep their boat there all summer long (bet they wish they were there today!).  We had a canoe  with us. One nice evening my husband and I went for a short canoe ride and got to enjoy this sunset.

The paper is from last year’s DCWV Summer Stack.  Here’s a close up of some tag journaling

Border punch is EK Success and the swirls are Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz flourish die.

I used a 5×7 picture and I’m been partial lately to that size and to a one picture page. What are you partial to when scrapping??

And let’s not forget that today is National Donut Day!!!  I for one will do my part to celebrate by getting and enjoying a donut!!  How about you??