Four Seasons - Spring

 As a new Close To My Heart Maker I have decided to showcase some scrapbooking layouts.  I am a 81/2 x 11 scrapper.  Almost all my papers get cut down..  

For today I am using the Four Seasons Spring Wood-plank papers.  The green accents, pocket & banner, are the reverse side.  The yellow floral banners are the border strip cut off the Memory Lane yellow & daisy paper.

I stamped the wood-planks with daffodils off a Studio g stamp set and a pansy from a very old CTMH stamp set called beauty.  The colors I used are CTMH honey, pansy purple & amethyst.

On the right page there are two tab stickers which came off the Four Seasons Spring sticker sheet.  The community decorated for a Spring Choir Concert.  The wood-plank paper helps to enhance the original wood benches of the CommunityTabernacle.

Counterfeit Kit Conclusion - May 2022

 Anther project has been finished thanks Counterfeit Kit.  This month was strongly inspired by the butterflies & peachy color.  I have not gotten the pictures yet so some pages aren't as decorated as they will be when pictures have been added

 The first half of the project is a hinged  book.  On the front page of the book is a mini book that can hold 4 pictures.

The pages 2-3 are very picture heavy..  these first 3 pages are the main part of the wedding, bride & groom.

Pages 4-7 are the inner portion of the book. Pages 4 & 7 flip out making a four page spread.

The back page sums up the main part of the wedding.  

Now we will look at the individual & 2 page layout.  The papers & colors are used across all layouts to help tie the project together.  These are random pictures of the day.

Early Bird - ctafting area

A split area divided between all Craft areas.  The rubbermaids are organized.  The one by the table holds scraps & stickers.  The lower picture the top one is doodads, 2 on top of each other paper sorted by color & themes, one by itself kits.  The briefcase is ink, chalks & water color pencils

 

Counterfeit Kit April 2022 - Extras

 My April kit began with pulling scraps and deciding to make some page decor with scraps & ephemera.  This is a project that has been needed to be done for a long time.  I am not sure that the April kit inspired Erin any way but what colors to start with. Some were created into pages becauseI have photos in mind but they have not been printed yet.  I have done groupings and will explain each set

1.  A set of green clover background aperture with pink & yellow flowers.The center of the flower are old gem flowers 

2.    Is another set of tags that compliment each other.  The one in the picture is a dark aquamarine with a cream berry strips & pink cherry stripe.  The other tag is the berry print with a pink cherry stripe.  On the dark aquamarine has berries over the hole.

3.   A large lilac tag decorated with flowers.  The pink flower has swirls of many colors.  The white flower has a pink button center and a pale blue heart button the pink.  The butterfly was created with a punch on another scrap a scrap of slightly different lilac.  A yellow sparkle flower brad is used in each hole of the tags.  The butterfly was backed with a pink & light blue scrap.

4.  The pansy banners can be used together or separately depending on what is needed or wanted.  The top one :  the background is a light blue-purple.  The red-purple has a bluish purple floral print.  The pansy is n it on on.  The butterfly is stamped.The bottom one is triple layered; the back is the light blue - purple.  The second layer is the red-purple with bluish print.  The top layer is a move scrap.  The pansy is an iron on.  The butterfly is stamped with Close to My Heart B1034 Butterflies stamp.

1.  A pale lemon yellow background A piece of red & yellow circles creating circles.  The bear nurse was cut out of a magazine and goes with the quote "To Love is to receive a glimpse of heaven"  the quote & circle embellishment came off a of daily calendar.

2  Black is not a color I normally use in scrapbooking.  It is a harsh color.  This scrap of tulip paper I have had for a long time;  I never seems to quite go with tulip pictures.  The two scraps, pink with baby blue spots & sky blue with pink spots went well together but needed something more.    The quote came off a border sheet and fit perfectly across the blue.  All these colors were in the black tulip paper and seemed to tone it down.  Using Close to My Heart stamp W329 Dream Big set I stamped mini tulips on the ends.

3.  I found the jellyfish border when I was going through stash.  I wasn't sure how to use it.  While looking for something else I found the cute jellyfish.  As I was looking through pictures I found a series of Aquarium pictures featuring jellyfish.  I choose a light aquamarine with a print that kind of looked like water.  

1.  A full sheet left side banner.  The light blue paper is covered in stars and reminds me of twilight when you begin to see fireflies.  Fireflies remind me of my youth since I have been an adult I haven't always lived where I they can be seen.   The jar of fireflies embellishment came off of an envelope I received in the mail..  The lantern was stamped with clear stamp camp equipment set and the flame colored with a Lemon Yellow Nuvo Glitter Marker.  The fireflies were stamped using Close to My Heart stamp B1210 Flutter set.

2.  Sapphire piece of paper that I used both sides of. One side was plain and the other has sapphire confetti on light blue.  I punched out the butterfly and cut the scrap in half, the bottom one has confetti up giving the butterfly a pattern.  The large layered florals are fabric flowers with dragonfly button centers.

3.  Is a two tag set that compliment each other. (Only one in picture).  The one shown is green & pink holy berry with a cherry pink trim. 

4.  The tag background is a two tone green, olive & spring, with bright pink dots.  Along the bottom is a light spring green with florals.  In the center.  In the centers one is a button the other is a cloth covered   brad. of each floral is a mini cloth bright pink flower.  The large pink flowers are layered cloth flowers.  The mini tag started with a punch butterfly that was backed with a scrap of pastel spring green & light pink.

5 & 6 go together..  The smaller one was made from left over scraps of the agrees..  I used a corner rounder punch to obtain the shape.  On either end I used olive green tiny eyelets to hold all layers together..  The larger tag is all scraps. The background piece is a polka dot tone on tone.  Along the bottom is a scrap that has 3 shades of green and looks like grass & turned into a tag.   The 3 tags down the sender were 3/4 inch strips that I cut to size & used the corner rounder punch.  In the top of the tags are mini brads wrapped with embroidery floss.  Both the bottom tag & the large tag have eyelet brads. A oval tag stamped with a butterfly from Close to My Heart stamp W329 Dream Big set.

To finish of the month I made some base pages with embellishments.  Most of these pages are just waiting for the photos to be printed.

1.  Is a brown & pink layout a color scheme that I don't use very often.  The scrap on the right is a light pink with dark pink scribed words & along the edges are chocolate swirls.  This scrap influenced the whole page. The background is chocolate brown.  On the left I used Close To My Heart D1330 Connections set to create a large flourish.  I used embossing ink & blush pearl embossing powder to bring the flourish across the page.  Across the left flourish I added a scrap of the scrap on the right and layered a pink & brown floral vine scrap.  Both small scraps have rounded corners from a punch

2.  The background is bright pink with light pink hearts.  Down the left side is light pink with baby pink & white hearts cut into a banner  On the left of this scrap is a 3/4 inch trim of two shades of pink hearts cut into a pointed banner.  About 4 inches from bottom I have another banner strip of multiple colors of hearts.  Tucked into the corners of the two smaller banners is a tag hook perfect for hidden journaling.  The tag is a pink & white stripe with a heart placed over the hole.

3. A double page layout.   The beginning of these pages was the sheet from the daily calendar about garden.  I then added Ed the yellow gingham with seed packs.  I cut the yellow into a fish tale banner.  I felt it needed something more and found the dark green leaf paper with light blue &;yellow leaves.  I created clusters using Journal for Life ephemera and magazine cut out butterflies.  

4.  This one was again influenced by the a daily calendar sheet.  I placed this on a wood grain packaging from Some Assemblage Required.  I added some small scraps that were just lying on the desk that reminded me of Robins.  I stamped a flying clear bird in chocolate and colored with alcohol markers in the color of Robins.

5.    This one was inspired by the turtle scrap.  I went through my green scraps and pulled the polka dot green and the florals.  I turned the polka dot into a large tag. And added the turtle border as well as a floral border.  I used the scraps I cut off as a border on the upper right.  The words were stamped from rose art stamps and fussy cut out.  The greens remind me of Spring so thinking spring arriving pictures will be used.

6.    This is another 2 page layout.  This one was inspired by circle scrap.  This was a piece I wasn't sure I even liked but I do like these pages.  These pages will be base pages for a Christmas layouts.   I found a brown snowflake sheet I cut in half and placed on the left & right sides of the layout. I layered the circle scrap on top of a brown snowflake after cutting it into 2 large tags. On the left side tag I placed cup washi tape across the bottom & across bottom of snow flake paper.  The deer is a foam sticker.  On the right I added a large cup cut out on the Cricut and added Journal for Life ephemera.  I added cup washi tape across the left end of the tag.  I created a upper cluster on the right starting with cup washi tape as a shelf..on the shelf I used a red gnome foam sticker and added a Journal for Life ephemera.

Waiting to see May kits and what I accomplish.

Counterfeit Kit April 2022 - Pages

 In a later post  will show what I have been doing with ephemera.  I have completed the page kits I had organized and thought I would share them.

This first layout celebrates the annual making of apple cider.  This is a 2 page layout.  The plaid background represents the beautiful morning I did fresh pressed apple cider alone.  The large apples were cut out of a blush polka dot and the leaves were highlighted with Nuvo glitter ink.  Using a stencil, embossing paste & clover green powder I did some green areas on apples.  The little apple cut outs came out of a magazine and add interest.

On the back side of the right page a bonus layout using the scraps.  I added stenciled embossed pumpkins for accents.  I added some pumpkin paper scraps for journaling.

This next layout celebrates our December Thaw.  The snow on top melts but the ice underneath remains so water has nowhere to go and a lake is formed at the end of the driveway.  The border around the paper is washi tape.  The puddle paper is a Journal For Life page and the ephemera is also Journal For Life.

This next layout is another 2 page layout.  The three filmstrips tell a story.  Birthday Balloons are hard to travel with so pictures had to be taken.  I used a stencil of a large balloon to create the background..  the Happy Birthday balloon was a table topper that I flattened.  The mini balloons were cut out of scraps.

This is a simple 4th of July layout.  The flag embellishment was made from scraps.  The other embellishment is from an old flip a day Calendar.

This is a 2 page layout.  I created the background paper by stamping birds with my darkest purple ink.  This was inspired by the bird paper in the original kit.  On the left side the large bird is a coloring book page..  On the right side the bird was cut out of a magazine.

A storm is brewing; from the sunset the night before to the early morning rain storm, the story is told.  The banners on either side are Journal For Life papers cut in half.  The stamped rain is a Journal for Life..  At the top of the banners are little yellow flowers to bring yellow up from stickers.

Baby's first parade, we live on the parade route so we can watch the parade from the front porch.  The flag is stenciled used alcohol markers & whit acrylic paint.  The frame around the picture was a Journal For Life paper that I cut out the part that didn't work.  The stars & bibs were cut out of magazines.

This was a simple layout made with scraps and die cuts.  When I punched out the flower petals I was left with a flower with matching color borders.  I used this piece to make a shaker pocket using gold floral sequins.  The tags were from striped scraps that matched the flowers.

Soon I will post some ephemera sets I have made.  Some have been turned into pre-made pages.

 

Counterfeit Kit Challenge April 2022

 I really had to study this kit this month.  Large bright florals are not my thing.  Abstract backgrounds are usually too much for me.  The colors of this kit say late spring or summer when all the flowers are in bloom.  Where I live the flowers are just popping out of the ground.  We are stuck in that in between season of not winter but not spring either.

Here is this month's kit:  

When I first looked at this picture I saw scraps & ephemera that I had had no idea what to do with.  I have a box of misc bits and pieces that don't know ho to use.  I am not good at putting random items on a page. The itemsI put on a page have to help tell the story of the pictures.  In the upper right hand corner there is a cut apart card that says Believe Yourself..  The first half of my kit is scraps & ephemera, I hope to build page embellishments to be used on pages in the future.  I started with base colors I saw in the kit, then pulled florals,stripes and misc papers.  I pulled my spring, rainbows, animals and misc box of ephemera.  

I decided this was going to be my kit.  As started pulling things out and trying to decide what went with what or May work together. Some page idaeas started to come together.  The second half of my kit was inspired by abstract papers and photos that needed to be done.  The bird paper= bird pictures that need to be scrapped.  Butterflies=  I love them but sometimes have trouble with them; I have lots of floral pictures and florals attract butteries.  The rope scrap of circles is in full colors  & I haven't decided how to use it but it represents the circle paper.  The black & white stripe will become red & white for a 4th of July layout..  t black & whit pen paper will become black & white frames so I can document when I got the stores sign.  I came up with a dozen page kits inspired by this kit

Off to create. Should be fun to see what I accomplish this month.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge March 2022 - Completion

 Here is my kit finished:

Challenge 1 - Everyday life - baby gifts & cards games

Challenge #2 - something that makes me happy.  I was out early one morning and caught the moon smiling

Using the pink & blue ABC's paper I documented national scrapbook day  the back ground is white..  Ephemera is from journal of Life.

Death Day party - I cut ghosts out of scrap paper.  Used Journal for Life Halloween stickers.  Used the cricket to cut out wrapped candy & cup.

This one was inspired from one of Christie Beautiful Life series 9 sketches.  There were a couple of similar ones that I flipped.  For the tree I ran a couple of colors of brown ink pads down the paper.after drawing a tree shape.  The large squirrel was cut out on the circuit. Acorns were stenciled.

Double page layout - first Daffodils & tulips on a striped background.  Ephemera was jouranal for life florals. The yellow & pink florals was an Allene's stamp colored with alcohol markers & cut out.  The dragonfly is an iron on that was put on before pictures.

Looking forward to creating April's kit.  April will be a busy month but hopefully I can get in some creating.