Fartberries?!

Bahaha! Today's layout is one using my June Counterfeit Kit & a prompt from their blog to use a humorous quote as your title. I just knew when I saw the prompt that I had the perfect quote!

I also used a lovely sketch from Let's Get Sketchy.

My son was asked to be the ring bear (nope, not bearer, (himym)) for my cousin's wedding, and he was less than thrilled about it. The day of the rehearsal, it was naptime and later than his normal lunch time & he wasn't feeling it. I was trying anything to keep him in good spirits. We were in a beautiful garden, so I pointed to a plant and told him those were "fartberries" and to make sure he didn't eat them because they would make him... well... you know. He thought this was hilarious, of course. He did awful at the rehearsal (he came through at the wedding tho! Praise Jesus!), but made sure to tell everyone at the luncheon following all about the fartberries!

There's the little stinker. I couldn't get enough of that gorgeous patinaed brick wall....

Here's the sketch I used. I adapted it a bit since I didn't want to cut my photo. I just used the other half of the photo as the intended journaling card...

Some details and the hidden journaling tag - you know, because fartberries has some explanation necessary:

Supplies:
Papers - Crate Paper
Berry die and fartberries title - Cricut
Flowers - Crate Paper
Tag - Michael's sprayed with Tattered Angels glimmer mist and distressed with all my memories ink
alphas - Studio Calico

Thanks for looking!

Colorful Love - a CFK Club kit

Today I'm finally bringing you my June Counterfeit Kit inspired by this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

I named my kit Colorful Love.

I loved how colorful this month's inspiration kit was.

I picked out some papers that mirrored those of the kit, a black and white, some navy, some pink, and even a hello paper. I hit up Michael's the other day and they had a big section of their home decor, which included some craft supplies, on sale for 70% off! I got these sweet, colorful twines, washi rolls, and some white paper tags all on clearance. I have a fun project to make with those tags, but you will probably have to wait until blog hop to see it! (keep 'em coming back for more)

Here's a couple detail shots

There are those Maggie Holme's die cut flowers again! But come on, they were perfect for this kit! Some stamp usage is planned for the blog hop project - Love themed... thus Colorful Love!

It's a fun inspirational kit this month. Go play along! :)

Happy Family - May Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop

Thanks for visiting today! The Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog hop is underway. You should have arrived here from Elaine's blog.

I used my Sparklers kit to create a fun layout using one of the sketches from the Counterfeit Kit blog.

Here's the original sketch:

I didn't have small photos so I improvised. I cut the cute little polaroid frames from my cricut.

And that gold glitter ribbon is to die for! And the puffy stickers - oh so cute!

Supplies:

Paper - Crate Paper Confetti stack
Glitter and turquoise ribbon - Maggie Holmes
Frames - cut with Cricut
Happy, alphas and star stickers - Studio Calico

Here's a list of all the blogs in the hop in case you get lost!

CKCB
Jemma
Tina
Jane
Julene
Elaine
Natalie <--You are HERE
Lisa <--- Go HERE next!


Thanks for looking!

Sparklers - a Counterfeit Kit

Hello, and May the 4th be with you!

Today I'm sharing with you the Counterfeit Kit that I created for this month & a scrapbook page I made with it.

I love how fun and bright this kit is, and it's clearly meant for scrapping celebrations.

Here is the original inspiration for this kit, I took some from each kit/add-on.

Here's a couple more shots from my kit:

I recently acquired the Maggie Holmes "Confetti" Stack and it was so perfect for this CFK, I hardly needed more. I tried to put in a good mix of the soft aquas and corals with the bold black and white patterns. I added some funky alphas, some banner stickers like in the embellishment kit, and of course we needed some confetti for such a festive kit! Hopefully I will find a good way to use it...

I went ahead and created a layout with my kit too. This is my Mom with my newborn back in November. I'm trying to use more of my favorite colors (coral and aqua) in my scrapbooking, even though I have two boys.

I love these alphas from Studio Calico, and had to wait to get some more at the sale to use multiple letters!

Supplies:
Camera Paper - Amy Tangerine
Other Papers - Maggie Holmes "confetti"
Alphas - Studio Calico
Paper Ephemera - Crate Paper "wonder"

Thanks for looking!

A Parisian banner - The Counterfeit Kit Club Blog Hop!

Hope you're enjoying the Counterfeit Kit Club's Member Blog Hop!

You should have arrived here from Julene's blog.

Next you should jump to Jemma's blog, but look around first! :)

Today I'm bringing you a home decor project that I made with my April Counterfeit kit, Les Voyageurs. I have a bit of a Parisian theme going on in my guest, half bath, and I've been meaning to make a banner to cover a beat up old shelf in there for ages. So this month's kit was perfect to inspire me to finally follow through!

I threw in the navy paper, because that is a predominant color in my bathroom. I cut banner pendants, rosettes, accents and letters. I used an Eiffel Tower cut file for the A to add a little extra Parisian flair.

For my banners that need to be durable in the home, I like to use a hot glue gun to secure the rosettes. Since they're not in the scrapbook and need to be acid free, that's a good adhesive to use to ensure they're not falling apart while hanging up!

I used some giant eyelets I had to reinforce the holes to hold the hanging yarn... Not too sure about that gold yarn yet - I may change it eventually.


And here is the banner in all its glory.

I got the navy vase at Goodwill. I got the two lovely old books at a local thrift store, and the brass tower is from Paris! The glitter tower is from the Target dollar aisle, I think, a long time ago.

I have a strangely shaped 1/2 bath, so I have accented these two walls.

Here we are with my canvas of a photo I took in Paris.

Thank you for looking & be sure to hop on over to Jemma's blog next!

Here is a list of all the pages on the hop today in case you get lost. Hope you enjoy it!

CKCB http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com
Lisa http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de
Princey http://princy1010.blogspot.com
Elaine http://chidkids26.blogspot.co.uk
Julene http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au
Natalie http://thebigdills.blogspot.com
Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk

One of my wonders - the Eiffel Tower

On our trip to Paris, the beautiful city treated us right with the most gorgeous weather each day. We stayed for 4 days and I think we visited the Eiffel Tower every day! It was definitely at the top of my own, personal world wonders.

So I've used my Counterfeit Kit, Les Voyageurs, for a new layout of my favorte, Parisian site.

I knew since I've started the album that I wanted to do one of the trendy, geometric paper filled pieces with the Eiffel Tower. Then I made the clouds geometric also to mirror the fluffy white clouds in the photo.

I loved how the wonder word bubble also mirrored the clouds!

I added the flowers to carry the pink and add more dimension.

Supplies:

Gray Cardstock - Craft Smith by Michael's
Patterned papers - Chickadee, Echo Park, DCWV
Paper words - Crate Paper, Wonder
Flower Gems - American Crafts
Rain dot hearts - Cloud 9
Pearl sticker - Joann's

Thanks for looking!

Amour in Paris

Today's layout is for a couple of different blogs. I created the layout with my Counterfeit Kit for April, Les Voyageurs. I used the April sketch from Die Cut With a View and I LOVED it!

This is the sketch I used from DCWV.

These are photos from Pont de l'Archeveche in Paris, in front of the Notre Dame. I loved the romantic idea of attaching a lock to the bridge to symbolize your love, and throwing away the key. They have since removed these bridges in Paris due to collapse, and they have taken measures to prevent this from happening again, so I have read online. But I am glad I did get to experience them while they lasted!

Here is my double page spread with a traditional layout & a Project Life pocket page.

So, ironically, I just read the new Studio Calico member challenge about how to turn a crafting accident into a happy one. And then I had the opportunity to do just that with this layout!

These sweet little white & gold letters from Studio Calico are running low and I needed to use the Q for an O. Well, when I cut off the tail, the inside of the Q looked a bit rougher than I'd like and some of the foil was rubbed off.

Well, luckily, I've been trying to use more textiles in my layouts. And I had already added sewing elements, so why not wrap the mistake in some embroidery thread?!

My FIL watches a lot of Bob Ross, and Mr. Ross loves to say, "There are no mistakes, only happy accidents." Well, I agree, at least in crafting!

Here are some details:

and a close up of the pocket page:

Supplies:
Solid Cardstock - DCWV Coral Couture
Pattern Cardstock - DCWV Vintage Lane
Doily - Recollections by Michaels
Staples - We are Memory Keepers
Lock & Key - JoAnns Craft Essentials
Letters - Studio Calico
Pocket Page cards - Me and My Big Ideas
Pocket Page transparencies - Project Life, September Skies

Thanks for looking!

Bienvenue a Paris - a Counterfeit Kit Club page

Well I was going to save my Counterfeit Kit for April for this upcoming Saturday when I'm attending an all day crop, but I just couldn't wait! Once I decided how to use my kit, the ideas started flowing. Who am I to stop creativity?

So I created the entrance to Paris page for my scrapbook with my Counterfeit Kit, Les Voyageurs.

I mean, who could not love a city who welcomes you with a sunset like this?! Paris was always my dream vacation, and it came true in 2011 when my husband and I traveled to France, among Ireland and Spain. It was everything I had imagined (except maybe a bit more walking...), and we both LOVED the city. I definitely want to return and take my kids someday (Disneyland Paris, anyone?).

Here are a few details:

I used my Cricut to write the type on the cardstock. I then just clustered a few groupings of embellishments and cut a decorative border from my Cricut as background to the photo.

Supplies:
Grey cardstock - Craftsmith by Michaels
Patterned Cardstock & stamp by DCWV
Wood veneer by Heidi Swapp
Stamp by 7 Gypsys

Thanks for looking! Merci!

Les Voyageurs - My April Counterfeit Kit

Je m'appelle Natalie. That and a very few other phrases are all I took out of my 1 semester of French before I decided becoming a Spanish major would be more useful (it wasn't). However, my lack of knowledge of the language never diminished my love for the country or desire to travel it!

So this month's prompt over at The Counterfeit Kit Club blog was a kit called C'est Magnifique. At first, I thought, "Hmmm, this isn't my style." Then as I was writing my list of things I thought I had to include in the kit, I thought, "Hmmm, I could use photos of our trip to Paris!" and the deal was sealed. This kit took on a mind of its own & grew & I'm so excited to use it!

Here is the original kit inspiration:

I tried to pull out light papers with florals & vintage patterns. Obviously a little lace & the contrasting black embellishments. I had some perfect washi tape, and some clear stamps with just the right frills. I had these sweet little clear embellies that were architectural and perfect, and I got new crate paper ephemera that fit great with pinks and blacks. Obviously some flowers were in order, and I just received a great package from Rochelle Spears from the February Challenge and the prima flowers in it were spot on. I had some fun chipboard alphas with gold that fit and a whole page from a DCWV stack that included stamps and even an Eiffel Tower tag. Doilies and pearl stickers and Gold alphas, oh my!

Some details.

Ya'll, I even added in a chipboard banner to create! I've been meaning to make a banner to hang from a shelf in my half-bath, which is decorated with Paris items - hopefully this kit will get me into finally doing it!

I'm excited to step away from my family album a couple times this month and scrap a trip that will always be so special to me and my husband. Stay tuned for how I use my kit!

Thanks for looking & go play along!

Blog Hop - The Counterfeit Kit Challenge!

I'm participating in the member blog hop today for The Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. I'm pretty excited about it! You may have arrived here from Sally's Challenge Chatter. After Dillightfully Crafty, you can hop right on over to Snaps and Snippets.

So today I've prepared some photos to document my process of creating a scrapbook page with my March kit, which I named Snappy Pack.

Here's the page I've created for the Challenge "May you Live in Pinteresting Times." The challenge was to find a pin to inspire your project, but it could not be another craft project or scrapbook page.

Here is the pin which I used as inspiration:

The image came from Sarah Hearts.

Now to get a little bit into my process... So I grabbed my Snappy Pack CFC kit and picked out the papers I loved that I wanted to use for this photo. I knew I had to use the chevron with the fall colors, as that is what I had in mind when I printed the photo, so I was working around that piece.

First I grabbed my favorite orange paper:

But it was a bit darker than I wanted, so I decided to save it for a future project.

I liked this neutral (with a little glitter), but it needed something more.

So I added the orange flower paper, which sort of mirrored the flowers in the photo - and I thought, "perfect!"

I had this sweet pocket card that I thought would work well for the kids' photo, but I had to figure out where to place it. The top of the photo did not work...

Boom! Moved to the bottom left corner & it just fit perfectly. I think the black in the top most square is different in this type of palette, so I decided to accent it and add a bit of the black camera paper from the CFC kit.

An extra layer is always a good idea. This orange paper softens the black & worked perfectly.

Then I spotted my new Studio Calico punch that I found on clearance recently, so I figured it needed to be used. This is literally the "process" of my creation - it's always in the process of evolving as I work!

After I punched some chevrons, I inked all my papers. I ink papers a good portion of the time. I just feel like it gives a good dimension, as well as it tends to hide imperfections, so if you have some tattered edges (unintended) or maybe a not-so-straight edge, it's much less noticeable when inked!

Now it's my favorite time! Embellishment time!

I had this cute little veneer circle that I felt needed a little something. (Confession: This stamp was not included in my CFC kit, as it just arrived in the mail the day I made the layout! But it was just too perfect with the Snappy Pack photo/camera/click inspired kit, that I just had to use it!)

These flowers were screaming to be included on my sunflower page!

I stuck everything down once I had visualized where everything was to be placed, then done!

Here are some detail shots:

You can see that I added a couple more punches once I had the paper placed exactly and felt there was still too much blank orange space.

Look at those sweet baby smiles! I love seeing my baby have fun with his friends!

Thanks for looking!

Don't forget your next hop at Snaps and Snippets with Susanne!