My Counterfeit Kit for October

Yes, yes, I know that October is nearly over, but not quite! The challenge for this month was just so pretty I had to play along, though! I have been holding off and trying to use up some of my previously made-up kits, and have had quite the stash busting session, making up a bunch of Shimelle style starting points. So, I feel I can make up and use another kit, or 2, no sweat! Which brings me to the kit that the girls at the CKC blog chose for us to be inspired by, Cocoa Daisy's September kit, "5th and Main":

I happened to have a lot of similar goodies in my stash, so this is my kit:

 The Carta Bella Hello Again papers are 8 1/2x 11, printed from my digital "stash" onto water color cardstock, so it still is great quality and texture, and many of the papers are from the multitudes of paper pads that I have lucked upon from various discount stores, such as Tuesday Morning and Marshall's; My Girl and Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party from American Crafts, and a cut apart sheet from Studio Calico (the Snippets line, I believe). I added in some gorgeous sparkly silver Thickers, a partially used Studio Calico letter sticker sheet, and other various bits and pieces for embellishment-I will tell you that every bit of this kit was either bought on sale, clearance, with a coupon, or at a discount store.  I can't resist a great bargain...but...I have so much stuff! I have, therefore,  put my self back on a scrappy spending freeze, until after Christmas. I am allowing myself adhesive as needed, page protectors, and possibly a mini album (empty) for my Christmas JYC album. I will be making my Christmas Daily kit from my stash, though. The Counterfeit kit Challenge blog is great inspiration for using your own stash to make lovely kits, though!
Since my October kit is a little light on embellishments, I went ahead and did an add-on kit, inspired by Cocoa Daisy's add-on, "Sidewalk Cafe":

Again, I had several items with a similar happy look, so I made up an add-on:

Almost all of this kit is very new, but I really want to practice the principal of "Use it while you still love it" much more in my scrappy endeavors, while adding in some older stash at the same time. Which the Counterfeit Kit Challenge is perfect for, of course!

I will leave you with a layout that I made a while ago, from my September kit and other scraps, but never got around to sharing, of my little girl and her stuffed animal.

Layouts to share

I have been very inspired over the last week, between winning the wonderful kits from Artful Delight, and the great Glitter Girl class, I have gotten quite a lot of scrapping done! I will share a few of the pages that I have made tonight, with a follow up post of the rest of my pages (from the AD October scrapbook kit).
Even though the kit was a beautiful fall themed kit, it was easily adapted for other subjects:
(Like Chocolate)

And my summer vacation:

And my son:

 

(this was taken in the fall last year, so it worked)

And a couple of all out fall colors/Thanksgiving style pages :

(I hand cut the hearts out of the burlap ribbon in the kit)

There were so many fun goodies in this kit, it made putting these layouts together a breeze!

It's a Glitter Party!

Do you take scrapbooking classes? I do! After scrapbooking for nearly 15 years, you would think that I "know it all" when it comes to scrapbooking. And maybe I do (but probably not). And sometimes, that is the problem! When everything starts to feel the same, I have found that a class is often just what I need to jumpstart my creativity and help me see my lovely stash in a new light. Two Peas In a Bucket has some of the best scrapbooking classes out there-and a lot of them are free! My favorite free classes are the Scrap Your Stash series and of course, Glitter Girl! When I saw that there was going to be a Glitter Girl workshop, I was in-one of the first ones to sign up!

It is so worth the money, I have to say! It is self paced, and each chapter is just jammed with inspiration! I was lucky enough to be one of the early birds who earned a bonus video-but I think that it is worth it, even if you have been holding out and have missed the bonus.  (P.S. I am not paid or reimbursed for my opinion in any way-just really enjoy Shimelle/aka Glitter Girl's classes). Anyway, I thought I would throw a mini glitter party on my blog to let you know about the class in case you haven't already heard, and show you a few layouts that I have made that were inspired by the class.

For this first layout, Glitter girl nudged me, and reminded me that I shouldn't be saving those “special photos”, but, rather, using special paper to emphasize them! The photos fall into the “hard to scrap” genre for me, pretty, but no real story to them, other than the story of why I photograph such things! So, I told that story, and used some of my favorite papers, a beautiful orange ombre from Amy Tan's Yes, Please line, a Sassafrass Lass paper that looks like a bunch of layered borders, and even some of my favorite special embellies-camera veneer, askterisks(sp?) from leftover Thickers, and enamel dots. 

My layout:

 See It On 2Peas

For this spread, Glitter Girl actually inspired me to do a 2 pager!Very unusual for me, but I am happy about it and like the way it turned out very much! I was also inspired to use some favorite supplies-paper from the Pier Collection, Doilies, and Heidi Swapp's Peach Color Shine.

My layout:

See It On 2Peas 

 

Left side:

 Right side:

Obviously, I didn't go with the matching background papers (another Shimelle inspiration), I just took a couple from the same collection, and I feel that they went together very well. I did carry and repeat certain embellishments and papers across the spread to maintain the continuous look-light blue dot paper, yellow patterned paper, white doilies, woodgrain paper, and a couple of mint enamel dots are all repeated on both sides of the layout.

I have so many more notes and ideas from this class, and I am excited to keep creating layouts that are inspired by it!

What's next for me? Well, I was a very lucky girl this past weekend! I won these fabulous kits from Artful Delight, they showed up on my doorstep today (sooo fast!!)  and I have already started creating with the October kit! I have to add some finishing touches to my first page and photograph it to share with you. In the meantime, I will leave you with a couple of photos of the yumminess that has made its way to my desk right now!

 

Wowza! Aren't they great?