Better Late than Never...

I know, I promised more layouts and exciting news! Well...this momma has been so busy w/ Halloween and school this week that it totally slipped my mind! So sorry! First a couple of layouts that I made up from leftovers of my October Counterfeit Kits:

Brown and Pink layout:

I just loved this photo of my daughter and her aunt, and really wanted to highlight it! I will write journaling in the pink box by the butterfly (a digistamp from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff that I changed the color of and printed on cardstock). I used: Background paper is by SEI, paper scraps, frames and border stickers from Echo Park, pink ric rack ribbon, pink scalloped felt ribbon, brown crochet ribbon, Girls Paperie Vintage Buttons, pink primas, pink rhinestone bling by Jolee's

"I Want Candy" Layout:

 For this layout, I used the "Candy Inspiration Challenge from the CKCB blog, and I finally got some EIGHT year old photos scrapped!! For both of these layouts, I scrapped smaller photos, which is rather unusual for me!
Supplies used for this page: Background paper is Basic Grey Eerie, KI Memories black glitter skulls border, Basic Grey Eerie Pops owl sticker, and candy /lollipop stickers from K&Co. puffy epoxy stickers, black glitter Thickers, and Echo Park letter stickers.

Now, for my Exciting News! I was recently asked to join the design team over at Sketches 4 All! This is an awesome group of girls, and I hope you will come over and check out our challenges! We have lots of creative challenges to inspire you!

I am running my own challenge group, Margie's Creative Challenges- I hope you will come over and check it out! Right now, I am running a Pinterest Inspired Challenge (November 1-15), inspired by this pin:

Pinterest

My challenge is to make any creative project (card, layout, sewn, home decor), inspired by this pin, and post it to my group thread HERE , for a chance to win a small RAK from me!I hope you will play!

But, that's not all...

Sketches 4 All is having a Saint Jude's Children's Christmas Cards Blog Hop sponsored by Nikki Sivvils!!I just got this in the mail to play with (Thanks, FIA, Michelle, and Nikki!):

I will be making cards to share on the blog hop (November 12th-15th), and you have a chance to win this:

All you will have to do is comment on all of the blogs in the blog hop for a chance to win!So, mark your calendars!!

That's all for now, I will be posting my Counterfeit Kit for November in a bit!

October Counterfeit Kit

Can you believe that it's October already? I can't! But I am so happy for fall-I truly love the change of seasons! And fall means cooler weather, sweaters, colorful leaves, back to school for the kiddos, and Halloween. With 4 kids, how can I not love all of that? Anyhow, back to the kit!

This month, Beth and Meridy chose these kits from Little Red Scrapbook for our inspiration:
Main Kit:

and a Halloween themed kit:

And since I have as much (if not more) fun making up the kits each month out of my stash, I made up two kits, too!

My Main Kit, "Beautiful Autumn":

For my kit, I tried to stay with similar colors and patterns. Here is the breakdown of the goodies I included in my kit:
Papers:
Heidi Swapp "Groovin" (the green houndstooth-2sheets)
Coordinations Graphic 45 gray embossed dots cardstock
2 sheets from DCWV Lemon Flower Stack (yellow, green and silver glittered floral and the yellow paisley)
Echo Park Life Is Good "Grandma's Quilt"
SEI Chocolat "Framboise"
SEI Chocolat "Papillion"
Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe "Dresses"
Echo Park Life Is Good  Border Strips
The Girl's Paperie Paper Girl "12x12 Cabbage Rose"
American Crafts Play "Paper Dolls"
Heidi Swapp "The Lounge"
Echo Park Life Is Good "Bold Stripes"
American Crafts The Goods "Carriage"
The Girl's Paperie Paper Girl "Die Cut Wallpaper"
SEI Chocolat "Chocolat"

Embellishments:
ribbons: K&Co. scalloped pink felt ribbon, American Crafts light blue velvet scalloped ribbon
Lots of handmade flowers-lollipop flowers,satin burnt edge flowers, and ruffled ribbon flowers, along with a leftover Prima backing card from another pack of flowers that I plan to repurpose
a gorgeous butterfly mini banner that I received from a 2 Peas swap (those girls are SO talented!!)
Graphic 45 Botanicabella punch out butterfly tags
A sheet of sticker paper that I printed out lots of fun digi elements on-some from Echo Park,some from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, the Graphics Fairy, and Cosmo Cricket, to name a few.
American Crafts Thickers Darling Lipgloss chipboard letter stickers
Jolee's All That Bling large pink gems

My Embellishment Add On:

Echo Park Life Is Good Element and Alpha Stickers
American Crafts Thickers Sprinkles Cucumber glitter chipboard letter stickers
The Girls Paperie Paper Girl Flower Market Paper Route and Vintage Buttons
Shimmerz Bed Of Roses shimmer mist
homemade shimmer mist
assortment of paper and ribbon flowers

My Halloween Kit, "Creepy Creatures":

Papers:
Making Memories Spellbound "Glitter Crow"
American Crafts Moda Bella "Tailored"
Little Yellow Bicycle Frightful Collection "Large Stripe"
Purple spiderwebs from Target $1 Spot paper pack
Cloud 9 Design Halloween Fun "Multi Spiders"
Basic Grey Eerie "Screech"(back side shown)
Basic Grey Eerie "Reaper"
Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter "Pious"
Pink Paislee Vintage Moon "Harvest Moon"
DCWV Lemon Flower gray/silver glitter dot cardstock
K&Co Halloween Whimsy 12x12 Web Flat Paper
Halloween stripes from Target $1 Spot paper pack
SEI Eerie Alley Arachnophobia (back side shown)
Heidi Swapp "Star and Shield"

Embellishments:
American Crafts Thickers Sprinkles black glitter chipboard letters
Target $1 Spot Spooky Collection Chipboard Alpha Stickers
Jenni Bowlin Halloween Bingo Cards
Basic Grey Wholy Cow Rub-ons
Basic Grey Eerie Pops layered stickers, Glazed Brads
Making Memories Spook Alley glitter rub-ons
Target $1 Spot Halloween Rub-ons and Glitter Word Stickers
Marcella by K Halloween Candy Pillow Stickers
American Crafts Remarks Trick Or Treat Phrase Stickers Book
Making Memories Spellbound brads
We R Memories Black Out Halloween flocked lace
awesome halloween mini banners (from the same swap mentioned above)
Adirondack Metallics Paint daubers
assorted halloween Primas
black, purple, and silver glitter
assortment of fall/halloween stamps by: Creative Cafe for Hampton Arts, Scrappy Cat, See-d's for Inque Boutique, and Studio G
leftover black gems and pearls
die cut "wrought-iron" gate (I made it and put it in a kit a couple of months ago, but haven't used it yet)
KI Memories Wicked Glitter Sticker borders
DCWV fall word stickers
EK Success clear Halloween title stickers
Cosmo Cricket Tricks&Treats cardstock stickers
Marcella by K Halloween Glitter Embossed Stickers
7Gypsies 97% Complete Halloween Stickers

Closer look at my Halloween stamps and stickers:

Twin Sisters

When I was a little girl, I dreamed of being a twin, or having twins when I grew up. I read and reread The Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High series, and wanted so much to be like Elizabeth and Jessica, two blue-eyed blonde girls with opposite personalities. So, it is a little amusing to me that I "grew up" to have blue-eyed blonde twins myself. It's not all fun and games, but I love my little girls more than life itself! So, this page is to honor that special relationship that they have, but aren't quite aware of how lucky they are yet to have it.

Here is the sketch I used, from Sassy Lil' Sketches:

 

I also took inspiration from another of My Scrapbook Nook's challenges:

Shakespeare once wrote, “What a deformed thief this fashion is”. Here is your challenge: Steal inspiration from Elizabethian fashion, frocks made for men or for women. Think corsets, ruffled collars, doublets, leather belts, braided fabric, and more.

Inspiration photo:

And here is my layout:

I was inspired by the pattern on the top middle photo's collar-this background paper was reminiscent of it, and also added the brown bling, and the ruffled flowers remind me of the ruffles on the collars.

Close up of the embellishments:

 The supplies I used (all from my August CKCB kits):

SEI Chocolat "Nougat" paper (reverse side), Pink Paislee Butterfly Gardens "Botanical Gardens", 2 pink Prima fabric flowers, 2 Brenda Walton for K&CO layered butterfly stickers, bits I trimmed from a brown/amber ZVA Flourish for the butterfly trails, brown letter stickers from the Echo Park Walk In The Park collection, pink Making Memories Chipboard letter stickers, pink rick rack border and "Laughter" punch out die cuts from the Colorbok Flea Market pad.

Thanks for visiting with me this morning, be sure to drop back in on the 27th (Saturday) for my Counterfeit Kit Design Team Blog Hop post!

CKCB Challenge

A few days ago, the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog gave us this challenge:

Challenge # 3: Turn it on it's ear: Pick any of the sketches from Sketch Support and rotate it before you use it for a card or layout. You will get a fresh new look this way, but still have the ease of the sketch giving you the blueprints of what to do. So awesome!

I took this sketch from Sketch Support:

And turned it sideways to come up with this page:

I also used a challenge from My Scrapbook Nook's Virtual Crop this past weekend, "#2-This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath-pick 7 different flowers for your layout", and here is a close up of the flowers:

The journaling reads, "It is always so hard to get the four of you together and smiling for a photo.Out of lots of shots, this one was the best Nicole was able to get. Crazy kids!"

Products I used:

The background paper was Pink Paislee Vintage Moon, and the back side of one of the Echo Park Walk In The Park papers, sheer aqua ribbon, the brown border was from the Colorbok Flea Market Punch Out Pad, the title was one of the K&Co rub-ons from the booklet I included in my August kits, The flowers are Primas, Making Memories, and The Paper Studio. All supplies used are from my August Counterfeit Kits (which you can see HERE).

A few more pages from my June Counterfeit Kit...

Since it is almost time for our July kit reveal, I wanted to post a few more pages that I have completed with my June kit. Here they are:

"You Are My Sunshine" Layout:

For this layout, I started with a white cardstock base, then used the sheet of Colorbok Bella Pink Flowers, which I trimmed a bit, and used bits of yelllow textured cardstock and a strip of the Basic Grey Lemonade border strips paper, and added one of the pink Prima roses from my June kit. For the title, I used a stick on tag from the K& Co. Brenda Walton stickers, and added a painted brad.

 Close up look at the embellies:

 "My Silly Girls" Layout:

 For this layout, I used my hot pink cardstock from my kit, Basic Grey Lemonade border strips, light blue pompom trim, my homemade bloomers and vellum butterflies, mounted on scalloped circles punched from paper scraps, yellow ric rac trim that I stapled to the page, brown Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type letters,  and cream Making Memories printed letter stickers
Close up look at my Homemade "Bloomers":

Thanks for stopping by-don't forget to enter my giveaway HERE, you only have one more week to enter!

Imitation is the Most Sincere Form of Flattery...

At least, so they say! The Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog is imitating Studio Calico this month. And I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by the color palette of this kit! I love the original kit(which apparently sold out in 5 or 6 hours,anyway, so probably would have missed it, lol), so I replicated it as closely as possible with my stash.

The only thing I bought this week to add to these kits was the brown and white striped ribbon, on sale half-off at HL. So, I only spent $2.00, and I shopped my stash, which is mostly comprised of stacks, and papers and other items that I got at HL on their 40 or 50 % off sales, the clearance aisle at WM or Target, Big Lots finds, or goodies that I received as blog candy or from swaps. I rarely order off the internet, and I rarely buy items at full price, I usually wait for a sale, unless it's something I REALLY want or need right away.

This month's main kit from Studio Calico, "Into The Woods":My version:I tried to match the papers pretty closely! It includes:

Patterned Papers:

• Basic Grey Basics ledger
• Heidi Grace brown shimmer with green and cream flocked circles
• DCWV Wild Life Butterfly Multi in green,brown, orange, and cream
• Pink Paislee orange print
• Cream and Olive Green Glitter cardstock sheets from WM
• DCWV Wild Life Brown Woodgrain print
• Ruby Lemonade flocked yellow floral print from Tapestry by CR Gibson
• Making Memories Die-cut ledger paper
• a sheet of white corrugated cardstock (oops, I cropped it out of the picture)
• And I matched the cardstocks as closely as possible from my stash (it's a mix of American Crafts, Bazzill, Paper Studio, and Walmart)

Embellishments:

• 2 partially used packages of green fabric Thickers
• 1 package of Making Memories white flocked title stickers
• a few journaling spots from Jenni Bowlin and Making Memories
• A sheet of Daisy D's journaling stickers (This is OLD!!It has been in my stash for YEARS!!)
• Jenni Bowlin orange vintage buttons
• A mix of chipboard and Grungeboard stars, some finished, some raw.I also had a few Heidi Swapp star shaped journaling spots that are AGES old that I threw in there
• A couple of KI Memories Chipboard titles/sayings
• A sheet of round stickers (they're meant for bottle caps, but I just plan to use them as is)
• A little package of ribbon, twine, and trim
• A package of Studio G Stamps

I also love the add-on kits that Studio Calico offered with their main kit, wonderful names, and they add such variety and beautiful colors.My favorite add on kit was the "Wildflower" kit. It has such beautiful, soft colors, and I knew exactly what I wanted to pull from my stash as soon as I saw the kit!

The Studio Calico Add-on Kit, "Wildflower":

My version:

Patterned Papers:

• 2 from the Girl's Paperie (the border strips and blue ledger)
• My Mind's Eye (glittered rose print)
• DCWV Mango Frost (light blue grid)
• Die Cut sheets:
• 1 Basic Grey Doily (from Big Lots!)
• Die Cut Roses paper (I cut this with my Cricut and an svg file!)

Embellishments:

• Vintage ephemera that I downloaded and printed
• pink and cream buttons from my stash
• pale pink ribbon roses (from the Walmart clearance section)
• Some really cool (IMO)pink and white polka dot foam letter stickers by the Paper Studio
• partial sheets pink glitter letter stickers by Making Memories
• Making Memories green flocked title stickers
• REALLY OLD K&Co chipboard words and sayings (they came in a metal tin, I must have gotten them about 7 or 8 years ago)
• Basic Grey Woolies (another Big Lots find)
• a cream colored intricate heart charm from the Wal Mart clearance aisle

The Studio Calico Add-On Kit, "Babbling Brook":

My version: (Wow, sorry for the crappy photo, I took these last night at about 1:30 am, so my eyes were a little blurry, and the lighting sucked!)

Patterned papers:

• Basic Grey Basics
• DCWV Grade School-graph print with a green flourish
• Aqua Print-(I think this was by Luxe Designs)
• Orange print by Pink Paislee
• Yellow Glazed Bazzill
• Die-cut paper-Vintage Moon Collection by October Afternoon

Embellishments:

• Apple Blossom Studios Honeycomb print stamp (the bee in the main kit immediately reminded me of this stamp, and I thought it would be the perfect substitute for the circle print stamp included in this kit!
• light blue pom-pom trim
• embellished chipboard butterflies that I received from a swap
• Cosmo Cricket brown Tiny Type stickers
• a KI Memories light blue chipboard "doily"
• a couple of Anna Griffin journaling spots
• an envelope with a window from my stash
• yellow chipboard letters-these have been in my stash so long, I forgot that they were there!! I got a huge pack of chipboard punch out letters at Hobby Lobby a long time ago...
• various leftover bling

I cut some Envelopes/folders out of Basic Grey Basics papers for this add-on kit, using my Cricut and some svg cutting files:The Studio Calico Add-On Kit, "Mossy Knoll":

My version:

Patterned paper:

• SEI Dill Blossom
• Sassafrass Lass (2 different)
• yellow-Basic Grey Origins
• Black and white striped from a Love, Elsie stack (remember those?)
• teal crisscross lines print by Cosmo Cricket
• Die-cut tan scalloped cardstock by Bazzill

Embellishments:

• Dark aqua chipboard Thickers
• A die cut printed cream frame from 2006 that I found while digging through my stash
• A 7Gypsies journaling card
• Basic Grey Bling It flower (from Big Lots)
• vintage bees printed from the Graphics Fairy
• feathers
• American Crafts glitter buttons
• flower rhinestones
• A couple of Tim Holtz journaling tickets, and a couple of the smaller ones as well
• And an assortment of yummy textured ribbons:tiny cream pom-poms,black pleated grosgrain, creamy butter colored velvet, burlap, striped brown and white wide grosgrain, and a sheer black ribbon with embroidery and sequins (it's so pretty when you hold it up to the light!)

I really love my ribbon, and I can't wait to use these yummy trims on some pages(I must confess that I bought this striped ribbon after seeing some in the Studio Calico kit. But Hobby Lobby has their ribbon spools on sale 50% off this week, so I couldn't resist!).I just love the texture that it adds to a page!My favorite part of my Mossy Knoll add-on: these AWESOME feathers that I found at Hobby Lobby in the Craft Dept for a $1.00 each (they were on sale 50% off)!!I have some plans for these in my head for sure!

The next kit feels warm and fresh, like springtime, and I do love the yellows and pinks of it!
The Studio Calico Add-on Kit, "Sunny Clearing":

My version:

I was immediately reminded of the Sassafrass Lass Sunshine Lollipop Collection, which is where I pulled alot of this kit from, including:

The yellow and pink patterned papers, the journaling sticker sheet, and the yellow cardstock letter stickers.

The other patterned papers:

• yellow print and green vintage ladies from Cosmo Cricket Material Girl
• green herringbone from Basic Grey Nook And Pantry
• Die-cut yellow scalloped circle by Bazzill
• white paper doily

Embellishments:

• Light blue polka dot Puffy Thickers
• a yellow diecut frame that I found in my stash-probably about 10 years old
• Chipboard butterflies and doiles from KI Memories
• more of the embellished chipboard butterflies from the 2Peas Swap
• light green diamond print Artisan Tape by Pink Paislee
• and a card of ribbons that I matched as closely as possible with my stash to the Studio Calico kit

And, since the main kit and several of the add-on kits include stamps, these are the 3 sets that I pulled to use with these kits:An Autumn Leaves journaling stamp set, Hampton Arts stamp set (I plan to use that cute ladybug in place of the bee in the main kit), and a Basic Grey set-all closeout finds from Walmart and Big Lots! I think I only paid $4.50 for all three sets (total!).But I haven't used them yet, and I think that they will work perfectly with this month's kits!

Since taking these photos, I have also decided to add an alphabet stamp set, some Maya Road Chipboard tiny trees, and a sheet of light aqua Making Memories letter stickers to my main kit.

I also want to make some of those banner flags and maybe a few other embellies. If I do, I will share them on the March Mr Linky!

Whew!Thanks for stopping by today...And thank you for sticking with me through this long post! Now to get some pages made!

A Sweet Little Nest...

Is what I have for you today! I started with this week's sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches, and I used this Nest With Eggs digistamp from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Birds and Branches digistamp set, and the word art is a freebie that you can find on Lindsay's blog, which coordinates with the Birds And Branches set. I picked up the burlap ribbon on clearance at Wal Mart, and I cut the tiny blue flowers with my Cricut, and just shaped them with my fingers, and the pearls are from K&Co. Thanks for dropping by, now head over to the other gals' blogs for more inspiration and fun!
Lindsay (owner-she has a freebie for you;-) )
Rebekah Doak
Lisa
Melissa
Cindi
Erin
Tracey
Micki
Leanne
Shannon
Tracy Vinson (March Guest DT)