March Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Another month of counterfeiting and I'm just as excited as I was in January. This month's kit is from Studio Calico's "Into the Woods". Their kits are always so nicely put together and I had a blast looking thru my stash to come up with some of the softness/hues of this kit.
I think the most fun, tho, is looking for the embellishments. I do have some chipboard pieces I might add into my kit as I go, but for the most part I'm happy with what I have. As always, I know the girls will have a bunch of tutorials on how to make some of the pieces/add ons. That's what makes their blog so cool. They really do rock!

More Feb. Kit

This month has flown by and I've wanted to scrap more, but just haven't been able to. I can only share a couple of cards from my Counterfeit Kit and the journaling challenge. I'm thinking about getting some larger folders to keep the kit together instead of breaking it up and back into my stash. That way I can just grab it and work out of it. Since I used most everything in my January kit, I will start this month and think I will work on making larger kits for the future months. Thanks for visiting!

Using Feb.'s Kit

I must admit it has been a HUGE challenge for me this month to use this kit. I really do love what I put together, but am stumped for pictures to go with it. The first thing I noticed was it had kind of a vintage vibe going, so I scrapped a page using a photo that has hung in my house for years of my husband and his brother (circa 1957 or so). I'm glad it will be in a scrapbook just in case the picture gets put away or lost some day.

The other hard part for me these days is scrapping my oldest son who just turned 20. Lucky for me he's an artist who loves photography and is always taking my point and shoot camera (which has a video feature on it) with him on his adventures. He shared with me his latest off-roading fun, so I just went with it.





Now that some challenges are coming, I'm looking forward to making some other layouts & cards and being inspired by everyone's work. Thanks for stopping by!

A digi "Month in Review"

It's been quite awhile since I've done any digital scrapping. I must say it took me some time to get my brain to work and figure it all out again. I'm not that great at it, but I kind of cheated here using a digital template from Tami at Get It Scrapped. I would really love to keep up with this every month this year, but the hard part is picking up the camera and documenting every day life. I always forget and say, "Gee, I wished I had my camera for this". I will try harder this month. Thank you, Tami, for the template!

February Counterfeit Kit Challenge

I am so excited to be able to play again this month. I really think this idea is brilliant. I'm looking at old product in a new way and having fun challenging myself not to spend much money this year on scrapping products. Once again, everything is from my stash. I wasn't able to pull the flowers, but having boys I don't use them much.
The papers are from all different manufacturers. These colors are waaaaaay out of the box for me, so for me it will be a challenge to try and use them. The large floral die cut paper is so pretty, I don't think I could stand to cut it up.




My embellies are pretty old, but I still like them and they fit the theme.
And for the alphas, I picked out a few of my favorites (Jenni Bowlin & American Crafts I just adore!!) I also pulled out a stamp set that I got on sale at Joann's a couple weeks ago for $3.97. The design of it works perfectly with this kit.
I'm looking forward to creating, learning new techniques, & sharing my layouts with new scrappy friends this month.

Yellow & Teal

I'm stuck right now wanting to use these colors all the time. Add some grey or kraft and I'm good to go! Enjoy!

Answer to the Tootsie Pop Question

So today the Counterfeit Kit Club's post was about your final tally using the self-generated kit for January. The whole process this month contained an eye-opening revelation for me which was, " I love creating within perimeters".
I think it challenged me in a way to be more creative & to use product I have in a fresh way. Brilliant I say!!!! So when I got down to just having a few things left in my kit, I got creative and thought what can I do with just a few scraps. I took all the patterned paper and randomly cut them into strips and adhered them down to a piece of card stock. I cut off the sides and this is what I was left with:

Now onto what to do with this. I first thought of a card front, so I cut that out and adhered it to a card. The flower I made out of dictionary paper (using the tutorial) and sprayed it with some Studio Calico mist. Loved it much better than leaving it the original dictionary paper color. Used more of my alpha stickers and voila!

I still had more of the paper left, so I used some chipboard birds as a template and cut out two of those. I decided to leave this for some future project maybe using the ric-rac too. We'll see.

I also punched a bunch of circles and used them in this layout. I still have journaling to put on it, but it's layout No. 5 using my kit.

So there it is....success using my stash and spending no money for the month of January!! I'm so excited for February to come to see what is in store to lift! Thanks to the gals at Counterfeit Kit Club for really doing a BEYOND AWESOME job of
creating this concept and teaching us how to use our own supplies in a great way.

Kit layouts

I'm pretty much a simple & speedy scrapper. Once I start laying things down on a page, it pretty much stays that way and I just go for it. I also like just using what I have before me and not hunt for things. That takes too much time. I think this "kit" challenge is perfect for me. The other night I made all three layouts in a couple hours. Whooohoo!
I still have plenty from the kit and will most likely get another three layouts done with it. I'm also enjoying all the tutorials on how to make the embellishments. I will make some to add to my kit in a few days. In the meantime..here's what I got.
**Edited to add: Just added another one of my puppy Lilly. Still using my kit!

A new year and trying something new

I read about this from a post on 2Peas and thought it was just a great idea. It's called the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. The premise is you use as inspiration a kit club's kit for that month and pick supplies from your stash to make your own kit. Brilliant I say! So for January the inspiration is from Dec. JBS's kit. I do love her products, but didn't have the colors from her kit but pulled from my stash to come up with this. I'm lovin' it and can't wait to start making some layouts.
Since this is my year for saving money, I plan on using this strategy for not buying any new product (only adhesive if needed).
I thought too I would like to incorporate some of the many stamps I have, so each month I will be pulling from my stamp stash. The Maya Road doily stamp & stamp border pretty much fit the bill for this kit.
Here's the scoop on joining in: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
I will be back with some layouts soon.

And the Quilt goes to.........

Well, yesterday was a crazy day between my youngest son getting braces and my oldest son's car breaking down. Whew....glad it's over and today can be a little more calm.
Thank you all for the comments. I just finished another quilt using Amy Butler fabrics and a simple pattern. I love how it came out.

So....I had my husband pick a No. between 1-7 and he picked No. 2!!! So Miss Ani Hearts Japan is receiving this little bit of happiness. You can email me your addy @ judy.csr@hotmail.com and I will get it postal this week.

And just a scrappy page of my hubby and our cute lil puppy Lilly. They so adore each other!

Quilt Give-away

It's been so long that I've had this baby quilt in my car to donate to the children's hospital. It got a little buried behind some other things I keep in my car and that's why it's so wrinkled up now, but I think it's high time it found a new home. It measures 43 x 57 and would make a perfect baby quilt to keep in your car! I used scraps from other projects and just tied it with some embroidery floss. It's filled with a poly/cotten blend and hasn't been washed yet. If you'd like to have it, leave me a comment here and Tues./Wed. of next week I will draw a name and it will be yours! All I ask is you pay it forward and do something nice for someone else.

Something new

I think I totally forgot how to post on this blog, so I'm giving it a try. Some scrap pages that I recently made. The first one is from the holidays. We were at a friend's house for an Xmas get-together. Lots of fun with Mike's CHP buddies. The second one is a page I like to do every year that is a review of some fun times and pics that I like.

A Long Time Coming

Ta Da......a quilt that has been in the making for many years! I have a tendency to start projects, get inspired to create something else, and then lose track of how many UFOs I have. This one came out of the back of my UFO drawer and I've been plugging away on it for the the last month or two. And now it's finally done!
That feels good. And the best part is I still like it as much as I did when I started it! Yay! The yo-yo flowers just make me happy.

Thanks to my girl, Cathy, for kicking my butt in gear and for her help doing the wonderful stippling behind the yo-yos. Still need to take a full photo so you can see the crow that's on it.

Altered Monogram

So, here's a little something that I got around to doing last week. I must say I haven't altered many items, so this was a good test to see if I could do it. I think the hardest part is knowing when to stop and say "It's Done". A neighbor's daughter is going away to college this fall and I made this for her as a gift. I hope she likes it. Everything was from my stash. I love it when I can use up
some older products too (not that I can EVER use up everything).

Been on a quilting binge....getting projects farther along. Stay tuned for a picture of a COMPLETED quilt. I must say it feels great getting them finished. Thinking about trying to
sell a few, maybe on e-bay or something. I always look forward to the piecing part of a
quilt but not so much the quilting part. Maybe some day I'll be over that fear. I think that I just need to do it more to be more confident. We'll see.

This is Why

This is why Michael wants to attend the Art Institute next fall. This is all done in Photoshop in the course of 3 hours. Ever since his interview with the school last week, he's been a little more excited about his art. The school is in west Sacramento and is fairly new. They opened last October, so it's a small campus. I think that it is a great fit for him. I can't say how excited (and broke) I will be if he gets in. They still have to send for his transcripts and he needs to maintain a good GPA his senior year to get the final acceptance letter. I can't foresee any problems there.
This piece is so serene and calm......Enjoy!

Cocktails & Going Bananas

Just some randomness going on here. I received my Mosh Posh kit for this month that had some really fun papers, so I dug in. The October Afternoon paper just shouted out to me to be cut out, so away I snipped. I had no idea where I would be going with those flowers so I grabbed whatever was on my desk and viola..... a layout was born. Not that we have a problem or anything....just that my friend Cat and I love to have a martini or two when we're dining out.


Now, the bananas part. My family loves banana bread. Mike is the only one that really eats bananas, so I buy a bunch and most of them go mushy. Thus, I must make banana bread. I've had this recipe from an Amish cookbook for over 20 years! Unfortunately we have a little dilemma in our household. Some like the banana bread on the undercooked side and some don't. So, this time I made two loaves to try and make everyone happy. Either way, this recipe is delicious!

Photo SHAZAM

One of my favorite things to do is learn new Photoshop techniques. And one of my favorite places to learn them is from Jessica Sprague (http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/). This is my version of her technique for making photos pop. It was so easy and fast to do. I just love the result. I know I will be using this over and over again. Thank you, Jessica!

My "Happy" Place

Here's where I get to enjoy myself. I just put this together real quick in Photoshop
and hopefully I can get the picture to come out large enough for you to peek (click
on the photo to enlarge it further).
The closet cut-out is my favorite. Mike put it together for me. It's where I
stand and scrap. The white container next the the "J" is where I have
all my mini albums stored. I think I might have to move up to the next size soon.
On my black magnet board I have a collection of "J's" also. I treasure the one
my secret sister LeAnn made for me (the large cute one with the flower) a couple
of years ago. And, of course, I really love being able to change out the quilt behind
the desk. Right now it's one of my favorites. I really need to get my behind in
gear to get some other quilts finished to hang here.

Project "The 25th"

Here's something I've been working on for the last couple of months. I found this idea from a wonderful scrapper here:
♥ shimelle.com :: art & stuff from shimelle laine ♥

I love the randomness of it and think it will be fun to see little snip-its of everyday life as I look back on this album. The album itself is a Maya Road 8 x 8 album that I covered with some
leftover scraps (Creative Cafe felt and some Elsie fabric paper) One of my goals in doing this
album is to use STAMPS! I have tons of them and I really would like to use them more on my
layouts. They scare me a little bit because sometimes I don't get a good print on the first try,
especially if I'm using paint on them, but what the heck....I'm going for it. June's layout
is in progress so I will post June & July sometime in another post.

Thanks for stopping by!