June 2012 Project 12

So I don't know if any of you recall, but I was following along with Project 12 for a whole year (!) in 2011, but then I missed a bunch of 2012.  I thought it would be a good idea to go back and catch up, so here is the double-pager I made for June: 

All the products I used came from my January Counterfeit Kit, and here's the Page Maps sketch I used (also from June 2012):

I was a little intimidated to leave that whole section on the upper right blank, but I guess with the busy paper, it works.  It's growing on me!

Here's the right side with the journaling:

And the left side with the doily title and cork speech bubble:

So have you given some thought to making your own counterfeit kit next month?  It is so much fun, and I've been able to get a ton of scrapping done!

Thanks for looking!

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January P12

My bloggy pal Alison and I didn't really love the new direction of Project 12 this year, so we decided to do our own thing. Here's a quick post to show you the double-pager I did for a January wrap-up:

I used my February counterfeit kit to make this one, and I quite like the result. I used this sketch that Alison chose from Becky Fleck's January Page Maps:

but I had to change things up a bit due to the fact that I had barely any good photos from January! A couple of close-ups:

I thought these photos of Brenna were hysterical! She was pitching such a fit before our walk, and I don't think it was because her momma dresses her funny (well, maybe a little!)

I really like the accent card on this page, it's from a new Simple Stories line called Year-ography - love all their papers! I painted the edges of all my photos to make them stand out a bit on the busy CTMH patterned paper, and stitched and distressed some of the edges to give it all a bit of character, but other than that, a very simple layout. Now, I better run, because I think my computer has a virus and I'm just waiting for it to crash again! Hopefully I'll be able to comment on everyone's lovely creations and get in on some challenges before the end of the month, but I better keep my fingers crossed! Thanks for your understanding, everyone, hugs, Roxy.

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January Counterfit Kit

As if my obsession with "smashing" wasn't enough, now I'm in love with Counterfit Kits! Have you heard of this site?! Every month they post several kits from one of the top scrapbook kit companies, and they encourage you to pull things from your stash to make a similar kit. They also post tutorials and links for making your own embellishments and papers! Well, this month is the first time I've played along, and I must say I'm loving how my kit turned out! Here's the inspiration kit from Cocoa Daisy that I've chosen to copy:

I was really drawn to the vintage feel of this kit. Plus, I have one of the papers already in my stash, and I just bought ruler print and banner print papers, so I figured it would be easy to match at least some things. It was a little trickier than I thought, because at first I wanted to match every single item. Once I got over that and decided to go with the vintage theme, then it was easier, and this is what I came up with:

Here are the 12x12 papers I had in my stash which seemed to match. The top row is old Close to My Heart stuff, and the bottom row is brand new - the three on the left are MME, then Theresa Collins and Graphic 45.

Then I saw this great idea from one of Counterfit Kits' Master Forgers, Helen, on how to duplicate the October Afternoon paper Attic Trunk:

I used 1.5" squares of some CTMH Notebook and Blue Ribbon scraps, as well as some other unknown scraps and inked book paper, and glued them to a 12x12 sheet of cardstock to make this bright patchwork quilt type paper. Pretty neat, thanks, Helen!

Then I pulled out some more scraps, a new pack of Prima mistable canvas, some Prima flowers, a Tim Holtz stamp, some postcards, doilies, shipping tags, trim, and 6x6 papers I won to add to the kit:

I also printed out some vintage images that Counterfit Kits linked up on their site. I'm planning to use them as journaling cards or tags.

And finally, this bunch of stuff:

The top row is left over stickers from CTMH's Notebook line, and the bottom row is an embellishment pack I won from Lovely Bug Bits 'n' Bobs - very cute buttons in this kit! Now I just have to use what's in this kit, and I've already started by working on November's P12 layout with it - I think it's going to look really cool!

Now here comes a bit of a rant, so fair warning - I won't be offended if you skip this bit, and I'll try to keep it short. P12 is changing its format, and I'm really disappointed! Previously, they put out a new Becky Fleck sketch for us to work with each month. They've done away with this, there will be no new sketches. Instead, we are to use old sketches from the past two years. We can use whichever sketch we want for whatever month we want to. We can also incorporate the color suite challenge into our layouts if we want. I don't know why I was so disappointed, this seems like a lot of freedom to do it however we want, which should be a good thing, right? Maybe I'm just PMSing, or maybe I look forward to the new sketches and reveals more than I thought, or maybe I just need more direction and structure, but I'm not excited about this new format (or lack of format!) and I don't think I'll be playing along. Instead, I decided this morning that I will make a counterfit kit each month and use that to do my own month-in-review layout. Feel free to join me!

Okay, that's the end of Roxy's Rant! It is very cold here, (-36 C or something) and the school buses aren't running, but I made my kids go to school anyway. Call me mean, but I think they'll have more fun at school than doing nothing here! Plus, when I'm stuck at home with Brenna, we like to lounge all morning in our PJ's, and the older kids being here would cramp our style! What do you like to do when it's too cold to go out?

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Layout #67 - October Project 12

Didn't I just finish my September P12 layout? Seems like it! Well, this month I'm managing to get it done right at the last minute, but on time, so that's better, right? Here's the sketch we were given this month:

I changed it a bit more than I normally would, by flipping the right and left pages, then swapping out the 5x7 photo for 2 4x6's. I also had larger sizes for my other photos because I am cheap and the photo place charges more for smaller prints than the standard 4x6. Can anyone explain why this is fair? A 4x6 collage is printed on a piece of 4x6 paper with the same amount of ink as a standard print (at least I'm assuming it's the same amount of ink, there's only so much ink you can put on a piece of paper, right?), so why should it be 8 times the cost? Anyway, that's my little rant, I'm done now, haha! I'm not loving this layout, but hey, at least it's finished. I do like the felt accents, and I managed to put a dent in my brad stash by studding them up like that. I also like the stitching and the photos, and I like the fact that I was able to use up almost all of my Boom-Di-Ada paper pack to make room for more pretty patterned paper, my lifelong addiction! Have a good week, everyone!

Supplies: Close to My Heart patterned paper, cardstock, stamp sets (Giggle Caps and Cottage Floral), ink, and felt, Creative Memories pen, 7 Gypsies brads, Versamark ink, Judikins embossing powder

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Layout #42 - Project 12

FINALLY, finished with this one! It seemed to take forever, and there were so many times I wanted to put it aside and do something else, but I persevered, and YAY! So glad I'm doing Project 12 this year, it feels really great to be summarizing each month, and if I got nothing else done in the scrapbooking department, at least I'll have these 12 layouts for the family album.

So, what did I do here? Well, I started with the photos, tried to represent the major happenings and the major players (of course, I'm only in one photo, but that's the way it goes, right?) Then chose patterned paper - I had this cool glossy stripe pp from Imaginisce, with polka dots on the reverse, that seemed to go great with everything, but I wanted a blue background and didn't have any blue. What to do? I masked and brayered some Broken China Distress Ink on both pieces of cream cardstock. It's pretty hard to get even coverage, but I kind of like the uneven look anyway! I also sprayed some Electric Blue Glimmer Mist on there to blotch it up some more. After I laid out my photos and papers, I thought it still looked a bit plain, and that's when I had the idea to make little tags for each photo and tie them with twine. Done, but still a bit plain, so then I had the idea of making each patterned paper block into a little vignette: kites, and trees, and owls, oh my! And don't forget about Mr. Hedgehog, isn't he adorable? I find that sometimes my mind is very grounded in reality, and I balk at the idea of a green sky or a red mushroom, so these little scenes are a bit of a stretch for me! Then it was just the title and journaling, but all this stamping and inking and fussy cutting has me drained! I'm done like dinner, hope you enjoy this little look into my creative process!

Supplies: Close to My Heart cardstock, brads, ink, and stamps, Ranger Distress Ink, Imaginisce and Basic Grey patterned paper, Bazzill orange cardstock, Prima journaling card, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Twinery twine, American Crafts Thickers, Creative Memories pen, My Minds Eye acetate border, Courier New font

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Layout #33 - June Project 12

Hey, remember when I posted my May Project 12 and I was all upset because Jason said it looked Christmassy? Well, Davinie Fiero gave me a shout out on the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog, and she left me a message on my blog, saying that my page was definitely NOT a Christmas page! I was so stoked, I think I might've screamed when I saw my name on the SBCT blog!!! Davinie is the most famous scrapbooker that's ever left me a message, I was totally starstruck!

Anyway, onto June's Project 12 page. I loved this sketch as soon as I saw it because it has 5 equal photos, perfect for my family of 5! See?:

So, choosing photos was simple, I just picked my favorite head shots of the month. Then when I went into Creative Accents, my LSS, this Echo Park paper just jumped out at me, and I knew I had to have it! It's one of the best things about this LO, don't you think?

I also really like the Purple Pumpkin button, and how I did part of the title in twine. Here's a couple close ups.

Hope you enjoy, folks! Oh, by the way, I know my blog photos haven't been the best quality lately. My old computer had Picasa, but this one doesn't. I was going to upload Picasa today, but there's that message that comes up saying "this file can harm your computer". Has anyone had problems with that, or do you think Picasa is safe? Thanks for any advice on this!

Supplies: Bazzill, CTMH and Creative Memories cardstock, Echo Park and Basic Grey patterned paper, Hampton Arts alpha stamps, Prima flowers, Queen and Co. flower sequins and brads, CTMH ink and gems, Colorbok die cut letters, Purple Pumpkin and unknown buttons, twine

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