Hello Friend − Layout for Scrap Africa Sketch Challenge 78

Hi! Happy Friday, and happy September! It's monthly challenge time again at Scrap Africa!

I felt like making a light and neutral coloured layout with some mixed media elements on the background. I'm still using my Krafty Travel Kit I joined the Counterfeit Kit Challenge with last month.



This month we have an elegant simple sketch with a circle around the focal cluster.



I'm also sharing a couple of photos of how I got the layout started. For the background, a cardstock colour called Straw was suitable for my idea, light but not completely white. I had spread a very light layer of gesso on it previously. The journaling card, the gold and white striped straw and the paper with the crosses or plus signs are from my Counterfeit kit as well as the cardstock.



Due to having a toddler at home, I quite often start my projects at night, choosing materials and trying different layouts. If it's already late at that point, I don't necessarily do anything else but just "sleep on it", and next day I have a better idea of how to go on.

The photo with my messy table below is about a trick I have learned at patchwork quilting.



That is, for checking if the layout still looks mainly white when I add the plus sign paper and the blue journaling card.

Sometimes it's hard to compare the lightness value of different elements from up close, so it helps to look from a distance. Blurring your eyes a bit or taking a blurry photo, like I did here, confirms that the other elements are fairly close to the background in lightness value. I wanted it to be this way so that it's just the photos that pop out from the background, not the whole cluster of elements.



At the point of taking the photo above, my 2-year-old had been drawing beside me, and I wanted have the mark of his pen on my background, too. He and his brother are also the stars of the layout, so it felt like a nice way to keep a memory of his first drawings!



In addition to the doodling, I used mists, white and gold structure pastes, yellow Paint Pen and turquoise Stickles for the circular frame.





The chipboard rocking horse is from Wycinanka. I used blue acrylic paint on it first, let it dry and embossed around the edges with Midnight Teal from Lindy's Stamp Gang. Last layer is clear embossing powder. The separate stars that came with the horse just have the blue paint and the clear powder layers.



Apart from the thin washi tape strip in the top left corner, I felt like no more embellishments were needed this time!





Thank you so much for looking. I hope to see you at Scrap Africa!

Krafty Travel Kit and Mini Album − Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop

Welcome to my part of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Members' Blog Hop!

If you're already following the Blog Hop, you have probably come here from Tina's blog. If you want to start from the beginning or got lost along the way, head back to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to find the full hop order!

A couple of months ago in June, I had the honour to be a Guest Designer at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. It was so much fun to put together my own kit, and even more fun was to have my kit then handy to create projects for the whole month. The inspiration kit was the May 2016 Kit from Hip Kit Club, bright and cheerful, and I called my kit Hip State of Mind.

Here you can see all the projects I made with the June kit, and here is the direct link to the one time I had joined their challenge with my own kit before that.

This time, the monthly inspiration kit was chosen by Lisa Hausmann, who as a European member of the CKC Design Team wanted to pick a kit from a European club. Lisa's choice was the March 2016 kit from Papierwerkstatt. You can also take a look on the kit on Lisa's Pinterest board here!

Let's take a look at the Papierwerkstatt kit first!







I was particularly inspired by the kraft and neutral tones of the kit, and also the mini book idea, which you'll see in my project further down! For contrast, there is also one black paper with a flower pattern.

And here's my Counterfeit... named the Krafty Travel Kit!



With a close-up...



Here are the papers and cardstock I chose!

I was not completely happy at first to replace the black paper with these two Basic Grey flower ones with brown and purple backgrounds, but they had to do, since I simply didn't have any with black backgrounds and wanted to have some dark ones with flowers anyway. We'll see if they work for this kit or not.



From left to right: Glitz − Sunshine in my Soul 6x6 pad
Pre-gessoed and stenciled kraft cardstock
Textured light yellow paper
Prima − Just Us/Long Embrace
Basic Grey − Jovial/Nordic
4 heures 37 − 1658 Eiffel Avenue
Bazzill Basics − straw cardstock
Non-scrapbook item: a piece of wallpaper from our Red Cross thrift store
Almond and kraft cardstock also probably from Bazzill Basics
4 heures 37 − Chemin des 3 flocons
Bazzill Basics − kraft with gold foiled stars
Basic Grey − Mellow/Cultured
Basic Grey − Eva/Noble



And then the embellishments, Project Life supplies and alphabet:



Tiger aka Flying Tiger Copenhagen − cork and gold/white striped paper straws
Kaiser Scrapbook − Golden Rhinestones
8x8 Papers on top left and chipboard are of unknown brand.
PL journaling cards are from 4 heures 37, Sodalicious, and... can't remember the third one.
Chipboard alpha, unknown, cork alpha from American Crafts/Dear Lizzy, and the travel themed alpha from Papermania/All Aborad.

Some more close-ups:





I knew I wanted to join the Challenge 2 of the month in particular, where the theme is Outside the Stash: Incorporate some non-scrapbook stash into your project. I had so many possible items that they deserved to be an add-on kit of their own!



And then to my challenge project!



A Mini Album from Outside the Stash − made from toilet paper rolls!



This was a quick and simple project with memories and ideas from a craftivism workshop that I participated in last weekend. The good thing with a paper roll album is that the rolls automatically form pockets where it's easy to add hidden journaling, so I can do that later!

















Thank you so much for browsing through this super long post! To continue the blog hop, you should hop over to Jemma, the last person in the hop today! For the full hop list, check the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog here.

Thanks for looking! I'd love to see you comment to let me know you were here and happy hopping!

Celebrate Cousins − Layout for Scrap Africa Sketch Challenge 76

Hi everyone! It's time to welcome July together with the new monthly challenge at Scrap Africa. This time we have a lovely sketch by Denise van Deventer.



Here it is!



I'm still creating with the kit I created for guesting the Counterfeit Kit Challenge in June!

This was the only paper I bought specifically for my kit, everything else was from my existing stash. It's quite unusual compared to my basic stash, seeing that it has the colourful cluster of print on the left margin, while the rest of the paper has just this delicate yellow geometric pattern. I loved the paper when I saw it but I wasn't sure how easily I would get to use it.



The paper turned out to be an excellent combination with the Scrap Africa sketch and this pair of photos that I printed in black and white.



I was also inspired by the challenges at Challenge YOUrself! themed Geometric Shapes, Challenge Km-shop themed Flowers in Three Ways, and Stamps and Stencils: Floral Frenzy.

The flowers can be found in the patterned paper, in the stamped pattern behind the photos that I embossed with distressed turquoise, in the stamped pattern that I framed near the lower right corner, and in the black and white piece of packaging paper behind the photo on the right margin.



At Challenge YOUrself, the challenge prompt always includes using a photo of YOU in the project, so I'd better mention that I'm in the photo on the right, and on the left is my sister. We had a combined birthday party for all our the four of our boys this year, which was a great idea! This was actually one photo, but it looks maybe even nicer divided into two. I tilted the pictures a bit to highlight the party mood I hoped to catch in this layout.



Just a reminder, Scrap Africa challenges now run for the whole month, so you have all of July to create with this sketch!



Thank you for coming and hope to see you again soon!

Old is New Again − Counterfeit Kit June Challenge 3

Hi there,

and welcome to June Challenge #3 at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge! The prompt is
"Old is New Again: Showcase the oldest item in your kit in a new & fresh way!"

My oldest items were the floral papers from The Sweet Blossom Stack by Die Cuts with a View: one 12x12 paper and a 12x12 that has tags in different sizes.



I picked three other papers in shades of aqua/mint green/teal. I cut the solid mint green cardstock in half to make a 6x6 card.



This was the perfect moment to open the Studio Calico wood veneer package I got recently...



I was once again crafting at night so I didn't get to take process pictures, I'm afraid. But here's the finished card!



In addition to the papers and wood veneer, I used stamping inks, 7 Dots Studio Alpha Stickers, Geometric Neon Washi tape from Papermania Docrafts Capsule collection and Liquid Pearls glue paint in Mint Green.

Although I didn't have any of their papers this time, just the alphabet, I was also inspired by the Gardening challenge at the 7 Dots Studio blog!



Another challenge theme that inspired me was Berries at Studio Leto.



I'm really happy with how the fuzzy cut painterly flower and branch look in the card! The paper was restless to use as such, and that's probably why I hadn't used it. It definitely needed a new and fresh look from this challenge!



For those of you who aren't familiar with the The Counterfeit Kit Challenge, it's is all about putting together our own kits from what we have, inspired by actual kit club kits. I'm happy to be their Guest Designer this month and got to Counterfeit the May kit from Hip Kit Club. If you want to see what else I included in my kit, it's here!



Thank you so much to Leslie and the team at Counterfeit Kit Challenge for inviting me as the June 2016 Guest Designer! It has been a lot of fun and I continue to be inspired by the kit I created. A ready made kit is also very easy to take with me when I spend some summer weeks in the countryside, so that's an extra plus side!



Thank you for coming and hope to see you again soon!

Amazing Glass House − Counterfeit Kit June Challenge 1

Hello! Today's the day for June Challenge #1 at Counterfeit Kit, where I am happy to be the Guest Designer this month.



The challenge prompt is to be inspired by one of these mood boards at Burnett's Boards − you're free to choose one that works with the color/mood of your own counterfeit kit!

The images that you see on the main page are only partial so if something looks promising, take a closer look!

There are some really gorgeous color combos & moods... This one seemed spot-on for my May Hip Kit Club inspiration this month:

Neon Wedding



The neon colours inspired me to use the yellows and pinks of my kit. And I loved the decoration with the hanging glass pieces and the alphabet in different colours. The letter O in the word LOVE has a metallic finish that made me think of using my sequins. Instead of alphabet, I cut out and decorated two arrows from my kit.



In the background, I've used some gesso and acrylic paints in neon orange and yellow. I thinned them with water so that I could splash them like watercolours. There is also some pencil doodling and stamping.



I used washi tapes and strips of my papers to create the background for my photo.





I'd love to see you pop in and link your own challenge project at Counterfeit Kit Challenge. It'll be so fun to see what mood boards everyone will choose!



Thank you for coming!