Welcome Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop

 Hi, folks. Welcome to my blog.
The challenges I chose for this month were the angled background challenge and the under 10 minute challenge.
The kit on which I based my "All My Love" kit was Choice#2. Lots of fun to create the kit and the projects.
For the angled background page titled "Picture What's Ahead", I started with a few squares of the patterned paper I had in my kit. When I started to arrange them across the page I thought of a mix of frames and squares and set about creating those. I inked the edges with the "Pumice Stone Distress Ink" and decided the blue-green solid paper was the right background choice. I then picked my cluster elements and my photo frame, aiming for visual triangles and color balance on the page and trying to avoid blocked white space, except where it was part of the design (proving once again that rules are meant to be broken).
Now, I know that my method of using product and design to start my page and then deciding what story and photos belong on the page is radically different from most scrappers.It works for me, though. I believe that finding your page inspiration can come from many sources - photos, stories, quotes, product or design. Sometimes a well taught class or someone else's layout could inspire you. It's all good!
When you first begin to make pages I think trying to copy a layout almost exactly is a good way to learn. I don't know about you but I always make mistakes. The advantage of that is that even when copying you won't end up with exactly the same layout (and unless you have the exact same photos it never would be anyways). I personally believe adding your own twist is always enjoyable.

So, how did I end up with the choices of photo and story you see on my page. Well, it just so happened that my dear daughter-in-law posted some photos on her Facebook page the other evening and this particular photo made my heart melt. I began to think about the empty frames in my layout design and inspiration came to me. My grandson's future is unknown but we know he's going to pave his own way and fill in those frames with pictures of his own unique life. So the title is "Picture What's Ahead" and the quote from John F Kennedy "Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future" summed it all up. I then recorded the date, downloaded the picture from Facebook, a little Photoshop work on the photo and finally attached it. I had my page. Now, would I do anything differently? Well, maybe vellum behind the word "Picture" or perhaps a different font. It is more striking and easier to read in real life than it is here onmy blog as the font is a very shiny deep gold glitter I was really trying to limit myself to my kit to make this project and it seemed the best choice of my options. Perhaps using the same font in a black glitter might be more effective?

The card was just fun. I had made more layouts which I'll feature on my blog in a few days. (OK, I HOPE to post them. I try to keep my promises but on this blog my follow through is rather tenuous.)
A layout, for me, means I will have scraps and bits of the entire kit out in front of me. I decided to create a card base from some white cardstock, then I attached some trimmed scraps, word art and an enamel dot. The papers were edged with "Spun Sugar Distress Ink" before attaching them. I think the gradual increase in the value (value is the lightness or darkness of a hue, and hue is the name of the color) of each red item in the card layers works well in the design.
I hope you have enjoyed my challenge efforts. Thanks for checking in.
You should have arrived at my blog from http://chidkids26.blogspot.co.uk and you should proceed next to http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com
Please visit the Counterfeit Kit Challenge at http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com for a list of all the blog hop links.