Porch Ramblings

by Machelle Willingon October 1, 2020March 10, 2025

Hello everyone! I always look forward to the first of the month because it means a new Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit and blog hop. I am so excited that I get to be the guest designer for this month’s challenge! I can’t wait to see how everyone interprets this kit.

The October kit is inspired by Shimelle Laine’s Best of Both Worlds Kit for September.

Scrapbook papers & embellishments; Inspiration Kit for Counterfeit Kit Challenge

In her unboxing video, Shimelle does a great job giving you substitutions in case you want to use your own stash (which we do!). You can watch that video here. This helped me in making my own kit & gave me an idea for a great starting point. I love how you can take a kit in any direction depending on what you choose to focus on – I have taken the type of content rather than the colors or motifs. Here is my version of this month’s Counterfeit Kit – “Memories of Home.”

Scrapbooking supplies, cardstock, patterned paper, stickers, die-cuts, Ink pads, stencil to make a kit.

The piece of striped paper (middle, right) was my starting point for this kit. The red, orange, golden yellow & brown felt like fall & are the deeper hues I tend to use. There is also a pop of bright green & blue/teal to lighten things up. I love that she included woodgrain since this is another go-to pattern of mine. Here is a close up of just the papers:

Scrapbooking paper, patterns and solids

I then added the tone-on-tone papers, red diagonal stripe and the floral paper is for fussy-cutting. The small heart pattern is from the same Simple Stories line as the main stripe. The cardstock is all scraps in the fall colors.

Next we have all the embellishments and extras to play with. I have quite a few cut-aparts from Jillibean Soup and journaling cards from Simple Stories. The stickers are bits and pieces that I would like to use up. I have 3 versatile alpha sets but reserve the right to add more if I need to. I also like to use my cricut to cut titles for my layouts. Finally, I added a stencil with flowers, leaves & a butterfly, ink pads to use with the stencil, enamel dots & some die-cuts that match the cut-apart sheet.

Scrapbooking cut-apart sheets and journaling cards

Scrapbooking stickers, small word strips

: CKC October Kit – Alphas

: CKC October Kit – Embellishments/Extras

So there you have it – “Memories of Home.” This kit has more embellishments than I usually add in but I feel that they all go together really well and some of them have been in my stash for a very long time. Be sure to check back in to see what I make with this kit & if you play along, please leave a comment or, better yet, a picture of your kit or projects!

Here is the complete list for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop – everyone’s kits are always different so make sure to check them all out!

Thanks for stopping by & I look forward to visiting with you again soon.

Machelle

Scrapbooking

by Machelle Willingon August 13, 2020March 10, 2025

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**This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from clicking these links, I will make a small commission. Please know I only recommend products or companies that I personally use and love. You may read my full disclosure here.**

Why I Became a Forever Ambassador

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been gathering information about how you take, store, organize & share your pictures. Most everyone takes photos with their phone, some have childhood photos or ones inherited from family. A few people use their digital camera or DSLR. No matter how you get them, we all have some that we would hate to lose. But what happens once you take all those photos? It’s important that you have a reliable storage & an organization system to be able to find that one picture when you have a memory to share.

My husband & I back up our picture library regularly to an external hard drive and once a year to two thumb drives – one stays in a fireproof safe in our home & the other is taken to a family members house, “just in case” anything ever happens.

Forever Storage advertisement about automatic downloads from phone, tablet or computer.

I have also recently been looking into uploading my pictures to an online storage service in addition to the physical backup copies. While researching my options, I found that the company I have been using for picture organization (Historian) and digital scrapbooking (Artisan) also offers an amazing guarantee when you purchase one of their storage options. They guarantee safe, private storage for your lifetime plus 100 years! For each tier of storage they have a single one-time payment or a payment plan for 12 months, but then you own the storage. No more monthly subscriptions for the rest of your life! (I am not a fan of subscription services, if you can’t tell.)

Part of the FOREVER guarantee is that they will migrate your content when technology changes. You also get to choose the privacy setting for each of your albums; they can be Private where only you can see them, you can share with Friends & Family or they can be made public. Each album can have a different designation and you can change it later if you wish.

Forever is basically a one-stop shop for anything related to photos. You can automatically download from any of your devices, store, organize or print. You can also make photobooks, invitations, cards, digital scrapbooks and many other projects & gifts. I have been using their programs Historian and Artisan for over 15 years and love them. They are extremely user friendly so you can start making progress right away.

After reviewing all they have to offer, I decided to become a Forever Ambassador, which is their term for affiliate. My plan is to have a series of posts that review their services and programs and show you how I have been using Historian and Artisan in my own scrapbooking and here on the blog. If you have any questions about Forever or any of their products, please let me know in the comments or by email on my Contact Us page. As a Forever Ambassador, I am here to help you with all of your photo needs. Just follow this link to sign up and get 2 GB of free storage:

If you would like a one-on-one consultation, please send me a message with your contact information and I will get in touch with you shortly. I want you to be able to share & enjoy your photos!

Thanks for stopping by, come back soon!

Machelle

*Edited 10/5/22: I am no longer an Ambassador for FOREVER but still use & love their products. You can follow my Refer a Friend link & we will both get a $20 off coupon to use!

Family Scrapbooking

by Machelle Willingon July 19, 2020March 10, 2025

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Hello everybody! Welcome to anyone new and good to see you again to those who have been here before. I realized over on the My Story page that I had started with my current situation and how long I have been scrapbooking but not why I started in the first place. It all comes back to the question “Do You Remember?”

Memories + Photos = Stories

Telling stories is what families do. Remembering, re-living, laughing and sometimes tattling on each other. As a kid, I remember any time all my extended family got together someone would start talking about a person, time or place, and inevitably ask the question, “Do you remember . . .?” Everyone would join in with their own memories and there was usually a lot of laughing and talking over each other.

Other times it would just be me & my grandmother and I would ask her to get the box of old pictures down from the top of the closet. We would sit and she would tell me who everyone was, how they were known or related and where the picture was taken. Some of them had names & dates written on the back but most did not. When you are little it never occurs to you that you may not remember who is who or that your elders won’t always be there to tell you the story behind the picture.

However, that’s exactly what happened in my life. I grew up and my grandmother passed away. I have always loved pictures and photo albums so I inherited the box of photos. The problem was I didn’t remember who everyone was, where or why the pictures were taken. And that is how my journey to scrapbooking began. I had my own photo albums and ticket stubs and brochures from vacations but they also didn’t have dates or any information written on them. I did not want what happened to my grandmother’s pictures to happen to mine, so I took the little bits and pieces I had collected to go with the photos and added the who, what, when & why. Throwing in all the pretty paper, stickers, and die cuts was just icing on the cake!

The thing about our photos today is there are so many ways to document our memories, from sharing on social media, journaling, digital photobooks or traditional scrapbooks. We all tell our stories in different ways but the important thing is we tell them. Make sure when someone looks through your photos they know who the people are and why they are important to you.

I am happy that when my family looks through my albums they will always know the stories behind the pictures. Everyone has a story, how do you tell yours? Please leave me a message or comment and let me know, I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Machelle

Blog News Scrapbooking

by Machelle Willingon July 8, 2020March 10, 2025

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Layouts Done!

It always feels good to complete layouts for my scrapbooks. I have spent some creative time with my Counterfeit Kit lately. These are all of one event for my Family album.

Scott’s aunts live in Illinois so we do not get to see them as much as we would like so when they do make it to Texas we all make it a point to get together. The bottom layout spotlights one of the places we love to go in San Antonio. Do you scrapbook places as well as people? We always take pictures of signs and random things, like the ceiling, in case I decide to make a page about a specific place.

I used some of my June Counterfeit Kit, Butterfly Garden, but also added some paper for a couple of backgrounds and several stickers. It feels good to use up stash I’ve had for a while as well as my stamps that I do not get out often enough.

Two-page scrapbook layout with multiple pictures, borders, stamping, stickers & journaling

Two-page scrapbook layout with multiple pictures

Two-page scrapbook layout with multiple pictures, stickers & journaling

There is my June round-up – and now on to July! The inspiration kit for the July Counterfeit Kit Challenge is the Garden Party kit by Sahin Designs.

Garden Party Scrapbook papers by Sahin Designs

Garden Party Elements by Sahin Designs

Garden Party Pocket Cards by Sahin Designs

Now here is my kit, “Blush.” In going through my stash, I found that I do not have many black & white patterned papers, so I decided to make a mini-kit and use it to make a few cards. I will also pull in white cardstock for the card bases and possibly a border punch.

Mini scrapbook kit with patterned paper, cardstock, stickers, butterflies, doilies, enamel dots, flowers & stamps

I was resistant about making a kit with my supplies because I like to have choices, but I found that it makes a great starting point & I can still choose to pull out what I need as I go. Sometimes, I just need that one piece of paper for inspiration and it gets me in the groove and I can make several layouts at a time. What inspires you to get started when you finally have time to sit down to scrapbook? Leave me a comment and let me know how you like to spend your creative time. You can also message me on my Contact page, I would love to hear from you!

Glad you stopped by and be sure to come back soon!

Machelle

Scrapbooking

by Machelle Willingon June 9, 2020March 10, 2025

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A while back I found a blog called the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. Every month they pick a kit from one of the current Kit Clubs to “counterfeit”. Then each person on their design team, called Master Forgers, curates a kit from their own stash based on this kit.

As a papercrafter, I have found that buying pretty paper, stickers and “all the things” is just as much a part of the process as actually making the projects! But I also tend to get overwhelmed with all the choices I have managed to accumulate, especially with paper.

Making a kit from my own stash seemed like a great solution! Please visit their blog to see all the details.

June Kit

This is the original kit Wonderful World by Clique Kits International. It is the inspiration for the June Counterfeit Kit.

My Complete Counterfeit Kit

This is my version of the June Counterfeit Kit Challenge, “Butterfly Garden”.

Full scrapbook kit including paper, stickers and embellishments included in my June Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

The first thing that caught my eye about this kit were the colors. I loved everything about the soft pastels and watercolor elements. I also loved the butterfly & flower theme throughout the papers and embellishments.

The Papers

As I was looking through my papers for similar colors, I came across the woodgrain paper with the butterflies in the corner so I took a few other patterned papers from the same paper pad (Homespun by Colorbök). I added a couple more random 12×12 sheets along with two 8×8 distressed papers and several 4×6 pieces for matting. A few scraps for borders rounded out the paper for this kit.

Scrapbook papers included in my June Counterfeit Kit Challenge

The Embellishments

And, of course, we have to have all the “little things” to finish a page.

I have four different sizes of alpha stickers, a couple of journaling cards, twine, paper flowers, enamel dots, tags, rub-ons, word phrase stickers and a set of stamps from Close to my Heart.

Scrapbook embellishments included in my June Counterfeit Kit Challenge

I will decide on the stamp colors later and reserve the right to pull from the rest of my stash as well.

Do you sometimes feel like you have too many choices when it comes time to make a project, card or page? Do you, like me, have limited time for your hobby? I think this is a good way to not become overwhelmed with choices and make the most of your crafting time.

If you decide to play along, please leave a picture of your kit in the comments. I will be back later to post pictures of what I make.

Thanks for stopping by & check back in soon!

Machelle

Edit: You can check out my layouts using some of the June Counterfeit Kit on this blog post.