Counterfeit Kit Challenge September member blog hop

Hello and welcome to another Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop.

I'm kicking off the hop this month so please pop back to the Counterfeit blog to see the full list of hoppers. When you're done here, you need to go and visit Tina (here) where she is sure to have something great to share!

We were challenged with three (for me) tough challenges this time around:

1. Challenge #1 Challenge US! :Make up your own challenge for us 
2. Challenge #2 Selfie Love : Scrap a selfie  
3. Challenge #3 Mixed Media Embellies : Make some inky, painty, textured embellies

I scratched my head a bit and then jumped in to make up two layouts for the first two challenges. I'm really not much of a mixed media, get my hands dirty kind of person so I decided to leave that one for the more adventurous, and far more talented members on the team.

But making up my own challenge? Yep! Can do that.

I decided to challenge myself and therefore YOU to use a whole sheet of die-cut paper as the background to your layout. 

I often find these sheets tricky to use as I generally love them and don't want to cut them up or even cover up the detail very much! So, the challenge to use them as a background for the layout was the first step to keeping as much on show as possible and I usually use white cardstock these days, so all that colour was a second challenge! 

I had a beautiful piece of rainbow paper in my kit and knew that it would be perfect to back all those die-cut stars. I picked up that paper on my NYC trip so I knew that I wanted to really showcase it as much as possible. I think this did the trick. What do you think? This is also a special layout for me as it features me and my baby sister who is celebrating a special birthday this month. I will be writing a few happy memories of our time together.

I loved finding a way to incorporate those Silhouette shapes into the design and even as my title

While I was sat it, I decided to work directly on a second layout using the selfie challenge. You know that I take a lot of such photos so it was more of a matter of finding a reason to pick a particular one out for a creation. Looking through my pile of Instax prints, I selected one with nothing in particular to say and created a layout just about me. I'll be adding my journalling when I have a little time to breathe and consider what message I want to give myself.

I see that this isn't a perfect photo - bit dark and wrong tones. I'll have to practice  taking photos in different corners of our new flat to find the best light...

What a surprise! More gold...

Really enjoyed finding a way to use this gorgeous Scrapabilly exclusive flair button! A little German here and there goes a long way on my pages and reflects another side of me.

Even though I've only managed three layouts (so far) with my kit this month, I am very much in love with it and know that it will get much airtime next month during my third LOAD of the year starting October 1st! I can't wait as I'm hoping to be a bit more organised by then and might even have found my scrap supplies - LOL! But even if I haven't managed to get them all unpacked, I have a nice pile of Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits from the last few months that will most certainly make my chances for a successful month more likely.

Watch this space for more shares...

As mentioned at the beginning, next on the hop is Tina (here) and the full list of this month's bloggers can be found at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog (here). Happy hopping!

Fröhliche Freitag

Back again (if a few hours late) to share my second touch of gold for the Jingle Belles prompt this week. It's so wonderful to be guesting over at the Belles' blog. These girls are beyond inspirational so I'm honoured to be a part of it in a very small way.

I couldn't resist using my Cameo for this CAS card. Some Studio Calico vellum, a little gold foil card and a twist of Martha Stewart twine was all this needed.

I thought the vellum would add a little interest to the simple design. Love this paper and think I need some more!

The cuts from the Cameo are totally amazing. The detail of this wreath came out so well.

Of course, while I was making one, it made sense to make another one at the same time. I'm way behind on my card making and am hoping that this will help me out.

Thanks so much to Stephanie and Lauren over at Jingle Belles for inviting me to join in. I feel back in the spirit now and hope to get the card making up and running again as soon as my boxes get unpacked.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit reveal blog hop

Welcome to September! I love this time of year so you can bet that I'm smiling right now! 

It's that time again... time to reveal the new Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit. And I can tell you (again), that I'm ever so slightly in love with both the original and my counterfeit! Ok, you got me. Not ever so slightly, rather ever so much.

But I'm running away with myself. 

Hopefully, you've reached me from Susanne where I'm sure she has one awesome kit to share! If not, why not go back to the beginning of the hop at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog so that you don't miss out on anything. And make sure you stop by at our Guest Designer Tina's blog (here). We are excited to have her on the team this month and I know she is going to delight us with her creations.

This month, we were given a gorgeous kit from Scrapbook Circle (you can find the original kit here) 

I love the fact that it's a bit darker than some of the kits I've been using recently. The shades are a bit stronger and there are lots of different colour combinations in there. Of course, I changed it up a bit and gave it the Lisa stamp, creating something a bit more glittery than the original!

Here is Shimmer!

I didn't have anything from the inspiration kit so I had to think laterally, deciding to use with a sheet of bokeh teal-coloured vellum from Crate as my starting point, giving me that strong colour to build upon.

The original kit featured double sided papers but not all that many so I decided to match up both sides of them to give me many more papers in my kit and such a lot of choice! Some of the original papers are matched up more than once in my kit (such as the bokeh or map design) and I really tried to focus on those stronger teals and darker shades to give me something very different from my recent creations.

There are some very recent purchases as well as a few much older - use it or lose it - sheets.

Then came the embellies where I had to try to match up the basic type more than the exact items, having nothing that matched 100%.

I realised that the Scrapbook Circle kit had quite a few exclusives - words, labels, a stamp etc - so I picked out some bright MME labels and some SC veneer items featuring words and tabs.

The original kit doesn't feature die-cut cards or flair but as I don't have anything cork in my stash, I just decided to add in what I knew would work for me. I happen to love these Scrapabilly exclusives and am having quite some fun finding ways to pop a little German onto my pages!

The veneer tabs and word pieces work instead of the cork elements and I added in a set of Crate overlays to offer variety and some more gold (just in case I didn't have enough!).

There were clips in the original kit and I fished out a selection of very old items that will challenge me for sure. Let's see how I get on. I also included a few PL cards to substitute for the printables

I added in washi because I love it and well, I can add whatever I want! And several twines to match the yellow twine in the original. The sheet of alphas from Basic Grey feature a tile design that reminded me of the alpha tiles in the original. Not necessarily what I would normally use but I'll give it a try. I've also added in other alphas as I knew that I would need the choice.

I included a SC exclusive stamp set I had in my stash and embossing powder in the hope that this will remind me to use it. My stamps are always sadly neglected - mostly because I don't trust myself to use them on my pages. I usually manage to mess it up!

Some teal and gold glitter paper and my Cameo came up with good alternatives for the HS glitter stickers and I love the way they came out. These will really add something very special to my pages next month and let's face it, you know me and glitter! Of course, I had to include some gold doilies too. Just a must!

The original kit features some stamp type elements so I included the paper stamps from BG Hipster. I find them a bit tricky to use so again, challenging myself.

I'd added in a few items from the BG Hipster collection so I added in the brads too. The colours look like they will work with the redder papers.

And there you have it. Shimmer in all its shimmery glory. Not a lot like the original kit but you can see some basic similarities! And I love it which is most important. I know that I will be challenged by some of the papers and a few of the embellies but if they don't end up working, out they'll go! I've already made two pages for upcoming challenges using the kit and love how different they are to what I've been making recently.

If you've got this far then thanks! Make sure you leave me a comment and let me know how you'd use those tricky older clips!

Next on the hop is the ever inspirational Leslie and here's the full list in case you get lost along the way.


Guest Designer:  Tina:  http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com
Susanne: http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com
Lisa H.:  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/
Leslie:  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/ 
Julene: http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au 
Stephanie: http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.ca
Jemma: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/
Sherri:  http://sherrithompson.blogspot.com
Margie: http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com
Lynnette http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/
Angela http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/