Counterfeit Kit Challenge May kit reveal blog hop

This month at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge we have the theme, "Everything old is new again"! But that's all a matter of interpretation, isn't it?!?

To coin a phrase used by Leslie in April, I've gone rogue this month! But more of that shortly.

First of all, hopefully you are here for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge May kit reveal blog hop and have reached me via Leslie and then when you are (eventually - it's a looooong post today) finished, you can complete the three L's and hop along to Lynnette. If you've missed the beginning of the hop, go back to the Counterfeit blog and start there - this month is especially fun so you won't want to miss any of it. The full list is at the end of the post.

And please, please, please don't forget to drop by our Guest Designer, the wonderfully talented Susan! A member of the Scrap Happy family who we've enticed over to the other side (ha ha not really!) that is CKC, we are simply delighted to have her on board this month. She is an awesomely talented scrapper so go over and say hello!

Now, back to "Everything old is new again"...

This month, we are looking back at the FIRST EVER Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit for our inspiration. Obviously, the links to the original kit are no longer valid but here's the photo of it and the link to that historic moment in time when the Counterfeit Kit Challenge kicked off in style!

And to add fun into that original Jenni Bowlin inspiration kit, here's the JBS April 2015 Magpie embellishment kit that we have been offered if you need more "stuff" in your kit!

I'm going to take you through piece by piece how I went from that kit above to this kit below, but first let me present my May kit, Rejuvenate!

Can you see it? Squint and tell me what you see. Mmm.... not much similarity between the warm tones of that kit above with my very much "Lisa" kit below, but bear with me and I will explain all.

I started off by looking at all my older stash and wondering how I could work in newer items to make a "new meets old" idea. But it wasn't speaking to me. Then I saw all that old stash and thought, well, I'd just make up a real vintage kit using products bought a long time ago. But I couldn't get that to work for me either. Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with making up kits using older items, in fact, that's one of the main appeals of counterfeiting your own kits. But I decided to reinterpret the old kit in modern day scrapbook items.

I made a list - and checked it twice - to see what patterns and colours and designs I could see and then went off into my new items to find new versions, thinking about what was fashionable then and now, what particular designs were all the range then compared to what seems to be in every collection pack now and what colour combinations are more popular now - just a few examples of how my brain was working.

Take a walk with me...

I don't include cardstock any more in my kits (free items), so let's start by looking at the papers working top left to right and then bottom left to right:

White Creative Imaginations paper with the blue lines became thick ombre blue stripes onto an off-white background. I don't seem to have so much pure white for a start and paper that is just lined paper doesn't really seem to be around much either - at least not in my stash. (Pink Paislee - Atlas, Take Flight)

The paper with a repeating school-type alphabet reminded me of script covered papers such as Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper - Remember This

Next up is the brown paper with blue spots and large floral patterns in the corners. I found this very modern floral design on a spotted background in much more up to date colours which seemed to match in concept if not colour. (Webster's Pages - Beautiful Chic, Interior Design)

Down to the bottom line of papers, I can see a photo-realistic floral, lace design that I remember was all the rage. Thinking about the very popular trend of photo-realistic papers today, I thought about how lace could be reconsidered and came up with bokeh patterns. Knowing what a good resource Webster's Pages is for these photographic designs as well as the bokeh I love so much, I found this piece to add to my kit - seemed to match the other papers I'd picked out so far too. (Webster's Pages - #Happy, Dancing)

Next up is a piece of paper which looks like multi-coloured bands of lace and ribbon. My eye landed on this sheet of washi tape strips and it seemed a perfect match. (Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper)

There was a little discussion on the board about the next green paper before we identified that it was Sassafras (you can tell by the fancy border which can be seen along the top of the green). I think many of us miss Sassafras which made me think about October Afternoon and how delighted I was to find some new OA papers at Scrapabilly recently. The two manufacturers were around at the same time and then I thought about that green and considered how there isn't so much normal green to be found these days - or again, at least not in my stash! It seems to be more along the blue scale with turquoises and similar tones. Combining these two thoughts, this paper appeared to me. It's much more along the green spectrum in real life. (October Afternoon - Treasure Map, Siren's Point)

The last paper in the original inspiration kit is a BasicGrey red lace paper. I don't know about you, but I loved all those lacy designs. Couldn't get enough of them and they were so "in". Designers showed us all how you could use them to cover up the background but still give us a peek at what lay underneath. What item do we have today which has a similar function and can be seen all over the collections and online? Which items are my love right now and luckily one that I use a lot of? Easy - mixing vellum with gold stars means that the design underneath can be seen and it's absolutely the in-thing! (Crate Paper - Confetti, Star Vellum)

Now onto the embellishments...

I see date bingo cards. How many of those have I got through over the years? Perfect for all sorts of pages and still to be found today in many recent collections in the form of inspiration word bingo cards such as in the Simple Stories I (heart) summer collection (also added in to my kit for good measure). And then I thought about all the wonderful cut apart sheets we get these days which can add some decoration or a title or be used to indicate our thoughts or dates or journalling. The Webster's Pages #Happy cards were a perfect modern addition.

The 7Gypsies sticker sheet is a classic item and similar stickers can definitely be found here and there today. But these days I use stickers to add for adding decoration, a date or just a pertinent word so reinterpreted it as a full sheet of sticker items. (Webster's Pages Capture Life)

The original kit has a small set of Sassafras orange alpha stickers which very much matched the papers in colour. So I reached for my matching October Afternoon Mini Market Sea and Sails set of alpha stickers but added in the Webster's Pages Capture Life alpha sheet because it matched the rest of the kit and I know I need both large and small letters.

The 3 black Maya Road doilies were translated into three foil mini-doilies as befits many of my kits! One silver, one heart and one gold.

Sassafras metallic flowers were a wonderful new embellishment when this kit came out and back then I used a LOT of flowers. But these days, my go-to pretty embellishment is confetti or sequins. The flowers are large so I picked out some large My Mind's Eye paper confetti (designed more for parties I think) which I can layer up in a similar way to those metal flowers.

I spied a picture turn and brad. I did have some of those back in the day. I think I even used some at some point. But today, I take the easy route and use enamel dots. Much easier to add, sprinkle, position and match the colour scheme of the layout.

The original kit includes two green pins. No need to find a new way to think about that - I have pins and use them in very much the same way as the past. Two green and two black stars match both the colour of my kit and the designs that can be found on the papers. And four rather than two? Just because I always need more!

There was a lot of embroidery threads included in scrapping back then - to attach buttons or actually stitch on the layouts. This kit has a nice amount of thick, bright yellow yarn which I didn't need to substitute. These days, I prefer the finer baker's twines we have or of course, my go-to gold twine so this was a perfect addition.

And last but not least, there was a pack of Studio Calico pattern paper rosettes. They look really up-to-date to me and decided just to have a go at making my own as I didn't feel the need to reinterpret them. I tried star printed vellum in a couple of different sizes, this one below being the most successful. And then I tried it out using tissue paper. This was much more like the originals and was easy to make - maybe something for Forgeries on the Fourth. White tissue paper would have been better but only having this yellow, I had a go and came up with something I was happy with. If I can track down some white, I'll make up some more but all in all, a good interpretation of something which didn't look as dated as some of the other products.  

And just because this post is already photo heavy and very long, why not add a few more close ups so that you can see how all the elements of the kit I've picked out go together!

So, there you have it. An older kit reinterpreted in new, trendy, up-to-date products. Yes, there's a lot of pink a sprinkling of gold and stars and a smattering of pretty that can't really be seen (at first glance) in the original, but it's all me and is truly inspired by the Jenni Bowlin kit. And who knows, maybe in 5 years we'll be looking at this kit of mine and reinterpreting it again, in whatever is the product of the 2020 moment!

This really was a mega post today so well done if you've got this far. Next up is Lynnette and here's the full list in case you get lost along the way.

Now, if you don't mind, I need to go and start cutting into all this gorgeous paper!

Guest Designer Susan: https://www.flickr.com/photos/102444136@N07/16647237724/

Julene:  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com

Leslie:  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

Lisa:  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.ca

Lynnette  http://www.sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com

Margie:  http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com

Stephanie:  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.com

Susanne:  http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com

Jemma: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk