Forgeries on the Fourth

for·ger·y

ˈfôrjərē/

noun

1. the action of forging or producing a copy of a document, signature, banknote, or work of art.
   
   (logo courtesy of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog!)

Just a little how-to today. Something quick and simple (very much my style) to add a little personality to your kit.

I decided to have a go at the rosette elements in the kit and have now come up with three different types, each taking less than five minutes so you could easily make them up as and when you needed them for the layout you were making.

If you check out the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog post today, you will find a whole list of possible forgeries to complement your kit and you can also find the original post where Bethany tackled the rosette flowers using book paper so you don't forgetter to pop over there to check it out as well.

First up, here are my three different flowers.

I showed the first two last week when I revealed my kit. The left hand side one is made from vellum and was the best of the three I made (you have to be careful not to score the paper too hard and tear the vellum, and achieving the best number of folds so that it forms a nice flower - not too many and not too few - is tricky). The yellow flower uses tissue paper and was just a test one to check out the process. The white one below was made yesterday and I took photos to show you how easy it is to make - you could honestly fill your kit with rosette flowers in very little time if you wanted!

The original rosettes used dress pattern printed tissue by the look of it and I looked at some of my dress patterns but decided that the tissue was way too yellow for my bright kit. Therefore, I took some tissue paper from my dress-making basket which was from a large pack to make your own patterns. It's very soft but made folding etc easier. It's a bit of a trial and error thing!

I cut a long 2 1/4" strip of tissue and this time around, I decided to stamp on it to mimic the original and to give them some detail. I don't have many stamps and some sort of a swirly background stamp would be really good but I thought that these hearts would be a nice idea - small enough to see through the folds. I used grey ink and didn't worry too much about the quality of the stamping.

I then started folding it up, concertina style - one fold forward, one fold back. I think each full strip was about 12" long and again, trial and error showed me that fewer folds was better but it needed enough to make the circle full. I would imagine that each fold is about 1/2".

Next up, I stapled the middle of the small folded pile and then cut notches into the middle. The staple helps give the rosette some stability. I forgot to staple this one before I took the photo. I also trimmed the ends - consider a point like this or just rounded like my end result.

Tie a length of twine round the middle and make a small bow if you wish your flower to be topped off with this effect. If not, just tie it and trim the ends. Only if you tie a bow, will your twine be visible.

Glue the two flat ends on each side so that you can bring them together to make the full rosette. For my vellum flower, I used my tiny attacher which was fiddly. Then I cottoned onto double sided tape which is strong and much easier to get to stick together.

Et voila! You have a rosette. Just tease out the folds around the circle to even it up and that's it.

I'm not sure how stable they are going to be on my pages once they go into page protectors but they are so pretty that I'm sure to have a go at using them during LOAD515 this month. Watch this space.

Don't forget to check out the other forgery ideas over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and to share your own forgeries.