April 2023 - CKC Challenge #1 - Celebrate all the things!

 Over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge you can find out all about our latest challenge set my MF Misty!

She was inspired by the birthday theme of the original kit and asked us 

to make a celebratory layout.

I haven't been feeling creative recently and have struggled to find the time or the motivation to really get scrapping so I gave myself a talking to and headed off to my weekly crop with my summer "Easygoing" kit in hand.

I decided just to go with the flow and see where the creative process took me without considering what layout I was really making. Just happy, sunny papers and techniques/design that make me happy.

I love the tag sheets that Simple Stories seem to have in every collection these days and started the whole process by cutting those up into individual tags and deciding that there were 5 really lovely ones I would like to use on my layout. Next up was a full sheet of floral clusters that I spent a happy half hour fussy-cutting up - I didn't keep any of the background, just cut out all the flowers!

So, I knew that I wanted to use tags and some flowers and now I headed into my tried and trusted design techniques!

The obligatory distressed, overlapping paper strips top and bottom of the page with a banner of tags along the middle where I intended to fit photos and journalling if possible.

I had the basic set up of my page within a few mins and then I tied those tags together which took me forever with the bows at the end! After that, it was just a matter of tucking in some fussy-cut flowers into the bottom paper strips. At this point, I was happy with my progress and decided it would be a celebration of friendship layout. 

We (my scrappy friends and I) have celebrated National Scrapabilly Day (the LSS run by our fearless leader Sylvia!) the last two summers and so, the summer photos and the theme of friendship and celebrations all came together. I knew all of this but the layout sat there waiting for a finish up for more than two weeks!

Today was that day and of course, the final touches of the photos, the journalling and some enamel dots took a very short time - why do I ALWAYS procrastinate so much?!? 

Overall, I'm very happy with how this all came together and turned out! 

Friends are always worth celebrating!

You can find out more about what the rest of the team created for this challenge over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and of course, in the CKC FB community here and over on IG here.

We'd love it if you created your very own celebratory layout and shared it with us - see you over there 😉

April 2023 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal and hop

 It's April and that's no joke!

Welcome back to the blog where I'm showcasing the new inspiration kit from the Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

MF Misty is in charge this month and has selected a Scrapbook and Cards Today sampler kit from March 2022 - it's bright and funky and totally up my street!

For more photos of the content of the kit including links to Victoria Calvin's take, head over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog where Misty has put in a lot of work to give you content lists and photos of the main elements that can be found in it.

And of course, no month is complete without an awesome Guest Designer and I can't believe that Misty was successful in securing my Mint Green Washi Friend (in-joke) Kathy! I've been trying to get her on board for literally years so I'm delighted to see that she is joining us in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge FB community this month as well as sharing over on Instagram (@codakathy). Please, please, please make sure you head over there and say hello to her! We are beyond thrilled to spend April with her!

Right, onto the serious stuff! My kit. I decided to name it "Easygoing" because of the summer vibes it has!

When I saw the kit, I was particularly taken with the bright summer colours and the navy/coral florals. It felt like an interesting combination. It totally reminded me of the Simple Stories summer collection "Sunkissed" and so I started by pulling out those papers, embellishments and washi tapes and went from there.

I added in a few other Simple Stories papers from an older collection "Hello Summer" as well as the two sided spots in red and blue from "Say Cheese Main Street" followed by two sheets of bright, happy Paige Evans from "Go the Scenic Route". There are quite a few papers here for my usual kits but I spy some designs to cut apart or fussy cut and some b-side basics which will be great to use.

As mentioned, I already had the die-cuts and washi from the Sunkissed collection so I added in a bunch of twine in summer colours (thinking I could replicate some of the bows for the original kit) as well as some happy enamel dots.

Extra die-cuts from various bright, colourful collections and some really old, vintage photo frames as well as a sheet of super cute summer puffy stickers from Doodlebug that I just had to have but feel challenged to use!

Of course alphabets in various sizes and colours and some puffy words from PinkFresh Studio to give a full range of possibilities.

And there you have it. IT's a big kit for me these days but I hope to be inspired to pick out some sunny, fun photos to scrap and we will have to see where my inspiration takes me.

Of course, there is a hop so make sure you catch all the stops along the way:

• Counterfeit Kit Challenge: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
• Guest Designer: Kathy Leicht-Gregg in Instagram @codakathy
• Anna: https://www.youtube.com/c/piececraftlove
• Cindy: https://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com
• Julene: http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com
• Leslie: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com
• Lisa: https://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/
• Misty: https://craftysoup.com/
• Tara:  https://kryptonite72-rambles.blogspot.com

And please share your kits and creations over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge FB community here or on Instagram. You can tag us @counterfeitkitchallenge and use #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcapril2023