Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit reveal and blog hop

Yay! It's September which means we are ending awards my favourite time of year and a season when you will find me smiling - each. and. every. single. day! 

And I'm excited to be organising the Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit too. Double yay!

You should have reached me via the ever creative delights over at Leslie's blog here and next up is Ms Productive herself, Lori at her blog here. There's a full list at the end of the post if you get lost along the way.

I wanted to do something a bit different this month and approached Khristina Sorge from the Secret Not Secret Kit Club  (you can find details of her kit club online here) The Secret Not Secret Kit Club  provide personalised, curated kits to fit your own specific requirement - it's just about as personal and flexible as you can get.

She agreed right away which made me happy and then went one step further and curated a kit specifically for us - the Counterfeit Kit Challenge! I was delighted. And not only that - she's also our wonderful Guest Designer this month so you won't want to miss any of the blog hop this month. Make sure you say hello to everyone.

I gave her a few guidelines of what I was looking for - a more muted colour scheme than we've had recently, some travel/city/trip themed items and of course, lots of embellishments. She came up with this stunner of a kit and I couldn't wait to get going and make up my own. Of course, I'd jump right in to this one too and scoop it up in a second given a chance. I LOVE it.

You can find a full kit content list over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog today

I was immediately drawn to the constellation paper which will surprise none of you, as well as the travel motif and the full array of embellishments. Starting with a sheet of my own star paper (of which I have, ahem, many to choose from!), I matched up papers according to feel, colour and pattern. I haven't made a direct copy but was totally inspired by the original and I think I have a lot with the same vibe. 

So, let me introduce Wanderlust.

As mentioned above, I started with the constellation paper and then went through the cloud, birch trees and soft blue floral sheets before heading over to my BasicGrey Carte Postale remnants which all made their way in! Some graph and lined prints, a repeated word print, an all over camera pattern and the bright chevron seemed to match up closely with the original kit and then the cut apart sheet definitely fitted right in as well as reminding me closely of the boy paper. That's a lot of paper to be honest and almost every sheet is two-sided, which I'm totally open to using, but I really like the mix of muted colours and patterns. I know I will get a lot of use out of it.

Next up, I created a Silhouette file with the viewfinders and and the connected plane outline die cuts. That took me a long time but it was worth it as I found out a few new tips and tricks along the way (you can find out a little more in my Forgery on the Fourth feature). I then matched up a handful of metal star clips and a bunch of random die cut elements in colours and patterns which I thought would work with my papers. There are some REALLY old items in there so it will be interesting to see if they get used up.

A few leftovers from my Carte Postale collection, a pack of One Canoe Two enamel shapes which reminded me of the hearts and dots in the original kit and a couple of random items which got scooped up and put into the kit seemed good additions.

I spotted some frames from a Pink Paislee travel collection and the back/grey and white sticker sheet from Echo park also seemed ideal to fill out the embellishments as well as three white and three kraft tags as in the inspiration kit.

I found a bunch of used up black Thickers so we will see how far they take me. There are only a handful of useful letters so I'm not sure how much use they'll be but it's time for them to get out of the packet and onto pages if at all possible.

Last but not least, I've included a generic mask which isn't quite as funky as in the original it but you never know, I might find a way to use it in a way that works for me... 

I adore my kit and yes, I know I say that every month but it's true. I know I will get some fabulous pages from it and I'll really enjoy getting some of these older products used up somewhere I can actually see them.

Here's the full blog hop and you know that we always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us.

You can use our Monthly Link-up page, post them in our Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcseptember2019).

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

Guest Designer Khristina - www.redefinedkreative.com/blog

Cindy - http://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/

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

Lisa - http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

Lori - https://loriannie670.blogspot.com/

Tina - http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com 

Laura - https://www.instagram.com/mrsp_scrapsandtea/

Thanks so much for stopping by! We can't wait to see your kits and projects this month! 

Counterfeit Kit Challenge August challenge #2

The Counterfeit Kit Challenge in August is all about summer and with Challenge #2 Master Forger has prompted us to make a project about:  

"What is summer to you? What do you like to do? Do you like to read a book on the patio, garden, bird watch, or watch the kids play in the sprinkler?"

Just a reminder of my kit this month...

Find details of my kit here

I've been busy working with it and am loving the mix of colours and looks I'm getting. It's proving really versatile and this time around, I've gone with a cream based background, picking out the softer, creamier tones.

I decided to record a trip to the fair recently. Cranger Kirmes (funfair) is the second largest in Germany (after Oktoberfest) and the largest in North Rhine-Westphalia. It's a local legend and we managed to get there this year after several years of missing it. I planned our time there so that we would be able to get some great light-filled photos.

I raided the chipboard shapes as well as the Shimelle sticker book for anything that I thought could work for my theme and was really happy to find as many small items as I did to decorate the corners of my layout.

A sprinkle of mists and dots were the perfect final touches.

I like playing around with language and have mixed up English with German, even using the slang name for the area where we live here - the "Pott". It won't say anything to anyone who's not from round here but I like to show how connected to my adopted homeland I am!

I added in this alphabet after I realised that I didn't have enough of the letters I needed in the pack of Thickers that I'd included in my kit!

I wanted to use as many photos as I could and printed out 8 shots at just under 2x3 inch - 4 landscape and 4 portrait. Rather than lining them up in a standard grid, I played around to offset them into a pleasing pattern which would also give me space for the two 4x3 cards. I'm really surprised that I was able to fit so many elements onto the page including a large title in several places. I hope you can still see enough of the paper in the background too - so pretty!

Thanks for dropping by and don't forget to check out the other projects over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge - see blog post here.

We always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us.

You can use our Monthly Link-up page, post them in our Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcaugust2019). 

Counterfeit Kit Challenge August kit reveal and blog hop

Hello to August and to what should be the height of summer even though we've been melting here in Europe over the last month or so already. We've had record temperatures and this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit is just about as summery as you can get. 

But I'm running ahead of myself!

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge August kit reveal and blog hop. 

Hopefully, you've arrived here from our power scrapper Julene and her no doubt huge, fun kit and up after me is the prolific Lori who is bound to delight with her supplies!

This month, we are delighted to have Kate Blue back as our Guest Designer and it's always a joy to see her fabulous kits and super layouts so make sure you don't miss out on visiting her too (here). (The full blog list can be found at the end of this blog post.) 

And once last announcement - this month we also have the talented Shannon Allor playing along on her YouTube channel here. She's part of the How to Kill a Kit with Style team and this month she's taking our kit - or rather our inspiration kit - for her set of videos! What fun! Check her out here.

MF Cindy picked this sweet kit for our inspiration this month - Citrus Twist's main July kit, "Best of This Life" which you can find here.

There's also an add-on kit which can be found here.

You can find links to unboxing videos over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog reveal post today.

This kit sums all the wonderful colours and designs of summer and my starting point was to find as many pretty, summer shades as possible. My kit is a little brighter and bolder than the original but first, let me show you my Paris inspired kit, Macarons.

I wanted to bring together some happy, bright, summery colours and mixed together some new and old papers to get a good, vibrant mix. Instead of the black and white diagonal stripe, I decided to include three sheets from a new Polish collection (Piatek Trzynastego) I picked up recently featuring constellations and moons. They are heaven and thought they could provide a great contrast to all those pastels. 

Once I'd pulled all the papers together, I decided that it reminded me of all the delicious macarons at Laudurée in Paris where I just happened to be a few days ago! And hence, the kit received its name.

Once I'd picked out all the papers, I added in a bunch of embellishments to give me a lot of possibilities. Two packs of die-cuts with whimsical as well as summery motifs.

Enamel dots as well as heart puffy stickers - both picked up in the UK and non-branded.

A fabulous set of Thickers, some leftover chipboard pieces, two sheets of sticker from the moon papers and the American Crafts Shimelle sticker book which I also picked up in the UK and have been itching to use up!

Last but not least is a bunch of printed and fussy cut labels to match up the items in the original kit. 

I haven't included stamps as I don't tend to use them even if I put them in the kit but you never know, maybe this month is the month! I did actually use stamps on a layout recently... And I've also resisted adding in pocket cards but let's face it, there's a whole lot of paper in here so it's a really big kit anyway.

Now, you might wonder why on earth I've made up such a big kit when I don't seem to be scrapping as many layouts as in the past?

Well, maybe this is an answer for you...

When I was making up my kit for today, this was my pile of old kits that were still "in use". I realised that I've really been uninspired by each of these recently and therefore, I decided to break them all back up into my stash and start again. I do this once a year or so and mostly decide the time is right for this action when I can't find items I know that I have but suspect that they are "lost" inside those boxes! I love my kits and am more than happy to use older kits for a LONG time (these dated back to spring of 2018) but once I find myself rummaging through the boxes for missing items and also opening up ten boxes before settling on a kit to use for a layout, it's time to start afresh again. 

So I worked through the boxes, emptying and sorting as I went and then worked on my new kit. 

I now have a single, large kit on my shelf and I hope to find a lot of inspiration in there to keep me going for some time. I realise that I have layouts made over the last month or so that I haven't shared, so maybe that will happen too. Fingers crossed.

Here's the blog hop list in case you get lost along the way:

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - https://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
Guest Designer - Kate Blue - http://kateblue.blogspot.com  
Cindy -http://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/
Julene - http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com/
Lisa - http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/
Lori - https://loriannie670.blogspot.com/
Laura - https://instagram.com/mrsp_scrapsandtea/


Don't forget that we always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us.
You can use our Monthly Link-up page, post them in our Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcaugust2019).

July 2019 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge - Challenge #2

Welcome to my somewhat neglected blog these days.

Today I'm sharing my take on the sketch Tina challenged us with.

I think you all know how much I love sketches and this two photo template was really appealing. I assumed that the photos were 6x4 and therefore, I'm not sure my page has the same proportions as the original, but other than that, I stayed pretty true to the design.

The double photo design was perfect to record a then and now version of me on this anniversary page for moving to Germany. How can it be 18 years already? It feels like yesterday even on days when I think about all the ups and down and changes we've gone through - enough to last a lifetime or two!

The photo on the left was taken at the leaving "do" I had when I left my job in Cambridge to make the big move, and the photo on the right is from just a few weeks ago when we were visiting a fabulous Baroque/Rococo Schloss in southern Germany.  I'm not sure I'm the same person as I was back then - yes, of course, a "bit" older these days - but I feel as if I'm totally different.

Anyway, this challenge gave me the chance to write a few lines about the topic and I'm happy to have been given the nudge to make it so close to the event.

I interpreted the line of stitching and flower element along the top as an extension of my title and a few gems.

The flowers on the edge of the page have changed into a flair, some gems and a little fussy cutting from the Shimelle word paper. I just picked out a handful of phrases that loosely fitted the topic of the page.

And again, the element on this side of the page transformed into another flair, some more dots and a few more phrases.

The places on the top of the photos were a final idea so that I don't forget to notice how the places affected the person in the photo!

Here's to the next 18 years. I wonder what that time will bring?

I hope you'll check out the others and how they've interpreted the sketch for themselves? You can find them all over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog here and don't forget to share if you make a page using this sketch - we love to see you using your kits!

You can use our Monthly Link-up page, post them in our Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using#counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcjuly2019).

Counterfeit Kit Challenge July kit reveal and blog hop

Gulp! It's July and I find that quite shocking - it's the second half of the year and yet, I have no idea where the first half went!

But hopefully you're here for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge July kit reveal and blog hop and therefore, welcome.

You should have reached me from Julene's blog here - does she have a fabulously large kit? - and next up is Leslie here - did she delight you with her famous blue box? - but make sure you don't miss the whole hop (list at the end) and our wonderful Guest Designer, Kathy. We are thrilled to have her with us in July and she has been wowing us all with her creations so this will be a fun month.

Tina picked out the June 2019 kit from Clique Kits, Sweet Tea and I think you'll love it.

You can find all the details over at the Clique Kits site here

as well as a smaller kit here.

I was inspired by the larger kit and even though I'm not really managing a whole lot of scrapping right now, seem to have come up with quite a big selection. Maybe this will be the month I make more than two or three layouts.

Here's my kit, Mingle, named that way because I really mixed things up with old - almost vintage - and new products, designer collections and no name elements I've picked up recently, geometrics and softer, organic designs.

When I noted down the main elements I realised that the sheet of green diagonal paper reminded me of a paper that I was sure was in the Shimelle collection on my shelf.

I went searching and found this sheet - I think it's perfect.

And when I turned it over, I found strips of words which reminded me of the word paper in the original kit. Bonus!

From there, I went through my papers and picked out a couple more Shimelle papers in colours that seemed to fit the original including another word paper and a vellum speciality paper. I matched those up with a plaid, a woodgrain, a repeating design, some more geometric patterns and two sprig patterns from a no-name paper pad. That paper is THIN, like copy paper so let's see if I will actually use it. I'm a little unsure about it.

Then I added in a bunch of embellishments starting with a collection of doilies and a selection of flowers which were in the inspiration kit. The flowers felt very vintage and I rummaged through my small container and picked out a few different designs. I haven't used flowers for a long time and forget to use doilies even though I love them, so I hope this will inspire me to use them.

I fished out some older frames to include instead of the pink puffy frames in the original kit. I love using frames so I'm excited to get some used on pages. 

Two different simple Thickers, a small set of letter stickers, some random chipboard shapes (not so sure about the design of some of the sheet!), some gems and a couple of flair that caught my eye.

I'm missing some die-cuts which I've realised I'm very short of in my stash, and large word elements which I might cut on my Cameo. I've also noticed that certain paper designs are missing in my stash such as large florals, woodgrain and blues. Making a note - maybe I need to go shopping!

Thanks for dropping by. Here's the full blog hop list to keep you on track - make sure you stop at everyone's blog. Our kits are always so interesting and I love how we interpret the inspiration kit so differently.

Counterfeit Kit Challenges -  http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

Guest Designer - Kathy McElfresh (Scrappy Kathy) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6qtVo7aBN2as-CGizhMb1A

Cindy - http://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/

Julene - http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com/

Lisa - http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

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

Tina - http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/

Laura - https://www.instagram.com/mrsp_scrapsandtea/

We always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us!  

You can link up in different ways:

• Monthly Link-up page, 
• post them in our Facebook Community
• or share them on Instagram  - we are @counterfeitkitchallenge and you can tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcapril2019

May 2019 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge mini card kit

It's been quite a busy time round here and the CKC blog with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge reveal on 1st, the Just the Gist post on the 2nd, Forgery on the Third on the ... well... 3rd, and then of course, {inter}National Scrapbook Day on the 4th.

There was a lot of activity both on the blog/s and behind the scenes to get it all ready so I was happy that I'd decided to go for a mini-kit this month - a couple of hours and the cards were done and ready to be sent out, even with all the stitching and detail I added.

First off, let's remind ourselves of the inspiration kit - the March 2019 My Creative Scrapbooks main kit:

My Creative Scrapbooks March Main Kit

I loved how summery this kit was with all the travel works, the flowers, the happy aspects. It has pineapples and flamingos and tropical flowers and all of that reminded me of the Simple Stories papers in the "Hello Summer" collection for which I had some of the papers and also the die-cuts.

So that's where I started for my "Greetings!" card kit.

I picked out cut apart sheet featuring a rather gorgeous flamingo which I knew I would use on a card and then added in the stripe and the spots of which matched up patterns in the original kit. I then included the die cut pack matching the collection as well as a few die cuts that I had featuring little girls and some unicorns - all reminding me of the inspiration kit.

I included a stamp set that has yet to be christened as well as a sheet of phrase stickers from another Simple Stories collection and I thought both of these could be useful for card titles.

A few sheets of mini-stickers rounded off this mini-collection.

I then spent a couple of hours and from these three sheets of paper, came up with 7 cards. I still have some scraps so I might make up some more but for now, I'm happy!

I deliberately found ways to include something of each of the items in my kit, testing out designs and styles to see what I liked.

I had some pre-prepared card bases as well as a few regular white cards and added in one small piece of pink cardstock as a mat (on the card below).

Because I always go for the simplest of designs, mostly focusing on 3x4 cards from the cut apart sheets, I went to town with the sewing machine and added stitching on several of the layers and even round the designs (speech bubble, sun and pineapple). 

Fast and simple is the way I always go with cards but overall, I'm happy with the fun elements I've added here and think that they will be a nice addition to my card stash. 

Don't miss MF Susan's beautiful mini-kit and project on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog today and of course, there's more fun to be had during the month!

We always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us!  

You can use our Monthly Link-up page, post them in our Facebook Community, 

or share them on Instagram 

(we are @counterfeitkitchallenge and you can tag us using 

#counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcmarch2019).