Sunday, 1 March 2020

Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit reveal hop

Welcome to March and to a new Counterfeit Kit Challenge month of inspiration.

You should have reached me from the fabulous Leslie and then delightful Lori is next up on your journey. And we are so very lucky to have the wonderful Julie as our Guest Designer again this month - it's always a treat when Julie joins us! Make sure you say hi! But as ever, you can find the full blog hop list at the end of the post. Of course, you should visit everyone on the hop as we all loved the kit Lori picked out for us and so I'm sure that there will be some amazing kits to be inspired by.

Now onto the kit.

Lori picked out the Citrus Twist February 2020 Scrapbooking Add-on and what a stunner it is! All those gorgeous colours and scrummy embellishments! It's got lots of Pinkfresh Studio in there as well as well as a smattering of Crate Paper. The rainbow paper caught my eye immediately - and of course the blue paper which looks like it might be stars and constellations! - and just think there's so much to love here. There's a whole lot of spring feeling in this kit and I really like the light feel to it all.

Citrus Twist February 2020 Scrapbooking Add-on

There is also a coordinating Life Crafted kit (for pocket pages) that is super cute too.

Life Crafted kit 

I went to my Pinkfresh Studio stash and found a lighter-than-usual blue constellation paper and matched that up with a Photoplay rainbow sheet that I had snapped up recently. This then became the base for my kit!

So, here is Rainbow!


I decided that this could be a bit of a smaller kit because I've been scrapping up a storm during February and made 30 layouts in 29 days for LOAD, using up all my remaining kits (July, August, November and January) and I think I'll be taking it a little easier in March. (Even though Scrap Happy is hosting Calvinball2020 which might tempt me a little now that I'm back in the creative swing).

For my papers, I picked out a few other items from Pinkfresh - the vellum and a partial sheet of bird design which reminded me of the original - before turning to Crate where I found the word covered paper and then Pink Paislee for the clouds and tropical flowers. This may not seem a lot but several of the b-sides are perfect to use too and I think this will be good for a handful of layouts. You never know, if I run out of kit, I could just make up another one mid-month! I think my kit turned out a bit brighter than the original but I still think it's very much a spring collection. Can't wait to cut into that paper!




I then added a bunch of embellishments and alphabets as LOAD showed me that these are the items I usually go off to find and then add into my kit during the creative process - my kits grow a lot during their lifetime!



I looked for shapes and colours that reminded me of the original kit and while I may not have matched item for item, I think it shares a similar vibe! At the last minute, I also three in a few really old items to see if I could use them up. I think I'll be trying to do more of that this year. I have a lot of old stash that I still love so I shouldn't always reach for the new shiny purchases!



Here's the full hop list today to make sure that you don't miss out on any of the fun. Make sure you say hi to all the team as you hop along!



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 #ckcjanuary2020). 

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





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Wednesday, 29 January 2020

Wednesday Wonderland - Jingle Belles {Look What Santa Brought Me!}

This time around on the Jingle Belles blog, we are challenged to use our crafty Christmas presents to make a card - a great excuse to get them to work straight away.

I received a voucher for my favourite local scrapbook store, Scrapabilly, and treated myself to some papers, pretty alphas, a sprinkle of Prima dots and a couple of stamps. I never buy stamps as I'm really not that good at it, but I'm determined to practice and get better. Seemed like a perfect time to start.


My stamping is still not perfect (as you can see here) but these Cats on Apple Trees stamps are so good that I'm sure I can master it before long.



I've kept them super simple as always, going for a standard design and restricting myself to my Christmas paper scraps box. I also made sure to use my stitched effect circle dies which I got just before Christmas and am determined to really make the most of them. I'm usually too stingy to buy these types of products so they really need to earn their keep for me!

Thanks for dropping by and I hope I can continue this effort, even if it's only once or twice a month!
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Thursday, 16 January 2020

Jingle Belles Rock! - No time like the presents

I'm not sure how many I'll manage this year after last year's failure but I want to try to play along again with the fabulous girls over at Jingle Belles this year. I created a few cards in the last 12 months but only managed to get a small handful out of the door so I'm determined to try better this time around.

http://jinglebellesrock.blogspot.com/

And Lauren and Stephanie are just the most inspirational Christmas card makers so I know that I'm in very good hands!

Their first challenge of 20120 was "No time like the presents" which is all about recycling wrapping paper, cards or tags from last Christmas onto new cards.

It just so happens that I sorted out my Christmas supply drawers and found three greetings cards from 2018 or even 2017 and decided to just go for it in a very simple way. I ended up creating four cards in total as I also cut out the image from the back of one of the cards! I can't really take any of the credit for these because the original cards were so gorgeous that I knew I just had to use the fronts and voila!

JB:20:01_1&2

JB:20:01_3&4

I really just cut off the front of the cards, matted them with cardstock, glitter or paper and then loaded them up onto a blank base. Done. And off to a good start.










Wish me luck on my Jingle Belles adventures for this year. I'll let you know how I'm doing!


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Wednesday, 1 January 2020

January 2020 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal and blog hop!

Hello! And welcome to a new month, a new year and even a new decade right here on my very neglected blog!

There's been a lot going on over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog the last weeks but nothing round here so I hope you've been catching up over there instead.

But today, it's a new month and a new kit and a new beginning so hopefully you're back to see what inspiration we have for you to use your own wonderful supplies to make up fabulous kits that you will love to use!

You should have reached me via the ever delightful Leslie and up next is our new team member and talented YouTuber Shannon both of whom will no doubt thrill you with their takes on this month's kit which I had the pleasure of picking out for us all this month.

Don't forget to check out the full hop (at the end of this post) to catch up with ALL the team and our great Guest Designer Melodee too! So many ideas to get your creativity moving this early January morning!

I decided to choose a kit that was predominantly Christmas themed because we don't do a December kit over at CKC and this time of year, I have a bunch of photos from the recent festivities that I'm ready to think about scrapping! However, I think that the Citrus Twist kit I picked out has enough going on that could be taken in a non-Christmas direction with lots of nature themes and non-traditional colours. So if you're DONE with all that holiday cheer, then there's something for you too!

Our kit is the Citrus Twist Christmas Stories 2019 kit which can be found on this link here. There's lots of extra photos and a full content list over there as well. If you'd like to see the unboxing video they made, you can find that here.


I was in two minds about if I wanted to take it down the Christmas route or make it fresher but in the end, my Christmas supplies won out and I went all in on the jolly product selection!

So here is Yuletide!


I started with a new sheet of Christmas tree paper (top left) that reminded me of that tree design in the original kit (bottom left) and went from there.  I picked out some darker colours but made sure to include the reds, greens, blues and pinks - in varying intensity - from the original kit. I know this is a big kit but I haven't actually made a kit for a while and if I have any chance of actually scrapping some Christmas photos, then I will need a lot of choice!


I included some florals, some snowflakes, some repeated designs as well as cut apart sheets and the all-over words and woodgrain that you can find in the original.


There's a lot of newer paper here but also some really old stuff from SEI and K&Co which must be 12 or more years old! It will be good to see if I can mix these together and get them used up.


Then came the list of embellishments which is always the fun bit. Doilies, pompoms, sequins, word stickers, die-cuts, alphabets, twine (although I suspect that I've selected something that isn't real twine - let's see!), enamel dots, stickers and pocket cards.


Again, I think you can see that there are older and new products here so I'm curious to see what comes of this mix. I'm sure all those Thickers will need extra glue to keep them on the page!


Lots of stickers that can be used on cards, pockets and pages. I really need to use some of them up!


Cute puffy stickers - maybe too cute for my style?


A bunch of sequins and a section of random die-cut elements from Pinkfresh.


Oh yes, and a selection of tapes which need starting. Most of these items came from older Shimelle Christmas kits.


And there you have it - Yuletide - incorporating lots and lots of Christmas products from across the years in a way that hopefully bring it all up to date. I'm hoping to scrap at least a handful of festive pages and cards with this so wish me luck.

And the name? I tried to find something that meant more than just the couple of days of Christmas itself and this seems to refer to the period around Christmas which seems perfect to me. I'm not sure how far after Christmas it really relates to but let's just say that this girl is making the rules and for me, that's this first month at least!

Here's the full hop list today to make sure that you don't miss out on any of the fun. Make sure you say hi to all the team as you hop along!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com
Guest Designer Melodee - https://www.instagram.com/melodeeruley/


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 #ckcjanuary2020). 

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


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Monday, 4 November 2019

November 2019 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge - Forgery on the Fourth

A reminder of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge November inspiration kit from Scrapdelight Scrapwinkel in the Netherlands. I am truly in love with this kit and am so happy that I picked it out for us this month.

https://www.scrapdelight.nl/product/67860/123-documenter-kit-pocket-pages-winter-thema/

I decided that I wanted to focus on the pretty fairy lights for my forgeries as well as what seemed to be really simple coffee cups and a "winter" word. It all seemed pretty easy and could be found in my Silhouette files.

Easier said than done for this Silhouette novice - even after 7 years and much increased use!

I searched my own files, then looked in the Silhouette store and came up with a good sample of full width banners and some shorter ones as well as a set of light chains which looked pretty close to the original. Then I went on the search for coffee cups and a word. So far so good.

I managed to work out how to create an offset cut for the word so that I could cut the original word out in blue and add it to a white background. I was on a roll! Then I worked out that I would need to make the coffee cup lids and hearts on a second sheet in different colours. Again, looking good.

The final light chain that looked so similar to the original also had separate shapes for the lights and the strings to be cut out in different colours. Ok, they also needed to be on a different cutting mat. I mirrored a couple of the chains so that the swing would be different and filled one sheet to be cut out in white. This was easy!


Then I organised all the bits I wanted to cut out in colour on another sheet - positioning them to match up where I intended to put different coloured scraps of paper. I was trying to make it easy after all and didn't want to have to load up the cutting sheet a gazillion times with different bits of paper.

My Silhouette layout looked something like this!


And my sheet of paper looked like this with the different scraps taking up different locations matching up to what my final layout was (I changed the previous layout a bit once I had the papers picked out). All the little bits of coloured paper came from my kit which I thought was quite clever.


However, every time I sent the file to cut, the paper slipped around and didn't cut properly. Even though I had refreshed the glue on the cutting mat and pressed the paper down really really hard! It drove me crazy. I was achieving one or two of the tiny things with each pass before the paper started to shift around. I was at it for HOURS!

This morning, I sat down with fresh energy and a clearer head and decided to send each shape through separately and attach the papers to the cutting mat with a little washi. Worked a dream!

I used a glue pen to do the fiddly work of adding the tiny pieces onto the white shapes. I'm not designed for this type of detailed work - I just don't have the patience. But even so, I'm pleased with the result of how they turned out - if you don't look too closely!


I lost the dot to the "i" along the way. I'll have to draw it in I think!


And the little lights are so tiny that I just picked them up and stuck them down as well as I could. Now I see that some of them are textured and some not - ah! Textured cardstock which I'm not used to using these days - oh well. As always, live and learn!


However, all in all, these die cuts will be useful I'm sure and you'll have to see what I do with them. I don't have anything specific planned, but the month is still young...

I've added some free cut file links over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenger blog today so head over there to check out what the others have created as well as the links.

Don't forget that there's a whole load of inspiration over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and we always love seeing how you've been inspired. 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 #ckcnovember2019).
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Friday, 1 November 2019

November 2019 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal and blog hop

Ah! At last! It's November - my favourite month of the year.

Welcome, welcome, welcome - I'm so glad to see you here.

Hopefully you've reached me via the ever lovely Leslie's blog and next up is sweet Lori - they both have awesome kits! And I'm delighted to welcome Tara as Guest Designer at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge in November - make sure you stop by and say hello to her too. She's also pretty awesome!

Of course, as always, you can find the full blog hop at the end of this post. And don't forget to make the most of the inspiration at CKC this month because it's the last regular kit of the year! We always shake things up in December - details are still being organised behind the scenes.

Right - onto to business! I'm on kit duty this month and discovered the most gorgeous kit for us to be inspired by over at Scrapdelight Scrapwinkel in the Netherlands.

Scrapdelight Scrapwinkel 

Obviously, the site is in Dutch but I found it easy to find my way around and pretty scrapbook supplies are pretty in any language, aren't they?

I picked out the pocket page kit for our main inspiration, but there are options for full scrapbook pages as well as a paper add on that can be used for additional images or inspiration.

I was particularly inspired by the beautiful colours and paper designs - it seemed so wintry and seasonal without being all about snow and Christmas.



But there is a "traditional" scrapbook kit too:


And the add on paper kit so that you can see a bit more of the paper design:


 Isn't it gorgeous?

Of course I totally fell in love with it and had to have it as our inspiration and then when I came to making up my kit, I realised that I have very little product in these fabulous colours.

I saved the day by picking out these papers which seemed to sum up the main colour scheme of the kit - grey, pink, lilac, yellow with a hint of mustard and a dark, slate-ish blue - as well as the motif of the banner fairy lights which I totally fell in love with even though it's not exactly a colour in the original kit.


From these five papers, my Twinkle kit came together:


Here are all my papers in shades similar but not exactly the same as the original - but there are greys, pinks, lilacs, slate blues and plenty of white. I also added in that cream banner design top right - it's a Dear Lizzy design if I remember rightly and reminded me of the fairy light banners in the inspiration kit. It doesn't really go with any of the other papers so it might be difficult to use but I thought it would be worth a try. I've been hoarding it all these years.


The floral is a partial sheet and the three on top of that are thin papers and smaller than 12x12 - suitable for cards maybe?


There are some really old designs here so it will be interesting to see if they get used up.

I didn't focus on matching up the patterns but have some similarities - stripes, repeating deigns, words and of course my fairy lights!


I included a few embellies but will be adding a couple of "forgeries" in the next day or so - come back on the 4th!


Alphabets, stickers to match two of the papers, some pink-based die cuts, a couple of sparkly tags, glitter hearts and some dots finish off my collection. 


Yes, I will definitely be adding some more embellishments to this kit as the month goes on. It feels very light.


My kit isn't anything like the original when I think about it - but the inspiration is there and that's what it's all about. I know that I will love using my kit but maybe I need to make a list of products in the original kit colours to add to my stash next time I go shopping. 

Thanks for visiting today and here's the full blog hop so that you can be sure not to miss any of today's kit creations!

 Don't forget to drop in at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge throughout the month as we give you tips, ideas and challenges as you put together and use your kit. 

Here's what we have coming up this month:  
  • November 2nd: I'll be back with a "Just the Gist" post to help jump-start your kit-making. 
  • November 4th:  We'll have our "Forgery on the Fourth" post where the Master Forgers will reveal how they created their own version of some of the items in this month's kit. 
  • November 6th: We'll reveal a couple of mini-kits and projects, in case you're a little limited for time this month and would prefer a more petite kit. 
  • November 12th & 18th:  We'll give you two challenges to help you use the kit you've made. 
  • November 24th: I'll be showcasing one of the CKC community who's caught my eye this 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 or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcnovember2019). 

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

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