Monday 1 November 2021

November 2021 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal and hop

 How is it possible that the last time I posted anything here on my blog was way back in June? That's going to have to change. New year, new plans 😉.

But in the meantime, I hope you've hopped over here to see what I've done with our November Counterfeit Kit Challenge inspiration kit!

I love picking out the November kit and making it extra special - it's my birthday month in case you were wondering why! - and this month is no different.

Not only did I get to pick out a kit that I adore in autumnal colours that call out my name, but I also got to invite an online bestie, Susanne to join us as Guest Designer for the month! Win-win-win!

So, here is the inspiration kit I picked out for us - Felicity Jane September 2021 - Emily.

Felicity Jane September 2021 - Emily

I usually try not to pick an inspiration kit which only has exclusive products but this one really got my heart racing and decided it had to be the one for us in November. The colours are stunning and I really liked the patterns and designs of the papers and embellishments. You can find out all the details over at the Felicity Jane site here.

Now... here's the thing... I've got full-on rogue this month and done something that is totally not my usual counterfeit style.

When I was looking through my supplies, my eyes fell on some Studio Calico pouches that I picked up in a sale some time ago - two years ago maybe, although probably even longer. And I felt sure that I could find some gorgeous autumnal stuff in there. Well, not only did I find a piece of paper in a rather fetching shade of orange that I fell in love with, but that whole kit (Studio Calico June 2016 - Expedition) just seemed to fit the colours, design and feel of the Emily. So... do you know what I did? I decided just to use the WHOLE kit as my November Counterfeit kit. 

😳 😉

On another level of fun, this Studio Calico kit was actually chosen as our exclusive extra inspiration for (i)NSD in 2019 (find all the details here) and I only realised that when I saw the sheet of paper with the large quote. Anyway, I did take out one or two items that just didn't fit what I wanted my kit to be but it has all the basic colours and designs that you can find in the original even if it's a little brighter and bolder! And of course, no doubt I will add some extras in as I go along - alphas, enamel dots etc.

But honestly, I just didn't feel in the mood for reinventing the wheel when I had a kit that just spoke to me, that's years old but still untouched and that I know I will enjoy using! I just needed the push to make the first cut. I'm not sure I've ever just picked up an existing kit and said that this was my Counterfeit kit and it feels good to shake things up this month.

I told the team, "My kit month, my rules!" and I want you to take away this message - your kit, your rules. There's no "right" way to make your kit. Just bring together products that make you happy and you're good to go.

So after such a long introduction, here's my "Highlands" kit.



The oranges, the yellows, the graphic black and white, the dark blues. It's all there! I've got a plan to make a few travel pages and I know that with the focus on the outdoor of these products, it's going to be a good combination. Wish me luck!

It's going to be a great month and I can't wait to get started - how about you?

Here's the full hop list today in case you get lost and don't forget to share your kits and projects over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcnovember2021). 

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Tuesday 1 June 2021

June 2021 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal and hop

Wow, it's been a while. I know I say this a lot, but I really like blogging and rather miss it when I don't so while I'm not promising anything at all, I'd like to try harder to get back here more often.

But onto the reason I'm here today. It's the first of a new month and that means that it's Counterfeit Kit Challenge and we've got a scorcher today.

Hopefully you've reached me via Tracey's blog (here) and next up is Cindy (here) - you'll find the full hop list at the end of the post.

But you are definitely not going to want to miss any of the reveal this month - the kits are fantastic and we have a total celebrity as our Guest Designer! I'm having a bit of a fangirl moment to be honest as we are honoured to have the fabulous May Flaum with us in June! I think May was one of my first scrap crushes and I was definitely into everything she did right from the very start back in 2006. My memories are hazy but I'm sure I did at least one of her classes and checked out all her creativity back in the day when our time was filled with reading blogs and not a lot else. Am I right that she was a lead Fiskateer - I have my scissors in my hand every time I scrap and am proud #2058! Ah, in the days when things were a little simpler and it was easier to follow the inspiration. 

Anyway, I'm so thrilled to have her with us and hope that she will fall in love with our little corner of the world and want to hang out with us more!

On to this month's kit. MF Tara has given us a cracker - the August 2020 Cocoa Daisy kit, Backyard Blooms. It's gorgeous and I knew I was going to have fun with it. You can find out all about it over at the Cocoa Daisy site and there are variations too if the main kit isn't your thing.

Cocoa Daisy - August 2020 Backyard Blooms

Cocoa Daisy - August 2020 Backyard Blooms

I had a conversation with Tara and she mentioned it being red, yellow and blue and I think that's funny as I saw it in a completely different way as you can see below. But first, here's Rainbow and I'm in love!

My list consisted of pink, aqua, yellow, puffy stickers, enamel dots, tapes, words, die-cuts, vellum, watercolour and words. Then off I went and ticked those off one by one to produce a kit which is not exactly me but one I'm excited to cut into!

I started off picking out papers from Color Story which are new for me and I knew that they picked out the colours I had picked out in the original kit. From there, I selected some florals by Carta Bella to bring out the softer summer shades and themes, and then added in some watercolour effect papers to round it off.

The embellishments were easy. I went through my kist starting with the die-cuts, stickers and puffy word embellishments from the Color Story collection and then added in other embellishments to fit the list and match the colours. 

A handful of pretty vellums which might be used on cards rather than pages - let's see - and some black alphas that need using or losing. I'll add in mini-alphas as I need them.

Three washi tapes rounded off my kit and I think this is all perfect! What do you think?

Don't forget that you can find out all the info about the kit, links to our Instagram and Facebook community and what's going on for the whole month over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. Start there and you'll be sorted!

Can't wait to spend this month with you all!

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Friday 12 February 2021

February 2021 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge - At the Heart of It!

Back today with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge February challenge #1:

At the Heart of It!

As this month's layout is called Herzstück, which could be translated as "at the heart of something", I decided to challenge us all to record something or someone who is at the heart of it all in some way, or even just to make sure that we use lots of hearts on our layout. I managed to do both!

I'm in the middle of LOAD221 at the moment and decided to make it a "28 Days of Mabel" so of course, the topic of today's layout just had to be our puppy and how she is most definitely in the heart of our little family.

My heart-filled kit was perfect for this layout and I just went for a bunch of layers and a generous sprinkle of flowers, stickers and tiny bits and pieces. You might notice that the green paper in the background is strategically placed so that you only see flowers and the leafy wreath design. In reality, it's covered in gorgeous birds but they just didn't fit the theme of any of my layouts so I had to be clever to make sure you could see the beautiful paper but not necessarily the detail of the design - I'm crafty like that 😉

This is a photo from Christmas (along with my internet shy husband) and one of the few where you could see us all and Mabel wasn't just a blur of wriggling or trying to lick one or both of us! Maybe I should have written about that too - or perhaps that's a story for another layout with another Christmas photo!

(I have no idea why all my photos are turning out so badly right now!
The background is a nice, bright white in reality!) 

I had fun with the splats of ink and small embellishments. Sometimes I love just using up a bunch of small items in a sprinkled, spread out cluster. Gets those items off the plastic backing and onto pages which is what this is all about, isn't it? 

Over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog you'll find a whole bunch of layouts interpreting this prompt so make sure you check them all out. 


And if I've inspired you to make your own layout about someone or something at the heart of it, then make sure you share over in our Counterfeit Kit Challenge FB community here or over on Instagram here (@counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcfebruary2021). We love to see what you do with your own kits 😍

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Monday 1 February 2021

February 2021 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit reveal and hop

Gosh it's been quiet round here. Which doesn't necessarily mean that I've been doing nothing. Although I've been doing a lot less than usual ;-) We moved and therefore the scrapping reduced to a minimum and I've mostly been posting over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge or their FB community. 

And here we are in a new month and I'm back with my first full kit of the new year.

I'm not a fan of February to be honest but with a pretty kit as inspiration, I'm hoping to be motivated to scrap.... let's see.

First up, the full hop list for today's kit reveal can be found at the bottom of the post and don't forget to check out our delightful Guest Designer Eileen (find her on FB here) who will be posting directly into our Counterfeit Kit Challenge FB community. 

 Now let's take a look at the inspiration kit I picked out. I like to find kits on this side of the Atlantic and was thrilled to find a gorgeous kit over at Scrapbook Werkstatt. Their current Feb 2021 kit, Herzstück, appealed so much with the softer colours and all those scrummy florals and hearts.

There are detailed photos and a content list over at the Scrapbook Werkstatt Herzstück page if you need more information - I love to see all the a-sides and b-sides and compare all the elements of the embellishments. I get inspiration from all of it!

Scrapbook Werkstatt - February 2021 "Herzstück"

My kit didn't exactly turn out that way (the softer colours and all those scrummy florals and hearts), but I still think I'm going to love working with it ;-) Here's Heartfelt!

I started off with the sheet of pink hearts from Paige Evans Bloom Street which was the only item I have that matches the original kit exactly. From there I added in the yellow dots (Simple Stories), the soft red graph (Pebbles) and the vellum (Crate Paper) which I thought were similar in colour, pattern and feel to papers in the original. Now I felt that the kit was heading in a different direction so I just went with the flow and added in three more Paige Evans Go the Scenic Route papers (red with tiny hearts, whimsical birds and the bright hearts), a sheet of black and white squares (Crate Paper) and a monochrome floral (Pinkfresh). Even though it's pretty far away from the Scrapbook Werkstatt collection, I still think it has a similar feel to it and of course, I always have the cheat option of the b-sides ;-) 



The original kit had a whole bag of Crate floral die-cuts so I added in my own bag of florals and also a full set of die cuts from the Paige Evans collection. This pushed me to include the stickers and the puffy words/elements from the same collection in. It will be interesting to see if I can use the brighter colours with some of the softer shades in my kit.

I also wanted a lot of variety with my alphas and added in a couple of swirly gold which felt similar to the original, but also a couple of small ones, and a Pink Paislee pink and gold set. I have way too many alphas and many of them are almost at the end of their useful life. I'd like to clear the decks a little so I could get some news ones with a clear conscience! There are also some puffy sequins and some heart enamel dots from Pinkfresh which I haven't used in a long time.

As always, I reserve the right to add stuff in as I go along! Ha ha! It's surprising how many little bits and pieces find their way into my kit box and onto my pages as the month goes on. My kit, my rules ;-) 

I'm hoping to jump right in and actually use some of these supplies for more than just a handful of cards which has been the case over the last couple of months. My room is somewhat sorted and I feel like I need some scrappy time - how about you? 

Come on over and join in the fun. It's going to be a good month.

Here's the hop so that you don't miss out on any of the inspiration:

And of course, we love it when you share so make sure to link up your kits and creations over in our Counterfeit Kit Challenge FB community page here or on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcjanuary2021)!

Here's to an inspired, creative month.
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