Forgeries on the Fourth (aka FOF), March ’24

As a design team member over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge group I play along with as many of our monthly inspiration challenges as I can. The Forgery on the Fourth project is definitely one I enjoy! That is where we see a scrap product we like and set out to recreate it with supplies we already own. So let’s go ahead and dive in to what I have for you this month.

Since we always start our forgery projects with inspiration, here is the image we are working with this month. It is the [fill in blank here].

But if we take a deep dive into this kit and all it’s components, we can zoom in on these few items. In the pattern papers there is a green grid print that can be easily doodled by hand. That “plus” print pattern paper also can be super easily replicated. There are on the to-do list for sure. Next, the “rainbow” embellishments made up of little florals are not that hard. The little floral “medallions” –for a lack of a better word– from the embellishment stickers are best shown in this version from one pocket card.

So, with those tasks in mind, I set to work. I pulled out^^ my Tombow markers, my white gel pen, a Quikie Glue Pen, a VersaMarker, and my embossing supplies to bring all these to real life.

In that final pic above, I took things ever farther. I explain in the video that if you are new to doodling, you can get started by copying. Once you are comfortable, new ideas will come and you can just keep going. These are the ideas that popped to mind as I was playing. I had more ideas that I had time to make.

If you want to work with me as I walk through the process, you can follow along with this video.

For more creative ideas, the CKC blog has more forgery examples to check out. I hope this gave you some ideas on how you can recreate your favorite products with supplies you already have on hand. Don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.

Until next time, have an artful day.

PRODUCTS USED^^

^^ Disclaimer: I offer affiliate shopping linked products when possible. This shopping won’t cost you anything extra, but I get a small kick back from the companies for sending business their way. It is an easy way to tell me “Thank You” for the content I provide. I appreciate you using my links!

CKC Kit Build, April ’24

I love kit building and that is why I am on the design team for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge project. We take an inspiration kit each month and proceed to replicate it, or as we say, counterfeit it. This is a free, friendly group that helps inspire you to use up supplies you already own. We are not about needing to buy the latest and greatest thing (though we won’t stop you if you enjoy new crafty goodies😉 ).

To start off let’s welcome CKC’s guest designer for April–Nikki Ihus. Nikki and I have known each other through various crafty channels and I’m glad to welcome her back to the group once again! You can find her on YouTube and Instagram.

This month our hostess Tara chose the Felicity Digital and Printable Scrapbook kit created by Traci Reed. As I’m a Traci Reed fan, I already own this kit! Let’s take a look and see how I decided to balance what I own digitally with supplies from my stash.

Below is the fully digital kit and the gallery of pics after that are just a few of the printable elements. I used both in my kit building process.

The first thing I wanted to include was the color palette and some of the patterns. Though when I went to my supplies it was a bit tricky to find things that felt like real representation of the kit’s elements. I pulled what I had though and got close with most of it. Some pieces are much more interpreted than others, but it is my kit and I can totally do that!

So these are the papers I came up with. A couple of those are homemade, but I’ll get to that more on the Fourth!

Once the papers were pulled I could focus on the embellishments. I did print and cut some of the Traci Reed “sticker” (I use them as die cuts instead) embellishments from this collection. Since I pulled a bunch of stamp word phrases, I knew I wouldn’t need those from the sticker set! I did add in wood veneer, buttons and hearts which were all elements of the Felicity kit. I also pulled in some fibers as a nod to the digital kit. A final bit of embellishment was some washi. This was solely inspired by one of the Felicity stickers that looked like it had been anchored with washi. Perfect excuse to pull in a supply I need to use more often.

What i forgot to include at this stage was my alphas. The kit alphas were button style and I didn’t not have the energy to pull anything like that together. Instead I just grabbed packs that were good color options to go with my papers.

Don’t forget that each month I also create my own elements to add into my kit. Of course these are inspired by the original kit, but often have a twist of their own. So don’t miss what I will make in just a couple of days.

There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. Since I had to get creative representing some of the pattern papers, I’m calling my kit…

Floral Twist

If you want more details on my kit building thought process, check out my kit build video.

I hope you can follow along with the other designers and see how they interpreted their own kits.

Here’s the full hop link list

Have fun kit building and don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.

I’ll be back on the 4th, for our Product Forgeries. Until then, have an artful day!

Final March projects

Just a couple more things to share with you as I wrap up the month. The second item is my fav so don’t miss that one.

First up I did my Mystery Box Monday project. This is where I’ve purchased a grab bag of discounted supplies and I pull out three things from the box without looking. Then I have to put all of those to use on a project. It is just a silly creativity stretcher and a good excuse to purchase a box of random supplies.

I pulled out two ink pads and I was starting to feel nervous. Luckily, the third item was a stamp set. Whew! I had something more to work with. Although, now that I think about it, I totally could have gotten inky with stencils or stamps from my stash. As it was, I pulled way more inks and other supplies and went well beyond what my three mystery ingredients were!

I had fun creating this 5×7 art piece. I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a while to hang on my wall. This feeling of artfulness outside of the scrapbook page is growing in my brain more and more lately! I did decide to give this one away as I still have more ideas for MY walls! (More on this project in this video.)

Speaking of artfulness, the next one gets very arty indeed. But it isn’t hard! It just needs a few specific supplies. I talk all about it in the video, which is the best way to get the hang of the whole process. However, if you want the step by step blog post, that is all over on the ScrapHappy.org blog where I am a creative team member.

Oh my! Just playing with all that color is fun. Who cares about turning it to anything in the end. Yet, I did have this layout in mind, so my alcohol inked background did make it to a finished product!

Okay, that is it for March. I know Easter is in a couple of day from posting this. If you celebrate, I wish you a Happy Easter. Until next time, have an artful day!

March 18-22

It wasn’t too busy in my craft room this week. I got a few projects done, some cleaning and organizing sorted, and some sewing progress made. As for YouTube, just a couple of projects went up. In fact these were the only layouts I actually finished. I’ve been working on my sketch class over at SCT but between headaches and appointments, it has sat unfinished.

So, here is what I did do. This one was the second CKC challenge, called the blast off challenge, where we use 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of elements. Specifically it was 5 enamels, 4 chipboard pieces, 3 photos, 2 ribbons/fibers and 1 word title. I’ve never done this before, so here it is! Video available.

The second layout was for the monthly sketch challenge. I altered it a little to fit my needs but you can see the inspiration. Video up for this one too.

I’ll be back soon to wrap up March. Until then, have an artful day.

Another Update

Yesterday I updated you on what I’ve been working on as part of my CKC design team life. Today I’m back with the other projects that have been keeping me busy in the craft room.

Community Project

Each year I create and donate Easter cards to a senior meal program. The cards go out to the seniors who are home bound and they accompany the Easter meal delivery. I’ve had such kind comments from the folks getting these cards that I’m glad to keep doing this project. I am happy to bring people a little joy through paper and ink!

Craft Shopping

I’ve been running low on certain supplies and needed a restock. Also, the February release from Concord & 9th had a few things in there that made me ooh and ahh. In fact, the Easter cards above were created from a new Turnabout stamp set. If you have never used a Turnabout, it is fun! After aligning the stamp, you ink, stamp and rotate it up to 4 times to get a background pattern. (Images from the C9 website.) This set is not an Easter set. However, with the right colors this background can mimic jelly beans or even Easter eggs. I love supplies that have this kind of flexibility!

If you want to see what else I got in my crafty shopping boxes, I do have a video.

Freckled Fawn^^

My latest FF subscription boxe reached my house and I dove into as soon as I could. Check out the unboxing and project video if you want all the details.

I played with the washi tape in the kit and made up a new washi technique. I plan on doing an small addendum to my popular 10 Ways to Use Washi video. I won’t have 10 new ways, but 3 or 4 to share!

Disaster in the Craft Room

The most recent event was the breaking of my Gemini II machine. I reviewed this machine back in March of 2023. Had I really understood then what I know now, I would have been more careful! Luckily my husband did a little surgery on it and it is now working. However, the issue lead me to create a video as a word of caution to any Gemini II owners–or potential owners. If you want to know more about what happened, check out that video.

Event Crafting

And finally, I’ve been doing some crafting inspired by the SBC Fest over at Scrapbook.com^^. They offer free online class events each year. While you don’t have to use their products, they do offer shopping lists and bundles should you want to. The bundles are even available after the event so you can take the class first and really see if you want to own those products later. I only bought a couple of small stamp sets and have worked on the projects largely from my own supplies. Here is what I’ve done so far.

That wraps things up for now. I have been doing some sewing this month as well, but I don’t have pictures of those projects yet. Maybe this will encourage me to document that process next!

I have just a couple more things coming to you for March, so until then, have an artful day!

^^Disclaimer: I offer affiliate shopping linked products when possible. This shopping won’t cost you anything extra, but I get a small kick back from the companies for sending business their way. It is an easy way to tell me “Thank You” for the content I provide. I appreciate you using my links!

Freckled Fawn
They sell products individually, or in subscription kits. The kit subscriptions are a build-your-own bundle style. You pick and choose which of their standard items you’d like shipped to you each month. They carry items from wood veneer all the way up to 12×12 scrapbook papers. Take a look and see if there are any goodies you wan to add to your craft room! And… if you use the code craftysoup you’ll get 8% off your order!

Catching up on CKC

I love kit building and that is why I am on the design team for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge project. We take an inspiration kit each month and proceed to replicate it, or as we say, counterfeit it. This is a free, friendly group that helps inspire you to create your own kits. Then we bring you inspiration and challenges to help you use up those kits!

I’ve been busy at the sewing machine lately so the blog has taken a backseat not only to that, but also to getting my YouTube videos up. However, it is never too late to share some inspiration. So, let me catch you up on where we are in our monthly kit and project inspiration cycle.

Remember, this kit was our inspiration…

Forgeries on the Fourth

First, I created my forgery projects as usual. I was inspired by that pink ruffled crepe ribbon on the right. I made my own ruffled crepe ribbon out of party streamers. Super easy and super cheap!

I had fun making the ribbon, so I kept playing with the crepe paper. I used to to clip and create flowers (left). Then I glued it down to cardstock and used some punches to create even more flowers (right)

Video available.

Challenge #1

The first challenge was pretty easy for me. It was to use buttons and flowers, both of which I had plenty of in my kit. In fact those left hand flowers made it onto this layout. I did make a minor change by covering the centers with pattern paper that worked for my project better. Lovely.

Video available.

Challenge #2

The second challenge was one I have never done before. Interesting! It is called the blast off challenge where you use 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of different items. This time we had…

  • 5 enamel dots
  • 4 chipboard pieces
  • 3 photos
  • 2 fibers
  • 1 word title

It was a fun challenge and lead to a simpler layout, which was a change of pace for me.
Again, video available!

I’ll be back tomorrow with an update of my paper crafty projects. In the meantime, you can check out everythig CKC has to offer. For more info head to Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog page, our Facebook group, or follow us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge.

Until next time, have an artful day.

CKC Kit Build, March ’24

I love kit building and that is why I am on the design team for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge project. We take an inspiration kit each month and proceed to replicate it, or as we say, counterfeit it. This is a free, friendly group that helps inspire you to use up supplies you already own. We are not about needing to buy the latest and greatest thing (though we won’t stop you if you enjoy new crafty goodies😉 ).

Fresh month and fresh start to spring. Well… as I’m typing this we are looking at a weather report with the potential of snow in my area. Not very common for us at this point in the season. I’ll just focus on the word potential! Either way we are diving into a fresh CKC kit featuring lovely florals.

Before we get to the kit, I want introduce you to our guest designer. Let’s welcome…Jessica Haab! You can find her on her on Instagram–Jessica Haab (@kids2scrap) Leave her some encouragement as we dive into this months creativity.

Now we can get to the pretty supplies. To start, here is our inspiration kit. It is PARASOL 12 x 12 Kit – Citrus Twist Kits. Julene, our CKC team member hosting this month, said she chose this one for its spring feel (despite her Australian fall season) and opportunities for forgeries.

This kit was packed with things I love: teals, mixed media, a tad of geometrics, and some subtle florals. All that went into my thought process as I built my kit this time around. I focused on Jen Hadfield, Vicki Boutin and even a bit of Maggie Holmes (notice that the inspiration is Maggie Holmes dominant?)

So these are the papers I came up with.

If you look closely, there is one paper in there that doesn’t really seem to fit with the original inspiration. Notice it? It is a Jen Hadfield piece from Flower Child. It features roller skates, scooters, and bikes. It steps out of the soft romantic vibe of Maggie Holmes and lands us in modern graphic vibe.

I promise, there is a reason it is in there. In the inspo, second row of papers, second from the left, is a sheet of Maggie Holmes that features larger iconography. I didn’t really have anything like that in my stash. So instead I looked for something with bicycles, which you can see just a tiny hint of peeking out from behind the fibers in the photo. While I thought I had another Jen Hadfield bike print in my stash, I could not find it. So, this one took its place. And honestly I love the active feeling it adds to my kit. Plus I know the perfect story that will go with that paper (stay tuned!).

On to the embellishments. I jam packed my kit with just about everything found in the inspo: die cuts, wood buttons, fibers, enamels, sequins and on and on. I even have some beautiful forgeries for you this month. But you’ll have to come back on the 4th for that project.

I’m looking forward to diving into this kit. But before we go… There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. I wanted to give a big nod to that roller skate and bike paper I included, so I’m calling mine…

Roll into Spring

If you want more details on my kit building thought process, check out my kit build video.

I hope you can follow along with the other designers and see how they interpreted their own kits.

Here’s the full hop link list

Have fun kit building and don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.

I’ll be back on the 4th, for our Product Forgeries. Until then, have an artful day!

CKC Challenge #4, February ’24

I love kit building and that is why I am on the design team for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge project. We take an inspiration kit each month and proceed to replicate it, or as we say, counterfeit it. This is a free, friendly group that helps inspire you to create your own kits. Then we bring you inspiration and challenges to help you use up those kits!

And we have reached the final challenge of the month. If you joined me in January, you’ll know that that the final challenge each month will now be a use your scraps challenge. I was inspired by another group challenge as well for this one. ScrapHappy’s current Unexpected Inspiration challenge is all about games and I was inspired by a game called Patchwork to use up scraps in a quilted fashion.

Take a look at the game box.

Lots of color and pattern all pieced together. Perfect for using scraps. Not only that, but the game title inspired my own story and title! Now, I didn’t want to spend too much time quilting, so I kept my quilted portion smaller and used it as grounding and accent.

I have a video sharing more details on this process as well.

I hope you can follow along with the other designers and see how they interpreted this inspiration. For more info check out the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog page, our Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.

And if you want to get in on the ScrapHappy membership, check out details on joining here.

Until next time, have an artful day.

CKC Challenge #3, February ’24

I love kit building and that is why I am on the design team for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge project. We take an inspiration kit each month and proceed to replicate it, or as we say, counterfeit it. This is a free, friendly group that helps inspire you to create your own kits. Then we bring you inspiration and challenges to help you use up those kits!

The 22nd is always the 3rd challenge of the month where we give you a sketch to use as a starting point for your layout! This month’s sketch was created by team member, Brandi. Be sure to check out her social media for more freebies like this. Let’s take a look at that sketch.

I liked the vertical lines, the bold title and offset photos. I decided to interpret the triangles using mixed media instead. I did lose a bit of that feeling when all was said and done. But… that is how sketches go sometimes!

Notice just a hint of map style stenciling behind the title and again on the lower opposite corner? That was my fill in for the triangles. When I was working it felt more like a triangle than it did by the end. Here are just a couple more views of the final design.

I have a video sharing more details on this process as well.

I hope you can follow along with the other designers and see how they interpreted this inspiration. For more info check out the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog page, our Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.

Until next time, have an artful day.

Iron Crafter Hop, February ’24

I play along with a couple of online scrappy challenges each month, including the Iron Crafter Challenge hosted over at the Peace Craft Love Facebook group. It is a fun & free group if you want to check them out.
Each month we are given a mystery ingredient to use in our crafting recipes. If you know me, this is right up my crafty fun-loving ally. Let’s check out what we’ve got going on this month…

This time our mystery ingredient is… pocket cards.

Usually I have a pretty easy time with the challenges as I am an bit of an eclectic scrapper. However, pocket cards–and pocket scrapbooking–are not something I do much. I had to really dig in my supplies to find a small stash of these cards. I really appreciated being challenged to come up with a fun way to use these supplies. I like what I did. I hope you do too!

I used those pocket cards in three ways. First, the larger card creates a grounding mat for my first two photos. Next, smaller cards layer to form a space for my journaling. Finally–an the idea that is the star of the show–I used the cards to create borders at the top & bottom of my layout.

Normally I’d just smack down a single card as the sole embellishment or a bit of a base to an embellishment cluster. This idea of cutting/tearing them to create a border is an idea I would like to return to. Perhaps this challenge will get me using those pattern papers with all the cut out pocket cards!

Of course if you want to see more, the video has more details.

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my latest project. I hope you will come back next time as well. Until then, have an artful day!