Author: Misty Murphy

Freebie Friday, Oct ’22

I love learning, creating and sharing. That is why I offer freebies up to you each month. I have both a layout sketch (in printable pdf as well as editable psd) and an electronic cut file (in svg). This month I was inspired by an organizational project I was working on. I needed my own specifically sized file dividers and I turned to Illustrator to get what I needed. Plus, it can make fun layouts as well!. You can see all the details in my reveal video, or read on for the short version.

Here is a closer look at the sketch and the project I created based on this sketch.

If you are a cut file lover, I’ve got you covered! I’ve actually got two files for you, the frame on the left, and the file cards, folder and tabs on the right. The video talks about how to use the first file card to layer over the file folder if you want to layer it will different pattern papers.

The photo frame on the left was described as part of my design team work over at the Counterfeit Kit Blog. It’s at the bottom of the post so be patient and scroll down! Plus I used the finished frame in a recent YouTube video, so you can check it out there as well.

Download the…

  • Sketch pdf version here
  • Sketch psd version here
  • File Frames cut file here
  • File Cards & Folder cut file here

OR… head over to my Freebies Page to peruse the catalog of files I have offered in the past. And if you have any ideas for sketch or cut files, I’d love to hear your ideas. I can’t make promises but I can take suggestions!

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 Challenge #1, October ’22

It is challenge time over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. Our hostess for the month chose a sketch posted at ACherryOnTop.com**.

https://www.acherryontop.com/articles/Becky-Fleck-Sketch-Challenge-292-18805

The elements I’m picking up in this sketch are the photo and paper block. I’ll mix that up with some stamped “paper” that I create. I’ll pull in more circles inspired by the title block. Finally I’ll use some birthday photos inspired from the overall theme of the sketch.

Notice the blue hearts enclosed in doodled borders? That is my mixed media background that acts in place of a pattern paper layer from the sketch. I don’t have a lot of paper in my layout this time around, so this is one way I get more out of my kit. I also use fewer embellishments and let those die cut felt circles carry a lot of the energy of the layout.

If you’d like to know more, all the details are in the video!

I hope you can check out the other designers takes on this challenge! Don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge. We love to see your work!

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!

LOAD 1022, Week 1

October has started off with a whirlwind of activity. I’ve already shared the Crop & Create card making event with you. Next up is the first week of LOAD, or the LayOut A Day project if you are new to this challenge. It is like the name implies. We create a layout each day for a month (or in the case of the link I provided, we have a one-week option each summer). October LOAD is for ScrapHappy members only, so you won’t find this month’s challenge as a buy-in option. (If you choose to get a membership, please use my link as I get a very small kick back as a thank you for sending people over the ScrapHappy!)

With business out of the way, let’s look at some projects! Because of the busy times, I did need to rely on the phone app for Project Life for a few of my pages.

I have two favorites of this batch. I love the Love Notes page for the design and for its intention. This will be the title page to a binder project I’m creating where I will have all the little notes that my kids have given me over the years! My second fav is the Random High School Memories layout. Notice it has some file folders as part of the design. This is not only decorative by highly functional. Inside the folders are journaling cards and tags that hold their own little stories. I’ve written a few of them down, but the folders allow me to add more stories over time.

This idea has opened up a bigger scrapbook style for me! You’ll see when I post Week #2 of LOAD how I reinterpret this idea for use on another page. I think I will be using this technique more often. It is a great way to store memories without having to create a full page for everything. Time saver. Material saver. Memory savor. Good, good and good!

That it is for this time. I’ll be back with more creations soon. Until then, have an artful day.

Cards, cards and more cards!

While scrapbooking is my go-to craft form, making cards isn’t far behind. The oddest thing that I have realized this past couple of years is that I have a hard time with taking scrapbooking classes. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the classes; I just have a super difficult time trying to fit my photos and stories onto a pre-designed layout. Does the theme work? Do I have the right number of photos? I have a nice stack of finished layouts just waiting to be used. Hmm. What is a crafter to do?

Enter card classes! Oh during the pandemic I fell in LOVE with card classes. I get a box of supper fun goodies. (I love collecting craft supplies as much as using craft supplies!) I get classes to put those goodies to use. If the sentiment on the card isn’t for an event that matters to me I can change it. Ditto with the color scheme. And the best part is I then send them away! No guilt about stuff sitting around waiting for me to do something with them.

Well I spend another fabulous weekend event making cards on September 30-October 2 2022. I have had cards on the brain ever since. I wanted to share a photo gallery here since this is what is occupying my time and energy right now. Can’t let the blog get too quiet, right?

Class by Close To My Heart
Class supplies by Elle’s Studio
Class by Scrapbook.com
Class by Vicki Boutin
Class by Gina K.
Class supplies by Mama Elephant
Class by Taylored Expressions
Class supplies by Lawn Fawn
Class supplies by Concord & 9th
Class by Spellbinders
Class supplies by Hero Arts
Class by Pink & Main

Oh I have a few more cards to share, but first I also have a few more cards to make! Yes, more cards! I didn’t even finish half of the classes that were offered on the 30th. I still need to go back and complete cards shared by Simon Hurley (half done), Honey Bee, Crafter’s Companion (partly done), Brutus Monroe, and Your Next Stamp. That is a lot more goodness to come.

In the mean time, I took all my box supplies and mixed and matched manufacturer products. Jennifer McGuire had shared her ideas for doing exactly that in a video that was shown during the event. While my designs are never JG level, I do always mix and match out of the simple desire for certain element. I was inspired by Jennifer McGuire, but it was also World Card Making day challenge time. The Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine team put together 5 challenges (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) all with prizes; if you scroll to the bottom of challenge 5 you’ll notice an extra prize for entering every challenge. I just had to enter them all of course. 😀

I hope to come back by the end of the month with more card shares from the rest of the classes as well as the rest of the ideas that are buzzing around in my brain.

Until then, have an artful day!

CKC Kit Build, October ’22

Wowza. Another new month is here. This last part of the season has just whipped by and I don’t feel like I’ve given my previous kits enough love. Sigh. But time progresses and so do I. With that, lets move on to my new kit as part of the design team for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge project. If you are new to CKC, 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😉 ).

Let’s welcome our guest designer before we dive in….Nikki Ihus. Nikki and I know each other from various crafty circles, and she even was a part of my YouTube going through a growth spurt back in the early days. I’m excited to have her join the team this month!

Our inspiration kit this time around is the August Cherry Box** offered by A Cherry On Top Crafts** website. This kit is centered around product by 49th and Market that has a very neutral color palette, and vintage vibe with a nature feel. I’ll admit that the neutral color palette had me guessing for a while, but as you’ll see I figured out how my style would mesh with the inspiration kit!

Before we get to my kit, let’s peek at most of the inspiration pieces.

For my build I started with my own 49th and Market stash, which definitely has more color to it. But I picked out the papers with the most neutral overall look. I then added in papers from Simple Stories and others that had more color but kept a bit of a vintage vibe. And butterflies. There were lots and lots of butterflies.

I only chose 11 papers this time because my kits have been too big for my busy schedule lately. Also, October is a LOAD month (more on that here) which means I am creating a layout a day on a very wide variety of topics. I’ve found that in past LOAD months, my one CKC kit often only works for a couple of layouts. So I wanted to keep my kit small to allow more room for other creativity in my variety of story telling.

However, the small kit idea melted down after I started pulling embellishments. If you watch the video, you’ll see just how much of a madwoman I was! Well, through a long process I did narrow it down to still-a-rather-large pile. I think that means this months my layouts will be more along the lines of lots (and lots) of embellishing layers instead of paper layers.

Okay. That is my kit. Now… there is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So I’m calling mine MAD HATTER both for my lack of rational control in pulling items and for the vintage styling that Alice in Wonderland often encompasses.

If you want to see my entire mad 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!

** 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!

Freebie Friday — Storage Box cutfiles!

I love learning, creating and sharing. That is why I offer freebies up to you each month. Usually I offer both a layout sketch and and cut file, however this time around I’m working on a bigger, specific project. I am reorganizing my ink pads and other color products into an up-cycled CD “bookcase”.

Eventually all the colors of ink pads will share shelves with these little organizers for other color products! Since I needed to create many of these organization boxes, I decided to create a cut file and share it with you. (Links to the files below.) The video has all the details on the cut file, but if you don’t own a cutting machine, read on for a manual version of this project.

For the Manual Version

You will need to cut and score your boxes following the guide below. White lines are cutting and blue lines are scoring. The squares are cut slightly smaller than the rectangle to allow for stacking and gluing them into the rectangle. They can also be glued to the ends of the rectangle, or to each other for an array of configuration options (see pics below).

The video has a few tips and tricks to assembling these boxes, but really it is pretty straight forward. Fold along all the score lines. The corners will form little flaps. Tucks those flaps into the box and glue down to the sides of the box. Make however many boxes you need!

Get the Cut Files

I do offer a raw svg file for these cuts. However… in order to use the files with both cutting and scoring properties on a machine, you’d need to do some file manipulation to the svg. I do cover those manipulations in the video. But, if you want to skip the manipulation steps, then use the links below to access the Cricut or Silhouette brand specific files. Sorry, I don’t have access to other machine options; you’ll have to use the svg file and figure out how to manipulate it in your software. The video tells you WHAT to do, just not HOW to do it on all software. All links are right here for your conveniences, or you can pop over to my Freebies Page to see what other goodies I offer.

That is it for this week. I’ll see you all next week. Until then, have an artful day!

CKC Challenge #2, Sep ’22

It is challenge time over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. We’ve been inspired by the Wildflower Collection by Traci Reed this month, which is largely what I used to build my kit! You can find the details for me kit build on my previous blog post.

Now let’s zoom in to one piece in particular. See those green sneakers near the center? And the blue ones at the bottom right? This collection has these fun shoe icons sprinkled in there. For that reason, our September hostess chose “lacing” as our second challenge!

Oh yeah! I knew right away what I wanted to do. I used the idea of lacing as a storytelling graphic on how these youth are keeping their connections tight while being in so many different physical places with college/adult life.

The lacing did take me a while, but it was well worth it in the end. As always, my process video has much more detail on how this layout came together, including how I repurposed a “failed” mixed media background from a previous project.

I hope you can check out the other designers takes on this challenge! Don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge. We love to see your work!

Until next time, have an artful day!

Back to School Hop

The lovely Sara Scraps hosts a Back to School YouTube hop each September and opens it up to lots of crafty people. I was glad to be included in the hop. You can catch the video or read on for the condensed photo version!

This is how the layout finished up. I took a Then & Now approach since my daughter goes to an alternative school and hasn’t yet started back for this fall! As I was looking through photos to try and figure out an approach to the hop I realized I had plenty of school photos from the previous year. Since most of her classes for this year relate to last year I thought making notes of what is the same and what is different would be fun.

The little envelopes on the right hold more photos from last year and a journal tag that will have details on how things will be different this year. Plus the envelope flap looks like an arrow, so I added more arrow style embellishments to emphasize the title on the right for this new year.

I hope you enjoy the hop and gets lots of ideas on documenting the school experience. 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!

First CKC layout for September.

I busted out my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit for the first time this month (okay, really for the first time that I can SHARE!). If you haven’t seen my kit build, here is the gist of it.

I put in a bunch of dies this time around. I have barely used those dies in the many years that I have owned them. Today is the day! That is one of the things I love about the CKC group. It gives me the time to pull out things that I haven’t put to enough use and really get my value out of them. Since they are journal card dies I knew I wanted to do a grid layout with them.

But I just did a grid layout! So… I am going to scraplift myself today. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time I create a page. There are enough different photos, sizes, and products, plus the layout will be filed in a different time frame, that the “sameness” won’t really be an issue. Here is a look at the original (on the left) and my new lift (on the right).

Here are a few more details photos for you.

If you want to see the whole thing in action, here is the video.

I’ll be back on Saturday with a Back to School blog hop hosted by Sara Scraps. Until then, 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!

Mini Kit for CKC

Mini Kit inspiration is one way the Counterfeit Kit Challenge group inspires scrapbookers. If you don’t feel you have the time for a full kit, feel free to go small! We all need quick projects for those busy times. And honestly, some of us are perpetually busy!! Today I’m taking my full size kit and pulling out just a few pieces to go smaller with it. You can see the full kit build here, but I’ll give you and idea of what it is down below as well.

To start, here is our inspiration for building our kits this month. It is the Wildflower Collection by Traci Reed. I loved the color palette and the shoe icons so much in this one.

Here is a quick rundown of my process. From my larger kit (pictured left, center) I pulled out a subset of supplies (pictured right). There are 6 Traci Reed papers (printed at 8.5×11) and just a couple embellishments. What I forgot to photograph in that mini kit were 2 pieces of woodgrain 12×12 cardstock; just know those are in there too. I pulled only the Traci Reed “stickers” in the color palette I was working with: blue, yellow and green. I pulled out one twine and one tube of sequins. That’s it. Pretty mini for sure!

The reason behind this mini kit was to create a “gallery” page of smaller, detail photos from a camping trip to accompany an existing 2-page spread. In fact I have TWO of those existing spreads, one in each kids’ album, that I need “gallery” pages for. Here is a look at the existing spreads. (Click for larger views!)

And here are how my gallery pages turned out.

Now you can see them side-by-side with their companions.

If you want more details, I talk just a bit more about this process, including an easy tip to create the grid to make things line up easier.

There is one other Counterfeit Kit Challenge designer sharing her mini kit as well. If you want to check that out, head over to the CKC blog!

I’ll be back soon with more crafty goodness. Until then, have an artful day!