Author: Misty Murphy

Freebie Friday is here again

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 Valentine’s Day, and especially the photo below. I wanted something romantic but not overly sweet to highlight this moment with my husband.

So this is what I came up with…

The stripy heart is just my favorite! Since I hate backing cut files I usually include the cutable fill-in pieces to save you hassle. You can see how I put it to use on this layout (although, small confession, I did back the file by hand. Go figure!)

I’m pretty honest when I love or dislike something I’ve created. This time I am in love. Those stripes filled with the mix of bright and chill patterns… oh my. Do you even get giddy with one of your creations?

So I went on to produce my sketch for the month from this layout. Here is a closer look at the sketch.

And as usual if you want the full detailed version I have that for you in my release video

Now if you want to get your hands on these freebies I have all the links for you right here.

Download the pdf sketch here, the psd version here, the 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!

Forgery on the Fourth, Feb ’22

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 FOF project is definitely one I enjoy! So let’s go ahead and dive in to what I have for you this month.

We are working with this kit from Coca Daisy and is called Denim & Blush from Feb 2021 as our inspiration.

Did you notice the the small tickets tucked behind the enamel dots, or the leafy die cuts/stamped images up near the top of that kit? Well that is where I got my ideas for this month’s forgeries.

You can see how I went about creating my forgeries in video form where I highlight a couple of tips for bulk stamping & die cutting for mass embellishment or card piece production.

Here is just a quick peek at how my items turned out. The tickets were really easy to make. I bet the picture will give you enough info on how it worked out. The greenery was stamped and die cut on solid cardstock and on lightly painted watercolor paper. I will add more color when I get to using those.

Stamp & die sets used:

  • Avery Elle: Sending Flowers stamp & die
  • Photoplay Paper: Exclusive from an online class

Of course the CKC blog has more forgery examples to check out. I hope this gave you some ideas on how you can create forgeries of 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.

Just the gist…

I love kit building and 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. But sometimes it can be hard to get started. For example, what if you don’t like the color palette for a kit and you think, “that isn’t for me.” This month’s kit has plenty of pink and that may be off putting for some. Don’t give up; instead, dive deeper.

If we take a closer look at the embellishment cluster in the photo and these sheets of pattern paper, we can start to see something besides pink in this kit. We’ve got a coral red, a powder blue and a golden yellow.

So now we have a very different color palette.

With that in mind I started pulling supplies from my stash. Here is what I ended up with

Admittedly, these colors are bolder than the updated color palette. However, those were the supplies I had in my stash that came close to the new colors, so I’m going to roll with it. That is the flexibility of the CKC group! Make it work for YOU!

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.

CKC Feb ’22

I love kit building and 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😉 ).

It is my turn to host a kit for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge team. This is my first time hosting so I’m pretty excited! Check out the inspiration kit I chose for this month. It is the Denim & Blush Modern Memory Keeping Kit from Coca Daisy for Feb 2021. I love this kit for the bold navy and softer blues, pinks and corals. Plus yellow. Don’t forget yellow! It has plenty of embellishments to inspire me and an ever so slight bit of Valentine’s goodness. And since this kit is sold out it gives us the perfect reason to counterfeit it!

As the kit host, I get to choose a guest designer for the month. I’m happy the Gretl Dixon agreed to play along with us this month! You can find her work on her blog. If you read the CKC kit reveal blog post then you can get to know Gretl a little bit by seeing her photo and reading her bio. Do leave her some love to make her feel welcomed!

When I chose this kit I thought I’d build one big kit. But as I was working I realized that this month is a LOAD month (Layout A Day challenge hosted over at ScrapHappy). Since LOAD leads me to tell a myriad of stories, I wanted products that would have different feels to them so things wouldn’t get repetitive. That is when I got the idea to create 5 mini kits! Yes, I could have thrown all this stuff into one giant kit, but by breaking it down this way it will help limit the choices I need to make when creating. Sometimes too many choices is overwhelming. If I make the choices ahead of time, then when I sit down to craft that part is already done!

So take a look at these 4 kits (yes I did say earlier that I have 5, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see the final one, for, um, reasons 😉 ).

You can hear all my thoughts that went into each kit in my video.

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

Mixed Media Friday

My month almost always wraps up with a mixed media layout as I play along with the free Mixed Media Frenzy Facebook group and join in the monthly membership hop. We typically work with some form of inspiration to inform our projects. Lately we’ve been scraplifing other talented scrapbookers!

Check out the inspiration photo on the left and my take on the right…

Since my printer was misbehaving (well actually it was user error, sigh) I did not have photos to include when I photographed my project. But you can see the place holders where I included two photos instead of the single in the inspiration.

As always I have a YouTube video sharing how I approached my take on this inspiration. And since it is a hop, do find the show description and hop over to all the other creators.

Freebie Friday!

I revealed my freebies for this month over on YouTube, but failed to write up my post here. So here is the quick version…

This month’s sketch was based on a layout I shared on YouTube earlier when I did my SCT Sampler Kit unboxing.

For the cut file, I haven’t had a chance to use up my pieces on a project, but the video shows how they all turned out, as well as some tips on cutting intricate files. Here I cut them out of cardstock, vellum and silver mirror paper.

Download the sketch here, the cut file here or, head over to my Freebies Page to peruse all the files I have to offer.

Additional sampler kit project!

Last time I revealed the SCT Sampler Kit for the month of January. If I haven’t said it enough, I am in LOVE with the kit this month. The dies are to, well, die for. Not to mention the Simple Stories paper collection is super fabulous. So I have another project to share. Well actually, this was my first project, but I needed to hold it up until the DT post over at ScrapHappy went live! 😉

So my photography setup needs some work for doing double page layouts to get equal exposure across the entire image, but other than that I loved putting this project together. And notice that little tag sticking out on the right hand side? That is a pull out interactive element. I got 15 photos on this layout, but I just HAD to have one more photo, so I hid it and made it work!

You can see all the details in my video

SCT Sampler Kit

Oh how I love getting crafty surprises in the mail. I’ve subscribed to many scrapbooking kit companies over the years. In the end I usually cancel due to too many leftover supplies and too much ongoing expense. But the SCT kits are different! Since they are a sampler of current scrappy products, you don’t get too much to be used in a month. And the sample size of these kits also makes them affordable. Plus, there is always some reusable item that makes the value top notch—think stamps, storage pockets and this month… dies! Oh my heart did swoon when I opened my pack and found some generous love themed dies in the pack this month. Check it out on the right middle side of the photo.

Oh man I was so inspired by the supplies in this kit. It helps that Simple Stories is my jam for sure. I put the products to use right away. Oh, but I’m not showing you that project today! You’ll have to wait until next week for that. Rude. I know. 😉

Don’t worry, I have another project for you that I was almost as excited about. (Scrapbook layouts are not like children, I DO get to have favorites.)

I like this layout enough to let it be my produced sketch for the month. If you missed my previous post revealing my freebies for this month, be sure to check that out. Or you can download the sketches over on my Sketch Freebies page.

Of course I have a video showing off all the fun.

Freebie Friday Jan 2022

I did take a break in December to get some other things in my life worked on. Nothing big, just stuff that needed doing that was being neglected. I had hoped despite the break that I’d be able to get a sketch and cut file out to you. Alas, life did not make that happen.

But… I am back and I have some freebies for you now. Be sure to check out the Freebies page to see all that I have to offer. I hope you enjoy! Now let’s see the new files for this New Year!

Free Sketch!

Free Cut File

Of course I’ve got a video. There are a couple of small tips in there on how to get better results when cutting intricate die cuts on your Cricut. And then I just play with those snowflakes in various materials.

CKC Challenge #2, January 2022

I’m here with my take on CKC’s second challenge for the month, and that is to use a sketch from Master Forger Cindy’s Pinterest board. You can check out the full process video here or read on for the short version 🙂

First up, I chose this sketch…

from CREATE: Issue 7, July 2014

I chose to rotate the sketch sideways and then created a double page layout. I didn’t really change the layout much between the two pages. I did use the two small photos and the tag pocket in the sketch as embellishment clusters and stretched those across both pages to help tie things together. These sort of stretched into the banner cluster as well to become one long horizontal embellishment zone.

So what do you think about sketches? Do you like to stick close to them, or do you like to adjust as you see fit?