Category: Counterfeit Kits

Forgeries on the Fourth (aka FOF), March ’23

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.

We are being inspired by this kit called Time to Thrive digital and printable kit by Traci Reed.

Did you notice the accordion folded hearts tucked through the kit? You can click to enlarge the image and play Where’s Waldo to find them. 😁 Well, that is where I got my first idea. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out how to recreate these digital goodies in physical form. But I got it and I think they are really fun.

A brief rundown on the sizing of these is represented in this screenshot.

  • Cut rectangle of paper 4 inches long by 2 inches heigh.
  • Score it at every 1/4 inch. The final length may be off depending on how precise your scoring is. Trim down to 1/4 inch if necessary
  • Fold in half with “wrong” side of paper facing out.
  • Draw an arc at the top of the folded paper as pictured.
  • Cut along the arc.
  • Open, fold accordion style on all the score marks.
  • Pinch and glue bottom of paper folds together to form heart.

The second bit of creation involved more experimentation. I have this set of dies from Tim Holtz that creates labels. The difference with these is that they can be inked for a letterpressed cut and embossed label. I played with this just once before sitting down to really see if I could get nice results. The end results were not as crisp as I wanted but that doesn’t surprise me too much since Tim Holtz is the distress king. They are “fine” and I’ll probably keep using the dies, but I did have higher hopes for this product. Ah well. At any rate, here is how they turned out.

You can see how I went about creating my forgeries in this video if you want more details.

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, March ’23

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😉 ).

Team member Anna is our hostess this month and we’ll see the kit she chose to inspire us in a moment. But first Let’s welcome our guest designer before we dive in… Amanda Castle, known as A Joyful Scrapper on YouTube. Pop over to her channel and leave her some love on her kit reveal post!

Now we can get to the pretty stuff. To start, here is our inspiration kit. It is called Time to Thrive digital and printable kit by Traci Reed. Anna loves Traci Reed and wanted something that could lean her into a green color palette for March.

Though I love Traci Reed, I don’t own this kit, so a true counterfeit is in order! I was inspired by many of the patterns, the numbered circles and a general mental wellness vibe.

I played quite closely with the prints in the kit, coming up with things as close as I had in my stash and making a few minor interpretations. I did skip many of the pinks since I’m needing a little break from pink.

For embellishments, I went with hearts, butterflies, chipbaord, labels lots of alphas.

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. So I’m calling mine Mindful for the nod to the original self-care kit theme and the way that I follow some self care in my own life right now.

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!

Until next time, have an artful day.

CKC Challenge #1, Feb ’23

It is challenge time over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. Our hostess for the month, Cindy, gave us a nod to Valentines day with a simple challenge. We are going to “put a heart on it”! So easy and it doesn’t even have to have anything to do with Valentines day if that isn’t your jam.

If we are going to put a heart on it, then I am going to put a HEART on it! I went big with this one inspired by being bold with my heart and also about the design concept of white space that my ScrapHappy team has been discussing over on the bog. It is nice when I can get two ideas in one layout!

I was also playing with washi tape, which I haven’t done in a while, so that felt good. And I created some fun interactive tags. They are tied on to flip over and find more photos on the back. I’m super happy with how this one came out.

If you want to hear more of my thinking behind layout decisions, check out 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!

Forgeries on the Fourth (aka FOF), Feb ’23

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.

We are being inspired by this kit from the Cocoa Daisy Modern Memory Keeping kit from Feb ’22, called Elegance Blooms.

Did you notice the arrows, chipboard circles, frames and a tag in that kit? The photos below came from various add ons and kit pieces. You can see that I was inspired by quite a bit!

I used white cardstock, washi tape and various cutting tools to create all these items. Did you notice that I even included the “negative space” from die cutting the arrows as part of my embellishment set? So fun!

You can see how I went about creating my forgery in this video for more details.

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 Time, Feb ’23

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😉 ).

Let’s welcome our guest designer before we dive in….

Karen Pietruszkiewicz has been playing along with us over at CKC for a little while now. Her enthusiasm has been infectious! I’m so glad she is on board as our guest this month. She’ll be sharing her work right no the CKC Facebook group so you’ll be able to see all the CKC goodness in one spot.

Now we can get to the pretty stuff. To start, here is our inspiration kit, picked by this month’s kit hostess Cindy. We have the Cocoa Daisy Modern Memory Keeping kit from Feb ’22, called Elegance Blooms. Cocoa Daisy is always packed with options. If you want more ideas check out their site. But we are going to take a brief look and then get to the kit building.

I knew there were elements that I just had to have: enamel dots, circles, arrows, hearts. The rest of the kitting was still up in the air. It wasn’t until I went to start grabbing papers that I settled on the idea that the floral/foliage framed paper shown below should be my starting point.

With that idea in mind I went straight to my Pink Fresh papers since I know they do some lovely floral frames. I found one and the colors played nicely with the inspiration so that was the start of my kit. I also knew that I wanted to pull some chevron in appreciation of the very bold chevron in the inspiration. The color palette flowed both from my starting paper (pictured on the left below) and from nods to the inspiration.

Embellishments this month needed to be all pre-made as it is a LOAD month for me. (If you don’t know about LOAD, the short version is it is a LayOut A Day project hosted over at ScrapHappy.org.) If I am going to create a layout every day, the projects need to come together quickly. I also wanted to give myself plenty of choices for embellishing so I packed a lot in my kit this time. Notice there are some tools in that collection for making my own embellishments. But that will come with the Forgery on the Fourth (coming soon) project and not with each page itself!

There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So I’m calling mine… Fun Lovin’ for the mix of hearts and bold prints.

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!

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 #2, Jan ’23

It is challenge time over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. Our hostess for the month, Lisa, has been taking us back in time with our challenges. Remember the popularity of double page layouts from times past? That was challenge #1. This time we are heading to our old favorite techniques to bring the past back into the present.

This layout is definitely a mix of the old me and the current me. Old me used a three-photo cluster almost all of the time. Plus old me would ink and distress edges much of the time. New me adds more layers of pattern papers, homemade embellishments, and watercoloring. Both of me still turn to the classic rule of threes for embellishing.

New me also likes to use wording in my journaling that hints at some of the product selections. If you enlarge the journaling above you’ll notice I refer to how an audience “circularly reinforces” the energy of the performers. That wording is a nod to the circular elements I used on the page!

If you want to hear more of my thinking behind layout decisions, check out 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.

CKC Challenge #1, Jan ’23

It is challenge time over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. Our hostess for the month, Lisa was inspired by a double page sketch offered over at the Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine from 2010 . You can find that post here.

Are you a double pager? I used to be a dedicated double page girl. I did not like flipping pages in my album to see two discordant layouts side by side. I have no idea how I made the switch to doing single pages. I’m sure some of the industry trends played an influence. Some of it was a slow down in my own photo process. Definitely part of it was time allotment! At any rate, I have been a single pager for many years now, with just the occasional double. So it felt good to take on a double page this time.

First here is a peek at that sketch….

And here is my interpretation. I replaced some of the photos with clusters of photos. I adjusted some of the paper blocks with mixed media (details shots below). Finally, I turned my title and journaling block to be horizontal instead of vertical. Simple changes and I have a different layout.

Here are a few more closeups of this one.

There was a lot of “making” on this layout. Not only did I use glitter paste mixed media to make a background, but I created all of the embellishments. Previously I made the snowflake paper and the title card. I die cut foliage, watercolored & stamped snowflakes, and added a bit more other stamping., If you want to see the whole process of pulling all these pieces together, I’ve got a video for you.

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.

Forgeries on the Fourth, January 2023

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, aka FOF, 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.

We are being inspired by this kit from e a Hip Kit Club inspiration from just this past December of 2022.. I found 3 papers very interesting in that kit, but could only get to forging two of them. This first one was a snowflake print

I pulled out a stamp set from Hero Arts called Color Layering Snowflake (just a quick tip: this set is currently on clearance sale over at Scrapbook.com for a great price!!^^ ) and my Concord & 9th inks and got to work. I added in some navy ink to match my kit a bit more and I ended up with a piece that I am very happy with.

The next inspiration up was this little paper on the far right.

Those feathery circles really grabbed my attention. I knew I had to recreate those in watercolor! I pulled out my new Grabie.cc travel watercolor palette (full disclosure I did receive this set for free to do a review of it.) and set to work. Again, I added in navy to my palette. This did take me probably more than an hour to complete, but I put on music and sang while I painted and it was very meditative.

If you want more details on how I created each of these pieces you can check out the video below.

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, January ’23

I think I have gotten to the time of my life when I am surprised every single time when the calendar flips over to a new month. Plus with this being January the calendar has also flipped over to a new year. Oh how time flies. After a break in December from kitting, and largely from scrapping, it is time to get back at it.

Lisa is our Master Forger hostess for this month. She chose a Hip Kit Club inspiration from just this past December of 2022. Before we take a peek at the kit, let’s welcome our guest designer, Anandi. Anandi has been playing along with us at over at CKC for a little while now and her design sense is beautiful. She has been a part of the Simple Scrapper design team in the past so she know’s what she’s doing! 😉

Alright, now we can take a look at the inspiration piece. I grabbed this screenshot from the Hip Kit Club YouTube video kit reveal. The graphic was just much clearer that the website photos. Odd. Anyway, I took inspiration from the kit for these elements: yellow, aqua, pink, navy, grids, stripes, woodgrain, birds and foliage, chipboard, die cuts, homey icons, and snowflakes.

Hip Kit Club offers a wide range of add-ons for their kits, so I did take a look at those as well. A few things caught my eye. I liked the wood grain foliage pieces in the embellishment set, the idea of mixed media and the sweater texture of the metal die. So all these ideas got incorporated in my kit.

So here are my papers

And what my embellishments ended up being.

There were a few items I missed tucking in my kit because I forgot or because I couldn’t find them. So a few more bits will be coming. In addition I’ll have some forgeries coming on the fourth, so stay tuned for those. Finally, as a tradition over at CKC, we name our kits. I’m calling my kit Warm & Wintery for the juxtaposition of the hot pinks and yellows along side the blues and snowflake elements!

In the meantime if you like to hear more thoughts behind my kit process, then you can check out the video version.

Go ahead and 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 Bonus Challenge

It is challenge time AGAIN over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. Normally we have just two layout challenges a month, but since our fearless leader Lisa is hosting this month — in her birthday month! — we get a bonus birthday-inspired challenge. We are going to play with bows or ribbons.

So I grabbed my CKC kit. Here is a reminder of that…

Then I grabbed a bow die from my stash. This little bow came from a Doodle Bug holiday stamp and die set that I got as part of an online event. If I can find. Then I got to work building little bows. I lined them up and built the rest of my page around that.

And here is the full process…

You can find more takes takes on this challenge over at the CKC blog! Don’t forget to play along with this challenge and 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.