Category: Counterfeit Kits

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.

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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!

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.

LOAD Featured Designer

Hello all. Today I’m sharing the layout I created as part of the LOAD challenge. Each LOAD month, Alice asks for community members to volunteer their talents to share a layout based on day’s prompts. I received Day 13 as my task and it featured a prompt to tell a story about precision and to use an embellishment that requires precision.

After just a bit of thinking I had a story in mind. But what kind of embellishments require precision to use? That one took a little more thinking. When I spied a paper strip that had rows of colorful circles I realized that I could do a stacked die cut title in multiple colors. That would require a lot of precision to get all the letters aligned, stacked and glued in place!

Here is my story about how my eyes don’t precisely work together for clear vision. Instead I end up with doubled vision in certain situations. My title work mimics the physical problem in a way. If you want to see the full process video for this project, keep scrolling.

Okay, that wraps up a simple post for today. Until next time, have an artful day.

Double challenges!

It is the first challenge of the month over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. It also happens to land on the Mix It Up Monday (aka MIUM) challenge hop day. Luckily for me both challenges fit snuggly together, so I’m saving time and energy and combining the two!

The CKC challenge was to use TWO types of mixed media.
And as usual the MIUM challenge was to use a sketch and add in mixed media.

So you can obviously see how they fit together!

For reference here is our sketch from Rochelle Spears. I liked that it had three photos with an option for a fourth in that little polaroid frame. I went to my story binder, found a story with four photos and it was a story that would work well with my CKC kit colors and textures.

I told this story of creating decorations for a school trunk-or-treat even. My daughter and I designed our trunk based on the Little Shop of Horrors musical (specifically the movie from the 80’s as that is my era!). As the movie is set in the inner city the brick paper felt like a perfect base for the photos. I did change out the banners for tags. My mixed media was acrylic paint (green pluses) and spray mist. Both were chosen for their messy textural nods to all the materials that went into building our Audrey II monster.

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

I hope you can check out both the CKC team’s take on the blog, and follow along with the MIUM hoppers listed below.

MIUM YouTube hoppers
** Kristen from @scrappingonthefly1217
** Christine from https://youtu.be/ea9o0yvxCLI
** Tara from @thepapersnob
** Karen from @alittlekinder
** Mel from https://youtube.com/@MelWScrapping
** Briana from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzjIl4GZHauK29x8EvFCUw
** Lynda from https://www.youtube.com/@thescrapbookingphotographe3607
** Shannon B from https://www.youtube.com/@scrappingwithShannon
** Cheryl from https://www.youtube.com/@WatchCherylScrap/
** Misty {{{ YOU ARE HERE

MIUM Instagram hoppers:
** Brandi Jo https://instagram.com/scrappy.boymama
** Tina https://instagram.com/tinamcmmvr
** Simera https://instagram.com/scrappysimi/
** Laurie https://www.instagram.com/scrapbookingbits
** DawnLyn https://www.instagram.com/dawnlynsdesigns/

Until next time, have an artful day.

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

This month our inspiration was chosen by Brandi Jo who has boys in her life to scrapbook. So, she avoids all the typical “girly” papers. Thus we are being inspired by a fall color pallet of blues and oranges. This kit is November Rain by Not Just For Boys Kit Club.

I found the bold diagonal stripe paper in the top center, and the blueprint style paper in the top left to be pieces that I did not have in my stash. So that is where I focused my forgery attention. (I wish I could have forged the blue brick but I could not figure out a way to make that happen!)

Here is how that stripe paper turned out. I am rather pleased with it. The trick with a diagonal stripe has to do with math. The diagonal of a square is always longer than the sides. In the case of 12×12 pattern paper, that diagonal is almost 17 inches (if I did my math right 😁). That means you either have to cut a whole new paper right on that diagonal or piece together shorter pieces to reach across the span. In my case I used both.

For my second forgery, I did not have any type of mechanical stamps or stencils to recreate that paper. So instead of trying to make an exact duplicate, I went with the vibe of the paper. I used industrial looking imagery to pull this one together. It is all stenciling so it came together rather quickly.

If you want more details on how I pulled these together, especially tricks to get those diagonal stripes to work well, you can check out the 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.

CKC Kit Build, 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 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😉 ).

As we dive into our inspiration for February, let’s welcome Jessica Mikels as our guest designer for the month. You can connect with her via her Blog, Instagram account, and YouTube channel. I hear she is a mixed media goddess, so if you are like me and go for that style, do check her out.

Now we can get to the pretty stuff. To start, here is our inspiration kit. It is November Rain kit by Not Just For Boys Kit Club. Our CKC team member hosting this kit is Brandi Jo. Since she has boys to scrap she wants kits that shy away from pinks, flowers and butterflies. This kit fits the bill.

This kit was outside my comfort zone. I actually liked that! It meant that it was a challenge, and I enjoy a good challenge/puzzle. Oranges and browns are not my go-to colors, especially here in the midst of winter. I knew I needed to lighten and brighten this kit if it was going to work for me.

I did this in several ways. First, I chose a Traci Reed digital collection that features a cozy, homey vibe in a richer color palette, including oranges. It is called Hygge Season and has an add-on that includes specific winter icons. While I was browsing my TR supplies, I landed on the Tempest collection (a freebie on her site– follow instructions to get all three parts of the freebie). This one has a bit of color overlap with the inspo kit by having coraly-orange, tealy-green, navy, plus some pink. The takes on the colors in this collection definitely brighten things up.

I also chose wood grain that included whites, a bit of pink and lighter versions of orange. You can see in the photo below how everything pulled together.

I have lots of die cuts (too many really to use in one month!), a bit of cork inspired by one of the brown kit papers, as well as stencils and navy spray in my embellishments. I pulled several alphas in browns and tans and one navy. They all have most of the vowels used up so hopefully I can get some titles out of these. That is why I pulled so many! Check it out.

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…

Yin Yang

This title won’t make sense unless you hear me in the video talk about some of the embellments featuring homey vibes while some feature bad-day vibes. If you want more details on all that and more, 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!