CKC Kit Build, February ’25

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 goodies๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

Welcome to a new month of kit building. I have the duty of hosting our kit inspiration this month. I’m excited about the kit I picked. It has some elements I love and some looks that push me a bit. Perfect! Before I talk more about that I want to welcome Sheryle Thomas as our guest designer this month. She is a retired nurse and loves to tell stories of her lovely cats. That has my heart for sure! Sheryle is sharing all her work over on our Facebook group so be sure to leave her some love over there.

So let’s move on with our kit. I chose the May ’24 kit from Kitaholics Kits in Australia. Sadly after choosing this kit, it has vanished from the website. Luckily I saved some kit photos before that happened, so we are good to go with our inspiration. Here are a few looks at what we have in store this time around.

Be sure to take a closer look at the Cedar House papers by American Crafts in this kit. Many of them have gold foiling. I did not realize that at first! I was drawn to the kit for the earthy vibe that reminded me of a cabin in the woods. Yet some of the embellishments are just the opposite, with young energy popping off the page. However, there are more of those nature vibe embellishments also. Finally, while I adore woodgrains I don’t often stick to monochromatic scrapping, so that is another challenging part of this kit for me.

With all that in mind, these are the papers I came up with. I did pour over both the A and B sides of the inspiration and made one-to-tone choices when I could. There are some interpretive substitutions but I am super happy with my kit.

Now remember when I said monochromatic scrapping is hard for me? This is where my kit building started ballooning into a massive kit. We’ll get to all the extras I ended up adding but let’s start with the extra pattern papers. I wanted more color so I took that striped paper in the photo above as a jumping off point to bring in more color. Not only more color, but also more gold foiling. The three papers on the right end do just that. Plus it doesn’t hurt to add hearts to a February kit, right?

Let’s take a look at the base embellishments next. I’ve got a little bit of everything from the inspiration in here, from the kid energy to the nature vide.

The inspiration also included some mixed media elements. I stuck really closely to the inspo color palette. I did choose a lot of extras in the stamp category in the woodland animal theme.

I didn’t stop there. I needed more stuff in my kit, including tons of embellishments along the nature/outdoor theme. I have all of the Simple Stories Trail Mix line, some 49th and Market, plus a bit of Jen Hadfield with gold foiling.

Okay, one more thing and then I am done. I adored the burlap ribbons in the inspiration kit. Not many kits include those details these days, so that is very much one thing that drew me to choose this inspiration. With that I added lots of texture in the form of trims, burlap paper and corrugated cardboard papers. I’m looking forward to using up these old stash items.

Whew! Now that we have seen everything, there is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits. So I’m calling mine…

Cabin Adventures

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.

Hereโ€™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 where I’ll be adding even more to this kit. Until then, have an artful day!

CKC Kit Build, January ’25

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 goodies๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

Happy New Year everyone. January is always a big shift for me as I move from largely die cutting and card making back into scrapbooking. I often feel a bit rusty switching gears again. I’ll shake off that feeling and get right back to it. So… Welcome to a new month of kit building. Christine is our hostess this time. She chose the September 2024 kit from Hip Kit Club to inspire us. Before we dive into the details of this kit, let’s give a warm welcome to our guest designer this month. Jennifer Cain. You can find her on Instagram and on YouTube.

So let’s move on with our kit. Here are a few looks at what we have in store this time around.

It is a bit hard to get a closer look at all these goodies so you’ll have to trust me when I say I saw something sepcific that caught my attention, LOL.

For the papers, I only used items that sparked some interest for me. There was no specific reasons I included some papers and not others. The funniest thing about building out my papers was that I completely forgot I had this split-heart print in my stash. It was such a fun match to the inspo! Some other paper choices were more on the interpretive side, but that is how I roll.

For the embellishments I was super inspired by small little images in the kit pack. That lead me to pulling a lot of die sets and stamps sets to mimic those images. From roller coasters, to owls, to shoes, I packed in a bunch of little imagery. It’ll be a month of making embellies for each layout! Yet, I still do have my FOF (aka Forgeries on the Fourth) project coming, so perhaps I can get some work in ahead of time to pre-make some elelements.

Hope you will come back on the fourth to see what I made ahead and what I left to do in real time!

Before we go, there is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So I’m calling mine…

Sky High

… in honor of the stars and rollercoasters and hot air ballon images.

If you want more details on my kit building thought process, check out my kit build video. (This will go live 6am PST. To keep our team coordinated, our blog posts go live at midnight EST.)

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

Hereโ€™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 Kit Build, November ’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 goodies๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

Welcome to a new month of kit building. Vikki is our hostess this time. She chose the Goldenrod Digital & Printable Kit by Traci Reed Designs to inspire us. Before we dive into the details of this kit, let’s give a warm welcome to our guest designer this month. Tamra Hunt, pictured to the left! You can find her on her blog.

So let’s move on with our kit. Here are a few looks at what we have in store this time around.

Lets take a bigger look at the papers since that is where I usually start. What caught my attention was the fact that there were plenty of everyday papers tucked in there. From plaids to polkadots, I found plenty to inspire me outside of the definite fall theme of this collection. I very much appreciate that! I also liked that the softer than traditional color palette as well as the addition of gray and gray-teals.

So these are the papers I came up with. I subbed out the black star print for a large bold multicolor star. I included one leafy print and one pumpkin print as a nod to the theme. I also subbed in one wreath print that while intended for Christmas, could work really well on a Halloween layout with porch pumpkins!

And here is a look at the embellishments. I kept my main selection of embellishments manageable. I will allow myself to draw readily from my stash of fall and Halloween embellishments as needed.

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. I’m sharing some things from super-easy to fun-techniquey this time around.

There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So in honor of the wreath print I included, I’m calling mine…

Porch Decor

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.

Hereโ€™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 Kit Build, October ’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 goodies๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

Man, I have been so busy with a long list of stuff going on. Luckily most of it is good. Unfortunately it means multiple things have fallen through the cracks. Deep breath. Pick up the trail and move forward.

With that I am here with my October kit. The team at CKC breaks up tasks for the group by various jobs. I’m actually on the job of creating a mini kit + project this month. But… that kit & project is going to be a fun home decor idea (sneaky peek there). That means I still need a scrappy kit. So here it goes.

First here is our guest designer: Liz Ketter! You can find her on Instagram. I don’t know Liz so I am looking forward to seeing her work. Speaking of which we need to build a kit based on inspiration. Since I am behind the times, you can check out Liz’s and the rest of the team’s kits over at the CKC Blog. We are working with the An Autumn Tale: Chilly Breeze digial kit available at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

The very first thing I noticed was the demin accent. LOVE. We have had at least one other month with denim vibes during my tenure on the team. Still loving it. I also appreciate the softer takes on oranges and browns. Those are not my go-to colors at all. Yet the tones here have a bit of a glow to them that I appreciate.

So these are the papers I came up with. Apologies for the blurry photo. I had my camer in the wrong setting when I snapped this and didn’t realize it until it was too late.

And here is a look at the embellishments. Despite the chaotic look of this pile, I kept it simple. I added dies and stamps to create items as I scrap. I added textural elements of felt and cork. Then I just plopped my entire fall embellishment pouch onto my kit. Done.

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. I’m loving my ideas this time.

There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So I’m calling mine…

Easy Breezy Autumn

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.

Hereโ€™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 Kit Build, September ’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 goodies๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

I am not ready for summer to be over. I’ve barely been outdoors this year! Maybe after ridiculously hot summer temps I can shift my outdoor mindset into fall. Until then I will continue to scrap in my basement and avoid the overwhelming heat.

That means I need to kit build once again. This time I am taking a different tack for two reasons.

  1. I’ve taken on the mini kit job this month over at CKC.
  2. I need smaller kits since I have barely made a dent in the past few kits.

With that in mind I decided to build out page kits. I have done this in the past, but I have a bit of a difference this time. I’ve chosen my stories first, then built my page kits. Kinda. Sorta. I’ll explain after I introduce you to CKC’s guest designer for the month. Welcome Amy Jo Johnston. She will be sharing her work over on the CKC Facebook group. Be sure to check her out there and show her some love.

Now we can get to the paper. Brandi Jo chose our inspiration this month. As she has boys, you’ll notice a lean toward blues and greens. Yet there is a hint of florals if you need some of that in your life! Check it out.

I love the colors and the option to add some pops of boldness. The camera icons are something I’m all about, yet haven’t done in a while. It’ll be nice to pick up some old favorites again. Plus I’m always down for some mixed media vibes.

I took different elements of inspiration and tucked them into each kit. As I mention above, the idea to choose pictures/stories before product popped into my head as I was mulling things over. This is NOT how I normally kit. Taking on this change felt good this time around. That allowed me to use the inspiration yet really define the kits. I started really by pulling a few papers that played into the kit, then my photos/stories, then more paper for balance, and I wrapped it up with embellishments. This let me take on a bit more specific theme for some things.

Kit #1: School Kit

This one starts off looking quite different than the inspiration. But if you take a look, you’ll find commonalities. The elements I pulled from the inspo: text print, bird motif, “+” motif (in my case I used “x”, but you get it, right?), cameras and frames. Then I felt free to add in extra embellishments for the story. In this case a school story.

Kit #2: Memorial Kit

For this one I leaned into the pops of black. In addition I included film strips, frames, a hint of floral, washi tape (including a bird one), and a few tabs and tags. The basics from this kit (papers, stickers, journal cards) are all from Simple Storie’s “Heart” line from several years ago. I’m sad to need this line, but glad I had it on hand already.

Kit #3: Solar Kit

Here again you can see some similarities and differences from the inspo. Floral in a bold way. Teals in watercolor. A shot of black. Cameras, film strips and frames.

Each kit is it’s own entity, while all were inspired from the same goods. That is one of the joys of kit building! I’ll be creating a few of my own items from this inspiration as we typically do for our Forgeries on the Fourth project. I will also have that mini kit project up on the 6th. As you can guess it is another page kit… but for a double page layout! So stay tuned for all of that.

Before we go, there is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So I’m calling mine…

Memorable Moments

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.

Hereโ€™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 Kit Build, August ’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 goodies๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

I’m trying to hold on to the last month of summer. It has been passing quickly for sure. Luckily our inspiration kit captures some summer vibes to keep us going. Before we dive in to that inspo, let’s welcome the CKC guest designer for the month. Sarah Rouault is a UK scrapper who enjoys defined kits for her projects. CKC works great for that. To learn more about Sarah, head to the CKC blog for all the details.

Now we can get to the pretty stuff. To start, here is our inspiration kit. It is Bee-utiful Day Kit kit by Jennifer Fehr over at sweetshoppedesigns.com. Our CKC team member hosting this kit, Jody, appreciated the boldness of the kit.

I’ve been using plenty of black and enough yellow lately so I was a tad hesitant. But when I looked closer at the floral pattern papers and the cardstock color palette I knew I had plenty to work with. Throw in the add-on mixed media pack and I was golden.

So these are the papers I came up with. I leaned into some of the bee theme, included yellows and also gave a nod to the geometrics and woodgrains in the pattern paper graphic. It is easy to miss some of those smaller details when you have such a bold cover image. Be sure to take your time when checking out inspiration. You never know what small things will catch your attention.

I included the black the most in my embellishments. I have black mixed media paper by Vicki Boutin to do watercolor and inking techniques on. Plus I added black fibers & ribbons. That will give me enough black to work with and not be overwhelmed.

Don’t forget that each month I also create my own elements to add into my kit. This time you’ll get to see those coloring on top of black paper techniques!

There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So I’m calling mine…

The Bees Knees

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.

Hereโ€™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!


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CKC Kit Build, July ’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 goodies๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

It’s July and no matter how you cut it, in the norther hemisphere it is true summer. No wonder this month’s inspiration kit is jam packed with summer vibes. Before we get to that though, let’s welcome our guest designer, Lacy Stockton. Lacy is a Creative Memories scrapper and she is surrounded by the boys in her life. You can read more about Lacy along the blog hop. She’ll be sharing her work in the CKC Facebook group, so be sure you join us over there.

Now we can get to the pretty paper. To start, here is our inspiration kit. It is the Moonlit Collection kit by Traci Reed. Traci is a prolific and talented digital and physical paper designer in our industry! This kit is a big color punch from her typical work. But what a way to show off so much color by grounding it in black!

The picture above represent the digital kit and the thumbnails below show off some of the printable side of her work. I love that she does both!

I must admit that my mind was all over the place when I was kit building this time. Let me walk you through it.

At first I had the idea that would I print and cut the “sticker” elements from the Moonlit collection as I own them already. The plan was to pair them with just cardstock. Yep, just a bold rainbow + black selection of cardstock. I’ve done a couple of pages along those lines in the past and was curious to try it again. Also, I wasn’t so sure I would have papers in my collection that would go with Moonlit since I tend to be a soft color scrapper.

But wouldn’t you know as I started looking through my stash I started pulling. And pulling… and pulling. I ended up with 24 papers. I leaned into the orange, yellow and purple. As you can see my purple is pretty tame compared to Moonlit, but you work with what you’ve got, right?

But the papers didn’t stop there. At this point I had to create subsets of papers. We’ll get to that soon! First let’s cover the main embellishments.

I focused on the embellishments from the digi kit. Plus I added gold. Why gold? Two reasons. Traci Reed talked about the glowing quality of the Moonlit colors. I didn’t have that property to my kit so I pulled in some shine. But that shine idea came by accident from the papers below. Notice the sky print on the far left? That paper was one of the very first I pulled while I was kitting. It didn’t make the main kit, but instead it joined some companion papers and embellishments to become an add-on. All featuring gold, which did spill over into my main kit.

Oh, you would think I was done, but you’d be wrong. Boy I just kept going. While I was looking for yellow papers that far left lemon paper below caught my attention. It just made me crave summer food, especially fruit. So another add-on was born.

Was I done yet? Yes. Yes I was. LOL. I had to stop at some point, right? I have a scrapbook retreat coming up so this kit will be in my luggage. I’m hoping to make a dent in this massive-for-me kit.

There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. Since I’ve got so much going on, let’s do a little recap, and give these pretties some names.

Hot Summer Nights
main kit papers

Hot Summer Nights
main kit embellishments

Rainbow Lights
add-on

Shooting Star
add-on

Midnight Snack
add-on

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

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.

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

Hereโ€™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 Kit Build, June ’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 goodies๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

The year is half over? Already? I’m not ready for it to be June yet. Nevertheless, time waits for noone. So that means we need to build a new kit for a new month. Luckily I used up all my papers from last month and I am ready for some new goodies to play with.

Before we get to that, Let’s welcome our guest designer for June. Mel Walkden will be joining us. I know Mel from various crafty adventures so I’m happy to welcome her here. She is very active in the crafty world. You can find Mel on her YouTube channel and on Instagram. I know she is active on Facebook as well so you can use her socials to find her there also.

Now we can get to the paper stuff. To start, here is our inspiration kit. It is the Vintage Artistry Sunburst collection kit by 49 and Market. Our CKC team member hosting this kit is Laurie and she chose this bright and sunny collection to lead us into true summertime.

I was inspired by the bright color palette. I really don’t use colors this bold typically. But I’m feeling ready for the sunny warm colors. I really had to think about what I had in my stash that would meet this bright challenge.

So these are the papers I came up with. There are just a couple 49 & Market papers since most of my other stash from them was in softer color tones. I fleshed out the papers with lots of Vicki Boutin and a bit of Amy Tangerine. I didn’t over do it with my paper choices this month. I’m really hoping I can use up the entirety of it again this time! I love killing my kits. I will add in solid black cardstock for matting elements since that is my go-to layering right now. Plus the inspiration kit has pops of black so I will lean into that.

As for embellishments here is the pile of supplies I pulled. I know there is no way I can bash that stash, but it gives me options depending on the stories I end up scrapping.

I did get in some of the softer colors from my stash to fit in here. Plus I have added purple based on my 49 & Market and Vicki Boutin choice. Notice however that I didn’t add anything tropical or nautical in nature. I didn’t think I’d be able to use those elements this month. However I did collate a collection of stamps with imagery in that theme just in case. I’m calling those stamps my Nautical Add-on. So as the final elements to my kit here are my alphas (very basic) and my add-on stamps.

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. For the literal burst of color some of the papers have, I’m calling my kit…

Sun Sparks

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.

Hereโ€™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 #1, May ’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!

I’m hosting the activities this tome over at CKC. That means I get to create our challenges this time around. So…here we are with the first challenge of the month. I adored the circle print from the first image of the inspiration. Based on that, I challenge everyone to go geometric with their layouts.

I loved this paper so much that I created a cutfile that represented it. Just take a look below. Man. I’m just loving it. This is up for free here on my blog, so you can love it too. (While you are checking that out, I also created one more unrelated cut file that is also free over there.)

So with that cut file, I pulled a bunch of papers from my CKC kit and got to work making this layout. Oh. My. Heart. I just love this. I did tone it down with vellum. I do wish I had lighter weight vellum since it was toned down a tad bit too much. Even so, I’m just pleased. (Did I say that yet? LOL)

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 challenge. 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.

CKC Kit Build, May ’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 goodies๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

Welcome to May! It is my turn to host the activities at CKC this time! I’m excited to share what I’ve got going on for us this month. First though, let’s welcome our guest designer. My friend Alison Day agreed to share her talents with us this month. Not only is she a lovely layout creator, she also owns a scrapbook & craft storeโ€”Ladner Village Arts & Crafts located near Vancouver BC, Canada. You can find Alison on her blog, her YouTube channel and Instagram.

Now that we have given Alison some love, let’s move on to our inspiration! I was browsing the net looking for a kit when I happened upon a new-to-me companyโ€”DLS Design. It isn’t a surprise that I’d never heard of them since they are located in the Netherlands. However, when I saw their kit called Timeless, I was hooked! (Oh how I wish it wasn’t too expensive to ship their products to the US. Sigh.) That bold geometric hit all the sweet spots for me. Bold, but well balanced with softer colors and white. Plus quirky detailing to the circles. Then a deep dive into the collection lead me to fabulous icons like moths, pears, houses and so much more.

So here is what the Timeless kit looks like on their website.

Since this image isn’t full of detail, I did a bit of copying and pasting to get a better look at all the items within this kit. Here is how I put everything together. Some of the images aren’t the best as they were tricky to track down!

Note that this kit is a smaller selection of goodies from their larger collection release. If you want to see the entire line you can get even more inspiration.

So to build my kit I stared with that first pattern paper that I fell in love with. I actually had quite a few circle and half circle prints in my stash. Nothing was quite perfect but I settled on a Heidi Swapp paper that I really like (far right). From there I built out my other papers with pieces that captured the mood of the inspiration papers.

Next it was time to pull embellishments. I wanted all the cool icons, but I don’t have many of them in my stash. I had to make do with what I could pull.

On the left I have some cut-apart cards that have some of the icons, such as house plants, moths and books. I included a sticker sheet and ephemera pack from PinkFresh Studio that also had some more of the icons. The colors of those two weren’t a perfect match, but I will use the pieces that work. Phrases, enamels, hearts and stars were all on the inspiration menu and they made it in as well. Alphas are a must, but I skipped the kit stamp in favor of a die. Then, from the expanded collection I added in washi tape as well. Embellishments complete!

Don’t forget that each month I also create a few of my own elements to add into my kit. In the kit build video below I talk about some of what I have planned if you want a small sneak peek.

Before I wrap up this post, there is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So I’m calling mine…

Sweet Summertime

All the bold color, fruit and moths remind me of warm summer days & nights!

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

I hope you can follow along with the other designers and see how they interpreted their own kits. I know I am very curious to see what they all come up with.

Hereโ€™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!