Category: Kit Talk

CKC Kit Build, August ’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. Clair Rigby will be joining us this month! I enjoy seeing when she posts over in our Facebook group, so it’ll be fun to watch her all month long!

Our kit is from a newcomer on the European kit market: Pink and Paper. We will take inspiration from their June 2023 offering. Lisa, our CKC leader is also our hostess this month and she chose this new-to-kits company for their position in Europe (where Lisa lives), and for their education-first approach. (More information on their subscriptions can be found here.)

This kit is bright and flowery with plenty of pink. While I love all those things on their own, I do find it a bit hard to use in my own layouts. So I’ll take inspiration from many things in this kit but shift the color palette just a bit and keep my florals on the calmer side.

I leaned into the purple marbled paper in the inspiration as well as the more peachy pinks. After replacing the teal with just a bit more green, I felt like my papers were ready to go.

Embellishments in the inspiration felt pretty straightforward with some ephemera die cuts, puffy hearts, and puffy words as well. I followed along with much of that, keeping my color palette in mind. A few partially used sticker packs hitchhiked along to complete my embellishments.

Since there were no alphas in the inspiration, I took free rein to use a variety of fonts and styles in colors that coordinated well 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. So I’m calling mine Lavender Bliss for it’s lean into purple and the calm florals I included instead of the bold inspiration florals.

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 Kit Build, July ’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…. DawnLyn Litz. DawnLyn is very active in our group and shares lots of the projects, from tags and cards to double page layouts. Leave her some love over there for being our guest designer this time around!

Now we can get to the pretty stuff. Our kit hostess for this month, Leslie, was excited to find a new kit offering on the market! It is a kit offering by Mercy Tiara. Mercy Tiara has a large online presence and audience and she is now offering kits! We are using her inaugural kit called Feeling Groovy as our inspiration for this month. If you want to see her whole reveal of this kit, you can check out her YouTube page.

One of the first things I noticed was the pack of PinkFresh Studio chipboard frames. I love their frame pieces and as it turned out I did indeed own this exact pack. I had squirreled it away when I bought it since I was in the middle of so many other things. I’m glad I was reminded of this bit of goodness in my stash to be a starting point for my kit build. The second thing I noticed was Jen Hadfield and Vicki Boutin, two more of my favorite designers. So that made it easy to pull from those three sections of my stash!

Here are the papers I came up with. I believe I only added in those three designers. I really loved that cassette tape paper from the inspiration and considered adding a Bella Blvd vinyl record paper, but the colors were wrong. Instead I used that bicycle paper from PinkFresh (see below) to replace that cassette tape. That along with the big floral are my focal papers for the kit. Not quite the same vibe as the original, but they have their own groove and lean to specific stories for me.

As I mentioned, my embellishments started with that PinkFresh chipboard frame set. I had the matching die cut ephemera from that collection, but I chose to include a different collection of ephemera since it was a partial pack and I want to use it up. I also had the matching sticker sheet, so in that went. I had a very hard time narrowing down the rest of the stuff I pulled. Most of my Jen Hadfield pulls went in, but surprisingly, most of my Vicki Boutin embellishments did not make it. I did keep the two alpha sets I pulled and the tiny Fernwood puffy stickers. In addition I pulled some chipboard style flair (also happens to be PinkFresh) and some flair-style buttons. Enamel dots were the finishing touch.

This kit ended up being WAY bigger than I intended. I was determined to have a smaller kit this time since I am just not using up my kits. But I have a hard time putting pretty things back into storage! So, my kit is big and full and I will likely have to put away the extra pretty things later instead of now. Oh well.

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 Peaceful Plethora.

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!

PRODUCTS USED^^

From Scrapbook.com

From ACherryOnTop.com

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^^ 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, June ’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. Stacy will be joining us for kit fun this time around. You can find here work at https://www.instagram.com/scrapstuffwithstacy/! Leave her some love as we move through June.

Now we can get to the pretty stuff. To start, here is our inspiration kit. It is The Friendship Collection kit by Weeds & Wildflowers Supply Company. They seem to be a digital product supplier, so keep that in mind! Our CKC team member hosting this kit is Tara and she was appreciated the range of options available in this kit. And since she is consistently creates large kits, this inspiration has plenty to offer! As you can see from the inspiration kit images, there is a lot going on!

I was inspired by rainbows and clouds, pops of black and white, washi tape, flair buttons and a few other bits and pieces. The very first thing I wanted to pull was my own paper collection design since it had clouds and rainbows! (It is a free download and you can check it out if you want more information.)

So these are the papers I came up with. The 8.5×11 sheets are from my collection. I didn’t include everything, but just the most relevant pieces. Notice I also have a couple of 6×6 paper pads. There are lots of techniques to incorporate these onto 12×12 layouts if that is your style (This YouTube playlist has many examples.) But… they always make great layers not matter what you do.

Here is a look at the embellishments. I’ve got way more supplies in here than I can possibly use, but having options is good. Kitting helps me limit my supplies just enough so that I am not browsing through my entire craft room each time I sit down to create. Yet a big kit offers plenty of options depending on the mood of the stories I have to tell.

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 for that Forgery on the Fourth project. I’ll tell you I’m showing you some doodling tips and tricks!

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

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 Kit Build, May ’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😉 ).

This month Sheryle Thomas is our guest designer. Give her a warm welcome over on our Facebook group,. She is from Michigan and is a retired nurse. Now that some of her care duties are behind her she has time to use the stash she has been collecting. I think the CKC group will certainly help her do that.

Now we can get to the paper stuff. To start, here is our inspiration kit. It is Noteworthy by the Not Just for Boys kit club. Julene is our team hostess and she appreciated this kit since it moved far away from pinks and florals.

That circular geometric paper caught my attention instantly. Then upon closer inspection I noticed greens, yellows and a bit of blue along with plaid and woodgrain. So that is where I went with my kits. Oh, that is not a typo. I did say kits, plural. With May being a Layout A Day month, aka LOAD, I will be telling a variety of stories so I wanted to break my kit up into page kit themes all while keeping the inspiration in mind.

I had a formula for my kitting. Two papers were pulled from a current Pinkfresh Studio paper line called Spring Vibes^^. That line had colors and geometrics that caught my attention. Then I added in a third focal sheet of something from my stash. Sometimes it was inspired or sometimes it was just something that fit the other papers. Finally each kit got a sheet of woodgrain. For embellishments I pulled an alpha set to match, included some type of enamel dot type element, journaling/ephemera bits, a stencil, some type of icon embellishment, and finally word elements. Those words were the first thing I added and those set the theme for the kit to pull all the other items. Notice the purple tags in the photo? That labels each kit’s mood.

And as such, with our tradition of naming kits, I am going to call my kit Not Just for One Mood, as a nod to our inspiration company!

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.

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. To see the full hop list this month, head over to the CKC blog post and find the list near the bottom.

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!

SCT Sampler Kit Unboxing, April ’23

Getting my SCT Sampler kit in the mail each month is a bright spot. This small affordable package is just enough newness + surprise to keep me satisfied. This month the package contained products from Scrapbook.com, Talyored Expressions, Simple Stories and LDRS Creative. It is jam packed with goodness.

I wouldn’t want to leave you wondering just what to do with these supplies. So I almost always make a project as soon as my box arrives. That way I am sure to use it instead of just showing it off. This time around I again made a 12×12 layout. But I had an interesting idea on how to put that 6×6 pattern paper to use! Check it out.

Of course if you want more information you can watch my YouTube video to get a better look at the kit products and my project.

If you want more info on these kits, check out the links and info below.

SCT sampler kit information
Please note: you can not order the current kit. Instead you sign up for a future beginning date for your kits. Kits currently run between $14 per month (1-year commitment billed every 4 months) to $17 per month (4-month commitment billed fully). Extras not shown in the video include a private Facebook group with video shares each month, a cut file download to match the theme word and discounts for prominent online scrapbook shops.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at what these little kits have to offer and seeing it put into action with a project. I’ll be back soon with more crafty goodness. Until then, have an artful day.

Until next time, have an artful day.

PRODUCTS USED^^


—– From Scrapbook.com—-

—- From ACherryOnTop.com —-

—- From Taylored Expressions —-

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, April ’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😉 ).

Our Guest Designer

Let’s welcome our guest designer before we dive in…. Kathy Leicht-Gregg! Kathy is a friend of several of us team members over at CKC and she has been lurking in our group for a long time. I finally encouraged her to join in and be our guest designer. Her layouts are lovely but she often works choosing very specific colors for each project, so she wasn’t sure she could work from a kit this way. I thank her for taking a step outside her comfort zone!

The Kit

Now we can get to the pretty stuff. To start, I am the kit inspiration hostess this month around. I wanted to pick something a bit different than a typical kit so I chose the SCT Sampler Kit from April 2022. These kits from the Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine, are pint sized collections that pack in a nice sampling of products. And if you’ve spent time here or on my YouTube channel you know I love my SCT Sampler Kits.

The fun thing is you still get a wide variety of ideas, with two different themes to choose from! You can pick and choose one idea or the other, or combine them for one bigger kit. Don’t let the small paper sizes fool you—you can always take your kit to the paper size you need! This kit also has a few fun goodies for forgeries as well. I hope you enjoy this twist on our typical monthly kit idea.

Kit Reveal over on the SCT site is really just a blog post with some project ideas. You’ll need to scroll to the bottom of this SCT blog post to see the actual kit. But that photo is above, so this link is really just for your reference!

Kit Contents

  1. Floral stamp from LDRS Creative (exclusive)
  2. “Celebrate” word & shadow die from SCT Magazine (exclusive)
  3. Birthday Girl Collection by Echo Park: 
    • papers
    • ephemera
  1. Violet Studio Florals Collection by Crafters Companion
    • papers
    • mini tag sentiments
    • mini bows

More Product Views

I was inspired by the florals in the kit, which is unusual for me! Plus, the little bows and the small sentiment tags were elements I knew I wanted to use. I recently purchased a floral collection from LDRS Creative called Lovely Watercolor. You can find it at Scrapbook.com^^ if you are interested in this collection pack. I knew that would be the foundation of my kit right away. I added in just a quick couple of extra papers that caught my eye. And then I grabbed my spring theme file and pulled embellishments from that—some print& cut pieces from Traci Reed (though I don’t see them on her sight anymore) and some puffy stickers. With the addition of a floral die set (instead of the floral stamp in the inspiration), some fibers and a way to DIY my own little tags, my kit was complete.

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

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.

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 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!

SCT Sampler Kit Unboxing, Jan ’23

Getting my SCT Sampler kit in the mail each month is a bright spot. This small affordable package is just enough newness + surprise to keep me satisfied. This month the package contained products from Simple Stories. Take a look… (and sorry in advance for the color in this photo. I didn’t notice the issue until it was too late.)

I wouldn’t want to leave you wondering just what to do with these supplies. So I almost always make a project as soon as my box arrives. That way I am sure to use it instead of just showing it off. This time around I made a January in review layout. With this kit and this layout, I will be doing a review page each month! Stay tuned for those. For now this is how far I got with this layout. I have two more photos to add, which I left room for just in case I had more to say for January, and sure enough I did.

Of course if you want more information you can watch my YouTube video to get a better look at the kit products and my project.

If you want more info on these kits, check out the links and info below.

SCT sampler kit information
Please note: you can not order the current kit. Instead you sign up for a future beginning date for your kits. Kits currently run between $14 per month (1-year commitment billed every 4 months) to $17 per month (4-month commitment billed fully). Extras not shown in the video include a private Facebook group with video shares each month, a cut file download to match the theme word and discounts for prominent online scrapbook shops.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at what these little kits have to offer and seeing it put into action with a project. I’ll be back soon with more crafty goodness. Until then, have an artful day.

Until next time, have an artful day.

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!