Category: Videos

CKC Kit Build, Nov ’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 goodies😉 ).

It is time for the final kit build of 2025! Our CKC group takes a kit break in December (don’t worry, we bring other fun instead). So, let’s get to this new month of kit building. Brandi is our hostess this time. She chose the Cocoa Daisy’s October Glow collection to inspire us. It is a kit full of atumnal colors and icons. Before we dive into the details, let’s give a warm welcome to our guest designer this month, Lisa. I hope you’ll cheer her on in our FB community group as well as on her YouTube channel.

So let’s move on with our kit. Here are a few looks at what we have in store this time around. We’ll start with some details and then look at the overview.

I am certainly ready for a fall vibe. The season finally changed where I live and I welcome it. (I know for our souther hemisphere friends, heading into spring must be a welcome change also!) While I’m ready for fall, I still need a broader color palette for my stories since my layouts often feature photos from other days of the year. So I will add in more color as I kit build. As always, I start with the papers.

I had some good options to go with many of the inspo papers. I did swap in a more colorful stripe in place of a plaid paper. Then I just added one more bold color stripe from Vicki Boutin. Using those two items, I brought in more yellow, blues and green in cardstock. This will help me feel flexible in my story options.

Moving on to embellishments… I found some great items that worked with the kit. I do have a bit more color with my chipboard, cutaparts and enamel dots. I also tucked in many stamps that I will put to use when I make my own supplies for this kit. Over at CKC we call that our Forgeries on the Fourth. For me I call it my Monthly Makes. I hope you’ll come back on the fourth to see what I do with those stamps. I have been wanting to do this for a while now! Plus I have more ideas to play with!

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

FALLing for stamps

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, October ’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 goodies😉 ).

Hello, hello, hello. This is the first time in a while that I am officially creating a full scrapbook kit for the month. Over at CKC we share duties and I was on other tasks the last few months. It feels good to be back to my full kit self. With that…

Welcome to a new month of kit building! Team member Tina is our hostess this time. She chose the Not Just for Boys Kit Club kit called Journey the World to inspire us. We’ve got more travel theme to work with this month and a very neutral color palette. But before we take a closer look at that, let’s welcome our guest designer for October.  Lori Stroup, a prior forger, is joining us. You can find her on instagram or her blog, My Happy LIfe.

And now for the crafting! Here is what is inspiring us this time around.

While I DO have travels to document, there was a time when travel scrapping was not my thing. I just didn’t go anywhere. So if that is the case for you, remember that travel and easily slide over to “Advendure”. You can have adventures anywhere at any time, big or small. Keep that flexibility in mind as you build your kit.

For me I will still with the solid travel theme. I’ve included several map prints, as well as a few other travel related ideas: geotags, luggage tags, camera. I’ve also added bright pops of color with a handful of scrap papers. This helps me shift a neurtral color palette more to my style.

I loved a lot of the embellishment elements in the inspo. From roller phrase stamp, to wax seals, I tucked in plenty of ideas right out of the kit. I’ve also thrown in a few of my own items, such as ribbon, puffy phrases and chipboard. When I finish making some embellishments on the Fourth, that will round out my extras.

Speaking of the Fourth, I hope you’ll join me as I create those 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…

Rainbow Globe

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 ’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 goodies😉 ).

July! July? Yes, it is indeed a new month and we are now past the half way point of 2025. If you’ve been longing to slow life down and take a step back in time, then Julene has you covered this month. We are heading back to July 2014 for a throwback inspiration. On the CKC blog you can find the Noel Mignon’s Balboa Kit. We’ll take a look at that in a moment. Before we do, let’s give a warm welcome to our guest designer this month Kate Blue. Kate was on or design team for a year, so we are happy to welcome her back for another month of fun.

So let’s move on with our kit. Here is the one big look at this kit. Man, these older kits were packed with FUN stuff like ribbons, mini clothes pins and felt flowers. We just don’t seem to find this variety of elements anymore. Perfect reason to counterfeit our own!

I made my typical list of elements that caught my attention and got right to work. I don’t own many of the bold organes and magentas in the inspo, so I had to make do with what I could find. Let’s see how I did.

Papers

I leaned into the black and white. I pulled coral tones as close to the orange as I could get.Plus there are plenty of geometrics. I even has a special pre-embossed piece for a color resist technique where I can add in my own bolder colors.

Embellishments

I tried to pull in more of the bold colors in my embellies. I have orange washi and some stickers with more pops of color. Are they perfect matches? Nope. But we make adjustments when we are pulling our own kits!

Don’t forget that each month I also create my own elements to add into my kit. I have an interesting idea that I hope works out. 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 my colors don’t quite reach the boldness of the originals, I’m calling mine…

Unripe

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!

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

Each month I enjoy finding inspiration in our Counterfeit Kit. Some months ideas pop instantly. Sometimes I have to dig deeper. And, like this month, sometimes I have too many ideas for the time I have. I needed to pick and choose. Even limiting myself to three items kept me very, very busy. Let’s take a look at the inspo to see where I went. Our inspiration is the Intrinsic Limitless kit from Not Just for Boys. I did pull from some of the add-ons to this kit as well.

Inspiration Image
Inspiration Image: stuffed fabric stars
Inspiration Image
Inspiration Image: Metal Charms
Inspiration Image
Inspiration Image: Postage stamps

I did pull from some of the add-ons to this kit as well. In fact, those fabric stars where part of the add-ons. Plus they were a popular item with the team this month! I knew that the sewing technique and the fabric they used would make it a bit tricky to do at home, especially at that size! I altered it up to fit my needs: non-fraying fabric plus sewing that didn’t require my machine. That way I could sit and stitch while I watch TV, lol. Despite my less than perfect blanket stitch (pointy corners stump me!) I think they came out well.

Next up I wanted to tackle those charms. My first thought was to make them from clay. But I don’t have any clay and I was not about to go out and buy some. If I did that I might as well just buy some already made charms. The point is to use what we have on had to mimic the inspiration. So I pulled out shrink plastic and metallic ink. It has been a while since I’ve worked with shrink plastic, but it was just as satisfying as I remember!

The final idea is one that I based my entire kit around this month: postage. I have been loving the trendy postage theme out in the crafty world lately. I have a few products that are clearly postage related. Yet as you can see from my makes, you can use just about anything to create these little gems. It helps to start with a great postage die. I used the Waffle Flower Postage Collage die. Waffle Flower makes many postage products; this one is sized for A2 cards. I threw in plenty of other supplies from my stash to create postage, from a nature theme to an Alice in Wonderland theme.

That is where I had to stop with my makes. I had too many ideas for my energy to hold out. I was very tired by the time I finished all these. It took me a couple of days to get through everything but it was fun. If you want to see details on how to create these, my video is up. Each make is in its own section so feel free to jump around to just what you want.

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 product ideas with supplies you may 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.

Supplies Used
*Affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you.

➜➜➜ FOR THE POSTAGE STAMPS
★★ Waffle Flower, Postage collage coloring stencil
★★ Waffle Flower, Postage collage die set, A2 size
★★ Sizzix, Stencil and Stamp Tool:
From Scrapbook.com
From Scrapbookpal.com
From ACherryonTop.com
★★ Honey Bee, angled shading brush
★★ Spellbinders, die cutting tool
★★ Spellbinders, alabaster, 12×12 cardstock

➜➜➜ FOR THE STUFFED STARS
★★ Spellbinders, quality Wool felt sheets: Not what I used but a good quality.
★★ Pacon, craft felt sheets, inexpensive: Not what I used but an inexpensive option.
★★ Colonial Needle, Embroidery needles: just an option
★★ DMC, embroidery floss/thread

➜➜➜ FOR THE “METAL” CHARMS”
★★ Spellbinders, die cutting cleaning tool
★★ Lawn Fawn, small alphabet stamp set: Not what I used but similar
★★ Lisa Horton, metallic pigment inks
★★ Spellbinders, corner rounder + notch tool
★★ StazOn, jet black, permanent ink
(In addition ultra fine point sharpies, the shrink plastic and a 1/8 inch hole punch can be found on Amazon.

Forgeries on the Fourth (aka FOF), July ’25

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 Balboa kit from 2014. This kit no longer exists, which a perfect reason to pull inspiration from it and make our own version!

There were many ideas I could pull from this. I ended up focusing on three things.

  1. The Chalkboard pattern papers. I thought I had some in my stash, but didn’t find it when pulling my kit. So… I’ll just make it!
  2. The fancy pins. In fact, I think my mock version is even better than the real thing. Stay tuned for why!
  3. That “Hello” word. A nice thick chipboard word covered in colorful spatters? Yes please!

Here is a quick look at the finished items. But let’s go over them briefly one at a time.

Chalkboard Paper

This process is really easier to see in action. I’ve got the video tutorial linked below for you.

I punched out a nearly 2 inch circle and cut it in half. Then I cut that half in half. That left me with a quarter of a circle. I used that to trace the curved edges. With a white gel pen I was able to trace a cruve in each corner of a black piece of cardstock. Remember to use the smooth side if you have textured cardstock. Then with a ruler I could connect each of those curves with stright line. Repeat that process to create a second border. Then realize there are smudges of white gel pen and make more purposeful smudges and marks to make them blend in.

Decorative Sewing Pins

Recreating these pins is awesome. I’ve used real sewing pins for projects in the past. They create two problems: danger of being poked and excess bulk on layouts. My version solved both those problems. You can make these using twist ties! Peel off the paper portion of the tie, but leave about 3/4 of an inch of the paper intact at one end. This is where you can glue on enamel dots. Once the glue is dry, trim away any excess paper using a pair of fine scissors and you have your mock pins! They are a major budget saver as well.

Just a note: the one on the right end was made using Nuvo stone drops instead of enamel dots. While it did work, these weren’t my favorite.

Word Art

Finally, I made the Hello word. This was easy to do on my Cricut. But you can also use dies. I just don’t have any word dies this size. I cut 4 layers of the word, then stacked and glued them. Once dry I simply splattered them with some watercolor. Done!

You can see all these ideas in action in my makes 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 product ideas with supplies you may 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, June ’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 goodies😉 ).

Welcome to June. Can you believe we are at the halfway point of 2025?? Yikes! Well, a new month means it is time to kit build. Tara, our community leader, is our hostess this time. She chose the Intrinsic Limitless kit from Not Just for Boys to inspire us. Before we dive into the details of this kit, let’s give MK Gunn a warm welcome to our guest designer this month. She is the owner of the shop called Some Assemblage Required. You can find her products there and you can check out her YouTube channel as well for inspiration. I know she has something in store for us this month, so stay tuned!

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

This collection made me think of the new Vicki Boutin collection called Flower Market* that is being produced by 49 and Market. They both have very neutral color palettes. So that is where I started my kit build!

So these are the papers I came up with. I tucked in four papers from the Flower Market collection. I wanted more but couldn’t bare to use them all up at once!

And here is a look at the embellishments. Again I focused largely on the Flower Market supply. Luckily the embellishment packs are jammed full so I don’t have to worry about using them all up in one go.

One thing I really focused on when building this kit was the postage/mail theme. Notice I have postage stamps like in the inspo. Now, I also have a mail inspired photopolymer stamp set and a mail inspired hot foil plate. I don’t know how I will use a mail theme on my layouts, but I’m loving the idea so I’ll figure 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. I have way too many ideas again this month!

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

Postal Adoration

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!

*Affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you.

Forgeries on the Fourth (aka FOF), April ’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 Lil’ Man collection from Bella Gypsy. You can find this digital kit over at Pickle Berry Pop. Since it is a digital kit, that gives us the perfect reason to create our own version of physical products!

Scrapbook kit inspiration

I honed in even further on some of this collections elements for today’s projects. What do you think I’ll be making from each graphic? I’ll tell you know that the third one is my favorite!

inspiration graphic
inspiration graphic
inspiration graphic

I started off easy with die cut and stenciled cork embellishments. Pigment ink is the key to stenciling these items. The opaque ink will show up crisp on the cork!

cork embellishments

Next up I played with wire. This was a bit of a struggle with some of the ideas and easier with others. After checking them out, would you attempt this one?

For sure, this last idea was a super new one to me. Not only was it really fun to create, but it worked beautifully! I made paint splatter stickers! Acrylic paint can be hard to work on cardstock. The wet nature of the paint takes a long time to dry and it can really warp paper. The solution? Make them on a non-stick surface ahead of time. Let them dry. Peel them up and put them on your project like you would a sticker! Any size, any color. Plus it takes the fear out of mixed media. Only use the ones you love!

These were just a few of the paint splatters I created. To see even more, 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 product ideas with supplies you may 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, April ’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 goodies😉 ).

I’ve been saying this more and more often, but I can’t believe it is a new month already. The speed at which months fly by continues to stun me. You may have noticed that my only blog post last month was my kit build. That is how fast things are passing by! At any rate, a new month means a new kit build. Let’s get to it.

Brandi is our team hostess this time. She is a big boy mama and chooses kits that can fit those scrappy needs. This time around her choice actually includes flowers and pink! It is the Lil’ Man collection from Bella Gypsy. You can find this digital kit over at Pickle Berry Pop. Before we dive into the details of this kit, let’s give a warm welcome to our guest designer this month, Briana Spors!

So, here is our inspiration kit.

Scrapbook kit inspiration

I was inspired by all the geometric prints, the cork embellishments and the sweet alphabet sets. I managed to come up with pretty good options for the pattern papers. I even have one veeery old pattern paper in my kit: that square print second from the right. I wonder if it will make it onto a layout this time?

I also decided to add in some solid cardstock this time as well. As I was looking at all the patterns nestled together I felt like some solid cardstock was needed to break up the layers. Here is where I found room for a bit more pink and even some purple!

Now let’s turn to the embellishments. I’m relying heavily on tools this month. I’ve included three 6×6 paper pads to put those tools to use with. I like the smaller scale of the patterns in these pads. In fact, the small scale of the patterns on the inspiration alphabet set is why I pulled out these paper pads! With the addition of some metal in the form of brads, and some wood and cork pieces, I’ve got a pretty good supply to keep me busy.

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 really started this whole kit build with the circle prints, I’m calling mine…

Circular Thinking

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, March ’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 goodies😉 ).

Welcome to a new month of kit building. Ryann is our hostess this time. She chose the Beach Tale Collection by Kristin Cronin-Barrow from Sweet Shoppe Designs to inspire us. Ryann chose this kit in honor of her first-ever trip to Hawaii! There is a lot to work with here.

Martha

Before we dive into the details of this kit, let’s give a warm welcome to our guest designer this month, Martha Saenz. Martha loves to scrapbook her family and has been at this craft for 27+ years. Be sure to read more of her story on the CKC blog.

Now for a look at this digital kit — or actually, two kits! This inspiration is a bundle! They have the same tropical vacation vibes with different color palettes. You could take inspiration from everything like I did, or focus on just one kit.

I don’t have a need for tropical or vacation vibes so I had to take this kit in my own way. That is what is great about CKC. It is inspiration. Just use what sparks your ideas for how you scrapbook! I chose elements I appreciated from all the imagery and came up with one giant kit. Well, at least one giant collections of papers, and some reasonable embellishments, LOL.

So these are the papers I chose. The bottom row captures some of the vibes of the kit in color or motif. I did have a couple of sheets of tropical paper (bottom right) but mainly I stuck with the color vibes. I swapped out the inspo Tucan for a bird print (bottom, center left). From the orange slices in the inspo I pulled out several fruit papers. Then I went wild with support colors from hot pink down to deep blues. Some of my solid cardstock pieces are even glittery to pull in some of the inspo kits’ sparkle.

That is way too much paper for me to ever use in a month, but maybe I can try a more layered style this time. That is likely to be a good idea anyway as many of these papers are from JoAnn and they are the single sided light weight papers. I’ll need to layer them up to be sturdy enough to handle embellishments.

Speaking of which, here are the items I included for embellishing. I have a wood grain alpha (plus, not pictured, a die set and scraps of woodgrain paper since this alpha is at the end of its useful life). I found some colorful rubons and enamels. Then I took on some of the more neutral elements with twine, buttons and wood grain phrase diecuts. I also made some of my own flowers, but I’ll show you more of that process on the fourth!

There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. Because of the bright colors and the overwhelming amount of paper, I’m calling my kit…

Fruit Punch

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!

Media Mats: An overview

Moving through 2025 I want to provide more informational content. Starting off the year I want to take a look at Media Mats. I’m starting here since you will see me use inks, paints and sprays on my projects on a regular basis. You will also see the various mats I use to keep my space clean, make cleanup easier and help me get the job done faster.

I created a video explaining many things on these mats. However that video is now fixed and can’t be changed. In fact I have now thought of one idea I missed already! Here I have the opportunity to update and correct information based on feedback!

Let’s start with that video. I’ll move on to a chart that you can download for free. Finally I’ll share many details of each mat category and the various qualities.

Media Mat chart

Download this pdf chart.

Latest update: February 2, 2025

More Details

Paper Mats

From scratch paper to specialty mats you can purchase. Paper sheets are a cheap and disposable way to make cleanup easier. Larger mats with grids can be purchased and the grids are very useful

★ Best uses: ink blending; catching messy mediums to throw away

Pros

  • Free or cheap
  • Readily available
  • Disposable so no further cleaning is needed.

Cons

  • Creates a lot of trash
  • Can’t handle very wet mediums

Laminated Paper Mats

The provide many of the same qualities as glass mats at a fraction of the cost. However, getting larger sizes requires going to an office store. Sizes around 13in x13in are available for home use. Consider a machine like the Minc which can be used both for craft techniques and for medium-size lamination.

★ Best uses: any mediums; smaller projects

Pros

  • Can be very inexpensive if you have a machine.
  • Machines have other uses such as storage dividers, preserving memorabilia, die cutting shims, toner foiling, etc.

Cons

  • Need a machine or access to an office supply store to make one for you.
  • Not heat stable

Splat Boxes

Free when you repurpose a shipping box or pizza box.

★ Best uses: sprays and spatters

Pros

  • No cleaning
  • Good for sprays and splatters
  • Free if you reuse a box!

Cons

  • Needs to dry in between uses (or line with disposables such as paper towels)
  • Bulky to store
  • Not for most mediums

The Craft Mat

One of the original craft surfaces produced by Ranger with Tim Holtz. The original brown color lacked the ability to see the true color of mediums. A newer white version solves that.

★ Best uses: All mediums, smaller projects

Pros

  • Reduces media waste (scrape it up and put it back in the jar)
  • Slick surface is easy to clean. Plus it is easy to take to the sink for deeper cleaning.
  • Great for paints & pastes
  • Lightest weight
  • Heat resistant (but thin!)
  • Low cost
  • Can have multiple on hand
  • Cuttable to have multiple smaller mats

Cons

  • Creases & cracks (store rolled up)
  • Not big enough for scrapbook layouts
  • Hard to tape things down to it due to it’s slick surface.
  • Slips and slides around with movement like ink blending. Difficult to tape still due to that slick surface.

Silicone Mats

Likely originating in the kitchen industry. In my opinion, the most overrated of the bunch. Has a slightly grippy surface, but not grippy enough to keep things from slipping. Easy to take to the sink for cleaning.

★ Best uses: keep ink pads still when ink blending

Pros

  • Repurpose from kitchen baking mats
  • Affordable
  • Cuttable to have multiple smaller mats
  • Most mediums (except alcohol inks)
  • Can work as a palette also
  • Other uses: ink pad grips
  • Good heat resistance for drying projects with a heat tool, or to protect surfaces while heat embossing.

Cons

  • Not as grippy as marketed
  • Picks up lint, dust, pet hair VERY easily and hard to clean that off. Store it inside a bag to keep it clean.
  • Due to lint, often needs a hose down in the sink.

Photopolymer Mats

One of the most expensive options “per square inch” and limited uses. However, it is very good at what it does!

★ Best uses: ink blending & stenciling

Pros

  • Most grippy
  • Long lasting
  • Fairly easy to clean.
  • Now come in versions that offer stamps on one side and the grip mat property on the other.

Cons

  • Expensive for its size
  • Larger sizes not available (ie 12×12)
  • Can’t use alcohol products (Sharpies included)
  • Stains over time
  • Picks up lint & dust VERY easily. Must clean often to maintain grip.
  • Can’t handle heat or cutting.

Sticky Mats

Slightly better at hold power than photopolymer mats, but not nearly as long lasting. The sticky adhesive wears out over time. There may be ways to reapply adhesive but this requires some special products.

★ Best uses: ink blending & stenciling

Pros

  • Holds things in place well
  • Easy to find
  • Fairly inexpensive
  • Can repurpose other things like older Cricut mats
  • Cuttable to have multiple smaller mats
  • Can be large enough for scrapbook pages

Cons

  • Sticky wears out quicker than you might think
  • The mat itself can slide around. Can tape it down. (DON’T add tape to sticky zone.)
  • Not great for pastes. (However, can mask off exposed sticky to use pastes anyway.)
  • Must be wiped with a lint free cloth like a chamois.
  • Store with plastic cover (usually included) to prevent collecting dust & lint.

Self-Healing Mats

Originally from the sewing industry for rotary cutters. Great size options. Decent price. Good for many mediums. Plus the added bonus of being able to use it as a light-duty cutting surface.

★ Best uses: general table protection

Pros

  • Lots of size options
  • Self healing (craft knives okay!)
  • Helpful grids
  • Light-ish weight
  • General craft store availability (can also check sewing department for other brands)
  • Heat resistant (not proof)
  • Mid-range price
  • Can be cut down to multiple other sizes.

Cons

  • Not as smooth as glass (cleaning pastes is harder)
  • Can gouge if cutting on it
  • Few color options
  • May cloud with alcohol cleaners and inks (but not too bad)
  • Can stain depending on mat color

Glass Mats

My favorite of the bunch with one big downside as a YouTuber: it reflects lighting very easily. This is the heaviest of the bunch so best to set it and forget it.

★ Best uses: all mediums, cutting

Pros

  • Reduces media waste (scrape it up and put it back in the jar)
  • Long lasting
  • Most have grids
  • Knife resistant (check brand first, surface grid printing can interfere)
  • Can be pretty
  • Can have magnetic properties
  • Very smooth for easy cleanup
  • Heat resistant for heat embossing.
  • No staining

Cons

  • Expensive
  • Heavy
  • Can break if dropped. Best left in place
  • Glare if filming
  • Some adhesives need alcohol to remove.
  • Due to it’s thickness, creates a lip on your work surface that can be irritating.