It is time for the second challenge over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. Our hostess for the month, Tara was inspired by pattern paper in the inspiration kit she chose. First off, lets take a look at the whole kit from Citrus Twist Kit from March 2020 called Life Crafted, Weekender.
Now let’s check out that pattern paper. That piece down on the bottom left says “happy happy happy” all over it. And so that is our challenge. Scrap about something that makes you happy! Easy peasy.
What is making me the most happy right now is that my girls are back to their theater life after covid restrictions and delays. That is making us ALL happy!
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 contains brands new to the SCT kits — LDRS and Crafter’s Companion. I’m fairly new to both of these myself so I’m excited to learn more what they have to offer. In addition, we have more from Echo Park, and the 2022 die set from SCT. Such a full package.
You can see the full set of products and my project process in this video.
Because this kit had a stash of birthday themed products, and birthday cards are the cards I send most, I decided to make a whole set of cards. I played in three different ways with the products. I focused on the paper + ephemera for one set of cards, the die set for another set, and the stamp set for a third grouping.
That is it for this time. Happy crafting to you all.
It is challenge time over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. Our hostess for the month, Tara was inspired by an ephemera piece in the inspiration kit she chose. First off, lets take a look at the whole kit from Citrus Twist Kit from March 2020 called Life Crafted, Weekender.
Now let’s zoom in to one piece in particular. See the label that says “no filter needed”. Tara wants us to use this idea to tell stories of “your life unfiltered… the beauty in the mess of real life.”
Challenge accepted. Big time.
These are many photos over the past 15 years that I filtered out of my storytelling. They were all ugly to me for one reason or another. In fact sharing them on the internet has been a cringe inducing challenge. But here they are, totally unfiltered. I chose each one for a tiny bit of story it could tell. Since I didn’t have enough room to add journaling labels to each photo, I went old school and just scribbled all over them.
I asked this question in my YouTube video and I’ll ask again here: What do you do with bad photos? Do you chuck them right away? Save them? Scrap them??? Let me know in the comments!
And speaking of videos, here is the full process video.
I hope you can check out the other designers takes on this challenge! Don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge. We love to see your work!
I posted this pic over in my ScrapHappy community group and got some very kind responses. One of my scrappy friends over there happens to be a kind supporter of my YouTube channel and requested I demo the inked card fronts on the left. I was happy for the suggestions and showing it off today with an ever so slight variation.
As you can see I have a different color pallet, circles instead of hearts, a layout instead of a card and a touch of distressing. If you want to see how to give this technique a try you can check out the video
If you want just the very basics, I ink blended a sheet of watercolor paper with a mix of Distress and Oxide inks (Tim Holtz for Ranger), used a stencil to dab a damp sponge trough to reactivate and lift the ink, adding a bit more traditional ink stenciling over the top and finished off with some water spatters. Hope you are inspired to give this technique a try.
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 FOF—or Forgery on the Fourth—project is definitely one I enjoy! So let’s go ahead and dive in to what I have for you this month.
We are working with this kit from Citrus Twist, called Life Crafted “Weekender” as our inspiration. The second photo shows a close up of the daisy embellishments sprinkled in the kit. I decided I needed to create forgeries of those!
I started with a PinkFresh stencil that is actually designed for slimline cards. It is a multilayer stencil that adds lots of details.
I didn’t need the full stencil, just individual flowers. Looking at the packaging I noticed 4 flowers total that had that classic daisy shape. So I located those on my stencil and marked them with some flags of Post-It Notes.
Using a small blending brush from Gina K and 4 inks, two in yellow and two in browns (various manufactures!) I proceeded to blend JUST the main flower heads. That meant I did not need to use two of the stencils from the set since those were for the leaves/stems. Two of the stencils were for flower petal details and two were for flower center details. Once done I had this sheet of flowers.
The mess on the right side of the paper is me testing inks and cleaning my brush to switch colors. The pencil tick marks are there to help me line up the 4 different stencils in the correct place each time. I did one pass with the stencil, then shifted it over on my paper and did one more pass. Then I rotated the stencil 90 degrees and did two more passes that direction for a total of 16 flowers. Since the flowers are small it didn’t take long at all. A little bit of fussy cutting and I have myself a pile of pretty petals to play with!
Hope this helps you look at your stencils in a new light. They don’t have to be used “as is” and can be shifted to your needs!
Of course the CKC blog has more forgery examples to check out. I hope this gave you some ideas on how you can create forgeries of your favorite products with supplies you already have on hand. Don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.
The idea of watercoloring can stress some people out. It doesn’t have to be that scary! This layout shows a few very simple watercolor techniques that can be easy, even for newbies.
All the details are up in the video below so if you want to know more, you can check it out. For the quick version:
The journal spots are created with circles of very lightly tinted paint and then more concentrated color dropped into the middle while the paint is still wet. This creates a halo effect for the spots.
For the title I penciled in straight lines with a ruler, penciled in my letters and then use the edge of a wide flat brush to trace the letters. Be sure to pencil lightly so the marks don’t show later.
The “washi” strips at the top, as I call them, were created with a glazing technique. Paint a strip of color; i purposely made the edges look torn. Dry that color!! Then paint another color slightly overlapping the first. Repeat until you have the number of strips you want. I varied the width and length of my strips for more detail.
The target spot was more complicated and I’m not fully happy with it. But you could do a simple version just by dragging the full edge of a wide flat brush around a circle. I suggest tracing something circular first in pencil to get a nice straight line. I didn’t do that an my circle is a bit wonky.
Hope this inspires you to get painty. Have an artful day!
February was a LOAD month. Don’t know what that means? It stands for LayOut A Day and it is a challenge offered over at ScrapHappy.org. While it is included in the membership there, you can also join the LOAD just for the month. Next LOAD is in May if you get inspired to hop in.
Creating a layout a day for a month can be very busy, but it is also exciting and the community surrounding this project is the best! Let’s take a look at the things I made for LOAD.
Week 1:
From the layouts I can illustrate several ways I make it through a month of scrapping every day. I can use simpler designs, turn to the Project Life App on my phone, and even use base pages I created at scrap events/class. Those ones just need my photos, my story and my finishing touches to call them complete.
On to week 2:
Sometimes I do have the time to make layouts that make my heart so happy. Then getting to share that with other’s who love scrapping, makes it that much more special.
Week 3:
Sometimes I’ll try new things, like full digi. I’m still slow at it as I have big ideas and getting those ideas to work always takes longer than I expect. But it is easy to do digi on the laptop while sitting on the couch “watching” a show with my hubby. That way I’m not always squirreled away in the basement.
Week 4:
Besides LOAD I did have a few other projects going on. Most of them were for my YouTube channel, but if you missed them over there, I’ll show them here. I’ll admit that the first one here is not my favorite at all, but that happens sometimes.
I had a great time hosting the CKC for February but I am ready to sit back and let my teammate take the reins for March. Tara is hosting our kit this month. If you are new here, 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😉 ).
The guest designer for this month is Anna of Piece Craft Love and you can find her on YouTube.
Before we go too much farther you should know that there is a special surprise offered by Anna. Check out the CKC blog March kit reveal for the details!
This time around we are drawing inspiration from a Citrus Twist Kit from March 2020 called Life Crafted, Weekender. Here is the over all photo and a gallery of details.
The neon bright colors are common to Citrus Twist (as their name implies!) but they are not my go-to colors. However, I did find some tones that came close and captured the spirit of the bright, happy kit.
I’m calling my kit Spring Tease since the bright colors and florals make me ready for my garden to start blooming! Yet this time of year in my neck of the woods we will have some warm sunny days that make you thing spring is here, only to go wet and gloomy again. I always call that weather the Spring Tease.
You can see all my choices and hear all my thoughts that went into this kit in my video.
For the brief version, check out these photos.
Several of those papers I printed off from the Traci Reed Here Comes the Sun freebie collection. If you want this collection you do have to hit several places to get all three parts, but honestly it is so worth it. I love Traci’s design sense and I own many of her collections. So, if I can support her by sending people her way, I’m happy to!
While I have a wide assortment of embellishments from Elle’s Studio (hearts), Concord & 9th (enamels), puffy & faux leather stickers (Citrus Twist), cut aprts (Scrapbook & Cards Expo, The Stamp Market, others) and more, most of my embellishments are again pieces from the Traci Reed collection. Since she offers “sticker sheets” that are super easy to print at home and then use a machine (Cricut, Silhouette etc) to cut for you, this makes embellies so much more affordable.
I hope you can follow along with the other designers on the CKC team and see how they interpreted their kits.
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.
It is time for the first challenge of the month over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge. This time around we are tasked to tell a love story — and it does NOT have to be romantic. Any love story will do.
The first part of my kit build can be seen here. This project however uses my fifth CKC mini/page kit for this month!
I’ve decided to tell the story of how my son and I share a love of coffee and how that leads us to show our love for each other. (He doesn’t like to be on social media so I’ve covered him up. That is how it goes!)
You can follow along with my process in my video.
Do you plan on playing along with this challenge? If so, please share with us over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge. We love to see your work!
I love learning, creating and sharing. That is why I offer freebies up to you each month. I have both a layout sketch (in printable pdf as well as editable psd) and an electronic cut file (in svg). This month I was inspired by Valentine’s Day, and especially the photo below. I wanted something romantic but not overly sweet to highlight this moment with my husband.
So this is what I came up with…
The stripy heart is just my favorite! Since I hate backing cut files I usually include the cutable fill-in pieces to save you hassle. You can see how I put it to use on this layout (although, small confession, I did back the file by hand. Go figure!)
I’m pretty honest when I love or dislike something I’ve created. This time I am in love. Those stripes filled with the mix of bright and chill patterns… oh my. Do you even get giddy with one of your creations?
So I went on to produce my sketch for the month from this layout. Here is a closer look at the sketch.
And as usual if you want the full detailed version I have that for you in my release video
Now if you want to get your hands on these freebies I have all the links for you right here.
Download the pdf sketch here, the psd version here, the cut file here or, head over to my Freebies Page to peruse the catalog of files I have offered in the past. And if you have any ideas for sketch or cut files, I’d love to hear your ideas. I can’t make promises but I can take suggestions!
craftysoup.com 