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. Yet, this package is coming to an end. The kit is being discontinued after December. Read down below for a sneak at what is coming next for me. But first let’s check out this month’s kit.
As is typical for November, this month’s kit is Christmas related. While I don’t do a lot of very themed scrapbooking, getting just a few new holiday themed products is a little treat. I especially loved the die set, stamp set, and gold embellishments this time around.
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 Christmas layout using some color blocking with my 6×6 papers to build up a 12×12 layout.
So, now that the SCT kits have almost come to an end, what is next for SCT and what is next for me? I did talk on this topic in my reveal video (below) so I will leave you to check that out. What I did mention is that I know I want a monthly goody selection and I considered many options! Here is the list of companies I considered. As of now, I believe I have chosen which company I will use so stay tuned next month as I reveal which one met the most of my needs!
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 goodies๐ ).
We have arrived at the final CKC kit of 2023. I can’t believe the year is almost over. I’m feeling it in my bones though. It has been a long, tiring year, but I digress.
Before we move into this final kit inspiration let’s welcome… Silvia Jorke! Silvia is a scrappy friend of our fearless leader, and November hostess, Lisa. You can find Silvia on her Instagram account. I hear she is a prolific project maker so you should be able to find lots of inspiration!
Now we can get to the inspiration kit for this month. We have the November ’22 kit by Hip Kit Club. Hip Kit is a big, popular, original product club company with a big following and lots of product and inspiration. The November kit is always Christmas Holiday inspired.
I don’t prefer my kits to be highly or specifically themed since my heart is in everyday moments scrapping. That is the beauty of CKC! I can be inspired by a lovely kit to pull together my own fresh prettiness and collate what works so well for me. So let’s dive in.
Notice that there are a few holiday specific papers, but many of the papers are just highly patterned paper in a holiday color scheme. So my shift in kit will keep the pattern, focus on cozy colors and ditch the Christmas. I’m not anti-Christmas here, mind you. I will just go to my holiday file when I need the theme. LOL.
So these are the papers I came up with. I pulled lots of blue, a teal sweater style print, plaids and a couple of light & bright yellows, and pinks to replace the reds. All have great pattern to them. All papers are by Pink Fresh studio since the Hip Kit work often reminds me Pink Fresh.
Here is a look at the embellishments. I did far less planning with the embellishment and just went with my gut. I sorted through a pile of Pink Fresh embellishments and just grabbed anything that grabbed me! I found texture, color and any little phrases caught my attention the most. As for alphas I *think* the inspiration kit had a woodgrain alpha (hard to tell from the pic), so I started with that and then added in blue, and neutrals for a variety. Also included is a small scale alpha book for my mix-and-match font titles. As a final touch I have a jar of Lunar Paste since HKC always offers a mixed media add-on.
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…
Winter Peace
If you want more details on my kit building thought process, check out my kit build video. However, again this month, my thoughts were captured pretty well here in this post!
I hope you can follow along with the other designers and see how they interpreted their own kits.
Hereโs the full hop link list. I’m not on the official hop this time as I’m taking on the mini-kit role this month. However, I always do the main kit no matter what my role is!
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!
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 goodies๐ ).
I’d like to start by welcoming Laurie Crouse Winiarski as our guest designer for the month of October. She’ll be sharing her work over on the CKC Facebook group, so be sure to follow along over there.
To start our kit this month, here is our inspiration kit. It is the October ’22 Limited Edition kit by My Creative Scrapbook. I don’t know much about their company. I do know that they have these simple compilation images of their previous kits. Finding more details is a bit challenging. However, our CKC team hostess this month, Leslie, was able to get us a breakdown of kit contents. She also linked us up to CityScrapper’s YouTube channel where she unboxes the entirety of this kit, if you want all the details. Below this overview photo is a sample of some of the papers and products, but not the entirely of the collection.
This kit was LOADED up with 49 & Market papers and embellishments. I honestly was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of florals in this collections and I really wasn’t sure where I was going to go with my kit. I thought I would just take inspiration from the mixed media painterly effect. However, the very first item I looked at in my stash was a floral that worked perfectly. Plus, it was a floral in an entire paper pad of florals. So, boom. Paper choice done. What will I do with all the florals? I’m not sure yet, but I know the b-sides will play a big role in my crafting this month.
This is the DCWV Wildflowers pad and not only do the watercolor elements work with the 49 & Market inspiration, but the color palette is pretty good too..
With that choice done, I grabbed just a few embellishments to add in. I wanted to keep things easy. I had a busy September, ending with a recently sick kiddo, and I’m moving into a mad October. So, yeah, easy is required.
I added in kraft cardstock since there were some raw chipboard embellishments in the original kit (there is a peek of that in the overview picture). Dies will be used to create faux chipboard pieces. The embellishment pack was full of frames, florals, words strips, tabs and more. I narrowed that down to a floral die, a tab punch and some Tim Holtz word strips. I threw in a stamp set that will work well for some easy mixed media techniques, plus three stencils for more mixed media and I’m done. See, kitting does not have to be hard.
There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So I’m calling mine Easy Peonies. (Okay this is my very bad attempt at making the Easy Peasey phrase floral related. Tell me, do you have a better one?? My tired brain isn’t figuring it out!)
If you want more details on my kit building thought process, check out my kit build video. But honestly this blog post really says most of my thinking already. ๐คช
I hope you can follow along with the other designers and see how they interpreted their own 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.
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 goodies๐ ).
Before we dive in let’s give a warm welcome to Jennifer Croasdale as our guest designer. You can find Jennifer over on her Instagram account.
Now we can get to the pretty stuff. To start, here is our inspiration kit. It is called Aurora and it is put out by the Not Just for Boys kit club. Our CKC team member hosting this month, Tina, appreciated the fact that there was NO pink in this one and contained some of her other favorite colors. Plus there is enough masculine options to make it flexible for any crafting.
I was inspired by the color palette of green, teal and purple. And yet… August was a purple month for me so I wanted to go in a different direction. This was the perfect chance to substitute in a color that I have been hoarding for a while now: Magenta! All shades of magenta, from plum to burgundy. Check it. The four papers on the right were the keepers and the other four will go back into my stash. Will they stay with their magenta buddies, or will they be split up for other categories? Oh the mystery! ๐ย
With those magenta papers sorted and narrowed down I was able to add in the greens and teals to round out my kit. I also have a pop of black as the inspo kit had a black and white polka-dot print.
So these are the papers I came up with. Notice I also found a plaid magenta and a Pinkfresh floral with magenta to buddy up with the other papers. How did those sneak by my magenta radar?
Not only was I hoarding the papers in that color, but some embellishments in that color as well. Plus I found a few extra that I happened to have from a Paige Evans collections. Puting those together, adding in a whole slew of alphas and throwing in come colorful sprays (in place of the brown spray in the inspo kit) and my kit was (almost) done. Take a look at the embellishments.
Notice the third photo? This was my “add-on embellishment pack” that I included in my kit after I pulled the main embellishments. Some of these beauties were too good to put back right away. Will I have a chance to use all this? Probably not. But I think I’ll need this kit to stick around for a while so I can get through this hoarded color collection!
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 Hoarded Delights in honor of my focus color.
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.
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!
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 photoshop) and an electronic cut file (in svg) for your electronic die cut machines.
Here is some further exciting news… new for 2023 are PRINTABLES.!! You can print them at home, cut apart the embellishments and use them to create your projects. This month I was inspired by the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday here in the US. You can see all the details in my reveal video, or read on for the short version.
I’m very happy to report that I have the August freebie files ready. After being so late with July, I thought August would never make it. However, I’ve put in extra hours to get things done and I can now present to you this latest release called New Adventures.
I’ve combined the idea of small trips with back to school through the key word of adventure! You can see this collections is full of icons and word art that can work for both travel and the new school year. I hope you enjoy this two-for-one collection as much as I do.
๏ปฟ
Sketch
Once upon a time I started my freebie creation life by offering sketches. And I continue to offer them to this day, so let’s start here. This sketch features ticket embellishments to capture those special events from concerts to school plays!
If you are a cut file lover, I’ve got you covered! My video covers any details for this file and any tips and tricks I have to share. Be sure to get all the info by watching above. This one has lots of layering options for building fun tickets. You can frame out your layout or build up individual tickets for embellishing.
These files come to you in an 8.5×11 inch format for easy at-home printing. Keep in mind that monitor/screen colors and printed colors will NOT be the same! Screen colors often appear more vibrant. Colors even vary from printer to printer!
The pattern papers are ready to print and use. Embellishments will either need to be fussy cut, or you can use the print-then-cut version for your electronic die cut machine*. I try to keep the fussy cutting to simple shapes and basic circle elements can be punched out with a 1″ circle punch or die. Any cutting tips beyond these will be in the current video reveal!
The download links have been included besides each image. However, you can always head over to my Freebies Page to peruse the catalog of files I have offered in the past. And if you have any ideas I’d love to hear them. I can’t make promises but I can take suggestions!
* Note, not all software can use the print-then-cut svg file. I have included a native Silhouette Studio file to avoid some current Silhouette software issues.
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 photoshop) and an electronic cut file (in svg) for your electronic die cut machines.
Here is some further exciting news… new for 2023 are PRINTABLES.!! You can print them at home, cut apart the embellishments and use them to create your projects. This month I was inspired by the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday here in the US. You can see all the details in my reveal video, or read on for the short version.
My apologies for posting these freebies from June here now in mid August. The process for this month was riddled with complications from my own lack of skills to accomplish certain things, to software oddities that I just couldn’t problem solve. Yet, with all of the slow downs, here we are with a new set of Freebies. Whew. I am glad to get this out to you finally! I hope you enjoy them.
I have also simplified my upload process by combining each category into a single downloadable folder. You’ll have several file types to choose from, so you’ll need to know which will work for you. If you have any questions on this, please reach out to me in the Contact tab!
Now if you want all the info in one place, please do watch the video. Otherwise, all the images and downloads are listed below.
๏ปฟ
Sketch
Once upon a time I started my freebie creation life by offering sketches. And I continue to offer them to this day, so let’s start here.
If you are a cut file lover, I’ve got you covered! My video covers any details for this file and any tips and tricks I have to share. Be sure to get all the info by watching above.
These files come to you in an 8.5×11 inch format for easy at-home printing. Keep in mind that monitor/screen colors and printed colors will NOT be the same! Screen colors often appear more vibrant. Colors even vary from printer to printer!
The pattern papers are ready to print and use. Embellishments will either need to be fussy cut, or you can use the print-then-cut version for your electronic die cut machine*. I try to keep the fussy cutting to simple shapes and any circle elements can be punched out with a 1″ circle punch or die. Any cutting tips beyond these will be in the current video reveal!
The download links have been included besides each image. However, you can always head over to my Freebies Page to peruse the catalog of files I have offered in the past. And if you have any ideas I’d love to hear them. I can’t make promises but I can take suggestions!
* Note, not all software can use the print-then-cut svg file. I have included a native Silhouette Studio file to avoid some current software issues.
Hello, hello! I am excited to bring back my Mystery box Monday series. I did this series back in 2020 and since it did not get a lot of views back then I had retired it. But I missed it. This project was just some weird creative fun and I am happy to be back to it.
So, what is Mystery Box Monday? I have a “grab-bag” style box of supplies that I purchased from Piece Craft Love as part of a clearance sale back in Dec ’22. Since the box is a grab-bag, that means all the supplies in the box are a mystery. The box comes at a steep price reduction because the supplies are unknown. Who doesn’t like a good mystery?
I’m going to reach into this box and pull out three items. Much like that cooking show with the mystery basket ingredients, I have to put those items to use on one crafty project. Will these ingredients work together? Or will it be a recipe for disaster? Let’s find out…
This time around the first two items were clearly Christmas and I thought I knew what I was going to be making, until…
I pulled out this Doodle-Pops sheep embellishment. Um… okay. Now what?
So the brain starts churning away. I could use the letters for a card title. What kind of card? Sheep means baby. Can I do baby with Christmas stamps? There are a lot of words on there, what if I just use the words as an alphabet? What about the holly leaves, what could I do with those in terms of baby? It could be a hill for the sheep to stand on…
…and the idea was born.
I knew the hill would be green and the letters red, so in order to move away from the obvious Christmas color scheme, I pulled in more colors to create a confetti feel. Marker stamping and spattering techniques pulled this card together. If you want all the details, check out the video.
As a bonus I did go ahead and create some Christmas cards too using the same design style. Now I have a bit of a head start on my holiday crafting!
So that is it this time around. I hope you join me for future Mystery Box Monday goodness. Until next time, I hope you have an artful day.
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.
We are being inspired by this kit from this June kit by Pink and Paper. This is a European company and their kits are built to accompany bi-monthly lesson plans. They are all about education, and not just hoarding! But I tell ya, I was so in love with several of these items and couldn’t narrow it down to just one. So today I four forgeries for you in a bit of a compilation as I’ve done many of these techniques before.
Let’s take a closer look at the items I’ll be recreating.
Let’s take them one by one. First up is the scalloped paper. I simple punched circles (well, actually, half circles) from paper and glued them down into straight lines. This takes some time but zero brain power! It could also be done with stamping (mask off a straight line with tape and stamp half of a circle onto the paper). However, the paper version gives you a bonus… Notice in the final photo the little lift I gave that second row of circles? A layout with tons of dimension is in my future!
Up next is the puffy words. Now, I do have some puffy words already in my kit, but I could not resist pulling out my Nuvo drops for a favorite technique. I created these words and images by drawing with my squeeze bottle onto a non-stick sheet. Let dry for 2 days and these embellishments are ready to go. Nice thing with this technique is that you can use whatever colors and words work for YOUR project!
Want more Nuvo/dimensional drop techniques? Check out this video for lots of ideas!
Third up I have another sheet of pattern paper. I really liked the piece of paper but I knew it would take a while. So I increased the size of my text to reduce the time it would take to get everything done. Now I could have copied the original word for word, but again the beauty of DIY is making it your own. I’ve done my own word art before, and this watercolor piece shows how to get these letters looking good.
Finally I took a flat paper embellishment and recreated it in full real life 3D! I’m taking about the tassels in that ephemera pack. I’ve done tassels more than once over on my YouTube channel because they give so much texture and they are just plain fun to make. If you enjoy fiber based embellishments I have an entire video for that as well.
You could go watch the previous videos I’ve linked up for you, or see all these projects in this compilation video.
Okay, that is my share of forgeries for this month. For more creative ideas, the CKC blog has more forgery examples to check out. I hope this gave you some ideas on how you can recreate your favorite products with supplies you already have on hand. Don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.
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 goodies๐ ).
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.
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!
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.
We are being inspired by this kit inaugural, Feeling Groovy, by Mercy Tiara. Mercy Tiara has a large online presence and audience and she is now offering kits!
While there might have been more obvious things to counterfeit, I was drawn to this little popsicle sticker on the Jen Hadfield sticker sheet.
I was drawn to this image because I have a new stencil from Concord & 9th called Sweet Summer. It was a good excuse to break out my inks and embossing powder — yes, some of these are embossed — to create some sweet treats.
While that popsicle icon on the Jen Hadfield product may be Neapolitan flavor, I made my popsicles in a wide variety of flavors like strawberry lemonade, blackberry, and my favorite, lime punch! Plus there is a bonus popsicle at the end of the video if you want to check it out.
For more creative ideas, the CKC blog has more forgery examples to check out. I hope this gave you some ideas on how you can recreate your favorite products with supplies you already have on hand. Don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.
^^ 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!
craftysoup.com 