March 2019 Counterfeit Kit Challenge Frame It Up!

Over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge today, I'm challenging everyone to "Frame it Up!".

Our inspiration kit included several different frames - in the embellishment pack as well as a frame patterned paper - so I thought it would be a good idea to get those frames used up on our pages.

I love using them but often forget that I have so many of them hanging around in my stash so this was a great chance for me to include a handful in my kit and then actually use them up!

I wanted to find a way to use the in the design of the page itself rather than just as an embellishment and realised that I had one larger Crate Paper fabric item as well as two matching smaller ones which got my brain working. Originally, I thought I'd fill all three with my journalling and then realised that the larger one was perfect to highlight my main photo - you really head to this point of the page first which is exactly what I wanted.

The two smaller ones were then perfect to fill with printed journalling which looks neat and includes more than I could have hand written.

My remaining two photos were matted to give them some dimension and help them fill the spaces better.

I'd fussy cut out the banner along the top already and realised that it would be the perfect backdrop for some additional die cut elements to help with the dimension and adds some extra whimsy. The banner also forms an additional frame to the page.

Layered up butterflies have foam dots underneath their wings to really lift the wings and add texture to the busy border.

I added all the elements of my grid onto some layered papers to really make it pop. I love how I used some really bright and eye-catching papers but the overall feeling of the page is more muted and soft.

I filled the last space on the grid with a longer title so that there was no trapped or empty space. It all worked out perfectly even though it looks nothing like I thought it would when I first started looking for photos!

You can find other examples of framed elements over at the CKC blog this morning so make sure you check those out too. And don't forget to go back to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge again on 18th for our second challenge. :-) 

We always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us!  

You can use our Monthly Link-up page, post them in our Facebook Community, 

or share them on Instagram 

(we are @counterfeitkitchallenge and you can tag us using 

#counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcmarch2019).

February 2019 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge - Feathers

Great to have you here today for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge prompt #2 which calls for us to be inspired by feathers!

I had included a couple of die cut feathers in my kit but remembering the forgery feathers that I featured in the Forger on the Fourth post inspired me to make some more but this time from soft pink tissue paper. I knew this would be more difficult to use than the vellum I'd used before but it was worth a try.

I used one of the die cuts I had in my kit as a template to cut about 8 pink tissue feathers and then I used copper wire for the "spine" with a tiny amount of Glossy Accents.

After they had dried, I just cut the sides into the centre to give the feather effect. I have to say that if I had worked a little bit tidier and "cleaner" with the glue, these would have worked really well. But overall, I was happy with the result.

And then I just used all the feathers I'd made - except a couple which had torn a little - and the other feathers from my kit to make a full feather cluster on the side of my photo.

I kept the overall layout relatively simple with just a couple of layers, some matching tissue paper behind the photo and a few doilies fussy cut from on one the kit papers to complement the feathers.

I know the photos are almost the same but I really wanted to use them both as a lovely reminder of my day with all three of my youngest nieces! The title refers to the "bump" nicknames that my sister gave to each of them.

To be honest, the layout was a little rushed and I think it might need a little tweaking here and there - especially around the cluster but maybe I'll live with it a while and see what it needs for me to be happy with it. Let's see how it works! However, photos on a layout less than a week after they were taken is a success in my book!

Check out the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to see what the other Master Forgers have done with this challenge and make sure you share! We love it when you share your own makes!

You can join in via:

• the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog here and the link up page here
• the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Facebook community here
• the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Instagram account here (find us @counterfeitkitchallenge and share with #counterfeitkitchallenge)

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - 2017 Trends

Welcome back to today's post for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge second inspiration prompt of the month.

Master Forger Leslie challenged us to be inspired by scrapbook trends from 2017 that were featured in a recent Scrap Gals podcast by Tracy Fox. You can find out all the 12 trends she mentioned over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog today as well, of course, at Tracy's own blog here where she's brought together all 12 trends into one blog post with links to the individual blog posts. I love that Leslie brought our attention to this and love all the names Tracy gave to the trends. I picked a few to choose from: Get Angular, Yippee Strippy!, Embedded Embellishments, Scribble It! and Decorated Seams.

Independent of the Counterfeit challenge, I realised that I had recently had a go at the Decorated Seams style with a layout I made for the Scrapabilly May Kit des Monats which features Pinkfresh Studio Be You products, This was my favourite layout of the kit and I really piled on the die cuts across the join of the two papers. I've seen this style online here and there and was happy to have a go myself. And I'm really pleased with the result.

This meant that I didn't really want to repeat the same style again so soon and went through the list once more, eventually deciding on Get Angular. I really think I'll be going back through this list to try some of the others too as they all look really fun to make - it was hard to pick just one.

There were some full sheets of paper left in my May kit, Funky which was great for this as I layered up three angular papers coming in from the same direction as Tracy's. I realise that I could have made this angle more pronounced to really get that triangular shape coming into the page but overall, I'm really happy with how this turned out.

Sorry for the poor photos. Maybe I'll try to get some better ones in daylight and change them out!

Are you inspired by this prompt? Have you made up your own Counterfeit kit? Have you been busy using it up? We would love to see what you come up with, so please share your kits and projects with us. You can do this by using our Link-Up Page here on the blog, posting in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Facebook Community or on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge and use the tag #counterfeitkitchallenge). Hope to see you there!

Stylish Scrapbook Storage in a Snap - my take

Over on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog today, it's part four of Stylish Scrapbook Storage in a Snap where the Master Forgers are sharing sneaks into their own storage solutions.

I'm showing three ideas over there and would just like to give you a few more close up shots here today.

First up is the Ikea plastic divider container (Antonius) which is very nearly the perfect solution for pocket page cards - both 6x4 and 3x4. The tapered bottom of the sections makes each pocket a few millimetres off perfect but for the very very very low cost, it's perfect enough for me!

I just love these different sized Ikea plant and candle holders (Skurar). They come in a range of colours which include this gorgeous white and pink and I also have a few other styles in a gunmetal grey and a lovely sage green. There are several different items in the range but this small selection shows how great they are. I store ribbons, flowers, buttons, brads and metal items in these pretty containers.

 

And my favourite storage solution is this gorgeous étagère that my sister made for me. It's made using a vintage teacup, saucer and plate and I just have it close to hand to pop whatever little items end up on the table that I don't want to miss or lose.

Perfect for my Scrapabilly exclusive flair that I collect, my favourite glitter washi, gifted hand made wooden buttons, left over punched shapes, sequins and veneer.

Look at all those little items that would be sure to go amiss if I tidied them away into sealed containers or don't even have a settled place to store. See that die-cut word? That "might" be making an appearance in next month's kit - watch this space.

And the cup on the top is perfect for the larger items that can be tucked in there but still visible. That brooch? It's not exactly an Aladine Sane lightening bolt but a homage to it at least. I wondered about wearing it but having it right there makes me smile when I see it.

You can find out more about this series over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge today - this is post number four - so go and check out all the solutions that have been presented. Organisation and storage really doesn't have to be boring and we prove that we are resourceful and stylish at the same time!

What is your favourite idea that we've offered over the weeks?

It's LOAD time

February LOAD is my favourite LOAD of the year. The month is short, it's been low on the creating side of things over Christmas and New Year, there's not a lot else going on, and last but not least... it's been a looong time since the last LOAD in October! Which means I'm missing my scrappy friends and need to get a good inspirational fix.

Added to that, this time around, I managed to persuade a few friends to join us - Pam and Susanne again,  and then Sylvia and Lesley for the first time. I'm hoping the latter two learn to love it as much as us veterans do.

And as for happy dance when I heard that Pam had signed up again. It's so great to see her creating again and she even managed one of the WM prompts. (Which reminds me that I have to get working through my list of open prompts - there's a lot.)

I've said this before, but one of the secrets of success for me is working with kits during this crazy daily creating period. It helps to take away at least a few of the more time consuming decisions that can slow me down on a normal day. In fact, recently I've been almost exclusively working from kits or collection packs in my general scrapbooking too. It works for me.

Therefore, the rather neglected Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits sitting on my self are seeing the light of day at last. I have Passport from September (one layout created so far I think), Comfort from November (one or two layouts only), Begin from January (only one before LOAD started) and then my two kits from February, Nostalgic and Tender. That's a lot of product and a lot of choice. The only decision to make is which kit to grab and create with. But as each of the kits has a certain feeling to them, this is also pretty easy. And you know that I don't ever really try too hard to match the products with the paper or stories so I try not to think about it too much. With most of the papers included in the kits being double sided, I can only imagine how many combinations that gives me.

Have I mentioned that we are smashing scrapbook myths all month long? Each day Lain will give us a common scrap myth and then challenge us to create a page which proves the "rule" to be just that - a myth! I've been uploading the Counterfeit kit layouts I've been making to the CKC group Flickr gallery (here) but I thought I'd just share a couple here as well.

Let's start off with this page which features almost exclusively Teresa Collins product from my February Tender kit and will be used to record some of my primary school memories. The left hand photo is on top of a file folder inside which I intend to document the little snippets that come back to me. I might even be able to add in some more papers if I find that I want to write more. Of course, I can always make a second page but I am starting to panic about the piles and piles of pages that I have and at the rate I create, how quickly those piles are growing. So finding a way of combining stories onto a single page seems like a good idea.

Scrapbook Myth: a layout always needs a title
I sometimes take ages to come up with a half-decent title so it was a relief to be able to bust this myth. I'll be doing this again.

As you can see, if I write small, there should be a reasonable amount of space for some of those memories. But first I need to come up with some! A brainstorming session is definitely called for because for the moment, my mind is blank.

Yep, I'm THAT old! :-)

And second up is a page I created with January's Begin kit which is too pretty to leave lying around, unloved.

We cleared out the cellar and garage last week of my MIL's house. She moved out some time ago and we had stored quite a lot of rubbish stuff there for a long time. It was time to get rid. However good the decluttering felt, and it felt really good, it was a bittersweet experience as we've spent many a day sitting in the garden, having BBQs and just generally enjoying family time there. We entertained the kids with pools and inflatables and silliness, and in fact, this is where my husband grew up. Having sorted out everything, I will never go there again :-( It felt sad. So I was pleased to come across these photos and have the chance to just capture some of the happy times we had there and to write down a few words of then and now. And yes, I was channelling my inner Pam the whole time I was creating!

Scrapbook Myth: scrapbooking takes a long time
I made this in just over an hour. This is fast for me. I know I could have probably managed it faster than that but I was feeling a little undecided about the embellies and then took time to find sequins. This is not necessary for most scrappers LOL!

How are your Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits doing? Sitting on the shelf or getting made into layouts which make you happy. Mine are certainly making me happy :-)

Sticking it all together

Glad you are back today for another Counterfeit Kit Challenge prompt to help you get that stash used up and onto pages you love.

This time around, we have been challenged to create a page using only stickers for embellishments. Eek. Hard one.

I automatically turn to all sorts of bits and pieces when I want to pretty up a page so limiting myself to paper and stickers was a tough one. Made harder by the fact that I did not cheat and put a whole pile of stickers into "Opposite#" when I was making it (I knew about the challenge I was assigned - doh!). And as you know, my kit was made up of old products and mismatched items. So it was, once again, pure chance that I had a few items in my kit that I could use.

In the end, I really did make this layout with a sheet of cardstock, a couple of sheets of paper, three old Heidi Swapp sticker sheets, a Making Memories sticker journalling spot sheet and a set of old Glitz glittery alpha stickers. A word of advice - one that I should maybe have followed myself - ooooold stickers are not as sticky as they used to be. I can see a few corners lifting already on the MM spots and the alphas. Oh well...

And I got happy with the paper punch along the edge of the sticker sheet to get some mini hearts to use as I couldn't add any pearls or bling or mist ;-(

April kit, Opposite, LO#1

This background to the sticker sheet from MM was perfect to punch out a few hearts to add as a sprinkle across the page.

One thing I found was not to worry about how closely the stickers matched each other and just to layer them up with scraps of paper to give them a cluster feeling.

Did I miss using all those scrummy embellies that I usually use? Yes. But do I like the page I made with just these simple items? Oh yes!

Why not give it a try yourself and don't forget to link up over using Mr Linky on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

Also, there is now a Flickr group (here) for the Counterfeit followers to use. It's great for quickly sharing your creations if you don't want to write up a full blog post or to quickly comment on a page or two. We still want you to use the Mr Linky so that we have a complete list of all your wonderful layouts etc but you can link directly to your Flickr entry if you have posted there. :-)

Counterfeit Kit Challenge April blog hop

Welcome to this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog hop, so lovely to see you here today for yet another month of kit inspiration.

We are thrilled that Kate is our Guest Designer this month and she's just going to be awesome. She's kicking off the hop so if you are here direct, do make sure you head back there and give her a warm welcome. If you've landed her from the ever creative Libeeti, you are most certainly in the right place.

This month we were given an incredibly lovely kit by Gossamer Blue and I very nearly tried to get hold of one - just gorgeous. But no, that's totally not the direction I decided to take.

In fact, even though I had several of the papers in the original kit I went in completely the other direction. Hence the name of April's kit, "Opposite".

I still have 4 kits on my shelf from other months that are full of a mix of older and newer product so this time I decided that I was going to challenge myself to ONLY use old product. Nothing new. At all. And all my papers are from older BasicGrey collections and totally mixed up. This is really a use it or lose it kit. I intend to see how I get on and if I don't, then out it goes.

Rather than starting with cardstock as I usually do, I chose to leave that out altogether and just add it in as I need it when I use the kit. That left me with a starting point of papers and having decided that I would limit those to BG (which of course I have so many so this is a drop in the ocean) I quickly scanned through my collections and just picked out some papers that reminded me in some way of some of the inspriation papers. Stripes, spots, diagonals, chevrons (trendy before their time I might add!),  yellow, black, orange, soft blue, a neutral. You may not see the connection to the Gossamer Blue kit, but it is certainly there. I'm hoping to infuse a modern feel to these older paper by how I use them. Let's see how successful that is.

Then I went to town with loads of old, old embellies. I added quite a few journalling spots and stickers as there were some of those in the kit, and some metal elements because I wouldn't be able to add in any veneer stuff in - too new! I threw in a bunch of old flowers and lots of gems to go with the dimensional gems in the inspiration kit. And pretty much anything else that caught my eye along the way when I was looking through my embellishment basket.

Journalling spots, stickers and some old rub-ons. Always a challenge for me to use without ruining.

Metal and chipboard - not my go to products any more.

A heap of old gems and pearls.

I've never really known what to do with these glimmer glass elements - any ideas?

And a heap of old flowers.

So as you can see, there's a lot of stuff in there and a lot that is several years old and even more.

My one proviso is that I will feel free throughout the period of using the kit to add in whatever I think the kit or layout needs! Yes, twisting the rules a bit but at least that way, I won't make myself feel too restricted if I can't seem to get the older stash working as I would like.

Opposite may be a long way from the original but I'm happy to give these older items an airing and a possibility to star on a layout. There will be a thinning out of this product as I go along I'm sure. My bag of giveaway stash for my niece is ready and waiting.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to let me know you were here!

Here's the full list in case you get lost along the way. Now off you go to Lisa J who wows me every month with her whimsical style. I'd buy her kits any day!

Guest Designer: Kate http://kateblue.blogspot.com/

Andrea  http://snappingmonsters.blogspot.com/  

Angela  http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/  

Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/  

Jennifer  www.jennifergracecreates.com 

Julie  http://www.hisglorygirl.blogspot.com/  
Libeeti http://creationswithlove-li-bee-ti.blogspot.de/

Lisa H. http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/  ß you are here

Lisa J. http://thesimplelifewithlisa.blogspot.com.au/ ß go here next

Lynnette  http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Milissa http://millermall.blogspot.com/  

Rebecca http://howiburb.blogspot.com/

Scrapping with scraps

I've talked before about how I keep hold of my kits until I get bored of them or I run out of enough product to make a whole page. Then it's a matter of being relieved to take the kit remnants and put them back into my stash, or sitting there weeping and wailing as I face the fact that my kit is finished. Well, ok, maybe not weeping and probably not much wailing either but I am pretty sad all the same.

My Counterfeit Kit Challenge October 2012 kit, Brighter, was exactly such a kit. I managed a total of 11 layouts from this collection of papers and embellies and I love every single one of them! This was one mighty successful counterfeit.

But this post is all about the scraps and it was a kit I used right down to the tiny bits. Before I took out the last of the bits and pieces, I challenged myself to layer up the small pieces of paper left and create a background that I could then decide which photo to use and which direction to take.

Brighter #11 (yes, really 11 layouts from one kit!)

Tiny punches like these are perfect for those miniscule scraps that you still love

There weren't any full images to cut out so I just hid the missing edges or just cut around what I did have

Again, small punches and a little detail makes an interesting cluster. And this was the first time I had used the TH tiny attacher. I was hooked. I'm now the proud owner of one myself :-)

Not so sure about my arrows but I needed to find a way to use the last of this yellow paper that I loved so much. In the end it fitted perfectly with the photo I found

The whole thing was put together, misted, layered, decorated and then I sat down and found a photo to go with it and added in the alpha for my title.

The main thing here is that I didn't put myself under any pressure to make a perfect page. Because I was just playing with what was left in the kit box, this wasn't a layout that I needed to make or one that I had thought about or one I was making for just such a photo. And that meant that at the end, if I had looked at it and thought... neh ... I could have just tossed it out with no more loss than a sheet of cardstock (the embellies would have been saved no doubt.)

So why not try making up a page with what's left. Just play around and see what you come up with. At the end of the day, I love the page I made and how I finished it off with photo, title and journalling. A worthy end to a wonderful kit. Sniff sniff.