Hellos and Bows − Forgeries on the Fourth for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Hi again!

I am honoured to be Guest Designing for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge this month, and at CKC, the Fourth of each month is for Forgeries!

In other words, we look for DIY solutions to replace some of the items included in the original inspiration kit. This month, it is the May Kit from Hip Kit Club. The image is from their website and it is their Embellishment Kit, more precisely.



And here's what I made!



I had just learned an easy way to make a tiny bow, so I decided to make paper clips with bows! I learned it from a Finnish crafting friend/teacher/shopkeeper Mira Ekonen, whose tutorial can be found here! There are images, but if you need guidelines in your own language, just Google "fork bow" and plenty of tutorials will come up.

I didn't have ribbons in matching solid colours, but I'm really delighted with these polka dot organza ones that I found.





Other items that I love in the Hip Kit Club Embellishment Kit are the handwritten-looking word stickers and chipboards. I had just bought the Sizzix die set called Warm Winter Wishes, where one of the dies is the word Hello.



I made the words into stickers, backing my paper scraps with 50 mm wide double sided tape before I die cut it. Rather than in craft stores, in Finland and Sweden you can find a wide tape like this in Biltema, a car supplies store of all places! It is also very economical and good quality.

Thank you for coming, and don't forget to pop into the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to see what handmade embellishments or other items the regular DT members did!

Hip State of Mind: Guest Designing for Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Hello everyone, and happy June! My exciting news today is that I've been invited to Guest Design for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge!

At the Counterfeit Kit Challenge, the idea is to be inspired of a given kit from existing kit clubs, and put together a Counterfeit version from your own stash. It’ll help you see your products in a new light and give new ideas for using them. Before this, I've joined the Counterfeit Kit Challenge once last year, with a very different kit.

Can anyone guess which was our inspiration kit this month?



Here you go! It is the May 2016 Kit from Hip Kit Club. (photos by Hip Kit Club)

May 2016 Main Kit from Hip Kit Club



The May 2016 Kit from Hip Kit Club is a fun mix of colours, but also a cool contrast of graphic black, white and navy. Looking at the papers I had in my stash, I decided to go a bit more in the black and white direction. You'll see my picks soon, but first...

May 2016 Paper Kit from Hip Kit Club!



The kit has several fun patterns, like triangles, irregular dots and doodled five point stars. It also has some painterly papers, flowers and circles that again make a fun contrast.

Inspired by these features, I started building my Counterfeit Kit. But let's look at all the Hip Kit Club add-ons first:

May 2016 Project Life Kit from Hip Kit Club



May 2016 Embellishment Kit from Hip Kit Club



And last but not least, May 2016 Cardstock Kit from Hip Kit Club



Now let's take closer look at my kit, starting from papers in the photo below. From top left:

Canvas Corp – Yellow & White Big Stripe
My Mind's Eye − Love Me Do − Heart of the Matter
Studio Light − Flower Delight
Die Cuts with a View − The Sweet Blossom Stack − painterly floral paper
Die Cuts with a View − The Sweet Blossom Stack − painterly striped paper
Tiger − pink paper with black doodles
Tiger − black paper with white dots



Bottom row:

unknown – black with white stripes
Die Cuts with a View − The Sweet Blossom Stack − white polka dot on black canvas-looking paper
We R Memory Keepers − It Factor − Hello Bobby
Dear Lizzy − Documentary − Mondays
Sodalicious − Cozy Moments − Time for a Cup Of

And here below, from left:

Kaisercraft − Bow & Arrow − Sunrise
unknown − aqua check pattern
unknown − teal with polka dots
unknown − sea green/white diagonal stripes
unknown − pink triangle pattern
unknown − four 6x6 papers with black, white and grey patterns



A general view of the embellishments and Project Life supplies I found to go in my kit:

Here are the embellishments for a closer look! From top left,

Maya Road − Rag Tag Animals, Mini Sheer Set
Queen & Co – Twinkle Goosebumps
unknown − metal frames
Studio Calico – Wood Veneer



Middle: I found plenty of washi tapes in suitable colours and patterns.

Papermania Docrafts − Capsule − Geometric Neon Washi tapes
unknown − white with blue ledger
unknown − white with blue stripes
MT Washi tape − sea green/white stripe
Papermania Docrafts − Capsule − Spots & Stripes Brights washi, dark blue with dots
MT Washi tape − narrow yellow with text
MT Washi tape − traditional Japanese Samekomon aka Wavy Dots on dark blue
Papermania Docrafts − Capsule − Geometric Neon Washi tapes re-shown out of their box
unknown − pink with stripes

Always good to add a mixed media element: American Crafts − Pop! Microbeads − Lipgloss

And bottom row:

Papermania Docrafts − Neon Pink Adhesive Gems
Papermania Docrafts − Neon Yellow Adhesive Gems
Doodlebug Design − Sprinkles, Lilac Assortment
Navy blue sequins
American Crafts − Thickers Delight −Glitter Letter Stickers
American Crafts − Thickers Playroom − Felt Letter Stickers

In Finland we have this cool tape store called Teippitarha (Tape Garden), that also delivers internationally. Check it out if you are a fan of washi tape − they have a huge selection of tapes, also the MT brand which is the original Japanese one.

(*Note: this is not sponsored advertising, apart from a postage-free next order, having mentioned the store in my blog.)

Then let's check out my Project Life add-on.



Die Cuts with a View − The Sweet Blossom Stack − 12x12 of journaling cards
Kaisercraft − Shine Bright − Mango, 12x12 of journaling cards
large black paper clips
Papermania Docrafts − Capsule − Spots & Stripes Brights, leftover journaling tags
We R Memory Keepers − It Factor − 6x6 paper pad
13arts − leftover words and arrows for fuzzy cutting
Sodalicious − Whoo Lives Here − DIY journaling cards from leftovers
Sodalicious − Cozy Moments − So Delicious Notes

And last but not least, my cardstock choices! In addition to the solid cardstock, I have these two papers from 7 Dots Studio. They're previously lightly gessoed and I may or may not use them in one of the May Challenges at Counterfeit Kit.

7 Dots Studio − Love is in the Air − Whisper of the Tree
7 Dots Studio − Domestic Goddess − Overused Tablecloth

Yes, there will be more to look at in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog! In addition to the challenge of building your own kit, there are also weekly challenges. Before the first of those, do come back on the 4th for our Forgeries on the Fourth Blog Hop, where the DT presents DIY embellishments to add to our kits!

And to see the rest of today's Counterfeit Kit Reveal Blog Hop, here's the list of the regular Design Team members!

Julene
Kelly
Lesley
Leslie
Lisa
Lynnette
Margie
Susan
Susanne
Jemma

Thank you for coming and I hope to see you soon again!

Edit: Blog hop list updated.

A Day at the Beach − PL Pages for Scrap Africa Mood Board 73

Hello to you, and happy Friday! It's mid month challenge time again at Scrap Africa, so let's be inspired by this bright and happy mood board with a taste of sea salt!





The patchwork collagey look of the mood board, with all its small bits, gave me the idea to make a Pocket Life spread for this challenge. I was also inspired by the marine theme, the stars, the weathered wood and the pop of orange/red, which also appears in my photos.



I am also joining the Bumaga-Maraka Project Life Challenge , with the theme of Circle Shaped Photos, Altair Art Challenge themed Artwork with a Tag, and last but not least,
WOW! Embossing Powder Challenge, with an Anything goes theme.



The end date in the above banner is wrong, in case you wonder, it's supposed to be until today, April 15.



I began with taking some off-white cardstock to mat the circular photos and tried something new: I decorated the edges of these "frames" with embossing powders to imitate my inspiration of weathered wood.

I don't have a circle cutter so I was cutting the holes with scissors, when it turned out that it was not so easy to cut through the embossed part neatly. This gave me the idea to not cut along the line here at all but to carefully tear along the edge of the embossing instead.



Et voilà, I could see the torn edges repeating the flow of the waves! I inked the torn edges and was very happy with that! I also inked a bit on the insides of the embossed frames, where the cardstock was more recipient to the ink, so the grains of white show better.



I kept one of the embossed cards whole and having just gone through my embellisment stash, I felt like decorating it with a bubbly cluster of white buttons I had come across.



I also decorated a few marine themed wood veneer embellishments with the embossing powders. One of them got a place in this tag...



...where embossing powders were also used to decorate the edges. Tags are a great way to include some hidden journaling inside the pockets!



The dolphin found its way onto the ocean here, just for fun and out of my imagination − we did not really see any marine mammals here.



First time using the cork alpha that I had been hoping to buy for quite some time! I like how they almost blend into the greyish brown shades of the sand.



A few more embellishments: stars, washi tape and a Fabulous button to add up some colour.



I wish you a very happy weekend, hopefully with a chance to enjoy some crafting and/or springtime inspiration outdoors! And those of you on the Southern Hemisphere, a cozy beginning of autumn, of course!



Please pop in to see all the lovely DT work at Scrap Africa and join the challenge until the end of the month!

Pocket Art Pages for Scrap Africa Mood Board Challenge No. 67

Hello! With the start of the New Year, the challenge at Scrap Africa is this cheerful mood board combined with the following questions:

What does 2016 hold for you? What are your hopes and desires?



This time, I haven't thought up a word that would represent the whole coming year for me, but what is new is that I'm experimenting a new format for documenting my thoughts, memories and art learning throughout the year. I'm joining the Documented Life Project (DLP) 2016, the UnPlanner online class. You can read more about it here!

The course fee for the whole year is just $12, so even I dared to make the decision to join it, even though I haven't managed to finish a long online course before. I find it generally hard to find the time to watch the videos, whereas I can read books and blogs in bed. Well, now that the phones are smart enough for watching even videos in bed, I might be more successful!



Here's the Scrap Africa Mood Board No. 67, which inspired me with its colours, the doodles, the birds, the vintage crackled paint, the whimsical houses, the gold striped tape and the lighthearted feeling in general. A bit of spring while it's still middle of winter here in the Nordic countries. You're welcome to join until the end of January!



This is the first spread with the monthly calendar view and the monthly divider.





The second spread consists of an art journal page and a photo pocket page.

You can get a feel of the Nordic winter in these photos that were taken in Stockholm, a mid-morning in the first week of January!



The art journal page with the word Freedom in Finnish language was inspired by the Freedom themed Mixed Media Place challenge, and Studio 75 challenge, with the theme of Vintage.



The card with the photos is a Pocket Art Card (PAC) for my DLP 2016 UnPlanner; the prompt was to incorporate the number 16 to represent the new year. Can you see where that is? Yes, there are 16 of the faux cross stitches.

The card was super quick to make. All I did was took a pre-made print/collage background and selected which part of it would make a nice composition. In doing this, it helps if you have a template with a hole the size of the card, so you can see where to cut the best part of the background. I just drew the stitches and voilà, the card was ready! I'm using the 3x4 card size instead of the normal ATC size to suit the pockets of my binder.



My take on vintage may not be so obvious, but for me colours are an important part of the vintage look, and also the crackled paint and distressed paper. I was thinking of what the shades and textures would be like in an aged collage, or old sketches or technical drawings in a museum or an archive.







Thank you for your visit and welcome again!

Skräppää samoista materiaaleista 2/4

Hi there, and happy Sunday! I'm posting mainly in Finnish this time, but see end of post for English!

Hei vaan ja kaunista sunnuntaita! Tänään on vuorossa toinen osa Skräppää samoista materiaaleista - vaihdon tuotoksia.

Taru/Jehkotar kutsui koolle neljän naisen porukan, siis neljä hänet itsensämukaan luettuna. Taru on järjestänyt näitä ennenkin, mutta itse olen ekaa kertaa mukana.

Kukin meistä laati neljä samanlaista tarvikepakettia ja postitti ne muille osallistujille. Näistä syntyy nyt neljä leiskaa kultakin tekijältä. Viime viikolla jokainen postasi, mitä syntyi Tarun paketeista, ja nyt toiseksi pääsi vuoroon Maikkiksen kokoama kitti!


Kuva/photo by Taru Jehkonen

Paperit olivat suht lähellä omaa tyyliäni ja värimaailma murrettu, mitä usein käytän itsekin. Tällä kertaa minuun vetosi kuitenkin erityisesti paketin raikkain ja graafisin paperi, tuo Studio Calicon sahalaitakuvioinen kelta- valkoinen.



Viime viikolla kokeilin yhtä tapaa yhdistää paljon paperisortteja leiskaan, ja nyt kokeilen toista: leikkelin papereista ikään kuin Project Life - eli taskuskräppäyskortteja. Näitä sitten asettelin lomittain kuvien kanssa, kiinnittäen ne taustapaperiin sen sijaan, että olisin sijoitellut kortit ja kuvat taskualbumiin.



Kuvista tuli tulostusreunojen takia hiukkasen pienempiä kuin tyypillinen taskuskräppäyskortin koko 7,5x10 cm/3x4 tuumaa. Leikkasin kortit samaan kokoon.

Puukuvioihin halusin tällä kertaa jotain metalliväriä ja hopeinen väri valikoitui tähden muotoisen klemmarin mukaan. Korkkitarrat olivat myös tosi kivoja, näitä tahtoisin lisää! Tägiin tein itse leimasinmusteella vinoraitakuvion, ja muuten leiska valmistuikin mukavan nopeasti ja simppelisti, vaihteeksi ilman mitään mixed media -mömmöjä!



Käy ihmeessä kurkkaamassa muiden tulkinnat, jos et jo käynyt:

Taru
Maikkis
Merkku



Today's layuout is part 2 of 4 in the Scrap with the Same Materials, a swap I'm participating with three other Finnish scrapbooking colleagues. All four of us made four identical kits and mailed them to each other, and then we'll all be Scrapping with the same Materials!

Last week each one posted our first layouts that were made from kits by Taru Jehkonen, aka Jehkotar, whom you might also know internationally from her Design Team and GDT duties.



This week, everyone was scrapping with materials from Maikkis. This is a really fun idea for a group project, and you get to use different materials than you would normally choose from your stash! Do pop in at the other ladies blogs to see what they created!

Taru
Maikkis
Merkku

Thanks for your visit and happy crafting Sunday to you all!

I'm in Scrap Africa Design Team!

Hello all! I'm back from my travels and got some good news while I was away: I'm in the Scrap Africa Design Team for 2015/2016. Yay!

When I travel, I always come home with lots of photos and ephemera, but when it comes to making them into actual albums, I haven't been quite so productive. My travel albums have been left unfinished way too many times. Having just come home from a long trip, I decided to try a different take now and start my first pages in Project Life style!



Et voilà, this is also my first DT project for Scrap Africa! The current mood board is themed Planes, Trains and Automobiles, so it was a perfect inspiration for starting my travel album.



Here's the Scrap Africa June mood board, open for participation until June 30!

For those of you who don't know it yet, Scrap Africa a fun and friendly challenge site that I warmly recommend! The challenges run twice a month, one of which is always a sketch challenge and the other has a different theme or mood board each month.

We are a big team of super creative designers, if I may say so myself, and represent lots of different styles. I am very honoured to be a part of this team and look forward to knowing my new teammates, both first-timers like myself and returning designers! And of course I hope to see many of you joining our challenges!


For my travel album, I'm using a kit that I put together myself before our trip, and I hope to share more about it in a separate blog post soon. I can already tell you that designing that kit was a lot of fun, and it's a great way to use leftover stash as long as there are some coordinating elements to keep it together. I can also tell you that my kit is a lot more colourful than you might guess based on these pages!



My spread is titled Planes, Trains and an Automobile, and we used all of these transports when my family and I travelled around the U.S. & Canadian West Coast last month. In the mood board I was particularly inspired by the graphic cross, circle and heart shapes, and also its bright colours, even though I chose to do my double page spread predominantly in black and white.



Making this spread was fun, but not particularly quick or easy, I have to add! I hadn't realized previously that the common digital photo size needs to be cropped to reach the traditional 3x4 inches or 10x15 cm pocket size. Secondly, I found it hard to match together colourwise these photos that were taken in different occasions, each in a different light etc and therefore had too many different colour schemes for my liking. I decided to turn them all into black and white and they became easier to work with.

The finalized pages have very little colour or embellishments compared to my usual style, but then again it probably won't hurt to have a more neutral layout here and there in my album - then I can add colour more freely to the next pages I do and those will pop out nicely, I think.



Here, by the way, is a link to another layout from earlier this year where I also successfully turned an ugly coloured photo into black and white!

I wish you all a lovely Midsummer weekend and hope to see you soon at Scrap Africa!