November 2023 - Challenge #1 - Moodboard Inspiration!

It's time for the first challenge of the month where we hope to inspire you to use up those supplies that you have so lovingly put into your kits! 

We have a lot of fun translating the inspiration of the original kit into a sneak peek moodboard to whet your appetites for what is to come each month.

 

So, this month, be inspired by our moodboard! 

Take the colours, the patterns, the layout or whatever takes your fancy from the moodboard and use that inspiration on your page or project!

GD Silvia 

"When getting the mood board from Lisa, I first recognized the darker flower paper from the inspiration kit on the bottom left side. In my kit this is the darker star paper. Then I saw the photo in the bottom middle of the moodboard and remembered a photo I took from our cousins trip this month when I was walking behind my cousins. With that paper and picture in mind, I decided to also use the mood board as a sketch to create my layout and here is the result:"

MF Brandi 

Brandi’s kit is full of lots of Christmas-y goodies, so she had no trouble pulling festive inspiration from the moodboard! She pulled out music notes, reindeer, florals & even some sweater print paper inspired by the yarn. 

MF Cindy 

Cindy's kit is not a Christmas themed kit, but a Fall and Autumn kit. Cindy took inspiration from the mood board the colors turquoise and yellow then the flower paper and buttons for her layout.

MF Lisa 

Lisa decided to pick out the red and pink vibe from the moodboard as well as the blue yarn and the reindeer to select pieces from her kit for her layout.

She always knew that she wanted to use the whole of the Kaisercraft knit paper as a background because she loves it so much so that was where she started. From there she picked out the red and two pink papers as a contrast to the mint and as a bold mat to her busy photos. Two cut-apart cards either side of the central block and a few fussy cut tickets in some cute colours and then a handful of small embellishments and a sprinkle were all this layout needed. 

Eye-catching title letters and some journalling finished off this simple but happy layout!

Ps. Did you spot our wonderful Guest Designer in my photos? 😉

MF Tara 

Master Forger Tara went rogue with her kit and used only the color palette from the kit to create her kit, which you can view HERE.  So, her inspiration from the moodboard will not reflect any Christmas themed layouts!  What she saw in the moodboard was the turquoise twisted yarn, the music notes, and the rosettes.  Here's her completed layout!

 Here is what the rest of November's inspiration will look like: 

• 18th November - Challenge #2 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit. 
• 22nd November – Bonus Challenge #3 – To celebrate birthdays and offer even more inspiration to use your kit this month! 
• 24th November - Follower's Showcase - who has caught our eye this month. 
• 30^th November - Killing the Kit - an idea or two focusing on using up the bits and pieces left in your kit. 

You know that we always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us. You can post them in our Facebook Community or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcnovember2023).

Lisa

October 2023 - Mini Kit Reveal & Project

Sometimes you just don't have the time or motivation to make and use a full kit. No problem, you can make a mini kit! 

Our Master Forger Lisa is here to get you started. 

Let's have a quick look again at the inspiration kit this month. 

My Creative Scrapbook Kit Club - October 2022 Limited Edition Kit

Hi! Lisa here. Well, I hope Leslie won't mind but I went a bit rogue with my mini this month - both in the colours I picked out from this stunning kit but also with what I put into my "mini"-kit!

However, what we always say round here are that there are NO rules! 

Your kit, your interpretation, your creations - so I hope she will forgive me 😉

Now, I LOVE this kit - the colours are so rich and gorgeous and totally my thing for autumn. The motifs are so pretty and very much what my style was a few years ago - all those scrummy florals and richly detailed butterflies. But I have to say, that I was not in the mood for all that pretty. 

Being October, I knew that things in my circle of scrapbook friends would be very Halloween focussed and we have a present swap at the end of the month as well. So... would I be able to turn this pretty collection into something spooky? 

I decided to have a go at a colour palette generator (Colours.co ) to pick out what I could see as some typical Halloween shades hidden in this kit photo - orange, green, yellow, black and grey. And I thought that a shade of blue could also be useful - just to make it less harsh and soften it up a bit. I mean, it is MY kit after all AND there were a lot of different blues in the original kit!

Look what I came up with!

My October mini-kit palette created at Colours.co

I can totally imagine these colours appearing in Halloween collections that I seem to have piled up in my stash (even though I don't make Halloween pages - ha ha ha!) so off I went to see if I could come up with anything. I suspected that many of the papers would have a focus of black and purple and I knew that I had a pink and black collection from last year which would not fit this scheme. But as luck would have it, Simple Stories very often avoid the purple and focus on orange and black instead. 

Limiting myself to Simple Stories then, I had a look at a couple of collections: Simply Vintage October 31st is all organge, black and grey but Spooky Nights feature exactly my colour palette - the yellow is a bit brighter and the blue is a little prettier and the green might be a hint more lime but all in all, this is the collection that fits the palette I had created! Result.

I checked out a sheet which seemed to feature all the colours and decided that this would be the starting point of my mini.

Simple Stories - Spooky Nights - Tag Paper

This is where I REALLY went rogue. The more I looked at my selection of products in this collection, the more I realised I wanted it ALL! So my mini kit really consists of the WHOLE Spooky Nights collection - all the papers, the embellishments, the die-cuts - everything. And a few other smaller add-ins such as a couple of stamps, some sequins and two dies. Whoops!

Can you forgive me for making a rather huge mini? But I promise you that I will only be making ONE small mini album from it so that does fit the project idea of a kit to make a single project and not a kit that will keep you going all month long!

Anyway, here is everything I decided to include in my mini-kit - as you can see, there are a lot of papers, stickers, die-cuts, enamel dots etc and a few addition items that I thought would be interesting for a mini-album. Obviously, I will not be using it all but a nice selection is a good starting point!

Now to have some fun! 

I decided I wanted to make an album from scratch and I have to admit that this is the first time I've ever done one like this! I got out my little plastic spacing tool and got to work. I'm quite pleased with the result - even if I say so myself - although I made a few mistakes along the way.  If I'd had more time, I probably should have watched a YT video or two to give me some guidelines, but I just went with instinct and even though there's room for improvement, it's not bad for a first attempt!

I wanted a way to close the front of the album and a large, orange ribbon came in handy - and it looks so pretty too! I might add a small magnet to the overlapping part of the cover but I couldn't for the life of me, find my supplies. Something for the shopping list!

I kept it simple on the cover with layered papers and a sprinkle of embellishments - I was determined to try and use something from each part of the collection - dies, stickers, brads, enamel dots, puffy stickers!

And here you can see that there is a little bit of embellishment inside as well as the main part of the mini-album. I have to say that I was inspired by a friend who included two ring elements in a similar album and she in turn was inspired by one of the fabulous designers online but I can't for the life of me find which album or designer that was - sorry!

Anyway, I cut up the tag sheet, and two cut apart sheets of paper and then just piled them up so that there are different colours, sizes and shapes as you go through. Super easy technique. Then I opened up the journal bits die-cut pack and ended up using the whole pack. I just added them in as I wanted to add interest. I punched a whole through the back of the album as well as all my elements and threaded them all together on a ring. I can't tell you what fun this was and how easy this part of the album was!

A hint of decoration on the back of the album and it's now ready and waiting for all the mini photos, tags and decorations that I get in our Halloween swap and a small amount of journalling. There will no doubt be some more decorating going on too as I fill it up and it will get nice and full and chunky and fun to look through. Exactly how I like my mini albums!

So.... what do you think? Will Leslie forgive me for going soooo rogue or can you also see this inspiration in the original kit? Why not give a mini-album a go - I have to admit that these little gems are quite addicting!

Here is what the rest of October will look like - don't miss a thing!

• 12th October- Challenge #1 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit.
• 18th October - Challenge #2 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit.
• 24th October - Follower's Showcase - who has caught our eye this month.
• 31st October - Killing the Kit - focusing on using up the bits and pieces left in your kit.

You know that we always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us. You can post them in our Facebook Community or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcoctober2023).

October 2023 - Forgery on the Fourth

Here's a reminder of our inspiration kit:

My Creative Scrapbook Kit Club - October 2022 Limited Edition

 This feature is all about the fun of having a go at making up your own embellishments or re-creating the papers as a way of getting the same look as the inspiration kit even if you don't have any of the original items. 

These tutorials are often so simple and easy that it really is a perfect chance to try out an idea or two. Make sure you share if you do, we love it when are motivated to give it a try!

Now it's time to see what our talented team have come up with - this is always such an inspiration for me. The Master Forgers often create things that would just not have crossed my mind.

 So talented, so resourceful, so inspirational!

Lots of watercolor & mixed media layered looks to the papers & a slew of ephemera & cut-aparts in our inspiration kit. 

Let's see what the Design Team has come up with!

Guest Designer Laurie created tickets, library cards and butterflies using stamps, punches, dies and inks.

 Do you love the stuffed full ephemera packs from 49 & Market like the one in this month’s inspiration kit? Try this!!! Make Your Own Ephemera Pack!    

While going stash diving for this kit, Master Forger Brandi realized was that a lot of collections have these colors in them, but nothing seemed to fit the kit as a whole pack … so she went through a dozen or so embellishment packs and pulled the pieces that matched her papers! To make this process a bit easier, pull aside a piece of paper to represent each color of your kit to quickly compare the ephemera, chipboard etc before adding it to the YES pile! This would also work if you wanted to use punches, dies, or even fussy cut elements out of pattern paper! 

Of course, MF Lisa turned to Pinterest where she tracked down a couple of interesting tutorials and links!

Fred, She Said  - Digital Designs has a great step by step tutorial for making your own distressed Prima style flowers!  You can find the blog post here

Fred, She Said - Digital Designs tutorial here

Jennie at "Live The Dream" blog created stunning cabbage roses using a Tim Holtz die. You could use any die for this or even cut your own freehand! These look great. You can find the blog post here.

Jennie at Live The Dream - tutorial here

The Shabby Horse has a great blog tutorial for making realistic, distressed leaves. You can find the blog post here.

The Shabby Horse tattered leaf tutorial here

The Graphics Fairy has the most gorgeous set of free printable postage stamps along with all sorts of ideas for making them look authentically vintage and stampy for your paper crafts! 

You have to check this out - just lovely! You can find them here.

Oh! My Fiesta In English! has a selection of free printable frames that could be a great stand-in for the frames in the original kit. All sorts of colours and designs, print them out, fussy cut and off you go! You can find the printables in this blog post here. Here's just one of many in the post.

Oh! My Fiesta In English printable frames here

Master Forger Misty got some watercoloring done, from the very simple coloring of die cuts...

To the very complex full pattern paper painting.

Inspiration image on left & my rendition on the right. It isn't perfect but I'm definitely proud of my accomplishment.

Here is what the rest of October will look like - don't miss a thing!

•  6th October - Mini Kit Reveal and Project Showcase - Inspiration for a smaller kit or project ideas.
• 12th October- Challenge #1 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit.
• 18th October - Challenge #2 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit.
• 24th October - Follower's Showcase - who has caught our eye this month.
• 31st October - Killing the Kit - focusing on using up the bits and pieces left in your kit.

You know that we always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us. You can post them in our Facebook Community or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcoctober2023).

 

Thanks for stopping by! 

September 2023 - Challenge #1 - Color Combo

It's September 12th which can only mean one thing... it's time for Challenge #1 round here at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge and I'm excited to see how you interpret it.

As a reminder, Master Forger Tina chose the April 2023 kit called "Aurora" by {Not} Just for Boys kit club as our inspiration for this month.

How about a Color Combo Challenge!

 

The basis of this kit is with these 3 colors: Combines green, teal, and purple.

Your challenge is to use those colors on your layout, card or project.

 

 Our Guest Designer Jennifer has created a fantastic layout from her kit for this challenge. Adding a set of tickets for a fun list of what was happening

 MF Julene had used the scraps she included in her kit to create this layout. It is one page from a double she has made. 

MF Cindy created a layout using the colors of pink, purple and teal - she went a bit rogue. She started by making her own background with the colors above, then added her pictures which had a lot of green in them. You can check out the details on her blog. 

Blog post here.

MF Brandi created a double page layout with an Allison Davis sketch featuring the (3) main colors of the kit! See more close ups and additional layouts from her kit on her Instagram here. 

MF Lisa knew this would be challenging for her - purple is not her usual go to. But as the whole kit was full of purple, she knew there would be plenty of choice at least! She sorted out four sheets of paper and set to work fussy cutting large purple and blue flowers (the only blue she could use in this smaller selection) and then layered up the papers so that each of the bright purples was not so overpowering. Four cute dog photos and some story made this layout come together relatively easily once she got going!

She added in the blue alphabet after realising that none of the alphas she had included could create the title she wanted, as well as some more enamel dots so that a little extra blue could be added.

The challenge of the kit was to see if she could make these older papers look fresh and new - what do you think? Did she manage that? 

😉

 

Such great inspiration to get you started on your creation for this challenge!

 The rest of September is going to look something like this:

• 18th September: Challenges #2 - to inspire you to get creating from your own kit 
• 24th September: Follower Showcase - who has caught our eye this month 
• 30th September: Killing Kits - an idea or two for using up the bits & pieces left in your kit box
  

 

 We always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us. Post them in our Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcseptember2023).

 Thanks so much for stopping by! We can't wait to see your kits and projects this month! 

August 2023 - Kill That Kit!

 It's hard to believe that we are already at the end of the month but here we are for the last post of this month. 

How was August for you? Were you productive and raring to go for the new month or maybe, it was a quiet month for you as you approach the end of summer (or winter for those of you down south) and head into the new season. 

I always feel like September is a reset for me and I hope to find a little more creative productivity! My August kit was hardly touched - just one layout in total - but a new month is always a new chance at more focussed creative time.

So it's a little strange to be writing a post about killing the kit because as you can imagine, my kit is nowhere near at the end of its life. In fact, as you can see in this photo of just the papers, there is still PLENTY of life in it yet.

But I did come up with an idea of something I wanted to produce with my kit and I think the idea lends itself perfectly to using up the bits and pieces that you find at the bottom of your kit box as the month comes to an end... ATCs!

My circle of scrapbook friends and I have started exchanging ATCs (artist trading cards for those of you who might not be familiar with them) as part of our regular creative swaps. I'd never done them before but remember that they were very much the trend when I started scrapbooking back in 2006. I was a little sceptical at first but as we started exchanging these little rectangles of creativity, I realised how delightful they are. And I've grown to enjoy coming up with ideas for designs and reasons! We've exchanged as part of our swap, for a creative day we had together in summer, even for the coronation of King Charles back in May. My ATC pocket pages are slowly filling up and I love the fact that we all approach them differently! Our styles are there to see in each of the cards and as always, it's easy to see that I prefer the simple approach.

As a side-note, our wonderful Guest Designer Clair sent me this pocket letter back in 2017 and it was my very first experience of ATCs. Isn't it just the most gorgeous little selection of creativity!??! I still love it as much as when I first received it!

Anyway, long story short and here we are with my kit killing idea.

I wanted to make some thank you cards for my creative ladies (we just finished our summer exchange) and thought that the pretty elements in my kit would be perfect. I came up with a simple, layered design and then cut out the basic cards, some paper backgrounds, die cut some tickets and fussy cut some butterflies. I picked out a bunch of flowers from my bag of floral elements and added in some gold card to cut out some alphas to use (I added double sided sticker paper to the back before cutting them out.) You can see my piles of elements ready to be pulled together here.

From there it was just a matter of building up the layers across the ten cards, production line style. Easy peasy!

In the end, it took me about an hour to make the 10 ATCs and am really happy to have used up some older product and made the most of the papers and embellishments I had in my kit. I could also have added some enamel dots but didn't want to add anything else into my kit in the spirit of using up the kit that I had.

And there you have it - an idea you might be interested to copy to use up some of the scraps and bits & pieces at the end of your kit to exchange with your creative friends! 

You never know, you might become as taken with them as I am 😉

Thanks for joining me this month - as always, it was a pleasure to be your guide. I'll be back later in the year but Tina will be here tomorrow to kick off a brand new month of creative possibilities which you are not going to want to miss.

I hope that you are inspired to make something and share with us. You can post them in our Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcaugust2023). 

 

Lisa