Counterfeit Kit Challenge - Star Sign InspirationI

Ok, I cheated! 

There's usually a "bit" of cheating but this month, I was a bit more .... shall we say, obvious!

Ok, let's start at the beginning. I made a beautiful Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit this month, Celebrate. I was really happy with it. I made two layouts right off for assignments which I haven't been able to share yet (but will soon) and then realised that I needed to make my layout for Challenge #2 - Star Sign Inspiration (you can find the blog post with all the shares over here).

Now, while I'd been creating with the kit, a "few" extras found their way in to the box. Some gold words, an alphabet, some chipboard pieces, some die cuts from a previous kit. But you know, it's all good because using up stash is using up stash. Right? So if something finds its way in there and gets used up, I'm not worried.

But now I had to make a layout inspired by star signs.

This was a challenge I'd come up with myself and I was really looking forward to having the excuse of making a page all about me in my birthday month. Like I say, Scorpios can be a little ....  "devious" at times ;-)

When I looked into the leftovers of my kit, which was quite a small one for me, there was nothing that was really inspiring me to make a Scorpio page. But still, determined, I headed off for my weekly crop with my already enhanced kit and a photo. When I got there, some new products had just arrived and I just knew I had to cheat bend the rules a little. The constellation paper from the Dear Lizzy Star Gazer line was screaming my name and I couldn't ignore that siren call. So I gently placed a sheet into my kit box and smiled slyly to myself. Then I spotted the Star Gazer washi tape pack featuring constellations and a rose gold/copper as well as some small font alphas and my destiny was set.

And this is the layout that was born out of my "embellished" kit!

There is a tiny bit of tape at the top and the bottom here but the rest were items in the kit, I promise! (Well, apart from that stunning background paper of course)

I used the manufacturing strip from the constellation paper as well as the hearts that had been cut off from a sheet of Shimelle paper that was in the kit originally. And the photo mat was also in the kit from the beginning so it's not all cheating!

The Thicker alphabet was the perfect size and I added in the small navy stickers because every kit needs something a bit smaller for longer titles such as this. Look at that gorgeous background paper!

And as luck would have it, if I turned the paper upside down, there was Scorpio. This makes me more than happy and I "might" have purchased half a dozen more pieces of this paper. You know, just in case!

So, if I'm honest this is about 60% cheated stuff on the page but the other 40% is really my Celebrate kit.

Will you forgive me? 

This page was a lot of fun to make as I absolutely wanted to keep as much of the design showing as possible but at the same time, wanted to feature a larger photo than usual. By piling up small items in each corner, I really think I achieved my goal and made a page that makes me happy when I look at it - even if I wince a little at the same time ;-)

So, in conclusion... This Scorpio girl is smiling. And that matters.

I do hope you were inspired to make your own star sign pages or just pages featuring stars in some way using your own Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit. If you do, make sure you share with us. There's a great community over on Facebook - Counterfeit Kit Challenge Community - or you can link up at the CKC blog or over on IG @counterfeitkitchallenge or #counterfeitkitchallenge
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November at Simple Scrapper #2

The last share I have for you this month is a new favourite of mine using the Simple Scrapper current sketch collection and an older Story Starter from October 2015 Inside of You.

I decided to do an online Myers Briggs type personality test - it's a free online test rather than the controlled official one but seemed very thorough and tied in with the results I've had in the past so I'm sticking with it!

I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge August kit, Alpine because I wanted to keep the whole layout a bit calm to reflect what I re-learnt about my personality.

I used three selfies from the stack I took in April in my 30 days of selfies challenge. I'm often hiding behind sunglasses to cover up my shyness, so once again, this all supported the theme of the page.

The most interesting part of doing the test for me was the Introvert element at 89%. I used the Story Starter prompt to write about how people usually assume I'm a total extrovert. I'm loud and able to talk for England. But naturally, that's a whole lot of act and in reality, I'd be happy as a hermit!

I captured all these thoughts in the hidden journalling behind the photo which was shown on the original sketch too. This was perfect for me to turn into a larger pocket (I actually used a brown paper bag) to keep all the information I printed out from the website about INFP type people which I thought was so so interesting. It makes the page really heavy but it's great to know it'll be there to read again any time I want.

That's the last of my November shares for now so thanks as always for dropping by.

To find out more about the many resources and inspiration - including the sketches and story starters I use each month - available to inspire you to create beautiful pages and tell meaningful stories in a supportive, communicative community environment, check out the Simple Scrapper premium membership here.