March Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Hello Blogland! 

Well, it's a new month, and that means a new Counterfeit Kit Challenge. This month's inspiration kit has lots of bright spring colors and plenty of florals and butterflies. It's a good thing I'm a complete sucker for anything with a butterfly on it. =) Here's the inspiration kit: 

February Hip Kit

In making my kit, I was inspired by one of the Master Forgers who used a sheet of floral paper from an old Basic Grey collection, Tea Garden. I received the collection pack and some stickers for this collection in the box sale Basic Grey had when they closed down (still sad about this!). It was one of those things where you didn't get to choose what they send you...but you get a ton of stuff. I have to admit I was not initially excited by this collection, but when it came to counterfeiting this month, it actually turned out to be a great starting point. Here are my papers: 

The whole top row of papers is from the Tea Garden collection. From there I just chose things for my kit to coordinate with those papers. I knew I had that My Mind's Eye butterfly paper to match the repeating butterfly in the inspiration kit. I was pleasantly surprised when the colors matched the Tea Garden papers. I threw in another floral, a wood grain, a large stripe, and a tone on tone bird paper to round out my selection. 

I have LOTS of stickers this month. The first three sheets on the top came with the Tea Garden pack, so I threw them all in since I knew they would match. An old Dear Lizzy sticker book was also a good color match and it has some gold stickers to match the gold accents in the inspiration kit. I threw in some more butterflies in the form of these Studio Calico butterfly sticker sheets....I have had these forever and they are one of my favorite embellishments of all time. They seem to go with everything and, as I said, I'm a sucker for butterflies. =) I also found these random rub-on sheets while I was stash diving. The floral and gold go nicely with the theme of my kit.

I found lots of good alpha matches this month, including a sheet from Tea Garden. I pulled out this banner punch since I have a sheet of banner stickers in the kit. 

More butterflies! Including an entire matstack dedicated to butterflies! It's really not a surprise that I own such a thing. =P Also my "required" 6x6 pads and some stamp sets. One of the sets has an old-timey camera in it. There were cameras in the inspiration kit so I thought I might sneak them in with a stamp. 

A couple stencils and some mist to sneak in some more gold. =) The inspiration kit also had acrylic paints, but I decided I wouldn't designate a specific paint to my kit. I'll just choose whatever color is appropriate for each project.

One last photo of it all packed up and ready for crafting! I feel like I have soooo much stuff this month. Hopefully lots of projects will come out of this kit. =) 

Thanks for looking, and happy kitting!

*~M~*

February Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Hello all!!

To start off: a little honesty session. I think it's high time I acknowledge that I'm a terrible blogger. Every 6 months-ish I think to myself, "Hey, I really should get back into blogging," and then I try it a few times and then give up again. The fact of the matter is, I find it incredibly tedious. Mostly because I hate the photo processing...er, process. Downloading, editing, uploading....etc, etc. So I have found that I much prefer the near lack of photo processing required to regularly post on Instagram. Which brings me to my actual point: I would love it if you would follow me over on Instagram. =) I try to post something there every day, generally with some success. I'm only going to post on this blog when I have a project that requires more photos or more wordiness from me, and there will be a corresponding post on Instagram any time I post here. I also find that it is much easier to interact with others there as the commenting process is much more streamlined and makes it simpler to find people. So, I look forward to connecting with you there! =)

On to this post: I'm very excited to be getting back into doing some scrapbooking kits with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. I did a few months at the beginning of last year but then got side-tracked with summer classes and then the holidays, so it's great to be doing this again. I love the process of going through my stash and finding great stuff that I forgot I had. This month's kit in particular has some real oldies that I'm excited to get out into the light of day. But first....the inspiration kit:

Find the original kit here

I love how different this kit is. It feels slightly monochromatic with all the pale cool tones and simple black and white. It also presented a great challenge for counterfeiting because I couldn't think of any obvious similar products that I had, so I really had to go digging. I focused on trying to find purple, mint green and navy as well as small florals and polka dots for patterns to try to get something similar in feel to the original kit. Here's what I came up with:

 There are a few goals I've set for myself with this kit:

• I wanted to make sure and include a 6x6 pad, because I have way too many of these and they need to get used. This also gives me more opportunity to do some cardmaking with the kit. 
• I also wanted to include at least one stamp set and some coordinating inks to make sure my stamps and inks are getting some love. 
• I have so many mists and paints that don't get used, so I made sure to pick out a matching one for this kit. 
• I want to include punches or other tools in this and future kits, so that these are getting used as well. Plus they make it so easy to make your own embellishments! 

I think I managed to check off all my goals with this kit. Here are some details:

Here you can see just the papers. Along with the original kit there were some lovely coordinating cardstocks which featured a surprising pop of yellow. Initially I didn't think I would include that in my kit but I found a pretty solid yellow paper and a pattern with a bit of yellow in it that I fell in love with so yellow made it's way into the kit after all. =) That patterned vellum has the most interesting embossed texture. It feels almost rubbery...I'm glad I found this piece buried with some other patterned papers.

There were lots of label shapes in the original kit as well as some hexagon die-cuts in an embellishment kit so I was happy to find these pieces which can be colorized...possibly with this mint-colored mist or I may use some other inks if need be. I also love these washi tapes with their small-scale patterns.

I've been known to forget alphabets for my kits...but not this time!! =) I was surprised by how many I had in colors that matched the kit. It will be nice to get some use out of these.

Here are the stamp sets I chose...again I went with some label shapes so I can make some custom label die-cuts using the stamps and the coordinating inks I chose. I picked some chalk inks because I think the lovely soft effect will go nicely with the feel of this kit. Not sure how much use I will get out of the ombre ink pad since it's a bit dark, but I haven't used it yet so I'm excited to try it!

And here she is all packed away into an Iris container. You gotta love these containers. They are perfect for kits!

Thanks for reading! I have plans for some forgeries I want to try so I may have one other post here for that this month....otherwise I will be posting my projects with this kit over on Instagram! Hope to see you there! =)

*~M~*