March Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Another month of counterfeiting and I'm just as excited as I was in January. This month's kit is from Studio Calico's "Into the Woods". Their kits are always so nicely put together and I had a blast looking thru my stash to come up with some of the softness/hues of this kit.
I think the most fun, tho, is looking for the embellishments. I do have some chipboard pieces I might add into my kit as I go, but for the most part I'm happy with what I have. As always, I know the girls will have a bunch of tutorials on how to make some of the pieces/add ons. That's what makes their blog so cool. They really do rock!

More Feb. Kit

This month has flown by and I've wanted to scrap more, but just haven't been able to. I can only share a couple of cards from my Counterfeit Kit and the journaling challenge. I'm thinking about getting some larger folders to keep the kit together instead of breaking it up and back into my stash. That way I can just grab it and work out of it. Since I used most everything in my January kit, I will start this month and think I will work on making larger kits for the future months. Thanks for visiting!

Using Feb.'s Kit

I must admit it has been a HUGE challenge for me this month to use this kit. I really do love what I put together, but am stumped for pictures to go with it. The first thing I noticed was it had kind of a vintage vibe going, so I scrapped a page using a photo that has hung in my house for years of my husband and his brother (circa 1957 or so). I'm glad it will be in a scrapbook just in case the picture gets put away or lost some day.

The other hard part for me these days is scrapping my oldest son who just turned 20. Lucky for me he's an artist who loves photography and is always taking my point and shoot camera (which has a video feature on it) with him on his adventures. He shared with me his latest off-roading fun, so I just went with it.





Now that some challenges are coming, I'm looking forward to making some other layouts & cards and being inspired by everyone's work. Thanks for stopping by!

A digi "Month in Review"

It's been quite awhile since I've done any digital scrapping. I must say it took me some time to get my brain to work and figure it all out again. I'm not that great at it, but I kind of cheated here using a digital template from Tami at Get It Scrapped. I would really love to keep up with this every month this year, but the hard part is picking up the camera and documenting every day life. I always forget and say, "Gee, I wished I had my camera for this". I will try harder this month. Thank you, Tami, for the template!

February Counterfeit Kit Challenge

I am so excited to be able to play again this month. I really think this idea is brilliant. I'm looking at old product in a new way and having fun challenging myself not to spend much money this year on scrapping products. Once again, everything is from my stash. I wasn't able to pull the flowers, but having boys I don't use them much.
The papers are from all different manufacturers. These colors are waaaaaay out of the box for me, so for me it will be a challenge to try and use them. The large floral die cut paper is so pretty, I don't think I could stand to cut it up.




My embellies are pretty old, but I still like them and they fit the theme.
And for the alphas, I picked out a few of my favorites (Jenni Bowlin & American Crafts I just adore!!) I also pulled out a stamp set that I got on sale at Joann's a couple weeks ago for $3.97. The design of it works perfectly with this kit.
I'm looking forward to creating, learning new techniques, & sharing my layouts with new scrappy friends this month.

Yellow & Teal

I'm stuck right now wanting to use these colors all the time. Add some grey or kraft and I'm good to go! Enjoy!

Answer to the Tootsie Pop Question

So today the Counterfeit Kit Club's post was about your final tally using the self-generated kit for January. The whole process this month contained an eye-opening revelation for me which was, " I love creating within perimeters".
I think it challenged me in a way to be more creative & to use product I have in a fresh way. Brilliant I say!!!! So when I got down to just having a few things left in my kit, I got creative and thought what can I do with just a few scraps. I took all the patterned paper and randomly cut them into strips and adhered them down to a piece of card stock. I cut off the sides and this is what I was left with:

Now onto what to do with this. I first thought of a card front, so I cut that out and adhered it to a card. The flower I made out of dictionary paper (using the tutorial) and sprayed it with some Studio Calico mist. Loved it much better than leaving it the original dictionary paper color. Used more of my alpha stickers and voila!

I still had more of the paper left, so I used some chipboard birds as a template and cut out two of those. I decided to leave this for some future project maybe using the ric-rac too. We'll see.

I also punched a bunch of circles and used them in this layout. I still have journaling to put on it, but it's layout No. 5 using my kit.

So there it is....success using my stash and spending no money for the month of January!! I'm so excited for February to come to see what is in store to lift! Thanks to the gals at Counterfeit Kit Club for really doing a BEYOND AWESOME job of
creating this concept and teaching us how to use our own supplies in a great way.

Kit layouts

I'm pretty much a simple & speedy scrapper. Once I start laying things down on a page, it pretty much stays that way and I just go for it. I also like just using what I have before me and not hunt for things. That takes too much time. I think this "kit" challenge is perfect for me. The other night I made all three layouts in a couple hours. Whooohoo!
I still have plenty from the kit and will most likely get another three layouts done with it. I'm also enjoying all the tutorials on how to make the embellishments. I will make some to add to my kit in a few days. In the meantime..here's what I got.
**Edited to add: Just added another one of my puppy Lilly. Still using my kit!

A new year and trying something new

I read about this from a post on 2Peas and thought it was just a great idea. It's called the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. The premise is you use as inspiration a kit club's kit for that month and pick supplies from your stash to make your own kit. Brilliant I say! So for January the inspiration is from Dec. JBS's kit. I do love her products, but didn't have the colors from her kit but pulled from my stash to come up with this. I'm lovin' it and can't wait to start making some layouts.
Since this is my year for saving money, I plan on using this strategy for not buying any new product (only adhesive if needed).
I thought too I would like to incorporate some of the many stamps I have, so each month I will be pulling from my stamp stash. The Maya Road doily stamp & stamp border pretty much fit the bill for this kit.
Here's the scoop on joining in: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
I will be back with some layouts soon.