Masters of Forgery Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge DT blog hop! I just love looking at all the fabulous blogs of our talented team! You should have arrived here from Lisa's blog. If you are lost, you can start at the Challenge Blog.

Mini Challenge #2 ( All About The "I" Challenge) was to make a page or mini album all about You with at least one "I" statement in it. This was tough for me. I sometimes struggle with doing pages about myself. I decided to take a different approach with this one.

I'm sure you all have seen the summer-long challenge going on at Counterfeit Kit Challenge, which is to make your own Counterfeit "Smash"-type book. I absolutely loved this idea!! I never really though Smash books were that exciting, until I saw one the other day at a local craft store. They really are adorable, and some of the accessories were very tempting! I loved the idea of making my own book, though. What a great way to actually put my lovely scrapbooking product to good use! Once I got started, my book only took a few hours to make. It would have been quicker, but I had to figure out what to do about the binding, since I don't own a Bind It All. Then, I remembered some EK Success binding coils I had purchased at Big Lots not long ago for $1.25. The large binding coil fit my 6" X 9" book almost perfectly, and I only had to cut a little bit off. The coil is over an inch wide, so I can really cram my book full of all sorts of memorabilia.

How I fit this into the challenge was with the title of my book. It says "I AM SMASHING", which is sort of a play on words. It can be a very positive message, meaning I'm really great, or it can mean I am actually making and using a Smash-type book! I thought it was pretty clever. I intend on filling the book with all the things I love, so it will definitely be about me.

I followed the directions for making a Smash book (part one, and part two) that were given on the CKC blog. I even used the same stamp set for my title (thanks, Crystal!). I found a really great thread on 2 Peas, which had a link to a tutorial by Tracy on binding your book using a Crop-a-dile. This was how I made the holes in my journal. I followed the directions, making each hole 1/2" apart. It worked very well with my binding coils. The coils would be fairly easy to remove if I wanted to rearrange or add to my pages.

I cut down some manila folders to make the divider pages, and used October Afternoon sticker tabs from my kit. I used almost all of the paper from my kit, and had to include a few additional sheets to make the book a little fuller. I also made a nice pocket page for the first page, and included thin white cardstock, grid paper, and other papers to add interest to the book. Lastly, I included a 6" X 9" manila envelope inside the back page for larger memorabilia. It fit perfectly inside my cover, and only required a minor adjustment to keep the flap from hitting the coils. Here are a few of the pages, as seen from the side.

I still need to embellish the pages and start gluing stuff into the book, but I've made a good start. I may even make another book for our summer vacations. These are so much fun to make, I really hope you give one a try!

I hope you enjoyed the hop! Your last stop today will be Meridy's blog.