Mini Challenge #1 Ad Inspiration!

If you are anything like me, you find inspiration everywhere! The first challenge this month at Counterfeit Kit Challenge was too much fun!! The challenge was to get inspiration from an advertisement, and use it on a layout or project. I looked through several magazines before I found this ad in the February, 2011 edition of Martha Stewart Living. I loved the cluster of words in this Special K ad, which is also known as a "word cloud".

There are websites available online (like this one) which allow you to enter words and make your own word cloud. I decided on this page to take it a step further, and use rub-ons for my word cloud. This is an awesome way to use up all of those rub-ons you have laying around collecting dust. Although the rub-ons were not included in my original kit, I thought using old product was perfect for the spirit of the challenge.

For this layout, I used a photo of my two oldest kids, and the flip sides of two of my kit papers. I used acrylic paint to cover my little handmade chipboard frame.

In case you haven't heard, we have a wonderful sponsor this month!! Socal Scrapbooks is providing an awesome prize package to one lucky blog hop participant! Be sure to sign up to join us on the 28th to see all the gorgeous work done by our followers, and for a chance to win!

Prize package:

Copycat "Bloomers" Tutorial!!

The inspiration kit this month contained some gorgeous fabric and felt flowers by Basic Grey "Hello Luscious". I really love the look of these, but don't have anything like them in my stash. I get a kick out of trying to figure out how to recreate embellishments with items I have in my stash, and this was the perfect opportunity! Some people might think it would be easier to just go out and buy them, but I really enjoy a challenge. Here is a simple tutorial on how to make your own fake "Bloomers", and also some tips I learned along the way.

Basic Grey Bloomers:

Start off going through your stash for any felt and fabric you may have that will coordinate with your kit. If you're like me, you have a ton of other craft supplies from various other projects. Some of the supplies you will need are felt (either regular or adhesive backed), fabric, iron on fusible web (Steam a Seam 2 is good because it will not gunk up your needle when you sew on it), iron, sewing machine with different colors of thread, embroidery floss and needle, sharp scissors, buttons, and Cricut or other die cut machine.

Step One: Apply the fusible web to the wrong side of your fabric and/or felt, according to the manufacturer's directions. This will give your fabric a crisp appearance and keep it from stretching out. It also allows you to bond each of the layers of your flowers together nicely. You could skip this step , but I found it really helps the flowers hold their shape with all the handling they will get. The paper backing also provides a perfect surface for tracing a pattern. This step is critical if you are using your Cricut to cut out your fabric.

Step Two: Next, cut out your flowers. You will want to cut your flowers in a variety of shapes and sizes out of both fabric and felt. I discovered a really fun technique when doing research for this tutorial! If you have never used your Cricut to cut out flowers, it is an awesome way to get some great flowers cut very quickly. I watched a few tutorials on Youtube, including this one, which were very helpful. I've heard that it's possible to cut felt with the Cricut, but you will either need a deep blade housing or a multi cut feature, neither of which I have on my original baby bug. I was forced to cut my felt shapes by hand. It is easier to cut them out if you use a template, which you could also make with your Cricut. If you have a big standard die cut machine and flower dies, this would make the job quick and easy. If you are good at sketching, you can sketch out a design for a flower, or do a Google search for printable flower patterns. Cut out some circles in a few sizes, as well. These will be used for centers for your flowers.

Step Three: Stitch along the edges of your flowers and circle centers with a long machine stitch, or embroidery stitching, depending on the look you want. It takes a little patience to stitch around the circular edges. Your efforts will be worth it, I promise!

Step Four: Layer your flowers together in a manner that pleases you. You can experiment to get the look you want.

Step Five: Thread your button, sewing all the layers of your flower together. Voila!! You have made your own copycat "Bloomer" flower! Here are some of the flowers I made, which I just love!! I hope you give this technique a try!

June Counterfeit Kit!!

Can you believe this is the sixth month of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge?! I just love it! If you've never heard of it, check out the blog. Every month we create a new kit, copying an "inspiration" kit by one of many gorgeous kit clubs available online. If you are anything like me, you spend hours drooling over some of these kits, and here is a great chance to make one of your own, using your own supplies.

This month, our inspiration came from a fun new club called Burlap and Buttercups. The kit is pretty, feminine, and shabby, and features many papers by Basic Grey Hello Luscious line. I fell in love with the soft sweetness of this kit, and tried to find similar items in my stash.

Inspiration Kit:

For my kit, I pulled some vintage inspired items from my supplies, including papers from the Crate Paper Restoration line. I made a few "copycat" embellishments by hand. The result was very old fashioned and whimsical. I am calling this kit "Grandma's House"!

My version:

Items included in my kit: Papers: Coordinating Cardstock - Bazzill, Fancy Pants - Road Show "Dilly Dally" & Lilac House "Needlepoint", Crate - School Spirit "Homeroom", Crate - Restoration "Ruffles", "Slipcover" (partial sheet), "Doilies", "Heirloom", and "Lace", October Afternoon - Thrift Shop "One of a kind", and Cosmo Cricket - Early Bird "Ribbon Sandwich".

Embellishments: Alphas - Thickers "Cream Soda", word stickers - October Afternoon "Thrift Shop", butterfly and flower dies - Cuttlebug "Naturals", Sew Brads - Crate Restoration, chipboard frames - handmade with threading water punch, handmade "Bloomers" (tutorial coming soon) bakers twine, corsage pins, and pearl ribbon from stash,

May Counterfeit Kit Challenge Design Team Blog Hop

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Design Team blog hop for May! You should have gotten here from Lisa's blog. If not, please go back to the challenge blog, and start over.

This month's blog hop challenge was to get inspiration from your favorite manufacturer's blog. My all-time favorite manufacturer is October Afternoon!! I am so in love with their products, I feel compelled to buy almost every line they release. Looking through the blog, there are so many lovely projects, that it was hard to narrow it down to just one! So, I chose two, which are very similar in feeling. What I admired about these pages are the neutral backgrounds, layers, and clusters of embellishments.

Because my kit has a much brighter color palette and because it is a boys page, I had to improvise on some things. I'm happy with how it turned out for the most part. I was able to use more of my handmade embellishments and other stuff from my kit. I also got a chance to play with my brand new charcoal Maya Mist, which was very fun! I wanted some big drips on this page, so I took the top off, and shook the end of the nozzle tube to make the larger drips. I also sprayed once or twice, for good measure. I love that the mist is such a nice dark color!

Here is my version:

I also found this free printable, that some of you might enjoy! These cute little Father's Day cards feature some very sweet boys and girls, that reminded me so much of our inspiration kit this month! Have fun with it!

Your next stop on the DT blog hop is Meridy. Enjoy the rest of the hop!

Embellishment Challenge

Our next challenge this month at Counterfeit Kit Challenge was to make an embellishment(s) to use on a project. There were so many fabulous ideas for creating your own embellishments this month, and I knew I was going to have to try a few of them!

I especially love the "wooden nickels" or poker chip tutorials that were posted. I wish I'd had some of those cool wooden disks, and would love to find some one day. The poker chips I had were too dimensional to decorate, so those were also out. Then, I remembered that I had a pack of Tim Holtz grungeboard with various sizes of circles and squares. I haven't found a really good use for them yet, so this was awesome! I wanted something different than the grayish color the grungeboard comes in, so I first painted them with a mixture of gesso and acrylic paint, for a really good finish. Then, I decorated them with rub-ons (October Afternoon, Scrap Within Reach, Kaiser craft), stamps (thank you, Bethany!), and patterned paper! I just loved how they came out!! I love that they are neutral, and help to tone down the strong colors from my boys kit.

I've had the design for this page in my head for awhile, and I think I saw a sketch with diagonal circles like this somewhere. I can't for the life of me find it now, so I can't give them credit. If you remember seeing a sketch similar to this, would you let me know, please! I like how many embellishments I was able to use on the diagonal cluster of circles, and even layered some circles cut from one of the papers and buttons from my kit.

That was not all! I knew I wanted to make a few banners similar to the ones in the inspiration kit, so I did. I plan on using them on some future pages from this kit. I think I got carried away! I hope you get a chance to try one or more of these tutorials!

MIni Challenge #1

The first challenge this month at Counterfeit Kit Challenge was to make a card using this fabulous sketch from Sketch Support!

I love using sketches! They make putting a quick card together so easy. My kit included product from the Sassafras Lass Nerdy bird line. The stickers are the perfect size to match the sketch, so I decided to make two! Lately, I've been making cards with unusual sentiments, but you never know when you will need that special card.

My May Counterfeit Kit!!

We have been very busy at Counterfeit Kit Challenge! This month, we had the opportunity to counterfeit an awesome kit by Work In Progress kits! I just loved the whimsy and playfulness of the main kit, and wanted to keep that feeling in my own kit.

In my version, I chose to use many items from the Sassafras Lass Nerdy Bird collection. I have had these papers in my stash for awhile, and this was the perfect opportunity to use them. The colors of Nerdy Bird are somewhat different from the inspiration kit, but I was excited that they included purple and pink! These were my daughter's favorite colors as a little girl. In the back of my mind, I wanted to make a boy's add-on, so I did not mind if this one was on the feminine side.

Kit contents:

Papers: Coordinating Bazzil cardstock, Bo Bunny Sunkissed "Summer" & "Adventure", Crate School Collection "Ruler", Echo Park Sweet Summertime "Raspberry Delight", Sassafras Lass Nerdy Bird "Cheery", "Tea for Two", "Starstruck", "Sprightly", "Book Club", and My Mind's Eye Jack & Jill "Serene Spots"

Embellishments: Sassafras Lass Nerdy Flag Banners, Nerdy Journal Tags, October Afternoon Thrift Shop Schoolroom Alpha, Thickers "Rainboots" alpha, Thickers "Dear Lizzy" chipboard shape stickers, K & Co. adhesive gems, Basic Grey Bling It ice cream cone, Recollections flowers, ribbon from stash, "Summertime" and hot air balloon stickers Echo Park "Sweet Summertime", die cut shipping tags (Cricut & scal), ice cream and kite cards October Afternoon, punchouts Pink Paislee "Hometown Summer", and Mickey paint chips from Home Depot.

I was finally able to put together a boys kit! Since I have three boys, it was a no brainer. Mine has a rather patriotic feeling with all the stars, red, white and blue but it could be used for any event, as well as 4th of July.

Add-on kit contents: Patterned paper Bo Bunny "Block Party" & "Jamboree", Blueberry Dot, clear stamps by Sandylion & Sassafras Lass "Song Writer", Sassafras Lass Alpha Token, Pink Paislee alphabet stickers & punchouts "Hometown Summer", star brad Target Dollar Spot, borders "Decadent Edges Boy" Making Memories, ribbon GCD "Rockets Red Glare", and ticket stickers My Minds Eye "Little Boy Blue", felt stars (rak from Crystal!), star chipboard mini album and boy shape Maya Road, and buttons from stash.

I have to confess, after I saw the inspiration kit, I bought a couple of the items from that kit because I "had to have" them! I hope you don't share my secret to Bethany & Meridy!! That really isn't what the challenge is about, but I thought it's a good example of how you might have an item or two from the inspiration kit, and use them, but also include other items from your stash. For me, the most fun of all is putting the kits together! I enjoy scrapping, but I really get a kick out of trying to match the feeling of the inspiration kit. That's one of the big reasons I love this challenge so much!