Thursday, August 29, 2013

Kill that Kit!

No, we have not turned Mafia on you.  I do know that it is just as easy to "collect" handmade kits as it is to collect purchased ones.  How about you?  Do you have older kits piling up?  I know I have a few.

So our choices are:
1.  To disassemble them back into our stash
2.  Use them up...we did go to all the trouble of making them, after all.

My plan is to have a post at the end of the month full of ideas to use up that kit!  Hopefully before we break out our stash and Counterfeit  new one.  Let's get going!

Challenge Ideas:

1.  Be Inspired by Centenary Celebrations
2.  Layout about Top 100
3. Be inspired by 100 items
4.  Be Inspired by the Song 100 Years
5. Confetti Challenge
6.  Allison Davis Free Sketch
7.  A Little Bit of Twine Love
8.  Holiday Card Inspiration
9.  Self Portrait Challenge
10.  10 Minute Craft Dash Challenge

How about a little Pinterest Inspiration?



Nettio Designs


Creating Keepsakes

lpenacho1208-2
Debbie Hodge


Tammy Harp at The ScrapRoom


Summers Family is 4-Ever Layout_Mega Meet
Jillibean Soup

Davinie
Scrapbook and Cards Today

Pocket Full of Hearts
Darlene Design

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Fabulous Five!


We found some great kits and projects on Mr. Linky again this month!  Take a peek!






Saturday, August 24, 2013

August Blog Hop!


Another great month with another great hop!  The project for this month is a Geocashing Challenge...having something hidden.

Start with Lesley and each of our designers will lead you from blog to blog showing off their ideas for this project!



Please be kind and leave comments on each of the blogs you hop to.  We all like a little encouragement now and then.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

No More Floating Flair!

Here is a gem of a blog series.
I adore flair - the cute metal badge accents that you see everywhere.
But I confess that I am a hoarder & not a user :~(
Here's the proof!
Technically, they are NOT all flair, 
but I consider any round dimensional accent in the same category.

Well, I am happy to turn you on to a terrific blog series at A Flair for Buttons.
No More Floating Flair by Ashli Oliver will give you 
all the answers for using flair in an integral way.
There is a new episode every two weeks. 

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:
"Hi there! Ashli Oliver (soapHOUSEmama) here with my first post as a DT member at A Flair For Buttons. I am excited to be here and even more excited to share a new mini series that we will be bringing you twice a month!

Let me give you a little background information first. When I brought my first package of scrapbook flair home, I had a little trouble getting those adorable shiny circles on my page. Most of the time, they just seemed to be floating there. In the odd chance that I actually was able to "ground" my flair, it still seemed a bit random. Well, I am pleased to say, that I have long since crossed that bridge! Hooray! In fact, I can hardly scrap without flair these days. And that brings me to our new mini series...

"No More Floating Flair!"
Twice a month, we will take a look at different ways to incorporate flair into your scrapbooking. We will discuss using clusters, handmade embellishments, banners, and more! Also, if you have any questions or a special request, please leave a comment letting us know."

(Here's a look at one of her pages.
Follow those circles of green twine to find the flair!)
 
A Flair for Buttons also has an Etsy shop!
Just in case you haven't hoarded collected enough flair yet :~)

Monday, August 19, 2013

Always Room for One More

As scrapbookers, we are always on the quest for inspiration and a good challenge.  In addition to the challenges here at Counterfeit Kit, there's always room for one more resource to get your creative juices flowing.

Allow me to make a recommendation for you...

Whimsical Musings

Lisa (aka LisaInRe), long-time CKC design team member and the coordinator of our entire design team, has a fantastic and inspiring challenge blog called Whimsical Musings that she has been running for just about 2 years.  You know Lisa's gorgeous style of clusters and luscious patterned papers that are layered and distressed so elegantly.  Her layouts alone are an inspiration, but she's open to all types of styles as she offers weekly prompts that alternate between story-driven and technique-based.  There's never a right or wrong way to interpret a prompt.   It's relaxed and casual and scrappers with any experience level are welcome. There's a flickr gallery and discussion board and always encouragement and love (aka feedback) to be had. You don't need to sign-up, give an email address or buy anything.  Just come to the blog, be inspired, create and share!

This week (starting Monday, August 19th-Sunday, August 26th) Lisa is celebrating her
100th prompt!
Each day there will be a prompt revolving around the theme of 100, as well as an opportunity to re-visit the previous 99 that are archived on the blog.  She's planning some fabulous scrappy prizes and guest appearances by some of the followers of the blog.  It is sure to provide you with a multitude of ways to get you scrapping.  

So, grab your party hat and adhesive and head over to Whimsical Musings to join in the celebration!  All party crashers are welcome and I know you will have an inspiring time.  

Friday, August 16, 2013

Challenge #3: No Patterned Paper

a.aaa-Shocked-baby

Are you still here?  Really?  Okay then.  It must mean that you are ready to do this!  Or are plotting to over throw me.  LOL

Most of you know of my LOVE LOVE LOVE of patterned paper, so this is totally thinking outside of the box for me.

Challenge #3:  No Patterned Paper Challenge:  Use stamps, paints, cardstock, but NO patterned paper. 

Let's see how our Master Forgers took on this challenge!


Stephanie
Angela


Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Blog Hop Reminder

Just a little bit more time to decide if you are going to join us in our Geocashing Challenge Blog Hop!


This challenge is going to be for our end of the month participant BLOG HOP on the 24th!

To be a part of our blog hop:
1.  E-mail us your name/blog address/promise to participate at counterfeitkitchallenge@yahoo.com  BY THE 15th!  (No late requests will be able to join this time due to the work it takes for us to get it put together.)
2.  You will receive  an e-mail from us by the 20th with a list of the hop participants.
3.  You will need to schedule your own blog post showing your project based on this challenge and links to the person after you in the hop.
4.  All Blog Hop posts will need to be scheduled to go live on the 24th at 12:00 A.M. Mountain Standard Time

Monday, August 12, 2013

Challenge #2: Leftover Challenge



Aahh..leftovers.  I have a love/hate relationship with them.  I love not cooking on Sundays and having everyone "fend for themselves" with the leftovers.  I HATE the space they take up in the fridge.  

I'm the same way with my scraps.  I love being able to use up bits on my project and not cut up a big sheet of paper.  I HATE how disorganized they get!

I finally came up with a solution for my scraps that is working well for me.

1.  As I make a layout, I go ahead and use the scraps from it to put together some cards right away.
2.  The scraps that are left go into a basket.
3.  When the basket gets annoying, I trim them to the following sizes:
6x6, 4x6, 3x4 and 12x12/6x6 punched borders.
4.  The extra bits get tossed guilt free UNLESS I absolutely love it and then it goes back into the basket to use later. 
5.  Sometimes I will head straight to the basket for my cards...mix and match my scraps.  

Challenge #2: Leftover Challenge:  Pick a scrap (not from your kit) to use on a project!  Hey...use as many scraps as you want!  The more the merrier!

I have a feeling our Master Forgers turned some Leftovers into some "Fine Dining"!  Let's take a look!

















Thursday, August 8, 2013

Hey...I can make THAT!

                         
August Tutorials

                            


Welcome to "Hey...I can make THAT!"  A monthly post to help you truly counterfeit many of the components of the current month's kit.  No need to go out and purchase...just use the supplies you already have to create some of the freshest and trendiest products out there.  Here you will find links to our amazing design team members' blogs and/or links to other craft sites on the web showing how to make these amazing products.

Angela's using up some scraps to make a record embellishment inspired by this month's Confidence Kit.

Milissa used a stencil and some stamps to counterfeit this gorgeous Basic Grey paper.
Picture Source

Number tags and speech bubble sentiments with Angela.

Leslie did an assortment of polaroid accents inspired by the Simple Stories 24/7 Snapshots paper.


The other Lesley made a flower and although a bit too big for a layout you could try making a smaller one?

Julene has a great idea to use up those extra alphas and numbers from your kit.


Be sure to try your hand at some or ALL of these crafty counterfeits.  They will save you a couple of bucks and give you the satisfaction of saying...
Hey...I made THAT!


Sunday, August 4, 2013

Challenge #1: Geocaching Challenge

My family LOVES to Geocache together!  It is such a fun activity for all of us to find a hidden "treasure" using coordinates and clues around town.  We also love it because there are hidden things all over the world, so anywhere we travel, we can geocache!

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world.



This was a cache found on our brief vacation this summer.  It has hidden in a huge fallen tree and took a little bit to locate.

Challenge #1:  Geocaching Challenge!  Use the concept of "something hidden" on your project!

Let's see if we can do a bit of a hunt through our Master Forger projects!


LesleyG

Angela


 
 
Julene

This challenge is going to be for our end of the month participant BLOG HOP on the 24th!

To be a part of our blog hop:
1.  E-mail us your name/blog address/promise to participate at counterfeitkitchallenge@yahoo.com  BY THE 15th!  (No late requests will be able to join this time due to the work it takes for us to get it put together.)
2.  You will receive  an e-mail from us by the 20th with a list of the hop participants.
3.  You will need to schedule your own blog post showing your project based on this challenge and links to the person after you in the hop.
4.  All Blog Hop posts will need to be scheduled to go live on the 24th at 12:00 A.M. Mountain Standard Time

Friday, August 2, 2013

July Winner and another chance to win!


We have a winner for the Summer Stamp Set!


and the Random Number Generated  Winner is....LISA H.

Congratulations, Lisa!

Please e-mail me at counterfeitkitchallenge@yahoo.com with your mailing address!

Ready to win some more goodies?  How about some fun flowers from Prima?  (Say that 5 times fast!)


I have TWO sets of these to give away!  (Owl not included...the photo is ONE of the sets...that is a lot of flowers!)  How can you win?

Share about Counterfeit Kit Challenge somewhere...on your blog...facebook...a scrapbook site...
Then come back to THIS post and comment with a LINK to your "share"!  

 It needs to be a CURRENT share (from this month), so don't link back to an old share.  :)
This contest ends the last day of August...at midnight.

Good luck!  I will draw a winner at the beginning of September!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

August Counterfeit Kit and Guest Designer



Being born in August isn't all bad


Where, oh where, did the summer go?  Two more weeks and it is back to school for us.  I am excited about some new changes around our house this school year!  My Hubby took a new job that will allow him to work from home with more flexible hours!  WHAHOO!  I am happy that he will be less stressed...and especially happy that the kids will be able to see him more.

I'm hoping that back to school will mean less time cleaning up after people and more time scrapping, but with Hubby home...who knows!  LOL

Ready to see your assignment for August?  It is a good one!

Our August Counterfeit Kit comes from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out: The Confidence Kit.


This kit is FULL of fun products!  I love the dark colors...makes the other elements in this kit really POP!  If you go to the link above, there is a comprehensive list of everything in the kit.  VERY helpful if you like to put it together piece by piece.  

If you are new to the CKC Blog, making your own counterfeit kit is super easy!  Take a look at the kit above and try to pull your own kit from your own stash by...
1.  Copying each piece in the kit with something pretty close from your stash...counterfeiting what you don't have.
2.  Use the colors in this kit to pull together something different from your stash.
3.  Get inspired by the patterns in the papers (the type...the scale) and use those to inspire your kit.
4.  Get inspired by the THEME of this kit (retro...lots of photography) and head in that direction with your kit.

Don't forget that it is YOUR kit!  Feel free to add some of your favorite items that you always use in your projects, even if they are not in the kit!  Pull together a kit YOU will love to use!

We have a month full of ideas for you on how to recreate this kit and how to use it up. Now, how can YOU participate?  Go to the sidebar and use Mr. LINKY to link us to YOUR kit or project using your kit so we can leave you some love!  We will make a brand new Mr. Linky for each month, so get your blog posts linked ASAP!  To make Mr. Linky a little easier for us to use, please type your name and then a description of what you are linking (ie: kit, mini challenge, ect...). You never know...your links might get featured in our Fab Five post at the end of the month...or even lead to us asking you to be a Guest Designer for an upcoming month!

We have a GREAT Guest Designer this month!  I am happy to introduce you to Heidi!



Hello I’m Heidi and I’m thrilled to bits to have been asked to be the August Guest Designer.
I’m a Mum to 3 children, 2 girls and a boy and most of my scrapbook pages feature at least one of them.
I have been scrapbooking in one form or another for 8 years although it has only been in the past 4 that I have really become addicted.
Recently I have completed the Tim Holtz creative Chemistry online tutorials and become active on the swap forum on UKScrappers both of which have really stretched my abilities and given me some unusual challenges as well as some new crafting friends.
It’s via UKS that I discovered the counterfeit kit challenge and it has become the perfect outlet for my ever growing pile of stash as of course shopping is an integral part of crafting!

Be sure to check out Heidi's BLOG!  She has some great projects sure to inspire you!

Ready to check out our MASTER FORGERS and their great kits for the month?