March 2021 - Mini Kit Reveal & Projects

Welcome back for the Mini Kit Reveal! If you like to work with smaller kits, or don't have time to create, or work with, a full kit this month, then maybe we can inspire you a little? 

Here's a little reminder of our inspiration kit for the month. Isn't it fun?

Paper Addict Kit from Mommyish

Shall we see how our team created their mini kits and what they've used them for this month? 

MF Lisa

I wanted to do something a bit different this month. I always reach for the card kits when I'm on mini-kit duty and I think recently I added in a page kit but in the past, I used to make funky little mini-albums all the time. I wanted to push myself to see if I could still have fun making one.

When I looked at the inspiration kit, I picked out spots, stripes, hearts, pink and red which gave me a fabulous idea. I'm part of a group of crafty peeps who have a creative present swap a few times a year (started as an Advent swap and has extended from there - I think we're up to five swaps a year now!). Anyway, I always keep the wrappings, embellishments, tags etc from the swaps and try to take photos every day. We had just completed our Valentine Swap - new this year! - and when I looked at all the bits and pieces I had saved, it was spots, stripes, hearts, red and pink predominantly! An idea was born. 

I hope Clair will forgive me for going somewhat rogue but those basics are there! 

Here's my kit which is mostly the bits I saved from our swap - this time around, there were also some handwritten cards which I knew I wanted to include somehow.I added in a few pieces of paper from a Valentine collection as well as some white cardstock and an empty pralines tin which I thought would be ideal as the album container. 

I decorated the tin to cover up the printing, keeping it pretty simple.

And then I cut all the pages to fit inside using my Silhouette. I also stitched round all the edges of all the pages which didn't turn out as lovely as I'd hoped, but I'm going with it and embracing the rather shabby effect! Perhaps someone can give me some sewing machine tips to prevent the back of the page you stitch looking such a mess - tension all wrong, needle holes rather large etc!

Anyway, I cut out a bunch of pages and then also cut the tags and cards as well as some of the wrapping paper from each gift and then paired them up into pages. I thought I'd done way too many but somehow, the number turned out perfect and the tin is therefore rather full!

I try to remember to take a photo of the whole swap and then each day's wrapped and unwrapped present (the wrapping is always totally fabulous and definitely awe inspiring sometimes in its creativity) and then printed out all those photos at 1.5x.2.5"

Small strips of journalling includes some thoughts on this particular swap as well as my gratitude in having these amazing women in my life.

My mini-album is definitely not perfect, nor quite as lovely as the vision in my imagination before I started but I love it! I'm so happy to have used up all the bits and pieces that decorated the presents and found a way to feature all the details of the swap, including the notes we sent each other. I have all the paraphernalia from previous swaps so maybe I'll try and get creative with those too! Watch this space.

MF Clair

I found it really difficult to create a mini kit this month because I have so much stash that I could have included. In fact, I made three kits before I decided that I needed to rein it in! In the end, I included just four Felicity Jane solid cardstocks and four Pretty Little Studio transparencies - which are honestly 😍😍😍. 

When I think that I could have included ten different sheets of ledger paper (ahem) I've been so restrained!

I then added a handful of journalling cards and embellishments - labels, several types of paperclip, die cuts, some buttons and some handmade rosettes. Oh, and course, unlimited white cardstock!

I decided to start with that beautiful, sunshine yellow cardstock and combined it with a, frankly beautiful, cut file from Just Nick. I then matched that with memories from a summer walk in 2019. (Yup, still working on old albums) 

There's still lots to keep you inspired this month, so make sure to visit a little later in the month.

• 12th March: Challenge #1 - A little inspiration to make the most of your kit!
• 18th March: Challenge #2 - A little extra inspiration to make the most of your kit!
• 24th March: Follower Showcase - Who has caught our eye this month?
• 30th March: Killing Kits - Our host for the month shows off some ideas for using those last little bits!

We always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us. You can post them in our Facebook Community, or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcmarch2021).

I'm so looking forward to spending this month with you!