August 2023 - Challenge #1 - Getting Fussy!

 This month is flying by and while I know that many of you are busy creating with your kits, it's time for me to give you our first official challenge of the month!

A reminder of the inspiration kit we are working with in August:

Pink and Paper Subscription Club - June kit

Challenge #1 - Getting Fussy!

The original inspiration kit has some papers that are just shouting out to be fussy cut - banners, larger flowers, butterflies and teeny tiny flowers with labels - even some words! It was a lot of fun to make up a couple of layouts featuring some of these fussy cut items. 

Personally, I love to spend some time cutting out elements from my papers to use as embellishments or design items -  it's so relaxing and never takes as much time as you think it will! So, I'd love you to embrace the therapeutic side of fussy cutting and get those scissors working! 

 Feature fussy cut items on your layout 

Let's see what our Guest Designer, Clair, and the Design Team have been up to with this challenge! 

Guest Designer Clair says, "Pancho's in Manchester is decorated with beautiful, colourful murals of Frida Kahlo and we had a lot of fun on this visit - taking daft photographs while we ate our burritos! 

I wanted to make sure that my layout felt fun, so I used the 'Radiating Background' from Just Nick and filled it with a rainbow of colour. The 'Wonders' Collection Pad I included in my kit had a sheet full of boldly coloured 'mandalas' which I fussy cut and layered with leaves and floral die-cuts, as well as a few stickers, from a variety of Paige Evan's other collections. 

I had to stash dive for the leaves and florals (in addition to those in my counterfeit kit) as I really wanted to emulate the variety of colours I'd used in my cut-file - and the colours of the floral elements from the Woodland Grove collection that I'd included in my kit, just weren't as vibrant.

Remember, it's always okay to add to your counterfeit kit as you work (just as you would if you received a subscription kit.) It's all stash used and memories scrapbooked!"

Master Forger Tara used a pretty wreath cutfile and backed it with papers from her kit. For embellishments, she added three fussy cut butterflies from another one of her patterned papers!! She used two photos of her kitten from 2016 who was sleeping on her Cameo!! It's kinda hard to use with a cat on it, don't you think????

She also included several sheets of patterned paper to fussy cut this month and has spent a couple of evenings fussy cutting butterflies and clouds!!! Now she's ready to create a few more layouts with her fussy cut embellishments!!!

Master Forger Cindy first used a pattern paper with a large floral print. She fussy cut the large floral for her main embellishment on the page. 

Her second layout she used the floral stamp that was included in her kit, stamped on scrap pattern paper and cut them out for her embellishments.  

Blog post here

MF Lisa knew that there was a lot of potential in her kit and focussed on a recent event to highlight. She picked out a handful of photos from a very recent trip along with a Simple Scrapper premium membership sketch which she stretched and then just pulled her layout together without considering the fussy-cut embellishments. Once the layout was complete, she then added some fussy-cut butterflies and floral elements to the layout as the main embellishments. A scatter of enamel dots and hearts completed this simple but somehow complex layout!

One of our followers was interested to see how the bird paper would be used and this seemed like the perfect choice - what do you think?!?

Master Forger Leslie aka the Fussy-Cutting Queen cut my title letters from this forged paper:

Grunge is NOT so easy to fussy-cut! The hearts & butterflies (from a b-side in my kit) were a wee bit more conventional.

Even my background paper was a forgery! 

Master Forger Laura created this layout for this challenge and said this:

“ Here is my layout for the challenge. I used flowers i included in my kit which had been fussy cut from various papers. I didn't include an alpha this month, so used alpha stencils and pens to mimic the multi coloured alpha phrases included in the inspiration kit.”

Loved this challenge. Won’t you give it a go?

Here is what the rest of the month of August's inspiration will look like:

• 18th August - Challenge #2 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit.
• 24th August - Follower's Showcase - who has caught our eye this month.
• 29th August - Killing the Kit - an idea or two focusing on using up the bits and pieces left in your kit.

You know that 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 #ckcaugust2023).