May 2026 - Mini Kits & Projects Reveal

 There isn't always time in the month to make and use up a big kit. If you wan to keep it smaller, we have you covered. From page kits to small projects you can just take these ideas in a smaller direction. Let's see our inspiration again, and then check out what the team came up with.

Master Forger Tara went a little different way than the themey-ness of the original kit.  She really didn't have photos of baking to scrap so she went with florals and bright colors.  She swapped out the red in the inspo kit for hot pink and came up with this:

There's only 4 sheets of patterned paper, an alpha set, and the matching sticker sheets in the kit.  So, Master Forger Tara created some florals to go with her kit with dies, cardstock, and Nuvo drops.

 Master Forger Tara spent most of iNSD creating layouts using this kit and here's what she came up with:

During the iNSD zoom crop and chat she also played along with our Counterfeit the Master Forgers challenges and created this layout by counterfeiting Master Forger Julene.

 Master Forger Julene created a sketch based upon her original layout:

Master Forger Christine

Christine has a whole organizer full of kitchen/cooking collection pieces!  So as soon as she saw the inspiration kit, that's the little box she pulled.  And decided to go all in with the theme.  Notice the KitchenAid paper??  And how cute are those little aprons?  Most of these papers are quite old (one is from 2017), so this was a great opportunity to use them.  She pulled 3 full size sheets, one almost full, and then a ton of scraps from that little organizer.  For embellishments, she had one sticker sheet with a few stickers, a bunch of 2x2 cut aparts and some tags.  

The full size sheets Master Forger Christine pulled.

The 2x2 cut-aparts, a couple of journaling cards, and a scrap.

More scraps! Plus a tag.

And the sticker sheet.

Master Forger Christine was able to get 3 12x12 layouts completed.  Truth be told, she put a few scraps back in her little organizer.  

The first layout.  Master Forger Christine felt like making a swoosh.  Coz why not??  But, then she decided to flip one of her originally selected papers to the B-side for the more tone on tone dark brown base.  The cute apron paper was a nice contrast.  She fussy cut the mixer from a journaling card, as well as a couple of the other embellishments, and used 4 tags across the middle.  

The second layout turned about a bit more busy.  But it was just impossible to resist using both the mixer paper and the pie paper when the photo has both!  The journaling cards made perfect title/subtitle and the little 2x2 acted as embellishments.  She used the little plate on one of them as a journaling spot.

The last layout, she decided the cut-offs from the first layout's swoosh were just begging to be used.

She also pulled in a couple more 2x2 cut aparts plus some stickers.  She used the red cardstock to make  journaling tag.

And there we have it!  Three full layouts from just this little kit - with some going back into the cooking paper organizer :-) 

Now that we have our kits built, let's use them. Here is the inspo coming up for that!

• 12th - Challenge #1
• 18th - Challenge #2
• 22nd - Challenge #3 - Let’s Get Sketchy
• 31st - Baby Use Those Scraps

We love to see what you are working on so don't forget to show us on our Facebook counterfeit kit community.

Enjoy your time with us this month,

Misty

May 2026 - Forgeries on the Fourth

 

When you look at a kit to replicate you may think "but I don't have that...."
No worries! Many times you can make your own version. See how the team takes our inspiration kit (reminder photo below!) and uses it to create their own elements.

Guest Designer Debbie Barton

Debbie was happy to build up clusters of icons to make her embellishments come to life. Did you spy the blingy martini glass? Now that is a fun twist on the food theme, right?

Master Forger Misty

Misty started with one idea and ended up doing something different! She wanted to make the chalkboard style word elements from the inspiration and ended up recreating the sheet of cut apart journaling cards. Take a look.

She had a lot of fun creating the bottom left card with some drawing skills! She has a video up if you want to learn some drawing techniques.

We'll be back in two days with some Mini Kit inspo. Stay tuned for that and much more.

• 6th - Mini Kit and Project Reveal
• 12th - Challenge #1
• 18th - Challenge #2
• 22nd - Challenge #3 - Let’s Get Sketchy
• 31st - Baby Use Those Scraps

We love to see what you are working on so don't forget to show us on our Facebook counterfeit kit community.

Enjoy your time with us this month,

Misty

May 2026 -- Just the gist of it.

 Our kit this month has a very strong theme to it. What do you do if you have no interest in that theme? Don't worry, I'm here to help. As a reminder here is the kit we are using for inspiration: Echo Park Mom's Kitchen collection. 

  

You'll notice that many of the elements are food and cooking/baking themed. You can approach this in a few ways. 

1. You can absolutely ignore those images and icons if they don't work for you. Focus instead on colors or textures. 
2. You can sub in distantly related themes.
3. Nudge the theme just a bit.

Here are some examples of ways I used each of these tips.

1. The inspiration pattern has a repeating oven pattern. I had nothing like this in my stash. I've subbed in a cactus print! What jumped out at me from both these papers is the happy burst of color. Now I have a very different interesting paper in my kit for telling a range of stories!
   
   
   
   
   
2. This inspiration is all about baking. I thought about the idea of pies and ended up pulling several sheets of fruit prints. So this took the theme from cooking to the related theme of food in general with a more botanical twist.
   
   
   
   
3. I really liked the navy blue prints in the inspiration. They had baking & hosting imagery. If that isn't your cup of tea, then maybe tea cup imagery is! This is very closely related to the theme but more flexible in the stories you can tell. 
   
   
   
   

So this is what the start of what my kit looks like. Would you have guessed that I started with the original inspiration? That is what is so fun about building your own kit. You can take it anywhere you want to go.

Hope this gives you a good start to your kit build.
Now, here is what is coming up next for May. 

• 4th - Forgeries on the Fourth
• 6th - Mini Kit and Project Reveal
• 12th - Challenge #1
• 18th - Challenge #2
• 22nd - Challenge #3 - Let’s Get Sketchy
• 31st - Baby Use Those Scraps

We love to see what you are working on so don't forget to show us on our Facebook counterfeit kit community.

Enjoy your time with us this month,

Misty

May 2026- Inspiration kit and social media hop.

 Welcome to a new month at CKC. Are you ready for more kit building inspiration fun? Let's kick off the month with our inspiration... the Echo Park Mom's Kitchen collection. While this kit has a very specific theme as always we encourage you to make it your own. If you need help, the Just the Gist post is coming up tomorrow!

There is a story behind this kit choice! I chose this kit as nod to Thanksgiving when I was supposed to host in November. However, schedules changed and I swapped for May hosting. I decided this kit could still work with bolder colors heading toward summer. Plus with Mother's Day in May the title of Mom's Kitchen felt just right. So glad it worked out.
 Let's take a look.

There is a lot more to this kit so be sure to visit the kit site to get all the possibilities. Of course our team is here to show off their kit building skills to inspire you as well. Before we dive into the team's kits, let's welcome the guest designer for May. Debbie Barton is a friend who said she has been wanting to try CKC. This month is her chance! Let's meet her.

Debbie Barton
Debbie can be found on her brand new YouTube channel

"I am very honored and excited to guest design for May’s Counterfeit Kit Challenge! Scrapbooking, to me, is not only a challenge and stress reliever, but a happy way to remember and put on paper the joys, challenges, and fun in my daily life.

When I began scrapbooking, in the 70’s & 80’s for school memories, the big thing was cutting out pictures and gluing them into photo albums. I then thought that adding stickers and cutting out frames really made my books super special. Putting as many pictures and stickers as possible on a page was the best. And who didn’t love a collage! ;0

I stopped scrapping while raising 2 kids, getting my Music Education degree and my Master’s in Music. I taught choir and music for quite a time and just loved my students. After retirement, my hubby and I moved to SC in 2016. We played at living on the lake with swimming, boating and just relaxing for a bit along the way. We traveled when we could and enjoyed the “big” (boring?) retirement life, esp in 2020. I was blessed to discover several online scrapping groups which were actually not only sanity savers but life savers. When I was able to travel to crops and classes, I jumped on board and have to remember to stay home. I have taken classes with so many amazing teachers. Totally crafty heaven! Recently I have been given a chance to be on a creative team with the wonderful ScrapHappy Team. Great ladies. So many ideas and talents.

I enjoy working on both new and old mixed media techniques and learning new ways to work with my paper products. I recently realized that I do not need every new & sparkly thing. I can make my own papers and embellies! What a fabulous" discovery! I hope you are enjoying this month’s challenges!"

Debbie can be found on Facebook as Debbie Norton Barton.

Okay! We are ready to see Debbie's kit. Debbie went all in. She focused on Mother's Day, family and some cooking. She had a lot of fun mixing and matching manufacturers and products. I've shared just a few of her photos here.

________________________________________________

Here is the inspiration hop lineup:

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Reveal and Hop 

• Guest Designer - Debbie Barton - https://www.youtube.com/@debbiebarton2867

• Amanda - https://youtube.com/@amandacreates1980

• Brandi - https://www.instagram.com/scrappy.boymama/

• JoJo - https://www.instagram.com/scrappyconfessions

• Julene - https://julenebydesign.blogspot.com/

• Laurie - https://www.instagram.com/scrapbookingbits/

• Misty - https://craftysoup.com/

• Ryann - https://www.instagram.com/scrapbookjoey/

• Tina - https://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/

• Vikki - https://www.instagram.com/memoriesandmomentsscrapbooking/

Here is the full lineup of activities for May. 

• 2nd - Just the Gist of It
• 4th - Forgeries on the Fourth
• 6th - Mini Kit and Project Reveal
• 12th - Challenge #1
• 18th - Challenge #2
• 22nd - Challenge #3 - Let’s Get Sketchy
• 31st - Baby Use Those Scraps

We love to see what you are working on so don't forget to show us on our Facebook counterfeit kit community.

Enjoy your time with us this month,

Misty

April 2026 -Let's use those scraps.

 By now you might have used most of your kit and might have left over bits and pieces. This post gives you some ideas to use the leftover bits and pieces.

First a refresher on the kit we counterfeited this month.

Tara and I have some ideas you can copy or adapt to suit your needs.

Master Forger Tara

I am starting out with very few scraps since I didn't come even close to bashing my kit this month!  I am in the season of military moving and have been a little busier than normal.  Here's the photo of what I am starting with:

 

I will still have a few of the scraps left after I complete my layout for this challenge.  

 

 

For this layout, I kept the two larger triangles intact and used them to create a focal point for my photo.  I also stitched on them.  The photo is popped up on fun foam.  I used the fussy cut florals from my kit as well as the foam title and hearts that are also in my kit!  Check out the detail shots below:

 

 

 

Master Forger Julene

At this point the first thing I do is put all my offcuts in a pile.

If there are any whole sheets of paper left, they become your base.

Look for photo or photos that match the things that are left. (colour or theme)

Sometimes it could be a large embellishment or journal block you want to get out of the way.

From a previous month I had these

I managed a layout using squares cut from those pieces.

From this month I only had a few embellishments and some white card. I used wet teabag and wiped over the white card. I then cut it into tag shapes.

 

 

Next, I made tags using my embellishments I had

 

These will be used on cards or future layouts. Here's 2 cards I just made

Come back tomorrow, May 1st for our Kit Reveal and Hop!! 

 

The Master Forgers love to see what you create.  Share on our Facebook Community Find us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge and tag us in your posts #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcapril2026.

Thanks for playing along with us this month, 

 I hope you were inspired! 

Happy Scrapping!