March 2026 - Challenge #2 - Tags, Banners, Ledgers, or ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!

Hello!  Welcome back!  Today, I am going to give you our second challenge for the month of March!  First, let me remind you of our Inspiration kit:

Cocoa Daisy February 2026 - Inklings

In this month's Inspiration Kit, there's a piece of patterned paper with tags and banners all over it.  

My challenge for you today is to use tags,banners,ledgers, or all of the above on your layouts! 

MF Tina

I used tags for my layout 

MF Brandi

 My kit had the perfect alphas in it for this challenge - a fun ledger print! 

MF Amanda

I used some of my scraps for this layout using lots of tags from my stash of dollar-store tags! I also used the sketch from 30 days of sketches happening this month too -and replaced the circles in the sketch with the tags. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Here's what we have in store for you this month:

• March 22nd - Challenge #3 Let’s Get Sketchy
• March 28th - April Sneak Peek(FB Community & Instagram)
• March 30th - Baby Use Those Scraps

We love to see what you are working on!  Drop in your projects to our Facebook Community Group and of course tag us on Instagram at #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcfeb2026 

 

Master Forger Tara

 

Tutorial: Mini Banners...a Creative Twist!

I found this wonderful idea on Pinterest tonight...and thought it would be a perfect tutorial for this month's kit.  Mini banners from product packaging.  Brilliant!  Why didn't I think of that?!?!

Photo Credit: Create North Ridge Publishing

Tutorial: Free Downloads

There were lots of ideas for printable this month.  Here are a few that I thought matched pretty well!

Speech Bubbles

Printable Mini Flags

Vertical Journaling Cards

Horizontal Journaling Cards

Graph Paper Journaling Cards

Cool Journaling Cards

Red Bingo Card

Bracket Journaling Cards

Labels

Valentine's Mini Flags

Tutorial-Felt Mini Banner and Felties

 

Basic Grey Eerie Woolie Felt Sticker Shapes

So these spooky "Felties" were in this month's Halloween Inspiration kit.  I found a tutorial for making some of these type of embellishments yourself...  DIY Felt Embellishments.

The felt mini banner in the Inspiration Kit is SUPER easy to counterfeit.  Here are the steps:
1. Using pinking shears, cut triangles from different colors of felt
2. Thread a needle with embroidery floss
3. Stitch across the top of the triangles to hold them together like a pennant banner
4. You are done!  I said it was easy :)

Tutorial- "Creative" Mini Banners

So mini banners have been "all the rage", maybe some scrapbookers think they are getting old and going out of style...but I still LOVE them and use them often. There is a mini banner alphabet sticker set in this month's inspiration kit. So I was thinking I would share some ideas and mini banners I have seen that use shapes other than the typical triangle pennants.

My first idea, I don't have a photo of...I bought a "paper doll clothing" die for my OLD Sizzix on clearance last year and thought I could use it to cut fabric and make mini "clothesline" banners on layouts.



Round/Circle Mini Banner Photo Credit

Mismatched Mini Banner Photo Credit

Ribbon Scraps Mini Banner Photo Credit

Chipboard Frame Mini Banner Photo Credit

Basically, mini banners can be made from any type of punch...hearts, snowflakes, flowers, butterflies, scalloped circles or squares, the possibilities are endless!   If you have any other unique mini banner ideas, post them here...we would LOVE to hear them!

Tutorial-Watermelon Embellishments



Pink Paislee Hometown Summer Collection

The chipboard stickers pictured above are part of this month's Inspiration Kit.  There seems to be quite a few watermelons in this collection by Pink Paislee.  Here are a few DIY watermelon embellishments to help complete your Counterfeit Kit...

Watermelon mini banner and layered embellishment

Watermelon with bling  (although this isn't a tutorial, it's pretty easy to see how she made them)

Watermelon slice made with punches

Watermelon journaling block

"Mossy Knoll" Tutorials

Here is a link to the original "Mossy Knoll" Kit.  Here are our Counterfeit Kits...

Sherri's "Mossy Knoll" Counterfeit Kit

"I was inspired more by the colors of this kit than the patterns.  I love the teal, and it goes well with my other kits.  I included some fun ribbons, text and border prints, banner stickers, and some handmade metal flowers.  My letter stickers have two coordinating shades-you can see them peeking up in the right-hand corner."  for more information, see Sherri's blog http://sherrithompson.blogspot.com/.

Meridy's "Mossy Knoll" Counterfeit Kit

I began matching piece for piece on this kit, and couldn't stop adding embellishments!  I wanted to add some of the printables to my kits this month...but the cord to my printer broke.  So I  guess I'll be working on my kits "as is"...which is probably fine, since I have  so many goodies in them already. 


Bethany's "Mossy Knoll" Counterfeit Kit

  

My favorite part of this kit was the vintage circus pieces.  I had a blast finding those online and think this will be a really interesting style to try.  Very different from what I usually do.  Check out my Blog for a complete list of my kit contents and more pictures. 

Mini Banner Tutorials:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1fFU-U3HxE

Bethany used number stamps to replicate the banner's "numbered" pendants...

Meridy created the pendant pieces using those $1 Martha Stewart pieces...you know one of those Big Lots "I-have-to-have-it-because-it's-such-a-great-deal" impulse buys!!!  Well, NOW I'm glad I bought them, I finally opened the package to use them for this mini banner. 

I plan on adding mini alphabet letter stamps to each pendant when it comes time to create my layout.

Even More Printables:

They are so much fun!  We had to share the great ones we found for the "Mossy Knoll" kit...

Ferris Wheel:  http://vintageprintable.com/wordpress/vintage-printable-entertainment-recreation-2/art-poster-travel-ferris-wheel-louisiana-purchase-exposition-st-louis-1904-2/comment-page-1/#comment-6044

Circus:
http://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2010/10/1960-paul-miller-circus-ad.html
http://www.heyrubecircus.com/contemporary-culture/an-orwellian-circus/

Metal Flowers Tutorial: 
apparently no kit is complete without a few beautiful flowers!   So here are some tutorials to help you counterfeit these Making Memories Metal Flowers...

I found some of those MM Metal Sheet in my stash, and some metal mesh that I thought might be interesting.  I also grabbed a few "bling" brads and 2 flower punches.

And created these little beauties!

NOTE:  If you don't have the metal sheets, Sherri made these for her counterfeit Kit using an aluminum Coke can!  It worked beautifully for her! See herri's tutorial here http://sherrithompson.blogspot.com/.

Another variation: Color the metal flowers with Copic markers or Alcohol Inks for a little added color.