Some sad news and something to look forward to!

You know how much I hate these posts but it's time to officially say goodbye to a couple of our much-loved Master Forgers - Kelly and Clair :-( 

You might have noticed that they have been missing from our little family for some time now but as always, I waited a while to make it official in case they change their mind - ever hopeful! 

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contributions to our team over the years and we will miss them. 

Please join me in sending them a virtual group hug and we hope that they will join us in the community when they have time.

However, there IS some good news that I'm delighted to be able to share with you!

Even though Clair is no longer officially part of the Design Team as a Master Forger, she is still going to be joining us twice a month (15th and 30th of each month) with a new scrapbooking video series that she has produced. I'm thrilled that she thought of us and I'm so happy that she is still going to be part of the family. I'll leave it to her to introduce you to the details so make sure you tune in on 15th May for the news!

On that note, I'll love you and leave you. 

Tomorrow is of course the first of the month and I'm excited about our new inspiration kit as well as an awesome Guest Designer. 

See you there!  

March 2018 - Challenge #1 - Happy Birthday!

SOURCE

March is a big birthday month in my family - we celebrate five of them in less than a week! So in keeping with the celebratory spirit, make a birthday-themed project (layout, card, pocket page, planner spread, etc.).

Now it's time to see how our Guest Designer and Master Forgers celebrated this challenge.

Guest Designer Libeeti made this pretty pair of birthday cards:

Kelly, whose birthday is also in March, designed this page about her birthday last year. Read more on her blog.

Laura made this layout to celebrate her son's 3rd birthday

Leslie took a rogue direction - read more about it on her blog!

Margie pulled out some of those birthday photos she had waiting to be scrapped, and made a page:

You can see more photos and more details on her blog

Again, please show us your project. You can add it to our Link-Up page here, post it in our Facebook Community here, or share it on Instagram using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcmarch2018.

January 2018 - Challenge #1 - New Beginnings

Challenge #1 - New Beginnings

January is typical for resolutions, goal setting, restarting, moving in new directions and therefore I'd like you to be inspired by new beginnings for your project.

Guest Designer Julie pulled in a sheet of neutrals into her kit (is this a sign that she's used most of her kit up already, I ask myself!) and worked with the Jan 1 Stuck?! sketch for her star-filled layout about her home-focussed 2018 goals!

In a Blogger premiere, new Master Forger Laura made this layout.

"When the new year hits I always find myself looking forward to spring and wanted to document that. And I wanted to use my kit for a non festive layout.

Head over to her Instagram account here (https://www.instagram.com/mrsp_scrapsandtea/) for more inspiration!

Master Forger Cindy Foster Made a layout documenting a couple of scrapbooking goals

and a journal page for the start of the new year, you can find more detail on her blog here.

Kelly recently helped her son move into his new apartment--a brand new beginning for him! She documented the event in this layout.

Leslie's new beginning happened a little over a year ago, but her whimsical kit this month was perfect for documenting it. Pop over to her blog for a few details HERE.

We love seeing your work, so be sure to share your kits and projects with us. You can do this by using the Link-Up page here on the blog, posting in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Facebook Community Group or on Instagram (find us @counterfeitchallenge and share with #counterfeitchallenge )
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Challenge #2 - November 2017 - Star Sign Inspiration

It's the 18th which means that it's time for challenge #2. 

Challenge #2 - Star Sign Inspiration

November is my birthday month and those of you who know me will know that I am a passionate Scorpio! Add that in with an obsession love (!) for any paper with star, sky or constellation design and I'm pretty much in heaven. 

So, let's get inspired by the stars or zodiac constellations and use them our projects.

Susan took a very literal approach to this prompt and created this layout:

You can read more about her process on her blog here.

Lisa "cheated" a little but she's hoping you can forgive her because she loves the layout she made! ;-)

You can find out more information and detail shots on her blog here but there were definitely a "couple" of items smuggled into her Counterfeit Kit Challenge November kit, Celebrate, to make this very self-indulgent page! Scorpios can be very devious, don't you know! 

Kelly's layout documents spending Halloween night under the stars so she added plenty of stars to her  page! More details can be found on her blog.

Anne created this beautiful layouts with a sprinkling of stars! She told me, "Um, I added some stars. That was an easy challenge for me because I often use and love them!!" Well, you know how much I love stars so I love this layout too! :-) 

Lynnette created a layout about her theatre star...her son.  Some gold star accents and star pattern paper help to highlight his stardom!

As always, if you're inspired to create a kit, a page, a project or in fact, anything at all, make sure to include them over at our Counterfeit Kit Challenge Facebook Community page or over on the CKC blog page Monthly Link Up. We want to see it! Or share on Instagram using @counterfeitkitchallenge or #counterfeitkitchallenge

November 2017 Mini Kit Reveal

Love this month's inspiration kit, but not entirely sure if you can play along this month?

• Maybe you're not sure if you have the time and energy to play along? 
• Maybe you feel like you haven't got quite enough stash to make a full kit? 
• Or maybe you're still working with the remnants of last month's inspiration kit and only need a small selection to work with? 

Well, it's time for our mini kit reveal so let's just remind ourselves of the original inspiration kit, "Emerson" by Citrus Twist back in November 2016. If you follow the link here and go to the November 2016 section of the page, you'll find several add ons which could also be inspiration for you in your mini-kits so make sure you check those out too.

Here's the main kit again:

Mini Counterfeit Kits can either be simply smaller versions of the main kit, or they can be specifically aimed at use as card kits, mini album kits, pocket style albums or planners. It's entirely up to you and, of course, you can use the mini-kit option whenever you like!

Shall we see some examples from the Master Forgers?

Clair made a mini kit, inspired by the black and white floral. Her kit contains only black and white cardstock and embellishments and all of it has been drawn from her massive stash of scraps!

Clair used her kit to create a monochrome Pocket Letter.

Kelly created a very mini-kit to use to make a spread in her weekly pocket-page album.

Here is the layout she created. You can see more details on her blog.

Lisa pulled together a card kit from her box of paper scraps following the themes of the inspiration kit - chevrons, arrows, small designs, geometrics, words, veneers and stars. She sprinkled embellishments into the kit and some alphas as well as some elements that she had previously created with the plan to make some cards - great plans, poor follow through!

And then she made four quick and easy cards which will be so useful for her crazy birthday season in November and December!

You can see more details over on her blog here.

Margie was inspired by the chevron paper in the inspiration kit, and had just the paper that she wanted to use-this gorgeous paper by Shimelle, for the Little by Little collection. And then she pulled a few papers from her scrap bin to compliment the color scheme, and had the basis for a page kit:

Which came together nicely for a lovely sweet sixteen page for her daughter:

If you're inspired to create your own main or mini kit then as always, we love to see them so share by including them in our Monthly Link Up, the CKC Facebook community or Instagram using @counterfeitkitchallenge or #counterfeitkitchallenge.

October challenge #1 Black &white.

Challenge #1 - Use a black and white photo (S) on a coloured background

One of St Tropez's famous residents was Bridget Bardot.

Most photos/films of her were in black and white.

Kelly created this layout about a new season in her life now that her son is off to college. She chose a simple photograph to convert to black-and-white so that it would stand out against the darker, vintage prints in the patterned papers. Read the full story on her blog.

Susanne was down to the Prima flowers and a few scraps in her kit.  Readily admitting scrapping with flowers is not her strong suit, she was determined not to return them to her stash.  She needed an mini-add-on.  So what goes with flowers?  Well doilies, of course.  The idea and execution for this layout took about 30 minutes, to the point of adding the flower clusters.  2 1/2 more hours and 3 photographs of the layout taken to check its design aesthetic later, here is her result.

Just in case you thought she failed to incorporate the seaside in this layout, those micro-beads around her flower cluster are a color combination called "seashore".

Lisa went through all her scanned vintage photos to find a black and white one that spoke to her - and believe me, many did! But somehow, she couldn't imagine using one for the papers and embellishments in her kit. So she went about it the other way and picked out some products from her kit first and then went off to find a photo that would work well in black and white with those items.

As strange as it may sound, Lisa picked out a beautifully sunny beach shot. But even in b&w, you can see that sunshine and all the papers bring out the warmth of that day.

Read more on her blog here

You can find some detail shots of this page, and find out which extra products have already found their way into her kit, on her blog here if you're interested.

Kate,our Guest designer has made this beautiful layout.
Definitely has a sea theme!

As always, if you're inspired to create a kit, a page, a project or in fact, anything at all, make sure to include them in our Monthly Link Up. We want to see it! Or share on Instagram using @counterfeitkitchallenge or #counterfeitkitchallenge

Forgery on the Fourth - August 2017

This month's inspiration: 

Gossamer Blue July 2017 Main Kit

Graphic & spare - all of the bits are two-dimensional and likely easily 

found in your stash, but why not give it a go at counterfeiting a few?

A quick rummage through your stamp sets may yield images perfect for the sticker sheet.

Tags are always a quick forgery, and the little word sheet is easy enough to print out on zome blue paper.

Let's see what the Design Team has come up with this month:

Lisa concentrated on some easy forgeries this month with a handful of printables that match items in the kit. She tracked them down on Pinterest and is really happy with the results. Here are some links:

Journalling cards, labels and tags in black and white:

http://d-lishscraps.openstores.com.au/p/4045/Journal-Cards---PDF.html

Several mini word confetti sheets that I printed out at half an A4 sheet-size.

Here I printed out the tiny words in English and German but there is also a sheet of just English words:
https://loreleileesplanbar.blogspot.de/p/free-decoration-printables.html

Your choice of words on white on black or black on white by Patricia at My Dandelion Dreams:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Qk9cgOGo-RbDFEOGNNdG5LeWM/view?pref=2&pli=1

Four different coloured backgrounds. I can't find who originally created them but here's the link:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c1/17/a1/c117a1c1ac3af119640881f4def4a99b.jpg

And one last set of words in both black on white and white on black. Again, I can't find the original source but here's the printable page:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6e/5b/42/6e5b4228443ec4f8d755c122a3277311.jpg

A set of printable gift tags that I thought could be useful for the tags and banner items in the original kit:

http://apairandasparediy.com/2014/11/diy-printable-gift-tags-theyre-free/

And last but not least, and with a photo, Kaitlin Shaeffer has a whole series of printable labels in all sorts of gorgeous colours on her blog here:

http://www.kaitlinsheaffer.com/downloads

http://www.kaitlinsheaffer.com/downloads

You can see all of these sheets on Lisa's blog here.

Kelly loved the printed tags in the inspiration kit and decided to make her own--using a surprise element! See the details on her blog.

Forgery on the Fourth - July 2017

This month's inspiration:

Walden-Pond June 2016 Cocoa Daisy kit

A great color scheme & a nice collection of patterns made this month a fun forage!

Ferret out those funky sayings - I'm searching my stash for cookie fortunes.

Forge the two-toned hearts with an old CKC tutorial found HERE.

A little fussy-cutting might yield the row of houses, squiggles & little birdies.

Let's see what the Design Team has come up with this month:

Megan Blethen, our Guest Designer, created these cute swirls and feathers with her Silhouette Cameo. The swirls mimic the swirl die-cuts from the kit and the feathers are a fun addition to her kit. Check out a complete tutorial on her YouTube channel here.

Kelly also used her Cameo to cut these tags similar to the ones in the inspiration kit. She then added washi tape and patterned paper to the bottom of the tags. 

Lisa surprised herself by coming up with five different items to forge. Of course, nothing works first time for her (!) but the final results are not bad at all. Check out her blog for the full story - you know there's going to be some ups and downs in her process!

The acetate words were the first item that Lisa thought about creating and decided to replicate them on vellum using the print and cut option on her Cameo.

But when she looked at the original kit, there were three items that jumped out at her for easy replication. The hatch design blue/green paper, the yellow paper with white dots and the Pinkfresh Studio paper with the strips of colour and words which turned into two different items.