Sept. CKC ends with Layout #9 and #10

Hi all, yesterday I got back into my workspace after having our grandson stay with us for four days. Let me just say that he is a beautiful boy but full of energy and always asking “What are we going to do now?”. He keeps us all on our toes, working and creating.

I walked into my room and nearly walked out as it was pretty messy. In order to finish up my September Counterfeit Kit, I needed to tidy up my desk and unpack some recent purchases. There were paper bits all over the floor, somehow they don’t all make it into the bin. Mixed media products, stamps and inkpads everywhere which needed to go back to their storage homes.

On a clean surface, I managed to complete the very last layouts made from my September Counterfeit Kit. Each layout was a quick and simple design with a little stamping and ink on number ten. Both layouts are inspired by the work of others, as I just wanted to get them done and move onto the October Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

Layout number nine is a scraplift from the work of Kara Henry (circa. 2007). I selected the layout format simply because it had three photos and I had three photos to use. Kara Henry is a very talented and creative artist, she works within a range of artistic disiplines. My layout features photos of my husband and I doing the ritual bedtime stories, reading to our grandson when he was having a sleepover. They are not the best photos but it captures a special moment. We were camped out in the lounge room and my husband was exhausted after being Granddad all day! I really don’t like the background paper I used, too busy and ugly colours but I was using up what was left in the kit. One more page for my grandson’s album.

Layout number ten is a scraplift of a design by Heather Thompson (circa. 2007). Heather’s layout featured beach photos and was a lot cleaner with more negative space. As I was trying to use stuff up and fit in my photos mine became more cluttered. The photos are from a joint bonfire birthday party which I shared with my youngest daughter. Our birthdays are four days apart and we are always debating over which weekend/day we can hold our individual events. She usually gets first pick but she must be a grown up now, she thought we should celebrate together. There are a lot more photos of the occasion, the feast, the cake, etc., which I will scrap into pocket layouts.

So, that’s the end of my September kit. I did have supplies left but I had had enough of using Autumn colours. I sorted through what was left and put everything back in its spot. I am moving on to challenging myself with the October Counterfeit Kit, forging embellishments and using supplies up.

Bounce! – Counterfeit Kit

Bounce! A quick layout for #3 using my September Counterfeit Kit. This layout got the lovely smoosh effect using the Tim Holtz Oxide inks. One of the self-imposed challenges that I placed on myself several months ago was that any new art/craft supplies coming into my house must be used. No hiding supplies away and not using them. This has been easy with these inks, I am using them every time I scrap.

One of the reasons I decided to join in with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge was that it hit my other self-imposed rule which is using up old supplies and using old tools/media. The materials and tools I have used for this layout are both old and new. I started off working on my white cardstock background using the crushed olive ink. I love this colour, it glows on a white background and really has the translucent sheen of virgin olive oil. I used the simple and fun plastic bag application technique. Swipe the ink pad a few times onto the bag. Then use a paintbrush and water to activate the ink on the plastic, move the ink around so you lose any indication of the stamp pad ink image. Place the ink side of the bag down onto your cardstock and use your hands to smoosh the ink around. Lift and move the bag to smoosh in other areas, if you can see wet ink on the surface double dip and pick up that ink to use somewhere else on your page.

Because smooshing is so fun and I was trying to create an explosive type of texture which would emphasise the energy of a bouncing ball. I went in again with a second colour. I attached a piece of patterned paper and then applied the mowed lawn ink. You need to be a little bit careful when doing this, as you will get some warping if your paper is too thin or you apply too much ink/water in one area. You can see on the right side, the lower corner has a bit of warping occurring. I knew photos were going over this corner so I was heavy handed but I was careful to not have any warping on the other three corners which I knew would be exposed to the viewer.

Next, I added in my photos, I mounted the first two together on an old, green floral paper. The photo featuring the new ball and my grandson I mounted on white because I wanted it to stand out. This was a little moment in time when I was on Nanny duty looking after my grandson while his mum was at work. We had a great day doing lots of things and stopped along the way to buy a drink. The store had one of those giant gumball type machines filled with coloured bouncy balls. He was very excited to use his $2 coin and get a ball. We went across the road to this little park to try out the new ball and did it bounce….yeah, like crazy! Thirty minutes of fun and laughter.

Time to add the embellishments, I still wanted to emphasise the bounce and craziness of a ball out of control. I didn’t have any embellishments which would do this, so I got out some black acrylic paint and a shot glass and made some circle prints to represent the bouncing ball. I dried it off with a heat gun and attached my other embellishments and text from my kit.

I’m really happy with the finished layout, it didn’t use up much of my kit supplies but I did get in a few of my forged leaves, I used 3 papers and some enamel dots. My journaling will go on a tag in the yellow wood grain pocket. The pocket was made from one of the patterned paper sheets I had in my maybe pile. I have used a part of that paper, the wooden drawer front, on layout #2 as well.

All Year Long! – Counterfeit Kit

Layout number two using my September Counterfeit Kit. A little bit quirky, I imagine not many people scrapbook photos of socks but these socks are special to me. My lovely daughters gave them to me on Mother’s Day this year. Well, they didn’t just give me one pair of bed socks, they gave me nine pairs! You see, I have this weird obsession in wearing these socks while at home for most of the year, partly because we have no floor coverings and partly because they are comfy. We have concrete floors and the socks keep my feet warm and create a sense of relaxation. If I have socks on inside it means me time, a little Netflix, some painting, some crafting, some wine (not every day) and maybe a little chocolate or cheese. Who would think a pair of 99c socks could create such luxury. It’s the simple things in life.

After layout #1, I wanted to keep playing with the sewing machine and my distress oxide inks. I put my pale blue and white snowflake bedsocks on and got started. First up, some inspiration! In my recent cull, I decided that I would get rid of at least half of my scrapbook magazines. Like most scrappers now I use the internet for inspiration. The half I have kept I have to use for scrap lifts or if there is nothing useful in the mag they get passed on to my Mum who also scraps. Today’s inspiration came from an old 2007 Canadian magazine, with a layout called Family by Summer Fullerton. I think this may be her blog but I could be wrong, there may be another Summer Fullerton.

The reason I decided to have a go scrap lifting this layout was that Summer had machine stitched the heart photos and papers together, much like a quilt. I thought this idea would give my layout a cosy feeling to go with the socks.

First up, I sketched a heart shape onto a piece of white 12×12 scrap paper. Then I cut out the heart and used it as a template to cut a heart from my patterned paper.

I added some colour to my white background cardstock using the oxide inks and the plastic bag technique.

Then, I roughed up the edges of the heart using my fingernail and attached it to the cardstock.

Next, I worked on creating the central heart, joining my photos and patterned paper together onto my template and trimming it to a heart shape. Then I stitched it together using a zigzag stitch. Both hearts were machined stitched to the background.

Embellishments and the title were added.

The finished layout. I may add my journaling to the top left corner of the heart. On to layout number 3!

Nature’s Wonder – Counterfeit Kit

My first Counterfeit Kit layout features photos of a few of the autumn foliage trees on our property, they were planted over the last 25yrs by my husband. One photo shows some of our daily wildlife which resides in our garden, several well fed kangaroos who love to nibble anything available. They have exotic tastes and at the moment have developed a taste for citrus, stripping our orchard trees of any leaves within their reach. Fencing garden areas and netting the trees is the only way we can harvest anything for ourselves.

I had fun creating this layout. My design inspiration came from Meggy Blethen. Meggy just released a video of her latest layout featuring a shaker section. It is a great layout and the shaker made me think of falling leaves…ahha…genious! I asked Meggy if I could scrap lift her shaker idea and she kindly agreed. With visions of falling autumn foliage tumbling down I got started. I decided to use a piece of paper which I had been holding on to for years. I really loved the crayoned drawn leaves in the design but had not wanted to cover it up. Years later, the answer was simple…fussy cutting! I got busy and fussy cut all of the leaves.

I then went on to make my shaker pocket. I used another old product, a sheet of printed vellum from the now defunct TLC scrapbook company. I used my craft punched mini leaves, I literally sprinkled a handful over my strip of white cardstock and then spent time turning over any wrong side up (white) leaves, and fixing the leaves into place using some clear gel medium. The gel medium worked well, I poured a small amount into the lid of the bottle and applied it with my fingers to the cardstock, pouring a little on and smooshing it around. Some leaves did move a bit but it just added to the random, chaotic effect of leaves in the wind.

Next, I got out the sewing machine and stitched down three sides of the vellum and tossed in some of my forged stamped leaves and some sequin leaves. Then I stitched down the opening and voila…a pocket of falling autumn leaves!

Then I got busy with the sewing machine stitching on my fussy cut leaves. I tried to enhance the leaves by adding some stitched veins. If you try this make sure you shake the loose leaves to the bottom of the pocket before you stitch, otherwise you get them caught up in your sewing and will lose the motion aspect of falling leaves.

I then used one of my 6×6 papers to make some corner strips to mount my photos with. I was able to just use one half (one triangle) for the whole layout.

Next, I got busy sticking down my photo and adding some embellishments and a title. I used a few of the forged stamped leaves and handmade bows.

I was very happy with the finished one-page layout but then decided to turn it into a two-page spread. It took me a while to put together anything I was happy with, I walked away several times and had a break. Which is why this blog post is late, I just couldn’t get the layout finished and fussed around, moving pieces back and forth. I slept on it and finally got it completed the next day. My journaling is missing, it will go into space at the top of the layout. I may also add a few more leaves around the top edge…see, still not completely happy. I need to let it go and move on to the next layout. I had loads of fun making the shaker pocket and doing the stitching.

Forging My Way – Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Forgeries on the Fourth is the first mini-challenge in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. Those joining in with the challenge try and make some embellishments or papers from the original Crisp Apple Classic kit designed by Noel Mignon.

I started early and made some hand cut paper bows in a similar fashion to the Apple Crisp kit bows but I added metallic buttons for a little bling. I am not a scrapper or fashionista who indulges in bows so it will be a challenge for me to include them in my layouts.

Then I had a go at reproducing some autumn leaf embellishments. I decided to use my recent Tim Holtz mini distress dies and some very old stamps. I am not even sure what brand they are, they are made with purple rubber and are very detailed with defined veins. I used up some little scraps of cardstock and patterned paper, stamping the images on with two colours of ink per leaf. I then added some glitter glitz to several of the leaves and fussy cut out the remaining leaves. The glitter leaves will be fussy cut when needed.

I also pulled out some very old small craft punches with three different leaf designs. My first attempt to punch them through cardstock proved disastrous, even with brute force. After some help from hubby who offered and also failed, we got out some Alfoil (aluminium foil) and folded it several times then punched away in the hope of sharpening the punches. It didn’t work 😦

I then decided to try some patterned paper and we had more success, yes, I said we because Hubby had got into the crafting groove and was helping me create a pile of autumn leaves. He is usually the person in the garden raking up the leaves. I plan to use the leaves in my very first layout which will feature photos of our autumn trees planted on our property 20 years ago by my husband.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge – September

Hello Scrappers, I am excited to be joining in with the September Counterfeit Kit Challenge. My inspiration came from my favourite YouTube blogger, Janet Madison from RTS Scrapbooking (Record The Story). Janet is a dedicated scrapper determined to use up her inventory. She kindly shares how she creates kits, makes embellishments and organises her supplies.

This month’s Counterfeit Kit is based upon a Fall/Autumn theme and proves a real challenge for those of us South of the equator. The kit features many elements which are foreign to those located in Australia, such as autumn pumpkins, racoons, bears and pumpkin pie! For us Aussies, Autumn is quite green due to our non-deciduous native trees, unless you live in an area which has been planted with deciduous foliage or have a husband like mine who has an obsession with Japanese Maples.

This months kit has been borrowed from Noel Mignon, called the “Apple Crisp Classic Kit”. You can find it here at https://www.noelmignon.com/products/apple-crisp-kit.

The challenge for me, when trying to put my own kit together was finding papers to substitute some of the traditional fall elements. I also don’t use many orange and yellow papers/embellishments in my daily scrapping. Many of the papers I found were B side papers, designs which I hadn’t purchased the patterned paper for. I also had problems finding any dark wood grain paper, as I love wood grain and have been making a lot of male layouts this year. My supplies are now low, I only had two dark woodgrain papers, both have butterflies featured in the corners. So, what did I find?

First up, these are my check and stripe substitutes…

Then, woodgrain papers…

Next, flowers and foliage…

For pumpkin papers…spots/circles!

And, mason jars/autumn cooking…

Embellishments proved a little easier, I found many Kaisercraft elements from various kits which I could use. I decided to substitute the word die-cuts for actual dies and will cut words/elements as needed. My substitute for the Tim Holtz distress stain is two Heidi Swapp shines in gold and mustard. I haven’t decided on which stamps to use but will most likely use some leaf and foliage stamps. The bows I will make out of scraps from the kit and I will turn some of my embellishment die-cuts into chipboard elements. My choice in washi tape is a lovely metallic and white diagonal stripe for some added bling. I may also add some wood veneers and some ribbon.

My choice of alphas for titles is a mix of stickers and rub-ons. I have a packet of the foam gold Thickers used in the original kit and decided to mix in some burnt orange glitter stickers and chocolate brown rub ons.

So, what might I make from this huge kit? I’m thinking about doing a range of layouts, some will be autumn themed, some will be cooking and a few will be based on family events, like picnics. I can’t wait to see what everyone else does.

Some of the papers and embellishments came from the following paper pads and collections…

I have a few sheets which are in the maybe pile, I may or may not use them. There is a couple of mushroom papers, one in gold and one in black and white. I thought perhaps I could colour the images to bring them into the same colour palette as the kit. I also have a vellum which has a fall/autumn print which may be useful, a white and gold floral print and a wooden drawer print which could be used.

I will share what I create as I work through the kit and mini-challenges. If you would like to see what other scrappers have gathered together for their kits make sure you follow the hop blog list on Counterfeit Kit blog.

The hop blog list…

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog – September 2018 – Counterfeit Kit Challenge Kit Reveal

Guest Designer – Janet Krause – https://youtu.be/V4KS39SmlXc

Cindy – https://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/

Lori – Hodgepodge of Fall

Leslie – Blessed

Tina – Falling for You

Laura – https://www.instagram.com/mrsp_scrapsandtea/