Counterfeit Kit Ad Challenge

Here's a quick page I did for the ad challenge on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

My inspiration ad:

The ad reminded me of a pack of We R Memory Keepers divided page protectors that I wanted to use.  I have a few different configurations and love to use them for quick pages and for lots of pictures on one page. 



Blah....what a terrible picture.  But it's late and dark and no time to try again. 
This page is about the day I got to meet my latest niece, Josie.



While looking through my stash for anything baby (not much to be had), I found a vellum quote stack.  Does anyone use those quote stacks anymore?  I found a way to use it here.  I fussy cut the background shape from a piece of patterned paper.  I ran the vellum strip through my little Xyron X and adhered it to the background shape.  Then I trimmed the edge of the vellum to match the shape, and inked the edges black to finish it off.  It's hard to tell here, but the vellum really disappeared - it looks a little like a rub-on.  I made a couple of other shapes for the page the same way.  I was really happy to have a new use for an old supply. 

The only things not in my original kit - the brads and the last of a pack of paper flowers. The pink ones were kicking around for a loooong time, and I was glad to get them used.

That's it for tonight.  Have a great week!

Summer Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Well, my leg did not get better - in fact, it's worse.  After my bike fall last Saturday I've developed a big infection in my leg, and it H-U-R-T-S! It's not so comfortable to sit or stand in my scrap space, so I didn't do much this week.  Here's hoping the new round of antibiotics will kick the infection this week. 

But I did manage to get a couple of projects finished this weekend.  Here is my Counterfeit Kit Challenge using the summer add-on kit and the sketch for this challenge. 

I chose to include my Gypsy in my summer kit, to remind me to start USING it.  So I made a few cuts to add shapes, a welded border, and some circles to stack like flowers.

I watched a lot of YouTube videos for Gypsy tutorials this week, and I've spent a lot more time watching than practicing. But it's research, right?!  Anyway, I had a couple of "duh, how did I not know that" moments, but it has been good to put a few of the tricks into practice. 

One tidbit I can share: I had a paper with some printed circles that I wanted to cut out of the paper.  But I didn't have a punch exactly the right size, and I didn't trust myself to cut it by hand.  How to cut it with my Cricut?

First, measure the diameter of the circle you want to cut.  Create a circle that size on the Gypsy, and then cut the circle out of scrap paper. 

Remove the circle from the mat, then without removing the remaining paper, peel it back to make room for the paper you want to cut.

Here's the circle I was trying to cut. Once you have it positioned, run your mat back through the machine and make the same cut. 

And there's the circle I was going for, and it gave it a nice clean edge.  In the interest of full disclosure, I did mess it up the first time - it was off the mark just a smidge.  Fortunately I had an extra piece of paper in case I made mistakes.  Just take some extra care to make sure you load your mat properly each time, and it works like a charm.

Here's the finished circle stack on the layout.  It looked like a nice place for a paw print in the center :).

I'm sorry, I don't remember where I picked up that little trick, but I do have a couple of links to the best tutorials I found for the Gypsy.  If you're like me and have the Gypsy, but never took the time to actually read any instructions, this series is a good one.  It looks like the blogger that created these videos is no longer blogging, but her blog is still up and has other great ideas, too.

Cropaholicblog's Designing with the Gypsy Part 1
Cropaholicblog's Designing with the Gypsy Part 2
Cropaholicblog's Designing with the Gypsy Part 3

More Counterfeit Kit

Here are a few more pages using my Counterfeit Kit:


Junior's first pool day on the patio. 




While I wasn't scrapping over the past few months, I did make monthly collage pages (I used the WalGreens site). I'm so glad I at least kept up with these prints, to make the actual catch-up phase go a little faster.



I laid out the circles on my page on the Gypsy and cut the images from the full page.  Then I filled those circles with Basic Grey Max and Whiskers papers. I added Jillibean Soup letters from my stash for the words.

Another collage print - so helpful!  I left my chipboard shapes plain and added the holes around the edges with my Crop-o-Dile.  I think it looks very similar to the frames in this month's original kit.




I had every intention this weekend of finishing a couple of challenges for this month's Kit, but roadblocks popped up at every turn.  One specific roadblock threw me from my bike last night and resulted in a good deal of limping around today.  I wasn't moving very fast for anything.  So my summer add-on page is in the works, as is my ad challenge page.  Here's a peek at my inspiration ad.....I just need to pick up some prints and add them to the page:

 

And a little humor on behalf of my bruised ego....Someone was driving by and saw my fall, and as I was pushing my freshly bent bicycle back to the house, she drove up and asked if I was OK.  In that moment I felt a little like Principle Rooney:

Have a great week!

Using My Counterfeit Kit

A few pages using my Counterfeit Kit:

Junior's first page, with a little bit of his story.  I used several Basic Grey Max and Whiskers papers.

Junior's adoption information. I printed his page from the shelter website onto a notebook paper from my stash and included his pic from the site and the pic of him in his cast.  Used more Max and Whiskers papers.

I made these letters from blank chipboard. I layered them with gesso, then layers of brown, green and red inks, and then glaze. I like how they turned out!

I used DecoArt Triple Tick Gloss Glaze several times recently - it's what I used on the letters above.  I like the shine and the thickness, and I'm just pretty taken with it right now.  It really gives an UTEE-like shine without the need for a heatgun.



My favorite Junior picture!




I printed these paisley papers and all the word tags from a digital kit at http://shabbyprincess.com/.  I painted the J and the chipboard tag and covered with glaze, to have something shiny to go with the glossy pictures.




One more look at Junior, and a close up of the digital paper.  I really like that paisley print and the muted colors that went well with other stuff already in my kit.

 I am the world's slowest scrapper!  But I've been having fun just playing with some of the techniques listed on this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog posts, without worrying about how to use anything I create.  I do have a couple of other pages near completion that I'll try to post this week.

My First Counterfeit Kit

This is my first post for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge.  I discovered the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog a few weeks ago, via a thread on the Two Peas message board, and I found so much inspiration in the posts from the past few months.  Besides being my first challenge post, it's also my first scrapbooking post in general, so here it goes!.....

The inspiration kit is at Burlap and Buttercups and included some really lovely paper.  But I didn't have any of it, so I looked for similar pieces in my own stash, in colors that worked for me.

For my kit, I knew that I wanted to use it to get moving on pages for our dog, Junior. He has been with us for over a year, and I haven't done a single page for him. Bad dog mom. Bad!  So I looked at what doggish things I've collected, considered those things against the inspiration kit, and here's what I came up with:

I used several Fancy Pants papers, and other papers from American Crafts, Jillibean Soup, Reminisce Autumn Afternoon and a few sheets of Core'dinations cardstocks.  I also included a Basic Grey laser-cut doillie sheet and a 6x6 paper pad of Basic Grey Max and Whiskers. 

I've already started using the Max and Whiskers to make some embellishment pieces.

I started some other homemade pieces in the kit, too.  I made my own notebook paper on some Bazzill Kraft.  I used another piece of Bazzill (with the swiss dot pattern like the background in the Fancy Pants Spring Fever paper), printed some journal blocks on it, and placed clear animal-themed stickers onto the paper.  I'll play around with it and see if it becomes something useful.

I also included a handful of small embellishments and clips in lieu of the inspiration kit's stick pins (those things scare me - I'd be the one to step on them).  And I didn't have any punched chipboard frames, but I do have loads of regular chip shapes. I played a bit with punching my own holes with my Cropodile - I like it! I also have this set of Lil' Davis Designs chipboard alphabet - same punched design idea. Maybe I can paint them or find some other way to finally use them this month.

I also put together a coordinating summer ad-on kit, based on Kim's inspiration kit (check out Kim's blog at http://lovejoyscrap.blogspot.com/).  Here's my take:

This one is easy to describe: A few pieces of paper and my Gypsy.  I just couldn't find any summer embellishments in my stuff, and for sure nothing that went along with the peachy/buttery type colors that seemed to work their way through my kit choices.  But I do have several cartridges on that darn Gypsy.  Specifically, I have Freshly Picked, Summer Vacation and Walk in My Garden - all good candidates for making some summer embellishments.  I declare this month the month on the Cricut....I've spent enough money on the stuff, it's about time it started earning its keep here in my little corner of the 'burbs.

Can't wait to get started on all the challenges and projects!