November Counterfeit Kit

Well, today's Counterfeit Kit proved to be more difficult that I first imagined, but I'm so happy with the results!

When we first got the news about this month's kit challenge, to counterfeit a current collection, I immediately decided to pick a holiday collection and use my kit for my December Daily pages. But I didn't realize how hard it would be to pick a collection and decide how to use it.

Last year I used all one collection for my DD.  I liked that method, but I knew I wanted to try a more mixed style this year.  So as new collections were released over the past couple of months,  I bought pieces I like from all sorts of collections, thinking, "it will all come together in the end."

And that time has come.  I decided to pull it all together and figure out a way to move from "random and hodge-podge" to "eclectic," and I decided to use Studio Calico Wonderland as my inspiration.  It was one collection I hadn't purchased any pieces (although I wanted to), so I thought it would be a good, neutral place to start.

For the sake of simplicity, I'm just providing this one picture of the inspiration collection.  To see all the pieces, click here for the stock of these items at 2Peas, or here to see the stock at Studio Calico.

Each month Bethany posts a list of ways you might interpret the counterfeiting challenge.  This month I went with the second method on the list:

"Use the "kit contents" as inspiration, and recreate your own kit with the same types of supplies, but in a different color or style that corresponds better with your preferences/photographs/scrapbook style/tastes."  

I hope that by counterfeiting these embellishments with all the different collections of papers, I will be able to tie them all together within this one project.

I needed this push to actually start cutting into all these papers. Otherwise I think I would have been stalled in the these-papers-are-too-pretty-to-use phase and may never have gotten my album off the ground!  It's a random group of papers, isn't it?

The SC collection uses trees, houses and snowflakes throughout the range. I did the same and added reindeer. My goal is to place a reindeer somewhere on each page of my book. Pictured here are all the little bits and baubles I could find in my stash that feature those four items.

The collection's sheet of hexagon stickers is great, but I don't have a hexagon punch or easy way to duplicate a lot of hex's at once. But what I do have is an elongated octagon - the perk of working in "Block O" country, we have a custom Block O Ellison die. So I kept cutting and went crazy punching octagons! Now I have that shape, plus the outer "O" to use as a frame. I kept some of the negative shapes in case they come in handy for journaling blocks or photo frames, too.

Veneers - I love these little wooden shapes! I decided to make a few of my own, using the wood veneer paper I used in my July kit. I had about 3/4 of a sheet remaining, and I never got around to using it in the Cricut at that time, so I decided it was a good time to experiment. I cut extras copies in regular cardstock so I can turn the veneer into faux-chipboard, but I've left them alone for now.  I love my reindeer wood frame, too!

I made my own flair! Until recently I didn't know that we have a button maker in our office, and it's just .10 to make a button. I just left out the pin on the back, and now I have oodles of flair in designs from several collections' papers.

I'm not a big stamper, but since SC is known for its stamps, I thought I should at least throw in a few stamps for this kit. So I pulled everything I could find in my stash that had trees, houses, etc. And I don't have a good alpha set like the SC collection, but I do have this monogram set and thought it might be useful, even just for the numbers.

Later this week I'll show more details on my individual pieces, along with a couple of additional counterfeits - some album inserts and more ephemera based on the Wonderland collection.  Then I'll get busy making a few base pages for the book.  Like last year, my goal is to have my book all set up and ready for pictures by Thanksgiving, so I'll be busy for the next couple of weekends.

Alright, that's it for me. Now click through to Susanne's blog to see her inspiring kit!  And here's the full Master Forger Hop order, in case you need some direction along the way:

Start: Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com

Guest Designer: Julie http://hisglorygirl.blogspot.com/

Crystalhttp://crystalscraftycreations.blogspot.com/

Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/

Lisa http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/

Libeeti http://creationswithlove-li-bee-ti.blogspot.com/

Margie http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com/

Milissa http://millermall.blogspot.com/

YOU ARE HERE:  Rebecca http://howiburb.blogspot.com/

NEXT STOP:  Susanne http://www.snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com/

Bethany http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com/