My Counterfeit Wildflowers Kit

With this kit, I once again started with one paper, inspired by the Studio Calico kit. I chose the butterfly print from Basic Grey, then found some coordinating papers similar to the inspiration kit. My lace paper has butterflies, which went perfectly with this kit! I printed the sign language and song cards from websites, and I was AMAZED to find the images identical to those in the inspiration kit! Glittery die-cut letters and vellum sentiment stickers from Momenta, and lots of fabric flowers from my stash complete this kit. I am hoping to try some fun things with Meridy and Bethany's flower tutorials, but I really want to use up these flowers, which have been in my stash for too long. :)
Be sure to stop back tomorrow, when I reveal my project for our Etsy-Inspired Challenge!

March Counterfeit Kit Challenge

I'm so excited to be the Guest Designer this month at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog! This month's inspiration kits are from Studio Calico. That's right-I said kits, with an "s"! Not only are Meridy, Bethany and I counterfeiting the main kit, but we also are each making the FOUR add-on kits! Lots of scrappy goodness, I tell you!
Today, we are each sharing our main kits on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, and I am sharing mine here with you. Here is the main inspiration kit from Studio Calico:

And here is my kit:

With this kit, I was able to match almost all of the papers very closely. The only exception was the Woodland paper (top, second from the left.) I chose a repeating aqua pattern from Basic Grey. The colors in this pattern worked well with the other papers in my kit. My cardstocks are Lagoon, Watermelon, Crushed Curry, Kraft, White, Ivory and Black. I have also included a couple of small scraps of green that matched one of my add-on kits perfectly.

When it came to the embellishments, however, I had to make some substitutions. I started with the bee stamp. I don't have a bee stamp, but I saw this pretty butterfly stamp that a friend recently gave me. I added that to my kit, and that inspired me to add the chipboard butterflies. My label stickers are from Martha Stewart, and the colors go well with my papers. Finally, instead of the larger letter stickers and title die-cut, I included a rub-on alphabet and a package of Basic Grey rub-ons. The rub-ons have lots of icons (including some bees) and sentiments which would work well for either cards or layouts.

I will also add buttons as I make my projects. I discovered in January with my first kit that it is much more practical for me to keep my buttons in their original jars and just take what I want as I go.

Thank so much for stopping by today! I can't wait to show you my add-on kits, plus I am itching to start making some projects to share! Don't forget to take photos of your kits and share them on the blog or on the Counterfeit Kit Facebook Page-we'd love to see how you're inspired by the kits!

My Counterfeit Kit for February

I have to admit that this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge was a huge challenge for me. While I loved the color swatches that Bethany and Meridy posted before the kit reveal, I was very intimidated when I saw the actual inspiration kit. It was totally not my style-not the colors, the patterns, embellies, anything. But I really wanted to play along, so I thought a lot about how I could use the inspiration kit.

I decided to make a list of kit contents, but in a very general way. First, I started with the papers. Rather than try to match the papers in the inspiration kit exactly (which would have been impossible from my stash), I wrote down what the inspiration kit contained: a distressed solid, a flourish/heart pattern, a polka dot, a basic geometric pattern, and three all-over patterns. Now this was a list I could work with! I started with the flourish/heart pattern. I looked through my patterned paper and found this beautiful heart flourish paper from the Bittersweet collection from Basic Grey. This is the paper that I built my entire kit around. I had the matching stripe, so that took care of my basic geometric. I was then able to pull other papers that coordinated. I added a distressed pink solid from Basic Grey (a different line, but still matched), a kraft/cream polka dot, and three all-over patterns: the heart woodgrain (Imaginisce), cream flower (My Mind's Eye) and little fruits (an old Basic Grey line-Recess.) I added one other patterned paper-the numbers-which remind me of the bingo card in the inspiration kit. I didn't end up using the bingo cards from my January kit, so I substituted patterned paper. I think that I am more likely to use this paper than the actual bingo cards.

For embellishments, I found some great printable postcards, tags, and vintage images on Flickr. I also fell in love with the printable doily tags, which I believe were linked on Write. Click. Scrapbook. I also threw in some journaling boxes which were leftover from an SEI album kit.

I found that I didn't include enough letter stickers in my January kit, so I really loaded this kit up with some fun stickers and rub-ons. More mini alphas from Making Memories, a sheet of Basic Grey stickers that have sat untouched in my stash for 3 years (since my very first CKC class!), two different sets of rub-ons from Imaginisce and Cosmo Cricket (thank you, Eryn Hagen!), some pearl flourishes and Momenta Bubbles & Bling. The Bubbles & Bling will work great in place of the mirrored embellies in the inspiration kit, which really weren't my style.

For 3D embellies, I included some chipboard pieces from Colorbok (flourishes) and Fancy Pants, large postage stamp die-cuts which I plan to use for a card base, tiny pearl ribbon slides, and assorted trims. I am anxious to make some of the faux Prima flowers, but I will do that as I make my projects. I also plan on using buttons on my projects, but I found it was just as easy to add the buttons to my kit as I go along. My buttons are all sorted by colors in individual jars, so I can easily just pick what I want. :)

Finally, I added two sets of seriously neglected clear stamps. The smaller set is The Language of Love by Technique Tuesday. The flourishes are from Gel-a-Tins. These stamp sets will work really well with my papers, and I hope that by including them in my kit I will remember to use them!

Thanks for stopping by today. I know this was a long post. Hopefully I have inspired you to think outside of the box a little bit when it comes to finding inspiration in other kits or projects. Can't wait to start creating with my Counterfeit Kit!

Butterfly Note Card

Today's share is a really quick and easy card to make. I paired up some of my favorite {ippity} and Unity stamps and used all scraps from my stash. The notebook image is from Unity's "Le Chic" set, the butterfly is from {ippity}'s How YOU Doin'? set, and the sentiment is from {ippity}'s "Just Wanted to Say" set. You can get these awesome {ippity} stamps HERE. The little metal clip from Making Memories is the perfect touch for this card.

I made this card based on the sketch from Lucy Abrams' Sketch Week (Day 5). The color palette is from the Curtain Call Color Challenge #63.

More happy news: I woke up this morning and read that my Doily Thank You made the Top 3 over at CASE Study, and my Gift Bag Topper won the Unity Addicts Challenge! It's been a very good week-I can't stop smiling. :) (See?!)

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I {heart} visitors!

Ippity Class

This weekend I held my first class featuring Ippity's "Fall for You" stamp set and papers by My Mind's Eye. The class had a great turn-out...the house was a bit crowded and hot but I think (hope!) everyone had fun. My favorite part was seeing my scrappy friends. We just don't get together enough!

For those of you that would like to order a kit for this class (includes stamp set and all papers/embellishments) the cost is $25. I am currently sold out of this stamp kit, but I will be placing another order next week.

For those of you that attended but would like typed instructions, I will be emailing them to you soon. Thanks again for coming!

Have I mentioned that I love owls?

It's my latest obsession-owl anything. I even ordered checks that have owls on them. They are just the cutest things-makes bill paying more fun, ya know?

Here's my latest project-owl and all. This actually satisfies a couple of challenges and submissions in addition to being just plain cute. First, it is my take on the Be Inpsired #39 challenge over at Cuttlebug Challenge. Yes, it is a real twig-and yes, I might be crazy-but it went so well with the theme.

It is also part of my submission for the design team over at My Sketch World. My first time trying out for a design team-keep your fingers crossed for me. I really love sketches, so this would be perfect for me.

Finally, I decided to submit it to Papercrafts magazine. I loved it that much! And three's a charm, right? Somedays you just come up with something that you just can't stop looking at. This is one of those. I'll keep you posted...

Budget-Friendly Embellishments by Lisa Johnson

After my budget-conscious post , I visited a few blogs that I love. I was thrilled to see that the girls from Papertrey Ink had a budget-friendly challenge this month! Their challenge was to create their own embellishments-all of which were very budget friendly! Each also had a very different idea with step-by-step instructions. My favorite was this card from Lisa Johnson: create your own wood-look frames. Could it be my favorite because it features an owl? Possibly-but this technique is great for cards for men. With Father's Day coming up, I'm sure many of us will be stumped for men's cards. Enjoy!