November 2023 - Challenge #1 - Moodboard Inspiration!

It's time for the first challenge of the month where we hope to inspire you to use up those supplies that you have so lovingly put into your kits! 

We have a lot of fun translating the inspiration of the original kit into a sneak peek moodboard to whet your appetites for what is to come each month.

 

So, this month, be inspired by our moodboard! 

Take the colours, the patterns, the layout or whatever takes your fancy from the moodboard and use that inspiration on your page or project!

GD Silvia 

"When getting the mood board from Lisa, I first recognized the darker flower paper from the inspiration kit on the bottom left side. In my kit this is the darker star paper. Then I saw the photo in the bottom middle of the moodboard and remembered a photo I took from our cousins trip this month when I was walking behind my cousins. With that paper and picture in mind, I decided to also use the mood board as a sketch to create my layout and here is the result:"

MF Brandi 

Brandi’s kit is full of lots of Christmas-y goodies, so she had no trouble pulling festive inspiration from the moodboard! She pulled out music notes, reindeer, florals & even some sweater print paper inspired by the yarn. 

MF Cindy 

Cindy's kit is not a Christmas themed kit, but a Fall and Autumn kit. Cindy took inspiration from the mood board the colors turquoise and yellow then the flower paper and buttons for her layout.

MF Lisa 

Lisa decided to pick out the red and pink vibe from the moodboard as well as the blue yarn and the reindeer to select pieces from her kit for her layout.

She always knew that she wanted to use the whole of the Kaisercraft knit paper as a background because she loves it so much so that was where she started. From there she picked out the red and two pink papers as a contrast to the mint and as a bold mat to her busy photos. Two cut-apart cards either side of the central block and a few fussy cut tickets in some cute colours and then a handful of small embellishments and a sprinkle were all this layout needed. 

Eye-catching title letters and some journalling finished off this simple but happy layout!

Ps. Did you spot our wonderful Guest Designer in my photos? 😉

MF Tara 

Master Forger Tara went rogue with her kit and used only the color palette from the kit to create her kit, which you can view HERE.  So, her inspiration from the moodboard will not reflect any Christmas themed layouts!  What she saw in the moodboard was the turquoise twisted yarn, the music notes, and the rosettes.  Here's her completed layout!

 Here is what the rest of November's inspiration will look like: 

• 18th November - Challenge #2 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit. 
• 22nd November – Bonus Challenge #3 – To celebrate birthdays and offer even more inspiration to use your kit this month! 
• 24th November - Follower's Showcase - who has caught our eye this month. 
• 30^th November - Killing the Kit - an idea or two focusing on using up the bits and pieces left in your kit. 

You know that we always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us. You can post them in our Facebook Community or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcnovember2023).

Lisa

October 2023 - Mini Kit Reveal & Project

Sometimes you just don't have the time or motivation to make and use a full kit. No problem, you can make a mini kit! 

Our Master Forger Lisa is here to get you started. 

Let's have a quick look again at the inspiration kit this month. 

My Creative Scrapbook Kit Club - October 2022 Limited Edition Kit

Hi! Lisa here. Well, I hope Leslie won't mind but I went a bit rogue with my mini this month - both in the colours I picked out from this stunning kit but also with what I put into my "mini"-kit!

However, what we always say round here are that there are NO rules! 

Your kit, your interpretation, your creations - so I hope she will forgive me 😉

Now, I LOVE this kit - the colours are so rich and gorgeous and totally my thing for autumn. The motifs are so pretty and very much what my style was a few years ago - all those scrummy florals and richly detailed butterflies. But I have to say, that I was not in the mood for all that pretty. 

Being October, I knew that things in my circle of scrapbook friends would be very Halloween focussed and we have a present swap at the end of the month as well. So... would I be able to turn this pretty collection into something spooky? 

I decided to have a go at a colour palette generator (Colours.co ) to pick out what I could see as some typical Halloween shades hidden in this kit photo - orange, green, yellow, black and grey. And I thought that a shade of blue could also be useful - just to make it less harsh and soften it up a bit. I mean, it is MY kit after all AND there were a lot of different blues in the original kit!

Look what I came up with!

My October mini-kit palette created at Colours.co

I can totally imagine these colours appearing in Halloween collections that I seem to have piled up in my stash (even though I don't make Halloween pages - ha ha ha!) so off I went to see if I could come up with anything. I suspected that many of the papers would have a focus of black and purple and I knew that I had a pink and black collection from last year which would not fit this scheme. But as luck would have it, Simple Stories very often avoid the purple and focus on orange and black instead. 

Limiting myself to Simple Stories then, I had a look at a couple of collections: Simply Vintage October 31st is all organge, black and grey but Spooky Nights feature exactly my colour palette - the yellow is a bit brighter and the blue is a little prettier and the green might be a hint more lime but all in all, this is the collection that fits the palette I had created! Result.

I checked out a sheet which seemed to feature all the colours and decided that this would be the starting point of my mini.

Simple Stories - Spooky Nights - Tag Paper

This is where I REALLY went rogue. The more I looked at my selection of products in this collection, the more I realised I wanted it ALL! So my mini kit really consists of the WHOLE Spooky Nights collection - all the papers, the embellishments, the die-cuts - everything. And a few other smaller add-ins such as a couple of stamps, some sequins and two dies. Whoops!

Can you forgive me for making a rather huge mini? But I promise you that I will only be making ONE small mini album from it so that does fit the project idea of a kit to make a single project and not a kit that will keep you going all month long!

Anyway, here is everything I decided to include in my mini-kit - as you can see, there are a lot of papers, stickers, die-cuts, enamel dots etc and a few addition items that I thought would be interesting for a mini-album. Obviously, I will not be using it all but a nice selection is a good starting point!

Now to have some fun! 

I decided I wanted to make an album from scratch and I have to admit that this is the first time I've ever done one like this! I got out my little plastic spacing tool and got to work. I'm quite pleased with the result - even if I say so myself - although I made a few mistakes along the way.  If I'd had more time, I probably should have watched a YT video or two to give me some guidelines, but I just went with instinct and even though there's room for improvement, it's not bad for a first attempt!

I wanted a way to close the front of the album and a large, orange ribbon came in handy - and it looks so pretty too! I might add a small magnet to the overlapping part of the cover but I couldn't for the life of me, find my supplies. Something for the shopping list!

I kept it simple on the cover with layered papers and a sprinkle of embellishments - I was determined to try and use something from each part of the collection - dies, stickers, brads, enamel dots, puffy stickers!

And here you can see that there is a little bit of embellishment inside as well as the main part of the mini-album. I have to say that I was inspired by a friend who included two ring elements in a similar album and she in turn was inspired by one of the fabulous designers online but I can't for the life of me find which album or designer that was - sorry!

Anyway, I cut up the tag sheet, and two cut apart sheets of paper and then just piled them up so that there are different colours, sizes and shapes as you go through. Super easy technique. Then I opened up the journal bits die-cut pack and ended up using the whole pack. I just added them in as I wanted to add interest. I punched a whole through the back of the album as well as all my elements and threaded them all together on a ring. I can't tell you what fun this was and how easy this part of the album was!

A hint of decoration on the back of the album and it's now ready and waiting for all the mini photos, tags and decorations that I get in our Halloween swap and a small amount of journalling. There will no doubt be some more decorating going on too as I fill it up and it will get nice and full and chunky and fun to look through. Exactly how I like my mini albums!

So.... what do you think? Will Leslie forgive me for going soooo rogue or can you also see this inspiration in the original kit? Why not give a mini-album a go - I have to admit that these little gems are quite addicting!

Here is what the rest of October will look like - don't miss a thing!

• 12th October- Challenge #1 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit.
• 18th October - Challenge #2 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit.
• 24th October - Follower's Showcase - who has caught our eye this month.
• 31st October - Killing the Kit - focusing on using up the bits and pieces left in your kit.

You know that we always love to see your work, so please share your kits and projects with us. You can post them in our Facebook Community or share them on Instagram (we are @counterfeitkitchallenge or tag us using #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcoctober2023).

October 2023 - Forgery on the Fourth

Here's a reminder of our inspiration kit:

My Creative Scrapbook Kit Club - October 2022 Limited Edition

 This feature is all about the fun of having a go at making up your own embellishments or re-creating the papers as a way of getting the same look as the inspiration kit even if you don't have any of the original items. 

These tutorials are often so simple and easy that it really is a perfect chance to try out an idea or two. Make sure you share if you do, we love it when are motivated to give it a try!

Now it's time to see what our talented team have come up with - this is always such an inspiration for me. The Master Forgers often create things that would just not have crossed my mind.

 So talented, so resourceful, so inspirational!

Lots of watercolor & mixed media layered looks to the papers & a slew of ephemera & cut-aparts in our inspiration kit. 

Let's see what the Design Team has come up with!

Guest Designer Laurie created tickets, library cards and butterflies using stamps, punches, dies and inks.

 Do you love the stuffed full ephemera packs from 49 & Market like the one in this month’s inspiration kit? Try this!!!