April 2026 Challenge #1 Birds.

 Here is our first challenge for this month. 

                                                    Firstly, let me remind you of our kit

Life Crafted FLEA MARKET FINDINGS 6" x 8" Pattern Paper – Citrus Twist Kits

You may have noticed one of these papers features birds. They remind me of the old bluebird of happiness brooches we used to own.

Anyway, your challenge is to make a layout using birds. It can be real birds or perhaps lovebirds or songbirds or use one of these words:

• Birdbath
• Birdbrain
• Birdhouse
• Birdsong
• Birdwatcher
• Birdcage
• Birdfeed
• Birdie
• Yellowbird

When looking through my blog I found these.

Our Master Forgers have created these examples to inspire you.

Master Forger Ryann chose her favorite human to make her layout - a layout about Lovebirds.  This was taken at her wedding and is one of her favorite photos because it captures so well the truth of the love she feels for her husband!   She used this "wintery" type bird paper for her kit and chose it for the November wedding event.

Master Forger Tara created a layout about the eaglets she's been watching online as their parents, Jackie and Shadow have nurtured their second clutch of eggs this season.  They are sweet little babies!!  

 

 

Here are some close-up shots of her layout!  

Master Forger Amanda created a fast layout using 49&Market Birdsong paper, washi tape and a few gems that documents the Finches and Starlings migrating through during spring. It always feels like Spring when the birds have started to return! 

And a couple of close-ups! 

Coming up this month we also have

• April 18th - Challenge #2
• April 22nd - Challenge #3 Let’s Get Sketchy
• April 28th - April Sneak Peek (FB Community & Instagram)
• April 30th - Baby Use Those Scraps

Don't forget to share your creations on our Facebook Community Page .  We love to see what you have done. You can also tag us on Instagram.

                                                                           Julene

 

March 2026 - Let's Use Those Scraps!

I hope you've had a good month and used up quite a bit of your kit this month!  Before, I talk about the last challenge of the month, let me remind you of our inspiration kit: 

Cocoa Daisy February 2026 - Inklings

The last challenge of the month is always a challenge to use the scraps you have created this month from playing with your kit!  I hope you have lots of them left, or if you are good at using them as you go, NONE left.  However, if you do have a nice pile of scraps left, I'd like to encourage you to use them up.  There's so many ways that you can do this! 

Our Guest Designer, Neyla, gave us three layouts using scraps this month:

 

Master forger JoJo used her punches and her dies to create most of the embellishments on her page.  It's a great way to personalize your pages by color coordinating the embellishments to match your page.

 

Master Tara created a couple of layouts using scraps from her kit: 

 

You can watch the process video for this one HERE !

 

You can watch the process video for this one HERE 

 

Thanks for hanging out with me and the Master Forgers this month.  A great big round of applause goes to this month's Guest Designer, Neyla!  Thank you for making this such a fun and wonderful month of kitting and counterfeiting.  I'll see you next month on the group!  Join us on the first when Master Forger Julene takes over the blog with a new Inspiration Kit!

 

We love to see what you are working on!  Drop in your projects to our Facebook Community Group and of course tag us on Instagram at #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcfeb2026 

 

Master Forger Tara

 

March 2026 - Challenge #3 - Let's Get Sketchy

Wow!  Where is this month going?  It's time for our third challenge of the month and that is always going to be a sketch!  First, let me remind you of this month's Inspiration Kit:

Cocoa Daisy February 2026 - Inklings

In March, June, and October, there's a YouTube Hop called 30 Days of Sketches With Christy's Beautiful Life.  She provides us with sketches for the whole month-thirty days worth!  This is an amazing hop and a great community.  I am using this month's Day 22 sketch, created by Stacy Doner Tewari: 

Our Guest Designer, Neyla, and the Master Forgers have some examples for you! 

 

Guest Designer Neyla said that she used washi folded over and stapled instead of ribbon or twine for the tags holes.  This was a tip she got from another creator!  What a great way to use some washi!

 

  

MF Julene

 I used one of my counterfeit papers and an olive-green cardstock. This was an AZTEC ceremony I saw in Mexico.

MF Ryann had a lot of fun putting together this really simple layout! These are photos of the table decor from her wedding reception (A Masquerade Ball). The tie-dye watercolor paper gives the layout a little extra depth and motion without adding a lot of extra thickness to the layout. 

MF Amanda

Amanda used her forgery paper for the background for the sketch, and used a metal di to cut two larger tags, that she made into flips to add additional pictures to the layout. Extra splatters to add some sparkle and a little bit of journaling on labels, with a couple embellishments makes this a quick and simple layout to put together!
 

A look at the tags flipped open! 

You can see her process come together on Amanda's YouTube Channel. 

• March 28th - April Sneak Peek(FB Community & Instagram)
• March 30th - Baby Use Those Scraps

We love to see what you are working on!  Drop in your projects to our Facebook Community Group and of course tag us on Instagram at #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcfeb2026 

Master Forger Tara

 

March 2026 - Challenge #2 - Tags, Banners, Ledgers, or ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!

Hello!  Welcome back!  Today, I am going to give you our second challenge for the month of March!  First, let me remind you of our Inspiration kit:

Cocoa Daisy February 2026 - Inklings

In this month's Inspiration Kit, there's a piece of patterned paper with tags and banners all over it.  

My challenge for you today is to use tags,banners,ledgers, or all of the above on your layouts! 

MF Tina

I used tags for my layout 

MF Brandi

 My kit had the perfect alphas in it for this challenge - a fun ledger print! 

MF Amanda

I used some of my scraps for this layout using lots of tags from my stash of dollar-store tags! I also used the sketch from 30 days of sketches happening this month too -and replaced the circles in the sketch with the tags. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Here's what we have in store for you this month:

• March 22nd - Challenge #3 Let’s Get Sketchy
• March 28th - April Sneak Peek(FB Community & Instagram)
• March 30th - Baby Use Those Scraps

We love to see what you are working on!  Drop in your projects to our Facebook Community Group and of course tag us on Instagram at #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcfeb2026 

 

Master Forger Tara

 

March 2026 - Challenge #1 - Watercolor Magic

 Are you ready for your first challenge of the month?  Let me remind you of our inspiration kit again:

Cocoa Daisy February 2026 kit - Inklings

 

Our first challenge of the month is....Watercoloring Magic!  If you love mixed media or would like to learn, THIS is the challenge for YOU!  Bring out your watercolor paints, tubes, pencils and create a background or some embellishments for your layout!  If you don’t love mixed media, never fear!  You can use pre-made watercolor elements in your kit on your layouts! 

 Guest Designer Neyla really took this challenge to heart and created not one, but FOUR layouts using watercoloring!!  She rocked this challenge!!!

For this first layout, she added white texture paste and allowed it to fully dry.  Then she started adding watercolors using the packaging technique as well as adding the watercolors directly to the background to get more color saturation. 

 

 

For this layout, Neyla used the paper she created for Forgeries on the Fourth.  To create this background, she added gesso to her cardstock and blew the watercolors around using a straw to direct them where she wanted them to go.

 

 The background for this layout wasn't prepped at all before applying the watercolors using the packaging technique.  Once the background was dry, Neyla scattered her embellishments tone-on-tone.  This is an excellent way to use lots of different manufacturers and collections on one layout.

 

 

Neyla created this last layout as a bonus layout, showing how to create a watercolor sunburst using a sketch created by Scrapbook Generation.   

Master Forger Laurie

 I started out by water-coloring my background paper in varying shades of blue. I did use watercolor paper. I then stenciled over that and added gold splattering. I stamped, water-colored and die cut the flowers and leaves.

Master Forger Misty

 Misty used some subtler techniques. She did two watercolor resists (title & Pee-Chee embellishment) as well as simple splattering.

Master Forger Tara 

I created a watercolor background using Versamark ink, a background stamp, and UTEE to create resist and then used my Magical Powders from Lindy’s to do the watercolor effect.  You can watch my process video HERE  

 

 

Let’s take a look at some detail shots of this beautiful watercolor resist background:

 

  

Here's what we have in store for you this month:

• March18th - Challenge #2
• March 22nd - Challenge #3 Let’s Get Sketchy
• March 28th - April Sneak Peek(FB Community & Instagram)
• March 30th - Baby Use Those Scraps

We love to see what you are working on!  Drop in your projects to our Facebook Community Group and of course tag us on Instagram at #counterfeitkitchallenge and #ckcfeb2026 

Master Forger Tara