Counterfeit Kit Challenge: April Blog Hop

My Layout

My Inspiration: Kim's Layout

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge April Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from Mar's blog.

This month's challenge was to get inspiration from one of the Counterfeit Kit Design Team blogs! I chose a layout on Kim's blog that I absolutely loved. I thought the whole design was really cool, but there was something about the unique format of the title that inspired me. I never mix it up with my titles.

The picture in my layout makes me laugh. I love lobsters. When I was in Vegas years ago, I found Lucky Larry's Lobster Mania slot machine. I won a little money and I didn't want to leave Larry - he was lucky indeed. Flash foward 7 years later, I'm in Aruba at the airport and walk by the game room. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Larry. I was beyond excited. Over a slot machine. The attendant thought I was crazy when I asked if she would take my picture with him. So, I thought, this layout needs a silly title and some silly paper. I stamped the "C" and "K" onto red paper and then covered with clear scalloped stickers. I kept it simple with button accents and cut a lobster using my Cricut and the "From My Kitchen" cart.

Now it's time to bounce on over to Tara's blog and see where she found her inspiration. Thank you for stopping by!

Counterfeit Kit: Easter Cards

I can't believe Easter is next weekend! My mother-in-law is coming to visit and we are going to my family's house for a large celebration. I've been playing around with my kit trying to design my cards for this year. Here are two variations using my three little birdies stamp. I used Stazon ink, but for some reason my copics made the ink bleed a little bit. The stitching was simple thanks to my new Sew Easy tool. I kept the birds yellow because they reminded me of Peeps!

April Counterfeit Kit: Layout #3 Aruba

I am battling a terrible cold this week and haven't had much energy to do anything including scrap. However, when I saw that the Counterfeit Kit Challenge was about memorabilia, I really rallied thinking about my photos from Aruba...warm, sunny, happy Aruba.. and thought maybe going back there would help cure me! I'm most excited about this layout because I used the nicest piece of yellow paper I own and even some yellow ribbon! Yeah yellow! This layout design is from the Studio Calico Sunday Sketch. I've included in a postcard and my plane ticket stub.

April Counterfeit Kit: Layout #2

It is confirmed, blue is my favorite color to scrap with. I find it so much easier to work with the blues in my kits. Ok, and I am still slightly avoiding the yellow, but know that inspiration will come eventually. This picture if from my summer vacation in Canada. I loved the red tones in the flag and tried to compliment them with the red buttons. You won't see doilies in any of my layouts, but this one made its way into my kit and I kind of liked it. And then I added in 3 beautiful ribbons. I love ribbon!

April Counterfeit Kit Layout #1: Butterflies

When I said I loved butterflies, I was not kidding! Several years ago my best friend surprised me with a trip to Pacific Grove, CA to see the migration of the Monarch butterflies. It was such an amazing experience. Unfortunately, I didn't take the best pictures of the butterflies themselves, but I did a great job capturing the surrounding area. Its ok though, because these photos bring back all of the memories and images of the huge trees with thousands and thousands of butterflies. I went with a bright colored background paper that actually has butterflies on it and paired it with the bright yellow card stock to border the photos. I used my butterfly stamp and cut out the silver butterflies.

April Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Front Porch: A Little Birdie Told Me Kit

My Counterfeit Kit Papers

My Counterfeit Kit Embellishments

The 5th of the month is now my favorite date thanks to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge! This morning they announced the new kit and I couldn't wait to get home from work and start putting it together. This month's kit is from a brand new kit club, Front Porch Kits. I couldn't believe how many components were in this kit. I watched the video to get a closer look at everything and was so impressed. I don't have a ton of yellow in my stash and I don't use it very often in my layouts so the fact that I have 3 pieces of yellow paper is a big deal. I love butterflies and have a lot of butterfly supplies, but also realized I don't really use them in my layouts. Nor do I really use birds. It is going to be an interesting month as I truly challenge myself to use up my kit.

New Purchase: Teresa Collins Notations Album

There were lots of new products coming out of CHA that I added to my "nice to have" list., but there was one item that I kept hearing about and it went on my "must have" list. The Teressa Collins Notations album! I bought mine at Scrapbook.com for $19.99 which I thought was a great deal. This is such a stunning high quality kit. It comes with a 3 ring album, designer paper, alapha stickers, tags, die-cuts, tab dividers and more. I couldn't believe how many pieces were included. I absolutely love the vintage look and I am going to have a hard time choosing the content for this beautiful album. When I was at CKC last year, there was a vendor selling Teresa Collins' kits and I so wanted one, but ran out of time while shopping. Hoping they return this year so I can get a few more - didn't want to take the chance they wouldn't have Notations!