June Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop Challenge

Welcome to the June Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop Challenge! You should have arrived here from Helen's blog. This month's challenge was to make a page or mini album all about yourself with at least one "I" statement on it. I actually put together a whole "I" list. I ended the list with a beautiful quote that is painted on a wooden sign in my sister-in-law's house. I don't know who the author is, but these words greatly inspire me and felt like it was a good way to close out my list.

The layout design was adapted from an April Studio Calico Sunday Sketch. One of my "I" statements is I love the color Kelly Green. When I saw this paper in my kit, I knew this would be the base of my layout. I had so many beautiful flowers in my kit this month and just started arranging them on the page. One was a chipboard flower that I sprayed with Bonny Blue Mr. Huey Mist. I cut a single rose off my rose ribbon. Then I printed my statements on kraft card stock and cut each one out. On the top, I stamped and embossed a floral stamp and filled in the centers with blue eyelets. The final piece was adding the fun green ribbon along the side. My husband took this picture of me earlier in the year on my birthday - it was taken in our favorite restaurant.

Now it's time to head over to Becca's blog and learn more about her. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

June Counterfiet Kit Layouts #3 and #4

Here are two more 8x8 pages for my Lake album where I am capturing the beautiful scenery of the cottage and our summer family traditions. My goal is to have a 20 page album completed in the next two weeks. I've really been diving into my kit to make this happen.

For the Butterfly layout, I went with one of the pattern papers. I did add a sheet of black paper to my kit because I needed something to frame the photo and I knew I wanted to use the black lettering. I used Mister Huey Mist on the raw chipboard frame and then added a butterfly rub-on. I needed some orange so I snuck in one of the K&Co flowers.

For the Wave layout, I kept the K&Co flowers going. They came in so many great colors and I've enjoyed using them this month. I still have about a dozen pink ones left! I went back and forth on using the Scrabble letters, but in the end decided to go with it. Scrabble is also a Lake tradition, though I've never taken a picture of one of our very competitive games, the family will make the connection when they view the album. Plus, I had enough letters to complete the title so I took that as a sign. For the journaling, I used my Fiskars "wave" punch to add a bit of design.

Working on this album is getting me so excited for our upcoming summer vacation!

June Counterfeit Kit: Summer Sketch Challenge

I admit, when I first saw the summer sketch challenge I thought there is no way I can do that. It looked so complex with all those little pieces. Not only that, but I always use 4x6 photos. I have this mental hurdle when it comes to cutting photos down to a smaller scale. However, I had some duplicate copies of some summer photos and I decided to take a chance. I'm glad I did! This challenge was so ridiculously fun. I had a blast measuring, layering and choosing from my summer papers. This layout is a reminder to me that it is ok to step outside the comfort zone every now and then and see what else is going on out there!

June Counterfeit Kit: Ad Challenge

The first Counterfeit Kit challenge of the month was the ad challenge. Find an ad from a magazine, television, newspaper, ect. and use it to inspire a project! I am a big fan of white space so when I saw this Keebler ad I knew this was the one. My intention was to follow it exactly and use the same color patterns, but that didn't happen. I'm working on a mini album for a business trip to NYC that I took and was inspired by these pictures. The black buildings are Cricut cuts from the Winter Woodland cart.

June Counterfeit Kit: Card #1

Front:

Inside:

I threw together this quick card for a friend's birthday last night. Most of the items are from my summer add-od kit. I used my fun Target $1 spot paper, colorful flowers (I actually picked blue & orange because my friend went to Syracuse) and the Fun & Sun stamp which I believe was also from Target. I did have to go outside my kit for the green ribbon and the Cricut cut-out. My kit had the bright pink ribbon which wasn't manly enough!

June Counterfeit Kit: Layout #2

I am having issues with my scanner and my camera so this layout picture is not that great. You cannot see the vibrants shades of the reds and blues. It looks really dark. I may try to update it later. Anyway - here is layout #2 for the month using my Counterfeit Kit! I tried to play off the beautiful red flowers in the photo. The paper is DCWV Summer Dream stack. The flowers are from K&Company. There are going to be lots of flowers this month. The journal sticker & alpha sitckers are October Afternoon. There are also going to be a lot of 8x8 pages this month, especially since my summer add on is all 8x8 papers. My goal is to do more than last month!

June Counterfeit Kit Layout #1

The first layout from my June kit! I like the Studio Calico Sunday sketches, well like to look at them.. I have the best intentions of completing them, but I seem to get distracted and forget. Not anymore. This Sunday I absolutely loved the sketch and I wrote myself a note and as soon as my Counterfeit Kit was together, I got to work.

You can find the original sketch here.

I have so much blue in my kit, that the pink papers stood out and I felt like I should use those. I've included three pattern paper punched circles, two circle stickers, two pink buttons and a rub-on that says friends forever. The stitching was made possible due to my Sew Easy tool. I love stitching, but it sure does take a long time. A personal goal of mine is to learn how to use a sewing machine. I think the smaller stitches are so much more elegant. These pictures are me and my best girls 7 years ago! It seems like it was yesterday. We don't get to see each other that often living on opposite coasts now, but when we do, we always know how to have fun.

June Counterfeit Kit Challenge

June Counterfeit Kit Inspiration: Burlap and Buttercups

My June Counterfeit Kit

Kim's Summer Add-On Kit

My Summer Add-On Kit

We have passed the Memorial Day milestone and summer is officially here! What better way to kick off summer than with a Counterfeit Kit Challenge! This month's kit was inspired by Burlap and Buttercups' June 2011 kit. I was immediately drawn to the light summer colors and florals. For my kit, I really played up the blues. I know I have a few photos of Aruba and the Lake that I want to capture and so those blues are going to come in handy. I also added in my new Studio Calico Bonny Blue mist.

This month I was inspired to complete Kim's summer add-on kit as well. When I saw the papers, I remembered that a friend had given me a paper pack from the Target $1 spot that I have been meaning to use. I added in some bright flowers, some fun summer ribbon and a summer stamp set. I am so excited about this month's kit and the add-on! It is going to be a great summer!

An Assortment of Cards

It has been a crazy week and I haven't been able to craft as much as I have wanted or needed. I'm so terribly behind in getting out a few birthday and graduation cards. I'm hoping if they are cute enough the recipients won't even notice how late they are! My new favorite embellishment is embroidery floss in place of using ribbon. There are still many more cards on my list for the month of June so I'm sure I'll be posting more once I get the time to create them!