Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop Challenge - Home Decor & A Giveaway!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Welcome to the November Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop Challenge! You should have arrived here from Bethany's blog, if not you can head back to the start to see the list of participants. This month the challenge was to make a home decor item. This is not my area of expertise. However, that is just one of the things I LOVE about Counterfeit Kit - every month challenges me in new ways and makes scrapping even more fun.

I picked up a chipboard ornament mini book at Michaels in their $1 bin and was inspired to use this to create my own ornament. I didn't have any Christmas paper in my kit so I decided to make a photo frame of my husband water skiing for the first time.

My favorite part of the ornament is the shrink plastic tag I made using the stamps in my kit. Have I mentioned my new addiction to shrink plastic? :)

In honor of Thanksgiving, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Meridy and Bethany for creating the Counterfeit Kit Blog and for all of the design team members who are so inspiring month after month. I have learned to find new (but "old") treasures in my stash and to look at products in different ways. I'd like to provide a small giveaway as part of my thank you! All you have to do is leave a comment and I'll randomly select a winner on Thursday, December 1!

Thanks for participating in the hop this month! Hope to see you all in December!

Thanksgiving Card

Earlier this month, I saw an awesome technique from one of the Counterfeit Kit design team members that I was so excited to try. Shrink plastic!! Check out Milissa's tutorial here. After a few hours of searching, I found my missing package of Shrinky Dinks. Since I am at my parent's house, I don't have my Cricut and had to go to the old stand-by of cookie cutter stencils. Luckily my mom had 2 cutters that matched my paper perfectly!

Thanksgiving Cookie Cutters

Shrink Plastic/Card

I simply traced the cookie cutters on the plastic, cut, punched a hole for the string and shrunk! So super easy! This year I also made sugar cone cornicopia's as favors.

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Counterfeit Kit Sketch Inspiration

I am so excited and inspired by all of the challenges over at Counterfeit Kit this month. The only problem is, I am on vacation visiting my family for the Thanksgiving holiday and have limited time to play this month. I've managed to put together a card and layout so far and I'm working on my blog hop challenge. I realized that I never made my Thanksgiving cards - so I am also hoping to squeeze a few out of the two sheets of fall paper in my kit.

My layout leverages the sketch inspiration from Scrapbook Challenges. I stayed true to the sketch and only increased the size of the photos.




Here is the anniversary card I made for a friend! I can't believe a year ago we were in Aruba celebrating! I loved the beachy colors in my kit. I made my own embellishment following the great tutorial for this month.


Hopefully I can find some additional time to keep using my kit!

November Counterfeit Kit Challenge

November came around so fast that I didn't get a chance to jump right in to the November Counterfeit Kit Challenge. But I'm ready now! I've been waking up early each morning and slowly assembling the pieces. This month's inspiration kit is from Scraptastic Club’s November 2011 selections. I was drawn to the Home Sweet Home collection.
Here is my counterfeit kit:


I've also done a special add-on this month. This week there was a post on Scrapbook Update about wrapping up 2011 and finishing those unfinished projects that continue to haunt us. Operation Clean Slate. As I thought about my kit, I realized that I have several unfinished class projects from the Creating Keepsakes Convention I went to in May. Yes, May. One project in particular - the Studio Calico Terrific Trends - stood out as something I need to complete. The colors really played off the solid card stock in my Counterfeit Kit and I thought it would be a fun enhancement.


Appreciate you stopping by and hope you have a fabulous, crafty weekend!