Saturday, April 4, 2015

040415 CKC April Tutorials



Our inspiration kit this month was the first ever Messy Box from ABM/A Beautiful Mess. 
A highly graphic, smaller scale kit designed for pocket style scrapping.
I challenged myself to come as close as humanly possible to the original.


I began my  “Messy Throwdown" kit forgery with the simple vellum confetti. 
My hearts aren’t wonky but I could pretty well match most of the  vellum colors.


Next up was the 9x12" hugs & kisses paper. 
I have a great Autumn Leaves Stampology alpha stamp set that I thought would fill the bill. 
I’ve included it in my kit to possibly use for titles & sentiments. 

To keep it looking a little more random, I turned the X in different directions, and used both 
the zero & O as they had different looks. A simpler idea would be to use a broad stroke Sharpie!



 



Next was the simple 9x12" dot paper. 

I wanted something a wee bit more interesting, so I rummaged around in my stencils & background stamps and found this dotty circle mask. I decided I only wanted part of the circle on my paper, so I made a quick cover up for the white paper out of kraft cardstock – heavy duty enough to stand up to some heavy misting without bleed through.


I off-stamped the inky mask onto another piece of white cardstock to mimic the 2-sided reverse colorways in some of the items in the kit. I decided, though, that I didn’t need to do that with everything.   

I think these turned out pretty cool!

 There were three sets of cards in the inspiration kit - 4x6", 3x2" & 2x2".


Some of the cards begged to be forged, like the simple L-O-V-E card. 


 All it takes to make a perfect painted dot is the non-business end of a paintbrush! 
Practice a little on a scrap until your dots are fairly uniform. I traced out the letters in pencil first. 
Caution: do NOT try to erase the pencil until the paint has dried COMPLETELY. .. (don’t ask)

My 3x2" cards.
The "make a MESS" card was another easy counterfeit. 


Their 2x2" cards.

The small numbered cards seemed an easy forge, just had to unearth these rub-ons from 2005.  
 That’s what we’re all about here at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge – 
turning our old tired stash into trendy stuff that will get used!


The striped cards with sentiments were another easy counterfeit.
The arrow was the easiest of all!
(That patterned paper bottom right was on old forgery still in my stash)

The days of the week washi was a cinch - black cardstock & day stamps!
I added a little double-sided tape to the back so it's ready to stick down.


And don't forget that you can check the CKC archived posts for the monthly forgery tutorial.
We have covered a vast array of techniques to make your own counterfeits. 
Now take a closer look at this Messy Box unboxing video 
to see what elements get your creative forging juices flowing!

Thanks for stopping by!





Thursday, April 2, 2015

040215 CKC April Kit "Sweet & Silly Together" layout

Our CKC kit to counterfeit this month came from A Beautiful Mess.
It was their very first "Messy Box" kit, released in March, so I didn't have any of the elements.
I do have these totally adorable emoticon stamps of theirs, though.
I created a subtitle strip with the two girls stamp to use below the photos.
The pink ink color was actually too bold so I went over it with white Distress stain. 


I used the tiniest microscopic dot of Zig blue glue on the vellum elements.


The title portion makes me so happy!
All the transparent/translucent elements on the white get a chance to shine.
The photo punched as a heart makes me smile.


This was a great page to use up random cute photos of the girls in younger years.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

040115 CKC April Kit Reveal

Another exciting first of the month CKC kit reveal!
The blog hop can be always be found on the April 1st post at Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

Please be sure to welcome Sharon, our featured Guest Designer this month!
Known as Scrapping Granny she definitely has a way with sketches.

This month I decided NOT to forge a kit...



I'm sure I'll be fired from the Design Team... :~(
My only excuse?

Photo credit
APRIFOOL'S!

April's kit is the very first Messy Box from the uber creative prolific blogger sisters, 
Elsie Larson & Emma Chapman at A Beautiful Mess aka ABM.

 And here's mine:

Let's take a closer look inside the Magic Blue Box!


This kit was probably the farthest possible from anything I own.
I challenged myself to come as close as humanly possible to the original. 

 After sharing that with the rest of the Design Team a friendly ribbing
 ensued so it may be on in April for a Master Forger's  throwdown!
Hence the name “Messy Throwdown”
I think I've come pretty close - check out the pocket page card assortment.
Theirs...

Mine!

I detail more about my kit forgeries in the tutorial post at the CKC blog on the 4th.
 (If you've ever been here with me before, you must have known there was more!)

Of course, there has to be some Leslie in there...
so I made my "Les the Mess" add-on.
This was my nickname from my childhood BFF's dad :~)

I tried to keep to the feel of the original by adding more translucent and black & white
 pieces, plus some extra gold alphas and three alpha stamp sets.



The little bag of vellum punched shapes & the conversation bubbles were earlier forgeries!


 One of the fun things that I included is this ABM emoticon stamp set.
Can't wait to see where these pop up this month - keep your eyes open!
I might have to give a little prize at the end of the month
for the closest guess as to how many there were on my blog this month...

 Okay, now get busy - your kit is only as far away as your stash.
And don't forget to visit the Forgeries on the Fourth tutorial post 
for good advice on how to counterfeit some of the kit elements. 
DON'T MISS IT!
Enjoy the rest of the hop!

Guest Designer: Sharon  Scrapping Granny


YOU ARE HERE: Leslie:  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.ca
GO HERE NOW:  Lisa:  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.ca
Lynnette  http://www.sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com




Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

040115 Archi-scraps April Challenge

There are really no end of intriguing architectural photographs in the world!

Challenge: Use something on your layout at an unusual angle.
This was a stumper for a good while.
I decided to go looking for some photos that might include a similar color scheme.

Meet Fred


Journaling:


I have been having fun lately adding random stamping to my pages.
This time I added some appropriate rub-ons, too!


It's amazing what you find in all the things you've been collecting when you actually have a good rummage through. This page became quite whimsical & I love it. That makes a fun story even more entertaining. I gave Fred a little stamped crown (and wouldn't you know I found a better one in my rub-ons but too late) and the "awesome" element & "wassup" word just seemed perfect.


I mean, what else would you say - seeing the world for the first time?

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, March 16, 2015

031615 CKC March Challenge #3

March's Counterfeit Kit Challenge #3 was an interesting one, to say the least!

Challenge #3 On Your Desk...

This challenge should have been called, "True Confessions"! 
Take a look at your desk RIGHT NOW.
Messy? Pile it on, ink it up, layer it on.
Neat & tidy? Go for the minimalist approach.

Here was my desk:


Surprisingly the only thing in disorder are the wood veneer pieces to the left,
but I wouldn't by any stretch be inspired to minimalism by this desk!

So - off to troll the Magic Blue Box for whatever will help tell 
my story in a way that might be dubbed organized clutter ;~)

This past Saturday was Pi Day - the only time this entire century 
that represents the numerals in the mathematical value of Pi.
We took this great photo to commemorate the event.

I grabbed that striped washi from my stash to create some borders 
a la another Master Forger - Lynnette's Challenge #2 layout see HERE.
 
 The pie chart paper play on words as part of the matting was irresistible!
I used the wood veneer frame to highlight the exact moment on the clock.


The #1 tab reinforces the once in a lifetime aspect of Pi Day.
The tiny circle Capture/Document stamp was added to fill up that little space.

You might think that the flair on the camera lens should say Math instead 
of Science but as I know from my scientist hubby the two are inseparable.


Continuing the circle theme I added the globe with a little 
banner element pointing at Michigan to mark where we were at the time. 

The punched circles on the top photo mat were total serendipity, a leftover scrap found 
tucked in with the 6x6" paper pad that I used for some of the accent papers.


As I've mentioned lately I am dressing up my pages a little by using 
some subtle stamping to give it some little finishing touches.

The wooden arrow was printed on the journaling card, 
but I added a tiny arrow with a "this is:" sentiment &
below that "Highlight #Hooray" accented with an enamel dot.
The MME flair pin got dressed up with a little ribbon.


Please join us in this innovative inspiration from CKC!
 
Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, March 15, 2015

031515 Whimsical Musings Challenge #160

How I am enjoying seeing snippets of Lisa's February trip to NYC!
Inspiration #160 was based on this gorgeous Fifth Avenue shop window:


Serendipity again provided a start to my page.


Just the day before this posted I ran across this scrap of fabric.
Circles? Let's try this:


 

I loved the gold accents, so I punched some circles for accents out of gold metallic paper. 
I chose a Heidi Swapp gold glitter sentiment & a Jolee's bling gold sequined bow (see final pic.)
I discovered that some punched white circles would disguise the blank spaces between the circles.
Later I added a few metallic gold large enamel dots to fill in those spaces.

 Okay, so I got started...but something didn't look right.

I noticed a little detail in the inspiration.
The pattern in those circles are arranged to make a burst of color!


So I made a template from kraft paper & grabbed a few mists...
a bonus was the oversprayed paper underneath - four sheets of new custom paper.
They were a little less than subtle, especially next to the raw wood.
I used some white Distress Stain to tone it down & blend the color to soften the edges.


The final element from the inspiration was the feathery outfit so peacock pics are perfect.
I added a little gold paint pen to the edge of the paper to finish it off.



Have fun with this one!
Don't forget to post on the Flickr gallery tagged WM#160


 
Thanks for stopping by!