Today is Challenge 15 at Arty Divas.
This is a FORTNIGHTLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme)
challenge with a design team who makes projects
showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!
Much mirth and hilarity ensured when the stamp set from the sponsor arrived. My instant favourite was the combination I used in my project today. The first thing that came to mind was this meme which strikes a chord with me.
I remembered I had a (now discontinued) die set from Taylored Expressions which features this retro phone and I could picture it cute black to reflect the style of the phone (a Bakelite phone! 😍)
So the only proper choice for paper was something like October Afternoon or Cosmo Cricket which has that 1940s-50s vibe. The floral doilies from the 8x8 Thrift Shop paper pad was the winning pattern!
The great thing about polymer stamps is that longer sentiments or images can be bent slightly onto your block to give a curve where there isn't one like I did for the "one phone call" part of the sentiment and the "you are my" nestled in beautifully between the ascenders!
When it comes to putting together a pieced die cut image, Glue Dots save a whole lot of time and mess. I put all the sizes to work holding the bits of phone together and the Micro Dots to attach the red sequins.
You Are My One Phone Call Card
Uncharacteristically simple for me, wouldn't you say? 😂
Lastly, I had the TallCraftyDude stamp some of the more wacky combinations! And no we DO NOT celebrate birthdays, but it just made for funny phrases, especially using the dog as the butt of all the jokes. Being a cat fam, it's always so! 🤷
I actually did curate the kit by the end of the first week of October, except I had deadlines which bumped any video or photos of the kit down my to-do list and I was trying to decide which was the lesser of the two evils when it came to documenting this particular Kit Of Doom.
In the end, I decided I had to get it done and my decision was made for me in that NotPinkCraftyHubster (aka The Photography Department) required the use of the camera for an actual photography assignment, so I was left with my phone which meant photos since logistics of shooting an overhead video would currently involve duct tape.
Now on to the topic at hand:
I really loved the story of how the inspiration kit for October was chosen for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. I also loved the choice of kit itself!
In terms of quantity (and you know I have major problems in this area!🙈🙈🙈), I decided to do what I did when I used to belong to a couple of kit clubs (though never Studio Calico) and create a main kit and add-on for each one I would actually buy.
I did fairly well sticking to quantities within each kit. The only exception was a few extra embellishments (SC is typically a bit lighter in this area compared to some) and alphas.
Here are the Studio Calico versions and my counterfeit for each:
The thing that struck me about this kit was the slightly emotional presence of manufacturers who either are no longer in business or no longer make patterned paper. There is a lot of Basic Grey and October Afternoon. My next thought was that all it wanted was Sassafras and Cosmo Cricket to make the reunion of such brands complete (all four hold a large place in my heart), which is why I'm calling my kit:
The Four Friends
(after the poem by AA Milne)
I tried (more or less) to pick one embellishment to equal each one in the inspiration kit (plus a few extra). Admittedly some of the things I included (like die cuts) were a lot more...abundant?? than the die cuts they were supposed to equate too. Oops. Another oops is I forgot to add the flair to the photo, but I promise it's there!
I left in the pink Mini Market alphabet stickers despite my general policy of usually just including Thickers and pulling in smaller ones as needed. I added in at least one extra set of Thickers per add-on.
I'm glad I tried to find alternative images of the papers online since the colouring in the original photos isn't really true in some cases, yet other papers in the same photo look OK. I do apologise for the quality of my photos and light glare etc. It couldn't be helped this time!
Here are the papers on their own with the side I chose to represent the side in the original kit.
Some are even the same! Surprisingly I went for similar cardstock too which I rarely do. My orange is the Bazzil Dotted Swiss with the embossed dots and the white is the woodgrain print from last month. I think the pink and kraft are pretty similar.
(And the backs in case you're interested)
Now you know I often pick one paper to represent the "A-side" of the one in the inspiration kit and another for the "B-side". Among the various add-ons on offer, there is a second set of papers in the main kit. Studio Calico (SC) kits tend to have a pretty specific A side, so that's what I based my main kit and each add-on on and used the B-side of the patterned paper add-ons for my extra paper add-ons. Make sense? No, I didn't expect as much, but have a look and see what I mean.
I know the largeish cameras are a bit of a stretch to represent the tiny brick like pattern on the bottom right, but there was little I could cut out in what I had picked so far and they're kinda arranged like bricks...🤷🤷🤷
(And the backs in case you're interested)
There were four add-on kits (of varying sizes) offered by SC for August of 2012. The names are suitably retro and fitting for the "Summer of 69". I'm going to run with my Four Friends theme too, Rather than naming each after the four animal friends in the original poem, I'm going to name each after some more well-known animal friends also of AA Milne's creation. Yes I know there are more than four, but humour me, OK? 😂
A whole box of random wood veneer to equal three tiny pegs? But in some of the kits I didn't even bother picking an item to equal say tags or a bit of ribbon, because I knew I already threw in quite a bit extra and I'll likely mix the kits as I always do.
I forgot to snap a pic of the "A-side" of the papers by themselves, but you can more-or-less make them out.
The black and white paper in the bottom right is a specialty sort of stitching paper. Initially I was leaning to using a specialty paper in it's place, but in the end I just picked a "bonus" paper. It's also bottom right in my kit.
Instead of the die cut sheet, I chose a cut-apart sheet. The sequin mix I pulled in had colours that would work as well as many larger ones similar to those in the original inspiration kit. I also changed my mind about including an alphabet stamp set. I have all those extra Thickers so wont end up using it.
(And the backs in case you're interested)
The woodgrain is the back of the cut-apart sheet. I considered it an embellishment as was the die cut sheet in the original kit, but I guess I forgot between taking the photo of the front and back! 🤦🤦🤦
The camera paper on the left is my substitution for a second sheet of the specialty stitching paper which appears in the photo of the original in the top right corner.
(And the backs in case you're interested)
Thanks so much for hanging in there! I know I'm unlikely to use this up this month (or even come close), but there are so many special papers that I'm going to leave it intact - at least for a while.
Well...you know that thing when you hear or see something and you get an idea and your mind starts running away with it like a derailed train? I'll be honest, when it happens to me, the outcome is frequently the same, 🙈 but since you can't get off the train, you might as well see it through, right? 🤷
Somehow hearing that the theme for April over at Scrap The boys was "Let's Eat Cake" had this effect, so as busy as April has been for me juggling lots of new adventures, I had to scrapbook a pair of photos waiting patiently for...about four years! 🤦
I bake a lot so it's not as though I have a shortage of baking photos, but these have a story only the quality isn't great so they had to be printed quite small.
Due to the lack of much colour in the photo (besides maybe a touch of blue) meant I was imagining lots of colour in the layout! Primaries with a touch of green!
I wrote more about the direction of the supplies for this layout HERE when I was compiling my April Kit for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. Most of the kit was formed around this cake challenge and these layouts!
I was trying to imagine how I wanted it to look on paper and it reminded me of THIS LAYOUT Shimelle made in 2011 when she was on the American Crafts Design Team. It's a fairly airy and minimalist layout and I think it has more to do with the feel and subject of the page rather than Shimelle's style at the time (since she has plenty of layouts with lots and lots of "stuff").
I have actually attempted to scraplift it before and really wasn't a fan of how it turned out. I figured out what went wrong and when I'm less pleased than usual, sometimes want to try it again and this was one of those times.
I usually do a "post mortem" of my projects and I cover all that in the blog post. I'm not beating myself up, I just feel as though it's a useful part of the process. My only rule is that if I hate the page to the point that it has me cringing when I look at it then it has to go. Anything less than that is considered a lesson learned and a story told...and THAT is a pretty big success when you're battling chronic illness.
So...tangent aside, how did I fare second time around?
I have to say it was a lot better. It still wasn't as open and light as Shimelle's but that's in part due to having darker colours, and in part still having a of of stuff on the page. Started off well enough, but when I realized I had only been piling up paper elements and hadn't even remembered about the chipboard and stickers and enamel dots and these lovely large felt cupcake embellies and I was just about ready to cry!
Looking back at Shimelle's layout, she actually has very few non-paper elements in this particular example which is uncommon for her and despite still using more stuff, it actually looks a lot more pared back for me too. More grid-like than I was expecting for some reason!
I lamented last time that I used mist instead of acrylic paint. While
I'm MUCH happier with the paint, it dried a bit darker than I would have
liked. I had to make "frankenpaint" from several Distress Paints to aim
for something in the ballpark of the light aqua or that darker steely
teal of the Cosmo Cricket "Early Bird" collection. ⬅⬅⬅
There isn't an awful lot more to say since I indulged myself and used many supplies from dearly departed manufacturers! 😭😭😭. The cupcakes near the flowers were fussy cut from a Basic Grey paper and the journaling box is a Sassafras sticker!
I normally use them rather sparing and just sacrifice a sheet or two mixed in with plenty of newish papers to prolong it as long as possible. This time I threw caution to the wind and used so many "special" papers. The October Afternoon floral has been waiting so long to be fussy cut (although had I not had multiple sheets it would probably still be waiting! 😳).
I simply adore the 1950s housekeeping motifs in this line.!! When
pulling the kit together, I noticed how well "Box of Crayons" played with
Cosmo, but I counted paper and/or embellies from maybe four of
Shimelle's collections! The die cut to the right of the photos seems to summarize all the colours used on the layout.
As
sad as I was to not add all-the-things onto this page, I realized I
still have a couple of stories to tell about baking these particular cupcakes
and this page is the second layout in their chronology, so the journaling on this page looks as though it's right
in the middle of a story...which is kind of is! At the very least I
think I'll use many of the same collections on the facing page, but
remember to maybe include some of the embellies I couldn't add this
time.
One of my personal accomplishments was to make three words in the title from one of my notorious packs of "messed up" Thickers. Slowly but surely I will use them up! We all know how well the chipboard Thickers stick over time as you can tell from the pack! Thank goodness for Glue Dots since I make a mess with liquid glue.
I also pulled the really thick foam tape off the back of the flair badge and replaced it with a Glue Dot since the badges are usually thick enough already.
I would also not be doing MY job in "research" if I didn't warn you about how unfriendly a word like "research" is to Thickers economy! Look at all those vowels, TWO Rs and several other really popular letters all in one word!
As much as I LOVED the colours in the inspiration kit chosen for April's Counterfeit Kit Challenge, I was planning to give it a miss. I had a fair bit happening in April and time was flying by way too fast.
I did, however want to do April's challenge for Scrap the Boys. The theme is cake 🍰 and I knew just which photos to scrap! I wanted primaries along with maybe green since the pictures themselves don't have much colour and Shimelle's "Box of Crayons" Collection jumped to mind.
Next I started rifling through some cooking themed papers...just because I have them. Then it happened...this cut-apart sheet from Cosmo Cricket's "Early Bird' collection (remember these guys? 😭😭😭) jumped out at me and I knew where this layout was going to go! 💡💡💡
Now I know what you're thinking: "That's all well and good, Mama, but what does it have to do with the CKC challenge?"
WELL...firstly let's take a look at the inspiration kit for April. It's the March 2019 Hip Kit Club kit and it's so pretty!
See where I'm going with this? No? OK, well...it occurred to me that my paper for this layout is just a more vintage/retro and slightly warmer toned kit with more red than pink and the green is more of an olivey grass green an the yellow is more buttery...and plenty of aqua and teal...and cream rather than white!
Next, we do our kit dissection as always!
Colours in Inspiration Kit:
Pinks (and a touch of red)
Emerald Green
Royal blue (with a bit of navy)
Mustard yellow
White
Black
Motifs in Inspiration Kit (including embellies):
Polka dots (very large to tiny)/Circles
Geometrics and stripes
Continuous patterns
Painterly effects
Photorealistic
Florals, butterflies, hearts, frames, tags, umbrellas, rainbows, leaves/vines, sunglasses, cameras, bows, holiday motifs
As always:
🎨If I pull a single sided sheet, I get to choose two for every double sided 😉
🎨Cardstock in the kit usually gets subbed with tone-on-tone patterned paper
🎨Some things I pull as needed such as buttons, brads, sequins etc since I have some on hand to use so I don't have to put them away
🎨For these challenges I imagine which of the kits for that month would I purchase (and I had some experience years ago) and base my overall kit with add-ons etc.
🎨I may require a selection of "extras" 😳😳😳
🎨I might cheat. I mean I probably will, but for me there really is no such thing as cheating since a layout made is a story told and some stash used. #winning
If you'd rather watch an unboxing of the main kit and all the add-ons, the lovely Jen Schow does a fantastic job here:
So now to my choices. Since I started out with that great retro paper and added some less vintagey designs to help it work with a variety of photos and stories, I have decided to call my kit:
The actual Cosmo Cricket paper I based this entire kit on isn't in my main kit, but all my choices were made to work with it or become a bridge to papers with less in common.
Hopefully you can identify how any of the papers in my kit correspond with the inspiration piece in some way. The only exception is the rainbow paper in the centre which is standing in for the specialty paper.
Instead of the blue on blue heart print paper ("Saturday" from the Sunny Days collection by Maggie Holmes in the inspiration kit), I went with a navy paper with a huge heart in the centre ("Outpouring" from the Box of Crayons collections by Shimelle).
The following image simply shows the reverse of my choices and while some might work with the colours and feel of the kit, most wont and look a bit odd put together like that!
Embellishments for Main Kit:
🎨I first added the old "messed up" Studio Calico chipboard arrows and speech bubbles. They have the retro vibe and there are enough colours that will work!
🎨Instead of the word Thickers, I went for two sheers of Heidi Swapp word chipboard
🎨One set of black Thickers as per the inspiration kit! 🙌
🎨Hand picked die cuts with a lot of Shimelle and October Afternoon. I discovered Vicki Boutin's Color Kaleidoscope collections is rather reminiscent of Sassafras so in went a few of those pieces and since the exclusive die cuts in the Inspiration kit had some words I added some of those too. Largish word die cuts and Thickers seem to be so hard for me to use 🤷
🎨Enamel hearts for enamel hearts but it wasn't going to be enough so those little guys from OA need to be used.
🎨Lastly, to sub for the bow clips, I threw in a couple of packs of flair badges and some fabric labels by Basic Grey.
It's actually pretty good considering it's me. 😂
The paper add-on is simple a second set of identical papers so you don't have to agonize over which side to use. I COULD choose duplicates too, or choose patterns which represent what is most likely the "correct" side chosen by the kit club for my own version of the main kit. For my paper add-on, I choose a paper which reflects the "other" side of the papers chosen by the kit club. The complication is each of my papers have their own "other" side! 🤣🙈.
If you watch the video above, it's much clearer!
The October Afternoon newspaper style paper is supposed to represent the photorealistic black and white reverse of the "Blissful" paper from the Sunny Days collection by Maggie Holmes. I placed the papers for the "main" and "paper add-on" in the same position in both photos to make the comparison clearer.
Some are less obvious interpretation like the "Saturday" from the Sunny Days collection by Maggie Holmes in the inspiration kit. Both the heart on the front and my choice for the back is more subtle. Rather than tiny black vertical dashes on white, the reverse had black dashed horizontal lines on green which is "Countdown" and also one of Shimelle's Box of Crayons papers.
The Cardstock in the inspiration kit has 2 each of mint, blue, pink, yellow and 2 different whites for a total of 12 sheets so 12 tone-one-tone sheets go into my "cardstock" kit too! It's one reason why my kit looks a tad unbalanced with too much multi colour, but when everything is mixed and blended together, it's a perfect balance, I promise!
I didn't even bother taking a photo of the reverse since I almost certainly wont be using that side.
This is where my kitting started to go a bit awry. 🙈
🎨One sticker sheet in the inspiration kit turned into...8.
🎨One chipboard sheer turned into three, one set of Thickers and one roll of washi became two.
🎨The bows were replaced by that box of leftover random pieces from past kits. Surely leftovers gain me some bonus points?
🎨Somehow that sheet of random Glitz dimensional stickers ended up there as well 🤷.
In my defense, a lot of the elements on the sticker sheets especially wont be used. This makes my kit loo bigger than in really is. The inspiration kits are designed as whole and several items are usually exclusive.
I'm not currently doing Project Life (although I have plenty to catch up on), but I do use cards on layouts.
🎨I started by including that Cosmo Cricket cut-apart sheet which served as my reference for this whole kit as the basis.
🎨I also included a border cut-apart sheet also from Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird collection and the "Treat Yourself" cut apart sheet from Shimelle's Box of Crayons. Not all the cards will work, but some will.
🎨I also pulled a bunch of random journaling cards and larger die cut cards/filler cards.
🎨The sticker sheet in the inspiration kit resulted in the same kind of problem as the embellishment kit. One turned into...a lot!
🎨One sheet of gems became...three...but all three were partial packs!
For some reason, I don't tend to store my die cut and fussy cut flowers separately so I just pulled out the whole container to pick from as needed. There is another ephemera pack in the inspiration kit, so the flowers are a substitute for that. There were flowers in the two ephemera pack in the inspiration kits, but none in the die cuts I pulled out. Flowers are a great general kind of motif.
Extras! 😳😳😳
I really wish I didn't have to have an extras section, but it's really only due to the cake layout that set off this whole kit. I felt there was already enough cooking themed stuff in the Cosmo Cricket papers that "wasting" space in the kit with very specific supplies just for one layout wasn't justified.
I don't always used themed embellishments, but certain topics just make me want to...like cake...and coffee!
I also may have included some extra non-themed paper that didn't make the initial cut. I know I know...🙈🙈🙈
Here is the side of the extra paper I'm most likely to use:
and the reverse (just in case):
Well congratulations on once again reaching the end of one of my blogging marathons.
At this point (having forked for the last 7 days to pick supplies, photograph them and finish this blog post) I think I'm going to declare this kit my April-May Kit! Now it looks a lot less disturbing (and I have made bigger kits before), so 🙌🙌🙌.
Thanks sooo much for stopping by! I really appreciate it and please check back for actual projects made with this kit!
SUPPLIES:
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Hi Lovelies!
Much mirth and hilarity ensured when the stamp set from the sponsor arrived. My instant favourite was the combination I used in my project today. The first thing that came to mind was this meme which strikes a chord with me.
