I love kit clubs- they make it so easy to put together well-coordinated pages using papers and embellishments from a variety of different lines and manufacturers since someone else has already done all the design work.
The only problem with kit clubs? They tend to pile up. I've subscribed to several (though never more than two at a time) in the years that I've been scrapping, and inevitably the kits would sit for months before I got to them. Thankfully most of them have been put to good use by now. I've been tempted to subscribe again recently, but that pesky business about having tons of stuff already has stopped me thus far.
Enter the Counterfeit Kit- a blog that features a different club's kit each month and encourages scrappers to raid their own stash of supplies to make a similarly styled kit. It makes perfect sense- there are so many great supplies out there, and so many papers look similar to so many other papers that it's really not that hard to take a color scheme or theme and run with it.
January's featured kit was Jenni Bowlin's December offering, which centered around a cheery red and yellow palette. I went through my own supplies and within about thirty minutes had pulled together my own counterfeit version, pictured below.
I already had many of the papers that the original kit included (is that considered cheating?), and I was able to make substitutions for those that I didn't have. For example, instead of red laser cut paper I included a sheet of red paper with a lacy pattern, plus the yellow die-cut sheet below to give some added interest.
I went easy on the embellishments and only pulled out things that I haven't really found a use for yet. Things like buttons are fairly easy for me to find in my stash (and are things I might want handy for other projects), so I elected not to include them and will instead pull them out as they are needed.
I made the notions flowers myself using this awesome tutorial and some pages from an extra Star Wars book that I'd cut apart for another project (you just knew that I was going to get some geekiness in there somewhere, didn't you?). I was even able to include some ancient yellow flowers that matched and some Nostalgiques stick pins in place of the jeweled stick pins in the original kit. I also added a doily print Hambly transparency instead of the Maya Road doilies from the JB kit.
The Counterfeit Kit blog also encourages scrappers to actually use their kits (what, you mean we're supposed to do something with all this stuff!?!?). So far mine has joined the pile of the other few kits that I still haven't used yet (I like to think of my supplies like fine wine...they have to age before they reach their peak), but I did pull it out to make this card as part of the blog hop challenge- Meridy has a cool way of choosing what project she's going to do next, Vegas style, and she shared it with us as part of the challenge
I think I nearly had a panic attack cutting into that Basic Grey paper from the June Bug line (for the red accordion flower). I mean, really, it's just paper...why do I freak out so much about cutting off a one inch strip of it?
Oh, my, excuse me...I think my neuroses are showing...
If you've read this far, congratulations, and I'm sorry (but thank you!). :) Margie is the next stop on the hop and has another card to share with you.
Thanks for stopping by!!