Counterfeit Kit Challenge's May blog hop

  Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge May Blog hop! You should have arrived here from Jennifer C's blog. If you have just found the hop or are lost, head on over to the main page at the Counterfeit Kit Site to get on the right path.
  If you are like me, you love Scrappy supplies and getting packages in the mail. Unfortunately,my budget just does not allow for me to purchase various kit clubs and all of their wonderful add ons. That is where the counterfeit kit comes into play. Each month, a kit is chosen and we are invited to do our very best at copying it with supplies in our stash. I admit that I love shopping my own supplies. Participating in this challenge has really helped me see new paper combinations and various ways of extending older supplies to get a new look. The cool part about this challenge is that I can use my kit to play on other challenge sites as well.
  This month's blog hop challenge was to choose some inspiration from a manufacturer's blog. It sounds simple enough, but let me tell you, it was actually quite a challenge to narrow down what I wanted to use as inspiration. I finally chose to scraplift a layout from Maya Road's Creative Corner. I especially loved the use of Kraft paper along with the unusual banners at the top of the page.

Page by Karen Grunberg made for Maya Road

   One of the first obstacles for me in making my page is that I do not own a scallop edge border punch. I could have opted to cut it on my Cricut, but instead, I chose to trace my own from a piece of shaped chipboard( I keep a few covers from shaped mini albums to use as templates). I used a hole punch and paper piercer to add a little more detail to the hand cut scallops. Paper scraps inked with Colorbox's chestnut roan ink took the place of ribbon. I liked the diagonal flow of the page and chose to add to it with glimmer mist splatters. Buttons and the leftover dots from punching holes in the kraft paper hint at confetti. To make the punched dots a little more interesting, I used a pen to doodle irregular circles around them. 

all items from May counterfeit kit except for:
twine from the twinery
K and Co. alphas and stickers
glimmer mist in candy apple red and electric blue

This was my first time making faux stitches with a paper piercer and pen. I will say that I do like the effect and it's a great technique to use if you are short on time or feeling lazy ( like I was). I did use a few items not in my original counterfeit kit. I chose to add in some twine and some K and CO alphabet stickers. These stickers came with some birthday themed hats, presents and cupcakes. The package is a few years old and the stickers were not sticking well. I used glossy accents on them which served to update their look as well as keeping them on the page.

 Lately I have been pinning a ton of ideas to my pinterest page. Seeing this completed layout is a reminder to me that using the inspiration I find can make for a wonderful page.If you are ever in a slump, a manufacturer's website can be the perfect fix. Now it's time to hop on over to Michelle's blog. Don't forget...don't just save inspirational ideas for later, find the time to actually use them! Happy Scrapping!