April Counterfeit Kit, "This Messy Life"

Okay, Okay, so I haven't finished my holiday album using my February kit yet, but it's a rainy Easter long weekend and I wanted a break from decorating journaling cards, so I decided to join in the fun with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge again this month!

The April inspiration is the March "Messy Box" from a Beautiful Mess:

Well, I almost gave up then and there . . . there was no way I was going to come up with anything remotely close to that . . . but then I decided to just take note of the main elements of the kit and start from there.
The elements I identified were:

• black and white papers
• hand-drawn feel
• mix of patterns
• graphic pocketed page-style cards
• vellum circles and hearts
• white brads
• black-and-white washi tape
• Gold thickers

There. That doesn't sound so hard after all! So I went to my stash and pulled anything that I thought matched those key elements, rather than the originals.  Here's what I found . . .
Papers that were black and white (I've also added grey and white):

Papers with a hand-drawn feel as well as a mix of patterns:

Graphic pocketed page cards:

 

I may secretly have a little crush on that "days of the week" Washi, but that's Okay, I'm working with what I've got, and added two rolls from my stash.  I've pulled white and gold brads from the stash and we'll see how we go.  The vellum shapes were easy, too.  I found the perfect cut file in my Silhouette library, so I cut a whole sheet of wonky hearts, wonky circles, and wonky hearts in wonky circles!  I've inked up a few to see what they look like, and left the rest plain until I decide how I want to use them.

 

That just leaves the gold thickers.  I don't own any and buying any new product is not on the agenda right now, so that leaves the DIY option.  I wasn't sure how my Silhouette would go cutting the very thick gold cardstock I have in the stash, but that's alright when a girl has a range of letter stamps and embossing powders in her stash, pining away from lack of use!

I had a quick play with two different stamp sets and two different powders and (apart from the rookie embossing attempt) I'm happy with the results.  Hopefully when I post a finished page I'll have better lighting so you can see just how pretty it really looks. 
Appropriately enough, the set I used the stamp the word "love" is an old "Love Elsie" set, so although I can't use Elsie's handwriting on the washi tape, I might get to use it here instead!



So that's my kit, which I've named "This Messy Life" (in honour of the inspiration kit, and the chance to get messy with ink and embossing powder, nothing to do with the state of my house, of course!)

It's a pretty big kit, because once I pulled all those papers out I was too lazy to put them back  I figure those papers may as well be in a kit as loose in my stash.
Thanks for visiting with me on this wet Easter weekend.  We're heading up to visit my parents for a few days after church tomorrow, so enjoy your Easter and I hope to catch up with you again soon!