I Am Missing

I've been seeing a lot of counterfeiting going on lately on my blog friends' blogs - namely at Sian's and Sabrina's - and I've been a bit envious, to be honest. Normally, when I see photos of people's craft rooms, and I see how small my stash is in comparison, I can deal with it because I know I don't really enjoy spending money (I get that from my Grandad) - at least not too much. But the counterfeit kit challenge, which tasks you with creating from your own existing stash a new kit that has just been released by any given monthly club, makes me feel that my consumerism is lagging considerably. I'd never be able to recreate a whole kit from the products I have at my disposal - the range is just too small.

And while I relish the resourceful nature of this challenge, I also recognise that it requires a certain level of 'capital' in the first place. That's why I haven't played along so far. But, as ever, determined to do something and seeing that I have to strike out on my own, I have undertaken my own mini counterfeit challenge.

Recently I discovered Lily Bee Designs. (...pause while you browse their site...) Since then I have been obsessing (a bit too much?) over finding a stockist who would sell me the new lines. But it turned out I couldn't wait, and so meanwhile I created a mini collection from my existing stash based on the This and That collection. And, you know, it was so enjoyable!

Here is This and That:

And here is my counterfeit collection:

Not bad, huh? Do you want to see what I did with it?

I took this empty make-up compact and stripped it down, so that it was ready for covering.

I also made a layout:

I'm quite happy with it. Partly because I actually found a photo of my parents to scrap (living away from them and actually never thinking to use the camera when we're together means zero photos), and partly because the colours sit so well against the kraft-coloured Bazzill.

I probably don't tell the people in the picture that enough. But I'm pretty sure they know.