counterfeit kit club: february's guest

this month i am delighted to be guesting with the counterfeit kit club.  the premise is simple.  look at a kit you find and love and recreate it by shopping in your own stash.  this is just a brilliant way to get yourself using up your product.  i think i have mentioned many times before that i struggle to scrapbook without a kit anymore.  and yet, i have so much stuff!  making my own kits is the perfect solution.

here is a list of other designers who are joining me in the february blog hop:

Margie: http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com

Lisa: http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

Julene: http://julenebydesign.blogspot.co.uk

Stephanie: http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.ca

Jemma: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com

Susanne: http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com

Lesley: http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk

Angela: http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk

Lynnette: http://www.sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com

Leslie: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

i'll first share a little about my layout and then give you some insight into how i go about curating my own kits.

photos:  these are from our trip to visit my sister and her family on vacation in north carolina last summer.  they are the first of that set that i've scrapbooked and i can tell you that i'm going to thoroughly enjoy working with them.  all that beautiful nature and cute little girls to boot.  happy, happy.

story:  this was just a few minutes after we arrived.  riley wanted to take g exploring the creek at the rv campground.  g was eager to oblige.

design:  i was going for bilateral symmetry on this one (sorry, science teacher talking), something i rarely do.  it's fun to shake things up a bit from time to time.  you can see the two photos are aligned along the center with a gutter in the exact(ish) middle of the page.  i also mirrored the flair on either side.  that's about as far as i went with that.  you can see that the rest of the embellishments are scattered loose-y goose-y across the page.  this made for a nice structure, but still an organic design.

technique:  i was watching a pretty intense movie while scrapping and really could hardly take my eyes of my computer screen.  i was thus very haphazard with my patterned paper cutting.  luckily, that look seems to work for me.  ;)

my favorite part of the layout is the confetti words.  i always snip off good words from the bar code strips of my patterned papers before i throw them away.  words scattered across a page is simply the best.  i love the way my salvaged scraps made this page.

product:  this is the kit i pulled together (you can see the sample kit at the very bottom of this post).  patterned paper is the most important part for me.  it really helps to set the stage.  i didn't try to match the sample kit piece for piece.  instead, i looked at it and got a general feel for what it contained:  blues, reds, and golds; clouds; transparencies and vellums; and a travel theme.

next i pulled in alphas and embellishments.  another good rule of thumb is to mix "something new" in with your older product to give it all a fresh feel.  i had just gotten the kit for ali edward's "one little word" class and chose to include it, mainly for the alphas and stamp set.

the rest of the embellishments were then chosen by type.  i have little jars and tins of goodies all over my craft room and simply chose a few of these to include based on what i saw in the sample kit: sequins, flair, label stickers, tiny flowers, and wordfetti.

i love how this first layout turned out and am eager to dive into the next one tomorrow.  stay tuned!  i'll have another counterfeit kit post to share on friday!  :)

sample kit