Creating Kits

 I mentioned in my last post that I love having kits to help me organize my products and produce my scrap pages. I love picking some papers, then cardstock and finally coordinating supplies. It's fun to see how many different pages I can make from the same group of supplies. If you look at my LOAD[512] you'll see a lot in red and blue ones made from a kit of supplies. I just went over to Flickr and there are 6. Two of them DPLO's so a total of 8 12x12 pages so far from the one kit. I was inspired to use a paper pad that had been sitting around forever! I have a few other kits in current use right now, too. Some are page kits and some are Scarlet Lime kits and some MME collections that I've augmented with some products from my stash that seem to work.
One of my classmates in Twelve at BPC is an enthusiastic participant in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. I've checked out the site before and am intrigued to learn more. However, I think it could be a REAL challenge. The June kit challenge is to be something of Shimelle's from Two Peas. It's not up yet. I like Shimelle's work so I'm interested.
However, since it is not up yet I decided to look around the web for a kit with which I could challenge myself. I went over to Studio Calico and looked at the June kit and I'll document here what I put together with materials strictly from my stash. It took a lot more work to do things this way than it does to do my usual style. After all, trying to get the feel and look of a new kit using mostly old stuff is a real stretch. I think the easiest thing is to buy the new kit, LOL! But, I went for it! You can tell me if I came close.

First I looked at the main kit and saw the stripe. I had an American Crafts fabric paper with some similar colors though a bit more vibrant but close enough I thought, next was a golden yellow alphabet paper. No grid on mine, but the one I chose for the kit has glitter, yum! I did not have anything really similar to the fern type tone on tone print but the Nutmeg "Memories" Tapestry paper from Indie Chic by MME was my substitute. (There's a cool chevron pattern on the reverse - I'm not sure that would work but love having it available.) My next choice was Lemon Grass by Crate Paper. I know it has a cream pattern of flowers, not white, but that is the advantage of this particular kit with the gold-yellows and corals I can go for the effect even with the older products and a nonwhite base. I'm sure that color difference is more of a challenge with other kits. I chose another paper from Nutmeg the "Families" Zig Zag. It has a different pattern but a similar color effect as the number paper and the entire collection does feature a lot of chevron designs (a benefit here is the yellow chevron on the B side). Next is a gold based paper with white polka dots from my stash followed by the orange graph paper from Kaisercraft's Hippy Girl Collection. Again, I was going for colors and feel of the inspiration. My last choice was a teal on cream grid paper the B side of October Afternoon's gazebo. The cardstocks were a little hard from stash but I found something pale in orange and a patterned white stripe cardstock (from Club Scrap) and I chose a deeper brown over a lighter kraft as I chose a brighter coral pink than the inspiration.
I used the additional kits as inspiration for the other papers I chose.

 Of course, we're digging into stash so it's even a bit tougher here to find what might work with everything else but I forged on. I did find the Miss Caroline grey dot from MME in another kit I'd made up so I'll need to share. My other choices include the following ( I hope I designated them properly):
Cubicle Office Lingo Collection Pink Paislee
Yellow Quatrefoil B side Style essentials EP
Skinny Pebble Stripe Scrapbook Walls Chatter Box (one of my most fave papers ever!)
Thrift Shop: Last One October Afternoon
Green Woodgrain Martha Stewart
5&Dime B side Root Beer Barrels   October Afternoon
the grey dot (see above)
Is it Any Wonder (chevron) Amy Tangerine fabric paper American Crafts
Saffron "Create" Lattice Pattern Indie Chic MME
Disguise Secret Bird Society Collection  Kaisercraft (showing only A side but grid pattern on B in the green blues works OK also
Wendy dotted Bside Pennyroyale Collection Kaisercraft
Cards B side Summers End Fancy Pants Design
Find A Word in Turquoise Mist and Kachina on Snow Kaisercraft
Last of all I included these 4 patterned papers.

 I thought the Large Floral Flower Patch from Making Memories could be cut into circles, the striped B side of Maple from Kaisercraft could be cut into chevrons, and Cherry Blossom again Kaisercraft would make good hexagons. "Miss Pretty" from Prima just worked with the colors and the scattered butterflies in my inspiration.

Now all these embellishments and stamps from my stash look like they may work to help me achieve some of the effect of my inspiration. I still need to find my mini letters and some cards stock pieces that might work.
I suppose the proof of a successful kit will be in what sorts of pages I can create from my choices.
I also think my collection needs a name. Summer Cool comes to mind, with this combo of rich warm tones and the pretty greens and teals.
An interesting exercise. After this, I'm not sure if I'll try the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/ I'm definitely interested in checking out what folk are doing there!
Don't forget to leave a comment on my June 1st post for a chance to win the spray inks this week!