August Counterfeit Kit - "Memories of Summer"

I loved playing along with the girls at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge last month, and I just couldn't wait for the new inspiration kit to be announced!  Last time I spent a chunk of money on craft supplies (I talk about it here)  I bought some Basic Grey papers, so I was kind of hoping for a kit that worked with the BG collections "Out of Print" or "Konnichiwa".  In fact, I had even gone so far as to pull out some photos that would work with the "Out of Print" papers. 
So when the kit turned out to be a digital kit called "Summer Lovin" I was a teensy bit disappointed.  Not because I don't have a bucket of old summer holidays to scrapbook, but because I wasn't sure if I had enough papers in my stash to pull off another summery kit!

I'll leave it up to you to see how well I did . . .

Starting from left to right, here are 3 papers from Echo Park "A Boy's Life", one  Crate Paper and the rest various collections from Basic Grey.  I used the chevron paper as my starting point of which colours to use, with the exception of some hot pink.  If you think those last two papers are a bit of an odd choice, I really chose them for the "B" side . . . . 

See those greens?  That's better, isn't it!  All the papers except the ledger paper are double sided.

The inspiration kit had a woodgrain paper, so I've added some 6" sheets this month as well including some woodgrain themed ones, and all the remains of my A Boy's Life pad:

My biggest problem with my kit last month was the mental block associated with the thought of cutting into a brand new, recently purchased sheet of paper.  This month, therefore, I've tried to overcome that block by "officially" including more off-cuts into my kit.  Here they are:

After the blog hop I was inspired to add some thin strips as well as this paper with the bicycle motif . . .

Embellishments next!  The digital kit has LOADS of embellishments.  I had already decided to try and add more product this month, sort of like my "product challenge to self".  Here's what I've pulled out:

In this photo I've got some new (to me) product - twine, pins, and washi, as well as my mini-misters.  Then there's also coloured staples, the Chipboard mat stack again (with a cut-out of the relatively successful book labels to hopefully remind me to use them) as well as a few other chipboard bits and pieces.

There's a few felt embellishments in the inspiration kit, so I've pulled out felt in every colour I have that matches.  Then there's also a random tag left over from last months kit, some braids and ribbons (mainly gingham and polka dots, but again, I don't promise I won't end up using something different if it works better).  After discovering my new-found ability to colour white flowers with my misters, I've realised I don't have many white flowers left! So if any shopping needs to be done this month, it could be for white flowers . . .

I've also included this recent parcel of loveliness, which is yet to even come out of it's packaging.  I'm not sure how well it will go with everything else in the kit, but it's too new and too fun-looking not to want to try and use!

For lettering, I've kept out most of the stickers and tiles from last month, and added the matching stickers from "A Boys Life" (as yet unused) and a very well used Basic Grey sheet that I'm hoping to get a bit more love out of!

For my stamps I've kept out three of the sets from last month, and added my cute little Stampin' Up family stamp sets.

The one thing I haven't included in my kit is cardstock.  I spent most of last month wondering if I was better off adding heaps more cardstock or just not adding any, and pulling out what I wanted to use as I went.  In the end, I've opted for the latter, although if I go out to scrap anywhere, I could of course add some then.

So that's my kit! A nice mix of new and old and somewhere inbetween.   I've named it "Memories of Summer" because it sure ain't summer here now, but I hope to use it to document lots of memories of summers past . . .