Summer has finally departed

Happy Monday everyone!

I had an unexpectedly short day today which makes me happy and you know what I did with it? Not a lot ;-)

I caught up on the LOAD gallery, I caught up with a gazillion blog posts in my reader and I washed a few glasses (well, there had to be SOME work in there *wink*)

I'm finding the combination of blogging, LOADing, Counterfeiting, Whimsical Musing and blog surfing a bit much at the moment and I was a week behind my reading. That makes a lot of posts that I don't want to miss out on. So those of you reading this, sorry for being slack on commenting and joining in on the fun of your blogs. I'll be back to my normal, irregular schedule in November when LOAD is over.

In the meantime, LOAD has been helping me to work through the leftover Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits I had sitting on my table.

My first focus was my September kit, Departing Summer and I managed another 3 layouts bringing the month total to 7. My usual is 6 so I was pleased with this and now I really only have some scraps to make a handful of cards from. That can wait until after LOAD now though.

So, just to share the ends of this kit:

Layout #5 following the prompt just to make a "me" layout. I was happy to find a way to use the Sassafras background paper that I really love but find tricky to use. The top left and bottom right clusters are all printed as is the gorgeous eyelet lace fabric. I found it didn't need much extra on top to look finished.

I built up my cluster just using up the little bits and pieces that were in the kit and am so happy to have used a few of these really old journalling spots. I still like them, but you know how it is with that older stuff. Gets forgotten...

Layout #6 was a combined challenge layout. I did it for LOAD day 2 to use product you have way too much of, I used my Departing Summer kit, and I fulfilled the Whimsical Musings challenge #7 to use 9 products + 9 techniques + nice words. I've already shared this one with you (here) so moving on...

Layout #7 was really just using up all the larger leftover pieces of paper and throwing them down on the page! But I did manage to use a few of those difficult photo corners (now put into the giveaway box). The LOAD prompt for this was to record a tradition. I have dozens and dozens of these self-portrait photos so it felt good to get a few used up for a reason.

Like I say, this kit has now been officially retired for scrapping and some of the leftover products have already been put somewhere to be given away.

That's another thing I really enjoy about CKC. It gives me the opportunity to fish out the older products and mix them in with the new to see if I still like them and can use them. At the end of the month, if they are still in the box I can decide if that's because I don't want to use them anymore and out they go. Or if I've rediscovered how much I like them, they can go back in the main stash. I really feel like I'm getting so much more out of my products now!

Thank you Counterfeit Kit Challenge :-)