First I start off by choosing half a dozen 12 x 12 papers. I like to have a few muted papers like tone on tones or polka dots and a few patterned papers, like the bicycles.

My color scheme was inspired by this 4″x6″  The Good Life paper pad I have by Fancy Pants. My past layouts about the R2R have been mostly red white and blue (since we’re riding with wounded warriors) but this year I wanted to go with blue and yellow with just a few touches of red.

Next I hit my sticker and embellishment stash. To go with the biking theme I found some cycling stickers by Karen Foster and a chipboard bicycle. I also picked out some arrow embellishments which I think go well with the biking theme.

• Keep it small. The reason you’re making a kit is to have the supplies already picked out so that the process goes quicker, right? But if you’re putting everything from your stash into your kit it kinda defeats the purpose. So keep it simple, choose a few sheets of paper, some embellishments and some letters. You can always go back to your stash while you’re scrapping if you need something else.
• Challenge yourself to use up older supplies or supplies you can’t bring yourself to use. I have some papers that are a little bit older that I sometimes find hard to use and putting them in a kit makes me use them. This also works for supplies that you love so much you don’t want to use.
• Shop your supplies. Act like you’re shopping at a scrapbooking store instead of your own supplies and pick out what you would “buy”.

Do you make your own kits from supplies you already have? I’d love to know!

I do still love kits from kit clubs, but making custom kits like this are fun! You’re also clearing out your stash which means you can purchase new kits and supplies!