Choosing a Kit Club - Problem Colors?

Oh!  Let's do have a small chat about holiday papers and kit clubs, so grab a cup of tea or mug of hot chocolate and come sit a spell with me, whilst I prattle on about your/our choices (or lack there-of) in holiday goodies and kit clubs! 


Before this begins to sound like nothing more than whining...the thing with kit clubs is...  you give your decision making choices over to those developing the kits. And you have to decide up front if this is ok with you.  For the most part I am having fun with this...kind of like getting a surprise every month!  

I must confess, my taste runs more to the traditional side when it comes to holiday themed papers.  And while I don't care for bright, kelly greens and fire engine reds; I do like touches of the old red and green.  So when I perused almost all of the kit clubs various offerings for the month of November, what did I see?  Lots of pastels...  lots and lots of pastels in each and every club.  And this can be pretty, but I do wish there was more to choose from between the clubs.  A bit of red and green and metallic golds for us more traditional types.   

The good news for me in getting things that are say not my normal choice, is that it forces me out of my comfort zone.  It can lead to a more creative take on what might otherwise be just a standard page.  Nothing wrong with that!!!  And everything right!!!

I started this page thinking about how to construct a tree out of the various squares printed on one of the papers in my December Hip Kit.  After cutting the squares into triangles and reassembling in the shape of a tree...it looked a bit too quilted and structured, so I used the little sliced off pieces from cutting the squares into triangles and tucked them in along the outside edges of the tree.  Ah, much better, don't you think? 

The tree was assembled before the background was done, so I could put it down and pick it up while I was painting the trees.  Just watercolors and some white mist or watered down craft paint dripped about to create snow.   

While the background was drying, I starting "decorating" my tree with sequins and the little die cut banner (included  in the kit) and layered up some tissue paper and patterned paper under my photo. 

With the background dry,  the tree could be adhered to the page with pop dots and the photo slid in under one of the "boughs", and the title formed the tree trunk!  I did wind up using an older Basic Grey alpha set just because the colors went so well (and it is truly time to use up this older stash stuff!). 

Even with all the pastel papers, and even if your taste runs to the more traditional, using a kit club might just inspire (or push you a bit) to a new creative look for what other wise might have been a more um, predictable layout! 

Let's have a cup of cheer and a little unpredictability!!! 

best to all!
Cheryl