Last Kit Club Under Review --- American Girl(s) Layout

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be getting to the end of my so-called research!  While it's been fun ordering kits from various clubs, it's also been kind of stressful.  I mean there is much to like about each club and I'm frustrated when I cannot seem to produce pages that maybe gives each club their due.  But that is what the process of choosing a kit club for yourself is really all about!  Choosing the right club, for you, at any given point in time. 

This page was created from Gossamer Blue (remember I did get only one kit from them---months ago---then I was such a slacker when it came time to order that they sold out of several kits before I went back to order).  But this time I ordered right away and am more than pleased to get their February collection! 

And even though I have protested before about great quantities of pink in various kits...well it is February after all, so I can deal.  Besides, the part I am enamored with is that there are contrasting patterns and colors!  Hurray!  Here, I used the darker floral on the bottom third of the age and the smaller lighter floral at the top.

To mat the photo of granddaughter and her very special American Girl doll, I used a black and white script print and die cut several groups of leaves from white card stock to kind of imitate a cut file.  (I don't have an electronic machine to use with cut files, so this was my way to get a little of that sort of look.) 

The embellishment pack included these neat striped pieces which I used at the seam between the two floral prints.  I also cut several of the black label in half lengthwise and used those along the border, as well as the small circle stickers.  The kit included words and phrases in sticker format and in the embellishment pack, so it was easy to select a few of those to accent the photo with.  Also used the cute xoxo die cut and a couple of hearts in a cluster at the lower right corner of the photo. 

Adding a piece of that striped embellishment, a couple of stickers, washi, and two more half pieces of the blank labels created a bit of interest at the top of the page. 

This kit included a shiny black puffy sticker alphabet set for my title.  I was torn between American Girl(s) or All She Wanted, but in the end went with American Girl(s).  If this page was a bit more holiday in feel, All She Wanted may have fit better.  Since there was that gap between the edge of the page and the beginning of the word Girl(s), I added a piece of washi to fill it in, then added a small piece at the opposite side of the page too.  My journaling was short, so it fit right on those blank labels! 

All in all, this page came together pretty quickly, both because the papers and embellishments were perfect fits and because I chose one of my old favorites in page layouts---using a darker pattern on the lower third, a lighter coordinating pattern on the upper two thirds --- covering the seam between them with a decorative border and using that border to anchor the title.  It's a nice to have old stand-bys at the ready when you haven't been at the old scrapbook table for a while! 

I'll be working with this kit and raiding my stash in the coming days and also compiling my results of the past months of kit research.  My decision has been made, but I do want to share how I made my choice.   I hope that my process helps some of to decide if you even want to join a kit club and how to go about choosing the one that is right for you. 

more to come! 

Cheryl