Kit Comparisons -- My Personal Decision Making Process

And here we are with a very popular kit club to review.  Bear in mind, my opinion in no way should be taken as an endorsement for or against any of the kit clubs I tried "on for size".  Each club has its own distinct look and feel and each contains many wonderful papers and products for us to play with. And each club will appeal to different people for different reasons. 

Citrus Twist

Papers
Each kit contained six patterned papers and two sheets of cardstock.  Sometimes one or two of the patterned papers were exclusive to Citrus Twist.  

Embellishments
Each kit I received contained a veritable plethora of embellishments in the form of at least two full packs of ephemera or die cuts, usually a sticker sheet, small acrylic pieces, full packs of sequins (and that's a lot of sequins!). One kit contained a partial pack of decorative paper clips, another contained some mini  tassels.  Also contained in each kit was usually an exclusive chipboard sheet, an exclusive cut apart sheet, and some sort of ribbon, fiber or washi tape.  In other words, there are loads of embellishment choices. 

Each kit I received also included a stamp set, which I have to say I  a.b.s.o.l.u.t.e.l.y.  loved. 

Alphabet/Titling Options  
The initial kit I received contained a puffy alphabet set, while the second kit contained a Thickers word/phrase set.  Each kit also contained other titling options either by way of a chipboard set or a sticker set that also had within it a small alphabet set or words and phrases.   No lack of titling options here.

General 
Each kit arrived in a timely fashion.

I found that the club offered many items that were very current in the marketplace.  The overall look and feel seems very feminine to me and while I do have a grown daughter and fabulously cute (not too biased, am I? LOL) granddaughter, I look for colors and prints that can be used for boys too!

We all like embellishments, but I have to say I was kind of overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of embellishments included.  If you are big on embellies, you'll adore this club!

Their facebook page is fairly active and the blog has some regular repetitive features to look forward to seeing a designers' take on each month.  And they truly have some wonderful, creative designers.

My favorite page created with a Citrus Twist kit:

This page was created much more in tune with my personal scrapbook style, patterned papers, a smattering of clustered embellishments--but not a lot of them.  This was one of the exclusive Citrus Twist papers and there was absolutely nothing out of my stash--well unless you want to count the white pain splatters, haha!).  Most of the other pages created were more heavily embellished (since I had gotten so many of them I felt I needed to learn to use 'em!!!).  I did find I was relying more on plain white paper backgrounds (or painted them) and made use of a lot of the included die cuts as layering materials rather than cut into the pattern papers.

I did make a couple of "kind of boy" pages---but it was stretching a bit. A few of the papers I thought would do well on a more masculine page did not seem to coordinate well with other papers.  Now perhaps if I had ordered an add-on kit of more papers, this would have been a mute point.  But this was not in my "rules" for comparing the various kits.  It was to be main kit only. 

Next on the hit parade will be Gossamer Blue...

best,
Cheryl

Citrus Twist Update - Layout #4!

Whew!  Actually managed to make a page using papers from my November kit, not just snippets and strips!  These papers, the wood veneer hearts, plus the white and black word stickers are a match made in heaven selection. 

It's not a happy subject, but everything we scrap about isn't always cupcakes and roses!!  The page is about moving out of state and away from my kids and grandkids.  The journaling is personal so I've hidden it on a card behind the photo (the "hello" is a pull tab to view the card). 

I was really pleased with the combination of light and dark pattern papers and then using the light and dark journaling word stickers from the kit.  

Also used a cellophane bag and a crumpled piece of patterned aper behind the photo for some lift and
then tucked in some pieces of ephemera from Crate Paper's Cest a la Vie collection, as well as the journaling card and tab.  I loved the accents of gold from the Crate Paper ephemera! 

I also used plenty of the wood veneer hearts, as well as the last couple cork painted hearts from the kit!  Along with one of the wood veneer hearts, I used a piece of one of the cork stickers and one of the cut-a-part words, a strip of paper and small punched strip for the cluster at the bottom of the page. 

The title letters are from an older Thickers pack (one I think I picked up at Tuesday Morning over a year ago!). 

Added some outlining in both black and white inks and this one was done. 

Moving away was one of the hardest things I've done.  But I am glad to have the opportunity to scrap it for the future....  It's our life. 

Scrap your life, the best and the not-so-best.  It'll be important to someone down the road! 

best,
Cheryl

Citrust Twist Kit Reporting - The Third Layout

Still trying to work with the November Citrus Twist kit, still struggling with this one.  I wound up using mostly elements that were left from the prior month's kit with this month's stamp set, some of the wood veneer hearts and just a few snippets of the papers.  

The photos are layered with left over cuts from one of last month's papers, a tag, the die cut leaves and flower, as well as the title card. 

The only papers from this month's kit are the several tiny strips, and a bit of the peachy print that peeks out from under the photo(s).   Also from this month's kit are the cork hearts, as well as the wood veneer hearts. 

I did a bit of outlining, added some ink splatters and the metallic enamel dots, plus a banner (cut from a miscellaneous scrap laying about on my desk).

Once again, while I am pleased with the outcome, I still do not feel I have been able to make good use of the materials together, in kit form, to create the page.  Something to keep in mind when selecting the kit club you will be working with month to month. 

There is one more page I have to present from this month's kit (and I was actually been able to use papers -- from the kit!). 

Later all,
Cheryl

How to Choose a Kit Club -- An Update... and a Layout!

This is only the second page created from my second kit from Citrus Twist.  Let me preface my comments with the following...  in no way am I going to ever say one kit club is "better" than another.  Ever.  It is a highly personal choice, depending upon what you scrapbook, your personal style, and your budget.

Which brings me to my update on Citrus Twist kits.  If you love embellishments, this is definitely the club for you! 

They ship reliably. On time. Every time. 

The kits include six patterned papers from newer releases.  You also get two sheets of cardstock and, as I said a lots of various embellishments. Oh, I almost forgot--a stamp set---love that!  In my first kit I received a Thickers alpha set, but the second contained a Thickers phrase (word) set.   

However, I found my second kit to be a bit disjointed.  Things just did not seem to go with many of my photos and I finally just gave up and went with the three pages I made that I was happy with.  And I am very happy with those three pages... and I am sure that I will use the remaining papers (they are actually quite nice) and supplies, just probably not together. 

My goal was to use two kits with each of my chosen clubs and to work with the main kit only.  If I were working with the main kit and an add-on or two, I'd have found it easier to create more pages.  But my aim was main kit only...so.

As you can see from my page, I didn't use a lot of the papers, just cut pieces to make banners and the chevron arrow thing-y layered with a circle cut-a-part and a couple of the word stickers.   

The papers that are layered under the photos are cardstock pieces from my scrap pile. 

The sequins came from a prior kit and I mixed in some of the puffy circle stickers, as well as using some ink splatters in medium blue and lime green.   I also used the stamp set below the photo, as well as on one of the cut-a-part labels. 

The title was created by rearranging some of the Thickers words. 

I do really like the finished page and I will have one or two more pages to talk about from this kit.  This would normally be the sort of page I would create to utilize scraps and leftovers, not right from the get go of opening a kit. I guess my lesson to be learned with this kit is more about how to use papers that you are struggling with.  I used just small pieces to create banners and chevrons... still leaves the larger pieces to be added to my stash and likely used with other papers from older collections. 

Moving on! 

Cheryl

How to Choose a Kit Club - A Citrus Twist Page

This is my second Citrus Twist kit and I am struggling a bit with only having six pieces of patterned paper.  I am sooooo a paper person.  But I am reserving full comment until I finish the kit.  I must say I do love, love, love this soft wood grain paper, which I believe is an exclusive to their club. 

I always kind of spread out the papers on my desk when I receive a new kit and then start pulling photographs that may work.  If I am not sitting right down to scrap, I just toss the little stack of photos right into the box the kit came in so they are there when I am ready to scrap.  And this photo of my grandson (gee this was only taken 16 years ago!) with the soft bluesy-beige-s in the background just went with my favorite wood grain paper beautifully. 

After that, luckily this kit had a couple choices for that buttery gold color, and that coordinated nicely with my grandson's shirt color.  I was a most happy camper, I mean scrapper! 

Again, this kit did not contain an alphabet, but did contain a Thickers set of white foam word stickers, so that is where I chose the title from.

Besides the aqua and yellow print paper, I also used one of the glassine bags that came in the kit (holding goodies) as a layering piece under my photo and left the right side open to insert a tag for my journaling.  Then I set about fussy cutting tabs and the circular embellishment you can see at the right of the photo, tucking them about the photo and layering papers.  . 

Punched a white strip with my favorite scalloped border punch and stapled on one of the cut-a-part labels and the "best" to add just a bit of interest at the top of the page. 

The last remaining goodies to be added were the painted cork accent pieces and just a few splatters and drips of white spray mist.

I love how this page turned out, simple and clean, soft, but not girl-y. 

Now let's see how the rest of this kit shakes out!

best,
Cheryl

Choosing a Kit Club -- Your Kit Club Should Reflect Your Style!

I finished up (or killed) my first Citrus Twist kit.  And I learned some things.

But first, my most recent Citrus Twist page... made mostly from scraps and embellishments!  See, I am learning to use embellishments to my advantage...still staying true to my own style (of NOT overwhelming my page or my photo with an explosion of embellishments).  More on this later.

Now, I still have a partial pack of Maggie Holmes Gather ephemera, as well as a partial pack of the wood veneer, sequins, chipboard, a couple of the cut-a-parts, and some of the enamel dots.  But only partial packs, less than half packs of each!  And I have one half of one of the patterned paper.  That's it.

As far as a page count; I have one more Citrus Twist page to post...so including that one I made seven pages from my first Citrus Twist kit.  I received six patterned papers and two solid color cardstock sheets, an alphabet, an exclusive chipboard pack, a full pack of ephemera and wood veneer embellishments, exclusive cut-a-parts, and enamel dots.  And I'm sure I am forgetting something, but wowsers, that's a lot of embellishments.  But not so much paper.  And I am very much a paper person.

Now, back to this page. 

Did a little color wash on the white cardstock (first the area was coated with gesso) using several colors and types of spray mist and lots of water (plus paper towels to do a little mopping up!).

In keeping with my mission to become more comfortable using multiple embellishments, I layered an ephemera piece and a wood veneer to create the title; tucked in printed tabs, as well as fussy cut some blank labels, layering those with little chipboard pieces.  

And I used several fussy cut strips for the top and bottom clusters.

I used loads of little strips and scraps to create layering for the photo, and tucked in some wadded up black thread to add both some texture and a bit more black.  

The page actually came together fairly quickly.  I just kept cutting strips and slices of paper to slide under the photo and tucking in tabs, I used loads of little strips and scraps to create layering for the photo and then tucking in  pieces of ephemera.

Once the title was in place on the right, I added a few watered down paint-y drips and what was left of the light aqua enamel dots (and stars). 

A fun page to make and it was very satisfying to see only partial packs of embellishments and only a half sheet of paper left.  Oh yeah, I have some of the Thickers left too, but that's almost always a given that you will have alphabet letters left over.

And what do you know?  I AM learning to make good use of all those delicious embellishments.  I learned (at least thus far) to treat them as I would pieces of paper... layer them up.. they are way less overpowering when they are a part of something else. 

Now we'll see what happens with kit #2!  It should be on its way to me, maybe later this week! 

have a scrappy, happy day!
Cheryl

Ha Ha! Learning to Make the Most of a Kit!! -- Citrus Twist September Kit

The Citrus Twist kit I received (#1 of my 2 kit test)  was heavy on embellishment, lean on papers.  Compared to other kit clubs so far, that is.  This kit contained full packs of chipboard stickers, wood veneer, ephemera pack, as well as an alphabet, a stamp set, enamel dots, and cut-a-parts.  Wowzers.  And me not being a huge embellish-er...  So I set to work to learn the skill of embellishing -- heavily, without having the resulting page look as though someone just dumped a whole pack of embellishments and glued 'em where they landed! 

Before I could begin my quest to conquer embellishments (quest/phobia, take your pick!), I had to choose a paper.  The pieces I had left from the kit were full of yellow, lots and lots of yellow and that was just not gonna work.  I chose to make my own by using three different colors of Heidi Swapp texture medium.  This went relatively quickly just be squirting the three colors down both the top and bottom of a plain white cardstock and then using an old credit card, scraping them from one side to the other.  Loved the result metallic sheen and the texture this created.  

Next, I tried to determine where I might want some splatters and went with placing them at the top rich and bottom right of the page.  I wanted to get the gold ink dripped on and allow it to dry before I started monkeying around with papers and smudged those pretty little golden drops!  After the paper was dry, all four sides got trimmed down a smidge and roughed up a bit with my Heidi Swapp paper distress tool. 

Now for the photo.  Since I was dead-set on using this photo of my granddaughter, I first tried multiple layers of pink and pink patterned papers from the kit....too much.  Finally determined I would use several layers of crumpled and flattened tracing paper (I'm out of vellum and tracing paper makes a good substitute!).   When I laid the photo bundle in place on the page, it was apparent that I needed to add some foam dots to even the height a bit, and I also opted to tuck in another kind of large wood veneer heart.  You really only see a tiny bit of it and that's OK with me because it's one of those gem stone cut looking things and I'm not truly partial to that particular design.  Using it this way allowed just a touch of the wood veneer to peek out, it evened out that corner of the photo bundle (height wise I mean) and I used up another embellishment! 

 

I used quite a few of the wood veneer pack on this page and still have some left!  I also used one of the ephemera pieces and added one of my own doilies.  My mission was to learn how to use embellishments as effectively as pieces of paper.  So I decided to treat them as layering pieces on this page and layered the floral wood veneer, a leaf veneer piece under the corner of the photo and layered a wood veneer heart on top.  I also tucked in one of the rose ephemera die cuts and the smile piece as well. 

I also created a simple cluster at the top of the page by using another wood veneer floral piece and a section of a doily (used another piece of the same paper doily among the photo layers).  I'm not even sure this qualifies as a true cluster since there are only two pieces, but hey that's what I'm calling it! 

I used one of the veneer pieces as a title for the page, the "love you" was one of my favorite pieces.  I wanted it to be prominent as the title but also kind of be connected to the veneer cluster at the corner of the photo, so I placed it such that it almost touches the floral piece, but is just a hair away. 

The trimmed down and treated paper was placed on another piece from my I don't think I'm gonna use it for anything pile...I liked the color of the border of this paper and that was about all, so it was perfect to use under my painted page!  

Overall, I am really happy with this page.  I successfully used a bunch of embellishments, created a background paper that has great texture and yet appears soft and not over worked and was able to finally scrap this photo of my granddaughter that has kept popping up on my desk for weeks now!! 

Mission completed!  Am I completely comfortable with using a lot of embellishments on a page.  No, not yet anyway.  It will be an ongoing learning process.  And that's OK with me too!  It was fun to do; I like the challenge of working with materials I am not completely comfortable with. 

So what are you uncomfortable working with?  Try making it your mission to work those materials into a page.  Focus on one aspect, one product type and work with it in a familiar way.  You might find you've got a knack for it!

happy scrappin' all
Cheryl

Playing with Citrus Twist -- Kit Club Research Continues!

I just cannot believe it is October already!  September here in Kentucky was so summer like; we had a trip to Wisconsin right in the middle of the month visiting kids and grandkids, so the month flew by!

This page about my granddaughter heading off to school (from last year!) had me digging into my newest kit from Citrus Twist.  I used a bit of watercolor directly on the patterned paper (which did leave it slightly buckled---I'll have to pile some books on top to try and flatten it out).   

Even though this kit is embellishment heavy and I did try to include more of the embellishments; I promptly removed most of them because to my eyes, it was way too distracting, I lost track of the photos amidst all the froo-ha-ha (technical term---froo-ha-ha, much like my use of the term fruj-en-glajen, meaning pretty stuff  LOL!). 

I did use one of the little stamps from the set that was included in the kit.  Loved the saying and thought it was so appropriate for a 1st day of school.  Ink, stamp and stamp again...repeat. 

Under the photos, I used a mix of tags, embellishment pieces and cut-a-parts from the "B" side of one of the papers.  Most pieces were trimmed so that I could tuck them in here and there.  And, I really only wanted one of the photos layered up, the other photo was matted on one piece of paper, cropped a bit more closely and placed at the corner of the more heavily layered photo.  I think using heavy layering on both photos would have (again) been too distracting.

Added my title, did a bit of outlining and penned my journaling...done!  

I do like the paper(s), love the stamps, and truthfully am a bit overwhelmed by the quantity of embellishment ephemera included.  Personally I would prefer to see enamel dots, a few pieces of flair, some cute paper clips.  And there are pieces of these sort of embellishments that can be had by purchasing one of the add-ons.  But I am working with main kits only for my little study.   And a reminder:  this is just me and my typical usage of smaller embellishment items speaking here.  I see many pages where scrappers have included lots of embellishments without the page(s) seeming too busy.  Something for me to work on! 


And I look forward to doing just that!  I do love learning something new and that's another great thing about this hobby; there is always a new technique, new materials, and new perspectives for us to infuse our pages with.   And this is also what experimenting with various kit clubs gives you; the chance to try something new!  Gotta love that.   

happy day all!
Cheryl 

Choosing a Kit Club - New Club; New Look

Since I procrastinated too long to be able to order my second Gossamer Blue kit, I moved ahead to some Citrus Twist to play with.  I need to order one more kit from Gossamer Blue and now one more from Citrus Twist (cuz, I said I'd work with two kits from each club I listed....) 

On first appraisal of the contents of my Citrus Twist September kit; it's pretty, the product selection seems to coordinate well, they are a bit embellishment heavy, six patterned papers and two card stock choices, one alphabet.

Since the kit seemed embellishment rich, I ripped right into the various packages and applied a bunch of things on this layout.  This is not my usual motis apparendi!!!!  Don't get me wrong, I love embellishments as much as the next scrapper, I just usually go for smaller clusters or one grand statement piece with a few small supporting pieces.

But here as you can see, I just went for it and lined a bunch of elements up.  I think the reason it still fits with my desire for some structure, is that everything is contained on the horizontal band of pink patterned paper.  I cut the pink pattern to stretch across one of the card stock pieces, the vanilla one (seemed like the word vanilla was more appropriate given the sweet goodness of the candies in my photo!) and this preserved the remainder of the pink piece to use on another page.   

For the title I used one of the (many--since we got en entire pack!) wood veneer pieces and I remembered that I had a Thickers set in this kind of peachy-pinky hue!  Yeah!

 
I felt that I needed to carry a bit of interest up to the top and back down at the bottom of the page, so I added a cut doily and a couple more small embellishment pieces.  Last, was to sprinkle on some pretty Heidi Swapp gold mist and then drool over the chocolates in the photo!!!!

This kit is proving fun to work with...looking forward to seeing how it all plays out!



happy scrappin'!
Cheryl