How to Pick a Kit Club; the research continues

Since starting my little study on picking out a kit club, I am learning loads about my personal preferences and shopping preferences.  Like, feminine versus masculine paper and embellishment designs (I actually find it easier to work with more masculine or generic patterns rather than floral no matter how pretty I find the pattern to be)! ...

Now I have a granddaughter to scrap for and she LOVES pink, so some feminine pinks are a must, but I don't need entire kits (or kit club) devoted to girl-ish goodies.  I need a balance.  And I have found that Gossamer Blue provides a happy mix.  Now that being said, I have only been working with one kit from them...I'll be ordering another soon (goodie-goodie!). 

This is my latest page from the Gossamer Blue kit.  And it's from pretty much the tail end of the supplies I received.  I did a total of 9 pages with the kit and wished I could have kept going.  Now that, to me, is the sign of a good kit!  I even screwed up a big piece of one of the papers smearing gesso all over it and trying to use it as a background...trust me it was a hot mess!!! But I still was able to get 9 pages done...9!  Woo-Hoo!  (She says trying to high-five herself--ok that's never gonna get photographed!) 

So far, I am gobb-smacked with Gossamer Blue.  My only criticism would be that they have a very quiet FB group.  I feel a bit pushy, posting my pages there.  Not a lot of chatter.  I mean I've received very kind remarks and all, there just aren't many others posting pages.  And I like to have a spot to chat it up with other scrapping fiends (um, I mean friends).  So, we'll see.  I can't make that my over-riding decision buster.  But on to the layout...

I added a bit of vellum, but everything else is from the kit.   I even used a piece of packaging (that small piece of light gold diagonal stripe).  Could have done a little ink splattering, but decided to keep it very clean and went without. 

It's a simple page design, sure.  But every page I put in the kids' or my own  albums are not show stoppers.  Nor, do they need to be.  In fact, I don't think each page in any album should be over-the-top.  Wouldn't that get tiresome to look at after a while? 

Just can't wait to get my next Gossamer Blue kit, and I've already ordered my first kit from Scrapbook Circle, so I'll have some more comparisons coming soon!

Lesson #1 in picking a kit club?  Pick what you are going to work with, not just one that carries pretty stuff.  If you aren't going to have a use for it...regardless how pretty it is, what's the point?

later,
Cheryl

Having some technical issues on the blog, so if anyone is reading this, you may notice that some items like my blog lists are being removed (time to update anyway) and there may be more changes depending upon what works and what doesn't. 

OK, now that the blog tech issue and changes have been duly noted, I'll move on to (hopefully) more fun things! 

Still in test mode on the kits...  But on a side note, isn't it nice when you can just pull out a piece of paper and use it, as is!  Refreshing!  Truly I do like cutting and slicing things up, I do enjoy play time with paint and gesso and ink... but every once in a while it is really quite enjoyable to just pull out a piece or two of paper and add photos and a title and actually like the outcome and be ... well... done! 


The page above used a paper from Studio Calico which I trimmed just slightly and mounted onto a black and white diagonal stripe paper (out of the old stash).  I loved the diagonal lines against the photo of the leaning water tower.  The photo is layered up with a couple two-three pieces of pink-ish vellum.  I did get out my colored pencils and lightly colored in some aqua so the pink and aqua sky would be kind of replicated with the pink-ish vellum and the aqua added to the background paper. 

Other than that, embellishments were kept to a minimum and the title went on following the diagonal lines on the paper.  I ended up using two different alphas from my stash because there wasn't enough of either alpha to do the entire title. 

The next page also required little in the way of changes. 

I wanted to pick up on the red of the old gas pumps in the photo and this paper did that without screaming "RED"....   

After layering the photo onto a light gold print and some black and white text, I cut out the "you are here" arrow to help direct the eye (and because it is a cool travel-y phrase).  The rest of the embellishments were kept very basic, very similar (i.e., wood veneers, arrow shapes...)  I tucked a small journaling card in at the top of the photo and added a pair of little sunglasses.  But all in all, this page is pretty simple. 

I did also trim this page down and layered it onto a gold/orange-y print paper (again from my stash--I think it is Heidi Swapp).  Title alpha and the large chevron print paper is from a Studio Calico kit.

Sometimes, simple is the answer...both to creating pages and to using a kit!