For the love of kits

It is no secret that I am a fan of crafty kits. I have subscribed to various kits over the years, largely scrapbooking. But I always end up cancelling. This is often for three reasons:

On ongoing spending commitment. Many scrapbooking kits clock in anywhere from &25-40 per month.
Stash overwhelm. I found I wasn’t using everything from those big kits every month.
Shipping. Many boxes containing 12×12 papers cost $8-10 to ship. Imagine what I could by with the money spent on shipping.

And yet I still WANT the kits. I want the surprise. I want to try new things. I love getting goodies in the mail. I love digging into a fresh set of supplies and the inspiration that sparks excitement.

So what is a crafter to do when the pros and cons collide? I went on a search for smaller scrappy kits and couldn’t find what I was looking. Then somehow I realized that the SCT Sampler kit, put out by Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine, was right under my nose. (And just to get this clear right now I do not in any way work for SCT. I simply use their kits and am happy to share my love of them.) The kits are packed with fun at a fair price point, between $14-17 per month including shipping. Longer commitment = lowers price. Yes there is still a commitment but that is why I like to show these kits off so you can decide if they are right for you.

Look at the goodies that come in a typical kit! Like the name implies these are samples of supplies. You get 6×6 papers cut down from 12×12 (no shipping fee on the “large” item boxes!). You get partial packs of die cuts, stickers enamel dots and other items from two different paper collections. You get a theme word embellishment (currently a chunky acrylic word). Plus there is a long-term reusable item that is often a stamp set but may otherwise be a stencil, storage pouch or other item to keep.

You can see the full unboxing on my YouTube channel. I even have a playlist of previous kits so you can see the things to expect from these kits.

When you watch my unboxing I also do a project to show you that these kits can pack plenty of possibilities. For this episode I created a Christmas layout using summer products!

CKC challenge #1

CKC helps you build pretty scrapbook kits, and we also help you use them! We give you challenges to kick start your crafting. Today’s challenge is about diagonal design. It just so happens that a pattern paper from the inspiration kit that I re-created in a forgery has a diagonal design. So I used that as the foundation for my project. If you struggle with the idea of diagonal design, why not start with a diagonal product! You can watch the full process or keep reading for the simplified version.

I started with this diagonal paper that I painted. It has a strong diagonal design already.

I laid out my photos in story order along that diagonal line.

I then used a variety of embellishments, matching their color up with the background color. This process is called color blocking and it can help you use embellishments up that you were having a hard time making work.

Multicolored embellishments like the cupcake down below can be color blocked in different ways. I chose to match it up with the color of the frosting.

How do you feel about diagonal designs? How about color blocking your embellishments? Leave me your thoughts!

Central Embellishment Collage

I am finally busting into my CKC kit for this month. You can always check out my kit build over on my YouTube channel. But this kit is inspired by some bright colors balanced with pops of rich color and themes of travel. While we have not been traveling (still) due to Covid, I’m putting that travel theme to use on an educational layout.

Notice how the words “adventure”, “seek”, and “go, see, do” all can play into my daughters college bound days. Just because a them “says” one thing doesn’t mean you can’t find commonalities to other themes. There are other good tips in the video so be sure to check out all the ideas there.

Sketchy Wenesday

I love sketches. They are a great way to start a layout. The are great if you are feeling stuck. They are great for giving you ideas you may not have thought of. So, once a month I offer free sketches for download here on my blog and share what I do with them over on YouTube.

This month I have a double page layout sketch for you.

And I’ve got two takes on this sketch, both with process videos.

Take #1 is a birthday layout using some bold color.

And the process video to go with it.

Here is layout #2. This takes the sketch in a Christmas direction.

And the process video for this one.

You can download this sketch in pdf format for printing or in psd format for editing in Photoshop products. You can also head to the Freebies tab here on the blog to find these files and much more.

CKC July Challenge #2

It is the 18th, which means it is time for scrappy challenge number two over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. Todays challenge is to use foreign language somehow on your page. I took that prompt and just rolled with it! I used it as the main focus of my page to talk about how I tried at three different times to learn foreign languages and none of them really stuck.

Notice that there are no photos on this page? Well I didn’t have any photos about this story. But I didn’t let that stop me. The pattern papers and the design is enough visual to help tell the story.

You can see my whole process over in YouTube.

SCT Sampler Kit Unboxing

It is surprise time of the month. I love getting my little goody box in the mail. I alway squish the package to try and feel/guess what is inside. I know, it is usually a stamp. But there are days when I do get surprised! Like this time we got a cute little storage pouch from Scrapbook.com. You can see all the goodies packed in this little power package on my YouTube unboxing. And if you know my unboxings, you know I always have a project included. So don’t miss it.

And if you want a quick look at the project, you can take a gander.

If you want more info on these affordable little packs (as low as $14 per month, INCLUDING shipping), head over to the SCT site.

July week 2 layouts

I’ve got two process videos up this week for you to check out.

First up I am playing with my Counterfeit Kit for July and using the very (overly!) bold painted paper I created in a previous video. Small doses make it more “friendly” to my senses! Plus you can watch a quick tip on creating DIY enamel dots. (Photos below)

Next up is a mixed media layout using a stamp ink bleeding technique. If you enjoy a bit of artsy ink on your pages, you should give this one a try. (Photos below)

So that is it for this week. I hope you have an artful weekend and I’ll be back soon with more crafty goodness.

Free Cut Files: May + June

Since I was busy creating, filming and editing a layout a day for the month of May my free cut files for that month got delayed. So I am here in June to offer you the cut files for both months.

May’s files are photo-realistic flower medallions. These were an interesting creative process. I took my own photos from my garden, digitally manipulated them and turned them into cut files! Be patient with these files as they are very intricate and thus take more time and patience to cut. Using a fresh blade and a newer mat will give you better results. And if you cut them at least bigger than 2.5 inches, you’ll do even better. However, I’ve been trying to fine tune them to get better cuts at smaller sizes. Let me know what you think of this photo-real style. There are surely pros and cons to this look!

From Top Left: periwinkle, bleeding heart, foxglove, clematis, daffodil

Click here to download this file.

So I cut these files out of 140 lb watercolor papers at about five inches and then watercolored them with distress ink. I kept them monotone as I was using them for a layout challenge featuring the color yellow. And below is the final result.

For June I went simple! I’ve got speech bubbles for you in several styles. I needed some speech bubbles for a layout I was working on so I whipped some up, created a few different styles and made a package deal to share with you. I hope you find them useful.

Click here to download this file. And below you can see many speech bubbles in action on this layout.

I always put together a YouTube video to show off the cut files I’ve got on offer for the month.

Until next time, have an artful day!

June week 1 update

The time is just marching along. I’ve been busy already in June creating projects. At the beginning of the month, as is typical for me, I create my scrapbook kit for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. Normally I will also play along with the Best of Both worlds kit but since my CKC kit ended up so big, I decided I had enough to play with!

You can quickly see what I’ve got going on in this kit. The watercolor cards were a product of what CKC calls Forgery on the 4th. I’ve got one video of my kit build and one process video of my watercolor forgeries, so I hope you check out both of those. And keep reading to see the projects I’ve created so far with this kit.

Then I got to work with my kit and did two layout process videos using these supplies. As you can see I have enough variety of items in my kit to get different moods of projects!

You can see my processes in action in these videos. The Feline Chat layout involved some design helpers using my Cricut, if you like to see ways to put your electronic die cutters to use.

I hope you enjoyed a look at what has kept me busy so far this month. I’ll be back in a couple of days with a DIY organizational project, so do come back!

Busy May

I participate in the month-long LayOut A Day challenge in February, May and October. Since May just came and went, I wanted to show you what I’ve been up to. I did indeed create a layout every day. Some days it had to be Project Life on my phone since I was running short of time (or almost forgot!) but most days were traditional layouts. I even filmed and posted a layout every weekday over on my YouTube Channel. And even when some of those layouts were not stellar, I posted them anyway. I just wanted to give you a brief look at just some of my projects projects before we head into Junes business.

You’ll notice that there are not 31 layouts shown. I don’t have photos of everything, particularly weekend layouts. But this represent a good portion of them. I’ve broken things down into categories. And the final category features my favorites of all of these, so if you want to see what I consider the best of the best, then head to the bottom 🙂

DOUBLE PAGE LAYOUTS