How many.....

Jill

Jill

Sugar Cookie : GingerScraps Praise Team
...of you regularly scrap "off theme"? Do you mostly choose a themed kit to go with your photos? Or do you tend to not go with the themed kits and choose via other criteria such as colour? What is YOUR story?

When I started this thread, I thought I could say I choose by colour rather than by theme but after a quick glance through my gallery thumbs, I discovered that I now have created more LOs using themed kits than otherwise! That is an eye opener for me and something that I only just now realised. In my previous home, themed kits were not all that usual and I always chose by colour. It seems that I am evolving as a GS scrapper and taking advantage of the fantastic array of themed kits that are available. It is so amazing and wonderful that you can find a kit for almost any topic here at GS!!!
 
I honestly haven't bought much in the past year or 2 because of the sheer number of kits I own now - LOL. A kit really needs to catch my attention and be different somehow from the 100s that I already own for me to buy it. That said, color is my first criteria - I have some colors I absolutely hate and some colors that I use a lot because of the subjects I scrap (90% girl layouts). I also will use certain broad-themed kits such as beach/ocean, lake/outdoors, and seasons like winter, fall, and summer. Christmas of course. Now that my youngest child is about to be a senior in high school I have no need for kid-themed kits and am always on the lookout for the rare teen-themed kits. I will also buy a specific sports kit including basketball, softball (NOT baseball or general ballgame kits), or track and field. Let me tell you, if I ever find a decent softball or track and field kit I'll buy it on the spot!
 
Gosh, I'd say it's a pretty even mix for me. I use both theme and non-theme kits, but I very regularly switch them up and make off-theme pages. I might grab a totally wacky theme kit if I love the color scheme and can tell that there are enough pretty ellies and papers that are off-theme even if I know I'm not going to use the kit for the theme it's intended. I actually like when people use a theme kit for non-theme page because it shows the kit has versatility.

As far as buying, I'm in the same boat as Marie - I have SO many kits that really for me to buy, a kit has to totally be something way unique and just a super drool-worthy color palette or else I can't justify it. I think those are the 2 things I really look for when choosing what to scrap with now - awesome attractive color palette and unique/different elements that I don't already have.
 
I'd say I buy kits by theme for the most part. I look at a kit and have to be able to use it for more then one theme. For example I just purchased a bunch of the Disney themed kits. In the Sleeping Beauty themed one I realized I can use the spinning wheel with some pics I got from Greenfield Village.
I do tend to shy away from overly girly kits because as a Stay at Home mom of two young men I don't have much use for girly (I'm as tomboy as they come).
 
mariewilcox said:
I honestly haven't bought much in the past year or 2 because of the sheer number of kits I own now - LOL. A kit really needs to catch my attention and be different somehow from the 100s that I already own for me to buy it. That said, color is my first criteria - I have some colors I absolutely hate and some colors that I use a lot because of the subjects I scrap (90% girl layouts). I also will use certain broad-themed kits such as beach/ocean, lake/outdoors, and seasons like winter, fall, and summer. Christmas of course. Now that my youngest child is about to be a senior in high school I have no need for kid-themed kits and am always on the lookout for the rare teen-themed kits. I will also buy a specific sports kit including basketball, softball (NOT baseball or general ballgame kits), or track and field. Let me tell you, if I ever find a decent softball or track and field kit I'll buy it on the spot!
Click to expand...
Our grandkids are all older now (youngest twins are 13) so it is great when a not so cutesy sport, beach, zoo kit appears. For the joy of scrapping and playing around in photoshop, I have been going back to old photos and finding some old favs and some I haven't used before to scrap. That way I can make use of cutesy kits. Like everyone, I have more stash than I will ever use but I still keep acquiring.
 
Theme for me... most of the time. I might scrap a single photo from a theme with a non theme kit. Such as a picture of mom and I from Thanksgiving. It may not look like Thanksgiving so I can do a themeless page.
 
I find that since I have so many kits that I don't BUY non-themed kits any more. Even those base themes, like Christmas, seasons, etc have to be super fantastic for me to spend any money on. So, when I buy something, it is because it is the theme I like, haven't seen, or am doing a page of. That being said, I think I am about an 75% theme scrapper and then the rest of the time, I will iust make it up
 
I use both themed and non-themed kits. For my many cat photos, I'll frequently use a non-cat-themed kit. I do enjoy using themed kits quite often, but unfortunately there are a lot of photos I have that I haven't been able to find themed kits for (i.e. Canadian military, WWI and WWII battlefields and memorials, Remembrance Day, ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, Sphynx cats) and for some themes, I'm not fond of some of the items and word art that comes with the kits (for example I'm a dietitian, but as a strong believer in HAES, I hate seeing weight-focused items and weight loss word art/strips in healthy eating kits).

As others have said, a kit has to be very special for me to buy it these days, as I already have so many. It either has to be a theme that I don't already have a lot of, or the colours have to really speak to me. Templates, however, I keep buying new template packs despite having more templates than I could ever use! Yes, I'm a template junkie!
 
I'd say it's an even mix. I often scrap off-theme, though, with themed kits. No kids makes really childish kits a bit difficult, but almost all kits come with basics, so I can work with it if it has flowers and hopefully some greenery. The one big thing I don't care for are all pink kits as I'm not real fond of pink. I can do a nice bold pink as long as it's mixed in with other colors, but pink on its own is not my thing. I'll do pages like that sometimes if requested by family, but otherwise, no pink, please. lol

GingerScraps has some amazing themed kits, though, and I've been enjoying the addition of themed elements lacking in other kits. I have tons of zoo pics and manatee pics, for example, and there are so many kits to choose from with those themes. While not a big Disney fan, my eldest niece is, so I'll definitely be using those for some pics of her in the future.
 
I like themed kits, but after being on creative teams I find that I need to go off the colors in a kit because it isn't a theme that I have pictures for. I never to a mish mash of colors and photos though, my photos have to match the kit, so I tend to tweak the colors of some items in a kit to make things match better.
 
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