What Do You Look for in a Kit?

AJsRandom

AJsRandom

Well-known member
I was doing some shopping here at GS today, and while I was organizing my new purchases, this question popped up in my head. I've noticed what I tend to like and not like about the kits I see in the store.

So this is what I like: a variety of papers with solids to match. I like mixing and matching my papers to my photos. I like flowers and greenery to go with. I like a variety of elements, especially ribbons, word strips/word art and flair. I like scatters and splats/paint.

I don't like: cutesy elements. I mean, I like seeing them but I won't buy kits with them because my kiddos are all grown up (my youngest is 14). I don't like weird-colored greenery. I think there should be green stuff even in wintery kits, LOL.

All that being said, Every designer here has stuff I would buy- I don't mean to knock anyone. I used to design myself and know how hard it is to pick and choose what to include in a kit, let alone what to do with a given color palette. All designers deserve kudos for the work they do to get their products ready and up in the store. :)

So what do you look for in a kit?
 
What a hard question. I usually go for the boy kits. The more boy the kit the more it will appeal to me. I have 3 boys and now 3 grandsons. I also have a daughter and a granddaughter but they aren't girly girls so I don't think I even own a girly kit. Hahaha. I also go for outdoorsy kits and anything with blue in it.

And I totally agree with you on the greenery. It needs to be the real stuff and even in the wintery kits. :)
 
AJsRandom said:
I was doing some shopping here at GS today, and while I was organizing my new purchases, this question popped up in my head. I've noticed what I tend to like and not like about the kits I see in the store.

So this is what I like: a variety of papers with solids to match. I like mixing and matching my papers to my photos. I like flowers and greenery to go with. I like a variety of elements, especially ribbons, word strips/word art and flair. I like scatters and splats/paint.

I don't like: cutesy elements. I mean, I like seeing them but I won't buy kits with them because my kiddos are all grown up (my youngest is 14). I don't like weird-colored greenery. I think there should be green stuff even in wintery kits, LOL.

All that being said, Every designer here has stuff I would buy- I don't mean to knock anyone. I used to design myself and know how hard it is to pick and choose what to include in a kit, let alone what to do with a given color palette. All designers deserve kudos for the work they do to get their products ready and up in the store. :)

So what do you look for in a kit?
Click to expand...

The things I look for are pretty similar. I like cute, but not super-cutesy, if that makes sense. I like having a wide variety of papers, both patterns and solids, but it’s best if the solids have a bit of texture or tone variation in them, as opposed to just being a solid that I could make with the paint bucket tool. I like a wide variety of elements, and prefer lots of different flowers (some flat, some rolled, etc.), different pieces of foliage (leaves, vines, miscellaneous greenery). I like to see different types of fasteners, even if I don’t always use them (staples, stitching, etc.). I love using paints and splats (or grunge as some designers call them). Glitter is great for when I’m in a glitter mood or the page lends itself to using glitter. I like kits with journal cards as well. I don’t mind “weird”- coloured greenery, as long as there is some green foliage in the mix as well, as sometimes the kit colour-matching foliage ends up working quite well!
 
I love flowers - but not extracted flowers. I am not very font of extracted elements at all. I sometimes manipulate them to make them look a little less cut out.

I like mostly solid papers with some patterned papers. I have never been able to use bold busy prints.

I like stitching and staples and string....

Not good with bows

Love masks
 
I think what I look for is pretty similar to you...
A variety of papers is key - solids (that are textured or lightly patterned) mixed with bolder patterns. I like for there to be some texture or distress to the papers so that they are not flat. That is the first thing I look at, the papers.

Then I like themed elements. I am not a huge lover of shoving flowers on every layout, so I like for there to be SOME sort of element that has some different shapes and sizes so I can cluster without always using flowers. I am finding that I am in a phase where I am using fewer elements on my page because I am sick of flowers all the time!

I like for some sort of ribbons or strings along with some greenery, to round out the clustering. Oh and I like scatters or grungy bits too.

Don't like cutesy stuff. Even when I do my Disney pages (which are a lot of my pages), I don't tend to use the elements that look like dolls or people. I just don't know how to fit them into a page and look organic. Not a fan of "emoji" type elements either. I am so weirdly specific. I like my elements to look real (as in not cartoony), but not too real. Probably doesn't make much sense, but it does in my head lol!! That said, there are occasions where I will go all out and use cartoony stuff (but it usually is a Disney or more kitschy page).

I guess the main thing that I like is some texture or dimension. Don't really want to spend money on papers where I could just use a color picker on a plain page!
 
Oooh good thread...

I'm usually all about color and patterns. I love bright kits and fun patterns and tend to over-use them on my pages LOL.

Frames! I love frames.
 
When I stare on a kit, I make sure to check if I could make more than 2 layouts with different themes on it even though it was a themed kit. I know that the kits here at GS are all versatile but sometimes I just stick to one kit to make one layout because it makes putting credits in the gallery easy for me. So I most of the time don't combine kits when I need to upload them. I'm saying this because I also make photobooks for my family that I don't upload and that don't need crediting.

Then I also check if the kit has patterned papers AND solid papers. There are some kits that don't include solid papers and it sometimes make layering a bit hard for me because I don't want my layouts to be "too busy" to look at.
 
Elements, elements and more elements! lol!

I love flowers and at least 2 leaves, themed elements are great, even if its just stars or hearts or a camera. This is especially handy when creating boy layouts that do not need flowers, lol.. Fun goodies like staples and stitching are great. I also like simple paint splatters or confetti.

As for papers, I like them pretty subtle. Then I can play around with the paints and add texture that way.

Fun question, thanks for asking! xoxo...
 
Coordinating patterned papers- I love mixing patterns. I like the combination of hand-drawn and realistic elements. Paint spatters, scribbles, doilies. My style is traditional and I don't mind cutsie but don't use it often. I don't like it when there are a lot of flowers but no foliage. Those two things go together for me. Oh and I've given up. I put flowers on all my boy layouts now.
 
I'm even simpler than Jeanne - color. Once I open the kit, I'm a little disappointed if there isn't at least a choices for greenery, but that's not what draws me. Oh, and I don't buy kits with a lot of little people. Like Diane said, I just don't feel like I can make them fit. I usually end up placing little people in the recycle can because I don't want them to take up space! I'm finding I'm beginning to do that with elements I don't think I'll ever use. After years of this hobby, I just don't feel the need to hang on to elements or papers I don't love.
 
I'm with Robin and Diane. I am not a big fan of the dolly/cartoon people. I dump them when I organize my kit because I know I won't use them. That being said, I might still purchase a kit that has those figures if it also has the other things I like. It's not a deal breaker for me.

I look for a good mix of papers: solids with some kind of texture or distressing and patterns with a range of small to large. I like it when the paper looks like paper with some distressing or texture or folds. Otherwise I feel my layout will look too flat.

I look for a good selection and number of elements. I tend to avoid element light kits unless they are very theme specific and there are no other options. I tend not to use the flowers, but I like to have several options when I do use them. I also like the natural looking greenery, with several options. I love tags and journal cards, ribbons, metal elements and especially unique themed elements and some unique standard elements. I want the kit to work great for a theme but then also be flexible enough for other layouts when I remove the themed elements. For example, I recently used a coffee themed kit for a Dutch themed layout because the colors, papers and standard elements were great.

I look for different color combos too. I like it when kits mix unusual colors together, those tend to draw my eye.

I look for themes that relate to things that I know I need to scrap, or things that I am planning on doing that will be scrapped. I just went on a road trip with a lot of farm & pioneer related things and I went for kits that would work with that theme. Although I do make my own themed elements as needed, it's really great when I find a kit that has already done it for me.

It's a huge bonus (but not a deal breaker) if the kit comes with an alpha. I can manipulate font titles but again, it's great when someone else has already done it for me!
 
I love color and glitter! It is a huge bonus if it has a template, too! Bundles are fantastic! I love grunge! It's funny because at first I struggled with flowers! I am better at using them now, but I am sorta particular about them. But it doesn't make or break a kit for me. I usually pick a kit based on two things, color and theme. The elements I just work around.
 
AJsRandom said:
So this is what I like: a variety of papers with solids to match. I like mixing and matching my papers to my photos. I like flowers and greenery to go with. I like a variety of elements, especially ribbons, word strips/word art and flair. I like scatters and splats/paint.

I don't like: cutesy elements. I mean, I like seeing them but I won't buy kits with them because my kiddos are all grown up (my youngest is 14). I don't like weird-colored greenery. I think there should be green stuff even in wintery kits, LOL.

All that being said, Every designer here has stuff I would buy- I don't mean to knock anyone. I used to design myself and know how hard it is to pick and choose what to include in a kit, let alone what to do with a given color palette. All designers deserve kudos for the work they do to get their products ready and up in the store. :)

So what do you look for in a kit?
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What she said!! Ane listed everything that I look for. I don't use the cutesy figures either. I don't know how to really place them. And my kids are all getting older so it's harder and harder to use the cartoony elements.
 
There are so many different kit preferences and luckily, there are soooo many wonderful kits to meet everyone's wish lists!

I'm drawn to kits first by the colors. I don't really have favorite colors, I just know what I like when I see it.

Once I buy a kit, I love to see patterns and solids, including a WHITE solid. I love building layouts on a solid white-ish background.

Also flowers and foliage. I was like "no way" to non-green foliage, until I tried it. It's kind of fun! Give it a shot. :)

I also love to find staples and messy stitching in my kits. Also scatters, I prefer the sparse scatters with just a few little sprinkles.

And I really love Alphas. I think they are underused. I love to tuck a letter into a cluster, use a big alpha for the first letter in my journaling, or even use alphas as clipping masks.

I'd love to see more doodles and stamps in kits.

Thank you to all the awesome designers... I envy your talent!
 
I used to hoard frames, but now I hardly use them. I'm into lots of flowers now, but I don't want recolors. And unique themes! I've been buying for over a decade, so I like to see themes that haven't been done a million times before.

I will buy kits for the little characters a lot because they make me smile when I'm bored and browsing through my stash. I'm not practical and do not justify every purchase. Shopping is part of the hobby for me.
 
I do like little people, but I use them for hybrid things like baby showers or wedding showers or something like that. I don't use too many of them on a layout until the layout is perfect for them.

Like Lynn, though, sometimes I buy them because they make me happy :)
 
In my short time of digital scrapbooking (previously traditional), I find I am drawn to particular designers 'look'. I am always searching for volleyball kits because that is the majority of our time with club volleyball. However, regarding the 'cutesy' kits as my daughter is 15, I buy them for other things...in particularly the word art or papers rather than the cutesy elements. I am not one to use flowers/greenery...minimal, if any. Sometimes it seems the elements are overloaded with flowers/greenery more so than anything else. I seem to combine multiple kits/designers when creating my layouts...probably why I haven't posted any so far.
 
[email protected] said:
I seem to combine multiple kits/designers when creating my layouts...probably why I haven't posted any so far.
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I am seldom able to scrap with only one kit and most often search through my goodies to find exactly what I want- mixing kits and designers. Don't let that factor stop you from sharing your creations. I have very few layouts that only feature a single kit.
 
[email protected] said:
In my short time of digital scrapbooking (previously traditional), I find I am drawn to particular designers 'look'. I am always searching for volleyball kits because that is the majority of our time with club volleyball. However, regarding the 'cutesy' kits as my daughter is 15, I buy them for other things...in particularly the word art or papers rather than the cutesy elements. I am not one to use flowers/greenery...minimal, if any. Sometimes it seems the elements are overloaded with flowers/greenery more so than anything else. I seem to combine multiple kits/designers when creating my layouts...probably why I haven't posted any so far.
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You should definitely post them... you can use different designers on the same layout - even stuff you did not buy here. We love to see ALL layouts, even though we are partial to 'our' designers :)
 
Great question and as I pondered it, I realized that for me it has changed some over the years probably a combination of style evolution and aging out of my boys.

I started as a paper scrapper, and I am still scrapping in that style but have added in a mixed media vibe too. Realism matters, but realistic matters more.

Papers - I LOVE to mix patterned papers, so they must coordinate with a good mix of small, medium and large scale prints. I almost always use a light colored, solid background paper. If it doesn't come in the kit, I'll go find one in another kit.

Elements - Big fan of stitches, leaves, paper snippets, word art, flairs and paint splatters. I prefer strings over ribbons.

Themes - I'm a big fan of "vague" themes! LOL . . . they are most universal. Colors grab me more than themes more than half the time.
 
I love the mega kits with heaps of papers both solid and patterned and textured. Love my striped paper and tartans are good I like to make a few layouts with the same kit especially when I am doing a series of layouts of the same theme. Not a fan of papers with creases, puts me off buying the kit.
 
Lately I have been craving foliage - and more specifically, different types of leaves. It seems that many people are not adding leaves to their kits when they have flowers!
 
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