The Secret World
of Scrapbooking Kits
By:
Spring Speasl, Co-Owner & Designer, ScrapBrats
Welcome to the
secret world of scrapbooking kits! Okay, it’s not as secret as it used to be,
but until we researched starting our own kit company, we had no idea how many
different types of scrapbooking kits even existed. The purpose of this article
is to clue you in to the different types of kits, the reason why scrapbookers
LOVE their kits, and a few places that can steer you in the direction of the kit
that will work for you!
Let me describe a few different types of scrapbook
kits. This is, by far, not a comprehensive list but it will give you some idea
of the different options that are out there.
First, we have the kits that are primarily paper
kits. They include coordinating printed papers usually paired with matching
cardstock. Some include stickers, die-cuts, stamp sets and different
embellishments and some do not. The majority of the companies that offer these
kits sell a monthly subscription that gets you an automatic shipment once a
month. These kits don’t come with designs but allow you to explore your own
inner creative genius. However, some companies have design teams that will post
their masterpieces on the company web site to give you some ideas and direction.
Next, we have the page kits. These kits (which is
what ScrapBrats specializes in) include materials, directions and usually a
picture of a pre-designed layout. Most are 12x12, double page layouts but you
can find single page kits every once in a while too. Some of these company’s
also offer memberships to monthly clubs that will give you new goodies at your
doorstep every month. They come in a very wide variety of different themes
ranging from specific (birthday, wedding, sports, holidays) to more general,
non-gender specific layouts that can be utilized by almost all scrappers.
Finally, there are a number of different kits that
aren’t specifically scrapbooking kits, but as scrappers ourselves, we would
love to have them all! Recently we have come across a number of online companies
that sell card kits, ribbon kits (oh, what we would give for those!!!), and tag
kits. Most of them have the same monthly memberships available as the scrapbook
kits.
Why do scrappers love their kits? Well, kits appeal to
scrapbookers for different reasons. Some are just entering the world of
scrapbooking and it’s nice to have materials that are already coordinating.
Let’s admit it – when you are first starting out the product choices can be
a little overwhelming! Some scrapbookers look to kits for inspiration. They can
introduce new techniques and show you millions of ways to quickly use up the
wealth of scrapbooking products that we all seem to accumulate. We like to grab
a kit when we are stumped and just can’t seem to get those creative juices
flowing. Did we mention it saves a ton of time? Can you imagine actually
finishing an album? And boy, do we love all of the scrapbooking goodies. We’re
addicted! But where do we store it all? With a kit, you usually use almost all
of the contents. Problem solved! Most scrappers don’t rely solely on kits to
create their scrapbooks, but we know lots and lot of people that LOVE their
kits!
Here are some sites that we think are great resources for
anyone who is new to kits or even those who aren’t!
