I have had a few burning questions for scrapbookers and I was hoping that y'all might be willing to give me some input:
1.) What is you favourite digital scrapbooking kit and why? (If you can still link us to it, please do so - 'cause I am curious.)
2.) Pricing aside, what do you look for when purchasing a kit?
3.) What elements do you like best in a kit?
4.) What elements do you use most in a kit?
5.) What element would make you loathe a kit if it were missing from/not included in the kit?
6.) Do you have any pet peeves in regards to kits or kit creators? (please share respectfully and constructively)
7.) Are there any elements you encounter (or have encountered) that you think are quite useless? Please explain.
8.) Do you use frames spontaneously, or only when requested at a challenge? Would you think a kit without frames is weird?
9.) Is there a particular theme that you gravitate toward (like nature, space, industrial, grunge, retro, etc)? And if so, do you ever use those in place of event-specific themes? (In example: would you use a generic wintery kit for a Christmas page, a nature kit for an Easter page, or a grungy kit for a soccer/football page, etc?)
Thanks any and all feedback!! I appreciate it! ;D
(and feel free to add on to the questions, too! the more the merrier!!)
Edit: added Lorien's question (#8), and added one more of my own(#9).
Fun topic. I have an extra question:
Do you use frames spontaneously, or only when requested at a challenge? Would you think a kit without frames is weird?
Edit: Mollie, a constructive PS: I needed to research the web to check the meanings of pet peeves (If I understand well, something you dislike just because, with no logical reason) and loathe (that seems to be a more delicate way to say hate, if I got it right). As we have lots of foreings and english speakers from all over the world as well, I guess it´s worth to explain).
I´ll come back with my answers later, I have a doctor appointment...
Ooh! Good question, Lórien!! Thanks!!
Edit: an answer to you edit: (lol)
Yes, a pet peeve is something that just bugs you to no end - sometimes there is reason for it, sometimes not, but it bothers you just the same. And it is something that is often continually annoying; you bump into it a lot and it bugs you every time.
Like when you walk into a public bathroom and there's an unknown liquid on the toilet seat. Or when you walk into your best friend's house and one picture frame is always crooked. Or when the barista at the coffee shop gets your name wrong and you can't figure out how "Mollie" turned into "Heather" and you just want to scream, "THAT'S NOT MY NAME!!", because it happens EVERY time, just a different name... Etc. ;P
Loathe is sort of along the same lines as hate. It's official definition is "intense dislike or disgust". I don't like to use the word hate - it's an extremely strong word that I think gets watered down too much in common conversation. "Hate" carries the weight of extreme hostility toward something. So, in example: I hate pornography (I WILL burn any physical copies of it and celebrate its destruction) while I loathe Apple, Inc (I'm not going to do anything hostile or violent toward them or their products, but I REALLY don't like them and like to avoid them).
This is a great discussion to have!! So let me go down your list one by one:
1. My tastes in scrapping have morphed since I started. At first I liked more "realistic" elements and one of my favorite designers was Nanly Designs at www.scrapbird.com, then I liked a more "artsy" style and one of my favorite designers was G&T Designs at www.e-scapeandscrap.com. And now, as evident by the scraps I have posted here, I am loving the more "traditional" scrap style. I don't really have a favorite designer or kit because I love so many of the ones I see
2. Aside from pricing the first thing that catches my eye is the color palette; mainly that there isn't a riot of colors, just 3-4 predominate colors.
3. I look for flowers and foliage, frames, a few unique/themed items
4. I mostly use flowers and foliage, ribbons, and something "alive" (butterfly, dragonfly, ladybug, rabbit, squirrel, bird, dog, cat, etc)
5. If a kit didn't have flowers or foliage I would mostly likely shy away from it.
6. I like to add a bit of journaling, so if all the coordinating papers are patterned it basically prevents any journaling.
7. I can't think of anything specific that is useless, but something along this line...I don't like the same frame or button, or brad, or flower in each of the dominate colors. If there are 3 frames, I would like them to be different.
8. In answer to Lorien, I do use frames a lot, but I don't think a kit would be weird without them, if I needed one I would just cut one from one of the papers
A question I was going to post in the topics, but I'll ask it here is in regards to glitter and glitter styles. I see these a lot and have noticed in a couple of threads here on DigitalScrapbook.com that people have requested them...my question is how are these used? Mainly as papers?
Scrappers use the glitter styles/actions/papers (it can come in any one of those forms, not just papers) to do many things:
- cut out/create accent shapes
- apply to a splatter brush to make glitter splatters
- make glittery frames, letters, brads, and other elements
- apply to grunge overlays to make glittery cut-aways and accents on papers, elements, etc
- and more
This site shows a lot of examples of what both digi scrappers and traditional scrappers have done with glitter.
I hope that answers your question!
(And thanks for answering ours!)
1.) It´s difficult for me to answer this one, because when I´m not CTing I´m usually working with more than one kit at same time. Some of my favorites are Love Bites, by Callaluna Creations for the originality of theme and dark colors combination, Belgium by Marisa Lerin (specially the papers - love them and used several times, but often combine with elements from other kits). Also by Marisa I love superlatives. It´s a perfect kit for journaling pages and it´s neutral enough to go well with anything. From Scrappiness Designs (I´ve been CTing for her for more than a year) my favorites are Say Cheese (For the doodling things, simple theme, neutral colors - goes with everything too!) and Lovely Easter (for the bright colors - the baloon elies make it great for lots of celebration layouts - and the flowers are balanced between flat and tri-dimensional, in a way they cluster well). By Joyful Expressions I like You Complete Me - for the theme, the super fun journal cards and the color combination) and Santa Paws - because of the diversity of pets in Christmas clothes
. I also recently got a kit called Catnip Crush, by Boomer´s Girl Designs, just because it had a black and white cat - I have two of them at home and find very difficult to find those kind of kitty in digiscrap kits - but I ended up loving it not due to the kitty, but because it has some very cool painted papers.
2.) Pricing aside, what do you look for when purchasing a kit? Things to relate to my life - Most of the scrappers are northen-hemispheres with kids. I´m a southern-hemisphere with kitties, and who doesn´t celebrate the same holidays that most of the scrappers do. Kits that are "must buy" because I find difficult to find are kitty kits where there are cats who don´t look like persians, and Chinese New Year kits (because it´s a very pretty celebration, where I take waaaaaay more photos every year than Christmas). Apart of that, I buy kits with the colors I want to play with and oriented to daily life.
3. and 4.) are the same for me. What I use the most (and so I like the best) are papers, straight ribbons and flowers.
5.) None, really. Because I´m too used to mix and match. But I prefer when there are solids and they have different textures, and when not all the flowers are flat. But none of them would refrain me to buy a kit if it draws my eye from other reason.
6.) I would never buy a kit from stores who have digiscrap and tagger designers mixed in, or that have that kind of half-naked digital women for sale. I think women aren´t objects and those kind of images ( I learned that they´re calling posers) are very objectfing. I admit I have pet peeves with taggers (although I admit some of them do really awesome work!) and because there are several taggers who trades "s"s by "z"s in their designer names (for example, DeZignZ by -put a name here-) and because words ending in Z in the beginnings of the internet were used to identify piracy websites, I would avoid designers who trade Ss by Zs in their names. I also really don´t like when the papers are rolled on the previews, It usually takes me off.
7.) Extracted things that I wouldn´t usually glue on a paper scrapping page are useless to me. For example, I wouldn´t glue real teddy bear or a real wheelbarrow on a page, right? So an element representing a teddy bear or a wheelbarrow, for me, shouldn´t be extracted from a real one - I´d use a teddy made of felt shapes or a wheelbarrow origami or painted chipboard, so I´d prefer them to have that look
8.) *skipping because it´s my question*
9.) I like steampunk and project-life themed stuff. And I use thematic kits for non-thematic layouts and no-thematic kits for thematic layouts with no hesitation
.
@Dawn: Both as a designer and as a scrapper I use glitter sheets with custom shapes and fonts. I still haven´t tried to make my own glitter/glitter styles.
@Lorien, wow I had not realized this, thanks for pointing that out.
Maybe a bit off topic, but I find it refreshing that most of the people here on digitalscrapbook.com are not into the girlie tags.
I have no use for those either. They must sell like hotcakes because they are everywhere. I was trying to find Paint Shop Pro scrapbookers on Facebook and most of the groups I joined are just full of girlie taggers selling their stuff.
I´m not saying that all designers that trade "s" for "z" are taggers or involved with piracy. Indeed, I´ve seen some weeks ago a kit from a designer who has a final Z and it was indeed, an awesome kit. But If I´m in a site I don´t trust and there´s a deZigner selling there I´d buy their products only if I bought from regular spellers first and like their kits (indeed, even in the store I sell there is someone who uses a Z - hope it doesn´t count against me, lol - it´s just to say that I know it´s really really relative - it´s something that bugzzz me, however
)
I think that it has become a trendy thing now in the culture to replace "s" with "z". I see it ALL the time with "brick and mortar" businesses. I wasn't conscious of the pirating side of the internet back when it was young (I was wrapped up in anime fan-sites and fan-fiction/art, which was relatively benign), so I didn't know about Zs being associated with pirates, though it does make sense. And, now it seems it's expanded to being used by pretty much anyone...
I don't like it when people exchange "s" for "z", "k" for "c", "ck" for "x" etc, because it's bad grammar and my brain just screams. It happens a LOT with MMORPGs and I find it SO annoying (a gaming café in the area was names "Roxxorz", a relatively common gaming word among the vocabulary-challenged, lol) .
So, I would have to agree that I would be less likely to buy from someone who has done that, but not for the same reasons. lol. I just can't bring myself to support someone who butchers the language in the name of style... they would have to be selling something pretty awesome.
Wow, I'm old as dirt and have never heard anything with regard to usernames trading s for z have something to do with piracy websites. Just wow! A better reason for why someone would trade z for s in something like Dezines by EmJay is because Designs by EmJay had been used. There are a lot of examples of switching different letters like that in usernames. Lots of people just think it's kinda cute and clever. To each his own.
And as far as taggers, my kits come in both full and tagger size. And the reason for this is that there is a good market for them, period. /shrug