Do you prefer themed products?

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Do you prefer themed products?

I just finished a spread about Jordan's graduation and when I was done I realized I didn't even try to find any graduation related items. Which for me finally proved that I really don't care to use themed products when I'm scrapping. Part of this is because I mainly pocket scrap, so there's a lot of random photos together on a spread, but in this case the whole page was about graduation and I easily could have added some themed elements. I even struggle to use seasonal themes, although that may have more to do with the fact that I'm scrapping a few months back, and the current releases at the time are all the wrong season.

Anyway, I feel like I'm on the extreme end of the not interested in themed products spectrum, wondering what your own thoughts are about this.

To discount myself, I forgot that the only theme I really use frequently is a beach theme. We own a house on the coast, so we spend a lot of time there. So if you ever wonder why I make so many beach themed kits and nothing else, that's why. smiley

I do very much like themes, though I will still mix and match a lot, and I love generic-use kits just as much (possibly more so simply because of their versatility). Most of my scrapbooking is relatively simple calendar pages for a yearly gift for my parents and in-laws. Each page contains photos from that month the year before (or close enough), aiming for one photo of each kid (I have four), and then I pick papers and elements to go with them based on what time of year it is, what strikes my fancy, sometimes the context of the photos, and also whether or not I've already used a color palette close to that this year.

So some examples (sorry, no images in the gallery yet):

- I've got several generic month layouts. I like a particular paper or element and I coordinate around that and make it work. Or my kids are wearing a specific color (coats in one case), so I coordinate the elements in those colors.

- Two years ago we took the girls out of school for a day to go to a better place to see the eclipse. I had to go looking for eclipse-themed things because I wanted some word art to go with it and wasn't designing much at the time, and used papers and stitches in a basic arrangement to evoke the idea of a sun.

- A while back I decided the cover of the calendar would use a photo of the girls at Disneyland sitting on a pile of pirate treasure. I specifically went looking for a kit with a lot of pirate-themed elements and papers to it so I could coordinate everything on the cover.

- I regularly look for Christmas kits for December, winter kits for January, Valentine kits for February, etc.

- When the photos are at a beach or the pool, I look for beach-themed kits to go with them

And so on.

It definitely makes sense that if you're focusing on one photo, it's more natural to look for themed items. I'd like to be better about making (and using) at least month word art, so when you're looking through my photo book it's a bit more clear what time of the year it is.

I love themes, but I'm with Amanda, I love the versatility of the more generic kits too. I rarely use just one kit in a layout - even one-photo layouts - and I love to mix and match.

I like themes but I seem to want themes that are limited. I also like general kits as well. With 1 firefighter and 1 cadet I find firefighting themes limited and general childish for adults.

I just go which ever way the wind carries me.....If it's Halloween I do Halloween if it's Christmas I do Christmas..... then in between just what moves me.

Honestly no. I am not a huge themed scrapper. I prefer everyday kits or kits I can use more than just holidays.
I tend to use these "themed" kits for regular pages as well . but I want kits I can use tons and tons..

I don't tend to like themes, and as a designer i do make themed kits, but add very little themed items, because i LOVE lots of flowers and leaves and a few other essentials, that aren't theme related.

I find when using a kit that is themed sometimes they have way too many items you can't use, or really don't look good on a scrap page.

I very rarely find themes that are "must haves" for me. I'll be honest, if I found a Yorkie themed something, I'd snap that sucker up because I have yorkies and around 7 billion pictures of them.

I find that even with themed stuff (Christmas, Winter, Halloween, Wedding) that I do have, I tend to use the pieces that are more-colour based to what I need, and gap-fill when I have an idea which doesn't fit into a specific kit in my stash and I can't be bothered to start over. I think beach kits would be the only "exception" to that rule where when I make a page, I generally stick to the kit (unless it has no glitter, then the gloves come off).

Thanks for this thread, good read.

I would not say I prefer themed kits but I love to be surprised by their a/cuteness and also the versatility and options, especially in terms of word art but also ellies, they add to the process.

Not a huge theme scrapper except maybe holidays. I am not even really a kit user...I tend to pull from many kits and element packs to create 1 single layout. I like an eclectic look usually.

I don't often use themes. I prefer just using generic and more everyday collections. With themed items I often find myself not using the more themed embellishments, papers and elements. Even when using themes, I will just use the colors of the theme itself rather than the actual embellishments. The only exception would be Christmas, travel layouts and birthdays. I think, honestly, that the seasonal themes are pretty useless to someone from the tropics like me. We do not have anything resembling winter or autumn, although one could make a case for it being constantly spring/summer. Same goes for the more holiday-related collections. We don't celebrate halloween, or thanksgiving, or, really, a lot of other things.

Like so many others on this thread, I'm a mix-and-match scrapper so I don't require a lot of themed kits - but I love well-labelled individual elements so that when I *am* looking for that one themed element that would be perfect on my page, I can bring it up on digitalscrapbook.com (or my stash of over 100,000 scrapbooking-related digital files smiley )

I like themed kits. I organize all my files in themes such as "All About Baby", Christmas, Kitchen Kits, Wedding...etc. I don't use all the elements included in one kit alone, so I'll do a search say in my All About Baby folder for "pink" and then choose all the elements I like from there. My husband asked me the other day, how much space my stash takes on my laptop (I had been looking online for a good external hard drive) and my DigitalScrapbook.com folder alone is 151 GB! The first computer I ever bought had a 3GB hard drive. lol. How far we've come....

I organize all of my graphics collections pretty much the same way as you do Dianne. I find it really helps to nail down my search when I want to use something or am looking for inspiration when I'm in the creative mood to make scrap graphics.

I'm not a scrapper and don't use the graphics for making layouts like you gals do, but I certainly do enjoy making themed products and hopefully people are actually getting some use out of them?

I like both. Themed especially for the holidays and non-themed for the other as many have already mentioned.

I love your graphics Brenda! I do a lot of upcycling and have made my kids a lot of denim stuff… blankets, kitchen aprons, book covers… so have used the denim ones a lot smiley

Agreeing with Beatrice. smiley

That's too funny Dianne! I do a lot of upcycling myself... I've made denim and t-shirt purses and aprons, I incorporate bits of raggedy denim and ribbon scraps in many of the jewelry pieces I make, I've even made a few pairs of denim moccasins which turned out pretty darned neat looking (and way easier on the hands instead of sewing leather).

It's the main reason why I haven't gotten into scrapbooking even though I'd love to, I've already got my fingers in far too many other crafts and hobbies, the last thing I need to do is add more to that long list.

smiley

Denim moccasins? Where did you find a pattern for those Brenda? I have my fingers in a lot of crafts and hobbies too... I do machine quilting and also volunteer for the Angel Quilt Project, but must admit I haven't made any in quite a while due to neck injury and having to look down when I cut and piece. I did make my new granddaughter a snuggle quilt though.

I like Themed Kits very much. I use them mostly unless I just want to go generic. But when I'm searching, I will look up the occasion theme first and then go off on my own.

I like a little bit of theme with a lot of versatile items.