There's a lot of stuff out there for little kids, but hardly anything for teens (especially male teens). I'd love to see some kits for teen &/or college-aged guys.
I still haven't scrapped the photos I took of my son for his senior pictures. I'd love to see navy and orange in this kit, perhaps with some mint accents?
Honestly, there is such a great opportunity. I'm always searching the internet for 'grown up boy' kits and inspiration. I don't know if this makes sense but I would love something that doesn't look like a woman created it... flowers, hearts, etc. I'm not against my gender in any way. I just want a 'guy page' to look like a 'guy page' not a 'guy page created by a girl.' (Trying not to be negative but find words to express what I search for as my boys grow older and I attempt to scrapbook my husband's early years).
Since my kids are still young, could you give me some examples on what you would like to see in a grown up guy kit? What do teen boys do, except mope ?
Lol! I thought I was the only one who felt flowers and hearts weren't for a "guys" page. I don't know what would be on one Melo, but I love the idea, definitely a needed one.
@ melo: I started something on my pinterest page a while back, but it fell through the cracks with all my son's senior events & activities leading up to graduation... Here's the link: Digiscrap kit ideas for teen or college-aged guys
If anyone has any good stuff you want me to add to it, send me links & I'd be glad to add stuff to it. You'll notice there's no hearts & flowers on it, and it's not overly macho or grungy.
I LOVE this thread LOL. I started designing kits for myself for this very reason. I have 4 teenagers and 3 are boys. I have used flowers on their pages at times, 1 had the title "No more picking flowers in the Outfield" and he was playing baseball. I tend to be less girly when designing and have a few things at Inside Pixels that I designed out of this need. I am always happy to take suggestions too
Photography--plenty of photography kits out there already, even some in relatively neutral colors
Art (not so common, but some guys do draw/paint/whatever)--lots of art-themed kits out there already, though
Paintball/Airsoft/Target shooting/Hunting--hunting's been done, but I haven't seen a paintball/airsoft kit
Camping/Hiking--this gets done fairly regularly
Home construction/repair/architectural design/woodworking/metalworking
Cars/car repair/sound system upgrades
Motorcycles
Racing (NASCAR/F1/IndyCar/Motocross)
Martial Arts (I've done a kit on this; it's on my blog. Someone else did a mini recently too.)
Extreme sports (rock climbing, snowboarding, skateboarding, skydiving)--that'd be a neat series of mini-kits there!
The big game (whether it's the Super Bowl, the Final Four, the Masters tournament, or the World Series)
</brainstorming>
And Melo...teenagers are kinda like toddlers--getting into everything, frequently testing their limits to see if the boundaries have changed, listening to mom only when they choose to, and fascinated with mobile phones and tablets! They're a little more creative than just screaming No! and throwing temper tantrums, though. Still, if you've made it through the toddler phase, teenagers aren't too bad; they'll just keep you on your toes so that you learn new tricks, too.
•track & field
•wrestling (the Olympic kind not WWE or whatever it is these days)
•lacrosse
•crew (aka rowing): single, double, fours, eights
•bikes (the non-motorized kinds) - mountain, racing, BMX, plus regular old get-around-town riding bikes
•bike paths / rail trails
•hiking (day hiking)
•volleyball
•frisbee/ultimate frisbee
•golf (I know a surprising number of teens & college kids who golf!)
•archery (recurve is "in", compound seems to be "out" at the moment)
•books, both real & ereaders
•skiing (downhill, slalom, freestyle, cross country [less popular amongst the younger set] - each has different shaped skis [the things I learn from my 9yo twin nephews!])
•snowboarding (both half-pipe & freestyle)
•skateboarding
•running (cross country, 5K, 10K, marathon, just for fun [aka not racing], trail running)
•weightlifting
•working out (machines, weights)
•texting
•theatre/drama club/glee clubs (I know a LOT of theatre/musical kids, including guys!)
•I love Holly's suggestion of adding in Big Game TV watching (March Madness, Super Bowl, Golf, World Series, Stanley Cup, etc - we throw parties for these so that would be a great thing to include, both for guys & for people like us)
Colors - think saturated / primary-like hues [or use the exact opposite of all the girly colors you like ]
•Oranges but not just the usual neon-y tones (look for other shades like reddish oranges & burnt orange)
•Reds but not just the usual shades (browned reds & brick reds would be different)
•Browns & Tans (all shades including khaki)
•Greens (kelly, forest, evergreen)
•Yellows (vibrant, mustard, as well as softer ones that are more saturated than pastel)
•Teal & deeper Caribbean blues
•Blues (dark to medium blues would be great - think rich sky blue, denim, faded denim, can use lots of light ones, too, but saturated NOT pastel)
•Greys (charcoal to medium light)
•Maroon/Wine
•Black (duh! )
Styles/Papers (think about types of shirts/suits guys wear [other than tees!])
•Stripes
•Plaids
•Triangles
•Rectangles
•Squares
Maybe:
•Herringbone
•Houndstooth
Fonts - simple, classic ones
classic San Serif or Serif fonts
Stencil
Stamped
much as I adore all the gorgeous script & brush stroke fonts, guy kits are not really a good spot for them (imo)
If I can think of any more topics or colors, I'll add them later, either in a separate comment or an ETA.
It's nice (truly!), but won't work for my guys... Normally I wouldn't say anything, but I am because I don't want this thread to be marked fulfilled & then closed.
Lizanne, not sure if this will help you but, I offered a "Mechanic Kit" in the freebies section. There is some papers I think you could use for a teen boy. I hope you can use at least something.
@Stephanie: Thanks, but my guys don't really fit into that category either. They're guys, but they're not really into cars, tools or anything like that. That's why I started that board on pinterest in the first place. There are a lot of DAD kits out there & BOY kits out there & SPORTS kits out there, but none really hit the mark when it comes to young men (college aged &/or teens) - at least not mine. And like most of the girls in here, my boys don't want any floral or girly stuff on their layouts (they've made that loud & clear to me) or anything too grungy. I'd hoped for more input from my eldest son, but he was so busy this past semester with school stuff (he was a senior) that that didn't happen, and now he's working for the summer & when he's not he doesn't spend much time with us so I haven't been able to get his help.
Looking at your Pinterest board, I'm guessing you're looking to scrap pics of teens who are heavily into texting their friends and possibly listening to music and computer/console gaming? A kit for the quiet kids who aren't jocks, band geeks, art geeks, or nerds, effectively?
I thought guys (at least mine) could care less about how you scrap their photos, LOL. I could scrap my husband with pink and flowers and he wouldn't bat an eye. So, I think it's interesting and nice that they care enough to have a preference on how you scrap. I figured the elements in the Mechanic kit wouldn't work for you but the papers seemed so "teenaged" to me for some reason, although I wouldn't really know seeing how I have 2 daughters and 3 sisters. I've been surrounded by mostly girls my whole life!
@Melo... generic, everyday pictures & special moments.
@Holly... so far, I'd say your spot on. My guys don't seem to fit in the manly-man or jock categories. And they don't fit in the geek/nerd stuff either. They're just every day, average kinda guys. And yeah, they like listening to music & gaming... My eldest is on Steam a lot, chatting with friends he's made around the world (France, Slovenia, etc.) on there or on Skype. He works in the IT dept. at his school & is often hired to do A/V for various events. His class nominated him as "most likely to end up in Silicon Valley," which was pretty amusing (he's known as the tech "go-to" person at his school, and anytime his class had a float for one of their various parades they would beg him to do the music for it). He's pretty laid back & quiet (except with people he knows well, like me); while my younger boy is very loud & gregarious, which makes the rest of us uncomfortable at times (he's your typical class clown/Jim Carrey-wannabe, which gets him in trouble at school at times). Both of my boys like biking, swimming, traveling, camping, and going to fairs, concerts & amusement parks. I'm probably leaving a bunch of stuff out, though not intentionally...
I've always had difficulty finding stuff to digiscrap with for my boys, because they don't fit those stereotypes, which is why I've primarily stuck with seasonal kits mostly (spring, summer, fall, winter) when I purchase stuff. And I've kept hoping people would provide nature elements in their kits OTHER than flowers... You know, things like pussywillows, bark, wood slices, berries (bittersweet & those red berries that are often turned into wreaths, for instance), and various types of tree leaves (birch, sugar maple, oak, etc.) to name a few - so I could have more to put on their layouts.
My eldest is so not into flowers that when it came time to choose what to make his boutenir out of (for his senior ball tux), he chose to have his made out of blue thistle because it is so unflower-like. LOL
Anyhow, it's why a lot of my layouts use stuff from various kits....as I'm often looking for something that will pull them together & complete them, and that will work for my boys. I hope I'm giving a good description - I'm really not sure I am...
Hmmm, I may have to see about clipping some berries and twigs, photographing and extracting them. You're right that they're pretty uncommonly added to kits!
It might take a bit to get finished, but it sounds like you need the same kit I need to scrap my son's HS years. Your older son sounds like the same sort of kid.
What's your younger one's favorite bright color? I'm thinking that as the major accent color in a palette of blues, greys, browns, and teals, plus maybe a dark true red. White and black, obviously, as well.
My twin nephews (10 on July 2 - where did the time go?!) wouldn't be caught DEAD with flowers or "girl stuff" near them (though one of them decided recently that very hot pink is his favorite color & he wears it as though all guys do - he's incredibly comfortable in his own skin, which is lovely to see). They sound a lot like Lizanne's older boys - they (snow) ski (one does freestyle jumping, the other does downhill racing), hike, collect rocks, read, play Minecraft/Magic/Terraria/Angry Birds/etc, listen to music, swim, run track, adore roller coasters, hang out with friends (& with me), that kind of thing.
Like Lizanne's boys, they don't fit neatly into any categories. I really think we all need to think more about males as *people* with wide interests, just as we also have wide interests. Most of the boys & men I know are just as complex in their interests & likes & dislikes as I am & we do a disservice to boys/teens/men when we try to make simple boys/men-are<fill-in-the-blank> kits for them.
For example, my husband (rock climber, artist [fine, cartoon, graphic], musician, song writer, graphic designer, bad golfer, football watcher, amateur carpenter, & so much more!) also doesn't fit any of the guy themes either. A few work, because he has those interests, but most don't, because he doesn't.
Come to think of it, my 7 1/2yo niece doesn't fit girl things neatly either - she loves sports as much as she loves fairies & there aren't a lot of well-rounded girl kits either (but that's a whole 'nother topic).
PS I hybrid scrap their lives chronologically so most of what I'm scrapping, also like Lizanne, is regular daily life with high & low points, school & vacations, travel & hanging out in the back yard, & so forth.
@Holly: My youngest's favorite color has always been red (a true, Christmas-type red ... maybe because "red" is in his name? LOL); and my eldest's favorite color the past couple years is green (which is also the color his school uses predominantly - that "prep school" shade of green - along with white). And, of course, both of them love just about any shade of blue. LOL
@Sarah: Yup, your boys sound a lot like mine. My youngest loves Minecraft, too... And both of them love going to water parks.
Well, Lizanne, I took the camera along when I went to Wisconsin for my grandmother's funeral. My parents' place is fairly rural, and the entire property is surrounded by trees, brush, and the like. They've got a garden as well.
Anyway, I shot something like 300 shots of various things (mostly not flowers), but I'm trying to finish my Aug blog train and deal with jury duty starting this week as well, so it'll take me a while to extract a pack of them for you.
I've always tried to stay away from that whole dark green and bright red thing--growing up with a name like Holly, it just added fuel to the taunts if I wore/used them both without enough other colors added in. If they're the main accent colors in a blue/grey/brown color scheme, though, it could work pretty well.
@Holly: Ooh, I can't wait to see what you came up with! I'm sure whatever it is, it will be great. I'm in no rush, and you have a lot going on, so take your time... Sorry to hear about your grandmother. ((hug))
@Erin: I know exactly what you mean... My thought has always been that there are other elements out there in nature that we can use for our boys in place of flowers. Things like shells, grass, cat & bobtails, pussy willows, various types of tree leaves (spring & autumn ones), smooth rocks, ferns/pine/fir/cedar, bare branches, berries (red, orange, bittersweet, etc.), chestnuts (in their prickly case & released from it), etc. Maybe seasonal kits of this nature would help?? This way parents of boys can "cluster," too.
Twigs, leaves, a few non-traditional flowers (dill and allium), a couple of leafy twigs with berries, some grapes that are just growing, a seed pod, some dry seed-bearing stalk (also broke some of those seeds off and shot a couple of scatters)...and that's just off the top of my head. I think I might have grabbed a bit of cedar as well.
I know I found an old piece of wire screen that had been out in the yard crumpled up for a while, as well, and a bunch of curled metal ribbons from some time when my father used an electric snips. The last two probably won't fit your boys, but they're unique and might work for something down the line, so I shot them anyway.
Gaming theme kits, off the top of my head: Check out Marisa's kit Video Game Valentine, released this spring. It's pixel art and totally gaming. I found a purely Minecraft kit months ago as well, but that was somewhere else. Mags Graphics did Geektacular as a daily download st Scraps-n-Pieces this spring, and it was full of controllers and stuff, too.
Other than that, I might draw up a bunch of controllers at some point, but there are lots of good pieces out there already.
I really can't add much to this convo, but I want to say that I agree we do stereotype our boys, but also our girls. My oldest great-nephew and his younger sister, as well as another niece's kids (an older teen boy and older teen girl, plus now their 4 year old sister) all played soccer. However, the oldest great-nephew (now 20) loves the colors bright pink and purple and is very studious and serious. The other is 17 and is an excellent artist and has had his artwork chosen by our local transit company to use on posters. Neither of them are at all into macho or grungy stuff. One of the teen girls is very girly and likes all the frou-frou stuff, the other is not really a tomboy but doesn't like the overly frilly stuff, make-up, etc. at all. Yet another niece has two girly girls and a very macho 11 year old boy. I'm so happy to know that you Moms are allowing your kids to be how they really are and not making them fit into ill-conceived stereotypes. Brava! You know, it has always galled me that we (colloquial) teach our young boys that boys don't cry, they have to be strong, etc. Then we gripe that men don't express themselves or aren't sensitive. We made them that way!!!
@Holly, what program do you use to extract? I've got PhotoshopElements and it does a pretty good job extracting, but I'm always searching for something that might do better.
I still haven't scrapped the photos I took of my son for his senior pictures.
I'd love to see navy and orange in this kit, perhaps with some mint accents?
Maroon/Burgundy and white would be great too...
Honestly, there is such a great opportunity. I'm always searching the internet for 'grown up boy' kits and inspiration. I don't know if this makes sense but I would love something that doesn't look like a woman created it... flowers, hearts, etc. I'm not against my gender in any way. I just want a 'guy page' to look like a 'guy page' not a 'guy page created by a girl.' (Trying not to be negative but find words to express what I search for as my boys grow older and I attempt to scrapbook my husband's early years).
No, I totally understand this. Some of the man themed kits out there, if I EVER used with my husbands picture he would be like... uh? Flowers?
Since my kids are still young, could you give me some examples on what you would like to see in a grown up guy kit? What do teen boys do, except mope
?
Lol! I thought I was the only one who felt flowers and hearts weren't for a "guys" page. I don't know what would be on one Melo, but I love the idea, definitely a needed one.
@ melo: I started something on my pinterest page a while back, but it fell through the cracks with all my son's senior events & activities leading up to graduation... Here's the link: Digiscrap kit ideas for teen or college-aged guys
If anyone has any good stuff you want me to add to it, send me links & I'd be glad to add stuff to it. You'll notice there's no hearts & flowers on it, and it's not overly macho or grungy.
I LOVE this thread LOL. I started designing kits for myself for this very reason. I have 4 teenagers and 3 are boys. I have used flowers on their pages at times, 1 had the title "No more picking flowers in the Outfield" and he was playing baseball. I tend to be less girly when designing and have a few things at Inside Pixels that I designed out of this need. I am always happy to take suggestions too
<brainstorming>
Idea list from interests of guys I know:
- Music (somewhat rock-centric, maybe a little grungy, or possibly country-themed for the guys who prefer that)
- Gaming (PC, console, phone/tablet)--I've seen several kits lately with similar themes, though
- Computers/building computers/upgrading computers
- Creative technology projects/local makerspace/robotics/3-D printing
- Photography--plenty of photography kits out there already, even some in relatively neutral colors
- Art (not so common, but some guys do draw/paint/whatever)--lots of art-themed kits out there already, though
- Paintball/Airsoft/Target shooting/Hunting--hunting's been done, but I haven't seen a paintball/airsoft kit
- Camping/Hiking--this gets done fairly regularly
- Home construction/repair/architectural design/woodworking/metalworking
- Cars/car repair/sound system upgrades
- Motorcycles
- Racing (NASCAR/F1/IndyCar/Motocross)
- Martial Arts (I've done a kit on this; it's on my blog. Someone else did a mini recently too.)
- Extreme sports (rock climbing, snowboarding, skateboarding, skydiving)--that'd be a neat series of mini-kits there!
- The big game (whether it's the Super Bowl, the Final Four, the Masters tournament, or the World Series)
</brainstorming>And Melo...teenagers are kinda like toddlers--getting into everything, frequently testing their limits to see if the boundaries have changed, listening to mom only when they choose to, and fascinated with mobile phones and tablets! They're a little more creative than just screaming No! and throwing temper tantrums, though. Still, if you've made it through the toddler phase, teenagers aren't too bad; they'll just keep you on your toes so that you learn new tricks, too.
Other sports/topics:
•track & field
•wrestling (the Olympic kind not WWE or whatever it is these days)
•lacrosse
•crew (aka rowing): single, double, fours, eights
•bikes (the non-motorized kinds) - mountain, racing, BMX, plus regular old get-around-town riding bikes
•bike paths / rail trails
•hiking (day hiking)
•volleyball
•frisbee/ultimate frisbee
•golf (I know a surprising number of teens & college kids who golf!)
•archery (recurve is "in", compound seems to be "out" at the moment)
•books, both real & ereaders
•skiing (downhill, slalom, freestyle, cross country [less popular amongst the younger set] - each has different shaped skis [the things I learn from my 9yo twin nephews!])
•snowboarding (both half-pipe & freestyle)
•skateboarding
•running (cross country, 5K, 10K, marathon, just for fun [aka not racing], trail running)
•weightlifting
•working out (machines, weights)
•texting
•theatre/drama club/glee clubs (I know a LOT of theatre/musical kids, including guys!)
•I love Holly's suggestion of adding in Big Game TV watching (March Madness, Super Bowl, Golf, World Series, Stanley Cup, etc - we throw parties for these so that would be a great thing to include, both for guys & for people like us)
Colors - think saturated / primary-like hues [or use the exact opposite of all the girly colors you like
]
•Oranges but not just the usual neon-y tones (look for other shades like reddish oranges & burnt orange)
)
•Reds but not just the usual shades (browned reds & brick reds would be different)
•Browns & Tans (all shades including khaki)
•Greens (kelly, forest, evergreen)
•Yellows (vibrant, mustard, as well as softer ones that are more saturated than pastel)
•Teal & deeper Caribbean blues
•Blues (dark to medium blues would be great - think rich sky blue, denim, faded denim, can use lots of light ones, too, but saturated NOT pastel)
•Greys (charcoal to medium light)
•Maroon/Wine
•Black (duh!
Styles/Papers (think about types of shirts/suits guys wear [other than tees!])
•Stripes
•Plaids
•Triangles
•Rectangles
•Squares
Maybe:
•Herringbone
•Houndstooth
Fonts - simple, classic ones
classic San Serif or Serif fonts
Stencil
Stamped
much as I adore all the gorgeous script & brush stroke fonts, guy kits are not really a good spot for them (imo)
If I can think of any more topics or colors, I'll add them later, either in a separate comment or an ETA.
Hi everyone,
Sharon-Dewi and I released a big bundle today with grown boys/men in mind. It can be used for Fathers Day, but for so much more. Hope you like it!
https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/melo-vrijhof/kits/xy-collab-bundle-boys-man-father-son-male-brothers-mustard-yellow-lime-green-teal
It's nice (truly!), but won't work for my guys... Normally I wouldn't say anything, but I am because I don't want this thread to be marked fulfilled & then closed.
Lizanne, not sure if this will help you but, I offered a "Mechanic Kit" in the freebies section. There is some papers I think you could use for a teen boy. I hope you can use at least something.
@Stephanie: Thanks, but my guys don't really fit into that category either. They're guys, but they're not really into cars, tools or anything like that. That's why I started that board on pinterest in the first place. There are a lot of DAD kits out there & BOY kits out there & SPORTS kits out there, but none really hit the mark when it comes to young men (college aged &/or teens) - at least not mine. And like most of the girls in here, my boys don't want any floral or girly stuff on their layouts (they've made that loud & clear to me) or anything too grungy. I'd hoped for more input from my eldest son, but he was so busy this past semester with school stuff (he was a senior) that that didn't happen, and now he's working for the summer & when he's not he doesn't spend much time with us so I haven't been able to get his help.
What sort of pictures are you aiming to scrap, Lizanne?
Looking at your Pinterest board, I'm guessing you're looking to scrap pics of teens who are heavily into texting their friends and possibly listening to music and computer/console gaming? A kit for the quiet kids who aren't jocks, band geeks, art geeks, or nerds, effectively?
I thought guys (at least mine) could care less about how you scrap their photos, LOL. I could scrap my husband with pink and flowers and he wouldn't bat an eye. So, I think it's interesting and nice that they care enough to have a preference on how you scrap. I figured the elements in the Mechanic kit wouldn't work for you but the papers seemed so "teenaged" to me for some reason, although I wouldn't really know seeing how I have 2 daughters and 3 sisters. I've been surrounded by mostly girls my whole life!
@Melo... generic, everyday pictures & special moments.
@Holly... so far, I'd say your spot on. My guys don't seem to fit in the manly-man or jock categories. And they don't fit in the geek/nerd stuff either. They're just every day, average kinda guys. And yeah, they like listening to music & gaming... My eldest is on Steam a lot, chatting with friends he's made around the world (France, Slovenia, etc.) on there or on Skype. He works in the IT dept. at his school & is often hired to do A/V for various events. His class nominated him as "most likely to end up in Silicon Valley," which was pretty amusing (he's known as the tech "go-to" person at his school, and anytime his class had a float for one of their various parades they would beg him to do the music for it). He's pretty laid back & quiet (except with people he knows well, like me); while my younger boy is very loud & gregarious, which makes the rest of us uncomfortable at times (he's your typical class clown/Jim Carrey-wannabe, which gets him in trouble at school at times). Both of my boys like biking, swimming, traveling, camping, and going to fairs, concerts & amusement parks. I'm probably leaving a bunch of stuff out, though not intentionally...
I've always had difficulty finding stuff to digiscrap with for my boys, because they don't fit those stereotypes, which is why I've primarily stuck with seasonal kits mostly (spring, summer, fall, winter) when I purchase stuff. And I've kept hoping people would provide nature elements in their kits OTHER than flowers... You know, things like pussywillows, bark, wood slices, berries (bittersweet & those red berries that are often turned into wreaths, for instance), and various types of tree leaves (birch, sugar maple, oak, etc.) to name a few - so I could have more to put on their layouts.
My eldest is so not into flowers that when it came time to choose what to make his boutenir out of (for his senior ball tux), he chose to have his made out of blue thistle because it is so unflower-like. LOL
Anyhow, it's why a lot of my layouts use stuff from various kits....as I'm often looking for something that will pull them together & complete them, and that will work for my boys.
I hope I'm giving a good description - I'm really not sure I am...
Hmmm, I may have to see about clipping some berries and twigs, photographing and extracting them. You're right that they're pretty uncommonly added to kits!
It might take a bit to get finished, but it sounds like you need the same kit I need to scrap my son's HS years. Your older son sounds like the same sort of kid.
What's your younger one's favorite bright color? I'm thinking that as the major accent color in a palette of blues, greys, browns, and teals, plus maybe a dark true red. White and black, obviously, as well.
My twin nephews (10 on July 2 - where did the time go?!) wouldn't be caught DEAD with flowers or "girl stuff" near them (though one of them decided recently that very hot pink is his favorite color & he wears it as though all guys do - he's incredibly comfortable in his own skin, which is lovely to see). They sound a lot like Lizanne's older boys - they (snow) ski (one does freestyle jumping, the other does downhill racing), hike, collect rocks, read, play Minecraft/Magic/Terraria/Angry Birds/etc, listen to music, swim, run track, adore roller coasters, hang out with friends (& with me), that kind of thing.
Like Lizanne's boys, they don't fit neatly into any categories. I really think we all need to think more about males as *people* with wide interests, just as we also have wide interests. Most of the boys & men I know are just as complex in their interests & likes & dislikes as I am & we do a disservice to boys/teens/men when we try to make simple boys/men-are<fill-in-the-blank> kits for them.
For example, my husband (rock climber, artist [fine, cartoon, graphic], musician, song writer, graphic designer, bad golfer, football watcher, amateur carpenter, & so much more!) also doesn't fit any of the guy themes either. A few work, because he has those interests, but most don't, because he doesn't.
Come to think of it, my 7 1/2yo niece doesn't fit girl things neatly either - she loves sports as much as she loves fairies & there aren't a lot of well-rounded girl kits either (but that's a whole 'nother topic).
PS I hybrid scrap their lives chronologically so most of what I'm scrapping, also like Lizanne, is regular daily life with high & low points, school & vacations, travel & hanging out in the back yard, & so forth.
@Holly: My youngest's favorite color has always been red (a true, Christmas-type red ... maybe because "red" is in his name? LOL); and my eldest's favorite color the past couple years is green (which is also the color his school uses predominantly - that "prep school" shade of green - along with white). And, of course, both of them love just about any shade of blue. LOL
@Sarah: Yup, your boys sound a lot like mine.
My youngest loves Minecraft, too... And both of them love going to water parks.
Well, Lizanne, I took the camera along when I went to Wisconsin for my grandmother's funeral. My parents' place is fairly rural, and the entire property is surrounded by trees, brush, and the like. They've got a garden as well.
Anyway, I shot something like 300 shots of various things (mostly not flowers), but I'm trying to finish my Aug blog train and deal with jury duty starting this week as well, so it'll take me a while to extract a pack of them for you.
I've always tried to stay away from that whole dark green and bright red thing--growing up with a name like Holly, it just added fuel to the taunts if I wore/used them both without enough other colors added in. If they're the main accent colors in a blue/grey/brown color scheme, though, it could work pretty well.
I'd love to have some more masculine items too! I have two little boys (3 and 1). Flowers work okay for the little guys, but I'm thinking ahead, too.
@Holly: Ooh, I can't wait to see what you came up with! I'm sure whatever it is, it will be great. I'm in no rush, and you have a lot going on, so take your time... Sorry to hear about your grandmother. ((hug))
@Erin: I know exactly what you mean... My thought has always been that there are other elements out there in nature that we can use for our boys in place of flowers. Things like shells, grass, cat & bobtails, pussy willows, various types of tree leaves (spring & autumn ones), smooth rocks, ferns/pine/fir/cedar, bare branches, berries (red, orange, bittersweet, etc.), chestnuts (in their prickly case & released from it), etc. Maybe seasonal kits of this nature would help?? This way parents of boys can "cluster," too.
Twigs, leaves, a few non-traditional flowers (dill and allium), a couple of leafy twigs with berries, some grapes that are just growing, a seed pod, some dry seed-bearing stalk (also broke some of those seeds off and shot a couple of scatters)...and that's just off the top of my head. I think I might have grabbed a bit of cedar as well.
I know I found an old piece of wire screen that had been out in the yard crumpled up for a while, as well, and a bunch of curled metal ribbons from some time when my father used an electric snips. The last two probably won't fit your boys, but they're unique and might work for something down the line, so I shot them anyway.
Yay, Holly!!
That sounds really cool, Holly
I love these ideas! I would love love to see a skateboard theme and a gaming theme! I have looked for these!
Gaming theme kits, off the top of my head: Check out Marisa's kit Video Game Valentine, released this spring. It's pixel art and totally gaming. I found a purely Minecraft kit months ago as well, but that was somewhere else. Mags Graphics did Geektacular as a daily download st Scraps-n-Pieces this spring, and it was full of controllers and stuff, too.
Other than that, I might draw up a bunch of controllers at some point, but there are lots of good pieces out there already.
I really can't add much to this convo, but I want to say that I agree we do stereotype our boys, but also our girls. My oldest great-nephew and his younger sister, as well as another niece's kids (an older teen boy and older teen girl, plus now their 4 year old sister) all played soccer. However, the oldest great-nephew (now 20) loves the colors bright pink and purple and is very studious and serious. The other is 17 and is an excellent artist and has had his artwork chosen by our local transit company to use on posters. Neither of them are at all into macho or grungy stuff. One of the teen girls is very girly and likes all the frou-frou stuff, the other is not really a tomboy but doesn't like the overly frilly stuff, make-up, etc. at all. Yet another niece has two girly girls and a very macho 11 year old boy. I'm so happy to know that you Moms are allowing your kids to be how they really are and not making them fit into ill-conceived stereotypes. Brava! You know, it has always galled me that we (colloquial) teach our young boys that boys don't cry, they have to be strong, etc. Then we gripe that men don't express themselves or aren't sensitive. We made them that way!!!
Sally (who's done preaching now!)
@Holly, what program do you use to extract? I've got PhotoshopElements and it does a pretty good job extracting, but I'm always searching for something that might do better.
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