It’s time for you to think a little bit about how you create scrapbook pages, and about any changes you want to make to your style or process.

Why?

Because you need to have that information on your mind when you consider buying a scrapbook kit, and when you decide to create your own.

If you like having a plan on how to use up most of your kit supplies, you want to join a club that has cutting guides and samples for you to emulate. If you love making two page spreads, you want a kit that has two sheets of each paper design, rather than one. If you like embellishments, you will want a kit that has a lot, and if you don’t use them very much at all, you’ll want a kit with fewer doodads to play with. If you like techniques, you’ll want some new to you supplies, and  inspiration and instruction from a design team or kit club owner.

So that’s what you need to think about when you consider buying a kit. Is what’s in the kit going to work with how you currently scrap, and is it going to encourage you to expand your crafting skills or style?

With that in mind, let’s look at the kit clubs I mentioned last week, and break down exactly what’s in a kit, so we can use that as a jumping off point to building our own kit.

Across the board, each kit has 4 sheets of solid color cardstock. The amount of patterned paper varies from 6 to 10 sheets, and the amount of embellishments varies a lot as well. The smaller kit has just four packs of embellishments, and no alphas, while the larger kits have one or two alpha sets, with lots of embellies. They handle the embellishments by either having full packs, and not as much variety, or by doing partial packs, with a lot more variety.

So what do you put in a kit? Well it really goes back to what you want to get out of it.

Me, I know I like to have the option of doing double page spreads, but I solve that problem by using the large stock of white, black, and kraft cardstock I have on hand. I don’t embellish a lot, but I want to use what I have, so I need to remember to add a bit of variety. I like mixing alpha sizes, so a couple different alpha sets are in order. And mini books are a ton of fun, so maybe a mini album base would be a good idea as well.

Here’s what I’ve put together:

This has four pieces of colored cardstock, 10 patterned papers, two alpha sets, a mini book base, a few paper bags, a transparency, and a few packs of embellishments. How did I decide on these? Great question! I’ll talk about that later this week. 😉

Now go look at some of your favorite kit clubs, and look at the kinds of supplies in them. Make a list of them, and start doing your own stash dive! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!