Five Ways to Get More Out of Your Kits

Posted by Aaron aka Sir Scrapalot on Jan 12, 2011 | View Comments

I love to shop.  There’s just something about how it makes you feel to get something new, a new shirt, a new kit…anything really.  Unfortunately, in today’s economy, we all can’t just run around spending money.  Most of us have to be very specific about the things we buy, and how we use them.  In the spirit of stretching everything we purchase, I thought I’d share my five tips for getting the most out of the kits I buy.

1. Tag your favorite basics – In every kit, there are some basics that I just fall in love with.  Maybe it’s a nice kraft paper, or a simple white alpha, whatever it is, I give it a special tag so that when I am looking for a good basic building block, I can check out these first.
2. Look for “inventive” ways to use theme kits – A while back, I fell in LOVE with the kit My Other Loves by Traci Reed and Heather Roselli.  The only problem was, I don’t do any type of sewing and neither does anyone around me.  However, I purchased the kit, and was able to use it for a few layouts using “sew” in place of “so” in my titles.  Worked like a charm.
3. Use one kit to scrap multiple layouts…at the same time – I’ve posted before about Katie the Scrapbook Lady’s Power Scrapping method, but try Power Scrapping with only one kit.  I am sure that you’d be able to get a number of pages done quickly when you only have one kit to pull from.
4. Keep your kits organized – How many times have you gone and purchased a birthday kit to scrap your little one’s birthday, only to find you had another birthday kit already in your stash?  By keeping your kits organized and knowing what is in your stash, you can make more informed purchases and are more likely to utilize a kit again.
5. Focus on the non themed elements of the kit - many times you can look at a kit and start working with the parts of the kit that aren’t heavily themed.  Sometimes you have to look beyond what the designer intended as the theme to start to see something a bit different.

Hopefully these tips will help you get more from the kits you purchase!!  I know they have helped me.  What do you do to make sure you are getting the most from the kits you are purchasing?