Fourth of July and Valentine's Day

I actually find Valentine's kits the easiest to use since there are plenty of people & things I love and love to scrap. In my experience, they're heavy on mooshy-gooshy with just a sprinkling of wordart on top that actually says "February 14" or "Valentine's Day" or "Cupid."

I like Fourth of July, too, but unfortunately (for me), that's when my ex takes my kids on their annual vacation to their family's lake house. I'm glad they have a good time while they're there but it means I don't have as many photos of fun FOJ-related things as I would if they were here. I'm hoping my fiance & I can host a BBQ for our friends over the holiday weekend this year & then I'd have some fun photos.

Thanksgiving is the holiday where I always have dozens more kits than I know what to do with. My family just gets together and has a meal that day. We don't do anything else together or specially Thanksgiving-focused so I can squeak one layout out if I remember to take a photo of us. If I have some I need to use as a CTM, I'll scrap a more general "thankful" page and leave the Thanksgiving-specific elements (like I do with Valentine's Day) off. 

I tend to scrap most if not all of the standard holidays and several that are less common.

I don't think I've ever bought a Valentine's collection (I've ended up with Valentine related papers from destashes or in those seasonal stacks) although I usually make cards and one layout each year.

St Patrick's day - same - I've picked up papers here and there but not a collection. I scrap one layout and sometimes make cards. I do use St Patrick's stuff for Irish pub/restaurant layouts though and if I ever get around to it - I have some parade pics from my teens.

Easter - I buy a collection every now and then, I think. I usually have at least egg decorating, egg hunt, and dinner pics

4th of July - I tend to pick up papers vs collections but I do love R/W/B layouts.

Halloween - I love these papers but I've scrapped my backlog of Halloween for the most part and with grownup kids, I usually only get a layout/year now (last year was an exception)

Thanksgiving - I do one layout for us and one for my older kids

I do a ton of Christmas scrapping but the collections often aren't a good fit for my photos

Very rarely will I buy Valentines Day paper...if I do, it's usually a generic heart pattern. I have a son in the Army and we also always have a July 4th get together, so I buy a bunch of Americana type papers.

I have one of the mini SS collection kits that is FOJ themed that I won at a crop raffle. That is the only FOJ themed product I own. I don’t think I’ve purchased any in the past. Not big on the holiday or the thematic elements & colors.


Valentines Day I can usually take or leave. I think most of what I have I’ve acquired through SCT sampler kits and similar. I can’t think of anything I’ve purchased specifically other than last years SS collection. I really liked the navy, coral, mint and hot pink color palette. I did buy some red, pink and white heart doilies.


I don’t often scrapbook holidays other than the christmas season. I find most of my December layouts tend to use seasonal products. They are my favorite!

I’ve started doing the same with fall/October layouts and Halloween supplies.

I don't think I've ever purchased a Valentine's collection, although I've scrapped the day a few times.

4th of July is usually one layout a year, so I buy one or two papers, and that's it. Red, white and blue usually don't go very well with my hazy, smokey, blurry because the kids won't stay still, is it over yet so I can go to bed ?(Washington, it's not dark until almost 10 pm in July) photos.

I have some older Valentine's & Halloween collections, but have not bought either one recently. I do use my valentines day stash to make cards for the kids at school and when ds was younger, for him to hand out.

I have a. pretty good size collection of July 4th. They work for nautical and boy pictures. I also use them for pictures of our trips to DC and Williamsburg, since I have yet to find collections for historical sites.

I do some Valentines and July 4th layouts of my granddaughters but I think Valentines lines get used by crafters and card makers more than scrapbookers.

I also used a bunch of patriotic papers for my military scrapbooks.

In 20+ years, think I made 2 layouts using a patriotic red white & blue collection.

I've purchased a couple of valentine's day collections but more for love themed projects.

There’s a reason that almost every company is still making a collection for every one of these holidays - it’s selling to someone. Craft stores are buying it, presumably because their customers are buying it. I don’t know if that’s because those customers are doing different things with the supplies they buy (decor, party stuff, ?) or if they just buy more than they use.

I’m guessing that a lot of people find patriotism and love themes to be useful far beyond those two holidays. Memorial Day, 9/11, Flag Day or Armed Forces Day and the associated parades and events… or maybe people just buy patriotic paper the way they buy patriotic everything else - shirts, hats, decals, tablecloths, picnic chairs… what doesn’t sell well with a flag on it? (at least in some places)

Heart paper is definitely a neutral for me, even though I very rarely need something specific to Valentine’s Day. I can justify it for so many different kind of love themed projects even if I toss all the Feb 14th elements.

St Patrick's is perhaps more of a thing to impulse buy because it’s so cute, but maybe the middle-American scrapbooking mom (who I assume exists because someone still shops at the big box craft stores) is making a page for each of the holidays that their kids have a themed T-shirt for. I suspect they’re buying a lot more than they can ever use, which we all know is not uncommon but just like the heavily gendered papers, it exists because plenty of people are buying it.

I love holiday-themed kits. Christmas especially, but also Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving...and even the 4th of July, and I'm not even an American! And if I were just starting out as a scrapbooker, I'm pretty sure I'd be buying more holiday collections, they're just so cute and charming and irresistible. However, over the years I have learned to exercise a bit of restraint when it comes to holiday-themed purchases. I so rarely scrap a layout of an actual holiday, as it turns out, and I already have more than enough lovely/cute/irresistible holiday papers and elements that I've never actually used!...

But some holiday stuff can be interpreted a little more broadly, of course:

I don't think I've ever scrapped a Valentine's Day layout, but I have certainly used Valentine's Day kits for wedding and anniversary layouts.

And while I've only ever scrapped one St. Patrick's Day page (a really cute photo of my son, aged 4, holding the St. Paddy's Day card he made me at nursery school), I have used some St. Patrick's Day papers and elements in my family history pages (most of the ancestors came from Ireland, so the theme fits).

I have used a 4th of July kit to scrap a summery page with red, white, and blue as the colour scheme.

I've yet to discover a Canadian-themed kit that works for Canada Day, but that's okay, I guess, since I doubt I'd scrap a layout about that holiday in the first place...

I rarely buy themed holiday papers. It’s just not the way I scrap. Im more likely to use die cuts in my planner for the day though.

I need less holiday themed paper & more holiday icon dies.