Kit subscriptions

I resisted for a long time but finally caved with HKC when they went to exclusive products. I enjoy getting them in the mail but they are starting to gather after a year of subscribing. My problem is I enjoy using different supplies and challenge myself to incorporate older products in a current vibe. If you do subscribe, I wouldn't mind if you give them my name. I believe both of us would receive a grab bag.

I was thinking about Freckled Fawn or Hip Kit pocket pages kits, I like the Freckled Fawn sub because you can do a version where you pick what you want instead of receiving the full kit (or you can get the full kit if you want), but I'm not always keen on the designs (lots of florals that I'm not fond of, etc). I was looking at Hip Kit as well and they seem good, but maybe it would be okay for me to not get another kit if PP stops making kits because I have so many supplies I'll never use them up.

I think artbabe just tried a bunch of kits that have 12x12 options. There may be a thread on it too.

The [Not] Just for Boys kits are nice and seem fairly unique. Hip kit is a little too pink and pastel for me, at least when I’ve looked at them in the past.

Club Scrap apparently still has a kit option which has tempted me many times.

I used to sub to Cocoa Daisy but I was getting too much and not using it up quickly enough so I stopped. I like the products but you have to like her style.

Have you thought about playing along with Shimelle's Best of Both Worlds idea (I assume she still does it) ? She tells you what stuff to put together and then shows you how to use it. You can read about it in the bottom part of this post.

I ordered kits from the following companies and made layouts with them:

Hip Kit Club
Cocoa Daisy
Club Scrap
Not Just For Boys

Every club except for NJFB has all exclusive products. NJFB has some exclusive products but the majority are not.

What I found:

Hip Kit was pretty fun to work with. I bought two kits. I liked the paper patterns and the mixture of embellishments- both flat and dimensional. I looked at a lot of their past kits and they seem to do almost everything in the same pastel color range. I liked my two kits but I don't think I'd want 12 kits that all looked the same, basically. They don't seem to be tightly themed, which was a plus for me. Overall, I liked it.

Cocoa Daisy gives you a huge amount of product but it is all flat and I like a little dimension. I did like the paper patterns and the variety of things included, including vellum and rub-ons. I think their kits tend to be too tightly themed for me, however. I looked at 12 month's worth and there were 2 kits that I thought I could get use out of and the other ones were not themes or color schemes I would use. Cocoa Daisy used to be my favorite way back in the day but they have lost some of the art style that used to appeal to me. I liked my layouts I made with it and I'm going to make quite a few more, because there is a ton of product. I probably won't buy this very often, though.

Club Scrap is old school scrapping. Lots of cardstock in their kits and only two patterned papers. Their ephemera is on cut-apart sheets. The paper is shiny, which isn't my jam, but some of the patterns were really unique and appealing. Club scrap includes fibers/twine/ribbon in all of their kits, which I love, and usually some kind of metal charms, too. So the embellishments are pretty fun. The kits are designed to be used according to their directions so you have to be pretty creative about going off script. I enjoyed making layouts with these kits but I probably won't buy any more of these kits.

Not Just For Boys is the one that uses non-exclusive products. I actually like this kind of kit. I have a lot of paper and it is cool to see how they mixed up lines- I tend to scrap within one line so it forces me to be more creative. This kit usually includes some kind of mixed media and/or stamps, stencils, etc. Most of the kits include a large die cut, too. The exclusive NJFB doo-dads are really fun- I love charms and patches and things like that. The kits have dimension. NJFB offers a lot of a la carte items, too, some exclusive, and I buy a lot of that, too. NJFB is by far my favorite kit club- I've been buying their stuff since the first month they opened. I love that most of their stuff is versatile and not overly gendered. I scrap boys and it is nice to get away from pink and flowers all of the time.

So my ranking would be 1)NJFB, 2)Hip Kit, 3)Cocoa Daisy, and 4)Club Scrap. All 4 have the option to buy the kit outside a subscription- NJFB does not have subscription- you buy by month.

I haven't had math since I took algebra my first semester of college in 1992. I got a B.

But you can absolutely borrow my homework! Ha.

It's funny -- I've never subscribed to Hip Kit, but when the owner had a bricks-and-mortar store, I was in there all the time and she was awesome with great products; now I'm going to consider subscribing.

I dropped my Kelley Purkey and Ali Edwards subs a while ago because I got bored with them, but it sounds like you're looking more for full-size kits than PL-type kits.  I do still have a Studio Calico documenter sub, but I'm dropping it in the new year; I haven't been thrilled with it for several months now, as it stopped seeming coherent.

Mercy Tiara has started a kit club. mercytiarakits.com/ I love her YouTube channel and have followed her for so many years. I do think you can buy kits without subscribing (as available) if you wanted to go that route. I miss my Felicity Jane kits.

I'm going to sign up for Scrapbook & Cards Today's new quarterly kit subscription. I've always liked what they've done in their scrapbooking events, so I think it will be a safe bet. Here's the link: scrapbookandcards.com/lets-create-together/

Does anyone know if you can buy just 1 Ali Edwards scrapbook kit, or do you have to subscribe for a year? I've been considering trying hers, too, but I don't want a year-long commitment, I really just want to test one out.

Thanks for the tip - she does have a few of the quarterly scrapbook kits in there so I may try one. It doesn't look like there's a lot of product in there for $40, although apparently it does come with the digital files, as well.