What makes a theme kit useful for you?

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What makes a theme kit useful for you?

I’m working on some theme kits for the new year (wedding, childhood, travel, etc). As I’m not much a theme scrapbooker myself, I’m trying to determine what’s most useful for people. What makes a good theme kit for you? Is it word art, related illustrations and clip art, related paper patterns, just a vibe. Let me know your thoughts!

I could easily just point you to any one of Jessica Dunn's kits. lol She always has a good mix of typical elements and papers, along with theme-inspired ones. For example, with her Frosty Fall kit: fall-colored floral papers, frost-covered branches papers, wood paper. There are squirrel and pumpkin elements, as well as a hot cup with steam and a latte drink, a ton of word strips and word art (chilly, first frost, hot tea, autumn, spice, not just typical words such as "family," "beautiful," "this day"...), branches, etc.

I'm obviously not a professional, but I always try to include lots of specific elements and papers with the chosen theme. I, personally, like designing around a theme because it challenges me to create stuff I otherwise wouldn't.

As a user, I like the option of theme-inspired unique graphics designed (or extracted) just for that kit. I definitely like themed patterned papers. For a baby kit...maybe bottle, pacifier, and stork papers, and an alpha in wooden block letters. Theme kits should give off the vibe of the theme, in my opinion, while also including everyday elements and papers (bow, string, flowers, stripes, dots, plaids).

I use EVERYTHING... I decide as I go. And I rarely stick to a single kit...
Usually Wordart is what I use the least because it is the only kind of element I actually know how to make myself... as for the rest, I love it all!lol

I'd say for me it's a VIBE thing. smiley

I like a theme kit that has a wide variety of assets included, like those you mentioned. And, for me, a good theme kit would have a mixture of items such as hand-drawn items as well as photos of those items, including some that have been extracted and some not. I think a good theme kit would most of all be cohesive. I don't necessarily want a lot of items in a kit though, just items that work well together.

I too use everything. I like patterned papers matching the theme and of course the elements, overlays and stamps. I use theme scrapkits a lot.

I think applicability in multiple ways without getting too way boxed into a theme in a really cliché kind of way. So that way if there is a topic that is kinda even adjacent to the theme topic, the kit can also be used for that topic as well if there isn't much that exists for that particular topic. Even on stuff where there is a lot of things pertaining to the topic this helps though, i.e if there is a "kids" kit, like don't just make it from the perspective of the parents, also have it to where we can use it for nieces and nephews or our friends kids as well. i.e. for travel, don't just lock in on just something really stock like camping. There are still a great many things that can apply to the outdoors and travel in a variety of ways. Is this a city trip? a road trip? through the mountains? Through the woods? Is it a museum? some kind of nature trail or maybe a body of water? What do people do on trips? What weird unexpected things happen on trips? Are you going on this trip for the purpose of meeting up with somebody? Things like that. I think it's just getting to the root purpose behind something that makes me go "yep, that's the pack!" and hitting purchase.

I think part of what makes me pick a theme kit also is the colors involved and if they will coordinate with my pictures well without taking focus away from them. I like a lot of subtle colors, and wood grains, and blends and good shadowing for a lot of the stuff I do. Of course, other people have a different style that works for them.

I'm definitely drawn to a kit first by the colors. If I'm looking for a baseball kit for my kids and their uniform colors are black, red, and white, I wouldn't buy a kit that didn't have those colors even if I liked the kit because it would clash with my pictures. For themed kits, I look for unique themed items and word art that I don't already have.

I'm more of an old school scrapper and love realistic 3D elements (e.g.metallic).

But in 2D, I particularly like:

1. mixed media
2. thin frames
3. fasteners
4. borders
5. doodles/stamps
6. watercolor elements
7. lace of all shapes
8. decorative ornaments

What I like less are English wordarts and tags, I make them myself in German for private scraps, unless I create an English one for a challenge scrap.

The elements do it for me. Plus the word art. If there are things specific to the theme (ie: airplanes, suitcases, maps, etc for a travel kit), I'm all over it. I do love word art, too. Sometimes, the word art acts as a prompt for my journaling when I have brain fog.