Card kit review
Last year I found a Basic Grey Halloween card kit for sale at Big Lots. It was from BG’s 2009 Eerie collection and cost only $5.00, as opposed to the original price tag of $14.99. I thought that $5.00 might be worth paying to find out if I liked using kits. I don’t normally love the idea of card and layout kits; they remove that part of the crafting process that I love—making all the creative choices. But I also don’t believe in saying I dislike things I haven’t tried, so I bought the kit.
Today I pulled out the kit and the extra supplies it calls for—adhesive, pens, etc.—and got to work. The kit contains everything needed to make eight cards (including envelopes). I made four before writing this review, as I wanted to be able to report on how long it took me to complete several, so we could extrapolate the length of time for the whole kit. Following are my perceptions of the kit and the whole process:
- The four-page instruction sheet shows a black-and-white photo of each card and lists the step-by-step instructions. It’s well designed and easy to read.
- There are two sheets of die-cuts and one sheet of self-adhesive chipboard pieces included. Each piece is numbered according to the card it fits. This seems like a good system, but I found locating all the items for one card a little difficult because they aren’t grouped together. But this is just a nit.
- It took me 76 minutes to complete four cards. At that rate, it would take me just under three hours to finish them all. I am not a speedy crafter by any means, so this is good time for me! Your assessment may differ based on how quickly you can usually create a card.
- Making these cards confirmed for me that I am not a kit lover. I don’t craft just to have the final project in hand. I want to create; I crave the process. So, punching out precut strips of patterned papers and shapes and gluing them to the base card just doesn’t do it for me. Some designer(s) at Basic Grey got to have the fun that I want out of crafting. I just assembled stuff. Not that fun, really.
- Just because I don’t like using kits doesn’t mean I think there’s no place for them. If I was in a real hurry and had to have homemade cards for some reason, I might turn to a kit. All the decisions are made for you, and you don’t have any leftover scraps of patterned paper when you’re done.
- Basic Grey’s kits are quite nice. The instructions are nicely done. Their paper designs are always beautiful. The card sketches are cute but not too complex. So, if you’re looking for a quick way to make eight coordinated and well-designed cards, I can certainly recommend their kits.
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