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tanteva

tanteva

Even the professionals are bewildered
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
3,267
Since I've been a digi scrapper since 2008ish, I have a lot of old kits. To be honest, many of them are kinda crappy, but there are many true gems there. Still, they never get used. Most galleries don't allow posting layouts that are not sold in their store, and for some reason, I find that reason enough to not use them.

Annoys me a bit. I mean, do I scrap for me or for others???! Why is it bothering me that I cannot share layouts I make with older kits, to the degree I don't even use the older kits?

I dig up old templates from time to time, and use with current kits. But that's it. And sometimes I can use one or two elements, if I need something specific to match the theme of a layout, but that's it.

How do you do with older kits? Do you use them? I'm thinking both retired stuff from people who still design, and designer that has quit designing.
 
I have gotten rid of some old kits, mostly ones that were free or "hops" that I just didn't care for. But if it's a kit that I like that is from a designer who is retired and I still love the kit, I keep it! I have some kits from designers who are no longer with us, and even though they will never design again or have their kits sold in a store, I can't part with them, and yes, I still occasionally use them!

While I do scrap for a lot of challenges at different sites, I scrap for ME and what makes me happy. It's part a type of creative outlet for me, a therapy of sorts, and a way to document my life and I hope someday my kids appreciate it!

There are "open" galleries that you can post in that don't require you to use a kit from their store you just can't share links, obviously. Also, you could always just post on Pinterest, IG, or whatever social media you use instead of in galleries if you want to share your work. You could always make a blog to share your pages, too.
 
I tend go be a kit horder.. I sadly had a hard drive crash a couple years back and lost everything and I cried .. years of kits...
Now I back every thing up
I weed through kits once in awhile and delete few I never use.. there are some I just don't like or can't find uses for.. but also some I just can't delete. I tend to be a kit mixer when I scrap..so Bits and pieces often will someday find their way into a layout
 
I also started digi-scrapping in 2008. I downloaded a lot of free stuff back then before I started buying kits. I've pretty much gotten rid of the free stuff but have kept some of the purchased kits. I have a lot of the old stuff saved on a couple of external hard drives. Some of the "newer" old stuff resides in a folder called "Other Digi Scrap Kits" that is available on my C: drive but not in with the current stuff I buy.

Since I scrap for me and very rarely post, I'm not concerned if I use old or new kits. Actually, for my "5 on 5" project, I have used some of those old kits from retired designers. I have made it a goal to try to use up my stash and have a system in Bridge that I can mark the previews for kits and templates when I use them. Then when I do a layout, I look for unused kits and templates to use. I do end up using some kits multiple times just because of the theme of the page (just don't have enough football kits when I'm doing a whole album for the college career of my cousin's son!)

I've also had times where I was scrapping photos for an event that I had used 1 or 2 photos previously when I was on a CT 10 or so years ago. The new layouts were going to be companion pages for those so I was able to use the same kit since I still had it. In the end the layouts look like they were done at the same time instead of 8 years apart!
 
I've also been scrapping for a decade and a half and collected a lot of freebies in those early days. I've deleted a little but mostly it's 'out of site, out of mind' for me. I don't currently have any storage issues and the old stuff is in a separate folder. I mostly just scrap with my TLP folder.

That TLP folder is getting pretty hefty itself though! I've been collecting TLP stuff since 2016 and it currently weighs ;) 110 GB. Luckily, I can sort it either by designer name or by "most recent additions" so I can usually find what I want.
 
I never scrap with older stuff. It makes me sad that I’m not using everything I have but I love my new stuff so I’m ok with just using new.
 
I've been digiscrapping since 2006. And I am a digi hoarder. But I also have used some older stuff. Not usually whole kits but bits and pieces that I just need for the page I am working on. I also have a couple of open sites where I can post layouts even if they don't fit in a store gallery.
 
Thanks to a few computer crashes where I had no back ups I lost quite a bit of my older stuff but have more than enough to keep me going for ages with zero issues about digging into my older stash especially as I currently have a $0 digi budget. As far as freebies go I think a) there are less of them than there used to be - I started digi in 2007ish at the height of freebies and b) apart from blog hops from a couple of stores I don’t go out and search for them like I used to
 
Interesting to read all your thoughts. I guess my problem is that I usually just use one kit and not mix stuff when I make a layout. If I were more of a mixer type, my old stuff would be used more. But it's easier to stay within a kit, then you know you won't be breaking any gallery rules. LOL

Also, I really should challenge myself to make layouts now and them with my old stuff AND not post it on-line. I think that part bothers me most. Why do I need others to see what I'm doing??? Why do I need others approval??? Guess that's more of a question to ask a shrink than fellow digiscrappers though. :giggle
 
Well, I am completely fortunate that I get to use so many great new kits here from TLP, so most of the time I'm using new stuff, but there are always times when I have a theme in mind and only an old kit will do. I would say I dig deep into my stash about 10-15% of the time. When that happens, if it's a retired kit, I just don't post it online and I'm okay with that, especially if that old kit makes my layout the way I have in mind.

The trickiest part is remembering that I HAVE that old kit. :giggle I do have a folder on my HD where I keep subfolders of previews that are themed. Like I have a collection of birthday kits previews together and a folder full of camping previews, etc. That helps a bunch when I'm looking for something themed to use and helps me remember to use my old favorites. :agree
 
tanteva said:
Interesting to read all your thoughts. I guess my problem is that I usually just use one kit and not mix stuff when I make a layout. If I were more of a mixer type, my old stuff would be used more. But it's easier to stay within a kit, then you know you won't be breaking any gallery rules. LOL

Also, I really should challenge myself to make layouts now and them with my old stuff AND not post it on-line. I think that part bothers me most. Why do I need others to see what I'm doing??? Why do I need others approval??? Guess that's more of a question to ask a shrink than fellow digiscrappers though. :giggle
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Well, it IS really nice to have ALL of your layouts in one gallery to look through, so I totally get the desire to post them all! :D
 
Karen said:
Well, it IS really nice to have ALL of your layouts in one gallery to look through, so I totally get the desire to post them all! :D
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Well, that train has left way back in time, since most pages where I used to hang doesn't exist anymore. But I do have copied all my websized layouts into one folder on my hard drive, and I have them as a photo show for my desktop on the computer. So fun to see some of the old ones.
 
tanteva said:
Well, that train has left way back in time, since most pages where I used to hang doesn't exist anymore. But I do have copied all my websized layouts into one folder on my hard drive, and I have them as a photo show for my desktop on the computer. So fun to see some of the old ones.
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Yeah, same here. WAY back in the day I used to post everything a MSA (My Scrapbook Art) which didn't have a store attached, so I could post everything there. I loved that and was so sad when that forum closed.

I do the same thing as you with a folder that has all of my pages in one place. I love flipping through that folder every once in a while! That's a great idea to do a photo show on your desktop with that folder!
 
I purge older things. Not as often any more since most of what I have is from TLP & another store. I love the designers and probably won't let any of what I have left go. I do have a few retired designers that I love and I keep those as well.

I do scrap for myself, and have lots of pages that I have NEVER posted publicly so I do use older kits.

But I'm never against just purging and deleting. I know it's easy to just keep things digital. But if this were physical items, like in my closet, I wouldn't hesitate to purge items, so I take the same approach to my digistash. I am lucky to have been on teams at my fave. places and have lots of goodies from that.

I haven't done a purge in a while, maybe over a year or two, so it actually might be time to go thru my stash and see what I can or want to purge out.
 
Karen said:
The trickiest part is remembering that I HAVE that old kit. :giggle I do have a folder on my HD where I keep subfolders of previews that are themed. Like I have a collection of birthday kits previews together and a folder full of camping previews, etc. That helps a bunch when I'm looking for something themed to use and helps me remember to use my old favorites. :agree
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This was my problem, not remembering what I have. So I took on the project of putting all my previews into a previews folder. I have sub-folders in the previews folder that mimics my actual stash folders, i.e. by store and the folder for retired designers. Then I loaded only that folder (and sub-folders) in Bridge. I did then set up and start tagging the previews with general terms, like the various holidays, seasons, events, dog etc. I also started using the color labeling system for the previews after I have used a kit or template. Red label means I've used the kit. Yellow label means I've used at least 1 template in the set. Then when I'm looking for something I search in Bridge for the tag and you can have it show any image without a color label. So I see only the stuff that hasn't been used.

By doing this I have been able to use a lot of those older kits/templates that I spent hard earned money on and had never used! Still have a lot to use though!!!
 
@tanteva Hej Eva,
Igår gjorde jag en layout som jag var säker på att allt fanns i shoppen men när jag skulle ha länken till ett av dem så fanns den inte mer men jag använde det ändå med en liten mening om att det är ett äldre kit men designern är fortfarande aktiv här.
 
HavaDrPepper said:
This was my problem, not remembering what I have. So I took on the project of putting all my previews into a previews folder. I have sub-folders in the previews folder that mimics my actual stash folders, i.e. by store and the folder for retired designers. Then I loaded only that folder (and sub-folders) in Bridge. I did then set up and start tagging the previews with general terms, like the various holidays, seasons, events, dog etc. I also started using the color labeling system for the previews after I have used a kit or template. Red label means I've used the kit. Yellow label means I've used at least 1 template in the set. Then when I'm looking for something I search in Bridge for the tag and you can have it show any image without a color label. So I see only the stuff that hasn't been used.

By doing this I have been able to use a lot of those older kits/templates that I spent hard earned money on and had never used! Still have a lot to use though!!!
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Wow! That's a great system! I'd love to do this sometime myself with all of my previews too. It seems daunting to start with the size of stash that I have already, but it would be cool to have for sure!
 
Karen said:
Wow! That's a great system! I'd love to do this sometime myself with all of my previews too. It seems daunting to start with the size of stash that I have already, but it would be cool to have for sure!
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If you have all your previews in folders already, it wouldn't be hard to do. The main thing is having a copy of the preview in the separate folder so that only the previews are loaded into Bridge. Cheryl (Fiddle-Dee-Dee) had shared her tags in the forum at one time and I took her tags and pared it down to what would work for me. Then just tagged the previews. The tagging actually didn't take that long. For me, it was getting copies of all the previews and I also renamed them in a system that works for me. An abbreviation of the designer's name followed by the kit name. That way all of them sorted by designer.

This was actually the last step I did in reorganizing my stash that took me several years to do. I had stuff in so many different folders and it took me awhile to get it organized. But now that it is, I really like the system I have set up for myself. The previews was an afterthought because I found so many kits I hadn't used during the organizing and I knew I needed a way to keep them "in front of my eyes" so I would use them!
 
I seldom use old kits, love all the new goodies, love shopping and being on creative teams.
I don't hesitate to scrapbook for myself and am totally fine to use older goodies for that and never share that online, but print them in books for my children.
 
I was later to the digi scrap scene: 2013.
I had a lot of freebies, but I'm pretty sure I've deleted all of them older than 2016, unless it was a blog hop. And recently, I deleted a bunch of kits that I decided were crappy to me. Now, I don't typically download freebies unless it's a designer I love and know their work quality. Mostly because my style has changed, and the quality of supplies has changed. I also come from a paper scrap background, so, I don't have a problem with thinking I've used this, and I'm okay letting it go. I think because my paper supplies were finite, I'm okay with letting things go.

That said, I do still have plenty of older kits! And supplies from earlier than 2016 that I bought. So, I'm not lacking in product. CT work can make it a bit more complicated, but it means I have no issues letting a Christmas or Halloween kit go, because I know I will want a new one next year when it comes around. I also deleted a kit that I used to make a photobook, and never wanted to use again when I was done. I loved the kit, but the repetition of supplies made me done with it.

I do have some older retired designers and will sometimes use their stuff. It just depends on how I'm creating. I try to have zero guilt. If it was paper, it would have been all used up on one layout, so why should I feel guilty about not using a kit a certain amount of times?

Also, having bought some paper for a craft thing lately, digi kits are still way cheaper!
 
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