I’m a collector.  I love to collect materials and supplies for my hobbies. When I was sewing a lot for my children, I collected fabric, notions and sewing supplies.  During my obsession with traditional scrapbooking, I collected paper, brads, ribbons, die cuts – you get the idea. Now that I’m into digital scrapbooking and photo book making, my latest obsession is digital scrapbooking kits. I can’t get enough!  As discussed in the Embellishments 101, there are many sources for both free and purchased downloadable kits.  Believe me, I have accessed ALL of them!  I currently have about 600 digital kits on my computer.  Some of my favorite kits are the ones I have for different seasons. Valentines, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Christmas – you name it I’ve got it.  These kits make it possible for me to create fun, unique layouts for every holiday of the year.

If you’re new to digiscrapping, you might want to start building up your embellishment library. Here’s how I built mine. Each month, many embellishment companies offer free kits. For instance, Blog Train last month offered the kit below for free. There are still some pieces you can purchase on their site right now, if you’re interested. Blog Train is one of my favorites because it solicits different designers to submit their art. The designers are given a theme and color scheme and then they create a “mini kit” to add to the train.  People like us can make our way through the train, stopping at the different designers’ pages and download their darling kits for free!  During March the Blog Train Blog had a fabulous kit titled “Spring Sun and Easter Fun.” Below is one of the previews from this amazing blog train.

The other blog train for March is from Stuff to Scrap. It is titled “Hint of Spring.” Below is a preview from this equally awesome blog train.

I created this layout for my grandson’s first Easter using some of the elements from these kits.

I used many of the elements from this 4th of July kit.

To create this fun July 4th layout.

And finally, here is a fun Christmas kit that I used to create the following calendar page and photo layout.

Now is a great time to start your digital kit collection. Seasonal digital kits are so fun to collect and use. Whether you purchase your kits or download them for free, they open up a whole new world of options when creating your Picaboo projects. Photo books, calendars, collage posters, cards or invitations can all be enhanced with the use of fun seasonal embellishments. They will give your projects variety and make creating them so much fun for you!

Want to learn more about embellishments? Read these posts: Embellishments 101: Favorites Sites, Tutorials and Books, Top 10 Embellishments, Using and Layering Top 10 Embellishments.

To get you started, here’s a free embellishment kit from Mary Dargis that’s perfect for Easter and Spring page layouts.

To get this free kit, click on this picture and you’ll be directed to Mary’s website. There, you can download her kits.

Ready to turn your digital images into photo books, calendars and more? Click here to see our weekly specials!