Title Supplies: My Life In Print, a Daily Digi member exclusive kit
When I first started digital scrapbooking, the ability to use and re-use my purchased kits really appealed to me. Soon I became a digital scrapbook supply “collector” and my digi stash grew and grew and grew. Over the years, I’ve purged some of the really old products, like from the time when digital papers had no texture. I’ve kept a lot of great kits from about 2008/2009 and onwards though.
My habit has always been to scrap with my newest purchases first; Unfortunately, that means that some of my older kits have been forgotten on my computer which is sad because they are still beautiful kits! So, I have been challenging myself to scrap with some of these older products.
I’ll let you be the judge, but I don’t think anybody is going to look at these pages and say, “Wow, that is so 2010!” 
I chose or created some layouts using kits that I purchased at least one year ago for this post. For each one, I added some thoughts about how I worked with the product and I’d love to hear your ideas in the post comments about how you work with your older products!
Using a New Template
Supplies: Green Thumb by Karah Fredericks, Preserved by Zinnias & Swallowtails
Karah Fredricks contributed the Green Thumb kit to the June 2010 Digi Files, making it over a year old when I made this page in October 2011. I paired it with a fresh template and lots of journaling. It’s just a simple page, but the story and photo are together so I’m happy about that.
Using a New (to me) Photoshop Trick
Supplies: Cirque du Ciel by Queen of Quirk, Cranberry freebie by Zinnias and Swallowtails
Queen of Quirk contributed the kit used, Cirque du Ciel, to the July 2010 Digi Files so the kit was over a year and a half old when I made this page. I used lighting effects in Photoshop to add a soft “spotlight” to the design by following the tutorial here.
Supplies: Clementine by Susan Bartolini, GWL: Kids by Crystal Livesay
I used that same lighting trick on this page with a kit I purchased on the day my son was born and he’s two years old now.
Shopping on My Computer
Supplies: That’s My Boy! by Zoe Pearn, Preserved by Zinnias and Swallowtails, Quickly Stacked 1 by ad77 Designs
On this page I used the kit That’s My Boy! by Zoe Pearn, purchased in 2009, over two years ago. When I snapped the photo of my son, I knew I wanted a blue and green kit to match his outfit. I went through my tagged kit previews and found this kit and thought it paired nicely with the photo. It was a good reminder to check my digi scrap supplies folder!
Going With the Theme
Supplies: It’s Elementary by Dani Mogstad, My Life In Print template from The Daily Digi
The school-themed kit above is one of my favourite kits for tracking my daughter’s school years. I’ve used it several times since I purchased it in 2010 and I’m sure I’ll use it a few more times in the future!
I hope you are inspired to take a look at your own digital supplies and work with some old favourites. I know I had a lot of fun making these pages!
Share This Using…
Enjoyed this article very much. Some of my personal favorites, which still see a lot of use, are by a designer who has been out of the business for probably 3 or more years. Of course since I am a “collector” I have lots of kits that appealed to me at the time I bought them but have not been used or, if so, lightly used. This is a good reminder to 1) try to get a better handle on what I have and 2) have fun using the things already in my stash!
“Shopping on my computer” is what I’m trying to do too. I have designs from 2008 sitting in my hard drive that I “rediscover” every time I attempt to get rid of the huge amount of stuff I collected. I already made some pages with them even if I don’t post them in galleries (sometimes is not so easy to keep track of all the stores some designers changed or they’re no more available). It gives me a nice gratification being able to, finally, use what I purchased and still like.
I really enjoyed this post. While I love getting my digi files each month, I’ve found that it is difficult to actually use all of the wonderful kits! I need to be more intentional about that! Your pages with the “spotlight” effect are beautiful, can’t wait to check out the tutorial.
Great article!! I too am quite the “collector,” and since I started over 4 years ago, I have a huge collection. I recently started reorganizing by theme, realizing that that’s mostly how I scrap, and it’s helping me to remember/use some of those gorgeous older kits – some that I never even used when I first bought (GASP)!!!
Great article. I need to be more conscious as well of using all of my kits and my older kits. I’ve been making more of an effort to use all the Digi File kits at least once (not suceeding all of the time) – I have so much good stuff on my computer and it is ashame to let it “waste” away.
Great article Mary. I have so many kits I use Zoner pro to organize. I have about 6 older kits that have been way overused I like them. Most of the persons that see my finished product don’t have a clue about the kits, so it’s easy here to use anything.
Great article. I too am becoming a collector. I’m not even using all of the new kits I buy. By reading your article, I realized I better start to reorganize by color or theme. Right now I am only sorting by designer.
Thanks, Mary! I tag in ACDSee so all my kits are tagged as a kit preview, with the store name, designer name, and if it’s a theme I add the theme (e.g. Christmas, baby, etc.).
I have all my previews of kits, including full kits, word art, nonkit papers, etc tagged in my browser as “Halloween” or “Christmas” or “Boy”, “Girl”, “AAM”, “BOM”: you get the idea.