ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 26, 2011 11:58 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------ Ok SBG it is. Hopefully I can get through all this in one day. This store isn't exactly my scrapping "style" so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Maya - I admit going in that her foul personality might taint any opinion I might have on her products. The very first product in her store seems "newbie"ish to me, which is telling since to hear her tell it, she invented digital scrapbooking. I see nothing in her store I'd consider overly useable, but I scrap more the 'paper' style, so take that for what it's worth.
Berna - I'm trying to like some of these brighter colors, but these kits seem very random to me. The lack of CT layouts isn't making any of this seem more cohesive to me. I don't need a kit with 30 birds and 20 crocheted flowers. It might help if some of this was previewed better. The Beach Comber kit almost made me cry a little. I can't even tell what half of that stuff IS.
Baersgarten - I have a sour taste in my mouth still over the Scrapkitchen fiasco from a few years ago (and that applies to BOTH parties). I like her soft papers, but I don't like the 60s/70s characters that are in so many of her kits. Her papers are cute.
Lorie - Can I just decline reviewing the fantasy genre since it's way out of my area of expertise? It wouldn't really be fair for me to say one way or the other since I don't scrap this way.
Wendyzine - I bought a couple of her actions when I was new and clueless and was not impressed. Even then. Most of her "designer tools" are so simplistic. Any designer should be able to write their own actions to do this stuff.
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 26, 2011 12:12 PM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------ Flergs - Oh boy. I don't want to start another Flerg-war. I actually like her stuff for the most part. Her colors appeal to me and her kits are my style. I can't speak for the quality as I haven't purchased any in some time. Mostly because of her attention whoring on DST. Woe is me, someone copied my stuff! She always comes across as having posted the thread NOT to out the pirate, but to conjur up the sympathy. I'll give her an A+ for self-promotion, I suppose.
Manu - For the most part her kits seem well put together, although there are a couple random elements that make me go "huh?". A little too "vintagey" for me, but they didn't offend me. Her CT layouts did, though.
Natali - I think her kits are gorgeous, and they are previewed and showcased well. I'd never heard of her before just now (I don't shop at SBG) but I'm considering buying a couple things now. The colors all work together well and she has just the right amount of neutrals to make it soft and pretty.
sussieM - again with the fantasty stuff that I can't really objectively judge. The Cookies for Santa preview is fun, even without me being into fantasy stuff.
Tangie - I have never understood her popularity. This stuff makes no sense to me at all. These dolls are borderline creepy. I do like those graffiti borders, though. They almost seem like they came from a different store, though. All that art journal stuff and then some funky colored graffiti borders. Like I said, I don't get it.
To Be Continued...(later this afternoon, as I have a few errands and this is taking longer than I hoped)
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 27, 2011 7:09 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------ ANYway... lol
Em-ka - Fantasy, but fun! I like the Oh Boy! kit a lot. Everything works together and it's previewed well. The CT layouts show it used in both fantasy and paper style, which is good. She must sell a lot of CU lace, since that was most of the first 2 pages. I'll admit, if I needed lace for a kit I would probably buy it, because who wants to extract lace?
MissVivi - She has a good mix of products, imo. It all seems useable. I owned some of her CU and never had problems with the quality. (that was some time ago) I love just about every swatch she used. I will probably buy a couple kits. (This review business is costing me money! lol) If I had to nitpick something, I would say that her packaging label could be about 1/4 that size.
Veronica - Nothing exciting or repulsive either way. The whole store just seems very blah to me. That purple kit is a bit too purple and the shades/hues doesn't even all work together. Personal peeve, I had when each product line has 40 products. Like: full kit, paper pack, element pack, qp pack, each qp individually, glitters, add on, etc etc. Other people probably don't find that offensive so whatever. Some nice papers, but again nothing exciting.
Rosey Posey - I'm having a hard time figuring out what her style is. The art kit is funky and fun. That Shabby Sun and Fun kit looks like an entirely different designer did it. But, it's not bad. The papers are boring but it's a bright fun kit. I will give her points for being able to appeal to a broad range of styles. Her templates are just flat out bad, and some of her kits are pretty bad, too, but it might just be the colors. The Glee kit? Yuck!
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 27, 2011 8:27 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com ----------------------------------------- Ztampf - Those ribbons and bows? What year is it? And fetuses and headless pregnant paper dolls and "to breed or not to breed" word art? I don't get it.
Bethany - Another "I don't get it". I didn't understand it at SO, and I don't understand it at SBG. If I was one of the other designers, I'd be highly irritated that she clogs the new release category every week with this stuff.
Redju - Her CU is great quality, but she's too popular. If you want to have a nicely extracted flower in your kit, that is also in 59 other kits this week, this is where you should buy it. Some of her CU packs have been getting a bit random, she must have run out of ideas for a while.
Christina Renee - The first 2 pages look like repacks of the same stuff. I guess if you are in the market for old rusty things, this would be a great designer for you. I can see where it would appeal to the art journal crowd. The sofas and windows? I dunno. None of this is my style, so maybe I can't be objective. The botanical stuff is yuck.
Amanda - No complaints about her quality, although her 'designer workshop' was laughable. And $4 for a pack of buttons that it takes 2 seconds to extract is ridiculous. Her kits aren't terrible, but most of the time when she does one, it occurs to me she should stick to CU.
Dawn - I laughed at her using the PICTURE of Mickey Mouse in the obviously Disney kit, since Disney is a favorite topic around here. Having said that, her Disney kit is one of the least offensive looking ones I've seen. Kudos to her for not making a mouse head out of 3 black buttons. Some of her stuff is "ok" and some looks like it might be from a couple years ago. Nothing exciting here.
To be continued...
--NotSimon
PS: This takes a long time, I see why not a lot of people are doing it. :)
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 27, 2011 8:43 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com ----------------------------------------- Charlize - She has definitely improved. I wish the elements were a bit smaller on the previews so I could see the papers better without clicking through. Papers are pretty boring. Almost all tone on tone basic patterns, which is fine for a couple, but some variety would help a lot. Not bad overall.
Rebecca - I have no idea what a "good" art doll is, so I can't comment. No sample layouts to help me along on most of her products, either.
Studio Q - Better than most of the other stuff, but seems more like 9th&B or MScraps before it went to crap. Nice papers, but most of her elements are a bit flat. Would like a couple buttons or something. Also, no alphas in the kits? I don't know if she does her own doodling or uses CU, but either way it's cute.
Boutique Cute Doll - Weird name. Her mini kits are cute, her full kits seem like a jumbled mess. The whole store seems hit or miss. The baby kits are too... blinding?
Julia - Reminds me of my paper days. Which I like for the most part. Really cute stuff, pulled together well, nice variety of papers in her kits. Most of her add on packs are cute, and not just 50 recolored ribbons or whatever like in a couple of the other stores. A couple of her kits miss the mark color-wise, but for the most part I found another new designer to shop with.
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 27, 2011 8:57 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com ----------------------------------------- Microferk - I really wish either this photo mask trend would end, or people would just make their own. I'm sick of seeing these big black blobs everywhere. Her previews are horrible, I wish designers would realize what a difference that can make. Although, this is another one of those designers that's been around forever and I don't know WHY. Nothing exciting at all. And way too much glitter. I don't need glitter and glittery elements in every kit. CT pages are terrible, but they didn't have a lot to work with.
Thaty - Pirate or not? I thought I heard that before, but not recently. Not that it would matter, Miss Tiina is still flying high. Unlike most of the other CU designers, I think I actually like her kits better than her CU. I bet I know which she makes more money on, though. The cherry kit is really cute and so is the cooking one. Normally I don't like a lot of digital looking elements, but these seem well done. Her templates are cute, too.
This was an interesting activity. I don't shop at SBG (in fact, I don't think I EVER have), so I found a few "new to me" designers that I'd consider shopping with. My biggest complaint about this store as a whole is the inconsistencies. I think some stores try too hard to appeal to a range of scrapping styles, and sometimes that backfires. I'm more likely to shop in a store that is mostly my style. If I go to check out the first few new releases and they're all things that don't appeal to me, I'm not going to keep going, and I'm not going to come back next week to look again. I can't say which way is right or wrong (all one style / variety of styles), only the way I shop. All I can say is that I'm not going to sift through 20 pages of word art and art doll stuff to get to the cute paper-style kit I never knew I needed. A lot of people complain about SSD being the same old thing (I don't shop there, either, so don't clutch your pearls yet), but I see why their customers are loyal. That's the kind of stuff they are looking for, and it's all in one place. If all the designers that I liked were in one store, I'd be loyal there, too.
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 26, 2011 11:58 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete------------------------------------------
Ok SBG it is. Hopefully I can get through all this in one day. This store isn't exactly my scrapping "style" so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Maya - I admit going in that her foul personality might taint any opinion I might have on her products. The very first product in her store seems "newbie"ish to me, which is telling since to hear her tell it, she invented digital scrapbooking. I see nothing in her store I'd consider overly useable, but I scrap more the 'paper' style, so take that for what it's worth.
Berna - I'm trying to like some of these brighter colors, but these kits seem very random to me. The lack of CT layouts isn't making any of this seem more cohesive to me. I don't need a kit with 30 birds and 20 crocheted flowers. It might help if some of this was previewed better. The Beach Comber kit almost made me cry a little. I can't even tell what half of that stuff IS.
Baersgarten - I have a sour taste in my mouth still over the Scrapkitchen fiasco from a few years ago (and that applies to BOTH parties). I like her soft papers, but I don't like the 60s/70s characters that are in so many of her kits. Her papers are cute.
Lorie - Can I just decline reviewing the fantasy genre since it's way out of my area of expertise? It wouldn't really be fair for me to say one way or the other since I don't scrap this way.
Wendyzine - I bought a couple of her actions when I was new and clueless and was not impressed. Even then. Most of her "designer tools" are so simplistic. Any designer should be able to write their own actions to do this stuff.
To Be Continued...
--NotSimon
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 26, 2011 12:12 PM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete------------------------------------------
Flergs - Oh boy. I don't want to start another Flerg-war. I actually like her stuff for the most part. Her colors appeal to me and her kits are my style. I can't speak for the quality as I haven't purchased any in some time. Mostly because of her attention whoring on DST. Woe is me, someone copied my stuff! She always comes across as having posted the thread NOT to out the pirate, but to conjur up the sympathy. I'll give her an A+ for self-promotion, I suppose.
Manu - For the most part her kits seem well put together, although there are a couple random elements that make me go "huh?". A little too "vintagey" for me, but they didn't offend me. Her CT layouts did, though.
Natali - I think her kits are gorgeous, and they are previewed and showcased well. I'd never heard of her before just now (I don't shop at SBG) but I'm considering buying a couple things now. The colors all work together well and she has just the right amount of neutrals to make it soft and pretty.
sussieM - again with the fantasty stuff that I can't really objectively judge. The Cookies for Santa preview is fun, even without me being into fantasy stuff.
Tangie - I have never understood her popularity. This stuff makes no sense to me at all. These dolls are borderline creepy. I do like those graffiti borders, though. They almost seem like they came from a different store, though. All that art journal stuff and then some funky colored graffiti borders. Like I said, I don't get it.
To Be Continued...(later this afternoon, as I have a few errands and this is taking longer than I hoped)
--NotSimon
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 27, 2011 7:09 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete------------------------------------------
ANYway... lol
Em-ka - Fantasy, but fun! I like the Oh Boy! kit a lot. Everything works together and it's previewed well. The CT layouts show it used in both fantasy and paper style, which is good. She must sell a lot of CU lace, since that was most of the first 2 pages. I'll admit, if I needed lace for a kit I would probably buy it, because who wants to extract lace?
MissVivi - She has a good mix of products, imo. It all seems useable. I owned some of her CU and never had problems with the quality. (that was some time ago) I love just about every swatch she used. I will probably buy a couple kits. (This review business is costing me money! lol) If I had to nitpick something, I would say that her packaging label could be about 1/4 that size.
Veronica - Nothing exciting or repulsive either way. The whole store just seems very blah to me. That purple kit is a bit too purple and the shades/hues doesn't even all work together. Personal peeve, I had when each product line has 40 products. Like: full kit, paper pack, element pack, qp pack, each qp individually, glitters, add on, etc etc. Other people probably don't find that offensive so whatever. Some nice papers, but again nothing exciting.
Rosey Posey - I'm having a hard time figuring out what her style is. The art kit is funky and fun. That Shabby Sun and Fun kit looks like an entirely different designer did it. But, it's not bad. The papers are boring but it's a bright fun kit. I will give her points for being able to appeal to a broad range of styles. Her templates are just flat out bad, and some of her kits are pretty bad, too, but it might just be the colors. The Glee kit? Yuck!
To be continued...
--NotSimon
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 27, 2011 8:27 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete-----------------------------------------
Ztampf - Those ribbons and bows? What year is it? And fetuses and headless pregnant paper dolls and "to breed or not to breed" word art? I don't get it.
Bethany - Another "I don't get it". I didn't understand it at SO, and I don't understand it at SBG. If I was one of the other designers, I'd be highly irritated that she clogs the new release category every week with this stuff.
Redju - Her CU is great quality, but she's too popular. If you want to have a nicely extracted flower in your kit, that is also in 59 other kits this week, this is where you should buy it. Some of her CU packs have been getting a bit random, she must have run out of ideas for a while.
Christina Renee - The first 2 pages look like repacks of the same stuff. I guess if you are in the market for old rusty things, this would be a great designer for you. I can see where it would appeal to the art journal crowd. The sofas and windows? I dunno. None of this is my style, so maybe I can't be objective. The botanical stuff is yuck.
Amanda - No complaints about her quality, although her 'designer workshop' was laughable. And $4 for a pack of buttons that it takes 2 seconds to extract is ridiculous. Her kits aren't terrible, but most of the time when she does one, it occurs to me she should stick to CU.
Dawn - I laughed at her using the PICTURE of Mickey Mouse in the obviously Disney kit, since Disney is a favorite topic around here. Having said that, her Disney kit is one of the least offensive looking ones I've seen. Kudos to her for not making a mouse head out of 3 black buttons. Some of her stuff is "ok" and some looks like it might be from a couple years ago. Nothing exciting here.
To be continued...
--NotSimon
PS: This takes a long time, I see why not a lot of people are doing it. :)
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 27, 2011 8:43 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete-----------------------------------------
Charlize - She has definitely improved. I wish the elements were a bit smaller on the previews so I could see the papers better without clicking through. Papers are pretty boring. Almost all tone on tone basic patterns, which is fine for a couple, but some variety would help a lot. Not bad overall.
Rebecca - I have no idea what a "good" art doll is, so I can't comment. No sample layouts to help me along on most of her products, either.
Studio Q - Better than most of the other stuff, but seems more like 9th&B or MScraps before it went to crap. Nice papers, but most of her elements are a bit flat. Would like a couple buttons or something. Also, no alphas in the kits? I don't know if she does her own doodling or uses CU, but either way it's cute.
Boutique Cute Doll - Weird name. Her mini kits are cute, her full kits seem like a jumbled mess. The whole store seems hit or miss. The baby kits are too... blinding?
Julia - Reminds me of my paper days. Which I like for the most part. Really cute stuff, pulled together well, nice variety of papers in her kits. Most of her add on packs are cute, and not just 50 recolored ribbons or whatever like in a couple of the other stores. A couple of her kits miss the mark color-wise, but for the most part I found another new designer to shop with.
Be right back with the last few!
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY "ANONYMOUS" ON July 27, 2011 8:57 AM at http://dsthof.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete-----------------------------------------
Microferk - I really wish either this photo mask trend would end, or people would just make their own. I'm sick of seeing these big black blobs everywhere. Her previews are horrible, I wish designers would realize what a difference that can make. Although, this is another one of those designers that's been around forever and I don't know WHY. Nothing exciting at all. And way too much glitter. I don't need glitter and glittery elements in every kit. CT pages are terrible, but they didn't have a lot to work with.
Thaty - Pirate or not? I thought I heard that before, but not recently. Not that it would matter, Miss Tiina is still flying high. Unlike most of the other CU designers, I think I actually like her kits better than her CU. I bet I know which she makes more money on, though. The cherry kit is really cute and so is the cooking one. Normally I don't like a lot of digital looking elements, but these seem well done. Her templates are cute, too.
This was an interesting activity. I don't shop at SBG (in fact, I don't think I EVER have), so I found a few "new to me" designers that I'd consider shopping with. My biggest complaint about this store as a whole is the inconsistencies. I think some stores try too hard to appeal to a range of scrapping styles, and sometimes that backfires. I'm more likely to shop in a store that is mostly my style. If I go to check out the first few new releases and they're all things that don't appeal to me, I'm not going to keep going, and I'm not going to come back next week to look again. I can't say which way is right or wrong (all one style / variety of styles), only the way I shop. All I can say is that I'm not going to sift through 20 pages of word art and art doll stuff to get to the cute paper-style kit I never knew I needed. A lot of people complain about SSD being the same old thing (I don't shop there, either, so don't clutch your pearls yet), but I see why their customers are loyal. That's the kind of stuff they are looking for, and it's all in one place. If all the designers that I liked were in one store, I'd be loyal there, too.
That's all I have for now. Flame on.
--NotSimon