Themed Products: A Minimalist Scrapbooker’s Worst Enemy?

Each Friday, I write a post about Minimalist Scrapbooking.

I think the number one rule to prevent being overwhelmed by scrapbooking supplies is to avoid themed products. They are tempting, especially for newbies to the craft. I’ve been scrapbooking since about 2002. I should know to stay away from the themed products, but I don’t. Or I didn’t.

See all my pet-themed items:


Pre-digital camera and pre-baby, my dog was photographed a lot. I had a tendency of buying any dog-themed items that appeared in the LSS I was working in, provided they did not use such sexist language like “man’s best friends.” Now, I rarely photograph my dog. I can’t even remember the last time I created a layout about my dog.

The problem with themed products is that I have a tendency of buying too many products for themes I scrapbook regularly. The real problem though is that you are incredibly limited as to how you can use these products. There is only so much you can do with the themed product to make it work on a layout that is unrelated to the theme. It is time to sort through these two themes and get rid of some of these products. Some themed items could be used in other ways. Because they are stored with other themed items, I never check these files unless I am actually scrapbooking the theme. Take this item, for example:

Yes, most of it is dog or pet focused. But look at the border rub-ons. Even the words can be used elsewhere. The birds and stars would be cute on layouts that are not pet-centered. I think it is time to break-up my themed items. I need to sort out the items that could be used in other ways. I suppose the moral of this story is that how you store your supplies influences how you use your supplies. For someone attempting to rely on my stash for awhile, how my supplies are stored matters.

What do you think? Do you buy themed products? What themes do you scrapbook? Do you end up with too many themed products? Are themed products a minimalist scrapbooker’s worst enemy?
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