Tutorial - How to create a mini kit

I've been hosting the DSDI Color Challenge for a couple of months - and one of the most common questions I'm asked is "how do I even create a mini kit?"

It's a very good question!

First of all, what goes in a mini kit. You want to be able to create a layout with what you have in a mini kit. So think about the things you'd need for a layout. Layouts always require papers - patterns and/or solids. And then there are the elements. At the minimum, most mini kit include a frame, a flower, a ribbon/bow, a brad/button (some sort of fastener). Kits (mini and otherwise) can have limitless possibilities! Here's a short list of some of the most common things I put into a kit:

- fasteners
- flowers - doodle, real, fabric, silk - with or without different centers
- fasteners - buttons, brads, staples, hooks, push-pins, etc
- ribbons - folded, straight, with stitching, curled
- bows - simple, mini, big, fabric, etc
- frames - doodled frames, extracted frames, "template" frames (using shapes in your software - like rectangles, circles)
- tags - journal spots, date tags, word tags
- swirls and scatters

Standards:
The standards for element/paper creation are:
- Papers - 12 x 12 @ 300 DPI - 3600 x 3600 papers - saved as JPEGs at either quality 8 or 10
- Elements - saved as PNGs at 300 DPI

What do I need to get started?
Software: Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, GIMP (free!), Paint, etc

Hardware: to create your own elements/papers - you'll need a good scanner and/or a camera. Make sure you scan images/elements at 300 DPI

Supplies:
You can either create your own elements - here are some good resources for element creation:

Or you can download some commercial use resources. There are some great free resource sites - but you'll have to check the terms of use (some require a separate license for commercial use - please keep in mind you cannot use S4H/S4O resources for creating a kit - you definitely need CU resources):

ScrappinCop - license required
Guinhild Storeide - credit required - no license required
Delicious Scraps - see site for TOU
CU Freebies Forum and Blog - different designers have different TOU

**First important note - most/all require that you modify the item in some way before including it in a kit - check TOU for specifics. Items can be recolored (tut on that coming tomorrow! this is where you palette selection comes into play!) or you can create element clusters, etc.

**Last important note - if you're looking to create full size (regular) digi-scrap kits - do not download Tagger size kits/resources - they'll be the wrong size for what you want!

Hope you've found this helpful! Please leave a comment if you did! I'd love to hear your feedback - and suggestions for more things you'd like to learn about!