Keitha wrote:That's great Julie; they work for you so it's money well spent and seems to be good value. And if you can get Nicole interested even better. I have a question about the club: are the sketches quite similar to the SG sketches we're familiar with, just with product provided? Do you know exactly where the photos will be placed, or is there some latitude there when you finally do add the photos? Okay, that was 2 questions and I have another one
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
I know both Allison Davis and Debbie Sanders design the sketches. I'm quite familiar with Allison's designs; somehow I'd stumbled on her online I think before SG was even in business. Can you tell the difference between hers and Debbie's sketches? Do you prefer one over the other? Can't wait to see your new layouts rolling off the line.
OK, this is going to get long, so bear with me. When I was a member before, the super sketch club ($28) comes with the supplies to make 5 double-page spreads. The first three are usually from a single collection, and will come with three sketches and a set of cutting instructions for one or more of the papers that explain which layout to use each cut on. It's similar to ALSB in that way. The other two layouts will often come from different collections. And the two layouts come with two sketches each, one from Allison and one from Debbie. You get to choose which sketch you use for the supplies, but you will have the right amount of supplies for either. And each sketch comes with a color photo of what it looks like finished with the products provided. It was awesome (and I am assuming that not much has changed since I originally belonged). Additionally, for layouts 4 and 5, they usually sent too much of the patterned paper. I don't think they've ever sent less than a 1/4 sheet of anything, and usually it was a 1/2 or full sheet, even if you just needed a single strip. So I was often able to make BOTH the Allison and Debbie design if I added background paper and a few other tidbits from my stash. So from the super savers club, I usually got 6 or 7 layouts.
Then there is the Generation club, which used to be a single two-page layout for $15, but now it's two layouts for that price. Those are designed by Debbie. Then the Allison kit is of course designed by her, and is also now two layouts per $15 kit. I subscribed to both for a while, then cut out Allison's because while I adored the layouts, I just couldn't convince myself that any double-page spread was worth $15, much less two of those at $30. I kept the Debbie one longer, because they contained seasonal/holiday materials that I would never look at otherwise.
Your other question was how similar they are to the sketches in the book - I'd say the styles are incredibly similar. That said though, some of the sketches do occasionally design around a particular feature of a print that might not work in a more generic sense. For example, one sketch I got involved fussy-cutting large flowers out of a piece of patterned paper. Another had large circles in the layout that were cut from a print of doily-like designs. So you could substitute that stuff out with other embellishments, but when it calls for "large print" in the paper list, it was referring to the stuff that was used for the fussy cut, which may not make sense out of context. There were a few kit sketches that I tossed for that very reason - I didn't find them particularly adaptable. But the overall style is very much in line with what you find in the sketch books.
What I re-joined this time around was the super-sketch club, and the Allison Davis club. The choice of Allison over Debbie isn't because I prefer one designer over the other overall. The Generation kit (Debbie) is still more seasonal, and there are some months that will just never get used because I never take photos for those occasions (Easter, for example).
I'm excited about getting these again.