Basic Grey Oliver Page Kit Review

Scrapbooking on the College Scene

3 days a week I take Scott to college. He can't drive due to a medical issue.  It is about an hour drive on a good weather day, which there haven't been many of them lately. He is there for 4 hours. With the price of gas, the weather and the wear and tear on a 9 year old vehicle with 150,000 miles on it, it doesn't make sense for me to drop him off and then come back for him. So I have found myself a litttle corner in the student breakroom where I can scrap. And for the first time in a long time, I am actually getting something done.

The problem is as any good cropper knows, is that it takes a ton of supplies to get anything done. And this has been a real trial and error game of getting myself down to the minimum. With my own disability/illness I just don't have the strength to lug a bunch of stuff. Thankfully the breakroom is right next to the door. And since Scott's class starts at 8 AM I can get there early enough to get the parking spot by the door. It still takes me two trips to bring everything in!

At first I was loading up my supplies every night. That was a ton of work. So now I have a tote that has my basic tools in it. I also have a set for my scrapbook room, so I can leave everything in the tote. I was also picking out supplies every night. That got old fast. So this time around I decided to try out a page kit. This was really an new adventure for me.

I decided to try out Basic Grey's Oliver Page Kit.  In looking at the pictures on the cover of the kit I thought the royal blue and red would be a great match with a couple of Scott's toddler pictures. Unfortunately I was disappointed with reality. The royal blue was not blue at all, it is more of a forest moss. The navy blue is actually black. You would think a scrapbooking company would be able to match its marketing cover with its product.



The directions were fairly good, although the black and white demonstration pictures were difficult to see. Someone needs to let Basic Grey know that the Baby Boomers are aging, which includes eyesight issues, but they are also scrapbooking. They do have pictures on the the cover, but one of the pages is half covered with kit contents.And that's the page that is hard to see in the directions.

 And speaking of kit contents for the two page layout there were no mats, but looking at the pictures on the front of the cover you would think there were mats. There were mats for the two single page layouts. Thankfully I had some Hero Arts Snow Layering Paper with me, so I improvised. Lesson learned here is that I need to go through the kit before I pack it up and make sure the manufacturer has placed everything in the kit.

I was not impressed with the rub-ons in the kit. I usually do not have a problem applying rub-ons. These were difficult to keep from sliding. Notice on the All Star page how the rub-ons on the journaling part jump all over?



Basic Grey needs to find a better adhesive company.. The adhesive on Basic Grey's chipboard is useless. The pieces do not stay on. On the larger chipboard pieces I used Glue Arts new Extreme Tac Squares. They were awesome in adhering the larger pieces.  The smaller pieces I ended up running through my Xyron.

The die-cuts had to be punched out and as a result had tiny paper tags. I keep a set of Basic Grey's Precision Files on hand for these moments. The files are perfect for quickly smoothing off die cut ridges. I love these files and recomend them as a scrapbooker's essential tool. My only wish is that the plastic container they come in was made of a stronger plastic.

I wasn't happy with the dark look of the finished pages. I know that supposedly the dark distressed colors are in, but I have a history of not going with the flow of "what is in." So I added some Ranger Stickles along the way.



Supplies: We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy White Floss. Hero Arts Snow Layering Paper, White Gel Pen, Basic Grey Percision File. Tim Holtz Distress Pine Needles and Barn Door Stickles,  Stickles: Eucalyptus, Lime Green,Yellow and Frosted Lace, Basic Grey Oliver Page Kit.

The kit retails for $18.00, but the value of the kit is closer to 14.50 in my opinion.
 Grade C-
 Sorry Basis Grey but this kit is a major disppointment. Guess I will go check out Echo Park's page kits.

Have a day filled with Scrappin' Moments!
Elizabeth