Cosmo Cricket Product Review
Be Good & Buck Naked Ornaments Collections
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| April's Review |
Andrea's Review |
Randi's Review |
Karen's Review |
Renee's Review |
Review by AprilI'm a big fan of Cosmo Cricket products, so I was very excited to be included in the review of their Be Good Holiday Collection! Cosmo Cricket products have a wonderful distressed yet homey feel to them and always come in rich luscious colors. I have always found their papers to be heavier than most in weight, an attribute that I treasure because I love to sand the edges of everything, and you don't need to add cardstock for stability. Not only do they create beautiful papers, but they also carry die cuts, ribbons, chipboard, albums, rub-ons, and more.
For this review, I received a package of Be Good Buck Naked Ornaments, a sheet of Be Good Ornament Fashions, and the Be Good Paper Crafting Kit. There were eight 10" x 4" chipboard sheets in the Buck Naked Ornaments pack, and the ornaments came in the shapes of snowmen, candy canes, stockings, gifts, stars, trees, mittens, buttons, tags, snowflakes, huge round ornaments, and more! The Ornament Fashions came in a 12" x 25" sheet that folded in the middle and offered over 54 different die cuts that could either be used alone, or to cover and decorate the Buck Naked Ornaments. The Be Good Paper Crafting kit was awesome and included:
- 12 double-sided 65lb cover weight cardstocks - in rich distressed colors like chocolate brown, red, teal/green, and dark creme!
- 1 double sided sheet of beautifully illustrated journaling cards to cut apart!
- 1 double sided "Striptease" sheet - a mixture of titles, journaling, & designs to make more than 17 strip possibilities!
- 1 Alpha-button Fashions - all 26 letters of the alphabet & each 2 1/2 - 4" in height!
- 1 Die Cut sheet with 26 different shapes like swirls, tags, labels, and more!
- 1 Cosmo Cricket Studio Inspiration Sheet that provided sketches and project ideas!
For my first layout, I used the super cute Be Good Die Cut tags and shapes to help create my page design. I layered them around my picture, along with two Be Good Journaling Cards, a Striptease title, and used the beautiful distressed dark creme side of the Ribbons cardstock for my background. I sanded the edges of everything to add to the distressed look and also help all of the patterns stand out. I dressed up a Buck Naked star ornament with it's matching Ornament Fashion, and then added decorative brads, and journaling. Last but not least, I used a glitter pen to add stars on the background, and to decorate all of the embellishments!
Title: Have you been good?
Products used: Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection: Striptease, Ribbons, Journaling Cards)
Die Cuts (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection: Die Cuts, Ornament Fashions)
Chipboard (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection: Buck Naked Ornaments)
Pens (American Crafts, & Sakura)
Brads (7gypsies, & Paper Studio)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
On my second layout, I applied a dark brown chalk ink to the edges of my cardstock, photos, and embellishments. I used green glitter glue to embellish the cardstock, chipboard trees, and the "h" Alpha-button Fashion. The Alpha-button Fashion die cut letter was not only easy to punch out from the sheet, but it was also heavier in weight than most, which made it easier to work with. To complete the design, I added journaling and rub-ons!
Title: Holiday Antics
Products used: Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection: Striptease, Poinsettia)
Die Cuts (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection: Die Cuts, Ornament Fashions, Alpha-Button Fashions)
Chipboard (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection: Buck Naked Ornaments)
Pen (Uniball)
Glitter Glue (Ranger Stickles)
Ink (Clearsnap Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink)
Rub-ons (Flair Designs)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
I make my family holiday planners every year and I knew the Cosmo Cricket Be Good collection would be great to use on my first one! To start, I adhered two different cardstocks to the composition book, sanded the edges and trimmed the corners. Then I added a strip of the Striptease cardstock, decorated the planner with some Be Good Die Cuts, and a Buck Naked Ornament star with its matching Ornament Fashion. To complete the planner I added ribbon, journaling, and used my glitter pen to dress up the designs on the cardstock!
Title: 2007 Holiday Planner
Products used: Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection: Striptease, Ornaments, & Poinsettia)
Die Cuts (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection: Die Cuts, Ornament Fashions)
Chipboard (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection: Buck Naked Ornaments)
Pens (American Crafts, & Sakura)
Ribbon (Tie One On Ribbon Club)
Composition Book (Wal Mart)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
The more I created with this collection, the more I fell in love with it. The quality of the paper and die cuts was outstanding, the colors were rich and had almost an antique feel to them, and everything was so well coordinated. What's cool is that the colors of this collection make it easy to showcase both heritage and present day holiday photos. I can't wait to use this line for holiday home decor and Christmas cards. If you are looking for your next holiday crafting collection this is the one!
Review by AndreaJust the name "Cosmo Cricket" makes you wonder what creative and fun things lie ahead! Married designers Julie and Eric Comstock were playing around with an anagram web site when the name "Cosmo Cricket" popped out of the shuffle using Eric's name. The new name stuck and the creativity flowed into the company producing many great paper collections and wonderful chipboard products. We're working with the Be Good and Buck Naked Ornaments Collections for this review.
The "Be Good" Paper Crafting Kit arrived neatly packaged together in a clear cellophane wrapper full of goodies! The kit had 2 each of 6 different double-sided 12" x 12" patterned papers and coordinating 12" x 12" sheets of journaling cards, titles, die cuts and monograms. Also included was an inspiration sheet showing 12 different layout and card sketches that would be useful for designing projects with this collection. The quality is terrific throughout each page. Each sheet is heavy weight with a very distressed look to the design. The whole feel is nostalgic Christmas with small repetitive patterns of snowflakes, swirls, circles, holly and squares in an "retro-ish" color scheme of chocolate brown, crimson, robin egg blue and sage green. It makes for a striking color combination that really works well for Christmas, winter and vintage themes.
The "Buck Naked" Ornaments Collection is a fabulous set of 7 thick raw chipboard panels, all die cut into holiday shapes like trees, stars, gift boxes, ornaments and snowmen. Each panel is about 4" x 10" in size with multiple large die cuts per piece. Three double page 12" x 12" sheets of "Ornament Fashions" came with the chipboard. The "Fashion" die cut sheets are fully colored and coordinated to the Be Good Collection, fitting onto the chipboard pieces perfectly. Talk about a great dimensional element for a page that's completely ready to go by adhering the die cut to the chipboard! Thank YOU Cosmo Cricket! The die cuts can also be used without the chipboard and vice versa, allowing for complete flexibility while designing a project.
I recently received a CD full of old slides converted to digital that I couldn't wait to scrap. Low and behold there were old family Christmas photos on there! The Be Good Collection was ideal for these photos of my sister in front of our "Charlie Brown" tree. The layout came together so quickly using the papers, die cuts and titles from the Be Good set and the addition of the chipboard bow for the gift under the title gave just the right dimension for the page. Just think of all of those old holiday photos you have to scrap!
Title: Been Good?
Products used: Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket, Be Good: Ornaments, Ribbons, Strip Tease)
Die Cuts (Cosmo Cricket, Be Good)
Paint (Ranger Acrylic Dabber: Juniper and Red Pepper)
Stamp (Hampton Art)
Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Brads (JoAnn's Scrap Essentials)
Sketch (ScrapFriends)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
I couldn't pass up making some chipboard ornaments with the Buck Naked chipboard and Ornament Fashions die cuts. Two of the ornaments had removable centers, so I filled one center with double-sided paper from the journaling sheet and the other has a transparency with rub-ons for the center decoration. As pictured below, each is a single ornament, but the side-by-side pictures show the front and back sides. Adding the Ornament Fashions to the chipboard on each side allowed for the strategic hiding of the paper or overlay edges for the center part. Measuring over 4" in length, these ornaments won't get lost on any tree!
Title: Ornaments
Products used: Cardstock Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket, Be Good: Ornament Fashions, Journaling Cards)
Chipboard Ornaments (Cosmo Cricket, Buck Naked)
Overlay and Rub-ons (Hambly)
Stickles (Ranger)
Ribbon (Tie One On Ribbon Club)
Gem (RhinestoneNY)
Ink (Clearsnap Colorbox Fluid Chalk)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
This card was a snap to create using another piece from the journaling sheet and a section of the patterned paper. Being double-sided, the card base has color inside and out giving a nice "complete" feel to the entire card. A couple mini brads and the card was finished.
Title: Happy Holidays Card
Products used: Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket, Be Good: Believe, Journaling Cards)
Die Cuts (Cosmo Cricket, Be Good)
Brads (JoAnn's Scrap Essentials)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
Cosmo Cricket has captured the essence of Christmas Past with the Be Good Collection! The colors and patterns are so timeless, current Christmas photos would look just as beautiful as older ones. I can't wait to try some sepia and black and white photos with this paper line! Imagine how classic that will look! There is enough product left over from this kit to create many more layouts, cards and projects. And the Buck Naked Ornaments? Well, there is enough there to decorate a small tree if so desired! They are great gifts for friends and family too - imagine a small family photo inside the ornament opening instead of a greeting? There are all sorts of possibilities here. "Be Good" to yourself by getting this versatile kit from Cosmo Cricket! Dare to go "Buck Naked" too, you won't be sorry!
Review by RandiI received an awesome package of "Be Good" products from Cosmo Cricket to work with this holiday season! If you want coordinating holiday themed products with a "distressed" feel to them, you need to look no further.
The Buck Naked Ornaments Chipboard immediately grabbed my attention. These seven heavy-weight chipboard sheets (sized about 4" x 10") are jam-packed with ornaments just waiting for your personal touch. With a few little embellishments and some Mod Podge, I had group of ornaments made in a very short time. Whether painting, inking or gluing is "your thing," you can't go wrong with this gift-giving idea! At a retail cost of $6.49 you will have several hand-made gifts ready in plenty of time for the holidays or to decorate your own tree.
Title: Snowman Ornament
Products used: Buck Naked Ornaments Chipboard, Cosmo Cricket
Ornament Fashions, Be Good Collection, Cosmo Cricket
Mini brads and eyelets
Ric Rac, Tie One One Ribbon Club
Mod Podge
Title: Snowflake Ornament
Products used: Buck Naked Ornaments Chipboard, Cosmo Cricket
Ornament Fashions, Be Good Collection, Cosmo Cricket
Jonquil Transparent Art Glitter, Barbara Trombley's
Ric Rac, Tie One On Ribbon Club
Mod Podge
Title: Mittens Ornament
Products used: Buck Naked Ornaments Chipboard, Cosmo Cricket
Ornament Fashions, Be Good Collection, Cosmo Cricket
Ric Rac, Tie One On Ribbon Club
Mod Podge
An add-on for the ornaments is found in the "Ornament Fashions Diecuts" which is a double 12" x 12" page of perfectly sized diecut coverings for the chipboard shapes. I used several of these on the ornaments above and chose some of the smaller ones to embellish this little tin and accordian album too. You could also use them with the chipboard or alone for scrapbook page embellishments or even as gift tags. Retail on these diecuts is in the $3.00 range.
Title: Snowflake Altered Tin with Mini Accordian Album
Products used: Ornament Fashions, Be Good Collection, Cosmo Cricket
Believe paper, Be Good Collection, Cosmo Cricket
Cavalado Ultra Fine Art Glitter, Barbara Trombley's
Altoid Tin
Mod Podge
Last, but certainly NOT least is the Be Good Paper Crafting Kit. This huge collection contains:
- 12 sheets of double sided, 12" x 12" cardstock weight paper (2 each of 6 designs)
- 8 doubled-sided journaling cards
- 1 double-sided strip tease sheet (borders, several with quotes)
- 27 diecut eclectic letters (3 inches!)
- 25 diecut tags, swirls & tabs
- 1 inspiration sheet filled with scrapbooking, cardmaking & crafting sketches and ideas.
This kit is a terrific bargain at about $15.00 retail!
Title: Christmas Eve 1990
Products used: Peppermint Candy paper from Be Good Collection, Cosmo Cricket
Journaling Block, Flip For Fun from Be Good Collection, Cosmo Cricket
Quote - Strip Tease from Be Good Collection, Cosmo Cricket
File Tab from Be Good Diecuts, Cosmo Cricket
Ornament Fashions, Be Good Collection, Cosmo Cricket
Black Prismatics Cardstock, Prism Papers
Permanent Bond Glue Runner,Adhesive Tech
Cosmo Cricket thought of it all when they created the "Be Good" Collection and you'll complete projects in record time. The products in "Be Good" are high quality and coordinate perfectly with one another. Be sure you pick this collection up NOW to have on hand for creating cards, gifts and gift tags, and recording your holiday memories.
Review by KarenI love Christmas. I love the cold weather, carols, hot chocolate and the smell of cinnamon candles. So what does all of that have to do with my review? It’s simple really, when I was given the chance to review Cosmo Cricket’s Be Good line, I pulled out the Christmas carol CD and lit up my favorite cinnamon candle to be in the spirit when my box arrived. It worked! This line inspired me above what I was expecting, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.
The kit that Cosmo Cricket sent out was absolutely packed with products! I was asked to review the Buck Naked chipboard as well as the Be Good collection. I was sent one pack of Buck Naked, which has more than 50 pieces, several sheets of the Be Good Ornaments Fashions, and the Be Good Paper Crafting Kit. The Be Good Paper Crafting kit contains 2 sheets of each of 6 different patterned papers, one sheet of cut apart strips called “Strip Tease”, a die cut sheet, a sheet of journaling cards, and a Alpha Button Fashions sheet. The kit also had a cover sheet with small pictures of everything included in the kit and sketches on the back. I love that Cosmo Cricket decided to include sketches instead of project samples.
The first thought I had when I looked at this line, was how perfect the shade of red was. It’s more of a barn red, than a lipstick red. I feel that the barn red is more flattering to skin tones than the “brighter” reds are, and that the barn red coordinates with other reds easier as well. This collection’s color scheme includes green, cream and brown as well as the barn red. The patterns do not over power the papers. They are bold, yet subtle, as well as being aged or distressed. All of the papers are double-sided; some have a more solid print on the back.
My first layout uses papers, die cuts and one of the journaling cards. I mentioned that the patterns are understated. I think that this layout show how this is really a good thing. I mixed two very different patterns but they don’t compete for your attention. The journaling card originally came as a rectangle but I cut it down to the shape of the title. Then I added some of the die cuts. Again the color palette of this collection works well with all kinds of photos.
Title: Naughty or Nice
Products used: Patterned Paper Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Die Cuts Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Journaling Card Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Brad (Making Memories)
Pen (American Crafts)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
For my second layout, I wanted something a little bolder to offset my large photo. I went with a background sheet that was almost totally red. There is a small brown pattern that is very subtle. Again I used a journaling card, this time leaving it in the rectangle. I really was happy to find the journaling cards were also double-sided. This really increased the chance that something would work with my photos. For this layout I used the mini trees from the Buck Naked chipboard. This is a nice weight chipboard. It’s heavy without being too thick. I covered the mini trees with the matching die cut mini trees. These are slightly bigger than the Buck Naked chipboard. This allowed me to sand them to the perfect size. I finished out the layout with the die cut brackets. These are also doubled sided.
Title: {day & night}
Products used: Patterned Paper Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Die Cuts Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Journaling Card Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Letter Stickers (American Crafts)
Brads (Making Memories)
Pen (American Crafts) Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
My third layout was inspired by the cover of the kit packaging. I loved the zig zag edged paper at the top. And in my layout you can see that element repeated. I used one of the die cuts at the top of my main photo as part of the title and two other die cuts as elements of my page. The journaling was printed on one of the “solid” sheets. I really liked how it wasn’t too dark to print on.
Title: Santa’s Helpers
Products used: Patterned Paper Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Die Cuts Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Journaling Card Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Letter Stickers (Scenic Route)
Stamps Avalon Medium (Technique Tuesday)
Ink Espresso (Ranger)
Button (My Mind’s Eye)
Font (CK Handprint)
Pen (American Crafts)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
My last project is really my favorite. I started with Buck Naked chipboard ornament shapes. I painted the edges and then covered the fronts with the matching die cut shapes. Once I had them covered, I sanded the edges down and added crystal glitter. I was SO happy in finding these chipboard pieces in the Buck Naked chipboard package. There are several other shapes that I plan to cover and glitter as ornaments. I stamped on the green ornament in brown ink before covering it in glitter.
Title: Chipboard ornaments
Products used: Patterned Paper Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Chipboard Buck Naked Chipboard, Be Good Collection (Cosmo Cricket)
Stamps (Technique Tuesday)
Ink Espresso (Ranger)
Button (My Mind’s Eye)
Brad (Stemma)
Glitter (Martha Stewart Crafts)
WOW… I’ve had so much fun working with the Be Good collection. I drew inspiration from the product as well as the packaging. I love the color scheme, and I think that it’s one that is easy to work with. And let’s face it, it’s just fun to say “Buck Naked”. I am looking forward to seeing what other things Cosmo Cricket has up their sleeves. If you don’t have any Cosmo Cricket products in your stash, you really need to look into finding some.
Review by ReneeCosmo Cricket is a wonderful scrapbook company that features products that have a unique aged and distressed look to them. Most of their collections have a warm and comfortable look to them, much like the wallpaper from your grandmother’s house. Their papers are double-sided, with most having a pattern on one side and a coordinating solid on the other. A few have two patterns on them. In addition to paper, Cosmo Cricket also carries die cuts, monogram alphabets and Journaling Cards, all perfectly aged and distressed to coordinate with the respective collection.
For this review, I received the Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection, a Christmas collection reminiscent of Christmas pasts at Grandma‘s house. I received two sheets each of papers called Believe, Peppermint Candy, Ribbons Poinsettia, Favorite Things, and Ornaments. In addition, I received one sheet of die cuts, one double sheet of monogram alphabets and one sheet of a patterned paper called Strip Tease, which contains eight different strips with Christmas themed sayings that coordinate with the assorted papers. In addition to the packaged collection, I also received an assortment of Christmas theme chipboard accents called Buck Naked Ornament elements with ornament cover die cuts. Of all of the products contained in the review package, these were the most innovative and most fun to work with. For the Christmas collection, the Buck Naked elements are various chipboard ornaments that could well be used on your Christmas tree, or as accents for your pages, cards and other paper crafting projects. The premise behind the products is that you take the die cut and attach them to the chipboard to create a layered ornament. The chipboard can also be dressed just as you would any other naked chipboard product.
As noted above, all Cosmo Cricket patterned papers are cardstock weight and double-sided. Most feature a distressed solid on the back which would be suitable for use as a background paper. A few feature a second patterned paper on the back. All accents are perfectly coordinated for use with the papers in the collection, often featuring mini versions of the patterns in the collection. In addition, the chipboard die cut covers feature the patterns from the collection and are designed to coordinate with any paper from the collection.
For my first project, I use the Poinsettia patterned paper as the background paper for a fun layout about believing in Santa. For this layout, I made use of a strip from the Strip Tease patterned paper and a star from the Buck Naked ornament elements and cover die cuts to carry the title and theme of the layout. I also used another die cut and chipboard accent to balance out the page along with various other added accents. With very few embellishments, Cosmo Cricket allows you to create a fun, sophisticated Christmas layout that is not overly “themed”.
Title: Believe
Products used: Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection)
Buck Naked Ornaments and Cover Die Cuts (Cosmo Cricket)
Ric Rack and Flower (Classy Coordinates Kit Club)
Brad (Target)
Button (Bag o Buttons)
Bling (Heidi Swapp)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
For my second project, I used the papers as an accent to the layout. I used the Ribbons paper as an accent block on a neutral background in a layout that featured an outtake from our last year Christmas card photo shoot. I also made use of a layered chipboard tag from the Buck Naked Ornament elements set, covered with a die cut from the coordinating covers collection. I also used a tree from the die cut covers, but without the underlying chipboard to create dimension. The die cut covers are very versatile in that they can be used with their coordinating chipboard or alone.
Title: Ho Ho Ho
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics Butter Cream)
Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Be Good Collection)
Buck Naked Ornaments and Die Cut Covers (Cosmo Cricket)
Ribbon (Tie One On Ribbon Club)
Chipboard Heart (Heidi Swapp)
Button (Bag o Buttons)
Flower (Unknown)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
For my final project, I created a simple Christmas card using two of the patterned papers in a color blocked design. I also used another of the Buck Naked ornaments and die cut covers. Through out my projects, I found the Buck Naked ornament elements and covers to be the most versatile embellishments. They worked with a wide variety of projects. They can also be used alone as ornaments to decorate your tree.
Title: Stocking Card
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Be Good collection)
Buck Naked Ornament Element and cover die cuts (Cosmo Cricket)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
I really loved working with the Cosmo Cricket Be Good collection of patterned papers and embellishments. They have a nice homey feel, much like going home for Christmas at Grandma’s house. I especially loved working with the Buck Naked ornament elements and die cut covers. They are extremely versatile and fun to work with. If you haven’t gotten a Christmas paper collection as of yet, this one is definitely one to try.
