Chris' Review	Renee's Review	Tammy's Review	Stephanie's Review

Quoting from the Karen Foster Designs website: In the spring of 1998, Karen Foster created her first set of eight themed papers and her children helped pack and ship the orders from her garage, which served as a warehouse. She added stickers to the line as a complement to the papers and with a burgeoning business to manage, Karen enlisted the help of creative designers. The company has expanded to employ over 25 dedicated employees endeavoring to offer additional product lines such as rub-ons, embellishments, tools, idea books, totes and storage.

After over a decade in the Scrapbook and paper crafting industry, Karen Foster Designs is still going strong. Karen Foster is a very popular manufacturer among our reviewers; ScrapFriends has reviewed over 4 dozen of their collections and tools, beginning with the Baby's First Year collection.

This month, we were asked to review the Little Prince Scrapbook Kit, accompanied by the Baby Boy Trimmings, Stacked Stickers and Clearly Stickers. The Scrapbook Kit contains two each of four coordinating papers and two sets of cardstock stickers. These products all coordinate perfectly and make a great collection.

Review by Chris

I have always admired Karen Foster Design's knack for creating papers and embellishments that just "fit the bill." It seems that whenever I need a specialty collection, Karen Foster Design has just what I am looking for. Whether it be a particular sport such as basketball or gymnastics, fishing or bowling; or a family theme such as adoption, marriage or family reunion, Karen Foster Design comes through. They have found their niche in creating collections for the off-beat, uncommon or hard-to-find theme.

In this review I received a Little Prince Scrapbook Kit along with themed ribbon, and dimensional and clear stickers. The papers, two each of four different designs, are in shades of blues and greens with a touch of brown and are medium weight and single-sided. Each design is unique: rocking horses, an artistic collage of images and words, circles on a blue background and a green harlequin "little prince" design. All the papers coordinate well together. Included in the kit are two different sheets of cardstock stickers. These stickers contain a wide variety of images and word phrases. Several of the word elements are large enough to serve as page titles or greetings on cards. The stacked stickers include elements made of metal, felt and fabric. The rocking horse, complete with a mane and tail and a rhinestone eye is particularly cute! The clear stickers add a low-profile almost rub-on effect to paper craft projects.

I have many photos from Matt's younger years that I have not added to our family scrapbook and this page kit gave me the perfect opportunity to make some headway. The blue circle paper is perfect for a bath layout. I layered it with a green cardstock background and a small strip of the Green Prince paper to create this quick yet striking layout. I used three of the cardstock stickers as well as some clear stars (on the Bath Time title element) and a strip of ribbon to complete my layout. Once I had my photos selected and the basic layout determined, it took me very little time to complete this layout. Gotta love that!

Bath Time
Products used: Patterned paper (Karen Foster Design, Baby Boy Dots, Green Prince)
Stickers (Karen Foster Design, Precious Boy Clearly Stickers; Little Prince and Cutie Pie Cardstock Stickers)
Ribbon (Karen Foster Design, Baby Boy trimmings)
Cardstock (Prism, Prismatics, herbal garden medium, herbal garden light)
Punch (Fiskars, Threading Waters border punch)
Chipboard (Heidi Swapp, stars)
Stamps (Autumn Leaves, Rhonna Farrer clear stamps, hearts and stars)
Inks (Tsukineko, VersaFine, onyx black; ClearSnap, ColorBox cat's eye, Raven black)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
Sketch, Valerie Salmon

When I saw the rocking horse paper, I immediately envisioned a card. The design is perfect for a background accented by the coordinating cardstock sticker. I used another cardstock sticker for the card's greeting. What new parent would not love to receive this beautiful card?

Bundle of Joy card
Products used: Patterned paper (Karen Foster Designs, Rocking Horse)
Stickers (Karen Foster, Little Prince cardstock stickers)
Cardstock (Prism, Prismatics, Herbal Garden Medium, Suede Brown Dark)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech permanent bond glue runner)
Sketch (Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge)

Something I have always appreciated about Karen Foster Design is that their designers seem to seek out those themes that are not widely covered. Instead of producing only collections that are generic in design or for major holidays and events, they look for the unusual, and create collections for that theme or occasion. Thanks to Karen Foster, there is hardly an event, celebration or holiday that has been left uncovered. And if there is one, you can be sure Karen Foster Design will design something for it!

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Review by Renee

For this review, I received a Karen Foster Design Little Prince Scrapbook Kit, which included eight patterned papers and two sticker modules. In addition, I received a package of four ribbons that match the kit, a layered sticker module and a loopy bradlines package. These are long brad bars with loops which can be used to string ribbon or other embellishments on.

For my first project, I created a layout with several of the papers from the kit. The papers are themed for smaller boys. However, I was able to find papers that were appropriate for use with older boys as well. I used a sticker from the modules and a strip of ribbon from the ribbon package.

Title: Little Prince
Products used: Patterned Paper (Karen Foster Little Prince Kit)
Ribbon and Sticker (Karen Foster Little Prince collection)
Chipboard Stars (Heidi Swapp)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my second project, I used papers and stickers designed for a smaller boy to create a baby card. I love the layered stickers. This particular sticker has felt, wood, chipboard and fibers. I also used another of the cardstock stickers coupled with a different ribbon from the ribbon package to create a tag.

Title: Heaven Scent card
Products used: Cardstock (Paper Place)
Patterned Paper (Karen Foster Little Prince collection)
Stickers and ribbon (Karen Foster Little Prince collection)
Die Cut Machine and cartridge (Cricut Graphically Speaking)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I had a great time working with the Karen Foster Little Prince collection. For Moms of boys, this is a great one to add to your stash. The papers are cute and work in several situations.

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Review by Tammy

Scrapbook kits are a great way to create perfectly coordinated projects and layouts and Karen Foster's Little Prince Scrapbooking Kit is a great start to creating projects that showcase your special baby boy.

To complement the Little Prince Scrapbook Kit, I also received Loopy Bradlines, Ribbon Trimmings, Stacked Stickers, and a sheet of Clearly Stickers.

For my first project, I used a sheet of Rocking Horse on a dark brown background and layered a strip of Baby Boy Collage and Baby Boy Dots along the left side of the layout. I also added a strip of ribbon trimmings and a cardstock sticker from the Little Prince sticker sheet.

Title: Justin
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (Karen Foster Little Prince Scrapbook Kit, Rocking Horse, Baby Collage, and Baby Boy Dots)
Ribbon (Karen Foster Trimmings, Baby Boy)
Cardstock Sticker (Karen Foster, Little Prince)
Border Punch (Fiskers, Threading Waters)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I decided to make coordinating layouts of both of my boys for my mother-in-law, so I started with a dark green background and layered the Green Prince and Baby Boy Dots for my background. I then added a strip of Baby Boy Collage along the top with a strip of ribbon along the bottom edge. I added cardstock stickers from Little Prince and Cutie Pie along with a couple of the clear stickers from the Precious Boy clearly sticker sheet.

Title: Michael
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (Karen Foster Little Prince Scrapbook Kit, Green Prince, Baby Boy Dots, and Baby Boy Collage )
Ribbon (Karen Foster Trimmings, Baby Boy)
Cardstock Sticker (Karen Foster, Little Prince and Cutie Pie)
Clear Stickers (Karen Foster, Precious Boy Clearly Sticker Sheet)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

A handmade baby card is always special so I decided to use the Karen Foster Scrapbook kit and accessories to create a card. I used dark brown and green cardstock for my background colors and added a strip of Hobby Horse patterned paper along the left edge of the card. The Loopy Bradlines came in a variety of primary blues, greens, and purples, but I found that I really wanted brown. To fix this problem I embossed the Loopy Bradlines with brown embossing powder and now the brads would match my card.

The Loopy Bradlines also come in different lengths ranging from one loop to five loops. This gives you the ability to string multiple strands of ribbon, charms, strings, etc. from these fun brads. To give the look of a large staple, I used two of the one-loop bradlines with a piece of ribbon from the Baby Boy Trimmings. I then mounted one of the Stacked Stickers on a layer of coordinating cardstock colors and finished the card with a little doodling.

Title: My Boy
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (Karen Foster Little Prince Scrapbook Kit, Hobby Horse)
Ribbon (Karen Foster Trimmings, Baby Boy)
Loopy Bradlines (Karen Foster Loopy Bradlines, Playful)
Stacked Stickers (Karen Foster, Baby Boy)
Brown Pen (Micron)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

The Karen Foster Little Prince Scrapbook Kit and accessories brought back a lot of memories of when my boys were just babies. The kit made putting these pages together so easy and they will be something that my mother-in-law will treasure. I would like to mention that the stickers on the Clearly Stickers sheet were rather difficult to remove at first but if you remove the background first, the stickers themselves pull off of the backing with ease.

If you have a new baby boy or grandson, then I encourage you get this precious collection - Little Prince Scrapbooking Kit and accessories from Karen Foster Design.

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Review by Stephanie

Karen Foster never ceases to amaze me with her creations. This month I received a kit fit for a Prince, and the kit was aptly named "Little Prince." The papers are lightweight and work well incorporated within your projects. The Little Prince and Cutie Pie stickers are of cardstock quality and very detailed in both shapes and words. The clear stickers are small baby images and are perfect for adding little details on your projects. The dimensional embellishments are 3D and are so cute with a baby bib, safety pin, rocking horse and baby booties. I also received some coordinating ribbon and Loopy Bradlines which have so many possibilities.

In shades of blues, yellows, and greens, these papers are perfect for the special boy in your life. The papers come in a variety of patterns such as rocking horses, crowns, dots and a collage sheet that can be used as is, or cut apart for unlimited creations. With this kit, I was able to create some really cute projects quickly and easily because everything coordinates so well - from the pattern papers to the 3D embellishments to the ribbons.

My first layout went together quickly and easily. I used the Baby Boy Collage patterned paper as the background for my photo, allowing some of the words to take center stage. As such, I was able to use the paper words as my title. Adding several cardstock stickers created the right amount of journaling without actually adding journaling!

Title: Baby-Little Man
Products used: Cardstock (American Crafts, Butter)
Pattern Paper, Stickers, 3D embellishments (Karen Foster Little Prince)
Chalk (Craf T)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I then decided to create a mini album. I cut the baby bottle shape from the Cricut Doodlecharms cartridge. Using all the paper in this collection (as well as most of the stickers) I created an album about my son's first year. The 3D embellishments are perfect for the album's cover. Once I completed the album, I used my Bind-It-All to put it together. I then added the coordinating ribbons to finish it off. What a wonderful collection to create such an awesome keepsake.

Title: Welcome to the World Album
Products used: Cardstock (American Crafts, Butter; Prism, Iced Blue)
Pattern paper, ribbon, loopy bradlines (Karen Foster Little Prince)
Stickers (Karen Foster, Little Prince; Basic Grey)
Die cut (ProvoCraft, Cricut, Doodlecharms cartridge)
Ink (ColorBox)
Bind-It-All (Zutter)
Acrylic (Maya Road)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

This was a really fun kit to work with and pushed me back 14 years to Christopher's first year. What an exciting/crazy time that was - where has the time gone? Thanks Karen Foster for allowing me to go "back in time" and create an awesome album with fresh, new products.

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