Andrea's Review	Rachel' Review	Cathy's Review	Catherine's Review	Eli's Review

Review by Andrea

Having been born in New England, there was plenty of wintertime activity to participate in while growing up! Ice skating, skiing, snowmobiling and snow fort building were some of the favorites in my family. I tended towards the ice skating and snow forts myself! Karen Foster Design has brought some terrific patterns and colors to her recently released Snow Sports collection. The shades of blue, bright green, white and brown really communicate the feeling of cool weather and snow!

The 3 different patterned papers in cool tones offer a great variety to work with to create layouts for any winter activity. The "Hit the Slopes" word collaged paper with snowflakes as accents is more specific to skiing. The main background of the paper is a soft blue with white distressed phrases in different fonts all over the paper. The "Cool Dots" and "Cool Stripes" papers are shades of blue, bright green and brown dots and stripes. The later two patterns are a bit more versatile to be used with other winter sports. All three patterns are distressed on the edges with green and brown tones giving the feeling of snow after it's been melting a little! The two 5 1/2" x 9" sticker modules that were included focused mostly on skiing and snowboarding. I found the skiing module easier to use since I had no pictures of snowboarding in my stash. There was a liberal amount of snowflake stickers present on both sheets which I used completely up! The stickers themselves were heavy cardstock and repositionable for 2-3 times. They really stay put in their final position!

I found the papers and stickers easy to work with due to their coordinating color schemes and theme. The Prismatics solid color cardstock matched very well to all the materials and provided a nice mat for my photos. I found that a couple of the stickers were large enough to be used as titles on the layouts - bonus! Good thinking Karen Foster!

Title: "Snow '87"
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics: Iced Cobalt, Frosted Cobalt & Tawny Medium)
Patterned Paper (Karen Foster Design, Snow Sports - Cool Stripes & Cool Dots)
Cardstock Stickers (Karen Foster Design, Skiing)
Ink (Colorbox Fluid Chalk, Chestnut Roan)
Fiber (Fun Fur)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Glue Runner)

I really loved how the blue tones coordinate so well with snow pictures and give a "cool" sense to the whole layout!

Title: "Ski Lessons '98"
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics: Tawny Dark & Frosted Kiwi)
Patterned Paper (Karen Foster Design, Snow Sports: Hit the Slopes & Cool Dots)
Cardstock Stickers (Karen Foster Design, Skiing)
Ink (Colorbox Fluid Chalk, Chestnut Roan)
Ribbon & Fiber (Shoebox Trims)
Tag (Making Memories)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Glue Runner & 3-D Design Blocks)

Offering both general patterns and a word collage pattern for the Snow Sports collection was smart thinking for Karen Foster. Not only can you use these fabulously coordinated papers and stickers for skiing, but other winter sports and cold weather activities as well. The versatility of this collection is one of the best that I've reviewed lately and highly recommend it to capture your winter activities!

---

Review by Rachel

I received some of the “Snow Sports Collection” from Karen Foster Design. This collection includes patterned paper named “Hit the Slopes”, “Cool Dots” and “Cool Stripes”. I also received the coordinating cardstock snowboarding and skiing stickers.

The “Snowboarding” and “Skiing” cardstock stickers are so fun to use! These stickers are made of a heavy cardstock and are very sturdy and easy to use! They are a very high quality sticker and if you place it down where you don’t want it; it is very easy to peel back up. These stickers retail for approximately $1.99. The sheets measure 5 ˝” x 9 “. They help to make embellishing your layouts quick and easy. They also correspond perfectly with the patterned paper.

The patterned papers in this collection come already distressed. The colors used in these papers are great for those snow scenes. The “Cool Dots” and the “Cool Stripes” patterned paper can be used for anything from snow to boy layouts. This patterned paper is quite versatile. They are the classic blues, whites, browns, and lime greens. The patterned paper retails for approximately .55 cents. In the following layout, I used two different patterned papers and the stickers.

A Day at the Slopes :

Products used:
Cardstock: Twilight Lt., Suede Brown Dk. – Prismatics
Patterned Papers: Cool Stripes, Cool Dots – Karen Foster Design
Stickers: Skiing, Snowboarding – Karen Foster Design
Ribbon: Brown Grosgrain – Offray
Brads: Scrap Essentials – JoAnn Etc
Bookplates – Lg. Nickel – Magic Scraps
Trimmer: Tonic Studios
Adhesive: Permanent Glue Runner – Adhesive Tech and Pop Dots: Stamp Art – All Night Media

This collection is absolutely perfect for those winter sports. In fact, they would be great for highlighting your special sports from the Winter Olympics in Torino. I love that the patterned paper came already distressed and inked. Karen Foster Design collections make scrapbooking fun, easy, fast, and economical. There is no guesswork when you are using the collection. I highly recommend their collections to any scrapbooker: beginner or advanced.

---

Review by Cathy

Karen Foster Design has always been innovative and stylish. The new Snow Sport Collection is no exception. The color scheme is a softly distressed powder blue, white, green and brown. The patterned paper works well together and includes a winter sport word paper, stripes and dots. The cardstock stickers are in the same color scheme.

This color scheme is fresh and fun. I used all three patterned paper designs on the layout below. The coordinated set of paper and stickers makes it easy to put together a layout in a few minutes.

Supplies:
Karen Foster Design: Cool Dots;
Karen Foster Design: Cool Stripes;
Karen Foster Design: Hit the Slopes;
Karen Foster Design: Skiing Stickers;
Making Memories: Ric Rac; and
Adhesive Tech: Permanent Glue Runner.

I definitely would purchase more of this collection and I could see the patterned paper being used for other themes. This is a definite winner. Thanks to Karen Foster Design, all of our snow, ski and sledding pictures can be scrapped in a matter of minutes.

---

Review by Catherine

Karen Foster Designs has released yet another line of papers and cardstock stickers that fit a niche in the scrapbooking world that has yet to be filled to my knowledge. Their new line Snow Sports is perfect for scrapbooking pictures of winter sports, but is also wonderful for scrapping general snow-themed layouts.

I received the Karen Foster Design Snow Sports line to review. I received two each of three different patterned papers, along with cardstock stickers. As always, the papers and stickers in this Karen Foster line are perfectly coordinated. When I saw these papers, I liked them immediately. Two of the papers; Cool Dots and Cool Stripes; are so fun and “trendy”, and not themed at all other than color. These papers have a wonderful distressed look with bold, fun patterns. The colors of the patterned papers in this line are what make them so fun, in my opinion. I wouldn't necessarily connect papers that are blue, lime green, and brown with winter time, but the designers at Karen Foster Design have completely pulled it off! The non-traditional colors are done so well that it's easy to scrap winter pictures with them.

I used the papers on a layout about tubing at Durango Mountain Resort last winter. I think that the papers set off these snow pictures perfectly.

Ridin’ the Powder:

Products used:
Cardstock: Prism Exclusives
Patterned Paper: Karen Foster Design
Stickers: Karen Foster Design
Chipboard Frame: Li’l Davis Designs
Ribbon: Michael's
Rub-Ons: Heidi Swapp
Rockettes: Little Black Dress Designs
Adhesive: Adhesive Tech Permanent Glue Runner & A Fine Line...Beads, Glass, Etc.

Out of all of the lines that we have reviewed this winter, I believe the Snow Sports line is my favorite. I love the colors that the designers used in these papers, which are not classically snow related, but work amazingly well. I love the beautiful distressing of the papers. I recommend these papers to anyone who needs to scrap winter themed pictures, or just likes the combination of blue, lime green, and brown! Another fabulous line from Karen Foster Design.

---

Review by Eli

Karen Foster Design: Snow Sports

I grew up in a small mountain town near a major ski area, two hours west of Denver. I now live in Denver. I love the snow and the outdoor activities that go with it. So it would stand to reason that the skiing photos would fly out of my printer on a regular basis, but…not so. We tend to stick to the front yard and occasionally venture out to the park to make a snowman. But that didn’t deter my enthusiasm for the Snow Sports Collection from Karen Foster Design. For the review, I received two sheets of each of the papers in the collection, including: Hit the Slopes, Cool Stripes and Cool Dots. Also included were two sheets of cardstock stickers, one for skiing and one for snowboarding. I combined various elements for a page to feature Hannah making snow angels.

I began with the high quality papers in the collection and combined all three of them for this page. Since I didn’t have any specific snow sports that were featured in this line, I used the elements that made sense. I really liked the little circular sticker saying, “Professional Ski Bum.” I altered it to say “Snow Bunny” which captured my girly-girl a bit more precisely than the original. Here are the results…

Angels in the Making
Supplies:
Cool Dots, Cool Stripes and Hit the Slopes patterned papers (Karen Foster Design)
Skiing cardstock sticker sheet (Karen Foster Design)
Prismatics Frosted Kiwi and Twilight Medium cardstocks (Prism)
Blue/brown ribbon (SEI)
Brown distress ink (Ranger)
Permanent Glue Runner (Adhesive Tech)
StampAct font
Other: Blue ribbon, blue pen

Conclusion: I have lots of love and warmth for this collection in chilly blue, tan, white and a bit of clear green, featuring fun winter images. The quality remains top notch. If you are in the market for snowboarding or skiing papers and stickers, look no further. If you have other winter sports needs, the papers and stickers can be used for a variety of subjects. The stripes and dots papers feature very versatile images. Recommended.

For more information visit Karen Foster Design