In 2006, I was desperately searching for a digital scrapbooking set that featured fire trucks, fire engines, firefighters or even just dalmatian spots for BigBrother’s first birthday invitations. I prefer to make my own invitations from digital scrapbooking sets because I like to pretend that I am somewhat creative when, in all reality, I am not crafty. That said, I came up empty handed. I searched again, briefly, in 2007 before deciding to go with a train theme for BigBrother’s second birthday party. And, to be honest, I didn’t even bother to search in October of 2008 when I was planning LittleBrother’s first birthday party for the following month.

I don’t know why but the number of fire truck/engine/fighter digital scrapbooking sets out there are very few. To boot, pun intended, some of the existing ones aren’t all that great. I mean, I may not be all that crafty but I know what looks good and what doesn’t and trust me: some of the available sets out there aren’t all that good looking. I was so excited when I came across a set made in late 2008 (after I went with a jungle theme for LittleBrother’s invitations) that was not only well designed, filled with lots of papers and elements and colorful in general but… get this… it was offered as a freebie! WIN-WIN!

I (immediately) downloaded the Just Call Me The Fireman set at Kim’s Scrappin’ blog. It comes with:

• 15 12 x12 inch papers
• 2 borders
• 1 RicRac
• 3 brads
• 4 stickers
• 1 frame
• 1 filmstrip

That’s a lot of stuff… especially for a freebie. But, the question begs to be asked: was it good stuff? Was it too cheesy? Was it poorly created? Would I be able to create a layout for both the boys’ fire stuff (dress up, visits to the fire department) and FireDad’s real life fire photos? Or would it just accommodate one or the other? The good news is: it’s good stuff. It’s not cheesy. It’s not poorly created. And it works for either the boys or FireDad’s photos.

I chose to make a layout from the photoshoot that brought about a winning photo in the Goodmama photo contest last year back when LittleBrother was just starting to crawl around the fire department.

The results look best in full size.

I love it. I’m not one who uses a lot of stuff on one page. I prefer three to six pictures, an explanation of one or two pictures, a title for the page and a few embellishments. I like some blank space so that the pictures draw the eye. I’m kind of particular about my scrapbooking, digital or otherwise. (Especially for someone who isn’t very crafty.) I love the colors, the texture of everything and the quality of the creation.

And so, I can honestly say that this is the best firefighter digital scrapbooking set I’ve ever downloaded and used. In the future, I will be bringing you some other sets, embellishments and links to digital scrapbooking stuff for fire families. As for right now, head on over to Kim’s Scrappin’ blog and download this amazing freebie (even if you aren’t a fire family!). I mean, it’s free!

If you are a digital scrapbook kit/element/paper creator and you have something you think we’d be interested in, please let us know. If you’re just a digital scrapbooker yourself and you happen to come across a great looking fire set, could you please contact me? Thank you!

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(Note: The font used is a freebie available at DaFont.com named Broken Ghost. Kudos to the creator for that one!)