Many digital scrapbookers have discovered Kaboodle, through various forums and links. For those seeking a generic wish list for all digital products, Kaboodle provides this and more - for free. 

Some Digital Stores out there have a wish list function - browse through the online catalog, find a product you want to buy, add it to your wish list. There are various types out there, including a simple list with thumbnails, or you can choose to send it to a friend or yourself via emails. However, wish lists aren't offered by every digital store, and there is a problem with them, if you happen to frequent quite a few digital stores - you can remember you like a product and may have even entered it onto a wish list - but you can't remember what store it was found at. Well, I can't anyway.

Signing Up 

Kaboodle keeps your wish lists all in one place. The site itself has many thousands of users, who create for themselves wish lists for anything from home decor, gadgets, software, books (in fact, you can import in your amazon wishlists also), fashion handbag or shoe collections, to - of course - digital scrapbooking products. Signup on the site is completely free, and easy. Click on the Join Now button from the homepage, and you're off.

Wish Lists 

Once you've created a profile, you'll need to create at least one (you can have many) wish lists. Once signed in, go to your Home tab, and you'll find a Welcome message, and another set of tabs below. The My Lists tab will give you a New List button. Many digital scrapbookers create a main wish list called something along the lines of "Digital Scrapbooking Wishlist". Many create another list called "Got it!" or similar. This second list is used when the scrapper has purchased something (or been lucky enough to have someone else not their wishlist and purchase it for them) and they want to move the item out of their wishlist. I normally simply delete the item once bought, else my wishlist will just get bigger and bigger.

Once you have one or more wish lists, you can access the list via the Lists button at the top. Each list item has normal functions such as  Send to Friend, Compare Prices, Move | Copy, Edit (you can add text or tags to each item) and Delete. The Organize link allows you to sort by alphbetical, date added or priority.

List items can also be viewed in normal list view, grid view, or as a slideshow. For some strange reason, Kaboodle also allows you to create a collage out of your list items, and play around with rotation, text and background colours on this collage. My collage is shown here. 

More on Profiles

Your standard profile is as set when you registered. But Kaboodle isn't just about keeping a wishlist online.  It's about social networking (see below) so you might want to add more details about yourself or even a photograph or image as your avatar. To do this, click on My Profile at the top, then Edit Profile link. Upload an image for your avatar.

Kaboodle Buttons 

To help you out, I'd recommend that you Install the Kaboodle buttons in the browser toolbars, available from the Home tab also (on the right panel). Click on Install the Kaboodle buttons, and follow the steps for your browser of choice. I use Firefox, and the two buttons install in my top toolbar.

One button will take me straight to my Kaboodle Home. The other means I can add any item I happen to find from my browser straight into my Kaboodle Wish List. I use this when I'm on a store page with an item open - Kaboodle takes the full thumbnail image, and written details and link to the item. If I have more than one wishlist, I am presented with a list to select from of these - before the item is inserted into my wishlist.

Getting Social with Groups and Friends

Like many other Web 2.0 websites, Kaboodle is all about social networking. I happen to be the owner of the Digital Scrapbooking Group on kaboodle. This is an open entry group - currently it has 151 members, all with digital scrapbooking as an interest.  

Groups have a forum, and a group list which shows popular items from member's lists. But a major benefit of this group is that you will most likely find some friends on it. Kaboodlers can be invited to, or invite you to be their friend, using Kaboodle's Private Messaging and email service. From Groups and Friends on Kaboodle comes even more fun -

Kaboodle Fun

List Items and Send to Friend

All list items have a function to Send to Friend (red heart button). Use this to send the item both to your kaboodle friends, but to family externally (especially if you have a birthday coming up).

Tag It!

When you're adding an item into one of your lists, don't forget to add some tags (separate with commas). These will help you link up with appropriate related lists, and also to find your items again. I add tags such as "element", "kit", "backgrounds" but also the name or abbreviation for the store the item is found at. This means I can easily click on the store tag to find all items I've added to my lists from that store - should I happen to be going on a shopping expedition.

A tag cloud can be found on your Home page, under the My Tags tab. Each of these tags in the cloud is a clickable link. Like all tag clouds, the most popular tags are in a bigger font, making it easy to see what is most popular in my own lists (currently - mine move quickly).  

On Others Lists - Copy Items, and Comment

Once you are browsing friend lists, or group member lists, you will no doubt find even more items you want to buy at some point. Simply use the button called Add to My list to do just that.  When viewing your own lists, you will see on the right, a long list of Related Lists, where you can simply click on to view those other lists. They are linked with tag words, so make sure you have created lists with similar tags to pick up the relevant like-minded lists.

On other's lists, you can also add comments.

Share Your Own Lists Externally

On various digital scrapbook forums out there, you will see people advertising their kaboodle lists via a signature link. Clickling this link should take you to their Kaboodle List to peruse.

If you own a blog or external website, you can also share your own list on it, via a little badge. To locate this tool, on your own list, click on the dropdown field called More Actions and from there, Get Widgets. You can then choose either a javascript badge or flash sideshow. You can choose some customisation and take the html code given you to put onto your own blog sidebar or similar. Your own list items will then appear in a badge, and dynamically update should you add items to your list over time.

Kaboodle Polls

The widgets area above also allows you to create a poll to be shared with friends. However, sitewise there are also other polls available. At the moment, the Style Compatibility Test (found under Fun Stuff) has taken the site by storm. Once you've done this, you will get the results back about whom, out of your Kaboodle friends, you are most alike to - if they too have done this test. Individual polls can be used to ask friends to help you choose from your items.

Home Page

Finally, your homepage is a font of knowledge. It will not only give you access to your groups and lists, but notify you of activity on these groups, and with your friend's lists also. You can also setup emails to notify you of friend activity.

Kaboodle also has a news blog, emails and featured groups. The Digital Scrapbooking group was a featured group not long ago.  

So, if you're after an online wish list, and to meet similar minded people, have a go at Kaboodling.  

Originally Published in The Zine, Edition 1