This is the archive for Scrapbook Obsession Blog.com with posts from 2013-2017.

New Line @ Michaels: Vintage Findings by Making Memories

I first heard talk of this line in THIS post at 2peas. So, I popped over HERE to check it out. I was quite confused because so much of it looks to me EXACTLY like something JENNI BOWLIN already has or something she would design. I assumed Jenni partnered with MAKING MEMORIES to design this line, but I searched around their website and blog and could find no mention of such. So, yeah, kinda’ weird to me that MM would be allowed to make a line that looks SO similar to another designer/company but that’s just me, I guess. No one else on the thread commented on it being a concern to them (but one Pea told me that Jenni does not work for MM, which I knew).

Anyhoo, the rumor is {this has not been confirmed, as far as I know} that MICHAELS has an exclusive deal with MM to sell Vintage Findings now (June 2009), then the line will be released to the LSSs in the fall. Which, if I were an LSS, would tick me off and make me not order it because by the time the LSSs receive it, it will be “old news” to scrapbook shoppers. That’s probably all by design and I know companies like Making Memories are doing whatever they can to survive in this economy but it still makes you feel kinda’ icky, doesn’t it?

This issue came up before when BASIC GREY did exclusives with Michaels and the paper stacks for lines like Urban Prairie (one of my favorite BG lines evah!). You can read about it HERE. I know that many LSS owners, and LSS supporters like myself, were pretty upset by the BG development because “How dare they dis the LSS like that ?!?!?” I guess I finally came to peace with it for these reasons: 1. Those of us without LSS’s anymore can still easily buy it, and 2. If it comes down to it, I believe in whatever measures it takes to keep the SB companies in business. But I know it ain’t pretty, folks. One positive I can point out is that, to my knowledge, this kind of thing doesn’t happen all that often. I can only think of these 2 instances in the past year or so. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

Anyway, here are a couple quick photos of the items they had at my Mike’s. They were taken with a stealth iPhone, so as usual, please forgive the quality. At least at you get the idea, right?

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See those little crystal-topped stick pins in the top photo ?? {HERE’s a link….stupid MM website won’t let me copy the photo}. Those reminded me of an online AMR friend, so I bought them and she’ll be receiving them in the mail soon. I love scrap friends!

Okay, all that said and please don’t shoot! But I’m not a fan of this line. Some of the papers are cute ~ I like the map ones ~ but I guess I’m not a true vintage girl because I can’t see myself using these things on my pages to a large enough degree that I’d buy a whole pack of the findings. A few of them were cute – the labels and stick pins come to mind – but overall, my review is … Eh. I thought things like tickets and simple labels were overpriced (you could make them or buy them on Etsy or at an office supply store for a lot less). But I know there are a lot of you true Vintage Girls out there who will really like it. There were many on that 2peas thread who were totally in love and buying it up like crazy. That’s the beauty part…to each their own in scrapbooking. There’s something for everyone.

What do you think of the Vintage Findings line by Making Memories? And what do you make of the Michaels exclusive on it?

Scrapbook Organization and Scrap Randoms

HERE is a link to a great article about organizing your scrapbook supplies in ways that are eye-pleasing.

HERE is why you should watermark all photos and layouts you post online….unless you WANT to be the Christmas family in a foreign country, LOL!

I {heart} Cathy Z’s sense of HUMOR

Great article on RUBBER vs. ACRYLIC. Oh, get your mind out of the gutter! I’m talking about stamps. Sheesh. You people.

Cool SONG by The Frames, another lovely discovery made while watching So You Think You Can Dance, my favorite show at the moment. HERE is a video of Karla and Jonathan’s performance. OMG. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Touching. The premise is two strangers who meet, have instant attraction, but cannot be together. Check it. You WILL be touched…

ETA 6/20/09: Thanks to Meaghan who left a comment letting me know there’s another version of this song and HERE it is. I’m now officially a HUGE fan of Glen Hansard and The Frames, his Irish band. I’m spending way too much time watching various of their videos on YouTube. Anyway, I gather that Glen, the lead singer of The Frames, wrote “Falling Slowly” with Marketa Irglova and it’s also part of the movie they starred in called “Once.” Hope I have that straight….Enjoy :)

More Tutorials for EK Success & Fiskars Border Punches

I’ve posted links to border punch tutorials in the past and know how much we all love them, so here’s another one. Check it out HERE. Thanks to ABBY aka ScrapbookFrenzy for pointing this out! It’s from the Studio Calico BLOG, which has lots of other yumminess. I confess to owning 2 of the punches she uses (Threading Water aka eyelet punch, and Leave it to Weaver, with the ribbon slots). Now, of course, I’ll be getting the 3rd one with the waves … if I can find it with a coupon.

I love the idea of threading ribbon through the THREADING WATER punch. That punch is so versatile. You can also put brads in the eyelet holes, or STICKLES, or SKITTLES.

When I saw the card she added the border to…

…I started to feel like there was an online conspiracy against me. I want that new line from Cosmo Cricket called EARLY BIRD soooo bad, and I keep seeing projects all over the place where it’s used but I don’t have mine….yet! I will be ordering it from MEMORY WORKS, like, pronto. I can’t take it anymore.

These border punches by EK Success and Fiskars are so popular. HERE is a thread on 2peas asking, “How many border punches do you have?” I was glad to see I’m not alone in having quite a few.

Confession time: I have …… um, let’s see …… 3 Martha Stewart ……. plus 2 Fiskars ……. plus 2 EK Success ……. equals 7! That’s not TOOO embarrasing, is it? What’s embarrassing is how many more of them I want.

You’re turn to ‘fess up…How many border punches do YOU have?

Thickers and Martha Stewart Wedding at Big Lots

Finally! Some THICKERS showed up at my Big Lots. Not that I was stalking it….because I wasn’t….I mean, not that you can prove….

Here are the ones I bought. I wasn’t thrilled with the selection, especially compared to what I’ve seen others post from their BL. But, hey, 2 bucks for something that normally goes for $4-5? I’ll take it, mama!

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Did you know that Big Lots also has a bunch of MARTHA STEWART wedding stuff right now? There are packages of tiny bling and pearls, cake topper frames, garlands, etc. As one would imagine, Martha’s items are very tasteful and of good quality. I was tempted by some MS 12×12 postbound albums that were marketed as a Wedding Guest Book. I don’t need one of those, but I figured for 2 bucks a piece, I could pull out the guest book pages and insert a bunch of page protectors. Alas, I decided against buying any. Here is what I DID get. These MS heart tins I got the last time I was there. Only $2 for 24 pretty little tins. I’m going to put candies in them and give them away at my crop in July.

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The daisy coasters are stinkin’ adorable. Think I will keep a couple for me, then give the rest out at the crop, too. Don’t you think they make a great embellishment for a Spring layout? The scalloped ones are so much cuter (and less orange) in real life. I flipped one over so you can see that you could just use the white side for a journaling box. In really faint print, it has a tiny logo in the middle but you can easily write over it.

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I’ve been having a really rough week so that was a nice little surprise. I got a screamin’ deal on my favorite shampoo at Big Lots, too. Me likey that store….

Are You Disloyal to the LSS If You Shop Big Box or Discount?

There is an older post on my blog where I told you about some cool items that were new to Michaels. Here is a comment I recently received on that entry:

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A few posts ago you lamented the possible closing of your LSS. Yet it’s posts like this — and all your “look at the mass deals at big box stores and HSN” and “buy from me @ Scrapworks so I can break even” posts — that are helping put the independent LSSs out of business.

I’m not saying that nobody’s entitled to a bargain. But you can’t have it both ways.
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When she said, “A few posts ago you lamented the possible closing of your LSS,” she was referring to THIS post. Her reference to HSN is HERE (well, one of my many, LOL) and “. . . buy from me @ Scrapworks so I can break even,” is referring to, I guess, THIS post about my affiliation with MEMORY WORKS, because I don’t recall ever asking you to buy from me so I can break even (?).

Anyway, I was not surprised or insulted by her comment, as its one that I expected to hear, I guess. But, as I e-mailed to the poster of the comment, I think it brings up a very interesting point. I mean, the state of this industry – the scrapbooking industry – does cause quite a dilemma for those of us who would like to support it and keep it alive. For real. How do we reconcile the endless message board posts and blog entries about the great deals to be found at big box stores, et al? How do we explain our online orders to “peachy cheap” sites and the like? How do we defend our copious use of 40% and 50% off coupons at stores like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and the like? (The commenter didn’t even call me out on that one….but my conscience forced me to confess it, yeah).

Well, here is my story, and I’m stickin’ to it….

{I’m going to repeat things I’ve said again and again on this blog, so you lovely Regular Readers, please forgive me the repetition. But here goes…}

I live in a rural area. A few years ago, there were 7…count ’em, SEVEN…local scrapbook stores within one hour of me. There were 2 LSSs in the town next to me (15 minutes away), 3 stores that were 30 minutes away, and 2 more that were a good one-hour drive. To many, you wouldn’t even call 5 of those stores an “LSS”…how “local” is it, if you have to drive for 30 minutes to one hour to get there? But I considered them my local stores. I choose to live in the boondocks, so I understand shopping here is not at a premium and though someone in LA might have crazy access to the stores of their choice, I don’t. Just the way it is.

But here’s the point: When there were 7 LSSs within driving distance of me, I shopped ’em, baby! That was back when I worked my high-powered job and made excellent money. Scrapbooking was new to me and I had some serious product collection to do, ya know what I mean? I didn’t limit my spending to LSS’s either….I shopped at Scrapbook Expo twice a year (which is made up of manufacturers, and of scrapbook stores from far and wide). I shopped at CKU. When I traveled for business, I found LSSs in the towns I went to and I shopped them Bad Boys, too. Looking back, it was an unhealthy obsession but my point….my point again was? Oh, that’s right! That no one has been a better Supporter of the LSS than me! Seriously.

To go back even further, I discovered scrapbooking in 2001 by attending a CREATIVE MEMORIES party (yeah, fess up, so did you!). I took one trip to MICHAELS way back then, didn’t really care for what I saw, and stayed away for years. I mean, I might go for the basics like adhesive and such but, for the most part, the LSS owned my heart. They had the helpful people, the latest products that I saw in CREATING KEEPSAKES magazine, and I didn’t know from a discount…I happily paid full retail price. Well, until I filled up my “frequent flyer” card at the LSS and got some free product. Shizzle, I was so happy each time, you wooda’ thought I won the freakin’ lottery!

Fast forward to 2007 and…welcome to my world…my income has shrunk considerably and 6 of the 7 LSSs in my area have closed. Now, to digress for a minute…sure the economy played a part in these store closures, and that is reflected in the mass amount of LSS closures nationwide. But to be fair, I would blame at least 5 of the 7 LSS closures on things OTHER THAN the failing economy/industry. MY dream was to open an LSS so, believe you me, I was paying close attention, I was running the numbers, and I was privy to “insider information” on several of these stores. The last thing I wanted was for these stores to fail. It truly. broke. my heart. I WANTED them to succeed. I rah rah’d them every chance I got. I took out of town visitors there. I had them sponsor my crops. I was a hugely loyal customer. I did not criticize them to anyone (in my out loud voice). I just shopped and supported and cropped. So you can imagine my sadness when, one by one, these local scrapbook stores closed their doors.

Okay, so after the closure of 6 of “my” 7 stores, where did that leave me to shop? You guessed it…Walmart. Target. Michaels. Eventually, Tuesday Morning opened 30 minutes from me where, quite by accident while looking for pillowcases one day, I discovered they carried scrapbooking supplies. And, lucky them, they are close to Costco where I shop once a month. Walmart has the basics. I have probably spent $20 on scrapbook supplies there in the past year. Target has slowly rotating stock, discounted prices that have slowly morphed thisclose to retail prices, and the occasional clearance endcap worth shopping. That leaves Michaels and Tuesday Morning, where I do utilize my coupons (for the few items they’re still allowed on, LOL) and I take advantage of the occasional good deal. My point is that (and there IS a point here, somewhere, I swear!), for those of us in less populated areas with no LSS within 30 minutes, do we have much of a choice? Am I not to shop at all, except for the few times per year I can justify driving 45 minutes to a town I have no other business in? My answer, the one I’m completely comfortable with, would be no.

I’m sure there will be those who disagree, and that’s groovy. What is America if not a place where we can agree to disagree, right? But I think I’m doing more of a service toward keeping the scrapbooking industry alive – even if I can’t personally support LSSs the way that I used to – by shopping at the likes of Michaels and Tuesday Morning, than if I did not shop for scrapbooking supplies at all. Let’s face it…in this horrible economy, scrapbook spending of any kind is a luxury. If I can, in my small bloggy way, entice people to spend ANY money on ANY scrapbooking materials, well then, I call myself a winner, damn it! I blog about items and deals at Michaels because that is my mainline to supplies (yeah, that drug reference was intentional). If I had LSSs to publicize, I would. Damn straight. Before the blog redesign (and you loyal readers will vouch for this), I had about a bazillion links to ALL MOMENTS REMEMBERED, my favorite online store, all over my blog. I linked to STACEY and her store every chance I got. Well, now even the AMR online store has fallen victim to these times and, although Stacey still sells supplies online through her ETSY store, there is no longer an AMR online store to link to. {Happy side note: Stacey opened a brick-and-mortar AMR in her town in Oregon and, at last report, it was doing great!}

Bottom line, what I’m trying to say in my as always verbose way is this: I’m doing the best I can. I shop my 45-minutes-away-LSS as often as I can. I shop at Michaels to the point where they yell “Norm!” when I walk in the door. If I see something I like at Tuesday Morning or Costco, I shop and I share. I sell Memory Works so I can make a little mo’ money to…guess what?…spend on scrapbook supplies. I don’t mind if people question my motives or my method, because I know I’m just doing my thang.

And I know that I do it out of the love I have for this craft and my true, heartfelt desire to play a part in keeping it on life support through these crushing times. I hope in my own small way, I inspire and support you in doing the same. Of course, support your LSS! But don’t feel badly if you show your financial support in other ways, too.

Shop on, Sistas!

PS: I would dearly love to hear your thoughts on this issue, but please, keep it nice. No harshing on the nice lady who left the comment that generated this post, or I will edit/delete posts as necessary. If you would like to harsh on me, that’s fine….

And the winner is…

Thank you so much for leaving comments on THIS post, telling me about your favorite scrapbook message boards and why you like them. They were so fun to read. I’ve already checked out and joined some of the MBs, and will be looking at some more when I get a chance. Anyway – blah, blah, blah – you don’t care, you just wanna’ know who won, right??

According to Random.org, the winner is:

Result:
9

Which means it’s …. KAYLA!!! aka mustangkayla

Yay, congratulations Kayla! I will be sending you a little sumthin’ sumthin’ in the mail. THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE!!

Thuh Blog: New Look and Linkees

I wanted to write about some changes I’ve been making to my blog and kind of ‘splain myself.

The Theme – I was rockin’ that WordPress “Albeo” theme for quite a while and I was really bored with it. I look at the darn thing every day and it just got old, ya know? It’s hard to find a format what will work with my content, mainly the larger photos I like to post…the better to see those scrapbook products with, my dear. I road tested a few new formats and have settled on this one.

The Header – This is my first theme with a customizable header and I finally figured out how to make one, LOL! The photo I have up there now is one I took of the Colosseum when I visited Rome in October 2006. I hope to occasionally change up the header photo.

The Memory Works Stuff – This is the main change I wanted to talk about. I’ve been a Memory Works consultant since February 2007 and I’ve had this blog since January 2007. So for the last 2+ years, I’ve kind of made it a point not to mix the two. My blog is about my scrapbook obsession, period. In almost 470 posts, I haven’t really talked about Memory Works or the products I sell. I’ve mentioned that I host crops, my “customers,” etc. but I think I’ve been pretty good about keeping this an obsessed scrapbooker’s blog vs. a Memory Works blog.

In all honesty, part of the reason I did it at the beginning was that they would’ve kicked me off of CKMB (Creating Keepsakes Message Board) if this was an MW blog. Their rule was that if you linked to your blog in your siggie, the blog’s primary purpose could not be to promote your biz. One time I had a close call when the CK tech people sent me a warning that I would be banned if I didn’t get rid of my blog link in my siggie. I politely explained that, while I was a consultant, the blog was a personal blog not a Memory Works blog. Then my people called their people and – badda bing – we came to an understanding. Nah, but that little episode did make me ultra paranoid about keeping it un-MW because I didn’t want to be sent packing from CKMB.

Well, since then, I’ve chosen to go packing on my own so CKMB has not been the issue for some time. I guess I just always felt weird about self-promoting, or coming off as a salesperson instead of as your scrapbooking friend who just wants to talk about the cute new stuff, ya know? But I guess the time has finally come where I can reconcile it all. This is my damn blog and if I want to talk about Memory Works and share a link or publicize my products, I’m going to! For shizzle. I figure after all the free publicity I’ve given, what, hundreds (?) of other companies over the years, it’s my turn. When I share products with you, I always make a point to provide a link where you can see more (even though some of them make it difficult or impossible to do so, something I just don’t get). My policy was to, if possible, link to the product manufacturer or however I could get you closest to the source of something. For instance, when I wrote about the Share and Tell system, I linked directly to the Pebbles Inc. website, not to an online store who sells it, or to another blogger that wrote about it. I mean, I might do all those other links in addition to, but I have always tried to drive traffic to the manufacturer.

But from now on, you will see me linking to product listings on my Memory Works site. I truly hope that doesn’t offend anyone. Why? Because I love you! I don’t want to ever become a ‘shove it down your throat’ salesperson. Heck, I can’t stand people like that (an example…a school mom I know wears her Pampered Chef polo to every. single. school event. I mean, seriously??). But I figure if I’m taking the time, love, and devotion to write up a product I love, and MW happens to carry said product, I’m going to link to my own site. Maybe you will never, ever, in a million years place an order with me and that is totally fine. But a girl can try, can’t she? {As it happens, the link to my Memory Works site is currently the “top click” on my blog and yet only one online friend has placed an order with me so far.}

This is kind of a side note but one thing that amazes me is that for all the free product endorsements I’ve provided for two years, with linkees to the manufacturer, I can probably count on one hand the number of times they have thanked me for the link. Either they are ungrateful, or they don’t know how to check their stats or run a Google check, which are basics I’d think scrapbook companies would possess. Anyway, I just don’t want you to think that all those manufacturers will be sorry to see my links go, LOL. They never even noticed them in the first place.

And just for the record, I have never received any sort of compensation for writing this dang blog. It has all been on my own time, for no financial gain. The few times I’ve received a free demo product in the mail, I’ve disclosed that in the review (the only ones coming to mind are the Ribbon Ring and the Angel Baby scrapbooking kit). I could have chosen to make some money off my blog with ads or some such, but I never did do that. I hope this MW thang is a happy medium that doesn’t bug you too much.

I guess that’s it. If I get out of hand with the Memory Works stuff, to the point where it’s so overdone that you run from the room screaming…tell me. A good smack upside the head usually works. Then in your best New York accent, say, “Snap out of it!” just like Cher said to Nicolas Cage in Moonstruck. I mean it.

If you have any thoughts on the whole matter, please share. Even if you hate everything I just said. Seriously.

Walmart, Michaels, the LSS…Oh My!

I had the opportunity to do some shopping in The Big City, as I had a fun Girls Weekend at the beach and, what do you know, I had to drive through civilization to get there. Here’s my shopping report:

On Clearance at Mike’s: Prima flower milk jars($6.99 down to $2.99), and Making Memories 8×8 paper pad, Travel. See those cream colored flowers in the bottom left of the photo? I had those in my hand. They went on a quite a walk around the store with me. I had layout ideas in my head on which I would use them.

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But I put them back on the shelf when I found this. Ah, paper punches on Clearance! Wow, that worked out nicely….with the photos stacked on top of each other, I almost matched them up, didn’t I? These were on an end cap, where our Mike’s now has a lot of scrap clearance these days.

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Here is the punch I bought: Regularly $14.99, marked down to $7.99, and with my 40% coupon, it cost me just over $5. Did I get a great deal or what? Sounds like 66% off to me! Isn’t it cute, how it does the zigzag edge, which reminds me of Bazzill’s specialty cardstock…now I can make it myself. This punch not only punches the zigzag shape, it also embosses a dotted line, adding the perfect detail. I’m so happy I got it!

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My other purchase from Michaels, a bling title that says “Beach.” This is perfect for the title of my Girls Weekend layout. I’m going to title it “Beach Girls”.

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Remember, I told you HERE that my last LSS (still, it’s 45 minutes away) sent out an e-mail that they need help through the summer and, hopefully, they would not have to close in the fall. So I paid a little visit, didn’t I?

ETA: Chris commented about Sass Lass and MME being at Michaels so I’m going to clarify here….everything below here was from my LSS, except the clipboards which are from Wallie World ~ I wrote this post at 1am so I wasn’t very clear :)

Here is a predone layout I bought. Number one, I love it…the Love title, the white puff paint dots around the scallops, and the Basic Grey line that was used, which I happen to have plenty of, I’m going to make a companion page to go with this. From the 50% off table, so I paid about $3 for it.

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Here are some bee-you-tiful papers I got from My Minds Eye. Love, love, LOVE scalloped edges.

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Here is a sheet of Flair Designs paper. I like how you can cut it apart for use on your pages.

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Here’s some more goodies. The back of one of the MME (My Mind’s Eye) sheets, Basic Grey “Offbeat” chipboard stickers, some journal and title spots from MME, and a great deal on a ribbon pack (50% off).

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Finally, may I share a whole lotta’ Sass Lass love? Yep, these were also on the clearance table, and only cost me $2.49…wait, no! Half off of $2.49 would be about $1.25 each, or $5 for all four.

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Oh, not “finally!” I forgot to show you the clipboards I got from Walmart. I’m going to alter them, and use them in my home office. They cost under $1 each…

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“Thank you for watching. This has been Scrapbook Obsession reporting from inside Scrapbook World.”

Cosmo Cricket “Early Bird”

Yippie kie YAY! Memory Works now has the new COSMO CRICKET!! I love the color way, the cherries, just the general happy-ness of it.

Here’s what you get with our exclusive THEME SET: Six 12×12 sheets of double-sided patterned cardstock paper and one 12×12 sheet of coordinating cardstock strips. ($6.50)

Here’s the ELEMENTS sheet: One 12×12 sheet of double-sided cardstock cut-apart journaling cards and elements ($1.00).

and here are the STICKERS: One 5 3/4 x 13 sheet of weather-worn cardstock stickers ($2.00)

You know, that’s not bad. You could have all three pieces (well, 9 pieces technically) for under $10. Cosmo has kept their prices really reasonable.

HERE is a Cosmo Cricket blog post from April 2009 showing the “sneak peek” of this line, but it has great, large photos of all the pieces. You’ll notice that the Papers and Elements I show above are actually double-sided…more than meets the eye…I like that!

Here is a layout from the CC blog, by Julie Comstock (HERE’s her Twitter!):

Also from their blog, a recipe box by LISA FALDUTO

…and Early Bird cards by MAREN BENEDICT, from the CC Design Team:

Here is a fun purse covered in an Early Bird pattern…alas, it’s not real, but a mere digital creation…still super cute!

There are more Cosmo Cricket “Early Bird” layouts and projects on their blog HERE, HERE, and HERE. I just love their BLOG….pure and total eye candy, plus those people are wicked funny.

Oh, MEMORY WORKS also has the Cosmo Cricket SPINNER CARD, which I guess has been on backorder (must be popular). 5″ square chipboard card. Bottle spins freely in the card ($1.50).

So if I have you jones-in’ for some CC “Early Bird,” go get some at your LSS or click on ‘I’m a MW Consultant‘ (top left) and we’ll order you some…

Cricut Survey: Mac or PC?

I’m on the mailing list for CRICUT. They send out a newsletter, new cartridge announcements, etc. Here is the one I received today:
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Hi there! In order to better serve you, we wanted to know what type of computer you are using. It is just one question and we will enter you to win the Cricut Sampler cartridge. Thanks for your time!

Thanks,
Denise Rolfe
Market Research Director

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All I had to do was click the link, choose Mac, PC, or Both, and enter my e-mail addie. Easy peasy.

Being a Mac girl myself, I was very eager to answer this survey. I want retailers to know that there ARE a lot of us out here so they can start making “PC only” products more available to those of us who have chosen the superior product (ahem…did you catch that?). If you’re also a Mac girl, I implore you to take the survey (there’s even a prize drawing….c’mon, you know you want to…). Mac girls, PC girls, “both” girls….if you’re not already on their mailing list, you can join up at the bottom of the HOME PAGE.

Update on Journaling Spot Swap #2

I talked about the journal spot swap I was hosting HERE. Well, it’s done and, boy howdy, was it fun! Everyone came through, sent them in, and did a wonderful job. Some ladies sent more than one set to share….PATTI set the record by sending five sets! Patti also sent a whole book of stamps which helped cover any gaps in postage and I was so grateful (‘cuz you know DH’s first words when I told him I was hosting a swap were, “How much is that going to cost us? LOL). Anyway, all of the journaling spots were rockin’ and it was such a pleasure to host. Here is a semi-sneak of what they all looked like, while in the sorting process and then my own pile when I was done.

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Aren’t you jealous you didn’t join up? LOL! To thank everyone for participating, I sent them each a Mike’s stamp and then some scallop squares I punched with my new favorite punch. And here is a pic of all the cards and little gifties I was sent as the swap hostess…..jeepers, if I knew you got all sorts of pressies for hosting, I would’ve done it ages ago! {Hee, just kidding…}

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Look at what Patti sent! Tons and tons of stamped images from her much-envied stamp collection. These will be so fun to color in and use on scrapbook pages and cards…

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So, I just wanted to share my experience at hosting my first scrapbooking swap. It was totally wonderful the entire way and I highly recommend it to anyone. The AMR Girlz are already posting layouts they’re making with the journaling spots received in this swap. Here is one….lovely, huh?

LAYOUT BY LISA aka LBOREGON, journaling spot by KAY aka kaydrenth

If there are more, I will post them here. To quote my friend RACHEL….Toodles!

CK Getting Thinner and a Possible LSS Closure…{Sigh}

I got the new issue of CREATING KEEPSAKES at Target last Friday. I’ve flipped through it and like it a lot. It is pretty thin and I’m getting so worried that even CK will go the way of the dodo bird….extinct. All of these magazines shutting down is just depressing me to no end (read my past posts about HERE, HERE, and HERE).

Speaking of shutting down, I got this sad e-mail from the only LSS left in my area (I will quote part of it directly from their newsletter):

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As many of you know, (store name) has been severely impacted by the poor economy in the past year. We have always relied heavily on the year round tourism … and with the high gas prices beginning late last spring followed by the economic crash in the fall we haven’t had that support for over a year now. While we have strived not only to keep our doors open, but have continued to bring in new product during this difficult time, sales continue to drop. Things have gone from bad to worse.

We have always been hopeful that we could survive this tough economic time, but we realize that we cannot keep going at the current pace. If sales do not pick up over the summer, we will be forced to close our doors in the fall. We promised our customers we would not just close our doors quietly so we feel we must be honest with you about our situation.
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I feel so sorry, well, for myself of course, but mostly for these 2 sweet ladies who’ve done nothing but run a wonderful store for several years, only to have their dream possibly crushed by this awful economy. They did include a coupon for $5 off any $25 purchase that you can print and use as many times as you like (one per visit) between now and the end of August. I hope that will motivate shoppers to come to their rescue, although I know scrapbooking typically slows down in the summer as we all get busy with outdoor activities and kids being out of school. I will pray (and shop) and hope they can pull it out. This is our last “local” store…we used to have 7 within an hour of me. If this store closes, my closest store will be about 2 hours away. I wish I had millions of dollars and could help these stores stay afloat until better times.

I know many of you have lost most or all of your LSSs in recent times and it’s crushing, isn’t it?

Memory Works: Website, Catalogs, and Selling Goals

Well, I took the plunge. I just signed up for my own website with Memory Works again! Whoo hoo, feels good! What didn’t feel good was the $25 set-up fee but, oh well, it’s the price of doing business, right? Then it will cost me $10.95/month to keep it. That is for the “Basic” option, which has all the features I really need. There is also a “Premium” option for $18.95/month (plus the $25 set-up fee, of course). So let’s do the math, shall we? I make 20% profit on everything I sell through Memory Works. So just to break even and pay for my website, I have to sell at least $55 retail of MW goodies each month.

Then, let’s average out my catalog cost: They cost me $3 per catalog, plus shipping costs from MW to me, and me to the customer…we’re talking about $5 cost to me per catalog I give out to customers (that would be an average just for estimating sake…sometimes I hand them right to the customer with zero shipping cost, other times it costs me $4-5 to ship a catalog). Say I give out 5 catalogs per month, that’s about $25 per month in catalog costs. To make that money back, I will need to sell $125 in product to cover my catalog costs.

So, my selling goal will be $55 plus $125 = $180 per month, and that’s just to break even. I like to have goals. Then I know what I’m striving for. Now, to put some other things in motion to make that happen. It’s exciting! I know it will be super tough in this economy, so wish me luck….

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you my website, should you be interested (LOL). It’s https://erika.memory-works.com. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions.

Scrapbook Message Boards: Survey and a RAK

As you might know, I’m a big fan of chatting on scrapbook message boards. The ones I’m most active on TWO PEAS IN A BUCKET and ALL MOMENTS REMEMBERED. I was on the CREATING KEEPSAKES message board for a long time before these, although all their format changes caused me to leave when I had to log on every single time I wanted to post (ya know, that’s quite a lot!) and would never accept an avatar pic, which made me feel like a faceless troll, LOL!

So, I’m just wondering what message boards you all enjoy. Please leave me a comment telling me where you like to hang out. Include linkees please! Tell me what you like and don’t like about message boards (you don’t have to name names on the negative part if ya don’t want to…). What makes a good message board? Why are you a long time member of certain places? Tell me all about it. Don’t forget to leave a link to your blog or check back to see if you’ve won!

For everyone who leaves a comment on THIS here post by midnight PST on June 11, 2009…I will enter your name into random.org and pick the winner of a small RAK.

Thickers at Big Lots: For Me, Not So Much…

Well, THIS post has been going for a week at 2PEAS, about all the lucky ladies finding THICKERS letter stickers at Big Lots for only $2 a pack (they are usually $4-5). I finally made it to my new Big Lots (I wrote about when it first came to town HERE) and….remember the Soup Naz! on Seinfeld?….”No Thickers for you!” Nope, my Big Lots had none.

Rats. Double triple rats.

As one who likes to take lemons and make scrapbook lemonade, I found a few other things and did not leave Big Lots empty-handed. Here is what I found:

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Some AC foam shapes, an 8.5×11 cardstock pack in pretty, muted colors, All Dressed Up adhesive ribbons by DCWV, and 2 packs of tropical colored mini brads. Also, 2 black/1 purple DCWV alphas. I got a pack of the black alphas on my last trip and have since used them on 2 projects so I got me so mo’….

Here’s what comes in the American Crafts foam shapes:

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Not bad for a grand total of $14, eh? That includes a binder (not shown) that I needed for work.

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But I’m still bummed about the Thickers….Hey, have you been a lucky Big Lots shopper? Tell us which Thicker packs (or anything else) you got!

Cropper Hopper to Organize Mike’s $1 Stamps

Okay, part 2 of getting organized with the Cropper Hopper goodies I recently bought at Tuesday Morning. Here is what I started with…a bunch of Michael’s $1 acrylic stamps in baggies, kinda sorted by Series, in a 12×12 Iris drawer. NOT a good arrangement. Again, every time I opened the drawer, it got jammed up. As anal as I was about keeping the sets together when I first started “collecting” them, now I don’t care and would rather have them sorted by topic.

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And how easy was that? I cut index cards down a bit to act as dividers. Nothing fancy, just wrote ’em in by hand. I cut the tops off of each stamp package to allow for easy use. I had originally planned to take them out of the package altogether but when I tried that, the stamps alone were so little, it seemed like they sunk way far down in the drawer. Man, I was SO ready to throw more packaging away, LOL!

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Here’s what it looks like with the drawer closed. Nice. Compact. Dust free. Love it. I’m hoping I’ll use them more now that they are so nicely organized.

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That drawer is pretty packed though, so now the question is, “Do I buy more storage drawers…or quit buying Mike’s stamps?”

If you know anything about me, you know the answer to that question…{wink}

Layout Using Bo Bunny “Abbey Road”

Is this gorgeous, or what? This layout is by my online buddy, CHRISTINE HERTEL aka Chrispea.

Chris talks about the layout HERE. She used the new Bo Bunny line called “ABBEY ROAD which is SO on my wish list! I mean it was before, but it REALLY is now….because I will be scraplifting this layout in a major way. I love that color combination of green, blue, and brown, especially how she brought out the shades with the Thickers and Doodlebug letters. Those Bo Bunny swirl stickers are to die for!

Thanks for the inspiration, Chris!

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