Browse Tag For

Two Peas in a Bucket

Showing: 1 - 8 of 8 Articles

Blogging: Scrapbook Obsession Blog 2014 Year in Review

I’ve been blogging now for 8 full years! WOW. I’ve done a total of 1,173 posts, with 383,000 total views* and 1,298 comments. It’s cray-cray.

*This is the amount currently showing but several years ago, when I changed this site from wordpress.com to just .com, I lost over 1 million views. I was heartbroken but apparently there’s no way to restore that number. But I’m very proud of the fact that this site has almost 1.4 million views :)

At the end of each December, WordPress (my blog platform) sends a report of my stats for the year and they’re fun to look at. I thought I’d start the new year by sharing some fun facts:

– Scrapbook Obsession Blog had 100,000 visitors in 2014.

– The busiest day of the year was June 25th with 1,184 views. The most popular post that day was Wow. Just Wow. Trouble at Two Peas in a Bucket!.

– In 2014, I wrote 115 new posts. My best day for posting is Monday with 31 posts or 27%.

Here are the posts that got the most views in 2014, with links to the posts in case you missed them ;)

#1: Project Life: My New Storage System for PL, Snap, MAMBI, and Other Scrapbooking Cards
45 COMMENTS
from August 2013

#2: Wow. Just Wow. Trouble at Two Peas in a Bucket!
14 COMMENTS
from March 2013

#3: Project Life: Review of NEW 6×8 Project Life Albums, Kits, and Pages at Michaels
5 COMMENTS
from January 2014

#4: Scrapbook Store Review: “Scrapbooks Etc.” in Mesa, AZ
15 COMMENTS
from March 2014

#5: “Two Peas in a Bucket” Online Scrapbook Store Closes After 15 Years Amid Much Contro
5 COMMENTS
from June 2014

I owe that #1 post to Pinterest because photos of my Project Life card storage were Pinned a lot.

And I wasn’t surprised to see 2 of the top 5 posts had to do with the closure of long-time scrapbooking institution, Two Peas in a Bucket.

I *was* surprised that a review of a scrapbook store in Arizona was #4! It has me thinking I should post more LSS reviews; what do you think? I don’t have any scrapbook stores locally anymore but do visit them when I travel and always take photos.

Speaking of Pinterest, I also got this in an email from them: “More than 46,773 people saw Pins from Scrapbook Obsession on Pinterest in 2014.” Pretty kewl, huh? Especially considering I just started using Pinterest fairly recently in the scheme of things, in October 2013. I absolutely love playing around on Pinterest and the fact that it brings some more people to my blog {it was the #2 referrer of traffic} is just icing on the cake.

Is this post boring the heck out of you or do you enjoy hearing about blogging, the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff about having a blog, How To’s for blogging, etc.? It’s a topic I’m thinking of incorporating into Scrapbook Obsession Blog in 2015 so let me know what you think.

I need to close with a very important part of my WordPress report / year in review: The Top Commenters!

#1: Debra 20 comments

#2: slyn11 14 comments

#3: Maribeth 9 comments

#4/#5: Teri Pannesi and Nadine 8 comments

Thank you, ladies, from the bottom of my ever-lovin’ scrapbooking heart <3 I really, truly appreciate ALL who comment which is why I installed CommentLuv (which gives a link to a commenters' most recent blog post, if they like) and Top Commenters in the right sidebar, to recognize the top 5 commenters each month. I wish there was more that I could do to show my appreciation. When you spend so many hours writing a blog, you sometimes wonder: "Does anybody really care?" And by taking the time to comment, you make me feel better, like I'm not just talking to myself, hee hee! It's like getting Christmas presents all throughout the year. So thank you :) Okay, kids! That's a wrap on 2014. I know 2015 is going to be awesome with lots of scrappy fun to be had. I'll keep enabling, you'll keep shopping. I'll keep saying stoopid things, you'll try not to nose-spit Diet Coke on your screen. I'll share some new things I've got up my sleeve, and you'll hopefully join in and love it all! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Two Peas in a Bucket: A List of Resources as Their Final Closing Nears

As you’ve probably heard by now, Two Peas in a Bucket online store and community has closed :( If you’ve been living on a small island off of Italy, get all caught up HERE and HERE.

Though some time has passed and the shock seems to be wearing off, I can tell by my blog stats that Two Peas is still much on scrappers’ minds. There are inquiries like “what happened to Two Peas in a Bucket?” and “Two Peas where did everyone go?” and “what happens to Two Peas gallery?” You ask, I try to answer!

Two Peas in a Bucket – online store, gallery, message boards, classes, etc. – was originally slated to go dark on 07-10-14. Which is why, deep in the night of 07-09-14, I was over there copy/pasting and screen-shotting my heart out ;)

HOWEVAH! I needn’t have interrupted my procrastination binge. See? There’s always more time . . .

On 07-10-14, they sent out this e-mail:

So, we Peas were given a reprieve of sorts until Friday, 07-24-14 at midnight CST. This has been the message on Two Peas since then:

Talk around the scrapbook interwebs has been purely speculative but former Peas think that Two Peas either: 1. Didn’t realize what a huge undertaking shutting down a site of that magnitude would be, 2. They realized how crazy it was to shut their site down when they still had an audience and product to sell, and/or 3. TPTB (as we Peas always called The Powers That Be) are trying to work out deals with current/past Garden Girls about possibly turning over all of their great content and classes . . . as, kinda DUH, should’ve been arranged for once the decision was made to shut down Two Peas.

There has also been speculation that the delay possibly means a Hail Mary save by someone – perhaps a big company like American Crafts? Alas, there are no signs of that so far and the closure is only 3 days off. Personally, I’m SHOCKED that no one has bought the Two Peas infrastructure to either revive or re-brand. The built-in audience is AMAZING and any company could utilize it to sell enough to stay in business.

I don’t for a minute think Two Peas closed because “there wasn’t enough business” or a lack of customers. They had the largest built-in audience of scrapbookers (and non-scrapbookers for that matter on NSBR), they just chose not to utilize it. The reasons for that will probably never be known. As a businesswoman myself, it just boggles my mind. It’s like someone just throwing away buckets (pun intended) of money. (Shakes head …).

TWO PEAS ONLINE SHOP

As of this writing on the night of Monday, 07-21-14, there are 1207 items left in the TWO PEAS STORE. These include digital cut files, digital printables, and physical product. Of the actual supplies, 3 brands plus Two Peas brand make up a lot of what’s left: American Crafts (159), Pebbles (96), and Studio Calico (89). {Not surprisingly, these are all brands under the American Crafts ever-growing umbrella}. Two Peas own brand shows (83) items but I saw at least (9) of those are sold out. There is a lot of cute flair that I had to restrain myself from buying.

Speaking uh which, do you think someone at Two Peas is having a bad week? LOL

GARDEN GIRLS & GLITTER GIRL

Speaking of the Garden Girls, if you’re missing them and want to follow them again, check out THIS blog entry by Jen Gallacher. She has a great list with links to all of them.

If you’re missing the ever-fearless Glitter Girl – or her sidekick Shimelle – you can keep up with at least the latter on SHIMELLE’s BLOG. Have you seen or purchased her NEW LINE? I’m definitely going to get most of it. It’s in stock at BLUE MOON SCRAPBOOKING if you’re ready to buy!

MESSAGE BOARD HANGOUTS TO REPLACE TWO PEAS

Scrapbook.com
Paperclipping.com
and my personal favorite: Two Peas Refugees boards

HOW TO SAVE YOUR GALLERY OR THOSE YOU ADMIRED

Go HERE and transfer your gallery to Scrapbook.com.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD TWO PEAS FONTS

Hurry! Get them HERE while you still can!

WHERE TO SHOP ONLINE

Two Peas Etsy Shop
Scrapbook.com
BlueMoonScrapbooking
Scrapbook Generation

CHATTER ABOUT TWO PEAS CLOSING

Paperclipping podcast episode {which I’m finally getting around to listening to, as I type this} and Paperclipping blog entry
Laura Vegas blog entry
We even made the DisBoards . . .

As the days of Two Peas finally come to a close, I hope these links help you to move on, to adjust to a life without Two Peas. Please come join us at the TWO PEAS REFUGEES boards so we can all stay connected!

And for 7 years I’ve been right here at Scrapbook Obsession Blog – so you always know where to find me!!

Mwuh mwuh!

/Peas out

So Long, Two Peas . . . You Were Like Family To Me :(

As I explained (at great length) in THIS POST, Two Peas in a Bucket online store and message boards are closing. My understanding is that all content, classes, badges, etc. will cease to exist beyond 07-10-14.

So, for posterity’s sake, here is my Two Peas profile:

journey fan
Member Since April 2007, 12,538 forum posts, 0 public projects
Location: California
PeaNut Number: 308186
PeaBoard Title: “Don’t Stop Believin'”

As you can see, I was a member of the Two Peas community for over 6 years. Since I work from home on the computer all day, I’ve had easy, daily access to the board for all of that time – as my 12,538 posts show, LOL! {Don’t hate}.

When you work from home, you miss the daily chit-chat with co-workers and friends at work. And if you love scrapbooking as much as I do, you look for a message board where you can talk about your Scrapbook Obsession with other crazy fanatics from all over the world.

Then you get sucked in to the NSBR (non-scrapbook related) side of things, when you learn all kinds of things from all kinds of women, get into political debates, ask questions you want real-life answers to, get your daily news, and keep up on all things pop culture.

You can also see that I never posted a single solitary thing to the Two Peas gallery. I’m surprised they didn’t kick me out. The gallery is a BIG deal to the Peas.

Here are some of the badges I earned:

When I say Two Peas was like family to me, this is what I mean:

I was attached and had ties there so long and strong that even when I wanted to break up the relationship, I couldn’t.

Two Peas brought me such joy at times that I couldn’t wait to spend time with it, but it also brought me such pain and sadness that I would avoid it for weeks.

Two Peas NSBR – like an older sister – knows how to push my buttons and make me so freakin’ angry I could spit . . . but I loved it at the same time because it made me consider things from other perspectives, strengthening my views on some topics and completely changing my views on others.

Like family, Two Peas was just a constant in my life that I never planned to turn my back on. Our relationship ebbed and flowed over the years.

But now it’s done :(

Two Peas: I love you, I hate you, I like you, I’ll miss you.

Family forever . . .

No hard feelings. I wish you the best.

“Two Peas in a Bucket” Online Scrapbook Store Closes After 15 Years Amid Much Contro

What many suspected was going to happen – happened. Today, the “TWO PEAS IN A BUCKET“* online scrapbooking store announced it’s closure.

*Please keep in mind that the links and images in this blog post from the Two Peas site will cease to work once they shutter everything for good.

Why is this such a big deal, you ask? Well, Two Peas was a leading store, had been in business for 15 years, provided first-class scrapbooking resources to their members, and hosted one of the most active message board forums ANYWHERE. I mean, not just scrapbooking forums but on ANY topic.

The Two Peas site is down at the moment but I believe they had over 400,000 members. Just amazing. The Two Peas scrapbook message board was responsible for introducing scrapbooking to many women and introducing online scrapbook shopping and forums to many scrapbookers. They were a major force in the industry, without a doubt.

For a great synopsis of the Two Peas business story, check out Nancy’s great article HERE at ScrapbookUpdate.com. Then come back here, K? We need to discuss this!!

It appears from posts on social media that the news of this closure took many by surprise, even ‘scrapbook celebrities’ and those affiliated with Two Peas in some way. Ali Edwards posted on Facebook, “Whoa. Just read that Two Peas is closing.” Lisa Truesdale said, “I’m reeling.” Also on Facebook, Kerri Bradford posted, “Oh my gosh. Two Peas is closing??? So sad. I remember when it was first starting out. Kristina used to be part of the PC Design Team when I was on it back in 1999. Ohhhh, sadness. It’s the end of an era” and “You just never think that some place like that will end.”

I was a very active “Pea” on the message boards for over 6 years so this does have some impact on me. I visit the Two Peas “General Scrappin'” and “NSBR” message boards many times a week. I’ve learned so much and had such great fellowship and friendship there over the years. I’ll really miss Two Peas.

I have to admit that I posted less frequently over the last 15 months because of some things that happened in 2013. I explained that big ol’ mess in THIS post from March 2013, if you should care to read all about it ;)

Not only did Two Peas’ apparent lack of care for their customers keep me away somewhat, but I also joined another scrapbook message board at that time and it became my main online home.

But I still popped in to the Two Peas boards almost daily and lurked even when I didn’t post as often. I have another blog post I’m working on to say my goodbyes to Two Peas so I’ll just leave my own perspective at this for now.

I know all good things must come to an end at some point and, even though rumors of Two Peas’ demise have been rampant this year, it still came as quite a shock to get this e-mail from them today:

The Peas are reacting with shock, sadness, frustration, and anger. While most are very sad to hear of the closure, they’re wondering what happens now to the “lifetime” access they had to paid Two Peas online classes. The site has been up and down all day, probably due to the mad rush to try and download class content before it disappears for good.

There are also Peas downloading fonts, gallery posts, bookmarked threads, etc. that they had been building up over the years and now will go *poof* in a matter of days.

Many are shocked and saddened that – with today’s announcement of their upcoming store closure – Two Peas has blocked any further posting to their forums. They can be read but no further posts can be added, thus leaving thousands of Peas at loose ends.

They would’ve liked the chance to say their goodbyes, exchange contact information, thank Two Peas, ask questions, and communicate about where they might hang out in the future. {Facebook groups and forums have already been created for Two Peas “refugees”}.

On the one hand, I understand the frustration with the message boards being closed off to posting with absolutely zero notice. On the other, I can see that it’s probably impossible to keep them open and would cause servers to be overwhelmed and go down worse than they have been. Note: Peas can directly “PM” or mail each other via Two Peas so that’s an option.

So, that’s the sad tale of Two Peas closing :(

I can’t say that I’m surprised – the writing’s been on the wall for some time now – but I’m still sad. I don’t think it’s “the end of the scrapbooking industy” as some are speculating. Scrapbooking is here to stay, no doubt about it. I think Two Peas had (and still has, if anyone wanted to take them over) a host of EXCELLENT resources and infrastructure in place to make a highly successful scrapbooking business. I’m baffled as to why Two Peas would throw all of that away, why the company wasn’t sold or offered for sale (to my knowledge), etc. Perhaps more information will be revealed eventually to explain all of that, I don’t know.

Either way, it’s a sad day here in Scrapbook Land :(

Please share your thoughts in Comments below. Were you a “Pea”, did you shop there, or buy classes? Were you surprised by today’s news or had you seen it coming? I’d love to hear from you.

Hurry! Register for TRUE SCRAP 4 Before the Price Goes Up!

All the details are HERE. If you’re in a hurry, just click on the cute red superhero graphic in my right sidebar ->>>

The price goes up $20 at midnight* on 09/30/12 (tonight!).
*Correction: That’s midnight Mountain Time, not Pacific.

If you’re a Pea, CHECK THIS OUT! You can save $30 by signing up by the 09/30 deadline.

Please note that even if you can’t commit to the entire 2 days {October 19-20}, the event will be available to you forever and ever. And the True Scrap 4 classes will eventually go on sale separately but from what I hear, that won’t be until December.

Online Scrapbook Classes: True Scrap 4 … Discount for Two Peas Members!!

I’ve been talking about TRUE SCRAP 4 ever since I took and loved SHIMELLE’s CLASS from True Scrap 3.

Now it’s time to sign up for the next event: October 19-20, 2012!!

I’m a member, as many of you are, of the TWO PEAS IN A BUCKET scrapbook message board. I just found out that Lain Ehmann at True Scrap 4 is offering a discount on the event fee JUST for 2 Peas members. If you sign up by 09/30/12, you can save $30!

You’re going to recognize most if not all of the True Scrap 4 Instructors including:
– Heidi Swapp
– Jen Gallacher
– Jessica Sprague
– Nicole Magouirk
and many more!

Two Peas is the headline sponsor of True Scrap 4 and Lain even made a quick video just for 2 Peas community members. {And she’s stinkin’ adorable … I heart that girl!}

So just CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE OR SIGN UP!

Hope to see some fellow Peas in class! Maybe we can get desks together ;)

Scrapbook Shopping: Products for 4th of July

Right now, Two Peas in a Bucket has 130 Patriotic products in the 4th of July product category. Check it out HERE.

two peas in a bucket fourth of july items

My 3 favorite items:

“Seeing Stars” from the WRMK Red, White and Blue collection – such a cool starburst and I love the polka dots on the B side

WRMK red white and blue

“Summertime Fun” from the WRMK Red, White and Blue collection – love the red old-fashioned airplane … and the polka dots on the B side ;)

WRMK red white and blue

Denim “Let Freedom Ring” glitter foam Thickers by AMERICAN CRAFTS

blue thickers

I was gonna’ pick these cutesie pie little pinwheels {WRMK Red, White and Blue} for my Top 3 but they’re sold out … not surprising!

wrmk red white and blue pinwheels

Anything Fourth of July-ish catching your eye over at 2 Peas?

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.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...