2007

Scrapbookers don’t lie….
….we just embellish.

I saw a great tip on TV today and it gave me the idea to post a Scrapbooking Tip every now and then. Today’s tip comes from Wendy Hudnall from AUTUMN LEAVES, when she was a guest on SCRAPBOOK MEMORIES, EPISODE 1101:

Wendy said a designer friend told her that, to keep your rub-ons from getting all flimsy and messed up after you cut a few out of the sheet, here’s the trick: Keep the rub-on sheet in the original packaging and just cut through it. Then your unused rubons will stay together better. Love it! I tried it tonight with some Basic Grey rub-ons I’m using for cards and it worked!

HERE is her blog post on being disqualified from HOF. Comment here or in one of the previous posts. Keep reading below ~ this is my third post on the issue today ~ lots happening!

As I posted about HERE, I was lucky enough to spend last weekend at a scrapbook mini-retreat. It was nothing fancy, not an organized retreat house, just 5 friends who got together. One friend T. has a sister-in-law who owns a beach house, so we only had to pay $250 to have the house from Friday through Sunday. We agreed to do all our own cleaning and laundry to save on the cost, plus the Sister Discount came into play, I’m sure.

On Friday, I worked until 12:30, then had a bunch of shopping and errands to do. One thing I did was buy a little goodie for each of the girls…they each got 2 of these Autumn Leaves acrylic stamps from Target. They cost $1.99 each and are so cute!

I picked stamps that applied to each girl, like the baby carriage stamp for T. who’s about to start her famliy and the one with the stars for L. who has a cute little boy. I found some cute bags and tissue, too. I love shopping for friends, don’t you? Since it was K.’s birthday we were celebrating, I also got a card for her. Inside I wrote that her gift was a $40 credit towards her Memory Works order. I thought that way I know she’s getting things she loves! Then I got some food and drinks from the grocery store, as we were each responsible for one meal and our own snacks/drinks. I finally got to the house around 4:30 and was so happy to be there! I was the last to arrive, so I quickly got set up and started scrapping. We each had 1/2 of a large table (T. had her own table which shared the laptop).

The in-depth chatting started up right away and didn’t stop until we left Sunday afternoon. They were 4 of the nicest ladies ever and we had lots in common. I had already known T. and L. through K., and they had all come to my crops so I knew them as acquaintances. I met S. that day, and what a sweetie. When you talk to people non-stop for 2 days, they definitely become Friends. We now know probably more than we ever wanted to about each others husbands, kids, families, jobs, medical crises, and scrapbook preferences! That’s one of my favorite things about scrapbooking is that you can sit around and talk while you do it. And because you’re sharing photos and journaling that are so personal, you truly get to know the scrappers you share time with.

We had a late dinner of Italian takeout (eggplant parmigiana for me, yum!) with an expensive bottle of Rotta zin that my husband insisted I bring to share with my friends. Then back to scrapping! We lost T. to her beddie bye at 10:30, L. and S. at 1am, but K. and I were up until 3am. I surprised myself because I’d only had 3 hours of sleep the night before when I stayed up late packing for the retreat. Then Saturday morning K. and I woke at 7am with the other ladies, which also surprised me. I guess we were so excited to get some more scrapbooking done, and we didn’t want to miss a minute of the fun. I made lunch, spinach ravioli and french bread with homemade chocolate chip cookes, but I didn’t have any. My family came over to the beach and we met for lunch at a cool outdoor restaurant. I was so happy to see them all, you would think I’d been gone for 24 days instead of 24 hours. It was a gorgeous day, with a fun and delicious meal. Afterwards, they headed off to the pier to see if they could find the Great White Shark that had been sighted there recently, and I headed back to the beach house. We scrapbooked all night again, only stopping for dinner that L. had made in her crockpot. It was a delicious chicken tortilla soup from a recipe she got in Fix It or Forget It. For desert, T. and L. surprised K. with a cake T. had made ~ German Chocolate, her favorite ~ and we sang Happy Birthday. No one ate cake just then as we were so full from the soup. S. had to leave that night because she was going to a 49’ers game the next morning. She’s a Creative Memories rep and she was able to help out K. with a brown leather Compass album that K. had been looking for (they are no longer in production). That night, K. and I were the last ones up scrapbooking again…I think we made it til 1am.

On Sunday morning, everyone was up drinking coffee and slowly starting to scrap by 9am. K. made us a great breakfast of fruit salad and scrambled eggs with sides you could add like cheese, green chilis, etc. L. had to leave at noon; me, T. and K. kept scrapping and talking until 4pm then starting packing up. We loaded our cars with all our own stuff ~ and there was lots of that! ~ and we packed the tables and chairs in T.’s Suburban. Then we spent about an hour cleaning the house, finishing the laundry, remaking beds, and divvying up all the leftover food. I came home with the rest of my ravioli and bread, 2 bottle of Pellegrino, half of a German Chocolate cake, cookies, a bottle of OJ, some wine, and the remainder of my Diet Coke 12-pack. We were joking how my DH would be like, “Oh, yes honey, you can go on the next scrapbook retreat!” because I was bringing home some of his favorite foods.

At 5:30, it was time for me to head home. As much as I missed my family, it was hard to leave. I had such a good time and got a lot done. I seem to rarely scrapbook at home these days, because there are always so many other things to do. I hope to unpack all my gear soon and keep this momentum or mojo going. Retreats and crops always get me ‘in the mood’ again. I loved looking at everyone’s completed pages as we went along, and learning new techniques from them. The things I got done: 9 pages for my Europe album, 4 family pages, 10 cards, & organized my Bazzill by color and my Basic Grey by line (Blush, Phoebe, etc.). I have been blessed by K. with A LOT of BG and it’s what I’m solely using in my Europe album, so it was getting out of control. I feel so good now that it’s organized. I also sold some Memory Works things kind of by accident. I fully looked at this as a ‘getaway weekend’ and did not want to sell anything while there. But I still had the box full of stuff in my trunk from the crop a couple weekends ago. Plus on Saturday DH brought over a box that came Friday that was full of stuff K. had ordered and lots more. So of course, we all got excited about new things and the rest is history. But I was very glad I had things the girls needed to complete projects they were working on. For example, T. started her SNAPSHOT OF ME album (Becky Higgins, CKU album) and said she’d looked around but hadn’t found a paper line she like enough to do her entire album in. Then she saw I had Basic Grey’s Infuse pack and she loved it!

Her album was turning out very cute. I can’t wait to see it when she gets all her photos in and journaling done. All the girls are such talented scrapbookers and I was very lucky to be in their company this weekend. If you haven’t gotten together with YOUR scrap friends, gotten away for a little retreat, I highly recommend it.

Every year, a friend of mine celebrates her birthday by meeting up with a group of friends to scrapbook for the weekend. One of the friends has a family hook-up to a beach house for the mere cost of $250 for Friday to Sunday. This is a house that would normally rent for $1500 or so per weekend. Very sweet deal. I’ve never been invited but have been hearing about this trip for the last few years, as kind of an ‘outer circle’ friend. But this year I got invited to go! As it happens, this birthday friend and I have become a lot closer lately. Our friendship was really sealed when we went on a European scrapbook cruise together last year. If you can survive overseas travel with a buddy and not want to kill them at any point, you are good friends! Truly, it was a wonderful experience and we still talk about how glad we are that the other person was there. We came from the same perspective of complete and total amazement that….OH….MY….GOD! We are in Europe! I’m totally digressing from my main point, but here is a funny story. The cruise was over and we were spending 2 days in Rome before we went home. After a quick hotel check-in, we got a cab to the area of the Coliseum and decided to have lunch at a sidewalk cafe across the street while waiting for our tour to start. My mom was with us too. My friend and I are both trying to casually order this cool ‘Italian sidewalk cafe lunch’ with our fancy Pellegrino water and we keep catching each other’s eye. It’s calm, quiet, casual all around our table. You know, the Italians are SO cool and even the tourists were chillin’. Finally we couldn’t stand it anymore and I burst out with, “Are you thinkin what I’m thinkin?”, and she says, “Yeah….” So we both look over at this monumental structure across the street, that we have read about and seen photos of and dreamed of visiting for years, and I say (pardon my French), “We’re eating lunch next to the fuckin’ Coliseum!”. And then we just lose it! I can’t explain it, I guess, but if you’ve ever anticipated a trip your whole life and then you finally get there, it’s just SO exciting! Btw, my mother (who hates profanity of any kind) just rolled her eyes at us…but I knew she understood.

So back to my point ~ and I did have one ~ that this friend and I shared such an awesome experience and now we feel bonded for life. And I finally got invited to the beach retreat. Which is this weekend! So I’ll be up super late doing laundry, packing, making some meals for the fam, and writing a blog entry. I probably couldn’t sleep if I tried. I hope to get a lot of scrappin and relaxin done. And I hope you also occasionally allow yourself a scrapbook getaway, a retreat from real life, some Mommy Time…because you deserve it. See ya’ Monday!

As you know, I’m fairly “scrapbook obsessed.” (REALLY???? We hadn’t noticed!). Which means that, yes, I scrapbook but also that I think about it 24/7, read all the scrapping books and magazines and blogs, participate on message boards, watch scrapbooking on tv, attend and hold crops, work as a scrapbooking consultant and have my own little s/b business as a compliment to that, etc. etc. (Yes, I could go on!). As a person who is this involved, I have some opinions on what I think is happening in the scrapbook industry so I thought I would share them and see what you think. Note: When I refer to the scrapbooking industry here, I’m talking about paper scrapping not to include digital. First of all, it’s no secret that in late 2006/all of 2007, the industry has slowed down. By that I mean it’s not making as much money for the biggies, i.e. the magazines and the major scrapbooking product companies. Secondly, tons of local scrapbook stores (LSS’s) are closing with only a few new ones opening. Since LSS’s used to be the heart of the industry, I take this as a major hit. I think there are 4 major reasons for this downturn: the economy, the internet, digital scrapbooking, and the industry itself.

Okay, the first and easiest reason is the economy. Not that the economy is horrible, but it has taken a hit in the last few years with gas prices so high, mortgage rates going up while home values stagnate or recede, and jobs being outsourced to other countries where they can pay someone 50 cents an hour to do the same job an American would be paid $12/hour for (major pet peeve of mine, but we won’t go there). But the bottom line of our economic shift is that we all have less disposable income to spend on scrap supplies. Yeah, I know, horrors! Everyone I’ve talked to – ladies like me who have scrapped and shopped for years – has had to tone down their spending. I used to fill my Honda with gas for $25, and now it costs $45. There went the $20 I would’ve spent on supplies last week, and that adds up to $80 less from this one consumer over the course of a month. May seem small but not when you multiply $80 by the millions of scrapbookers who routinely shop. Before we used to think nothing of dropping $80-100 at the LSS every few months, but now it might happen once a year by using those gift cards from Christmas. Because our money is so tight, we’ve become smarter shoppers who rely on…big box craft stores and their lovely coupons. While this is convenient and cost-saving to we consumers, I feel it has really hurt the industry. I’m the most guilty of it than anyone I know, so I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it, just pointing out that it has had a definite effect. When I can get a Colorbok 12×12 album using a 40% off coupon for $12 instead of $20, or use a 50% off coupon to buy a Crop in Style Cube for half-price, I’m going to do it. But when I do, I’m taking the money I would have spent at the LSS and giving it to Michaels which is a huge nationwide chain. As much as I adore Mikes, they are not contributing to my community, donating items to my crop, or supporting my local scrapbook community like an LSS would. When we continually give our (few) scrappin’ dollars to Mikes, Costco, Hobby Lobby, et al., we are making it virtually impossible for the LSS to stay in business. When I asked one local owner why she was closing her store, she said, “Everyone thinks running a store is so profitable because scrapbook supplies are expensive. But it takes A LOT of pieces of 69 cent patterned paper to pay my light bill.” In other words, sure, there is a good mark-up on scrapbook supplies but it’s not like owning an appliance store or a car dealer where each sale can net you hundreds/thousands of dollars. A person has to walk out of the LSS with a bagful of supplies (or a full-priced Cricut or a full-priced QuicKutz) for them to see a significant profit per sale. I don’t know of one LSS owner who is making a killing, even the very savvy, business-smart ones. When I used to have 7 LSS’s within 100 miles, I enjoyed shopping at them so I could have the latest and greatest and enjoy the atmosphere there, even if it cost a bit more (see THIS POST for more on my love of LSS’s). But after I heard that comment from the owner, I made even more of a point to spend my scrap budget at LSS’s. Now I’m down to 1 LSS and I go there at least once per month even though it’s a 45-minute drive. The rest of the time, I do use my coupons and look for deals at big box stores. I suppose as a matter of principal, I could refuse to shop ‘big box’, but #1-I’m not that strong (LOL), and #2-Would it really make a difference if one lone scrap shopper in America made that effort? Nope. It would take a banding together of many of us, and I don’t see that happening. For most of us, the slowing economy has made it so that we put our budget ahead of the things we enjoy about our LSS’s.

The second trend that has negatively effected our industry is the internet. It’s tied in with the big box/economical reasons above but, basically, there are so many advantages to internet shopping that many of us have transitioned to it either partly or fully. There are so many positives to buying scrapbook supplies from the internet: easily view everything that’s available, compare prices to get the best deal, and take advantage of screamin’ deals on Ebay – all in the comfort of your warm, dry house while wearing your jammies! The only negatives: credit card/ID theft issues, waiting for the package to arrive, and sadly, taking our money away from the LSS’s. The major upside is that the internet has allowed any scrapper who would like to open up their own ‘store’, whether it be Ebay, Etsy, or a full-on store website. As a scrapper who recently quit full-time work and was interested in working from home, I can appreciate how that kind of opportunity could be irresistable and even considered it myself. However, this freedom in e-commerce has led to a saturation in the scrapbook market…and the eventual failure of many online stores. Don’t get me wrong, I think you can still make some pocket money in this type of venture but I don’t see many people making a full-time income from it. There are many huge sites that have done very well for a long time (ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOBBIES, EMBELLISH IT, etc.), but they are rare in my opinion. (If I’m wrong on this, please educate me :-). Bottom line is that if we’re all shopping online and forcing vendors to give us the rock bottom price or go out of business, and forcing the closure of LSS’s which offer all the products that keep the big magazines/companies going, then we as online shoppers have negatively impacted the very industry that we so love.

The third big effect I see involves digital scrapbooking. I don’t know any official statistics, but I’ve concluded that a large portion of paper scrappers (maybe 50%?) have transitioned partially or fully to digital scrapbooking. I base this on the number of people who talk about it on MB’s, post their digital pages, demand representation in the ‘paper scrapbooking’ magazines, and the number on digi-websites and blogs. I’ll bet Costco is making a killing on 12×12 page printing! Digital scrapbooking is very popular and it has to have had an effect on the paper scrapbooking industry. It goes something like this: A paper scrapper wants to try digital scrapbooking. She looks around online and downloads one free digi-kit from 50 different sites. She tries the digital thing and realizes she can complete a whole album while sitting in the car with her laptop at 5 of her son’s baseball practices. Not to mention no fuss, no mess, no sticky desktop to clean when she’s done. She thinks, “Why didn’t I try this sooner?” and tells all her friends to try it, which they do, and they all love it. Ms. Digi Scrapper looks at all of her paper scrap supplies and says, “I’d better stop buying supplies because I will never even use what I have, much less new stuff. And besides, why pay money when I can get all those digi-kits for free?” Now the only money she is spending is on printer cartridges and digital page printing (although I hear from lots of digi-scrappers that they don’t even print most of their pages; the pages live in their computers to view onscreen, post on their blog, or e-mail to relatives). Anyhow, even if some of this 50% of scrappers remain hybrid, I’d bet they still don’t spend anywhere near the amount of money on supplies as they used to. As for the creators/sellers of digi-elements, are they getting rich? Have we just transitioned the profit from the paper scrap companies to the digital designers? Personally, I don’t think so. Again, why pay for something when there are so many freebies? I love the ARTICLE Kim Guymon at Scrapbiz.com wrote about this subject and she explains it very well. But, again, the bottom line is this huge transition to digital scrapbooking has changed the face of the scrapbooking industry as we know it. I imagine if you’ve gone totally digital, you aren’t concerned but as a ‘completely paper’ scrapper, I kinda’ wish it wasn’t happening. I’m not blaming anyone – the digital scrapbookers or their industry – I just wish digital had come along after my lifetime or something, LOL. It’s like when I get mad sometimes and DH says, “Why are you mad at me?!?” and I say, “I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at the SITUATION.” (Pout, pout).

“Fourthly” and lastly, I place some blame on the scrapbook industry itself. I think they have bowed to the pressure we put on them for something new, “the latest and greatest”, all the time and they just release too many dang products! Coming from me, this statement probably shocks you, right? I can shop like nobody’s business and drool over all the new products. I discuss them here on my blog and post links to enable your shopping as well. But just because we want the new stuff all the time, doesn’t mean the industry has to provide it. I think the popularity of the scrapbook magazines with their ads for new products, their awesome pages and articles featuring the new stuff, and all the internet advertising of same has pressured the makers of scrapbook products to keep putting out new collections. Well, I’m no expert but I imagine that costs a lot of money – designing, advertising, attending trade shows, sending reps to the stores, and filling orders. When the industry was really thriving, that was all well and good. But now that it has slowed, we’re still expecting tons of the latest and greatest, and they are still delivering. How can that be profitable? Add to that the new companies that continue to appear and it boggles the mind. A few of the longtime, larger companies have recently gone out of business and I predict that more will follow. I’ve also noticed limits on production that frustrate stores and consumers. It has to eventually fall apart, as much as I absolutely hate to say that.

So there are my thoughts on today’s paper scrapbook industry. I think about it a lot as I read the message boards and hear so many complaints lately like this: “CK has gotten so thin”, “My LSS closed :(“, “The freebies at CKU/Expo have gotten so limited,” and “Why is there no Michael’s coupon every week like there used to be?”. I’ve noticed that CK, the premiere scrapbook magazine, has changed to a company with horrible customer service and thousands of loyal subscribers dropping their subscriptions. I see Creative Memories, the premiere (or at least original) scrapbook home party company, firing employees and making decisions that continue to alienate their consultants and, hence, customers. To me, the answer to these questions and the reason for the negative trends all lies in the fact that the scrapbook magazines and the companies who make the products are not thriving like they used to be. As scrappers, that’s just something we have to realize and live with. Hate to be Debbie Downer, but I think it’s only going to get worse… Please don’t shoot the messenger. I’m not happy about it either, fo’ sho’. Now tell me what YOU think – I would love to know if I’m ‘in the dark’ or ‘on target’.

“Some folks say I have a short attention span, but they just….Ohhh look, sparklies!”
~taken from siggie line of CKMB’s Brightsy

I just love this quote. I smile every time I see it. It reminds me of my fascination for all those pretty, sparkly scrapbook products. I’ll be walking through the store, thinking my interior thoughts about “Oh, we need milk” and “Did I pay the electric bill?”, then…wham!…sparklies! Tunnel vision….so cute…must have….how much?…who cares….SPARKLIES! Can you relate?