Memory Works

This past weekend, I held my first ever crop! It was a lot of work, but SO FUN. I had hoped for about 20 scrapbookers to attend, but there ended up being only 11 of us. The good part of that is everyone had plenty of cropping space. There were round tables that normally seat 8 people (for dinner), and there were only 2 people per table. My mom had made name tags for everyone with a little clip art that was perfect – a scrapbooker saying “I Need Elbow Room!”. The crop was at a newer hotel and their service was excellent – they were just a pleasure to deal with. When not that many people were signing up for the crop, I was going to cancel it. But I called the hotel manager and told him my predicament…and he lowered the room rental price by $125 so we could still have the crop. Here was the menu: Donuts and Starbucks coffee for breakfast; foccaccia sandwiches with turkey or tri-tip, chips and iced tea for lunch; candy and cashews for snacks; pizza and salad for dinner; and brownies for desert. Yum! Everyone seemed happy with the food. I had planned to order pizza from one place, but it turned out that one of the scrappers’ sons owned a pizza place. So she called in the order, got us a great deal, and it was delivered (vs. me having to pick it up). She said her son would kill her if he found out we ordered pizza from anyplace else, LOL. Two of the gals made a Starbucks run in the afternoon for that needed pick me up. The crop went from 10am to 10pm, so we needed lots of energy. There were goodie bags for each person. And we drew door prizes every hour so each attendee won something. Then there were Challenges – for each one met, you got a ticket to another prize drawing. That was the best part I think, because it really motivated people to scrap a lot and to try new things. I, of course, didn’t get much scrapbooking done. It’s a lot of work to run a crop! I worked on a Daisy D’s class kit and made a little board book about my mom. It had pictures of her from our trip to Rome and it’s called, “Mama Mia!” I will post a photo when it’s done (and after I get her permission to show her photos to the world!). People saw me doing the kit, liked it, and I sold all the kits I had. It WAS a great deal – 2 board books, tons of 6×6 paper, ribbons, 2 sheets of letter stickers, 2 sheets of other stickers, and metal photo corners for $13. Will post a link to the kit later… Have you ever held a crop or are you thinking about it? Tell me about it in comments!

On the CK Message Board, they do something called a RAK which stands for Random Act of Kindness. Basically, someone just feels like doing something nice so they have a quick contest or pick the “such and such number post”. Then they send that person a little scrapbooking goody. Sometimes people do a RAK to celebrate when they reach their 1,000 post, etc. So I’ve decided to do a RAK on my blog. I’m quickly approaching my 3,000th hit thanks to all of YOU! So I will send a little gift to the person who posts a comment closest to the time my blog receives it’s 3,000th hit. I hope that makes sense :) The only hint I’ll give you is that it should happen in the next 2 or 3 days. And remember, Memory Works just came out with their new catalog and it has all the cool stuff from CHA…I mean, LOTS of cool stuff. So the RAK gift just might be something from MW…

I held my first little scrapbook event this past weekend. Everyone was finally healthy so I headed down to my friend J’s house. She had invited some other preschool mom’s to her house for scrapbooking. Although the initial interest had been about 12 ladies, there was a much smaller turn out – 1 on Friday night and 2 on Saturday (it was the beginning of Spring Break and a lot of them had travel plans). One of the ladies was a very talented scrapper with a gorgeous book that I got a lot of ideas from. She was also a Basic Grey and Daisy D’s freak like me. The best part was that I got to teach the other 2 ladies to scrapbook for the first time! That was so amazingly fun. Everyone I’ve scrapped with before already knows how so this was my first chance to share my knowledge and my love for scrapbooking! As for Memory Works, everyone loved the products and I did make some sales. I also sold some other items I had collected so I’d have something on hand for the “newbies” – some albums, adhesives, page kits, etc. The silver lining of having such a low turnout was that I got to work on MY scrapbooking. I got 8 more pages done (well, without journaling) for my scrapbook cruise album. I’d forgotten to take my holder of Bazzill cardstock so I used just the Basic Grey solids as backgrounds (had to improvise!) with BG patterned paper as accents. My process for this album – because it’s so extensive – is to complete it in 3 steps. 1. Crop the photos, ink all the edges and get them down onto pages which are usually Bazzill background with BG patterned paper accents. I pre-plan how long the journaling will be and insert a Bazzill journaling box with inked edges where needed with repositionable adhesive. 2. Sit at the computer periodically and knock out all that journaling! 3. When it’s all done, I’ll go back and add extra embellishments like ribbon and scroll rub-ons. I have all the stuff so as I scrap, I kind of have in mind where I’ll add things. This is a huge project, so it’s daunting sometimes, but I’m having so much fun doing it. I’m reliving the memories of the cruise as I go along. Well, I’m glad to have my first event out of the way because I was nervous. Maybe starting small was a blessing! I’m still planning my NSB event for May 5 and this was a good practice run. Hope you had a fun weekend that included scrapping too :)

I was up until 1am getting ready for the event this weekend. Because I don’t have any Memory Works stock yet, I had gathered some other items I could have for sale – a few albums, adhesive, paper packs, embellishments, etc. I got everything inventoried, priced, and put in cute little baskets. I had about 1/2 of the car packed for the trip (my family was going with me). Then the phone rang at 10 this morning. It was my friend J, the hostess for the scrapbooking weekend tonight and tomorrow. One of her children is sick with the flu so we had to reschedule :( Wouldn’t you know it?! But better everyone be healthy so we don’t spread even more of this flu around. I think everyone I know has been sick several times this season.

Well, the good news was that Memory Works ordering is easy and shipping is fast! I placed my first order this Tuesday and had it shipped to J (she lives in another city) in the hopes it would arrive in time for this weekend. And it did – she got it yesterday. She said everything was beautiful and she was very happy with what she ordered. Now it will be ready for next time. The new catalog comes out soon and they have been putting up new items on the website called “Sneak Peeks”. So far, they have the new Basic Grey and Fancy Pants – yum!

It only took me weeks but I’ve finally made a decision about this scrapbook consultant thing.  I’m going to sign up with Memory-Works (I think).  As fate would have it, I learned about Memory-Works from a comment on my blog (thanks Leslie!).  I have been checking out their website and rolling everything around in my mind (as Sharon Stone says, “It’s a dangerous place like a dark alley.  You wouldn’t want to go in there alone”).  I had it narrowed down to Memory-Works and Creative Memories pretty quickly.  They both have so many pros and a few cons each, that it was REALLY hard to decide.  So I called my sis-in-law who’s been a CM consultant for 4 years in another town.  She gave me a lot of good information that you can’t find out by looking at their website.  After looking into each company, here are the ups and downs of each (sorry, my mom always told me to make a comparison list when I couldn’t decide something :)

Creative Memories positives:  Excellent quality, long-lasting products.  I ADORE the Power Sort Boxes and could use my 30% off consultant discount to stack them in my house, floor to ceiling.  The “Empowering Women” magazine made me feel so…empowered.  Lots of support and direction from the home office and fellow consultants, including some Yahoo CM Consultant groups (no Yahoo group for MW?).  Incentives to sell, sell, sell!  (all well and good if you sell, make you feel like an idiot if you don’t).

Creative Memories negatives:  High minimums:  When you sign up, you must sell right off the bat and there are incentives to reach the higher goal in 30,60 and 90 days.  From there, your 3 months starts and you have to sell $500 retail within 3 months.  Once you reach $500, the 3 months starts again.  Exclusivity:  If you’re a CM consultant, you cannot be a consultant for any other scrapbook-related company.  Not my style:  They have come a long way but the papers, stickers, journaling boxes, etc. are not really my style.  I’m the kind of gal who wears her thoughts all over her face and cannot tell a lie.  I like the more trendy stuff.  I do love their organizational items, tools, software and albums but is that enough to make me a good rep for them?

Memory-Works positives:  Trendy stuff!:  They have all my favorite brands of paper, stickers, rub-ons and embellishments.  I’m talkin’ Basic Grey, KI Memories, Chatterbox, and Autumn Leaves.  No minimum:  Well, there is one but it’s $75 retail per year so, like, no minimum.  Prices are listed on the website for customers (I’ve always hated that you never know the prices of CM!).  They have sales.  They have a monthly club kit.  They are cheaper to join and who has extra money?  Not me!

Memory-Works negatives:  They’re not a one-stop shop like Creative Memories.  But I think I can find a way to offer every basic my customers will need.  And I wish they had direct ship like CM – the consultant just gets an e-mail stating someone made an order & how much – kewl.

These are just some of the issues I’m considering.  As much as I respect the company, I think CM is just too big a commitment at this time in my life.  I live in a rural area and it’s hard to get people to come “all the way out to my house”.  The thought of HAVING to lug all my stuff to home parties every month (gotta’ meet that minimum!) pains me.  I’m also not crazy about the shipping costs.  My SIL says it costs her $18 for each shipment, no matter the size/weight (unless it’s for some God-awful huge order).  So, like she said, if a neighbor pops by and places a $50 order, the consultant gets $15 (aka 30%) and it costs her $18 to ship it.  I guess you can make the customer pay shipping but I’ve heard from other consultants that people will cancel or reduce their order when they hear they have to pay shipping – they can just go to Sue CM Consultant down the street who has it in stock – so that most just pay shipping themselves.   It seems the way to be a successful CM consultant is this:  when the deadline is coming and you haven’t met your minimum, buy stuff to have it in stock and pray it’s the stuff people will buy.  Have an understanding DH who won’t mind you taking over 2 closets to store your merch.  Keep your stuff packed up and your evenings clear – you gotta’ party or class to give!  Unfortunately, this situation does not match my life.  With Memory-Works, there is less income potential but less stress.  And I could use less stress.  I have until Feb. 7 to get a great deal on becoming a Memory-Works consultant.  Will let you know when I take the plunge!  Can’t wait to get started…