I do mostly pocket-page scrapbooking these days a la PROJECT LIFE so I’d love to get both of these magazines. Wish I had $30 lying around, LOL. Remember the “old days” of scrapbooking magazines coming in the mail and curling up on the couch with a cup of coffee or tea, just immersing yourself in the ideas and pretty pictures? Ah, the good times . . .
Although not able to get these magazines myself, I can give a good review for Scrap & Paper Shop. About 6 months ago, I bought THIS older Lisa Bearnson book from them called “50 Moments.” They had the best price by far anywhere online, the shipping was very reasonable, and it arrived quickly.
I hope if you’re a pocket-page scrapper like me, or just curious about it, you’re able to check out these cool mags :)
One of the things I try to do with this blog is make note of milestones that happen in our industry … and I missed a big one. So I’m going to post about it now, a few weeks late (sorry).
On 05-17-13, the many loyal members of Club CK were treated to this message from Creating Keepsakes:
Club CK Forum Participants,
We at Creating Keepsakes are grateful for the readers that are part of Club CK; for the creativity you share, the enthusiasm you have for the hobby, and your dedication to preserving your memories and improving the craft. As we move our focus towards online initiatives, we are evaluating all aspects of our business.
In looking at Club CK and the areas it offers our readers we feel the focus should be on creativity and idea sharing, which is evident by the number of layouts shared daily in the galleries. To make better use of our resources and provide the best online and print offerings we can, we are opting to discontinue the forum portion of Club CK as of June 15, 2013.
In this digital age, the internet is full of forums, many have existed for years and have fully developed communities and we hope that you will find one that meets your needs. Below are a few that we think would be a great place to start your search for an online forum:
Two Peas in a Bucket
Splitcoaststampers.com
Scrapbook.com
ScrapJazz
We are excited about the future and the media options we are planning for you, our readers. We look forward to seeing you around the Creating Keepsakes community.
Stacy Croninger
Digital Managing Editor
This post generated (to date) a heartbreaking 17-page thread of disbelief, confusion, gratitude, suggestions, and most of all sadness :( For as long as the link works, HERE is where you can see it.
I’m writing this post on 07-07-13 and the board is still online. There are occasional posts but it seems most members have moved on to other scrapbook message boards. There’s a board called “scrappin-peeps” that was created and will be hosted by former Club CK members. You can join HERE.
Club CK was not the first message board from Creating Keepsakes. The original board, which I joined back in the early 2000’s, was called CKMB (guess what that stood for? lol). I was very active on there, met a lot of wonderful online friends, and have such good memories. I’m still in touch with several of the ladies I met there.
Then there was another CK board called Scrap and Paper-something (?) but I’m not going to find it or link it because people have had problems there (being able to see other members’accounts, I think). But it also ‘closed’ and apparently only the gallery remains.
Then Club CK came along. If I remember right, it was part of the plan for scrapbookers to pay a monthly fee to be part of the Club, have access to a special board, and exclusive content. (Am I remembering that right? Someone correct me if I’m not). I never paid for anything but continued to post at Club CK although the magic was kinda’ gone for me after being put through 2 board switches. And by that time I’d become much more active on Two Peas as well.
So as we shut the door on Club CK, here were my stats: Joined 02-04-10 and had 112 posts.
Forum Statistics
61,706 users have contributed to 367,089 threads and 716,398 posts (as of 07-07-13 at 5pm PST).
All this sadness may seems strange but unless you’ve been an active member of a scrapbooking board for a long time, maybe it’s hard to understand. I think many avid scrapbookers don’t have people IRL who will put up with us talking about it 24/7, look at pages with praise, share shopping deals, celebrate our victories in life and hug us through the sad times, discuss books, current events, or whatever – all with a happy, positive attitude and genuine care. That’s what CKMB and Club CK were to me and I hope you were able to be part of that, too.
We’ll miss you, Club CK …
PS: I would love to hear from you about your experience at CKMB and Club CK. Feel free to mourn, celebrate, complain about the closure … whatever is in your heart. Please know that I get it and totally sympathize :(
Speaking of PINK PAISLEE, have you seen their new online scrapbooking magazine? It’s HERE. Lot’s of great eye candy, for shizzle. I definitely prefer to read my scrap mags in hard copy, but this one is so colorful, it would kill my printer, so I can’t even print it out (black and white just wouldn’t do it justice either).
But anyway, ignore me and just enjoy the magazine, will ya?
Just some random scrappy things to end your week with …
~*~ You know that “First” magazine you see in the supermarket checkout aisle? Well, buy THIS one … there is a scrapbooking article in it!
~*~ Word on the street is that Big Lots has older Cricut cartridges for 30 snaps. Okay, “the street” = “The PEAS,” you caught me! I’ll be checking my BL this weekend, but this is the store that got one lame shipment of Thickers when everyone else had tons of them, so I’m not holding out much hope. I guess for all the bad that comes from this seriously sucky economy, we will be seeing cooler items trickling down to the discount stores because of it. Mixed blessing, I guess…
~*~ Do you like scrapbooking novels? Well, did you know that JOANNA CAMPBELL SLAN has two scrapbooking mysteries out, and another one on the way for May 2010? I’ve read “Paper, Scissors, Death” and really enjoyed it. Now I need to get “Cut, Crop & Die” which has been out since summer. (Yeah, I’m totally lagging, cuz I DO want to read it!). Well, to tide us over until the next book comes out {details are HERE}, she shares a free scrapbooking short story HERE. She must’ve JUST finished writing it because there are some mentions in there about Twilight and the Tiger Woods situation. Timely, Miss Joanna, very timely… Anyway, it’s a fun story to devour with your next cup of coffee or tea. Enjoy!
~*~ What do you think of the January issue of CREATING KEEPSAKES? The Peas are talking about it HERE and, let me tell ya’, reviews are really mixed. I just got my copy and hope to pour through it this weekend, but have had a quick browse through and like what I see so far. It is definitely weird with all the usual suspects like Ali and Becky gone.
I’m putting off reading Lisa Bearnson’s last column ‘cuz I know I’m gonna cry. I had the pleasure of going on a week-long Mediterranean cruise with Lisa/CK in 2006, and she is THE nicest most caring lady you’d ever want to meet. It always kills me to hear her ripped apart by Mean Girls because I don’t think you can spend a week with someone and not see some mysterious evil side come out at some point, if it really does exist (which it obviously doesn’t). Yep, big Lisa fan here. Remind me to tell you about her on that cruise some time, k?
Oh gee, I seem to have gone off on a tangent. That NEVER happens, LOL! But back to the CK January issue … Your thoughts?
~*~ I am SO frick-frackin’ excited about a new product that MEMORY WORKS has coming out in January!! They have always sold all the latest and greatest products by other manufacturers {like Basic Grey, Fancy Pants, etc.}, but MW is coming out with their OWN line. I’ve seen some sneak peeks and it’s rockin’. Stay tuned…
~*~ Isn’t this an adorable layout from KELLY GOREE with Basic Grey “Sugar Rush”?
I love love LOVE the letters used in “reward” so I’m going to ask her how she did them. The SSS girls are thinking Silhouette and a sweet Sista named Lisa has offered to cut me something if I can find out which font it is.
ETA: Color me bummed. Kelly said “reward” is from the handwriting of a Basic Grey staff designer, and Kelly hand cut it. Alas, there is no way to replicate it. Even IF I could pretend to approach that gorgeous writing, there’s no way I’d have the skill or patience to hand cut it, LOL!
~*~ I shall leave you with the news that SCRAP SISTERS STUDIO (my home-away-from-home message board) is having an online crop this weekend. If you’re not already a member, join up and join in! Lots of fun chatting and doing challenges, sharing our work and ideas.
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):
================ 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.
================
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?
In case you didn’t see THIS post, there is a great tutorial out that shows you how to go ‘around the corner’ with your Threading Water punch by Fiskars. I didn’t have time to make a card or anything, but lastnight I had just time enough to play with a piece of scrap paper to see if a ‘non-professional’ scrapper like me could master this technique. And I’m here to tell ya, it was pretty easy. The tutorial is well written and has the perfect photos to walk you through it. And here is the cute little scalloped rectangle I made…yay me!
This is a pic of the TW punch, and the back side of my mat. If you look closely, you can see which corner didn’t perfectly match up and I had to trim it with scissors, resulting in a kind of googly corner. But I’m not picky enough to let that bother me. However, I will keep practicing and I’m sure I’ll be able to perfect that last corner someday, LOL.
This is the same mat just flipped over. Don’t know why I took a photo of it except that I liked the pattern on this side and how it looked with the eyelet shape.
*Thank U* to my friend Gloria/GLOANN (a CKMB and AMR sweetie) who tried it first and showed me how easy it was, and then she left a comment on the Scrapbook and Cards Today BLOG mentioning my blog. She is one of THE most genuinely nicest ladies I have ever met, online or IRL.
So give this technique a try. If I can do it, you surely can! The results are smashing…
