Direct sales papercrafting company Close To My Heart has quietly started producing strap hinge page protectors that will work in Creative Memories albums that were left incomplete when that company discontinued its traditional album line as part of its recent bankruptcy and subsequent restructuring as “Ahni & Zoe” with a new product line.
The new 12×12 sized page protectors, which are a side slide-in design with no gutter seam, are available in the new Close To My Heart Spring/Summer 2014 catalog that was just released. They come in packages of 25 for a cost of $19.95, and are available for purchase only through Close To My Heart consultants, which may be located on the company’s website.
Creative Memories fans have been eagerly awaiting these protectors since word of their impending release was leaked to CTMH consultants last fall. Strap hinge page options have been sparse since Creative Memories stopped making their classic albums and refills, leaving former CM customers with incomplete albums wondering how they were going to finish their projects. Only Hobby Lobby was making the strap hinge page protectors. Many former Creative Memories customers were not happy with the Hobby Lobby option because the Hobby Lobby pages are top loading, and Creative Memories taught its customers as part of their hyper-focus on archival safety that they needed side loading pages to avoid dust entering the protector through the top. Close To My Heart’s production of slide-in page protectors still leaves Hobby Lobby as the only company producing white refill pages for strap hinge albums. (Westrim formerly produced strap hinge products, but that company is now defunct.)
Update: Just minutes after this article was published, Ahni & Zoe (new Creative Memories) announced that they are starting to sell white strap hinge refill pages with slide-on protectors that will fit the old Creative Memories albums. The pages retail for $29.50 for a pack that contains 16 each of pages and protectors.
I like the side loading pages that CM offered, rather than the pages and page protectors. Are the “page protectors” that will be offered by CTMH the same thing?
The CTMH ones are just clear plastic protectors that bind right into the straps and you can slide whatever paper you want into them.
Here’s a video showing the new Close To My Heart pages in action…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DALrraLZb2Q
I never realised why the page protectors were side loading – thanks for explaining that Nancy!
Will they start selling strap hinge albums as well?
No they aren’t selling strap hinge albums.
Bummer! Thanks.
Creative Memories changed the size of their albums, pages and page protectors from what their original size was. Can these new CTMH page protectors be used with the older original size?
It’s my understanding these page protectors are made to fit the albums that CM was making when they discontinued the album coversets last fall.
Thank you, Nancy. I suspected that was the case. I have a completed album of the old style that I don’t have page protectors for…so I was hoping! LOL I appreciate your response.
Cathy,
I don’t know much about the old style, but can tell you that the inside size of the page protector is 12×12. Not sure if that helps any or not!
Thank you so much for measuring for me. I’ll check my older style albums and see what their page dimensions are. I’m thinking it was closer to 11 7/8 or something. I remember their being talk in the earlier days that true 12×12 paper needed to be trimmed slightly if one wanted to wallpaper the scrapbook page.
To “wallpaper”, the paper had to be trimmed to make it fit between the edges that were on the pages. With the page protector like CTMH is making, you don’t have to make that allowance – the entire space is available to work with.
Does anyone know where I can buy a strap hinge album/coverset? Now that creative memories has refill pages and protectors, what I need now are the albums.
We don’t have a Hobby Lobby in our town (coming in May! Yay!) but the last time I shopped at HL, they carried a strap hinge album. I scrap in 12×12 and that’s what they had. I didn’t look to see if they had other sizes of strap hinge. Good luck!
For Cathy: Try ebay, there are a lot of original Creative Memories albums and also refill pages and page protectors for sale there. They are quite pricey, due to their limited quantities, but if you have an album to complete it may be worth your cost to purchase there.
Thank you, Linda! I do buy on ebay – don’t know why I didn’t consider looking there. I guess I thought it might be too long ago! Will check it out! Thanks for taking the time to reply!
I have been scrapping for many years and have used Creative Memories products until recently when I coud no longer get them. I shop at Hobby Lobby ALL the time and wonder about changing from strap-hinge to the post-bound style where I can get much more selection. Does anyone have input about whether I may be disappointed by that or if it is a perfectly acceptable option? Thank you for any info or ideas you have ~ tough for me to make big changes like that!
Do you make 7×7 page protectors for the discontinued CM albums?
I live In Australia and purchased from Hobby Lobby the postage was more than the album and the pages cost me over $110 Aus just for the one album so will not be doing that again