Noteworthy | 10.21.2011

October 21, 2011 By 2 Comments

The days are getting shorter here, which means they seem to fly by that much faster. I can hardly believe another week has passed, and it’s time to share the noteworthy stories I’ve found:

Let’s start with a company and their customers who have made a $60,000 donation possible! I’m talking about Stampin’ Up! and their recent donation to the BCRF (Breast Cancer Research Foundation) in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

A special Strength & Hope stamp set and Strength & Hope digital kit were designed specifically for the campaign, and contained inspirational messages and images. Both were promoted through Stampin’ Up! direct-sales representatives, also known as demonstrators.

BCRF is dedicated to preventing breast cancer and finding a cure in our lifetime by funding clinical and translational research worldwide. For more information about BCRF, visit www.bcrfcure.org.

It’s always so wonderful to see a company doing something to give back and working towards making a difference for a cause.

Big Picture Classes announced their 2012 line-up of 4-Expert Classes this week. Most notable for 2012 is that Big Picture will be featuring Scrapbooking’s first true celebrity designer Becky Higgins in her first ever online class. [Read more...]

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Stampin’ Up! Appoints New President

August 24, 2010 By 3 Comments

Direct sales company Stampin’ Up! announced yesterday that president Dale Fillmore, who’d been with the company since June 2006, is retiring.

“From the beginning, we knew we wouldn’t have Dale for very long,” CEO and Founder Shelli Gardner said about Fillmore. “He came out of retirement to work with us, and I am extremely grateful for the inspiring leadership, vision, and service he has provided during the past four years—he will be dearly missed.”

Fillmore will be replaced by Rich Jutkins, who has been Director and Vice President of Logistics at Stampin’ Up! since 2001, overseeing operations at the company’s Kanab (UT) manufacturing facility and Riverton (UT) home office.

“Rich started his career with Smith’s Food and Drug in manufacturing,” says Gardner. “He also has invaluable experience in educating, implementing change, and leading. His passion for Stampin’ Up!, his commitment to our demonstrators (sales force), and his skills as a leader will be valuable moving forward.”

Jutkins spent more than a decade at Smith’s running plants followed by several years teaching chemistry, biology & physics, and coaching basketball. A Utah native and graduate of the University of Utah. Jutkins lives in Riverton with his wife Wendi. The couple has four children.

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Stampin’ Up! Overhauls Color Palette

April 8, 2010 By 5 Comments

Stampin’ Up! announced Tuesday that the company is overhauling their core color palette with the release of the 2010-2011 catalog this summer and making major changes to their product offerings.

The changes will go into effect on July 1st and will create a new 40 color core color palette at Stampin’ Up!. It will include five completely new colors: Marina Mist, Cajun Crazy, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso and Daffodil Delight.  Ten previous In Colors will be made part of the new core color palette: Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, River Rock, Soft Suede, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, and Wild Wasabi.

* new colors

Neutral colors will now be part of the core palette instead of a separate palette. Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Basic Gray, and Basic Black from the former neutrals palette will be part of the new core palette. The existing color Kraft will be renamed Crumb Cake for the new palette. The rest of the 25 core palette colors will be drawn from the existing Stampin Up core palette: Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Elegant Eggplant, Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Always Artichoke, Garden Green, More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy, Pretty In Pink, Rose Red, Perfect Plum, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, and So Saffron.

Palette colors will be reorganized into four color collections, called Brights, Neutrals, Regals and Subtles. In addition to the 40 core colors, each year there will be five new In Colors, which will have a life of two years.

The overhaul will also mean a large group of colors will be retiring. Thirty colors will be retiring in all, unavailable after the end of June 2010:

Kits of new colors for items such as card stock, markers, classic ink pads, pastels and watercolor crayons will be available for sale to help Stampin’ Up! fans fill in their color collections and transition to the new core colors.

The new color offerings will be smaller than previously, 50 in all when the second set of rotating In Colors is added next year. By comparison, the 2009-2010 catalog offers 62 colors. Stampin’ Up! explained the reasons for the reduction:

We retired colors based on sales history and focus group feedback. Members of our focus groups indicated that they had some colors they didn’t use; for instance, they purchased a whole family of ink pads and then rarely used some of the colors in that family. In addition, sales on many colors were very low, and the cost to support those colors was not worth the return. We were careful to choose the most popular and up-to-date colors.

Another reason we reduced the number of colors is that we wanted our collections to be less overwhelming to new demonstrators and customers—we wanted it to be easier for new stampers to get started. And with fewer colors in each collection, demonstrators and customers can save money and use that money to purchase more of what they love—stamps, accessories, and other items.

Stampin’ Up! is making other moves that seem influenced by the current economy as well. Besides reducing the selection of offered colors, Stampin’ Up! is also almost completely eliminating a long-offered product. Full sized Craft Stampin’ Pads will be available after July 1st only in Basic Black, Whisper White, and Very Vanilla. The Craft Stampin’ Spots mini ink pads will continue to be offered for the full core color palette, along with the ink refills for them.

The pigment ink Craft Stampin’ pads, at $7.50, have been the more expensive of the two ink options offered by Stampin’ Up!. Their dye ink Classic Stampin’ pads are priced at $5.95. A 12 count color collection set Classic Stampin’ Spots sells for $22.50, while the Craft Stampin’ Spots sell for $25.95. (These Stampin’ Spot collection prices will likely change in the new catalog since the new collections will have 10 instead of 12 colors in them.)

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Top Scrapbook News Stories of 2009

December 31, 2009 By 4 Comments

It’s time to say goodbye to 2009…here’s a look back at the top scrapbook industry news stories of the year.

Paris Hilton Does CHA

The CHA crowd is used to having the likes of Vanna White and Martha Stewart grace the show with their presence. But the show has never quite seen a spectacle like happened at CHA-Winter 2009 in Anaheim when Paris Hilton strutted onto the show floor trailed by a posse of burly bodyguards and foreign paparazzi.

paris-arriving-webWell, now I can check “getting elbowed by German-speaking paparazzi” off my bucket list at least.

Creative Memories Files Bankruptcy

Although the bankruptcy of Creative Memories was technically filed in late 2008, the disposition of it continued into 2009. The court approved the company’s bankruptcy plan on January 9th, but former company officers still face legal action from former employee shareholders over their actions in regard to the bankruptcy plan.

CK Media’s Financial Problems

Stories stemming from the underlying thread of CK Media’s financial issues were a recurrent theme in the scrapbook news in 2009. First Digital Scrapbooking was shut down, and shortly afterward Simple Scrapbooks magazines was closed as well. Scrapbook Update broke the news in February that CK Media had called in turnaround/bankruptcy firm CRG Partners to settle its debts with its creditors under threat of a bankruptcy filing.

In early July, the sale of CK Media’s remaining publications to New Track Media became final, triggering major layoffs at the company.

CHA Craft Supershows

There was something else new at CHA-Summer 2009 besides the venue – the addition of a consumer event that operated the weekend after the trade show. Although controversial when first announced, the Craft Supershow was a massive success in Orlando, and CHA is continuing the event in conjunction with CHA-Winter 2010 in Anaheim.

IMG_6073

Big Names Depart from Creating Keepsakes

As the company foundered this year, a lot of big names departed Creating Keepsakes and its parent company to work on other projects. The departures went all the way to the top of the company, when Creating Keepsakes founding editor Lisa Bearnson announced she was giving up her role with the magazine. Other popular well-known names who departed the company included Becky Higgins, Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske, and Jessica Sprague.

Stampin’ Up Angers Demonstrators With New IDA

In early fall, Stampin’ Up issued a revised IDA (independent demonstrator agreement) to all of its demonstrators that included new restrictions on their online activity. Stampin’ Up originally interpreted the new guidelines as meaning Stampin’ Up reps couldn’t link to anyone online who linked to anywhere else that sold or promoted non-Stampin’ Up products. Many reps threatened to resign rather than live with restrictions that would force them to remove themselves from a large portion of the online community, and Stampin’ Up was forced to loosen the guidelines.

Memory Makers Ceases Publication

In early May, Scrapbook Update broke the story that F+W Media was planning to shut down Memory Makers Magazine with the Sept/Oct issue. This news was confirmed by the publication the next day. The magazine’s remaining subscriptions were picked up by Northridge Media for digital fulfillment with an all-access pass to its titles.

Melody Ross Departs Chatterbox, Company Shelved by Ultra Pro

In early July, Chatterbox founder Melody Ross revealed that she had departed the company back in April. At CHA-Summer, a rep for Chatterbox parent company Ultra-Pro confirmed to Scrapbook Update that the Chatterbox brand’s product lines were being discontinued. Ten years ago, the company was revolutionary in the industry. Now, it no longer exists.

Lenders Attempt to Force Wilton Brands Bankruptcy

After holding company Wilton Holdings breached covenants of loans it owed, the parent company of EK Success and K&Co was called into bankruptcy court by lenders who filed a petition to force the company into bankruptcy. The issue was eventually settled out of court by the lenders and Wilton. Later in the year, Wilton’s CEO resigned, saying that the new ownership should have an opportunity to select their own management.

Gypsy Introduces New Era Of Scrapbook Electronics

Shortly before CHA-Summer, Provo Craft started executing a viral marketing campaign to raise buzz on its new electronic accessory for the Cricut called the Gypsy.

The campaign was successful at raising buzz on the Gypsy, which is a handheld device that lets users create designs from their cartridge library and then cut them via their Cricut machine. Probable future plans for the device include the ability to purchase individual cut designs from an iTunes-style store, instead of having to purchase entire cartridges.

The Gypsy debuted with an HSN package and a 30 day exclusive run at Michaels. Although the MSRP is $299, over the holidays the street price seems to be hovering around $250.

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Social Media and its Impact on the Scrapbooking Industry

November 6, 2009 By 4 Comments

Lain Ehmann thumbnailToday Lain Ehmann joins Scrapbook Update as our guest blogger.

Lain Ehmann is CEO and co-founder of Ella Publishing Co. A former “Simple Scrapbooks” contributing editor, she is the author of “Snippets: Mostly True Tales from the Lighter Side of Scrapbooking.” She blogs at Five Things.

Why can’t we all get along?

American Crafts buys Pebbles, Inc. Rhonna Farrer, Heidi Swapp, and Janet Hopkins band together to create House of Three. Colorbok buys Heidi Grace from Fiskars. In addition to creating an entertaining game of corporate musical chairs to observe, mergers and partnerships like these say that the time of cooperation is at hand for the scrapbooking industry.

Social media is ushering in a new era of interactivity between companies, even those who appear to be at odds with each other. The Internet is such big property that one company or entity can’t cover it all, and the only way to make an impact is to team up. A great example of this is our very own Nancy Nally working with Noell Hyman of Paperclipping. Instead of viewing each other as competitors, they’ve teamed up to bring a very valuable – and fun! – resource to the scrapbooking community via Paperclipping News Break.

An area where I’ve seen rampant and impressive RAKs (random acts of kindness, for the uninitiated) is in the digital scrapbooking arena. In my experience, digital designers go above and beyond to promote other digital designers. For example, in a recent article for Ella Publishing Co.’s Scrapbook Ellaments eZine, digital designer Jodie McNally sang the praises of Paislee Press. “When I’m in need of a perfectly precise, quirky quote… I go straight to Paislee Press,” she writes. It reminds me of the scene in “Miracle on 34thStreet” when Macy’s gained tons of great press when their Santa Claus forwarded children on to competitors when the toy they wanted couldn’t be had in-store. Not to call “Scrooge,” but when’s the last time you heard Stampin’ Up! sending people over to Close to My Heart?

Speaking of good ole’ Stampin’ Up!, they’ve been taking quite a beating lately. When they mandated that their demonstrators sever Internet ties with non-SU entities, the backlash was swift and immediate, with many demonstrators choosing to lay down their Stampin’ Up! aprons rather than forsake their friendships. The statement was clear: Consumers, employees, and industry bystanders have seen the power of connection and aren’t willing to relinquish their personal or professional networks in favor of corporate short-sightedness. And they shouldn’t have to.

Despite the economic realities of our times, the scrapbooking pie is a large one. Rare is the consumer who uses exclusively one product line; most have scrap rooms where Fiskars punches are used on Bazzill cardstock, and Fancy Pants patterned paper co-exists peacefully on the shelf next to Piggy Tales. It’s time for the manufacturers to realize the next generation is about interaction and support, not exclusivity and isolationism.

For manufacturers and designers who want to make their way in today’s social media but don’t know how, here are a few starting points:

Twitter. Open a Twitter account and freely offer your expertise and support to those around you – yes, even to your competitors! If that’s too big a step, start with companies or designers who sell complementary products rather than competing ones.

Facebook. Become a Facebook fan of a competitor. When you do so, the news is relayed to your entire network – what a powerful statement of solidarity!

Blogs. Mention a cool product you saw from a competitor on your blog. Go over to their blog and leave a supportive comment. Or in your next tutorial, use products from a competitor and give them credit. Instant karma boost!

To me, the future is clear: Those who pair up and work together will prosper, while those who insist on going it alone will suffer and eventually die off. Survival for all of us in this global economy, in this recession, depends on partnerships. After all, if you Tweet in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make any noise?

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