Monday, August 18, 2014

Not again, yes really again

I began scrapbooking by buying products from Creative Memories in 1998. Some times  I would receive gifts or rarely buy stickers from another company, but the majority of my scrapbooking was with C.M.. I liked their product. I liked that they tested their product so it would last. I liked that they were based in MN. I trusted my photos in their albums.

Then C.M. changed sizes of their albums several years ago so I ordered pages and page protectors to finish the albums I had already started. This was a huge project to figure out what to order as there were albums at my mom's house, my house, and my sister even had a couple. Very few of these albums were finished then.

Last year C.M. went bankrupt so I ordered pages and page protectors to finish my albums I had started that were in the new size. Many of these albums in the new sizes were prizes I had won at scrapbook retreats and I needed pages to finish them.

This year a new company began called Ahni and Zoe that sold similar products to C.M. They had some inventory left from C.M. and I bought 3 more albums at good prices this summer. It took over a month to receive my order. My plan was to order the albums at good prices and when I was ready to work on new albums I would order pages and page protectors from A. and Z. for these new albums.

Recently I found out that now A. and Z. is also going bankrupt. So I ordered pages and page protectors to finish these three albums that I just purchased. I'll be surprised if this order reaches me before Halloween but it sounds like I should get everything I ordered. And the prices were really good during this final sale.

I am tired of continually buying supplies for scrapbooking. I am tired of product I like being discontinued. I am so thankful that I was never involved with C.M. as a consultant. I feel so sorry for the way these consultants have been treated. I am thankful I have an extra closet for these supplies, I have tons of supplies sitting in the closet. It is time to organize my supplies yet again to make room for what I just ordered. Sigh.

My friend Joelle and I have begun getting together once a month to work on our albums. I miss getting together with the friends I made at C.M. retreats and crops. I'm thankful that Joelle and I can get together so I still have someone to work on albums with. I'm so thankful that Ram continues to let me buy product to finish the albums I've purchased and allow me to go scrapbook with Joelle.

Some consultants/customers followed the co-founder of C.M. to a different company. Perhaps I should check that out. But I have so many scrapbooking supplies after I receive this final order. I think it will be time to go digital after I use up these supplies. I am so thankful C.M. was there when it was time to work on my Grandma's scrapbooks and to do the baby albums for my 3 Lambs.

I do enjoy making books at Snapfish and the Lambs love to look at those books. But I also enjoy doing traditional scrapbooking and I'm not ready to go completely digital. So I'll use these supplies and then switch to Snapfish. I just hope Snapfish doesn't go bankrupt next as I prefer them to other digital companies and I have 10+ years of photos already uploaded there.

1 comment:

Kristen @ Joyfully Thriving said...

I used to baby-sit (ages ago) for a CM consultant. She paid me in supplies which was I how I got started in scrapbooking and gained so many supplies! However, I confess that I have now committed to online scrapbooking with Shutterfly. I like how professional they look, plus that I can always reprint them if something happens to them. Good luck finishing all your albums! And I'm glad you set aside scrapbooking time monthly with a friend. I need to do the same.