A new paper design???

We are considering adding a 

Waterpolo paper to our line. 

What do you think??

It would be like this volleyball one, 

but a waterpolo ball. You could add text 

to the top and/or bottom. 

And you could load an image/mascot onto it.

If we get enough positive feedback, we'll move forward to post here or email us at:

info@customscrapbookstuff.com

Huge Update!!!

WOW!!!

So much has been going on!!!

We went to Create-n-Connect - the Summer CHA show in Las Vegas. It is stated to be the last one, incidentally. If you want info on that, let me know and I can forward you the emails.

We met lots of great store owners and will do our drawing tomorrow and then let the winners know.

But don't forget, we still have our CHA specials through 8/31/13. If you didn't get our email about the discounts, let me know and I'll forward it to you!

Plus, remember that we were adding new colors? Well, we are slowly working them into our templates (every template needs to be manually edited to add the colors, so it does take a while).

Template #903:

We recently brought it back, but now it has been changed A BUNCH!!

You remember this thumbnail:

 

Well, now it has font options!!! Now you can change the font on both words. We have 5 choices currently, but we will be changing some of the fonts.

 

Here are the current fonts, separated so you can see how each would look:

 

Font Style: "Nasty"

 

Font Style: "Selfish"

 

 

Font Style: "Linotext"

 

 

Font Style: "Linoscript"

 

 

Font Style: "Snell Roundhand Bold"

 

 

And this template now has the 4 new colors as options: off white, seafrost, light sage, dark sage.

 

But we are loving the template for our local high schools in the "Nasty" font for the "background" word (aka "Summer") and no "Lovin' " word.

 

 

Another template resurrected:

#918 Custom Calligraphy  

Sorry - this is a horrible thumbnail - we'll be changing it.

 

This template also has font choices!

Shelley, Snell, Linotext, Linoscript, and Selfish.

 

This template also has the new colors.

 

 

Phew!! And that's just a little bit about what has been going on here.... we have SO MUCH MORE in the works!!! We'll continue to add the new colors to the previous templates.

We are also working on adding new font options to existing templates. And font size options on some.


And don't forget: Next time you order, request a new swatch!!! They are free and then you can see the new colors! 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to #1821 - Make Your Own Background!!!

Our first brand new template is up and running!!!

 

Welcome #1821:

 

You upload your own image!!!

 

You can upload it complete, or you can add words after. There are two word blocks: Top and Bottom. Both with separate font choices and separate color choices!!!

 

Upload a picture of that old covered bridge in your area and create something for tourists.

 

Or maybe a local church that everyone gets married in.

 

Or a picture of your store with your Shop Hop theme and year.

 

Or what about a customer's baseball team?

 

The options are literally endless!!!

 

Welcome Back #930!!!

We are designing new templates, but they take a while, so in the meantime, we brought back another old template... #930 Custom Tiles.

I'm planning to make some background choices on this one so you can go "solid" in any color, "tiny check" or "larger check" or the "tiles" like it is now, but that will take a bit...

 

So, this is what happens if you chose "White" for the background color:

 

 

But, if you choose "No Color", you can get a solid white background:

 

 

More soon!!!

 

Welcome Back #903!

I told you that we found a few old templates that had been discontinued and we are dusting them off and trying to add them back.

The first one is #903: Custom Fancy Solid (incidentally, would anyone mind if I renamed all of these templates at some point?)

This is the old thumbnail:

 

I tried playing with it and it's maybe a bit "Busy":

I'm going to fool around with it a bit more when I have a moment.

 

I seldom use a white background, but in this case, I really preferred it:

 

But, then, I also made ones with just the background words:

And then, just the foreground words:

 

The fonts are a little formal, but actually pretty cool. They are hard to see on these small images on the blog, so here are some close ups:

 

 

Not too shabby!!!

 

 

 

When you are previewing your pages online, if you want to see it closer, click on "Open PDF" at the top and a PDF file will open on your computer in a MUCH larger image, with the ability to shrink or enlarge and get a better idea of what you are ordering.

 

 

 

We wish you a wonderful and prosperous week!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

VACATION!!!

Tom & I took our first REAL vacation in 2½ years this last week!! Every time that we have gone somewhere, it has been a "Trip."

You know the difference:

• a trip is when you GO somewhere, but it's for something else like a  wedding, an anniversary, a reunion, etc. We've done a LOT of that!
• A vacation is when you go somewhere just to go there and see it! :)

Buuuut.... while gone, we were in constant contact with our printer/IT guys and working on updates to the website! We made some changes, discussed future changes, set up customers with log in info... We definitely tried to keep up the momentum even though we were on the road and seldom had wifi! (We literally chose our breakfast location TWICE because they had wifi!! lol!!)

Anyway, these are a few of the accomplishments (baby steps) we made while we were gone:

• Template #901 had a bug with the color yellow which has been fixed
• When you log out, you now will go to our Blog
• We have rearranged a few of the colors - this is in preparation for adding our 3 new colors (hopefully coming soon!)
• We are looking into reorganizing the tabs at the top - we're not sure that the program will do it, but if so, I think they will make more sense.
• We found a few old templates that SS&M had discontinued. Inevitably, they were discontinued because they didn't sell well. But we think that they have potential, so we are going to add them back and then change the fonts/sizes, etc and see if you like them! (This is easier for the printer to do than adding our brand new ones, so we decided to start with this).
• We have been getting together our list of fonts. Soon, several templates will have font options.

We are also preparing to go to CHA. Are you going? We won't have booth, but find us in the aisles walking around showing people how easy our system is to use! Look for us!!

Have a great day and more soon!

And The Award Goes To...

I'm a "numbers gal" (along with being a crafter - YES! You can be both at the same time!!)

so I love looking at the numbers and analyzing things!!

So, in case you are as curious as I am, I thought I'd share our Top 5 most popular templates with you

(well, year-to-date anyway)...

 

In first place:

#908 - Custom Diagonal Spirit Names

This one is BY FAR your most favorite!!!

This template holds the top spot by nearly 2x the #2 position!

 

I love it too!! I like the diversity between the two fonts and font sizes.

Plus, I think that the fonts were really good choices!

And I like the ability to have two different lines of text.

 

If you could, is there anything you would change??

 

 

 

In second place is:

#906 - Custom Spirit Names

Also quite a leader ahead of our third place template, this template is extremely popular.

 

Probably because of the two different lines of text with the ability to customize each color.

Why do you like it?

 

 

 

Coming in at #3 is

#1820 - Make It Your Own

You guys LOVE to customize!!!

 

And, stay tuned because we are still fine tuning our full-page-image-upload template,

PLUS, I have some other fun ideas in store for this template that I hope to share with you soon!

 

 

 

Your #4 selection is

#901 - Custom Marbled

We like to do companion pages with this one leaving one of the sets of words as "No Color" so that you can make a set that go together, but are different. It encourages customers to buy two sheets instead of just one.

The "suggestive sell" helps both the customer and the store! The customer gets informed about how to use the product and the store gets a higher average ticket.

 

 

 

And still making a strong showing at #5 is:

#927 - Custom Varied Spirit Names

I *love* this template!! I will admit, however, that it can be frustrating with certain word combinations...

I have that on my UBER long list of "to do's": to see if there is something that can be done about it. Unfortunately, my gut feeling is "no".... we'll probably have to live with it like it is!

Our workaround is to switch around words or add words to make things work out a bit better.

I still love it, in spite of its periodic frustration!!!

 

And, in case you were curious... here are the rest of the top 10:

#6 - 922

#7 - 921

#8 -907

#9 - 904

#10 - 926

 

 

 

 

So... what do you think???

 

Do you agree?

Do you completely disagree??

Which is your favorite?

And, do I dare ask, which is your least favorite????

 

The disaster area that *IS* my desk!!!!

Oh my goodness! You cannot imagine the mess on my desk right now, but it's all for a REALLY good reason!!!

 

The new color swatches arrived!!! YAY!!!

 

.... and boo....

 

Eggshell was an epic failure. :( 

It is this weird, pink-ish, lavender-ish, grey-ish... blech!

 

To create a new one will add at least a week to this process and if you haven't been completely following along, we can't add new templates or make very many changes until we choose new colors....

 

So....... No Eggshell !!!! (for now, anyway)

 

 

Seafrost however is *BRILLIANT* if I do say so myself!! Does it look familiar at all??

 

It is "Tiffany" Blue!!! So, as we head towards more templates that will work for party favors (more specifically: Wedding Favors) this color will be KEY!! And the sages turned out ok. I love Light Sage. Dark Sage is more yellow than I wanted, but I'm going to stick with it.

 

 

The next step is a "pow-wow" with the web peeps and my "wish list".

 

 

I'm starting with a little more reorganization...

Does it bug anyone else that when you log in, you get the FAQ's instead of the catalog?

I'm asking to change that.

 

And, while we are on that topic, I'm asking that when you log out,

you get redirected HERE!! To our blog!!!

It's the best place for information about CSS and what we are doing and ideas and suggestions!

 

Also, I'm trying to take out some of the dead space in the FAQs... I just don't "get" all of the extra lines...

(I'm a little "OCD")

 

 

NEXT! Add the new colors, but also reorganize some of the old ones and make new swatch samples (and fix that annoying type-o in the color "Chacoal" on our swatch sample.... really?)

 

 

 

And then there were templates...

 

We can only change a few templates per month, per our agreement.

 

I'm starting with #922

because I *LOVE* it and think it is underutilized and maybe a little "misunderstood" (lol). Plus, it has 2 errors in it (we already fixed one mistake, but there are 2 more...)

So, we'll add the new colors, fix the mistakes, and ADD FONT OPTIONS!!!

 

YAY!

 

 

But next, I really need your feedback!!!

 

PLEASE???

 

What do you think should be next????????????

 

 

#913 Custom Flourish 2

it's in the running to be next.

I'd like to add font options AND text size (so it doesn't need to be so tiny).

I also would like the option to not have the flourishes (if possible)

And I would like to have the option to have a solid background

(right now, you can only get a white or black solid background)

Thoughts???

 

 

#1808 Corkboard

it is also in the running.

It actually has a LOT of flexibility (did you see our blog post about it?)

but the fonts could be improved.

I'm looking to add new font choices and sizes,

plus allow for left/right/center justification.

 

 

Or maybe #921 Custom Stripe 1?

It's pretty popular, but could we make it better?

Add font options?

Allow you to center justify the "Text A"?

 

 

Or #905 Custom Cotton?

It's a good, solid paper, but I'd like to see:

• font options

• left/right/center justification

• font size options

Anything else on YOUR wishlist?

 

 

And #999/#904 Custom Leather Grains

I love them both (with "no color" for the bar color)

We order them a lot for our store...

They are both good, solid templates. Ordering is strong.

But if we added font options, would you like it better?

 

 

 

So, seriously, LET US KNOW!!!!

 

If you don't want to post on the blog, then email us!!

info@customscrapbookstuff.com

 

 

 

 

 

New colors!!!

We have just printed them and they are being reviewed, but we plan to add 4 colors this month:

 

Seafrost

(similar to Tiffany Blue)

 

Light Sage

 

Dark Sage

 

Eggshell

 

 

Once we review the colors, you can request a supplemental swatch. And then we will start re-doing all of the current templates to add the new colors, plus add some features (such as multiple font choices, and left/center/right justification, etc).

And, the next step is BRAND NEW TEMPLATES!!!

I know we've been saying it for a while, but it's FINALLY happening!!

YAY!!