Three More Great Suggestions from Our Customers . . . Plus One

I have said many times over the years that the best suggestions come from our customers – in all honesty, we would still be a small print shop in Centerville, Ohio if two local stampers hadn’t wandered into our little front room where we sold scrap boxes and leftover paper to churches, teachers and such.  Their “You should be marketing to us!” is what started us down the yellow brick road and changed my job description completely.

Last Saturday, I stepped away from my cash register at the show in Grapevine, Texas and spent about six minutes on my laptop clicking about 200 little red “Xs” in the background on our website to turn them into green checkmarks that made new CHA releases visible.  With CHA two weeks early, I had been working on the new items until I was bleary-eyed.

But a series of e-mails I have received since I got back from Texas sent me back to the laptop again.  In each case, I will give the credit to the first one who made the suggestion, but they aren’t the only ones . . .

Monique Stam was the first – she wanted to know why we weren’t offering the Tim Holtz Cling Mount Sets from Stampers Anonymous, since we carry so much of his other goodies.  We do carry them in our store – I just never thought about putting them on our site.  The pictures above are just a few of the new sets – click on the blue link to see all of them.

    

The second came from Martha McGreevy, asking if we were going to carry a new item called the Envelope Punch Board from We R Memory Keepers– I really didn’t about it much until I watched their video . . . and then I immediately put it on our site.

     

And this morning it was Judy Jackson’s turn, wanting to know if I had heard about the new Dimensional Cutting Pad from Sizzix.  This one was actually on the new items list that we received from Sizzix, but I missed it because it wasn’t on Tim Holtz’ blog when he teased his new items.  The video was shot by a company from Canada at CHA, and it’s the only thing I have seen so far that explains how the Dimensional Cutting Pad works.

And finally, here’s one we found out about on our own!  Annie’s Attic just released a new Spellbinders Giftabilities book and we’ll have it on Monday – 64 pages with 32 new paper-craft projects.

Thanks to all of them for the suggestions!  And to the rest of you – if you ever see something that we should be carrying, please let me know!

Caught in the Act . . .

It is rare . . . oh so rare . . . when I have any pictures or video to post that include me – because I am usually pushing the shutter or the record button.  Someday, my son will take possession of a lifetime of pictures and video – with little evidence that he ever had a father.

But sometimes it happens . . .

I took the picture on the left at the Grapevine, Texas show last weekend – it shows Cheryl Darrow’s son Geoff demoing Ten Seconds Studio’s VerDay Paints and such in our booth.  The picture on the right was taken by Pat Larson of Heirloom Productions at the exact same second – and the smirk on my face is because I could see him out of the corner of my eye and just knew his picture would end up on Heirloom’s Facebook page.

And it did – so I “borrowed” it . . .

The Start of a Great New Year . . .

I’m running a little behind, but I spent my New Year’s Day working – first on stuff in the house, then on new Spellbinders and Tim Holtz offerings that may be of interest to you in the next couple of weeks (and I won’t kid you – I did get to watch some football while I was working).  I spent New Year’s Eve with friends – most of us grew up together and we always look forward to a relaxing evening of food, games and conversation (and of course trying to stay awake until midnight).

I did want to share one more picture with you – we took it on Christmas Eve Eve, but it just came to me by e-mail this evening . . .

This is the latest in a lifetime (actually three lifetimes – the grandsons) of family pictures we have taken on December 23.   This one isn’t as comical – or as touching – as the one last year, but it has just as much meaning for me.  And I like Mom’s “hat” much better.  I didn’t realize until just a few minutes ago that Mom wore the same vest this year as last year – and many years before.  If you missed last year’s picture and a few from previous years, you can find them here.

May you all have a most joyous 2013.  I look forward to sharing it with many of you through our interactions at shows, through this blog, by e-mail, on the phone, etc.