If not Creative Memories, then who?

[Belle0101]

My step-mom prefers the Picfolios. She just doesn't want to fuss with her pictures - no cropping, no page protectors, no adhesives, etc. She wants to slide her photos in a pocket and be done. Picfolio is perfect her her.

My friend exclusively uses pre-planned pages not CM though. She doesn't care to coordinate papers and stickers.

I'm a die hard traditionalist. It can take me awhile to complete a page but I like coordinating and matching everything up ... mostly. I do sometimes get frustrated if I can't find what I feel to be the perfect shade of whatever color I'm looking for.

Then you have the folks who only do digital albums.

I had always thought having something for everyone was smart on CM part. I wonder what's led to this now though? Spread too thin? A waning market?

My CM could always count on me when a new Disney item became available. I bought at least one of everything, especially the paper and sticker items. I don't think that was CM fault though if I remember right. I think it was Disney's doing.

Any worries that the website is down still this evening? I meant to get an order in by now but didn't.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

Their official press release was that it is due to a waning market. Sorry, I don't see it. We still have good attendance at our monthly crops, and get together with several other consultants and their customers to rent out a hotel ballroom twice a year.

My personal belief is that they spread themselves out too thin. It seemed like they were constantly coming out with new gadgets that were kind of frivolous. Some of the new things I bought, but it took me a while to warm up to them.

I haven't checked the website in a couple of days. I need to spend my club credits. I was going to use it on paper stacks, but now I think it will go to a couple of new albums.

 

[minniescout]

Didnt know they were CH 11 and reorganizing to be a much smaller company. From what calls I have been on and what the leader has said..... it will be a new company with a new look, much smaller product ordering and give clients the ability to finish an album in 2 hours. Sounds to me as if all traditional is going away.
Therefore, buy what you can! No sales - all at regular price - While supplies last on most stuff but will produce in July the 'basics' in house to what is ordered.
Site was down for consultants but the regular site for ordering is available. Or at least was early today.
Disney pulled the licensing agreement and supposedly they were working on a new one but with all the changes, who knows.
Sad to see it change but trying to remain positive!
I like to do traditional and our scrap weekends are always full!
Just my 2 cents worth....

 

[IowaTater]

I am a fan of Pioneer and Paper Studio brands, although I will admit, I'll buy pretty much whatever is on sale when I need them.

I know a lot of people don't like the post bound books but I found post extenders at Michael's that work a lot better than the posts that come with the books.

I think I'm in the minority when I say that I've never really liked CM books. I found some strap bound books at Archivers that I like better.

 

[IowaTater]

Double post

 

[tefrench]

Are the pages from Hobby Lobby a true 12x12?

Thanks!

 

[atomicgirl]

Are the pages from Hobby Lobby a true 12x12?

Good question...I am curious to know the answer too...all my albums are the older version, so a true size wouldn't fit in them.

My consultant sent this today....looks like they don't plan on producing pages any more. I wonder if that means no more albums, or just more of those "all in one packs"

Below is more information that I have received:
* "We won't be selling the pages or protectors after the last chance ordering in ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM." There will be no discounting of product during the last chance ordering.

* Digital print balances will still be available for you to use.

* As traditional tools sell out they are not coming back. No replacement parts. (Shape Maker, trimmers, etc)

* The new company will be reimagined, sourced differently and repackaged.

* Storybook Creator and Memory Manager are going away. These products are still useable in wonderful ways and you will still be able to print your digital products. The new APP will be the new platform for the next generation for digital - will be modern - across platforms - mobile and online. CM will let us know more as we move through the process. We will no longer produce digital products in house in the new company. Current digital requires a significant investment in the system and support we have right now. We are working through a transition that will be seamless for customers.

* Digital product credits EXPIRE August 21, so if you have any, USE THEM by August 31. Digital products can still be ordered indefinitely until further notice.

* Anything that hits the WSL (While Supplies Last) list will not return.
* Page and protectors will NOT return after the Last Chance Ordering!

 

[Belle0101]

Thanks for the update atomicgirl.

My CM sent out a brief update too. She said the ENTIRE catalog is WSL. Somethings are already sold out. And no guarantee, that the pages, protectors and coversets you have now will fit the new products. Which, like atomicgirl posted, will be pre-made pages.

For Mother's Day this year I bought my step-mom her first PicFolio Coverset /Album and 1 set of pages. She loved it!! On Father's Day she said she needed at least 2 sets of refill pages and maybe an album to finish her project. According to my CM, they're sold out already.

 

[chattadisser]

The Hobby Lobby pages are the true 12 X 12 size. I tried them in the CM true 12 X 12 album. They might fit the older CM albums though, I know the older CM pages fit in the true albums, there is just a little more space around the edges. Hope this helps!

 

[DisNorth]

Thanks for the update atomicgirl.

My CM sent out a brief update too. She said the ENTIRE catalog is WSL. Somethings are already sold out. And no guarantee, that the pages, protectors and coversets you have now will fit the new products. Which, like atomicgirl posted, will be pre-made pages.

For Mother's Day this year I bought my step-mom her first PicFolio Coverset /Album and 1 set of pages. She loved it!! On Father's Day she said she needed at least 2 sets of refill pages and maybe an album to finish her project. According to my CM, they're sold out already.

Sounds like everything is going an quickly. I love the albums, so sad they are going without much warning.

But there is a lot of consultants with inventory, ask you consultant if she will try to track some down for you.

 

[tefrench]

The Hobby Lobby pages are the true 12 X 12 size. I tried them in the CM true 12 X 12 album. They might fit the older CM albums though, I know the older CM pages fit in the true albums, there is just a little more space around the edges. Hope this helps!

Great, thank you!

 

[DSNYFAN in Fargo]

Close To My Heart has beautiful albums and page protectors. The protectors are true 12 x 12. They also have beautiful papers, embellishments, stamps and inks. If you go to ctmh.com the site will help you find a consultant in your area. I'm not affiliated with the company in any way, just a very satisfied customer for the past 5+ years.

 

[scrappinstevie]

I started with Creative Memories and still think their albums are top of the line. However, when they changed from the odd size to true 12x12 to every few years of bankruptcy and rumors, I decided to finish out my CM albums and move on. I find it so much easier to shop where and when I want to rather than go through a consultant--I know they now have online ordering but that wasn't the case for many years when I was a customer.

I use We R Memory Keepers 3 ring binders now. I can make fancy traditional pages or use their pocket pages and slip in photos as I want to. Very flexible and readily available. The look isn't as classy as the CM albums and pages but they don't weigh as much either. There are positives and negatives with every album.

 

[cobbler]

I haven't done traditional in a while but have moved to CM digital. Apparantly they are going to have digital but not in the current form and will not support MM or SBC anymore and we are to finish projects up and order by August 21. THAT isn't going to happen. Like many here I take a while to do mine, even in digital and am just now finishing up one of my 2005 Disney trips.

So the digital people feel slighted too and I am going to have to look at where things are going because if I stay with CM it looks like I will have to buy a whole new program and content and they are going to outsource printing.

A consultant said the information below is from her director:

· Digitally produced Custom Pages, Coversets, Page Prints, Calendars, Books and all digital products will still be able to be produced until August 21st.

· All Digital Product Credits and Coupon Codes (including current April Afternoon CD that states expiration of 2014) must be REDEEMED by August 21st.

· We will not be bringing our current digital platform into the new company.

· SB and MM are usable but you may not be able to call the company for support or print through CM.

· The new APP will be the new platform for the next generation for digital - will be modern – across platforms – mobile and online- much easier for consultants to maintain . CM will let us know more as we move through the process. We will no longer produce digital products in house in the new company. Current digital requires a significant investment in the system and support we have right now. We are working through a transition that will be seamless for customers.

I'm not sure what this means.. Is it going to be like CTMH where you can only access it online? Scrapbooking mobile seems challenging.

The more I think about it the more it appears to be like CTMH where you design online and then you can have a book printed when you are finished.

 

[mlktwins]

I haven't done traditional in a while but have moved to CM digital. Apparantly they are going to have digital but not in the current form and will not support MM or SBC anymore and we are to finish projects up and order by August 21. THAT isn't going to happen. Like many here I take a while to do mine, even in digital and am just now finishing up one of my 2005 Disney trips.

So the digital people feel slighted too and I am going to have to look at where things are going because if I stay with CM it looks like I will have to buy a whole new program and content and they are going to outsource printing.

A consultant said the information below is from her director:

· Digitally produced Custom Pages, Coversets, Page Prints, Calendars, Books and all digital products will still be able to be produced until August 21st.

· All Digital Product Credits and Coupon Codes (including current April Afternoon CD that states expiration of 2014) must be REDEEMED by August 21st.

· We will not be bringing our current digital platform into the new company.

· SB and MM are usable but you may not be able to call the company for support or print through CM.

· The new APP will be the new platform for the next generation for digital - will be modern – across platforms – mobile and online- much easier for consultants to maintain . CM will let us know more as we move through the process. We will no longer produce digital products in house in the new company. Current digital requires a significant investment in the system and support we have right now. We are working through a transition that will be seamless for customers.

I'm not sure what this means.. Is it going to be like CTMH where you can only access it online? Scrapbooking mobile seems challenging.

The more I think about it the more it appears to be like CTMH where you design online and then you can have a book printed when you are finished.

I prefer traditional over digital (love the CM albums), but just recently purchase MM and have had SBC for a few years. I had held off on getting MM since it came out and finally decided to get it for organizational aspect of it (I love being able to tag the same pic into different folders). I will be totally bummed to have finally invested and then it be gone.

If they get rid of these (meaning stop supporting these products), I will be done with CM. I think a lot of people will feel the same way. I will just do Shutterfly or one of the other companies and be done with it!

 

[cobbler]

I prefer traditional over digital (love the CM albums), but just recently purchase MM and have had SBC for a few years. I had held off on getting MM since it came out and finally decided to get it for organizational aspect of it (I love being able to tag the same pic into different folders). I will be totally bummed to have finally invested and then it be gone.

If they get rid of these (meaning stop supporting these products), I will be done with CM. I think a lot of people will feel the same way. I will just do Shutterfly or one of the other companies and be done with it!

CM Home office said yesterday that they would no longer support MM or SBC and to order our books by August 21st. I'm not entirely fast at scrapping - even with digital - and I have about 22-25 books I'd need to get done at about 70 pages each. That means for the next 7 weeks I would need to scrap 32-35 pages a day. Not gonna happen. If I did a page every 15 minutes that would be almost 9 hours a day.

What bugs me more is that they are showing in their July/August mini catalog more digital content to purchase. For what?? They aren't going to suppport it in a month, that seems like such a scam. They said they don't know the details just yet, bull. They know what they are doing so why don't they release what the plan is so we can be prepared to move on and find other avenues if necessary. They said digital would be around, just not how we know it now.

I'm frustrated and I want to use the software as long as I can so if I can save my pages to .jpeg files and upload to someplace and put in a book then I'm ok with that. My biggest thing is I want to be able to create my custom cover too, so if anyone knows where that can be done, I want to start looking at those places.

 

[BLLB]

Just spent $375+ to buy enough pages and protectors to complete the albums I have. Unfortunately(?) I purchased 6 albums when they had an album sale and I had club credits. Yikes!

 

[mlktwins]

Just spent $375+ to buy enough pages and protectors to complete the albums I have. Unfortunately(?) I purchased 6 albums when they had an album sale and I had club credits. Yikes!

Wow! I'm just getting pages and protectors and will be in the $200's. How many packs of pages do you put in your albums?

 

[BLLB]

Usually 35, sometimes less or more depending on the type of stuff on the pages.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

I just used my club credits to purchase three albums. If I had purchased pages alone for those albums, it would have been over $300. I just couldn't do that. My consultant still has stock, so I will probably buy her out next month.

I couldn't resist writing customer service and letting them know how disappointed I have been in their decisions. Their website gives no hints about their eminent business changes, except for a link that says Restructuring News at the bottom. Any new customer could still purchase digital products or join the club without knowing they are wasting their money.