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I am still sad to see CM dissolve its line of products! My CM consultant is sticking it out, the poor gal has 1000's of dollars of CM inventory to sell off. I was at a crop recently that she was at. She had a huge booth of CM products and there in the corner, in a very little rack, on a little table was Ahni and Zoe. Those rubbery albums! (yikes!), black and white pre-printed pages (double-yikes!), and worse of all the prices!
For you that used CM albums: what albums do you plan to use now? Michaels used to carry, what I considered a knock-off CM album, called Westrim. I thought its quality was lower, but I don't even see them anymore.
Are there really that few people that like strap hinge albums? I always loved how flat they layed.
Am I really going to have to go to post albums?
I was at a CTMH party the other day and I DID buy a post album from CTMH. Nice quality looking leather cover and the page protectors looked like a heavy duty plastic. Hmmm...I'm still so skeptical. I want my CM back!
p.s. don't google "ahni" when your kids are around. There is quite an eyeful!
I stocked up on albums, (both the 12x12 & the 7x7 years ago before they switched over to the other size) pages & page protectors. Put them all in the albums to make sure that I had enough pages & protectors to fill the albums for when I finally get around to working on them. Sorry to say that I'm all tapped out on scrapbooking & haven't touched them for a few years. I started doing stamping & making cards & that totally fills my days, I love doing that so much more! My son & daughter are still waiting for their wedding albums & I just can't sit down to do it. I know it's such a shame but hopefully someday I'll get around to doing it. I still have so many more albums I want to create. I Loved CM products & was sorry to see them fold.
I had switched over to the picfolio style from CM a couple of years ago, but again they are still strap-hinged. I haven't seen the new Ahni/Zoe line of albums, but from the website it looks similar to the picfolio style. IF they are the same, including the quality, then I will continue with them. If they aren't the same, I am thinking of switching over to the D-ring binders from either We R Memory Keepers or American Crafts. I will miss how flat and close together the pages are in the strap hinge album, but I don't think there are any manufacturers that make them anymore and I don't want post-bound, so D-ring it is.
__________________ Elizabeth
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Hand over the chocolate, and no one will get hurt!
I'm not a big fan of the Westrim crafts albums. I did buy some American Crafts albums last time they were on sale at Michael's and they are ok. Haven't had them long enough to comment on how they last though.
I am REALLY missing CM….I only used their albums! I ordered some this week….the 3 ring binder from American Craft…anxious to see if I will like them… :(
__________________ Deb Enjoy the little things in life...for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things.
Hobby Lobby sells the strap hinge albums like Westrim that Michaels used to sell. They are not the same quality as CM but they are strap hinge. I am still using up my supply of CM stuff but am not sure what I am going to next.
I am a huge fan of CTMH albums....the linen and the faux leather. I love, love, LOVE their page protectors. They discontinued the linen and are in the process of discontinuing the faux leather to introduce higher priced (ugly) albums. And, they discontinued the discounted pack of 50 page protectors, only to replace with a smaller, more expensive pack of them. Sigh. Since I have a 2 tote stash of them, I'm not overly concerned at this time. But, when the time comes, I wiill probably go back to the We R Memory Keeper albums and page protectors I originally used before discovering CM, SU, and CTMH.
The Creative Memories product will be back!
Strap-Hinge albums, pages, page protectors
Designer papers and matching cardstock and journal boxes
I'm intending to be on hand for the product reveal for my consultant...in 2 days!
A group of consultants has partnered with an existing consultant-based company that is big into digital scrapbooking to provide the traditional scrapbooking line as a part of their company. The traditional line will be called Our Memories for Life.
I'll try to remember to get more info and share it here.
Ohhh. Always interested. I too love my CM and am very disappointed in the A & Z stuff.
I stocked up for the current projects, but what am going to do when those are finished?
Our Memories for Life is a "sister" of Heritage Makers. It is a direct selling company as well.
Rhonda Anderson (co-founder of Creative Memories) resigned from Ahni and Zoe by Creative Memories back in February and moved to Heritage Makers as leader of the Memories for Life group and as a HM consultant.
The product release Sneak Peek is starting as I write this. Everything will be online and available for purchase beginning early in May.
Here's Heritage Makers site: heritage makers
It's my consultant's page, but you can see what they offer at the current time. I'll let you know when they have the traditional scrapbooking up online.
Traditional - MEMORIES FOR LIFE
•No web site at this time - stay tuned
•New product line will be called Memories for Life - Sister company to Heritage Makers - not affiliated with Ahni and Zoe or the old Creative Memories. However the new products will be like the old favorite coversets, refills and page protectors of CM. Same True 12x12 size, flex hinge binding etc.
•Basic Product line will be unveiled late April, (yes, next month!) at the Heritage Makers convention in Texas! Should be available in May for ordering.
•Bringing back the book cloth coversets, white refills, pages, pens, adhesive, 12 trimmer and more. We will be adding to the product line as we go, but nothing like the inventory we had before!
•Offering Designer Refills that will be similar to the Power Palettes of CM.
Palette colors will be Slate, Blues, Greens, Neutrals, Creams and one Primary.
Coordinating complimentary double sided 12x12 paper with mounting photo boxes.
I have seen the sample boards of these designed refills and I think you will really like what you see. Looking into bringing back some type of side or top load page for memorabilia.
Here's some more info...some changes to the old products, but all seem positive to me.
Product : Coming early May 2014
...Bookcloth coversets
...Upgraded flex hinge binding. Old system was 80 years old. With the current technology, the flex hinge will be "fixed" in the front - load and unload from the back.
New refill pages will fit old albums
..."Jeeping" at the edges of pages (as we knew it) will be eliminated. Being replaced with a clear, non yellowing edging. This will eliminate bulk and make pages more streamlined. Refills will come in packs of 18 (I believe)
...Page protectors will slip on easily!
...Life Time guarantee
...Designer refills (you are gonna LOVE these) and matching cardstock, journal and photo mats as well as border strips will all be double sided. Simple tone on tone or solid on one side and a more lively design called "Abby" on the back. All matching products sold separately.
Diane, this is the best news. I was hoping someone would jump in and make a business from all of us who loved CM and are now left wandering in the wilderness, looking for another product
Oh my. I LOVE the dove gray and red theme papers!!!
I got screenshots of several of the colors of papers. It looks like the colors of the papers coordinate with coverset colors. Beautiful combos.
Coversets come out in black, brown, blue, green, dove gray, red...next week! As do the pages and what I would call the designer papers, journal cards, borders, etc.
I just tried to attach the screenshots, but they failed to attach. I'm not sure why since they're small enough.
Can't wait to see the new albums. I always avoided strap hinge style because of the front loading and I like to put my oldest pages first and newest last. I also heard that the staples holding the pages tend to come loose. I hope the new design resolves that issue as well.
I always reversed the strap, putting the longest part in the back. I don't know why they didn't come that way.
But yes, I think both will be solved. From what I hear, the new style of pages...with no jeeping on either side...will allow two things: one, no more staples to pull loose since the binding edge and the outer edge will be strong plastic and paper integrated together and virtually indestructible, and two, the straps will be fixed in front, with adding pages to the back. Actually three, you can get more pages into a book!
Dianne, I watched the sneak preview. Is that all the product that will be available.
I understand that for those who prefer that style of album this is good news but wow that is a very limited inventory.
Myself, I do not do traditional scrapbooking, I am a mini album type of person. The papers do look very nice but for me that is just the background. And I do like to embellish so that would mean still having to continue to shop elsewhere.
I watched the video and will need to see the products live and in person. The video is over 30 minutes with the first six minutes missing video and including much chatter thanking all the people involved with the launching. Then there are images of the various products. The images I'm sure are not doing justice to the products. The limited line of colors looks very nice and elegant. I am mostly interested in the albums (which have some spectacular improvements), pages, etc. and not so much the paper and borders. I may get super excited with the extras when I can hold them in my hands. Now, to find a sales person.......
That is just the preview of what will be available right away when it goes live online...I think that was in the next week or so.
I don't use the background papers either. I'm liking the fact that the albums and pages will be available again. And in many color choices for the albums...and pages in different colors...and things like tape...
Mark Mizen, who used to work for CM in their R&D, has pointed out that the new jeeping (or the invisible jeeping as Rhonda called it) worries him. He says that tape/tab on the end with the old CM products helps with balancing out the pressure that the pages and other elements of the scrapbook put on the photos. Without that there to help lift the page protector and give some space between the pages, he worries that the photos will suffer from abrasion (b/c the pages are rubbing together when there isn't space between them).
Only time will tell if this new jeeping will do that. I don't know what to think, b/c I love the new colored pages but I worry about my photos getting damaged over time.
Because of this worry, I think I might by the refills from Ahni and Zoe (since they're like the originals) and use the ones like and wallpaper the ones I don't) and the coversets from Our Memories for Life for now.
What do you all think?
Should we ask Rhonda to push for the original jeeping again, or y'all not worried about it like I am.
CM album replacement?
Love it but my only concern
