Catalog time....New Cosmo Cricket!!

Cosmo's in the house!

Before I start my official post...I wanted to announce that the new Cosmo Cricket items are now in the warehouse and ready to ship!! Their new product line is second-t0-none and is going fast...our first shipment* won't last long so get your Cosmo Cricket now! I love, love, love the "Girl Friday" line...but really all of them are fantastic. They have tons of fun new embellishments...my favorite is their new chipboard shapes!!

Cosmo Cricket "Girl Friday"






































And more good news.....our new BasicGrey items are expected to be delivered today....so of course we'll make an announcement as soon as they arrive!! Love new scrapbook products...!!

(*Don't worry if you miss out on this shipment...of course we'll be getting more!)


Shhhh....Don't tell Sue!!!
















Hmmmmmmm...what could this be? Is this the new MemoryWorks Express March kit sitting on Sues desk? Looks like some cute buttons, cardstock and darling bird paper from the new My Mind's Eye Penny Lane collection....gee if I was a customer or consultant I would subscribe right away so I wouldn't miss out on March's kit...!


(Okay....there's my shameless plug for the MemoryWorks Express kit...sorry about the bad lighting of the photo...but doesn't everything just look so cute!! Really subscriptions are selling out...so subscribe ASAP if you want one!)

Catalog Crazy!

It's starting to get crazy around here....sorry for the lag in a post but I've been out of commission for good reason! Right when we returned from CHA we started the long process of fine-tuning the new product line and fine details of the catalog. This year we are really pushing an aggressive catalog deadline so we have literally done nothing but catalog, catalog, catalog at the MemoryWorks office (if you're waiting for an email reply....that's why!)

Although it's a stressful, busy process...it's also tons of fun...here's a look at the "behind the scenes" ...

When we develop our new catalog. We go to the Winter CHA tradeshow every year....if you're not familiar with CHA it stands for the Craft & Hobby Association and this is where all of the scrapbook manufacturers showcase their new products for the year. There's literally 300,000 sqaure feet of booths we have to manevour through! We took a team of 5 staff members to scour the floor in search of the latest and greatest for our new catalog and website. That part is a blast...as you can see from earlier posts....however as soon as we arrive home that's when the work begins!

We ship 3-4 boxes of catalogs from the CHA tradeshow to our office, where as soon as receive them, we meet all day and everyday to select the final product line and format the catalog and product placement. This is easier said than done....it's not possible to carry everything the scrapbook industry has to offer (if we did we'd have the JC Penney catalog :) so we have to narrow down our selection based on sales numbers, trends, and sales predictions among other things. We always focus on the top names and top products...this year we really worked over-time to really make sure we were carrying the best-of-the-best and we're so excited about the new products and selections we've made - not to mention adding 8 new vendors!!

Once we have a rough draft of what will be featured in the catalog, we write all of the vendors, their skus numbers (how many items we're carrying from them) and how many pages their selections will need in the catalog. In order to serve our consultants and customers the best we can, it's vital that we keep our sku numbers manageable and our catalog cost-effective...so these charts help keep us in line!

We then go through this again...just to make sure we've got everything right - we don't want to miss anything so it's worth it to sit and review every manufacturer and every page. Once we're done with the selection process then we type spreadsheets for each vendor as well as type up the outline of the catalog for our graphic designer....this is also a fairly long process as we're checking the inventory SKU numbers, prices, names, descriptions,etc.

Once we have all of our spreadsheets and outlines done - we ship them all, along with our vendor catalogs, to our graphic designer so she can begin the design process....this is where the waiting game begins as it's a timely process to gather all of the images from the vendors, stage photo shoots, write text for the catalog and design the catalog. There's lots of phone calls back and forth between me and our graphic designer Melissa as she has questions, needs help or has to resolve something with the formatting of the catalog.

As soon as the first draft of the catalog is done then Melissa sends us the draft where our entire staff goes over it with a fine tooth comb to look for any typos, errors or discprenecies. By the time the catalog goes to print we've done that maybe 2-3 times...but it seems no matter how much we go over it we always miss something! :)

When the catalog is all proofed then we released the PDF version on our website for consultants and customers to download, then send it off to print. Once we receive the catalog in house at our warehouse....we celebrate the launch of our catalog and another great product line!

That's basically it in a nutshell! We'll continue to keep you posted throughout the process....but if all goes according to plan we expect to have the catalog done and in your hands in April!! Until then we will release some of the new product lines on our website....so look for emails and blog posts announcing when we receive the new product line!! This is always great becuase it gives consultants a chance to purchase most of the new items before the catalog is released - making it helpfull when making demo albums, displays, projects, etc. for their business.

Valentine Goodness!

I wanted to leave you with some photos of my little Katelyn who is head-over-heals excited for her first valentine's party in her first grade class. Here is the valentine box she made (okay...mom helped too) for her valentines party....we used the "Splendid" line from Fancy Pants...and some new glitter Doodlebug paper from their brand new release (coming soon!) Katelyn was so excited and I love how she place her sticker name...a little skiddywampus but so cute!!

















Happy Valentine's Day,
Amber :)

PS - Don't you love the ribbon....I put that on and tied it up only to find later that Katelyn had added the glitter star flowers. That's my girl...she's going to be just like her mom!!