Ok, So I´ll open this month, wishing for a better one than sept. I don´t usually post here, but I admit it is SOMETIMES fun... sometimes.
this said, it is a few of designers closing store right now, I have the feeling it is a regular season for that. Who, among you, remember that fall in a retiring season? or maybe it is only me...
Wow.... are you there with a timer and checking that everyone does exactly what they said they would do, within the minute (in your time zone too)? Are you so anxious to see them close? It is not like you are promise something YOU would get.
When a store in real brick and mortar closes, it does not get demolished immediately (if at all), What is anyone expecting a digital store to disappear completely the minute it closes? Sheesh!
5-You're assuming there was any orders. Did anybody here ever shop there?? I never have because the store owner was previously associated with forgiving piracy by at least one of her designers..
Goddamn I hate this blog because of the SSD army. Stay in your own forum, _
Goddamn, I hate being told what to do. F.O. If you hate this blog, why are you here? Do you not have free will or is someone forcing you to be here and subject yourself to the SSD Koolaid?
8- there were orders and the store was left up so people could finish downloading everything. I'm not sure if the orders are from anyone here or not. And what have you found in STS that's blatant copyright infringement? What the store owner has said in the past reflects only on her and her own store, but has nothing to do with us, the designers, selling there. Why should that deter anyone from buying from our stores?
What is ScrapSeeds and why did I get spammed by them not once, but twice today about their grand opening? I haven't even heard of anyone in their store before and they said I signed up for their newsletter. I don't think so! Anyone else get spammed by them?
15, were you ever signed up for Scrapable's newsletter? Scrap Seeds is the CU offshoot of Scrapable, so maybe that's how you ended up on the mailing list?
I got a letter from Scrapable last week saying that it would be their last letter and they were merging the mailing list over to ScrapSeeds. That if you didn't want to receive it to unsubscribe from Scrapable's and you won't receive one. So it wasn't spam you moron.
If I had gotten the email that you spoke of, I would have unsubscribed. As far as I know, I was never on Scrapable's mailing list in the first place so I would say that is spam. Up until today, I've never got any communication from them under the old name. I've never been to Scrapable to sign up for their newsletters. The only time I heard of the place was here and that was not very often.
I got a letter from Scrapable last week saying that it would be their last letter and they were merging the mailing list over to ScrapSeeds. That if you didn't want to receive it to unsubscribe from Scrapable's and you won't receive one. So it wasn't spam you moron. -------------
Just because you got it, doesn't mean everyone got it. And, even if they did, they cannot just willy nilly merge newsletters as they are now a separate store. Merging that list and then sending out unsolicited mail is spam.
13-I won't buy from a store that the owner has condoned the things that owner would. I never shopped at Divine Digitals or whatever Royanna's store was when I found out she wasn't paying the designers either. I just won't. So, designers--choose your stores wisely!!
^^^^^^^^^^^ This. I also cannot believe that #13 is naive enough to think that the store owner's reputation isn't known and didn't deter people from shopping there. Right or wrong, it's guilt by association and it's real, darlin'.
GRRRR! goes the Digifiles only accept credit cards now? What kind of digi shop doesn't accept paypal????? Finally found a month I was going to purchase after over a year, and now I can't buy it because I don't have a cc.
That is strange. My digifiles are on paypal, but maybe because I'm set up for an every month buy? As for the questions about Thedigifiles this month--It's a mixed bag. There are three submissions that I'll probably use. Kristins, lgfd, and Wendy Tunison. Three I won't, Lili Niclass, one little bird, and Rosey posey and one is a maybe--Digital Design Essentials. Maybe put Rosey Posey into the maybe group--I'll see after I get them downloaded. The preview wasn't inspiring.
Wait. TDF has Lili, OLB, and DDE in one month? That's a really good pull for Steph. How does she convince these top-name designers to participate even after all of her shady/BS business decisions/practices? How are they still flocking to her? I don't get it. Don't designers talk to each other? I'm only a CT and I've heard enough about Steph's BS in the past few months to know that I wouldn't want to give her my work for free EVER.
Wait. TDF has Lili, OLB, and DDE in one month? That's a really good pull for Steph. How does she convince these top-name designers to participate even after all of her shady/BS business decisions/practices? --------------
Er, because the designers are asked months and months in advance before their kits appear in the TDF. I would have thought that was obvious. Not to mention that designers probably do talk to each other, which is how they probably know that any BS by Steph is just rumor on this blog.
Designers you might want to check out this etsy shop. She is selling a lot of premade cards and other printables in a digital format, using some popular designers scrapkits
That would be S4H under my TOUs. As long as she is personalizing them (adding a photo, name, details) rather than mass producing them (a premade invite that she just prints off and the person writes their details on, same for everyone who buys it) and they are flattened into a .jpg file. She does have a ton of copyright violations, Disney, Elmo, Mario, Max and Ruby....... that's what would bother me if my stuff was being used in her shop.
Yep, Steph loves her blacklist. Remember this is the woman that bragged on her podcast she could see who visited her site down to their mailing address but yet hides everything about herself.
Creepy - if you ask me. Would make me scared to give her any credit card information.
Well here it is the 3rd and I still haven't been paid by MyMemories. We only get paid once a month, but it would be nice if it was at least close to the first.
#44 That doesn't surprise me about MyMemories. That's only one of the reasons I stopped selling there a long time ago.
#40 Many S4H/S4O TOU do not allow the projects to be sold in an online shop, which is what she is doing. That's definitely against my TOU, but fortunately, she was cooperative and removed the images using my designs. If only it was always like that.
It's been a while since I visited this blog. I was tired of all the badmouthing smack. I guess I'm not the only one. Just because it's a smackblog doesn't mean we have to be mean. I loved logging in to find out about secrets around the digiworld but it ended up being online fights and smacking to each other for no reason. And in the end not much said about digiland.
I just viewed all the retiring products in SSD Going, Going, Gone section and I have to say wow!! Now I feel like an idiot for buying so much mediocre stuff from other sites (except TLP) Lots of their retiring stuff is way better than new kits that come out these days. I'm going to be spending a fortune.
I have to aknowledge a few new features some sites are offering. Pixels & Co for no expiring download links. The Lilypad for extending the download links to a month and Scrap Matters to 22 days ( I think) I'm loving the FWP Kits almost all sites are now offering with a $10 purchase. That used to be a holiday thing and now it's become a monthly -even weekly- feature. Great idea! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Already Purchased feature TLP has added. Finally no double buying or having to check my huge stash if I bought something or not. Thank you! That's a time saver. Only for that feature I love shopping at TLP.
I just viewed all the retiring products in SSD Going, Going, Gone section and I have to say wow!! Now I feel like an idiot for buying so much mediocre stuff from other sites (except TLP) Lots of their retiring stuff is way better than new kits that come out these days. I'm going to be spending a fortune. ----------
Normally I wouldn't call someone out for advertising, but these seems rather blatant. I don't see anything 'way better' than elsewhere.
I'm loving the FWP Kits almost all sites are now offering with a $10 purchase. That used to be a holiday thing and now it's become a monthly -even weekly- feature. Great idea! ------------
Speaking of the digifiles, I was going to purchase but all I can seem to find is the digifiles + digigame, for $7.50. Do they no longer have the $5 option for the kits only? I don't give a shit about the digigame crap. Would rather purchase without it. I know I used to be able to but don't see that option anymore.
#44 - Several months ago I asked MyMemories when I hadn't gotten anything by the 1st...they told me that they do and process the payroll within the first 5 business days of the month...so they have till Monday, the 7th to pay us...i wish it happened on the first though....
30 said: Wait. TDF has Lili, OLB, and DDE in one month? That's a really good pull for Steph. How does she convince these top-name designers to participate even after all of her shady/BS business decisions/practices?
If they are considered top name designers, they must have sent in their junk to TDF because that is about what they were.
#44 - Several months ago I asked MyMemories when I hadn't gotten anything by the 1st...they told me that they do and process the payroll within the first 5 business days of the month...so they have till Monday, the 7th to pay us...i wish it happened on the first though....
^^^ You realize running Payroll reports take a LOT of time, right? It's expecting a lot to want to be paid on the 1st, unless of course you only want to be paid until the 25th of the previous month.
Only in digi scrap "la la" land Designers/( the workers) settle for a (around this date) for payment. In any other job you expect your pay date to be just that the PAY DATE. It is your money, you earned it you should be paid when your contract said so, not oh it could be anywhere from the 1st trough the 5th or 15th .. why do designers settle for that? I am in a shop with more than 30 designers and we are paid weekly every week on time, never late, most times early.
I must be spoiled then, because the digi store I sold in before actually paid on time. Twice a month -on the 15th and the 1st. And it actually sent me an invoice every time someone bought an item. At MyMemories you have no idea what's selling until the about a week after the 1st, when some man sends me an xcel worksheet that lists the kits or albums. Which isn't that big of a deal, but I just like knowing at the time it happens so I can adjust my marketing.
#60 what is weird is that you are not getting notification on sale at the time it happen. I can not remember when last it happen to me for sure, but I guess it was with a free cart system. Do you upload your product by yourself, or does the owner do it for you? (It was happening to me 8Years ago or so, and we couldn't access our store ourselves...) Is MM run on a free Cart system?
oh and not being paid on the 1rst is not surprising to me, 5 days seems to be a average in the store I know (not that I know a lot of them though) ( I am #63)
I think being paid by the 5th is pretty standard for a digi store. #58 is right, unless your employees are all salaried so they make the exact same amount every paycheck, I have never heard of a business that pays you on the 1st for the 15th through the end of the month. All businesses are 7-14 days past. At my last job I assisted with payroll. The pay period closed on Friday, payroll was processed on Monday, checks were received on Friday. It's absolutely reasonable to have 5 days past the pay period close to get you your money. It's a big job.
Yes you upload to MM yourself but it is different than any other store I have ever been in. You don't use a FTP like you would in X Cart (which is what I am used to). I hate not getting notifications. I too would like to know when I sell something in real time. But I still sell well there and that is why I stick around. I have gotten paid on the first there before and as late as the 6th. I think they say within 5 business days from the first. So I pulled up my contract and this is what it says. "The Company shall provide the payment and report for any particular month no less than 1 days and no more than 30 days following the end of the following calendar month." So really they can pay you at anytime during the following month. Wow I don't know how I missed that! Also it is the most lengthy contract I have had.
#70 The contract actually says that? - Wow. I've never read mine, I suppose I should. It's the strangest store I've ever been in and this just makes it stranger.
I've never had it go past 5 business days....I do wish we could see what sells - even it was a weekly report.....but I also sell really well there and can adjust. Frankly compared to other stores I have been in, MM pays ontime - others - it would be weeks or never....just wish I could see what sold real time.....
78: Oh, my. She is getting a lot of cash off of other's labor. Not sure the return is there for a designer. She says she has over 15,000 subscribers. If even just 1/4 pay the $5 (or $7.50) for the month she could easily pull in over $10K a month. I don't know if the publicity for a designer would make that much in return. They should be getting a percentage - which I thought they were.
I think it's hilarious that people are complaining about My Memories paying around the 5th when they haven't read their OWN contract that THEY agreed to that says My Memories can take up to one month to pay.
I myself wasn't complaining, just stating what the contract read. I don't beleive they have paid late, just don't like how they do not have a way of letting me know what I sell and when. Got my payment from them today and am happy with what I made :)
I agree with #79 - I wasn't complaining either...I just hope one day they will be able tell us when we have sales whether daily or once a week but hey, I was over the moon with this month....and I have read my contract and know what it says.
Actually I like most of it, especially Rosey Posey, KCB and DDE. --------------
Shows how different people's tastes are. I didn't really like any of them and I liked those three the least, especially Rosey Posey and I'm a fan of hers.
Not to mention that designers probably do talk to each other, which is how they probably know that any BS by Steph is just rumor on this blog.
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It's BECAUSE designers talk to each other that I can't believe they're still giving Steph business. The stories about her are totally 100 percent true. Any designer who talks to any other designer would have heard about it. I'm blown away that she continues to land some of the fish she lands. OLB makes sense b/c she and Steph are tight. But I agree w/ the OP that I can't believe she has KCB, DDE, and Lili in the same month after the shit she's been pulling in the past few months.
78: Oh, my. She is getting a lot of cash off of other's labor. Not sure the return is there for a designer. She says she has over 15,000 subscribers. If even just 1/4 pay the $5 (or $7.50) for the month she could easily pull in over $10K a month. I don't know if the publicity for a designer would make that much in return. They should be getting a percentage - which I thought they were.
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It's not worth it at all. A few years ago, it probably was. Being featured about 3 years ago or so meant that you got a lot of extra visitors to your site/shop and lots of extra sales that month. But in the past year or so, I haven't talked to ONE designer who has been pleased with what they have received in return for their TDF feature. Not one. From what I've been told and from my own experience the designer being featured gets maybe 5-10 extra sales using the coupon code she provides the TDF readers. Also Steph requires that you give extra coupons for her staff to use and they're each about $10 and I can say with certainty that more product was taken using those codes than was bought using the discount code I gave her for her readers. WASTE OF TIME. Anyone being blacklisted by her should consider themselves lucky.
#84 Yes three years ago was a great way to advertise on The Daily Digi and the digi files but now there are so many other ways and most designers are already well known to the digi customers. By the way I really liked this months contributions. Finally after many months of disappointment.
Why am I having a feeling that maybe Steph is the new owner of this smackblog...Brrrrrr freaky...
#50 I'm #47. No I'm not advertising. How did you get that out of what I wrote? Can't I comment and give my opinion about my money and how I spent It by buying rubbish when half of the stuff on the retiring section of SSD is way better than lots of new stuff coming out..in my opinion of course.
#49 I don't mean the purchase history or orders history in your account. When you're logged in at TLP under every product there's a Already Purchased Feature if you have already bought that product. It's so much easier to shop that way..especially for me. I have tons of stuff and don't remember half of them. I spend so much time checking my stash or the order histories of sites, it's just a pain in the ass. This way I know that there's no way I'll double purchase something from TLP again. Pheeewww. Whehn will this become a thing for the other sites too? I can't wait!!
85, we DO talk to each other. That's why I am surprised to see the designer lineup this month in TDF. Do pay attention and try to keep up whilst we all converse, won't you?
Why? They are getting advertising and promotion instead.
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They're really not. I saw zero increase in anything when I was featured there, and I can track where hits to my site come from and whenever I've advertised with them on their blog, I haven't seen any traffic come from TDD.
Here's a random question: if two designers work together as one design team, is it ok for them to share their CU and their fonts and design software etc. if those things have only been purchased once?
Examples would be Bella Gypsy (Lena and Tabatha), North Meets South (Connie and Trixie), Ya Yeah (Aja and Christine).
I have been wondering about this since I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok? If I were a CU designer I would be pissed.
So designers are actually paying Steph for the honor of making her money and making little to none for themselves? She sound like a piece of work. ------
They made that choice, nobody forced them to do it. How does make her a piece of work? She sounds like a smart business person to me and I don't even associate with TDF or anything like it.
85, we DO talk to each other. That's why I am surprised to see the designer lineup this month in TDF. Do pay attention and try to keep up whilst we all converse, won't you? -----
I was, which is why I was asking why do the flock there if they talk to each other? Seems to me you are the one not keeping up.
They're really not. I saw zero increase in anything when I was featured there, and I can track where hits to my site come from and whenever I've advertised with them on their blog, I haven't seen any traffic come from TDD. ---------
Them's the breaks in advertising. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok? -------
No, it's not okay but I'm not surprised in the least that you mentioned Bella Gypsy doing this. Years ago, Tabatha was caught pirating, which is why Lena went out on her own. Personally, I don't like their kits, they are nothing special and the quality is sub par. Why some people on here in the past have raved about them is beyond me.
Here's a random question: if two designers work together as one design team, is it ok for them to share their CU and their fonts and design software etc. if those things have only been purchased once?
Examples would be Bella Gypsy (Lena and Tabatha), North Meets South (Connie and Trixie), Ya Yeah (Aja and Christine).
I have been wondering about this since I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok? If I were a CU designer I would be pissed.
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If I were a CU designer I'd already be pissed, file sharing or not, because their kits are almost 100% exclusively made up of CU. How they make so much money is beyond me. Lots of dumb and uninformed customers out there. Lucky for them.
Them's the breaks in advertising. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
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Right, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But when it NEVER brings any positive results, it's not worth it. There's a difference between "didn't work one time" and "never works no matter what" and I haven't ever seen anything positive from TDF other than Steph's bankroll getting fatter. Maybe she should learn to design something herself to earn a living off designing. She should start with her site. It's so old and outdated it makes me twitchy.
First of all, their new logo, the license plate, is stupid and ugly. And to 102 who suggested Steph design, they put out a freebie this month that was PATHETIC. Totally would NOT inspire me to shop there.
And finally, what is up with her and her spooky mini-me doll that she's infatuated with? Did anyone else see this?
I have been wondering about this since I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok? If I were a CU designer I would be pissed. ------------------------------------------------- Nope, absolutely not. I'd say I can't believe that they're allowed to sell the things they "create" that involve those fonts/other things they may have shared, but we're talking about SO. Kami doesn't care because Bella Gypsy makes money, plain and simple.
I think there are definitely a few stores w/ successful and ethical owners. I'm not naming them here because I don't want to bring on a shitstorm to any of them, but I can think of 3 top-tier stores right off the top of my head that are obviously successful (top-tier), and the owners are dolls. I would even say 4 if you count SSD, but even though I think Robin is ethical, I also think she's a stuck-up ass and I wouldn't want to work there. And no it's not jealousy b/c I have many friends who do work there and the stories they tell about the behind the scenes stuff are not inspiring. They make money so they stay, but it sounds awful.
I have been wondering about this since I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok? If I were a CU designer I would be pissed. ------------------------------------------------- Nope, absolutely not. I'd say I can't believe that they're allowed to sell the things they "create" that involve those fonts/other things they may have shared, but we're talking about SO. Kami doesn't care because Bella Gypsy makes money, plain and simple.
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They share CU with each other? That's bullshit.
I've thought this thru for a while b/c I didn't want to fly off the handle prematurely, but no, that's bullshit. I could see someone making the argument that they're one "designer" and only put out products under one design name. But teaming up with each other enables them to put out about 2x as much product as most other normal designers. Unless that CU is stored on one computer that they both use, then it's not OK. Copying it to 2 computers gives them the ability to essentially function as 2 designers under one name, with half the overhead expenses. Total bullshit. Do CU designers know that they're sharing like this? I would go ballistic.
Different font houses have different professional use contracts--a company I worked for 8 years ago purchased 10 fonts for four users for $1k--all for professional commercial use.
Does anyone else get emails from Gds Digital scrapbooking. I've emailed them and asked to be taken off their list, but they've done nothing. I reported them as spam.
No, it's not okay but I'm not surprised in the least that you mentioned Bella Gypsy doing this. Years ago, Tabatha was caught pirating, which is why Lena went out on her own. Personally, I don't like their kits, they are nothing special and the quality is sub par. Why some people on here in the past have raved about them is beyond me. ----------------------------------- I thought maybe I was the only one who didn't like their stuff. They pump out a lot of crap every week and none of it's any good.
Wow, looks like I walked into a hornets nest. I wouldn't think it would be ok, but why would she brag about it on her blog or wherever she posted it? Surely she has to know. Wouldn't you think?
Not OK at all! If you can link to it, that would be interesting, but really how do you ever catch them? I don't own any of their stuff, but I would assume that they don't indicate who made what in the kit like in a collab. So how would a CU designer or font designer ever know which person made the element using their product. If confronted they would just say that it was the person who purchased the item and you can't prove otherwise. Unless you sue them and have their computers checked, they are going to get away with it unfortunately.
"them's the breaks" that you don't understand the English language and are butchering it in an attempt to be cute. You're not cute, BTW.
"Them's the breaks" ??? Really??? OMG -------
OMG!!!! Really!!!!! It's an expression, get a grip. If you haven't heard of it, Google is your friend. Try it next time, before looking like a fool. Some people just shouldn't be allowed on internet.
I haven't ever seen anything positive from TDF other than Steph's bankroll getting fatter. -------
That's still the choice of the designers participating. Nobody is making them provide kits for her, nobody at all. If they don't like the outcome, they won't continue to participate.
114, that's the trouble, you can't prove it without seizing their computers. I just know they do it because Lena once told me that she and Tab share all of their CU. She even made a comment about how it was probably frowned upon, but she thought it was OK because they're the same designer. It's interesting this conversation came up here on the blog, because I always thought it was wrong but had never heard anyone else complain about it.
I'm not naming them here because I don't want to bring on a shitstorm to any of them ------
FFS, if they aren't doing anything wrong, no shit storm will happen. I've seen quite a few names turn up here that haven't been smacked and that's because they didn't do anything wrong.
"them's the breaks" that you don't understand the English language and are butchering it in an attempt to be cute. You're not cute, BTW. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here you go - she may not be cute but you are stupid
for the person that said godigital sent a newsletter and she considered it spam. I just got one in the last few days and look what I found on the bottom: You've received this newsletter from www.godigitalscrapbooking.com. If you wish to no longer receive our weekly newsletter, please click HERE or send a blank email message to newsletter@godigitalscrapbooking.com with Unsubscribe as the subject. It may take a few days to take your name off the list.
It had a link, but if I went to it, I'd be unsubscribed, and that wasn't my intention. But look at the bottom of your email and unsubscribe yourself. It really isn't that hard--much easier than coming to a smack blog and writing the post.
for the person that said godigital sent a newsletter and she considered it spam. -------
If you had bothered to look further up the page, you would have seen it wasn't anything to do with GoDigital, but rather ScrapSeeds formerly Scrapable.
That would have been much easier than writing a long rambling post that had nothing to do with anything.
#123 The HERE url takes you to a blank email with their address in the 'to' column. Then you have to write out the email to unsubscribe. I did it once before and I'm still getting their emails. So ya, it was spam after that.
It seems to me that again and again we hear of store owners who are more interested in their profits than their integrity. - Yeah, and I'm sure ALL those stories are objective and true.
unsubscribe = the best way to confirm a valid address
So if it's really spam/ifyou've never subscribed to it etc, then report it as spam. Hitting"unsubscribe" in such cases is like telling them "I'm a real person, this is my email address and I check it every day. Feel free to sell my contact information"
I see both sides of the Bella Gyspy / CU argument.
They only putting product out under ONE name. Whether or not they are able to crank out double the product is irrelevant, everyone designs at a different speed. Even if there was no CU in the world, some designers would put out twice as much as others. So, if they are purchasing the CU as "Bella Gypsy"...?
On the other hand, they are in fact 2 people, and the items are on 2 computers in 2 different houses, so I can see where that would be against the TOU.
Seems we've found a grey area. Suppose I was a designer, and my husband helped me by recoloring CU for me to add to my kit. What if it was my roommate? One of my kids that I'm teaching to design? A hired intern? What is OK and what isn't?
So if it's really spam/ifyou've never subscribed to it etc, then report it as spam. Hitting"unsubscribe" in such cases is like telling them "I'm a real person, this is my email address and I check it every day. Feel free to sell my contact information" ------------------- How do you report as spam without confirming you got the email to a valid address in the first place?
Copyright issue... again (but with a twist). Check this thread: http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showthread.php?t=322125 The explanation she gives does not seem to make sense to me, but, I am not a lawyer in Brazil!
From searching, it seems she posted some kits in the ISO Disney thread, but she apparently removed them. I didn't see the kits. Anyone did?
Okay I will ask again, wtf are you talking about? I just read the last page of last month. There are 18 comments, none of which reference a Nicole. The only thing on that page that has anything even remotely to do with an owner would be the part about TDC and SPAM at the bottom, and if you're talking about that then you're high as a kite. First of all, Nicole doesn't own that site anymore and hasn't for a year or two. Second, having your site hacked doesn't have anything to do with ethics.
I see both sides of the Bella Gyspy / CU argument.
They only putting product out under ONE name. Whether or not they are able to crank out double the product is irrelevant, everyone designs at a different speed. Even if there was no CU in the world, some designers would put out twice as much as others. So, if they are purchasing the CU as "Bella Gypsy"...?
On the other hand, they are in fact 2 people, and the items are on 2 computers in 2 different houses, so I can see where that would be against the TOU.
Seems we've found a grey area. Suppose I was a designer, and my husband helped me by recoloring CU for me to add to my kit. What if it was my roommate? One of my kids that I'm teaching to design? A hired intern? What is OK and what isn't?
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No way there are NOT two sides to this issue. The scenarios you present aren't even the same anyway, so why waste our time comparing them? In your scenarios, you are having other people help you with your work using ONE SET of files on ONE computer.
In Lena and Tabatha's case, they're purchasing files once and then duplicating them and sharing them. THIS IS NEVER OKAY. Digital designers of all people should know better.
They can't use the "we're putting out product under ONE name" argument because they are two people using two computers in two separate cities.
Furthermore, they alternate most of their releases between the two of them. So if they put out one kit a week, then each week it's by a different designer (one week is Tabatha, the next week is Lena). If they put out two kits a week, then usually there's one kit from each of them. They've explained their process to others of us in the industry before, and this is what they do. So when you see the same paper patterns or CU flowers or stitches or whatever else is recognizable in back to back kits, you know they're sharing. That, and they've admitted it to some of us.
There is no scenario in which what they're doing is okay. NONE.
Seems we've found a grey area. --------- Disagree. There's nothing gray about this. Would it be ok for me to purchase CU items and then send a copy to another designer that I'm doing a collab with? No. Would it be ok for me to purchase a digital kit and send a copy to my sister so we could both work on a photo book for our parents? No. I just read the TOUs at Sugar Hill and just about every single one said "no sharing of files in any way" and that seems pretty clear to me.
No way there are NOT two sides to this issue. The scenarios you present aren't even the same anyway, so why waste our time comparing them? In your scenarios, you are having other people help you with your work using ONE SET of files on ONE computer. ---
What if it's in the same house, but on a different computer?
Each day the Bella Gypsy story gets murkier and murkier. Maybe they can explain it as well as the Brazilian lawyer did at DST about the Disney things. I'm sure she knew what she was talking about. pffffttt
Okay I will ask again, wtf are you talking about? I just read the last page of last month. There are 18 comments, none of which reference a Nicole. The only thing on that page that has anything even remotely to do with an owner would be the part about TDC and SPAM at the bottom, and if you're talking about that then you're high as a kite. First of all, Nicole doesn't own that site anymore and hasn't for a year or two. Second, having your site hacked doesn't have anything to do with ethics. ------------
Since you asked so very nicely and included a rant that had nothing to do with anything, I will tell you ...
Nicole, owner of Stuff to Scrap, apparently has no problem with copyright infringement and telling her designers that copyright is irrelevant.
135 -- What if it's in the same house, but on a different computer? ----------------- Still not okay in my book. That's still file sharing. 133 was spot on. That IS their process and they've talked about it in several places a few times before, including Facebook. The fact that they're a team doesn't make it okay.
I disagree. If the business made the purchase, and the items were used only for the business, this seems fine to me. If, however, the designers each used the items for kits not part of the business, that would not be ok.
135 -- What if it's in the same house, but on a different computer? ----------------- Still not okay in my book. That's still file sharing. -----------
Not necessarily. It would depend on the TOU. Some TOUs allow copies on different computers in the same household and others don't.
I disagree. If the business made the purchase, and the items were used only for the business, this seems fine to me. ----------
You may disagree and it may seem fine, but you'd be wrong. A business has to purchase licenses for each user of the software or whatever it is. So, in this case, they would need to either purchase two kits and/or purchase two CU licenses, one for each user.
Yeah, you'd definitely need to purchase two copies.
The only way around purchasing two copies is if a "team" designer were to have two designers each designing their own half of the kit, and using their CU purchased and downloaded to their computer for just their half, with the other team member doing the same... the story may be different depending on TOU if BellaGypsy were in the same house/household, but since they're in different cities, well, it's pretty clearly against TOU. Team funds or no, unless each of them made a purchase of the same item (therefore paying for it twice-- one copy for each of them), or each of them had their own CU and put together kits without sharing that CU, then it's against pretty much everyone's CU. The only way to get around it, legally, would be to contact the individual CU designers and ask "Since we're part of a team, can we use team funds to purchase this and each use it?" etc.
By them doing it the way they're doing it, it begs the question that if they did decide to fully split and go their separate ways, what would be done with the CU? Would they delete any purchases made by the team, thereby making sure they're weren't each using it? Would they say "Okay, you get this stuff and you get this stuff, and any of mine, you'd have to re-purchase?" It's pretty unlikely that they would... meaning that all of this they're sharing could be purchased as a "team," then if they split, they each keep it and use it as two separate entities... and THAT is shady.
It's very black and white, in my opinion, but even the grey area can be cleared up by looking at it and saying if they'd BOTH keep ALL CU if they were no longer a team, then it's as though they were just file-sharing... and once you remove the team factor, then you realize that it's exactly what it is. If it's not okay for me to email a kit or CU to my bestie across the country, it's not okay for them to each download kits or CU and only pay once.
Not necessarily. It would depend on the TOU. Some TOUs allow copies on different computers in the same household and others don't. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well sure. But that's meant as a back up for ONE user, not as a copy for another user to use. The intention is to have an additional copy in case the original is lost for any reason, not for your "partner" to use to design. No designer would tell you "Sure, it's okay that you email a copy of my designs for free to your sister!", would they? Didn't think so. That's exactly what's happening.
Not necessarily. It depends entirely on the TOUs. Some do allow for kits to be shared within the same household. There was a huge discussion about this exact topic in the DCR years ago.
Why you are mentioning emailing anything to anyone is beyond me because I never said that was okay.
The only way to get around it, legally, would be to contact the individual CU designers and ask "Since we're part of a team, can we use team funds to purchase this and each use it?" etc. -----------
I wonder if CU designers can block them from buying their CU ... since there seems to be no other way to stop them from file-sharing. Clearly, relying on their ethics isn't working.
Why you are mentioning emailing anything to anyone is beyond me because I never said that was okay. -------------------------------------------------- Because that's exactly what IS happening. Your whole comment about file sharing within the same household was completely irrelevant, as it's been established they don't even live in the same city, let alone the same house. Stop trying to defend them. There's no way to make their file sharing okay. If it's not okay for me or you to do it, then it's not okay for them, end of story.
I wasn't trying to defend them. I can't stand them. If you had bothered to read anything other than your stupid assumptions, you would know that! Some people.
What if it's in the same house, but on a different computer? ----- Um, it's not though. It's two people in two cities with two computers. Two shady people who have done shit like this before.
Bella Gyspy would be the first to cry FOUL if their customers were sharing kits. How can they defend their own TOU when they cant abide by others tou's. Surely store owners can block them from making purchases.
I never thought about the CU team sharing this way, but I agree, this is against most of the CU Tou I read. and what about if/when they will fly on their own ... ? On the same line, that would allow us, designer, to sale our designer name, with customers base AND all CU ... hahaha ... that´s a super joke!
As for TDD, (sorry I am late in the topic) I went 3 time, the first has had a good impact (sale X2 within feature month). the second one was way lower.. but I assumed it was because of Kit style, or something ... the last one has NO effect at all. so either am getting really bad, or TDD subscriber are waiting for products I don´t do anymore. but, one thing is SURE, now, I won't do it, way too much pressure to produce a big kit, months ahead. this said, my TDD kits have always done great when reaching my store ... so I am really starting to wonder if there are more than the girls here, purchasing the digifiles...
"I wonder if CU designers can block them from buying their CU ... since there seems to be no other way to stop them from file-sharing. Clearly, relying on their ethics isn't working." & "Bella Gyspy would be the first to cry FOUL if their customers were sharing kits. How can they defend their own TOU when they cant abide by others tou's. Surely store owners can block them from making purchases." - - - - - - - - - - - They do buy CU from me and if there was a way to block them from buying it in the future I would do it, because whoever said they would be the first to cry foul if their kits were being shared the same way is spot on.
How stupid can some of you be?? It's been a while since I visited here and I'm glad I stopped because the smacking is out of control and for no reason. I posted in September comment #139 about a visual bookmark site I found (clipix) and #141 thanked me for the recommendation. And then some of you started the classic it's the same person and blah blah blah. Why would I benefit advertising clipix? It's a free application. After searching for 10 days I found what I was looking for and wanted to share. I can't imagine how thoughtful, giving and kind most of you are. Sarcasm. Anyway I was happy when I found it and have been using it since. It works like pinterest, the layout is similar. The good thing is you can make all boards public not just three like pinterest does and who cares about Scrap Stacks? Why compare scrap stacks to this? I have tons of bookmarks. My whole life isn't scrapbook layouts. Jeez..
Anyway I wish someone would make an anonymous blog where we can give our honest opinions about the digi world not just smacking. And no forums are not for that. I want to be anonymous. I want to be able to share good sales, or mention a designer without being reminded every second that this is a smackblog and it's only purpose is to smack everyone.
#158 said: "I believe there is a way to block them from buying from you: Block their IP address in your store."
It's very rare these days for anyone to have a static IP address, so they could easily just get a new dynamic one assigned by disconnecting & reconnecting their router/modem to their service provider. There are also other methods to bypass an IP block (Starbucks free wifi for instance, or by using a VPN).
159 - HONESTLY! Not only did you come back in here to enable some app that nobody else cares about, and tell us again about all its amazing features and how great it is (STFU!), but you're the world's BIGGEST idiot because why on earth would you need to be anonymous to do that? You make no sense at all.
Yeah, see, 159 definitely seems like a spammer. Repetitive, continuing to talk about how great the site is, blah blah. Anyone on here who didn't see the issue last month could dig through her site-promoting slop and consider checking it out, or at least, so she hopes. It's lame.
It would be the equivalent of me coming here saying I love SSD and think that Robin is total hot shit, and the products are just amaze-balls, getting bashed to hell, and coming back to say how everyone is stupid and I was just trying to be helpful and maybe we need an anonymous place where we can have a good old fashioned circlejerk instead of utilizing it for smacking... which, really, is what this blog is for, hence why it's called a smackblog.
Reorganizing my kits and found some designers are REALLY freakin' lazy. I mean, I know CU is kind of overused in some stores (I swear I've gotten the same owl in about 8 different SSD kits... I could make an owl family). But seriously, how lazy do you have to be to use the SAME texture on every. single. paper. Not just "Oh, all the solids have the same texture..." No, literally, every single paper has the same texture. I'm having to really rotate and manipulate the papers. What are the chances, exactly, that in a paper layout, you'd have ALL of your papers with the exact same wrinkles and folds in it? Like zero. Melissa Bennett is one of the worst offenders of this... I'm seriously about to delete about half of my kits from her. It's nothing but the same texture in all the papers, making them basically unusable, and then repackaged CU like that damn owl.
I bought a kit from Digital Designs Essential when she was having a retirement sale, and it had the same problem. The same horrible blurry texture on a lot of the papers. I couldn't use the layout I made with it (I zoomed in only when I was done with it). I'm sure her newer kits are of better quality, but that one kit made me wary of buying from her.
I have bought several of DDE's recent kits. I just took a close look at the papers, and on viewing at 100% they do all seem to have the same texturing. Even across different kits, every single paper that I looked at, with the exception of the wood grain papers, all had the exact same texturing - a subtle kraft stye texture. However, I would not call the texture blurry. It is very subtle, and almost seems nonexistant on some of the patterned papers. Personally, it doesn't bother me at all. If I were to complain about her papers, I would complain that the texturing is so subtle that many of the papers don't seem textured at all. But I think that is a style preference, not a mistake or bad designing.
170, I don't think that was 169's point. FWIW I have some of Gina's old products and can't use them because of quality. There's one kraft paper pack in particular that is so pixelated at 100% I couldn't bring myself to scrap with it. I haven't seen this problem with her more recent work, but these papers were about a year or two ago from right after she reopened her web site. Terrible quality. I was completely surprised b/c she is normally so good.
Well, I thought the point was possible quality issues with DDE's papers. 169 saw a quality issue with some older papers. She is hopeful that newer papers are of higher quality, but nonetheless she is hesitant to buy. Since I have purchased some of the recent sets, I thought I would share my thoughts.
I don't mind the same texture on each paper in a kit as long as it's subtle and the texture is flat (not creased). I am a designer and a scrapper and this texture issue doesn't bother me in either capacity. It's just a choice. If someone stops buying from me b/c they don't like it, I wouldn't be upset. It would only mean that our style aesthetics had changed and were no longer similar.
FTR, it's not about being a lazy designer, either. I've tried both ways (using different textures throughout a kit and using the same texture) and I'm at a place where I prefer the latter.
173-- I was the OP on the same texture thing. I guess I should clarify that on lightly textured papers that have a "clean" look, it doesn't bother me. These were heavily creased and when I was trying to stack papers, the creases were falling across the same places and it just looked weird... anytime they're creased, at least vary the creasing, imo.
I'm 169, and the texture I'm talking about is blurry and not subtle. I'm a designer myself and do repeat a lot of my texture, especially those subtle and versatile ones that work on anything. I also try to vary my textures on solid and pattern papers so when they're layered they don't look the same up close. That's the problem with the DDE kit I got.
#162 Just catching up. Thanks for the tips. I am blocked by TDD at the moment. Not sure if I will implement any of the solutions. I am enjoying the silence. But it is good to know I can get around it.
173-- I was the OP on the same texture thing. I guess I should clarify that on lightly textured papers that have a "clean" look, it doesn't bother me. These were heavily creased and when I was trying to stack papers, the creases were falling across the same places and it just looked weird... anytime they're creased, at least vary the creasing, imo.
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How hard is it to just drag your paper slightly up or down or side to side when scrapping, after clipping it to an element? You make it sound as though the designer's texture choice is ruining your pages and making them look weird. Whenever I run into this with a kit I am using, I just drag the paper until it doesn't look weird anymore. It's a lot simpler solution than whining on a smack blog and then not purchasing from that designer any more. O_o
love that Lena is begging for $$ on her pages for her sister. nice.
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I saw this yesterday too and was appalled. Let me first mention that I cannot believe a hospital wouldn't let a mom with an infant stay there with her other small child who is being admitted. Ridiculous. But even more ridiculous is the notion that the mom in question couldn't afford to book a hotel room for one night until things got settled. You have got to be kidding me if you think that any of us believe for one nanosecond that someone can't afford a one night stay in an emergency situation. Now if the situation was going to be a semipermanent one and go on for days or weeks, I'd understand begging on facebook for people to donate their hotel points or frequent flyer miles or other donations. That would make sense. But for one night? My only thought was "how greedy do you have to be to ask others to foot the bill for a regular life expense that ALL of us face at some point or other in our lives?????" It was classic Lena.
180-- not the complaining poster above, but I also get frustrated with this. I design, but I still buy other designer's products because sometimes I just want to scrap without putting a ton of time into preserving memories. If I'm layering large bits of paper, it can get pretty damn noticeable, even when I move/clip/etc the paper. If she doesn't like it and chooses not to buy from that designer anymore, so be it. It's unlikely she's the designer's only customer anyway, so is it really going to have a huge effect on the designer either way? People have smacked lesser crimes here than how a paper is textured.
181- I totally agree. I barely get by some months, but you better believe I'd find a way to make ends meet and get in that hotel if I had a situation like that. A classier way, if you can't scrape the money together, would be to *privately* contact family and close friends and ask for a little assistance. If the situation continued and you still couldn't afford it, THEN post on facebook for help. Lena is so overdramatic sometimes... Oh, woe is she. :rolls eyes:
you would think that with the money they save by only buying one set of CU to use between them, they would have enough for a hotel room. sick to death of poor tabatha's problems. get a life, get a job - stop having kids you can't afford, stop buying all those things you don't need. most of all GROW UP. and stop expecting everyone else to pay your way.
amen 184! I LOL'd at your first sentence and then compleatly agree with everything else 100%. it's unbeleiveble to me that Lena has enough money to buy all her ipsy and birchbox shit every month and post about it on fb but she can't afford to help her sister out by sending her 50 or 100 bucks on paypal so Tab can get a room? puh-leez.
People have money for what they prioritize as important. Clearly, Tab has stuff she sees as more important than her family's medical stuff, and obviously Lena prioritizes her birchbox shit as being more important than helping her sister. Not where I'd place my priorities, but... that's their thing, I guess.
The begging post was the pinnacle of tacky, and before someone chirps in with the age-old "if you don't like her, unfriend her!" I will say that I do like Lena, and I consider her to be a friend. Her personality is such that I could never say this to her face because she'd get defensive and angry, but she needs to know that it's not just her enemies and frenemies on FB who think her begging was tacky. Even her friends were offended by it. There's been more talk about it than just here on this blog, and she should know that.
How hard is it to just drag your paper slightly up or down or side to side when scrapping, after clipping it to an element? You make it sound as though the designer's texture choice is ruining your pages and making them look weird.
^^ When you are stacking papers or clipping them to really large elements like paper mats, and you have heavily folded and creased papers, it is hard to make them look right.
I've also had paper packs where the texture and shabby/grungy look is exactly the same from page to page. The whole point of shabby and grungy is that they look worn and torn and there's no way any two worn and torn and shabby papers would ever look the same.
I think its laziness. Designers can say it's not but it totally is. It's much faster to change the color layer and make multiple pages than it is to texture each new color.
When I see a paper pack that's all the same texture I delete it and probably won't buy from that designer again. I don't think my purchasing habits will change anyone's design style, but I'm not going to buy something that I can't use.
"When I see a paper pack that's all the same texture I delete it and probably won't buy from that designer again. I don't think my purchasing habits will change anyone's design style, but I'm not going to buy something that I can't use. " ------------------ I think you are a pretty unfair scrapper. When you go and buy 12*12" paper pack in store, they pretty much have the same texture, and and solids paper are "just, as you say" recolored... and you don't have to use them on the same Layout. same with digi, you don't have to use only one designer per layout, as you seems to be such an expert, I thought you might know that.
but yes you can always deleted everything you buy, if it makes sense to you.
189, I'm not post 188 but I can see her point. I hate when the papers have the EXACT SAME texture, especially when I center two papers on my layout and then clip them to shapes (for a background with 2 or 3 papers, for example). The texture on the papers lines up and looks weird. IRL paper scrapping isn't like that: each paper is unique, even if they're similar in texture (both are cold press and same weight). ITA with 188 that it seems to be laziness. The designer just changes the fill color layer on a paper texture. That seems pretty bogus, especially with what designers are charging nowadays. It takes 2 seconds to make papers that way.
Having said that, it doesn't bother me when papers have SIMILAR texture. I like that because it's weird to me (and my scrapping style) to have a very heavy mulberry-type paper with a very smooth paper and a grainy press. But that's just me.
That seems pretty bogus, especially with what designers are charging nowadays. It takes 2 seconds to make papers that way.
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If it's so easy, then make your own papers and quit bitching. Designing is art. Artists are allowed to make things however the fuck they want. Same as a sculpture in a gallery. . . if you like it, buy it. If you don't like it, don't buy it. But don't call the artist lazy for making things they way he/she likes them. It's his/her prerogative and you're just a consumer.
When you clip a paper to a template, you can then move that paper around--without even having to rotate the paper--which would make the lines in different areas, and the textures wouldn't be matchy-matchy either. Looks like there is a bit of laziness on the part of the scrapper also. (Not saying here the designer wasn't a bit lazy!), just saying there are ways around things.
I think that a good designer would be open to hearing that a customer finds her products difficult to work with. I know that I'm always happy to see a product improve. To me is indicates that the maker is proud of their work and wants to make it even better.
When I have seen paper packs as the ones described (all the solids have the exact same texture and identical distressing) I never thought of it as the designer is lazy. Rather, I thought of it as the designer is still learning.
I often see kraft/cardstock sets offered in multiple colors but with the exact same texture. The lack of extreme distressing (the creases and folds) seems to make a pack like that a lot more acceptable. However, I still wish that when designers made cardstock sets they would offer a variety of textures instead of the same texture on every paper. I have even offered this as a suggestion when designers ask "what do you guys want to see??" But they never do it.
193-- could be laziness on the part of the scrapper, or could just be that the scrapper feels that they're paying the designer for a product, so they have a right to a bit of laziness. Personally, I *can* design, and even *do* design, but I choose to purchase products because they save time. That's what I'm paying the designer for-- to product quality designs I can use without having to design my own kit. Some scrappers CAN'T design. It just isn't their thing. When you have 30 minutes, 1 hour, or however long to make a page, then do you really want to spend it making sure the designer's paper is just right, or do you want to spend it assembling the rest of the page and hoping the designer took the time to vary her textures?
195-- One of the designers I noticed mentioned specifically was Melissa Bennett. I think because she comes from what is considered a pretty top-tier store, people would expect that she is on the "already knows" instead of "still learning" side. Just my opinion. Obviously everyone still has room to learn, but... she should know better at this stage to at least change it a bit.
If the designers want to use the same texture in different kits, I don't care. I just feel that they should rotate it occasionally or change it up within the kit. Mentioned above, I'm a designer, and it doesn't take considerably longer to swap out this texture vs. that texture if you've premade several (or are using CU like many designers are doing for their papers). It really doesn't take much longer and can help a kit stretch without the scrapper having to do much work to fix it. Happier customers, with minimal effort on the designer's part. Not that hard to open new CU, flip, rotate, add an additional crease somewhere, etc. to change it up a little.
OMG I honestly cannot believe that some of you are arguing that it takes considerably longer to drag a paper sideways (or up/down) after clipping it to a shape mask. "When you have 30 minutes, 1 hour, or however long to make a page, then do you really want to spend it making sure the designer's paper is just right, or do you want to spend it assembling the rest of the page" ......seriously???? It takes literally 3 seconds to drag a paper to a new location after you finish your page in 30 minutes or 1 hour. If you have to do it 10 times, it takes 30 extra seconds. If I like the kit, and want to scrap with it, and have to do this it DOES NOT BOTHER ME AT ALL.
I agree with whoever said that the scrappers are being lazy. Maybe these people should just buy QP's and STFU.
I'm a designer and I am interested in what scrappers want. If making something faster and easier means my paying customers are happy, that's a good thing.
I think having the same textures in different kits, but not all the same textures within a kit, sounds fair and doable.
It doesn't take that long to rotate or drag the papers, but when you use a lot of paper pieces on a layout and they all have the same not-subtle texture, it just looks weird.
re: textures - I personally don't mind if the papers have the same textures when the texture is subtle, but I dislike it if the papers all use the exact same heavy, bold, distressed texture (ie. huge creases across the paper, or huge tears).
988 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 1 – 200 of 988 Newer› Newest»Ok, So I´ll open this month, wishing for a better one than sept.
I don´t usually post here, but I admit it is SOMETIMES fun... sometimes.
this said, it is a few of designers closing store right now, I have the feeling it is a regular season for that.
Who, among you, remember that fall in a retiring season?
or maybe it is only me...
have a great month everyone!
WTF is with STS? Supposedly they were closing as of last night but their forum and store are still open as of about 9 this morning.
Wow.... are you there with a timer and checking that everyone does exactly what they said they would do, within the minute (in your time zone too)? Are you so anxious to see them close? It is not like you are promise something YOU would get.
umm there are no products in the store thought the site is still there. That is common to leave it up for awhile.
I am pretty sure it was left up so that people can finish downloading their orders.
When a store in real brick and mortar closes, it does not get demolished immediately (if at all), What is anyone expecting a digital store to disappear completely the minute it closes? Sheesh!
Apparently TDC got hacked into and whoever did it stole all of their contact info to send out SPAM.
5-You're assuming there was any orders. Did anybody here ever shop there?? I never have because the store owner was previously associated with forgiving piracy by at least one of her designers..
8: Don't forget she that basically told her designers that copyright infringement was no big deal either.
Goddamn I hate this blog because of the SSD army. Stay in your own forum,
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Goddamn, I hate being told what to do. F.O. If you hate this blog, why are you here? Do you not have free will or is someone forcing you to be here and subject yourself to the SSD Koolaid?
copyright infringement was no big deal either.
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It is no big deal unless you get caught by the copyright holder.
What did everyone think of the DSF blog train. What did you like? What did you hate? Don't want to waste the time if it's all crap.
Is DST's up yet?
8- there were orders and the store was left up so people could finish downloading everything. I'm not sure if the orders are from anyone here or not. And what have you found in STS that's blatant copyright infringement? What the store owner has said in the past reflects only on her and her own store, but has nothing to do with us, the designers, selling there. Why should that deter anyone from buying from our stores?
I've never bought from STS, but I would be concerned that if the owner allows it, chances are higher that the designers will do it.
I would suggest that you find a store owner that reflects your personal standards in the future. Good luck!
What is ScrapSeeds and why did I get spammed by them not once, but twice today about their grand opening? I haven't even heard of anyone in their store before and they said I signed up for their newsletter. I don't think so! Anyone else get spammed by them?
^^^^
Nope.
15, were you ever signed up for Scrapable's newsletter? Scrap Seeds is the CU offshoot of Scrapable, so maybe that's how you ended up on the mailing list?
I got a letter from Scrapable last week saying that it would be their last letter and they were merging the mailing list over to ScrapSeeds. That if you didn't want to receive it to unsubscribe from Scrapable's and you won't receive one. So it wasn't spam you moron.
If I had gotten the email that you spoke of, I would have unsubscribed. As far as I know, I was never on Scrapable's mailing list in the first place so I would say that is spam. Up until today, I've never got any communication from them under the old name. I've never been to Scrapable to sign up for their newsletters. The only time I heard of the place was here and that was not very often.
So it wasn't spam you moron.
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You again?
I got a letter from Scrapable last week saying that it would be their last letter and they were merging the mailing list over to ScrapSeeds. That if you didn't want to receive it to unsubscribe from Scrapable's and you won't receive one. So it wasn't spam you moron.
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Just because you got it, doesn't mean everyone got it. And, even if they did, they cannot just willy nilly merge newsletters as they are now a separate store. Merging that list and then sending out unsolicited mail is spam.
copyright infringement was no big deal either.
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It is no big deal unless you get caught by the copyright holder.
^^^
You would be OK if someone broke into your home and took all your stuff, so long as they weren't caught? That would be 'no big deal'?
Because things are only wrong if you are caught?
The Digi Files reveal anyone?
21. I didn't get a notice they were merging the newsletters either.
13-I won't buy from a store that the owner has condoned the things that owner would. I never shopped at Divine Digitals or whatever Royanna's store was when I found out she wasn't paying the designers either. I just won't. So, designers--choose your stores wisely!!
^^^^^^^^^^^
This. I also cannot believe that #13 is naive enough to think that the store owner's reputation isn't known and didn't deter people from shopping there. Right or wrong, it's guilt by association and it's real, darlin'.
Digifiles this month worth it? what about scrappack?
GRRRR! goes the Digifiles only accept credit cards now? What kind of digi shop doesn't accept paypal????? Finally found a month I was going to purchase after over a year, and now I can't buy it because I don't have a cc.
That is strange. My digifiles are on paypal, but maybe because I'm set up for an every month buy?
As for the questions about Thedigifiles this month--It's a mixed bag. There are three submissions that I'll probably use. Kristins, lgfd, and Wendy Tunison. Three I won't, Lili Niclass, one little bird, and Rosey posey and one is a maybe--Digital Design Essentials. Maybe put Rosey Posey into the maybe group--I'll see after I get them downloaded. The preview wasn't inspiring.
Wait. TDF has Lili, OLB, and DDE in one month? That's a really good pull for Steph. How does she convince these top-name designers to participate even after all of her shady/BS business decisions/practices? How are they still flocking to her? I don't get it. Don't designers talk to each other? I'm only a CT and I've heard enough about Steph's BS in the past few months to know that I wouldn't want to give her my work for free EVER.
Would you care to explain that BS? I don't feel like reading the past few months worth of this blog (yes, I am lazy).
Steph likes to blackball designers/stores.
Or so this blog says.
Anyone have some dirt about that copyright infringement suit against a DS store that has gotten mentioned here?
OLB is a cohost, so she doesn't surprise me.
Can you imagine how much money Steph makes off of others work? If she has 500 subscribers, that's $2500 each month. She's got a good racket going.
Wait. TDF has Lili, OLB, and DDE in one month? That's a really good pull for Steph. How does she convince these top-name designers to participate even after all of her shady/BS business decisions/practices?
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Er, because the designers are asked months and months in advance before their kits appear in the TDF. I would have thought that was obvious. Not to mention that designers probably do talk to each other, which is how they probably know that any BS by Steph is just rumor on this blog.
Designers you might want to check out this etsy shop. She is selling a lot of premade cards and other printables in a digital format, using some popular designers scrapkits
http://www.etsy.com/shop/missbellaexpressions
Many designers allow scrap for hire in their terms so long as the file is flattened which appears to be what's he is offering.
^^^^^
Wow, just checked and she's even got Disney.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/missbellaexpressions?page=6
Scrap 4 Hire is creating a unique layout at the request of a customer, NOT selling premade products. There is a big difference!
That would be S4H under my TOUs. As long as she is personalizing them (adding a photo, name, details) rather than mass producing them (a premade invite that she just prints off and the person writes their details on, same for everyone who buys it) and they are flattened into a .jpg file. She does have a ton of copyright violations, Disney, Elmo, Mario, Max and Ruby....... that's what would bother me if my stuff was being used in her shop.
I'm friends with a couple of Pixels designers, and the blacklist is not just a blog rumor. I've read the emails from Steph.
Yep, Steph loves her blacklist. Remember this is the woman that bragged on her podcast she could see who visited her site down to their mailing address but yet hides everything about herself.
Creepy - if you ask me. Would make me scared to give her any credit card information.
^^^^^
Why would you brag about something like that? Seems like a great way to alienate people.
Well here it is the 3rd and I still haven't been paid by MyMemories. We only get paid once a month, but it would be nice if it was at least close to the first.
#44 That doesn't surprise me about MyMemories. That's only one of the reasons I stopped selling there a long time ago.
#40 Many S4H/S4O TOU do not allow the projects to be sold in an online shop, which is what she is doing. That's definitely against my TOU, but fortunately, she was cooperative and removed the images using my designs. If only it was always like that.
It's been a while since I visited this blog. I was tired of all the badmouthing smack. I guess I'm not the only one. Just because it's a smackblog doesn't mean we have to be mean. I loved logging in to find out about secrets around the digiworld but it ended up being online fights and smacking to each other for no reason. And in the end not much said about digiland.
I just viewed all the retiring products in SSD Going, Going, Gone section and I have to say wow!!
Now I feel like an idiot for buying so much mediocre stuff from other sites (except TLP)
Lots of their retiring stuff is way better than new kits that come out these days.
I'm going to be spending a fortune.
I have to aknowledge a few new features some sites are offering.
Pixels & Co for no expiring download links.
The Lilypad for extending the download links to a month and Scrap Matters to 22 days ( I think)
I'm loving the FWP Kits almost all sites are now offering with a $10 purchase. That used to be a holiday thing and now it's become a monthly -even weekly- feature. Great idea!
And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Already Purchased feature TLP has added. Finally no double buying or having to check my huge stash if I bought something or not. Thank you! That's a time saver. Only for that feature I love shopping at TLP.
Purchase history has been available on all sites that I have shopped at, including TLP, is this something a bit different?
I just viewed all the retiring products in SSD Going, Going, Gone section and I have to say wow!!
Now I feel like an idiot for buying so much mediocre stuff from other sites (except TLP)
Lots of their retiring stuff is way better than new kits that come out these days.
I'm going to be spending a fortune.
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Normally I wouldn't call someone out for advertising, but these seems rather blatant. I don't see anything 'way better' than elsewhere.
I'm loving the FWP Kits almost all sites are now offering with a $10 purchase. That used to be a holiday thing and now it's become a monthly -even weekly- feature. Great idea!
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Sign of the times.
Speaking of the digifiles, I was going to purchase but all I can seem to find is the digifiles + digigame, for $7.50. Do they no longer have the $5 option for the kits only? I don't give a shit about the digigame crap. Would rather purchase without it. I know I used to be able to but don't see that option anymore.
#44 - Several months ago I asked MyMemories when I hadn't gotten anything by the 1st...they told me that they do and process the payroll within the first 5 business days of the month...so they have till Monday, the 7th to pay us...i wish it happened on the first though....
30 said: Wait. TDF has Lili, OLB, and DDE in one month? That's a really good pull for Steph. How does she convince these top-name designers to participate even after all of her shady/BS business decisions/practices?
If they are considered top name designers, they must have sent in their junk to TDF because that is about what they were.
DIGIFILES PREVIEWS PLEASE?
#44 - Several months ago I asked MyMemories when I hadn't gotten anything by the 1st...they told me that they do and process the payroll within the first 5 business days of the month...so they have till Monday, the 7th to pay us...i wish it happened on the first though....
^^^
You realize running Payroll reports take a LOT of time, right? It's expecting a lot to want to be paid on the 1st, unless of course you only want to be paid until the 25th of the previous month.
^^^^
you realize it's a business right? and other businesses with bigger payrolls manage to pay on time. It's not expecting a lot to be paid on time.
^^^
Most businesses pay 7-14 days AFTER the pay period has closed. 5 business days is reasonable
Only in digi scrap "la la" land Designers/( the workers) settle for a (around this date) for payment. In any other job you expect your pay date to be just that the PAY DATE. It is your money, you earned it you should be paid when your contract said so, not oh it could be anywhere from the 1st trough the 5th or 15th .. why do designers settle for that? I am in a shop with more than 30 designers and we are paid weekly every week on time, never late, most times early.
I must be spoiled then, because the digi store I sold in before actually paid on time. Twice a month -on the 15th and the 1st. And it actually sent me an invoice every time someone bought an item. At MyMemories you have no idea what's selling until the about a week after the 1st, when some man sends me an xcel worksheet that lists the kits or albums. Which isn't that big of a deal, but I just like knowing at the time it happens so I can adjust my marketing.
And I should clarify that the spreadsheet is for the entire month.
#59 Totally agree
So, to the MyMemories designers - what is the pay date listed in your contract? If it says the 1st of the month, then that's when you should be paid.
#60 what is weird is that you are not getting notification on sale at the time it happen. I can not remember when last it happen to me for sure, but I guess it was with a free cart system.
Do you upload your product by yourself, or does the owner do it for you?
(It was happening to me 8Years ago or so, and we couldn't access our store ourselves...)
Is MM run on a free Cart system?
oh and not being paid on the 1rst is not surprising to me, 5 days seems to be a average in the store I know (not that I know a lot of them though) ( I am #63)
I think being paid by the 5th is pretty standard for a digi store. #58 is right, unless your employees are all salaried so they make the exact same amount every paycheck, I have never heard of a business that pays you on the 1st for the 15th through the end of the month. All businesses are 7-14 days past. At my last job I assisted with payroll. The pay period closed on Friday, payroll was processed on Monday, checks were received on Friday. It's absolutely reasonable to have 5 days past the pay period close to get you your money. It's a big job.
#63 - We upload the files ourselves.
Does Steph get these kits for free for the daily digi? Or do the designers get a percentage?
I see a recurring theme of fall/autumn with the kits.....they are ok....nothing to jump up and down....thanks for posting the links #65...
Yes you upload to MM yourself but it is different than any other store I have ever been in. You don't use a FTP like you would in X Cart (which is what I am used to). I hate not getting notifications. I too would like to know when I sell something in real time. But I still sell well there and that is why I stick around. I have gotten paid on the first there before and as late as the 6th. I think they say within 5 business days from the first. So I pulled up my contract and this is what it says. "The Company shall provide the payment and report for any particular month no less than 1 days and no more than 30 days following the end of the following calendar month." So really they can pay you at anytime during the following month. Wow I don't know how I missed that! Also it is the most lengthy contract I have had.
I would probably only use KCB and LGF out of the Digi Files. The rest would be junked. Thanks for the previews.
#70 The contract actually says that? - Wow. I've never read mine, I suppose I should. It's the strangest store I've ever been in and this just makes it stranger.
I've never had it go past 5 business days....I do wish we could see what sells - even it was a weekly report.....but I also sell really well there and can adjust. Frankly compared to other stores I have been in, MM pays ontime - others - it would be weeks or never....just wish I could see what sold real time.....
Thanks for posting the digi files previews. Actually I like most of it, especially Rosey Posey, KCB and DDE.
68: Designers don't get anything except the advertising.
78: Oh, my. She is getting a lot of cash off of other's labor. Not sure the return is there for a designer. She says she has over 15,000 subscribers. If even just 1/4 pay the $5 (or $7.50) for the month she could easily pull in over $10K a month. I don't know if the publicity for a designer would make that much in return. They should be getting a percentage - which I thought they were.
My bad - meant 75 instead of 78
I think it's hilarious that people are complaining about My Memories paying around the 5th when they haven't read their OWN contract that THEY agreed to that says My Memories can take up to one month to pay.
I myself wasn't complaining, just stating what the contract read. I don't beleive they have paid late, just don't like how they do not have a way of letting me know what I sell and when. Got my payment from them today and am happy with what I made :)
I agree with #79 - I wasn't complaining either...I just hope one day they will be able tell us when we have sales whether daily or once a week but hey, I was over the moon with this month....and I have read my contract and know what it says.
They should be getting a percentage
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Why? They are getting advertising and promotion instead.
Actually I like most of it, especially Rosey Posey, KCB and DDE.
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Shows how different people's tastes are. I didn't really like any of them and I liked those three the least, especially Rosey Posey and I'm a fan of hers.
Not to mention that designers probably do talk to each other, which is how they probably know that any BS by Steph is just rumor on this blog.
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It's BECAUSE designers talk to each other that I can't believe they're still giving Steph business. The stories about her are totally 100 percent true. Any designer who talks to any other designer would have heard about it. I'm blown away that she continues to land some of the fish she lands. OLB makes sense b/c she and Steph are tight. But I agree w/ the OP that I can't believe she has KCB, DDE, and Lili in the same month after the shit she's been pulling in the past few months.
78: Oh, my. She is getting a lot of cash off of other's labor. Not sure the return is there for a designer. She says she has over 15,000 subscribers. If even just 1/4 pay the $5 (or $7.50) for the month she could easily pull in over $10K a month. I don't know if the publicity for a designer would make that much in return. They should be getting a percentage - which I thought they were.
___
It's not worth it at all. A few years ago, it probably was. Being featured about 3 years ago or so meant that you got a lot of extra visitors to your site/shop and lots of extra sales that month. But in the past year or so, I haven't talked to ONE designer who has been pleased with what they have received in return for their TDF feature. Not one. From what I've been told and from my own experience the designer being featured gets maybe 5-10 extra sales using the coupon code she provides the TDF readers. Also Steph requires that you give extra coupons for her staff to use and they're each about $10 and I can say with certainty that more product was taken using those codes than was bought using the discount code I gave her for her readers. WASTE OF TIME. Anyone being blacklisted by her should consider themselves lucky.
^^^^^
I thought designers talked to each other, so wouldn't they know it wasn't worth their time?
So designers are actually paying Steph for the honor of making her money and making little to none for themselves? She sound like a piece of work.
#84 Yes three years ago was a great way to advertise on The Daily Digi and the digi files but now there are so many other ways and most designers are already well known to the digi customers.
By the way I really liked this months contributions. Finally after many months of disappointment.
Why am I having a feeling that maybe Steph is the new owner of this smackblog...Brrrrrr freaky...
I really likes the founder of the daily digi, Jennifer I think. What happened to her and how did the daily digi pass on to Steph?
#50 I'm #47. No I'm not advertising. How did you get that out of what I wrote? Can't I comment and give my opinion about my money and how I spent It by buying rubbish when half of the stuff on the retiring section of SSD is way better than lots of new stuff coming out..in my opinion of course.
#49 I don't mean the purchase history or orders history in your account. When you're logged in at TLP under every product there's a Already Purchased Feature if you have already bought that product. It's so much easier to shop that way..especially for me. I have tons of stuff and don't remember half of them. I spend so much time checking my stash or the order histories of sites, it's just a pain in the ass. This way I know that there's no way I'll double purchase something from TLP again. Pheeewww.
Whehn will this become a thing for the other sites too? I can't wait!!
85, we DO talk to each other. That's why I am surprised to see the designer lineup this month in TDF. Do pay attention and try to keep up whilst we all converse, won't you?
Whoever said Just Jaimee was going to The Lily Pad was right. It was in her newsletter today.
They should be getting a percentage
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Why? They are getting advertising and promotion instead.
___
They're really not. I saw zero increase in anything when I was featured there, and I can track where hits to my site come from and whenever I've advertised with them on their blog, I haven't seen any traffic come from TDD.
Here's a random question: if two designers work together as one design team, is it ok for them to share their CU and their fonts and design software etc. if those things have only been purchased once?
Examples would be Bella Gypsy (Lena and Tabatha), North Meets South (Connie and Trixie), Ya Yeah (Aja and Christine).
I have been wondering about this since I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok? If I were a CU designer I would be pissed.
So designers are actually paying Steph for the honor of making her money and making little to none for themselves? She sound like a piece of work.
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They made that choice, nobody forced them to do it. How does make her a piece of work? She sounds like a smart business person to me and I don't even associate with TDF or anything like it.
85, we DO talk to each other. That's why I am surprised to see the designer lineup this month in TDF. Do pay attention and try to keep up whilst we all converse, won't you?
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I was, which is why I was asking why do the flock there if they talk to each other? Seems to me you are the one not keeping up.
They're really not. I saw zero increase in anything when I was featured there, and I can track where hits to my site come from and whenever I've advertised with them on their blog, I haven't seen any traffic come from TDD.
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Them's the breaks in advertising. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok?
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No, it's not okay but I'm not surprised in the least that you mentioned Bella Gypsy doing this. Years ago, Tabatha was caught pirating, which is why Lena went out on her own. Personally, I don't like their kits, they are nothing special and the quality is sub par. Why some people on here in the past have raved about them is beyond me.
when half of the stuff on the retiring section of SSD is way better than lots of new stuff coming out
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Yeah, not seeing it. It must be where you have shopped in the past.
97, "them's the breaks" that you don't understand the English language and are butchering it in an attempt to be cute. You're not cute, BTW.
"Them's the breaks" ??? Really??? OMG
Here's a random question: if two designers work together as one design team, is it ok for them to share their CU and their fonts and design software etc. if those things have only been purchased once?
Examples would be Bella Gypsy (Lena and Tabatha), North Meets South (Connie and Trixie), Ya Yeah (Aja and Christine).
I have been wondering about this since I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok? If I were a CU designer I would be pissed.
___
If I were a CU designer I'd already be pissed, file sharing or not, because their kits are almost 100% exclusively made up of CU. How they make so much money is beyond me. Lots of dumb and uninformed customers out there. Lucky for them.
Them's the breaks in advertising. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
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Right, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But when it NEVER brings any positive results, it's not worth it. There's a difference between "didn't work one time" and "never works no matter what" and I haven't ever seen anything positive from TDF other than Steph's bankroll getting fatter. Maybe she should learn to design something herself to earn a living off designing. She should start with her site. It's so old and outdated it makes me twitchy.
First of all, their new logo, the license plate, is stupid and ugly. And to 102 who suggested Steph design, they put out a freebie this month that was PATHETIC. Totally would NOT inspire me to shop there.
And finally, what is up with her and her spooky mini-me doll that she's infatuated with? Did anyone else see this?
I have been wondering about this since I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok? If I were a CU designer I would be pissed.
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Nope, absolutely not. I'd say I can't believe that they're allowed to sell the things they "create" that involve those fonts/other things they may have shared, but we're talking about SO. Kami doesn't care because Bella Gypsy makes money, plain and simple.
It seems to me that again and again we hear of store owners who are more interested in their profits than their integrity.
I am beginning to think there simply is *no* store where the owner is successful and ethical.
It's depressing.
I think there are definitely a few stores w/ successful and ethical owners. I'm not naming them here because I don't want to bring on a shitstorm to any of them, but I can think of 3 top-tier stores right off the top of my head that are obviously successful (top-tier), and the owners are dolls. I would even say 4 if you count SSD, but even though I think Robin is ethical, I also think she's a stuck-up ass and I wouldn't want to work there. And no it's not jealousy b/c I have many friends who do work there and the stories they tell about the behind the scenes stuff are not inspiring. They make money so they stay, but it sounds awful.
I have been wondering about this since I saw a post on Lena's facebook last week where she mentioned that she and Tabatha had bought a bunch of fonts this year and were sharing them. She has said before that they share CU too. Is this ok? If I were a CU designer I would be pissed.
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Nope, absolutely not. I'd say I can't believe that they're allowed to sell the things they "create" that involve those fonts/other things they may have shared, but we're talking about SO. Kami doesn't care because Bella Gypsy makes money, plain and simple.
___
They share CU with each other? That's bullshit.
I've thought this thru for a while b/c I didn't want to fly off the handle prematurely, but no, that's bullshit. I could see someone making the argument that they're one "designer" and only put out products under one design name. But teaming up with each other enables them to put out about 2x as much product as most other normal designers. Unless that CU is stored on one computer that they both use, then it's not OK. Copying it to 2 computers gives them the ability to essentially function as 2 designers under one name, with half the overhead expenses. Total bullshit. Do CU designers know that they're sharing like this? I would go ballistic.
Different font houses have different professional use contracts--a company I worked for 8 years ago purchased 10 fonts for four users for $1k--all for professional commercial use.
Does anyone else get emails from Gds Digital scrapbooking. I've emailed them and asked to be taken off their list, but they've done nothing. I reported them as spam.
Wouldn't the whole Design Team, CU sharing thing depend on whether the items were bought by the team and with team funds?
No, it's not okay but I'm not surprised in the least that you mentioned Bella Gypsy doing this. Years ago, Tabatha was caught pirating, which is why Lena went out on her own. Personally, I don't like their kits, they are nothing special and the quality is sub par. Why some people on here in the past have raved about them is beyond me.
-----------------------------------
I thought maybe I was the only one who didn't like their stuff. They pump out a lot of crap every week and none of it's any good.
Wouldn't the whole Design Team, CU sharing thing depend on whether the items were bought by the team and with team funds?
___
Absofuckinglutely NOT.
That's like saying that 2 people can each contribute $3 to buy a $6 kit, and then they both get a copy of it on their computer to scrap with.
IT IS NOT OK, LENA & TABATHA.
Wow, looks like I walked into a hornets nest. I wouldn't think it would be ok, but why would she brag about it on her blog or wherever she posted it? Surely she has to know. Wouldn't you think?
Not OK at all! If you can link to it, that would be interesting, but really how do you ever catch them? I don't own any of their stuff, but I would assume that they don't indicate who made what in the kit like in a collab. So how would a CU designer or font designer ever know which person made the element using their product. If confronted they would just say that it was the person who purchased the item and you can't prove otherwise. Unless you sue them and have their computers checked, they are going to get away with it unfortunately.
"them's the breaks" that you don't understand the English language and are butchering it in an attempt to be cute. You're not cute, BTW.
"Them's the breaks" ??? Really??? OMG
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OMG!!!! Really!!!!! It's an expression, get a grip. If you haven't heard of it, Google is your friend. Try it next time, before looking like a fool. Some people just shouldn't be allowed on internet.
I haven't ever seen anything positive from TDF other than Steph's bankroll getting fatter.
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That's still the choice of the designers participating. Nobody is making them provide kits for her, nobody at all. If they don't like the outcome, they won't continue to participate.
It seems to me that again and again we hear of store owners who are more interested in their profits than their integrity.
I am beginning to think there simply is *no* store where the owner is successful and ethical.
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are you serious? I hear about Kami not being ethical and Nicole, I can't think of any others. How exactly does that make no other store owner ethical?
114, that's the trouble, you can't prove it without seizing their computers. I just know they do it because Lena once told me that she and Tab share all of their CU. She even made a comment about how it was probably frowned upon, but she thought it was OK because they're the same designer. It's interesting this conversation came up here on the blog, because I always thought it was wrong but had never heard anyone else complain about it.
117 Nicole who? What are you talking about?
I'm not naming them here because I don't want to bring on a shitstorm to any of them
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FFS, if they aren't doing anything wrong, no shit storm will happen. I've seen quite a few names turn up here that haven't been smacked and that's because they didn't do anything wrong.
"them's the breaks" that you don't understand the English language and are butchering it in an attempt to be cute. You're not cute, BTW.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here you go - she may not be cute but you are stupid
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=thems+the+breaks
117 Nicole who? What are you talking about?
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Go look at last month - last page
for the person that said godigital sent a newsletter and she considered it spam. I just got one in the last few days and look what I found on the bottom:
You've received this newsletter from www.godigitalscrapbooking.com.
If you wish to no longer receive our weekly newsletter, please click HERE
or send a blank email message to newsletter@godigitalscrapbooking.com
with Unsubscribe as the subject.
It may take a few days to take your name off the list.
It had a link, but if I went to it, I'd be unsubscribed, and that wasn't my intention. But look at the bottom of your email and unsubscribe yourself. It really isn't that hard--much easier than coming to a smack blog and writing the post.
for the person that said godigital sent a newsletter and she considered it spam.
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If you had bothered to look further up the page, you would have seen it wasn't anything to do with GoDigital, but rather ScrapSeeds formerly Scrapable.
That would have been much easier than writing a long rambling post that had nothing to do with anything.
#123 The HERE url takes you to a blank email with their address in the 'to' column. Then you have to write out the email to unsubscribe. I did it once before and I'm still getting their emails. So ya, it was spam after that.
It seems to me that again and again we hear of store owners who are more interested in their profits than their integrity.
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Yeah, and I'm sure ALL those stories are objective and true.
^^^^
I know, right? Some people!
unsubscribe = the best way to confirm a valid address
So if it's really spam/ifyou've never subscribed to it etc, then report it as spam. Hitting"unsubscribe" in such cases is like telling them "I'm a real person, this is my email address and I check it every day. Feel free to sell my contact information"
I see both sides of the Bella Gyspy / CU argument.
They only putting product out under ONE name. Whether or not they are able to crank out double the product is irrelevant, everyone designs at a different speed. Even if there was no CU in the world, some designers would put out twice as much as others. So, if they are purchasing the CU as "Bella Gypsy"...?
On the other hand, they are in fact 2 people, and the items are on 2 computers in 2 different houses, so I can see where that would be against the TOU.
Seems we've found a grey area. Suppose I was a designer, and my husband helped me by recoloring CU for me to add to my kit. What if it was my roommate? One of my kids that I'm teaching to design? A hired intern? What is OK and what isn't?
So if it's really spam/ifyou've never subscribed to it etc, then report it as spam. Hitting"unsubscribe" in such cases is like telling them "I'm a real person, this is my email address and I check it every day. Feel free to sell my contact information"
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How do you report as spam without confirming you got the email to a valid address in the first place?
Copyright issue... again (but with a twist). Check this thread:
http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showthread.php?t=322125
The explanation she gives does not seem to make sense to me, but, I am not a lawyer in Brazil!
From searching, it seems she posted some kits in the ISO Disney thread, but she apparently removed them. I didn't see the kits. Anyone did?
117 Nicole who? What are you talking about?
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Go look at last month - last page
_____
Okay I will ask again, wtf are you talking about? I just read the last page of last month. There are 18 comments, none of which reference a Nicole. The only thing on that page that has anything even remotely to do with an owner would be the part about TDC and SPAM at the bottom, and if you're talking about that then you're high as a kite. First of all, Nicole doesn't own that site anymore and hasn't for a year or two. Second, having your site hacked doesn't have anything to do with ethics.
I see both sides of the Bella Gyspy / CU argument.
They only putting product out under ONE name. Whether or not they are able to crank out double the product is irrelevant, everyone designs at a different speed. Even if there was no CU in the world, some designers would put out twice as much as others. So, if they are purchasing the CU as "Bella Gypsy"...?
On the other hand, they are in fact 2 people, and the items are on 2 computers in 2 different houses, so I can see where that would be against the TOU.
Seems we've found a grey area. Suppose I was a designer, and my husband helped me by recoloring CU for me to add to my kit. What if it was my roommate? One of my kids that I'm teaching to design? A hired intern? What is OK and what isn't?
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No way there are NOT two sides to this issue. The scenarios you present aren't even the same anyway, so why waste our time comparing them? In your scenarios, you are having other people help you with your work using ONE SET of files on ONE computer.
In Lena and Tabatha's case, they're purchasing files once and then duplicating them and sharing them. THIS IS NEVER OKAY. Digital designers of all people should know better.
They can't use the "we're putting out product under ONE name" argument because they are two people using two computers in two separate cities.
Furthermore, they alternate most of their releases between the two of them. So if they put out one kit a week, then each week it's by a different designer (one week is Tabatha, the next week is Lena). If they put out two kits a week, then usually there's one kit from each of them. They've explained their process to others of us in the industry before, and this is what they do. So when you see the same paper patterns or CU flowers or stitches or whatever else is recognizable in back to back kits, you know they're sharing. That, and they've admitted it to some of us.
There is no scenario in which what they're doing is okay. NONE.
Seems we've found a grey area.
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Disagree. There's nothing gray about this. Would it be ok for me to purchase CU items and then send a copy to another designer that I'm doing a collab with? No. Would it be ok for me to purchase a digital kit and send a copy to my sister so we could both work on a photo book for our parents? No. I just read the TOUs at Sugar Hill and just about every single one said "no sharing of files in any way" and that seems pretty clear to me.
No way there are NOT two sides to this issue. The scenarios you present aren't even the same anyway, so why waste our time comparing them? In your scenarios, you are having other people help you with your work using ONE SET of files on ONE computer.
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What if it's in the same house, but on a different computer?
I don't know about all the CU, but I had read in some TOU that some designers allow it "within the same household".
Each day the Bella Gypsy story gets murkier and murkier. Maybe they can explain it as well as the Brazilian lawyer did at DST about the Disney things. I'm sure she knew what she was talking about. pffffttt
Okay I will ask again, wtf are you talking about? I just read the last page of last month. There are 18 comments, none of which reference a Nicole. The only thing on that page that has anything even remotely to do with an owner would be the part about TDC and SPAM at the bottom, and if you're talking about that then you're high as a kite. First of all, Nicole doesn't own that site anymore and hasn't for a year or two. Second, having your site hacked doesn't have anything to do with ethics.
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Since you asked so very nicely and included a rant that had nothing to do with anything, I will tell you ...
Nicole, owner of Stuff to Scrap, apparently has no problem with copyright infringement and telling her designers that copyright is irrelevant.
135 -- What if it's in the same house, but on a different computer?
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Still not okay in my book. That's still file sharing. 133 was spot on. That IS their process and they've talked about it in several places a few times before, including Facebook. The fact that they're a team doesn't make it okay.
I disagree. If the business made the purchase, and the items were used only for the business, this seems fine to me. If, however, the designers each used the items for kits not part of the business, that would not be ok.
135 -- What if it's in the same house, but on a different computer?
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Still not okay in my book. That's still file sharing.
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Not necessarily. It would depend on the TOU. Some TOUs allow copies on different computers in the same household and others don't.
I disagree. If the business made the purchase, and the items were used only for the business, this seems fine to me.
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You may disagree and it may seem fine, but you'd be wrong. A business has to purchase licenses for each user of the software or whatever it is. So, in this case, they would need to either purchase two kits and/or purchase two CU licenses, one for each user.
^^^^
Exactly!
Yeah, you'd definitely need to purchase two copies.
The only way around purchasing two copies is if a "team" designer were to have two designers each designing their own half of the kit, and using their CU purchased and downloaded to their computer for just their half, with the other team member doing the same... the story may be different depending on TOU if BellaGypsy were in the same house/household, but since they're in different cities, well, it's pretty clearly against TOU. Team funds or no, unless each of them made a purchase of the same item (therefore paying for it twice-- one copy for each of them), or each of them had their own CU and put together kits without sharing that CU, then it's against pretty much everyone's CU. The only way to get around it, legally, would be to contact the individual CU designers and ask "Since we're part of a team, can we use team funds to purchase this and each use it?" etc.
By them doing it the way they're doing it, it begs the question that if they did decide to fully split and go their separate ways, what would be done with the CU? Would they delete any purchases made by the team, thereby making sure they're weren't each using it? Would they say "Okay, you get this stuff and you get this stuff, and any of mine, you'd have to re-purchase?" It's pretty unlikely that they would... meaning that all of this they're sharing could be purchased as a "team," then if they split, they each keep it and use it as two separate entities... and THAT is shady.
It's very black and white, in my opinion, but even the grey area can be cleared up by looking at it and saying if they'd BOTH keep ALL CU if they were no longer a team, then it's as though they were just file-sharing... and once you remove the team factor, then you realize that it's exactly what it is. If it's not okay for me to email a kit or CU to my bestie across the country, it's not okay for them to each download kits or CU and only pay once.
Not necessarily. It would depend on the TOU. Some TOUs allow copies on different computers in the same household and others don't.
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Well sure. But that's meant as a back up for ONE user, not as a copy for another user to use. The intention is to have an additional copy in case the original is lost for any reason, not for your "partner" to use to design. No designer would tell you "Sure, it's okay that you email a copy of my designs for free to your sister!", would they? Didn't think so. That's exactly what's happening.
^^^^^
Not necessarily. It depends entirely on the TOUs. Some do allow for kits to be shared within the same household. There was a huge discussion about this exact topic in the DCR years ago.
Why you are mentioning emailing anything to anyone is beyond me because I never said that was okay.
The only way to get around it, legally, would be to contact the individual CU designers and ask "Since we're part of a team, can we use team funds to purchase this and each use it?" etc.
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Spot on.
I wonder if CU designers can block them from buying their CU ... since there seems to be no other way to stop them from file-sharing. Clearly, relying on their ethics isn't working.
Here's what I don't get- it sounds like Bella Gypsy kinda knows that this is sketchy, and that this issue of shared CU is not new.
So WTF would she bring it up fresh and draw more attention to themselves?
Sounds like either royal stupidity or attention seeking behavior
Why you are mentioning emailing anything to anyone is beyond me because I never said that was okay.
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Because that's exactly what IS happening. Your whole comment about file sharing within the same household was completely irrelevant, as it's been established they don't even live in the same city, let alone the same house. Stop trying to defend them. There's no way to make their file sharing okay. If it's not okay for me or you to do it, then it's not okay for them, end of story.
^^^
I wasn't trying to defend them. I can't stand them. If you had bothered to read anything other than your stupid assumptions, you would know that! Some people.
Sounds like either royal stupidity or attention seeking behavior
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Right on with both.
What if it's in the same house, but on a different computer?
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Um, it's not though. It's two people in two cities with two computers. Two shady people who have done shit like this before.
Sounds like either royal stupidity or attention seeking behavior
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Do you not know Lena? LMAO
Bella Gyspy would be the first to cry FOUL if their customers were sharing kits.
How can they defend their own TOU when they cant abide by others tou's.
Surely store owners can block them from making purchases.
I never thought about the CU team sharing this way, but I agree, this is against most of the CU Tou I read.
and what about if/when they will fly on their own ... ?
On the same line, that would allow us, designer, to sale our designer name, with customers base AND all CU ... hahaha ... that´s a super joke!
As for TDD, (sorry I am late in the topic) I went 3 time, the first has had a good impact (sale X2 within feature month). the second one was way lower.. but I assumed it was because of Kit style, or something ... the last one has NO effect at all.
so either am getting really bad, or TDD subscriber are waiting for products I don´t do anymore.
but, one thing is SURE, now, I won't do it, way too much pressure to produce a big kit, months ahead.
this said, my TDD kits have always done great when reaching my store ... so I am really starting to wonder if there are more than the girls here, purchasing the digifiles...
"I wonder if CU designers can block them from buying their CU ... since there seems to be no other way to stop them from file-sharing. Clearly, relying on their ethics isn't working."
&
"Bella Gyspy would be the first to cry FOUL if their customers were sharing kits.
How can they defend their own TOU when they cant abide by others tou's.
Surely store owners can block them from making purchases."
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They do buy CU from me and if there was a way to block them from buying it in the future I would do it, because whoever said they would be the first to cry foul if their kits were being shared the same way is spot on.
I believe there is a way to block them from buying from you: Block their IP address in your store.
How stupid can some of you be?? It's been a while since I visited here and I'm glad I stopped because the smacking is out of control and for no reason. I posted in September comment #139 about a visual bookmark site I found (clipix) and #141 thanked me for the recommendation. And then some of you started the classic it's the same person and blah blah blah. Why would I benefit advertising clipix? It's a free application. After searching for 10 days I found what I was looking for and wanted to share. I can't imagine how thoughtful, giving and kind most of you are. Sarcasm.
Anyway I was happy when I found it and have been using it since.
It works like pinterest, the layout is similar. The good thing is you can make all boards public not just three like pinterest does and who cares about Scrap Stacks? Why compare scrap stacks to this? I have tons of bookmarks. My whole life isn't scrapbook layouts. Jeez..
Anyway I wish someone would make an anonymous blog where we can give our honest opinions about the digi world not just smacking. And no forums are not for that. I want to be anonymous. I want to be able to share good sales, or mention a designer without being reminded every second that this is a smackblog and it's only purpose is to smack everyone.
Then start one.
I've been getting the GDS newsletters also - unsolicited. I just hit the spam key in gmail.
#158 said: "I believe there is a way to block them from buying from you: Block their IP address in your store."
It's very rare these days for anyone to have a static IP address, so they could easily just get a new dynamic one assigned by disconnecting & reconnecting their router/modem to their service provider. There are also other methods to bypass an IP block (Starbucks free wifi for instance, or by using a VPN).
159 - HONESTLY! Not only did you come back in here to enable some app that nobody else cares about, and tell us again about all its amazing features and how great it is (STFU!), but you're the world's BIGGEST idiot because why on earth would you need to be anonymous to do that? You make no sense at all.
I will say that #159's English is way better than your typical promote-a-website spammer's. Maybe they are hiring American now?
#164 guess what I'm not American.
congratulations #164. you are hired to be a spammer.
Yeah, see, 159 definitely seems like a spammer. Repetitive, continuing to talk about how great the site is, blah blah. Anyone on here who didn't see the issue last month could dig through her site-promoting slop and consider checking it out, or at least, so she hopes. It's lame.
It would be the equivalent of me coming here saying I love SSD and think that Robin is total hot shit, and the products are just amaze-balls, getting bashed to hell, and coming back to say how everyone is stupid and I was just trying to be helpful and maybe we need an anonymous place where we can have a good old fashioned circlejerk instead of utilizing it for smacking... which, really, is what this blog is for, hence why it's called a smackblog.
Reorganizing my kits and found some designers are REALLY freakin' lazy. I mean, I know CU is kind of overused in some stores (I swear I've gotten the same owl in about 8 different SSD kits... I could make an owl family). But seriously, how lazy do you have to be to use the SAME texture on every. single. paper. Not just "Oh, all the solids have the same texture..." No, literally, every single paper has the same texture. I'm having to really rotate and manipulate the papers. What are the chances, exactly, that in a paper layout, you'd have ALL of your papers with the exact same wrinkles and folds in it? Like zero. Melissa Bennett is one of the worst offenders of this... I'm seriously about to delete about half of my kits from her. It's nothing but the same texture in all the papers, making them basically unusable, and then repackaged CU like that damn owl.
I bought a kit from Digital Designs Essential when she was having a retirement sale, and it had the same problem. The same horrible blurry texture on a lot of the papers. I couldn't use the layout I made with it (I zoomed in only when I was done with it). I'm sure her newer kits are of better quality, but that one kit made me wary of buying from her.
I have bought several of DDE's recent kits. I just took a close look at the papers, and on viewing at 100% they do all seem to have the same texturing. Even across different kits, every single paper that I looked at, with the exception of the wood grain papers, all had the exact same texturing - a subtle kraft stye texture. However, I would not call the texture blurry. It is very subtle, and almost seems nonexistant on some of the patterned papers. Personally, it doesn't bother me at all. If I were to complain about her papers, I would complain that the texturing is so subtle that many of the papers don't seem textured at all. But I think that is a style preference, not a mistake or bad designing.
170, I don't think that was 169's point. FWIW I have some of Gina's old products and can't use them because of quality. There's one kraft paper pack in particular that is so pixelated at 100% I couldn't bring myself to scrap with it. I haven't seen this problem with her more recent work, but these papers were about a year or two ago from right after she reopened her web site. Terrible quality. I was completely surprised b/c she is normally so good.
Well, I thought the point was possible quality issues with DDE's papers. 169 saw a quality issue with some older papers. She is hopeful that newer papers are of higher quality, but nonetheless she is hesitant to buy. Since I have purchased some of the recent sets, I thought I would share my thoughts.
I don't mind the same texture on each paper in a kit as long as it's subtle and the texture is flat (not creased). I am a designer and a scrapper and this texture issue doesn't bother me in either capacity. It's just a choice. If someone stops buying from me b/c they don't like it, I wouldn't be upset. It would only mean that our style aesthetics had changed and were no longer similar.
FTR, it's not about being a lazy designer, either. I've tried both ways (using different textures throughout a kit and using the same texture) and I'm at a place where I prefer the latter.
love that Lena is begging for $$ on her pages for her sister. nice.
173-- I was the OP on the same texture thing. I guess I should clarify that on lightly textured papers that have a "clean" look, it doesn't bother me. These were heavily creased and when I was trying to stack papers, the creases were falling across the same places and it just looked weird... anytime they're creased, at least vary the creasing, imo.
I'm 169, and the texture I'm talking about is blurry and not subtle. I'm a designer myself and do repeat a lot of my texture, especially those subtle and versatile ones that work on anything. I also try to vary my textures on solid and pattern papers so when they're layered they don't look the same up close. That's the problem with the DDE kit I got.
#162 Just catching up. Thanks for the tips. I am blocked by TDD at the moment. Not sure if I will implement any of the solutions. I am enjoying the silence. But it is good to know I can get around it.
#177, why did you get blocked?
Lets just say for voicing my opinion. She disagreed.
173-- I was the OP on the same texture thing. I guess I should clarify that on lightly textured papers that have a "clean" look, it doesn't bother me. These were heavily creased and when I was trying to stack papers, the creases were falling across the same places and it just looked weird... anytime they're creased, at least vary the creasing, imo.
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How hard is it to just drag your paper slightly up or down or side to side when scrapping, after clipping it to an element? You make it sound as though the designer's texture choice is ruining your pages and making them look weird. Whenever I run into this with a kit I am using, I just drag the paper until it doesn't look weird anymore. It's a lot simpler solution than whining on a smack blog and then not purchasing from that designer any more. O_o
love that Lena is begging for $$ on her pages for her sister. nice.
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I saw this yesterday too and was appalled. Let me first mention that I cannot believe a hospital wouldn't let a mom with an infant stay there with her other small child who is being admitted. Ridiculous. But even more ridiculous is the notion that the mom in question couldn't afford to book a hotel room for one night until things got settled. You have got to be kidding me if you think that any of us believe for one nanosecond that someone can't afford a one night stay in an emergency situation. Now if the situation was going to be a semipermanent one and go on for days or weeks, I'd understand begging on facebook for people to donate their hotel points or frequent flyer miles or other donations. That would make sense. But for one night? My only thought was "how greedy do you have to be to ask others to foot the bill for a regular life expense that ALL of us face at some point or other in our lives?????" It was classic Lena.
180-- not the complaining poster above, but I also get frustrated with this. I design, but I still buy other designer's products because sometimes I just want to scrap without putting a ton of time into preserving memories. If I'm layering large bits of paper, it can get pretty damn noticeable, even when I move/clip/etc the paper. If she doesn't like it and chooses not to buy from that designer anymore, so be it. It's unlikely she's the designer's only customer anyway, so is it really going to have a huge effect on the designer either way? People have smacked lesser crimes here than how a paper is textured.
181- I totally agree. I barely get by some months, but you better believe I'd find a way to make ends meet and get in that hotel if I had a situation like that. A classier way, if you can't scrape the money together, would be to *privately* contact family and close friends and ask for a little assistance. If the situation continued and you still couldn't afford it, THEN post on facebook for help. Lena is so overdramatic sometimes... Oh, woe is she. :rolls eyes:
you would think that with the money they save by only buying one set of CU to use between them, they would have enough for a hotel room. sick to death of poor tabatha's problems. get a life, get a job - stop having kids you can't afford, stop buying all those things you don't need. most of all GROW UP. and stop expecting everyone else to pay your way.
amen 184! I LOL'd at your first sentence and then compleatly agree with everything else 100%. it's unbeleiveble to me that Lena has enough money to buy all her ipsy and birchbox shit every month and post about it on fb but she can't afford to help her sister out by sending her 50 or 100 bucks on paypal so Tab can get a room? puh-leez.
People have money for what they prioritize as important. Clearly, Tab has stuff she sees as more important than her family's medical stuff, and obviously Lena prioritizes her birchbox shit as being more important than helping her sister. Not where I'd place my priorities, but... that's their thing, I guess.
The begging post was the pinnacle of tacky, and before someone chirps in with the age-old "if you don't like her, unfriend her!" I will say that I do like Lena, and I consider her to be a friend. Her personality is such that I could never say this to her face because she'd get defensive and angry, but she needs to know that it's not just her enemies and frenemies on FB who think her begging was tacky. Even her friends were offended by it. There's been more talk about it than just here on this blog, and she should know that.
How hard is it to just drag your paper slightly up or down or side to side when scrapping, after clipping it to an element? You make it sound as though the designer's texture choice is ruining your pages and making them look weird.
^^
When you are stacking papers or clipping them to really large elements like paper mats, and you have heavily folded and creased papers, it is hard to make them look right.
I've also had paper packs where the texture and shabby/grungy look is exactly the same from page to page. The whole point of shabby and grungy is that they look worn and torn and there's no way any two worn and torn and shabby papers would ever look the same.
I think its laziness. Designers can say it's not but it totally is. It's much faster to change the color layer and make multiple pages than it is to texture each new color.
When I see a paper pack that's all the same texture I delete it and probably won't buy from that designer again. I don't think my purchasing habits will change anyone's design style, but I'm not going to buy something that I can't use.
#188
"When I see a paper pack that's all the same texture I delete it and probably won't buy from that designer again. I don't think my purchasing habits will change anyone's design style, but I'm not going to buy something that I can't use. "
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I think you are a pretty unfair scrapper.
When you go and buy 12*12" paper pack in store, they pretty much have the same texture, and and solids paper are "just, as you say" recolored... and you don't have to use them on the same Layout.
same with digi, you don't have to use only one designer per layout, as you seems to be such an expert, I thought you might know that.
but yes you can always deleted everything you buy, if it makes sense to you.
189, I'm not post 188 but I can see her point. I hate when the papers have the EXACT SAME texture, especially when I center two papers on my layout and then clip them to shapes (for a background with 2 or 3 papers, for example). The texture on the papers lines up and looks weird. IRL paper scrapping isn't like that: each paper is unique, even if they're similar in texture (both are cold press and same weight). ITA with 188 that it seems to be laziness. The designer just changes the fill color layer on a paper texture. That seems pretty bogus, especially with what designers are charging nowadays. It takes 2 seconds to make papers that way.
Having said that, it doesn't bother me when papers have SIMILAR texture. I like that because it's weird to me (and my scrapping style) to have a very heavy mulberry-type paper with a very smooth paper and a grainy press. But that's just me.
Rotate the papers.
That seems pretty bogus, especially with what designers are charging nowadays. It takes 2 seconds to make papers that way.
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If it's so easy, then make your own papers and quit bitching. Designing is art. Artists are allowed to make things however the fuck they want. Same as a sculpture in a gallery. . . if you like it, buy it. If you don't like it, don't buy it. But don't call the artist lazy for making things they way he/she likes them. It's his/her prerogative and you're just a consumer.
When you clip a paper to a template, you can then move that paper around--without even having to rotate the paper--which would make the lines in different areas, and the textures wouldn't be matchy-matchy either. Looks like there is a bit of laziness on the part of the scrapper also. (Not saying here the designer wasn't a bit lazy!), just saying there are ways around things.
I agree with you. Creased/folded papers should only be used once per kit. Change it up, designers!
I think that a good designer would be open to hearing that a customer finds her products difficult to work with. I know that I'm always happy to see a product improve. To me is indicates that the maker is proud of their work and wants to make it even better.
When I have seen paper packs as the ones described (all the solids have the exact same texture and identical distressing) I never thought of it as the designer is lazy. Rather, I thought of it as the designer is still learning.
I often see kraft/cardstock sets offered in multiple colors but with the exact same texture. The lack of extreme distressing (the creases and folds) seems to make a pack like that a lot more acceptable. However, I still wish that when designers made cardstock sets they would offer a variety of textures instead of the same texture on every paper. I have even offered this as a suggestion when designers ask "what do you guys want to see??" But they never do it.
193-- could be laziness on the part of the scrapper, or could just be that the scrapper feels that they're paying the designer for a product, so they have a right to a bit of laziness. Personally, I *can* design, and even *do* design, but I choose to purchase products because they save time. That's what I'm paying the designer for-- to product quality designs I can use without having to design my own kit. Some scrappers CAN'T design. It just isn't their thing. When you have 30 minutes, 1 hour, or however long to make a page, then do you really want to spend it making sure the designer's paper is just right, or do you want to spend it assembling the rest of the page and hoping the designer took the time to vary her textures?
195-- One of the designers I noticed mentioned specifically was Melissa Bennett. I think because she comes from what is considered a pretty top-tier store, people would expect that she is on the "already knows" instead of "still learning" side. Just my opinion. Obviously everyone still has room to learn, but... she should know better at this stage to at least change it a bit.
If the designers want to use the same texture in different kits, I don't care. I just feel that they should rotate it occasionally or change it up within the kit. Mentioned above, I'm a designer, and it doesn't take considerably longer to swap out this texture vs. that texture if you've premade several (or are using CU like many designers are doing for their papers). It really doesn't take much longer and can help a kit stretch without the scrapper having to do much work to fix it. Happier customers, with minimal effort on the designer's part. Not that hard to open new CU, flip, rotate, add an additional crease somewhere, etc. to change it up a little.
OMG I honestly cannot believe that some of you are arguing that it takes considerably longer to drag a paper sideways (or up/down) after clipping it to a shape mask. "When you have 30 minutes, 1 hour, or however long to make a page, then do you really want to spend it making sure the designer's paper is just right, or do you want to spend it assembling the rest of the page" ......seriously???? It takes literally 3 seconds to drag a paper to a new location after you finish your page in 30 minutes or 1 hour. If you have to do it 10 times, it takes 30 extra seconds. If I like the kit, and want to scrap with it, and have to do this it DOES NOT BOTHER ME AT ALL.
I agree with whoever said that the scrappers are being lazy. Maybe these people should just buy QP's and STFU.
I'm a designer and I am interested in what scrappers want. If making something faster and easier means my paying customers are happy, that's a good thing.
I think having the same textures in different kits, but not all the same textures within a kit, sounds fair and doable.
It doesn't take that long to rotate or drag the papers, but when you use a lot of paper pieces on a layout and they all have the same not-subtle texture, it just looks weird.
re: textures - I personally don't mind if the papers have the same textures when the texture is subtle, but I dislike it if the papers all use the exact same heavy, bold, distressed texture (ie. huge creases across the paper, or huge tears).
Can someone tell me how Veronica Spriggs can be a designer at SBG and start a new store (DigiScrap Boutique) at the same time?
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