Nothing is happening to designers. Re is a student who got curious about what his sister was doing and decided to try it. He's not a good indicator for where the industry is. Some designers do it on the side whenever the mood strikes them and they may retire whenever they lose their mojo or they get interested in something else or just want to scrap more or whatever. That's been happening for as long as digiscrap has been around. It's not new. Then there are designers like Paislee Press who design for a living and this is their full-time job that puts food on the table. When those designers start retiring en masse, then you can ask what's happening.
Are there actually any downloads on the advent calendar at Sweet Shoppe Designs? Or am I looking in the wrong spot? All I've found so far has been sale announcements (ie. 20% off on xyz designer's products). Thanks
21- I think there have been 3 downloads so far. Day 2, Day 6, Day 8. I find it rather annoying. I would rather they do a daily download of something small then random days with mostly sales in between.
I find SSD's advent calendar annoying too. Today it's 25% off already over-priced templates. However, their dl's have been good and it's worth persevering to get them all. SO's has turned out to be pretty good too and you cannot beat the 50% off each day from the designers.
This is one of the few times where I feel like SO is doing a better job than SSD. The daily downloads from SO are far superior to the whatever-the-hell-we-feel-like daily stuff from SSD.
This is one of the few times where I feel like SO is doing a better job than SSD. The daily downloads from SO are far superior to the whatever-the-hell-we-feel-like daily stuff from SSD. ___ I agree with this. I like the entire situation better at SO, with the half off with the two designers daily. Today's at SSD is bs and hardly worth the click. It's like they didn't have anything to put in there so they did that. Like was stated, their templates are way over priced for what you get anyway so 25% off still doesn't make them a good buy...especially when you can hop over to SO today and get SWL templates for half off.
21- I think there have been 3 downloads so far. Day 2, Day 6, Day 8. I find it rather annoying. I would rather they do a daily download of something small then random days with mostly sales in between. _ Of course, the reason they do it that way is to get people to click onto their advent calendar every day so they can suck you into a sale if you're so inclined which, with today's shitty one, I am not!
And Re Kneipp is retiring. What the hell is happening with the designers? __ If your measuring stick for designers is based upon what Re Kneipp is doing/has done and/or will be doing then you're kinda outa touch, I'd say.
Download today at SSD. I find it annoying that Digilicious couldn't be bothered to separate her alpha into individual files. Laziness. It's not like she had to make a huge contribution.
I too am impressed with SO's offering. When I saw the first alpha I didn't download and wasn't sure what the kit would be like but I am glad I followed through. Completely agree about SSD and their templates, if I am buying templates would much rather give Liz my money and you can't beat 50% for a sale.
Yeah, that first alpha and Bella Gypsy's contribution to SO's advent kit made me somewhat skeptical, however, the rest of the downloads have been really nice and the 50% sales are awesome. I don't mind using alpha sheets but there's some programs where the individual letters cannot be extracted from them. Therefore, I think it's poor business for the designers not to separate their letters. KCB neglects to do this all the time as do a few others. It's laziness, I agree.
It's not even that difficult, there are some great alpha separator actions available that make it pretty painless. A few extra minutes and everyone can use it easily.
I prefer alpha sheets, because: a) I drag and drop only one file at Photoshop. For me it's more practical. b) it's better for the pc to have one big file rather than 26 small files.
This isn't really about what people prefer or why, you'll get valid arguments on both sides. The fact is that there are customers whose programs can't separate the letters off the sheets and they are therefore useless to them. The industry standard is to provide the separated files in addition to the sheets so that all customers can use them and there are tools out there to make that task easier and quicker for the designer and there is no excuse for a designer to not provide the separated letters other than laziness. If a designer was seriously incapable of providing separated letters due to the limitations of their design program, they should rethink how seriously they are taking their business.
^^This^^ As stated, it has absolutely nothing to do with skill, knowledge, etc.etc. It's about the fact that some programs (Memory Mixer for one) will not facilitate separating letters from sheets, therefore, people who use those programs cannot use the alphas they bought. Laziness is indeed the reason designers neglect to provide the individual files.
29-I just visited Pixel and Co for the first time since the big split. The last time they have new releases were November 7th. What is with that? That isn't how they are going to keep up in the digi world at all.
As for alphabets, I don't use the sheets at all. I hate them. I figure out my title then only open those individual letters.
#37.............I was wondering that too. The Digital Press started out with a big bang, but as far as I'm concerned it's now become a limp fizz. Customer service is not impressive. I don't wish them any ill and I hope they succeed, but with poor customer service, no gallery, and a messy forum, I just can't be bothered!
I hope P&Co will release something next week or by the end of the month. C'mon, they cannot just go down. I love(d) their site, the products, community, forum and I hope they'll emerge.
It's definitely a bummer that P&Co isn't releasing anything new. I've got a coupon to use. Like #43 I love(d) their community and always did my challenges there, but this month, I'm just not feeling it.
Yes, it is sad that Leah has recently lost her father and I'm sure we all feel for her and her family, but that aside, I feel that TDP has (with the best of intentions) been hastily set up with not a lot of thought to the longevity of the site. As far as I can see it has been set up with free or next to free software and from my perspective that rarely translates to a satisfactory or happy customer/member experience.
Exactly, 47. This goes beyond there being a death in the family. The site was built from the ground up on bad usability when they had a chance to build with only great things. That happened before.
47 here. Yes, I think they had a wonderful opportunity to start a fabulous new site with an already established, loyal customer base. I think less haste and some cash investment to get some decent software would have paid excellent dividends in the long run. I will stand corrected if I'm proven wrong, but I think they have badly misjudged the market and may have already 'missed the bus'!
I know there is not much to judge the forum and gallery yet at TDP, but I really like the feature in the store where you can build multiple wish lists.
They were bragging about how you can shop for different options for a kit - pick either the papers or elements or the whole kit. But I don't like that feature because it is the price of the separate that shows up by default. I shop kits, so I want to see the price of the kit up front, not have to access a drop down menu to see the kit price.
I don't know anything about forum/store software, but I did notice that it seemed to be different from the other stores out there. I'm actually a little curious to see how it all turns out. Maybe it will have some really neat features.
I just went through the P&Co newsletter and store. It looks like the designers are releasing more kits with the same color scheme/theme as the subscription from the beginning of the month. I'm actually really impressed with the new kits/mini-kits, and I wish I had money to spend.
If this is how they will be going forward (mainly releasing coordinating kits throughout the month), I think it is an interesting idea, and definitely different from what other stores offer (that I'm familiar with). People might like to scrap their months all coordinating. And it might appeal to the pocket style scrappers. (I say this because one of the things that turns me off of the pocket scrapping is the mis-matchedness of the pages). It appeals to me because I often go back to older kits that I love, so I've always liked having big collections.
I agree re: P&Co. I'm impressed with what they have to offer for their new releases especially given the number of designers they now have. When I have more time, I'm sure I'll find some things I "have" to have!
Unfortunately, no, that is not at all what P&Co is doing. Those are not coordinating kits. They are the very kits that you get with the subscription, being offered individually in case you are not a subscriber. There are very few actual NEW releases this time. Not impressed at all considering how long we've been waiting for releases.
If you want a subscription with coordinating products offered separately, that's exactly what TLP is doing.
#55 - If you are not a subscriber, they give you the opportunity to purchase separate kits + there are also new releases. It's a good starting point, in my opinion. Of course, it can be improved.
Yeah, 56, I get why they're offering them individually. Hence why I said "in case you are not a subscriber." I just disagree it's a good starting point.
A month ago, one person released one overpriced Halloween kit, a month after everyone else did Halloween. We wait a month and we get mini kits that we already saw for the subscription, and a couple of other overpriced kits. Nope, not impressed.
And no, the newsletter doesn't say anything about it. They COULD have hyped it up. Hey, the bundle more than you need? Just buy what you want! How awesome is that! You have options! But no, they just put the previews there and say jack about it. It's like they WANT their site to fail. No effort at all.
Every site around here as disadvantages: * TDP : no gallery, messy forum, customer service can be improved * P&Co : is not offering many new realeases, not great at marketing (?) * I don't know about TLP, but there are some disadvantages there too, I bet.
But also some advantages * TDP : they started with a boom, great marketing skillz, great online presence * P&Co : their products are high quality * TLP : they have two *celeb* designers, I guess :D
I've gotten some things from P&Co that any designer should be embarrassed to have made. There is a lot of high quality stuff but you still have to be careful with what you're buying, so it's not a huge advantage. It's crazy how much they charge for kits when the elements are things like a bow with a paper clipped to it and the opacity lowered. When I get a bow in a kit, I want it to look the way an actual bow looks. I don't think that's too much to ask, especially when the kit costs more than 10 bucks.
I'd spend it at Bargain Bites at SSD. Quality stuff with a free kit on a ten-dollar purchase. They're offering an excellent variety there right now. However, at other times, not so much.
I don't think that's too much to ask, especially when the kit costs more than 10 bucks. -- It's not too much to ask and I agree with you that you have to watch what you're buying, but, not just at P&Co. I've had the same problem at SO.
Hey guys, if you had 20$ to spend in scrap-stuff, what would you buy? Where would you go? --------------------------------------------- Digital Design Essentials. Top quality, great designs, good sales on new releases and she usually has a coupon that pops up right on the site.
I just read The Digital Press newsletter. Is there anything significant about two of SSD's designers guesting at TDP this month? I don't think I have seen SSD designers guesting at other stores in the last year or so.
Also, isn't this the month that Penny Springman is supposed to open the new Scrap Stacks store? (I thought she had retired from designing and SSD to concentrate on running the ScrapStacks site, so I was surprised to see the announcement a few months ago that she would be returning to designing when the site's store opened.)
Thinking a lot of stores closing or not opening is to do with the EU tax changes that came into effect Jan 1 2015. All businesses selling e-commerce downloadable items have to comply with it if you sell to EU customers.... big can of worms not many seem willing to talk about.....
Thinking a lot of stores closing or not opening is to do with the EU tax changes that came into effect Jan 1 2015. All businesses selling e-commerce downloadable items have to comply with it if you sell to EU customers.... big can of worms not many seem willing to talk about..... Jan 2, 2015, 7:36:00 PM ----------------------------
Thanks for pointing this out. Can you tell us more about this please? Thanks in advance
EU VAT tax ?? Cross-border VAT is declared in the same way as domestic VAT
Say a designer from EU has a store owned by someone from the US and we purchase from the EU designer, will we have to pay tax on that? Just curious here.
I think only european customers will have to pay that tax. I know cause I'm already banned from some sites! Does it mean that they want to avoid the paperwork, or that they are not a legal business in the first place?
Basically the EU decided there was going to be sales tax on all e-commerce goods back in 2006 (the tax threshold being 0) and instead of being paid to the seller's country was going to be paid to the customer's country if they were in EU. The idea is mainly because large e-commerce companies like Amazon, I tunes etc have been registering for business in places like Luxembourg where tax is low.This includes ebooks, eclasses (where there is no human intervention or involvement), tutorials, knitting patterns etc, stock photos, music, software that is downloaded and of course digital download links, where it is automated. The news that it was coming into force came out earlier this year, but was shall we say underplayed? The snowball began in November when people realised what it meant. Basically each e-commerce business (worldwide) that sells to a European customer has to now charge sales tax at the customer's country rate. Proof of country is required (so if the bank card is German and the customer has a US ip or home address, the onus is on the seller to contact the customer to determine which country is correct). Customer data verifying the customer country is now required to be held for 10 years (archived safely) so the seller also has to now register with their Govt dept for holding personal info (this costs £35 in UK!) Non EU countries can register with whichever EU country to use their one stop shop which is meant to make things simpler (no idea how it works!). Most 3rd party platforms (such as digi scrap stores) will have to comply (Etsy is back pedaling and saying it is their sellers responsibility and had meetings with the UK sales tax office, but are holding firm to not their job stance, but we will help with tools). The American stance seems to be nothing to do with us, but unfortunately because of international trade agreements, US stores are expected to comply. Digiscrapstudio has closed temporarily to EU customers while they comply. A few other stores are also doing the ban the Europeans. (It is illegal within EU to ban EU customers) I understand Japan and Australia will be cross charging sales tax as well with e-commerce later this year. Then in 2016 this sales tax charging to the customer will be done with physical goods... so if you buy something abroad, your customer has their rate of sales tax added to the goods and you have to send the total sales tax owed by country to your 'one sto p sales tax shop'. It is causing an unholy mess, but I can see that each country wants it's sales tax if their people are buying abroad. How many small businesses will fold is unknown. People selling from blogs will have to comply or risk being reported or audited etc...... It is quite complex and wrong to think digi stores do not need to comply... they are just at the bottom of the sales tax barrel in terms of amounts.... Will try to find the various links I have - there are numerous petitions as obviously no-one in power thought of little digi scrap stores!
One stop shop From 1st January 2015, Directive 2008/8/EC not only extends these rules for non-EU businesses to broadcasting and telecommunications. It also provides that VAT on telecommunications, broadcastingand electronic services supplied by a supplier established within the EU to non-taxable persons established within the EU will also be charged in the Member State where the customer belongs. For this purpose, EU and non-EU businesses will use a web portal in the Member State in which they are identified to declare the VAT due in the Member State of their customer. The Regulation on administrative co-operation (Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010) concerns the technical details for the implementation of the one stop shop scheme. This is supplemented by the Commission Implementing Regulation, regulating the development of Member States' I.T. and information exchange systems. from http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/traders/e-commerce/index_en.htm
The latest info which actually shows what is considered to be an e-service/commerce... right at the bottom of this.... Within UK (I don't know if this is true for all EU countries though) a work around may well be to get EU clients to purchase gift certificates in various amounts and for various designers. The store or the designer then manually email the customers a pretty card sent as a pdf with the gift code on it and include the code in the email. They can then use the gift card to purchase items. Will involve more work, but you keep you EU customers as I am sure many will wait up to 48 hours for their gift certificate. Here's the link.... http://www.businesszone.co.uk/topic/business-trends/vat-moss-hmrc-issues-guidance-small-businesses-hit-new-vat-rules/58780
Sales of digital services (of which digi stores are involved) are supposed to have been taxed to EU customers since 2003..... http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2014/05/15/european-vat-10-things-online-sellers-need-to-know-about-taxes-on-digital-goods-and-services/
I think only European customers will have to pay that tax. I know cause I'm already banned from some sites! Does it mean that they want to avoid the paperwork, or that they are not a legal business in the first place? ---------------------------- they cant keep track of all the eu countires and keep copies of 2 proof items of each customer and purchase for that long. A it could potentially mean they can be a security risk B its a lot of work C you are liable if someone lies D you have to register with all those EU countries and UK - its expensive and time consuming ( many people were not ready for that) E the shop software they are using isnt giving them options ( plugins or mods) to weed out trough these taxes individually.
Will we ever have a new thread here? Over a year now on this one. Getting a bit weird to post on the January 2014 thread. Am I the only one? Just curious.
I think the SO sneak thread is lacking. Half of the layouts in there have horrible pictures on the layouts too. Yes, I'm judging. Where are all the New Bees?
While it's no biggie, it does make one wonder why the person would volunteer to maintain the blog and then do absolutely nothing in that regard for over a year. If said person wished to not do it any longer, all she/he had to do was simply post here stating that.
#95 I used to be very involved over at SO but found it slowly going downhill in many different ways. I still pop in occasionally but I don't post in the forum and the last time I purchased anything was at FM and it was only two items.
SO still has some great designers. However, their entire site is just cumbersome to navigate. I absolutely hate the way the store is set up. The only one just as bad or worse is SBG.
Banned means that some sites are geo-blocking EU countries. If you live in these countries and try and buy you will get a pop up notice that you are unable to do so.
its funny they are blocking eu customers because they don't want to brake the law but by blocking eu customers they are actually braking the eu anti discrimination law .. hmm
Nope, that's a EU law that applies to EU countries stating that business located in the EU member states may not discriminate against customers located in EU member states. As long as the store is based elsewhere, they are able to choose who they sell to. Because of trade agreements the EU is getting away with making the citizens of other countries pay taxes to them but they can't then make a law forcing them to sell to customers in EU countries.
#94 - I wish there was a new post started and we can get this blog going again. Maybe someone will create a new Smack Blog as I really miss how the blog used to be in it's glory days.
#95 - I think SO has lost a lot of its luster and desirability. I used to enjoy being there, shopping their store and now I find myself not thinking much of the products, forum, etc.
#102 - maybe they will start up their own podcast. They had a lot of good things and I enjoyed listening to the podcasts.
#107 - I think when SO got that gallery that was the moment they started going downhill, and they haven't stopped yet. You would think Kami would admit it was a stupid mistake and go back to the way it was, and maybe they'd get some of their customers and designers back.
the daily digi has a survey open right now. i hope they actually take into consideration the feedback i gave because i know i'm not the only one who is disappointed with their offerings.
A lot of the digifiles I know I will never use, however, with only paying five dollars a month, I think it's still worth it. Some months though that's been questionable!
#115 digifiles is 7.50$ a month is it not? This month at dailydigi is not worth 2.00$
SO is one of the worst stores to navigate I have ever shopped. I wished a couple of the designers there would leave. I love their kits, but hate the store.
TLP I love the M3, they have slacked on the challenges but over all it is fabulous. A great price for what you get.
I pay five dollars per mo. for the digifiles. I would NOT pay $7,50. I'm thinking of canceling as it is. I agree that it's not worth two bucks this go around. There's not one item I would buy separately. However, last month, SO's kit alone was worth the money. It was a huge collab with templates that weren't just like a zillion others out there, It's something I'll definitely use.
From what I understand, you're correct. Designers are not paid for their contributions to the Digifiles. The products are exclusive to Digifiles for the month they are offered and then the designers are free to put them in their stores.
The five dollar option is NOT still available, but I believe if you were already subscribed to that before they stopped offering it, and you never cancelled, then you'd still be getting it.
CU Digitals is welcoming another bad quality designer. It's sad that Christine needs money so much that she will accept designers who have low quality, steal things off the internet to sell them.
CU Digitals is welcoming another bad quality designer. It's sad that Christine needs money so much that she will accept designers who have low quality, steal things off the internet to sell them. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Who's joining now?
The five dollar option is NOT still available, but I believe if you were already subscribed to that before they stopped offering it, and you never cancelled, then you'd still be getting it. ---- This is correct. I think I got in right before they changed it to 7.50. That's good because, like I said before, I wouldn't pay that. The monthly offering is just too inconsistent in terms of what I can/will use.
Yes, that's true. Steph is making bank off of the designers' hard work in exchange for "publicity". -- So? She's not forcing the designers to contribute. They must think the "publicity" is potentially worth it or I'm sure they'd refrain from participating.
I think P&CO is recovering from what happened sometime ago. Their monthly kits are not bad at all in my opinion and at the end of the month there is the Dollar Days sale. Not bad, not bad.
The samples so far have been underwhelming. I also am bored with the whole "sneak peak" thing...stretched over a month's time. It's tiresome and old hat especially when the results don't appear to be much more than ordinary.
Pretty sure some of the templates are Amber Morrison's, and one of the sneak peeks looks like Dunia. I wasn't super impressed with the peeks. Will Penny be designing again?
There's a list of the new designers up now - the letters are scrambled so it's kinda like a puzzle..a boring one. Anyway, Penny, River Rose and Studio 68 are on there. I haven't gotten any further with it and may not. Like I said, it's boring.
Two Tiny Turtles Snips and Snails Designs ?? LJS Designs Studio 68 ?? WendyP Designs Trixie Scraps Designs Tinci Designs Dunia Designs River Rose Penny Springmann
CU Digitals is welcoming another bad quality designer. It's sad that Christine needs money so much that she will accept designers who have low quality, steal things off the internet to sell them. ----------------------------------------------------------------- it isn't owned by Christine anymore its owned by Boop - very inexperienced owner and she has to turn her investment around so she is hiring anyone that's willing
Is this a very impressive list of designers? ------------------------------------------------------ Third is Southern Serenity (Amber Shaw). Some aren't bad and some are not. None are really my fave designers. Not a store I will really be buying from. But good luck to them.
P&Co dollar days started. What do you think? ------ There's a few good deals over there, I think. There's also stuff that was there last time (from Gennifer and D. Rutter). For a buck though, I can't complain!
scrap stacks store what a total let down - to many of the same template designers blah scrapstacks.com/shop/ Dunia Designs LJS Designs The Nifty Pixel Penny's Miscellany River Rose Snips and Snails Designs Southern Serenity Studio 68 Tinci Designs Trixie Scraps Designs Two Tiny Turtles Wendy P Designs
SSD has a post on its forum asking what people would like to improve re: their scrapping skills. Trish posts that she's happy with ALL her abilities..blah..blah..blah. I guess she doesn't realize that most of her pages look like a jumbled mess. If she finds no reason to improve on anything, why post at all? Of all the "Babes" her pages look the very worst imo. What an arrogant know-it-all. It's one thing to be arrogant and have talent; it's quite another to be that way for no reason.
Trish can't scrap worth shit and most of her photos suck as well. She has ALWAYS thought she was a whole lot better than she is at this stuff. That is why she is no longer at the Lily Pad. I think she's really good at kissing butt, hence her "Babe" assignment. They'll get tired of her crap just like TLP did.
So, what do you think? Is it better for a designer to be at one shop and give it her all, or try to be at more stores? Do sales actually increase if the designer has a store in more than one place?
So, what do you think? Is it better for a designer to be at one shop and give it her all, or try to be at more stores? Do sales actually increase if the designer has a store in more than one place? -------- I went exclusive and doubled my sales the first following month and have done nothing but increase since. I know a few other designers who have done the same thing and only one (a few years ago) regretted it. The others have done better with one than two, three or four.
163-I have had similar results. For me, it was the requirements for each site that were dragging me down. When I went exclusive, I started enjoying designing again and did much better financially. Good luck!
same with me. i was tired of trying to keep it all straight and finally decided less income was better than all the stress. however, my sales went up drastically within the next few months and now i regret i didn't listen and commit to only one shop sooner
Anyone else notice that PCO isn't part of it anymore? I'd much rather have them in it than TDC. ---------------------- Yes. And the Scrap Stacks contributions were meh.
So P&CO and Sweet Shoppe are out? There was nothing from those designers this time just The Lilypad, The Digital Press, Scrap Stacks, Oscraps, and The DigiChick. Unless those stores just didn't have anyone make anything?
P&Co probably would not participate anymore, seeing how the Parade is run by Laura Passage (Wishing Well Creations) and they had a fall-out with P&Co. I downloaded everything from TLP and TDP but I had to pick through the rest.
It seems like my initial thought about the parade was spot on: cliquey mean girls. If they are including mediocre shops but excluding good designers from other shops, what's the point? And how did PCO suddenly become not good enough? Their existing designers didn't change, and Deena Rutter's parts were some of my favorites every single time.
How do they decide who is in it? If it's just one person (Laura?) then it's not objective at all, especially if she didn't let PCO participate once she left that shop. But TDP and ScrapStacks are included? Seems fishy.
I think PCO was kicked out. SO was listed as a participating store for a while even when they never had anyone in it. SSD is still listed as a participating store.
It's weird that PCO isn't listed, which leads me to believe it's a unique situation. Since there was an issue with PCO being in the parade before, and the split between them and TDP doesn't appear to be amicable, it's obvious.
#186 - Thanks for the tip! I shop there all the time but don't pay much attention to the forums and had no idea this was going on. Gifts 1-3 are already expired, but day 4 is a beautiful ombre glitter gold alpha, and the others are nice too!
Do you know how much time that would take to do it by designer? I'm sure it takes enough time to organize it and they aren't getting compensated for the time they have to put in. Then they have to decide how often someone can apply to join and wade through the huge amount of applications that would come in. It would be a nightmare. And no one would be happy with it either because someone is always going to feel that someone who is in, shouldn't be and someone who isn't should and there will be accusations of it still being who you know etc. It's way more personal and complicated than just doing it by store. Go ahead and start one that runs that way and see how long before you run the other way screaming.
I don't have a problem with it being done by store, to be honest. They let Peppermint Creative contribute and she's not in a store at all, so I'm not convinced they are all that hard-lined about the store thing anyway. I just don't understand why TDC is involved when they suck.
Because Laura was at TDC when she started it. It was the means to get her foot in the door at a better store. I bet she still has friends there, which is why it is still included.
#156, #157- I remember Trisha being over at TLP for a while, but mostly remembered her as being a SSD groupie. I checked her SSD galleries just now, and whoa. I'm glad she's happy with her layouts, cuz I'd be hesitant to show them in a gallery. Especially since she's been doing this for a few years.
I guess good design sense doesn't rub off on everyone.
#156, #157- I remember Trisha being over at TLP for a while, but mostly remembered her as being a SSD groupie. I checked her SSD galleries just now, and whoa. I'm glad she's happy with her layouts, cuz I'd be hesitant to show them in a gallery. Especially since she's been doing this for a few years.
I guess good design sense doesn't rub off on everyone. _______ Her stuff looks absolutely awful. When she said she does a good job, is happy with her abilities and doesn't wish she was better at anything, it made me realize just how out of touch with reality some people are. If she thinks for a second, her work can even begin to compare with some of the really talented scrappers (hell, even the "mildly" talented ones is a REAL stretch), she's seriously NUTS!! LOL!! Her arrogance and know-it-all tone is irritating and unwarranted.
I like shopping at a store that isn't drama filled in the forum. That.is.all. I've found it. __ Is this a reply to another post or simply a statement that you felt the need to make for no particular reason?
So, who or what do you think sets the most "tone" in a store forum? The owner? Who the owner chooses as designers, and then the CTs? Or does forum structure itself contribute?
And, most important, once a forum starts devolving into Drama Land, how can it be rescued?
196-It was in response to going to a forum and finding nothing but drama, then going to another forum and finding supportive people that weren't fighting or trying to "outdo" each other, or butt kissing. That was a nice change. I'm going to stay there. 197-It's a team effort in my opinion. I like to see designers that are active in the forum and in the gallery. After all, they are the ones making the money. I like a competent and caring owner too. The CT fills in to help things run smoothly. Like I said, it should be a team effort.
Well, I DO see a lot of butt kissing at most of the forums..especially from ladies vying to be on the store ct. It's annoying and can be kinda pathetic at times.
And yet it's those butt kissing ladies getting on ct's, store and individual. -- Yes, and that's cool for all of them. It's just annoying to those of us who don't give a rat's behind about ct's to see it repeatedly. They ought to dedicate special threads to groveling and butt kissing so the rest of us can avoid them.
It annoys me when designers don't sell a mix of "cards" but only separate packs of journal cards or square cards. Why can't they combine, and why do I have to pay two times for the same thing basically?
It annoys me when designers don't sell a mix of "cards" but only separate packs of journal cards or square cards. Why can't they combine, and why do I have to pay two times for the same thing basically? ---------- It annoys ME when they break a kit up and sell it separately when others include the same stuff in their full kits. It's EXTREMELY annoying when they sell a single alpha separately. Also, the prices of some of those Project Life pocket cards are astronomical. They're really easy to make and I cannot imagine someone spending four bucks for six/eight of them.
I have no idea, but their stuff seems too gloomy colored for TLP. It's good, though. What's their home store right now? SBG? -- It wouldn't hurt the Lily Pad to have some different types of designers added to their shop. A lot of their designs are repetitious which equals boring.
5 - A lot of customers ask for separate packs, and they do sell. I provide them (but also the full kit at a cheaper price) so people get to choose. It's actually more work on my part, but anything to make the customers happy right?
I have no idea, but their stuff seems too gloomy colored for TLP. It's good, though. What's their home store right now? SBG? -- It wouldn't hurt the Lily Pad to have some different types of designers added to their shop. A lot of their designs are repetitious which equals boring -- Variety is the spice of life. They do make a good addition to the M3 subscription.
It's EXTREMELY annoying when they sell a single alpha separately. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speaking only from experience, but the store I'm in has a monthly build your own kit promotion. If I design an alpha and want to offer it in each of the color palette options, I have to package each of them separately for the first week of the month. After that, I can bundle them so you can buy multiple alphas together. I think it's stupid too.
4015 comments:
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And Re Kneipp is retiring. What the hell is happening with the designers?
I'm sure Re will be back in time. He's "retired" before.
Re is a joke.
I've lost count of how many times Re retired ...
Do you think anybody actually subscribed to the P&CO subscription? What about the Lilypad?
Nothing is happening to designers. Re is a student who got curious about what his sister was doing and decided to try it. He's not a good indicator for where the industry is. Some designers do it on the side whenever the mood strikes them and they may retire whenever they lose their mojo or they get interested in something else or just want to scrap more or whatever. That's been happening for as long as digiscrap has been around. It's not new. Then there are designers like Paislee Press who design for a living and this is their full-time job that puts food on the table. When those designers start retiring en masse, then you can ask what's happening.
I don't know about P&Co but there are several subscribers at TLP, for both M3 and MPM.
I am doing the one at TLP and really like it. I can't speak to P&Co as the only time I have shopped there was for some of KimB's items.
Are there actually any downloads on the advent calendar at Sweet Shoppe Designs? Or am I looking in the wrong spot? All I've found so far has been sale announcements (ie. 20% off on xyz designer's products). Thanks
21- I think there have been 3 downloads so far. Day 2, Day 6, Day 8. I find it rather annoying. I would rather they do a daily download of something small then random days with mostly sales in between.
Downloads were 2, 5, 8, if the pattern continues there should be another download tomorrow.
I find SSD's advent calendar annoying too. Today it's 25% off already over-priced templates. However, their dl's have been good and it's worth persevering to get them all. SO's has turned out to be pretty good too and you cannot beat the 50% off each day from the designers.
This is one of the few times where I feel like SO is doing a better job than SSD. The daily downloads from SO are far superior to the whatever-the-hell-we-feel-like daily stuff from SSD.
This is one of the few times where I feel like SO is doing a better job than SSD. The daily downloads from SO are far superior to the whatever-the-hell-we-feel-like daily stuff from SSD.
___
I agree with this. I like the entire situation better at SO, with the half off with the two designers daily. Today's at SSD is bs and hardly worth the click. It's like they didn't have anything to put in there so they did that. Like was stated, their templates are way over priced for what you get anyway so 25% off still doesn't make them a good buy...especially when you can hop over to SO today and get SWL templates for half off.
21- I think there have been 3 downloads so far. Day 2, Day 6, Day 8. I find it rather annoying. I would rather they do a daily download of something small then random days with mostly sales in between.
_
Of course, the reason they do it that way is to get people to click onto their advent calendar every day so they can suck you into a sale if you're so inclined which, with today's shitty one, I am not!
And Re Kneipp is retiring. What the hell is happening with the designers?
__
If your measuring stick for designers is based upon what Re Kneipp is doing/has done and/or will be doing then you're kinda outa touch, I'd say.
TDP Facebook page is super active, I have seen 20 likes and 20 comments to their posts. Good for them. I am super worried for P&Co though :(
Download today at SSD. I find it annoying that Digilicious couldn't be bothered to separate her alpha into individual files. Laziness. It's not like she had to make a huge contribution.
I too am impressed with SO's offering. When I saw the first alpha I didn't download and wasn't sure what the kit would be like but I am glad I followed through.
Completely agree about SSD and their templates, if I am buying templates would much rather give Liz my money and you can't beat 50% for a sale.
Yeah, that first alpha and Bella Gypsy's contribution to SO's advent kit made me somewhat skeptical, however, the rest of the downloads have been really nice and the 50% sales are awesome. I don't mind using alpha sheets but there's some programs where the individual letters cannot be extracted from them. Therefore, I think it's poor business for the designers not to separate their letters. KCB neglects to do this all the time as do a few others. It's laziness, I agree.
It's not even that difficult, there are some great alpha separator actions available that make it pretty painless. A few extra minutes and everyone can use it easily.
I prefer alpha sheets, because:
a) I drag and drop only one file at Photoshop. For me it's more practical.
b) it's better for the pc to have one big file rather than 26 small files.
This isn't really about what people prefer or why, you'll get valid arguments on both sides. The fact is that there are customers whose programs can't separate the letters off the sheets and they are therefore useless to them. The industry standard is to provide the separated files in addition to the sheets so that all customers can use them and there are tools out there to make that task easier and quicker for the designer and there is no excuse for a designer to not provide the separated letters other than laziness. If a designer was seriously incapable of providing separated letters due to the limitations of their design program, they should rethink how seriously they are taking their business.
^^This^^ As stated, it has absolutely nothing to do with skill, knowledge, etc.etc. It's about the fact that some programs (Memory Mixer for one) will not facilitate separating letters from sheets, therefore, people who use those programs cannot use the alphas they bought. Laziness is indeed the reason designers neglect to provide the individual files.
When is The Digital Press going to get a real gallery?
The stores I've sold in have only required that I provide the individual letter files and not sheets.
29-I just visited Pixel and Co for the first time since the big split. The last time they have new releases were November 7th. What is with that? That isn't how they are going to keep up in the digi world at all.
As for alphabets, I don't use the sheets at all. I hate them. I figure out my title then only open those individual letters.
^ Totally agree about new releases- I have a coupon but not a clue what to use it on... nothing there that I want sadly.
#37.............I was wondering that too. The Digital Press started out with a big bang, but as far as I'm concerned it's now become a limp fizz. Customer service is not impressive. I don't wish them any ill and I hope they succeed, but with poor customer service, no gallery, and a messy forum, I just can't be bothered!
I agree. They aren't fixing problems, they still haven't added the gallery, and the forum sucks to navigate. It's a letdown.
I hope P&Co will release something next week or by the end of the month. C'mon, they cannot just go down.
I love(d) their site, the products, community, forum and I hope they'll emerge.
42, I believe there was a death in the family of one of the designers, and forum/gallery work was postponed.
It's definitely a bummer that P&Co isn't releasing anything new. I've got a coupon to use. Like #43 I love(d) their community and always did my challenges there, but this month, I'm just not feeling it.
Yes. Give TDP a break. The owner recently lost her father.
Yes, it is sad that Leah has recently lost her father and I'm sure we all feel for her and her family, but that aside, I feel that TDP has (with the best of intentions) been hastily set up with not a lot of thought to the longevity of the site. As far as I can see it has been set up with free or next to free software and from my perspective that rarely translates to a satisfactory or happy customer/member experience.
I agree. SO's daily downloads for Christmas have been really good as a whole.
Exactly, 47. This goes beyond there being a death in the family. The site was built from the ground up on bad usability when they had a chance to build with only great things. That happened before.
47 here. Yes, I think they had a wonderful opportunity to start a fabulous new site with an already established, loyal customer base. I think less haste and some cash investment to get some decent software would have paid excellent dividends in the long run. I will stand corrected if I'm proven wrong, but I think they have badly misjudged the market and may have already 'missed the bus'!
I know there is not much to judge the forum and gallery yet at TDP, but I really like the feature in the store where you can build multiple wish lists.
They were bragging about how you can shop for different options for a kit - pick either the papers or elements or the whole kit. But I don't like that feature because it is the price of the separate that shows up by default. I shop kits, so I want to see the price of the kit up front, not have to access a drop down menu to see the kit price.
I don't know anything about forum/store software, but I did notice that it seemed to be different from the other stores out there. I'm actually a little curious to see how it all turns out. Maybe it will have some really neat features.
Apparently P&CO finally managed to put some new products on sale. Alleluja!
I just went through the P&Co newsletter and store. It looks like the designers are releasing more kits with the same color scheme/theme as the subscription from the beginning of the month. I'm actually really impressed with the new kits/mini-kits, and I wish I had money to spend.
If this is how they will be going forward (mainly releasing coordinating kits throughout the month), I think it is an interesting idea, and definitely different from what other stores offer (that I'm familiar with). People might like to scrap their months all coordinating. And it might appeal to the pocket style scrappers. (I say this because one of the things that turns me off of the pocket scrapping is the mis-matchedness of the pages). It appeals to me because I often go back to older kits that I love, so I've always liked having big collections.
I agree re: P&Co. I'm impressed with what they have to offer for their new releases especially given the number of designers they now have. When I have more time, I'm sure I'll find some things I "have" to have!
Unfortunately, no, that is not at all what P&Co is doing. Those are not coordinating kits. They are the very kits that you get with the subscription, being offered individually in case you are not a subscriber. There are very few actual NEW releases this time. Not impressed at all considering how long we've been waiting for releases.
If you want a subscription with coordinating products offered separately, that's exactly what TLP is doing.
#55 - If you are not a subscriber, they give you the opportunity to purchase separate kits + there are also new releases. It's a good starting point, in my opinion. Of course, it can be improved.
Oh! I didn't realize the "new" kits were the same as the subscription. I don't think their newsletter makes that easy to understand.
Yeah, 56, I get why they're offering them individually. Hence why I said "in case you are not a subscriber." I just disagree it's a good starting point.
A month ago, one person released one overpriced Halloween kit, a month after everyone else did Halloween. We wait a month and we get mini kits that we already saw for the subscription, and a couple of other overpriced kits. Nope, not impressed.
And no, the newsletter doesn't say anything about it. They COULD have hyped it up. Hey, the bundle more than you need? Just buy what you want! How awesome is that! You have options! But no, they just put the previews there and say jack about it. It's like they WANT their site to fail. No effort at all.
Every site around here as disadvantages:
* TDP : no gallery, messy forum, customer service can be improved
* P&Co : is not offering many new realeases, not great at marketing (?)
* I don't know about TLP, but there are some disadvantages there too, I bet.
But also some advantages
* TDP : they started with a boom, great marketing skillz, great online presence
* P&Co : their products are high quality
* TLP : they have two *celeb* designers, I guess :D
#59: Who are the "celeb" designers at TLP?
#60 I think #59 was talking about Paislee Press and One Little Bird, but maybe I'm wrong.
What would make them celebs? If any store has "celeb" designers, it's DD with Ali and CathyZ.
I think CZ's style is one of my favs. No frills, great design, I love her.
I've gotten some things from P&Co that any designer should be embarrassed to have made. There is a lot of high quality stuff but you still have to be careful with what you're buying, so it's not a huge advantage. It's crazy how much they charge for kits when the elements are things like a bow with a paper clipped to it and the opacity lowered. When I get a bow in a kit, I want it to look the way an actual bow looks. I don't think that's too much to ask, especially when the kit costs more than 10 bucks.
Hey guys, if you had 20$ to spend in scrap-stuff, what would you buy? Where would you go?
I'd spend it at Bargain Bites at SSD. Quality stuff with a free kit on a ten-dollar purchase. They're offering an excellent variety there right now. However, at other times, not so much.
I don't think that's too much to ask, especially when the kit costs more than 10 bucks.
--
It's not too much to ask and I agree with you that you have to watch what you're buying, but, not just at P&Co. I've had the same problem at SO.
@ 65
I'd buy Kristin Aagard's new kits from SO.
No, I'm not her!
Hey guys, if you had 20$ to spend in scrap-stuff, what would you buy? Where would you go?
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Digital Design Essentials. Top quality, great designs, good sales on new releases and she usually has a coupon that pops up right on the site.
P&CO sent the newsletter with some previews of the new sub kit. Alleluja they seem to be out of the mud of the last few weeks.
#69 I love Digital Design Essentials too. Great sales, she always has a coupon and her designs are good.
Alleluja
^^^
This not a word.
This not a word.
_________
This is not a sentence.
#73 - LMAO!
This not a word.
_________
This is not a sentence.
^^
Touche. Mine was a typo, the other is someone who has twice used a word without the first letter.
BREAKING NEWS! Two people still at large after using the Internet while being imperfect. Suspects are thought to be members of the digital scrapbooking community. One is thought to be a subscriber of the Pixels & Co. newsletter. The other is thought to not be French, as he or she has displayed ignorance of how to type an é. Though research suggests imperfection is not contagious, digiscrappers are encouraged to be on the lookout for further incidents.
#76 Great comment, LOL :D
#76 You sound like you're incredibly bored. Oh..wait..I mean BORING.
http://www.sugarhillco.com/shop/Simple-Shapes/
Who the fuck is going to buy 18 basic shapes for over $5 ? Seriously !
I just read The Digital Press newsletter. Is there anything significant about two of SSD's designers guesting at TDP this month? I don't think I have seen SSD designers guesting at other stores in the last year or so.
Also, isn't this the month that Penny Springman is supposed to open the new Scrap Stacks store? (I thought she had retired from designing and SSD to concentrate on running the ScrapStacks site, so I was surprised to see the announcement a few months ago that she would be returning to designing when the site's store opened.)
Thinking a lot of stores closing or not opening is to do with the EU tax changes that came into effect Jan 1 2015. All businesses selling e-commerce downloadable items have to comply with it if you sell to EU customers.... big can of worms not many seem willing to talk about.....
Thinking a lot of stores closing or not opening is to do with the EU tax changes that came into effect Jan 1 2015. All businesses selling e-commerce downloadable items have to comply with it if you sell to EU customers.... big can of worms not many seem willing to talk about.....
Jan 2, 2015, 7:36:00 PM
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Thanks for pointing this out. Can you tell us more about this please? Thanks in advance
Google EU VAT tax.
On the scrap stacks site it says their store opening will be Jan 23
EU VAT tax ?? Cross-border VAT is declared in the same way as domestic VAT
Say a designer from EU has a store owned by someone from the US and we purchase from the EU designer, will we have to pay tax on that? Just curious here.
I think only european customers will have to pay that tax. I know cause I'm already banned from some sites!
Does it mean that they want to avoid the paperwork, or that they are not a legal business in the first place?
Basically the EU decided there was going to be sales tax on all e-commerce goods back in 2006 (the tax threshold being 0) and instead of being paid to the seller's country was going to be paid to the customer's country if they were in EU. The idea is mainly because large e-commerce companies like Amazon, I tunes etc have been registering for business in places like Luxembourg where tax is low.This includes ebooks, eclasses (where there is no human intervention or involvement), tutorials, knitting patterns etc, stock photos, music, software that is downloaded and of course digital download links, where it is automated. The news that it was coming into force came out earlier this year, but was shall we say underplayed? The snowball began in November when people realised what it meant. Basically each e-commerce business (worldwide) that sells to a European customer has to now charge sales tax at the customer's country rate. Proof of country is required (so if the bank card is German and the customer has a US ip or home address, the onus is on the seller to contact the customer to determine which country is correct). Customer data verifying the customer country is now required to be held for 10 years (archived safely) so the seller also has to now register with their Govt dept for holding personal info (this costs £35 in UK!) Non EU countries can register with whichever EU country to use their one stop shop which is meant to make things simpler (no idea how it works!). Most 3rd party platforms (such as digi scrap stores) will have to comply (Etsy is back pedaling and saying it is their sellers responsibility and had meetings with the UK sales tax office, but are holding firm to not their job stance, but we will help with tools). The American stance seems to be nothing to do with us, but unfortunately because of international trade agreements, US stores are expected to comply. Digiscrapstudio has closed temporarily to EU customers while they comply. A few other stores are also doing the ban the Europeans. (It is illegal within EU to ban EU customers) I understand Japan and Australia will be cross charging sales tax as well with e-commerce later this year. Then in 2016 this sales tax charging to the customer will be done with physical goods... so if you buy something abroad, your customer has their rate of sales tax added to the goods and you have to send the total sales tax owed by country to your 'one sto p sales tax shop'. It is causing an unholy mess, but I can see that each country wants it's sales tax if their people are buying abroad. How many small businesses will fold is unknown. People selling from blogs will have to comply or risk being reported or audited etc...... It is quite complex and wrong to think digi stores do not need to comply... they are just at the bottom of the sales tax barrel in terms of amounts.... Will try to find the various links I have - there are numerous petitions as obviously no-one in power thought of little digi scrap stores!
One stop shop
From 1st January 2015, Directive 2008/8/EC not only extends these rules for non-EU businesses to broadcasting and telecommunications. It also provides that VAT on telecommunications, broadcastingand electronic services supplied by a supplier established within the EU to non-taxable persons established within the EU will also be charged in the Member State where the customer belongs. For this purpose, EU and non-EU businesses will use a web portal in the Member State in which they are identified to declare the VAT due in the Member State of their customer. The Regulation on administrative co-operation (Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010) concerns the technical details for the implementation of the one stop shop scheme. This is supplemented by the Commission Implementing Regulation, regulating the development of Member States' I.T. and information exchange systems. from http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/traders/e-commerce/index_en.htm
This sums it up quite well.... http://diginomica.com/2014/11/12/will-europes-new-ecommerce-tax-lead-digital-disenfranchisement/
The latest info which actually shows what is considered to be an e-service/commerce... right at the bottom of this.... Within UK (I don't know if this is true for all EU countries though) a work around may well be to get EU clients to purchase gift certificates in various amounts and for various designers. The store or the designer then manually email the customers a pretty card sent as a pdf with the gift code on it and include the code in the email. They can then use the gift card to purchase items. Will involve more work, but you keep you EU customers as I am sure many will wait up to 48 hours for their gift certificate. Here's the link.... http://www.businesszone.co.uk/topic/business-trends/vat-moss-hmrc-issues-guidance-small-businesses-hit-new-vat-rules/58780
This document tells you ... http://www.buyusainfo.net/docs/x_2011043.pdf
Sales of digital services (of which digi stores are involved) are supposed to have been taxed to EU customers since 2003..... http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2014/05/15/european-vat-10-things-online-sellers-need-to-know-about-taxes-on-digital-goods-and-services/
I think only European customers will have to pay that tax. I know cause I'm already banned from some sites!
Does it mean that they want to avoid the paperwork, or that they are not a legal business in the first place?
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they cant keep track of all the eu countires and keep copies of 2 proof items of each customer and purchase for that long.
A it could potentially mean they can be a security risk
B its a lot of work
C you are liable if someone lies
D you have to register with all those EU countries and UK - its expensive and time consuming ( many people were not ready for that)
E the shop software they are using isnt giving them options ( plugins or mods) to weed out trough these taxes individually.
Will we ever have a new thread here? Over a year now on this one. Getting a bit weird to post on the January 2014 thread. Am I the only one? Just curious.
I think the SO sneak thread is lacking. Half of the layouts in there have horrible pictures on the layouts too. Yes, I'm judging. Where are all the New Bees?
While it's no biggie, it does make one wonder why the person would volunteer to maintain the blog and then do absolutely nothing in that regard for over a year. If said person wished to not do it any longer, all she/he had to do was simply post here stating that.
#95 I used to be very involved over at SO but found it slowly going downhill in many different ways. I still pop in occasionally but I don't post in the forum and the last time I purchased anything was at FM and it was only two items.
SO still has some great designers. However, their entire site is just cumbersome to navigate. I absolutely hate the way the store is set up. The only one just as bad or worse is SBG.
I think only european customers will have to pay that tax. I know cause I'm already banned from some sites!
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What do you mean you are banned?
Banned means that some sites are geo-blocking EU countries. If you live in these countries and try and buy you will get a pop up notice that you are unable to do so.
its funny they are blocking eu customers because they don't want to brake the law but by blocking eu customers they are actually braking the eu anti discrimination law .. hmm
Did anyone see that they are no longer going to do TheDigiShow podcast anymore?
I wish Katy the Scrapbook Lady & Peppermint would continue on the podcast on their own.
Nope, that's a EU law that applies to EU countries stating that business located in the EU member states may not discriminate against customers located in EU member states. As long as the store is based elsewhere, they are able to choose who they sell to. Because of trade agreements the EU is getting away with making the citizens of other countries pay taxes to them but they can't then make a law forcing them to sell to customers in EU countries.
I thought That Girl retired?
#94 - I wish there was a new post started and we can get this blog going again. Maybe someone will create a new Smack Blog as I really miss how the blog used to be in it's glory days.
#95 - I think SO has lost a lot of its luster and desirability. I used to enjoy being there, shopping their store and now I find myself not thinking much of the products, forum, etc.
#102 - maybe they will start up their own podcast. They had a lot of good things and I enjoyed listening to the podcasts.
#104 -Ellie (That Girl) came back but I believe she is just doing CU products.
For me, the thing I dislike most about SO is that stupid gallery.
#107 - I think when SO got that gallery that was the moment they started going downhill, and they haven't stopped yet. You would think Kami would admit it was a stupid mistake and go back to the way it was, and maybe they'd get some of their customers and designers back.
I totally agree with you 108.
96-Maybe the person died. Who knows?
I totally agree with 108 too. I keep waiting for Kami to realize she tanked her own site and go back to a regular gallery.
There was another blog started probably more than a year ago. I didn't bookmark it so no idea where it is.
http://digismackorama.blogspot.com/
the daily digi has a survey open right now. i hope they actually take into consideration the feedback i gave because i know i'm not the only one who is disappointed with their offerings.
A lot of the digifiles I know I will never use, however, with only paying five dollars a month, I think it's still worth it. Some months though that's been questionable!
#107 & #108 I agree with both of you.
#115 digifiles is 7.50$ a month is it not?
This month at dailydigi is not worth 2.00$
SO is one of the worst stores to navigate I have ever shopped.
I wished a couple of the designers there would leave. I love
their kits, but hate the store.
TLP I love the M3, they have slacked on the challenges but over all
it is fabulous. A great price for what you get.
Is the survey just for existing subscribers? I'm not sure that's the best way to do it.
I took the survey. It was in my blog reader. I'm not a subscriber to The Digi Files.
I pay five dollars per mo. for the digifiles. I would NOT pay $7,50. I'm thinking of canceling as it is. I agree that it's not worth two bucks this go around. There's not one item I would buy separately. However, last month, SO's kit alone was worth the money. It was a huge collab with templates that weren't just like a zillion others out there, It's something I'll definitely use.
I didn't realize the $5 option was still available.
Is it true that none of the designers get paid for their contributions to the digifiles?
If so, that is clear profit for the digifiles owner without doing any work of designing.
From what I understand, you're correct. Designers are not paid for their contributions to the Digifiles. The products are exclusive to Digifiles for the month they are offered and then the designers are free to put them in their stores.
Yes, that's true. Steph is making bank off of the designers' hard work in exchange for "publicity".
The five dollar option is NOT still available, but I believe if you were already subscribed to that before they stopped offering it, and you never cancelled, then you'd still be getting it.
CU Digitals is welcoming another bad quality designer. It's sad that Christine needs money so much that she will accept designers who have low quality, steal things off the internet to sell them.
CU Digitals is welcoming another bad quality designer. It's sad that Christine needs money so much that she will accept designers who have low quality, steal things off the internet to sell them.
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Who's joining now?
Anonymous said... 113
http://digismackorama.blogspot.com/
Jan 12, 2015, 6:20:00 AM
??
There are far more crickets chirping over at that blog than this one.
The five dollar option is NOT still available, but I believe if you were already subscribed to that before they stopped offering it, and you never cancelled, then you'd still be getting it.
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This is correct. I think I got in right before they changed it to 7.50. That's good because, like I said before, I wouldn't pay that. The monthly offering is just too inconsistent in terms of what I can/will use.
Yes, that's true. Steph is making bank off of the designers' hard work in exchange for "publicity".
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So? She's not forcing the designers to contribute. They must think the "publicity" is potentially worth it or I'm sure they'd refrain from participating.
How are things over at Pixel and Co?
I think P&CO is recovering from what happened sometime ago.
Their monthly kits are not bad at all in my opinion and at the end of the month there is the Dollar Days sale. Not bad, not bad.
Gennifer, who took over this blog? Can you contact them and ask them to please create a new thread? Or pass the blog to someone else?
Does anybody know who the designers are going to be at scrapstacks? They have samples up, but I am terrible at guessing, and most are generic.
I am not a good guesser either, but I think one may be River~Rose.
The samples so far have been underwhelming. I also am bored with the whole "sneak peak" thing...stretched over a month's time. It's tiresome and old hat especially when the results don't appear to be much more than ordinary.
I agree that the sneak peeks have been underwhelming. They are very generic.
I liked the sneak peeks, but agree that they seem kind of pointless. I would rather just know who they are.
I am not a good guesser either, but I think one may be River~Rose.
---------------------------------
Didn't she retire?
Pretty sure some of the templates are Amber Morrison's, and one of the sneak peeks looks like Dunia. I wasn't super impressed with the peeks. Will Penny be designing again?
I think she said she would in one of the first emails/ posts announcing the store.
There's a list of the new designers up now - the letters are scrambled so it's kinda like a puzzle..a boring one. Anyway, Penny, River Rose and Studio 68 are on there. I haven't gotten any further with it and may not. Like I said, it's boring.
Two Tiny Turtles
Snips and Snails Designs
??
LJS Designs
Studio 68
??
WendyP Designs
Trixie Scraps Designs
Tinci Designs
Dunia Designs
River Rose
Penny Springmann
I think one is Southern Serenity. Is this a very impressive list of designers? I don't think so, but I am not sure.
No
The third one on the list is The Nifty Pixel.
^^^ Sorry, meant the 6th one.
CU Digitals is welcoming another bad quality designer. It's sad that Christine needs money so much that she will accept designers who have low quality, steal things off the internet to sell them.
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it isn't owned by Christine anymore its owned by Boop - very inexperienced owner and she has to turn her investment around so she is hiring anyone that's willing
Is this a very impressive list of designers?
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Third is Southern Serenity (Amber Shaw). Some aren't bad and some are not. None are really my fave designers. Not a store I will really be buying from. But good luck to them.
P&Co dollar days started. What do you think?
@149 Southern Serenity is not Amber Shaw...it's Amber Morrison
151- That is what I meant, my bad. Was thinking one thing and typed another.
P&Co dollar days started. What do you think?
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There's a few good deals over there, I think. There's also stuff that was there last time (from Gennifer and D. Rutter). For a buck though, I can't complain!
I like that they release everything at once instead of 5 a day.
scrap stacks store what a total let down - to many of the same template designers blah scrapstacks.com/shop/
Dunia Designs
LJS Designs
The Nifty Pixel
Penny's Miscellany
River Rose
Snips and Snails Designs
Southern Serenity
Studio 68
Tinci Designs
Trixie Scraps Designs
Two Tiny Turtles
Wendy P Designs
SSD has a post on its forum asking what people would like to improve re: their scrapping skills. Trish posts that she's happy with ALL her abilities..blah..blah..blah. I guess she doesn't realize that most of her pages look like a jumbled mess. If she finds no reason to improve on anything, why post at all? Of all the "Babes" her pages look the very worst imo. What an arrogant know-it-all. It's one thing to be arrogant and have talent; it's quite another to be that way for no reason.
Trish can't scrap worth shit and most of her photos suck as well. She has ALWAYS thought she was a whole lot better than she is at this stuff. That is why she is no longer at the Lily Pad. I think she's really good at kissing butt, hence her "Babe" assignment. They'll get tired of her crap just like TLP did.
Hey guys, something new in digiscrap-land?
Oh goody. SO is having Scrapper Bowl this weekend. I can hardly wait. ::eyeroll::
Don't you think that all digi-subscription kits are super expensive?
So, what do you think? Is it better for a designer to be at one shop and give it her all, or try to be at more stores? Do sales actually increase if the designer has a store in more than one place?
160 - Yes, I do think they are very expensive.
So, what do you think? Is it better for a designer to be at one shop and give it her all, or try to be at more stores? Do sales actually increase if the designer has a store in more than one place?
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I went exclusive and doubled my sales the first following month and have done nothing but increase since. I know a few other designers who have done the same thing and only one (a few years ago) regretted it. The others have done better with one than two, three or four.
163-I have had similar results. For me, it was the requirements for each site that were dragging me down. When I went exclusive, I started enjoying designing again and did much better financially. Good luck!
same with me. i was tired of trying to keep it all straight and finally decided less income was better than all the stress. however, my sales went up drastically within the next few months and now i regret i didn't listen and commit to only one shop sooner
How do you guys like this month's digi scrap parade? The kits I've downloaded so far look nice.
I didn't bother with anything from the TDC designers but most of the rest have looked decent.
Most of the stuff was decent. A couple of duds, IMO (Trixie, Vero, Creative Victorian).
Anyone else notice that PCO isn't part of it anymore? I'd much rather have them in it than TDC.
Anyone else notice that PCO isn't part of it anymore? I'd much rather have them in it than TDC.
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Yes. And the Scrap Stacks contributions were meh.
Yup! I liked it better when there was P&CO in it.
So P&CO and Sweet Shoppe are out? There was nothing from those designers this time just The Lilypad, The Digital Press, Scrap Stacks, Oscraps, and The DigiChick. Unless those stores just didn't have anyone make anything?
P&Co probably would not participate anymore, seeing how the Parade is run by Laura Passage (Wishing Well Creations) and they had a fall-out with P&Co. I downloaded everything from TLP and TDP but I had to pick through the rest.
Maybe she kicked them out.
NO One Little Bird, NO Paislee Press, NO P&Co = no digiscrap parade for me.
It seems like my initial thought about the parade was spot on: cliquey mean girls. If they are including mediocre shops but excluding good designers from other shops, what's the point? And how did PCO suddenly become not good enough? Their existing designers didn't change, and Deena Rutter's parts were some of my favorites every single time.
How do they decide who is in it? If it's just one person (Laura?) then it's not objective at all, especially if she didn't let PCO participate once she left that shop. But TDP and ScrapStacks are included? Seems fishy.
They go by store, not designer, which is how it should be. So if you leave a certain store, you're no longer allowed to participate. Ridiculous.
P&Co and SSD designers are still allowed to participate. Apparently they chose not to.
SSD is listed as a participating store, but PCO isn't anymore: https://digiscrapparade.wordpress.com/about/
I'd certainly rather see SSD and more TLP designers contributing than TDC.
Well there you go. Apparently P&Co got booted which is really petty IMO. Maybe they should boot TDC too.
We don't know that PCO was booted. They may have chosen not to participate similar to what SO did when DSP started a couple of years ago.
what digi subscriptions are expensive? I subscribe to TLP M3 and Just Jamie and I think they are cheap and really good!
I think PCO was kicked out. SO was listed as a participating store for a while even when they never had anyone in it. SSD is still listed as a participating store.
It's weird that PCO isn't listed, which leads me to believe it's a unique situation. Since there was an issue with PCO being in the parade before, and the split between them and TDP doesn't appear to be amicable, it's obvious.
Could be this month is SSD's birthday, so they're giving away a freebie everyday in their forums.
166-I loved it this month. I usually don't bother with it, but this kit was really sweet.
#186 - Thanks for the tip! I shop there all the time but don't pay much attention to the forums and had no idea this was going on. Gifts 1-3 are already expired, but day 4 is a beautiful ombre glitter gold alpha, and the others are nice too!
It seems like my initial thought about the parade was spot on: cliquey mean girls.
^^^
Yep. If it was about quality designers it would have been chosen by designer, not by store.
Do you know how much time that would take to do it by designer? I'm sure it takes enough time to organize it and they aren't getting compensated for the time they have to put in. Then they have to decide how often someone can apply to join and wade through the huge amount of applications that would come in. It would be a nightmare. And no one would be happy with it either because someone is always going to feel that someone who is in, shouldn't be and someone who isn't should and there will be accusations of it still being who you know etc. It's way more personal and complicated than just doing it by store. Go ahead and start one that runs that way and see how long before you run the other way screaming.
I don't have a problem with it being done by store, to be honest. They let Peppermint Creative contribute and she's not in a store at all, so I'm not convinced they are all that hard-lined about the store thing anyway. I just don't understand why TDC is involved when they suck.
Because Laura was at TDC when she started it. It was the means to get her foot in the door at a better store. I bet she still has friends there, which is why it is still included.
#156, #157-
I remember Trisha being over at TLP for a while, but mostly remembered her as being a SSD groupie. I checked her SSD galleries just now, and whoa. I'm glad she's happy with her layouts, cuz I'd be hesitant to show them in a gallery. Especially since she's been doing this for a few years.
I guess good design sense doesn't rub off on everyone.
#156, #157-
I remember Trisha being over at TLP for a while, but mostly remembered her as being a SSD groupie. I checked her SSD galleries just now, and whoa. I'm glad she's happy with her layouts, cuz I'd be hesitant to show them in a gallery. Especially since she's been doing this for a few years.
I guess good design sense doesn't rub off on everyone.
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Her stuff looks absolutely awful. When she said she does a good job, is happy with her abilities and doesn't wish she was better at anything, it made me realize just how out of touch with reality some people are. If she thinks for a second, her work can even begin to compare with some of the really talented scrappers (hell, even the "mildly" talented ones is a REAL stretch), she's seriously NUTS!! LOL!! Her arrogance and know-it-all tone is irritating and unwarranted.
I like shopping at a store that isn't drama filled in the forum. That.is.all. I've found it.
I like shopping at a store that isn't drama filled in the forum. That.is.all. I've found it.
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Is this a reply to another post or simply a statement that you felt the need to make for no particular reason?
So, who or what do you think sets the most "tone" in a store forum? The owner? Who the owner chooses as designers, and then the CTs? Or does forum structure itself contribute?
And, most important, once a forum starts devolving into Drama Land, how can it be rescued?
196-It was in response to going to a forum and finding nothing but drama, then going to another forum and finding supportive people that weren't fighting or trying to "outdo" each other, or butt kissing. That was a nice change. I'm going to stay there.
197-It's a team effort in my opinion. I like to see designers that are active in the forum and in the gallery. After all, they are the ones making the money. I like a competent and caring owner too. The CT fills in to help things run smoothly. Like I said, it should be a team effort.
Well, I DO see a lot of butt kissing at most of the forums..especially from ladies vying to be on the store ct. It's annoying and can be kinda pathetic at times.
And yet it's those butt kissing ladies getting on ct's, store and individual.
And yet it's those butt kissing ladies getting on ct's, store and individual.
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Yes, and that's cool for all of them. It's just annoying to those of us who don't give a rat's behind about ct's to see it repeatedly. They ought to dedicate special threads to groveling and butt kissing so the rest of us can avoid them.
Any chance Sissy Sparrows will be resident @ the lilypad?
I have no idea, but their stuff seems too gloomy colored for TLP. It's good, though. What's their home store right now? SBG?
It annoys me when designers don't sell a mix of "cards" but only separate packs of journal cards or square cards. Why can't they combine, and why do I have to pay two times for the same thing basically?
It annoys me when designers don't sell a mix of "cards" but only separate packs of journal cards or square cards. Why can't they combine, and why do I have to pay two times for the same thing basically?
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It annoys ME when they break a kit up and sell it separately when others include the same stuff in their full kits. It's EXTREMELY annoying when they sell a single alpha separately. Also, the prices of some of those Project Life pocket cards are astronomical. They're really easy to make and I cannot imagine someone spending four bucks for six/eight of them.
I have no idea, but their stuff seems too gloomy colored for TLP. It's good, though. What's their home store right now? SBG?
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It wouldn't hurt the Lily Pad to have some different types of designers added to their shop. A lot of their designs are repetitious which equals boring.
5 - A lot of customers ask for separate packs, and they do sell. I provide them (but also the full kit at a cheaper price) so people get to choose. It's actually more work on my part, but anything to make the customers happy right?
I have no idea, but their stuff seems too gloomy colored for TLP. It's good, though. What's their home store right now? SBG?
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It wouldn't hurt the Lily Pad to have some different types of designers added to their shop. A lot of their designs are repetitious which equals boring
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Variety is the spice of life. They do make a good addition to the M3 subscription.
It's EXTREMELY annoying when they sell a single alpha separately.
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Speaking only from experience, but the store I'm in has a monthly build your own kit promotion. If I design an alpha and want to offer it in each of the color palette options, I have to package each of them separately for the first week of the month. After that, I can bundle them so you can buy multiple alphas together. I think it's stupid too.
Best blogs/sites/scrappers for intermediate tutorials? (in your opinion)
#8, I agree. I like Sissy Sparrows, and they've got some really nice add-ons for the Mixed Media Monthly. I hope they stay at TLP.
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