Happy New Year! (And MLK Day, Inauguration Day, Valentine's Day, and Presidents Day, etc.)
Yes, it's been a painfully long time getting this new email structure figured out. Learning curves, learning curves! Seems like that's what life's all about these days, isn't it? But I have an inborn part of me that's pretty stubborn, and I'm all about lifelong learning, so after many hours of frustration and zero progress with this new newsletter software, I've finally managed to get this far. So I'm hopeful the biggest hurdles may be behind me! ๐ฅณ
Oh, and before it's entirely out of date, here are a few moments of my "Valentine's Tree" (which is what my Christmas tree transforms into when it's time to take the Christmas decorations down). While I've made a few of these ornaments myself, most everything on this tree was given to me by friends & family, so the whole concept is special to me. And because it's still lighted, it helps pull me through the remaining ultra-dark days of January & early February!
So let's see; what's been going on in the Stampin' Up! world these days?
Well, I'd first like to offer a great big, ๐-felt "Thank You" to everyone who ordered through me during our first month of Sale-a-Bration! As always, January marked a great beginning of an exciting year! But the fun's not over yet; Sale-a-Bration and its opportunities to earn your choice of freebies continue through Feb. 28, so there's still time to take advantage of it.
And as a matter of fact, Stampin' Up! has even added some additional free items to select from, which you can find shown here for $60 order choices, and here are the options for $120 order volumes. (Of course, you can always choose multiples of the $60-level freebies if you'd prefer, when your order volume qualifies at or above the $120 level.)
And there are several more fun things coming up in the kinda-near future, as well.
I invite you to check in at my (almost) brand-new website at least every couple of weeks. I just rewrote it from the ground up (on an easier-to-update & maintain platform) a couple months ago, and am in there updating it fairly regularly. So that's a place where you can keep track of much of the action that takes place regularly in the Stampin' Up! world. You'll find links to the current catalogs and other common questions, such as my current host code. Same basic things my previous site had, but now (hopefully) a bit easier to navigate. (Be sure to click the 3 parallel lines for a list of pages so you can jump directly to what you want to view.) And for those who "don't do Facebook", you can even find some of my page posts listed there, along with a calendar of current promotions & upcoming events. Oh, and just to clarify, this new site has now replaced not only my older, clunkier website, but also my "PaperDreamingwithLynda" app. So if you still have that old app on your device(s), go ahead and remove it; I'm no longer updating it.
The URL to the current, new website is still the same as the past decade or so: "www.YourPaperDreams.com".
New Rewards - Coming Soon!
So, remember that upcoming exciting feature I talked all about a while back... where each customer will soon be able to earn points (to redeem on a future order) with every $20 order placed? And that this new program will replace the current "Stampin' Rewards" and "Host Code" systems? Well, time is drawing closer and closer to bringing that into reality, and I couldn't be more excited for y'all! Look for more details as we "go live" here in the United States about mid-April. (Most of the other countries will have already had it in place by then, so hopefully they'll have any potential bugs worked out by then, too, lol.) โ
"Template of the Month"
Going forward, I'm planning to feature one of my (100) card-layout templates each month. This will likely be presented in a variety of ways (via my newsletter, and/or via social media, and maybe even eventually on my new website), but I'll provide the template for you to download (as a PDF at no cost), and then I'll feature some cards based on that template. This should help you get an overall idea of how to use not only that specific template, but also others, as well.
So let's begin at the beginning (back when I first began designing these templates at the very outset of C*v*d shutdown), and it seems logical to start off with Template #1, which features 2 slightly different versions - A and B. Tap the button to download your own copy.
I encourage you to always take a look at the "Last Chance" section. Formerly known as "Clearance Rack", but now also updated with products that SU has targeted for retirement, you'll sometimes find some real bargains in there... but keep in mind they're only available until sold out, and they can get slipped in (and outta) there without a whole lotta hoopla. So it may pay to keep your eyes open!
One of our most popular product categories these days is our "Online Exclusives" category. So that's probably another section of the online store you may want to visit often. Things move in and out of that category pretty quickly, too, so if you snooze, you just might lose! (BTW, the "Online Exclusives" term simply means products that are ONLY available in the online store. For instance, they do not appear anywhere in a paper catalog, but if you can see them in the online store, they're available for you to order them!)
A few reminders/tips about navigating the online store: Please get familiar with and take advantage of its features; it'll make it so much easier to get around and view what you want to see. If you don't want to get lost looking at the same hundreds of products over and over again, use the built-in filters to see the TYPE of product you want to view. And set the sorting order of a category to "Newest" any time you have that option. This will let you get in and out of a grouping more quickly because all the "newest" stuff will appear closer to the top of the page... and that may only be the things you're interested in seeing! Oh, and be sure to set the viewable option for "90" (vs "30") products on a page. That reduces the number of times you have to click to advance to the next page - down to only 1/3 as often. And be sure to take advantage of your "favorites" lists, too, so if you see something you like, you can just click (its heart) to save it for later... like when you're preparing to place your next order! And I hope it goes without saying that if you already know the name of something or its product code, you can just key that into the "search" bar to go directly to that product! No need to page randomly through the entire store inventory hoping to stumble across what you're looking for! (Yikes! I can't even imagine how frustrating THAT could be!)
And we've recently been informed that customer accounts will soon have (or maybe already do have) a separate space for shipping address vs mailing address. (Personally, I think this is well more than a decade overdue, but for those of you who have PO Boxes for mailing addresses, or prefer to get your package shipments elsewhere, this will be a wonderful new convenience!) So please take a moment to update your customer account if that detail might be pertinent to you!
January 2025 Paper Pumpkin; February's kit is headed to subscribers right now!
And finally, some personal thoughts about our very popular Paper Pumpkin subscription program...
Stampin' Up!'s Paper Pumpkin program continues to become more and more popular... which is wonderful! And most will agree the projects are also getting better and better over time. But there are a few things I'd like to share with y'all as I've thought more deeply about the program in recent months. โ Paper Pumpkin, as a product line, will be turning 12 years old next month (March 2025). (Which, incidentally, also means it will include TWO stamp sets, as our anniversary months usually do.) But whether you've been subscribing that entire time ๐โโ๏ธ, or have just begun your subscription in recent months, I always want to share with you thoughts I have so you can get the best value for your money. And this upcoming customer rewards system has had my brain cells working overtime a little bit. 'Cuz here's what I'm thinking...
As you may know, there are currently 2 ways to subscribe to Paper Pumpkin... via either the month-to-month auto-charge-to-your-credit-card-every-month method (which is the way I've always subscribed), OR by paying for several months at a time (usually 3, 6, or 12 months), which we call "prepaid". In the latter case, you basically purchase a code thru the online store, and then go to the Paper Pumpkin website and enter that code, along with your address to actually get your subscription started. (BTW, another cool update coming later this year, too, is that Paper Pumpkin customer accounts will eventually be merged into your main Stampin' Up! customer account. WHEW! Will *I* EVER be happy to see THAT update happen, too! That'll not only make a ton of sense, but will also eliminate a ton of confusion on everyone's part, as well.) โ But ok, here are my thoughts as they are evolving with this "month-to-month subscription" thing vs. a "prepaid subscription" approach.
Several of you have already wisely caught onto the fact that ordering prepaid subscriptions during the Sale-a-Bration season lets you qualify for Sale-a-Bration freebies! Yet a month-to-month subscription has *never* qualified for SAB freebies. So those of you who already are renewing your upcoming months (or even a year's-worth of Paper Pumpkin) during Sale-a-Bration, I congratulate you for figuring out that detail! Super, duper smart!
But for those of you who are still on month-to-month (like I am), well, once the new rewards program goes into effect in April, month-to-month subscriptions will continue to *not* qualify for those upcoming rewards, whereas, 3, 6, and 12-month prepaids WILL qualify! (The reason that month-to-month subscriptions won't qualify, even though they cost about $25 a month, is that a large chunk of that monthly cost is considered to be "shipping/handling", and therefore, only about $18 is considered to be "product".) And only "product" will count towards rewards points, of course, but $18 falls short of the "$20" order minimum to earn points! So maybe, depending on our individual situations, we might want to run all that through our brains (and budgets) and think about whether or not we might want to consider switching from "month-to-month" to "prepaid". (?) Just a thought... Oh, and remember that at some point, the longer the prepaid subscription term, the lower the price per kit. AND if there's a mid-year price increase (as there often is), you'll be protected from that increase until your prepaid subscription runs out. So as a veteran (12-year) month-to-month subscriber, I'm now thinkin' kinda hard about the emerging attraction of a prepaid approach going forward. Especially during these final 2 weeks of Sale-a-Bration freebies!
Well, I actually do have more I've wanted to share here, but I think I'd better save it for another time. But in the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed a lovely Valentine's Day, and have a great 3-day weekend lined up, too! (Looks like snow here for North Idaho, tho...)
โ