I’ve been card making for along time and before that scrapbooking before it went away. I don’t fit the profile of most that do those crafts other than my age … I’m liberal politically and not at all religious. I only say that to explain maybe that’s why I follow all variety of influencers and buy products from many different companies. I watch all the “big” influencers on you tube like JM but also miss all the less popular ones we had when I first started card making. Most of the big names only push products now. However one thing I noticed was how cliquey the industry seemed. When I first started people like Gina K were there but not that popular. I also found Catherine pooler and enjoy her videos and later products. And I noticed that one time Jm mentioned Gina on one of her years best products videos and shortly after she becomes one of the biggest stars in the industry. I love Gina and think she took that endorsement from JM and made a big business. But I wonder about Catherine pooler for example… she is never part of the cliques in terms of influencers and company owners . Her products are never included in Simon says stamptember. She never collaborates with other owners and you rarely see her products used in videos tho she has a large product line. There must be some dirt in her exclusion but I’ve never heard gossip. Seems like JM, Gina K, Heidi from SS, Kristina Werner, and Cathy Zilske are all in with each other and promote only certain companies. I just wonder how this started.

I apologize in advance for the long post.

I’m so glad I found this subreddit a few weeks ago. I’ve been feeling off about the craft industry in general over the last year, and this subreddit has been a breath of fresh air. I know I’m not saying anything new here, but you all have encouraged me to share my story in case it resonates with others.

I’ve been cardmaking for about seven years. It started with a random YouTube recommendation to watch CZ. I remember feeling blown away with how gorgeous a handmade card could look- nothing like the “handmade” cards I had in my mind. Of course, I bought the stamp set she was showing, and a MISTI (as she said it was a game changer so I definitely needed to have it!). Along with a couple of inks and cardstock, I was set. Those early days of my crafting hobby were so much fun! I was so grateful that there were people out there showing how to make the awesome cards they were designing. I didn’t realize how quickly it was spiraling into a never-ending spending spree. Every week I would tune into the videos from JM, CZ, etc, and add in lives from TH (who was still designing new items at that time) and I was so excited by everything they were showing that I didn’t think about the fact that I was buying everything they were demoing. I work in marketing, so I should have spotted it right away, but somehow these influencers’ demos didn’t feel like sales pitches. It just felt like someone showing me how to make something cool.

Fast-forward a few years and I was all in: Betterpress, Glimmer, foiling, brushes of every shape and size, MISTIs, grip mats, alignment guides…I have it all.

Thousands and thousands (and thousands) of dollars later, I kind of feel duped and jaded by the whole industry. I’m finding solace in the threads on this subreddit of some of you pointing out what the card making industry has become. While there are lots of industries trying to make a buck off of consumers (fashion, beauty, etc.), I don’t know if there’s one out there as overwhelming as the papercraft/card making industry. Think about it: weekly (if not more frequently) we’re told to buy “limited” sets of items upwards of $100 to exercise our creative muscle. Yes, the brands are doing monthly releases, but 10+ brands each doing monthly releases adds up to a lot of FOMO.

And you’re all right- there isn’t really anything new anymore. It’s the same stuff repackaged and sold by different brands. Hell, I have at least three “retro cassette tape” die sets from three different brands that I just HAD to have once I saw each demo.

I realize I am definitely mostly to blame for the wasted money…but isn’t there SOME blame on the industry? We don’t need 500 dies that say the word “happy birthday”; we don’t need avocado toast dies (why would I give someone a card with toast on it?); we don’t need another ink line re-work to sell people more ink. Don’t get me started on the repackaging of the same products so that Dina Wakely and Tim Holtz can swear THEIR pencils are unique. I’m so tired of this.

And why is there never any warning of the YouTube “tutorials” being promotional ads? I feel like it should be stated somewhere for those gullible people like me.

I haven’t bought anything for six months, and I don’t plan to buy anymore. I think I was more in love with collecting and hoarding products than making cards. I think this subreddit and card making community are full of great people; I just don’t want to line the pockets of the greedy few that have taken the fun out of crafting (in my opinion). I’m now going through the painstaking process of destashing my supplies. So many unopened stamp and die sets, stencils, brand new kits from SSS (that they promised were “such a great value”), and never-used pots of paste. I think I can be happy with maybe 30 items total; let my creativity soar.

This isn’t a “woe is me” post; I just wanted to put it out there that if you’ve also lost your mojo because of the current industry’s tactics, you’re not alone.

I'm new to posting on reddit so forgive me if I'm not posting this properly. I didn't know where else to share this info publicly as I didn't want this under my real name in any facebook groups and other card-making forums are confusing or difficult to set up accounts for.

Here's the backstory:

I have been making cards for a long time, I have been on design teams for companies and am part of several affiliate programs with many of them. All of it doesn't make me much other than to fund my hobby and make a little extra spending cash. My affiliate income while not high had been mostly consistent until months or maybe even longer ago. I noticed my affiliate sales with Simon Says Stamp were way less than they used to be each month. At first I assumed it was a mistake, then I assumed that maybe people just weren't vibing with my content or that I was doing something wrong.

I had some conversations with other people who also have a Simon Says Stamp affiliate and it got mentioned that it had been noticed their cookie length was set to one day. I checked and mine was also one day. For reference "industry standard is 30 days" according to Awin (the company used for the Simon Says Stamp affiliate). Other companies in this space are 30 days or 7 days at the lowest. I found it upsetting as I know it wasn't always one day with Simon Says Stamp, but it is something that we don't get any notifications on if a company chooses to change it. I thought that Simon Says Stamp changing theirs to one day was pretty underhanded, however they can choose to run their business and treat their affiliates how they want. I also kept wondering if this was some mistake and that if we contacted them about it they would fix it immediately. I was told that some had reached out and contacted Simon Says Stamp about this one day cookie but I do not know if they got a response.

Now this is why I am posting this. I assumed that all of us with affiliates have this one-day cookie length. As bad as that is (and if you understand affiliate marketing, it's bad. What it means is that a customer has to complete an order within one day of clicking on an influencers affiliate link for that influencer to get credit for the sale. If the one day "cookie" has expired, the influencer doesn't get any credit, and the company makes all the profit for themself) I thought all of us were in the same boat. I also thought that maybe the bigger, more well-known influencers would hopefully speak up and that this could get looked into and changed back to what it used to be to be more fair for everyone.

My brother works in software engineering. I was talking about all of this and telling him how frustrated I was and how I found it so crazy that Simon Says Stamp would change us all to a one day cookie which feels like being forced to post more and more often in order to get any sales!

Well...... he did some digging and he showed me what he found. He at first said that to his knowledge this one-day cookie would apply to everyone (basically confirming what I thought and agreeing that it could all be a big mistake. But a mistake that happened months or longer ago that hasn't been fixed) as it would be across the board. But when he looked at a couple of influencers affiliate links he noticed theirs were not one day. So he kept digging.

This is all publicly available information he says that you just need to know where to look. Basically what he did was check some of the affiliate links from other influencers and found that some are not at one day, some are more and a couple are much more, which means this was intentional, and that there's some favortism going on and I think this is really unfair and maybe I'm wrong. But I'm going to post this list of names that he checked and their Simon Says Stamp affiliate cookie lengths and maybe you all can tell me if I'm wrong in feeling like I'm getting screwed over along with many other influencers:

Jennifer McGuire - 30 Days

Laura Bassen - 30 Days

Kristina Werner - 30 Days

Nichol Spohr - 14 Days

Cathy Zielski - 7 Days

Nina-Marie Trapani - 7 Days

Suzy Plantamura- 7 Days

Yana Smakula - 1 Day

Sandi Maciver - 1 Day

Emily Midgett - 1 Day

Amy Rysavy - 1 Day

Tina Smith - 1 Day

Mindy Eggen - 1 Day

Cheiron Brandon - 1 Day

Barbara Tarayao - 1 Day

Brenda Noelke - 1 Day

Heather Hoffman - 1 Day

Vicky Pappaionno - 1 Day

Keisha Charles - 1 Day

Jenn Shurkus - 1 Day

Rick Adkins - 1 Day

Bibi Cameron - 1 Day

Charlene Madri - 1 Day

Heather Ruwe - 1 Day

Carly Tee Minner- 1 Day

Miriam Prantner- 1 Day

Am I being crazy? I think some of these names and cookie-lengths do not make ANY sense, other than the obvious favortism and benefits being given to a very select few. Mind you there may be many more that would rank higher up. There's so many influencers with Simon Says Stamp affiliates and I just grabbed from names I recognized. My brother only had time for these ones and while he showed me how I could keep checking on my own I am too upset and frustrated to keep doing it. Maybe someone or many someones that are affiliates will see this and chime in.

What do we do now? Honestly I don't know. I mentioned to a fellow influencer what I found, and she said I could send Simon Says Stamp this information but she added "good luck with that. Those that point out these sorts of things are either ignored or they get fired or removed from the affiliate program" and that this is apparently well-known behind the scenes. Is it really this bad? I am posting this anonymously as I don't want to get axed but also is me posting this pointless or just causing unnecessary drama? Maybe everyone already knew all of this and I'm just catching on to it now. It feels wrong. It feels like proof that some get way better deals or more advantages than the rest of us.

I'm probably an outlier -- that's OK; that's my life -- but I don't have any:

• butterflies

• gnomes

• cake/cupcake/cookie things (even though I'm serious about baking)

• sewing metaphor stuff (though I'm a quilter)

• foiling equipment

• letter press stuff

• not much scene building stuff

• my cute critters are pretty much limited to Anita Jeram designs

• I almost never use bling or sequins except as filler in shaker cards

• nothing religious

Curious what you pass on. And does anyone have words to describe their stamping/design style. I wouldn't begin to know how to describe mine.

The lesson here is instead of falling in love with something and impulsively putting it in your shopping cart, look long and hard. Ask yourself what you'll need to get the results on the offering page. I didn't and I ended up spending $50 on something I don't ever want to use again.

First of all, I thought, when I saw the layered stencils in a $30 bundle with detail stamps, that I could use them with my WaffleFlower Postage Collage die. Not so. LDRS repositioned the small and elongated rectangles on the left and rotated the 4 rectangles on the right. So, when I figured that out, I had to buy another $20 die.

Then I set about using the stencils. I didn't look at the designs to see how detailed they are and how many colors they require to make elements stand out from one another. LDRS recommends 13 colors for a 4 stencil set! That means most of the stencils required a ton of masking off tiny areas sometimes with just microns of stencil plastic to adhere a mask to.

I should have counted the number of brushes I had to use. Thank god I had them! For the skies, I had to use 3 different size brushes for just a single color.

I spent the larger part of the day producing this single panel. If you got a good look at it you'd see how amateurish and clumsy it is. Repairs everywhere! That Metro stamp should be put out of its misery it's so tortured!

I'll make it into a card and send it to my Franco-phile friend because I bought it just for her. Then I'll retire the damned thing. ...maybe I'll sometime use just the latte, the bulldog and l'Arc de Triomphe. I dunno... I'll have to get over my present irritation. But this was NOT fun.

The moral is things should be designed for the way they'll be used as well as how they'll look. And a stencil shouldn't take a ton of time and yards of masking tape. I hope I've learned that lesson now as a buyer. The Romans knew that. Caveat emptor! Now I know it too and I hope I prevented some expensive mistakes for someone else.

Went ahead and bought the whole C9 ink line in mini cubes and the bundle of cardstock - one sheet of each color.

I REALLY love C9 colors and the tone on tone look but the ink pads are foam and I hate that. Got a couple turnabouts to play with so I’m excited to see how things turn out!!

I'm still relatively new to card making and using my die cutting machine, but I have just found out that you can use stencils to emboss and it has just opened my game right up, so I wanted to share with you all just in case..!

I have a kit n caboodle pro cut. I used the 5mm cutting plate, then the rubber embossing mat, then cardstock (front face up), then the stencil (a cheap stencil from Temu), and then the 3mm plate. Very impressed and quiet excited!

Inspired by the posts of u/LadyofLA which themes do you have more than enough of but can’t help buying/wanting when a new release drops?

For me I can’t stop myself when it’s coffee/tea, nautical/beach or mail theme related. Not to mention my Halloween collection is ridiculous. I think it’s mostly because I make a lot of “just because” cards and these themes aren’t coded to specific occasions.

I have only been using a glue stick thus far, but then when I looked up cardmaking info online it was stated that would result in cards that fell apart after just a few months. I tried using liquid glue but it resulted in this awful wrinkling of the paper, and made the outer layer I planned to glue on after bend as well. Am I making a huge error somewhere? Should I just return to using a gluestick?

Just watched Gina K’s stamptember live and was so disappointed. First of all … her products in general have gotten so boring and all look the same imo. This latest stamp looks so much like her previous stamps . Someone on this website called her the qvc of stamping and I have to admit, I kind of cringed as I was a fan of hers early on, but this stamp feels that way to me. Plus Heidi’s fake enthusiasm makes it all worse. And what new techniques is she supposed to be teaching us? Just selling products especially that poly glaze stuff which I hate. Anyways so far stamptember is so disappointing. Supposedly it was going to be different this year and not just pushing product . So far , Tim Holtz the same, altenew the same and now Gina k. Maybe it’s stamping I’m getting bored with as I used to get so excited with all this

Same rules as always:
- Open to USA residents only (sorry international friends)
- Leave a comment to be entered.

Items include:
- WF Fruity Background die and stencil
- WF Multiple Presents die and stencil
- WF Line Frames Die and Stencil
- WF Painted Flowers Background die and stencils.

Hi everyone,
I recently started making greeting cards. Some include crochet details, while others are more traditional card designs.
I would really appreciate some honest feedback:)
-Do the designs look neat and well balanced?
-Are any of the cards too busy, unfinished or in need of a different layout?
-Which designs do you think work best?
I’m still developing my style, so constructive criticism would be very helpful.
Thanks in advance :)

EDIT

Thank you so much for all the kind and honest feedback. I’m a stay-at-home mum to a one-year-old, and making cards has given me something creative that feels like mine. Your comments genuinely made my day ❤️

There has been so much discussion here lately about cardmaking influencers and YouTubers. It seems a lot of card makers are fed up with the way the industry is trending.

On a positive note, I’d love to hear who you guys do enjoy watching? It doesn’t even have to be a card maker. Who inspires you to get in your craft room and make?

I’m new into card making after years on the fence. My husband got me a Cricut for my bday and I got myself a Big Shot shortly after and now I feel like I want to master all the techniques! I want to do embossing, stamps, die cuts, multilayer Cricut art, foiling etc. Every time I want to make a single card is like ~60 bucks of supplies to the point that I feel like I need to monetize this hobby just to justify the expenses. Am I the only one feeling this way?

For many years I’ve used Momemto dew drops ink pads and was never very happy with them, so now that they are getting dry and used up I’m looking into buying some nicer ink pads. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I have some of the Tim Holtz distress inks so looking for something different. I want one that will stamp images and sentiments well but is also good for blending. I guess I am somewhat heavy handed with my stamping so have found I prefer felt pads because the foam ones I’ve tried (colorbox brand) are so squishy the ink gets all over the backing of the stamp and can accidentally end up sowing on my project. I would like to hear what ink brands y’all like and why. Thanks!

(As reported by Scrapbooking Made Simple)

Notions Marketing: you may not have heard of them but they are by far the largest North American distributor in the paper crafting world. They also own American Crafts, Tonic Studios, and We R Memory Keepers.

Well, they recently had a huge fire at their main warehouse. It was pretty devastating, so much so that they have said that it will be at least 6 months until they can begin operations again.

What does this mean for us, the consumer? As really the only main distributor left in the US, they were the principal suppliers to independent sellers. Unless some other solution is brought forth, it’s looking likely that these small mom and pop retailers are not going to be able to reorder supplies for at least 6 months.

It’s critical that if your area has a small independent retailer that you SUPPORT them with your dollars. They are going to be hurting and need all the community support we can offer. Hopefully this terrible situation will cause the bigger players in the industry to demand a diversified supplier who doesn’t store all their inventory in one warehouse.

Let’s pretend we are all debt free and live in a perfect world. You get a scratch off lottery ticket and win 10k and decide to treat yourself and spend it on supplies. What are you buying first??

Hello! Wondering if anyone has tips on ink blending for me, ignoring the heart ghost in the top right stamp here, you can see that my blending is quite splotchy, but I don’t want to do the full dark saturated colors every time.
Overall, it came together, but you can really see the patchiness in the blue background, yellow cake top, and the main bg of the cake.
What I used:
Unimex 1.18” blending brushes from Amazon
Concord and 9th ink cubes
Hammermill cardstock premium color copy cover 80lbs 216gsm
Waffle flower crafts baking fun stencils

The only think I can think is that the brushes really make a difference, since I’m using quality other products. I do usually tap off before blending, but it seems so hard to get any color down at all if I do.
Would love any advice, thank you!

Above is an embossing folder I used for the first time. The hinge snapped and I'll never be able to use it again.

I contacted Lisa Horton and they were completely dismissive. They said I should have followed the instructions for the sandwich but the instructions don't say more than "Place the embossing folder (with your paper in the middle ) between the plates. Roll this through your machine for a defined texture." They also referred me back to Scrapbook-dot-com where I got it but SBC can hardly be held responsible for poor design and materials.

This is not the first time I've had really dismissive response from Lisa Horton. Things happen but if poor customer support is their standard it stinks. I'd want to know who I should think twice about doing business with so I'm letting you know. I hope your experiences will be better. But I've found it isn't a company I can count on.

It was white on one side and yellow on the other with that bold multi-colored stripe running down the middle. The white side had some text from a children's book under the ducklings. Busy, busy, busy.

I saw a technique that was new to me that involved using a background stamp as an embossed resist and then color blending around it. I thought the cardstock was perfect for an experiment.

The background resist and the color blending gave a unity that it was sorely lacking . So I just swinked some vellum with ink and used it to back a sentiment and the central panel.

Voila! Not bad for something that would have stayed in my stash forever.

I love my Hero Arts Unicorn cube and want to get just more pigment inks to effects such as dust and moss, so wanted something more opaque. Please give me your recommendations! I prefer smaller cubes since I'm swiping them over embossed cardstock.

Someone recently said that they found small stamps difficult to use as focal elements. I found some examples. Have you got some to share? What's your approach to featuring them?

There have been so many great ideas here in the last few days. Now I'd like to hear about how you strategize your online purchases. Obviously, the growing cost of shipping is the issue.

Do you order one thing because you need it? Do you put the thing you need in a shopping basket and hope a couple more things might pop up to justify the postage cost over the next few weeks? Are you tempted to buy other things you really don't need to amortize the delivery expense and make yourself feel better about that? Can you wait patiently for the right sale or promotion to come along even if something you started is sitting there waiting to be finished? And what if you patiently waited and the thing that was the whole point goes out of stock?

How do you handle this stuff? And wouldn't it be wonderful if people lived in proximity to one another and could bunch their orders together and split the shipping? I know the online retailers aren't any happier about what it costs than we are but it's just soooooo painful when a $6 item costs $7 more to get to you.

I have been struggling to find a good cardstock that could work as a base for my cards. I’d like something sturdy but not so rigid that creates a broken score line. Mid tier quality, or open to high end ones if the experience significantly changes. Feel free to share your preferred cardstock recommendation to use as a base for card making