It was so fun getting the opportunity to "meet" some of you on Splitcoast Stampers last night! (One I was able to even get INTO the site @ 11:20!) I was really overwhelmed at the number of people that LOVE Papertrey! I had intended the thread to be a good question & answer session and have the opportunity to interact with all of you directly, but the thread ended up moving SO fast and there were SO many people, things didn't work out quite as I had expected! LOL! So I thought I would open my blog up today for questions, especially if you had something you wanted to ask last night, but didn't have the opportunity to ask. I will edit the post frequently over the next few days. I look forward to hearing from you!
In regards to our new products, a lot of the tins and bags went quickly last night. Anyone that hasn't placed an order yet, we are encouraging you to go ahead and backorder any of these items you may be interested in. We will be able to re-stock them in just a few days, so it would not delay your order much at all.
Orders that were placed last night, along with those placed today most likely will not begin shipping out until tomorrow or Friday. With the volume of orders received last night paired with what we are anticipating today, will make for a lot of work for Julie & Jane as they try get everything organized. Thanks for your patience!
Well, gotta drive the kids to school! I'll be sure to check back in later!
ETA: I will file all of the answers to questions below...
PLEASE NOTE: Many of you have asked about the chances of particular types of sets appearing in the future. I want you to know that have seen your suggestions, and have them formatted on alist for me to refer to later. But I can't possibly predict when/if we will be carrying those specific things. I just create what I am inspired by! Thanks for all the great ideas! You've caused some wheels to start turning here!
--->Kellie asked...Will you be doing a male/guy/boy themed set? There isn't anything planned for the next few months, but perhaps this winter! Thanks for asking, because I can now start brainstorming ideas for images that would fall into that category!
--->Kellie asked...I love the Halloween set, but I don't do any celebrating of this holiday. However, I love how you can make all the fun treats with it. Which brings me to my suggestion... can you make one of the Christmas sets (hoping you do more than one!) a set that can help us with our homemade Christmas goodies like the Halloween set? I think this is a great idea, and I DON"T think you will be disappointed! *wink*
---> Kellie asked... Did I really see a place for you to be selling RIBBON soon? When??? It will probably be a few more months at the least, but yes, we will most likely be carrying ribbon in the future.
---> Melissa... I love your site and LOVE to view the InkPad. I know you only update it once a month, but is there any plan to add new samples of the previously released sets? Your design team comes up with such great stuff for the release, I'm sure they've gotten even more creative once they've had some time to play on their own. It is a lot of work for Julie to just update the Ink Pad for our releases, so most likely you will not see any additions orther than during a debut. I encourage you to tour any of our design team members blogs if you are looking for continued inspiration throughout the month. Many of them even have an album you can select in their sidebar where you can view ALL of their Papertrey creations.
---> Nancy P...What inks do you recommend that work best with your stamps? I've heard chalk inks work well, but are there others that work well? Is there any inks you would not recommend using with your stamps? Thanks!! You can refer to ---> THIS <--- post to see what my opinions are on the different inks available and their compatibility with our stamps.
---> Clara asked...I remember reading somewhere once (so specific, I know!) that the original business plan for Papertrey did not focus on stamps. So, that makes me wonder: What was the original focus? Have you decided to focus mainly on stamps now? If so, how has this affected your business plan? The original focus was to create printed stationery & cards (our first batches are still available for sale on our website HERE). If you take a look at them, most of the images have now been included in various stamp sets! We are DEFINITLY focusing on stamps now. As far as this effecting our business plan, it changed EVERYTHING. We have a different area of focus now, stampers vs. fine stationery stores. We are growing at such a rapid pace, we are continually creating a new "plan of attack" on how to handle the increasing volume of product we carry. BUT we are having fun! We're in it for the long haul, and we have MANY exciting things to share in the coming year that are already underway!
---> Dawn asked...I'm curious about the scalloped scissors you used to make that adorable red birthday card. You mentioned in the supply list that they're Stampin' Up! Is that a discontinued product? Stampin' Up!s scalloped scissors have been retired for some time now, I can't even remember when I bought them. But they are my FAV. I've never found another pair like them and I hope that nothing ever happens to them! They can't be replaced at this point!
---> Doreen asked...I have the June newsletter but not July and August ...did I miss out on them???Should I resign up?? Are they avaiable on the web site ...like SCS???? You have missed absolutely nothing. I am COMPLETELY to blame for the lack of newsletter lately. We dod not have previous issues archived yet either. With all three of my kids home this summer and the number of responsibilities I have had, getting the newsletter out has fallen by the wayside. I promise there will be an August edition coming to your inbox soon!
---> Alana asked...On the Halloween set, speaking about the oval trick-or-treat stamp and the oval star, do these fit well in the scalloped oval dies? I'd love the get the new dies, but want to be sure they will work well with these types of stamps. The particular stamps you mentioned will work perfectly with the scalloped oval Nestabilities.
---> Janet asked...I shared my stamps with some friends, and we were using stazon black ink. They went a little crazy with the ink, and now my sentiments that we used look like black blobs! :( I am thinking a spa may not do the trick, any ideas? I highly recommend Ultra Clean if you haven't tried it already. It will clean those stamps so that they look practically brand new!
---> Sharon asked...Where do you get your CD jewel to hold your stamp sets? I have been looking and cannot find any without a center post thingy. I purchase mine from Wal-Mart all the time. It is easy to pop the disc tray from the inside of the case. I recommend starting at the spine and prying upward with a fingernail or screwdriver. The disc tray may break while you are removing it, but you will be discarding it anyway, so it's okay!
---> Donna asked...I just realized when placing my order the Spellbinders Wizard Embossing System (with the sandwich mat) is SOLD OUT. Does that mean you will not be re-stocking it? We will having those back up and available for pre-order soon. We had exstinguished the amount of sets that we had pre-ordered from Spellbinders and wanted to get a final okay from them that we could get more before we continued to take additional pre-orders.
---> Carol asked...How do you get your circles, etc. lined up so well, as on the pink Birthday Girl card? I'm not gonna lie, I just eyeball it. I know, your probably rolling your eyes at me right now! It's not the first time. I just have this really strange knack of getting things straight and symentrical easily. Thank goodness I'm a stamper, because I don't think that trait would come in handy in any other profession! *wink* If you were to try it yourself, perhaps drawing some pencil lines first?
---> Sandy Kay asked...Can you put on the ordering website so that we can order the giga square as a backorder instead of "out of stock"? I'm afraid we won't be doing this. The manufacturer of the punches is constantly out of stock, and we don't feel comfortable taking backorders for something when it could be more than 30 days to get the product out to one of our customers. We send an email out to all of those on our newsletter mailing list when the punches are re-stocked, so I would suggest just keeping your eye out for one of those.
--->Tracy asked...Do you forsee any Christian/Inspirational themed stamp sets showing up in the future? We've had many requests for this, so you may very well see some in the future.
---> Tracy asked...I am a background addict, would you ever consider creating some simple yet elegant BG stamps? Boy would I EVER love to design some of those (I've got many ideas!). But alas, a few technicalities stand in our way. The useable space on our stamp sheets is 3.5 x 5.5 inches, not big enough for a background stamp. Well, just increase the sheet size you are thinking? Huge increase in cost when doing so. We would end up having to charge WAY too much for them if they were larger than that. Even if you put aside the cost, there are also two other issues with the larger stamps. First problem, storage. They would no longer fit in our signature jewel cases. Second, our packaging. They wouldn't fit in our packaging either! So until we are hit randomly with an earth-shattering, cost-effective solution, we most likely not be introducing any background stamps real soon!
---> Julie said...I don't know about you, but it was definitely NOT fun getting the kids up and ready for school today. I bet your family loves and dreads the 15th of every month! :) Oh my goodness, 5:30am came WAY too soon! Especially since I didn't hit my pillow until 1:30am last night! Phew!
---> Jessica asked...I love your stamps and was hoping that in the future you might offer smaller sets priced lower for those of us on tight budgets! We hear you loud and clear, and you are not the only one that feels that way. I am trying REALLY hard as a designer to develop more one sheet sets ($15). When I have a concept that has turned out so well, I hate to cut it short just because I want to keep it to one sheet and not start a second. KWIM? In the coming months you will see much more variety in the sizes of sets we have available!
---> Jessica asked... I'd also love to see a Borders and Corners sampler set containing each shape and size in one set. It's a possibility, but it wouldn't be able to contain all 4 sizes of all 5 shapes. Not enough room. Do you have any examples of exactly what you would want it to include? It wouldn't be able to contain more than 2 images representing each shape most likely. What two sizes do you feel you are most interested in?
---> Keyser asked...I was wondering...I have found that my stamps get stuck together in the jewel cases when I close the case. So, I have been cutting the harder plastic sheet that you ship the stamps on and piecing them together to fit in the jewel cases to place in between the stamps.(Wow! Did that make sense?!?) Any thoughts on changing the shape of the shipping sheet to mimic the jewel case so we could recycle it inside? Unfortunately we cannot change the sheet that the stamps come on. This sheet is used by the manufacturer and it is actually what the stamps are created on. If were to make the sheets the same size as the jewel case, it would make the sheets smaller, therefore, less stamps!
