Creative Friends creating Creative Memories....
Written: Jul 22 '01 (Updated Jul 27 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: cool scissors and cutting gadgets, nice scrapbooks, safe for pics
Cons: expensive, expensive, expensive, selection of stickers
The Bottom Line: Basically, I found that if it weren't for my friend being in Creative Memories-and her discounts, I would never be able to afford the stuff from Creative Memories.
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| rngpie's Full Review: Creative Memories |
I admit-somewhat shamefully- that my pictues are stored either in really old photo albums, the ones with the sticky backs and the plastic fronts-but the plastic doesn't stick anymore to protect the photos, or my pics are still in the original developing envelope. SSHH....don't tell my friend Vicky.
I am lucky enough that my good friend Vicky is a Creative Memories Independant Salesperson. She does home parties, etc.
On a recent visit, she showed me all her stuff from Creative Memories. I 'oohhed' and 'aawweed' over the very pricey photo albums that are acid free and better for my pictures than the traditional Dollar General specials. She also showed me the cool stickers that Creative Memories has, these are also acid free-I believe.
Then she got out the fun stuff. The neat scissors and paper cutters. The scissors trim the photos or paper in scalloped designs and are priced at $5.49 a pair. She did say that WalMart offered a similar line of scissors but that WM's wasnt as good a quality as Creative Memories's line.
The next neatest thing I saw was the paper cutter. It consists of a thick mat, a plastic ruler thing that perfectly snaps on top of the mat, and then the razor blades that are snugly secured in a cylinder shaped holder. After snapping the ruler-which has indentions for wavy lines, or straight lines-onto the special mat, the cylinder/blade is snapped onto the ruler. With a gentle push, Voila! the paper is cut with either a wavy line-similar to ocean waves or a really nice straight line. The razor blade is really secured in the cylinder, and I could not find any way to accidentally cut myself with the set up.
The other type of paper cutter is a circle/oval template. Once again, using the mat to position the paper, and using the same cylinder/blade, just trace around the circle or oval template and create perfect circles and ovals. These circles looked like the professional ones done at the specialty photo shop.
During this demonstration, Vicky kept up a constant comparison between her line and Wal-Mart's line. Wal-mart had the similar scissors but although Wal-Mart offered a similar setup for cutting the paper edges, Vicky assured me it was not worth the $15 price tag. Also, Wal-Mart has similar scrap books but they are not acid free.
After the demonstration, we then went to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart did have a good sticker selection, better and more economical than Creative Memories. Also, Wal-Mart had a more economical background paper selection.
I did compare the two cutting systems, Wal-Mart's and Creative Memories and did see how CM's cutting system would be easier to use, so that is one thing I will be laying away.
Creative Memories is a great way to store and save memories/photos, but I found the price to be way too expensive for my budget. For now, I will get the cheaper versions found at Wal-Mart or other craft stores and save up for the CM items I cant live without-which right now is the cutting system.
Last Saturday, I let the children help me with the scrapbooking to see what, if any, appeal the gadgets had for them. The children fought over the zig-zaggy scissors. This I expected. But the children completely ignored the special CM stickers I had purchased for them. The childred loved the WM brand stickers, with one complaint coming from my son. I could not find enough boyish stickers, with the exception of sporty ones, and he is not into sports. If anyone knows a company that carries a good line of stickers for both girls and boys, I would love to know.
Incidentally, both children chose the cheaper background paper as well.
Recommended:
No
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rngpie
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Location: Somerset, KY
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