We had a GREAT trip! Of course, things fell apart here with our server going down and Click’n Ship crashing, so Dustin and I were sorely missed 
However, Tauna and Janeth did a beautiful job of holding things together, and by Tuesday everything was running smoothly again. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused and thank you for your patience.
Our BIG news is Cut@Home won an award! When we showed up at the Spellbinders booth, we were greeted by Stacy Caron and Jerry Poffel of Spellbinders for a big ole group hug! With a glimmer in her eye, Stacy said “We have something for you.” They then presented us with the 2008 Web Retailer of the Year Outstanding Performance Award! How about that!! We were pretty thrilled to say the least. Of course, we share if with all of you, because your outstanding support of our little store made it all happen. We placed a HUGE order for all the new Nesties – you are going to want them all! The Impressabilities are really going to rock your world when you see what you can do with those! Wendy Weixler, Spellbinders designer extraordinaire and a dedicated CAH shopper, showed us all the beautiful ways you can use these stencils. They will be available on our pre-order site soon. We also met with Terre, their customer service manager, who is really on the ball and made sure we were well taken care of. They are all working very hard to keep up with the demand they have created for the best products. They have contracted with a new fulfillment center, so they will be closing down their shipping department for the first two weeks in February. We have a lot of inventory right now in preparation for this, but just in case there is an unpredicted run on a certain die, we may have some wait time until they are up and shipping again. Their new fulfillment center promises to be very professional and quick with their orders. As for the NEW dies, they are still expected to arrive the end of the February. They have some of the dies on a slowboat and some of the dies coming by air. By boat or plane – they are on their way! Get your pre-orders in NOW! These dies are going be even bigger than ever! We are very excited!! They also have a new mat set for their border dies and an assortment of foils. The Wizard Bag and the Die Holder, which are on our pre-order site, are also very nice and I think you will like them a lot. They are very good quality. The pinky-purple suede is very attractive. Also, some of the S3 and S4 dies have a permanent price reduction! More ways to save and make die-cutting more affordabel during these economically challenging times. Ya gotta love it!
I met with Kirk Pead, my QuicKutz rep, who showed us all the latest and greatest from QuicKutz! I am very excited about their new line of A2 embossing folders! They are comparable to the Cuttlebug folders in size and material. They are starting out with 12 single designs and also a design of four on one 4×6 folder. I love this idea! And the price point is $4.99! We will be working on having those available on pre-order as well. Look for a spring release date. They have a new Silhouette machine and a Silhouette download club, as well as new vinyl colors. I will have more information on that at a later date. I also asked if we could extend the coupon usage for another week, so my rep is going to take that to his bosses, and hopefully I will know if they cleared that before February’s coupon comes out.
We met with Dave and Alicia at Inspired Crafts and they showed us their new packaging for the Cutterglide, which is going to be so nice! They are also packaging the Mist-it’s in a three pack, which will be great. If you have a Mist-it, then you know why you want more than one! I love Dave and Alicia’s commitment to our environment in keeping everything eco-friendly. Go green!
Roy and Diana Crick from Scor-Pal are always a delight to visit! We are pumped about their new product – 6×6 sheets of Scor-Tape! How awesome is that! You can run it through your machines with a die and have scor-tape on the back of your die! Woohoo!! We will also be carrying the 1/2″ Scortape, which, as all your papercrafters know, holds together the seams for your boxes. Look for those on our website very soon.
Here is the news on our other vendors: As always, Boss Kut has the cutest new 2×2 dies which will be released in March and the Gazelle, their new digital die-cutter. We will have the accessories for the Gazelle very shortly. We also met with Robin and Racel from Robin’s Nest and looked at all their new Dew Drops colors! You are going to LOVE the metallics! The teal is my favorite. They also have pink and green in a flowere shape dew drop. It will take them a few weeks to get all their CHA orders shipped, so we will announce it when they have arrived and are ready for shipping. We met with Ron, our Copic rep. The good news is he gave us permission to discount our markers 25% off MSRP, however, the MSRP did go up as of January 1st. Not by a lot, just a few dollars, but I wanted to make you aware of that, so you don’t think we are pulling a fast one by raising the price then discounting it. I know some people do that and it is their business if they do, however, my personal feeling is it is not honest, and I won’t do it. We met with Provocraft, and we know they have new A2 embossing folders coming out (we heard in June) but did not get a peek at them or get a confirmed availability date.
As for NEW product, we met with some paper companies and will be soon be carrying paper! We are very excited about that so as soon as we work out the details, we will be announcing that.We are met with Katie Renz, a very talented designer and devoted CAH shopper, and bounced some ideas around about a program we are developing for all our designer friends. GREAT things are happening here and we are excited to make all of you a part of it!
Phew! This might be my longest blog ever! I hope this information has been fun and helpful to all of you and has you as excited as I am for 2009. It is going to be a FANTASTIC year! I have wonderful business partners, a dedicated staff, supportive vendors and the best customers ever, all who are so willing to help and advise in any way they can. I am so blessed and grateful!
Thanks!
Marcie
Zimbio
