Do you think CTMH consultants will make it at Stampin' Up?

A few that I watch on YT have also said the same. I hope everyone does well, but they are two different beasts in some ways. I wonder if CM will change a bit to fill that void.

Last week my CTMH consultant posted that the CTMH Art Department Director was just hired by Stampin' Up, so it looks like they'll be doing better with their scrapbooking stuff.

I do hope Creative Memories steps up on their papers. All I ever buy from them is their punches (and some tools) because I don't care for their papers. I also think most of the CM consultants on YT are a little behind on their scrapbooking styles. I can almost always tell when YT recommends scrapbook videos whether they are CM or not.

I follow(ed) a few CTMH consultants who had the most beautiful style, and many times purchased CTMH products because of their posts.

@night Owl is your neighbor on YT? I'd love to see what a former CTMH maker does with CM products.

Thanks for the links @night Owl!

I don’t think that Creative Memories is as militant as they used to be, but I certainly think that Stampin’ Up would be a better match for most of the CTMH reps that want to continue to provide options for their customers, even if their stamp styles differ significantly.

The CM philosophy may have changed since I last had anything to do with them (long, long ago), but the CM philosophy has always been more about just getting the pictures in the album. Making your pages decorative wasn’t the priority. Stamping on album pages was really frowned upon by CM reps in the past. I don’t know about now.

I don't follow the various big craft companies much, but Stampin' Up has always felt like "old people's card making stuff" to me. Mostly due to their stamp range.

They do have 12x13 paper but they used to have packs of it in their color families, and each piece was one color with a little bit of pattern, so like grey plaid or pink stripes. It was subtle. It made great background pages in my albums and I liked that it was thin and didn’t add bulk. Then they started making g those same monochromatic patterns in only 6x6. 6 might be great for cards but not for scrapbooks.

I probably qualify as an “old” crafter.

I’m curious as to what you think “old people’s card making stuff” looks like. I’ll have to get out my most recent SU catalog and take a look. I want to see what “old people’s card making stuff” looks like. 

My style is actually all over the place, depending on my mood and/or who is getting the card. I also have a huge collection of stamps in a very wide variety of styles, since I’ve been collecting stamps for decades. I started stamping back when I was a young mom. It takes a lot to impress me. I’ve been stamping long enough that I have seen techniques and styles come, go, and come back again with a slightly different twist. I will admit that I don’t usually bother with the more recent trends of inking, stenciling, etc., because I don’t enjoy it. I use some of the inking techniques occasionally (usually when required by a CARDtober challenge), but I prefer making cards that move, pop, are 3D, or are just more fun. Inking is not my idea of fun.

……Back to the SU catalog. I got pulled away by a phone call, so I took a few minutes to find one, although it is May 2023 to April 2024. I never ordered anything from it, but I haven’t received a more recent catalog (probably because I haven’t bought anything SU for a long time). If that is an “old person’s card making stuff,” they totally missed the mark. I found nothing appealing. I have far better stamps and supplies in my craft room. If that is your idea of “old people’s stuff,” I should be offended. I’m not, but for the record, older crafters vary just as much as young crafters in what they like.

I think that the SU catalog looks like it is trying to appeal to a wide variety of crafters, but in trying to be generic enough to appeal to everyone, probably ends up pleasing very few (if any).

Creative Memories isn’t really any better IMO. However, maybe the displaced CTMH consultants going to SU and CM will help bring some creativity to both companies.

questioning CTMH closed. They originally said 6/30 would be their last day, but I was waiting until June to see if they'd put some of their digitals on clearance, and they actually closed up 5/31. When you go to their website, only the main page exists.

This is the 2peas thread regarding their closure.

Thank you for the description, Embri. I tend to think of “old person stamps” as being particular design styles, rather than stamps that have more open area for shading, creating patterns and/or freehand expression.

If you are basing your opinion on what Stampin’ Up products are to be found in the thrift store, though, the cast offs are more likely to be the less loved, less popular stamps. I doubt that they are a great example of what is available from Stampin’ Up.

Ah yes!!! I do remember those. My apologies.  

I will use that paper but I like a slightly heavier base paper. I don't want my pages too be too flimsy in my albums, especially as I tend to not make them as full as some people. I do a lot of double page layouts.