Changes coming to the way we craft . . .

By | April 13, 2019

Happy Saturday.

This week, Stampin’ Up! announced some decisions that will change the way we craft – and I’d like to explain them. Today I want to share a little bit about those changes and what we can all expect in the coming months as we transition to the new catalog June 4, 2019. Remember change can be hard, but also very exciting!

Small Price Increases on Select Items:

The company has always taken a conservative approach to raising prices, delaying price increases for as long as they can taking into various considerations including supplier costs and market comparisons. When the cost of supplies goes up, though, it’s sometimes necessary to pass along some of those increases to customers and demonstrators.

Here’s the good news – the increases are relatively small – most increases are between $0.25 and $1.00. If you’d like to peruse the list, please click, Price Change List USA, to download the list.

Stampin’ Trimmer is Retiring:

As of June 3, 2019, Stampin’ Up! will discontinue selling the Stampin’ Trimmer – including all replacement cutting blades (scoring blades and cutting mats have already sold out). The company has experienced challenges with the supplier and is taking the opportunity to research and explore a replacement option for this product. This makes room for something even better! I can’t wait to see what they design and produce.

When the retiring list goes live on April 15, the order limit for the blades will increase from three to six (and the limit will remain at six until they’re no longer available). From now until September, we will receive intermittent shipments from the supplier. Throughout these months, we anticipate times when the blades will not be orderable (and not offered as a backorder).  I’m excited about the opportunity to purchase a better product.

Big Shot & Accessories are Retiring:

One of the biggest and most exciting changes is this – Stampin’ Up! is making changes to our die-cutting and embossing product line that will give us a better opportunity to support the long-term vision of the product line. What does that mean? Stampin’ Up! will be retiring the Big Shot and changing manufacturers for the dies and embossing folders.

That doesn’t mean we won’t have dies or embossing folders. While Stampin’ Up! won’t have a Big Shot in its product offering next year, the company will offer new dies and embossing folders starting with the 2019–2020 Annual Catalog.

Since we’re using a new supplier (moving to a direct-to-manufacturer relationship), the dies and folders will be manufactured in a different way – but not so different that we won’t know how to use them. Both the new-style and old-style dies and embossing folders can work with any die-cutting & embossing machine.

To allay your concerns a bit, here’s what the change in dies looks like:

Old Style Alignment:

New Style Alignment:

The only difference is that the current dies cut right along the edge of where you place them – you can see the white border you are cutting. With the new style, you place the dies right along the stamped edge. You will still get the beautiful, white border – you just won’t see it when you place the die over the stamp.

Here’s a Q&A if you’d like to learn more about this transition: 03.19.19_DIE_LINE_TRANSITION_EN

The replacement cutting plates are already fully discontinued.

Retiring List – April 15 – The retiring list (for ALL products in the 2019 Occasions Catalog and 2018-2019 Annual Catalog) will be published on April 15 at 1:00pm MT. Keep in mind inventory on some retiring dies may be depleted before the end of the 2019 Occasions and 2018–2019 Annual Catalog sales period; we will not replenish inventory on any retiring dies and folders that sell out. Inventory on some dies and folders carrying over into the 2019–2020 Annual Catalog may be depleted; if this happens, they may go on backorder or may not be available to order until we have replenished the inventory.

Thank you for taking time to stop by today, hope you found this information helpful and not to scary.

Have a great rest of your day and come back tomorrow to see the projects my Sunday Stampers will be making.

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