The Season ends and a New Catalog begins

Today's card features Season of Friendship which Stampin' Up! is retiring at the end of this month.  I've always enjoyed this set for both cards and scrapbooks.

My new Stampin' Up! catalog arrived this week.  As usual I have lots of opinions about the catalog.  Here are my thoughts and some info if you haven't seen it already.

The Best
Almost all stamps are now available in 'clear' (really cling) stamps as well as wood mounted.  The only exceptions I noticed were the large background stamps.  So I now have some things on my wish list that I'd previously passed over as too expensive.  Having a choice for both new and older sets is a really great thing!

Also, many prices have remained the same including ink pads, paper, envelopes and dimensionals.  I didn't check everything but those I know by heart.  I applaud SU! for doing this.  It seems like my grocery store is raising prices weekly so when we can go multiple years without a price increase on something, I'm delighted.  (Pattern paper did go up $1 per pack.)

The Good
The layout and photography of the new catalog are even more professional. Always at a high standard, they have turned it up a notch this year.  I know some people aren't pleased with the closeup photos and not being able to see an entire project.  I believe you can see enough of any of the projects to make your own or use them for inspiration so it doesn't bother me.  I like the angles of the photos.   The cover no longer says "idea book" but there are plenty of ideas.

They moved the hostess sets to the end of the catalog so you jump right into holiday and things to purchase.

Personally, I like the designer paper a lot more this year.  And I also like the Simply Scrappin' kit choices.

The Not-so-good
There are two pages at the beginning of the catalog with some of the 'tools' and then the rest are at the end.  It is confusing.  Why not just put them all together?  If they were going to do this it would have been a good place to explain the new ink pads.  There is no explanation in the catalog.  I think they just changed the pad and not the actual ink except for a few colors.  Hopefully more info on this will be made available when ordering time arrives.

Markers and 12x12 paper are no longer available in all individual colors.  A few colors are still available for individual order but not that many so there are markers I'll probably never get now.  Thank goodness you can still get Crumb Cake (kraft) in a 12x12 individual pack.

The Really Annoying
The ink colors are once again printed teeny tiny so they are hard to see.  Last year they used those leaves to keep with their growing theme, this year they are using a different shape but the effect is the same.  It is very hard to see what a color really looks like.  In a 200 page catalog that bases everything on color families, you can find space to print the colors at least an inch square!


One other thing that really bugged me was, I think, supposed to be a feature.  Every so often, they will have a group of projects all made out of the same colors.  The colors are shown in blocks, but they didn't label the blocks!  So you don't know what the colors really are.  Some of their colors are so close it is hard to tell.



Whether you like the stamp choices is definitely personal.  I found several things in Elements I like and one holiday set but am not finding much in the other categories.  SU! needs to shake things up a bit on their designs.  Too many of the new sets look too much like those that were discontinued to get me to purchase - but again, this is opinion for sure.

There are many good choices here in a very eye pleasing catalog (and idea book).  If you are a stamper, SU! is always a good option.