CHA Summer New Releases - Pink Paislee

CHA is a much smaller event this year than in the past, with many manufacturers opting to stay home. I actually like this - it is less overwhelming and gives more time to build relationships with the companies and other attendees. And the products that are being shown are beautiful. My top pick so far is Pink Paislee. Why?

1 - The collections include the essentials, but don't go crazy with too many papers and embellishments. Having a few embellishments at reasonable prices makes selling the entire collection much easier, and I think it makes shopping them easier, too.

2 - The products are innovative and high quality. The glitter chipboard - not nearly as pretty online or in photos as they are in person - capture ones attention instantly with their sparkle and font (gorgeous and flexible). The Mistletoe collection has a classic style and color scheme that used for many other themed layouts.

3 - The people are great, and reflect the spirit of the company. Some staff at OTHER booths have been pushy, or even unfriendly. Or they didn't seem to want to be there. The people at Pink Paislee seem genuinely happy to help and grateful for their retailers. It's the same great service I get whenever I deal with them.

For these reasons and more, the Pink Paislee collections are the first we will be selling as pre-orders. They should be available online tomorrow! Get inspired today with their beautiful layouts and project ideas on our Flickr site.

View our Pink Paislee CHA Summer 2009 Photos.

Favorite Item of the Day: Pink Paislee Black Icons Press-Ons

My favorite item ordered today: definitely the Pink Paislee Black Icons Press-Ons! Well, to be fair, I love all their Press-Ons! Order this item (PP-00101) tomorrow (Sept 3rd) and get two free sheets of Pink Paislee paper with your order.



Enjoy!

In Love with Pink Paislee and Cosmo Cricket

We have added two new brands to our line up... And I have to say, I couldn't be happier! The customer service provided by Rebecca at Pink Paislee and Lindsay at Cosmo Cricket is spectacular and indicative of the quality of their products. A little background...

A lot goes into putting products online, images need to be sized consistently. I may get images that are all different sizes, square and not e.g., 550x450 and 300x300. In the end, I need three images for each product: a large image (550x550 max), a medium (350x350 exactly), a small image (150x150).


Why? Well, if we use a 350x350 image as a thumbnail, the image will be fuzzy from being reduced AND the product thumbnails will take much longer to load! But hovering over the magnifying glass should show a larger image with enough detail to make a purchase decision. And if a closer look is needed, the product details page has a "product images {zoom}" tab with the largest image available. (We set the maximum size to 550, so the layout doesn't look weird on the page).

So, for each product, I must resize three images and associate them with the product (read: data entry). I also need to set up the product name. I include the brand and collection, product type (12x12 paper) for purposes of search engine optimization (SEO) and grouping like products together. Plus I add to the name, the actual name. So, for example, Cosmo Cricket has a item named "Happy Campers." That item on our site is "Cosmo Cricket - Mr. Campy - 12x12 Double-Sided Cardstock - Happy Campers" Long, I know.

I could go on and on about prices, product descriptions, setting up categories and relating products to each other, but I sense your forehead is about to hit the keyboard.

The point I am making here is, after the purchase of hundreds of products at CHA, I have a LOT to do. And companies like Pink Paislee and Cosmo Cricket that make it easier and faster by providing easy ways to get the data and images, by personally answering e-mails at lightning speed, make it so much easier and more fun! And I am looking forward to a long partnership with both of them! I hope you enjoy having their products at PaperCents.com.