New Shop, Winter issue of CLM, and new Kits!

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Grand Opening Celebration for CraftLeftovers.com/Shop is this Sunday and Monday, November 15th and 16th!

Every month over the last year I have been continually wowed by the amount of subscriptions sold and the amount of orders placed. I realized that Craft Leftovers had out grown etsy and artfire. So I went on a quest to build an actual ecommerce site and it’s ready! I used X-cart for my cart system and it syncs up great with paypal and also allows me the ability to expand and grow with ease. 

The Grand Opening is on Sunday when the Winter issue and box sets will also go on sale. To celebrate this huge step for Craft Leftovers, everything will be 15% off (kits and mini zines included) on Sunday and Monday! And on Monday I’ll have a drawing for a $15 for everyone who placed an order on Sunday and on Tuesday morning for everyone who placed an order on Monday! 

I’ve been working hard this past month to get the new shop stocked up and ready to go. I have two new kits available: the Cat Hoodie and a kit for a brand new pattern: Mini Sock Ornament! Plus I’m stocked up completely on all other kits that are usually in the mix.

 

The New Craft Leftovers Monthly

It’s been 5 months in the making from idea to launching and I’m so excited to finally be able to tell you all the details! 

I’ve had fantasies of having paid contributors, a larger format, and more pages for Craft Leftovers Monthly for well over a year now. After the Maker Faire this past summer I decided to shoot for the stars and make that fantasy a reality and that I would kick it off with the Winter issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly. I felt “that’s 6 months from now, surely I can make things happen by then”. Well, time flies as I’m sure you all know and here we are and guess what? It’s happened! And a lot of other great things too.

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Larger Format: Every month I feel limited by the size of Craft Leftovers Monthly, I always leave out at least 4 articles and have to edit down without mercy. And layout gets last place to everything else, everything was just getting more and more crammed in. There was no room for contributors or features or anything other than regularly scheduled articles. It was time to grow. So I did! Craft Leftovers Monthly now has 5″x7″ pages and is 36 pages strong. It feels like moving into a new space. A place for everything and even a little extra.

Recycled Paper: The zine is now printed on 100% recycled paper that is a little thicker, a lot nicer and a whole lot more in line with Craft Leftovers ethics, which are an extension of my own. I’m so happy to make this move to 100% recycled paper products.

New Subscriptions: The unimaginable has happened and I no longer have enough Craft Leftovers to make enough kits to feed demand for zine+kit bundle subscriptions, so I’m switching to zine only subsciptions. You will be able to sign up for a 1/2 year or a 1 year subscription! And you will be able to sign up for your subscription any time of the day, date, month, or year. Subscriptions will start with the most currently released issue. I will continue to add new kits to the shop each month. I’ll make as many as I can with what’s on hand and when they are gone they are gone. 

Paid Contributors: Craft Leftovers Monthly has grown enough to start helping others. I’m redistributing the generosity and support that all of you have provided over the last 2 years. I now have a budget specifically for paying 2 contributors each month for original content for the zine. It’s really important to me to pay people for their work and I am excited to take this step. 

Design and Layout and all that jazz: My friend Jill has stepped up and become hands on involved with Craft Leftovers Monthly. She is a great graphic designer and has helped to make a really great template for the zine. It is amazing! Linda has been helping me to edit copy for awhile now and we were able to go through several levels of edits with this issue and will continue for all future issues too!

Ahead of schedule: With this issue I am now running months ahead of schedule. It’s going through the last few read throughs and shuffling, but it’s actually been in the works and “finished” for awhile now, and the Feb issue is already well underway! I am so happy to move into this new phase in Craft Leftovers Monthly where it is stress free and on time every month. Making this issue has been a joy instead of a headache. I love every issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly, but I realized back in August that I was still trying to crank it out in the same amount of time I was a year and a half ago when it was 8 pages with one simple project. I was digging through my external hard drive and went though a Craft Leftovers Monthly memory lane visit. And that’s when it hit me how much it’s grown over the last two years. And that leads me to my next point of CLM.

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Volume 1 Box Sets: With the grand opening of the shop, the premiere of the new issue on the 15th, there will also be a full year set of Craft Leftovers Monthly available for the first time ever. You can get issues 15 – 26 (December 08 – November 09) all together! They come in a great little box and are discounted to the price of a subscription – so instead of paying $6 each, you get the discounted “year” price! 

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I hope you will come check out the new shop on Sunday, I’ll post a special weekend post to announce it and send out a e-newsletter to the mailing list. I know I forget things from one day to the next, but I wanted you to have a preview and give you a little something to look forward to. 

I’m going to get back to kit making a listing, see you all tomorrow!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin 

6 thoughts on “New Shop, Winter issue of CLM, and new Kits!

  1. I am stoked!! Kinda sad to see the kits go, but glad to hear you are growing by leaps and bounds!!! WHOO HOO!! I can’t wait to get this months too!!

  2. Congratulations Kristin! I love your work and I’m so pleased that it’s all developed so well for you. I’m really excited about all your new innovations. You’re an inspiration! :)

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