Pardon Me While I Burst

I need to take a moment both for mental sanity and so other people are aware...stay away from any Creative Imagination brand scrapbooks!!! Just keep on walking. There are lots of print designs and colors from other companies. I stumbled upon the perfect design for my wedding and honeymoon scrapbooks, and the name of the design fit too. The book design is called "tidepools" and since I got married on the beach it was fitting. I put it on the registry after looking at it online and received it as a gift- I was thrilled.

I thought it was just clothes I should be careful buying online, but I was wrong! (I won't even get into the story regarding the trouble my sister went through in trying to actually get the item she ordered delivered to her.) Once I actually started the project the difficulties began. This book does not fit any and I mean any of the misc, generic page refills sold at all of my local craft and scrapbook-specific stores. Of course I started by trying to track down the specific brand "creative imagination: page refills- no one carried them. Despite what is listed on their website, some of the stores listed as carrying their products, had never even heard of them. And good luck trying to contact the company. So I then proceeded to buy 11 different types of page refills and had to return all of them. None fit. The holes were all off. I had almost given up, and was going to buy a new book, and then a stroke of luck-Ritz Camera online had the Creative Imagination page refills. Unlike most packages, they were sold in sets of 5 instead of 10, and cost $7 a pack (normal generic packs cost $4-$6) . I loved this book, it was a gift, and so I bought the page refills.

Problem 1# solved. Now wait for it, problem #2. Most books, when you buy the refill sets they have book extenders in them. You know, those little metal pieces that make the book binding wider so you can fit more pages. These pieces, too, were not generic. And guess what? Their page refills are not sold with those extender pieces! My husband luckily helped me come up with a plan to make generic pieces work, which involves gluing, and sanding, but gosh darn it I will finish this project, and it will be nice and pretty no thanks to Creative Imagination.

I will love this book, my wedding and honeymoon scrapbook, and am only 10 pages away from having it complete in time for our 1 year anniversary which is in 6 days. My satisfaction will come from the images and memories held inside, but I will forever be boycotting the Creative Imagination Line of Scrapbooks. They have caused many a profanity come out of my mouth at heighten levels, but with a big exhale, I am letting go of my frustration.

(Pardon Me by Incubus was what I was listening when I was writing this post, and their song title just seemed fitting for this post).