Scrapbook designs a click away

Company sells ‘downloadable’ patterns for craft enthusiasts

Marketta Gregory
Staff writer

(January 1, 2007) — BRIGHTON — Reenie Feingold believes that if you listen to your customers, they will tell you what they want. And apparently, people who sew or make scrapbooks want to be able to shop — and get their images and papers delivered — at 2 a.m.

So, about a month ago, she started offering many of her designs as “downloadables” on her company’s Web site. Already thousands of people have downloaded files so they could print marbled paper on their at-home printers or they’ve paid to have one of ScrapSmart’s many vintage Santas downloaded to their computer so they could complete their fabric projects.

“We put up one snowman and within four hours someone bought it,” said Feingold, who along with her husband, Stan, started the Brighton business by selling fabric that can go through an at-home printer, stickers, bookmarks and CDs full of images of everything from Civil War maps to pickle labels. Customers can still order those things at www.scrapsmart.com, but now, the 5-year-old company is working to get more of its images downloaded.

Already “downloadables” have made their way into mainstream scrapbooking magazines, said Bridget Magar, owner of The Paper Garden in Spencerport.

“A year ago there was nothing about digital scrapbooking (or downloading images) in the magazines,” Magar said. “Today, every single one of them has something about digital.”

Soon, her paper-crafting store will offer classes in using computer programs to tweak photos and design pages. Plus, Magar will be adding a 17-inch printer so customers can print what they have designed on the computer.

“People do need to think about how they are printing their pages,” Magar said, adding that pigment inks last longer than the dye inks in most at-home printers. “We’re documenting today’s memories for tomorrow.”

Often the people who are doing the documenting are women who have a little more time and income. It’s not so much the new mother, who is busy with the baby, Magar said. She sees plenty of women whose children are in high school or college — and more grandmothers.

That doesn’t frighten Feingold, who said plenty of women in their 50s and 60s feel comfortable with a computer, especially when it means they can have what they want.

“Sewing machines were embraced by women,” Feingold said. “They were quick to throw down their needles. They liked the technology.”

MGREGORY@DemocratandChronicle.com

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