"I am very happy that I found this store online. I found it when I was searching for a patterned paper with the Constitution, which is very difficult to find. This was the one I selected out of only two that I could find which carried what I wanted.

== Their target clientèle. ==

The site name is ServiceMemories.com, and means military services. That's not all though because they also sell items for civil services such as the Fire and Police Departments, as well as general patriotic items. Regarding the armed forces, they even have products for specific wars and operations.

== Specific scrapbooking supplies. ==

They carry the usual products for scrapbooking such as albums, paper, diecuts, alphabets, overlays, stickers, embellishments, rubber stamps and other general supplies.

== Navigation. ==

This is easy to navigate and not like a lot of other sites. Many others have stuff flashing and ads running down the pages. No worries because you won't find that here! It's clean, neat and categories are easily found.

What I really love about the site, that I haven't yet run across is their paper matching suggestions. If you select a patterned paper to view, it will take you to a page where the paper is larger. From there you can even enlarge it further, but it also gives you product information. All that is standard, but what isn't standard is that just below the description is a section that says, "You may also be interested in:" and below that are additional papers that perfectly match the one you are viewing at the moment. This is pure genius in my opinion because often when buying papers online, you cannot see the true colors of them, so matching them doesn't always work. I just loved it and found myself buying several of them. I'm glad I did because they do match perfectly.

One problem I did find is that some drop down menus along the bottom left that, for whatever reason, do not work for me. This is a Linux computer with Firefox, so perhaps that is the issue, but I am not certain. On the other hand, the drop down menus are not needed for me. I use the text link menus above them anyway.

Also another problem is that (at the time of this writing) they are working on adding new products so some pages are empty.

== Pricing. ==

They have a clearance section as well as the regularly priced stuff. Clearance items appear to be anywhere from $0.05 off on paper to 65% off on embellishments. Most of the paper ranges from $0.60 to $0.75.

Most embellishments are less than $5 with the average running probably at about $3. Stickers are a little less.

Albums, on the other hand can be quite pricey, but these are quality specialty albums. If you're looking for a standard album, then buy it elsewhere. Remember that this is a specialty store for service families. In any case they run from about $34 to $47.

== Quality. ==

This is quality stuff. I've not yet bought any of the embellishments because I tend to use my own, but the albums are very well made and if they're not leather, they are an excellent quality faux leather. The papers are good quality card stock as well. I've been extremely pleased with most them. Of all the papers I've bought, there was only one that I felt didn't look the way I expected it to, which was odd because it was one of the more expensive papers.

One thing that bothers me is (and this appears to be a common problem with all, or most, online scrapbooking stores) is that on many papers there are white strips along the top or bottom of the papers. The site does not include that strip in the photo of the paper, nor in the description. This is a serious annoyance for me! While most of those strips are perforated and tear off easily, you could still accidentally tear the sheet or have a rough and imperfect edge. I do not appreciate this at all.

== Shipping. ==

Like other online scrapbooking stores, this one uses a special mailer that is heavier cardboard than photo mailers. The papers are also encased in plastic to prevent rubbing against the mailer. I love these cardboard mailers because I can reuse them as chipboard so the shipping ends up paying for itself.

If you have an APO or FPO address, you're in great luck because you can get it for free! Being former military myself, I have a tip for active duty military wives... This isn't written in stone though so check first to be sure... but used to we could still use our spouse's stateside military APO/FPO addresses - the unit address that is (Army).

As for the rest of us who are no longer active, or never were, shipping starts at about $7, which means that if you're buying only one sheet of paper, you may want to rethink that.

It got here quick too. I ordered it and received it all within five days.

I also got a handwritten thank you on my invoice, which was a nice touch. I order online a lot and this rarely happens. I have noticed though that most of the handwritten thank you notes are from scrapbooking stores. I wonder if that means that scrapbookers are more polite than other types of people? :)

== Summary. ==

All in all I'm very pleased. I will definitely use them again and recommend them to my friends, provided they understand the white-strip-on-papers thing. Right now, I am already wishing I had ordered other stuff when I put in my last order!"