Thursday, March 20, 2014

Throw Back Thursday: Remember D.O.T.S.?

Let's jump into the Way Back Machine and see who remembers these:

L-R: First Ever CTMH catalog, D.O.T.S 1997-1998 Catalog Collection, 
D.O.T.S. 1998-99 Catalog Collection, Vintage (1994?) D.O.T.S. Catalog 

In August 1995 I became a D.O.T.S. demonstrator.  D.O.T.S. stood for Dozens Of Terrific Stamps and it's the company that eventually gave birth to Close To My Heart.  

Our first CTMH catalog. This little sweetheart was just 48 pages of new products and inspiration. I think it was introduced in 1996 at the first convention I attended. Close To My Heart was a separate company at it's inception.  D.O.T.S demonstrators automatically became CTMH consultants.  It was recommended we do parties for one or the other, not necessarily both at one time. While I didn't embrace scrapbooking right away, I did fall in love with the many new products and saw immediate use for my stamping addiction business.  The CTMH catalog had so much new fun stuff - stencils for which I won't even go into the myriad of possibilities they gave me, and so many new alphabet stamp sets I couldn't believe I hadn't died and gone to heaven! 

The D.O.T.S. 1997-98 "Catalog Collection" was one of the original "Big Bertha" catalogs - 192 pages of rubber stamping goodness!  It featured our Calendar Cuties and lots of country styled stamps.  And to assist our consultants with our heavy loads carried to and from gatherings, the CTMH catalog became a section within big Bertha.   It made the Close To My Heart and D.O.T.S. parties so much easier to combine and feature all our great products. 

The 1998-99 D.O.T.S. "Catalog Collection" was another amazing Big Bertha with just 256 pages.  This gem was heavy!  Heavy to mail, heavy to tote to parties and had a hefty price of $7.95.  It was worth it's weight in gold so no problem, but I do recall the days I really had to consider if I wanted more stamps or more catalogs.  This darlin' had more color photos of completed projects and more papers and accessories.  These are some stamps I look back at with great fondness and would use to this day if I'd had room to keep them all.  Love the Easter Bunny and the Chickadee.  

This vintage D.O.T.S. catalog is a tiny little 76 page beauty.  Since the label on the back is neither mine nor my original upline's, I assume it's 1994 or prior. All the stamps with the exception of alphabet sets were sold singly. Two favorites, company wide, were This Much Bear and Frank.  They were $9.25 and $8.25 respectively.  Wow!  Wood is expensive!!  Color in this catalog was very limited but where it was, it was gorgeous!  Even now I want to drool all over that page of glitter, chalks, pens and all the other stuff there.  It's my candy store!! 

I hope you've enjoyed this trip back in time.  It's been fun reminiscing. 

11 comments:

  1. Not only do I remember them all, but I have them all. Also, the one that is second from left is the exact size of our next catalog!

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    1. OMGosh, you are right!! I'm going to have to start lifting weights!

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  2. Boy that does bring back memories. I probably still have the later two you showed somewhere.

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    1. I have about 4-6 of the pre-Big Bertha catalogs. They are in frames around my craft room. It's fun to see how we've changed over the years but it got too hard to put up 3 catty's a year on the walls.

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  3. Love this history lesson!! Thanks so much, Betsy. I joined in 2006 so I have one Big Bertha CTMH cattie :)

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  4. Thank you so much Betsy for your thoughtfulness in sending this out, I will forward the link to all our teams in Australia so that they can see them

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  5. What a fun walk down your memory lane with you Betsy!! Thanks for sharing these with us! I would love to see these in person!

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  6. I am trying to remember the name of the font that everyone was using on our new internet adventures. Someone who sold D.O.T.S. and then patent their font? Anyone know? I loved it!!!!!(along with my rediculous stamp collection I still have too!)

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  7. I love the old stamps, and i got rid of my old calalogs. Im trying to find ideas to use the old Dots stamps that i have. any ideas?

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  8. Personalize every birthday or other card you send out. Names and stars, names and hearts, names and ribbons. Be creative with the stamps you have. I need the D.O.T.S./Close to my Heart "Made by Me" stamps. Many if the ones I loved to use are worn or torn. Can find nothing comparable to this set. Thanks, Nancy

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