What does for Personal Use Only mean? July 14, 2014

 

When you purchase any file from me, somewhere on the PDF will be the following statement:

For Personal Use Only! Do not distribute in any way. All rights reserved by A Party Studio http://www.apartystudio.etsy.com

What does that actually mean? “For personal use” means that the person who purchased the file from me has the right to use it for their own needs but not as a business or for profit. I recently had a client run into difficulties printing a file at Office Depot because the employee there said that ‘for personal use only’ indicates that it can only be printed on a home computer. This is incorrect.  Personal use only has nothing to do with how you print- just how you control the files. The file/s can be printed where ever you’d like and once printed, can be used for your party, baby shower, bridal shower, wedding, etc.

Thankfully, I happened to be online and saw her message so I was able to call the Office Depot store and talk to the print/copy center to explain that she had every right to print out the PDF.

If you head to Office Depot, Staples, Kinkos or any other commercial printing place, to avoid the situation that my client faced, please print out a copy of your receipt to prove you are the owner of the file and entitled to print.

If you are concerned about your print job, then I recommend using an online service.

Kelli at Print and Cut Your Printables or Andrea at Paper + Pop

Their print work is fantastic and much better quality than what you would get through an office supply store. Plus, both these lovely ladies will cut out your files which will save you so much time.

I’m gonna go off on a little tangent here since it’s somewhat related… what does the “Do not distribute in any way” mean? It means you can’t pass on the PDF files to your friends to use for their events. It also means you can’t sell resell the files.

A couple examples…

So, is it ok to purchase a chocolate bar wrapper from me for $10 and then open your own store and offer the wrapper for sale as an assembled item? Absolutely not. This is stealing and a violation of my intellectual property. If you have to place text boxes or make screen shots of a PDF file that you have purchased then you are probably doing something unethical. Sadly, I have actually had this exact scenario happen.

Is it ok to buy a non-personalized item from my store- for example, a banner that simply reads “Happy Birthday” and then make that banner available for free via your blog? You may think that is fine to do because you are not profiting when the banner is downloaded but guess what? No, that is also not ok.

If you are a event stylist and purchase a set of printables from me, can you use them for you event? Sure, that’s fine but if you want to reuse the items for another event, you need to repurchase the personalized files. The files I send are not editable so you cannot make a screen shot and then insert them in to a program such as Word and add a text box over the personalization information in order to ‘update’ the file.  Plus, you are cheating yourself because by doing this, you are reducing the quality of the file and your prints will not look nice. And honestly, the length of time it takes to do that, you may as well pay me for my services.

If you are still not clear, please don’t hesitate to contact me via e-mail! apartystudio@gmail.com

 

 

Valentine’s Day February 20, 2013

Remember the free Valentine’s Day printables I posted a few weeks ago? I uploaded printables for a chocolate bar wrapper, a water bottle label and an oversized hang tag on Scribd and made them available for FREE download. I created two versions- a chocolate bar for the Sweetest Teacher as well as one for the Sweetest Bus Driver. Well, I know at least one person made good use of them! Here is an e-mail (and the attached photographs) that I received yesterday… 

 

Here is how we used your V-day freebies !! Thank You sooooo much!! The cycle with balloons was made by my son for daddy and a favorite neighbor.

 

 

You can download the teacher printable here and the bus driver one here.

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest! Or if you have any questions, you can leave a comment on this post or e-mail me directly- apartystudio@gmail.com  

First Birthday Party May 24, 2011

Seems like I’ve been getting a ton of requests for first birthday parties recently! That got me thinking about how special this milestone is for everyone… the birthday child as well as the parents! It such be celebrated and enjoyed. Your baby is growing up. His personality is developing and he’s becoming more assertive. Maybe he’s started to walk already and say a few words! So many changes have taken place since his birth.

Four years ago, for my daughter’s first birthday, her auntie Heather sent her a book- a book of birthdays called Happy Birthday to Me Journal: A Keepsake Album of Your Celebrations! My son just celebrated his first birthday and got him a similar book. These books remind me of the baby milestone journals you can get but so much less time consuming. There’s basically one page to complete per birthday… the who, what, where, etc and slots to place any keepsakes such as the birthday invitation.

Here’s the book she got my daughter:

Happy Birthday to Me Journal

Roomy pockets pages hold invitations, and there’s space to fill in guest lists, party locations, gifts received, and any other moments of a child’s special day. I like to put her invite, the deflated mylar balloon, a couple photographs and her personalized chocolate bar wrapper!
Here’s the book auntie Heather got my son:

Your Birthday Book: A Keepsake Journal

And here’s a synopsis, direct from the publisher:

This is not anything like a baby book. It’s a birthday book! It was born from the simple idea that birthdays provide the perfect annual opportunity to preserve a sweet moment in time as your child changes from year to year. So it’s a multi-layered confection: annual touchstone, cherished ritual, and eternal keepsake. This journal provides fun, fast, and casual birthday activities for ages 1-18 as well as space to stick birthday photos and a random picture from each year, amusing and thought-provoking questions to ask your kid, and a time-capsule envelope for stashing away odds and ends (artwork, school papers, hand tracings, birthday cards, invitations, and other memorabilia).

From toddler hood to young adulthood to every hood in between, you’ll return to the same four activities for each birthday. The questions prompts, and tone may shift each year, but the essence intentionally remains intact.

So, if you’ve been invited to a first birthday party, consider giving a birthday journal book as a gift! Another wonderful keepsake idea is personalized chocolate bar wrappers. I have made these every year for my daughter and of course made one for my son’s first birthday. Check out this blog entry to see the first three I made for my Aubrie. And, here’s the one I made for Asher’s first birthday:

Sailboat chocolate bar wrapper

Personalized chocolate wrapper