important things

Hi everyone, this is the Wicked Witch of the West. At least I feel a bit like her because I am going to have to be mean for a few minutes. But these things are important so I shall proceed.

If you have not read our terms of use, please do. They're not particularly horrid, and I won't go into detail here, but I would like to point out a few highlights:

Please don't give away our stuff. Even if we're giving it away ourselves. (Especially for Freebie Fridays when the products are free for one day only.)

If your sister is preparing the lesson that you gave last week and wants to use the same handouts, please don't email her the file or give her something to copy. Things can seem a little vague when you purchase a digital file, but that is, in fact, stealing. Please instead tell her where you got the handouts and have her purchase her own.

Our biggest goal at Green Jello with Carrots is to offer products to use at Church and home that are affordable and fun. When people start abusing their usage by "sharing" or giving away our stuff it makes it really hard for us to function as a company. And we may have to raise prices or stop (gasp and shudder) offering things all together.

What you CAN do, however, when you'd like to let other people know about our products just give out links. Also, you have our permission to use a picture from our website and link it back to us in any emails or blogs or other websites (but you really need to remember the link, ok?) Just don't offer files or products.

ALSO

(This isn't the easiest thing to say.)

When it comes to Freebie Friday we are feeling a bit used.

The freebies started because we feel it's important to help everyone out, and it's always good to get something free. But you have to remember that we're spending valuable time on all the things we offer, and this is an occupation for us. (We have families to support.)

And we have been noticing a huge trend of customers who only come to the website for the free stuff and never purchase anything. We don't expect everyone to purchase huge amounts every week. But obviously you guys like the freebies and therefore (hopefully) like our stuff. So please put in paying orders as well.

It's kind of like when you throw a party, but the only way you can get people to attend is by mentioning there will be great nachos there. And then when all the nachos are devoured you find yourself sitting in an empty room because everyone only came for those nachos.

We want to mean more to you than really great nachos.

And if things don't change we might have to stop Freebie Fridays, which would be really sad.

And that about wraps it up for this wicked witch. Please read and follow our terms of use, and please start purchasing things so we can keep up the freebies. And please don't throw a bucket of water over me, because you know what happened to the witch in the movie.

registration

We had some issues with our registration emails the past couple of days. It is fixed now.... and better stay that way.

For those of you who have ever registered, but never confirmed through an email, don't worry. I went through and manually changed the settings, and now you are free and clear to log in.

For future registrations things should run smoothly, and if you are waiting for the email and it seems to never be showing up, check your junkmail (or spam) folder. It seems that we end up there a lot.

And make sure that your email allows and approves all messages from any greenjellowithcarrots.com address so that you don't miss out on promotional emails (that include coupons!)

why the downloads?

I know that some of you are a bit nervous to use our products because they are all downloadable files. Most of you are probably used to books and cds. But let me tell you why it's better that we sell our products as downloads.

1- It's cheaper. Say you find a fun activity in a book, but you really only like that one activity. You still have to pay $20 for a book full of stuff you aren't really going to use. With our products all you have to buy are the things you like.

2- It's faster. You don't have to drive to three bookstores just to find a decent set of clipart images for your lesson on Sunday. We're right here - you just have to browse. Then download your stuff immediately (no shipping and handling costs....no "we can get this to you in 7-10 business days.")

3- You can print a file off as many times as you need. So your 1 year old found your FHE game 15 minutes before FHE was going to begin and shredded each page before chewing it? No problem - you're Super Mom (or Dad) and can print another copy right away.

BUT

You're still nervous about how much time and money you're really going to save printing your own stuff. Because don't you still have to have ink and paper and get things laminated?

The answer is yes - - but it's really stinking easy.

I called my local Kinkos this evening and got a few prices. Basically you take in a disc or flash drive (that little memory stick you put in your USB port) with the files you've downloaded from us. (Most copy places can do this, by the way.) They can print out the files for around these prices:

Color= $.59 a copy ($1.24 for thicker paper)
Black and White= $.10 a copy ($.30 for thicker paper)

After you have your copies, quickly cut out your pieces at the store. (If you printed black and white copies and want to color them before laminating, you can always come back....however, this is where full color products come in handy.)

Lamination costs= $3 per square foot

And if you don't like leaving your house, you can always print them on your own paper and cover them with clear contact paper. (Clear contact paper is a wonderful thing, no?)

Now you know - that is how easy and cost effective it is.