Grand Tour of the New CKC App!

You may have seen that we have a brand new smartphone app for Create Kids Couture!  We are really excited about this because it streamlines all of our CKC information into one location for smartphone users. (For those who don't have a smartphone, don't be worried at all. You will not even notice a difference. The app is a great tool for smartphone users simply because it makes it so much easier to access all the different websites on our tiny screens.) 

So smartphone users, if you haven't already downloaded our app, we know you're going to love it!  It is FREE and available for download in the app stores listed in the pic above. Today on the blog I'm going to walk us through the different features on the app.  Even if you've already had a chance to play around with it, you might learn a little more about the ins and outs of what's available. Let's get started!

Once you download the app, here is what it will look like on your phone. (Although you probably don't have a picture of my family as your wallpaper.) When I first saw the little CKC App icon I squealed because it is so CUTE and I knew my life was about to get easier. 

Once we open the app, it will bring us here to the main menu, where we can see all the different features that are included. They are Home, Shop Now, Facebook, Blog, Videos, Share Your Pics, Instagram, Twitter, New Releases, Events, Coupons, and Email Us. Let's look at them more closely:

The heart icon for "Home" brings us to the description of CKC and how it all got started. It's a fun and inspiring read.

Also, notice in the top left corner of the screenshot above that there is a little menu icon that I circled in red. This menu icon will be on every page within the app, in the top left corner. Clicking the menu icon will always return us to the main menu of the app. 

Next is the "Shop Now" icon which takes us directly to the CKC website app where we can purchase patterns. Woohoo! This is a huge step up for smartphone users! Notice that there are products listed by category if you like to browse that way, and there is also a search box way at the top above the shopping cart. Each pattern listing will show all the info and pictures just as it appears on the website. 

Below the categories we also have some featured products.

If you want to view the original format of the website on your phone there's a link for that way at the bottom.  Happy shopping! 

 The Facebook icon is one that we're really excited about. Now you can stay up-to-date on ALL our fan page posts, not just the ones that a distant computer decides are important. Did you know that we have 46,000+ fans and most of our announcements are viewed by less than 2,000 of us?  That's crazy! This app is great because you can click on the Facebook icon and scroll down through all of our recent posts. Keep in mind that this is not an actual Facebook App, so you cannot click the links that you see. But it is fabulous to keep us all in the loop and see when there are posts that we might have missed because of Facebook's filters. Then if you want to comment or follow a link, you can do that from your own Facebook account. 

(Note for PC users: If you want this same advantage, remember that you can also visit our fan page at any time from your PC to see all our posts.) 

I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone that the blog icon is one of my personal favorites! Now it is SO easy for us to go directly to the blog whenever we're in the mood for a good read. (Like every day?!) The blog posts are listed in menu format with the most recent first. 

If you want to see the blog in full web version rather than the mobile version, you can scroll down to the bottom of the menu and click where it says "View web version." Then it will look like this: 

The full version can be useful if you want to access the sidebar links or see what the blog looks like in its original proportions. 

The Videos feature is fabulous too! It takes you straight to our YouTube video feed, where you can see a list of all our helpful video tutorials. Just choose which one you want! At first I thought the video menu was just giving us a list of links that would take us to YouTube. But no! We can actually watch the video from right here within the app! 

How cool is that!?!?!  Here's your chance to catch up on any video tutorials you might have missed. We have some really fun ones coming up too so be on the lookout! 

The Share Your Pics feature is one that has gotten a lot of response from fans already! Here we can share pictures of outfits we have made using CKC patterns AND see what other fans have made so we can all get inspired. So fun! The pictures are divided into categories as shown above. Here's an example of what the Girls' Clothes feed look like: 

Thanks to Tia for sharing your adorable Sadie's set with us!  

When we are ready to share photos of our own, we just click the green bar we can see in the photo above. 

It will bring us to this screen where we can either take a new photo of our outfit or choose one that we already have stored on our phone.  

Please do it because I want to see what you have made! Let's fill this feature up! 

Our Instagram feed lets you view the photos we have posted on Instagram, without having to log into your own account!  It is not an interactive app that you can comment on, but you can click any of our posted photos to see them up close and read the descriptions. We often post sneak peeks on Instagram!  

(PC users - You can see this feed from our blog as well, using the icon in the right column of the blog.) 

We can view the Twitter feed as well, very similar to the feeds that have been described above. 

The New Releases feature is a fun one because we can look to see any of the new releases that we might have missed or even just check to see what the name of that-one-new-ruffle-shorts-pattern is. (This feed comes directly from the "New Releases" photo album on our Facebook page so it is accessible to everyone there too.) We just love how easy it is to find in this app! 

The Events feature is a new one and we are excited to try this out and see how it goes! It lists some of our new releases that are coming up - like the Women's Pattern Release that will happen today. No more guessing when new releases are coming! Woohoo! (If you like the surprise method, you don't have to look.) We will also  list some of our sales on the Events calender (which are already listed on the CKC Calendar) and any other events that we feel you will want to know about. Now we can all be on the same page! 

The next icon is our Coupons feature. (You didn't think I was going to take a picture of the coupons, did you? That would spoil the fun of digging!) We often offer coupons on special occasions and sometimes just for fun, and this feature just makes an easy place for us all to keep track of them when they are available. The coupon codes will work for PC users as well.  You might want to take a look at it today! I'm just sayin'. 

Last up is the "Email Us" feature. This one is pretty self-explanatory but it's good to know that contacting us is just a couple easy clicks away! 

That covers everything in our tour of the CKC App. I learned a couple new things while I was putting this together so hopefully you did too! We are excited to provide this app for our awesome fans so we can all stay in touch easier and have more time for sewing. 

Let's Create! ~ Kristen