It's a busy, busy time of the year, but here's an invitation to slow down for about an hour this Saturday and spend some time with your favorite hobby! Scrapbook Generation's free Basic Sketch Sessions will be held at 10, 11:30, 1, and 2:30, and we'd love to have you join us.

We normally stick to general topics, but it has become a tradition to do a Christmas-themed layout at the December session. Saturday, we'll be using these beautiful muted and distressed papers in traditional Christmas colors, from a collection by Paper Loft. Your cost for the layout will only be around $4, and as always, the re-usable sketch is free. 

Give us a call if you want to register for this activity. Hope to see you Saturday!

I wanted to share the comments that people have written on Facebook about our free Christmas Gift Tag Gala this past Saturday. It was hectic and messy, and I'll admit that I probably tried to cram too many projects into too short a time. I worried that the more than 80 people who participated were too rushed and didn't enjoy the experience. Then I read these sweet comments, and they've made my day! And probably my week! Maybe even longer!

"It was a LOT of fun! Thanks, ladies, for all you do to make scrapbooking awesome." -- Jane

"I had a great time." -- Connie

"Thanks for all your hard work getting all these cute gift cards cut and ready for us. You are very generous to us and we appreciate you." -- Judy

"Thanks for the great tags, girls! We had a good time." -- Chris

"This was a wonderful event. I was pokey and took the supplies home, but finished all tonight with the help of your blog! They are gorgeous! Your store and materials are so classy! Thanks for all your hard work in having these freebie classes." -- Debi

"Remember Me" album club was one of the most successful and rewarding ventures for Scrapbook Generation. Hundreds of scrapbookers in southwest Missouri and across the country joined the club and over the course of 12 months, created a keepsake album about themselves. 

Now it's time for "Remember Me" volume two! The club begins January 1, and while you can start at any time, we're urging everyone to join as soon as possible, because we're limiting the enrollment and once the memberships are gone, they're gone for good.

Volume two of this project to leave a completed album about you, the person usually left out of photos and pages, focuses on totally new topics. The photo above shows the opening page of  "Remember Me" volume two. The kit for this page is included free with your club membership. We'll be using the beautiful 3-ring leather binder albums by We R Memory Keepers, and you have a choice of three colors (check the sidebar at right for the choices).

For the $39.99 membership fee, you receive the album, extra page protectors, and the free kit for the opening page. For the next 11 months, the fee is $14.99 for each two-page layout kit. And as an added bonus this time, with your final paid kit you'll receive a free kit for a single-page closing layout. If you sign up before January 1, the billing for the $39.99 membership fee takes place on January 1, and your album and first kit will be available to pick up that day.

"Remember Me" volume two features papers and embellishments from a variety of leading companies, and we'll be using "Thickers" chipboard letters by American Crafts throughout the album. While the first volume followed the same color scheme throughout, this new volume will be eclectic in colors and products!

The sample of the actual page pictured above is on display at Scrapbook Generation, and we'll be happy to answer any further questions you have either by email, telephone, or in person. To sign up for this rewarding and heartwarming project, just choose an album color, call us or stop by, and you'll be ready to create an album your children and grandchildren and other family members will cherish.

If you haven't signed up for Scrapbook Generation's Christmas Gift Tag Gala on Saturday, we still have about 15 of the 100 spots available. We'll be making the four tags and the one gift card holder shown above, and it's totally FREE. The openings left are at 2, 3 or 4 pm. Hope to see you Saturday for lots of beautiful papers, shiny glitter, and easy/fun projects.

Changing the subject, when we did our "extreme makeover" of the store this week, we have four wood and acrylic racks for 8-1/2 x 11 paper that we need to sell because we don't have room to store them. They would even work great in an office that needed to store lots of letter-size forms. Just call us for a price.

Christmas Gift Tag Gala...

Saturday at Scrapbook Generation is going to be a flurry of red and green and glitter and ink, as we host our first Christmas Gift Tag Gala. Almost 80 of you are already signed up, and we have room for about 20 more! We'll be making four Christmas gift tags and one gift card holder. The gift card holder is pictured above, and is really quick and easy to make! And did I mention that you'll be making all five items for the fabulous price of...FREE! We provide all the materials and supplies for this fun activity, and we'll be using beautiful papers by BasicGrey, BoBunny, and Graphic 45.

To attend, just call and pre-register, then stop by on Saturday for some Christmas fun.

Scrapbook Generation has a new look!
Stacey and Allison rearranged the store Saturday night to get a homey-looking set fixed for the filming of our first-ever instructional DVD. The lighting crew arrived Sunday morning and did interesting stuff like take out the ceiling tiles and string lights from above, then the filming crew arrived later. To keep the lighting consistent, the filming had to take place after dark, so they started about 5 pm on Sunday and completed the job about 6 am Monday morning. I'm glad I was home!

By the time I arrived this morning, Ali had already headed home to get some well-deserved sleep, but I did get to talk to Stacey about how things went. She said Ali did an awesome job with the instructional parts of the DVD. And besides the on-screen work, there was a huge amount of behind the scenes preparation. In addition to the completed layouts, they had to make several copies of all the parts and pieces, so that they could explain and show how to make the pages.

One of my former journalism students, Darin Raney, is producing the DVD through his company, Encite, Inc. Darin was in Hollywood for several years, and worked on movies you'll easily recognize, like "Dave" and "A Few Good Men." He's back in Springfield now, and it's been a great experience to be collaborating with him on this project.

What's left to do? We have to complete the 25 all-new sketches and the 75 all-new layouts for the DVD. The sketches will be printable and the layouts will make up a gallery that will be a bonus feature in addition to the instructional part of the DVD. We still think we can be finished in time for a release date of late December. (Reserve a copy of the DVD in advance by calling SG, or by signing up on the DVD page on scrapbookgeneration.com).

Anyway, back to the "homey set." It was quick and easy to take down the supplies Stacey and Allison had used to decorate the bookcases, and replace them with the huge selection of albums we have right now. I think you'll like the new look!

To see a photo of the set Stacey and Allison designed for the DVD shoot today, go to Scrapbook Generation's Facebook page! They did a great job!

With Christmas rapidly approaching, Scrapbook Generation has stocked up on Christmas mini-albums, 8x8 and 12x12 albums, and album kits. The photos here are just a small sampling of what is available!

Just got off the phone with Chris at Midwest Family Broadcasting, our Scrap-a-Palooza partner, and the numbers are going up, up, up! We're approaching the halfway mark in registration, and we're still six weeks away from the event! Last year, it was the first week in January before the registration reached this point. If you're planning to attend this awesome mega-crop for 200 on Saturday, January 16, don't wait too late to register.

A few quick updates...

-- Saturday's Super-Saver Scrapbooking sessions are almost full! We only have six spots left in this fun day of scrapbooking for 70 lucky people. We'll be making three double-page Christmas layouts, and your cost is only $9. A huge bargain! Call if you want one of the last spots.

-- Next Saturday's Christmas Gift Tag Gala is also filling up quickly, and we only have room for about 100 people in the 7 sessions. You can stop by and make four gift tags and one gift card holder...FREE! We'll be trying lots of simple techniques that can give your gifting labels some pizzazz, like adding Stickles glitter glue, using acrylic stamps, and using border punches. We're going to be working with an assortment of beautiful paper lines, including Christmas collections by Graphic 45, BoBunny, and BasicGrey. We provide all materials, but we do ask that you pre-register. Give us a call!

-- Thanks so much for the huge response to the Scrapbook Generation "idea book/class/sketch book" DVD, even before we have a title! The orders have been pouring in from across the country, and we may have to increase our orginal order from the producer. I'm playing an extremely minor role in this whole thing. It's been Stacey and Allison's idea from the beginning, and they are working long hours on planning, set-building, and creating the layouts to be used. As usual, I'm the one creating the sketches on the computer, and I've been banned from the filming, which starts this Saturday evening after the store closes! They say I'll make them nervous! Plans are still to have the DVD ready sometime in December. You can pre-order by calling SG, or by going to the DVD page at scrapbookgeneration.com. Right now, just supply your name and a phone number.

-- Projects for Stacey and Allison's December classes are not available yet. They are spending every waking moment on the DVD project. Hopefully, that will be over in the next few days and we will have models to show you. I would get mad at them, but they are too much like their mother, always over-booking and running out of time!

Let the fun begin! Registration is now open for the three Scrapbook Generation retreats this spring. Choose from the weekends of March 12 or March 19 in Branson, or the weekend of March 26 at Windermere near Lake of the Ozarks. I'll keep you posted on how quickly the retreats are filling up. Right now, early-bird registration filled up over 1/3 of the spots!

And don't forget our DVD project! We have a possible title for the series, and Allison has a sneak peek of some of the projects on her blog. Just follow the link on the right sidebar.