The July issue of Creating Keepsakes just arrived, and we were surprised to see that Allison's picture is inside! The 25 Hall of Fame picks for 2007 are shown inside, and it was so much fun to open up the magazine and see Ali! Can't wait to see some of her layouts published as well!

Update on Remember Me kits, Generation Page kits, and Generation Card kits: They will be ready to pick up, on schedule, this Friday! I've seen Ali's cards already, and she's outdone herself this time -- one of the cards is made from a transparency and looks like a partially full glass of lemonade with a cute drink umbrella! (If you want to see what all the fun is about, you can sign up for any of the clubs at any time.)

Also, the Baby's First Year Club is getting a tremendous response from mothers and grandmothers alike. My project for Thursday is to get the first pages for both the boys' and girls' kits designed and made so they can be displayed in the store beginning on Friday. Remember that if you sign up for the club by June 15, your album, refills, and first page kit will be ready for you by July 1.

We just finished the latest in our series of free Saturday seminars at Scrapbook Generation, with about 60 scrapbookers in attendance during the six sessions. This one was totally different in nature from most of the rest of the classes, because the topic was doodling. We used the Doodle Genie templates by Chatterbox, which are great for those artistically-challenged non-doodling people like me! With these cool tools, if you can trace and outline and color in, you can doodle! Everyone had the chance to use several templates, and tried out both doodling with colored markers and doodling with a white paint pen (our favorite one is by Sharpie). I think I've used the word doodling too much for one paragraph!

We've had a lot of holiday travelers in shopping today, and expect more on Monday, when we'll do holiday hours of 10-5.

Karin and I are very excited about the response to our fall retreats in Branson and Eureka Springs. Registration is at a much faster pace this year, so we're taking that to mean that we've done a good job on past retreats. If you want more info, just check the website for a wealth of facts, photos, and testimonials from past attendees.

For all you Elsie Flannigan fans, we're happy to let you know that the "Love, Elsie" collection from KI Memories has arrived at Scrapbook Generation! We have chosen to offer the Roxie group, which features reds, pinks, blues, black, and white. There are wild papers, matching embossed cardstock, rub-ons, stickers, chipboard shapes and chipboard buttons, and two sets of matching ribbons. It's definitely a lively approach to scrapbooking, and one you'll want to see for yourself!

And a quick message to all of you who are planning on attending one of our fall retreats...since the newsletters went out on Tuesday, we are already 20% full. I can't stress enough that if you wait until the deadline to register, we may already be sold out.

I wanted to share with you an email we received recently at Scrapbook Generation. The story from one of our kit subscribers made my day! Here's what she had to say...

"I just thought I would tell you how much I like the Generation Page Kits, the Remember Me Kits, and the Card Kits. I subscribe to all three. I have to admit, I fell a little bit (okay, a lot) behind over the past couple of months. However, I have been called out of town on business for the past three weeks, and I discovered that your kits are just wonderful to take on the road with me!! All I really needed to take with me were some basic supplies and the kits. It was easy to gather my supplies and I didn't have to worry if I had my paper or embellishments, etc. It was all so laid out and complete!! Thank you for making my weeks away from home FLY BY!!!!"

What a great compliment! As usual this time of the month, we're busy preparing kits around here. And as if we didn't have enough already, if you've received your newsletter by now, you'll know that we have added a Baby's First Year Club!

New today at Scrapbook Generation: Five new lines of paper from Sandylion including prom, school days, camping, friends and a beautiful brown, red and blue line to 'chronicle' things about yourself. Each line has at least two sets of matching stickers. Also arriving from Sandylion are epoxy stickers of Dora the Explorer, Disney's Cars and Thomas the Train, as well as some new Go Diego Go stickers.

At Scrapbook Generation, we continue to be thankful for the recognition our own Allison Davis, Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame for 2007, is getting in the world of scrapbooking. Currently on creatingkeepsakes.com, Ali is on the home page as one of two featured scrapbookers. The page CK chose to feature is one we have on display here in the store, if you want to see the workmanship up close.

I've also been told that another one of our Design Team members, Amy Estes, is also about to be published! I'll have to hear all the details from her, then I'll pass along the good news. We are so lucky to have such a talented group of ladies making pages for display and teaching classes!

Last night, our Scrapbook Generation team participated in Relay For Life. It was a beautiful evening as far as weather, which was nice. We all rush around and lead busy lives, and when I'm hurrying around trying to get everything together to attend the event, I always wish I could just stay home and rest. Then when I get there, and just sit down and think about why we're involved in this remarkable event, I know that, tired or not, that is where I should be.

Our team raised over $1,200 this year, and that makes us very proud. It was a group effort, with Karin as our team captain. Thanks to Linda, Jennifer, Esther, Laura, Karen, Marti, David, Allison, and Stacey. The event is extra special to Linda, whose husband David is a cancer survivor, to Jennifer, who is a cancer survivor, and to Esther, who lost a husband to cancer. And as for the rest of us, I'm sure not one of us hasn't lost a family member or close friend. Attending Relay For Life is always a humbling event, and thanks to all of you who donated to help us in this effort.

I'm so glad that we finally have the Timeless Touches stitching templates back in stock at Scrapbook Generation. It's such a great product, and there are three new templates, including a script alphabet, a 12x12 set of circles, and a set of flourishes. This is in addition to the original templates, which include uppercase and lowercase alphabets, three border sets, several shape sets, and a corner set. We also have the multi-tool paper piercers and cork boards, plus just about every color of floss imaginable.

Last Thursday, Karin and I loaded up lots of scrapbooking stuff and hosted a booth at the Women's Expo at Mtn. Grove. SG Design Team member Candy Conner was on hand to help us (her day job is elementary principal at Mtn. Grove!) meet and greet lots of area ladies. I had told the organizers that I would do a program on scrapbooking during the event, but you can imagine my dismay when I arrived and found out that I was to follow belly dancing and bra-fitting! It's just a little hard to follow those two acts! And I'll have to admit that the three of us did have a little giggle session during the bra-fitting demonstration -- I'd never heard the word "nipple" repeated multiple times over a public address system before!

Changing the subject, you can see in an earlier post that we are now accepting deposits for our two fall retreats. We're excited about both locations, and hope very much that you can join us.

Scrapbook Generation is now accepting deposits for either of its two "marathon" scrapbooking weekend retreats this fall, in Branson Oct. 5-7, and in Eureka Springs, Arkansas Nov. 2-4.

The new retreat location in Branson is the Branson Inn, located near Silver Dollar City on Highway 76. It offers more room than our fall retreat last year. We will be returning to the same great location in Eureka Springs, Inn of the Ozarks, only two hours from Springfield.

Both locations offer huge crop rooms, but we are limiting enrollment to 50 scrappers at each site in order to continue to provide a quality experience, including themed decorations, favors, and homemade treats.

All-inclusive prices are $225 per person for four in a hotel room, $235 per person for three in a room, $245 per person for two in a room, and $285 for one in a room. The fee includes two nights lodging, all meals, snacks, and drinks, ample crop space, and use of a die-cut center.

Classes will be available for an additional charge, and both locations will feature at least three classes taught by Allison Davis, 2007 "Creating Keepsakes" Hall of Fame member.

Each person will receive a generous amount of scrapbooking products as prizes. And if you need more, we will have a store on-site where you can purchase cardstock, papers, adhesives, ribbons, embellishments, and more.

Last fall's retreat sold out prior to the deadline, so early registration is highly recommended. For either retreat, a $50 non-refundable deposit is due by June 22. You can pay at Scrapbook Generation or by phone.

Letters with class choices and contest categories will be mailed in July and August. The remaining balance and class fees are due August 15 for Branson, and September 15 for Eureka Springs.

To see photos of previous SG retreats, go to scrapbookgeneration.com. Click on "event photos," then click on individual galleries to see pictures and read testimonials from retreat paticipants. Those who have attended in the past have been overwhelmingly positive about their retreat experiences! Need more information? Call us at 417-886-0440.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by Friday and Saturday and helped Scrapbook Generation celebrate National Scrapbooking Day. We had a busy time with all of you who took advantage of our sale, and also with the ladies who came and cropped with us. We got a little silly during "Tropical Trivia," part of our luau-themed festivities, but that's to be expected!

Kodi Logan of Springfield is the winner of the $100 shopping spree, and Amy Egger of Springfield is the winner of four Midnight Madness crops. Congratulations!

We received three great new paper collections from Autumn Leaves this morning. There is a vintage-looking set, a primary-colored set, and a bright-colored set (French Twist), and each set has at least one paper which is die-cut around the edges. For example, the primary group has a paper cut in the shape of a large flower. The vintage set has a paper with a decorative die-cut border. In addition, French Twist has a matching set of chipboard journaling shapes, and the primary set has matching ribbon and the coolest huge plastic letters in red, blue, and yellow!

Also, from All My Memories we have one of the neatest storage items for small embellishments that I've ever seen. It's a black rack with 10 silver containers. Each of the containers has a clear top so you can see inside, and a varying number of compartments. What a great way to keep all the little stuff close at hand, in a stylish way!

Coming up at Scrapbook Generation:

-- The May 12 Free Saturday Seminar has only 5 spots left, so we are opening up a new section. Just call us at 886-0440 to register. We are going to work with stitching templates and learn how easy it is to add a bit of handstitching to a scrapbook page or card. The stitching templates from Timeless Touches, have arrived, and I'm hiding them in the office until Saturday, because every time we get them in they're gone before we know it! In addition to all the great alphabet templates, border and shape templates we've had before, they have three new ones: a script alphabet template, a 12x12 circle template, and a flourishes template.

National Scrapbooking Day is going Hawaiian at Scrapbook Generation today. In addition to lots of goodies on sale, we also have 18 scrapbookers attending a luau-themed crop today!

Just for today, we've added several items to our sale list:

-- BasicGrey tags, monograms, and mini-monos are 20% off;

-- BasicGrey papers in the Gypsy, Scarlet's Letters, and Stella Ruby collections are 20% off;

-- Deluxe Designs cardstock stickers 20% off, chipboard shapes 20% off, card colorblocking templates 20% off, idea books 30% off;

-- Heidi Swapp photo corners are 20% off;

-- Colorbox chalk inkpad in tangerine is 20% off;

-- Fill a bag of fibers for $1;

-- Precut tags and squares are buy one, get one free;

-- Lots of clearance items!

Because of the 12-hour crop, we'll be open until 10 p.m. tonight, if you want to do any late night shopping!