I wanted to let you know that 19 new sets of acrylic clear stamps will be arriving just in time for Scrapbook Generation's free Saturday Seminars on July 7. Sessions are available at 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, and 3, and we'll be making a 6x6 double-page layout using stamps by Autumn Leaves and Sassafras Lass.

I can't wait to see the stamp sets, which include alphabets, lots of swirls and scrolls, flower shapes, journaling blocks and more. Many of the sets are Rhonna Farrer designs, and she's one of my favorites! If you aren't already signed up, just call us at 886-0440!

For all you travelers visiting tropical paradises this summer, Scrapbook Generation just received four albums perfect for you by Pioneer. The four covers include palm trees, hibiscus flowers, tropical drinks, and a collage of pineapples, palm trees, and orchids.

I haven't written much this week because I've been at home the past two days working in the SG "kit factory." As we continue to add members to each of the kit clubs each month, that means more for us to cut and assemble! However, we've taken a deep breath and decided to "go big." The kit clubs and the album clubs have been so popular with Springfield area residents and also with travelers, that we're taking a new step toward reaching a broader audience.

In the August/September issue of "Simple Scrapbooks," out sometime the end of July, you'll find a Scrapbook Generation ad! The magazine regularly has a kit club section, and we'll be part of it! Stacey designed the ad, and is hard at work redesigning our website to present our kit clubs in the best way possible. We have no idea what kind of response to expect. Could be nothing, or could be something crazy like you see in TV commercials where some obscure business finally gets ready to sell online and then gets so many orders they are impossible to fill! We're hoping for something inbetween!

I mentioned our new page kit club in the last post, and I think it's going to be very popular. CK Hall of Famer Allison Davis is going to design the kit each month, and it will not only feature her unique style, but it will also often include additional items like rub-ons or stickers or chipboard. The first kit will be available August 1, and we're ready to start signing people up! We've titled the new creation Allison's Hall of Fame Page Kit Club. The price will be $14.99 per month, and combination plans are available for the Generation Page Kit Club, Generation Card Kit Club, and Allison's Hall of Fame Page Kit Club. We're offering special money-saving prices for any combination of two clubs, and also for all three clubs.

Individual Prices:
-- Generation Page Kit Club: $12.99 plus tax
-- Generation Card Kit Club: $12.99 plus tax
-- Allison's Hall of Fame Page Kit Club: $14.99 plus tax

Combination Prices:
-- Generation Page Kit Club and Generation Card Kit Club: $22.99 plus tax
-- Generation Page Kit Club and Allison's Hall of Fame Page Kit Club: $24.99 plus tax
-- Generation Card Kit Club and Allison's Hall of Fame Page Kit Club: $24.99 plus tax
-- All three clubs: $35.99 plus tax

To enroll in Allison's new page kit club, stop by Scrapbook Generation, email us at scrapbookgen@sbcglobal.net, or give us a call at 417-886-0440.

Here is a photo of the Prima flowers that came in yesterday, and I'm also posting a picture of our kit wall, so that you can see how busy I've been the past couple of weeks trying to get it full again!

Also, early next week we'll have an announcement about an exciting addition to our monthly kit clubs. We're planning to offer a new page kit choice, and Allison Davis, our resident Hall of Famer, will be the designer. We're talking through the details right now, and I think her page kits will be a great compliment to what we already have available. The rough plan is for me to continue with the current kits which are season, holiday, or theme oriented, and for Ali's kits to be general in nature, suitable for multiple occasions or themes. Her kits will feature her own signature style, and will be available beginning August 1, if all goes according to plan.

Also new on Friday, Scrapbook Generation now has the 12x12 "Perfect Scrapbook" by Colorbok in nine colors, including willowware, whipped blueberry, raspberry sorbet, denim, plum, dark chocolate, juneberry, green apple, and lavender.

And from Prima, 12 new flower assortments, all with patterned flowers, like dots, gingham, and more. Some of the packages have the huge flowers most of us love! I'll post a picture as soon as I can.

A new supply of Timeless Touches stitching templates just arrived at Scrapbook Generation! Templates include Fiber Friend, Corners, Elegance Borders, Classic Alphabet Uppercase, Classic Alphabet Lowercase, Script Alphabet Lowercase, Flourishes, Hearts, Stars, Daisies, 12x12 Circles, and the new Script Alphabet Uppercase.

Yesterday, Scrapbook Generation received a shipment of 17 sports papers from Scrappin' Sports. There are new styles for basketball, softball, baseball, football, volleyball, soccer, and golf!

We did it! It took us just over five hours to get everything sorted, computerized, priced, and displayed, but then we just stood back and said "Wow!"

The largest single order we've received since opening arrived at Scrapbook Generation today, and we have close to every single new item that K & Company came out with this spring. The pictures won't do the products justice, but at least you'll be able to see the magnitude of the assortments.

Here's what is now available:

-- Bailey collection

-- McKenna collection
-- Wedding collection

-- Small Wonders baby girl and baby boy collections

-- School and graduation and sports collection (includes a metal locker album!)

-- Hopscotch Girl collection

-- Hopscotch Boy collection

-- Sparkly Sweet collection

-- Roam travel collection

-- Happy Trails travel collection

-- Girl Scouts collection

Allison had a great turnout for her first Hall of Fame layout series at Scrapbook Generation tonight, with 11 people signed up. The class project is typical Ali-style, with stitching and swirls, yet the focus still remains on the story told by the photos.

I had fun last night taking a class taught by Marti Blattert. We made red, white, and blue star banners to decorate our homes for the Fourth of July. That's always been one of my favorite color combinations. (Don't laugh, but in the early 70s my bedroom in my first home had red, white, and blue shag carpet, and my bedroom furniture was purchased for $75 at an auction and "antiqued" red! I thought I had achieved the ultimate in home decor!)

Anyway, you might consider joining us for a class sometime. We learn new skills, new techniques, and just generally have a good time creating something beautiful.

K & Company is here! Stacey and Karin and I are unloading the 10 boxes as quickly as we can, and we should have the 12 new collections out in a few hours! You won't believe how many beautiful albums, papers, chipboard sets, rub-ons, stickers, and other goodies unless you see them for yourself!

We're in the middle of four sketch sessions today at Scrapbook Generation, and "sketch session Saturday" has quickly become my favorite day of the month. I've got everyone fooled into thinking that I'm creating these sketches for them, but I'm actually doing them for myself! As time goes by, I find myself leaning more and more toward creating my pages using a sketch, and I've never been happier with my scrapbooking -- no stress, just fun. I know that I'm going to have a great-looking page when I finish, and the only "work" is what most of us consider the fun part -- picking out the papers and other goodies.

Today's four sessions are full, with over 40 ladies signed up. The papers I chose to use in my model have been popular today -- every single person so far has used them. The background cardstock is a soft harvest gold, and the three patterned papers are from the rustic-looking Halfway Cafe collection by Cosmo Cricket.

We'll continue to offer a sketch Saturday once a month, and by popular demand, the June and July sketch sessions will be repeated on Thursdays in August and September.

Hate to tell you this, but the K & Company goodies did not arrive today. The latest word is that the stuff will ship today or Monday. Since it's a Missouri company, we hope that the ship time will be just one day.

I have managed to do something I've struggled with finding time for the past few months. I've completed several Sweet & Simple kits, including the topics of baby boy, baby girl, family, and more. Our Sweet & Simple kits are priced at just $9.99.

Today is kind of a sad day for our family. My cousin Leslie and her husband have owned a cross stitch and framing store in Bolivar for the past 20 years, and today is their last day in business. Some of you know that my cousin Monica, Leslie's older sister, has been paralyzed from the neck down since last September. Since that time, Leslie has been at her sister's side, first in the hospital in Little Rock, and currently at the rehabilitation center in Denver. The only time Leslie has been back home was in November for her mother's funeral (their mother died of cancer just a few weeks after Monica was paralyzed).

Leslie's husband Bob remained in Bolivar and has been running the store. At first, the plan was for Monica to come live with them in Bolivar, but plans evolved to them closing the business and moving to North Little Rock to Monica's home. Monica, a former Southern Baptist missionary to Africa and the director of the Arkansas WMU (Women's Missionary Union) when she was stricken, has a wonderful church family at Park Hill Baptist, and they are busy preparing her home to meet her new needs.

We've just been open for less than three years, and I can't imagine having to close -- for any reason! We've met so many people whom I now feel I can claim as friends, not just customers. And many of those people consider us their home away from home. After 20 years, just imagine how Leslie's customers must feel! She always had a full schedule of classes, did spring and fall retreats, and even sponsored two cruises (I was lucky enough to go on both)! I know all those activities will be missed!

This has been a fun week! Today, Scrapbook Generation received a shipment of patriotic papers, stickers, and rub-ons from Moxxie. If red, white and blue catches your eye, you'll love this bright, fun assortment.

On another topic, what a great class Design Team member Laura Parks had last night! She had 12 people signed up for her "summer fun" layout, complete with chipboard flip-flops. Everyone seemed to love their completed projects.

A great assortment of page accents arrived at Scrapbook Generation today from Meri Meri, one of our favorite companies. There are 20 different embellishments, in the following themes: Noah's ark, karate, ballerina, pink castle, baby, pregnancy, graduation, birthday, grandma, grandpa, and Easter.

The patriotic collection from Moxxie should arrive Wednesday, and I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas when it comes to the huge K & Company order that's arriving sometime this week. I can't wait!

Scrapbook Generation had a special guest today -- Shannon Liu, one of the 2007 Creating Keepsakes Hall of Famers, stopped by the store to check us out! Shannon has been corresponding with Allison about Hall of Fame stuff, and since her family was vacationing in Branson, she drove up from there to visit SG. She said that this was her first time to enter the contest, and like Ali, winning still seems like a dream.

Branson and Eureka Springs retreats:
A reminder that we are trying to get everyone's deposits by Friday, June 22. We've had great fun at our three previous retreats, and hope you can join us for a weekend away from your normal routine. If you want to see pics and read testimonials about previous retreats, go to our website, scrapbookgeneration.com, for lots of information.

We had great fun at Scrapbook Generation today at our free Cover With Paint, Part Two classes. We used patriotic colors of red, white, and blue, along with cute Doodlebug papers, to learn three techniques to jazz up foam stamp letters.

I also wanted to give everyone a heads-up on what new products should be coming in the week of June 11 (Drew's second birthday, by the way!). We'll be getting a collection of 12 patriotic papers and matching stickers and rub-ons from Moxxie, but the biggest news is K & Company. The largest single order I've ever done with a company at any one time will be arriving, hopefully by Friday at the latest. If memory serves, there are 12 new collections (Bailey, McKenna, Small Wonders, Wedding, Sparkly Sweet, Hopscotch Girl, Hopscotch Boy, Roam, Happy Trails, Girl Scouts, School Memories, and Pets) including over 150 papers, 17 different albums, and all the good stuff that matches, like stickers, die-cuts, rub-ons, chipboard letters, and more. I'll admit that I got carried away, but it was all too cute to miss out on!

We got a ton of new stuff today at Scrapbook Generation. Here's a partial list...

-- Doodlebug -- lots of matching red, white, and blue, including paper frills, flowers, brads, eyelets, buttons, papers, and best of all, their new glitter cardstock;

-- Various companies -- a great assortment of Fourth of July embellishments;

-- Cosmo Cricket -- the Halfway Cafe collection of papers, which also work great for the Fourth of July holiday;

-- American Traditional Designs -- two super paper collections, one for food/recipes and the other for tropical travel;

-- Prima -- the new "frosty flowers," and new assortments in cute round jars;

-- KI Memories -- new collections for baby boy and baby girl, complete with papers, chipboard alphas and shapes, felt shapes, two ribbon sets, rub-ons, and stickers;

-- 7 Gypsies -- a beautiful set of tropical flowery papers in yellows, corals, and blues.

I also included a photo of the new Paper House travel papers -- classy!

When my sister Karin is at Scrapbook Generation by herself and has a big story to tell me when I return the next day, I often accuse her of making stuff up. This time, she has proof! The shrubs in front of the store are surrounded by mulch, and we often see people throwing down their cigarettes before heading inside a neighboring business. Several times in the past, customers have come in and told us that the mulch was smoldering, and we've gone out and doused the area with water and all was well. This time, the shrub exploded into flames, and Karin had to call the fire department! As you can see, what's left is pretty pitiful. Never a dull day at Scrapbook Generation!

It's going to be a busy week around Scrapbook Generation! As usual, we have several classes, including a Father's Day card with Amy Estes Tuesday night and DAD wood letters with Stacey Arnall Wednesday.

Thursday, I'm doing a repeat of the April sketch sessions. The sketch sessions have proved to be very popular, and I think they may actually be one of my best ideas. I love using a sketch to make my scrapbook pages, and it's fun to share that with others. I think many of you are finding out that it takes the stress out of making a page. We have sessions scheduled at 11, 2, and 6, and there is plenty of room for more of you to attend. You can choose to use the papers I've selected, or you can choose to work with other papers and make your own signature creations. If you would like to find out what using a sketch is all about, just give us a call to register!

Friday night, we have a special Midnight Madness crop just for those who are enrolled in the Remember Me Club. It'll be a great way to get caught up, get ideas from others, and make new friends. Again, just call us to register.

Then Saturday, we'll be hosting the free Saturday Seminars, and this time the topic is Cover with Paint, Part Two. I'll be sharing some ways to jazz up title letters made using foam stamps and acrylic paint. Call 886-0440 to register. A couple of time slots are full, but there is room for more in several sessions.

Just wanted to let you know that we have a full supply of "raw" chipboard again -- every item BasicGrey has to offer, plus Heidi Swapp, American Crafts "Thickers," Cosmo Cricket's Buck Naked line, and more. We also received a new supply of chalk ink, so you should be able to find just about any color you want.

For all you travelers, we also received over 20 papers by Paper House, and I think they're the nicest travel papers we've had. The pages feature photos of favorite monuments/buildings/etc., not in an overpowering way, but in a tasteful and classy way. Pages include the Coliseum, Mt. Rushmore, the Washington Monument, a Japanese pagoda, a roulette wheel, poker chips, Elvis in concert, Times Square, the Lincoln Memorial, a Celtic cross, the London Underground, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty, the US Capitol, and much more!

The shipment also included 21 sets of cardstock stickers for Hawaii, San Francisco, Washington DC, New Orleans, Canada, Alaska, London, Paris, Mexico, Tuscany, Florida, Ireland, Las Vegas, Australia, Texas, and New York. New ones include Germany, Japan, Rome, South Dakota (for all you Harley/Sturgis fans!), and Elvis.