As of this morning, both of Scrapbook Generation's Branson retreats this October are full! However, we will start a waiting list for both retreats, in case someone has to cancel.

Also, the Scrap Pink crop on Friday, September 26 only has six spots left. If you want to attend this worthwhile event, which benefits the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation, you need to move fast! I'll blog more about all of our Scrap Pink activities at a later date. We have lots of fun things planned.

Today was a great day for new stuff at Scrapbook Generation!

-- K & Company's Blue Awning and Sea Glass groups, with papers and tons of fun matching embellishments and albums;
-- Scrappin' Sports' new school collection of papers and cute matching cardstock stickers (our first CHA order to arrive!);
-- the Hello Sunshine collection of bright and playful papers and cut-outs from Cosmo Cricket.

Arriving Thursday...
-- a new collection called Timeless by Sharon Ann of Deja Views -- lots of papers and coordinating embellishments;
-- acrylic stamp sets by Bo-Bunny, Autumn Leaves, and several other companies.

Two new groups by Cloud 9 arrived at Scrapbook Generation today. Cocoa and Cinnamon Stick are both beautiful, and Cloud 9 is the manufacturer who produces the great glitter paper that almost looks like glitter set in epoxy.

Wednesday arrivals:

-- Two huge collections by K & Company -- Sea Glass and Blue Awning

-- From Scrappin' Sports -- school papers and stickers for every grade, glitter papers for girls' sports, and other new sports papers.

It's possible that the Black Market Paper Society shipment will arrive by Friday!

Just wanted to let everyone know that all of Scrapbook Generation's August classes are now posted at scrapbookgeneration.com, and the models are here at the store for you to view. Most of you should also have received your August/September newsletter by now, and I hope you've had time to check out all the fun activities coming up.

August classes:
We lost a wonderful teacher, Sarah Gillespie, to conflicts with a "real" job, but hope she can join us again sometime in the future. To help fill the gap, Laura Parks is back after her "summer vacation" with her guys, and Allison Davis is back after the birth of her second son, Jackson.

We have some really great classes coming up, and I've just been thinking about what a wide variety of styles are represented in the layout classes. Allison brings her trademark stitching to her selections, Marti Blattert has a too-cute page about the clever (and probably embarrassing) things our children say, and I've added a fluffy/glittery touch with my flip-flop layout. Stacey Atchley, our card expert, is trying out a new page series in which she uses three patterned papers and one set of embellishments to create two great layouts, hence the name, 3-2-1 layouts! Her style is totally different from anything else offered! This month's Anna Griffin class is also one of my favorites, with a beautiful two-page layout and a matching mini-album.

In addition to the layout classes, Marti and Laura both have extra cute mini-album classes this month -- just pick your season, summer or Christmas! And if you've heard of paper bag mini-albums, how about paper bag cards -- a great idea Stacey has come up with for her creative cards classes.

Stacey keeps tweaking the website to make it easier for you to use, and she has color-coded the calendar so that crops, classes, and free seminars are easy to spot. She's also added links from the calendar to individual pages on the website.

Finally! Here are some photos from CHA in Chicago. Almost everything you see in these pictures has already been ordered for Scrapbook Generation!

On the subject of retreats, we have only one "official" spot left in Scrapbook Generation's Oct. 24-26 retreat, but should be able to take a group of two. For the Oct. 3-5 retreat, we have only three spots, but would also try to accommodate two groups of two or one group of four!

The retreats will be here before you know it! We're trying to get class projects posted on the website by August 1, and information letters will be mailed out the first week of August to those registered for the retreats.

Karin and I arrived back in Springfield last night after three long but fun days at the CHA summer show in Chicago. One of the neatest things was the chance to talk to Ali Edwards, who had nice things to say about MY Ali! (The two had met a few months ago at the Scrapbooker of the Year ceremonies in Las Vegas.)

We're tired, but excited about all the new and innovative things we will be bringing to Springfield as quickly as possible. I'll post photos later this evening when I have a chance to get in the office for a while!

Some of the new items will be arriving as early as next week, while others will arrive in the fall months. As much as I would like it, we can't get it all at once!

Following is a list of things that should be here fairly quickly (July and August).
-- Colorbok: a huge assortment of 8x8 and 12x12 albums;
-- Black Market Paper Society: six collections of stunning papers and die-cuts;
-- Reminisce: school papers, cardstock stickers, and three-dimensional stickers;
-- Bazzill: new die-cut border sets in six colors, new stitching templates, and rolls of 3" wide tulle (a great new embellishment for cards or for pages);
-- Scrappin' Sports: glitter papers for several girls' sports, school papers and stickers;
-- Creative Imaginations: several general school papers and matching embellishments;
-- KI Memories: a cute school group with ribbons and other matching goodies;
-- Colorbok: 12x12 sets of 26 sheets of alphabet chipboard (including a HUGE letter and about 10 more of each letter per sheet);
-- My Mind's Eye: Everything! Laundry Line, Just Dreamy, Halloween and Christmas collections, plus glitter chipboard letters, individual clear stamps, matching chalk inks, and all the myriad of matching embellishments and die-cuts they are famous for;
-- Little Yellow Bicycle: an absolutely fabulous Halloween collection;
-- Scenic Route: new collections (I've forgotten the names);
-- Rusty Pickle: a Halloween collection and several great 12x12 chipboard sets.

Inbetween all the above, there will be general papers from some new finds (Pink Paislee, GCD Studios, Piggy Tales, Kaiser, and others) and some old favorites (BasicGrey, Crate Paper, Anna Griffin, K & Company, and more). And don't even get me started about what will get here in September and October!

Greetings (again!) from Chicago! Karin and I have nearly completed our second day of checking out all the new offerings by hundreds of companies at the CHA summer show. Great things from today include the following...

-- Chatterbox is back! After being gone from the scene for a while, this old favorite has come back with one of the show's most stunning offerings, at least in my opinion. They have two sizes of wire-bound mini-albums, in seven color groups. All albums have velvet flocked designs on the covers, and no two are alike! Inside, the chipboard pages are the same color as the covers, but instead of flocking, they have embossed designs, again, no two alike. To match each color group, there are awesome papers, sets of embellishments (with cool things like glittered buttons, jewels, and more), ribbons, and more. These will make the nicest gift albums you've ever seen!

-- My Mind's Eye, one of our perennial favorites, has hit a home run again. We just ordered EVERYTHING, and it will arrive mid-August. A new collection called Laundry Line has glittered papers and matching single acrylic stamps, there are several smaller collections, and this time they have a Halloween group. Nice extras, glitter chipboard letter sets in buckets, and sets of chalk ink that coordinate with all the new paper groups.

-- Little Yellow Bicycle has several great groups that Karin and I have just fallen in love with! They have huge Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's groups that include some of the most innovative embellishments we've seen at the show! Think acrylic shapes, acrylic borders, glitter everything, felt titles, and just more cute stuff than you can imagine.

This is only a small part of the wonderful things we've seen, but I wanted to stop just a little while and let you know what will be arriving soon at Scrapbook Generation. We've already placed lots of orders, and will spend this evening going over more catalogs and making sure we offer you the very best that the scrapbooking world has to offer. Talk to you tomorrow!

Greetings from Chicago! Karin and I have been busy all day walking and looking at all the great new products at the CHA summer show. We're tired, but also having lots of fun.

I'm always looking for new companies to add to our product mix at Scrapbook Generation, and two that caught my eye today are Black Market Paper Society and Pink Paislee.

Black Market Paper Society has six beautiful paper lines. The papers are double-sided and have a wonderful light texture, and have matching die-cut sheets. I've already ordered everything that this brand new company produces, and the shipping is supposed to be immediate. We might have these new goodies within two weeks!

Pink Paislee has several attractive paper collections (some of which are pink, as you might imagine!) and something they call "pixie sticks." These are 15 colors of glitter in narrow tubes that are perfect for sprinkling a touch of glitz on a page or card!

There are many other companies that have impressive new products, and I'll tell you more about them tomorrow after I go through catalogs and make notes. One trend that is easy to spot is "embellished paper," for lack of a better term. It's hard to find "normal" papers, at least it seems that way! Many, many papers have velvet flocking, foil accents, or glitter accents, and double-sided papers seem very popular.

Anyway, tonight we'll be writing out orders to deliver to vendors tomorrow, then the process starts all over -- get more catalogs, write more orders! I'll check in with you again on Saturday.

Karin and I are just about ready to head out the door for the CHA (Craft and Hobby Assocation) summer show in Chicago. This will be the fifth summer show we have attended, and it's always exciting just anticipating all the great new products we will see.

Themes usually introduced at this show are school, Halloween, fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, and Valentine's Day! I can't wait!

I should be able to blog from Chicago Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and give you some of my favorite picks of the day. Karin and I will be home late Monday, and I'll be able to post photos of the best of the best!

Stop in and see Stacey while we're gone. We just got some great new clear stamps by Hero Arts, and one of the styles sold out by the end of the day!

New at Scrapbook Generation...

-- cool large swirl, wave, punctuation, and photo corner punches;

-- bright ribbon sets and eyelet brads by Pebbles;

-- an assortment of chipboard shapes and chipboard mini-books by Magistical Memories;

-- 12x12 doodling, inking, cutting, whatever (!) templates by Crafter's Workshop;

-- more summer papers and embellishments by a variety of companies.

New goodies today at Scrapbook Generation...

-- over 80 double-sided papers from Reminisce, most with matching cardstock stickers...topics include most sports, major travel destinations, and miscellaneous categories like tooth fairy, trains, amusement parks, dog, cat, farm, hunting, birthdays, and more!

-- three tropical/beachy/cruise travel groups of papers and stickers from Reminisce.

-- several overlays by Hambly Screen Prints.

-- the Appleton school group by Scenic Route.

I wanted to let all of you know that Scrapbook Generation just received about 20 of K & Company's awesome 12x24 frames. I did a special order for someone a couple of weeks ago and found out when I talked to my sales rep that with an upcoming move of K & Company's warehouse from Kansas City to Chicago later this summer, the frames will be discontinued. I was really sorry to hear that, because I love them myself! A two-page layout fits in the frame just perfectly, and the plastic "lip" allows some depth without flattening out any embellishments.

So for myself and for those you who might want to stock up as well, I ordered some of every style that she told me was still available. The frames arrived yesterday, and we have black, mahogany, and several cream-colored styles. When they're gone, we won't be able to order more, so if you are interested, stop by and check them out!

Just a few photos and a quick reminder about Scrapbook Generation's Class Kit and Model Sale, starting tomorrow. We are selling our completed models and samples from classes and kits, have spent the entire day getting everything ready, and even bagged up piles and piles of scrap paper to sell.