I wanted you to see this special mini-album that Laura Parks will be teaching Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 6 pm. She has created an album/storybook combination that can be read aloud to children to teach them the true meaning of Christmas. The inside pages will be pre-printed with a heartwarming story of traditional holiday colors, the Christmas tree, silver bells, candles, candy canes, and wreaths. There is also plenty of room to add photos of your family to these over-sized pages, in an album which will be sure to become a family keepsake.

The gang at Scrapbook Generation hopes that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Many of us have been reminded in the past week just how short life is. Despite the gloomy economy, quirky relatives, a few aches and pains, and lack of time to do all the things we want to do, we still have so very much to be thankful for.

Then after Thanksgiving, get fired up about Scrapbook Generation's fourth annual Day-After-Thanksgiving sale. Karin and I will be here to open the doors at 7 am on Friday, and we have the best promotion yet! The first 100 of you to spend at least $10 will get your choice of Daisy D's paper (6-12 sheets), stickers, die-cuts, and rub-ons sets in themes like Christmas, winter, Halloween, boy, girl, autumn, birthday, love, family, and more. These kits are a great deal, valued at $12.99!

In addition, everyone shopping with us on Friday gets 30% off any one item, and we have tons of great totes, albums, album kits, and other items that will make great gifts for someone special (which can ALWAYS mean yourself, too)! All Scrapbook Generation page kits for general sale will be 10% off on Friday, so you can stock up on those as well.

We've had several new items come in the last few days that I haven't told you about yet...
-- Paper Crafts Gourmet: this hard-back binder book features over 110 projects combining delicious and easy to make recipes with paper crafting projects -- it's filled with great gift-giving ideas;
-- Best Creations: a new company for us -- we have over 20 glitter papers in themes of fall, wedding, Christmas, winter, Easter, Fourth of July, beach, and more -- add a photo or two and you're done;
-- Daisy Bucket: another new company for us -- we have two double-sided paper collections, and they have the same linen-type texture as the Black Market Paper Society papers;
-- Various vendors: we re-stocked our food section with papers and embellishments from companies like Flair and American Crafts, for ease in creating recipe books to give as gifts this Christmas -- there's also a great recipe book by MBI which comes with dividers and recipe cards for a super quick gift idea!

Should be here today, or Monday at the latest...
-- Scenic Route: the new Christmas collection, Garland, plus we re-ordered the popular Christmas collection from last year.

Retreat reminder...
-- On Monday, Dec. 1, we open up registration for our two spring retreats to anyone who wants to attend. Until then, only those who attended this fall can enroll. If you want to make sure to get in the date you want, act quickly. Choices are the weekends of March 13 and March 20. To sign up, pay a non-refundable deposit of $50.

Tonight, we celebrated the life of Linda Hoover. During the service, to my complete surprise, the chaplain read aloud an excerpt from my blog post the day Linda died. I don't know how what I wrote came to his attention, but I'm glad that it did. I'm so honored that my tribute was used at her service.

It was also good to see so many ladies at the service who knew Linda through scrapbooking crops and classes. Some of us gathered at a local restaurant afterwards to laugh, cry, eat, and share stories of the spunky, outspoken, and faithful friend whom we all started missing the instant we heard she was gone.

Services for Linda Hoover will be held at the Meadors Funeral Home in Republic. The address is 314 N Main Ave, and the telephone number is 417-732-2535.

-- Visitation is 4-6 pm on Sunday. (This is a correction from earlier today.)
-- Funeral service is 7 pm on Monday.

Please feel free to call if you need more information. So many of you have already done so, and it's easy to see how many lives Linda touched.

Our hearts are broken today. The band of sisters that is Scrapbook Generation's core has a missing link. Linda Hoover, the fiesty pint-sized dynamo who loved scrapbooking and creating cards, died in a car crash last night.

Karin heard about the accident on the morning news, and she has already confirmed it with Linda's husband David. Her car was the only one involved, and they believe it is possible that she died of natural causes, possibly a blood clot, prior to the wreck.

Linda was at the store yesterday afternoon, taking our regular third-Thursday-of-the-month Anna Griffin class. She came in early with a bag of McDonald's burgers and fries in one hand and a hot fudge sundae in the other and settled into the classroom area like it was her home -- which it was.

I met Linda before we opened our store. To get a feel for what was being offered, I attended crops at two other stores, and at both, Linda and I were seated at the same tables. I wasn't surprised when she was one of the first ladies to walk through the door the first day we opened in October, 2004. And the rest is history. She became a fixture at our retreats and Midnight Madness crops and at classes of every kind. And more than that, along the way she became a dear friend. Loyal, encouraging, supportive. So interested and concerned about others. A former nurse who listened to all our medical problems. A genuinely nice person who loved to tickle Drew and Jackson until they laughed out loud. A kind-hearted soul who had more medical problems than she could count, but who never complained.

Today is going to be hard. So will the next days and weeks and months. And not just on us, but on the many of you who knew Linda through this bonding experience we call scrapbooking. As we say so many times in our lives, I can't believe she's gone.

Scrapbook Generation's December/January newsletter will reach you some time next week, but I wanted to give you a heads-up about a new Saturday class we are starting December 6. I explained the concept to the people at our classes last Saturday, and many of them have already signed up, so I thought I should give our faithful blog readers an early chance to beat the sign-up rush as well!

Just because the economy is gloomy doesn't mean that people have to give up their favorite hobby! I've always believed that beautiful pages can be made using a few papers and embellishments, and here at Scrapbook Generation, we're ready to show you how.

"Super-Saver Scrapbooking" is the latest addition to our popular free Saturday classes. Here's how the new free class works. We'll design THREE 12x12 double-page layouts using 6-7 sheets of cardstock, 3-4 sheets of coordinating patterned paper, 1 sheet of letter stickers, and a few embellishments like jewels, brads, buttons, and ribbon. We'll put together packets of the supplies. When you register for the free class, just pre-pay $9 (plus tax) to cover the cost of your materials (unlike sketch sessions, substitutions in papers will not be available -- and I've promised to stay away from pinks and other colors that would limit the topic to a specific gender!)

Using our classic designs, you'll be able to create THREE photo-ready double-page layouts in less than an hour and a half, all for under $10!

The times will be the same as sketch session times -- 10, 11:30, 1, or 2:30. To sign up, just stop by the store, or call us. Remember that this new free class requires pre-payment of $9 plus tax to cover the cost of your materials.

We have lots of new goodies at Scrapbook Generation this week!

-- Doodlebug: a new style of letters (not pictured) called Shindig, in both glitter alphabets and flocked alphabets -- really cute!

-- KI Memories: tons of stuff, including five collections of Love, Elsie (sports, camping, home, pet, and Christmas), plus the Pop Culture collection of bright papers and Taglines (matching journaling quiz-type blocks -- very fun!), and nine colors of "Cookie Cutter" cardstock alphabet stickers;
-- K & Company: new and stylish Amy Butler totes;

-- Cropper Hopper: vertical paper organizers and extremely practical bins to store stickers;

-- Crafter's Workshop: a variety of both 6x6 and 12x12 templates, including some letter sets - all will be great for inks, paint, pen, even for use as stitching templates!

Normally I don't have my Saturday Seminar pages done before midnight Friday night, but since I'm really, really early this weekend, I thought I'd show you the simple and easy paper piecing pattern page we are doing tomorrow. We're going to accent the paper piecing with a small amount of stitching, and end up with a super-cute accent that is relatively quick and easy.

As always, the Saturday Seminars are totally free. You'll make a 6x6 double-page spread like the one pictured. If you aren't already signed up, you can still join us! A couple of the sessions are already closed, but there is room for a few more in the classes at 10, 1, and 3. We'd love to have you join us.

Wow! The papers and die-cuts arrived from Graphic 45, and they are totally different than anything we've ever had! Gorgeous double-sided vintage papers and matching die-cuts -- truly stunning items that will make great scrapbook pages. I also think that many of the papers lend themselves to cutting out images to use on cards.

Top photo: Times Noveau -- images of fashion, clocks, typewriters keys, even Route 66;

Middle photo: Playtime -- images of toy catalogs, dominoes, trains, toy soldiers, paper dolls, and even tinker toys;

Bottom photo: Botanical -- images of butterflies, fruits, sea life, dragonflies, flowers, and music.

Are you ready to go "Girl Crazy?" I have the sample done for my new Girl Crazy Page Kit Club at Scrapbook Generation, and you can see the real page when you stop by the store. This club starts January 1, and we are currently in the process of taking registrations. So that we know how many kits to prepare, we are urging people to sign up by Dec. 15 if at all possible. The billing of $14.99 doesn't take place until January 1! (If you want to see the Boy Crazy page kit for January, just go to Allison's blog -- allisonrdavis.blogspot.com).

With three page and card clubs, it was easy to do money-saving combo pricing by listing all the possible combinations. All you math students know that when you try to do that with five items, it gets crazy. Here's how we plan to make it easier on everyone now that we will have five page and card kit clubs!

You will pay full price for the first club. Any additional clubs are as follows...

-- pay only $10 for every additional $12.99 page or card club;

-- pay only $12 for every additional $14.99 page or card club.

Trust me, that's much easier than a list of zillions of combinations!

Stacey hasn't had time to add this to the website yet, but I wanted you to see the three cards she will be teaching in her Creative Cards class this month. I love the monochromatic concept, and she uses glitter, glimmer mist and jewels, paint and a pearl glaze and buttons on the three unique snowflakes. Two of the cards also have that cool new tulle by Bazzill, in just the right width for cards and pages. Stacey's card class Wednesday at 2 pm has only two spots left, but you can also take the class on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 6 pm.

Also, check out scrapbookgeneration.com for a picture of Ali's "just in case" mini-album, offered Thursday at 6 pm, and also on Monday, Nov. 17 at 2 pm. This would make an awesome Christmas gift! She taught the same class at our retreats, and everyone loved the project, and the idea of writing letters to the important people in your life, and having a great place to store those letters. What a family keepsake today, and 50 years from now!

Other miscellaneous info...
-- The Midnight Madness crop this Friday is sold out, but we always have a waiting list for last minute changes. If you want to be added to that, please call quickly.
-- Saturday, I'll be teaching paper piecing in our free Saturday Seminars. You can attend at 10, 11, 1, 2, or 3, and make a 6x6 double-page layout (or card) for FREE! We provide everything! Just call to sign up.
-- During November, we are allowing those who attended one of our fall retreats to sign up for the spring retreats (weekends of March 13 and March 20.) We are accepting $50 non-refundable deposits from them now. Starting Dec. 1, others can sign up for any remaining spots. (A word to the wise. If you want to attend the March 20 retreat, you should act fast. It is filling up quickly!)
-- Later this week, we are expecting a shipment of papers from a new company called Graphic 45. If I remember right, one group is a rather unique vintage-type assortment.
-- Also later this week, we're getting a large shipment of new styles of totes and storage solutions from a variety of vendors.
-- We've had many inquiries about "Sketches For Scrapbooking" Volume Three. It will go on sale January 1!
-- I'm working on the December/January newsletter right now, and it will contain several surprises!

I wanted to share the only "good" layout I completed at the Arkansas retreat my friend Hazel and I attended this past weekend! From about 5 pm on Friday until after 10 pm on Saturday, we worked on making ugly pages! That translates to mean that we worked on albums for a cruise we had taken almost three years ago, and we spent that whole time sticking hundreds of photos on pages with just a few strips of paper as accents. (Later, I'll do tons of computer journaling about the trip and add to the pages.)

Anyway, my normal method of operation is to complete about 4-5 layouts at a retreat, so semi-completing between 40-50 layouts was quite a change. I used over 150 feet of adhesive runners. I ran out of what I had taken and had to buy some at the retreat. How sad is that -- to own a store and have to buy adhesive from someone else!

We had a good time and got lots of pages done, but this retreat was the polar opposite of the ones we host. There was no theme, no decorations, no beverages except water, no snacks except a small bag at your table, no contests, and no games! The ladies who hosted it were very nice, and they obviously just had a different concept of what a retreat should be like.

This has been an unusually long time for me to go without blogging! After all the mega-activities of October, it's been nice to slow down just a bit. I even managed to stay home a couple of days this week and spend some much-needed time cleaning and straightening up my scrap area. Then once I had everything put away where it belonged, I started getting it all out again! My friend Hazel and I are going to a new retreat this weekend, and I needed to gather up the supplies I want to take.

This will be a new retreat for us. The one we've been going to twice a year for probably at least three years, was at the Lake of the Ozarks. The lady who hosted it decided to retire and devote more time to her grandchildren. It was always an awesome getaway, and I've stolen all her good ideas and used them at Scrapbook Generation's retreats! The best thing, of course, is that we met our phenomenal caterer while at these retreats.

The new retreat is in Rogers, Arkansas, which is about two hours from Springfield, a little bit farther than we would have liked to travel. It's in a huge John Q. Hammons hotel, and I can already tell that the retreat organizers are dealing with some of the things you run into when you work with that kind of facility -- one of the worst of which is not being able to bring in your own snacks and drinks. Of course, the hotel requires you to buy their cans of pop for $1 or more each -- and who wants to do that! I'm not sure if they decorate, or have a theme, or anything like that. We leave Friday morning, and I'll soon find out!

While I'm gone, SG card-expert Stacey will be taking over the free cardmaking sessions on Saturday. We've designed a great card using a Christmas collection by Crate Paper. The card features a tag tucked in a pocket on the front! Your cost for the sessions will be less than $4, and you'll be able to make as many as six cards, plus take home a cool sketch! We've used the sketch for a Christmas card, but it could be a birthday card, a sympathy card, a thank you card, or just about any topic you would need. If you want to attend one of the four sessions and aren't signed up yet, just call 417-886-0440 and we'll find you a spot!

New at Scrapbook Generation...
-- more cute packs of flowers by Petaloo;
Arriving Friday...
-- about 20 more double-sided papers by KaiserCraft;
-- plenty of creamy browns and chestnut roans (I've been in the doghouse for letting us run out!).