Here's a sneak peek at the three layouts we'll be making during our Super Saver Scrapbooking sessions this Saturday at Scrapbook Generation. We'll be using double-sided papers by Scenic Route, and letter stickers by Doodlebug. Your cost for everything? Only $9! And you get three great sketches you can use over and over! We have over 50 people already signed up, and the 1 pm session is full, but we do have the following openings: room for one at 10 am, room for one at 11:30 am, and room for two at 2:30 pm.

New product updates:

-- My Mind's Eye: All the new collections will be here Monday! As a VIP retailer for MME, we're getting priority shipping and will be among the first stores in the nation to receive this wonderful stuff. There are general themes, plus two Christmas collections and two Halloween collections. I can't wait!

-- Creative Imaginations: A large shipment of new items will arrive Thursday.

-- Graphic 45: All three of this popular company's new vintage lines are ordered and will soon be on the way. I'll update you as I know more info.

-- BoBunny: Every item of all seven of the new collections is ordered and should be shipping soon!

We're so fortunate to have Amy Wissbaum designing pages for us to display at Scrapbook Generation! Looking at the latest three pages she has shared with us, it's obvious how talented she is. Many of you who attend our retreats might have met Amy, who is a perennial winner in our layout contests there. Amy often creates single page layouts, which is a nice addition to the work of the rest of us two-pagers! I'm especially fond of the red, white, and blue layout made from Jenni Bowlin products. I have all those goodies, but I wasn't quite sure how to put them all together. I'm probably going to scraplift Amy's layout, which I hope she takes as a compliment!

Karin has brought in another great layout to display! She used one of our sketches, and altered it to fit her pictures, which is the whole idea. She also was really creative with Stickles glitter glue, using one of the 12x12 Crafters Workshop templates to first create the circle pattern.

Are you up for a challenge?
Now that most of you have received your August-September newsletters in the mail, I want to elaborate on a new venture for Scrapbook Generation I'm personally looking forward to hosting and participating in...Designers Challenge Club!

I'm pretty sure that we've all seen articles in the scrapbooking magazines where a few people are given the same supplies and then challenged to come up with creative projects using just those few supplies. It's always fun for me to see how different people using the same papers and embellishments manage to come up with totally unique layouts or cards.

Recently, Stacey and Allison and I participated in something that was essentially the same. I'll tell you more about it later, but we were each given the same packet of supplies and asked to make samples for a scrapbook company to display at its booth at the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) summer show in Orlando. When we brought our layouts and cards and home decor projects here to the store to deliver to the company, we had the best time looking at what each other had made, with me usually saying "why didn't I think of doing that!" Although we had each used the same papers and ribbons and stamps and other goodies, the similarities ended there! Same supplies...entirely different outcomes because we each have different styles! I got some great ideas from the projects Stacey and Allison had made.

I want Designers Challenge Club to do the same thing. I want it to be all about stretching and expanding our creativity and drawing inspiration and ideas from the work of others. If you join the club, you will meet with us once a month, on the third Thursday evening at 6 pm. At each meeting, you'll receive a packet with $15 worth of coordinating products, including patterned papers and embellishments. At home, you'll create cards or scrapbook pages or mini-books (in any combination that pleases you) using only materials in the packet and items on the "acceptable" list. (Stop by SG to pick up the brochure that explains items you can add and items you can't add!)

The following month, you'll bring the items you've created to the club meeting. We'll display all the creations, and have a discussion time to talk about interesting techniques. You'll be able to take photos of all the projects. We'll also have a members-only blog where photos of all projects will be posted, and where further comments can be added.

Now for the formalities. You must pre-register to participate in Designers Challenge Club. Because of space constraints, membership is limited to 30 people. Once you join, you will be a member until you tell us otherwise. The $15 materials fee will be billed to your card on the third Thursday of each month. If you need further information, I'll be happy to answer any questions either here on the blog, in person, or by phone.

I'm really looking forward to this new "experiment." The times when I've been restricted to a limited amount of supplies in making a scrapbook layout, I've found that it has forced me to be more creative and more innovative. I'm so excited about the fun of getting to see what a group of gals (of all ages, probably) can come up with when they take on this "designers challenge."

Be sure to check out the Creating Keepsakes blog link at the right of this page. Allison is the guest blogger today, and she has a great project shown step by step. She's in pretty good company as a guest blogger -- the last two have been Becky Higgins and Ali Edwards!

Oh, to be on a beach somewhere! Instead, Karin and I are in the Scrapbook Generation sweatshop, printing, sorting, punching, and binding sketch books! We're in a mad dash to get literally hundreds of each of the four volumes of Sketches for Scrapbooking ready for our booth at the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Tulsa in about four weeks. While we're busy with sketch books, Stacey and Allison are in overdrive trying to get at least 60 new page kits designed and packed for the same event.

We think that the sketch books will do really well at the Vendor Faire at CKC, because of the great response of both local customers and travelers who shop here at SG, as well as people across the country who purchase the books online. Just today, for example, we're shipping books to Louisiana, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Texas, California, New Jersey, and Connecticut!

Many of you have heard of Big Picture Scrapbooking, which offers online classes with teachers like Ali Edwards and Stacy Julian. A few weeks ago, one of the teachers contacted us about recommending our Sketches for Scrapbooking books as resources for her online students to purchase. Of course the answer was a big YES!

And all of this leads me to a new announcement. On August 19, you'll be able to purchase the first volume of Sketches for Cardmaking, by Stacey Atchley. Stacey is our resident card expert, and she has designed 40 sketches for her first book. We're working on creating the pages right now, and hope to soon start my favorite part, you know, the printing...the sorting...the punching...and the binding!

We're having technical difficulties getting photos posted right now, but I wanted to let you know that we just got in four styles of machine-stitched, beautifully patterned paper by Prima. We only have six sheets of each style, but now that I see them "in person," I'll be sure to order more.

Creative Imaginations is here! Scrapbook Generation has a nice new assortment of double-sided papers, die-cut papers, stickers, rub-ons, and other embellishments. There are items from their Creative Cafe collections, as well as floral-themed mini-groups. There are also some solid-colored die-cut papers with a looped border that are just beautiful! We also have a new group of flourish rub-ons, brads, and button sets by BasicGrey!

As many of you know, this is the time of year when all the scrapbook companies are coming out with new products for the annual summer CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) Show. Scrapbook Generation is right in the thick of things! We've already done pre-orders with the most popular companies, and the new products will start arriving soon. Really soon!

My Mind's Eye has six or seven new lines, including some general groups, two Halloween groups, and two Christmas groups. Every single item they have created will be on the way to us in about a week! They have given us a ship date of July 27, 28, or 29, which means we should have all of their goodies sometime the first week of August! And that's just the beginning!

Another company to which we quickly said "send it all" was Graphic 45! All three new collections from this mega-popular vintage company will be on the way to us within the next few weeks!

As I know more specific ship dates, I'll post them here. Later today, we'll be putting out a huge assortment of new items from Creative Imaginations. Pictures soon!

Think August and September! Newsletters are going in the mail today! Lots of new activities. I can't wait for you to find out about them. As soon as I think the newsletters have been received, I'll start elaborating on several events/projects/activities. I didn't have enough space in the newsletter!

Thanks for the overwhelmingly positive response to the first edition of "Allison's Creative Kitchen!" We're already on our second set of the recipe cards, the third set of the star templates, and most of the individual products have sold out and we've ordered much more (some of the items will be arriving as early as Thursday, and the rest should be here early next week)! Next month, I'll know to have a much larger supply of all the "ingredients" for Ali's "recipes" to start out with. The demand has been much, much greater than I had anticipated!

And all of you moms can appreciate the fact that Ali has called me several times to say "I told you so!" She had wanted to do this long ago, and I had put her off. Okay, I'm publicly admitting I was wrong, but just this once!

The plan is to have a new installment of Allison's Creative Kitchen around the 15th of each month!

The latest products to splash their way to Scrapbook Generation include the bright and cheery Under the Sea collection by Reminisce. The group includes regular papers, die-cut papers (the white border on the dolphin paper comes off), and a great selection of embellishments. This group has dolphins, whales, and portholes covered!

We also have the latest issues of Scrapbook Trends and Cards magazines.

I'm picking up the August-September newsletter at the printer tomorrow, and it will go in the mail sometime early next week. I can't wait for you to read about all the new adventures we have waiting for you! It's going to be a fun and busy time!

Announcing a new feature at Scrapbook Generation...Allison's Creative Kitchen recipe cards for scrapbookers! Allison Davis has been talking to me about this concept for some time, and after I've seen what she had in mind, I'm sold!

Once a month, Allison will create a two-page layout, then we'll display the layout with the supplies necessary to reproduce the pages. She'll write a "recipe card" that explains the needed supplies and some basic information about the layout on the back, and then add a color photo to the front. The recipe cards are a bargain at just 79 cents, and Allison has also made a 12x12 star template that can be purchased and used to make the layout.

This is just one of several new projects we'll be announcing in the next couple of months!

New today at Scrapbook Generation...the latest from Fancy Pants! We have the entire Boy Kraft Kuts and Girl Kraft Kuts collections. Love the die-cut papers!

Laura Parks, Scrapbook Generation Design Team member, brought in a beautiful layout this weekend of her niece, using Scenic Route papers and lots of creative embellishments. She used one of the new Prima crystal swirl accents, and said it was really easy to apply to the page. I especially like the layered flowers and the swirl!

I'm evidently trying to win the procrastinator of the month award, because my Anna Griffin class model was supposed to be completed and on display by the first of July. I have excuses, but none of them could actually be called good, so I'll just have to apologize and give you a look at the class here! The top photo is the Anna Griffin class, and it's a beautiful travel page with a pocket for memorabilia, tags as backgrounds for travel photos, and mini accordion fold-out booklets for tiny treasures. The class comes with a huge sheet of rub-ons, including that great one of the Eiffel Tower. If you want to join us on Thursday, the class costs $15, and also includes a cute card.

The other two photos are the family mini-album that Allison is teaching Thursday at 6 pm and Tuesday at 2 pm. I love the Kaisercraft MDF (wood-like) albums because they come in so many interesting shapes and themes. Ali has added several fun touches like a chipboard word for a title, and crackle paint. The class is $20, and there are still some spots available.

Island Lagoon has arrived at Scrapbook Generation! The top three papers are die-cut so that you just remove the bottom portion of the paper and what you have left is the shape of two different shells or a pair of flip flops! So cute!

For those of you who love buttons, Scrapbook Generation just received a colorful shipment of buttons of all shapes, sizes, and colors!

Hope you're signed up to attend one of Scrapbook Generation's "Super Saver" scrapbooking sessions this Saturday! We're using some bright and colorful papers by BoBunny, plus the matching sheet of 12x12 stickers! If you can join us, you'll be making all three double-page layouts shown above, for only $9! Total!

There's still time to sign up. Just call us at 417-886-0440. There are only two spots left in the 10 am and 1 pm sessions. Other available times are 11:30 am and 2:30 pm.

And the winners are...
I decided to give away three sketch books instead of two! The English teacher and the journalism teacher in me were at war over who should win the "eloquence" category, so I decided to give in and let both win.

-- Linda from KS is the winner of the creative writing category! I loved how she crafted a story about our lives at Scrapbook Generation.
-- Esther is the winner of the journalism category! If I didn't already own a Scrapbook Generation sketch book, I'd buy the whole set after reading her persuasive comments.
-- Marcia is the winner of the random category! She also had wonderful, flattering comments to make about our sketches books.

Thanks to all of you who had such nice things to say about our sketches books! I've enjoyed this whole process so much that you can expect more contests via this blog.

Linda, Esther, and Marcia, please contact us. We'll be ready with your prizes!

The "Sketches for Scrapbooking" volume four give-away contest is officially over! We'll announce the "eloquence" winner and the "random" winner on Thursday. Thanks so much for all the awesome compliments!

Just a reminder that you have until 7 pm on Wednesday to leave a comment about Scrapbook Generation's Sketches for Scrapbooking books, in hopes of winning one of two copies of volume four we'll be giving away! Please go to the June 30 post to leave a comment. I've loved reading the ones that have been written so far -- who doesn't love compliments!

New products arriving later this week: the Island Lagoon collection by ANW/Crestwood, with regular papers, glitter and varnish papers, die-cut papers, and lots of embellishments. This is the company that made the cute birthday die-cut papers in the shapes of hats, presents, and cupcakes. This time, there are papers in the shapes of flip-flops and shells!

Also, we're working on the August-September newsletter which will be mailed out in a couple of weeks, and it will contain several new projects and concepts for us. They are exciting ideas for us, and we can't wait to share them with you!

It's official! Both of Scrapbook Generation's fall weekend retreats in Branson are sold out! Congrats to the 80 ladies who'll be joining us the weekends of Oct. 16 and Oct. 23 for some well-deserved time to scrapbook, laugh, and relax. Personally, I can't wait to see what our awesome caterer comes up with for our meals!

Because it's been a rare retreat that hasn't had a cancellation because of a family emergency, we have now started a waiting list for both retreats. We'll be happy to contact you if a spot or two frees up at the last minute.

Thanks so much for the great response to our retreats!

Just arrived at Scrapbook Generation...the Snorkel collection by Cosmo Cricket -- very bright and colorful! We also have some beautiful new items from Melissa Frances. There are two groups of paper, one pastels and the other patriotic. Each has a matching book of "tickets," cute goodies to use as page embellishments and journaling blocks. We also have (had!) three mini-albums from Melissa Frances, but one sold out before I could get a picture taken! The main difference in these albums and other chipboard mini-albums is that the inside pages are printed. Very pretty! I'll make sure to order them again, since these don't seem like they're going to be around long.

Reminder:
The first 50 people who spend $25 at Scrapbook Generation on Saturday, July 4 will receive a patriotic page kit valued at $12.99, free! We'll be open regular Saturday hours -- 10-5. If we don't see you Saturday, have a fun and safe Fourth of July with family and friends!