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!