Allison has done an absolutely awesome blog post about using Scrapbook Generation sketches in five different ways. Some of you saw this demo at the last Scrap-a-Palooza, and now you can check out her five pages in more detail! Just click on the link in the right column to go to her blog. You'll be glad you did!

Under construction...
-- Even though it looks like we are being demolished right now, Scrapbook Generation is still open! Don't be scared of the scaffolding and all the other construction-type stuff, because although it looks like we're closed, we are definitely still going strong. I don't know how long we'll be in the middle of this mess, but when it's finished, the outside of our building will have a nice facelift!

Event updates...
-- World Card Making Day sessions for this Saturday are still filling rapidly. And our Fifth Birthday Super-Saver Scrapbooking sessions on Nov. 7 are almost full. There are only 11 of 98 spots still available!

Facebook...
-- Stacey has really learned a great deal in the past few days about maximizing what you see on the Scrapbook Generation business fan page (link in the column at the right of this blog). The feature I like the most is that she has created posts for each of our upcoming special events (fifth birthday, fall retreats, world card making day, my purse-shaped gift card holder class, and the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Kansas City.) Click on the title of each event, and you see a new screen that provides detailed information about each activity!

Some of you have already figured this out, but for those who haven't explored the site just yet, you can click on the event title (for example, World Card Making Day) and RSVP for the event. Your photo joins the rest of the people who have responded, so it's lots of fun. Also, you can leave comments about the event. I hope you'll take full advantage of this feature!

As you can see from the link at right, we're quickly approaching my temporary goal of 300 fans! I hope we hurry and reach that goal so we can start on 400!

BasicGrey's Eerie collection has arrived! This is the first Halloween line that the popular company has produced, and it's so stylish that it's frightening!

Other news...

-- World Card Making Day is this Saturday, Oct. 3, and it is filling fast. We have 98 spots available in seven different sessions, and already have almost 60 of the spots filled. Pre-register, then stop by and make five free cards! And we're giving away more free stuff! If you spend at least $25, you get to choose a $12.99 card kit or page kit!

-- Fifth Birthday Super-Saver Scrapbooking sessions on Saturday, Nov. 7 will probably be full in just a couple more days, the way it's going. We have 98 spots available, and 77 are already filled! You must pre-register, and pre-pay the $5 fee. You'll make three double-page layouts, and get a $10 canister of Crate Paper chipboard letters, free, in honor of Scrapbook Generation's fifth birthday!

-- Designers Challenge Club meets to share September projects on the third Thursday of October. We've picked up a few more members, and the group now numbers 21. We have materials for four more, and there is still time to join and get your projects completed before the "share" date in October. I've already seen one club members' projects, and they are awesome! We're going to have so much fun seeing what each other created, with everyone using the same packet of materials!

Thanks to all of you who participated in our ScrapPink activities on Friday and Saturday, we'll be sending a nice check to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation! You helped in this effort by attending the Friday night crop, by attending the ScrapPink sketch sessions on Saturday, and by purchasing pink page kits.

We were happy to return the favor! We gave away dozens and dozens of the page kit in the middle photo to those of you who spent at least $25, and the vat of free pink buttons was a huge hit! Many of you also wore pink to show support for this worthy cause.

A word to the wise! The October-November newsletter has only been out a couple of days, and our major fall activities are filling rapidly!

-- World Card Making Day next Saturday, October 3:
Almost 60 of the 98 spots have already been spoken for!

-- Fifth Birthday Super-Saver Scrapbooking sessions, Saturday, November 7:
Almost 80 of the 98 spots are full! (I wish we had a larger classroom area!)

Stacey is our resident card expert, but I'm doing a card class this month in addition to hers. On Thursday, Oct. 1, you can make these three cute purse-shaped gift card holders. In addition to making the three cards, you'll also leave with the three template patterns, so you can make them over and over! The class is only $10, and is offered at both 2 and 6 pm. Hope you can join us!

Arrived and out on the shelves today -- BasicGrey's Eerie collection, the first Halloween collection this company has produced! We also have some new Halloween glitter transparencies by Fancy Pants.

Welcome a new company to Scrapbook Generation! We have three collections by a company called Bella Blvd. As always, we're on the lookout to find the smaller, trendy new lines to supplement the "old favorites" we all know and love.

The BasicGrey Eerie collection will be out on the shelves soon. Part has arrived, but we're waiting until all the embellishments arrive. Also, BasicGrey's Indian Summer line is on the way to us! We also have new hunting and fishing papers from SugarTree, and new travel papers and stickers from Paper House. Las Vegas paper and glitter make a great pair! I'll post pics on Thursday!

Here's part three of showing you all the new stuff that has found its way to Scrapbook Generation.

Photos 1 & 2: Best Creations glitter papers; Photo 3: a small sampling of the 75 new albums we have: Photos 4 & 5: Best Creations glitter papers; Photo 6: Three Bugs in a Rug; Photo 7: Best Creations glitter paper; Photo 8: Bazzill glazed cardstock; Photos 9 & 10: Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker; Photo 11: Reminisce travel journals; Photo 12: more new albums; Photo 13: KaiserCraft jewel words.

As promised, here are the two layouts that we will be making Saturday for the special ScrapPink sketch sessions at Scrapbook Generation. You pay for only one set of papers (two sheets of cardstock and the three My Mind's Eye papers), with a cost of less than $4! You can't beat that deal! Scrapbook Generation will be adding in two sheets of background paper, buttons, and jewels, as a thank-you gift for helping us in our effort to raise money for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation. As always, you'll get both sketches totally free. They can be used over and over!

If you aren't already signed up for the sketch sessions, just call the store at 417-886-0440. There are four times to choose from.

Facebook fun...
Our list of fans has grown to almost 250! While I'm the voice of SG here on the blog, Stacey is the voice of SG on Facebook. Last night, she posted that she had spent the day putting papers on sale for 40 cents each, including over 100 different papers by companies including My Mind's Eye, Reminisce, Anna Griffin, Sassafrass Lass, Doodlebug, and many more.

To be the first to know exciting news like this, join our fan group on Facebook. Soon, there will be a link here to our Facebook page.

We're so hoping that you can participate Friday and Saturday as Scrapbook Generation joins in the fight to find a cure for breast cancer. You can read the previous post for all the activities we will be hosting! I did forget to mention that we'll also have a variety of pink page kits for purchase, and $5 from the price of each kit also goes to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation, in addition to the other fundraisers I've already talked about.

We have a sea of pink buttons just waiting for you to choose your 10 free ones on Saturday! And the page kits we're giving away to everyone who spends at least $25 are "just so adorable!" The page kits are also a great value, and include both a 12x12 sheet of Crate Paper shape die-cuts and a 12x12 sheet of Crate Paper letter die-cuts!

As soon as Ali and I get the pages designed for the ScrapPink sketch sessions this Saturday, I'll give you a sneak peek here!

Our focus this week at Scrapbook Generation is joining in the cause to wipe out breast cancer, the disease that has taken far too many of our friends and family members. We have several activities going on in an effort to help raise funds for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation.

-- ScrapPink Crop -- Friday, Sept. 25: The regular Midnight Madness crop is being replaced with a ScrapPink crop, complete with pink decorations, pink snacks, pink favors, and plenty of prizes. Ten dollars of the $25 fee goes directly to the Susan G. Komen foundation. We still have spots left, and this is an event that we really want to be a sell-out! Please check your schedule and see if you can join us for this worthwhile cause. Call or stop by to register.

-- ScrapPink Sketch Sessions -- Saturday, Sept. 26: Allison Davis and I are each creating a two-page layout using some gorgeous pink papers by My Mind's Eye. Normally on our sketch Saturdays we only create one layout, but for this special event we'll be making both Allison's layout and mine, all from the same set of papers! Your cost will be only about $4, for two awesome layouts! You don't have to pre-pay, but you do have to be registered for one of the four sessions. Just call or stop by to sign up.

-- ScrapPink Give-Aways -- Saturday, Sept. 26: Everyone who spends at least $25 receives a special edition pink page kit, a $12.99 value. Everyone making a purchase of any amount can choose 10 pink buttons. (Both offers are for adults only, one per family please.) And to show your support for breast cancer research, please join us in wearing pink!

That didn't take long! Thanks for sending us over the 200 mark on the Scrapbook Generation fan page on Facebook! Now we'll work on getting to 300!

When you check out the page, also take a look at the fan photo section. Any of you can post photos of Scrapbook Generation activities, or of projects you are making. Jane Earnhart just posted a photo of an altered book she has made, and it's gorgeous! We'd love to see more of you post pics of layouts, cards, mini-albums, home decor items, and altered items made with Scrapbook Generation products!

After having a page on Facebook for only about a week, Scrapbook Generation already has 195 fans! If you aren't one of them, please join us and send us over the 200 mark!

If you aren't on Facebook yet, it's easy to get registered. If I can do it, so can you! I'm actually quite enjoying the contacts I've made since I enrolled in May. I've corresponded with lots of former students (with many apologizing for how they acted in my high school classes)! If they only knew that I just remember the good things! I've also been able to reconnect with some of my own classmates, my neighborhood Barbie buddies from childhood, and lots of others.

We're using the Scrapbook Generation page as another way to keep you updated on everything related to our business. It can also be a great forum for you to discuss scrapbooking topics with each other! To find us and sign up as a fan, just do a search for Scrapbook Generation. Hope to see you there...I'm Debbie Rush Sanders on Facebook.

If you haven't been to a basic sketch free class lately, now would be a great time to get started again! There are so many beautiful die-cut circle papers right now that I chose one for the sketch I made for this Saturday. If you want to attend, the cost is about $4 (for your materials), and we still have a few spots available at 10, 11:30, 1, or 2:30. As always, if you don't care for these papers, you can choose ones you like and substitute them.

Allison's Creative Kitchen collection for September is ready for you! It's a beautiful layout using BoBunny Flutter Butter papers. There's a recipe card so that you know all the ingredients, and lots and lots of the products she used to make the page. If you love Allison Davis pages, you'll love this edition of her "Creative Kitchen!"

We're happy to show you 15 more photos of new goodies at Scrapbook Generation! (And this still isn't all the new stuff!) 

From the top: Photo 1: Tattered Angels (an assortment of screens, clear stamps, albums and more); Photo 2: ANW Crestwood (dog group with 12x12 die-cuts); Photo 3: October Afternoon (two collections, one is Cherry Hill and the other is a vintage baby group); Photo 4: My Little Shoebox (about 10 collections of paper and die-cut paper, plus glitter letter sets and tiny alphabet sets); Photos 5-6: Sassafrass Lass (six collections including die-cuts); Photo 7: the "Basic Grey aisle" has been completely transformed with October Afternoon, My Little Shoebox, and Sassafrass Lass); Photo 8: Prima (jewels and bling sets); Photos 9-10: Reminisce (safari collection); Photo 11: Maya Road (chipboard albums and chipboard, sheer, and felt shapes); Photos 12-13: Reminisce (Christmas collection); Photo 14: Bazzill (family tree cardstock); Photo 15: Cosmo Cricket (Christmas collection).

We still have many new groups that we're trying to find a spot for in the store. And on the way: BasicGrey's Eerie collection! The Indian Summer collection by BasicGrey will follow soon. We're also anxiously awaiting the arrival of all the new Crate Paper collection for this fall and winter!

Congratulations to Carey L., winner of our random drawing for the Scrapbook Generation September blog contest! Carey wins a $50 prize package that will be ready for her to pick up or to be shipped anytime after Thursday.

I really enjoyed reading all the answers to the question about whether you are a solitary scrapbooker or a social scrapbooker. Thanks to all of you for sharing your feelings about this topic. My answer to that question is that I find that I like a little of both! I truly enjoy going to my scrapbook area, getting out my supplies, and working on a layout by myself. Everything I need is within reach (or close by) and it's a relaxing, happy time for me. However, I also like going to retreats. It's fun to be away from the distractions of home, and fun to be around others who love this hobby.

We worked hard all day, and got lots of the new stuff out at Scrapbook Generation! I've got photos for you, and a quick overview. Keep watching later in the week for photos of the remainder of the new goodies.

Photo 1 -- Pink Paislee's fall collection; Photo 2 -- Prima flowers (also have tons of the pearl and rhinestone swirls); Photos 3 & 4 -- SEI and K & Company fall collections; Photo 5 -- Little Yellow Bicycle fall collection; Photo 6 -- Reminisce fall collection; Photo 7 -- Crafters Workshop 12x12 templates (only part of them); Photos 8 & 9 -- Making Memories Halloween collection; Photos 10 & 11 -- Making Memories Christmas collection; Photo 12 -- Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker "Boo-tiful" collection; Photo 13 -- Pink Paislee and Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker Halloween embellishments; Photo 14 -- Pink Paislee Halloween collection; Photo 15 -- Reminisce Halloween collection; Photo 16 -- Rusty Pickle Panama Jack collection; Photos 17 & 18 -- Webster's Pages collections; Photos 19 & 20 -- ANW Crestwood wedding collection.

Facebook news...Scrapbook Generation is now on Facebook! Do a search for us, or follow the link on the home page of scrapbookgeneration.com. We'd love to have you sign up as one of our fans. We already have almost 150, and we've only had the page up for a couple of days! Join the fun and keep up-to-the-minute on everything related to Scrapbook Generation!