Graphic 45 Vintage Charm "Christmas Cards and Tags" class...

We hope you can join Tammy Roberts, Graphic 45 Design Team member, for her November Graphic 45 Vintage Charm "Christmas Cards and Tags" classes. The six projects, three cards and three gift tags, feature the Christmas Past collection. As usual with Tammy, you'll use lots of interesting techniques to create these beautiful and useful items. Stop by SG, or give us a call at 417-886-0440 to sign up. Tammy's classes have been selling out, so don't wait too late!

When: Thursday, November 4 at 6 pm or Monday, November 8 at 10 am
Fee: $15

I'm having nightmares about turkeys!

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!!!"
-- Arthur Carlson, WKRP in Cincinnati

The above quote is from the famous "WKRP in Cincinnati" episode where station manager, Arthur Carlson (played by Gordon Jump), arranged to have live turkeys dropped from a helicopter as an advertising promotion. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a serious miscalculation. The poor birds plunged to earth, never even having a chance. Their tragic "last flight" was relayed to WKRP listeners by reporter Les Nessman, played by Richard Sanders:

"It's a helicopter, and it's coming this way. It's flying something behind it, I can't quite make it out, it's a large banner and it says, uh - Happy... Thaaaaanksss... giving! ... From ... W ... K ... R... P!! No parachutes yet. Can't be skydivers... I can't tell just yet what they are, but - Oh my God, Johnny, they're turkeys!! Johnny, can you get this? Oh, they're plunging to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement! Not since the Hindenberg tragedy has there been anything like this!"

As the time for our birthday celebration gets closer, we're starting to get a little concerned about numbers. For example, we have people traveling here from hours away, and from states away! We want an awesome crowd, but we don't want you to have to spend a huge amount of time in a line, or worry about not getting the free goodies if you don't get here by a certain time. Here's what we have come up with to try to keep from having such a rush as we first open on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 9 am.

We'll be giving away more free tote bags.

• The first 200 people (adults only, one per family) who make a purchase of at least $15 will still get what we've told you about in the post yesterday. This is our original offer.
• NEW: The next 150 people (adults only, one per family) who make a purchase of at least $15 will get a free tote bag filled with over $20 in goodies, including a paper collection kit and an SG page kit.
• Put simply, with the qualifying purchase of $15, at least 350 people are going to get free tote bags and goodies. There will be no need to worry about standing in lines, or getting here at the crack of dawn.

We'll be giving out numbers for the free tote bags.

• NEW: We've had some experience with this kind of promotion. It's similar to our annual Day-After-Thanksgiving sale, although not quite of this magnitude. So that you don't have to rush to the checkout line once you arrive in order to get one of the tote bags, we'll be handing out numbers to those who think their purchase will qualify for the free gifts. You can take your time shopping, or even delay it until hours later, and still be assured of getting one of the tote bags. This should make your day more enjoyable!

And rest assured, that's what we want everyone to have...an enjoyable day. We want to celebrate our success, share some of that success with the people who have made it possible, and let you know how very much we appreciate your continued support of Scrapbook Generation. (I'll try not to dream about turkeys anymore!)

Lots of new collections at Scrapbook Generation...

We've finally managed to find a home for almost all of the 82 new collections that debuted at Scrap-a-Palooza last month!

Fancy Pants: It's Your Day, above

The Paper Company: Grandma's Attic, above

The Girls' Paperie: Tinsel and Twig; Paper Girl (we also have Toil and Trouble!), above

My Little Shoebox: six new collections, above

7Gypsies: Paddington and Avignon, above

Imaginisce: Fall and Christmas collections

The Paper Company: So Delish

We R Memory Keepers: Funfetti, above

Crate Paper: Restoration and Snow Day, above

,

Three Bugs in a Rug: Christmas, winter, and Paris collections, above

Bella Blvd: two new collections, above

New Tim Holtz items, above

Scribble Scrabble: three new collections, above

Best Creations: Christmas and winter collections, above

Echo Park: both Christmas collections, above

And now we have more goodies that need to go out on the shelves...all the new My Mind's Eye, two huge new collections by We R Memory Keepers, all the new cute stuff from KI Memories, new KaiserCraft groups, the Little Yellow Bicycle "Savor" collection, Pink Paislee's "Father Christmas" collection, and, well, I've lost track of the rest of it. Just assume that there will be a steady stream of "newness" around here for many weeks to come!

Please join us for the Allison Davis free sketch sessions on Saturday!

This is the page we'll be making on Saturday at the Allison Davis free sketch sessions. Your cost to make this layout will be about $4. As always, you'll receive a computer sketch for free that you can use over and over, and you also always have the option to choose other papers if these don't work for you. Sessions are at 10, 11:30, 1 and 2:30. Just give us a call at 417-886-0440 to sign up.

If you can't attend and would like a kit, the fee is $5 and is due when the request is made.

Special note to Super Sketch Club members: Yes, this page will be included in your October kit!

Monday. That's when we'll make our big announcement!

All secrets will be revealed on Monday, November 1. We can't wait!

Scrapbook Generation Birthday Countdown:

8 days until Saturday, November 6!

Join us for the celebration...

From now until Saturday, Nov. 6, the red, yellow, and green balloons logo above will signal more fun details about Scrapbook Generation’s huge sixth birthday party are being revealed. Every few days between now and then, I’ll let you in on a little more of the excitement we have planned for you.

Because there is so much interest in our birthday give-aways, I want to clarify everything so that there are no misunderstandings, which is the last thing in the world we want to happen. We want this to be a happy day for everyone!

The first 200 adults (one per family) who make a purchase of at least $15 

on November 6 get the following:

• A free Scrapbook Generation tote bag packed with goodies! 

Originally, we had said the contents would be valued at $25. 

That is incorrect! 

At this point, the contents of the bags have grown to over $45!

-- four sheets of single-sided paper with matching 12x12 letter stickers

-- three sheets of double-sided paper with matching cut-out sheet of shapes and titles

-- three sheets of double-sided paper with matching 12x12 die-cut sheet and matching cut-out sheet

-- 12x12 sheet of lightweight chipboard letters

-- canister of heavyweight chipboard letters

-- two-tipped archival scrapbooking marker

-- sheet of themed cardstock stickers

-- and of course, an SG page kit!

• In addition to receiving the tote bag, you also get to unwrap one of the 200 "birthday presents." Values start at $4 and continue upward to over $200.

Every adult (one per family) who makes a purchase of at least $25 gets the following.

• choice of birthday-themed page kits valued at $12.99

Every adult who is a registered Fiskateer and wears some kind of orange that day gets the following.

• a gift bag from Fiskars

No purchase required for the following festivities.

• free mini-class hosted by Fiskars and Unibind

• entry in hourly door prizes from Fiskars

• entry in grand prize from Fiskars

• entry in grand prize from Scrapbook Generation

• day-long birthday bash buffet featuring gourmet mini-cupcakes

• DOORS OPEN AT 9 AM!

• FIRST SUPER-SAVER SESSION STARTS AT 9 AM!
• OPEN UNTIL 6 PM!

Scrapbook Generation Birthday Countdown:

10 days until Saturday, November 6!

Join us for the celebration...

From now until Saturday, Nov. 6, the red, yellow, and green balloons logo above will signal more fun details about Scrapbook Generation’s huge sixth birthday party are being revealed. Every few days between now and then, I’ll let you in on a little more of the excitement we have planned for you.

We've been a little distracted lately with a couple of retreats and all the flurry of activity that goes along with them, but now we're focused solidly on a special event coming up in just 10 days!

I just spoke with Lead Fiskateer Rebecca Peck, and I have a little more information for you about both Friday and Saturday.

• Friday, November 5
Our celebration is actually going to start on Friday evening. From 5-7 pm, Lead Fiskateers Rebecca Peck and Angela Daniels will be at Scrapbook Generation for an informal reception and some fun activities. We'll be providing some tasty treats for you to snack on, and Rebecca and Angela have some great door prizes that they'll be awarding Friday night. The best part: They're bringing a green screen and a photo printer. You are all invited to stop by and pose for some funny-silly-goofy pictures in front of a background of who-knows-what! (For example, when Don and I went to San Antonio a few weeks ago, we posed in front of a green screen at the Tower of the Americas, and then the photos they gave us had us posing in front of the Alamo and the Riverwalk!) We'll be able to print pictures out on the spot for you to take with you -- and it's all free and fun! Come by yourself, or grab a group of friends and stop by!

• Saturday, November 6
On Saturday, the Fiskateers will be giving away a great prize every hour, and they'll also have a Grand Prize basket that will be given away at the end of the day! If you are a registered Fiskateer, you'll also receive a gift bag from Fiskars. (You MUST be a Fiskateer to get the gift! To sign up, click on the link at right, then follow the simple directions, which include sending an email to Rebecca or Angela. To get registered in time, you MUST send your email by Tuesday. After that, they will be enroute to Springfield and may not be able to respond to your request in time!)

Congratulations to the October blog contest winners!

Thanks so much to the 72 of you who took the time to enter comments in our October blog contest. I shamelessly asked for compliments, and you came through with so many sweet sentiments about Scrapbook Generation that Karin and Stacey and Allison and I are still smiling! I'll definitely be printing all of those out to become part of our SG scrapbook!

With so many wonderful comments, it just made sense to have more than one winner. So, we picked a random local winner, and a random "long-distance" winner.

• Local blog contest winner:
"Never a dull moment at SG. Do these gals sleep? They work so hard to stay on the cutting edge of paper arts. Whether you are a scrapbooker or a cardmaker, they make you feel special." -- Amy Henbest

• "Long-distance" blog contest winner:
"I think the first thing that comes to mind is that SG seems like one big happy family!! It's so refreshing to come to your website for some design inspiration and see how you are truly proud of each other...it's a happy blog. Since I'm too far to crop with you, I love getting the monthly kits. We formed our own crop based around your page kits with a group of CT/NY scrappers. Thanks for the  inspiration!" -- Jean in CT (Jean, just send your full name and shipping info to stacey@scrapbookgeneration.com and we'll send your prize to you!)

Second trip on the Orient Express was great fun!

We had a great time with the 40 ladies in our second weekend retreat in Branson. We made scrapbook pages, mini-albums, cards, and other projects, and managed to find time to eat and talk and laugh! Thanks so much to the 80 scrapbookers who attended our retreats this fall. We had a wonderful time, and hope you did as well.

The dates for our spring retreats in Branson are the weekends of March 11 and March 18. Registration will open for everyone on December 1.

First place contest winners were Christina Hoffman, Kassie Jarvis, Jamie Gillham, Karon Rapp, and Christa Allgood. (Karon Rapp had three firsts, including Best Overall!)

Second place contest winners are Kassie Jarvis, Nikki Major, Shannon Love, Christina Hoffman, and Jamie Gillham.

This group was at our retreat for the first time, celebrating Diana Boggs' 50th birthday. Kassie, Terri, and Jodi made it a special weekend for the birthday girl with a cake, balloons, and some stylish Snuggies!

Recipes as requested!

For several reasons, after the first retreat, we decided to fix the meals ourselves instead of having the caterer back. The first night, we had delicious pulled pork sandwiches. The meat was smoked by Hucklebuck's in Ava, a new eating spot opened by Steven Bruce, one of my former students! For lunch on Saturday, we had sandwiches and a chicken tortilla soup that everyone seemed to love, and also toffee pie tarts that also got good reviews. Saturday evening, we feasted on a Chinese buffet of cashew chicken, sweet and sour chicken, pepper steak, general chicken, eggs rolls, and crab rangoon. The meal was furnished by Chopstix in Branson West, and we highly recommend it for great food and great service.

Although you'll discover how easy they are to prepare, I promised to share the recipes for a couple of things, so here they are.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

14-1/2 ounce can chicken broth
1 and 1/4 can cream of chicken soup
15-1/2 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
14-ounce can sweet corn and diced peppers, drained
10-ounce can mild Rotel tomatoes with chiles
12-ounce can Swanson chicken breast, drained
8 ounces Velveeta, cubed

Combine all ingredients except cheese in a pan over medium-low heat. When heated through, add cheese, stirring until melted. Makes 7 cups of soup.

Toffee Bits Pie

1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup half and half cream
1 carton (8 ounces) Cool Whip, thawed
1 package (8 ounces) milk chocolate English toffee bits, divided
1 graham cracker crust (9 inches) OR 10 individual tart-size graham cracker crusts

In large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in cream until blended. Fold in whipped topping and 1 cup toffee bits. Spoon into crust (or individual tarts). Sprinkle with the remaining toffee bits. Cover and freeze overnight. Remove from the freezer 10 minutes before serving.

The wait is almost over...

We're getting closer to the time when we can quit being so mysterious!
Here's today's hint.
Our big news has nothing to do with sketches.

Do you think you know our secret?

Saturday's hint...

Here's another clue in our Scrapbook Generation mystery.
Our big surprise has nothing to do with QVC or HSN.
And just to make that a little broader, it has nothing to do with television of any kind.

Have you figured it out yet?

 Another clue...

Sorry I'm posting so late, but today has been wall-to-wall retreat stuff. We're having a second trip on the Orient Express this weekend, with another great group of scrapbookers.

Let's narrow our choices down a little further.
Our big surprise has nothing to do with Tim Holtz. (Although when we found out you were so eager to see him, we contacted him about coming to SG. Sorry...he's booked for the next five years. We DID get on a waiting list if someone else cancels.)

Hope you're having fun with this little game. As I told a couple of people here at the retreat, it's driving us crazy to not be able to spill it all for a few more days.

Today's hint...

I thought that we would narrow things down a bit.
Our big news doesn't have anything to do with our DVD.

Another clue on Friday!

Thanks for the votes of confidence!

After reading your comments for the post yesterday, I'm overwhelmed. You think we can do just about anything, and that's so flattering and encouraging!

Today, I can tell you this.
The correct answer has been given.

Of all those possibilities, which one would you like to see happen the most?
Leave a comment here!

We can't wait to share our news!

We're giddy.
We're excited.
We're thrilled.

If you see us with silly grins on our faces for a few days, there's a reason. You can't imagine how much we want to start sharing the news with everyone. But we have to wait just a few more days until everything is official.

I'm still not quite sure how this happened, but an opportunity presented itself, and it was too good to turn down. An ordinary day ended up being quite extraordinary and life-changing!

Want to guess what our surprise is?
Leave a comment here, and we'll see how many of you get it right!

'Scrapping on the Orient Express,' weekend one...

The 40 scrapbookers at our first of two retreats in Branson had a relaxing and productive journey on the Orient Express this past weekend. We had a wonderful time scrapbooking, taking classes, eating, laughing, and making new friends. This next weekend, we'll do it all again with 40 different gals!

One of the late night snack buffets. On Saturday afternoon, we have an ice cream sundae bar.

Everyone has plenty of scrapping space, and we bring a huge on-site store for the event.

It's always more difficult than you would think for everyone to decide on their picks in the layout and mini-book contests.

First place contest winners, above. Front, Melodie Huckins, Shelly Henderson, and Jennifer Huff. Back, Linda Sharp and Wendy Winters.

Second place contest winners, above. Front, Yvonne Dewater, Patricia Owen, Lisa Owen. Back, Judi Pellham, Stacey Dunham, and Amy Wissbaum.

 

Scrapbook Generation Birthday Countdown:

22 days until Saturday, November 6!

Join us for the celebration...

From now until Saturday, Nov. 6, the red, yellow, and green balloons logo above will signal more fun details about Scrapbook Generation’s huge sixth birthday party are being revealed. Every few days between now and then, I’ll let you in on a little more of the excitement we have planned for you.

I’ve told you we have two special guests flying in for our birthday. Actually, we now have three!

• Special Guests from Fiskars: Fiskars, a company we've all been familiar with since birth, it seems, has a group of crafting ambassadors called the Fiskateers. These talented gals travel around the country to special events, sharing the love of crafting. For example, one of their most recent events was ScrapFest at the Mall of America. In November, they'll be in Springfield with us! Lead Fiskateers Rebecca Peck and Angela Daniels will be at Scrapbook Generation all day Saturday, Nov. 6 teaching free classes. And the project sounds like so much fun...you'll be taking a 4x4 mini-book and transforming it into a purse-shaped album. You'll use some great Fiskars border punches to make the project. And it's all free!

Important Reminder! Rebecca and Angela have already shipped us 200 "special gifts" for Scrapbook Generation customers that day. But you have to do some preparation beforehand to get one of the gifts. You MUST be a Fiskateer and you MUST wear some kind of orange to our birthday bash to receive one of the gifts. The first step is to go to the Fiskateers blog and send an email to Rebecca or Angela. (There's a link on the right sidebar of this page.) After that, just follow their simple instructions. Remember, if you're not a registered Fiskateer, you won't be eligible to get one of the gifts.

• Special Guest from Unibind: This is a new surprise for our celebration! Ken Oliver from a great company called Unibind will also be at Scrapbook Generation for our birthday. He'll be demonstrating this product as part of the free classes with the Fiskateers -- you'll bind the purse album with a Unibind machine. This cool product is an easy and convenient way to bind your own albums of any size. Many of you will be familiar with the product if you've ever had a "photobook" bound from large companies. Now, instead of sending your albums off to be bound, you can do it yourself! If I remember correctly, the price is very affordable as well! I'm excited about seeing it demonstrated myself.

So remember, we'll have an awesome free class project for everyone on Saturday, Nov. 6 And Rebecca and Angela want to give you a special gift from Fiskars...as long as you are a registered Fiskateer! (Don't wait too late, because you have to do some corresponding back and forth to complete the process!)

It's Sketch Week on Allison's blog...

If you've never checked out Allison's blog during Sketch Week, you're really missing out. Today's layout, shown above, is a prime example of how she takes a simple design and manages to transform it in ways most of the rest of us would never think of. After 25 years of teaching yearbook design, I've got a pretty decent grasp of design rules and what is appealing to the eye. I can make a good-looking scrapbook page. But I'll readily admit that I don't have that something extra that Ali has.

She has the "design rule" knowledge of balance and repetition and visual triangles and the like, but she also has an artistic sense that adds something special to her scrapbook pages. I look at the layout above and just wish I could come up with something that creative and original.

Click here to go to Allison's blog. Scrapbook Generation is the sponsor of Sketch Week this month, and we're giving away copies of Sketches for Scrapbooking every day!

Scrapbook Generation Birthday Countdown:

25 days until Saturday, November 6!

Join us for the celebration...

From now until Saturday, Nov. 6, the red, yellow, and green balloons logo above will signal more fun details about Scrapbook Generation’s huge sixth birthday party are being revealed. Every few days between now and then, I’ll let you in on a little more of the excitement we have planned for you.

I’ve told you we'll be giving away 200 tote bags from Scrapbook Generation to our favorite people in the world -- our customers. The first 200 customers (defined as those who spend at least $15 that day -- adults only, one per family) each get a tote bag filled with scrapbooking goodies. However, I haven’t told you what is going to be in the tote bags, or what they will look like.

The tote bags are red (of course!) and in addition to being cute, cute, cute, are very sturdy. They measure 13x15x10, and have a bottom insert for durability. They'll be a great size for you to use over and over to carry to crops, classes, and retreats. You could even think green and bring them back each time you shop at SG!

When it comes to what's going inside the totes, that's going to be a surprise! I can tell you that the contents will be valued at over $25, but you'll have to peek into your tote bag on Nov. 6 to find out just exactly what's inside!

Today's excitement...American Crafts has joined the fun. Yesterday, this company jumped in to help make our sixth birthday prizes more exciting. Without giving away too much information, American Crafts is sending 200 items to make your free tote bags even more fun! (American Crafts is also sending a huge assortment of larger items for the "birthday present" table. They've been extremely generous!)

Tammy Tutterow class spots gone, and almost gone...

All of the spots for the lovely Glimmer Tag Book above, are full. Wish we had a larger classroom! There are only two class kits remaining. The fee is $30.

Tammy Tutterow's Deco Debutante Box Canvas class has only two spots left, and there are five class kits available for purchase. Fee is $30, and the class is set for Friday, Nov. 12 at 6 pm.

To sign up for the remaining spots or kits, just give us a call at 417-886-0440. We're so fortunate that Tammy is willing to visit us and teach classes!