Thank you for sharing our special day!

Our permanent birthday "cake!" Christine Rantz made this gorgeous creation for us last year, and it was so easy to change the candle to a seven. Thanks, Christine!

We opened early for extra time for classes and shopping! Red goodie bags went to the first 250 lucky people to arrive. Love it that with the large building, we can still have over a hundred people in SG at one time, and still not feel the least bit crowded.

Over 125 people attended one of the five Super-Saver sessions and made three cute birthday layouts.

Karin and Stacey spent most of the day at the checkout counter. We gave away lots and lots of shopping rewards in the form of gift cards that can be redeemed all the way through March.

Katrina Hunt helps us out on special Saturday events by teaching the free mini-classes. We couldn't function on those days without her! She manages to juggle two classes and as many as a dozen people crowded around at one time. So much appreciated!

Reginna Hagemeier, far right, is having a pretty good time making a couple of cards at our free class station in the lobby. Everyone seemed to be in such a good mood Saturday!

Lemon-orange sunshine mini-cupcakes...yum.

Perfect for this season -- harvest apple mini-cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Additional cupcake choices at our birthday bash buffet were double peanut butter and chocolate, and cherry almond!

Scrapbook Generation's seventh birthday party was everything we imagined it would be...a fun day with our wonderful customers, who along the way, have become friends. We've exchanged stories, been through both difficult times and happy times, and always, wholeheartedly, have shared a love for preserving our family memories through scrapbooking.

In the seven years SG has been in existence, Karin and Stacey and Allison and I have learned, changed, and grown. When we first opened, pretty much all we needed to know how to do was run a cash register, place a few orders, and arrange a few displays.

Seven years later...it's complicated! We unload pallets, ship international packages by the truckload, pack thousands of kits each month, plan and host mega-crops and retreats, maintain several websites and social media pages, and juggle a retail store and a publishing company. We've gone from being a family experiment that we hoped would not be a disaster into being a family business that has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.

Someone said this to me yesterday, at the birthday celebration...
"It's YOUR birthday, but you're giving us presents!"
Well, how could we not?

We never lose sight of the fact that no matter how many pretty papers and shiny embellishments we can gather in one place, we won't continue to do well if we don't have a deep appreciation for our customers. So we hope you enjoyed the goodie bags, the gifts in the Super-Saver sessions, the gift cards, and the yummy cupcakes! It was our way of saying "thanks" for making Scrapbook Generation's first seven years so awesome.