Today I'm sharing the two layouts we'll be making Saturday during the Allison Davis free sketch sessions. Normally, I take one of Allison's layouts and create a computer sketch for the session. Since we're celebrating the third anniversary of our sketches during April and May, we're shaking things up just a bit.

This time, Allison designed two layouts using the same set of papers, so you'll be getting twice the bang for your buck...and in addition, we're offering 50% off the papers for those who attend, and Allison has designed stitching templates that will be included, free (and she has even provided an easier verson of the "Happy" title for the stitching impaired)! And if this offer isn't good enough already, the embroidery floss and buttons are on the house as well! Your cost for both layouts? About $2.75! Do we know how to celebrate, or what?

I'll also mention one other difference. We typically don't choose pink for sketch sessions, because it's a limiting color for some people with lots of guys in their lives, but every once in a while, you just have to think pink! It just seemed like the springy thing to do, and the sketch sessions always come with the option to choose other papers if you would like to.

To sign up for one of the sessions offered at 10, 11:30, 1 or 2:30, just give us a call at 417-886-0440.

• Especially for our "long-distance" fans/customers:
Here's a new proposal, based on the number of requests we've had in the past few days from long-distance fans of Scrapbook Generation. We already ship the sketch sessions and Super-Savers to several people who are in our kit clubs and are already getting a shipment each month. We're now going to provide this plan for others. You can sign up to receive all materials for the Super-Saver, basic sketch, and Allison Davis sketch and have them automatically shipped to you for $20 per month plus $2.99 shipping. (This breaks down to $10 for the Super-Saver, $5 for the basic sketch, and $5 for the Allison Davis sketch. And since we're talking about five layouts in a "normal" month, that's a pretty awesome deal!) Just give us a call (or email us at scrapbookgen@sbcglobal.net or stacey@scrapbookgeneration.com) if you are interested. Payment would be by automatic billing on the first of each month.

Thanks so much for pushing us past the goal of 1,000 Scrapbook Generation fans on Facebook! I've loved Facebook since early last year when I found I could reconnect with lots of my high school buddies. And here at SG, we've quickly discovered how easy/quick/fun it is to use the site for short messages, silly comments, information about approaching activities, photos of SG in action, and links to blog or website items we think you might be interested in. It's also a great way to reach us if you have a private message or question for one of the SG gang.

There's no doubt about it.

We're living a charmed life right now. We've been around for almost six years, and gone through some difficult times and some easier times. Scrapbook Generation has always been a family affair. Two sets of sisters...Debbie and Karin, Stacey and Allison. At this moment, we can all feel that the hard work and long hours are starting to pay off and that something big is about to happen for us. The national interest in Allison and our products has been overwhelming in the past few months, and we have dozens of ideas swirling around about how best to present and market what we do here on a national scale.

I taught journalism at tiny Mansfield High School for 25 years, and each spring, we matched up in contests on the state and national levels with schools far exceeding our size and resources. I always pushed my students to believe that being from a little school meant nothing. With knowledge and talent, they could compete with the big guys. And they did.

I have the same attitude about our business. I think that being from a little business means nothing. I think we can compete with the big guys!

Just check out Facebook later today for the question we're asking of our fans. The photos above are the prize packages we'll be awarding. We'll pick a random winner from both our "local" and "long-distance" fans. Good luck!

New at Scrapbook Generation...Tim Holtz paper pads, Bazzill cardstock flowers and leaves, glittery flower centers, ribbon flowers, and "half-size" Just the Edge strips -- the perfect size for cardmakers!

A couple of announcements...
• I forgot to mention earlier that our National Scrapbooking Day "Super-Saver" activities are sold out with 102 people! That happened last Saturday! If you didn't register in time, we'll still have lots of reasons for you to stop by SG on May 1! I'll be giving more details about that later.

• Be watching Facebook for an announcement of a prize opportunity for both local and long-distance fans of Scrapbook Generation. We're almost at the milestone of 1,000 fans, and feel the need to celebrate!

• We've been so blessed lately with all the wonderful things people are saying about our sketch books and kit clubs on the Two Peas in a Bucket message board, and also on some personal and business scrapbooking blogs. Let's just say that our "book binding and shipping departments" are working on overdrive, and that Stacey spent part of the day today checking on shipping rates to New Zealand, Norway, and South Africa. We can't say thank you enough for all the information that is being shared. It's one thing for us to say how great our sketch books are, and entirely another thing for scrapbookers across the country to voice the same opinion!

Stacey and I made a road trip to the Lake of the Ozarks area today to firm up our Scrapmania plans for Saturday, April 24, and to make sure everything would be set up correctly for our first ever mega-crop all on our own! As most of you know, Scrap-a-Palooza here in Springfield is a joint venture with a local radio station. Scrapmania, on the other hand, will be entirely a Scrapbook Generation production!

At the Windermere Conference Center just west of Camdenton (and about an hour and a half from Springfield), this new mega-crop will be held in the Wilderness Creek Auditorium, a huge building that has tons of room for lots of scrapbookers. We'll have plenty of space for the fully-stocked store we'll be taking with us, and each of the people attending will have a 6-foot table to themselves! We're busy making the goodie bags, page kits, free classes, demonstrations, and more. We're also planning for some tasty meals (including a dinner buffet!) and lots and lots of snacks!

Part of my job, my favorite part actually, is ordering everything we'll take to sell. The nicest part is that we'll hardly be taking anything from Scrapbook Generation, because I pretty much just order a complete new store! I've completely re-ordered every color of items like Stickles, Distress Stickles, Shimmerz, Perfect Pearls, Distress Crackle Paint, Distress Ink, Adirondack paint dabbers, Smooch, chalk ink, and other similar products. I've completely re-ordered every set of Thickers I could find (and that's a lot!). Ditto for all your favorites like Prima flowers, KaiserCraft jewels, Tom Holtz embellishments, and 7Gypsies stickers, just to name a few!

But the biggest thing that sets Scrapbook Generation mega-crops apart from other similar events is our all-out effort to bring you the very latest in paper collections, ones we haven't even had in our regular store yet. Here are just some of the collections you can expect to find at Scrapmania on April 24!

Brand new collections debuting at Scrapmania:
• Cosmo Cricket - Material Girl, Joy Ride, Garden Variety
• KI Memories - Enchanting, Groovy, Paisley Parade, Posh, Sweet Life, Wild Life
• Crate Paper - Pink Plum, Brook, Paper Doll
• Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker - Dan the Record Man, Ellie’s Day Out
• Paper Loft - Dude, Morning Rain, Old Towne Tavern
• Pink Paislee - Starlight
• Sassafras Lass - Nerdy Bird, Cherry Delicious, Apple Jack
• Moxxie - Senior Year, Queen of the Crop
• Making Memories - Pitter Patter Sophie, Pitter Patter Oliver
• Imaginisce - Live Loud
• We R Memory Keepers - Twirl
• Fancy Pants - About A Girl, Rusted Sun, Road Show, My Family
• Litte Yellow Bicycle - Generation Z
• Doodlebug - Barnyard, Feeling Groovy, Great Getaway, Mother Nature, Summertime, On the Go
• October Afternoon - Thrift Shop
• My Mind's Eye - (it's possible that the new collections will arrive in time for Scrapmania)

Collections that have been so popular that we've re-ordered them for Scrapmania:
• Graphic 45 - A Proper Gentleman, On the Boardwalk, Le’Romantique
• BoBunny - Paradise, Roughing It, Mama-Razzi, Flower Power
• My Mind’s Eye - Jack and Jill, Little Boy Blue, Little Miss Muffet, Mary Mary
• Paper Loft - Now and Then
• Pink Paislee - Queen Bee, Bayberry Cottage, 365 Degrees

If this list of scrapbooking royalty doesn't make you drool, I don't know what will! If you want to sign up for this awesome cropping and shopping event, just go to scrapbookgeneration.com, or give us a call at 417-886-0440. It's going to be a great day!

Saturday is going to be a special day at Scrapbook Generation. It's the third anniversary of the beginning of our sketch sessions on Saturdays, which has led to all kinds of wonderful things for us as a business! From our customers came the idea to compile the individual computer sketches into a book, and it's been an idea that has transformed us from being a store reaching people in one community into a business whose reach extends not just nationwide, but internationally as well.

As I am posting this article, there are four separate threads on the first page of the Two Peas in a Bucket message board that are talking about our sketch books or our page kits. It seems as if everyone is discovering how easy it is to use the sketches, and that it doesn't stifle your creativity, but enhances it.

Back to Saturday sketches, to celebrate this milestone, we have special events planned for all four of our sketch sessions in April and May. This Saturday, April 10, everyone who attends the "Basic Sketch" sessions will receive 50% off the cost of their papers, and get a free title for the layout. As a bonus, you'll receive a card sketch to use the "scraps" left over from the layout. (This same offer applies for the Basic Sketch sessions in May.)

The photos above show the layout we'll be making on Saturday. You'll have enough paper left to make not just one card from the bonus sketch, but two! (And as always at our sketch sessions, you can choose other papers to purchase if these don't work for you.) With your half-off paper offer, you'll be making this layout and two cards for less than $2.50!

Bonus Reminder: If you attend three of the four sketches sessions in April and May, you receive your choice of spring-themed page kits, a $12.99 value.

We hope you can join us this Saturday. To sign up for a session (10, 11:30, 1, or 2:30) just call SG at 417-886-0440. See you then!

And don't forget that this is "Sketches Week" on Allison's blog. She has some gorgeous and creative layouts for you to view all week, with lots of details about her creative process.

The "Two Peas" message board is still buzzing with compliments for the Allison Davis "Sketches for Scrapbooking" books. 

Now, someone has just started a new thread asking about the Scrapbook Generation monthly page kit clubs. If you do the "Two Peas" thing and are in one of our kit clubs, we'd appreciate any kind words you could provide there for others who might be interested in joining one of the SG clubs! Thanks in advance!

Two Peas In a Bucket

Next project...Scrapmania!

We hope you can join us on Saturday, April 24 for our first mega-crop completely hosted by Scrapbook Generation. For Scrap-a-Palooza, which many of you have attended here in Springfield, we work in conjunction with a local radio station to produce the event. For Scrapmania, which will be held about an hour and a half north of Springfield at Windermere Conference Center near Camdenton and Lake of the Ozarks, we are it!

The format will be almost identical to our hugely popular mega-crop here in Springfield, and I'll be sharing more details about that as the time nears for the event. We have room for about 150 at Scrapmania, but for this first event, our goal is 100 scrapbookers. As of this past weekend, we're over half way to our goal! We plan to start radio and newspaper advertising in that area this week, and registration usually heats up at that point!

We're hoping to reach a new group of scrapbookers for Scrapmania. We've heard from so many people about the lack of stores in the mid-Missouri area, including Jefferson City and Columbia. This event should give people north of here a chance to participate in what has become one of Springfield's premiere activities!

To sign up, register online at scrapbookgeneration.com, or give us a call at 417-886-0440.

Something new...
And if you'll look directly below, you'll see that we've added a fun new feature to our blog. You can click on one or more of three choices to give us quick feedback and reactions to our blog posts! We love it when you leave the traditional comments, but this will let you give your opinion instantly. Happy clicking!

I promised several people that I would post the soup recipe that was served on Friday night at our three spring retreats, so here it is. And several at Windermere asked about the biscuits, so I'm including that, too. Yeast scares me, so the biscuits come through as my go-to "homemade" bread for family events!

Fried Potato Soup
1/2 pound bacon
6-8 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and grated
4 cups milk
1 can of cream of chicken soup
15-ounce can of corn, drained
salt and pepper to taste

Cut bacon into 1/2" slices and cook until crisp; remove bacon and set aside. To the bacon grease, add potatoes, onion and carrots; cook until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally and adding salt and pepper. Stir in remaining ingredients; simmer for 15 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings.

Pseudo Red Lobster Biscuits
2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (not salt)
1 tablespoon parsley flakes

Mix the Bisquick, milk and cheese until a soft dough forms. Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes at 450 degrees. Melt butter with garlic and parsley; brush immediately over biscuits before removing from cookie sheet.

Scrapbook Generation has all three new collections by Pink Paislee! I especially love the folded ribbon borders, the chipboard buttons, the journaling books, and the huge distressed alpha set.

We're still getting everything put back out after the third retreat! Somewhere, we have the Shimmerz spritz to match their glimmery paints, and we also just got a shipment of Maya Mist from Maya Road! Several boxes just came in with new products from Bazzill, but it will be Friday before those new goodies are out for purchase.