Are you up for a challenge?
Now that most of you have received your August-September newsletters in the mail, I want to elaborate on a new venture for Scrapbook Generation I'm personally looking forward to hosting and participating in...Designers Challenge Club!

I'm pretty sure that we've all seen articles in the scrapbooking magazines where a few people are given the same supplies and then challenged to come up with creative projects using just those few supplies. It's always fun for me to see how different people using the same papers and embellishments manage to come up with totally unique layouts or cards.

Recently, Stacey and Allison and I participated in something that was essentially the same. I'll tell you more about it later, but we were each given the same packet of supplies and asked to make samples for a scrapbook company to display at its booth at the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) summer show in Orlando. When we brought our layouts and cards and home decor projects here to the store to deliver to the company, we had the best time looking at what each other had made, with me usually saying "why didn't I think of doing that!" Although we had each used the same papers and ribbons and stamps and other goodies, the similarities ended there! Same supplies...entirely different outcomes because we each have different styles! I got some great ideas from the projects Stacey and Allison had made.

I want Designers Challenge Club to do the same thing. I want it to be all about stretching and expanding our creativity and drawing inspiration and ideas from the work of others. If you join the club, you will meet with us once a month, on the third Thursday evening at 6 pm. At each meeting, you'll receive a packet with $15 worth of coordinating products, including patterned papers and embellishments. At home, you'll create cards or scrapbook pages or mini-books (in any combination that pleases you) using only materials in the packet and items on the "acceptable" list. (Stop by SG to pick up the brochure that explains items you can add and items you can't add!)

The following month, you'll bring the items you've created to the club meeting. We'll display all the creations, and have a discussion time to talk about interesting techniques. You'll be able to take photos of all the projects. We'll also have a members-only blog where photos of all projects will be posted, and where further comments can be added.

Now for the formalities. You must pre-register to participate in Designers Challenge Club. Because of space constraints, membership is limited to 30 people. Once you join, you will be a member until you tell us otherwise. The $15 materials fee will be billed to your card on the third Thursday of each month. If you need further information, I'll be happy to answer any questions either here on the blog, in person, or by phone.

I'm really looking forward to this new "experiment." The times when I've been restricted to a limited amount of supplies in making a scrapbook layout, I've found that it has forced me to be more creative and more innovative. I'm so excited about the fun of getting to see what a group of gals (of all ages, probably) can come up with when they take on this "designers challenge."

Be sure to check out the Creating Keepsakes blog link at the right of this page. Allison is the guest blogger today, and she has a great project shown step by step. She's in pretty good company as a guest blogger -- the last two have been Becky Higgins and Ali Edwards!

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!

We're having technical difficulties getting photos posted right now, but I wanted to let you know that we just got in four styles of machine-stitched, beautifully patterned paper by Prima. We only have six sheets of each style, but now that I see them "in person," I'll be sure to order more.

Creative Imaginations is here! Scrapbook Generation has a nice new assortment of double-sided papers, die-cut papers, stickers, rub-ons, and other embellishments. There are items from their Creative Cafe collections, as well as floral-themed mini-groups. There are also some solid-colored die-cut papers with a looped border that are just beautiful! We also have a new group of flourish rub-ons, brads, and button sets by BasicGrey!

As many of you know, this is the time of year when all the scrapbook companies are coming out with new products for the annual summer CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) Show. Scrapbook Generation is right in the thick of things! We've already done pre-orders with the most popular companies, and the new products will start arriving soon. Really soon!

My Mind's Eye has six or seven new lines, including some general groups, two Halloween groups, and two Christmas groups. Every single item they have created will be on the way to us in about a week! They have given us a ship date of July 27, 28, or 29, which means we should have all of their goodies sometime the first week of August! And that's just the beginning!

Another company to which we quickly said "send it all" was Graphic 45! All three new collections from this mega-popular vintage company will be on the way to us within the next few weeks!

As I know more specific ship dates, I'll post them here. Later today, we'll be putting out a huge assortment of new items from Creative Imaginations. Pictures soon!

Think August and September! Newsletters are going in the mail today! Lots of new activities. I can't wait for you to find out about them. As soon as I think the newsletters have been received, I'll start elaborating on several events/projects/activities. I didn't have enough space in the newsletter!

Thanks for the overwhelmingly positive response to the first edition of "Allison's Creative Kitchen!" We're already on our second set of the recipe cards, the third set of the star templates, and most of the individual products have sold out and we've ordered much more (some of the items will be arriving as early as Thursday, and the rest should be here early next week)! Next month, I'll know to have a much larger supply of all the "ingredients" for Ali's "recipes" to start out with. The demand has been much, much greater than I had anticipated!

And all of you moms can appreciate the fact that Ali has called me several times to say "I told you so!" She had wanted to do this long ago, and I had put her off. Okay, I'm publicly admitting I was wrong, but just this once!

The plan is to have a new installment of Allison's Creative Kitchen around the 15th of each month!

The latest products to splash their way to Scrapbook Generation include the bright and cheery Under the Sea collection by Reminisce. The group includes regular papers, die-cut papers (the white border on the dolphin paper comes off), and a great selection of embellishments. This group has dolphins, whales, and portholes covered!

We also have the latest issues of Scrapbook Trends and Cards magazines.

I'm picking up the August-September newsletter at the printer tomorrow, and it will go in the mail sometime early next week. I can't wait for you to read about all the new adventures we have waiting for you! It's going to be a fun and busy time!

Announcing a new feature at Scrapbook Generation...Allison's Creative Kitchen recipe cards for scrapbookers! Allison Davis has been talking to me about this concept for some time, and after I've seen what she had in mind, I'm sold!

Once a month, Allison will create a two-page layout, then we'll display the layout with the supplies necessary to reproduce the pages. She'll write a "recipe card" that explains the needed supplies and some basic information about the layout on the back, and then add a color photo to the front. The recipe cards are a bargain at just 79 cents, and Allison has also made a 12x12 star template that can be purchased and used to make the layout.

This is just one of several new projects we'll be announcing in the next couple of months!

New today at Scrapbook Generation...the latest from Fancy Pants! We have the entire Boy Kraft Kuts and Girl Kraft Kuts collections. Love the die-cut papers!