Scrapbook Generation's weekend retreat now has a name...It's All About Memories! I'm happy to discover that people actually read this blog! I found that out the next day after I posted the last message, when scrapbookers started calling to sign up for the September retreat.

Here are a few more pieces of information about the retreat.

There will be a die-cut center available with two Sizzix machines and several alphabet sets, and Scrapbook Generation will have an on-site store where you can purchase cardstock, papers, adhesives, ribbons, tools, albums, idea books, and embellishments.

Resort amenities available to retreat guests include indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs.

A letter with class choices and contest categories will be mailed July 15. Remaining balance and class choices will be due August 1. (We will also be glad to set up a payment schedule for those who would prefer to break the remaining balance up into smaller amounts!)

Tentative Schedule:
Friday -- Check-in at 4 p.m.; dinner at 7; optional class at 9; and snack buffet at 11.
Saturday -- Breakfast in your condo at your leisure; optional class at 10 a.m.; lunch at noon; optional classes at 2 and 4 p.m.; dinner at 6; contest entries due at 9; winners announced at 10; chocolate buffet at midnight.
Sunday -- Breakfast in your condo at your leisure; closing remarks at 10:30 a.m. (not sure exactly when we have to be out of the meeting room yet.)

Hope to see you there!

Today's excitement at Scrapbook Generation:
New arrivals...
-- All My Memories: 12x12 black Urban Chic albums are back;
-- Several new items for Mother's Day, including two sets of rub-on titles and phrases, and embellishments and stickers by Paper Bliss, EK Success, Me and My Big Ideas, and Jolee's Boutique.

Faithful readers will be the first to know about Scrapbook Generation's newest venture. Karin and I are excited to announce that the plans are final for our first weekend retreat.

Friday, September 29 through Sunday, October 1, we will be hosting a "marathon" scrapbooking weekend in Branson. The location will be the Legacy area of Thousand Hills Golf Resort, located just a couple of blocks from the Grand Palace, right off the 76 strip.

Scrapbooking will be held in the Legacy meeting room, which has great lighting, great views, plenty of room, and even a comfy couch to curl up on during break time. When you aren't scrapbooking, you'll be staying in a gorgeous three-bedroom condo which will house up to 6 people. Each condo has a dining area, a complete kitchen, living room, and three private bedrooms, each with its own TV and bathroom. Did I forget the balconies and patios? Actually the rooms are so nice that you may not want to leave to scrapbook!

All-inclusive prices for the weekend are $275 per person for one in a condo bedroom, and $245 per person for two in a condo bedroom. This price includes all meals and snacks and lodging. A variety of classes will be available for an additional charge. Because we want you to feel totally pampered, each person will leave with prizes of scrapbooking products valued at least $50 or more!

A non-refundable deposit of $50 is due when you sign up. The deposit must be made by June 15, and we expect the event to fill up quickly. You can stop by Scrapbook Generation to pay, or we will accept credit cards by phone. Be prepared to let us know who you will be sharing a bedroom with, or even the entire condo, if you can put a bigger group together!

Call us at 417-886-0440 if you need more information.

Today's excitement at Scrapbook Generation:
New arrivals...
-- 7 Gypsies: clipper frames in two finishes; cigar box kits; accordion album kits; and 10 new styles of the 97% Complete stickers, including gratitude, inspire, fatherhood, zany, quotes, remember, time, yummy, unique, and celebrate;
-- Paper House: cardstock stickers in dog, basketball, baseball, and football themes;
-- Creative Imaginations: 25 pastel papers, 6 rub-on letter sets, 18 epoxy sticker sets (including birthday, dinosaurs, halloween, USA, Hershey kisses, baby boy, baby girl, boy, girl, shells, and girls' night out), 4 sets of sticker letters, and stickers for RVs, vans, and motorcycles, racing, baby, journey, Christmas, beaches, faith, and the sea;
-- Scrapbook Generation: one new Sweet and Simple page kit, and one new Style To Go page kit.

Sometimes around here we just rush from one activity to another! At least my sister Karin thinks that when I schedule her responsibilities for the week.

Thursday, the Springfield Boys and Girls Club bused a group of youngsters to Scrapbook Generation for a lesson in scrapbooking. Karin worked with them for over an hour, helping them make mini-scrapbooks for their families. They used cardstock, fibers, lots of die cuts and stickers, and seemed to have a great time picking out colors and shapes and arranging them on their pages. When they left, they were proudly clutching their creations and excited about showing their parents what they had made.

Friday night, Karin was a "camp counselor" at Camp Scrap at Second Baptist Church in Springfield. The event, held twice a year, was attended by over 150 women. Karin and the other counselors were responsible for making the people at their tables feel welcome, because not all of the croppers were members of the church. I went along with Karin, and we shared our table with a couple of our favorite customers, and three other women we hadn't met before. We all worked on pages, and there were several great make and takes and demos going on during the night. Karin is a member of Second Baptist, but I was pretty much in a state of awe, because my church in Mansfield could probably fit in the lobby of this mega-church!

Today's excitement at Scrapbook Generation:
New arrivals...
-- K & Company: papers and embellishments from the K-ology collection;
-- Buttons Galore: themed button sets, charm sets, and packages of acylic jewels in star, flower, and heart shapes;
-- plus, our button buckets have been refreshed with buttons in flower, star, and heart shapes, and round buttons in semi-transparent colors.

Glorious isn't a word I use a great deal, but it does a perfect job of describing my family's time together Easter afternoon. After church and lunch, we took a blanket outside and sat under a shade tree. That doesn't sound so special, but I can't remember the last time we did anything similar to that. But like the commercial says, having a baby (in the family) changes everything!

Grandson Andrew, now 10 months old, was the center of our attention. We watched every move, and photographed them as well. Much of the time, he had at least three cameras focused on him, and sometimes four. (One of my favorite pictures of the day shows Stacey, Allison, and I all taking pictures of him at the same time!)

Easter has been my least favorite holiday ever since my dad died unexpectedly, in his sleep, on Easter morning, 1999. With each passing year, we've drooped through the day, without much joy. Easter 2006 was the first time I can remember being happy, and it was all because of Andrew.

I have some great memories of the day...my sister Karin running around the yard, trying to fly a kite in high heels...daughters Stacey and Allison entertaining Andrew with bubbles...Andrew clapping and waving on cue...my mother, who her whole life has cringed if one hair gets out of place, playing with Andrew while her hair blew every direction, leaning over him and laughing and smiling, looking like a young girl again.

We captured all these moments on film, and I know that many scrapbook pages will be made from this glorious day. All five of us scrapbook -- my mother, my sister, my two daughters, and I -- and we each have our own style. We'll make some beautiful pages, but none of them will be the same. That's what is great about this hobby.

When I was back home by myself, I did find myself reflecting on family that wasn't there with us, sitting on a blanket under a shade tree, and reveling in the newest member of the group. My dad isn't around to see his great-grandchild. My grandparents are gone, too. How I would have loved for them all to be there.

When I was a young mom, I don't think I was aware of anything beyond that moment. Now, as a grandmother, I feel like I'm living in three dimensions -- past, present, and future. I'm almost always conscious of how fleeting is our time together, and that the moment we are experiencing will never come again. That's why scrapbooking is so important to me. I feel the need (and the privilege) to unite the generations who will never know each other except through the albums we create.

Today's excitement at Scrapbook Generation:
New arrivals...
-- Junkitz: three groups of paper, in a different style than their past offerings;
-- Reminisce: a huge selection of paper, cardstock stickers, and epoxy stickers for the following themes -- general travel, Las Vegas, graduation, wedding, Kid Crossing (trains), circus, 2006, twins, birthday boy, birthday girl, zoo, dogs, farm, park, retirement, doctor visit, tooth fairy, ages 1-9, Genuine Girl, boy, grandparents, sister, son, daughter, dad, mom, brother, and cousins.

I just finished teaching our first Anna Griffin class at Scrapbook Generation, and was pleased with how the projects turned out. We made a two-page layout and a matching card in less than two hours. The unique thing about both the layout and the card was the use of a pleated border. It took lots of measuring and scoring and folding, but the result is striking (and very different from my own personal style).

We're going to be offering a year-long series of classes designed by the Anna Griffin staff. Each class features a different paper collection. This month pastels, next month, a totally different look with black, red, and fuchsia. The next Anna Griffin class is May 11, and for anyone interested in signing up, there's only one spot left.

Today's excitement at Scrapbook Generation:
New arrivals...
-- BasicGrey: It's back! After selling out of almost every sheet of the five new paper collections shortly after they first arrived, we have them back in stock -- Oh Baby Girl, Oh Baby Boy, Hang 10, Color Me Silly, and Urban Couture;
-- Heidi Swapp: silhouette words (expressions, girl, baby, family, love, and travel themes), block alphabets (pink, black, and grass), ghost shapes and alphabets, chipboard alphabets (cotton candy, lilac, martha, icee, and jet), photo corners in both sizes and just about every color combination, and the newest of all, light-pink florals (saucer-size 12-layer silk flowers).

The call for Design Team entries for Scrapbook Generation is an exciting project for us. The packets have just been available for one week, and we've already had a great response.

We're looking for talented designers of all ages and styles (and I mean that literally) to serve six-month terms. Judging from the people who have picked up a packet so far, there is college-age to grandmother-age and everything in between, which is super.

As far as styles, I truly believe there is room for everyone in scrapbooking. It's like the rest of the world...wouldn't it be a boring place if everyone wore the same clothes, drove the same cars, and lived in the same houses? I love the idea that five people could take the same set of papers and embellishments and come up with five totally different -- and equally good -- scrapbook layouts!

If you decide to join us in the search for our Design Team, the packet explains both the benefits and expectations of the members. Since the entries aren't due until mid-May, there's still plenty of time to stop by and take that first step.

Today's excitement at Scrapbook Generation:
New arrivals...
-- All My Memories: exciting new Uptown Chic albums in 12x12 and 8x8 sizes; both sizes come in pink, blue, and kiwi, and are trimmed in brown; we've replenished our supply of Urban Chic albums -- in 12x12 red, kiwi, pink, and blue, and in 8x8 black, brown, kiwi, and pink;
-- BoBunny: 11 bright papers match up with cardstock stickers with themes of Butterfly Kisses, Easter, and Eggs to Dye For; plus Precious Petals in pink and white (each package contains one large and two small silk flowers with centers of buttons and ribbon);
-- Creating Keepsakes: Photography for Scrapbookers idea book;
-- Anna Griffin: an assortment of papers from the Eliza (pastel pinks, blues, and yellows) and Sloane (black, red, fushcia, and white) collections.

Allison brought in the cutest page yesterday, and there's a story behind it. A couple of months ago, we were sitting at the big table at the front of the store, trying to amuse grandson Andrew, who loves to pound on the table. Allison accidentally let him get a little too close to the button buckets, and Andrew knocked one over, spilling the yellow buttons all over the table and floor. Naturally, I ran for the camera, and we documented the first (and probably not the last) mess he made at Scrapbook Generation.

Using those photos, and about 60 of the actual buttons Andrew spilled, Allison created a page which looks like the real buttons are flowing out of the bucket in the photo. We'll have the page on display for a while -- it's very creative and original!

Actually, Andrew and the buckets of buttons reminds me of my younger days, playing in the bulk seed bins at my grandparents' hardware store in Mansfield. It was my favorite thing to do when I was there. Today, there aren't many children -- or adults, for that matter -- who don't dig their hands down in the button buckets when they come in Scrapbook Generation!

Today's excitement at Scrapbook Generation:
New arrivals...
-- Karen Foster: an Easter grouping with papers and stickers; a new driver grouping with papers, stickers, and cute metal driving charms; and baseball and softball (yes, softball!) groupings of papers, stickers, 12x12 rub-on overlays, and jean labels;
-- Better Homes and Gardens Scrapbooks Etc.: four new idea books on design and photography;
-- Paper Heart Studio: five new groups of papers. Four of them feature wild designs and some unique color combinations, and the fifth group is patriotic.

This weekend I attended a scrapbook retreat at Lake of the Ozarks. I love going because it's a time when I can focus on doing some pages not for display, but just for me. My scrapbooking speed is pretty slow, but that doesn't bother me. I enjoy taking my time, moving stuff around, and reliving memories through the photos I'm using. It's also a chance to see all the great work that others are doing. And if we eat a little too much and stay up a little too late, no one cares!

Allison is a CK winner!
While I was at the retreat, my daughter (Allison Davis) called with great news. She had just found out that her layout was the first place winner in the Creating Keepsakes scrapbook page contest at the CK Convention in Kansas City. Her winning layout is on display at Scrapbook Generation, and it uses the new Hang 10 collection by BasicGrey. The page is about the two towns in her life -- Mansfield and Springfield. Allison has been creating some absolutely beautiful pages lately, and we're fortunate to be able to display them at the store.

Today's excitement at Scrapbook Generation:
New arrivals...
-- Bo Bunny: a zoo life collection including papers and stickers;
-- Colorbox: six great new sets of 5 fluid chalk inkpads and stylus -- some sets are monochromatic, and others are assorted combinations -- perfect to use for edging paper with some color. I used the monochromatic blue set at the weekend retreat I attended, and everyone around wanted to try them out!
-- American Crafts: large monogram-type rub-ons;
-- Meri Meri: cute Easter embellishments, like huge Easter bunnies;
-- Cross My Heart: 12 different page kits (baby boy, baby girl, pizza party, kitchen or recipes, poker, princess, western, and graduation themes) featuring an assortment of papers, die cuts, and other embellishments;
-- Art Bin: several organizers from the Super Satchel Series (most of these are 15"x14" -- perfect for storing/carrying papers and albums, others have dividers for smaller supplies.)