More About the Girls

Sunday, November 29, 2009

On vacation

We all have been super busy making some holiday stuff for the shop & I am frantically trying to finish up some jewelry pieces before I go on vacation this Tuesday! I thought I'd better let you know that I probably won't be writing from the shores of Maui over the next week, but ya never know!

Just a reminder - we have a class on December 12th to make a cute 8x10 collaged picture frame. There are 6 spots open, so we hope you'll come join in on the fun! It is also Santa's visit to the Barn. So come by, take the class from 11-1, then have the family come in for a sit-down with The Man in The Red Suit until 3!

Hope to see you there!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Good Times!

Yesterday was the big Starlighting Festival in downtown Castle Rock & we were at the Barn all day for the festivities! The Barn was a hub of activity all day long! Lots of new visitors coming through to see all the treasures! There were so many people coming through that you had to wait in line to get up or down the stairs! It was a lot of fun, if not a little overwhelming!

We had a great time teaching our 2nd "Made From Scratch" recipe book, even though we had to turn away two students because they apparently signed up over the phone, but the message was never passed along to us! We were livid w/whomever checks the messages at the Barn & they were disappointed! We'll definitely be finding a remedy for class sign-ups in the very near future! Hopefully they will get in touch soon to re-schedule!

Although it wasn't a high volume sale day for us, we met lots of interesting people & a few scrapbookers interested in various classes! We all of you we met will come to class in December or get in touch with us for some brainstorming on other events! One customer expressed interest in learning how to collage onto an old window like I did here. So, we might see if we can form that into a class & work out a special discount on old windows at The Barn too!

But I think my favorite moment during the whole day was when I met a girl named Hannah, who had received a little fall book I had made as a gift from (I think) her sister. It's always cool to meet the recipients of something you worked so hard on! They were both so sweet & Hannah was super excited about coming to take the December class! We hope to see both of them there! (She has great taste too - she loves my collaged window!!) ;-)

We also had lots of people ask if we do special orders & the answer is YES! Kim has already done 3! She created a series of birthday books as well as some recipe books for a mom to give to her 3 daughters! We can also take all you boxes of picts, organize them & put them into a scrapbook for you! Or we are willing to sit down with anyone to help them organize photos & get started on their own scrapbooks! All you have to do is ask!!

Please pass on to all of your friends that we are here & we want to start a community of scrappers, collage artists or whatever-strikes-your-artistic-fancy types! If you are interested in a class or have some ideas for one, or maybe you'd like us to host a crop, please contact us, sign-up to follow us here, on Twitter or even Facebook! We want to hear from you!!!! We need all of you to help keep this crazy ride going!!

Hope to see you soon!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Ups & Downs


Tomorrow is the big Starlighting Festival in Downtown Castle Rock! We'll be at the Barn from open to close! We have our 2nd Recipe Book class ( TWO SPOT LEFT!) from 11-1 & then we're going to hang out & be creative all day! There will be a lot going on downtown from about 2pm to 6pm for the lighting of the star on top of "Castle Rock" & the Barn will have hot cocoa in the evening for everyone! Stop by if you can!!



On the "downside..."
We've been a little discouraged with sales lately & picked the brains of some of the other Barnies as to what we need to do to attract more traffic. So, after a junking day & brainstorming, we re-arranged the shop so that it's more inviting & hopefully will hold a shoppers interest a little longer. Some of our finds went right into the shop, but others we are holding onto so that we might re-purpose them to hold some memories.











We're also finding that the shoppers just don't seem to get what we're all about & that can be very frustrating. On the one hand, we like to create our albums ready for photos, but on the other hand it might be better to just carry more kits & ephemera for the collage artist or scrapbooker. We are definitely in the learning process & just hope that we can make rent for a few more months! So, please spread the word for us! We need all the help we can get! We have heard from a few customers that they're glad we're here & are hoping that a scrapbook community will start up again in Castle Rock since the local scrap stores are all closed. That's a little encouraging.

"On the Upside..." What's New?
Vintage Image Post Cards
Floral Cameos
Handmade Felt Birds
Christmas Albums, Kits, Papers, Rub-ons, Tags
Handmade & Vintage Ornaments
Holiday-themed Serving Trays
& so much more!















Coming Soon...
Collage Frame Class on 12/12!!
Vintage Magazine Pages/Ads
Vintage Book Pages
More Christmas albums
More Vintage Images
& who know what we'll come up with next!!











Wednesday, November 11, 2009

We Love to Teach!!

Our first class on November 12th was a great success! We had a lot of fun with Sue & Amy & we hope that they had a great time making the little paper-bag recipe book with us!

Although both Sue & Amy are long-time scrapbookers, they learned some new techniques from us, which makes the class an even bigger success!















With lots of stamping, inking, fussy-cutting & altering, we wrapped up the class in a couple of hours. Sue & Amy were thrilled with the book & ready to take it home & fill it with all their family's favorite recipes!


We're gearing up for the next class on November 21st (see the calendar of events at right), which incidentally, is the big Starlighting Day in Castle Rock! So we are expecting a great crowd in downtown Castle Rock & at The Barn throughout the day! It should be great fun!

If you're interested in taking the class,
you can call the barn to sign up at 303-814-0066.


Otherwise, we'll be at The Barn off & on between now & the 21st.
Then, we'll be there all day for the Starlighting festivities! Come on by & say hello!
Hope to see you there!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Thanks for a Great Open House!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

It was a little touch-n-go for me as to whether I would even make it to our big open house at the barn yesterday since I got really sick a few days before! But my fever broke & I was there to celebrate our "grand opening!"















We had a great time with all who stopped by - lots of familiar faces as well as some great new ones! We have high hopes of keeping the class interest going with some of you joining us for our November & December classes! It's so exciting to meet new people & share our love of preserving memories together!









The Make-n-Take was a great success, thanks to Kim! She's such a fabulous teacher! And the winner of our raffle for the sweet little stamp set we used in the project was Mary Beth! Congrats & enjoy!

This week we'll be preparing for our first class on Saturday, 11/7 - The "Made From Scratch" recipe book - only 1 space left as of yesterday! (But there's another on the 21st!) & few projects in between! And we still have a day or two of training to get in at The Barn, so at least 2 of us will be at The Barn on Thursday all day, so stop by to say hello!
TTFN!!