Today was uber-busy for me!

After dropping Maggie off at school, I got busy photographing all the new kits for our Etsy & ArtFire shops! Yes! We are going to list a few things on ArtFire too & see which site works best for us!

I spent the day fanning papers, staging embellishments & hunching over the computer...

In addition to working on stuff for the biz, Kim & I got "sucked" into our respective computers for 3, (YES THREE) hours today! We were researching allllllllll the scrapbook retreats we could find across the country! We were trying to find one that striked our fancy for my 40th b-day in March! We found a few back east that looked really enticing, but then it hit us, "If we use miles for the flight & pay cash for the retreat, how can we afford to 'check' our supplies & luggage for the flight?!" Sooooo not worth the hassel! If only the local retreats weren't booked up! And we couldn't even get on to the Keepsake Inn's website in Manitou Springs! Which lead us to believe they have closed down! Back to square one on the 'ol b-day planning! *Sigh* Of course, if I hadn't spent so much time looking at all these wonderful places, I would have typed up this post hours ago & be "dreaming" of the perfect getaway right now! Instead, here I sit pecking away!!! {wink}

Anyway, here are just a few things I worked on...

Christmas Kits! These kits will be listed with a discount!

  Webster's Pages Christmas Kits!

Webster's Pages Embellishments in kits!

 

Diet Planner Kit!

 

More Domestic Goddess Kits!

 

Jenni Bowlin Mini-Papers Kit!

 

Webster's Pages Paris Papers & Exclusive Unity Stamp!

 

More Websters!

 

Fab kit embellishments!

 

 "Sweet as Cherry Pie" papers!

 

Made from Scratch Recipe Kit (Like the pages used in our first class!)

 

Unity Stamp Set!

 

Single, adorable Unity Stamps!

Lastly, these gorgeous nature cameos from Websters!

I hope to have everything up by the end of the day tomorrow!

So keep your eyes peeled!

As for now, I am going to "peel" my eyes from the computer & hit the sack!

Toodles!

Slowly, but Surely!

We're slowly getting things back on track around here!

Kim has been busy sorting through our goods left over from the shop at The Barn & I have been going through photos of some of those items to list on Etsy. It's a slow process since a lot of the photos I took were just little sneak peaks to entice our readers into the shop or for a class & not really worthy of sales photos for Etsy. But I have gotten a few things up so check it out @ http://www.etsy.com/shop/thescrapateenygirls. This is a little Vintage-style Christmas mini-album I just listed... 

Mostly, I have been uncovering my desk & sewing table from the various mess that was dumped in my studio during the mad rush of the last 3 months! But I am finally seeing the light & should be ready to create some new products for the shop starting next week!

Off to finish up the studio!
Happy Friday!

Bittersweet Endings & New Beginnings

Well, this week will be a bittersweet week for the three of us. I have been putting off writing here since I returned from vacation because I knew what I had to write about...

After only 3 months at The Barn in Castle Rock, we've decided to close our little shop there. Although the venue is amazing & some of the people have been really supportive, We feel that maybe it's not the right venue for us.

We were finding that even though we were had some interest from shoppers for classes & supplies, we were spending more time & money on putting things in the shop that had nothing to do with scrapbooking just as a cash flow generator. We scrambled around for three months trying to figure out what the customer wanted & in doing so, we lost sight of what we really wanted the shop to be: a place for scrappers & paper artists to come for hard to find supplies, ideas, classes & more. Plus, we really wanted to start a community of other crafters in the area, which is badly needed with all the little stores closing these days. We just weren't getting that at The Barn. True, if we could have stayed a little longer things might have turned around, but the rent was too hard to maintain & continue our vision.

So, as the week turns into the new year, we will be pulling our wares out of the space. We'll spend a week or two to re-group & load up the shop on Etsy (which is totally empty now!). We'll organize some more classes with the contacts we've made & hopefully schedule a weekend crop very soon!

Please don't give up on us! We're still here, but it will just have to be in the virtual world for a little while! Keep checking back for new event postings & PLEASE post comments or FOLLOW us so we know how to get in touch with you too! And, most of all, we need all of you to spread the word about us when we get things rolling again!

Thanks to those that have been supportive & we hope to see everyone in the very near future!

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!

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!