***Weather Alert*** Store closed today (Sunday, Dec 26th) due to expected Winter Storm. Please stay home and stay safe!

Class information

Our 2010 classes are coming to a close this week with the final Card Club class on Tuesday and the final Layout Class with Terry on Wednesday. On behalf of all of the teachers at The Inspiration Station I want to thank you all for making our education program such a success. I believe we have some of the most talented and creative instructors anywhere- and it's wonderful to know that you agree!

Coming up in the New Year you can count on more fabulous inspiration for your cards, scrapbooks, mini albums and more. Our January calendar is already available at the store and online; February is in progress. We are looking forward to offering more great classes and ideas. Treat yourself to any one of our classes and you will be coming back for more!

A sample of what you can look forward to in the new year:
Card Club students will be getting a fabulous cutting die in the January Class! Remember that the morning Card Club will be moving to the 2nd Tuesday of the month. The evening classes will remain on the 2nd & 3rd Tuesday of the month.

Scrap More Layouts classes with Dawn will be held on the first Wednesday of the month.

Monthly Layout Club with Terry will be held on the 3rd Wednesday of each month.

Additional classes for Cricut, Coloring with Copic, Valentine Cards and Printer's Tray and a Taste of Winter mini book will also be offered.

Wanted to share.

For everyone who loved Tim's tags but didn't have time to play along- Donna will be teaching a class based on them on Thursday, January 27th in the morning and evening. Space is limited so plan to sign up soon.

Magnolia Ink is in

The Christmas Edition of Magnolia Ink has finally arrived; along with a restock of some of the stamps. Here's a card I made last weekend using the Tilda with Fir stamp again but in a different color palette.

get ready!

Happy Thanksgiving to all

May you all be blessed with lots to be Thankful for this Holiday season.

I am thankful for all of you who have supported me throughout the year. Thank you.

Suzanne Dean Classes - Registration Now Open

Want to get in on the Copic Marker Craze!

Want to learn how to master these markers?

**Take a Class from Instructor Suzanne J Dean**

Suzanne has been using and teaching about Copics for 3 years

and runs a successful Online Copic Classroom and is taking her classes on the road!

She is also a freelance designer for many craft companies around the world!

Check out her online classroom and blog to find out more info about her and see her work:

Color Me Creative Classroom: www.scrapbitzcopics.ning.com

ScrapBitz Blog: www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com

*************************************************************************

Two Classes Offered:

Beginner/Intermediate Class

You will learn how to get comfortable with the markers, learn light sourcing, shading

and highlighting along with other practical techniques to bring your coloring to life!

5 hours for $90 (35 min. break)

Advanced Class

We go over a lot of fun but more difficult techniques—you MUST have experience using your markers and be ready for advanced techniques. If you take the Basic/Interm. Class you WILL be ready for this class. You must know the BASICS because I will not repeat those lessons in the Advanced Class!

We will learn all about advanced shading and coloring techniques and fun ways to use your Copics. Both classes are HANDS ON INSTRUCTION!!

4 hours for $80 (35 min break)

*Copics and images/paper provided

(a supply list will be emailed to students so you can bring your own copics if you like)

*All students receive a packet of information pertaining to each class

*All students receive a goody bag from the Color Me Creative Classroom with sample products

*Students need to bring their own drinks and snacks (and/or lunch)

**15 people minimum in each class with a maximum of 24 students

Class Information Sheet
ALL CLASSES are HANDs-On Instruction

Beginner/Intermediate Class Skills:

(5 hours with 35 min. break--$90)

This is not a Certification Class—this is to learn coloring techniques!

*briefly learn about the basics of Copics and how they work/tips & tricks

*get comfortable with the markers and laying down color lightly

**Learn how to "f-l-i-c-k" layer/blend colors
*choosing successful color combos and layer colors

*learn about light sources and how to create dimension in your coloring

*shading and highlighting techniques (light & shadow)

*creating good skin tone and hair colors

*shading round objects

*coloring white

*Bridging Colors

*multi-liner pens & Spica pens

*Colorless Blender Techniques/Review

*Blues, Pinks, Browns, Yellows

************************************************************

Advanced Class Skills:

(4 hours with 35 min. break--$80)

This class features harder techniques and colors! You need to know the basics before you take this class as I do not repeat that information. If you take the Beg/Interm. Class YOU WILL be ready for this class!

*coloring with reds and black (the most difficult to blend)

*advanced hair coloring

*glassy objects, round objects
*feathering and background techniques

*coloring landscape

*coloring textured items

*metallics

*coloring folds, pleats, ruffles with light sourcing

*flowers/leaves

*high contrast coloring

*intro to airbrushing

Each Student receives a goody bag of sample products from the Color Me Creative Clasroom

Each student receives a take-home manual filled with tutorials and information

Copics, Paper & Images provided

(supply lists will be emailed to students if they want to bring their own Copics)

*******************************************

April 16th & 17th, 2011

Classes will be held at

Inspiration Station

13 Furnace Ave
Stafford Springs, CT

(860) 684-2641

Beg/Intermediate Class TOTAL is $90

Advanced Class TOTAL is $80

(the pre-fees below are just to hold your spot, balance due 3 weeks before)

April 16th, 2011--Stafford Springs, CT

Beg/Intermediate Class starts at 9 am thru 2:30 pm
Advanced Class starts at 3:10 pm thru 7:30 pm

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

April 17th, 2011--Stafford Springs, CT


Beg/Intermediate Class starts at 9 am thru 2:30 pm
Advanced Class starts at 3:10 pm thru 7:30 pm

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to post a very overdue update so let's get started. First of all, our classes are ROCKIN' at The Inspiration Station! We have all been cranking out the class samples and the class wall looks great. The classes are filling up very quickly, in fact, the Sunday class for the Christmas Printer's Tray and the morning Copic Christmas Class are both SOLD OUT. Time is just flying by and we only have a few more Christmas card classes before the big holiday.

Terry & I are also packing up to go to our annual Scrapbook Weekend at Ridin' Hy Ranch in Warrensburg, NY the weekend before Thanksgiving. It is a business trip but we enjoy it so much its almost like a mini vacation. This year we will be teaching classes at the ranch in addition to setting up a marketplace for the other croppers. We each have a layout class planned and I was also nominated to teach a Cricut class. This year there are over 90 croppers signed up for the weekend.

We have started our annual Wish List sign up. Come in and fill up yours before Thanksgiving and we'll give you a FREE gift! We'll keep the list on file to help your family and friends shop for you this season. Be sure to add a good variety of items both large and small; sometimes gifter's want to splurge and other times they are just looking for stocking stuffers; the more choices they have the better. Also, if there is an item that you REALLY want make sure we know. Items can sell out quickly this time of year and we don't always have time to reorder- if we know in advance, we can be sure to hold it for you.

The holidays are fast approaching

The holidays are fast approaching and we are running out of days to put things onto the calendar. Our November calendar is jam-packed with classes and December has been filled up to the week before Christmas. From then until New Year's our teachers are taking a break and then we will start all over again.

Here's a look at some of what they are doing.
November Card Club: Nov. 8th 10am, Nov 9th 6pm, Nov 16th 6pm.

Christmas Cards Nov. 18th 10am & 6pm



Copic Christmas Cards Nov 22nd 10am & 6pm.Terry & Dawn also have their Layout Classes planned for November & December.

Donna will have a Christmas Printer's Tray on Friday, Dec 3rd at 10am

Our crop schedule is as follows:

• Friday, Nov. 5th 5Pm-10pm
• Friday, Nov. 12th 5pm-10pm
• Friday, Nov. 26th 10am-6pm (includes lunch)
  

New Magnolia stamps & more

Hi everybody,
To say I've been busy is an understatement so rather than bore you with details let's get straight to looking at new stuff! First up - Magnolia Stamps has 36 new stamps in their Christmas collection and we have them all! Well, as of this writing anyway; the way things have been flying out of here you just never know. The two Stampavie stamps I featured on the facebook page were gone the next day!

There are also new Magenta Cats, but since my computer is being difficult and I am working off of a backup Netbook I can't scan them at the moment.

We have new paper lines from just about all of the major companies; BoBunny, Little Yellow Bicycle, Cosmo Cricket, Pine Cone Press, Pebbles, Inc. and more.

Classes are filling up faster than we can schedule them and our schedules for November and December are packed. We will not schedule any classes after the first week of December until January because non of our teachers have time available. You know, family always comes first!

Fall is a time for change

Fall is a time for change and we are making some noticeable changes in the store. We always like to shake things up and try to find better ways of displaying all the fabulous products we have. Last week, we decided it was time to move some areas around. We had created a special Tim Holtz section in the stamp department along side Ranger products and we liked it. Unfortunately it was not nearly big enough! That boy just keeps coming out with more awesome stuff!

In order to give him more room we needed to move all of his stuff to the front of the store. The problem is (you can probably guess) all of the space up front was already taken. Not to be deterred, we made a map of the store and started moving stuff. This morning we started tearing things apart and as usual one thing led to another, and another, and another. By afternoon we had made some progress but lots of stuff is still in baskets awaiting its fate. Will it find a home, or will we put in in clearance? I can tell you that a lot of stuff was moved to clearance and I'm sure a lot more will too.

So be prepared the next time you come in to really look around! You never know where stuff is going to end up...

By the way, only SOME of the Tim Holtz stuff has moved at this point; we are having trouble deciding where to draw the line. We did move all of the Sizzix, Cuttlebug and Spellbinders products up front so they are all together. All of the pens and markers are now back in the stamp area, although not in their final resting place yet. The wedding section is now closer to the bathroom and its former spot has been changed to Travel. More to follow....

So many classes, so little time...

We have so many classes on the calendar now and it seems more get added every day! I have not been able to keep up with them on the website, but I'm trying! Here's a few photos to whet your appetite:


I am also in the process of creating a Family Recipe Book class. This class will include an 8x8 American Crafts album and we will do a recipe exchange as well. I am waiting on the papers to arrive so I can make up my sample and know the exact cost. If you are interested in the class, email me so I can get you the form that we will use for the recipes. I want every student to send me via email 2 recipes so I can have them printed for the class.

Coming in March 2011

Want to get in on the Copic Marker Craze!

Want to learn how to master these markers?

**Take a Class from Instructor Suzanne J Dean**

Suzanne has been using and teaching about Copics for 3 years

and runs a successful Online Copic Classroom and is taking her classes on the road!

She is also a freelance designer for many craft companies around the world!

Check out her online classroom and blog to find out more info about her and see her work:

Color Me Creative Classroom: www.scrapbitzcopics.ning.com

ScrapBitz Blog: www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com

*************************************************************************

Two Classes Offered:

Beginner/Intermediate Class

You will learn how to get comfortable with the markers, learn light sourcing, shading

and highlighting along with other practical techniques to bring your coloring to life!

5 hours for $85 (30 min. break)

Advanced Class

This is a tough class—you MUST have experience using your markers and be ready for advanced techniques.

We will learn all about advanced shading and coloring techniques and fun ways to use your Copics. Both classes are HANDS ON INSTRUCTION!!

4 hours for $75 (30 min break)

*Copics and images/paper provided

(a supply list will be emailed to students so you can bring your own copics if you like)

*All students receive a packet of information pertaining to each class

*All students receive a goody bag from the Color Me Creative Classroom with sample products

*Students need to bring their own drinks and snacks (and/or lunch)

**15 people minimum in each class with a maximum of 20 students

Dates soon to be announced!!

Now Available

Labor Day Weekend

I hope you are all enjoying this fabulous Labor Day weekend. Cooler air has finally arrived and we dodged Hurricane Earl!

Just a reminder that we are OPEN all weekend - regular hours on Saturday & Sunday and 10am-2pm on Monday. If you still need to finish up your Summer Passport, you have until Monday. Check your email for a coupon on Spellbinder's Dies this weekend only.
A ton of new product arrived this week including new Tim Holtz stamps, Crate Paper Back to School, and lots of Laser cut titles. I even custom ordered titles for some of the area high schools.

Have you missed me?

It seems as though I have taken the summer off from blogging! Well, like everyone else I have way too much on my plate pretty much every day, and one day runs into the next. So in case you're interested, here is a run down of the last 3 months in my life (the good, the bad and the ugly):
In June, My daughter graduated from high school. The next day (Father's Day) my 19 year old niece was killed in a car accident in Vermont. Terry went on vacation and my son started camp. I don't even remember much of July other than Donna went on vacation and my oldest son moved into his own apartment. August has been a whirlwind as well. We had to put down our beloved yellow lab, Molly. Her buddy Reese, our chocolate lab has been moping around ever since. Camp ended for my son and then the whole back to school process began- My daughter will be a college freshman and my son will be a high school junior. Throw in the parking lot sale, a wedding and a 50th birthday for my neighbor and I'm spent. I never did get to take any vacation time but I did manage to go see Cirque Dreams at Foxwoods and Tom Petty in Hartford.

So what's on tap for September? Hmmm...at the store there's classes, crops, and a customer tag sale along with preparing for the Fall Bus Tour. My to-do list is currently 3 pages long! I desperately need the routine of the school year to get back on track!

Bus Tour Registration

Today is the day. Bus Tour Registration begins at 10am. You must register in person or over the phone and arrange payment. No registrations will be accepted via voicemail or email. Cost is $65 and is non-refundable unless we can fill your seat from the waiting list.

Inky Antics Penguins

These cute little fellas are due to arrive on Thursday!

Upcoming Classes

Beach Layout Augt 25, 2010
Scrap More Layouts September 1, 2010


Crafter's Home Project Saturday, September 18, 2010
Quick & Easy Halloween Cards September 28, 2010


Family Nest Accordion Book September 29, 2010



Christmas Cards Set 1 September 30, 2010

Christmas Cards Set 2 October 7, 2010

Upcoming Events

Just a quick update to let you know about a few things coming up. On Sunday, Sept. 26 we will have our Customer Tag Sale. We are accepting registrations now for your space. Cost is $5 to participate and you earn store credit for whatever you sell.

We will begin registering for our Fall Bus Tour on Saturday, August 28th at 10am. Lots of people requested that we run this event in the fall. The date of the tour is Sunday, October 3rd. Cost is $65 and must be paid at the time of registration.

Fall 2010 Bus Tour

Get ready for the Fall 2010 Bus Tour!! Join us on Sunday
October 3rd for a day of fun. Registration starts August 28th at 10am
in person or via phone. Cost is $65 and includes breakfast and lunch, as well as a whole lotta fun!

New Inky Antics

Aren't these adorable? There is one template stamp to make the triangle box and then all sorts of "character" stamps to make different faces for different occasions. We have the directions for all of these. If you buy the stamps, send me your email and I'll send you the complete instructions in pdf form.

Zentangle Inspired

My oldest son (21) recently moved into a new apartment with a friend. It's a very nice place, but like all rentals the walls are painted stark white. When I visited the first time they complained that they needed some artwork for the walls. Have you ever thought about decorating an apartment for 2 young men? It's not easy. Everything out there is so ... girly.

We they both seemed interested in my Zentangles so I decided to go big. Really big. I created a Zentangle inspired piece on a poster size (22" x 28") sheet of paper. It was hard to get started adapting the tangles to such a large scale, but once I got going it went rather quickly. I worked on it all weekend and spent about 22 hours total. My son thought it was "awesome", so I guess it was a good idea. Pretty cool, huh?


to learn more about Zentangle, please visit www.zentangle.com

Did you hear?

We have a HOT sale going on now through Sunday, July 11th on COPIC MARKERS! Right now- Buy 3 get your fourth one FREE! And the best part- There no limit to the number of FREE pens you can earn. Now is the time to stock up.

Also, I'll give you a quick heads up. Since we have a lot of people coming in on Sunday for the Christmas in July classes we will be having a special "One Day Sale" on all in stock clear stamps. Buy 2 get the third FREE.

My goodness, free Copics, free stamps what else could you ask for?

Class samples from Donna

Christmas in July


Card Club for July featuring Stampendous Fun Food set:

Special Guest Instructor - Jen Starr

COMPLETELY DISTRESSED – LAYOUT MASTERCLASS

Saturday, July 17th noon - 4pm

$60

Whether you prefer a vintage style or bright happy colors, Tim Holtz’s Line of Distress products can customize any paper crafting project to the look and color scheme YOU want to achieve.

In this workshop you will create 6 unique 8x8” layouts focusing heavily on technique…you can follow the color selections I’ve used in my samples or use the same techniques in colors of your choice! You will learn how to use Tim Holtz Stamps in artful and unusual ways to create beautiful backgrounds, borders, titles, embellishments and even tint photos. We will use the complete line of Distress Products including inks, re-inkers, crackle paints, stickles, embossing powders with a few of my other favorite goodies mixed in. The goal of this workshop is to teach you all that this line is capable of beyond just inking the edges!

Sale!

Sale

All Clear Stamps

Buy 1 Get 2^nd ½ Price!

Discount taken on lower priced item. No additional discounts apply.

Sale ends Saturday, June 26, 2010

Coming Soon...

Details are being finalized for our Summer 2010 Passport Program, "Cruisin' Connecticut". Watch for more info.

Participating Stores:

Beautiful Impressions - Westbrook, CT

Great American Stamp Store - Westport, CT

Memory Lane - Marlborough, CT

New England Scrapbook Co. - Canton, CT

Papercraft Clubhouse - Westbrook, CT

Stamp & Scrap Nest - Simsbury, CT

The Inspiration Station - Stafford Springs, CT

Wiggles & Giggles - Rocky Hill, CT

New Hero Arts

The new summer stamps from Hero Arts have arrived! Love the new images. This is one of my favorite sets.

Memorial Day

Come downtown Monday morning for the Memorial Day Parade - 11am. Afterwards come shop at The Inspiration Station - We're OPEN from 10am - 2pm. Come in wearing Red, White and Blue or with a flag and you'll get 25% off your entire purchase!

Thank you to all who have served our country whether at home or overseas-We owe our freedom to you!

And to my favorite service person: Daddy I miss you!

New arrivals from Inky Antics

Flat Bunny is Welcome Here

Flat Bunny is anxious to get acquainted with true BoBunny fans (come be her friend on facebook, just search for Flat BoBunny) at a BoBunny sponsored crop. When Flat Bunny comes to visit, she will bring materials for a BoBunny crop! If you coordinate with a BoBunny retail store, Flat Bunny will bring materials so you can invite 9 of your friends to the crop for a total of 10. If there is not a retail store within a 50 mile radius, Flat Bunny will come with material for you and 4 friends to enjoy!

What you need to do-
1. Create an invitation featuring BoBunny products and send a digital image to flatbunny@bobunny.com along with signed business card from your favorite BoBunny retail store.*

2. Flat Bunny will post the card images she receives on the BoBunny blog
(you will be famous!).

3. On the 10th of each month, she will choose her favorite invitation and
schedule her travel to meet the winning designer.

4. Flat Bunny likes to be fussed over so you must take lots of pictures
during the Crop and send them to flatbunny@bobunny.com. This
way all her BoBunny friends will be able to follow
the adventures of Flat Bunny on the blog.

5. Flat Bunny will be traveling to a new location every month so she must be on
her way home no later than the last day of the month. Also, Flat Bunny has her
passport so she can travel far and wide.

New company

There is a brand new company in the Papercraft world named Echo Park; and their first product release arrived at our store today! Here's a sneak peek:

Hi Everybody,
I'm working at home today trying to get caught up on a million and one things- not making a lot of progress I might add. Anyway, I need to get the newsletter out and figured I'd better update the blog first so you'd have something to read if you clicked on the link!

Our spring Tag Sale was a big success. Many people earned well over $100 in store credit, with several people earning over $200! Our only mishap of the day was that the Post Office had decided to have their parking lot swept that day (without notifying us) and we had to quickly tear down the tents and bring everything inside before they kicked up a sandstorm! Fun! It all worked out though; thankfully we are used to "winging it".
We are working on our summer schedule and have added a couple of classes to the June Calender. Special Guest, Mitra Friant, the owner of Impression Obsession rubber stamps will be here on Thursday morning, June 3rd, to teach a class. We do not have samples but Mitra has told us that she will be using many of her new Cover a Card stamp background with the Mega Mount handle as well as the EXTREMELY popular shaker windows.

A shipment of brand new stamps from Memory Box arrived on Friday and Donna was so excited she added a SUNDAY class to the June calendar to be able to use them! The class is called Card Jubilee and will be June 27th at 11 am. A pack of Jubilee paper will be included in the cost of the class. To see some beautiful card ideas click HERE (Image from Dave Brethauer )

Stampavie stamps also arrived this week, although we are still waiting on a few more- They ship them as they arrive in the US.

Tag Sale Tomorrow

Tomorrow (Sunday, May 16) is our spring Customer Tag Sale and the stuff is rolling in by the truckload! There is so much stuff! And Rubber Stamps.... Cases full! definitely no shortage of them.

Basic Grey "Max & Whiskers"

A quick look at a page I made with some of the new papers from Basic Grey.

Quick Update

So much new product has been rolling in I can barely keep up.
We finally got the Stamper's Anonymous stamps that Tim Holtz released at CHA in January along with 4 of his Texture Fades, although the Bingo Card set has already sold out.

The Pebbles and American Crafts lines have been flying out the door and the new Basic Grey, Max and Whiskers line has been right behind them.

Those of you who love My Favorite Things stamps need to get in and pick up the Pure Innocence and Jolinne stamps before those are gone.

REMINDER: Our spring Customer Tag Sale is this Sunday, May 16th. If you signed up as a vendor you must get your marked item in to us on Friday or Saturday. The Tag Sale starts at 11am. Please pray for good weather so we can put stuff outside!

May Card Club featuring Magenta stamps

Donna finally got the sample in for the May classes. Isn't he adorable? His name is Benjamin.

National Scrapbook Week Sales Event

Bus Tour Photos

It only took a week, but I finally have some photos from the bus tour to share; Thanks to my mom (aka Grammy or Lu). She was able to get some great shots. Which is wonderful since I was so busy doing other things I never thought about it.
First up is our Driver Phil, What a great guy. We ask for him every year.

Next are our Raffle Prize winners:

Christine

Pat

Dawn

and Meghan

Congratulations, Ladies! And thank you everyone for a great day!

Wonderful day

We had a wonderful day on Saturday with Kelly Jo and the lovely Fiskateers. We spent the whole day crafting and laughing. We even had an unexpected visitor. Loralie Harris, the designer of Loralie stamps was in the area for a quilting show and stopped by to see if I would be interested in seeing her new stamp designs. As soon as I saw her AMAZING purse made with scrapbook papers, tulle netting and her fabulous, "Lovely Ladies" stamp design I knew I had to introduced her to the Fiskateers. They went crazy for her stamp designs! Well, of course, I had to order them. So we sent Loralie upstairs with my mom to have lunch while we put together an order! Loralie graciously left us some sample stamps so we could start to play with them. Donna scooped up two of them already and I was able to hang on to one. I hope to get some pictures up soon. I'm sure you'll love them as much as we do.