Extended Hours for National Scrapbook Day

Since we are now sold out for our NSD crop with May Flaum I wanted to give everyone else a chance to share some NSD fun. We normally close at 6pm but on Saturday, May 3rd we will be staying open late - until 8pm - so you can come in a shop for everything you need while cropping at home. We are also working on some special sales for the day so keep checking back!

4/6/08 Make and Take Demo Instructions

• Peel off the protective coating on each side from your clear Hambly overlay. FYI: This was run through the Cuttlebug using an embossing folder.


• 
  Take your brown rectangle and adhere it on an angle to the Hambly. Another way to describe this is to put both 2x3 pieces together (Hambly and brown cardstock). Spin the top piece about a ½" - ¾". Now you should be able to see the edges of the piece that is underneath.


• 
  Place adhesive (glue dots works well) about ½" in from two opposite sides of the brown cardstock.


• 
  Put back in the position that you just did above.


• 
  Take your medium paper flower and adhere it to the brown cardstock circle.


• 
  To make a center to your flower, you can use a mini glue dot and some embossing powder with your heat gun or take a pencil with a new flat eraser and press it into an ink pad color of your choice (we used Distress Ink - Brushed Corduroy in our demo) and press in the center of your flower.


• 
  Adhere the brown circle to the top RIGHT corner of your brown cardstock.
  Flip the tag over.


• 
  Center your patterned piece of paper within the brown cardstock that you can see through the Hambly clear overlay. This will serve as a double mat, by utilizing what you can see through the clear overlay.


• 
  Cut out a word from your page kit paper. Dream was used in the demo. Be sure to leave a little extra paper to the LEFT of your word so you can put the brad through that paper and not cover up any part of the word.


• 
  Poke the brad through your word, then through the slit in the flower.
  Pull back the prongs. Use a glue dot to adhere in the center of the brown cardstock circle that you can see through the Hambly clear overlay.

Deb's note: I need to go in and take a picture to add here- please be patient with me! LOL

Wow, what a day!

Yes, we survived the 2008 Bus Tour! It was a wonderfully hectic day, but as always a lot of fun too. Everyone on my staff worked exceptionally well to pull off the event without any major problems. Thank you, ladies, for a job well done!



It was great to see so many returning faces from the other buses. I wish it were possible to do these type of events more often but it really is a ton of work and very hard to get all the stores on a compatible schedule - not to mention convincing all the staff to come to work for 12+ hours on a Sunday!!!



For those of you who attended I have uploaded the color photo of the page kit here for you to use as a reference. It is also posted on the website under "Bus Tour".

Fun with Tim Holtz

We had a great time in our all-day Ranger workshop with Tim Holtz and Robin Beam; both are so talented and creative. We learned some cool new techniques that we will be incorporating into classes. Donna & Dawn were chattering all the way home about what they could do! Donna will be sharing one of the techniques in her April Card Club classes. Each student will recieve a Mini Mister bottle, a Distress Re-inker and a jar of Perfect Pearls- all included in the price of the class! It's going to be so much fun. The only thing that would make it better would be to have Tim Holtz himself teaching the class....Oh well, maybe someday!

FREE Fiskars Worshop

We have room for approximately 10 people per class to attend a very special Fiskars Tool Class, Saturday, April 19th. The first class will be 11am- 1pm and the second class will be 2pm-4pm

Fiskars is sending one of their Certified Craft Demonstrators, Fiskateer Kelly Jo M. and a friend to our store this weekend with loads of tools just so you can learn all about them and try them out. If you've been looking for a new trimmer or are interested in how some of the cool border punches or the shape cutter works, this is your chance to try them out for FREE.

If you want to come just call the store (860) 684-2641 - The first 10 people get the spots.

We won!

May Flaum, Lead Fisk-a-teer for Fiskars Brands and author of Paper & Pixels: Scrapbook Layouts, will be joining us at The Inspiration Station on National Scrapbook Day, May 3, 2008.

May has been a life-time crafter and has been teaching scrapbooking classes for several years. She has been published in numerous magazines, taught classes for Big Picture Scrapbooking, and been on the design teams for several manufacturers.

She recently ran a contest on the Fiskateers web site where people could nominate their favorite scrapbook store to win a visit from May on National Scrapbook Day. Kelly Jo nominated The Inspiration Station and we were selected as one of the final four. When the contest was over, Kelly Jo and The Inspiration Station emerged as the winners!!

Crop along with May from 11am-8pm. Cost is $25 and includes snacks & dinner. Space is limited so call to register today- (860)684-2641

I think we have finally reached our limit

We can't possibly fit another thing in this store! So much new product arrived at the end of last week we had to do some major clearancing. I cannot even begin to tell you how much new paper is here- and the scary thing is... more is on the way! WHY do I do this? Whenever there is a trade show I go crazy when I see all the new stuff and just go about ordering to my hearts content only to have it all ship at the same time and hit us like a tidal wave!

Well, at least we'll be very well stocked for the upcoming bus tour...

Want to know what's new? I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

Just to give you an idea though - Bo Bunny Xtreme Teen, Beachy Keen, and Organic; The paper Company Flowers & Frills; Inkadinkado clear and wood mount stamps; Kaisercraft rub ons in black & white; new My Word chipboard albums (Beach, travel, & grade) and much more.

Clearance Sale

Through March 22, 2008
ALL Christmas Merchandise is 25% off
Stock up for next year, or complete last years projects!

Bus Tour SOLD OUT

We sold the last available seat on our bus so if you are still interested in joining the tour you will need to call one of the other participating stores.

Now it's time to turn our attention to the next big event - National Scrapbook Day! (May 3rd)
Any ideas on how we should celebrate? Leave me a comment.

Pretty New papers

From a new French company called Graphic 45

Only 3 seats left...

Our bus filled up quickly today but we do still have 3 seats left if you are still interested in going on the 4 Store Bus Tour. Call quickly if you want them, I'm sure they won't last!

update 3/4 - down to only 1 seat!

More and more new stuff...

Let's see... what came today?
Hmm, looks like a bunch of sports theme stuff from CreativeImaginations, Tons of new Sticko stickers. Oooh, look at these Jolee's...This waterpark one is cool, and the aquarium, the museum, science fair.

What's in this box? Oh, Memory Box Stamps and blank cards. Look at the cute new papers from Studio 8 and Finished in a Flash page kits from HOTP. Yikes! is that another box? Yay!!! Stacy Julian's book Photo Freedom is here!

Sorry I don't have time to take any pictures, too much to unpack- you'll just have to get in here to see it all!!

More new arrivals

Clear acrylic albums are the HOT trend right now and we just got a bunch in. The new designs from Clear Scraps include a cute flower shaped album and a dog bone. If you like the dog bone idea but the clear album isn't your thing, we also got in chipboard dog bone albums from Boxer Scrapbooks.

A new Easter line from Creative Imaginations arrived today along with some very cute new papers from Quick Quotes. We have restocked the Stickles and added in the larger bottles of Ice Stickles for those who want a bit more shine.

Don't forget to check out our clearance section - we have added a bunch of stuff to it over the past week!

Important news about the Bus Tour

This week we received the news that Magical Memories in Old Saybrook will be going out of business by the end of March. We will miss working with them and wish Debbie and all of her staff the very best. Since they were scheduled to be included as a stop on our bus tour in April we have had to make changes to our plans for the day.

The tour will include 4 stores in Connecticut:
New England Scrapbook Co., Canton
Scrapbook Clubhouse, Westbrook
The Inspiration Station, Stafford Springs
Wiggles & Giggles, Wethersfield

The good news is, due to the revised itinerary, our day will be shortened and you will now be home in time for dinner. As a result, the price for the bus trip will be reduced to only $65 per person.
Everything else you love about the tour will remain the same.

Your ticket will include:
Round trip transportation to all four stores on the tour
Breakfast, lunch, and snacks
Exclusive page kits at each store
Discounted shopping at each store

A limited number of seats are available at each location.
Tickets must be purchased in advance from your host store and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets are non-refundable. This will be the only tour of 2008.

Registration begins: March 1st at 10am
To register call or visit your host store.

Tons of new product arrived on Thursday

These photos are of projects on the Reminisce web site

Both Fed Ex and the UPS man made stops here at The Inspiration Station on Thursday and buried us in new products. We are still trying to find space for all of it, while knowing that so much more is on the way.

Our Customer Appreciation Sale is still on through the end of February, so you can save big on some of this new merchandise and some old favorites.