Today we received our Autumn Leaves order. It includes the Designing With 2008 Calendar that is a desk calendar with a separate page and new project for each day. Categories for this year's calendar includes: Miscellaneous, Two-Page Layouts, Cards, Layouts, Digital, Stamping, and Home & Gifts. As an added bonus, each Layout category page now includes a design sketch! This is a very hot item and sells out very quickly. I urge you to come in and get yours now before they're gone!!!

Also in the Autumn Leaves order was the Designing With Details book. This book shows you how to take your papercrafting projects (scrapbook pages to cards to home decor) up to the next level simply by adding small details. Remember, it's the details that matter!

We also got new clear acrylic cling stamps, and LOTS of Christmas embellishments that are PERFECT for cardmaking! Not too big, and not too little--just perfect in size. And the price is really cost-effective too, for cardmaking, starting at just $1.99! They have ornaments, gifts, and Christmas trees, and GLITTER RUB-ONS!!! (Remember how much I love rub-ons?!) The package of rub-ons consists of 6 pages, one page each of the following: stockings, dancing Santas with candy canes, Christmas words, alphabets, gold stars, and Christmas trees.

We also got new Christmas paper in, golf paper, a beautiful love-letters collection, horses, circus, popsicles and ice cream.

We had several costumed customers today who came out to take advantage of the 25% off their entire purchase. The first lady came as a Saints fan, and she eluded us as far as getting a photo, but the next one we managed to snap a photo of, and Felix will have her photo on the website shortly. Everybody shopping today got a new pink Karen Foster bag filled with goodies (paper, stickers, and candy, of course!) and we had a really great time. The people who came in today were all very happy and upbeat, and it was really wonderful chatting with them all. I am really looking forward to tomorrow. I will be opening the store by myself, as Emery has other commitments in the morning, and Felix just plans on sleeping late. My guess is that he'll roll in around 5:00 PM or so, stick around for about an hour and then head out to pool, like he usually does. I'll be working on a customer's book all day and evening, in between shoppers. I hope you get the chance to come by and visit with me.

Don't forget to get those Halloween photos developed, and remember if you took digital photos and want to work on them, you can always come by and use the Epson Scrapbook Central kiosk we have. You'll be able to crop, resize, edit, and print just the photos you want to work with, right there in the store. You can bring in your camera card, USB jump drive, or CD.

TIP OF THE DAY
To create a safe surface to heat emboss on, wrap a magazine or thin catalog in foil, and place it on a clipboard. You can use the clipboard clip to hold your piece in place while you are embossing (look, Ma, no burnt fingers!) and the foil will reflect back the heat, helping your embossing powder to melt a bit quicker.

For those of you who have discovered how wonderful a foam stamping mat is, I HIGHLY recommend you DO NOT heat emboss on top of it!!! The heat will melt the foam (NOT PRETTY!!!) and ruin your mat.

If you do not have a clipboard and cannot use it to hold down your piece while you are heat embossing, you can still save your fingers from burning by using the tip of your bone folder to hold your piece down with. (Yet another use for this wonderful tool!)

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Dee