LSU Vs. Ohio State

Happy New Year! Can you believe it is the 5th already? The holidays were such a whirlwind for us. I hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours were.

Today we had the Brownie Troop 457 craft project. The girls made an adorable tabbed altered journal to keep their memories in of their Girl Scout activities and their friends. Scrappersaurus was overrun by Brownies all morning, and we had a blast! Thank you Nina, for bringing the girls in. We truly enjoyed it.

For those of you out there with Scout troops, we will be happy to host a meeting for you, and to provide a craft project for the troop that is geared to their level. Please call the store and speak with Felix or Dee for more info. Prices are negotiable depending on what you're looking to do.

Today we also received in the LSU vs. Ohio BCS National Championship lasercut that is outstanding. It is the LSU and Ohio logos layered over a VERY life-like Superdome! You have to see it! We only got in a few, so if you can't make it in, call or e-mail us ASAP if you need us to hold one for you. They're already going fast.

We finally got in the new Cricut Design Studio software that works with BOTH the original and the Cricut Expression. This software will allow you to preview any and all of the cartridges (they're all there in it's library), and to manipulate your images and words like you cannot do on the machine itself. You can "weld" words together so if you are cutting out your title, it will not come out in individual letters, but will come out all connected together as one cutting. You can reverse images, which is really cool if you like to have things facing each other on your page (as I do), and you can save your creations to recut at a later time or to share with a friend. We love this software so far, and have it set up in the store if you want to come check it out for yourself.

We will be hosting parade crops this carnival season. The cost will be $5.00 per person, per crop. You will be able to come in early, be assured of a good parking spot, crop for a while and then go and enjoy the parade (if you wish) and know there's a safe, clean bathroom nearby. The store will be monitored and only the croppers will be allowed into the store after 5:00 PM. We will then crop until midnight, just like any other crop. Remember, too, that we have a cooler and our canned beverages are only 60 cents apiece! The parade crop nights will be Friday January 25th and Friday February 1st.

We will be attending the CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) tradeshow in early February. If there is a new company or product that you think we should check out and carry in the store, please e-mail us so we can stop by their booth and see what they have, and place orders while we're there.

TIP OF THE DAY
I want to talk to you about scrapbook albums. There are a few things you should know about albums before purchasing them. The first thing is to make sure you purchase a quality album from a reputable company that also makes page refills for the album. That way you are not limited to the 10 or so pages that normally come in the album. ALBUM REFILL PAGES ARE NOT ALL THE SAME!!! Just about every company moves the position of the posts (in a post-bound album) just enough so that ONLY their brand of refill pages will fit in the album. It saddens me greatly when I see people come in looking for page refills for an album they picked up at one of the discount stores "for a really great price" that does not make album refills and no other company's refill pages fit. You really do get what you pay for. Spend a little bit more on that album to make sure it is one from a company that has been around for a while and that will continue to be around for a while, and rest assured you'll have no problems finding refill pages. Most albums will allow up to 60 refill pages in them. And with the new Snap Load albums, things just got a lot easier! There are Snap Load conversion kits available (we carry them) to change over your post-bound album to a Snap Load album. What is a Snap Load album? Well, it is sort of like a strap-hinge and post-bound album built into one. There is a rounded (like the post) strap that fits through the album and the ends snap down into a locked position until you open it to add or remove pages. You can add or remove pages from either the front or the back of the album with the Snap Load, and the conversion kit is very simple to install. If you have any questions about it, come see Emery at the store. He's an expert at converting albums now, and can help you do yours or, if you're nice to him, he'll even do it for you!

The last tip I want to give you on albums concerns the bowing out of the book as it is filled. The spine is narrower than the filled pages. Especially for people who enjoy 3-D pages. Very simple to fix. There are chipboard or foam spacer strips that come with every set of refill pages. Just insert these every couple of pages, and your spine will even out with the rest of your album. If you need more, simply take a piece of 12x12 chipboard and cut it into a strip and punch holes where the posts would go. Make sure you use another spacer strip as a guide for measurement and proper placement of the holes.

Enjoy!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Dee