To Prima or Not...

Okay - so I was browsing the Prima site. Wow - they have some really cute things. I'm a huge Prima fan - although my purchasing has decreased a bit in the past months.


From a retailers standpoint I have some issues with Prima. From my experience they have terrible customer service and I always have to wait soooo long for my items to ship that we don't buy a whole lot from Prima. Our first order took over 12 weeks to get to us! YIKES!



With all the other companies that have petals, flowers, etc ~ I have to ask. Is Prima past it's prime? Tell me what you think!

Want to see some inspiration?

We've received the first of the design team projects for March. Talk about starting off with a bang. These are great projects and can be done by any skill level. All projects below were done by Beth Johnson. Beth also does a great job journaling the everyday events. It is these events that make up the composition of our lives. These moments truly capture who we are! Thanks Beth for sharing these projects with us!

Check out the projects below:

"Target"
Recipe Card: Sassafrass Lass Blue Boutique Paper: Crimson Dots, Bazzill Cardstock:Vanilla, 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Stickers: Parental Guidance and It's a Date, Staples.

"Lovebug"
Recipe Card: Sassafrass Lass Blue Boutique Paper: Crimson Dots, Treasure, Chiffon Pink, and Extraordinary, Maya Road Coaster Chipboards-Tag, American Crafts Thickers, Ribbon: KI Memories and American Crafts, We 'R Memory Keepers Extra Large Eyelet, Mod Podge Glossy for Paper.

These are just a couple of the awesome projects Beth did this month. Of course you can see ALL her creations on the Gallery. Be sure to check it out!

New Imagination Project...

We have received the As You Wish and Project Essentials lines. These are brought to Scraploft by Imagination Project. I Love, Love the colors in the As You Wish papers. The jumbles will be fun to use too. The lined papers from Project Essentials are awesome... I can't wait to use them on some pages of my boys!

Enjoy another looksy here...

~Jenn

Congratulations, Mitchell!

Mitchell Kraft, one of our freelance designers, was chosen as a CK hall of famer. Mitch has such a unique way of scrapbooking. The first time I saw his layouts, I was in awe. Extremely inspired to try landscape pages. Watch for his work in CK and on our site!

Congratulations from us to you, Mitch!

~Jenn and Sarah

And the third bio is...

Linda Roehl

Linda began as a stamper in the early 1990's and was very excited to see all the new products that became available with scrapbooking.

She has been scrapbooking since 1996 - back when fancy scissors and paper punches were popular.

Linda has taught classes for 10 years in local stores and a few out of state. Her daily life includes a full time job with plenty of time to scrapbook in the evenings.

Linda enjoys reading, cooking (and she can sure cook!), jewelry making and decorating her house. When it came to decorating her house the most time spent was in the craft area. After all, that is where the most important stuff is.

Linda loves being around people and laughing with others. Her weekends are filled with scrapbooking friends and spending time with immediate family when time permits.

Scraploft is pleased to have Linda as a freelance designer!

And the second bio is...

Mitchell Kraft

Mitchell is an 18 year old, male scrapbooker. Don't let that sentence scare you. Mitch can definitely hold his own in the scrapbook arena.

Mitch has been scrapbooking since September of 2004. Mitch got started when his mother was working on an album for his sister for graduation. He thought that it looked fun (plus he wanted to see if he could do better...) Ever since he's been addicted.

Mitch is currently attending The College of Visual Arts in St.Paul, MN.
He is an art fanatic. He lives for art. Mitch is planning to major in Photography and Graphic Design.

He is planning on attending graduate school, but has yet to decide where. He sees himself working in the scrapbook industry (which we are so happy about!) - perhaps having his own product line or working for a magazine as a graphic designer/editor.

Scraploft welcomes Mitchell as a freelance designer!

Another Card...

So I've been motived enoug to do another card. Check out the card below. It is on the topic of "I Miss You." It is about a family friend who passed away of breast cancer almost ten years ago.


This women was a good friend of mine. Someone who died long before she should have.


I used Chatterbox paper. The journalling is actually on two pieces of paper with a ribbon as a tab. This was a hard one to do. I have always wanted to do something, and in ten years it's the most that I could do.

Next up? SHOES. Should be lot's of fun!!

And the first bio is...

Beth Johnson

Beth’s motto is Play and Create. Creating is a huge part of her life. About eleven years ago she "officially" started scrapbooking. Beth didn't know then what a major role it would be playing in her current life. Throughout the years there have been many changes in her life. She enjoys looking back at her albums and remembering the moments.

A lot of things have been inspiring Beth lately. She has been really inspired by the "famous" scrapbookers such as Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske, Donna Downey...just to name a few. She appreciates how each of them has their own unique style that she can take bits and pieces from to create her own unique style.

Beth is also inspired by her friends that create. It is so much fun for her to see what they create and what their creative process is. Of course she is inspired by the little things too...daily events in her life, new products from her favorite manufacturers, her friends and family, taking photos, and just taking time to observe and be.

Her favorite tool right now is the Fiskars Rotary Trimmer. This trimmer is amazing! It always cuts clean and straight lines. The blades can be changed for different needs such as scoring, perforating, and creating a decorative edge. One helpful hint she has is to put Cloud 9's Citrus (orange) Rain Dots on the back side of the numbers on the pull out arm. It makes is a lot easier to read the numbers when measuring. Beth scrapbooks and creates because it is her passion and where she is able to express herself. When she is creating, she takes time for herself to play, to try new things, and to take risks.

The Scraploft team welcomes Beth J. as a freelance designer!

And the big announcement is...

Jenn and I have decided to start a creative team for Scraploft. Time is so limited and we are getting so much product in that we can't keep up the website and do all the designing, so...

We would like to announce the addition of 3 wonderful freelance designers that have joined the Scraploft Team.

Beth Johnson, Mitchell Kraft, and Linda Roehl are our new freelance designers!

Each month they will design something for Scraploft and their work will be featured on this blog.

Be on the look out for a Q&A session along with pics and bios of these wonderful people!

My 52 Weeks

I've been having trouble with my creative mojo, and so to get motivated - (Thanks Beth!!) I am going to start the Emily Falconbridge 52 week - cards. To get the lowdown click --> here

Here are my first two (in no particular order) Since I am starting a few weeks behind I figured I could pick and choose which ones I did first. i don't think that it matters how the 52 topics fall out - just as long as I get them all, right?

I am proud of...

Love, Love, Love...
Jenn - I know your life is super duper busy. I know how much you miss scrapbooking - so as much as I hate to do it. I challenge you to do ONE of your 52 cards. I know you can do it.

My Wish...

It was so nice to sit down and create a scrapbook page last Friday night. Yes, in 6 hours I only finished one page. But it is one more page done that wasn't done before that night, right?

This layout is about the wishes I have for my niece. Katie and Steven are so very special to me. I love my nieces and nephews just like they were my own. Having a child is a blessed thing and I am so glad I have my boys, two nephews, and two nieces. Growing up is tough and I have so many hopes and dreams for all of these little ones. I did this special page for Katie. I hope she is able to one day read it and appreciate how much I love her.

The page was done using the Sassasfras Serendipity line, Scrumptious. I love the colors in these papers. So rich and playful!

~Jenn

A little sleepy...

Here's one of my creations from scrapbooking last Friday. I used the Crate - Cowgirl Collection. It was so nice to sit down and do some creating. So much fun!

My "official" vacation begins tomorrow. Todd's birthday is tomorrow and both of us took Wednesday - Friday off. We are so excited to be on vacation! I can't remember the last time that we had the same few days off of work.

Anyway - be on the lookout for tons of new stuff. Bazzill, and 7 Gypsies (including the new oval stamps!!) are going to be here by the end of the week.

~Sarah

Bang, bang

As you can imagine, Jenny and I are masters of shipping. It is something that we do often and don't complain, because it means that business is doing well.

We have lots of shipping items, a scale, boxes in assorted sizes, bags, invoices, and finally THE TAPE GUN. Up until recently we have been fighting with an industrial tape gun. (see pic below)

This is one of the first business purchases that we made - it came with two rolls of additional tape. The sad thing.. uh.. we never really mastered the use of the tape gun. The tape always jammed and didn't want to come out. Then the tape would get all scrunched up and you would have to cut it with scissors. It just didn't work. Anyway - we tried and tried and when we finally ran out of tape (it has been refilled with the 2 refills and then husband had some tape that we used) Jenny (bless her heart) purchased us a normal packing tape dispenser by Scotch.

Seriously this thing is slick. It's easy to use, the tape never gets scrunched and is super fast.

I never claimed I was a genius, but this thing is a major break through in modern shipping. Love it.

You know how much I love it just by the fact that I'm blogging about it :-)

Thanks Jenn for the purchase.

Now you know how unglamorous a online store can be!!

Basic Grey Collection Packs!

Pheobe, Perhaps, Scarlet's Letter, and Stella Ruby collection packs are available at Scraploft NOW! I love all of these papers. I especially can't wait to use Scarlet's Letter. The colors are so rich and I am way into rich colors lately. I just have to come up with a little project or page to use the papers on. Hmmm...

Come check them out before they are all gone!

~Jenn

In the still of the night...Inventory

I decided, for some reason, to count the last box of paper I am responsible for at 1:30 this morning. There is a story behind why I wanted to blog about this.

I had just finished packing up my sb stuff for the crop Sarah and I are going to on Friday. Then I was like, hmmm, should I read or do some work for Scraploft. I decided to be responsible. I started counting away. I had a few paper packs left to count and out comes Matthew. Wondering from his bedroom in a glazed state of awareness. I said, "Hey buddy", and thought he would just lay down on the floor beside me. This is what he usually does. Um, no. He decided he was going to stay awake. He started to help me by opening up the packs of paper. While doing this, he said, "This paper is pretty, but if you turn it over it's not pretty." The other side was blank. Such a smart kid! :)

So the pictures reflect a bonding moment between mom and her 4 year old who probably should NOT be up at 2:00 in the morning for any reason. Nonetheless counting paper! :)

I love my boys!

~Jenn