A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA

Featured Store - Enchanted Cottage

Make sure to see our Keep It Simple design challenge and Ambassador winners in the posts below!  Our next featured store is Enchanted Cottage in Lewisville, NC.

Enchanted Cottage started as a gift shop in a small cottage.  Marilyn Johnson, the owner, had a selection of stamps in one room of the cottage. She soon realized that rubber stamps were much sought-after by stamping enthusiasts, and enlarged the space gradually until she moved the whole store into the roller mill next door in 1994. The Cottage, still part of the shopping experience, has lots of embellishments, including charms, ribbons and hundreds of stickers as well as beautiful scrapbook papers and albums.  And the charming former roller mill with more than 5,000 square feet, has rubber stamps, scrapbooks, brass stencils, and all the supplies you'll need, along with two classrooms where a variety of classes in stamping and scrapbooking are offered weekly.

During the rest of A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA, they will be holding a Design-A-Card Contest and daily events including:
Thursday, July 12 
12:30 – 2:00   Self-directed make-n-take “Tall & Skinny”  $2.00
2:30 – 3:30   Make 2 of the same card “Partridge in a Pear Tree” $5.00
6:30 – 7:30   Self-directed make-n-take “Tall & Skinny”  $2.00
Friday, July 13      
12:30 – 2:00   Self-directed make-n-take “Thanks Snow Much”  $2.00
2:30 – 3:30   Make 2 of the same card “Eskimo Proverb”  $5.00
Saturday, July 14   
9:30 – 11:30  Class #1 - 1 card each of 10 different designs $25.00
10:30 - 12:00  Self-directed make-n-take  “Santa Train”  $2.00
1:00 – 3:00   Class #2 - 1 card each of 10 different designs $25.00
2:00 – 3:30   Self-directed make-n-take “School Days”  $2.00

Be sure to check their website for updates and details!  http://www.enchantedcottagenc.com/

Featured Store - Stampstruck

There is still time to enter your project for challenge 10 and to play in our Pre-Party Pairs game (stay-tuned for the winner and another game)!  Our next featured store is Stampstruck in Medford, Oregon.

Stampstruck is located in beautiful, downtown Medford, Oregon, amidst neighborhood dwellings, city courts and county offices. The store is an eclectic blend of styles, a little bit metropolitan with a down-homey sort of feel and it’s pretty big with a little over 15,000 square feet. They have been in business for over 10 years as a stamp store and two years ago expanded the business when they joined with Scrapbook King.  They have approximately 7 employees. All of the employees are well versed in BOTH the stamping and scrapping worlds, so their customers have the benefit of abundant knowledge and lots of creative ideas.

The main product lines that they carry are A Muse, Lockhart, Savvy, DeNami, Hero Arts, Technique Tuesday, Hampton Arts, Creative Imaginations, E.K.Success, Mrs. Grossman’s, Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, Bo Bunny, Daisy D’s, etc.

When we asked Kristen what her favorite A Muse stamp design was, she said “Do I have to pick a favorite? If so - Bare tree, Statue of liberty, Road to a friend’s house, and Expecting mother (because it’s a best seller!)"

She also told us that everyone always has a good time at Stampstruck classes. Not only do they have fun, there are sometimes a few mishaps as well. They’ve had customers start fires in class with their heat tools, leave classes sparkling with glitter from head to toe, and glue themselves to their art. The customers that shop at Stampstruck are loyal bunch and many have been coming there for years. Some are regulars that shop on the same day every week, and come bringing cheers and a smile.

The store will be having a wide variety of events for A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA. Kristen just sent over this schedule for the week of July 9-13:
MONDAY - unveiling of stamps, refreshments
TUESDAY -  make and takes 12-2 & 5-6 pm
WEDNESDAY - 10 card class using the new designs 5:30-7:30 pm
THURSDAY - make and takes 12-2 & 5-6 pm
FRIDAY - drawing for in-store grand prize

For each event attended, customers will receive one ticket for the in-store grand prize drawing.  There will be give-aways during make & takes and class and 15% off of all A MUSE stamps during the week.

Store Event Added!

We now have a store hosting A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA in San Antonio, Texas!  See their classes page for details and call the store to register!

Store Name: Stamp Antonio
Store Address:   2211 NW Military Hwy, San Antonio TX 78213
Store Telephone:  210-342-6217
Store Website: http://www.stampantonio.com

Featured Store - Crop 'Til You Drop

Make sure to check out Challenge Ten in the post below!  Our next featured store is Crop 'Til You Drop in Dartford, Kent, UK.

Beverley Todd, owner of Crop 'Til You Drop, opened her store two years ago in Dartford, Kent, UK and has never looked back, despite moving three times and suffering a fire at the store in May 2007. Without the support and encouragement from fellow crafters and a healthy addiction to paper crafts, Beverley might have let this setback be her last.

But like a phoenix from the flames, the store now boasts a crafter's paradise on three floors with a much bigger classroom and a separate meeting room for groups. Beverley runs the store with help from her oldest son Sean, who is very useful for reaching high things, lifting heavy boxes and making a great cup of tea! He also does most of the 'gadgets' demonstrations.

The store is a real family affair with Sean's cousin working Saturdays and Beverley's mom (mum to those of you in the UK!) organizing many of the regular Make N Takes. Their customers have become their friends with many of these friends helping out on busy days and even doing some demonstrations.

Everybody is very excited that the store will be the only one in the UK to host A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA and with the new store opened just a few weeks ago, they have planned an action packed week. As well as a VIP event on Monday evening (July 9) there are classes, competitions, free drawings and Make N Takes, with something different every day!  Visit their new store at 36 Lowfield Street, Dartford, Kent, DA1 1HD, England, UK.

Featured Store - Ink About It

There is still time to participate in our ribbon design challenge - see Tuesday's post for details!  Our next featured store is Ink About It in Westford, MA.

INK ABOUT IT (www.inkaboutitonline.com) has been in business for three years and has carried A Muse Art Stamps from day one! The store is located in Westford, MA approx 45 minutes northeast of Boston. Ink About It is a paper arts specialty store featuring an extensive selection of rubber stamps, papers, inks, paper craft tools, and unique embellishments. Their goal is to bring customers the latest products from their favorite companies. New products are arriving daily and they order from A Muse almost weekly!

Ink About It also offers a wide range of workshops to satisfy all levels of abilities, including monthly classes that feature A Muse Stamps taught by A Muse instructor, Jenn Shurkus. Class topics cover card making, scrapbooking, mini books, altered art, jewelry making and much more. They have a talented staff of instructors and they frequently host guest artists as well. 

They are planning a fun filled week of activities in July to celebrate A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA.  There will be special classes featuring the newly released stamps in both July and August. They will be debuting the new stamps and having a free make & take on July 10th.

Featured Store - Scrapbook Friend'z

There is still plenty of time to enter our Scavenger Hunt and to participate in the weekly design challenge!  Our next featured store is Scrapbook Friend'z.

Scrapbook Friend’z, located in Bloomington, IL, has over 3000 square feet of stamping and scrapbooking supplies. They have been in business over 4 years and have 5 employees. The store has a modern décor and is part of a strip mall.

Owner, Margaret Trost, first got into papercrafting as a hobby but it quickly developed into a passion. After working at another store for a short time, she decided to open her own business. Her favorite A Muse stamp design is the bird cage. It was a love affair from the moment she saw it! She also thinks the A Muse Notecards are “just fantastic”.

Scrapbook Friend’z carries a wide variety of supplies, including:

Stamps (Mounted and Unmounted)
Pads, Inks, Paints, and Dies
Card Stock (Over 500 Colors), Envelopes, & Paper for Cards
Pattern Papers – Traditional, Seasonal, Sports, Wedding, Kids Corner, & More
Templates – Brass and Stainless Steel
Albums – 6”, 9”, 12”
Tools, Totes, & Adhesives
Store Designed Precut Page Packets
Embellishments – Packaged and in Bulk
Distress pads, Embossing Powder, Glitter, Stickles, UTEE, PearlEx, Flock
Lots of Marvy punches!

The customers that shop at Scrapbook Friend’z are part of a scrapbooking and stamping family. The employees know most of their customers by name and see many of them more than once a week.  Their customers are adventurous and love new products.

For A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA, they have two card classes planned during the week of the event. Then on Friday night July 13th, they’re having an A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA Friend’z party where they will stamp from 6pm until midnight!  Saturday and Sunday they’ll have Make and Takes and there will be giveaways and prizes all week.

Featured Store - Pad to Paper

Remember to enter your Scavenger Hunt answers and submit your card for Design Challenge 7!  Our next featured store is Pad to Paper.

Pad to Paper is located in Hilmar, California - right in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. They officially opened their doors on October 7, 2006 with a grand opening celebration two weeks later.

The store is located in the old post office building on the main street of this dairy farming community. They have approximately 1500 sq ft, which includes a classroom and office space. There are three partners involved in the store and they handle everything from ordering, to stocking, to teaching classes.

Pad to Paper started as a long-time dream for two of the partners, Beth and Denise, who have been stamping for many years. The third partner, Diann, started stamping a couple of years ago, and was excited to become a part of this dream. The name for the store - Pad to Paper - came from Beth's nephew who gives everyone a hard time about stamping "What's so hard about that?, he said, It's just pad to paper". When they decided to open the store, coming up with the name was the easy part!!

The store is packed with lots of stamps (A Muse, Hero Arts, Rubber Soul, Paper Inspirations, Inkadinkadoo and others) and a large selection of papers from World Win, Bo Bunny, Cosmo Cricket, Polar Express, Scrappy Cake, etc. They also have a whole room packed full of embellishments for scrapbook pages, cards and other paper craft projects.

Pad to Paper customers come from all over the area and they've been told that they are "providing therapy and changing lives," but most importantly, their customers are having fun!!

They have a full week of events planned for A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA, leading up to a Friday night VIP event and a weekend full of A Muse cards classes and specials. Be sure to check their web page (www.padtopaper4.com) for updates. This promises to be a fun event for everyone!

Featured Store - Stampers!

Make sure to see the sneak peek before it disappears Saturday!  And there is still plenty of time to heat things up for Challenge 6 - see post for details. Our next featured store is Stampers!

Stampers! is located in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia and has been in business for 12 years. The store is in a little neighborhood commercial village, on a busy arterial street. The owners, Steve and Ann Thompson, describe it as an eclectic shop with a little over 1600 square feet of space. They run the shop with two other employees.

Stampers! carries a couple of dozen stamp lines, various paper lines, and some accessory/embellishment products as well.

Ann got hooked on stamping when a friend introduced her to it. Now, she and Steve are both truly addicted rubber enthusiasts. They love what they do and strive to be as knowledgeable as they can about the products they carry. Ann’s favorite A Muse stamp design is most definitely the Seattle girl! No questions asked! (We like that one a lot too!)

The best thing about the customers that shop at Stampers! are the friendships that Ann and Steve have made over the years. Their customers always inspire and amaze them with their creativity.

They have lots of fun events planned for A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA. There will be make & takes every day of the event from 4-5:30 pm, and on Fri & Sat (July 14, 15) they will have cake, coffee and juice.  Steve is working with a local bakery to try & have the AMAP logo recreated on the cake. (How fun is that!)  On Saturday, they will also have a "spinning wheel", where customers will spin for free stuff or discounts on their A MUSE purchases.   

Featured Store - Artsy Tartsy

Make sure to enter your guess for our Secret Squares game and don't miss Challenge 5! 

Our next featured store is Artsy Tartsy.

Artsy Tartsy Inc. has two fabulous paper crafting stores located in MN. The 1st store in Savage, opened in Dec 2003, with the 2nd location, in Plymouth, opening in Feb. 2005. Both stores are located in high traffic strip malls, with Plymouth being the larger of the two stores.

Owner, Julia Roehl, oversees both locations and has 4-5 part time employees per location to help her out. The stores are modern and trendy and have constantly changing products and inspiration. They offer scrapbooking, beading and rubber stamping and carry all the latest trends from the most popular vendors. Her customers love new products!

Julia has always loved paper and color. She started out scrapbooking about 9 years ago and it all snowballed from there. With a background in retail and merchandising, this was just a natural fit for her when she decided to start her own business. Her favorite A Muse stamp is the Scallop oval frame, she absolutely loves it!

Julia and her staff always refer to their stores as a TIME WARP.  Customers are continually losing track of time while they are browsing.  Julia told us a funny story about a very good customer that stopped in on her way to the grocery store.  The customer browsed and they chatted and were having a grand old time.  Suddenly the customer looked at the clock and positively shrieked!  She had just run out to go to the grocery store to pick up hot dog buns as her husband had the hot dogs on the grill back home!  She had shopped for over an hour and still had no hot dog buns!  (But she had tons of great papers and stamps!)

Artsy Tartsy will be having a VIP party after hours on Monday night (July 9) to kick off A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA.  They will feature a different stamp each day the rest of the week in their “A Muse Yourself” Art Bar!  They will also be offering several classes and make & takes during the event!

Featured Store - Scatter Joy

There is still time to "get punchy" for challenge 4 - see below for details!  Our next featured store is Scatter Joy.

Scatter Joy in Sioux Falls, SD has been in business for 2 ½ years. The store is a little over 3000 sq ft and is located in a strip mall. Owner, Sandy Christians, has created a homey store where customers feel like they are just going over to a friend’s house. She has 1 full time and 9 part time employees.

With Paper-crafting as a hobby, Sandy saw a need for a stamping and scrapbooking store in Sioux Falls and as a business person, decided to open her store to provide the kinds of things she wanted to use in paper crafting. The store carries a large inventory of anything needed for stamping and scrapping. Sandy’s favorite A Muse stamp right now is the Park bench, but she has LOTS of other favorites, too!

When we asked her what’s the best thing about the customers that shop in her store, her reply was LOYAL FRIENDS!

For their A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA event, they plan to fill the store with balloons for the entire week and they will have a featured display where all the A Muse stamps and samples will be located. They will be offering specials and will have a daily make and take with classes scheduled for Friday evening and Saturday.  They don’t have all the details worked out yet, but are thinking about doing an A Muse Reception Thursday night with a Chocolate Fountain and treats, so check in with the nice people at Scatter Joy and see the latest on their plans for A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA. www.scatterjoyrubberstamps.com

Featured Store - Rubber Stamp Fantasy

There is still plenty of time to enter your guess for our "how many stamps?" game and to participate in the sketch challenge - see posts below for details!

Our next featured store is Rubber Stamp Fantasy in Marietta, Georgia.

Rubber Stamp Fantasy has been in business for 12 years and is located on the historic downtown square in Marietta, GA. The store has a welcoming décor with over 3000 square feet of space, including a loft classroom, which can accommodate lots of people.

Owners, Debbie and Gary Taratoot, run the store…(just the two of them) and the store carries most everything that goes with the art of stamping. Their focus is stamps, stamps and more stamps! When we asked Debbie what her favorite A Muse stamp was, she said “How can anyone choose?” 

Debbie started the business as a gift shop in 1984, selling hand painted personalized gifts. Gary joined her in 1990 and they expanded the items they were selling to include stamps. The stamp side of the business grew and grew, so they decided to close the gift shop in 1994 and open Rubber Stamp Fantasy. They even had to move from their initial space to a larger one and have been in the new location since 2004.

The customers that shop in Rubber Stamp Fantasy quickly become “extended family” to Debbie and Gary. They share a love of stamping and paper crafting and also support each other through life’s ups and downs.

For A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA, they plan on card blitz classes throughout the week and make and takes on Sat. July 14th. There will be prizes and refreshments, too.

Featured Store - The Inkspot

There is still plenty of time to participate in Challenge 2 - see Tuesday's post below for details!  Our next featured store is The Inkspot in St.Louis, Missouri.

The Inkspot has been open since 1999 and is located in a precious cottage painted white with periwinkle trim.  The owner, Julie Forb, adores the A Muse line and always has a huge display of A Muse Stamps in a prime position in the store. She received the very first ever A Muse catalog way back when. She handwrote on the front, "this company has potential!"

The Inkspot always smells great, because they have the best scented candles burning! (You can hear people say "boy, it smells good in here" as soon as they walk through the front door!) You’ll always hear great music softly playing in the store from country, to smooth jazz, to classical and some "pop" in between! St. Louis Cardinals Baseball will sometimes take over the music. Julie won’t miss a pitch, unless she needs to help customers, of course!

They have talented employees and instructors and love walking in that "back" door every day!

For the A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA event, they will be hosting a wine and cheese preview party and a birthday celebration with A Muse birthday stamps. There will also be classes, make and takes and an art bar where you can play with A Muse stamps and products.

Featured Store - Colorful Creations

There is still time to participate in our first challenge - see yesterday's post below for details!

Each week we will be sharing a featured store as we count down to A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA!  Our first featured store is Colorful Creations located in Hyannis, MA.  We asked them to write a few things about their store to share with you! 

   

Colorful Creations is a paper crafters paradise that opened in 1999 to fill that creative spot in all our lives. In our new space we boast 3500 square feet of heaven. (10 feet of wall is *just* A Muse!!) Here you can shop, create, and chat!  We hope Colorful Creations becomes your creative spot too!

Top 10 reasons for an A Muse addict to visit Colorful Creations:

1. We have 10 feet in A Muse product alone!!
2. More than just stamps & cards... we have all the extras you need to put the finishing touches on your A Muse projects
3. A Muse yourself with all the clever card samples we have on display
4. We host fun, creative classes
5. We throw special events like we're rock stars!
6. Our store is bright & spacious and staffed with friendly {creative chicks}
7. We're located on beautiful Cape Cod, right in the hustle & bustle of Hyannis main street ( across from the JFK Museum)
8. We have our own certified A Muse instructor & designer on staff full time, Jenn Shurkus
9. We have plans for all SEVEN days of A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA!!
10. We want to meet other A Muse addicts, like us!! Make sure you say hello!

Click here to see more photos of our store!