Review: Myrtle Beach Scrapbooking Stores

Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy

This, my friends, is how I feel when I go to a new scrapbook store. Or heck, even when I go to one of my favorites I visit all the time. I just know I love to shop for art supplies and scrappy stuff. :) So, when I ended up in Myrtle Beach, hanging with the inlaws, I had to check out the places where the locals scrap.

Snooping around online, I found two scrapbooking/stamping stores in the Myrtle Beach area. Scrapbooks By the Sea and Artful Legacy. Now, if you're one of those people who thinks a fifteen minute drive is a painfully distant journey, you're not going to get to either of these stores. However, if you have the attitude that a vacation is an adventure, and you enjoy checking out the scenery beyond the beach, hop in the car and enjoy the ride.

I intended to visit Scrapbooks by the Sea first, but got terribly lost because I forgot to note that they aren't in Myrtle Beach proper when I popped the address into mapquest. Oops. And yeah, I now know that there's a map right there on their website that would have made things much easier, but in my excitement to get shopping, I overlooked it completely. Finally after leading Scott (who was driving--I never learned how and now due to my heavy pain meds (see my other blog, Handiscrapped) I would probably get a DWI or the like if I tried.) up and down all sorts of confusing streets, I called the store and they politely explained my error (extra congeniality points for not guffawing at my lostness), and finally we were moving in the right direction.

We got what I would later learn was about halfway there, when I caught a glimpse of Artful Legacy and nearly crawled out the car window before Scott could even finish the U-turn to get there. Stepping into the store I was greeted with a welcome blast of air conditioning and my first glimpse at a sparkling wonderland of stamps and papers, tiny little metal embellishments, and friendly service. I could feel my bank card bleeping away dollars before I'd even had a close-up look at the inventory.

One thing I absolutely adore when travelling is finding local treasures you simply can't get anywhere else. These things are by far the best souveneirs, far surpassing any plastic dome with Santa on a surfboard being snowed upon. So I nearly swallowed my tongue when I was told that the aisles and aisles of wood-mounted stamps I was parousing were exclusive to Artful Legacy, made by their own artists! No freakin' way! I had hit the motherlode!

The thing that really stands out about Artful Legacy's home-grown stamps is the variety of artistic styles they feature. I don't know who chooses their art, but they do a fantastic job of creating a line of products that run the gamut when it comes to appealing to stampers of all types. They have ones that appeal to the "cutesy" crowd (I chose the dog saying, above, but they also had tons of doodled designs as well), the sassy girls (I can't recall the sayings offhand, but you know the type--chocolate and hot flashes dominate. :)), country/genteel (florals, scenery, etc.), Christian religious stamps, and my favorite--the artsy altered look kind. If I had unlimited funds, I would have picked up even more of those in this last category. It made me wish they had an online catalog so I could order more, but on the other hand, perhaps their rarity makes them all the more wonderful. They aren't designs you see over and over, and there's something great about associating these stamps with the memory of actually being on location, so I can remember my travels each time I stamp with them.
Correction: They do appear to have their stamps available online, though at the moment it's a little confusing to work with. It may be an in-progress kind of thing, but it's there if you'd like to take a look.

Oh, and I need to clarify for the anti-wood mount crowd--their designs are also available unmounted or sticky mounted. I apologize for not knowing the technical term for the type that are opaque but still will stick to a block. They're not acrylics, but they still stick. If you know the proper name for these, please leave a comment and let me know.

Speaking of unmounted stamps, I had to pick up this set of dog stamps. If you're into dogs and stamping, you likely already know that there is an overabundance of poodle images and vaguely beagle-y dogs, and very few that feature other breeds and mixes. So I had to have this set. Yeah, I know it has a poodle toom, but look! A German shepherd dog, a spaniel, an Italian Greyhound (I know you're totally envious, Laura (mom to Stella, the spunkiest of IG's). Crop with me and *maybe* I'll let you play with these! :)), a tiny terrier, a French bulldog, etc. One question I have is why the dog walker has no head. I'm guessing it's based on a story written by Washington Irving's dog, but if you know differently, please comment and let me know!

I know I'm rambling, but if you're ever in the Myrtle Beach area, do check out Artful Legacy. I dumped out my entire bag of purchases for the photo below (minus the album I altered which you saw at the beginning of this entry. Check out all the cool hard-to-find altering tools I can't wait to dig into. I'm not even sure, exactly, what to do with the sparkle powder, but I'm going to have fun figuring it out. :) I was so excited to find Doodlebug flocking! I haven't seen it anywhere else yet, and WOW do those colors just spring out at you. Prices were reasonable, and you can't see them in the pic (oops! I forgot to add them to the pile) but I also got a fabulous deal on some of my favorite (and usually *so* pricey) magazines from their clearance table--Somerset Studios magazines and the like...you know what I'm talking about. Beautiful magazines, incredible art, but running about $14.95 an issue it's hard to justify picking them up. Half price makes me go wild! :)

The envelope above is filled with tiny charms from their salad bar-style charm display where you can pick and choose them individually. I couldn't resist the little bag of old watch pieces either, which has got me thinking about taking a hammer to a few old timepieces I have laying around here. Hmm...perhaps another entry?

The only thing that gave me pause at all was the "See you in church" entry every Sunday on their store hours calendar and a few other bible-y statements, and this is only because I have been run down by conversionists at scrapbooking events in the past. I certainly enjoy a good discussion on the topic of religion and I know a lot of mighty fine Christians, but I get a little twist of fear in my stomach when I think I may be walking into a Jack Chick style rumpus room. I was only there for an hour or so, but honestly I don't think anyone need worry. Everyone was wonderful, kind, and helpful, and I didn't feel assailed-upon at any time. I didn't catch any sort of intolerant vibe, merely a gentle open-ness about their own beliefs.

Moving on...I didn't make it to Scrapbooks by the Sea until a few days later because after all that shopping at Artful Legacy, I was a bit worn out. So, here we go on excursion two:

Scrapbooks by the Sea turned out to be considerably further away than we thought it was. It's definitely a jaunt from Myrtle Beach (I'd guess 45 min-1 hr?) but if you're near Pawleys Island, you may want to take a look.

Located in a cute little shopping center, the store definitely has a breezy, beachy feel. The front door is open much of the time and driving up to see the proprietor sitting out front, enjoying the afternoon, is decidedly picturesque.

The store itself is, well, tiny and had the feel of visiting a close friend's crop room, which is not a bad thing, certainly. The front of the store is mostly beach-related scrapbooking stuff for the tourists. They have, what I am guessing is every single beach related scrapbook paper available, and lots of pre-made die cut paper piecings directly related to the area. If you're doing a family album about your vacation, and you took pics at all the regular tourist spots (Broadway at the Beach, pirate museums, etc.) they have all the headers and papers you could possibly desire. If you're looking for much beyond that...it's likely not there.

I did pick up a couple of neat items I hadn't seen before (looooove that template!) but unless you're looking specifically for beach themed items, or you happen to be staying nearby, I'm not sure you'd really want to drive as far as we did. Don't get me wrong, this is in no way a bad store, it's just set up primarly for the locals, and that's important too. From the time I spent sniffing around the place, I caught that special orders are really the way to go when you're shopping there and that they host a ton of cool events if you're in the area long enough to check them out. The crop room is HUGE for such a small store, so I'm guessing that if you live around there, you will love to hang out for classes and crops.

If you do decide to visit Scrapbooks by the Sea, there are a couple of other things to check out nearby. I was totally thrilled to find that the shopping center is adjacent to Haunted Trail:

Though despite my dramatic expression, we didn't encounter anything otherworldy. Perhaps it's scarier at night?

Across the street is a fabulous dog store that pet lovers *must* drop by.
Puparazzi / 10729-B Ocean Hwy / 843-235-8822
Unfortunately they don't seem to have a website, but they do have a fantastic selection of dog-themed art, home decor items, dog toys, cool games and crafts (they had a scrapbook kit that was very cute, but that was it--I do, however, kind of regret not picking up one of the dog themed paint by number kits. So retro!), and cute clothes for dogs and people. It may sound odd (okay, it definitely sounds odd), but the night before we visited Puparazzi, I had been lamenting the absence of matching dog/human pajama sets. Lo and behold, what do I find at Puparazzi, but the very same! I totally freaked out and of course bought a pair for me and for Revco. Yes, he actually likes wearing pajamas and such. Little dogs with very short hair get chilly easily. He's sitting by the cooling fan of my laptop as I write this, enjoying the hot air (there's a joke about this blog in there somewhere). I did not get any for Usagi, not because I'm neglecting her, but she simply hates dog clothes of any kind unless it is snowing or extremely cold out. Then she will wear a jacket only while outside, and will immediately try rubbing it off on the couch the second she gets indoors. I managed to get Scott to get the matching boxers, which he only submitted to because of the weirdness of bringing up the topic of dog pajamas then finding some purely by serendipity the next day. My arguement was that if anyone breaks into our bedroom with the intention of slaughtering us all, they will be so overcome by the cuteness of us all that they won't be able to kill us. Useful, eh?

Wanted for Gross Neglect of a Scrapping Blog

If this blog was a kid, I'd be in big trouble for forgetting to pick them up from school for a month. (Sorry, just saw the original Japanese Dark Water. Seriously, don't ever be late to pick anyone and stay out of the elevator.) I am sorry, loyal readers, I have been distracted by my two other bloggy sites, Handiscrapped and my Stampin' Up gallery (which is still more than half filled with corporate filler projects. I will eventually upload enough to make the site less cookie cutter boring. No offense to cookie cutters. I freakin' looove cut out cookies. Hmm...that's an inspiring thought. If I can get my pain under control well enough to maintain uprighthood, those of you taking my Woof/Meow class jusAAXt may be nibbling pet-shaped goodies over your dog and cat projects.)

Check out Revco with a flower on his head! He was not exactly thrilled about it, but he looked so cute how could I not get Scott to snap a pic or two. I can't wait to scrap my little floral friend!

Have I got some new things to show off? Sure! I love the old retired Stampin' Up "Stipple Rose" stamp and the Fiskars border punches, so I put them together to make these purple rose cards. I colored directly on the stamp to get the various colors onto the image. I was concerned that the ink might end up too dry to print once I was done coloring the entire stamp, but lo and behold, breathing on the stamp worked!

Next up, a little 6x6 page I made as a prototype for one of the make-n-take projects for my Stampin' Up open house. The subject is a sweet little rat who we (Raleigh Rodent Rescue) adopted out to a wonderful home. I used the "Enjoy" set from the mini catalog. I love the journaling box stamp. It's too bad it doesn't fit any of the punches, but if it did, it would probably be too small to really be useful.

I finally got around to altering these mini clipboards! I'd been meaning to make these chipboard clipboards into wish list holders for my customers to use while they work on their projects in class, since they often think of things they need while crafting. I usually jot it all down, and I still will, but this makes it easier if they don't want to ask me for help or if they have a long list. I covered each board in paper (a tape runner is surprizingly effective for altering chipboard) Added the Hodgepodge Hardware bits (I can't believe that they'll be retiring in July! Stock up, peeps. I am!) and stamped the office style images to go with the business-y paper. I'm really into these kind of designs. They remind me of playing in my grandfather's office when I was a kid. All that cool carbon paper, erasers with brushes on them, blue no-copy pencils, and forms of all kinds. I loved trips to the office supply store. That's where I bought my first real stamp--a self-inking frowny face. I'm not sure why I wanted the frown in particular, but it got a lot of use, disagreeing with anything it was stamped upon. I loved those little packs of cap erasers in unusual colors you couldn't find at the school store, not to mention the triangle shaped pencil grips that helped reduce the huge writers' callous I always had before the days of laptops. Sure I still love going to office supply stores, but I just can't seem to find any of those great small and dusty places anymore. Just big box suppliers with hundreds of the same product stacked to the ceiling. I still pick up mailing tags, clips of all kinds, pens and other things, but the ambiance isn't the same. It's fun to have these retro-office supplies to take me back there, anyway.

My Birthday Weekend at Virgina Beach!

Brace yourself. I look like a complete doofus in the following photo. Then again, I think that was the point:

(Ugh, my hair looks like stupid cocker spaniel ears. No offense to cocker spaniels. Our first family dog when I lived with my dad was a cocker who rocked the house.) It's going a little back in time, but I want to post a few pics from our fabulous weekend in Virginia Beach at a cropping weekend that just happened to fall on my birthday! Since I had just been to one a few weeks before with my super great friend, rescue cohort, and scrapping travelling companion, Kay, I really didn't expect to get to go to another so soon, even *if* my super crafty, uber hip, pirate princess, stampin' up minion, cleverest of pals, Jen K. (Pictured below)

was going and was actively petitioning to have me come along too. It's certainly not that I didn't want to go (Heck, if it was my choice, I'd probably go to one of these every month at the least!) but these things do cost money and take me away from home and I didn't want to be greedy.

But, oh my, how could I forget that I am the luckiest girls in the whole wide world because...I have Scott the WonderHusband who gave me the trip as a birthday gift. Yes, girls, he rocks and is totally taken. Nyah nyah!

The way things had worked out, Jen and I each ended up with our own rooms, so Jen suggested that she bring Alex and I bring Scott and they could have their own little play date while we scrapped. It turned out to be a fantastic weekend. Jen went out of her way to make me feel like the most pampered and sillified birthday girl ever, showering me with crime scene tape, mayorial banners, all topped off with a glittered purple cowgirl hat (me? In a cowgirl hat? Well, if Howard Lyman can be the Mad Cowboy, I suppose I can be the Mad Cowgirl.) And that doesn't even scratch the issue of presents. Is she a great friend or what? (And I say that knowing that she probably isn't even reading this. You *know* it's true then!)

So, while the boys played on the Playstation, we cropped and slipped little surprises to our secret sisters. I rested a lot due to my retarded spine, though Scott's gift of Degrassi High dvd's made forced resting so much cooler. For those of you who don't know what Degrassi" anything is, stay tuned for a future post on the topic. If I tried to explain the joy of Degrassi now, I would never get back to the original topic of this post. Suffice it to say: It Went There.

For those of you who don't know already, Jen is my minion--er--downline in Stampin' Up and I was SO proud of her as she took on the entire crop group with a class showing off stuff from the Occasions Mini catalog. It was great! There were three seatings (that I saw, there may have been four) and she was just brilliant--confident, knowledgeable, graceful. She did such a great job, they asked her to stay on as the official Stampin' Up rep of their crop group. That's nothing to sneeze at--people come from all over to attend their scrap weekends! Jen ROCKS!

Back to the story: Jen and Alex took us out for Indian food, then we stopped at Total Wine to pick up some Champagne Pops. If you haven't had these, they are fun and simply lovely. It's just pretty decent Champagne served single style in a sparkly little bottle with a straw attached. After all, isn't the bubbly all about fun? So we sipped them as we cropped while Scott and Alex hung out beside us, building Scott's birthday catapult which I was promptly konked in the head with a projectile from.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I have this problem. If something is going to fall on somebody, or hit them in the head, it will inevitably me it lands on. Seriously. Someone else could open and close a closet full of teetering drygoods and it would stand miraculously upright until I came along and opened that door once. I'm not the only person who has noticed this. I am convinced that I have a really intense gravitational pull on objects located directly above me. If I was given a halo, it would end up around my neck.

Later, back in the hotel room, I was trimming and mounting some stamps and began to ponder how one could put the extra sticky rubber bits to use. You know, the stuff that you trim away from the stamps when you mount them? The following photos were the result of much brainstorming:



Do *you* have a better idea to use up all this extra Stampin-uppitude? Leave a comment here with your idea and the one I find most useful will win a prize of some Stampin' goodies. Don't forget to include your email address so I can contact you if the goodiebag is yours!

Anyway, Sunday arrived all too quickly for my taste, but coming home is a good thing, too. Monday was Scott's b-day so once mine was over, it was Scott's Birthday-Day Eve, so in order to be truly festive, we dressed Scott appropriately. After all, it's only fair.


So, that was my birthday in VA. I was also lucky enough to have a birthday crop at my friend Teresa's house, but I forgot to take pictures there. Sorry folks! It was superfun too.

Don't forget to leave your ideas as described above. I'll be choosing a winner this weekend.

Itty Bitty Kitty Feets

Been feeling a little down for the last couple of days, but luckily I have Toulouse here to cheer me up with his cutest little perfectly soft pink toes...look at that little teensy curled up back paw! It took every bit of will to resist tickling it whilst I took the photos. I find cat feet unbearably cute, which probably shocks most of you who know me, since I find human feet so unbearably gross. I don't like being in the same room with someone wearing flip-flops. But cats have those itty bitty round feet. And they never, ever wear flip-flops.

Ooooh. Preeetttyy...

I was sorting through my brads and eyelets yesterday and was suddenly struck with how pretty everything was, sitting there all together, divided so nicely by color. It just got me thinking about art school when, as a writer, I was so jealous of the visual artists who got all the cool toys. Sure, office supplies are nice, but compared to paints and clay?

I love scrapbooking. This stuff rules.

Dogz Rule

The Dogz Rule: Scrapbook in an Afternoon class was super fun! So fun, in fact, that we're planning to get together again next month to work on our books some more! In this pic, we took a Mellow Moss 6x6 scrapbook and decorated it with Flower Fusion blooms, Purely Pomegranate ribbon, Soft Subtles buttons and some die cuts. Sticky Strip is really handy for this kind of thing. That stuff is *not* coming off the cover! :)

This page (below) was done using the nifty rub ons from the Sale-a-Bration mini catalog. You get 4 sheets instead of the usual two, and they are free free freeeee! You'll see these a lot in the pages to come.Aww...look at that cutie. Love those sparkle brads and the flower punch. The stamp is from the retired "Parlez Vous Francais" set, but it's too cute not to pull out for projects like this! The scalloped edge? I made it using the round tab punch, just linking one tab after another. And I thought that using it for gift card holders was the best thing it could do.

My friends Anne and Mini in Finland. Is that not one cute dog? I framed her using the copper Hodgepodge Hardware set--it comes with a bajillion (really! Count the pieces!) different kinds of metal embellishments that go on forever. The picture holders and ribbon buckle are from the same set.

Usagi's tongue hits the big time. :) I couldn't resist the heart rub on for this one. Same set from the mini catalog. The butterfly and flower are from this sheet too.

I love the white ink pad because it feels like paint and is wonderfully opaque. I also used the Close to Cocoa Craft pad for the stars that fit right into the star punch perfectly to represent dog snot. Aww...the memories.

Darcy poses with Revco in front of the wall mural we found in the closet of our motel room at the Whalebone Motel in Nag's Head. You can almost feel the sea spray. The flowers in the upper right corner were made with Classy Brass templates to dry emboss on the page. I love how well they work on cardstock. And check it out, those free rub-ons come in the same green as the Confetti Simply Scrapping set we used as a base for all of our pages.

Hooray for Mini! I made the award using the Scallop (as I've stated before, it should be called the Butter Cookie) punch and some bits of Chocolate Chip Ribbon. Cute, huh? The border at the bottom is a cardstock sticker that comes with the Simply Scrapping Set. Pretty cool and very easy!

Flower punch comes to the rescue again, this time with button centers. I love the Soft Subtles for this layout. Revco looks so relaxed, watching the world go by. Of course, this soon turned into a barking frenzy, but it was a nice moment while it lasted.

Aww! It's Revvy in his squirrel pajamas he got at the Rat Terrier Jamboree! These all are sticker embellishments on this page--it takes only seconds with the kits we have. The tag stickers came with the set, and the dog stamp is from a retired set. I made his spots glossy using Crystal Effects which is kind of like a liquid plastic that looks pretty and glassy--kind of like epoxy stickers. The guest of honor sticker was quite appropriate for this foster dog.

Revco bubbles! I just used a circle punch over and over. I embossed all the bones onto the paper bubbles using black embossing powder and a heat gun to make them a little bit 3D and shiny. Pretty, and fun!

I love the fill-in-the-blank stickers in this set. Yeah they're made for kids, but if you tweak them a little they are perfect for our dogs. All those circles are...more stickers that came with the pack. Each pack comes with 6 big sheets of cardstock stickers so you don't have to be stingy with them like when you buy tiny, expensive sheets in the store for too much money. :) I really like to go nuts with them.

Usagi Flowers using the circle and the Butter Cookie punch! The stems are Wild Wasabi ribbon. Neat, huh? I cut the grass freehand (that sounds like I was in the yard with a pair of scissors, but you know what I mean.)

More jammies. I just had to get a pic of that cute little tail sticking out. On the side, I used the "Good Dog" wheel and with a glue pen, applied our superfine glitter to the detals. The bones and tennis balls were filled in using our fabulous Uni-ball white pens. They are the only white pens that work this well--totally opaque and you don't have to keep running over it to cover. It's very generous with the ink. As far as I know, I've only seen them in our catalog. They are a must-have.

Usagi! What a cute! She gets a turn in her pajamas Again, the rest is stickers, except for the fire hydrant from the current Yappy Day dog set from the catalog. So cute. The sticker below it, meant for a kid again, states, "This is how I sign my name." Too perfect to pass up.

Love the frame on this one. So easy. It's just the "Ticket" punch, but it comes out looking so cool. The little dog, framed the same way, is also from the current Yappy Day set in the catalog. The people are my aunt and uncle in law. Is that a real thing?

The scallops on this one? Just circles cut in half! I love punches.

Is my boy not gorgeous. All he needed was a border created with the corner punches, and a pretty flower made with the Flower Fusion set and topped off with a jewel brad. The squares are my favorite. The etched edges just add so much,

Pardon the fuzziness of this photo. I had trouble getting a good one. I love the stickers (both Usagi and her beloved teddy bear have dream bubbles over their heads. The simple line of Earth Elements brads (which for some reason totally match the in-colors. Very cool!)

Thus ends Album One of the Dogz Rule series. Want to make your own? Come to my classes which you can see on my calendar at:

http://veronica.stampinup.net

or, email me to order the kit: Princess.puppy@gmail.com

I offer both a basic (for around $60) and deluxe (around $120) kit to help you make your own scrapbook like this one, and have plenty of extra stuff left over for more projects.

My Friends Rule!

I had to show off this beautiful creation by my friend, Teresa B. As you can see by the Christmas theme, it took me a while to get around to posting it, but it's still a really neat project. It uses the Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon, which I wish Stampin' Up would bring back in the main catalog. It was really pretty stuff, with little stitches down the sides. I wrapped most of my gifts this year using the Chocolate Chip version. Sigh. I miss it so. Can you imagine how pretty it would be in Taken with Teal. Ooooh.