I've been bad about scrapbooking this summer as I've been busy with other activities. I kept telling myself I'd go here and check the place out and finally made it in yesterday, and I'm pretty glad I did. Scrapbook stores are few and far between these days, so sometimes you have to go a little bit out of your way to find one, especially one that you like.
There's so much to love about this store I can't rave enough good things. It's not huge, but honestly, none of them are. For starters, their selections amazing in regards to paper, stickers and other items. I was super happy with the prices and selection and really got a lot done when I was here. The owner lady was running the show here and she really knows her stuff.
They have an open crop area where you can bring your supplies and work on whatever projects your doing at that time. The lady said that cropping stops at 5, so keep that in mind. It's also a $10 fee which doesn't get offset regardless if you buy something or not. $10 is reasonable, as some places charge $15. I don't think they have any late night crops, but after looking at the calendar at the check out, it appears they do have regular events that you can sign up for. I love doing these especially in the winter when there's not a whole lot to do outside and the weather's poor.
So, here's where I deducted a star. While this store is fabulous in a lot of ways, it lacked in others that I felt the need to discuss. For starters, they don't have a good dye cut machine here. The other two stores in the area have them, but this store seems to have one that just plain sucked. Machine was small and hard to use, the alphabet selection was sucky. I got one letter done and said to heck with this and left it for another time and place.
Secondly, they don't have a photo printing machine. Ok, I know that's an expensive investment, but on top of everything else, I was like this is super annoying. Mind you, you can stop at any CVS, Walgreens, Meijer or whatever store you want to print, it just means extra time doing something that some stores do provide. I let this slide since I'm sure those machines are expensive.
Thirdly, on top of a sucky dye cut machine, they don't even have a proper paper cutter. Like even the ones you used to have in school. I used to have one to carry around myself, but they aren't that great and I quit keeping one on me. Sometimes you need even lines done precisely for the sake of making the project look good. Scissors are great, but not the end all for cutting photos and paper that can be thick and heavy at times.
Overall this place is really awesome and the owner has lots of cool stuff to buy. I would love to see her at least upgrade her dye cut machine to something better, and even get a decent paper cutter for general jobs. Lots of space to crop and they have decent hours. They are closed on Sundays, so make sure you stop in on a Saturday if you can. Definitely worth the time and effort to check this place out. read more