Scrappigators

We've been busier than we can be between vending at Crop Classix Cape May two weekends ago, Becky & Clare's Day Crop last weekend, and preparing for the opening of our "country store" yesterday. Getting ready involved moving an overly-filled classroom upstairs and resetting everything for "retail." We anticpated having more stock, but were pleasantly surprised by our sales at two prior events.

These photos represent two of the four walls in our former living room minus carpet. We have lots of changes we want to make in the future depending upon the reception we get in the months ahead. We are only opened one weekend a month -- the first Thursday (noon to 6PM), Friday (10AM-6PM), and Saturday (10AM - 4PM). We hope this small effort will lead to bigger and better things for our Delaware customers. We are focused on selling product that you don't normally find in the big box craft stores.

Three people stopped by on our first day, which is great since we're relying on word of mouth and social networking. Two of the three drove up from the beach to see what we had to offer. Of course, one had a $50 gift certificate to Dover Downs and a gift card for Applebys, so we were the perfect excuse for her to make the drive to Dover. The other heard about Bylers (about 4 or 5 miles from our home) and made us the reason to drive up on Thursday. The third was Tina who came to rescue Melissa's 4-year-old. She wanted him to help her bake cookies. When I first told her about our new venture, she asked if we had enough stock. After a quick walkaround, she said, "yes, you do have enough stock."

We're quite proud of our inventory. We're not carrying a lot of paper, but we do have a good array of cardstock along with Melissa Frances' "First Avenue" collection and several Graphic 45 paper pads. Of course, we also have Mosaic Moments papers since this is one of our featured projects at retreats and day crops.

We're also expanding our Copic services. We have pens (a growing inventory), refills, and nibs. We're also offering a refill and pen-cleaning services.

We also have an active dollar bins (the little green bins) which Melissa keeps full one way or another. Here, our friend Elaine is checking out the offerings.

We're particularly proud of our "checkout" counter which we created with a table that has telescoping legs. It's a perfect fit. What we hope to see more of are smiling customers at the counter like Pat, one of our downstate friends.

Some of our other products include but are not limited to: Scraponizers, Paper Cut, quilling products, Herma Dotto Repositionable Adhesive, Zutter, our own Accessories, ETC product line and more.

All it all, it was a very good day. We hope to have many more which will support our sense that 2012 is going to be a very good year. We're tickled to say that we're off to a great start!