Scrap Your Trip Adds 95 Items + 50% S*A*L*E on A-Z EK Success
Entry Filed under: New Items Added
"It’s not just paper and stickers!"
This is a phrase that I use all the time about scrapbooking. Many of the people who work at Scrap Your Trip don’t scrapbook, and when they start working for me, they think scrapbooking is just pictures, paper and stickers.
"Yes." I tell them, "Technically we sell scrapbooking supplies, like papers and stickers. But those items are going to help someone tell the story of their lives. Someone is going to put their soul on a piece of paper…our paper…and that paper is going to help them tell their story…it’s going to be part of the story."
We recently received a letter from a customer that really brought this message home for me and I made the entire SYT staff squeeze into my office so that I could share the CD of pictures she sent. Thank you, Judy R. from Georgia, for sharing your story with us. I hope you don’t mind me passing it along.
About 6-7 months ago, I received my first letter from Judy. She shared the story of how several years ago she had created a scrapbook in memory of her first daughter and that she wanted to make one for her remaining daughter’s 30th birthday.
She wanted us to create some custom titles to help her tell the story of her daughter’s life. "The JR Kid Strikes Again!" and "Add It Up" were common sayings about her daughter as she was growing up…could we make something that would help her with her pages?
Our designer, Jill, got to work and made some samples that we sent to Judy. "Perfect." she said, and we made the rest of her custom die cuts. We also made a custom paper to go in the scrapbook.
Unlike a local scrapbook store, we don’t often get to see people’s creations, so I was thrilled to open up the mail and get a letter from Judy with a CD of pictures of some of the pages.
Dear Julie-
After 200 hours of more I finally complete the scrapbook I was making for our daughter for her 30th birthday. Your team worked very hard to design some titles for me to use. I think having the book as a treasury of stories of her life is something not many people have.
Please again thank your staff for the good work they do in helping us preserve memories for future generations.
Sincerely,
Judy
This goes to the very heart of scrapbooking for me. When people tell me they don’t scrapbook, or they don’t "get" scrapbooking, I ask them, "In a hundred years, don’t you want someone to know you were on the planet?" I don’t ever want to be a face in a photograph that no one knows who it is.
My mom has a bunch of old photographs and no one is left alive who knows who any of the people are…I never want that to be me. That means I didn’t leave enough of an impact on the world.
Judy’s daughter will never be that person. That scrapbook will get passed down from generation to generation and a hundred years from now, a great-granddaughter will know where she got part of her personality from. Judy, your daughter is one lucky woman…in more ways than one!
Thank you to everyone for helping us support Operation Gratitude. We will be making a donation of over $1500 – enough to send 136 care packages to soldiers stationed in harm’s way. It makes my heart happy to think of the smiles we will bring to those 136, even if it’s only for a brief moment. 
I told you I would share my "getting fit" journey with you, so this week I want to tell you I weigh the least amount I have weighed since 2006! I can also tell you that I only thought I had been working out (since I was doing it on my own). I started with my trainer, Matt, this week and OH MY GOSH, I can barely move! He said in two weeks I’ll be laughing at how hard it seems now. I certainly hope he’s right!
We have 95 new SYT products this week, including items in rememberance of Michael Jackson. I am a child of the eighties and was in high school during the Thriller era. I was on the dance squad and we did routines complete with sequined glove, rolled up pants, white socks and black shoes. I can still do all the moves to "Beat It" Rest in Peace, Michael and thanks for the joy your music brought into my life.
The SYT designers were also working on the following themes this week: 4th of July, Africa, Alaska, Beach, Belgium, Billards, Birthday, Camping, Cheerleading, China, Construction, Cooking, Cycling, Europe, Fishing, Gardening, General Travel, Golf, Graduation, Italy, Karate, Kids, Louisiana, North Carolina, Panama, Romance, Scrapbooking, Summer, Surfing, Texas, Virgin Islands, West Virginia, Wrestling and Zoo. Everything from A-Z!
We have two custom custom die cuts - adorable Train (for boys) and Flowers (for girls) borders that you can customize with any name that fits!
Click here to see all the new items: www.scrapyourtrip.com/70809.html.
Speaking of A-Z, we have a great A-Z sale this week! We have over 190 EK Success embellishments, in every category from A-Z, and they are all on sale for 50% off. There are even 16" letters for the wall for less than $3. Just enter coupon code EKAZSALE at checkout and the 50% discount will be applied. Click here to see all the sale items: www.scrapyourtrip.com/clearance.html.
And remember, if you can’t find what you’re looking for, we can always make it custom just for you (just like we did for Judy)! Click here to see all our custom options: www.scrapyourtrip.com/custom.html.
As always, thanks for your business.
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
13 Comments
1. CherylAnn | July 8th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Thanks for sharing the story… sometimes even us
die-hard scrappers forget the real reason we do this….
2. Suzie | July 8th, 2009 at 8:26 am
I’m still trying to get past the part that says “many of the people who work at Scrap Your Trip don’t scrapbook”! How could you NOT scrapbook working there among all the great products!
3. Denise Mason | July 8th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Like Judy, I am passionate about traditional scrapbooking. I have heard the comments about spending so much time to create one book but honestly I enjoy the process of creatively telling my story. My daughter-in-law has made me promise to leave all of my scrapbooks to her in my will so she can be the memory keeper.
4. Charlene | July 8th, 2009 at 8:59 am
The story doesn’t always have to be a personal story, either. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to do disaster recovery work, after hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, floods in the midwest, tornadoes in other places. Scrapbooking allows me to come home and share the story and images with others, so perhaps they’ll be inspired to volunteer or donate. Taking the scrapbooks back to the same place a year or two years later, so the local folks can be reminded of the progress being made, allows me to give in another way by reminding them of how far they’ve come after living in a disaster zone for literally years. What a gift we’ve been given in this medium!
5. Sharon | July 8th, 2009 at 9:44 am
At 62 I am spending more and more time looking back and reliving all the wonderful moments. Scrapping is one of those things that I have said for a long time “Boy, I would love to do that” yet never got around to it. When crusing Alaska I spotted a kit in the ship photo shop that was meant to organize your cruise pictures. I started as soon as I got home and ended up with two HUGE scrapbooks with about 200 pictures, worth hundreds of dollars in supplies and I AM HOOKED. My daughter and her hubby travel the world and I have made travel scrapbooks for them from their pictures and momentos. I feel that I have been along with them. I retire in a few months and know that the next few years will be spent organizing and scrapbooking the boxes of photos I have found in closets and drawers. Scrapbooks are not just books of pictures, they are moments in time that can be relived over and over – and loved ones who are gone, but who can be revisited anytime. Who knows, I may end up in a rocker on the porch of some senior housing poring over my scrapbooks, my memory no longer functioning, and musing…”didn’t these people visit some nice places!” THANK YOU to all the wonderful folks at SYT and especially Julie for helping to scrap my life!
6. Patricia | July 8th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I just received my first order. I ordered the Obama papers and die cuts. I have to say that the paper is just BEAUTIFUL!!! I can’t believe I spent so much time in those “craft” stores looking for beautiful items to put in this very special book and you have these incredible papers. Thanks so much for the wonderful, one of a kind items. I’ll be ordering the Michael Jackson items, too.
Thanks
7. Liz Lowe | July 8th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I have been scrapbooking all my life and it is so much fun to go back to the very first scrapbook I mde after my first plane ride at 12. So amateurish but the story is still clear and I can still remember that trip to California from New York. Then there is the college scrapbook detailing both the best and worst 4 years of my life. Then there is Our Honeymoon. My new husband thought I was crazy saving every reciept and brochure UNTIL he saw the scrapbook. After 20 years of marriage and trips all over the world, we BOTH enjoy collecting all the momentos along the way that make a scrapbook great. A life well scrapbooked is a life well remembered !!
8. Dawn Bibbs | July 8th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Hi! I’ve been receiving your emails for quite some time now. And I must say, I LOVE all of the stuff you offer. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to order anything from you. Being a SAHM, money is kinda hard to come by with regards to supporting my scrapbooking habit
. However, I do get a lot of ideas from Scrap Your Trip.
I also wanted to ask you, have you ever done a laser cut design of Turks & Caicos? My family just had the fortunate opportunity of traveling there…talk about GORGEOUS! And I’d LOVE to have something like a page header that says Turks & Caicos.
Anyway, thanks for your continued great ideas. And hopefully, I’ll be able to order something from you soon.
Take care and enjoy the rest of your week. Dawn
9. Alison Bennett | July 8th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Julie,
I LOVE getting your newsletters or sale letters (which ever way you want to look at it). You always have a upbeat & positive perspective on EVERYTHING!
Yes, I have ordered some regular and custom die-cuts from you for my sons scrapbook. I will always keep you & your website at the TOP of List when I need to order something special.
You are truly admired & respected from where I sit. I get lots of newsletters from scrapbook stores all over the place, but you are the ONLY one that sends something personal and POSITIVE about everything. (even if its isn’t so positive).
Just wanted you to know that you ALWAYS make my day when I see your newsletters.
Keep the SPIRIT,
Alison
10. mitty | July 8th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Thank You so much for all the emails and helping when i call an order in.It means alot to me that you seemed to listen to my request’s for more mexican stuff.I’ve made the most beautiful’s scrapbook’s in world.Cause that is what it seams like to me.I LOVE SHOWING ALL MY BOOKS TO MY SPANISH FRIENDS THEY LOVE IT ALSO. THANK YOU MITTY
11. Ginnie | July 8th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I know what you mean about looking at faces of the past and not knowing who they are. A few years ago I made a book for my FIL, I got all these pics but my husband had no clue who most of the people were. I certainly learned alot about his family and so did he. For instance, he never knew when his parents wedding anniversary was, while doing this I got the newspaper announcement and discovered after doing a bit of quick math that his oldest sister was also “at the wedding” lol He was very surprised at that. I also could see the DNA worm wiggling its way through the generations from GReat Great Grandpa down to my son, its a bit surreal to see your sons face on someone you never met, and to know what hell look like when hes 80! This is starting to givce me the motovation to get my scrapping stuff out
12. Julie | July 9th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I use to think that scrapbooking was just about pictures, stickers and paper. Also since I am single I thought who would be looking at my scrapbooks? Then I remembered that 1 very important person would be enjoying my scrapbooks, me. Since I have been organizing all my pictures I can’t wait to make scrapbooks for me about my life.
I also hired a personal trainer this year for my health and to get back into shape. I laugh when he tells me that I won’t be as sore in a couple of weeks with the exercises I am doing now. He was right but as I get stronger and I do harder exercises I get sore with them. LOL Even with the soreness I have found that I feel so much better. My health has improved and I have lost 20 lbs. Keep up the good work.
Julie
13. Denise Gerdes | July 9th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Dear Julie I would like to suggest your staff make something for us as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. This is the experience of a lifetime and part of the third goal of the Peace Corps it to help people in the United States understand the cultures and societies of otehr cultures. Many parents and friends of Volunteers also visit us in our respective countries and want to scrap their experiences. We are 170,000 members strong. As you stated, it is not easy just to look at pictures or slides and tell our stories. I consider Peace Corps service an act of serving our own country. It helps others learn about Us citizens in a positive light. It was the privilege of a lifetime. One that needs to be shared with others. Thank you
Denise Gerdes