January 2010

During our holiday travels, I was lucky enough to visit a local scrapbook store, Green Tangerines, in Rocklin, California (about 30 minutes outside Sacramento).

All the LSSs where I live are now gone, so I haven’t even been inside an LSS in about 5 months, since the last one near me closed. Yeah, color me sad. So I was very excited to visit an LSS at all. Imagine my immense happiness when I found out that this particular store bills themselves as “the largest scrapbook store in California” at 15,000 square feet. Wowzers!

As much as I probably owe him some kind of revenge for something he’s done lately, I didn’t subject my DH to shopping with me. He and the kids went to a nearby IHOP and ate loads of pancakes while I shopped at Green Tangerines, so I had a relaxing hour to browse around without hubbo pacing, checking his non-existent watch, while sighing heavily and asking, “How much are you going to spend anyway?” And being kid-free while I shopped, I also didn’t have to 1. Find the bathroom, 2. Ask if there was a Kid’s Area in the store, 3. Say “no” 439 times when they asked for sticker pack after sticker pack, or 4. Clean up any knocked over magazines or Prima bottles. In a word: Bliss.

I took some photos as I wandered around but I apologize for their quality, as they are from my iPhone. I swear, they looked fine as I was taking them, but now that I see them on my computer, they look blurry and weirdly colored. But you’ll get the idea.

I entered the store and there was a large, round counter in front with 2 or 3 salesgirls who gave me a friendly welcome and asked if I was looking for anything. I said no, just browsing, and they left me alone the rest of the time (which is how I prefer to shop). I was quite amazed at the size of the place; the only bigger store I had ever been in was YOUNGPLAY MEMORIES in Tracy, California. That store was 20,000 square feet, but sadly, they are now closed.

I really liked how they had the store set up. There were sections in the front like this, organized by theme and holiday. Here are some Christmas and Winter-themed racks…

… and Halloween.

There were 2 aisles worth of stamping, altered, ephemera, and vintage stuff. My Scrap Sister ANGIE would’ve thought she died and went to Heaven!

Me want. Don’t need. Want.

There were several aisles organized by color. So awesome. Here are oranges and yellows to give you an idea. I think a lot of scrappers now organize their stashes by color, especially for non-themed elements like these, so this is a very smart idea. I’ve never seen a store do it this way. Like their motto says, “Scrapbooking Made Fresh.”

This orange … erm, TANGERINE … wall went down one whole side of the store and you can see that there’s a Studio and Workshop here. The Studio looked more like an office, with neat projects displayed and stacks of Green Tangerines KIT CLUB boxes and display boards around. I’ve always heard GT has a great kit club so I peeked into one of the “pizza boxes” and was very impressed. Cute kit for sure.

The Workshop was a huge cropping room with large tables and comfy chairs. Croppers were scrapping away in there; while I shopped the crowd grew from about 2 to 10. I was so jealous and wanted to join them!

There was a whole section of the store where they sold (or consigned, I guess) various handmade items from clothes to jewelry to paper goods to knitted scarves. It was like walking through a brick-and-mortar ETSY shop, I tell ya. So fun to see all the little goodies and wishing I could buy it all…

In the back of the store, there was a large area with BAZZILL CARDSTOCK and AMERICAN CRAFTS THICKERS organized by color. Yeah, now it’s me who has died and gone to Heaven. I wanted to spin around and throw my hat in the air like Mary Tyler Moore … ‘cept I wasn’t wearing a hat. Or I would’ve spun and thrown, believe you me.

I mean, if that don’t make you happy, nothing in life will. Right?

In this section, there was also other brands of cardstock like CORE’DINATIONS, and embellies and ribbon sorted by color, too.

So, I’m sure you can tell by now that I loved this store and have only good things to say about it. If you’re ever near Sacramento, I really encourage you to check out this store. It’s worth the drive, no doubt about it.

As I was checking out, the sweet salesgirl told me that they were soon going to start selling merchandise online. Here’s their WEBSITE; I hope you’ll consider supporting them. I’m sure any business they do online will only help them keep the B&M doors open, and that’s what we want :) Oh, and read their About Us page … it’s a cute one. {Oh snap!}.

Now, to share with you what I ended up buying from this lovely store:

Label stickers by Luxe and Scenic Route, journal cards by Pebbles Inc. “Share and Tell,” and pens by American Crafts…

Super cute American Crafts “Everyday” paper with speech bubbles. I thought this would be a cute way to scrap the funny things my kids have said. I got 2 sheets of the same paper; the green is on the reverse side.

Two sheets of “Backyard” paper by American Crafts, just because I loved the fruit and scalloped edge patterns, and the colors are so cheerful…

“Joyride” paper and journaling cuts by Collage Press because I have a journaling spot fetish, and some recent snow photos to scrap…

“Silly Season” chipboard by Green Tangerines (I guess it’s their own line?) because it’s a cute and fun take on Christmas…

3 sheets of ledger paper in gorgeous colors by Creative Imaginations…

Basic Grey “Lemonade” monogram letters; they are the most gorgeous color in person … I’m sorry, that is the only reason I can justify buying them…

“Storytellers” cursive letter stickers by Webster’s Pages … Again, all I can say is they are pretty and I had no choice…

From “Enchanted Autumn” by Reminisce, because I have several people in my family with a serious candy jones and I want to embarrass them by scrapping their addiction…

More journaling spots by Collage Press (see “journal spot addiction” above for more details)…

My first 2 sheets of Core-dinations cardstock ever ever EVER! Dark teal with a light teal core, and chocolate with a periwinkle core…

Photo sleeve pages by We R Memory Keepers so I can get a feel for how I’m going to do my PROJECT 365 with Simple Stories “LIFE DOCUMENTED“…

I ended up spending about $50 and I’m okay with that, because I’ve provided full justification above for each item. There is no reason to feel guilt. If you could see me through the computer, you would see that I am confident. I am not blinking. I will not look away in shame. {See, that is how you do it, my friends. If you ever need confidence-building after a scrap shopping spree, just come to me and I’ll hook you right up}.

There was much, much more that I wanted to buy but I tried to get things and brands that I don’t have access to elsewhere, like Luxe and Collage Press, which I have never even seen in person before. I know, I’m such a Deprived Scrapper Country Girl, ain’t I?

I hope you enjoyed my store review. Do you like my purchases? What do you think about Green Tangerines? I mean, other than the fact that you could leave your family and move in there for the rest of your life and be perfectly happy…?