Thursday, September 29, 2016

We Have a Winner . . .

The big drawing was at 4:30 Thursday afternoon – Sizzix donated a Big Shot Express for us to give away after their demo artist Jill Tarayao spent the day in our store.

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So Vanna White and Carol Merrill (aka Karen and Donna) did the honors and pulled out a winner . . .

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And a quick phone call and a drive through work traffic later, Cindy Smith was the proud owner.  Thanks to all who have participated this week!

Monday, September 26, 2016

Fall Spectacular 2016 -- Day One May Top Them All

It is Day One of the Fall Spectacular 2016 at our retail store – and two scenes I witnessed during my brief swings through the front door may top everything else for the rest of the week . . .

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Does this even need a caption?

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And this one is for the locals – Judy Davidson made a “drive-by” this afternoon after a trip to the bank.  She is still on the prayer list after major surgery about six weeks ago, and this was her first trip near our front door since then.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Special Guest for the Fall Spectacular – And She’s Bringing Free Stuff . . .

We always like to have one or two (or sometimes three) special guests when we have a week-long special event in our store.  It’s always better when one of our suppliers approaches us and offers to send someone here – and best when that supplier also sends along free stuff to give away.

Which is exactly what happened this time.  So for the locals – and those of you in the hinterlands fortunate enough to be near lovely Dayton, Ohio next Thursday, September 29 . . .

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Join Jill Tarayao for a Free Demo from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.  Here’s the write-up that Sizzix sent along – “Whether you’re into cardmaking, scrapbooking, papercrafting, or mixed media, Sizzix likes to say “There’s a Big Shot for that!”  Come join Jill for an unforgettable hands-on experience with Sizzix products.  Discover how to use the Sizzix Big Shot machine and Accessories to enhance your creativity and inspire beautiful handmade projects.  Plus learn how to use their must-have tools and materials to take your imagination as far as it can go!”

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Then you can take a lunch break and come back in the afternoon – Jill will be doing a Free Make & Take from 1:00 until 4:00!  This project will be presented in half hour increments, and sign-ups are required – so contact the store at 937-433-7030 or marcosretailstore@gmail.com to reserve your spot!

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And did I mention free stuff?  She’s bringing a Big Shot Express for us to give away!  So here’s the deal -- From Monday, September 26 through Thursday, September 29, you’ll receive a ticket for each purchase of $20 worth of Sizzix or Tim Holtz products in our store.  Prize Drawings will be held throughout the day on Thursday.  Grand Prize Drawing about 4:30 p.m. after Jill Tarayao’s Make & Take.  Winner need not be present.

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Click on this link or on the graphic above to see the schedule for the week.  Good luck!

Saturday, September 17, 2016

More Reading Material . . .

This is what I have been working on the last two days – it started quite innocently Friday morning, when I opened Facebook to wish a friend a happy birthday and stumbled across a live video of Tim Holtz introducing a whole bunch of new Idea-ology holiday goodies.

And a few minutes later the phone rang – it was a lady wanting to know how quickly those goodies were going to be on our site.

And a few minutes later an e-mail came – wanting to know exactly the same thing.

So I got busy . . . needed to get finished before heading out to announce the Friday night football game.

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And here is a link to some reading material when you get a few minutes this weekend.

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I guess I didn’t need to rush – the start of the game was delayed for nearly two hours by a storm that blew through.

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Today, I worked on the Ranger new releases that I promised several days ago.

And with that, I wish all of you a great weekend!

Thursday, September 15, 2016

One of the Few Reasons You Might Wish You Lived near Dayton, Ohio . . .

I said yesterday that I would spend most of today working on new items that have been announced.  And by mid-afternoon, I haven’t spent a second on them.  Instead, I have spent most of the day taking pictures – editing pictures – posting pictures – and building and loading a page on our site to show off everything that will be happening during the Marco’s Fall Spectacular in our store in Dayton from September 26 thru October 2.  It’s a week of specials and make & takes and classes and such, topped off by a trunk sale and sidewalk sale in our parking lot on Sunday, October 2.

And as I worked on them, I was impressed by how talented our people are.  So I decided to share their work with you – if you live near here, some of these creations might just tempt you to pay a visit to our store in a couple of weeks.  And if you don’t, I still think you’ll be impressed as well – and you might even pick up a few ideas.

Here is a sampling – and if you click on this link, you can see a lot more . . .

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0930 12-2 chrismach 0926 3-5 jimtuck 0929 4-6 LaQuittaBush 0928 930-1130 adawiller
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A lot of these are Free Make & Takes presented by our store regulars – others are part of classes being held during the week.  One of these was actually created by – gasp! – a man.  And every one of them has something that you can’t get from a Hallmark card – the uniqueness and love that only comes from something handmade.

The page on our site dedicated to the Fall Spectacular isn’t finished yet – more projects will be added as the samples are completed.  But I invite you to take a few minutes to look through them – and to stop back later in the month to see what else might inspire you.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Lots of New Stuff Makes My Head Spin . . .

My head has been spinning – partly because of the cold that I have been test driving for the past couple of days, but mostly because every time I think I’m caught up with all of the new items that have been released – I’m not.

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This was the most recent one – Sizzix announced overnight that a new Floral Framelits Die Set is coming in November that works with two Stampers Anonymous Cling Mount Sets.  Looks promising – click on this link to check it out, along with the two cling mount sets.  All of them are 20% Off the MSRP with Free Shipping in the Continental U.S. – and we will ship the stamp sets and die set together when the die set arrives.

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I thought I was caught up when I finished this – Memory Box released 78 new dies with winter and holiday themes today.  Memory Box has been really popular – their dies are taking up a whole cart in our booth these days.  No advance order pricing on these, but they will ship free for a limited time.

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And Ken Oliver has four new Color Burst colors – along with a new assortment – and more new items that I won’t get to until tomorrow.

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And when I get done with that – or maybe before – I found out this morning that Ranger has announced Stickles and Liquid Pearls and new Tim Holtz goodies and such.

So I think that means I’ll be posting more stuff on the blog tomorrow . . .

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Addendum to Yesterday’s Post . . .

I told you it might take until Monday to get all of the discontinued Spellbinders dies on one page . . .

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It didn’t – all 267 of them are now here.  And 50% off the MSRP while Spellbinders still has stock to ship to us.

And now I am off to a little girl’s birthday party.  Have a great weekend . . .

Friday, September 9, 2016

We Interrupt This Idea . . .

I spent half the morning working on what I thought was a great idea (more on that in a minute).  But every now and then, I checked e-mail on my computer just to make sure I was keeping up.  And there it came – “Do you know about the new Christmas stamps and stencils from Tim Holtz?”

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I didn’t until then – and now, so do you.  Click on this link and you’ll see all 17 new items – they should be shipping this month, and as usual Advance Orders Are 20% Off the MSRP with Free Shipping in the Continental U.S.

What I was working on this morning will likely take me most of the weekend to finish – might even spill into Monday because of this . . .

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That would be 2 1/2 gallons of homemade ice cream in those containers – a special treat for a birthday party being held for a special second grader on my block.  And I plan to spend part of my Saturday attending that party and eating some of that ice cream.

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I got a note from Spellbinders yesterday – along with a long list of more than 250 dies that they are discontinuing.  What I included above doesn’t even scratch the surface.  But they still have stock available, so we got special pricing that we are going to pass on to you – while they last, you can get them for 50% Off the MSRP.  I was only a couple of pages into the list when the Tim Holtz e-mail arrived, but I will get back to it as soon as I can – so check back to the page linked at the beginning of this paragraph.

And have a great weekend!