I recently had the opportunity to go shopping at SCRAPBOOK ISLAND in Los Gatos, CA which is about 1 hour south of San Francisco. In October 2014, the store relocated here from their smaller storefront about 15 minutes away in San Jose.
The relocation must be a good sign, right? According to their blog, the new store has more classroom space. It was very generous, with the entire back of the store full of large tables with plenty of work room. Sorry, I didn’t get any photos of it because there were 2 scrappers working back there and I didn’t have permission to take their photo.
Here are some pictures I took with my new iPhone 6+. I hope they’re a bit better quality than the ones I’ve been posting for the last 3 years with my little ol’ iPhone 4! Although there’s only so much you can do with natural light indoors when you’re trying to be Surreptitious Scrapper and not use a flash ;)
Overall, I thought it was a great store. As I wandered around for about 20 minutes, near the end a salesperson stopped by to ask if I needed help finding anything. She smiled and looked me right in the eye, and didn’t kind of take off before I even answered (like some salespeople do). She seemed to genuinely care that I was finding what I needed, so that was nice.
It did get a little confusing at check-out because there were 2 checkers at 1 counter, and 1 took a person from the opposite line so I wasn’t really sure when it was my turn. The prices were pretty much retail as far as I could tell. The store was mostly organized by theme which, being a “sort by brand name” scrapper, isn’t my favorite. However, if I owned a store, I’d probably organize the same way as that’s how most scrappers probably shop.
There was a nice array of newer merchandise and I loved the way they showcased 2 upcoming holidays – Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day – in such pretty displays right by the front door. I’ll bet that’s wonderful for their “regulars” so they don’t have to go scoping out the entire store for new/current stuff. The overall look of the store was kind of shabby chic and you can tell they definitely took the time to decorate and give it a cohesive look.
As I left the store with friends and waited out front to meet up with some other friends, the owner (or who I assume was the owner) came out to chat with us. She was extremely friendly and shared a lot of details about their upcoming events and guests. Layle Koncar from Simple Stories is going to be there on February 21/22, 2015. I was so excited because I love me some Layle and she’s going to do a class on my favorite new line from the last CHA called “I Am”!
But when I checked my dayplanner, I realized I have can’t-break-em plans that weekend. SMH. Oh well, maybe she’ll come back another time (hint, hint, Layle!).
So, back to the store owner . . . she seemed really interested in our suggestions for who we’d like to see at her store – by overwhelming majority, it was Ali Edwards and I think she was going to reach out to her.
I really enjoyed Scrapbook Island LSS. I hope you get a chance to visit them sometime. I just heard that the Hobby Lobby in nearby Morgan Hill is closed {which I usually try to stop at when I’m in the area but I was driving through on Sunday when they’re closed}. While I hope they’re just relocating, if they did indeed close, I hope that means more business for Scrapbook Island. We need to keep our few great LSS’s in business!! Mama needs an in-person scrapbook supply fix once in a while other than Michaels, ya’ feel me?
Oh, did I forget to show you my spoils??!!?? What the hay?? Here you go:
I couldn’t believe I got out of there for around $30. It was a miracle; they had so many great things but I tried to be a good girl :)
Have a great week!
ETA 02-21-15: A sweet friend of this blog alerted the owner of Scrapbook Island to my blog post. Her name (the owner/lady we spoke to) is Laurie Jimenez and she was very happy about the review. Great job, Laurie!
While on Scrapbook Island’s Facebook page, I saw this photo of their classroom from a class they held last night:
Pretty cool, huh?
ETA 03-28-15: Make sure and check out Jessie’s AWESOME class review down in Comments! It’s full of great info about the Simple Stories “I Am” and “Say Cheese II” classes she took with LAYLE KONCAR. Thanks Jessie – you rock!
