Pre-Construction Phase

Today we have a whole bunch of photos to share with you! They are all from the new Inky Hot Mess shop. This is what the store looked like after the previous tenant. She had just moved out when I went to view the place.

A shot from the inside of the store in the front. Check out all that window space!!

Have I mentioned how much I looooooove those windows? I seriously can't wait to decorate them! I've already started shopping and crafting ideas. I even have a white Christmas tree that will fit in the window!

A divider wall.....it has been removed. This space was a dance studio last. I love the little ice cream stand windows. Sadly, there's no one passing ice cream cones through those windows.

The wall to the left of the front door. All of those items have been removed. Big plans for that wall!

The shop behind that divider wall! The wall is gone. Those mirrors are 6 feet by 10 feet. There were 3 of them. Two of them were removed intact and salvaged. The last one broke on the guys removing it. Those things are heavy!

See that little cubby? I just think it's the cutest little thing...I have a plan for it!

The right side of the store behind the divider wall. Those pieces of wood were the supports for the dance bar. They're gone.

Inside the store!

The view from the back of the store. There weren't any lights on....power was turned off. That divider wall shrunk the place and blocked the light.

Hard to see since there aren't any lights. This is my office area. More mirrors on the wall on the left. Those are gone. Gone. Gone.

Windows!!! This is outside.

I tried to get more of the front of the building. I need to get a better photo! Apparently, I need to go across the street and wait for a break in the traffic.

Ok so I'm a little excited about this adventure. Why? Well, this crazy girl has wanted her own scrapbooking/art store for about 10 YEARS. I've been looking for a location since last autumn. I thought I had a gorgeous place all picked out. The place was historic and had historic built in furniture. The landlord even started construction......then he gave me the lease weeks and weeks later. And wow there were a ton of issues so sadly I had to walk away.

I was really devastated. I gave myself one day to grieve. Then I made myself contact a few local landlords and realtors to see what else I could find. During that process, this space became available from a landlord who has been working on helping rebuild Geneva and has a great deal of knowledge on the local area.

Geneva dates back to the 1700's. During the 1940's and 1950's, this place was booming courtesy of 2 nearby military bases. They both closed decades ago. Since I moved here, I learned that one of my grandfather's went to basic training at Sampson Air Force Base which is now Sampson State Park. There's a museum there as well. It's a wonderful place to visit for the day or the week. You can camp there!

I will be sharing more photos this week1 Stay tuned!

Grand Announcement!

Inky Hot Mess is ecstatic to announce that we are opening a physical scrapbook/art shop in the heart of the Finger Lakes. We have been searching for just the right location for months and finally found a stunning place to call home. Inky Hot Mess will be located at 93 Castle Street in Geneva, New York. You can't miss it! If you're coming down Castle Street, you'll see a massive mural that takes up the entire side of our building. The mural is of Seneca Lake. When you are standing on the sidewalk in front of our shop if you look to the right, you can see Seneca Lake! Have we mentioned how much we love the Finger Lakes?

Construction has been going on over the last couple weeks. Paint colors have been selected and are going up next week! Then we're getting a brand new floor. After that, we should be at the stage where we can put in our fixtures. So exciting! We are hoping to open by mid June. A Grand Opening party will be scheduled for early July. The plan right now is to hold the Grand Opening celebration with the July Geneva Night Out.

What does this mean for Inky Hot Mess? Amazing, amazing, amazing things! We have a dedicated classroom! We will be offering tons of classes and crops as well as Ladies Night and birthday parties for ages 8 and up.

Our shop will feature a full line of scrapbooking, stamping, card making, altered art, mixed media, paper art, and art products as well as finished pieces such as cards, canvases, scrapbook for hire, etc. Inky Hot Mess will continue to design and craft our own monthly kits. We will be expanding our offerings in the upcoming months. There will be many new additions to our exclusive products.

The details.....

Address:
93 Castle Street
Geneva, New York 14456

Phone Number:
Coming Soon

Website:
http://www.inkyhotmess.com

Summer Hours (potentially June 15 thru Columbus Day): Monday - Wednesday & Friday 10 am - 6 pm, Thursday 10 am - 8 pm, Saturday 10 am - 4 pm

We will be closed select Saturdays due to family commitments. Our schedule will be announced at least one month in advance. Our class and crop schedule will also be announced at least a month in advance.  Hours are subject to change.

Working on the store layout

Every Thursday is Crop Day. Crop Day is $10 for 12 hours of cropping. Crop Day begins at 10 am ends at 10 pm. Want to crop for $5? Simply bring in a donation for our monthly local charity collection. Want to crop for free? All you have to do is spend $35 throughout the day. We'll even run a tab for you! We will be letting you know when Crop Day will officially begin.

There will be monthly crop weekends! That's right 3 days of cropping. Your own crop space. leave your items in the shop for 3 solid days. Meals are included. For out of towners, we will provide a list of lovely accommodations.

Classes. Classes. Classes. Want to learn about something specific? Come tell us! We will are happy to take suggestions and teach what you are looking for. There will be numerous classes that cover a wide variety of arts: card making, scrapbooking, stamping, embossing, mixed media, altered art, Project Life, pocket scrapbooking, watercoloring, and more! Classes will be offered days, evenings, and weekends.

Brands you will see in our shop the day we open:

Inky Hot Mess
American Crafts
Bazzill
We R Memory Keepers
Teresa Collins
Tim Holtz
Ranger
Viva Decor
My Mind's Eye
October Afternoon
Pink Paislee
Heidi Swapp
Simple Stories
KaiserCraft
Echo Park
Carta Bella
Maya Road
Studio Calico
Project Life
World Win
Inkadinkado
My Favorite Things
Lawn Fawn
Avery Elle
Zig Zag
Stampendous
ColorBox
Memento
Hero Arts
Judikins
Queen & Co
May Arts
Tombow
ATG
Dress It Up
Thermoweb
Kool Tak
Tsukineko
Prima Marketing
Sizzix
Bo Bunny
Marvy
Doodlebug Design
Authentique
SEI
Paper House Productions
Jillibean Soup
Lily Bee Designs
Darice
Chickaniddy Crafts
Little B
Me & My Big Ideas
Elizabeth Craft Designs
Webster's Pages
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Who knows who else we will be adding in the up coming weeks! You'll have to stop by the new shop and see!

There will be a major change to our webstore. We will not be adding every item we sell in our Geneva store to our webstore. Only exclusive Inky Hot Mess products such as our Living Life and Short Stack collections, Paper Crafting Kits, Flair, Wood Chips, Acrylic Chips, Cork Chips, Vellums, and Die Cuts will be available on the webstore. We will continue to update our blog with new arrivals when they are available for purchase.

Inky Hot Mess will be joining Geneva Night Out and Love Geneva very soon! More details will be announced as they are available.

Well, that's all for now! We will be sharing photos with you as we go through this journey. Be sure to check out our Instagram page for lots of photos! More details and info will be announced as we get closer to opening. We are so happy to be opening in Geneva!

Flair Additions: Cazenovia

Today Inky Hot Mess is happy to make a new flair introduction. We love living in the Finger Lakes. People frequently ask how we ended up here. Our family is originally from the Capital Region in New York (Albany, NY - the State Capital - Nope, New York City is not the state capital). We used to vacation out here frequently. Between the day trips and weekend trips, we were there almost every weekend during the summer and early autumn.

Sailboats on Cazenovia Lake

Somehow we lost our minds and ended up building our dream house in South Carolina. Inky was homesick within 6 months and wanted to move back home. Inky's husband had a company approach him with a new job and it was in New York. We jumped on it and moved back to New York, but this time we went to the Finger Lakes. The rest is history! 

Cazenovia Lake

One of the towns on the way from Albany to the Finger Lakes has a gorgeous lake....shocking I know. There's a ton of lakes in this area. There are 11 Finger Lakes and numerous other lakes. The 11 Finger Lakes were created at the same time from the same glacier 10,000 years ago. That glacier took all of our dinosaur fossils, but left some amazing soil behind which produces fabulous fruits (think wine) and vegetables (think tons of farms and farm stands) and lakes all over the region.

Kayakers on Cazenovia Lake

The first lake you come across on US Route 20 is Cazenovia Lake. It's just gorgeous! There's a quaint town - Cazenovia - on the lake. Cazenovia is the home to Cazenovia College - a small, private, liberal arts college. Lots of historic houses are in the area. There's lots of history as well, not to mention the historic sites. 

New York State Historical Sign

Inky absolutely loves Cazenovia. It's a small town and it's pretty calm and quiet even with the college there. Not much traffic except during the summer when lots of people come to the lake. Apple picking isn't far away! 

Inky has brought Cazenovia and flair together. There are 2 new pieces to this collection. The first is Cazenovia Flair.

The second is Cazenovia Lake Flair.

And we have the Cazenovia Flair Collection where you receive both pieces of flair.

Check back soon! You never know what will appear in Inky's Travels next!

Want FREE Flair?

Do you follow Inky Hot Mess on Instagram? Did you seriously just say no? For real??? Well, if you love Cape Cod you need to change that right now. Here's how to find our Instagram: CLICK ME!

Did you start following us on Instagram? Ok so now you can win these sweet new flair! Remember our new product line Inky's Travels? Inky loves to travel and one of her favorite places on earth is Cape Cod. So she decided Cape Cod would be our next release. She has a list about 20 feet long of places, beaches, activities, lighthouses, and famous bridges from Cape Cod so there will be a few phases to Cape Cod.

Phase 1 is being given away on our Instagram! You can only enter to win on our Instagram. We will ship these flair to the USA only. This does include Alaska, Hawaii, and our military bases! A random winner will be chosen on April 6th at 1 pm EST. To enter, you have to like the Cape Cod Flair photo we have up on Instagram and share it. Seriously. That is all you have to do!

Adventure Seeker & Autumn Harvest Part 2

I found a few more photos that I took of my cards from my last crop. Brace yourselves. I got pretty adventurous with a few of these. I'm still using pieces from the Autumn Harvest Living Life and Adventure Seeker Living Life  collections along with pieces from their Add Ons from Inky Hot Mess.


You really don't have to go to town with each journaling card. There are times I just use them as is or only add a few things. Shocking I know, right?


Here is a whole layout with only 1 card embellished. And it's embellished only a tiny bit. The card all the way on the right is one I made from cardstock and embellishments.

Stars! Love the chipboards stars that came with the Adventure Seeker Living Life. I will be so bummed when I finish off this collection. You can see how much I have enjoyed using it in the blog posts. 

This is how I begin to figure out what cards I need. I put my photos in the pocket page protector I select, then I look through the cards I have that coordinate with what's going on in my pics. These pics are from Clingman's Dome in the Great Smokey Mountains. It was autumn and we went on a hike in the mountains to get to this place.....so I chose autumn colors and embellishments from autumn and the outdoors.

I start by laying out cards in the spaces I need to fill. I may go back and forth on the cards or cardstock a few times until I'm happy. I was happy with the Leaf Peeping card from the Autumn Harvest Living Life. I can tell that because it's in a pocket!

Then I jazz up the cardstocks. Some embellishments. Some stamping. Make sure you put the date somewhere on either the left or right page! 

Believe it or not, all of those embellishments are available from Inky Hot Mess. Love washi. Love flair. I just love love love love embellishments! And yes, those 4 cardstocks above were used to make these cards. Crazy, right? Be sure to check out the Add Ons. There's lots of coordinating embellishments there! 

This card is so so so simple to make! I just used a piece of 12"x12" paper that I cut down to 4"x6" and embellished it. All of the embellishments came from Adventure Seeker Living Life. And I love my Tiny Attacher!

One thing I am frequently asked is how I attach my wood veneers to my cards. I use a liquid glue and I let the pieces sit for at least an hour before I put them in a page protector. Sometimes I have to let them sit longer. Occasionally, the need to dry overnight. 

I use the Tombow Mono Liquid Glue. You can also use Glossy Accents which is made by Ranger. Inky Hot Mess has both of these liquid adhesives available in their shop. 

Well that is all from that crop. Check back soon for more details on my last crop and what I brought with me on my trip to North Carolina to scrapbook!

Adventure Seeker & Autumn Harvest

What can you create with a Living Life collection? The answer is plenty! I recently attended a crop and spent the weekend creating and embellishing journaling cards from the Autumn Harvest Living Life and Adventure Seeker Living Life collections. Both Living Life collections are from Inky Hot Mess.

Using a designed journaling card as is can be just what your layouts need. I used just a simple card - no extra embellishing.....You'll see how rare that is for me!

You can always make your own journaling cards whenever you need them. Taking something as simple as cardstock and embellishing it can give you exactly what you need. I used a flair, sticker, and ribbon as the embellishments. Why the yellow? I was visiting the Great Smokey Mountains in the autumn and wanted to use only colors found on autumn trees for these photos.

I have always struggled with journaling. I'm really making a conscious effort to journal. I've been working on photos from many moons ago - years - and is seeing how important getting those details down are. Even a trip from 5 years ago is tough to remember!
  

I actually journaled on a journaling card! And added a colored mini paper clip for a little pizazz. 

Once again, I created my own journaling card using cardstock. This is one of the Swiss Dots cardstocks from Bazzill. All I did was add a sticker and the sign veneer. Viola! Done.

Here we have 2 cards from the Adventure Seeker Living Life along with the journaling card I made.

With the trip to Chimney Rock State Park in North Carolina, my husband and I took tons of photos. I struggled to find outdoor theme kits and forget finding anything as specific as the park. So when necessary I craft own cards. This one is so simple! Cardstock, stickers, ribbon, and stamp from Outdoor Trail Clear Stamps.

Another card that is super simple! Cardstock, die cuts, stickers, and flair. You're done. Simple. Oh and yes those are elk in the photos!

These photos are from Cades Cove in the Great Smokey Mountains in Eastern Tennessee. I made another journaling card with cardstock, burlap, twist ties, a die cut, and the Tiny Attacher. All of these pieces are in the Adventure Seeker Living Life and Adventure Seeker Embellishment Kit. Love how the twist ties are used to hang the Wild Adventure die cut......kind of looks like a hanging sign.

At some point, I made a huge error in printing some photos. They weren't printed in true 4"x6". They were something like 4"x5.3" which is the true digital size. Oops! So all of those prints needed to be matted. I debated matting them on ivory cardstock, but thought that was too blah. I'm a little crazy in my style. I love colors and patterns so I used scrapbook paper instead. Since there's about an inch of paper showing once the photos are cropped and matted, I needed to jazz them up. All I did was add some twine held in place with tiny attachers and a piece of flair. Done. Simple. Looks pretty snazzy!

Check back soon. I will be sharing more from this crop soon. There is plenty more to share!

Grace & Gratitude Add Ons

Yes, we have Add Ons available for Grace & Gratitude!

Fall Sprinkles

Plaid Pumpkin Buttons

Thanksgiving Buttons

Grateful Petite Diction

Happy creating!