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Kathy Kniep, owner, started Pages from the Heart in 1999. She and co-owner MaryJo Lawson moved the store a year ago to its current location at 137 E. Colorado Avenue. |
It's in part due to how darn cute everything is. Like the Celebrate Spring little photo album they have on display. Or the rows and rows of colorful paper, festive stickers, and small cut outs for Valentine's Day and Easter.
It's also in part due to the simple fact that these "papercrafters" - which is a term that includes scrapbooking, invitation making and about anything else you can make with paper - seem to have a vocabulary of their own.
On Friday afternoon, owner Kathy Kniep dropped terms like "scraplifting" - it's when other scrapbookers exchange (or sometimes steal) scrapbooking ideas from one another - or "Pages Peeps," which is the affectionate name given to the regulars at this longtime scrapbooking store.
For Kniep, this store is a testament to her more than decades-old love affair with the hobby.
For Kniep, this store is a testament to her more than decades-old love affair with the hobby.
Pages from the Heart was started by Kniep 12 years ago at the Aztec Hotel along Foothill Boulevard. But a year ago last week, Kniep moved her longtime business to a new location in Old Town, at 137 E. Colorado Boulevard, next to The Peach Cafe. It was then she also began a new partnership with co-owner, MaryJo Lawson. Their store - located in a beautiful building that features exposed wooden beams and brick - is filled with materials to complete scrapbooks, invitations and cards. And even though it's just a mile away from Scrap-N-Yap, another papercrafting store, there is plenty of business to keep Pages from the Heart beating.
Kniep likens papercrafting and those who participate in it to the "old quilting bees," she said.
"It's a very cathartic activity," said Kniep as a calming scent from a candle wafted through the store. At a time when people are so glued to their smart phones, iPads and laptops, Kniep said that it's gratifying to have a hobby that allows you to actually glue things together. "It's nice to set time aside just to relax and do something creative."
Pages from the Heart offers classes - such as the Celebrate Spring class that will teach you to make that cute little photo album shown above. That class is from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on March 10 for $28. There are also "crops" - where for $15, participants can drop in, bring a project they've been working on, chat with fellow "peeps," use their tools, get access to their material, and, if necessary, "scraplift."
To learn more about Pages from the Heart, call them at (626)358-5334, or visit them on their blog at pagesfromtheheart.blogspot.com
