The Beginning of a Dream

Just a stamper, ink, and some cardstock is all it took! I always had a love for card making ever since I was a little girl. I still well remember the 1st time my mom bought my first stamper and inkpads from Fun Time Creations, a stamping (mail) catalogue. One stamper led to another and soon I had a large collection.

In 2009 I married my best friend, Lewis. Working only part-time after that gave me plenty of time to indulge in my love for scrapbooking even more! The 50 minute drive to Ephrata to visit L&L Stamping seemed too far and so grew the desire to have something like in the area.

A Dream Becomes Reality

December 2010 we welcomed our 1st lil’ son. One evening a few months later I told my husband how long and lonely the days seemed with no one to talk to. What if I pop-up a little hobby store in our basement, with some stampers and accessories.... Then I could chat with the people that stopped by. Self serve would also be an option when I was busy or not at home. 

To my surprise he immediately agreed, “Why not?’ 

We thought it over some more and I soon found myself browsing wholesale catalogues. Das Deutsch Eck, Shady Lane Impressions, Fun Time Creations to name a few. In addition to ordering supplies we also applied for a tax number and made plans to add an outdoor entrance to our basement.

The work began in May of 2011 and Beth’s Creations’ doors opened for the first time on July 1st, 2011! The 1st year was an enjoyable success, hosting a few cardmaking classes and learning the ropes of the retail world.

Only 1/2 the basement was store area, but after the 1st year we claimed a little more of the basement and added a lifetime table of cut fabric pieces from a friends store. Customers enjoyed this fun, new addition and it kinda grew on me as well. A friend made the comment, “Beth, some day you’ll have a fabric store!” “No way! That’s not my dream!” I exclaimed.

However our little fabric addition kept growing on me and before I knew it I was having fun trying to see what all unique fabric I could get ahold of. Orders to Country Rose and Sand Hill fabrics arrived bringing 3 and 6 yd cut pieces of fabric. Before long there were 2 lifetime tables of fabric and a few bolts...

The Store Moves & Expands

More changes were on the horizon, in 2013 we bought a farm 1 hour and 20 minutes away in Snyder County. Now we had to make a decision whether we would move our business along. “Why stop now?” We asked. Besides, friends in Snyder County were hoping we’d bring it along and so the decision was made.

August 2013, 2 years after opening, we moved approximately 9 bolts, numerous cut pieces, and our line of scrapbooking products to our new home. Once more it was a self serve basement store with occasional help from others.

After moving we became increasingly aware of the pull for more fabric and a smaller scrapbooking section. Along with more fabric our product line expanded to include zippers, threads, sewing notions, gifts, sock & nylons, and cards.

We started carrying Tropical Breeze and many different fabrics from all over. In an effort to find different fabric we made many trips to Philly bringing back our unique fabric finds. Our niche was “Different fabrics other than the usual”; we thrived on keeping our shop exciting.

Events & Happenings

Numerous events were held at our location, among them was a stop and shop hosted in our shed. Vendors and yard sale stands set up; all in all it was a huge success. We also set up tables of cut pieces of fabric at yard sales, stop and shops, and fundraisers throughout PA.

In 2016 we welcomed our 3rd child, a dear lil’ girl this time. Three children felt like the max for running a store by myself. It was getting busier and although self serve was still and option it felt less practical to have the customers take care of themselves. Life with 3 children can be noisy; I’m sure customers learned a lot when shopping beneath our living quarters. And then I was pregnant with our 4th child. I knew instantly something had to change. Either the store goes or we move it out from under us and hire workers to take care of customers. The decision was made to go with the latter.

The Store Moves Again

Lewis cleaned out a shed and framed it up, and knocked walls out of an adjoining shed to make the store bigger. 

The new addition was finished in a month and September 25th 2017 we moved in. Directly after moving we celebrated the store’s 6th anniversary. It was over this time we ventured into the cyber world and decided to start a website, email updates, and a Whatsapp group to post our newest fabrics. We started shipping orders enabling us to reach customers across the country.

With more space available we added more products and hired our 1st full time worker, Melody. She spent many of her first weeks adding items to our website. As the mail orders grew we added some part time workers to our team. There were still days when sales were slow and the girls would get bored. Hence we started making our own silicone bead toys.

Beads, Books, & Hair Bands

The year of 2018 we added a side kick to our store and started wholesaling silicone beads. Plus we offered already made beads to other shops. Our product line expanded to include Weaverland Collection shirts, Lantern Books, and hair supplies. 

Melody enjoyed designing a children’s book in her spare moments. Entitled Tails of Joy it was released in 2019. August of the same year we celebrated our 8th anniversary.

Surviving the Pandemic

Covid hit in 2020 and that spring we were swamped with face mask orders. We turned all of our fabric over a year old into masks. We closed for about a week but were given permission to open as neighbors kept calling for fabric and elastic to make their own masks. It was hard to keep elastic in stock and the suppliers had a shortage due to rocketing sales for it. Bibles and When God is in the Center encouragement books sold at an alarming rate.

Adding an Exclusive Twist

Our 10th anniversary was celebrated in 2021. Around that time I had eucalyptus plants I enjoyed cutting off of for floral arrangements. I remember one night it hit me that we should really have eucalyptus fabric and then I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. Eventually I drew a diagram on paper of how it would look and messaged a supplier asking her is she would take ideas, or better yet print my ideas for me! She said yes to my idea!

The Eucalyptus and stripe design was my first ever collaboration. So many thanks to my sweet designer, Susan from Colorwave, who spent much time perfecting it down to the “T” with the exact mental picture I had. One idea led to to the next and in 2022 we started doing the actual designing. Ordering from mills over seas seemed like a lot of work to get started at the time. 

Alyssa Mae Design came into our lives around that time and she kindly agreed to print for us. We were delighted to work with another sweet lady. She faithfully sent our prints to the mill which enabled us to keep stocking our own fabrics. Our shelves were now filled with lots of exclusive fabric, some we designed from scratch and others we bought online as pre-designed patterns.

Decisions & Additions

Fall of 2023 we were maxed out in shelf space and still weren’t decided where or if we should simply rebuild elsewhere. No doors opened and the timing didn’t seem right so we built a little partition out the back (over the steer pen). This addition became our fabric room, but this was just a Band-Aid for now till we decide what/where to go with the store’s future.

An Expansion to Wholesale

Over the years we’ve had many wholesale requests, especially when we started designing for ourselves. This was not our goal, but rather to have different fabrics not found elsewhere. However, one day while sorting through files of old prints and pre-done designs we’d never used I wondered what we’d ever do with them all! That’s when it clicked that we could offer them wholesale. Since pre -done prints are not exclusive (anybody can purchase them online) we figured, why not share them. And so that was the beginning of Chic Fab Co. Occasionally we throw some of the designs from Chic Fab on our shelves but mostly it is dedicated to other shops. Our exclusive fabrics are mostly watercolored/hand drawn by Paint and Pallete and only available here. 95% of our fabrics are designed here start to finish.

Going Direct

Our wholesale venture created quite a few extra boxes being delivered to our location and the FedEx delivery guy started to complain, even treats, coffee, and Lewis helping him unload didn’t quite do justice when he was unloading 50+ boxes each time. This along with some other factors got us back into looking how to order/ship direct.

One day we just happened across a company in China that was very interested in printing for us. We’ve had numerous mills in the past that had sent us trials and even a few orders but none of them had been what we were looking for. So of course we were skeptical of this one, would it be the one for us?

To our surprise their Sales Rep. and his wife flew over from China to meet us in person. It was an interesting time of starting friendships and learning new cultures! After this visit we felt the green light to ship direct had come. Switching over to our own mill definitely had it’s bumps here and there and changes had to be made. One change was receiving the fabric; shipped in huge rolls it’s delivered via semi by the skid full! Instead of dealing with lots of boxes to unpack we now spend the next few days after a shipment at the fabric roller rewrapping all the fabric.

What's Next?

And then in the Fall of 2024, with 13 years of fabric and business behind us, we began to wonder: “What does God have in store for us?” 

We didn’t have long to wait! Four miles away along St. Rt. 104 a Family Dollar building went up for sale. With minimal interest we checked it out not really expecting anything to materialize. To our surprise things began to fall in place, and then it seemed like this was the way to go! 

Friday, December 13, 2024 was the big day! Taking on the unknown we signed papers and became owners of out latest adventure!

The current look of the building. We hope to make quite a few changes in the next few weeks including: painting (inside and outside), new signs, and flooring.

Above is the look we’re hoping to achieve! (Yes, that’s right we’re adding a little coffee shop/creperie! The Creative Cup is estimated to open to the public sometime this spring...)

We look forward to expanding our baby line along with more girls/ women's and boys/ mens clothes. If there is something you would like to see please reach out to us!

We want to thank everyone for making this possible. This would not be possible if it hadn’t been for you! A special thanks to our community for their support. We look forward to serving you at our new location! Lord Willing, we hope to open the doors by mid-January! See-ya then! ;) ~ Lewis and Bethany