It all started out as Frog’s Whiskers Ink, a delightful art rubber stamp and scrapbooking store located in Campbellford—a quiet little town in Ontario, Canada, north of Lake Ontario about two hours east of Toronto (right in the middle of Cottage Country). Frog’s Whiskers Ink started with the efforts of Leslie Cronk and expanded when Rose-Marie Kerr and her husband Tom took over in 1997. Since then it has grown many more times to become Central Ontario’s largest art rubber stamp store. With the expansions came the opportunity to start producing their own line of stamps called “Rosewood.”
Being bitten by the stamping-bug
Rose-Marie was no stranger to retail. She had been self-employed as a needlework artist and operating her own craft business for 15 years. It was during this time that she was asked to teach craft classes at the local hospital. One of the classes involved the many ways to use a rubber stamp. That one class, using one stamp, resulted in requests for more classes and more stamps. Before long, stamping classes not only became the type of class most requested, but also the students were looking for supplies to purchase.
With no stamping store close by, Rose-Marie started researching how she could secure supplies for her craft classes. She found, and later purchased, a rubber stamp business located in Parham called Frog’s Whiskers Ink, moved it to the Kerr’s farmhouse just outside Campbellford and stamps were sold right from their farm.
On weekends and during certain times of the year, the home-based store appeared at many of the local mall craft shows as well as the Toronto Craft & Hobby Show each spring and fall.
As the customer-base grew the need for more space became urgent. When the opportunity arose, Frog’s Whiskers Ink moved out of the Kerr’s home, into Campbellford and partnered with another new venture, Kerr’s Corner Books. “Having two businesses together works well in a small town,” Rose-Marie explains, “because each business has a different peak period.”
Teaching, travelling and saving money
Many times when families are in Campbellford for the holidays only some of them feel like going fishing. At these times Rose-Marie has special ‘Cottage Classes,’ ‘Make & Takes’ and ‘Multi-generation Classes’ to take the boredom blues away. In addition to regular classes, one of the most successful classes is ‘I loved it when I bought it, now what do I do with it?’ The input from all members of the class leads to many unusual stamp and paper combinations.
Frequently, the class schedule is outdated as soon as it is issued. If a patron can’t attend a listed class, Rose-Marie will add an additional class if four or more interested people can be found. They also have requests for private classes for groups of friends travelling together from a distance. Rose-Marie and Tom will set-up a special class and, if asked, are more than happy to make reservations at a local restaurant or B&B. If the group stays overnight a second class is often set up for the following day.
Another way Rose-Marie and Tom serve clients who live too far away to easily make it to the store is by creating a website. It is basically an extension of the store: easily understandable, user-friendly and convenient, complete with an online shopping cart.
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The rewards program applies to any items purchased at the stamp store, the book store or the website. Sales run through a central checkout so purchases can be tracked: “We keep a data base of names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses on the computer with a pre-set value for purchases,” Rose-Marie explained, “so when the customer has spent $200, not including sale items, the computer will apply a $10 credit to their next purchase or, if the customer wishes, save it for another day. We use the e-mail database to keep our customers up-to-date with special promotions, sales, class lists and downloadable projects.”
Designing what the customers want
Frog’s Whiskers Ink carries rubber stamps from many companies, but even with all the stamps on the walls, they were still getting requests for stamps that did not exist. Thus, Rosewood Stamps was born and with over 30 different stamping companies, 7-8000 different stamps in inventory, Rosewood it is the best selling stamp company in their store. It currently boasts a catalogue of over 410 images and it supplies stamping needs for the store and online at both the retail and wholesale levels across North America. Rose-Marie and Tom make sure they use good, thick, red, vulcanized rubber, grey-cushion mounts and light coloured hardwood blocks. The index is a clear laser-inked peel-and-stick film, complete with a UPC code compatible with any store selling system.
The art work is done primarily by Rose-Marie, and a lot of the images are inspired by their life in the country. From the Impatiens on the front porch to the collection of leaf prints drawn from the trees lining the driveway, the diversity of the stamps comes from living in an area where the people appreciate nature—shown by the many cottagers who consider Campbellford a second home. Spring, summer, autumn and winter images abound in the store, with appropriate quotations and warm wishes for all holidays and joyous occasions.
Cards for the men in your life are hard to design so to help you out, they have created some Wooden Decoy stamps to pair with Picnic Island or the Highland Stag. Get the feeling of the area with Windswept Northern Pines, swaying Bleeding Hearts, a Canoe and a wonderful Serene Loon. These are among the many "Country Collection" images for you to see.
Coming to Campbellford
Frog’s Whiskers Ink/Rosewood Stamps has come a long way from its beginnings 10 years ago. It has expanded and moved ahead while making sure its customers come first and have fun. They understand the retail market because they are part of it and at the same time continue forward into expanding wholesale market. There are specials and events every month and through it all, this is still a cute little store run by two very nice people. The warmth and friendliness of the staff is evident in the ambience of the store. They will happily stop what they are doing to help a customer by demonstrating a new technique or explaining the assembly of a particular card.
A visit to Frog’s Whiskers Ink/Rosewood Stamps is well worth the trip. Easy access to Campbellford can be found either north from the 401 on Hwy 30 at Brighton or south from Highway 7 at Havelock. Whichever way you travel, all directions to Campbellford will bring you to Frog's Whiskers Ink. It is right on the corner of the east side of the Campbellford Bridge, located with its sister business, Kerr's Corner Books: two great stores at one super downtown location.
Frog’s Whiskers Ink, Rosewood Stamps & Kerr’s Corner Books
Tom & Rose-Marie Kerr
Box 220, 39 Bridge St East.
Campbellford, ON, K0L 1L0, Canada
E-mail: rosewood@frogswhiskersink.com
Website: www.FrogsWhiskersInk.com
Tel: 705-653-4335
Fax: 705-653-1655
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