Button Contest

In case you missed it on the forum, the current contest going on is a button contest. You can create any layout like this:



or



or a project like this one from Mardi:





or anything you can come up with by using buttons. That's right - buttons! The rules are simple: You must use at least 5 buttons. The more creative the use, the better.

Deadline, Sunday, midnight, Dec 6th. Submit to me at the store or via the forum(you have to register first as a user - I do this to weed out spammers) or this blog I'll open the polls after that. Prize or prizes will be awarded for this contest.

Good luck!

.....the silver lining

OK, earlier, I posted about one of the negative things about being a store owner. I promised i would be honest in this blog and so I sometimes have to post the difficult things.

But it's amazing how God works. There is always a silver lining for the clouds. My sister is a recent addition to the scrapbooking world. An artist at heart, I always knew she would be a great scrapbooker. Last spring, I finally manager to recruit her to our mad little world.

But even the best of us need at least some direction to get started, right? So I have been showing her the basics and letting her run with it. Recently I told her about the Nov class coming up and how much I was inspired to do it. Well she just did her own project and has encouraged me beyond belief.



When I wonder if I will stay open another year, when I wonder if people have lost their interest in scrapbooking... I will remember this. I will remember that I inspired this young artist to create, that I have led her and others to this amazing journey through preserving our memories and enjoying the creativity of this. I made a difference, and that is indeed a silver lining in these dark economic times, and something to cherish.

She started a blog just this week. To follow her as she continues to develop her own style, go to "will work for paper"

Manufacturers

Recently I read a thread about what you wish your local scrapbook store. People posted they didn't understand why stores didn't carry some of their favorite lines.

The why is that some are so difficult, they make you want to tear your hair out. Yesterday I received a shipment from one such manufacturer. They have great prices, and unique product that I generally don't see elsewhere - two great criteria I look for in new vendors. However, they have been more than a little tough to deal with.

The first shipment took a month to get here. Why? The delivery service they used couldn't find me. Huh? UPS, FED Ex, USPS and others deliver here daily/weekly and i am all over the internet on google maps, mapquest etc... Shipment finally made it.

It was beautiful! That is, what wasn't damaged. I was double shipped some product, charged for "donation" items to my charity crop, packages were shorted by as much as 25% (what should have had 75 items would have 60) and many pieces were damaged (rhinestones missing, only half glittered - not up to my standards at all)

So after another month of pestering the vendor to correct the problem, I finally hear back only after I say I am going to dispute the charge on my credit card. I do like what wasn't damaged, so I arrange to receive a credit on a re-order. I place an order for some new items plus re-order what arrived damaged, plus some in different colors. i pester them saying I need for an 11/7 show and it needs to be here on time - not a month later.

The re-order arrived yesterday with half of it missing, and again, no invoice so I don't even know what I was charged for. I am beyond frustrated. The product sells well, but is it worth all this hasssle? I am not looking forward to the next month of "fixing" the fix.

OK, so I wrote about the downside today. But let me post something positice. The 11/7 show I mentioned is the Central Penn Crop out in Enola, PA. Let me tell you, I love this group. I've been going out as a vendor for about two years and their support has in big way allowed me to get this business going. They are supportive, and friendly, and I always enjoy going out to see "my friends" in another part of the state.

This business can be hard like any other business. But the friends you make along the way really make it worth it!

Green is the new Black

I've spoken to two people in the last 24 hours who's family have been affected by unemployment for 6 months or longer. I then read a post on a scrapbooking site i often visit where one woman had purchased her favorite kind of letter in so many styles and colors she had spent $350 just on that brand of letter.

Two extremes. I say it's easy to be creative when you have $350 worth of just one letter and who knows how much else. It's much trickier - and thus way more fulfilling to my way of thinking - when you have to work with what you have.

Some very talented ladies have done just that. Deb used bread ties (I read earlier today one company was selling blank twisty ties for $4 a package....without the bread!) Manda, Robin and Mardi used packaging that would have ended up in a landfil. Excellent - more play space for my great great grandkids! Finally Nellie use old fabric from old clothing. Since I am currently sorting through old baby clothes to make into quilts, I can appreciate this line of thinking.

So I applaud you all - Job well done! Won't you join me and take a look at the ladies creations and vote for your favorite?

Go to the forum here to vote.

Scrapping from memory, not a checklist

It seems like people are asking me about this more and more, so much so that I felt led to write about it.

I am a store owner, yes, but more than that I am a teacher. I am not the world's most talented scrapbook artist. Do I come up with some really outstanding layouts from time to time? Yes, but for the most part I consider myself an average scrapbooker. But I love to teach, and I love to inspire my students to find their creative side - to make them see that scrapbooking is more than just a hobby or a practical way to record history.

With a baby, you here all the time: "It goes so fast, enjoy it while you can!" I so agree, and it's so easy to lose sight of those little every day moments you cherish. But do we scrapbook those? No. How likely am I going to forget what it looks like to watch my kids blow out candles on a cake..not very likely, yet how many pictures or layouts of that do I personally have> More than I care to admit.

I found myself last year trying to find new ways to scrap birthdays, trick or treating, opening Christmas presents, going to the (same) pumpkin patch or Christmas tree farm. I was looking toward new paper or embellishments to make my pages fresh...


WRONG!

How about making my pages fresh by taking different pictures? Rather than pose Noah in front of the same pumpkin patch as his sister and older brother, how about I just focus on Noah? Him exploring his surroundings....what does he think about that tractor, what's this? grass? cool stuff! and the joy is captured in the photo




Recently I needed a bunch of pictures for a class I was taking. Rather than pull out 20 Christmas pictures or 20 birthday pictures, I decided to take new pictures. Something I wanted to remember. What's one of mom's best ways to entertain the kids when she is exhausted? Take them to the park and let them run. So decided to capture these moments as something I wanted to remember...Not posed pictures all neat and pretty. Wild pictures of children running with abandon, twirling wildly and just being kids.


The results? Fresh new layouts, and memories I will cherish for a lifetime.



So now, I am focusing on the fun, the moment. What do I want to remember? Instead of making myself crazy trying to capture "that perfect photo" moment...I focus on the moment, and the perfect photo just happens.



And when the perfect photo happens, all of a sudden you start to get fresh new layouts that are exciting again...



So go out, enjoy life, remember those special every day moments... just don't forget your camera!

Yay! It's crop night! Looking forward to some play time tonight...

I've mailed off 250 cards to the military, posted the completed fabric album class in my gallery, sent out the newsletter...posted the Christmas class and page design classes through Jan and part of my house is clean. I think I deserve a break!

I'm also looking forward to spending time with my family this weekend since I missed it last weekend doing Crop for a cure.

Looking for some inspiration? I've been scouring the web looking for great samples using the product I sell. Be sure to stop by the New product section of my forum to see samples like this:

or this from the Pink Paislee blog:



or this :




Been noodling an idea for an online class... if you're interested in something like that, let me know!

Credit card woes

My credit card # has been stolen several times this summer. Yes, you heard me, several times. Has been making keeping the store stocked a little tricky since my orders keep going on hold.

This one took a different approach and I was able to catch him myself. Someone *I think* hacked into 'Insert Major manufacture Here' over the weekend. "Michael Diego" emailed me with my order # saying they needed my CC info again because it wasn't working. Didn't give it to them (who emails a credit card # these days?!?) . Their email was close to 'Insert Major Manufacture Here', but not quite right so I emailed the operations mgr and put a hold on my cc just in case. But want to make sure they know what's going on. And I need to eventually take the hold off so have my 'Insert Major Manufacture Here' order!!!!

AM hoping to get some more work done on my Donna Downey fabric album tonight too. I am telling myself that I ahve to keep working hard to get it done because I need it for a sample...how else am I going to show how to use the fabric stuff?

But the truth of the matter is - it's just too cool. and I feel inspired. Something neat that only happens every so often these days. and so it makes me happy. :)