by Linda | Jul 1, 2011 | my creative journal
It’s come to my attention that I often don’t post my scrapbooking layouts on my blog. Why? I have no idea. How lame is that.
Perhaps because I post in my 2ps gallery and somehow I feel like it would be double posting. Now that I think about it, nothing makes sense. So let me share some of the layouts I’ve created lately…
I’m still not sure if I have a recognizable style. I tend to do whatever I feel like at the moment…because it’s just more fun that way! I have a weakness for paper though…patterned or just plain cardstock. As well as using my computer for titling or journaling. I also start with a lot of plain cardstock. Otherwise, it’s a big mish-mosh. I guess that is a reflection of me…sort of all over the place!
by Linda | Jun 30, 2011 | my creative journal
As June comes to an end, every business is faced with the midyear review. How is your creative business coming along? Have your reached half your goals for the year? What might be working or not working for you and your business?
I’ve taken a moment this week to look at my finances with a closer eye, to compare my goals with the actual results…and there’s definitely a long, long way to go. Although it may be disheartening to realize that I’ve fallen short from completely realistic and doable goals, at least I have another half of the year to realign myself. I can achieve the success I’ve defined…it simply means shifting certain things and trying alternatives as well.
Think about what has worked for you in the last 6 months and what has been a big waste of time. I believe that it is supremely important to assess yourself and correct yourself when necessary. Checking in the big plan…to make sure you are still on course. I think I’ve been drifting a bit too much, so now is the time to pull the sails tight for the adventure to come…I think…
Have you done your midyear review? Think about it.
by Linda | Jun 27, 2011 | my creative journal
“…what we can handle intellectually far outstrips what we can handle emotionally,” from chapter 8 of Cameron’s book… wow, the statement really struck me. I think it’s because I’ve been learning a lot about Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism. I’ve been thinking a lot about freedom and selfishness, reason and faith, life and living it. Definitely engaged in my reading of The Artist’s Way (here’s a link to the copy I bought on Amazon)…
I’ve often stated that I can understand something, logically, reasonably… but then there’s how I feel emotionally. Such a difference at times, most of the times? I don’t yet know, if my reason is supposed to be able to control my emotions… or if they really are separate… or if there really is some miracle at work beyond all our reason. Lots of philosophical thoughts swirling in my head for sure.
But going back to this chapter, I did find myself gaining strength from realizing that my core values have been there all this time, perhaps I had simply not been relying on them enough. When Cameron shares her story of forging her own path, I was re-energized. When people told her that you have to do this and that and this and then maybe you might get what you want… she finally learned to just go out and grab it for herself. Make it happen. It all reminded me of Do the Work
by Steven Pressfield as well. I’ve come to realize not only must you do the work, you must accept losses, overcome defeats and keep moving forward above all. And the best thing is that we all have the ability and strength to do so…I truly believe it.
At the end of this chapter, I really took to heart Cameron pointing out that large change occurs in tiny increments. It is much more approachable, thinking of the small daily things we can do…rather than defeating ourselves in worrying about the far away unseen goal.
Although I have not “religiously” (LOL) been following everything in the book, I am still learning a lot and enjoying the process.
Related:
by Linda | Jun 23, 2011 | my creative journal
Many blog for the joy of sharing and writing, but when it comes to your creative business, your blog is an important marketing tool. Ultimately, you need to get in front of people’s eyes, so the right people can find you and fall in love with you. Great products, services and content keep people coming back, but driving new traffic to your blog is essential as well. Otherwise, you won’t get new readers to continue growing your audience.
So here enters the giveaway – one of the many marketing promotions used by bloggers. It is meant to attract lots of people given the FREE aspect, but are you really accomplishing something? I’ve been trying to understand how one goes about a giveaway and if they truly work as a marketing tool. Of course, I understand that many giveaways are about giving back to your current readers…sort of like a thank you or perhaps a pay-it-forward idea. But I’m talking about using giveaways as a business tool.
I’ve experimented with giveaways in the past
There’s no doubt that giveaways attract people. I’ve had experience in getting a huge boost in traffic and so many more comments than usual. But sometimes I think you are attracting the wrong people. After all, there are websites dedicated to simply listing giveaways online. I’m pretty sure there are crawlers out there who enter all of them and win just by sheer volume and chance. It doesn’t seem like a giveaway would attract the right people. In fact, it sort of runs into the subject of free stuff and how offering lots of free, actually dilutes your audience. I know that Sister Diane has blogged a lot about the topic and it’s definitely something I wrestle with.
If you are trying to make a business out of your creative work, getting an audience of people who are only looking for free stuff doesn’t work! Certainly there’s something to be said about community participation and the sharing of ideas, so it’s not all about sales. But ultimately, you do have to find potential customers…otherwise your business isn’t a business.
In my opinion, I think giveaways do work, to a certain extent. If you think about advertising in general, there’s the idea of brand advertising. You are just getting your brand out there and more known in the community. So you aren’t pushing a specific product with your advertising, you are just saying here I am and I’m kick ass because of xyz. This plants a seed…so when people actually need your particular product or service, they will say – hey, I have heard of them before…and hopefully it leads to sales.
So giveaways do help in the brand advertising department…but you have to realize that posting on your blog alone, will mostly attract the “I want free people” and your current readers. You have to do a lot of promotion to get brand new people into the game. That’s why many folks do a giveaway on someone else’s blog. You auotmatically get the brand advertising with a whole different audience. In a way, it is like partnering up with another business…because you might have a common audience.
I’ve joined giveaway events – reaching really huge audiences
But what if you want more? This is when a giveway is coupled with a product review or hook to sign-up or get connected in some way. When you include a product review, you are in fact trying to “sell” a particular something…usually what you are giving away. No doubt that if someone really wants the product, they’ll just buy it directly. So you get the branding and the sales offer.
In addition, if you ask people to follow you in some way, then the connection has started. Although you might not retain all those people – many just subscribe and unsubscribe from newsletters for example – you will still get a certain amount of new eyes following you in the end. I think you have to realize that it is okay to say goodbye to the people who are uninterested. They aren’t your people, afterall.
So I think giveaways work, but to maximize the potential you should try to hit all options available to you and get the most out of your effort. If your goal is to attract a new audience and potential customers, you need to reach a new audience, introduce something specific and get people hooked in some way.
What do you think about giveaways? Have your experiences been positive or negative? Do you track the success (or failure) of your giveaway?
by Linda | Jun 21, 2011 | DIY printables, my creative journal
If you would like to learn about the Notes to Myself project from the beginning, check out the introduction post here. There’s also a freebie download below!
So the first step to creating my minibook was to decide on the structure. I’m not huge on planning when it comes to these types of projects, because it’s supposed to be fun and go-with-the-flow style. However, I did want to establish a few things for my foundation to make the process more approachable. Here are some elements to consider before starting your minibook…
Size and Format
I decided to create a minibook because it’s handy for display, fun to create and fits my love for hybrid creations. I decided early on to use binding rings, as I plan to keep adding pages to this book as time goes on. Binding rings make it easy to manage something that is ongoing rather than a finite number of pages. The format will depend on what you want to create, how many pages, etc.
The size of my books are just regular pieces of paper folded in half. I don’t like to waste paper by cutting it down to a different size for no apparent reason…so my size is usually determined already by default. I am using thick cardstock for the pages, multi-colors even though in some cases they are entirely covered up by other pages that I glue on. I just like to have the cardstock as my base. Chipboard would definitely be more sturdy, but it depends how many pages you plan to have, might actually get too bulky. There are many options, so take a look and see what will work for you:
– use an existing chipboard minibook
– scrap regular layouts as you normally would
– digiscrap regular layouts and/or assuming you might want to print it out as a photobook at some point
– art journal pages randomly in your existing sketchbooks
– use a new journal for collage/journaling/drawing on this particular subject
It’s up to you how you want to approach this project, but deciding on a size and format gives you a foundation to start with and some boundaries to stay within. Without them I usually find myself changing my mind and getting lost in all the possibilities!
Templates
Once you have decided on the size and format, you might want to consider using certain templates. I’m using a super simple template for my journaling, so that it is consistent throughout. Really simple, spaced out text that I can print and cut to include directly into my book. I’ve chosen to journal on the computer, because handwriting would take forever – I know, everyone says they hate their handwriting! Even though I want to practice handwriting and get over it already, if it becomes an obstacle, then just type it and move on.
Think about how you might want to approach your pages, if you like consistency and want to formulate a template to stick to. Others might find this too constricting and choose to go for a free for all instead. However, you might still want to create a template for certain elements. Any photos you might use or the same set of journaling cards or a particular line of paper. It’s nice to decide on using something consistently, because that will make your pages look like they go together.
In my case, I’ve decided to cut little strips of patterned paper (from the DCWV Mi Casa line) to anchor all my text pages. It’s super simple, but adds foundation to the structure as well as color and embellishment, so it’s not so texty. I find this an especially nice trick to use for really heavy text pages, especially in minibooks that have less room to add much else. Adding a strip of pattern paper on the sides or the bottom gives that extra little umph needed. You can see that I’ve prepared a whole bunch of strips, ready to be added in.
In addition, I’ve decided to use a lined paper design for the background of certain pages…it’s something I designed digitally and printed directly on some kraft paper. Later you will see I use it for my cover, so it’s something that will be consistent on my pages, even though I’m just using it as a background, not actually to journal on. You can download the design for your own personal use as well – I made it 12×12 to work for digiscrappers. There’s the aged version to make it look like old distressed paper or use the lines only version to print onto your own kraft paper or cardstock! Enjoy!
So think about what you would want a template for and set it up now. This will create consistency for your entire book and make it a smoother process. Things to consider include:
– template for the page layout
– template for journaling blocks/styles
– template size for photos or a few different grid formats to use
– consistent style of paper, elements, date embellishments, etc that you might want to consider using throughout
– or go free for all if that’s your style!
The Cover
Many times I create the cover of a book last. However, for this project I already had something in mind and since it’s an ongoing project – I won’t know when the last page will be done! So I went ahead and created my cover first. To make the front and back cover stronger, I just folded a piece of cardstock in half and used it doubled-up as one piece, since I don’t have any chipboard handy. You can see on the back cover that I simply wrapped one side with kraft paper, folded over the edges, then lined the inside with cardstock to clean it up. I know some folks are intimidated by any kind of bookmaking process, but it is really easy to cover up cardboard or chipboard with patterned paper. Many scrapbookers just cut patterned paper to size and glue it directly on chipboard, then paint or ink up the side edges. I like the wrapping method instead, but both methods work to add strength and color to your covers.
For my front cover, I’ve used the lined paper design I mentioned previously. Then I decided to group a bunch of elements together to create the title. You can see there is a die-cut circular transparency in the back, with punch out black letters spelling “notes.” Then I cut a tag to a smaller size, used letter stickers to mask off an area then painted with green on top. That’s how I created the word “myself.” I usually don’t get too dimensional with my projects, but on the covers I can add little things here and there without worrying about embellishments digging into other pages. Still pretty minimal though – I realize some folks love to add lots of embellishments. Definitely go with your style!
Of course, nothing ever has to be finished…at some point I might add something else if I feel like it…but for now that’s the cover!
Book Introduction
When I create a themed book, I like to include an introduction of sorts to explain what the book is all about or what my motivations are. Since I’ve blogged about this project, it was even easier to just copy paste what I’ve written into my text page template and print it out to include as an introduction. Totally simple, full text pages to explain what I’m creating…and you can see I’ve added my foundation strips of patterned paper to the bottom.
In addition, I’ve added in an embellishment here with the “xo.” Whenever there is an open space, I can fill it in with embellishment. Having the element overlap the foundation strip keeps it grounded, rather than just throwing something that floats in open space. It’s simple, but effective! Of course, you don’t have to include an introduction at all…or perhaps you might want to create something a bit more artsy. It’s up to you to decide on the approach that matches your style and what you might have to say. This project is about notes to myself, to help me remember wise words of wisdom. So I wanted to explain that in the beginning of the book.
Now that I have my book ready, I can begin to put the various pages together. I will be presenting one page at a time or actually a spread or two at a time for each “note to myself.” Now is a good time to jot down some notes to yourself, so you have a list to go by…and start journaling about them. Getting the story down on words will help you to decide on including photos or not, what colors you might use, which embellishments… everything really. Here are some of my notes…
– Enjoy The Ride
– Just Breathe
– Time Will Heal
– Laugh Everyday
– Put a Smile on Your Face
– Chase Your Dreams
– Patience is a Virtue
– If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again
– It’s okay to cry
– Celebrate success
You can find lots of beautiful quotes to use as well at ThinkExist… and of course, I think for scrappers it will be easy to capture phrases that blossom out into a story for you. It can be a very personal thing, that might not mean much to those who don’t know the story. Like if I had a title, “mucho…” as a note to myself…it’s sort of cryptic, but means a lot to me. I think at times it’s the title of many scrapbook pages. So let’s do some brainstorming and I’ll be back to share each of my pages…
If you have any questions at all, please comment away – thanks for joining me on this journey!
