The Long and Boring Story...

...of me becoming a published scrapper is about to be told. Yep, I am going to blog about what Elizabeth Gardner wants to know (hi Elizabeth!!!). She asked me about my start in the industry in an email, so blame her if I am boring today and come back tomorrow for another Creating Keepsakes book give-a-way blog post! 

Before starting my story, here is a card I made this weekend. I LOVE IT! Why? Because it was so FUN to make and I made it just for FUN! Technique Tuesday sent me some of their stamps and I couldn't wait to play with them. When I was at CHA, I fell in love with these little lady stamps - there are five different sets that you can see if you click on the TT link. I am absolutely in love with twine lately - I can't stop using it (or buying it for that matter)! The blue dots on the background are mist - I sprayed it on my finger and touched the background for subtle color splats.

And now for the story of how I got into the industry. I have told bits and pieces of this before, so please forgive me if I am repetitive (and read on!).

When Sophie was born 11 years ago, I officially retired from my job in the computer industry and I started scrapping. As I got into this new found hobby, I read about the CK HOF contest and I decided to enter it. I did for a few years, but I never won. My husband put many of my pages on our family website and sent it to all his friends and family.

In 2004 got a call from the Director of Marketing at MAMBI and she wanted me to design pages for them. She had seen my pages on our website that was sent to her husband who knew my husband. And that was the start of my official job in the industry. I've been designing pages for them for about seven years now - crazy!

The job for MAMBI was my start to getting published. They submitted some of my work to Memory Makers and I was in there a couple of times. I kept entering the HOF contest each year, but didn't win. Finally after about 4 years of trying, I decided to enter the Memory Makers Masters contest. By this time, I had a little more experience under my belt. I had won one of the Chatterbox top 25 album contests and a big contest at scrapbook.com. And I had been published a few times in Memory Makers, Scrapbook Trends and Scrapbooks Etc.

I won the Masters contest the second year I entered along with some very talented ladies: Jessica Spraque, Kelly Goree, Vanessa Hudson, Valerie Salmon, Lisa Vanderveen, Angelia Wiggington, Danielle Thompson, Amber Baley, and Susan Weinroth (what a team, huh?!?!). And this was the first year I didn't enter HOF since I was now exclusive with MM for a year. About eight months into our year, they were bought out and we were phased out very quickly. Here is a page I made right after winning their contest - my journaling kind of outlines the story above up to that point:

This was one of my entry pages and they used it on their ad for the contest the following year. It opened up and the inside had more pictures and journaling.

I wanted to continue being published, so I started posting my pages on the Creating Keepsakes website. I soon got a call from Jana who was in charge of publishing back then. She said she loved my work and she picked up a couple of my pages for publication. I entered HOF again in 2007 and I won as an Honorable Mention with some very talented girls such as April Foster (who then started Studio Calico). They announced that 2008 would be the last year for HOF and I knew if I ever wanted to accomplish the goal of winning, this had to be my year! They were only picking 10 winners though (instead of 25) which made my chances of winning even smaller! They started a Dream Team that year and they were phasing out HOF.  I put everything I could into that entry and luckily it was my year after six tries! And my timing could NOT have been more perfect. The next year I was asked to be on the Dream Team and have been now for the past three years.

As far as design teams go, I have never been one to want to be on lots of teams as I really prefer to keep my work load manageable while putting my mom duties first. The first team I ever tried out for was Maya Road a few years ago. That was my start to my love affair with making mini albums. I was then asked by Elsie to be on her Love, Elsie team which was exclusive, so I left Maya Road. I did that for a few months before she exited the industry. Sharon Soneff from Creative Imaginations asked me to be on her team as well for a short period until she also got out of the industry. This past year, I decided to try out for a team that I really wanted to be on: American Crafts. I was very happy to make the team as I love their products! Between Mambi, American Crafts and CK, I am a very busy girl!

I also did some teaching during the last eight years. I taught at a Scrapbook Expo, at several stores in the area, and many times at Scrapbook Oasis. I got to the point where I would only teach about once a year because it was so time consuming that I didn't want it to take me away from spending time with my kids. But now I have stopped teaching almost completely because of my health issues (I can't handle lots of noise and commotion or my ear goes into spasms).

And that is my story. I hope anyone who is interested in being published can pick up one key point from this story: keep trying and don't give up on accomplishing your goals! There are TONS of talented girls out there and you have to be willing to do a lot of work to make it in the industry. You need to constantly be improving and keeping up with current trends. You have to submit, submit and submit and not take it personally when you don't get your pages picked up. You have to be willing to make any changes to your pages that are requested by editors with a smile on your face. And you have to be responsible in turning things in on time and staying consistent with the quality of your work.  

I have always put my family first and made work decisions based on the time I have to devote to this hobby. I often turn down opportunities because I don't like to travel and I don't like to have too many commitments. The beach is way too fun and my kids will only be small for such a short time! I also advise that you have to keep a balance that works for you so you don't burn out as many designers do in this industry. I know I haven't burned out for 8 years now because I keep the right balance for me and my life. That was my public apology to any that I have "blown off" when requesting me to be a guest designer - haha! Karen Grunberg from the Creative Therapy blog just told me that I was harder to nail down than Tim Holtz! After three years of trying, she finally got me to commit and I am the guest on her blog this week (I couldn't resist when I met her cute self at CHA this year and she yelled at me for blowing her off for so long- ha!).  

And that is enough about ME! Now, what about you? Anyone have any questions or need any advice? Just post your questions and I will attempt to answer them! xoxo Suzy

PS - And Elizabeth Gardner, I promise to get back to you soon, but this is a start, right?!?!

Comments

[Heather V]

Thank you so much for sharing your story, Suzy! I didn't find it boring at all. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Psychology last year, I've recently made the decision to go back for a second degree in Graphic Design so that I can (hopefully) work in the scrapbooking industry. You've inspired me to submit more pages... I hope one day I'll get published :) Have a great week!

[Laurie]

thanks so much for sharing your story, I took entered the HOF contest several times and never got picked and then it stopped, I enter all my pages into the CK Club gallery and have been spotlighted on their blog a few times, but not published, it is dissapointing at times, but I will keep trying because if you and everyone else can do it, so can I! I am a stay at home mom now, but when my little guy goes to school I would love to be on a design team somewhere, I am going to keep trying for that...anyway thanks for sharing, gives me some hope to not give up!!

[Laurie LAriviere]

PS forgot to tell you I love the card!!

[Lisa VanderVeen]

LOL I totally remember that Master page. I did one too. I have to go find it now :). Best thing about winning Masters? Meeting YOU. XOXOXOXOXOXO

[Keshet Shenkar]

Love reading this. It can be so frustrating to try and find a place in the industry, and deal with rejection. But it's nice to know that we all start somewhere!

[Elizabeth Gardner]

Wow Suzy, it is such a great story. I love your determination and desire for balance. I also love that your hubby helped out in the beginning by posting layouts & sending them out (YEAH FOR HUSBANDS!) I hope you know how much I appreciate all of your time. I'm so thrilled to see this posted on your blog. You give people like me who are just beginning their careers so much hope. Thank you for such a thorough and inspiring response to my question. As always, you are THE BEST!

[Jana Morton]

I LOVED reading your story. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. I always enjoy your blog posts and the card is darling!

[dawn]

This was fun to read and not boring at all. Good for you not giving up and finally getting what you wanted. I like that you keep it balanced so that your personal life isn't effected by it. My dream use to be on a dream team, would be great to turn this hobby into something more while I'm home all day and the kids at school. For now though it's great just to scrap what I want and when I want too. Thanks for letting us know about meeting Karen and being a guest this week. I love Karen and just took her 2 classes my first ones ever at BPS, she's so nice. Her classes taught me so much about me and my style. So happy everything worked out for you and I love reading your blog and seeing your pages. Have a great Friday.

[mary t]

I think thats a great story suzy!!1 its always nice to hear when people put their families first!! I try....
mary t

[photochic]

Loved reading this, Suzy. :) Maybe someday I'll have a story like this to tell... LOL

[Stacy Cohen]

I loved reading your story, Suzy! And after our get fun get together yesterday, now I know some of the other interesting details. :)

[Victoria in Ohio]

Loved reading it
I found you probably 8 years ago on Two Peas Gallery- i liked your layouts and bookmarked you.. I think i emailed you and you wrote back! then i started noticing your name in magazines and now i follow you faithfully. funny, huh?

[Megan Hoeppner]

Hey! I thought you looked like that girl from MAMBI. LOL ;)

Not a boring story at all. I'm always interested in reading how others got where they are. Perhaps I'll kife this idea and do my own story on my blog someday. Until then, thanks for the fun reads and inspiring work!

[Danella]

Thanks a bunch for sharing your 'story'! I'm impressed with you the most, for keeping your focus on your FAMILY. I LOVE everything you do... and your personality too! I always wonder about people that are in the limelight... if they really keep things in perspective. Good for you! I LOVE creating... but don't especially like... 'attention'. At the same time, I guess it frustrates me, 'cause I am 'really good', but no one even knows (except for my loyal students!) Anyway... a BIG hug and a big thanks for sharing!