oooohhhh, ahhhhhh!

I feel as though I have just made a revolutionary discovery. This weekend I purchased a "Crop-a-dile." I know, dumb name. But this is the coolest invention ever. It sets eyelets, and snaps, and all manner of other things. Now I can stop ruining my eyelets by smashing them too hard with a hammer. What are eyelets you ask. Eyelets are like grommets, the metal holes that your shoelaces go through. They look really cool on scrapbook pages. You can add them alone or run ribbon through them (see the example to the left). Anyway, I feel that I must go add eyelets to every page I have ever made now. Gotta get back to work!

Allow me to introduce two amazing women

Two very good friends of mine are also owners of their own businesses. In fact, they inspired me to start up Scrapbook Fairy. They are Rebecca Jew and Neda Brown.

I have known Rebecca Jew, owner of Jewel Couture, www.jewelcouture.net, for at least 15 years (we used to walk home from junior high together, but I digress). Rebecca designs and creates unique and stunning bridal fashions. Photos of her work are available on her website. Rebecca is dedicated to pleasing her customers, sometimes to the detriment of her friends. We want her to come out and play, but she spends a lot of time working. Her focus is impressive and I know that any bride, bridesmaid, or flower girl who has a dress made by Rebecca can't help but fall in love with it.

Neda Brown, co-owner of Brownskin Clothing Company, www.ilovemybrownskin.com, and I have been friends for almost 5 years. Neda's company, co-owned with her brother and sister, inspires us all to love ourselves a little more each day. Her unique t-shirt designs feature uplifting messages about pride in our brownness. Neda makes casual, chic clothing for women, men, and kids. Please check out her site and wear her shirts proudly. I know I love my brown skin!

email advertising - the best idea ever!

I'm so excited with myself. Not only did I figure out how to create an eFlyer, I actually sent it and got feedback. I got my very first lead about a project! I'm riding high on a waive of scrapbooking euphoria. Of course now I just have to land the client and deliver the project. But those are minor details, right? I'm so inspired that I am still awake at 10:30 pm looking at my site and my blog, trying to make sure I don't have any glaring errors. 10:30 might not sound late to you, but after working a full day (which includes interviewing about 150 people) and then going to yoga, I'm pretty tired. Yesterday I fell asleep on my couch at 7:30, so today I'm pretty proud of myself that i have stayed up so late. OK, time to get serious. I'm off to do more work.

New project

Last year I made myself a calendar using a spiral bound 6" X 8" scrapbook. One of my co-workers liked it so much that she asked me to make one for her and for her daughter. For 2008 I made one for her, her daughter, and her two nieces. Here are some pics of what I've been working on.

FINALLY!!! an eFlyer

I think I may have finally figured it out. After nearly driving myself crazy trying to figure out how to draft an eFlyer, a simple Google search provided the answers. It seems you just have to ask the right question. So here is my first draft.

Joys and Frustrations

I had a great weekend over the holiday. I spent the time with a close friend and we went on several shopping expeditions, including one to a store called Recollections. I think shopping for scrapbook supplies is almost as fun as making a page. We picked up some really fun new paper and embellishments, but most importantly we bought supplies for her Christmas cards. Another friend introduced me to heat embossing during our Christmas card assembly, and I'm now totally hooked. I'm making an emergency trip to Michael's tomorrow to buy some embossing ink and powder. It's absolutely the coolest invention. Here is a sample of my first effort at embossing. Not too bad, but I hope to get even better.

On another note, I'm still trying to figure out how to make an eFlyer to send to all of my friends and family and let them know about my website. This has proved to be quite a frustrating task. Just when I think I find the answer, I'm foiled again. Tomorrow, after my quick shopping trip, I'm going to sit down and figure it out. Even if it takes all day.

Recent projects

I recently did a book of sample pages to demonstrate my work to prospective customers. Here is a page from that book. I was inspired by another scrapbookers style, I saw her blog, scrapperlicious.blogspot.com, a few months ago and was totally impressed by her attention to detail and the depth in her pages. I decided to try to use some of her techniques and this is what I came up with.

And so it begins . . .

I've now officially started my own business. I'll admit, I have no idea what I'm doing. I pretty much make it up as I go along. So far it hasn't been too hard. Now that I am officially established, I need to get people to visit my site and buy my product. That's where my blog can help me.

Today I'm reading some articles online about marketing my online business. My goals for the long weekend are to add a blog to my website (check!) and to finally finish three scrapbooking projects which I have been working on.

I hope that this will be a way to update people about what's going on with Scrapbook Fairy as well as post new pictures of my work. Now I'm off to read more articles about making my business a success!