The Most Influential Scrapbooker Award blog tour wraps up today.
In celebration, I’m sharing this Friday FIVE of things I’m excited about right now …

FIVE.

This Time to Scrapbook! eBook.
And here’s why.
I’m just really proud of Angie (and Wendy) for having the guts to gather together a group of extremely creative women and create an award, not based on a contest you enter, but on influence they as scrapbookers themselves, have felt. We all have different motivations for working in this industry, but I think it’s safe to say that each of the girls you’ve met this week are surprised and delighted to see their efforts called out. Our industry (like our world) is in the midst of change. The way we do business, the way we exchange ideas, the way we interact and support one another is being redefined. We need people, who are willing to look beyond their own product or service and remind us that we are not alone in growing and sustaining interest and energy around scrapbooking.

I love the vision of Ella and the idea that we learn best when we learn together.

FOUR.

This FREE classroom at Big Picture Scrapbooking.
And here’s why.
From the very beginning of BPS, I wanted August to be free. I wanted to give our students a chance to relax and enjoy the final weeks of summer without the pull of new classes and the pressure of doing an assignment because “I paid for this.”

This year, our “Take Summer Off” celebration is called The Big Idea Festival and features 13 teachers and 39 projects (detailed in full color handouts) and plenty of prize giveaways provided by our 13 sponsors. You really don’t want to miss this!

You can register and print a supply list HERE.

THREE.

This NEW pack of cardstock from Core’dinations.
And here’s why.
It’s mine. Hello? Happy colors embossed with the emotions they evoke. How cool is that?

My cardstock debuts at summer CHA.
I won’t be in Chicago, but I’ll be sharing much more about this in coming weeks!

p.s. Did you know that Core’dinations sponsors my I Love Color page. Every week I post a new color combination (except for when I don’t) and every week you have the chance to win Core’dinations cardstock by scrapbooking with the weekly combination and posting your work in our Flickr gallery.

TWO.

My fellow Friday “Influential”
And here’s why.
It’s been a thrill to be nominated for the Most Influential Scrapbooker award and to be paired with Shimelle makes it that much better. I have adored (seriously, how adorable is she?) Shimelle since the day we published (what I think) was her first layout in Simple Scrapbooks. It was  page about her apartment and I remember thinking, how cool is this hobby that brings people (even across oceans) together and gives us a peak into each others’ lives.

Wait, there’s more (I love using phrases like that!)
You have a chance to win a pass to Shimelle’s latest online class and other COOL prizes, by clicking on the banner above and visiting her blog today!

ONE.

This giveaway.
And here’s why.
It’s HUGE. Whether you’ve followed the MISA blog tour or not, you still have 20 chances to win one of these prizes.

1. A $20 gift certificate from Ella Publishing Co.
2. Two digital-scrapbooking template packs (20 templates) from Cathy Zielske
3. A six-month Paperclipping membership from Noell Hyman
4. A “Play Date” product pack from Jenni Bowlin
5. A place in either a beginner photo-editing class or a beginner digital-scrapbooking class from Jessica Sprague
6. A spot in the “Beginner/Intermediate Online Photography Workshop” from Maggie Holmes
7. “Paper Girl” and “On Holiday” product packs from Margie Romney-Aslett
8. A $50 gift certificate toward any class on reneepearson.com from Renee Pearson
9. A place for you and a friend in both “Love Your Pictures, Love Your Pages” and “Journal Your Christmas” from Shimelle Laine
10. A place in either Elizabeth Dillow’s “Inspiration Defined” or Karen Grunberg’s “Book of Stories” from me!

All you have to do is read this excerpt from a column by Garrison Keillor (titled Not too Smart? No problem–just be nice!)
Angie sent this to me when I expressed a reluctance to accept this MISA award. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled, but … there are so many who are influential and I’m never sure how to gracefully accept these kinds of things without feeling uncomfortable.

Anyway, read it and then leave me a comment answering this question:
If you were to receive an award, what would it be for?
In other words, how do you want to be influential?

“Someone in Massahoosetts wrote to me saying they want to give me an award for something and I wrote back, saying that I am unworthy, etcetera, which, as you know, is true. Awards should go to those who have suffered for their art and not to one who has had a whale of a good time. But then I thought, “What if they don’t insist? What if they say, ‘OK, you are right, we made a mistake there. Sorry.’” I might never receive an award again.

So I tore up the declining letter and said Thank You instead.

Awards are notoriously unfair and some of the best people go unrecognized and some of the deadliest and dopiest get one Lucite trophy after another, but awards are major jujus in the world you and I live in. In the writing trade, if you win a Pullet Surprise, this is the Heisman Trophy, Get Out Of Jail Free card and Magic Twanger all rolled into one, and though it’s awarded by a roomful of large enchiladas at Columbia University in New York, and The Upper West Side Prize would be a more accurate brand name, nonetheless it has juju power all across the land. People bow low and tug on their forelocks when a Surprise winner walks into the room. Dogs are silenced. Fresh flowers are strewn. Maidens offer themselves.

This is how the world works. The lonely striver with bad hair and serious overbite who is scratching out her thoughts in the Omaha Public Library is facing a wall of sheer granite a thousand feet high and luckily for her she doesn’t know it now but someday she will and my heart goes out to her.

This Massahoosetts award should go to her, I guess, but it’s not mine to give, only to receive, and it is blessed to receive an award though my upbringing tells me that probably the day after the award ceremony I will be struck by a speeding bike and get a broken leg that will need replacement, knee and hip, with titanium joints and I will never polka so gallantly as I do now, but if fate dictates, who am I to protest?”

By the way, you can read the full column by clicking HERE.

NOTE: My website is being transferred to a new, larger server this weekend, so I cannot add anything to it for a few days.
I think the best thing to do then is select and announce the 10 WINNERS tonight at 5:00pm (pacific time)
I can’t wait to read your comments!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 7:00 am and is filed under BPS Class INFO, Friends, Scrapbooking, iLoveColor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.