What would you do if...

The scrapbook industry were suddenly turned on it's ear?

How would you, as a scrapper be affected if:

1. ALL of the scrapbooking specific magazines were either disbanded over night and no longer circulated or they only relied on their inhouse designers for artwork?
2. The scrapbooking manufacturers decided to limit the number of yearly product releases to say 2 (spring and fall)? ... and they recruited for their design teams instead of hosting those questionable cattle calls.
3. CHA and other trade shows were closed to the general public and only 2 representatives from each INVITED retailer were allowed to attend (AND freebies were included with completed orders and no longer handed out at conventions?) or if the trade shows specifically geared towards scrapbooking were to stop all together.?
4. There were no longer any "celebrities" in scrapbooking?


If all of that happened, how do you think that it would affect you as a scrapper?

I can tell you that it would have affected me more 6 months ago than it would now. Now that I've redefined myself as a scrapper, I don't give the magazines much attention, buy a bunch of stuff because it's "new" or "hot", I certainly don't care what products are being released at trade show nor do I have a desire to attend any CKU anything nor do I care about celebrity status.

6 months ago I would've probably fashioned myself lost. Today I would breath a sigh of relief for the long awaited resolution to much of the industries problems. I think that those things happening would definitely make a significant stride towards fixing the industries current competitive fixation. In my opinion, if there were no sensationalized celebrity status for scrappers to strive for the intended focus of scrapbooking could be reacquired. The biggest promoter of that evil over-competitive spirit is the artwork cattle calls. Get rid of the need for those and need to compare your work to Sally Jo Scrapper, and maybe we can get back to the basics.

Limit the amount of new products that flood the market and the scrappers that probably find the current situation overwhelming will have breathing room to ease into the new and unknown without being scared away by the prospect of not being able to keep up with trends. I think that that alone could help the industry because more people would be receptive to trying something new (especially if it didn't have a status depreciation rate that makes buying a new car off the lot the best financial decision of the decade!). I'm personally tired of finding out that my "new" stuff is old by the time I get it to the check out counter!

From what I've been reading about what goes on at trade shows, I think that the industry could do without an even that nurtures the entitlement attitudes that are running rampant today. If the tradeshows could be remastered to be more about showcasing the product and less about filling the hundreds of outstretched, expecting hands that hit every vendor booth, I think that the manufacturers would be able to get a better grasp on the pulse of the scrapbooking amoeba.
How can they focus on providing quality products that we WANT when they are trying to tweak the bottom line to cover the costs of handing out freebies to Sally Jo, her aunt, her cousin, and her cousin's daughter? That free stuff isn't free, somebody has to pay for it... and you wonder why rubons can get up to $15? After attending 8 trade shows, showering hundreds (if not thousands) of scrappers with freebies, and sponsoring umpteen online design teams (including their own!) it's no wonder some manufacturer's try to find the cheapest way to manufacture their products! Now, I can't say too much about this because I just recently received a preferred customer card from Taco Bell because I eat there so much. So yeah, I get a few free meals because of my loyalty, but I surely didn't go into the restaurant expecting to get anything other than what I paid for.

The whole celebrity scrapper thing is just silly to me. Yes, there are some scrappers that I really like. Their work appeals to me and I have learned a lot from them. Do I want their autographs?
Uh...no! I like my president, yes, I do, but I don't want his autograph! So why would I want Ali Edwards or Cathy Zielski's? Isn't it enough for me to admire their work and talent? Isn't it enough that I can say that they have taught me so much? Do I need to have that little "piece" of them as well? Uh no... the last time I screamed for an autograph was when I was 14 and Rick Springfield was signing them at the local department store before his concert that night. That was all about teen angst. I'm far from being a teenager and I'm really too tired to deal with frivolous angst of any sort. Honestly, in this day and age of creative identity theft, you'd think that people would stop giving their john Hancock to the faceless masses.

For the love of Heidi... let's go there shall we?

I dare anyone to go to one of the uber popular message boards on the net today and post a thread that expresses dissatisfaction with any Heidi Swapp product.

I do reccommend that when you do, you do so with full riot gear on and if you have a taser gun... you might want to make sure that baby is charged up, turned on, and doing the snap, crackle and pop!

I've had the pleasure of contesting the quality of her products (on numerous occassions actually because I don't mind the pile-on). It never fails that some scrapper comes flying out of nowhere and tells me (and anyone who agrees with me or whom I agree with) to get a life and to stop trashing "Heidi"! This little scrappy vixen comes to Heidi's aid with an arsenal of expletives, insults, suggestions (for how I can get said life) and other Heidi groupies just chomping at the bit to publicly declare their undying love for the little blond pixie. The "defenses" arguments run a pretty broad spectrum:

** "Get a life! All you need to do is dab a little more adhesive on the back and the chipboard works like a champ!"
** "At least you didn't pay $12 for the rubons like some of the other companies want you too! Give her a break! She saved you some money!"
** "Why do you have to bash Heidi? Must be jealous of her talent! She is super talented and her products rock... nobody's perfect! Cut her some slack!"
and my all time fav: **Well, my dealings with Advantus rocked and they were super generous and fast... you need to give them a chance, you mustn't be doing something right!

Honestly gals, it's almost enough to make my head spin! Okay... it has spun a few times but I got it under control fairly quickly.

Here is my argument (may it no longer fall on deaf ears):

I love many of Heidi's products. I want to be buried on a bed of Ghost Letters and if you could please manage to somehow seal my coffin with her ribbon tape, I'd be very grateful! There are also quite a few of her products that have failed miserably with me!

Alpha Rubons: Okay... there a tons of us who bought packages of overzealous rubons that either couldn't stay on their sheets long enough to be used or that had the attention span of a gnat on crack and refused to stay with the task of adhering to the layouts to which they were applied.

Adhesive Chipboard: If an item is advertised as an adhesive item, then I expect the things to adhere. I found the quality of the adhesive on the chipboard to be no better than the quality that was used on the first linerun of the Pressed Petal Chip Chatter Alphas.

Jewels: The only thing that I require is that my stickon jewels have adhesive that's a tad bit stronger than the adhesive that is put on my daughter's stick on earrings and that the buggers stay where they are put! I actually used some of my daughter's earrings on a layout and they worked a LOT better than the HS variety!

Some people have problems with other items, some people have problems with less than I do and still some have no problem at all. I can respect that. Why? Because their experiences are not my own and therefore I would sound perfectly stupid to assume that I had any say in how they reported their experience! I think that there are a lot of people who need to consider adopting my common sense mantra. Of course that would mean taking the stars out of their eyes and getting them to get off of their worshiping knees and perhaps consider mopping up that puddle of drool. I wont' hold my breath.

My stance on the whole situation is this. As a consumer, I reserve the right to spend my money where I choose. As a consumer, I reserve the right to hold reasonable expections for the quality of the product that I choose to purchase. As a consumer, I reserve the right to seek resolution with any company that provides me with a defective product and if they so choose to ignore my efforts, I reserve the right to lift my voice and alert the masses lest they too fall prey.

The Heidi Swapp Protection Brigade holds a completely different opinion. According to them, I shouldn't have a problem with having to run my "adhesive" chipboard through my Xyron... because they cost less than the competitors chipboard and because... Heidi is such a sweet heart. According to these women, I should continue to bombard Advantus with request for resolution and never participate in any negative discussions of Heidi's products because she is such a sweet person and so much of her product is great. According to these scrappers, I have no right to complain because her products cost so much less that the "other" companies.

I'm here to say right now that I have nothing against Heidi Swapp as a woman or a scrapper. Hell, I don't even have a problem with her on the human level. What I have a problem with is the poor quality of some of the more popular of her products and the complacent expectation that loyalists will "make it work". This type of thinking and the melodic praises being sung by the masses who not only don't mind applying addtional adhesive to "make it work" but sometimes live for it has allowed Advantus to become quite comfy in their swiss cheese mission statement. Why should they make ammends with the customer? The "loyal" customer is bending over backwards to preserve their good name! The "loyal" customer is "taking care" of anyone who dares to expect them to stand by their products. Heck, if I were them I'd disconnect the email box without a worry and take steps to see if I couldn't cut a few more corners in the quality control area... why not... the "loyalist" will take up the sword in my honor regardless of how bad my product is!

I know quite a few scrappers who have both had problems and have been problem free. I don't begrudge any of them their experiences. All I ask is that they respect mine as well. We are all different. Everybody has a right to choose how they will deal with a particular situation. The great fix-it for my friend Jenn works fine for me. BUT that doesn't negate my expectations from the companies that I give my patronage to. Yeah, I run my chipboard through my Xyron... but you know what... I'm still going to tell Advantus about it! Why? Because a company that is seeking to be a success in this industry needs to have a grasp of quality control and a thumb on the pulse of the community. How can they do that if the consumer doesn't alert them to what is wrong?

It's about agreeing to disagree. It's about respecting other peoples right to free speech. It's about respecting the individuality of each individual scrapper without trying to force you personal perceptions on them or otherwise devaluing their opinions. It would be one small step towards reestablishing the unity that is dying within this community.

Suzy Scrapper Murdered at Craft Tradeshow...news at 11

Las Vegas, NV:
Suzy J. Scrapper of Denver Colorado was brutally and mortally attacked in the Las Vegas Convention Center in the early morning hours of August 16th. It appears that she and her attacker, Janet A. NtPublished of Carson City Nevada, were having a discussion in the ladies room when NtPublished began to agressively demand that Scrapper help her to get a layout published. Witnessess aledge that Ms. Scrapper continued to insist that she could do nothing to help NtPublished who was beginning to behave very violently towards her.

"She had her backed up in a corner with her finger in her face and a Quickutz tool in the other hand!", claims one witness, also a scrapbooker, who requested to remain anonymous. "She began swinging the tool at her! The thing weighs like 3 lbs or something and she just kept hitting her with it and screaming at her about "forgetting her roots" and saying that she thought she was better than everybody else! I wanted to tell her to stop but I was afraid that she would turn on me! All I could think of was that if I died then somebody would make off with all of my stuff that I'd left in the conference room! So I ran to get somebody to help."

The convention center security did manage to disarm NtPublished and detain her, but not before Scrapper had suffered several deadly blows to the head. Police and Paramedics were called to the scene but were unable to revive the 35 year old mother of 2.

NtPublished was arrested by Las Vegas police. When asked why she viciously attacked the young woman, she became very agitated and replied, " I used to talk to that *expletive* everyday when she was on 2Peas! Everyday I'd tell her how great her work was and encourage her to submit her work. So she does and she get all of this recognition and suddenly she doesn't know my name!! All I wanted was to be on a damned design team, that it! No, I can't get a leg in because it wasn't enough for her to be on 6 teams, she had to have 7, then 8 and I was left eating her dust! She deserved what she got!".

It appears that the ladies were part of a mass conglomeration of scrapbookers and crafters who gather serveral times during the year...

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Okay, reachin' a bit there. Or am I?

Is this the future of scrapbooking?
Will there be some nonsensical tradgedy that will finally turn the industry on it's ear?
Will someone have to get hurt to finally get industry bigwigs to stop and take note of the dangers of turning a time honored tradition into the next Survivor ScrapIsland?
Will there be a point in time when it will be shameful to reveal to people that you used to scrapbook because of the negative stigma that will attatch itself to the hobby?

I don't know. I certainly hope not.

But I can say that with the way that things are going today, that kind of future for this hobby is a very real possibility. So who's going to be our Tanya Harding? Who's going to be our Nancy Kerrigan?

What do we honestly expect? Masked internet marauders are swarming all over the online scrapping arena in a tissy! There is a lot of resentment festering underneath all of those online facades, and it has to surface at some point!

So is all of this ugliness just what we should expect? I really have a hard time understanding how someone can spew that type of venom at someone and attack their families and then turn around and lovingly scrapbook a picture of their children. But that's just me.

Yes, I've been to the Critic blogs... I think that there is a fine line between criticing and criticizing and those blogs aren't on the nicer side. I've seen personalities torn to shreds and i've also watched other people try to steer the conversation back towards a constructive path and get torn to pieces and labeled a "hand slapper" or "know it all". All in the name of free speech.

On the other hand, I've been to the online communities that seem to fuel the ire of these blogs, and they are no better than the blogs. The exclusionary tactics. The self promotion and the mean spiritedness are something that even the blindest of people couldn't miss.

My question is why. Why do we need all of this? Why did the industry choose to take yet another tradition and extort it? Why does the persuit of the all might dollar equate to blatant attempts to separate and segregate scrappers? Why does the success of a scrapper have to be tied to the number of Design Teams positions they occupy? Why does there have to be a gage for success?

To me, the successful scrapper is the one who finds joy in creating beautiful memories for his/her family. To me the successful scrapper is the one who can close her eyes every night with the assurance that she has done what she can to make the world better and not worse. In my opinion, it the entire scrapbooking world adopted my idea of success, the mock news story above will never come to fruition. I won't hold my breath.

I'm working on regaining my status as a successful scrapper. I have my sisters who are successful on many levels and who keep me grounded in my reality. I have accepted that the competition aspect of all of this is nothing but poison to me.

Do I begrudge anyone who looks externally for their success validation? Nope... if it weren't for them, the magazines would be non existant.

Ask yourself this: What makes a successful scrapper to you? Are you trying to be a successful scrapper?