Paying it forward

Mar 21, 2011

A while back I talked about pay­ing it for­ward on face­book and stated if any­one wanted help in sub­mit­ting I would gladly help them as I feel it’s my duty to pay it for­ward. I cer­tainly did not get where I am today in this indus­try with­out a lit­tle help and guid­ance from oth­ers along the way. I must say it does amaze me as to how many peo­ple will not help oth­ers advance. I’m not sure if it’s inse­cu­ri­ties on their part and feel the per­son might be bet­ter than them or just flat out not car­ing or want­ing to take the time to help oth­ers. This indus­try cer­tainly has room for more cre­ative peo­ple. New peo­ple keep things fresh and excit­ing and I love to see fresh and excit­ing creations.

So I have to tell you about a lit­tle con­ver­sa­tion I had last week. I had the plea­sure of talk­ing to a very excited scrap­per who had just received an email that one of her lay­outs was picked up by Cre­at­ing Keep­sakes. Hear­ing the excite­ment in her voice was worth mil­lions. There is noth­ing sweeter than talk­ing to some­one who is so happy about obtain­ing a goal. I do believe she has been bit­ten by the sub­mis­sions bug and will be sub­mit­ting quite a bit from here on out.

All this sub­mis­sions talk makes me so excited for Paper Cow­girl in June; as I will be the “Guest Speaker” and hope to help those who want to break into the pub­lish­ing world obtain their goal. I’ve been work­ing hard on gath­er­ing infor­ma­tion to help with sub­mis­sions and writ­ing my “Artist to Author” talk. This is going to be such a fun evening. And I’m happy to say, so far my pay it for­ward has helped one per­son obtain a book con­tract and two have had items picked up for pub­li­ca­tion. I am truly so happy for them and hope I can add to this list in help­ing oth­ers obtain their goal.

If you want to sub­mit items for pub­li­ca­tion I think the biggest things to remem­ber are

  1. Believe in yourself
  2. Remain true to your style
  3. Don’t fear the editors
  4. And never ever take not get­ting an item picked up personally

If you’re think­ing about sub­mit­ting lay­outs, cards or projects take the leap and go for it. This really is a fun indus­try to work in.

And as you can see I am still mak­ing bird nests. I think my favorite look is com­bin­ing brown paper bag and book page strips. These would also be cute made from all the junk mail you get. I know I get enough each day to make sev­eral nests.

Hugs!


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  • http://brownpaperpackaging.blogspot.com deedee

    ♥ con­grats to all those being published! ♥

  • http://papercraftpleasures.blogspot.com Jan Hen­nings

    Hats off to you for lend­ing a help­ing hand. I agree, there are those that don’t like to lend a help­ing hand..and those that aren’t very happy to see another suc­ceed. I’m with you..help where you can, encour­age oth­ers and it all comes back to you :)
    Have a beau­ti­ful Spring day!

  • http://connie-k.com con­nie

    Thank you Lisa for hav­ing such a kind heart and gen­er­ous spirit to encour­age oth­ers to succeed..Sometimes all it takes is one lit­tle nudge in the right direc­tion to help you achieve your goals. To have a lit­tle cheer­leader in your cor­ner like you is a bonus!
    Just do it…if one pub­lisher turns you down, sub­mit to another..everyone is look­ing for some­thing dif­fer­ent.
    Good luck with your artist to author talk…I would love to be a fly on the wall that evening to hear what you have to say..
    Hugs..

  • http://www.dawnscrafts.blogspot.com Dawnll

    Thank you for say­ing those words– I find some­times it gets so frus­trat­ing, when I never seem to advance– but I see so many of the same faces over and over. I always won­der how they finally broke in.

    I hope I always remem­ber to always include every­one, and never feel like I am bet­ter then any­one else.
    I am always lurk­ing in the background(Google Reader) but had to pop in and say thank you– you are a real sweetie

  • http://www.pearlmaple.blogspot.com/ Pearl Maple

    Well said Lisa, the more cre­ative peo­ple we help the more of a party it becomes. Con­grats on Paper Cow­girl, that does look like a fun event.

  • http://www.wildtexasheart.etsy.com Shar­ron Higgins

    It’s peo­ple like you who leave a huge pos­i­tive foot­print on this earth. So many of us don’t know the ins and outs and wheres and whys and appre­ci­ate that lit­tle sign with the arrow point­ing the cor­rect direc­tion. Thank you for your inspi­ra­tion, thank you for your will­ing­ness to share and thank you for just being who you are!!

  • Jan

    Greet­ings Lisa,

    What you are doing is so self­less and kind. It is so refresh­ing with all the doom and gloom and de-evolution in our world. So, thank you again…Ms. Lisa for being the sweet soul that you are!

    Hugs,

    Jan­ice