Friday, April 18, 2008

Ladybugs for Digital Scrapbooking Layouts

I've been working on some of my own original designs to use on digital scrapbook layouts for my customers. I have one customer with two little girls and I recently wished for ladybugs for a summer layout. I was inspired by a "thank you" note my mom sent to me awhile back that had ladybugs on it. This ladybug embellishment and paper are the result. I can't wait to use them in a layout!

*You can buy these items as a mini-kit for just $1.49 at my online store here! *

I'm just back from a week-long trip to Washington state where my husband and I spent time with his dad and step-mom, and also his brother and family. We had a great time even though it was a few days before our thin California blood adjusted to the cloudy and rainy Washington weather! I hope to be posting a few photos on my personal blog in the next couple of days. Hope you'll pop over and check it out! (www.debztalkin.blogspot.com)

Monday, April 7, 2008

So I'm WAY behind!

Hi all, I am SO sorry I'm so far behind this month. I have not gotten my newsletter out. I did attend two workshops on email marketing, and that includes newsletters, but have not had a chance to implement what I've learned. Why? I am swamped with orders for page layouts! Now, that's awesome news for me, because it means my little Biz is doing well, and the page orders are coming in, but the bad news is that because of that, I don't have time to write the newsletter! But I WILL! Just give me a few more days!!!

I hope you will all have patience with me during this growth period. It's very exciting, yet challenging, and because I'm a Newbie to being a small business owner, it's a little stressful! I had thought I'd simply handle everything as it came up - the reality is there are not enough hours in the day! I am so grateful that the work is work that I love, and that's a whole different universe from what I was doing in my LAST job!

I left my corporate job so that I could "relax" a bit, and do something that I LOVE, and I have definitely found what I love to do: scrapbook for others. But, I didn't realize the extend of the OTHER related stuff, like marketing, and taxes, and paperwork, and sending out invoices and receipts, and streamlining layouts.....whew!

Bottom line is: I will be discontinuing the freebie calendar pages because I just don't have time to create them right now (although I love 'em!) but I'm definitely KEEPING the templates, as they have proved to be very popular amont my digi-scrapping friends, and it is not too hard to offer templates based on layouts that I've recently done. However, I want to offer something for my CLIENTS, those all-important people....and I have not quite decided what that will be yet. Any suggestions? I will be working on that -- I'd like it to be something that they could download and use right away, but it's hard to imagine what that might be. It may take awhile, but I will come up with something.

I appreciate your patience in the very busy time for me. Please also read my personal blog: www.debztalkin.blogspot.com, since my personal life also has an impact on my "business" life! I'm planning a trip to China soon; you won't want to miss my blogs from Louyang City!