Don't Forget Your Teachers!

Only two more months until Christmas! Are you making any handmade gifts for anyone on your list this year? Handmade items make great gifts for teachers, particularly if you create items that teachers can use in the classroom. Here's a few of my resources and articles for handmade and semi-handmade gifts that teachers will love:

Teacher Gift Ideas
Ideas for Handmade Christmas Gifts
My altered notepad holders and other gifts at Etsy.com

Dress it Up

I'm adding some embellishment packs to my Etsy store. I had put these packages together for the craft fair I worked at this past spring. These packs are great because I hate buying a whole package of chipboard or embellishments when I only want one or two of something. I put up chipboard packs today, and I have small and large embellishment packs by color that I'll be putting up later.

Check out my Etsy store HERE!

Edit: fixed the link. I didn't realize I pasted a Lowe's page in there instead!

Oh it feels so good...

...to be creating again. I finished a layout last night, and I'm currently working on altering a binder album that will hold my Travel layouts. I'm going to an altered book workshop on Monday that my friend Christine is hosting, and I've got ideas percolating in my head. My creative juices have been dormant for a while, so this is a great feeling. Here's a Halloween card I did for the Examiner Scrap Challenge; a simple yet cute card using scrap papers.

Boston Scrap Challenge!

Hey all you Boston/New England ladies! I'm starting a new weekly feature at Examiner.com to provide you with a weekly scrap challenge. Anything goes for these challenges, I could ask you to scrap a certain theme, a certain product, a certain technique, or something completely crazy. So check out Boston Scrap Challenge #1 posted today, and check back every Friday (or even better, subscribe to my Examiner feed) for new challenges.

Writing for Examiner.com

I wasn't going to post this until I've had a bit more experience with writing there, but I've had a few people ask me about writing for Examiner.com, and how they can apply.

Examiner.com is an online news and information portal that has local editions, depending on where you're located. There are individual city editions, and some cities have neighborhood editions to provide a micro-local take on their subject. Each Examiner covers a certain topic in a certain area. I'm the Boston Scrapbooking Examiner, but there are other Scrapbooking Examiners in other cities, as well as a national Scrapbooking Examiner. Examiners report on news items that are of interest to their topic, and provide resources that readers could use. Readers can subscribe to an Examiner's feed to get email updates when new entries are posted.

Writers earn money based on page views, ad revenues, subscribers, and other factors. The exact formula is not made known, but my rough return so far has been about 9 cents for every 10 page views. It's not making me rich yet, but it can build up, and I know other Examiners who are doing quite well.

So, how do you get involved with Examiner? Go to the Examiner web site, and scroll down to where it says "Now Recruiting in (Your Town)". Click on the link for available topics, and search through to find what you need. Scrapbooking is part of Home and Living, if you're interested in that topic. If you're not seeing your local towns, go back to the top of the page and select your edition. When you find what you're looking for, click on the SELECT link next to the topic to apply.

When you apply, there's a spot at the end of the application that allows you to enter the name of an Examiner who referred you. I'd love it if you added my name (Susan Kristoff)/Examiner number (24560), but there's no requirement to do so. I do get a referral fee of $50 if you list me as a referral and you are hired as an Examiner, so yes, there's something in it for me.

If you have any other questions, let me know!