Moving on with my "aha moment"

I'm coming off my "high" from my first real publication in MM Oct issue & as of last night, had my first real "aha moment" in a long time. It was one of those moments that hit hard & made me realize............"what the heck have you been doing?"

Let me explain: Getting published is a dream of mine, as is a dream for a lot of people. If it isn't.....does that make you less of a scrapper? Of course not. It's just something a lot of us strive for, as a personal goal. So, over the past year I've submitted creation after creation, only to get no response from any paper magazines. Frustrating to say the least, especially when I browse my subscription mags & see the same names over & over. And then last night, it hit me, for whatever reason, why I'm not getting published. Blow to my ego? Of course it is, but still a step towards progress. And here's "a" (notice I don't say "the") reason:

"Out of all the things I've submitted lately, I would say approximately 90% of my stuff is using old product!"

*GASP!!!!* The horror of it all!! I know.............quite a shocker to me too. Why wouldn't they want to publish my works of art with all the 6-month old product I'm trying to use up? Um....excuse me, but they want to see newer product. Okay, so don't go off on a tangent about people using old product...........what I'm saying is that most magazines want to see "newer" than 6-month+ old product when you submit a project. That doesn't mean they won't accept your project, but I believe they need to keep up with the industry & competition, which means they need to publish projects using the latest products & techniques.

So, after all my coaching, mentoring & advise I have received on getting published, why has it taken me this long to realize this? I have no clue. I do know that all the projects I submitted I felt were publish worthy & I personally love them. So, I'm not saying I submitted "just to submit." I'm just shocked at myself for not being more on top of this whole publishing thing. So, after careful consideration & thinking last night, I cleaned up my computer & some of my on-line galleries this morning. I essentially deleted ALL projects over 6-months old. Why keep them on my computer where I can see them all the time & think "Self, this works for such & such call," when in actually.............it does work, just NOT with that old product. This leaves my poor gallery sorta bare, but it's invigorating that I can start fresh. Lord knows I've got TONS of new products, I'm just one of those that uses what inspires me & that might be product that is 6-months old & there's nothing wrong with that.

My agenda for the next couple of weeks is to get some design team projects listed on Ebay. More specifically cards. I have TONS of them that I've made & not used. It's apparent they will not get published, so I'll auction them & someone else can put them to use. Then, I'll make all the birthday & Christmas cards I'll need to make for the rest of this year............using new product. I have approximately 15 birthday cards to make, so I'll be busy. I'm also going to make Ashlyn's teachers Christmas gifts. I'm going to give her a tin with some Thank You cards & probably an altered Lazy Susan. Might just use old stash for this, since I have a tin already decorated......we'll see.

I'm excited & I do feel a bit overwhelmed. I've given myself a lot to do & as always, feel like I have to get it done YESTERDAY!! Better get busy & while I'm at it......here are a couple of cards I've made recently using "old" product.

Now you understand why these won't be published:), even though the last one is using acrylic, which is a hot new trend.