Great - we so need this....

Well, I have to say I am posting with something of a heavy heart tonight. Today the design team at CS learned exactly just how much we actually meant to our publishers, Ashdown...
And that was, basically... absolutely nothing.

It's a funny thing, but all along some of us have been very wary of the motives of a publishing group that clearly and obviously undervalued it's design team - despite the 100% support of our editor - a scrapbooker herself, who hand picked her team from all over the UK , and continued to demonstrate her confidence in us daily, inspiring and lifting us with every contact. But it's almost as if we knew something wasn't quite right... I mean for example.... it's standard in the industry to receive a copy of any mag your work appears in... yet we never did. Ashdown claimed it was a matter of finance - that is, they were saying they couldn't afford to give us a copy free.... while blazoning their online mag (full of our work) on their website for all and sundry to access free of charge month after month.......!

Er....hello???

Then, to add insult to injury - as if it wasn't enough to tell us all a week before Christmas that we were surplus to requirements.... the MD then goes online, on the largest scrapping forum in the UK, to spout his views that rather than homegrown talent being showcased, what we really all need in the UK, is to see more American work in our magazines... coz we apparently need a kick start over here, and evidently, they are the only ones capable of doing it!

FFS!

Now, let's get something straight right off...

I love my USA buddies. I know I have a lot of readers from the US, and I am, and have been in the past, on the DT of several American sites/online stores.... I love being accepted over there as a talent in my own right, and I accept that they are in the position to be great scrappers, having access to all the fantastic, NEW products - at less than half what we have to pay, and yes, the hobby is HUGE out there and in comparison, we are small fry.... but I cannot accept that we - us Brit girls... have NO talent? and cannot sell a magazine? and need that much help?

Get away....! the man's delirious! Who the hell is feeding him this shite?

I really hope i don't offend any US scrappers here - but do you girls really view us all as the poor relation?? Are we really THAT far behind???

The other huge mistake he made was spouting off on UKS.... What he clearly doesn't realise is, that however BIG UKs seems... some of us... lots of us - the core of UKS, have been around for quite a long time now.... about four years or more.... since UKS was just new and young... and we've all grown in this scrapping world together. Yes, we might slag each other off occasionally, and yes, we might fall out - but we are like a family on there.... let some stranger come knocking on our door putting us down ... and feel that wrath!

What he fails to understand is this... we have history, us girls... We have watched each other's children grow up through our pages... we've seen births, deaths and marriages, divorces and worse....and we've supported each other through good times and bad. We've been there.

We've been there....

Who does he think he is to come in with his size great 9's and his multiple ID's and try and tell us we're no good? Try and fob us off with stories, and patronise us.... try and tell us he knows more about our hobby and our industry than we do?

Silly man! Fancy trying to take on a bunch of hormonal, prickly, passionate women and think he can pull the wool over our trained eyes!!

As far as I am concerned, Ashdown and I are finished. In fact, I am finished with the whole damned publishing thing. I am lucky perhaps, in that I've already been offered work, so I don't have that huge knock to my confidence that some of the girls feel now - and I am talking about girls with mega talent here.... but girls who have been rocked by this whole horrible experience nonetheless.... but I've already decided not to take any more commisions, ever. I'm finished with magazine work... I have nothing left to prove. I have had work published here, abroad, in paper and ezines, books and online. I've worked as an international DT member and still enjoy DT work that fits in around my family. But who knows.. Perhaps he's right - perhaps the UK needs some new blood. So, there you go... my place is up for grabs for anyone who wants it.

But just remember to be very careful of what you wish for... coz sometimes you know, you blummimg well get it.