FRIDAY FREEBIE

FREE for ALL today only 3 - 6 pm EDT on the Digital Collage Diva. Just click on the title of this post and grab yourself a free collage sheet from the three dozen or so I have there. Then put it into a cart and be sure to confirm your order. BUT DO NOT PAY...I will get your order, mark you paid and send the collage sheet to your Etsy email addy. Of course if you see an extra one you just have to have you can buy it thru Paypal but that is totally optional. There are no strings to this offer other than YOU MUST LEAVE ME POSITIVE FEEDBACK for sending you your FREE collage sheet. Now how hard can that be?

Etsy is in a lull right now and rather than let these sheets sit for another month, I'd rather clear out the present inventory instead of paying Etsy ANOTHER 20 cents to list it higher up. So consider this a PIF (pay it forward) just for my Facebook and blog readers. If you want to tell a friend, that's fine with me. I just want my shop EMPTY by 6 pm so I can put it on vacation mode. Yes, I know it doesn't have to be empty to go on vacation but what's the point of that??? I'd rather you have FUN with some new jewelry inchies or magnet twinchies or ACEO backgrounds! Happy Creating!!

FREE FOR ALL FRIDAY

What do you do when your work isn't selling on Etsy. I guess you could sit down and bemoan your fate or perhaps like me you decide to do a PIF. Pay It Forward is basically what the movie was about. Paying it forward to my Facebook friends and Blog fans by letting everyone have at the 41 listings that I paid 20 cents a piece for ...for FREE. This free for all is Friday from 3pm to 6pm EDT...mark it down.

If shipping was involved I wouldn't be able to afford to do this at the present time. But since these are digital works all I have to do is forward for free a digital file and let the person who 'bought it' enjoy it while getting it out of inventory and adding a positive feedback to my account.


I've noticed that of the 14 sales I've had since I started the Digital Collage Diva, only 10 buyers have chosen to leave feedback. Since I'm so conscious of how important feedback is I'm always sure to immediately leave feedback when the item arrives in my mailbox or inbox. Not everyone is quite as prompt and if I ask them for feedback, many times I get a nasty reply. What's that all about??? I guess we live in a society that is so used to sitting behind a computer screen that the common courtesies of my childhood no longer exist.

That brings me to a quote that I kind of think is profound enough to be repeated here.
"The internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand. The largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had. ~ Eric Schmidt"

There is a lot I have to say about the internet and the facelessness of it all but that will be for another time and blog post. For now, click on the title of this piece, pick out the collage sheet you like and tomorrow from 3pm to 6pm EDT put it in your cart but don't pay for it. I'll send it to you and mark you paid. But remember...the price is A POSITIVE FEEDBACK!

An Inauthentic Life

I recently started an ecourse with Kelly Rae Roberts. Her suggestion was to journal about our fears as a way of removing the blocks to our authentic creative self. Before I even had a chance to read her inspiring words I journaled this post while on vacation in PA.
5.30.2010
At 61, the whispers I've heard my whole life have turned to screams. All through life I've ignored their message because I've been in pursuit of money. Whatever I had to do to earn the dime, the quarter, the dollar, the hundreds of dollars at craft fairs, auctions, home shows, and yard sales. The money, always and in all ways it's been about the money.
First I had a father who wouldn't give me a dime that wasn't earned in some way. Then it was the husband who dragged me from one dream to another always depending on me to fill the gaps and stem the flow of cancellations, shut-offs and shortfalls with whatever art form I was involved with at the time. At no time could I afford to listen to those quiet whispers that told me to express myself creatively whether or not it brought in the money.
That's not to say that I haven't lived a creative life. I have most definitely been creative. For over 40 years I have found inspiration in many places and expressed it in a myriad of ways, all of which have brought me moderate fame and some money. BUT...all of the creativity that I have expressed has been 'borrowed' from someone else. At no time has it been authentic.
At no time has that little voice said "Oh yes, Carolyn, yes! This is what you were meant to do!" But wait...that little voice just whispered that's untrue. One time, oh yes, one time it was all about me. My authentic self was given free rein that summer of my 14th year when it was all about my love of sewing. I think of it as the summer of the Singer, the Barbie and Jake's Fabrics. Then, oh, then it was truly me being expressed through needle, thread and fiber. After that intense three months I continued on through high school with sewing and designing my own clothes. I've often wondered what might have happened when I told my parents I wanted to attend F.I.T. in NYC. What if they had said yes instead of an emphatic, NO! Would those whispers have become my authentic voice. Would I really have become the designer I longed to become? And now, 43 years later does it really matter?
I've done everything that others only dream of doing but it has always been me mimicking some other artist's work because it sold well and brought in the much needed money. But now when I listen closely the whispers still persist. Louder now because time is no longer a luxury. And they are saying ..."hurry, hurry...take the time to find your voice before it is silenced forever."

Offering FREE items NOT a BOGO-5/13 ONLY

Attention all Crafters of scrabble tile and soldered jewelry. TODAY ONLY (5/13) FROM 3 PM TO 6 PM...I will send you a FREE digital collage download of your favorite collage sheet from my Etsy shop just click on today's title.

http://www.digitalcollagediva.etsy.com

The only cost is a positive feedback as soon as it is sent to you!!! I wanted to do this on the 1st but didn't have enough stock in the shoppe. So hop over to the Diva and get yours FREE. Just put it in your shopping cart and confirm BUT DON'T PAY...and I'll mark you paid and send the sheet to you asap. I'll also leave you glowing FEEDBACK as a bonus :)

ATC/ACEO artists...there's plenty of 2.5x3.5 sized background sheets for you!!! So help yourself to ONE but remember...don't pay...just purchase and I'll send it along to you asap in exchange for your positive feedback! This is my way of getting started on my Etsy adventure!!!

http://www.digitalcollagediva.etsy.com

Are You there God? It's me, Carolyn

The knocking on the door awhile ago was the mailman with a summons. We are in violation of Township laws requiring a pool that is clean and in good repair. I needed to talk to someone and it occurred to me there was no one to call. No close friends who could commiserate, no family who would have an answer because their answer isn't the same as mine...FILL IT IN!!! So I started to pray and it then occurred to me that God has been so busy with all the problems of the world, He couldn't possibly have been listening to my pleas. I'm not saying I don't believe. It was faith that got me through breast cancer and my husband's prostate cancer. It was God who brought me back into the fold that day on that cold operating table. But on the little things like lack of money to fix the house and yard and pay the bills and the health insurance and the broken down 16 yro car; He is mostly absent or at least isn't giving me a clue as to how to survive LIFE.

So here I am talking to you. You the people who happily or unhappily follow my sometimes blog posts. I need to vent and the cats aren't listening and neither is God, apparently. I don't usually cry but today the wellsprings have sprung and I can't seem to stem the flow. What do I do? How do I convince my family we can't repair the rips, tears and troubles of a 30 yro liner that long ago gave up the ghost. And that every year brings the neighbor's to their decks and backyard fences to complain. This time maybe the summons to appear in court and a fine may be enough to convince my DH and DS that the pool is NOT NEEDED anymore. I can see the backyard flat and smooth with no pool just lots and lots of dirt.

OK...thanks for listening...I'm going to go blow my nose and find out how much dirt it costs to fill in a huge, old, ugly, festering pool. I love you all for listening and maybe God will have the answer! At least He sent this quote my way earlier this morning: Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day. -Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Digital Collage Sheets

On a happier note I will be opening a new shop on Etsy and a new blog where I'll be giving away some great digital ephemera. The "Digital Collage Sheet Diva" should be up and running and offering giveaways and goodies within the next 10 days. I'll post a link once the groundwork is finished. I've been thinking of giving away digital collage items for awhile but was hesitant to start it here since this is mostly just ruminations of a burned out artiste and mother. Notice I think of myself as an artist first. I've always had my priorities straight...LOL Stay tuned for upcoming news on my new venture. In the meantime I'd love to hear any suggestions for things you'd like to be able to download for your scrapbooking and ACEO/ATC artwork.