strange scrapbooking group!

[stillcrafting]

People are friendly on here, but some of the same people let rip on the blog because they can do it anonymously. Sad times.

Getting back to the scrapping class and cropping topic, I loved the couple I went to before. The all day one stopped after a couple of meet ups (not sure why) and wish I had a car so that I could get to the other one as it's quite a way to go and not on a bus/train route. I would like to think I would never stay at one I didn't feel comfortable with.

[joolsmicra]

Ive been to some really good ones over the years, and enjoyed them, and I really want my friend to enjoy my(!) hobby, and to start it off in a simple easily accessible way....a nice simple class or make and take, then time to do some of her own photos, and look at other peoples styles and scrapbooks, preferably over a bun! ah well hope the womans institute class is ok!

[jld]

I went to a class with my MIL when I 1st started & it helped my LOs. I stopped for personal reasons & then started the crops but not classes due to new times. A friend who had made cards got interested & she started by looking at my magazines & books. I hlped er a bit with basic techniques but she shared some of her card-making ideas which she incorporated & I showed her some of the things I knew. We tried ideas from magazines & books!
I then joined a crop where sometimes there was a class- one was CM style but we were encouraged to adapt & try things!!!! The friends who were the 'core' group were very experienced & aways encouraged - never critised & their LOs were advanced (many worked in the industry- some are/were sponsors on here & well published) they used to pick up on things they liked & were happy to share ideas but never 'told you how' unless you asked! They are great girls!
The crop I go to now are friends from here- most learn from trying kits. we share ideas we've found & again- if you want to know, ask & the person will help. I've found this much more supportive for learning- especially after not scrapping to a year.

[Jencrafts]

We have a crop in Edwinstowe, that isn't too far from Sheffield. We are a really friendly bunch, we do have kits and a small shop an loads of stuff to borrow. PM me if you are interested.

[lizzylou]

Please tell me more about the crop in edwinstowe I don't live far away and regularly come to edwinstowe. I did'nt think there was any crops around our area at all.

[sharen mk11]

It's gone - been pulled as it had gone too far ! I've heard comments in the past but had never looked it up.

Think not ! posts going on there tonight - what a laugh !
supposed to be -
Come discuss, rip apart & smack the scrapbooking Industry! I am not interested in "personal" vendettas so please don't bother posting vicious comments on people unless you can back them up with fact and your real name!

Never seen such trash, whole waffle about UKS posts and members - hardly a single word about scrapbooking industry. What do they do, read all the UKS post then sit in judgement ? And they say people on UKS have sad lives !!
The US site has closed down - no wonder with all the litigation they have over there.

And I am so so honoured , dont know if anything in life will surpass this - have been smacked !! Have been discussed on this little gem of a website.
Am ignorant,arrogant and apparently some confusion over being german ?
And this has been decided by... some" annonymous" backstabbers who havent got the guts to publish their own names .

And, as they haven't got a life, lets see how long before this post is noticed and I will be smacked again, - LOL
(go on - you know you want to, in fact, you can't help yourself.... you naughtly little smackers.)

[Violaceous]

I think regarding the blog that people are talking about one of the best things people can do is not read it. The person who wrote it is no doubt an internet troll who is trying to get a reaction out of people. I saw a programme on trolls people who put things on the net with the sole purpose of upsetting someone and sadly a young girl of 15 took her own life because of a man constantly hounding her on the net. She didn't know who he was she thought it was someone at her school - it wasn't. He was just a nobody with nothing better to do. He received a particularly vile sentence over it - personally I think he should have been charged with stalking and murder - but then I'm not the law

Back to the topic I do hope you find another, nicer crop to go to because when you do you will see that they are really enjoyable places to be

[MaryAnne]

Back when I began scrapping there weren't the sort of crops we take for granted nowadays. We returned to the USA for a couple of years after Maddie was born and EVERYONE was all about the scrapping. I hadn't heard of it but as there were at least 3 CM consultants on my street I got in to it and found I enjoyed it. I eventually went to a crop. What struck me as most odd about it was at the end they asked you to stand up, then stay standing as they called out the number of layouts you had done. I was NOT scrapping CM style, and was in the last 2 standing, with 7 layouts - the woman who did the most (9 layouts) was a CM scrapper and her layouts were very much in the CM style. Everyone was applauding the fact she had done 9 layouts in the 8 hour crop and most of them were nothing I would point to as a demonstration of great scrapping ability - funny shaped photos, coloured triangles at the corners, sticker sneeze...she had it all And I'm sure she loved them all too. It seemed that it was all about getting them done, not about enjoying the process or making something that you could call art. It just struck me as weird. While CM has it's place in scrapping history - and is responsible for spreading the scrapping bug widely - many people took the info and the entusiasm and ran with it...away from the CM style Still, you can't discount their influence.

And in the end so long as you love your layouts, what else matters? And no one else can or should tell you how to make them. Take a minute, take an hour, take a day - if it makes you happy to do 10 layouts in 2 hours, go for it. And if miss bossy boots tells you what to do, smile and carry on. I have one layout that is in my album that grates on me EVERY TIME I see it because a crop mate loudly and forcefully insisted I title it a certain way. In the interest of keeping the peace I went along with it. Maybe I keep it so the strength to ignore not even BAD advice just advice that is very much NOT my style, stays with me But maybe one day I'll tear it up and start anew, I hate it that much.

As to the Smack blog - oh, I see I've been called a Militant Schoolmarm Funny, that. I would lay a bet that the people who maintain, anonymously or not, that they would like to see UKS allow rude, off-topic personal comments or bullying behaviour (or, as they call it, "just their opinion") rather than have me try to keep things in check in response to a complaint, are the first to get in touch to ask me to close or edit a post or thread when THEY are the ones with a target on their back. I'm all for a lively discussion and even for loudly voiced differing opinions. What I don't like is going off topic and/or attacking the poster rather than addressing the topic. Even so I often leave things in the hope that the people will sort it out themselves without me getting involved. And THEN I am as likely to see smacks wondering why I didn't step in earlier! I will never figure it out so I just try to keep my own moral compass.

[Alipeeps]

Wow. That blog is *not* pleasant reading. And I see the blog owner does absolutely nothing to enforce her "no vicious comments on people" rule as stated in the header.

[Cris]

Having gone to read the smack site - just to see what was going on, I can't see any comments past March 2012 so where are the others that I'm missing?

The comments do seem to be mainly about things that happen on UKS but having looked at the US one that is largely about 2peas although celebrities and a few manufacturers seem to get hit too

Cris

[sharen mk11]

As to the Smack blog - oh, I see I've been called a Militant Schoolmarm Funny, that. I would lay a bet that the people who maintain, anonymously or not, .

They like to think it's annoymous but Blogger belongs to Google - and Google's new rules say that their servers will collect "internet Protocol address."
Thats your IP - your computers identity, so every time they leave a post the server is making a little note. And your IP eventually leads to your home addr and your name, remember when you had to register your broadband service , your blog , create your e-mail - everything on the internet is trackable -straight back to the owner.
And on the home screen on that blog is a button that says report abuse - so if you feel you have been libeled or defamed - make a complaint , its real easy , just follow the on-screen prompts.

PS - sorry to go off topic (again ) oh by the way, my name is sharen and I'm not german - LOL

[PurplyDragon]

They like to think it's annoymous but Blogger belongs to Google - and Google's new rules say that their servers will collect "internet Protocol address."
Thats your IP - your computers identity, so every time they leave a post the server is making a little note. And your IP eventually leads to your home addr and your name, remember when you had to register your broadband service , your blog , create your e-mail - everything on the internet is trackable -straight back to the owner.
And on the home screen on that blog is a button that says report abuse - so if you feel you have been libeled or defamed - make a complaint , its real easy , just follow the on-screen prompts.

PS - sorry to go off topic (again ) oh by the way, my name is sharen and I'm not german - LOL

sorry more derailing... but thats not necessarily speaking true for example, if the person uses a proxy or vpn, there is no way to trace them back or if they were clever enough to "opt out" before the 29th february, their anonymity is also protected

eta: i thought that blog died years ago?? at least the uk version? i know it caused a lot of heartache and pain and i never went there anyway because i thought scrapping is supposed to be a hobby, not a source for bullying or being bullied but i guess wherever you get more than one woman together, there will be some sort of ganging up going on

[Beej]

I would go somewhere new, this is a great hobby, that's supposed to be fun, relaxing and give us all a bit if me time, we had a similar thing a couple of weeks ago when a new lady came to ours because another crop about half an hour away had pulled everything off her layouts as she had done it 'wrong'.

She was so upset, but we explained scrapping is for YOU we are more than happy to help but when it comes down to it, it is for you and as long as you like it, it's good

[sharen mk11]

sorry more derailing... but thats not necessarily speaking true for example, if the person uses a proxy or vpn, there is no way to trace them back or if they were clever enough to "opt out" before the 29th february, their anonymity is also protected

I'll take a guess that the blog owner is known to Google and I believe the UK libel law -

Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander (for transitory statements), and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image-

hold those that allow the "libel" to be broadcast (eg- on their blog) accountable.
Isnt that why the newspapers are taken to court over libel claims ? - because they published unchecked stories ?
Loads of cases in the news about posters who thought they couldn't be traced ending up in court..... didnt one lad go to prison for 18 months for a comment he made on twitter ?
Those annonymous posters are very brave - or very stupid - if you can't say something to the person face - dont say it !


Regarding the OP - sorry to go off topic - yet again, I have to agree with the layout police idea - it's your scrapbook, your layout and anyone who tells you to do it a certain way (their way ) push off .

sharen (still not german)

[PurplyDragon]

@shmk can i ask where nationality comes into this please? and i dont see anybody making any reference anywhere to your nationality?

OP... maybe YOU could offer to run a class or two and then let the other members see what scrapbooking is supposed to be about.. encouragement and enjoyment of documenting our lives.