I must have some good ideas. Sometimes I come up with ideas and then wonder if they are really good or not. Without feedback I don’t have a lot of ways to know if anyone beyond me likes what I do. Every once in a while something happens to give me a sense of validation. That’s happened to me twice this week.

The first one came in an email from the editor of Scrapbooking.com. She was letting me know that she had seen a website, CraftGossip, that mentioned one of my articles and provided a link for its readers. The writer said she loved what I offered… WOO HOO!!! Major validation!

The second one came from a friend who had recently stopped into Mystic Paper, a local scrapbook store. A couple of years ago I taught a series of classes at Ink It! where the students learned a variety of techniques and then assembled the samples and written directions into a tag book. The book was bound with a snap ring so that additional technique pages could be added. Recently I brought the idea back with a new series of classes at Stamp Works in Chandler. Today I learned that one of my ATC trading partners at Stamp Works has taken the same idea to Mystic Paper and is teaching a similar technique tag book there. I’ll never know if this is a case of “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” or just “great minds think alike” but it still feels validating to me; I’m not the only one who thought this was a good idea!

++UPDATE: I went on a little search to see if I could find a sample of the class at Mystic Paper and found this: http://myartisticside.blogspot.com/2007/03/behind-scenes.html. I think that must be the class my friend was talking about. It looks like a great class, don’t you think? I hope I can get up there soon to see it for myself.