Shake it up!

It's time to shake things up a little at Lotus Paperie. Spring is trying its hardest to evict all signs of winter up here in Canada's Frozen Tundra but in an effort to feel refreshed and inspired, the Design Team is undergoing a major facelift! We are holding an open call for all you would-be designers out there. It is a wonderful opportunity to get to know some wonderful new friends, to play with gorgeous scrap supplies and to push your personal creative limits on a weekly basis. Even if you've never been on a design team but you have a passion for scrapbooking, your submissions to this open call are warmly welcomed! If you found your way here via PUBCALLS, then you already know what's expected of your participation in the Call. If you haven't seen that post and want more info on what you need to do to take a stab at being on the Lotus Paperie design team, read on... (NOTE- if you have read the PUBCALLS post, please read below anyway, it's a little more detailed info that what's posted on their calendar! thanks)

You are:
creative, passionate, committed and know the importance of deadlines and also that your best work is what you want others to know you by.

You scrapbook for fun or to save your sanity but do so with conviction. You scrap because you love it and rise to a challenge. You are comfortable sharing your personal journaling and photographs without editing (unless they're addresses- we don't need any creepy stalkers showing up at our front doors! or boob shots from those breastfeeding photos - or worse, the graphic birth photos...Eeew!) You don't take life or yourself too seriously and are an open communicator. You are sensitive to others' feelings but have a positive, easygoing attitude.

We (Lotus Paperie) are:
first and foremost, a business but we understand that it's the people who make our business. We openly welcome constructive criticism (and random gifts during birthday week!) and are eager to make being on the Design Team as positive an experience as humanly possible for all involved. We are deeply committed to bringing creativity & joy to the lives of those who share in our passion for paper arts and all forms of crafting and have great respect for what others share with us. We are a warm and grateful group and eagerly anticipate growing the Lotus Paperie Team!

To make a submission you will need to email the following:
-3 of your best pages, one of which needs to be brand new and created from the sketch found below. Please only submit this page to this call and we politely request that you refrain from publishing it elsewhere until you hear back as to whether or not you are invited to join our team. We want that page to be a big surprise to all our faithful blog readers.
-write a brief bio about yourself including your scrapbooking interests/experience, as well as links to your blogs/online galleries and other design teams that you are on currently or have been in the past. Also, if you have a photo of yourself that you love, please feel free to include that too!

Here's the deal if you are invited to join the Design Team:
-you will receive one monthly Couture Collection for every month that you are on the team. You will receive that kit at least one week before the first project for the month is due (barring unforseen circumstances like shipping delays/postal delays)
-you will create a minimum of one project for each week of the month using sketches and other artwork as inspiration which is emailed to you for the beginning of the month using no less than 75% of Couture Collection materials in your pages/projects.
-Artwork can be created all at once or week by week, whatever works best for you. You will not be contacted if your submission misses the weekly deadline (thursday night, 9:00pm pacific time). If you miss more than two deadlines, your will be dismissed and your spot will become available to someone new.
-You will submit well photographed/scanned digital images of your artwork. You will make efforts to eliminate unsightly glare& shadows from your submissions. Poorly captured images will not be posted and will qualify as a "missed deadline", however, those who are invited to join the team will be given pointers to help them make the best possible digital reproductions of their work.
-You will promote Lotus Paperie on your blog by either a link, gallery, weekly postings of your Lotus Paperie projects or all of the above. We politely ask that you maintain & update your blog regularly as we link to you every time we post your pages.
-You will not post pages created for the DT anywhere on the web (except for our private Yahoo group- see next point) until they have been published to the blog. NO EXCEPTIONS. If this is not respected, it will count as a 'missed deadline' after two occurrences, you will be dismissed and your spot will be available to someone new.
-You will upload your pages to our private Yahoo group as a backup in case emails get lost or accidentally deleted (It's been known to happen...a little overzealous with the 'delete' button!)
-You will participate in the once-monthly vote on our Yahoo group to assist in determining a winner in the page contest for pages uploaded to our Flickr Group. You may participate in the Yahoo group more frequently if you wish.

Having said all that, we are regular folks just like you and sometimes things happen. We are pretty flexible and understanding. We want this to work for you as much as we want it to work for us. We want you to be happy so if life gets in the way of something crazy has happened like the dog ACTUALLY ate your page, dude, let us know so that we can come up with a solution together!
Remember to think outside the box and let your personal creative style shine. Please don't post your submission or personal contact information in the comments section but rather, email it to lotuspaperie@shaw.ca Can't wait to see all the wonderful submissions!

PS- the call runs until April 30th at midnight PST. The winners will be contacted via email. Those of you not selected will not be contacted. Winners will be announced in early May.

edited: this open call is only available to Canada & US residents. Sorry all you uber talented overseas gals, we hate to exclude you but we still invite you to participate in the weekly challenges & the Flickr contest!!

Good luck everyone!