Scraps Of Mind

Why Scrapbooking needs a Kristina Contes

Welcome New Stumblers. I hope you enjoy this Post and that you’ll stay to look around Scraps of Mind.
Please check out the Articles Page to get a good idea of all the great stuff on Scraps of Mind.

Is the Kristina Contes Controversy over yet?

The Creating Keepsakes debacle involving Kristina Contes and a number of other scrapbookers whose names don’t seem to get mentioned anywhere was dragged out over the Autumn of last year and I thought it had finally been put to rest by November. But I’m seeing articles in syndicated press across the US dragging it up again so I thought I’d weigh in with my two cents.

For those who don’t know, here’s a potted version of what went down:

Creating Keepsakes Magazine sponsored a scrapbooking contest last February which Kristina won. Her name went into the magazine’s Hall of Fame and her work was published in a book of the top 2007 entries.

Kristina then rang the magazine requesting that they publish a credit for her friend who had taken the photos on her layout. The magazine staffer was obviously not fully up to speed on things so she said OK and when the book of winners was published in October, both names were listed in the credits against Kristina’s layout.

Unfortunately it was against the contest rules not to scrapbook your own photos and many scrapbookers seeing the two credits went berserk. The Creating Keepsakes chat room was filled with threats to cancel subscriptions, boycott and sue from unhappy scrapbookers. Forums and blog posts were flaming all over the place.

Kristina was obviously pretty upset and responded on her blog in a less than diplomatic manner which pretty much made things worse. Finally CK stripped her of her win and pulled her name out of the Hall of Fame.

I’m not sure why but this whole drama is popping up again in newspapers in January 2008.

Frankly I think it’s a great pity that the Scrapbooking World reacted in the way that it did. It’s an even greater pity that the editing team of Creating Keepsakes was so inefficient as to let the situation happen in the first place. And that they handled the whole aftermath so poorly.

And let’s face it, whether you like Kristina Contes or not, she is not a cheat. If she was she wouldn’t have made that phone call in the first place and let CK know that she hadn’t taken the photos herself.

She made the situation worse by lashing out on her blog at some of the harsh stuff that was said to her. But when all’s said and done, wouldn’t any of us want to do something like that if it were us?

And she’s not the only scrapbooker who was caught up in controversy over that contest. But she’s the most high profile. And although I think that she had to be disqualified, given the contest rules, I think the way it happened and the feeding frenzy of many scrapbookers was totally wrong. She’s obviously a sassy smart-ass sort of a character, but that doesn’t make her a Scrapbook Criminal!

I don’t necessarily care for her style in general but hey, we need people like her in the Scrapbooking Scene to challenge our thinking and push the envelope. And if you don’t like her stuff, well there’s no need to follow it.

But unless someone’s out there challenging the mainstream thinking on any subject then that subject will stagnate.

Scrapbooking needs people like Kristina Contes for it to grow and evolve into the future.

Other Articles You Might Like:

Does Scrapbooking have a ‘Use By’ Date?

Where do You Hang Out on the Net?

Have You Ever Tried making an Animated Scrapbook Layout?