By Stephen Bucaro

What ever happened to photo albums and scrapbooks? They have combined into a rapidly growing craft called "scrapbooking". With scrapbooking, you don't just line up your photos and memorabilia in pages of a binder. Instead, you display your photos in an artistic and creative way using decorative backgrounds, borders, frames, stickers, and whatever else piques your creative whimsey.

This new combination of photo album and scrapbook is often referred to as a "memory book". Scrapbooking is fastest growing craft in U.S., generating 1.4 billion dollars in annual sales. This presents a tremendous opportunity for an individual with a passion for scrapbooking and an entrepreneurial spirit.

First decide which area of scrapbooking craft your business will serve:

1. Scrapbooking supplies. Buy supplies wholesale from a source like Scrapbooking Factory Outlet sfodirect.com and sell them at retail, or better yet design and manufacture your own scrapbooking supplies.

2. Books and training materials. Become an affiliate of amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com, or better yet write your own book or develop your own website that provides scrapbooking instructions and tutorials.

3. Develop Kits. Combine your scrapbooking ideas along with instructions and materials into kits.

By Denise Hall (C) 2003

Have you ever been so discouraged that you were ready to give up? Do your dreams of a profitable home business seem very far away at times?

I think we all go through it. We work into wee hours of morning, day after day, night after night. At times it seems that our hard work will never pay off. That no matter what we do, no one is paying attention.

But chances are, that along way someone, somewhere has given you what you need to keep going and become successful.

What is it? A very simple thing, really. ENCOURAGEMENT!

Kind words and compliments can boost our self-esteem and keep us going. They are lifeblood of mankind. Sometimes they're just thing we need to realize that we CAN and WILL succeed in achieving our goals, no matter what those goals may be.

In last few months I've written several articles about internet businesses. I've had many compliments about my work from numerous ezine publishers and readers. I've also had home business "newbies" ask for my advice to help them get their businesses off on right track.

Every time I get such e-mails I think, "Who, me? I'm GOOD at this? Thank you very much. I'm honored that you enjoyed my work."

Let me just say that I'm not writing this article to toot my own horn. I'm writing it to remind everyone how powerful words can be.

Recently I was very honored and humbled to receive an e-mail from someone who had just read one of my articles. Here is what he said:

"Great article. I was very impressed.