the BIG announcement!

At the beginning of each year, J and I take time to dream about what we'd like to accomplish in the next year and take stock in the successes and failures of the past year. When we launched Piggy Bank Parties in July of 2010, our vision for Oink! was clear. Oink! was to be a place where we would share party ideas, penny pinching tips, insider hints, tutorials, recipes and design inspiration. We also wanted it to be a place where others would share their party ideas, tips, recipes and tutorials.

As we looked over the posts we had shared, we saw a trend of only sharing our products, our parties and our successes. Oink! was headed in the wrong direction and we wanted to take a step back before we lost all of our followers! Don't worry....we will still share our parties, our products and our successes BUT we also want to share yours!

Are you ready for the BIG announcement?

We are "officially" accepting submissions or as we like to call them, DEPOSITS! We want to hear from you....the party planners, the moms and the dads, the aunts and the uncles, the newbies, the old timers and anyone else who LOVES parties! We want to share your real parties, your inspiration parties, your recipes, your tutorials, your party ideas and ESPECIALLY your penny pinching party tips!

We LOVE all kinds of parties but we ESPECIALLY love parties that are done on a budget. We love parties that are for milestones but we love parties that are thrown just because! We love professional pictures but we also love photographs that are clear, bright and taken with your own camera.

We know what it is to be the NEWBIE in the online party biz. We also know what it's like to be the OLD TIMER in the offline party biz. We have been blessed to have met some wonderful party people who have opened HUGE doors for us and have supported us since we started Piggy Bank Parties. We want to pay it forward and open doors for others.

{Are you excited yet? Break for a Happy Dance!}

We also wanted to share who inspired us to take this leap of faith with Oink!

Kristy of The Purple Pug took on the challenge of featuring a different party chick each day for one year. She is changing the lives of 365 people this year. I was blessed to be Number 11 and each day she continues to inspire me. Kristy also has a habit of leaving comments on blogs and Facebook pages of Newbies to the party industry. I have personally experienced the joy that it brings and the encouragement you receive to continue on when you think everyone else is better at this than you. Thank you, my purple friend, for always encouraging those around you. You sprinkle purple glitter all over the world and make it shine brighter!

A few months back I had the opportunity to work with Heather Locker. Heather was new to the party industry, a fabulous baker and a fairly new event planner. Heather was in the midst of planning a "Charlotte's Web" inspired baby shower when she joined the Children's Party Network. After meeting on the CPN discussion boards, we collaborated on the custom paper products for the shower. Heather was such a pleasure to work with and sought advice from this old timer. It was an amazing experience and it encouraged me to share with other newbies what I've learned in the last 11 years. Thank you for partnering with this lil' piggy to create an adorable "Charlotte's Web" Collection!

Andrea of Pocket Full of Parties is a new follower of Oink! I received an email from Andrea a few weeks ago asking if we accepted party submissions and if we would consider featuring her party. Little did she know that it was the nudge we needed to fulfil the vision we have for Oink! Join us tomorrow for our first official feature. Can you guess who's party is first? Thank you for having the courage to send that email and put yourself on the line to share your party with others!

This is your chance to be in the spotlight? Are you brave enough to take the leap of faith? If so, here are the details...

How do I make a DEPOSIT to Oink!'s Piggy Bank?

Submission Email: Send your submissions to deposits@piggybankparties.com. Please do not send emails to any other email address associated with Piggy Bank Parties. Please include in the subject line one of the following categories:

• real party
• inspiration party
• penny pinching idea
• party idea
• tutorial
• recipe
• other

Party Deposits: Please include either a brief description of your party including special details, penny pinching ideas and your sources (e.g.: Printables by Piggy Bank Parties) or a link to your blog that includes that information. Please include your contact email address when making your deposit.

Source Links: Be sure to include links to your sources or they will not be linked to your party. Also, please test the source links to make sure they work because we are unable to spend the time to research the correct links.

Photographs: Please send images that are at least 700 pixels wide, under 2 megabites and without watermarks. Photographs can be sent via email, as a link to an online photo album (such as Picasa or flickr) or ideally as a ZIP file. If your attachment is larger than 8 megabytes, please send it via www.yousendit.com (free service) or a similar service.

We accept all levels of photographs from novice to professional. Please do not send collages. We encourage you to send the BEST photographs you can. We want to show off your work in the "best light!"

Hank's Hint: Do you need to resize your pictures? Are your photographs dark and need to be lightened? Do you need to crop the photo? Hop over to www.picnik.com for all of your photo editing needs. It's a free service and can help even the novice improve their pictures! BUT don't over process your pictures. We want to see real life and real colors!

Featured Submissions: While we wish we could feature every single party, tutorial, recipe, idea and such, we will contact you to let you know if we will be featuring your submission. We will also contact you if we will not be featuring your submission. We hope to also tell you the reason why. We know that worst thing is never hearing from party blogs after you've submitted something.

{Just tell me if you don't want to feature me! I'm a big girl and it will make me work harder to get featured the next time!}

Please know that we hope to feature as many as possible but there are times when things aren't a good fit! It may be the wrong time of year. A party may be cute but the photograph is too dark or grainy to tell what the item is. A tutorial may cost too much to make which defeats our philosophy of penny pinching ideas.

{okay...now all the legal stuff....}

Disclosure: We reserve the right to refuse a submission we deem inappropriate.

Disclaimer: By submitting photos, recipes, diy tutorials, or templates, you either have the copyright to said photos, recipes, diy tutorials, or templates, or that you have the authorization from the copyright owner to submit said photos, recipes, diy tutorials, and/or templates. Piggy Bank Parties, Oink!, Jeffrey and Doris Driver DBA Autumn Writings and Doris and Jeff Driver are not liable for any copyright claims from the true owner or anyone else.

Any comments made by authors of Oink! are intended solely to help readers and give tips. These are personal styling tips and there is no malicious intent against anyone (including, but not limited to, any individual, religion, ethnic group, club, organization, or company, or anyone or thing. Oink!’s comments or tips are purely personal and made with no malicious intent. None of Oink!’s comments or tips constitute libel, and thus Piggy Bank Parties, Oink!, Jeffrey and Doris Driver DBA Autumn Writings and Doris and Jeff Driver are not liable for any case of defamation.

Anything written on Oink! is not to be taken as fact. If you decide to use tips, techniques, advice, and recommendations, and experience damages, Piggy Bank Parties, Oink!, Jeffrey and Doris Driver DBA Autumn Writings and Doris and Jeff Driver are not liable.

Piggy Bank Parties, Oink!, Jeffrey and Doris Driver DBA Autumn Writings and Doris and Jeff Driver are not liable for any comments that others write on this blog. Comments are the sole responsibility of the comment writers.

If you write about something that you found on Oink!, please credit and link back to Oink! as the source for the article.

{Whew! We made it through that yucky but important stuff!}

Get ready. Get set. GO make a DEPOSIT!

We can't wait to see how creative you are!

Stay tuned to Oink! for more inspiration...