CT Spotlight: Fran

Sam here presenting to you another talented member of Chelle's team. If you're a frequent member of ScrapMatters, you'll recognize Fran (Fran98765) right away. She's all over the SM forum and gallery, creative teams, and a member of the site CT. She can crank out LOs like there's no tomorrow...quantity with quality to boot! :) Get to know her a bit more with these questions:




1) How did you get into digiscrapping?

Oh gosh that's forever ago. I paper scrapped and a friend at church told us about it and I thought it was so silly, even though I loved being on the computer. I tried it and didn't like it. Then I tried it again a couple months later and here I am now over 4 years later!

2) A short bio about yourself

I am a stay home mom. Before the kid I worked at a hospital doing psych intakes. Kinda like when they call for a psych eval on doctor shows, that was me. I learned that my town is full of druggies and alcoholics. Anyway, my son Sam is turning 8 on the 12th, so we're busy planning birthday stuff for him. I don't feel like cleaning this year, so we're going to Chuck E Cheese! Woo! We like to travel a lot, usually to Disney World.

3) What can't you live without on your pages?

I'm a flower junkie! Even though most of my pages are about my son, I need flowers!


4) Where do you get your inspiration from?

It depends. My son can be a bit wacky at times, so I usually take his photos and that inspires me to document that. Other times I will get a kit to work with and ponder it for awhile and boom, find some inspiration and it all comes together.


5) Do you struggle with anything when scrapping a LO?

Really pink kits. For the obvious reason of not having girls in my house. Except the cat. And she takes lousy photos.

6) What's your fave color? Sea green for my color.

Snack? Nothing really stands out in snack land but I love me some Diet Pepsi!

Movie? I don't really watch tv or movies (I'm weird that way) so I couldn't say.

Music? Music hmm I love church music and broadway music. I used to listen to popular music but since moving to hicksville, the radio is fairly lacking in entertainment, so I'm way behind the times. I do still love 80s music though!


7) What would you do if you won the lotto?

We've been talking a lot about lotto tonight, there's a big drawing here for $350 million tonight. We don't usually play, which makes it really hard to win! But if a big pile of money fell on my house, well, I'd buy a new house.


8) A little known fact about you?

I eat salad with a spoon. lol


Here's a few of Fran's fantabulous LOs:

You can check out more of Fran's works of art in her gallery.

Till next time...
Sam

CT Spotlight: Breon (breeoxd)

I have the pleasure of serving on a couple of CTs with this talented scrapper. She's got quite a variety of styles, from single to multi-photo, layered and clustered to clean and simple, busy pages to lots of white space, she's done it all! Just check out her gallery and you'll see how unique her pages are.

Without futher ado...I present to you Breon (breeoxd)!

1) How did you get into digiscrapping?

I was a paper salesman for some major art and craft chains, which meant I was on the road for 3 weeks a month or so. I was passionate about paper, and scrapping, but packing up my giant rolling totes to take to my hotel rooms took it's toll on my creativity ( and my back!!!) Then I saw my boyfriend's twin doing work in Photoshop and it hit me- "hey, that would be good for scrapping!" A week or so later I had a layout I was proud of. A magic moment!

2) A short bio about yourself

I'm a 29 year old pharmacy technician thats studying for my national certification. I live with my boyfriend of 5 years in VA with our cat, Theo, and our new puppy, Max. In my spare time I scrap, run, and surf the net lookin for rare nailpolish. What can i say, it's and obsession! haha

3) What can't you live without on your pages?
Lots of paper! And paint splatters. And texty grunge stuff :) Basically, anything that makes a layout look more realisitic.

4) Where do you get your inspiration from?
Templates, for sure. And colors! I love color! Other than that I like to lift other great scrappers, and magazines.

5) Do you struggle with anything when scrapping a LO?

I sometimes struggle with making my layouts all feel original. After over a 1000 layouts, I sometimes feel like it's "all been done", so I need to step away for a little bit, sometimes a few days, and just wrap my head around some fresh ideas.

6) What's your fave color?
Color varies, usually deep and dusky tones, like reds, teals, grays, mustard yellows. Yeah, grey and yellow is really doin it for me lately.
Snack?
Snack- pretzel m&ms, and diet coke. I am a big foodie so I eat alot!
Movie?
My fav movie is Love actually.
Music?
Music is mostly popular indie type rock like Placebo and HIM.

7) What would you do if you won the lotto?

Pay off all my student loans, take a cruise, get a pharmacist or nursing degree, and buy a house for my hardworking honey. And of course, finally print out all my layouts for once!

8) A little known fact about you?

I feel bad for brusied and rotted veggies and fruit at the market. I know it's wierd but i just can't help it. That, and I once sang the role of Christine in the Phantom of the Opera at the Magic Kingdom!

Hope you got to know Bre a bit more and get inspired by her awesome gallery! Here are some of my personal favorites:

CT Spotlight: Cara

Happy Sunday, everyone! Kendall here to bring you another edition of Sunday Spotlight. Today, we are shining the spotlight on one of Chelle's awesome CT members, Cara (colson)! I had the pleasure of interviewing Cara recently so that all of us could get to know her better. Here's what she had to say:

1. How long have you been digi-scrapping and how did you get started? I started digi-scrapping in July 2009 after I saw one of my friend Maria's digi-layouts. I thought "I could do that too!"

2. What program do you use? I use Photoshop CS4. I have it for work and I love using it. I actually am learning new things all the time!

3. Describe your LO style. Hmmm...that's a tough one. I think I'm still trying to find "my" style. I try lots of different things, but primarily right now I'm a "stacker." I love lots of layers and elements stacked on a page. I stack so much that think if I was a traditional scrapbooker, I wouldn't be able to fit my real paper layouts into a book! LOL

4. What kit are you dying to use of Chelle's? Have you already used it? I was dying to use Beary Cute Baby Girl since my child is a boy. Luckily a week or so ago, I was able to make a project for Chelle using that kit, and I was really excited to use it!

5. What is your favorite layout using Chelle's products? My favorite (wow, it's hard to choose!) is my Putting Around layout using Chelle's Hole in One kit. I love how it came together and it's a favorite memory of mine from summer at the lake.

6. What is your favorite tip or trick related to digital scrapping? My favorite tip... hmmmm. I'd have to say rotating and resizing elements and papers. I didn't know how to do that when I first started, and it was very difficult to do it my old way. Now I use Ctrl-T (the transform tool) constantly! He's my best friend.

7. What's one thing people might be surprised to know about you? I'm adopted.

8. What is the one thing in a digi-scrap kit you can't live without? SCATTERS!! If a kit doesn't have scatters, I'll go to another kit to find something and recolor it. It's a requirement on my layouts! :)

Thanks so much, Cara, for letting us spotlight you! Here's a link to Cara's fantastic gallery so you can take a look at even more of her amazing pages. And don't forget to check out Chelle's shop at ScrapMatters to see all the fab products Cara uses on her LOs.

CT Sunday Spotlight

Krisi here today to spotlight one of our guest CT members this month - Linda (scrapporreia).  It was fun to read the responses to the questions I asked her... and she picked out some fun kits and layouts!

If you are looking for the blog trains... they are down below this post.

1. How long digi scrappin?
I’m still a newbie - I started as an avid spectator in about April 2010. I scoped the sites that my friend Jenn (jk703) suggested after I saw one of her paper scrapped books. It was soooo awesome. I bought a TON of stuff and downloaded every freebie that I could find. Then I spent the next 2 months ‘organizing’ my stash. Only to find out that once I made a page, I’d need to credit it, so I RE-organized my stash. Then Jenn said, Scrap already! Lol
I did a challenge to give me some guidelines and learn sort of what to do on page. That was about mid-June and I’ve been hooked ever since.

2. What program do you use?
For work I use the whole Creative Suites but for digi-scrapping, I use PS CS3. I recently saw CS5 for PS and drooled. Had to get a napkin. I’ve been using PS for over 15 years and did some in-home tutoring on the side, so I’m an addict. I love Illustrator, too and use that for my word art. I recently used InDesign for my first ever hybrid I did last week – So fun! I’m a Quark girl so it was a bit of a learning curve with the keyboard shortcuts.

3. What kit are you dying to use of Chelle's, have you already used it?
I bought Chelle’s Ho Ho Ho kit back in the Spring/Summer.
I saw this Visit with Santa layout by Kendallt that I loved and had to buy the kit.
I had so many Summer photos to scrap that its been gathering virtual dust until the Winter holidays rolled around.

4. What is your favorite layout using Chelle's stuff? I have so many its nearly cruel to ask me to narrow just one.
I love Playtime with Elmo by Breeoxd. She spot colored Elmo back into a BW and elements (especially the streetlamp) were so cute and fit perfectly with the image. I love that she used a yellow and white paper to offset the red.

I also love this One More Story layout by KeepScrappin because I can soooo relate and I love the colors- how she accented the dark blue with the crumpled yellow strip and how she used the elements – the books were a nice touch, too.

5. What is your favorite tip or trick related to digital scrapping?
The best advice I ever got (in my mere few months) was from a veteran scrapper who told me to stop concentrating on the CT requirements or the Challenge limitations and scrap for me. Being new, I thought Challenges and joining CTs would help me learn more about scrapping and give me guidelines and ideas of what to do, how to do it, etc. While she agree that getting involved with the community would make it more fun and I’d learn quickly she cautioned me to make sure every page I do is one that I would like and would put in my albums.
Ever since then, I’ve heard her in my head when I approach a new page, and I think my pages look better because they are more ME.

6. Can you tell us a little known fact about yourself.
I’m lazy. Given the choice between laying around and watching TV or running all over town doing a million things. I vote for laying around. Lol.
The reason this surprises people is because I bake a lot – often making foods that the neighborhood kids can decorate & take home, I cook a lot and love to entertain, I do crafts with my son, and activities like organize treasure hunts for him, make sure we take him outside as much as possible. I learn new things like making balloon animals and face painting so that every day can be a carnival. So, while I’m delivering homemade dumplings or marshmallows my friends all think I love to keep busy and be on the go.
Actually, I love being lazy, too!

Thanks Linda for allowing us to get to know you a little bit more!

Don't forget that Chelle's DSD Sale and Dino Dig are still going on.

Saturday Standouts and CT Spotlight

Hello.... Hello..... Jenn (jk703) here for our Saturday Standouts and CT Spotlight! Woot... I'm going to switch it up a smidge and we are going to get to know Kelli (Kellig) a little better to start!

First, Kelli is a sweetheart, and a fantastic admin for Chelle, as well as a fantastic digiscrapper! I also have the opportunity to work with her at a ScrapMatters Girl... so I wanted to make my questions a bit fun! Now, I was trying to give her lots of room with the questions I asked, so I asked 15!!!! lol! Some are your basic questions and I added a few out of the norm ones too! So... I picked my favorite 6 and here are Kelli's responses! Hope you enjoy meeting Kelli!

Jenn: Why did you decide to start scrapping?
Kelli: I wanted to find a way to preserve my family memories and paper scrapped years ago. Digi was a super easy transition.

I think we can all agree with this! Saving out family memories is so important, and fun too! I think the fun part came in with my next question. Asking fun questions actually gave me an idea of making them into scrapbook layouts and asking my friends and family what their answers would be!

J: If you had super powers, which would you choose and why?
K: Seriously, I would just like to have more than one of me!

J: What is a crazy activity that you would secretly love to try one day?
K: I am a speed junkie. I would love to drive a race car and sky dive one day.

J: What is one item that you miss from being a kid?
K: I miss the carefree, lazy days of summer.

J: Do you believe in Ghosts? What is your favorite scary movie?
K: Nope, no ghosts and definitely NO scary movies!! I'm a big ole sissy!!

J: What is the kindest thing someone has ever done for you?
K: Taken my child under their wing at her new school this year. I was a nervous wreck, but they made sure to keep an eye on her and make sure she was adjusting OK. It meant more to me than anything.

Here is Kelli's pick as her most favorite layout...(mine too -- it just makes me laugh!!!) So head over and leave some love!

Kelli's most favorite layout from Chelle's Designer Gallery is this one by Jan aka QuiltyMom:

I hope you enjoyed meeting Kelli and learning more about a top notch sweet person and scrapper!

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Now onto some spotlighting of those fab layouts I see every day in the gallery using Chelle's Products! Up first, a most darling and beautiful page by Cara aka Colson! Check out all those little details, and such sweet photos!

This next layout's blend is so cool and so much fun! I love that it is blended in green! Created by Kassie aka Kass 23, this one received the Layout of the Week! Congrats Kassie! How awesome and refreshing is this:




My last pick for this week is a really cool and fun hybrid project by Krisi aka Krisi616! This card looks so perfect, and totally shows off a great way to use the Get Well Soon Kit! So cute Krisi!




I hope you've enjoyed meeting Kelli, and eyeing up my spotlights for this week!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Jenn
(jk703)