Archives for April 7, 2012

Team Spotlight: Jill DZines!

Good morning scrappers! Rise and shine!

Today we’re talking with Jill, designer of Jill DZines.

She is hosting our store grab bag for the month of April. If you spend $10 in the store (NOT hard to do with all our great designers!) you get the grab bag for FREE! Awesome, I know, right?

 

First a little bit about Jill,

I have 2 kiddos – 20 yo daughter, Eliza, and 15yo son, David… both awesome, fantastic kids that make me proud every day.  I also have a wonderful, supportive husband, Paul, who works hard both at work and home – he is a fantastic gardener and we are lucky to have abundant fresh garden-goodies (especially FABulous tomatoes) from about mid-July through November!  (I often wish we lived a bit further south, as Minnesota has a pretty short growing season!)   We also have one pampered-pooch, Ellie, a cockapoo, age 5 (I think?) and one beautiful Siamese-cross kitty, Jasmine, about 13 years old… I hate to think about how old she is because I don’t know what I’m going to do when she goes…she is my favorite pet, EVER, and is almost always in my lap or laying on my stomach if I’m in bed!   I love my pets almost as much as if they were kids!

Besides digi-design, I LOVE reading – and especially love my Kindle.  Also love listening to audio-books while I’m doing anything else.  I am a multi-instrument musician, and have played in several bands over the years, and been professionally recorded on a couple of CDs (as an instrumentalist, not “my own” CD).  I play piano/keyboard (and taught piano for about 13 years), banjo, multiple percussion instruments (bongos, congas, djembe, and any other fun things I get my hands on), and harmonica – blues style.  I haven’t played my banjo in a few years though, so not sure how nimble I would be at that now!

Now THAT is something! Who knew we had such a musician among us?! I think that’s pretty freaking neat!

Lets talk a little bit about your kits.

My first kit was called “Slightly Shabby” (LONG-ago retired!); best-seller ever was “My Favorite Boy” (also retired); and my favorite is probably “Fresh” – which I don’t have in my GS shop, but you can see what it looks like by visiting my blog, as that is the kit I used for my current blog-wear.

I know that my your Artful Blends Papers are my favorite! They are so beautiful!

How did you get into designing? 

Oh that’s easy… as soon as I finally figured out how to digi-scrap, I started learning to make my own stuff, because I love creating and have always had interest in artsy stuff.  

What inspires your designs?

Usually I am most inspired by color-combos, or by wanting a certain kind of kit to scrap my own family photos. I do really like GingerScraps Buffet, because the “thinking” part is all done already – all I have to do is follow the colors and theme – that makes it much easier, IMO!

I love the Buffet too! It’s so neat to see a combination of so many of our designers come together to create a giant mix-n-max collection! This month we have the Happy Hopscotch collection which is so BRIGHT and fun (check out Jill’s gradient papers!)

In one word, Jill, sum up your style.

One word???  Impossible, I think! LOL!   How about “Eclectic”?  😉

What is the one thing you can’t do without when designing: be it music, coffee, quiet, specific software, any one thing you can’t live without!
Illustrator, definitely!   I don’t do a ton of doodles, but I ALWAYS open a new Illustrator file every time I start a kit, because I always have to make something or another in there!
Do you have some advice for aspiring designers?
Learn absolutely everything you can about using your program (I use, prefer, and recommend Adobe Photoshop  and Illustrator).  Do lots of different kinds of step-by-step tutorials, even if they don’t seem to apply to digi-scrapping, because by doing those, and following the steps and directions, you will learn a lot of things about your software that you might not have ever discovered on your own.  Also, spend time experimenting with the different filters and effects in the software before you decide to purchase any additional filters and/or plug-ins.  Chances are you can do the same thing in Photoshop, maybe with just a bit more time and work.
Excellent advice!
Now for a little bit more fun!
If you could time travel to any time, where would you go?
Oh my, hmmm… I’m not sure I would want to live in any time other than now – I’m too spoiled by modern conveniences!
Last month we read Hunger Games for the GingerScraps Book Club, which most of the world is away was made into a HUGE blockbuster movie. What is your favorite book to movie series?
I think that would have to be Lord of the Rings.  Those movies are some of the best-done book-to-movies that I can think of! 
There you have it! Thank you Jill for letting us get to know you just a bit better!
I’m off to refill my cup of coffee and be super lazy today! Hope everyone has a terrific weekend, a very happy Easter  and lots of pictures taken to scrap! I look forward to seeing all those new Easter Layouts! 😉  (and remember, calories don’t count on holidays, so don’t feel guilty about having an extra Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg -or two.. 😉 )

 

 

April Daily Download #07