We are starting a new feature here at Gingerscraps. On Tuesdays we are going to profile a Gingerscraps CT member or forum member. This week we are meeting Jen Graham, one of our Gingerscraps creative team members.
What’s your name and digiscrap blog address? Jennifer, but most people call me Jen unless they don’t know any better. My blog is GrahamLikeTheCracker
Tell us a little about your family. I’m a happily married SAHM. My husband and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary last October. We have a 20 month old son named Alton. We live in Southern California, and are lucky enough to live close to most of our extended family.
Do you work outside the home & if so what do you do? No, I have been blessed to be able to stay home since we got married.
What other hobbies do you have besides scrapping? I love to read and bake. It has been hard to find anything good to read since I finished reading the Twilight series. I have now read that 5 times! I tried to go back and read the Harry Potter books again, but they just aren’t the same. I also make fabulous brownies and my husband swears he married me for my chocolate chip cookies!
When did you start Digi-scrapping and who taught you? I started in August of 2008. My Scrapland BFF is Charmaine and she taught me how to digi-scrap. She makes STUNNING LOs. To this day if I don’t know how to do something I ask her and she is the first person I show my stuff to.
Are you on any creative teams? I am very lucky to be on CTs for Ginger of Gingerscraps, Amber of Stolen Moments, and Chanin of Snowflake Beach Designs. I just applied for a fourth so I can do another CT gig with Charmaine. I think I might need an intervention soon! I still can’t believe my luck that so many designers like what I do. I was FLOORED when I got the acceptance letter from Amber. I was stunned when I got one from Ginger. With Chanin I was little more sure that I am getting better at this, but it was still nice to get the affirmation, “Hey we like your stuff, come play with us!” you know?
Do you design at all? I am doing the BrownieScraps 6 week design training. My first and second kits are up on my blog. I LOVE my second kit. I am sure 6 months from now I will be embarrassed by it, but for right now it is like my baby.
What is your favorite challenge here at GingerScraps? I love speed scraps when I can get on to do them. My scrapping time is limited to after Alton goes to bed though, and being on the west coast makes it hard to do as many as I like. Where else are you going to get an awesome LO done in an hour? I am a horrible perfectionist and take FAR too long to do a LO if I don’t have a some sort of time restriction.
Who are your favorite three designers? Ginger of Gingerscraps (Beach Glass was one of the first kits I ever downloaded), Amber of Stolen Moments and Kami of Ziggle Designs.
What are some of your must have elements? Stars, frames, and beads on string or wire. I need more beads on a wire!!! If a kit doesn’t come with a frame, I make my own.
Whose gallery here at Gingerscraps do you just love? I adore Harmonystar’s gallery. She makes the most stunning layouts! If I started a “to be scraplifted file”, she would be in it!
What’s your favorite kit in the store right now? I LOVE the New Year kit and the Chocolate Kisses kit. They both have such beautiful color palettes. Plus the New Year kit has those gorgeous swirls with the stars on it, so I LOVE LOVE LOVE those.
Out of all your lo’s so far, what are your favorite 2 & why? My favorite two are my Beautiful Life layout (kit by Stolen Moments) and my New Year layout (kit here in the Gingerscraps store). I ADORE the colors in the Beautiful Life layout, and my son just looks soooo adorable in those pictures. In the New Year layout I love that I was actually able to layer and cluster in a pleasing way. I wish I knew how to cluster better and I think I did an okay job on this LO. (BTW, I have a freebie QP on my blog for both of these layouts.)
If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? Most people would probably say lose weight, and while I would love to do that, I would much rather change my singing voice. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket and I for one am grateful that my son doesn’t know the difference. He thinks mommy rocks the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
What is the one word that best describes you? Creative. Is it wrong to say that? I am very thankful that I have been blessed with creativity.
Who is the most important person in your life? God. I can’t do anything without Him.
What is something that not many people know about you? I used to run track in high school. I was decent and I really enjoyed it. I would run bleachers for fun. Oh to have that kind of energy and stamina these days, not to mention that tushie!
If you could travel anywhere where would you go? Ireland. All of Western Europe really, but if I had to choose, it would be Ireland for sure.
When you were little what did you dream of being when you grew up? I always thought I would be a mommy or a teacher. Now that I am a mommy, I want to be on the Food Network when I grow up.
What is your favorite food? Mexican food, hands down.
How did you pick you user name? Okay my husband and I dated for almost 7 years before we got married. His Aunt Laurel and I became really good friends. I used to tease her because telemarketers always horribly butchered her name, “Can I speak to Lore-Ell Gray-ham please?” It never occurred to me that they would do the same thing to me once I was a Graham. “Thank you Mrs. Grah-haam.” Are you kidding me? So I usually gently correct with, “Graham, like the cracker.” When I was thinking of something to call my blog, I wanted something creative but memorable. So GrahamLiketheCracker was born!
What do you like doing with your family? Hiking in the local mountains and traveling. I LOVE to travel. (The best place to take pictures for digi-scrapping of course!) Alton and I go to Disneyland once a week for the exercise (I swear!) because we have Disneyland annual passports.
Where is your favorite place to be? With my husband and son. They are the lights of my life.
What are three things that are important to you? My relationship with God. My relationship with my husband, and my child. Alton is the best thing that happened to me since Travis.
Is there anything you would change about your life? I love my family, but I wish my husband could be in a different line of work. It’s a tough time for real estate agents right now.
What are you afraid of? Snakes. I get the heebie jeebies just talking about them.
Do you collect anything? I am a hoarder. A huge hoarder. When I paper scrapped, I would buy papers fully knowing that I wouldn’t scrap with them because they were too nice. Now I hoard freebie kits that I probably won’t use because they are so pretty I don’t want to disservice them with a lame layout!
Wouldn’t it be fun to be interviewed for this feature? Sign up in the Gingerscraps forum! Don’t forget to link a couple of your best layouts to be featured! And, stop by Jen’s blog… she has a lot freebies!