Archives for April 2012

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”?  😉