Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

Challenge Spotlight: Inspiration

How is it already the third Tuesday of August? Of course, this month has FIVE Tuesdays, so we’re actually smack-dab in the middle of the month. The Okanagan valley in BC, where I live, is having a heat wave and we’re blanketed with wildfire smoke again. I feel very bad for the movers who are emptying a truck across the street in this heat and cruddy air. Our Level 4 drought is quickly moving to Level 5. Seems like it’s bad news everywhere. To all the GingerScrappers in Hawaii, you have all our love.

I chose the Inspiration Challenge for this month’s Challenge Spotlight because the Challenge Joy (Memory Mosaic) has tossed our way is something I love to do: take a photo from an “odd” perspective and scrap it. The alternate Challenge is to scrap a photoless layout from someone else’s perspective. When I looked at the Challenge Gallery, I was a little surprised to see only one person chose the photoless option. But what a great choice it was! Let’s have a look at the entries. As usual, they’re in the order they were uploaded to the Gallery and they’re linked to the Gallery so you can take a closer look, leave some praise or whatever. Just click on the scrapper’s user name and you’ll be right there. (I have participated in this Challenge, but decided not to include my own layout, because the focus of these Individual Style posts is on YOU!)

Here, greenfiend27 has two photos and perspective is a feature in both of them. These stainless steel balls see, to be everywhere these days and offer endless potential for interesting photos. They can be a lot like funhouse mirrors, right?

GrannyNKy has a really carefully-framed photo for her layout. There are millions of photos of Christ the Redeemer near Rio de Janeiro, but not many like this one!

Look at TBear‘s layout… the lone outlier! Here’s what she said about it: “DGD, who thinks outside the box as second nature, asked me what I thought an alien birthday cake would look like. I tried to create something from her perspective…outside the cake mix box.” I LOVE it! Kids are so clever.

I had to look very closely at this layout by MeleahG to decide where the “perspective” was… and then it hit me: the depth and breadth of variety! Shakespeare, Narnia, The Count of Monte Christo, The Witch of Blackbird Pond… I read that one when I was about 10 and had completely forgotten it.

For her layout, bumblebeee chose a photo taken from HER perspective of her family canoeing in an idyllic spot. Sometimes looking at the back of someone’s head can be magical. (This PICU nurse’s heart is happy to see life jackets on those precious babies.)

One of the cardinal rules of obtaining great photographs of kids and animals is to get down on their level. And Karen Diamond learned that one well! She also has an aerial view of the farm and a downhill shot of cows in a pasture, so she’s used many perspectives. Good job!

JAMSquared80 has skillfully used up-shots for her layout. That perspective gives a sense of just how tall those buildings are.

Here’s another good example of getting down on their level from photocrazy. Not only do we get better images this way, but they’re more natural and uninhibited.

I’ve NEVER seen a real peacock with its tail fanned out, never mind from the BACK! Props to gmae for this unusual perspective!

This makes it look like the subject of the photo is either walking on water or walking up a glass wall. It’s a bit disappointing to know it’s a glass balcony wall and gadawg83‘s subject is seated, don’t you think?

If you’re new to digi-scrapping, GingerScraps’ Challenges are a perfect way to find inspiration, learn new things and build up your stash. Several of our designer-hosts include freebies with their Challenges and there’s a Challenge Reward kit for completing 10 Challenges. (Missi keeps track of everybody’s totals. When you reach 10 completed you’ll automatically receive the download link for that month’s Reward via Private Message. However, the counter stops there until a new month starts, so if you hit your 10 layouts on, say, today – August 15th, but you keep going and complete 5 more layouts, those ones don’t carry over to September when the counter starts again. Clear as mud?) Here’s a look at the August Reward kit.

See you all next Tuesday!

August 11, 2023: Fresh Baked

Happy Friday everyone! We’ve got a big newsletter today with a lot of great products.

Remember if you spend $10 in the store you get this great {cookout} collab for free.

How are your challenges going? Complete any 10 challenges and get this great collab as a reward.

I was delighted to see so many of you enrolling in last month’s class at The Digital Scrapper! I hope you all had a fantastic time “painting with patterns”!

This month, I have chosen to feature a wonderful class called “Stories from the Road”. I’m currently enrolled in this class myself, and I am absolutely LOVING it! There is an abundance of incredible information and inspiration to be found.

Here is some additional information about “Stories from the Road”:

There is something about a memory that you can hold in your hand. It’s cherished.

Not long ago, Jen White, from Digital Scrapper, whipped up a photo book for her son-in-law for Christmas. She honestly had no idea of the tremendous impact it would have on him.

Through that experience, the foundation for Stories From the Road was born.

In this course, Jen will teach you everything you need to know (and more!) about creating a themed photo book — from the dreamy beginning to ordering end.

Don’t forget that we have a TON of wonderful materials to scrap all your photobooks! The “Vacation” category and the “Photobooks” section of the shop are a great place to start! I think my first photobook created from this class will be a Disneyland photobook! I’m so excited to get started on it!

Show Me the Class

LIMITED TIME – SAVE 35% on Stories from the Road!

Don’t miss this Exclusive offer for Gingerscraps customers! On sale now through August 31, 2023, Midnight Eastern.

P.S. Stories From the Road is evergreen, meaning the information and resources can be used over and over again for years to come.

August 04, 2023: Fresh Baked

Here we are at another Friday. I don’t mind the Friday’s coming quickly, I just wish the weekend was longer.

Remember if you spend $10 in the store you get this great {cookout} collab for free.

Now it’s time to look at a sampling of the new kits in the shop.

Have you gotten started on your challenges yet? Which is your favorite? Complete any 10 challenges and get this great collab as a reward.

I was delighted to see so many of you enrolling in last month’s class at The Digital Scrapper! I hope you all had a fantastic time “painting with patterns”!

This month, I have chosen to feature a wonderful class called “Stories from the Road”. I’m currently enrolled in this class myself, and I am absolutely LOVING it! There is an abundance of incredible information and inspiration to be found.

Here is some additional information about “Stories from the Road”:

There is something about a memory that you can hold in your hand. It’s cherished.

Not long ago, Jen White, from Digital Scrapper, whipped up a photo book for her son-in-law for Christmas. She honestly had no idea of the tremendous impact it would have on him.

Through that experience, the foundation for Stories From the Road was born.

In this course, Jen will teach you everything you need to know (and more!) about creating a themed photo book — from the dreamy beginning to ordering end.

Don’t forget that we have a TON of wonderful materials to scrap all your photobooks! The “Vacation” category and the “Photobooks” section of the shop are a great place to start! I think my first photobook created from this class will be a Disneyland photobook! I’m so excited to get started on it!

Show Me the Class

LIMITED TIME – SAVE 35% on Stories from the Road!

Don’t miss this Exclusive offer for Gingerscraps customers! On sale now through August 31, 2023, Midnight Eastern.

P.S. Stories From the Road is evergreen, meaning the information and resources can be used over and over again for years to come.

Designer Spotlight: August 2023

Cindy Ritter Designs!

Remember my comment about updates in Tuesday’s Tutorial, that they mess things up? Well… it happened again. I couldn’t find my notes for this post. <fuming> All is not lost though. I’ve been able to recreate them. Now, let’s get to know Cindy Ritter a bit better!

Cindy and I chatted at length last week over margaritas on the patio. We got the housekeeping stuff out of the way early, so we could really dish later.

J: What do you use to create your designs?

C: I primarily use Photoshop but am trying to learn to use Illustrator and a tablet. I also use various types of paints, pens, papers and my scanner to create unique products.

J: It can be really challenging to learn new software. I’m trying to wrap my head around Cricut Design Space right now and really wishing there was a common lingo for these applications. I mean, what the heck does “weld” mean, and why didn’t they go with “merge”? I think I’ll need a glossary… Okay, now that we know HOW you work, let’s talk about WHY. What motivates and inspires you as a designer?

C: Most often I am inspired by music, my emotions and color. I absolutely have to have music when I’m working.

J: Oh, me too! I’m often inspired by song lyrics I find especially resonant. Tell me about your favourite kit in the GingerScraps store. Let me guess… it came to you in a song. 😉

C: My favorite is the Beautiful Struggle collection. It WAS inspired by the song “Beauty in the Struggle” by Brian Martin. Like many women, my life has been a series of struggles and challenges, so for me it was very personal. I collaborated with Aimee Harrison and Cheré Kaye and really enjoyed working with both of them.

J: It’s amazing! I LOVE IT!! (I linked it for our readers – just click on the title above and you’ll go right to the collection.) Honestly, who among us hasn’t struggled at one time or another? I think I might be able to guess your answer for this next nosy question: What are your most favorite and least favorite colors?

C: My favorite colors are greens, yellows and orange, I really don’t like pinks and purples.

J: Ladies, take a look at the collection… See any pink or purple? Me neither! Cindy, since you love green, do you have a green thumb? What do you grow?

C: I have a fairly green thumb and do pretty well with green and blooming plants but I don’t have much luck growing anything edible. I live in an apartment so I do container gardening and love growing anything blooming that can survive the heat of Mississippi summers. My current favorites in my garden are Hibiscus, Rock Trumpet, and Bromeliads.

J: In Mississippi you get heat AND humidity. Here, we get the heat but it’s tinder-dry, which is why there’s so much smoke in the air all the time. <sigh> Our HOA has very strict rules about planting anything that isn’t drought-tolerant and every house has drip irrigation to minimize water use. Water is one of the necessities of life for everything. Aside from necessities, what is one thing could you not go a day without?

C: My cats! All 3 are rescues who weren’t old enough to be away from the mama cat when I got them. Bowie and Ziggy have both been with us for over a year now. Our most recent rescue, Phoenix, was only 4-5 weeks old and under a pound when we got him recently. He was brought to us on July 18th by a neighbor who found him injured in her driveway. Apparently she knows I’m a crazy cat lady. Lol

J: I’m not a cat person, but I get the desire to take care of living things who can’t take care of themselves. That’s why I was a nurse for 25 years. 😉 Perfect segué… What did you want to be when you were small?

C: As a child I dreamed of being an artist. I spent most of my working years as a floral designer and also worked as a graphic designer. After I retired I taught myself scrapbook design. My childhood dream is my reality.

J: That’s fantastic! Who says dreams don’t come true? As a fellow retired person, I have so many things that fill my days. Are you a sports fan, or a gamer?

C: I love to play Cribbage. My grandmother taught me to play when I was young and now that she’s gone it brings back pleasant memories of time spent with her. I’ve taught my grandson to play and I hope that years from now playing cribbage will hold pleasant memories for him.

J: Ooh, yes!! I learned to play Cribbage when I was about 10, but I don’t play it well. My late father-in-law skunked me almost every time. When we had a family retreat for my parents’ 60th anniversary, we taught our son-in-law to play. He’s brilliant and caught on right away, now he loves it too! We also got him interested in curling. Such a Canadian thing. If you could have a super power, what would it be?

C: I’m torn between teleportation and time manipulation. Having ADHD, I get distracted very easily and am usually running behind schedule. Both of those would be helpful in getting things done and getting where I need to be on time.

J: I grew up in a military household, so if you’re only 10 minutes early for something, you’re already late. Teleportation would really be a boon for that! I’m also a serious procrastinator, which means I spend a lot of time in conflict with myself. What would you do if you won the lottery?

C: Give each of my kids a house and the money for college. Anything left I would use to help the homeless.

J: Every time I ask that question of designers, I get a variation on those answers. Which leads me to remind everybody that Cindy is providing this month’s Daily Download (and it’s a-freakin’-mazing!) and has already posted a template freebie on the GingerScraps Facebook page. If you’re on FB and haven’t seen it, LOOK FOR IT! You won’t be disappointed! Of course, Cindy is also hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge this month, in addition to her usual Real Moments Challenge. But if all of THAT wasn’t enough, she’s also put her entire store on sale at 40% off (with bundles and collabs excluded, naturally). But wait! There’s even MORE… Spend $12 or more and you can get an ADDITIONAL 15% off with the coupon code SD_cindy_8-23. What are you waiting for? Go shopping!!!!!!!!! (If you see me with a cartful, just look the other way, okay?)

Cindy, thanks for letting us have a peek into your world. Have a fabulous Spotlight month!!

WordPress is being snarky today… no signature line. Love JAN

 

GingerScraps: New FREE with Purchase Collab, New Monthly Mix, NEW Designer & More!!

It is the 1st of the month and you know what that means, a huge, exciting newsletter! We have a New Buffet, New Monthly Mix, New Free With Purchase Collab, New Challenge Reward, New Daily Download on the GingerScraps Blog, & a New Permanent Designer! 

Let’s start out with the August Buffet. Don’t forget to check out the Buffet Bundles. One easy click to add bundles of Buffet goodies to your cart.

I think I say this every month, but these buffet colors are just amazing. And with the buffet kits, you can mix and match to get the perfect kit for you.

Remember any $10 spent in the store gets you this great collab. I’m ready for a {cookout}.

This Free With Purchase was created by Adrienne Skelton, Kristmess, Lisa Rosa Designs, Scrapbookcrazy Creations by Robyn, and J. Conlon and Sons.

This collab includes: 1 Alpha {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 54 Papers, 93 Elements.

The August Monthly Mix is filled with {summer treats}!

This Monthly Mix was created by Dear Friends Designs by Trina, JB Studio, Just So Scrappy, and Neia Scraps.

This collab includes: 1 Alpha {Uppercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 48 Papers, 64 Elements, 4 12×12 Template {png, psd, tif file formats}.

Now to the August Daily Download Sneak Peek. This month’s Daily Download is from Cindy Ritter Designs! Make sure you are checking the blog every day to get all the pieces of this kit!

We are happy to announce that WM[squared] is staying on permantly to become part of the GingerScraps family.

Are you ready for the August challenges? Remember any 10 completed challenges gets you this great kit.

This Challenge Reward was created by Aprilisa Designs, Jumpstart Designs, Miss Fish Templates, ScrapChat Designs, and Sweet Pea Designs.

This collab includes 1 Alpha {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 62 Papers, 98 Elements, 4 12×12 Templates {png, psd, tif file formats}.

And now a few layouts from our great store CT. These were all made using different pieces from the August Buffet.

July 28, 2023: Fresh Baked

Happy Friday. It’s hard to believe we are almost at the end of another month. I think they just pass faster and faster.

Remember, if you spend $10 in the store, you will get this great kit for free.

Let’s take a peek at what is new in the store this week.

Are you still working on your challenges? Complete any 10 challenges and you will get this kit as a reward.

ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT!!

Don’t forget this limited time offer to get 35% off one of the amazing classes at The Digital Scrapper! We have joined forces to bring you this extraordinary opportunity!

In this class, Syndee Rogers, from The Digital Scrapper, will gently guide you through settings, brushes, patterns, papers, and more! Now you can stop avoiding the Pattern Stamp tool and start using it to create stunning scrapbook pages.

LIMITED TIME – SAVE 35% on Painting with Patterns! Exclusively from GingerScraps! On sale now through July 31, 2023, Midnight Eastern.

Painting With Patterns includes:

  • 17 videos for both PS & PSE
  • Closed captioning (optional) while streaming
  • 15 brushes, 19 patterns, 7 papers, 8 elements
  • 1 word art, 1 style set, 1 template & 5 photos
  • Challenge Tracker for motivation
  • Syndee’s Keep It Tidy System for organization
  • Instant & FOREVER Access
  • Our 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee

Is Painting With Patterns for you? It’s for all styles of scrapbooking. It’s for beginners. It’s for the more advanced. It’s for scrapbookers, card makers and budding designers! If you have Adobe Photoshop or PSE 2019 or newer, then this class is for you.

Questions about Painting With Patterns? Contact Syndee Rogers 

Remember that is exclusive 35% off discount ends July 31, 2023

Enroll Me

Stay tuned for more updates, and get ready to unleash your creativity with GingerScraps and The Digital Scrapper. Together, we’ll transform your digital scrapbooking projects into breathtaking works of art!

 

July 21, 2023: Fresh Baked

Welcome to another Friday, but we have a treat for you today. Today starts our Christmas in July sale. 

The store is 50% off site-wide (with some restrictions) until 11:59 pm on July 27. Make sure you have checked out before 11:59 pm because the Christmas magic will be gone and all prices will go back to normal.

And with that great sale, it should be easy for you to hit $10 spent. Spend $10 in the store and get this great kit for free.

Let’s see what we have new in the store this week.

Are you still working on your challenges? Complete any 10 challenges (and there are 34 different challenges) will get you this kit as a reward.

Don’t forget this limited time offer to get 35% off one of the amazing classes at The Digital Scrapper! We have joined forces to bring you this extraordinary opportunity!

In this class, Syndee Rogers, from The Digital Scrapper, will gently guide you through settings, brushes, patterns, papers, and more! Now you can stop avoiding the Pattern Stamp tool and start using it to create stunning scrapbook pages.

LIMITED TIME – SAVE 35% on Painting with Patterns! Exclusively from GingerScraps! On sale now through July 31, 2023, Midnight Eastern.

Painting With Patterns includes:

  • 17 videos for both PS & PSE
  • Closed captioning (optional) while streaming
  • 15 brushes, 19 patterns, 7 papers, 8 elements
  • 1 word art, 1 style set, 1 template & 5 photos
  • Challenge Tracker for motivation
  • Syndee’s Keep It Tidy System for organization
  • Instant & FOREVER Access
  • Our 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee

Is Painting With Patterns for you? It’s for all styles of scrapbooking. It’s for beginners. It’s for the more advanced. It’s for scrapbookers, card makers and budding designers! If you have Adobe Photoshop or PSE 2019 or newer, then this class is for you.

Questions about Painting With Patterns? Contact Syndee Rogers 

Remember that is exclusive 35% off discount ends July 31, 2023

Enroll Me

Stay tuned for more updates, and get ready to unleash your creativity with GingerScraps and The Digital Scrapper. Together, we’ll transform your digital scrapbooking projects into breathtaking works of art!

 

 

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

Challenge Spotlight: Word Art

I feel like we’ve done a Word Art Challenge Spotlight not that long ago, but when I looked at the layouts in the Gallery, I just had to choose it for this month’s Spotlight. You’ll see why once I get all them all into this post.

Challenges are a great way to grow your scrapping skills. They encourage creativity and highlight individual style. They can also be a good way to break out of a slump by motivating us to think about what we have in our stash and how we could make it fit into a specific Challenge. Several of the Challenges at GingerScraps include freebies: #2023, Brush, Created with Rewards, Daily Download, Font, Jumpstart Your Layouts, Mini Kit, Memory Mix Up, Photomask, Template (there are 3!), Use It All and Word Art all provide you with some building blocks for zero dollars. (I’ve linked all of the freebie-included Challenges for you.) These are the Challenges that really offer the best insights into individual style because everybody is working with the same key items.

The layouts I’ll show you have been taken from the Gallery in the order they were posted. As always, I’ve linked each layout to its spot in the Gallery for those inclined to take a closer look or to leave some comments. Just click on the scrapper’s user name. Cheré has provided 2 separate versions of the word art, the teal one as shown above and a grey-scale that can be recoloured as desired. Let’s see how they’ve put Cheré‘s word art creation to use.

First off the hop is justpennys. Her layout is a photoless, minimalist one where her Top 3 are things she likes about herself. The teal word art is her choice.

KAPOH has recoloured the word art a vivid yellow to mirror the topic of her layout. It’s clear she’s a soccer fan!

Here, we can see that wvufan04 used the grey-scale version and left it as is. It works beautifully with the theme of her layout, favourite photos of  grandparents. I love that line drawing of the antique sedan.

For her layout, fontaine surveyed her family to list their Top 3 places they’d visited together. Glacier National Park got the most votes. She used the teal version of the word art and kept the layout simple to keep the focus on the choices.

Roller coasters would never appear on any list of mine, unless it was things I don’t like, but elfmaiden687 has her own Top 3. She also used the original teal word art, using it as the basis for her palette.

The grey-scale version works nicely with nimble4u‘s layout too. It seems to reflect the dusty olive green of her background paper.

Got2Scrap recoloured the word art to coordinate with the colour palette she chose for her white-space layout. Look at those clusters! Incredible.

This layout by lulumoon is deceptively simple. (Cluster alert!) She pulled the lighter teal colour from the original for her subtitles, which compliments the coral background to perfection.

I think Jill‘s layout is my favourite of the bunch. She chose the deep red of the flowers in her cluster to bring the focus to her title, which then leads the eye to her black-and-white photo. Her colours absolutely POP off the page.

Pixel Palette chose to keep the original teal for her philosophical layout. (She’s not wrong!) The focus of the layout is firmly on her photos.

Once again, I have to commend Katherine Woodin for (literally) documenting the good, the bad and the ugly of everyday life. I like how she’s divided the layout into perfect thirds and used the same paper in 3 different colours to reinforce the 3 aspect of the Challenge.

Grace‘s layout is a work of art in itself. Her colour choices relate to Klimt’s work in the best way. She recoloured the word art a golden brown that also reflects Klimt’s sort of grungy look.

The faith-based simplicity of dkane‘s layout is its strength. She opted for a beautiful deep green for the word art and it works.

For her layout, glee also kept the original teal and pulled it into her overall palette. I like the stencil look to the fern-and-leaf border and that her title tells the whole story.

Grey-scale for the win here! These are hichchei‘s Top 3 foods. Can’t argue with any of them!

I’ve thought about this Challenge a lot and still don’t know how I would meet it. I have 3 siblings. I have 3 children. I have 3 grandchildren. I have 3 best friends. I have 3 favourite wineries. It’s making my brain hurt! Maybe I’ll save it for later.

Next week’s tut will be another Quick Trick. With the announcement of GingerScraps‘ partnership with the Digital Scrapper and their suite of video tutorials, it appears I’ll soon be rendered redundant. Time will tell.

July 14, 2023: Fresh Baked

Happy Friday friends! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend planned!

Remember if you spend $10 in the store, you’ll get this kit for free.

Now to check out the new releases for this week.

Have you grabbed the Monthly Mix for July? I love the play on words for this collab.

How are those challenges coming along? Complete any 10 challenges and get this kit as a reward.

Don’t forget this limited time offer to get 35% off one of the amazing classes at The Digital Scrapper! We have joined forces to bring you this extraordinary opportunity!

In this class, Syndee Rogers, from The Digital Scrapper, will gently guide you through settings, brushes, patterns, papers, and more! Now you can stop avoiding the Pattern Stamp tool and start using it to create stunning scrapbook pages.

LIMITED TIME – SAVE 35% on Painting with Patterns! Exclusively from GingerScraps! On sale now through July 31, 2023, Midnight Eastern.

Painting With Patterns includes:

  • 17 videos for both PS & PSE
  • Closed captioning (optional) while streaming
  • 15 brushes, 19 patterns, 7 papers, 8 elements
  • 1 word art, 1 style set, 1 template & 5 photos
  • Challenge Tracker for motivation
  • Syndee’s Keep It Tidy System for organization
  • Instant & FOREVER Access
  • Our 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee

Is Painting With Patterns for you? It’s for all styles of scrapbooking. It’s for beginners. It’s for the more advanced. It’s for scrapbookers, card makers and budding designers! If you have Adobe Photoshop or PSE 2019 or newer, then this class is for you.

Questions about Painting With Patterns? Contact Syndee Rogers 

Remember that is exclusive 35% off discount ends July 31, 2023 Enroll Me

Stay tuned for more updates, and get ready to unleash your creativity with GingerScraps and The Digital Scrapper. Together, we’ll transform your digital scrapbooking projects into breathtaking works of art!

 

Designer Spotlight: July 2023

In the Spotlight: Neia Scraps!

It feels like forever since I had this chat with Edneia, aka Neia Scraps. Things kinda went sideways here and I put our conversation on the back burner; just as I was falling asleep last night I remembered and had a mini panic attack. I’m so sorry, Neia. Hopefully all is not lost.

Neia told me she enjoyed our last visit when she was in the Spotlight with Dani (JB Studio) and hoped we could switch up the topics a bit this time so no one is bored. Absolutely! Let’s see how much I remember of our chat.

N: Let me start!! Hello, fellow Scrappers! My name is Edneia, I’m 43 years old, I’m married for 20 years and I have 2 cute kittens.

J: Oh, that’s a first! I need more coffee. So. Tell me how long you’ve been designing so we can get the formalities out of the way.

E: I started designing in 2011 when I found out I was pregnant with my second daughter.

J: Is that what inspired you to jump into digital scrapbook design?

E: I decided that I would have a profession that would give me the opportunity to be closer to my daughters and I liked it so much that today she is 12 years old and I still work at home.

J: It’s wonderful that you’ve been able to work from home for so long! I stayed home with my kiddos until the youngest was 4, then I worked part time, mostly evenings. Are your daughters your main motivation?

E: No, actually, my biggest inspirations to start a project are colors. When thinking about a theme, I look for the colors that inspire me, but often the colors inspire me first and the theme is based on a color palette.

J: That seems like a good place to start, rather than trying to shoe-horn a palette into a structured theme. Do you have a favourite kit in the GingerScraps Store?

E: My current favorite kit is “Ocean Wonder“. I’ve always loved the sea and blue is one of my favorite colors. I loved the wood effects I used in this kit. The sea can be soft and at the same time have the strength of the blue immensity.

J: It’s GORGEOUS!! I have to say, I really like how your design style has evolved over the last year or so. What would you do if you won the lottery?

E: I would love to travel the world, see some different places, like Australia for example. (Even with so many huge spiders lol)

J: Travel is a common theme for that question. You can have the spiders… but that makes me wonder, since I’ve found quite a few of the 8-legged creepy-crawlies in my bathroom, are you more likely to sing or dance in the shower?

E: I sing AND dance, hahahahaha!

J: I do too. I love my Bluetooth speaker and my Amazon Music playlists for that. It helps to have a huge shower-only spa bathroom. Spiders notwithstanding. Do you have a green thumb?

E: I love plants but they don’t love me. I already tried it, but my finger is not green.

J: Gardening is one of my stress-busters. I can think troublesome things through and work out some frustrations digging up all the rocks our yard is built on. But I think I’m done digging holes. What colours do you like? Are there any you really DON’T like?

E: My favorite color is pink, I really LOVE the color pink. And the least favorite is some shades of green. Although I LOVE plants and nature, there are few shades of green that I really LOVE.

J: My flowers are mostly pinks, purples, blues and whites, with the HOA-required Stella d’Oro daylilies adding some yellow. My wardrobe is pretty much the same… but NO yellow. I look awful in yellow. All those yellow isolation gowns I wore on the job. <shudder> One time at work we did a little thought experiment. One of my coworkers asked each of us who we’d want to portray us in PICU: The Movie. It was a lot of fun. So…

E: Margot Robbie. She could play me as sweet as the Barbie doll and also as crazy as Harley Quinn.

J: Hahahahaha! I can see it! I had no idea who would be right for my part; my coworker thought for a minute and said, “Judi Dench!” Uh. She’s 20 years older than I am, pal. “But she’s so dignified!” Uh. Have you met me?? Anyway. My warning label would say “Caution! May explode without warning!” What would yours say?

E: “Be careful, it’s fragile but it knows how to bite.”

J: Same, friend. Same! Thank you so much for letting our readers get to know you better.

E: Thank you, I loved participating. GS is a very dear store to me. It is my home. And all the staff are always very friendly.

J: You are so right, Neia! Before we wrap this up, I just want to remind everybody of all the ways you’re making GingerScraps a better place while you’re in the Spotlight. Besides creating beautiful kits, that is. Ladies, Neia is providing this month’s Daily Download and is hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge. In addition to her regular monthly My Memories Challenge. And… drum roll please… her store is on sale all month PLUS she has a coupon!!

See you all soon!